Issues of Digital Marketing - Assignment Example

Storify Author’s Name Grade course Institution Tutor Date Introduction I am taking a course in advertising and my area of interest is in digital marketing. The advancement in technology has changed the way organisations, both for profit and not-for-profit, develop their marketing strategies (Ryan & Jones 2012). My Community of Interest (COI) is Feed the Children campaign. Feed the Children campaign is a not-for-profit organisation operating globally to ensure that children around the world are fed and do not go to bed hungry every day. It has incorporated the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram in spreading its work and recruiting volunteers. To my COI, digital marketing has offered them an opportunity to interact with people as well as advertise their efforts to all those concerned. For social digital marketing to succeed, the target marketing strategies should be on point. 1. What can be discerned about a chosen participant’s self - presentation/identity construction? Participation in Communities of Interest varies depending on the type of COI it is. Some are more formal while other are less formal depending on the content and the users and therefore the language used will vary from one community to another. Self-presentation in a community is one of the most important factors in participating in a community of interest. Serious participants would want to assume an identity that is unique while at the same time makes them easily identifiable to other members of the community. The Feed the Children community of interest is managed by the Feed the Children organisation social media personnel whereby content is constantly checked to discern whether it observes the community’s rules and for approval. There is a level of freedom offered by the community of interest and participants are allowed to share their knowledge and expertise on the topic so that other members can use. From the snapshot of the tweet above, it is possible to identify me because I have used my official name Miao. I like to keep this formal given the nature of my COI. The other participant can also be identified by his real names and his tweets reveal that he is knowledgeable on what the Feed the Children campaign is all about. The freedom to express oneself in creative ways just like the participant above is one of the possible reasons why social media has become so popular with today’s marketers. In light of this, I have personally customized my twitter handle since I prefer a little bit of uniqueness. Creativity thus allows participants to make them appear unique in their own way as they seek to stand out from other participants. This creativity varies between the names used to the profile pictures used by participants. The social media platform, Twitter, allows the easy sharing of content. The example above shows tools that the participant can use that would allow others outside of the community to see his online marketing content thus attracting more members to the community. The ease with which tools such as retweet, share and favourite can be used make it a preferred platform to other social media platforms. 2. What can be discerned regarding professional practice? (How is it [not] used as a professional tool?) Digital media has come a long way and today professionals are finding it easier to interact with other professional in the same field. It has therefore offered professionals an opportunity to interact and share current trends in the field while at the same time offering guidance to people who need this kind of information. Their desired objective is thus made possible. By personally participating in my COI, I am giving myself an opportunity to learn about what Feed the Children is doing globally at any given time and also participate in discussions. A look at the twitter snapshots and YouTube videos give a clear understanding of how digital media has provided the Feed the Children COI a platform to share information. Insert professional youtube, twitter From the youtube video, it can be seen that digital media has provided the Feed the Children campaign an opportunity for professionals to give their take on the issue of global development and as well as the role philanthropy plays in the overall global development. For instance, the Clinton Global Initiative, professional from various fields were invited to give their professional view of what the next decade hold for global development. Apart from this, ordinary people are now able to engage directly with professionals and give their opinions regarding a particular issue. This is how digital media has changed over the years. A few years ago, it was not possible for an ordinary citizen to indulge in discussions with leaders in high positions but that wall has now been brought down by digital media and digital marketing is taking opportunity of this position. However, digital media can also be used for non professional purposes as can be seen in the YouTube video below. Insert Non-professional Feed the children Video (Newsboys) The video above shows how YouTube can be used as a non professional tool but still achieves the supposed objective. The Newsboys give a non-professional account of their efforts and collaborations with the Feed the Children campaign. Social media platforms therefore do not act solely as professional tools but also as non professional tools. Participants from all walks of life are therefore able to participate non-professionally in the Feed the Children COI through uploading of videos to tweeting and uploading of photos. 3. What can be discerned re. practices of citizenship? (How is it [not] used for democratic participation?) Citizenship goes hand in hand with freedom and rights. Digital media offers a certain level of democracy for participants to give their opinions on matters that they would want to be part of. Social media platforms for COI give their participants an opportunity to express their perspectives via twitter and facebook. However, democracy is only allowed up to the extent that they do not infringe on the rights of other participants. For Feed the Children campaign community of interest, participants have been giving their personal views of how the organisation is carrying out its activities and whether they agree or disagree with these the organisations initiatives. Participants are also able to contribute to the organisations possible solutions to challenges. They are able to do this due to the different tools available in these platforms. Tools such as share, comment, like, dislike, and retweet offer participants the freedom to do whatever they like to a post or video by Feed the Children community of interest. Insert tweeting comments on Feed the children Democratic participation in my COI is influenced by the nature of the campaign itself. Participants would want to see that children receive what people contribute to the organisation and therefore they somehow act as watchdogs to the organisation by constantly following how the organisation is implementing its initiatives in the countries it is involved in by keeping in touch with other participants in the different digital media platforms. 