Social Networks as a branding tool

 

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social network or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities.

Social networks have been noticing an increase in the number of users for many different reasons, from keeping in touch with family over long distance to promoting a bussiness.

Different social networking sites are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Skype
• Myspace
• Linked In
• Google+
• Flickr

Advertising in social networks can be effective but does not create a community. It is a way to engage with consumers and to see their prefrences and to reach a wider customer base. It is an easier way of word of mouth. At times using social networking might act against a brand where a parody account would be created for example with the Dove for real beauty campaign a parody twitter account was created to mock it.

 It also helps emphasize on customer training service by engaging the employee with their customers. For example British airways have a twitter account to update and notify their customers about flight statuses and upcoming promotional offers. 



Companies increasingly are running online ads that focus less on pitching their products than promoting their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. "Brands are building a great presence on social networks and are looking at ways of making it more accessible" - NY times.




As we choose Natural Kitchen for our chosen business we can see that they are up to date with the use of social networking however, they have not been updating it often. Their facebook page merely contains their addess and opening timings and does not have up to date updates and notifications about new offers etc. \

As for their twitter page the latest update was 2009, 2 years ago which shows that they don't really use it much to inform their customers about the different produce and different food they offer in different seasons etc. 




For Natural Kitchen i think other social platforms such as linked in maybe wouldn't be particularly good for them as not many people use it, for starters they should use more popular platforms such as Facebook and twitter so they can gain more consumers and get in touch with them, and should use it as a way of engaging with their consumers and notifying them.

The brand DNA of the natural kitchen is more about being pure, organic, honest, clean, rustic feel. By engaging with their consumers through a white background on twitter to show purity through the use of photos promoting their natural products they will be able to portray their message through the use of social platforms.