Companies and Social Media

The utilization of social media now a days is absolutely vital to staying afloat, especially from a business perspective. Having the ability to constantly interact with your consumers is an invaluable asset to have. Over the past few years I've noticed several companies become more prominent on Facebook and Twitter. Intel seems to be the first one that comes to mind. They are constantly updating their consumers and fan base on their technological developments, and always welcome feedback regardless of who you are. This invites conversation and invokes customer interest. It gives the corporation a friendly image, and humanizes the company. They handle their social meda image very professionally due to the demographic they're attempting to reach, which I assume are tech geeks and IT professionals/hobbyists. They hold competitions occasionally and make rewards available for those who participate. It really is an enthralling way to maintain customer relations. Looking at another organization that comes to mind, it shows the opposite side of handling social media. Taco Bell is notorious for their Twitter account more than anything. Whenever something mainstream happens, they're first to crack a joke. They can be very clever, and for the most part work in some of their products into the joke. Their demographic is obviously far different than Intel's, but they know them well. Continually making crass jokes about pop culture and drugs attract the people they're trying to attract. They utilize social media just as well, if not better, than majority of companies out there, simply because they know their demographic so well. The point I'm trying to make is the use of social media is incredibly subjective. Some companies use it to provide a professional persona, some use it to represent what they stand for, and others use it to amuse and simply create traffic towards their company name. There is no denying that social media is the most powerful tool available now for advertising and interacting with consumers, and it is very interesting to see all of the different approaches.