I Would Rather Be Facebooking =)

Last year, I added unlimited internet usage to my cell phone plan. The reason for this: I wanted to be able to check my Facebook from my cell phone several times a day. Since this change, I’m fairly certain that I have become addicted to Facebook.


According to Groundswell, “one in every four American adults visits social networking sites at least monthly.” Also according to Groundswell, “22 percent of teenagers check in daily.” In my opinion, 22 percent seems low. I believe that if you asked teenagers and college students how often they visited a social networking site (SNS), they would give you answers very similar to mine – at least twice a day. Facebook has become a very popular and very important site for companies trying to promote themselves and their products.

Through requesting to be someone’s friend and becoming a fan of a company’s or person’s page, users are able to connect with one another and share with others what it is that they support or like. I am very selective when it comes to becoming a fan of certain pages – I only become a fan of things that I really do like and enjoy. For example, I am currently a Facebook fan of only 16 pages (some of which include: Chick-fil-A, Einstein Bros Bagels, Sonic Happy Hour, Dawson’s Creek, and Ashley Furniture HomeStore Killeen, TX). Fans of these pages are free to post whatever they want, and as Groundswell mentions, “fads can spread rapidly through [social networking sites], displacing, undermining, or (sometimes) boosting brand awareness.”

Chick-fil-A and Einstein Bros Bagels have both done an excellent job of promoting their brands through Facebook. Every time a new Chick-fil-A opens, I am made aware of this through their status updates. Einstein Bros Bagels updates their status to remind fans/consumers that free coupons and deals are made available on their page. These pages include pictures, fan comments, games, and links to other pages of which Chick-fil-A and Einstein Bros Bagels are fans. These things not only enhance the customer experience, they also provide fans/consumers with an outlet to either boast about or criticize things that the companies are doing or selling.

Companies can definitely benefit from having advertisements and pages on Facebook. Coupons and status updates can result in increases in sales, especially for food and beverage companies like Chick-fil-A and Einstein Bros Bagels. Companies can also be hurt by comments made about them on this SNS as well. Either way, companies can use this information to improve upon the products it sells and/or the experiences they provide. Feedback is one of the most important tools a company can have – feedback provides companies with direct consumer sentiment.

Another personally prevalent social media source is consumer reviews. Consumer reviews, similar to Facebook in terms of feedback, allow consumers to post freely whatever it is they want to share. While I am not really a user of consumer reviews myself, my boyfriend makes many of his purchasing decisions based on consumer reviews. We have made purchases of all our big electronics (computer, television, camera, etc) after first reading consumer reviews on different brands and key features and functions. The information that consumer reviews provides (although sometimes biased and skewed) is very important for other consumers and more importantly the companies selling the products that are being reviewed.


Companies can use reviews to monitor current public opinions and sentiments towards them and their products. Feedback provided by reviews can be used in many ways. It can be used to help design new products, redesign current products, revamp marketing strategies, adjust pricing, readjust consumer help models, and even restructure companies. Reviews are really an invaluable source of information for companies, and companies should take every advantage of them. Groundswell mentioned that “before consumer reviews, companies only had to worry about influencing experts.” Before meeting my consumer review-loving boyfriend, I really only thought about reviews that came from sources like New York Times, Siskel and Ebert, and the Travel Channel. Now, I realize that everyone who has an opinion is able to share it, and millions of other consumers perusing the internet can easily view that opinion.

While I only used Facebook and consumer reviews (in general) to discuss social media as a way to gain customer insights and create customer experiences, there are hundreds of other social media outlets – all of which are becoming more and more important for companies worldwide. I think that these outlets are invaluable to companies and their efforts to gain information and improve experiences. Social media provides a way to directly communicate with consumers and also receive up-to-date feedback. I think that companies are going to need to utilize social media such as blogs, SNSs, reviews, forums, and wikis in order to help keep themselves current and relevant in today’s society. Social media is something that touches people on a daily basis, and companies want that – they want to be able to reach out to consumers on a daily basis.