Current Trends in Social Media

 

Social Media Do: @hellocereal

Social media has taken the world by storm and its interesting to see how companies use it. First let me say this post is dedicated to cereal, there is no mention of General Mills nor is there a link to the brand.  There is, however, a link to a Tumblr account and the address to the General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis.  The page has 2,876 followers and follows only 82 accounts, one of them being the verified General Mills account.

The post is from May 4, 2017, also known as “Star Wars Day”, a play on the line from the popular line from the movie “may the force be with you” playfully translated into “May the 4^th be with you.”  This was a nice move by the brand to capitalize on the use of hashtags related to one of the most influential film dynasties of all time with a topical meme.

Memes work well on Instagram, this post garnering 77 likes – an above average amount for this page.  Consumers reacted well, with most tagging friends to come and view the page.  The post was not recognized by any notable brands or users, just fans of cereal.   There was no real way to follow up on build on this post aside from hoping that the hashtags and content brought in a few new followers.

 

 

Social Media Don’t:  Pepsi

For the second part of this assignment, I chose to pick on Pepsi.  Pepsi has made their fair share of social missteps, currently taking heat for a politically charged commercial starring Kendell Jenner making peach with a Pepsi between a protest and the police.  In this example, Pepsi makes a similar mistake by taking a hot topic and attempts to use it in a humorous rather than thoughtful way and instead comes off dark and offensive.  I can understand and appreciate the brands attempts to tackle hot button or topical issues, but in both cases, it seems as if no one thought out how all sides would perceive the content.  The world of social media is volatile and full of people on the defensive over a litany of issues –   what a brand of its caliber puts out should be vetted thoroughly.  The news of both instances has made national and even international news.  Pepsi quickly pulled both commercials and quickly apologized, but not before damage was done.  In the case of the Portuguese ad, an Anti-Pepsi Facebook group of over 100K members in one day’s time.

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