AM Final task

Nike - silent, powerful, rememberable

This is amazing. Nike seems to get you. It happens without notice: you're hooked, you need more, you want to just do it.

There are three main points in Nikes marketing strategy. One of them is Swoosh logo, which is always placed in the most effective way in the athletes uniforms: you'll see it, even if you don't want to. The second point is the focus on hero athletes, such as LeBron James and Tiger Woods: if you don't admire them by now, you will, after Nike is finished. Finally, the most clever thing that Nike does, is its creation of ads that become news stories: the media is tricked to promote the ad messages and, the most important of all, the Nike brand itself, for free.

What comes to social media strategy, which is one part of marketing, Nike is well organized at this level too. The company is everywhere: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. It even has its own social platform called Nike+, which has at least six million members by now. 

In Facebook, Nike has separated its products in categories and furthermore to different pages, for instance Nike basketball and Nike football. The latter one even is divided in two parts: one page for American version of the sport and the other one for the version that is played in everywhere else in the world. Nike also has special interest in empowering women athletes, so Nike Women is also active on FB. All the  different pages are often updated, it's all about the Nike's stars, athletes and products. 

The same idea is applied on Instagram, in a more visual way, though. There are mind-blowing photos combined with short, emotionally strong-minded sentences, such as "A sunset is not a stop sign" or "One step forward. No steps back." And of course, every now and then #justdoit is referred to, because why not. 

When questioning Nike's customer care, there is no need for that. Nike has created a separate Twitter account, @NikeSupport especially for communicating and satisfying their customers' needs. 

The social media communication inside of the company is written in their policy with many details. The main idea is that their staff should communicate appropriately and professionally and it is recommended to use only Nike supported tools for collaboration and networking with other employees. 

The social media "disaster"

There are many examples of the times when companies have failed in their social media actions or been misinterpreted. I choose the two most interesting "disasters" that both are about Apple.

In a way, I am a Apple-defender, not a fanatic but a defender. I have their products and admire their business. So this one is for Apple. When the iPhone 6 was released there was an information that the new smart phone could bend if it was in a pair of tight pants. Because LG did have the GFlex, that is already-bent phone, they thought it was a perfect situation for them to take a jab at Apple: "Our phones don't bend, they're naturally curved :) #bendgate." The fail aspect is that the tweet was sent from an iPhone noticeably. There is a thought that claims LG hiring an outside agency to take care of its social media actions. One way or another, it is a fail if you mock Apple while using their product.

The other example is the fail of Apple itself. The company and comedian Joan Rivers promoted the iPhone 6 on her social media accounts. And after she passed away, her posts went live still nearly two weeks since the incidence: Apple proves there's life after death. Yes, this wasn't maybe the worst fail ever, but this too could've been avoided with active social media updating. Even though the message were deleted quickly, the damage was already there: people had enough time to grab screenshots and have laugh at the expense of Apple. 

The next 10 years

I have no idea how this social media is going be improved or will it even improve itself. You'll never know! However I'm sure that people have to be more and more eager to learn new things and getting familiar with modern technologies. 

Our generations is the first one that somehow grew up with social media. Our parents read the newspaper but we check Facebook for news. The generation after us is having a different approach to social media and so on. The evolutions continues. 

As for working life, till now the improvement has been natural. Education and marketing can be arranged with social media, some of the job interviews are organized or held using social media, communication and interaction is made possible by social media anytime, anywhere. 

In the future, social media will be used as a more important, even essential tool in working life and communication. It might all depend on the improvement that faces the technology that makes social media accessible. Without that, only humanity can stop this evolution. 

-Azma