Twitter Project

Editor's Notes

• #3: A) Adidas + Twitter. There were several Adidas pages listed. Some were for specific countries, while others were specialized for a certain sport or style. Adidas Running is the fourth listed site under the Google search.B) Adidas Running-They made sure to keep the lower case a consistent, even though all the other first letters of words in the main titles are capitalized. -The URL is the same as the name, except all lower case (of course)-The profile picture consists of two Adidas running shoes sitting on the crack of a sidewalk and neatly trim grass. Next to the shoes are a pair of -headphones plugged into an iPod. The picture illustrates their typical “fun runner” who jogs around the neighborhood to their favorite music. -The background is split between the original profile picture and a hazy sunrise photograph. The sunrise gives a more timely personality, demonstrating that these runners are regular, hardcore, up at sunrise athletes. The headphones are also not typical iPod headphones. They appear to be a specialized kind for possibly athletic use.-The rest of the design is very clean. All the text is black with a white body.C) The company is tweeting to their runner consumers. The audience consists of in shape, middle class consumers. Their products are specialized for athletes that take running very seriously. The neatly trimmed grass next to the sidewalk in the main picture reveals that is most likely a nice, suburban neighborhood. The purpose of the page is to inform the Adidas consumers of new running products, via articles and various types of media. They also provide advice for runners, including product recommendations (i.e. headphones). They also provide random boosts of confidence for runners to take it to the next level of their exercise plan.
• #4: D) Twitter strategy and Tactics The strategy of this twitter is to communicate to the Adidas running consumer.Adidas Running shares news – runners/athletes’ triumphsEncourage the consumer to take it to the next step of their workout with “pep talk” tweets.Many consumers share very positive brand feedback in the tweets to Adidas running.News about new productsVideo demonstration, high quality images, all to promote the sales of new shoes.Cross promotion with companies that compliment the Adidas running sphere.Sennheiser – headphones company (2 recent posts) Many links to Adidas pages.Promote individual website (besides twitter accounts)Great Media ContentAdidas posts many high resolution images as well as videos, which demonstrate the product in use.E) Tweet frequency.The company does have a consistency with their tweeting.Lately, it seems like they’re trying to post every other day (during weekdays).At least they are currently building a good consistency with tweets.However, there are random weeks without posts.Earlier this year, it was even less consistentFor example, on June 9th, there were 6 tweets, with only 1 tweet following for the next two weeks.
• #5: Q1- I would say I am analysing this as a critic rather than a fan.A)Keywords- Nike running. When searching for this page I used Nike running as my search criteria as I wanted to critique a range of shoe rather than a single product.B) URL-https://twitter.com/NikeRunningC) Author- as with most big brands the author is a ghost writer under the Nike+ running name. This brings the focus onto the product and brand advertisement rather than creating a celebrity but may alienate people due to a lack of familiarity and security that a face can give to a page.Purpose- the purpose of this page would be to keep people apprised to the activities of Nike and their products. It also highlights the achievements of others such as Nike employees who have taken part in competitions, or a segment they call runner of the monthAudience –One could argue that the target market is genderless, focusing more on age groups and levels of skill in running. I would have to say that the demographic for this brand would be people anywhere between 16-30 years of age interested in fitness and athletics which, with America’s love of sports and should be a large demographic Colour scheme- the clean white background with the green link text matches the colour scheme of the product which adds to the promotional side of the page. Also the slogan banner provides an initial idea behind the whole feed of healthy living, as well as adding more promotion of the Lunarglide shoe. The background picture advertises the new air Pegasus shoes which, when you scroll down, also demonstrate the feature of syncing a device in the shoe with your IPod. This is a good idea as it encourages readers to scroll to see the whole picture, whilst at the same time making them read more tweets.
• #6: D)Strategies- communication- What this page appears to do is more provide running related news to its followers. The tweets make reference to upcoming races and events which the reader may be interested in, as well as sharing some inspirational material from othersBrand advertising- Though not a hard-sell, Nike+ running has many tweets dedicated to driving traffic to their website, or more accurately to a specific product or event area on their site. At least one tweet per day is aimed at advertising their brand to the public Tactics- engagement-The author engages readers through asking questions based on things that would interest followers of this brand (e.g. what is your pre-race ritual?). This gives a sense that Nike is more interested in readers than people might think. My only criticism of this tactic is that they don’t use the usual RT in their tweets, I guess Nike assumes asking questions to readers has an implied expectation. Most of the tweets do have retweets on follower’s pages but as a proportion of total followers the number is almost nothing.Bio- personal- The Bio at the top of the page “Founded in 1972. Here to inspire you” gives a more personal touch to the page. The fact that they don’t try to outright sell you the website or any product gives the sense that this page is more dedicated to the activities rather than a product. Pictures- The use of pictures to advertise new products works well in conjunction with the tweets. Instead of a simple “buy my product” Nike adds a bit more story to the products, such as relating their newest line of shoes with the previous generations incarnation, or linking a new shoe with a Chicago marathon. These small changes work well to add a bit more depth to a simple productFacebook- In many posts Nike add links to their Facebook page where people can look at what others are doing with their Nike products. Also it uses this feature to interact with followers by adding kudos to people for their achievements and getting other followers to check them out. I think this is an interesting feature as it facilitates communication between followers as well as with Nike, creating a community rather than just a group following one idea. Content- The actual content for this page is quite focused, making many references to upcoming races or events. I think this page is quite clever as it utilises the many other Nike pages which are dedicated to product placement to sell things, whereas this page acts more as a marketing tool, getting the Nike+ Running brand out there. The content here is to get people running and to get people familiar with the brand before placement of a link to new shoes.E)Tweets per day- 3 is a good number for this sort of marketing as you don’t want to be bombarding your followers with too much otherwise you would be accused of hard selling and people would switch off.
