Samsung Mobile: Social Media Monitoring Part 2

In the last Social Media Monitoring blog, we looked at the brief history of Samsung and how it has expanded from South Korea into a multi-business organization that is well known worldwide. Specifically, we discussed its mobile department and the Galaxy product line. Since then, the long awaited "unpacking"of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge was presented on March 1st through Samsung's social media sites.

There has been buzz accumulating in the months prior to March for the new Galaxy as shown in the previous SMM blog, but the event that took place on March 1st answered all of those fans' questions and raised curiosity about its features and the release date. Here is the official video showcasing the 2015 Galaxy phones, which now has over 21 million views. 

Samsung vs. Apple

Samsung has for years been in a rivalry with Apple, not only competitively but in the court as well over the replication of "original" ideas. Both parties have accused each other of such act, but Samsung has pointed out in their commercials from time to time that Apple are only catching up to the innovations of smartphones...

             for the Galaxy S3 in 2012

the Galaxy S4 in 2013

and for the Galaxy S5 in 2014. 

Social Mention
In Social Mention, the Samsung Galaxy has had its measurements of buzz up and down for last several weeks, which is normal. The period of time surrounding the announcement of the new phone was where Samsung was mentioned the most. Here below you will be able to see the many types of feedback through social media about the Samsung Galaxy over the span of 2 1/2 weeks.

                    February 22                                   March 4                                      March 12

Google Trends

This chart on Google Trends shows the measurement of searches in Google between the Samnsung Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6. As shown, the iPhone 6 was already talked about a lot already and interest skyrocketed by the time the unveiling of the phone was announced in September 2014. The graph also shows the sharp spike in interest for Samsung recently due to the announcement of the new Phone.    

IceRocket
This graph from IceRocket shows the fluctuating percent of all blog posts, which come from the growing number of rumors of the new phone, and also shows the huge leap in percentage on March 1 due to the announcement of the new phone. That huge buzz only lasted for a couple of days though before the flow of buzz began to fluctuate again. For Apple, the buzz has been remaining constantly high with a drastic decrease during the unveiling of the Galaxy S6. 

Social Networking Campaign
There have been no recent social media campaigns to help Samsung with their sales, but they broke ground in 2012 with a campaign that allowed consumers to do most of the online marketing for them. With the days counting down to the release of the Galaxy S4, Samsung and New Zealand marketing agency Colenso BBDO created what was called the "virtual line". 

Facebook and Twitter users from New Zealand would log in through their respective accounts on the site getinline.co.nz (currently non-existent) to get in the "virtual line" and would be given content about the S4 to share on their profiles. The quantity of shares, retweets, likes, comments, and reposts would bring the person closer to the front of the line. Pretty much, the person in the front of the line shared the most content and received the most shares, retweets, likes, comments, and reposts and received the first Galaxy S4 in the country. This campaign was not only a smart move on getting people to spread as much awareness about the phone as possible, but it favored those who preferred not to wait in a real line for a phone. After two weeks of the campaign, there were 12,000 people who joined in and 85,000 stories shared to over 3 million people which reached 15 million people. This campaign caused the smartphone market share to go up 12% as well. As shown in the graph, buzz about the Galaxy was high during 2013, especially in April which was when the social campaign took place. 

Conclusion
It comes off as common sense (if this blog didn't help enough) that Apple is clearly the most popular brand and it only seems like it will always be no matter what Samsung does. But lets not forget that the iPhone was introduced when Apple dominated the market with MacBooks and iPods. For this reason, Apple users not only have a following with their products already but those users feel like the iPhone is simply a easier and more efficient phone to use than a Galaxy. I really admire the satirical commercials that Samsung make against the iPhone as they create debate and I think they should still be continued. I do believe that the Galaxy has just as much potential as the iPhone but it also needs to capture the attention of America more efficiently. The "virtual line" idea worked great for New Zealand, but I know it would work wonderfully if the entire United States got involved. By implementing more social media campaigns like this, the groundswell would only cause the numbers to increase and create a massive buzz that would change the way we look at these two competing smartphones. 

Jack Threads & the Groundswell

Online shopping has been a huge habit in the digital era due to the ease of finding what you want without going to a store, possibly finding sales, and using the customers' comments as advice to make sure you are getting the best quality item. I personally give credit to Amazon for paving the way for other online markets. Now it is the standard for online markets to implement groundswell elements in their business such as customer feedback. Every online business knows by common sense that everything that they do should be for their customers. In order for companies to grow with the groundswell, there have to be mental shifts taking place in order to think clearly what can be done for the company before they can build strong foundations on those ideas and move forward. And of course there needs to be executive support to finalize the transforming decisions. 

Jack Threads started in 2008 in Ohio by Jason Ross (CEO & Founder) as a online website that sold overstocked mens clothes from lesser-known brands for a cheaper price and for a limited time (this is the flash sale method of selling). Like Amazon, the online aspect of purchasing clothes for Jack Threads worked for the business, but what made them different is that they offered daily flash sales for several items of a 40-80% discount via email. Their thought behind this method of sales, as explained by the company, is "that taking some risks with your style is something that every guy should be comfortable doing." Since the 2010 collaboration with online newsletter Thrillist, Jack Threads has elevated into one of the most known and reliable sites for men to shop for street wear and contemporary clothes that has created around 1,000 brands of its own and has gained over 4 million members. According to their Facebook, their company is "Empowering guys everywhere to look like a million bucks without spending a million bucks".

Jack Threads Video

Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, constantly preaches the importance of the customer interest and opinion for any business, so it is imperative in this age of technology for a company to use their technologies to not only reach out to their customers in many ways but to be able to listen and respond to them. As implied in the book, this company's engagement with their customers has definitely allowed them to expand and establish themselves throughout the internet. The last chapter of the books talks about preparing for the future of the groundswell and how to prepare for it. Competition is always going to be an ongoing thing, but this company stays afloat by maintaining its two relationships; between its customers and the brands that are featured on the site. 

What separates Jack Threads from other online vendors is the integration with Facebook (785k followers) that allows users to sign up and login to Jack Threads right through Facebook. Not only is the company spreading awareness and support through social media, but it allows people to join their site via Facebook. This allows for automatic updates on Facebook whenever a purchase is made so that the user is buying merchandise from the site while promoting the company.

The Facebook page for Jack Threads is constantly uploading relatable content that promotes their products as well as replies to questions or comments wether they're positive or negative. 

  

Their Twitter (82.3k followers) and Instagram (57k followers) accounts are also effective in spreading awareness due to the fact that men want to be able to view these clothes and spark up ideas on these sites that are the most used. While Instagram shows the visuals of Jack Threads' products and relatable photos, Twitter does the same and also replies and retweets general tweets, including those of customer support. Giving more reason for the customers to stick around, the customers feel appreciated and makes them loyal to the company. 

Jack Threads is only improving and innovating thanks to its relationships with its brands and the customers. It is safe to say that this company has grown and earned to perfectly listen, talk to, energize, and tap into the groundswell. In the future, I can see this company create more relationships with brands, increase their sales, and apply itself to more technologies. Of course, this company will have to follow the 7 steps in success with the groundswell as mentioned in the book (Remembering that the groundswell is a person to person activity, Listening, having patience, Being opportunistic, being flexible, being collaborative and being humble). The whole idea of this business being exclusively online really gets online users involved into the groundswell, but I feel like having several stores would be a major step in their advancement as well as spreading their presence throughout various social media outlets in the internet.