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While professionals can use all social networking websites to promote their products, services and personal careers, each major social network has its own distinct advantages. An infographic from business consultant network Zintro outlines some of these advantages. Facebook is absolutely the largest social networking website with over 845 million users. 17.5 percent of the website’s users are in the 21-24 year old age group, followed closely by the 18-20 year old age group. Businesses should share blog posts, videos and other updates with Facebook users, but the website’s massive user base makes it difficult for businesses to effectively make personal connections with individual customers. Businesses should set up Facebook “pages,” which collect and display business info for interested visitors. Twitter provides a different type of interaction with customers. About 54.6 percent of Twitter’s 140 million active users are female, and the website’s simple format makes it ideal for quick interactions. The micro-blogging website makes it easy to give quick product updates or to start a conversation with existing customers and fans. Many large businesses are using Twitter to address customer complaints in a public forum. By addressing issues publicly, these businesses build a good brand reputation. LinkedIn’s demographics are fairly even, with an audience comprised of 51 percent male users. The business-focused social networking website has an audience of over 150 million users. LinkedIn is most effective for building a reputation in an industry or for making business-to-business connections. Professionals can also create groups to lead discussions with their colleagues and develop an effective web presence. Although some social marketing experts have written off Google+ as a fad, the website has over 100 million users and continues to gain a primarily male, educated audience. Google+ allows users to arrange their contacts into circles, which makes it easy to target specific groups. Google+ is a useful tool for starting conversations with colleagues or fans and may provide a means of establishing expertise in an industry.

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Marketing Effectively Through Different Social Media Networks [Infographic]

The team from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was awarded the top prize of $25,000 at the 2012 BU School of Management International Tech Strategy Case Competition sponsored by Ericsson. Team members included Jae Lee, Rohan Vaidyanathan, Christophe Renaud, and Maciej Dudek. This year’s competition focused on the role a Networked Society could play in innovating education. Each team was asked how Ericsson could develop successful business models that will create value for the world in a Networked Society through education and the sharing and combining of expertise. The winning team took a holistic, two-pronged approach to closing the gaps in communication and access to information with their “Education Technology Platform” (ETP).

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School of Management/Ericsson 2012 Tech Strategy Case Comp Winning Presentation

The team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was awarded second place at the 2012 BU School of Management International Tech Strategy Case Competition sponsored by Ericsson. This year’s competition focused on the role a Networked Society could play in innovating education. Each team was asked how Ericsson could develop successful business models that will create value for the world in a Networked Society through education and the sharing and combining of expertise.

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School of Management/Ericsson 2012 Tech Strategy Case Comp 2nd place team presentation

The team from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business was awarded third place at the 2012 BU School of Management International Tech Strategy Case Competition sponsored by Ericsson. This year’s competition focused on the role a Networked Society could play in innovating education. Each team was asked how Ericsson could develop successful business models that will create value for the world in a Networked Society through education and the sharing and combining of expertise.

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School of Management/Ericsson 2012 Tech Strategy Case Comp 3nd place team presentation

The Hunger Games Facebook It’s hard to overstate the massive success of  the film adaptation of ‘The Hunger Games’. So far the first film in the series has grossed over $250 in eleven days,  higher than any ‘Twilight’ adaptation and every ‘Harry Potter’ adaptation, save for the final installment in the series. This isn’t just a hit family film like ‘The Lorax’, this is one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Films opening up on Memorial Day weekend or Independence Day are expected to open this way, but how does this happen in late-winter/early Spring? Children are in school, adults are working and Hollywood is usually at it’s sleepiest this time of year.  Some would attribute this to marketing techniques, particularly ones used through social media outlets. Many business degrees today emphasize the use of social media marketing, but often times don’t understand that social media is a dynamic tool. Wielding various outlets requires creativity and timeliness. For example, despite the wealth of billboards in cities around the world and the usual onslaught of television ads, ‘ The Hunger Games’ presence was felt on-line in ways far more advanced than simple banner ads on popular websites. The marketing team for ‘The Hunger Games’ created 13 Facebook pages representing the different districts that play a role in the story. Facebook user could align themselves with the district of their choice and become ‘citizens’ of a specific district. A Twitter account was created for The Capitol, a reference to the central city in the story, and has since been followed by over 66,000 people. Meanwhile, ‘The Hunger Games’ was mentioned about 1 million times on Twitter last month, according to real-time search site Topsy.com. In a move that suggests a sophisticated awareness of the series large female fan-base, the films marketers even created a Tumblr account called Capitol Couture to discuss the wild fashions worn by characters in the series. This this sort of interactivity has proven popular in the past. ‘Harry Potter’ fans take quizzes on Facebook to find out which ‘wizarding house’ they belong in and then post the results for friends to see. ‘Twilight’ of course has it’s ‘Team Edward’ or ‘Team Jacob’ campaign. The popularity of these social media efforts seem to be paying off. Though there is still a question of whether the success of ‘Hunger Games social marketing is due to the popularity of the series or if it is actually increasing awareness and eventually the number of tickets sold. While there is no concrete data yet to prove the usefulness of the social media, consider the case of ‘Hunger Games’, with it’s myriad uses of social media, vs. ‘John Carter’, which focused most of it’s marketing on the traditional marketing and on-line banner ads that most people seem to simply find annoying. The $250 million and counting racked up by ‘The Hunger Games’ on a budget of $80 million speaks a lot louder than the $66 million ‘John Carter’ has earned on a budget of at least $250 million. With those sort of numbers, it’s safe to say you can expect to see a major increase in social media usage by Hollywood in the near future.

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Hunger Games Marketing Turns to Social Media

The team from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business was awarded 4th place at the 2012 BU School of Management International Tech Strategy Case Competition sponsored by Ericsson. This year’s competition focused on the role a Networked Society could play in innovating education. Each team was asked how Ericsson could develop successful business models that will create value for the world in a Networked Society through education and the sharing and combining of expertise.

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School of Management/Ericsson 2012 Tech Strategy Case Comp 4th place team presentation