Online Presence and Market Segmentation: A Case Study

Part 1: Evaluating Your Online Presence

1.Search for yourself on Google, DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/), and/or additional search engines. Searching by full name and location is a good start, although you may choose to include other details about yourself. What information is available? Did you find anything unexpected?


2.Choose two social media channels or vehicles that you use frequently and consider your last ten posts or engagements (shares, comments, retweets, likes, etc.). What does your online engagement say about you to an outside observer?


3.Consider the list of motives behind social media participation in the section called “Motives and Attitudes Influencing Social Media Activities” in chapter 2. This includes the affinity impulse, personal utility impulse, immediacy impulse, etc. What does your online engagement say about your motives for using social media?


4.Name and describe two groups that make up part of your social identity. Are these online? Offline? Both? How does your membership in each group contribute to your social identity?


Part 2: Case Study Research
For the second part of this module’s assignment, you need to do some initial research into the business or organization you plan to study for your Case Study Project. Specifically, you need to look at the organization’s website and social media feeds and think about its audience. Consider the people who engage with this organization online.

Your thoughts at this point may be fairly general and will expand as your project progresses.

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1.Define market segmentation and explain why it is important for businesses or organizations to segment their market on social media?

2.As a social media marketer, how might you choose to segment the market for your organization? Consider the types of segments described in chapter 2 in the section titled “Segmentation and Targeting for Social Media Marketing” and try to choose at least two types. Support your decision with clear and specific reasoning. What did you learn about your organization’s audience that led you to these choices?

Part 3: Network Structure and Group Influences
For this section, you need to watch either “Nosedive,” an episode of Black Mirror, which is available on Netflix, or “Generation Like” a one-hour episode of Frontline, available for free from PBS. After watching, you will need to respond to a set of five questions. Remember, you only need to complete this activity for one episode—not both.
1.How similar is Lacie’s online identity to her offline identity? What similarities or differences do you notice (please be as specific as possible)?

2.How do businesses use characters’ social identities to advertise to directly to them?

3.What communities does Lacie belong to? How important are strong ties and weak ties in these communities?

4.What are the dangers of social conformity (changing a belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a community) as seen in “Nosedive”?

5.How are likes and ratings used as a form of social capital? Include specific examples.


“GENERATION LIKE” QUESTIONS

1.What is an “influencer”? Why are they so important to businesses/brands?

2.What are some pros and cons of marketing a product in conjunction with a current issue? (Consider the Oreo example from “Generation Like.”)

3.How are “likes” a form of social currency?

4.How do celebrities use social media to advertise? What are they advertising?
5.What is corporate sponsorship? Does is lead to more or less “brand trust” for the company? What about for the individual being sponsored?