Question

Can someone please provide a feedback on the discussion post below. Thank you. It is a marketing management class.

The company that I decided to follow for 4 days (Sunday-Wednesday) is called Spirit Science. I chose it because it fit the criteria for this discussion and it is one of my personal interests. For those who do not know what this company is: Spirit Science began as an animated series on a YouTube Channel in 2011, where the show follows “Patchman,” a multidimensional patch-doll,who discusses what it means to be spiritual and connect these lessons with science. The company’s goal is to “bring spirit and science together to raise consciousness, shine light, andspread truth.” From the YouTube success, the makers created social media pages as well as their own website and continue to grow. I observed the following this week:

Facebook (FB): Spirit Science was very active on Facebook this week. They were posting an average of one post every one to two hours. It’s actually a bit more excessive for my liking however, the consistency definitely makes me remember their name. The posts are mixtures of videos, article links, and updates of their original Patchman videos that began from YouTube.There were advertisements to one of their most recent products for sale, Patch Tarot, which was not surprising considering they have about 12 million people who follow their page so utilizing Facebook is a great way to reach this audience of obvious interested individuals. In a branding aspect, this company definitely exhibits a lot of positivity. Everything they post makes you think of the following: inspiring, positive, spiritual, uplifting, life lessons, an interesting scientific fact / story, ecofriendly, peace, humanitarian, etc. It is also obvious this company’s Patchman cartoon looking character became the logo as he is the profile picture, the background picture, and on some of the products. The week was focused on advertising their newest product and video.

Twitter: The activity on Twitter this week was moderate. The company does post at least once a day and majority of the posts are inspiring quotes bringing you back to that positivity vibe mentioned earlier. Again, the profile and background picture are the same ones used on Facebook. There are more posts in a day if the company is advertising a product or a new video that was released on their YouTube channel which happened to be the case this week. There are 52.1K followers and 1,804 likes which determines that Facebook triumphs with a larger audience of followers. Twitter is an extra way to advertise and drive traffic back to their YouTube channel or to the company website / FB page to make a purchase.

YouTube Channel: Spirit Science was not very active this week. They happened to release a video on their channel yesterday about raw and super foods, post a video 4 days ago about the pineal gland, and another one 4 months ago with the rest being at least over a year old. They do not seem to be as active on this platform which my guess would be because it takes time to make the types of videos posted and they have 720 thousand subscribers so their focus is on the larger audience in Facebook. Anyone not familiar with their videos will know its Spirit Science just by the animation/branding. The drawings are bright, colorful, full of geometry as well as symbolism, and always has Patchman or very closely drawn characters that look like him. This channel is connected to other channels that allow fans/subscribers the opportunity to be involved like a community. Coincidently, the profile and background picture on the YouTube channel is the same exact picture on the Facebook profile. Thankfully, all episodes made since day one are on this channel for viewing along with some short parable stories. It is clear this company uses Facebook as a tunnel back to YouTube by advertising these videos on Facebook.

Company Blog: It was my first time checking out the Spirit Science blog and I can admit their branding is pretty strong. I saw a few links with similar titles however, the dead giveaway I was on the correct blog was the Patchman logo in the corner of the address bar right where http:// begins. There was also a background picture of the eternal flower of life which is commonly used in other Spirit Science sites and videos. The blog is not as active as I originally expected it to be. There are new blogs (some with videos attached) every month which dive deeper into the various topics covered in all the other social media platforms. People do interact and respond to the blogs but not nearly as much as people do with Facebook. In comparison, 20 responses for a blog is really good whereas on Facebook there’s easily hundreds and sometimes thousands of comments. The positive to this is that it is easier to connect with the companies employees and have conversations on a blog. They do seem to take the feedback into consideration and attempt to make their fans/customers happy.

Answer 1

Social networking helps an organization in its viral marketing strategies. It attracts customers as well as makes a better relationship with them. The social media tools like face book, you tube , blogger etc. can be utilized to connect with the target customers with scientific as well as social concepts. People make their comments, shares, like the page etc, but very few agree to purchase a product. Now a days, the concepts of socio metrics, social graphs, image building etc. are quite prevalent due to the development in the field of communication technology. Blogs, articles etc. which are related to the product or service organization can be made more attractive and responsive as well with inclusion of audio, video and live comments.