• #7: As a follower, the adidas running page is great.They have recently been consistent with posts and include enticing information and visual media regarding their products.They have positive, uplifting posts that help push the consumer into a more intense workout.Unfortunately, they aren’t interactive with their users.Consistent with highlights in the sports news (regarding running).From a marketing perspective:They finally have a tweet consistency.They should interact with fans tweeting to their page.Great use of media to promote productsHowever, a contest would be even more enticing for users.They don’t ask enough questions enough.Also, contests would help draw more notice to their products and greatly increase the user interaction on the page.Too many repeat tweetsToo many tweets promoting the same product in a row.They need to add some more variety to their tweetsNike+ RunningFrom a followers perspective I would say that the page is well laid out and easy to follow. It also makes good use of interesting posts and I like the fact that there is lots of user interaction through the use of retweetable posts and runners of the week.From a marketers perspective I do like the number of tweets, the regulaity of these tweets and the great use of pictures. The problem I have is that the page is more centered around a community rather than an actual place to market products. There are pictures of products but very few posts directing people to buy said product. To improve this page more posts should direct people to either a proper sales page or to other Nike pages to expand the follower base.
• #8: 2A)The target audience consists of young, in-shape (mostly) men and women.They are healthy, love the outdoors, and more importantly – love to hike.They are more willing to travel and see new sights rather than see the outdoors.These people want to hike their county, state, the country, or even the world.They must have a steady income, in order to afford the shoes. Low end Merrells still cost $71-130.Most importantly, they are communal and love to share their knowledge of great hiking spots, as well as obtain new friends and hiking finds.There is room for older consumers; however, elderly hikers may not be as intensely dedicated to difficult trails and hiking communication. They may also not be as connected to the web as the younger hikers.B) We chose Merrell Hiking for our name (@MerrellHiking / www.twitter.com/MerrellHiking )We wanted to maintain simplicity, so that the consumers of Merrell could have a specific destination for all Merrell hiking community needs and discussion.Merrell has an outdoors page (Merrell Outdoors), but we wanted to differentiate ourselves by focusing on the sole community hiking aspect. Less focus on products, more communication/interaction with the user.Where are the consumers? What are they doing with our products? What great hiking information can we share with our consumers, and what can they share back?We chose Merrell Hiking for simplicity reasons. We want the consumer to be able to search and find us much easier. Hikers who love Merrell shoes are more likely to search “Merrell hiking”, than “Merrell Outdoors”. C) Design, Photos, Graphics. Describe what you’ve done with the design and why. Show the site on your slide. Our background consists of a view from a peak of a mountain, looking over various other mountains.The picture provides a triumphant point of view, indicating that Merrell will take you to the top of the mountain and help you achieve your hiking goals.The image is very large, high quality, and rather breath-taking.Gives a snapshot of the accomplishment their consumers will achieve.The header background is a yellow toned picture of two men hiking on a trail (in the Grand Canyon).These two individuals are meant to characterize the Merrell customer.Hikers who venture to various trails, each indicating a new sense of scenery and different degree of difficulty.The profile image consists of a pair of Merrell shoes walking towards the camera on a log. Furthers the athletic, adventurous, and fun feel of the page.Below the picture reads “Merrell Hiking” in order to further reinforce the simple, but main point of the page.In all the pictures, the weather varies. However, they all contain a surplus of sunlight. We didn’t want any gloomy looking pictures, so we made sure that the pictures illustrate hard work, beautiful scenery, and (mostly) clear skies.
• #9: StrategiesBrand awareness- Our main aim would not so much be the selling of a product but more expanding consumer awareness to the Merrell name. To do this we have picked well known places and plan to get people associating these places with high quality products and the Merrell brand By using this format we can give a more informal face to the company as well as conduct research into our demographic through the use of polls and engagement, which we would pass onto Merrell as a form of data collection. Communication- This page is more aimed at the activity of hiking than the product placement. Our aim is to inform people of the best places to hike as well as create a community where hiking enthusiast can learn a bit more about their hobby.  TacticsPictures- When creating a twitter feed about hiking boots the main idea was to create something with a great deal of visual impact. The Images of sights from major landmarks speaks to the demographic and encourage people to read the tweets and, hopefully, share them increasing our identityEngagement- This feed is mainly about engaging the followers and getting them as involved in our community as possible. In light of that we have included a poll which lists the best hiking spots in the US, asking how many of them our readers have been to. This would give us a bit more information which would help us to structure future posts. Also we try to engage our followers by making each tweet more personal e.g. our first post included a picture at the top of Mount Diablo with the tweet asking where the reader has gone, leading nicely into the poll question Poll question- By adding a poll question early on the aim was to get readers hooked from the start. By encouraging voting it would hopefully lead to a new follower wanting to know the outcome of said poll. The subject of the poll also gives a feeling of wanting to know a little more about the reader, without being intrusive which gives the page a bit more personality.