How Facebook has Affected Some of the Biggest Companies in the World (Part 2)
Yasir is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Online selling, promotion, and E-business has not been this easy before. To get a target audience was the most difficult approach back then. With the use of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), millions of users are directly targeted for marketing purposes. Businesses have been one of those groups that have been most affected by Facebook. It’s a necessity if businesses want to stay in the market and to stay competitive. Some of the biggest multinational companies have benefited a lot using Facebook and they continue to see a rapid increase in their sales. Companies including Sony, Apple, Procter and Gamble, Nokia and Pepsico have all witnessed sales and customer improvement after using social media sites, including Facebook.
Sony (NYSE: SNE) has been using Facebook in order to interact with its customers. The company recently claimed that it needs to be more "customer focused" and Facebook provides the perfect platform for the company to make sure that the customers are kept happy. In 2011, the company had around 600,000 fans on Facebook, however, it has over 3.3 million fans. By 'liking' the Sony Facebook page, customers can get support including movie tutorials and articles. Sony also claimed that social media is more of a discipline rather than a business department.
Social Media, including Facebook, played a vital role in Sony's "Catch the Tablet" campaign. Basically, the firm planned a 2 week long campaign in order to showcase its 9.4 inch tablet. It was an event which was specially organized for the people to see and use Sony's upcoming tablet. The event led to awareness amongst people towards the upcoming tablet and the company claimed that the campaign increased Sony's Fanbase. The campaign generated a lot of buzz which led to more and more people interested in buying Sony's Tablet.
One of the most affected companies is The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG). The company recently started using Facebook instead of other marketing strategies and this was one of the reasons how the company acheived a $10 billion budget cut. This did not only help P&G to lower the advertising budget but also generated more sales. In a report, Facebook claimed that it was the sole factor in a 9% increase in P&G's deodorant sales. P&G started a Facebook campaign "Mean Stinks" for its Secret Ladies Deodorant. The campaign was related to anti-bullying and promotion for the new ladies deodorant. P&G used Facebook in order to raise awareness for its Secret Deodorant campaign and 26 weeks after the campaign initially started, P&G saw a direct 9% boost in the sales of the deodorant so there is evidence that Facebook was the sole reason in the sales boost.
Companies need to use Facebook in order to stay competitive. Everyone knows how the lack of social media in Research in Motion (NASDAQ: BBRY) led to its disaster. Blackberry was possibly one of the best selling smartphones at that time but the way the company handled its network crises situation, led to a lot of users switching to other smartphones.
In 2011, Research In Motion's services went out for several days in various countries and Blackberry was the hottest topic on Facebook. The company had an official Facebook page but it never took the frustration of the users seriously. They posted around 2 status updates in 1 week to address the situation and frustration amongst the users grew further. The iPhone 4S was released in the same time period and a lot of users switched to Apple which led to 2 disastrous months in RIM's history. Today, Blackberry doesn't have the market value that it used to have due to its Social Media crises.
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yasirrfc has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook and is short Sony (ADR) and has the following options: long JAN 2013 $22.00 calls on Sony (ADR). Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Facebook and The Procter & Gamble Company. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information.