4. What can be discerned re. practices of social life? (How is it [not] used for social interaction / leisure?) It is a fact that today, communication has been made easy and all this can be attributed to the emergence of social media platforms (Ryan & Jones 2012). Although the conventional modes of communication still exist, digital media has redefined the way people socialize today. There is no need to know the other party in order to socialise with him/her freely. All is needed is a common interest and friendly communication is kick started. The Feed the Children community of interest has used digital media to socialise with its participants. For instance, the campaign informs participants of where they will be holding certain events to raise money or food and participants can thus appear in these forums. Additionally, celebrities also use these platforms in the same way to communicate to their fans be part of this particular community of interest. From the snapshot below, it shows some of the events organised through social media platforms on behalf of the Feed the Children community of interest. The snapshot below shows how members socialize by commenting on posts. It is true that celebrity participants on this community of interest have the greatest influence on social media. Their endorsements are valued by both the campaign and ordinary participants as well. From the snapshot below, a fact post by the boy band Newsboys has created a semi debate regarding the fact the 1 in 5 children in America sleep hungry. 5. What accompanying choices are presented by algorithms? Assess their appropriateness (e.g. utility, relevant subject matter, substance). When it comes to search in digital media, algorithms play a vital role (Meghabghab & Kandel 2008, p. 4). There is a lot of information available on the internet regarding one particular subject and if this information is not carefully filtered by the searcher, the possibility of being fed the wrong information is high (Meghabghab & Kandel 2008, p. 6). Information that has been compiled by professionals has the highest likelihood of being ranked at the top by most search engines. Professionals, companies and organisations all incorporate search engine optimization techniques to ensure that their content is searched regularly depending on how relevant this information is and this determines its visibility. The most common search engines include Google, Ask.com, and Bing. The auto-complete feature in Google is what makes it the most popular search engine with digital media participants. The Feed the Children community of interest itself has its own algorithm This search algorithm allows participants to search for anything regarding the organisation such as the community, volunteer services, the organisation’s mission and goals etc. These algorithms give the participant an opportunity to actively become a member of the organisation as they are able to choose the nearest Feed the Children centre they can join. The implication of this is that participants in my COI can physically contribute towards the organisation and even take part in the volunteer opportunities offered by the organisation. 6. How are civility and participation practiced and managed? Civility in digital media is very important in the digital age where everybody can see what you are doing in these platforms (Flynn 2012). The Feed the Children community of interest is a serious campaign and it is very rare to find participants loosing civility in whatever they post. This is because all participants involved are civil and know what the campaign is all about. However, the organisation through its social media management team work around the clock to ensure that participants maintain a high level of civility given that there is a high number of high ranking people in leadership positions and celebrities who also interact with the organisation on their social media platforms. The organisation’s administration reserves the right to take down any posts that lack civility and by doing this, they maintain and manage civility. Additionally, the possibilities of finding arguments in this community of interest are low. Participants basically involve themselves in productive discussions aimed at helping the organisation achieve its goals. As can be seen, well managed comments in the snapshot show the level of civility on the part of the participants. Also, I personally took part in the discussion as I am a member of the feed the Children community of interest. 7. Seek out examples of sharing and remixing. How are issues of copyright managed? One thing that makes social media attractive is the ability to share content. Once content is on the internet then it becomes difficult to lay claim on it unless you had copyrighted the material prior to posting it on the internet and then another party uses the content for commercial purposes. However, on social media platforms, the sharing and retweeting of posts, videos and pictures is widespread. Sharing of content over the internet is as important as learning is important. The transfer of knowledge between individuals is the major reason why people surf the internet so much today. The YouTube snapshot shows an option for the participants to share the video with others. The Feed the Children however posts its own photos and videos on its social media platforms and states which can be reproduced and which cannot. Despite this, the campaign does not have control over the content. Reference Ryan, D., & Jones, C. (2012). Understanding digital marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page. Meghabghab, G., & Kandel, A. (2008). Search engines, link analysis, and user's Web behavior: [a unifying Web mining approach]. Berlin: Springer. Flynn, N. (2012). The social media handbook: Rules, policies, and best practices to successfully manage your organization's social media presence, posts, and potential. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More