As I understand it, we are supposed to compile a list of references and comments for our 4 articles, plus the 4 other articles (submitted by others) along with our response - making that eight refs in total and submit them as an annotated bibliography as a word doc with a cover page, to Blackboard, as the assignment.

Known as 'social media marketing, viral marketing, buzz, and guerilla marketing' Word Of Mouth Marketing has become an important feature of marketing online. This article is a fairly in-depth study looking at issues of shifting narratives, practices and theories in WOMM, particularly in the face of growing social media communities. The article looks at ways social - media marketers are dealing with "networked coproduction of narratives" made possible by the affordances of social media tools and the Internet (Kozinets, 2010). Kozinets et. al. argue the evolution of word-of-mouth marketing is marked by 3 stages: First, the Organic Interconsumer Influence Model, or simple word-of-mouth, which is not directed, promoted or directly influenced by marketers; Second, the Linear marketer Influence Model, sees marketers seeking to influence and guide WOM by focusing on so-called "opinion leaders" who are able to influence others. This the of marketing will be familiar to Facebook or Twitter users, who may be used to seeing products recommended by well-known celebrities; Third, is the Network Coproduction Model. This refers to "managed one-to-one seeding and communication programs". As Marketers and consumers often have very different goals, such a strategy is not without risk. As Kozinets et.al. point out (2010) "consumers are regarded as active coproducers of value and meaning, whose WOM use of marketing communications can be idiosyncratic, creative, and even resistant". The main challenge in Word Of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) online is that marketers typically have less control over the content and direction of the campaign or opinion (see Mangold and Faulds, 2010). According to Kozinets et.al (2010) the key to successfully engaging large and often disparate groups is building network of "one-to-one" personal relationships, which allow individual members to become involved and feel a part of the process of narrative building and meaning creation. References: Kozinet

The "Old Spice Guy" Campaign has proven to be a game-changer, not only for Old Spice but for social media marketing. Ehrlich points out (2010), such campaigns seek to involve the audience in an immersive experience, essentially making viewers part of the campaign. Since the original campaign advertisement was launched, the campaign reached 40 million views in a week for a total 1.4 billion campaign impressions across all media, including thousands of parody mashups. The campaign has since gone on to increase sales of Old Spice by 107% and even won the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix in 2010 (the advertising industry's equivalent of winning an Oscar for best film). Arguably, the most interesting and memorable feature of the campaign has been the interactive "Old Spice Responses". Responses was a series of 186 custom-made videos made for fans and celebrities selected from comments from Social Media Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit (Ehrlich, 2010; see also Grant, 2010). These videos posted on YouTube became the basis for a viral campaign that achieved 6,000,000 responses in 24 hours. The true genius behind Wieden & Kennedy's simple idea, as Ehrlich points out (2010), is that it is viewers themselves who are maintaining the campaign's momentum as "viewers to go viral". This marks an important shift as "brands don't make viral videos, users make videos viral." That's exactly what Old Spice achieved." (Ehrlich, 2010). References: Grant, R. (2010, 10 August). 'Wieden+Kennedy's Old Spice Case Study' in We are Social [video] Retrieve 12 April 2010 via http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/08/wieden-kennedys-spice-case-study/ Williams, M. (2010, 26 June). "Old Spice scoops Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix" Retrived 12 April, 2010 via http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1012646/Old-Spice-scoops-Cannes-Film-Lions-Grand-Prix/

Thanks Mandy, you make an interesting point about the importance of Broadband Internet in the growth and popularity of video as a means of communication. It is sometimes easy to overlook or even overestimate the role of tools and affordances in analysing collaborative projects and events. Rosanna's article "Egypt did not have an Internet Revolution" suggests the role of social media was greatly exaggerated by the media and, in fact, the most important collaborative tool in the recent Egypt uprising was, in fact, face-to-face communication and word-of-mouth.

This article, posted on TechCrunch, discusses the release of a report from Nielsen, a worldwide market research firm, based in the US, perhaps best known for the ACNielsen Poll and Television ratings survey (Nielsen, 2011). Wauters here discusses the outcome and conclusions of research conducted by Nielsen into the effectiveness of social media advertising on Facebook. Wauters states, 'the report leverages six months of research consisting of surveys of more than 800,000 Facebook users and more than 125 individual Facebook ad campaigns from some 70 brand advertisers." Mangold & Faulds argue that by "enabling customers to talk to one another" social media is effectively "an extension of traditional word-of-mouth communication"(Mangold & Fauld, 2009). With traditional advertising rates and audiences falling, advertisers are keen to seek ways to reach new markets. Being able to leverage users social media networks can provide an important tool to reach a wider audience. Wauters suggests, according to surveys conducted by Nielsen, advertising recall on Facebook jumped between 16% and 30% when adverts mentioned friends or were featured in friends newsfeeds. Statistics here strongly suggest advertising is more likely to be noticed, and acted upon, if it seen to be 'recommended' by someone consumers know. --- It is interesting also to note Nielsen and Facebook are themselves engaged in a collaborative project to study social media advertising. Wauters points out: "Nielsen and Facebook recently joined forces to develop ad effectiveness solutions to determine consumer attitudes, brand perception and purchase intent from social media advertising." With this in mind, perhaps Wauters is correct to sound a note of caution: "we're not saying the report is bogus, but it's something to keep in mind if you decide to download it for yourself." References: Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-August). Social Media: The New Hybrid Ele

Available online via Curtin Library Catalogue (see below) This article stresses the importance of social media in the promoting of a company's brand or products. Social Media collaboration, according to Kaplan, enables 'the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users'. For advertising social media provides platform which enables customers to partipate in the creation of the brand by generating feedback and product reviews. Mangold and Faulds argue that, for potential customers, online content which is generated by other consumers is typically regarded as more trustworthy than traditional advertising messages. Essentially, social media messages are more likely to be believed and responded to than direct-marketing on the other hand, social media also means companies have less control over the course of discussion. They argue,'while companies cannot directly control consumer-to-consumer messages, they do have the ability to influence the conversations that consumers have with one another'. Mangold and Faulds argue, used correctly, social media has become an important tool, which allows companies to not only talk to customers but also allows customers to talk to each other. Social tools, they suggest, provide customers to obtain information about companies and products and can aid them in the decision making and purchase process. Creating networks of social relationships with potential customers is a strong tool, which aids in the promotion of a brand but it also provides important tools to help managers achieve the company's missions and goals. Some tools companies can use to communicate with customers include company websites, YouTube, eNewsletters, message boards and blogs. References: Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). 'Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media" in Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68. Retrieved via Curtin library catalogue. Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-Augus

Apologies. Reposted the article but the link still doesn't work. You can access the full article in the Curtin library catalogue: Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-August). Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix in Business Horizons. 52(4) 357-365

This article stresses the importance of social media in the promoting of a company's brand or products. Social Media collaboration, according to Kaplan, enables 'the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users'. For advertising social media provides platform which enables customers to partipate in the creation of the brand by generating feedback and product reviews. Mangold and Faulds argue that, for potential customers, online content which is generated by other consumers is typically regarded as more trustworthy than traditional advertising messages. Essentially, social media messages are more likely to be believed and responded to than direct-marketing on the other hand, social media also means companies have less control over the course of discussion. They argue,'while companies cannot directly control consumer-to-consumer messages, they do have the ability to influence the conversations that consumers have with one another'. Mangold and Faulds argue, used correctly, social media has become an important tool, which allows companies to not only talk to customers but also allows customers to talk to each other. Social tools, they suggest, provide customers to obtain information about companies and products and can aid them in the decision making and purchase process. Creating networks of social relationships with potential customers is a strong tool, which aids in the promotion of a brand but it also provides important tools to help managers achieve the company's missions and goals. Some tools companies can use to communicate with customers include company websites, YouTube, eNewsletters, message boards and blogs. References: Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). 'Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media" in Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68. Retrieved via Curtin library catalogue.

My topic is advertising and social media. I am specifically looking at the way companies are using social media tools to build connections and promote their brands and their products via company controlled crowd-sourcing and customer-driven discussion.