Posts Tagged: twitter

My mental tug-of-war over The Agenda-Setting Theory was materialized in class this week. Glad to know it’s still very unclear which came first… the viewer or the agenda.

What was especially interesting is the prospect that this question may be irrelevant in the future. An avid “tweeter” myself, I can definitely see how news is becoming more interactive and less “agenda set”. Though there is still a “big brother” aspect to trending topics on Twitter in that they are not usually user-generated through popular hash tagged phrases, the new medium definitely presents new opportunities to fight agenda-setting.

As we discussed, different media outlets have particular reasoning for selecting certain stories, framing them a certain way and priming their audiences. Though our conversation revolved around the negative aspects of this cycle, I found myself plucking at the positive. As I stated, the media is a business, and as such, each outlet works hard to get to know their target audience and to please them. Psychological studies point to the fact that people generally like to confirm what they already know or think as opposed to being proven wrong. That being said, the subtle or grand differences between media outlets factor into their “brand” and the particular aspects that please their audience. I generally gravitate toward CNN over FOX news because of the political bias on both sides. Though an agenda is in place, part of that agenda is pleasing the viewer. With a burgeoning media market, it’s important that outlets distinguish themselves to help us make decisions about where we go for news.

Just briefly, I always find comedy in discussions about “propaganda” as it has become such a central part of the way we communicate daily and yet still, has such a “terrifying” connotation. Abiding by the loosest definition, virtually every conversation I engage in includes some type of propaganda.

For my research paper, I am very interested in the location-based services and how they can be applied specifically to marketing and advertising. The ability to directly target potential customers in a certain area is obviously a very appealing aspect for many companies and with increasingly advanced mobile phones, there are many more ways to leverage this technology.

Foursquare, of course, is the “hot” application right now. It has already garnered over 3 million users and has companies, like Starbucks and American Eagle, utilizing it to offer promotions to those who “check-in” with the software.

However, Facebook and Twitter are getting into the game as well and this opens up even more possibilities. Facebook’s Places application has only been rolled out recently but I see the potential power of having a pre-built network of Facebook friends that you can find, and offer suggestions to, in your area. It also encourages business owners to establish “places” in which they can advertise directly to users in the area, especially those who have previously “Liked” their businesses.

My motivation for studying such a topic would be that the idea of location-based marketing not only personally interests me also is being heralded as a game changer in, not only marketing world, but to social theory as whole. Steve Hall, creator and editor of industry blog Adrants was quoted as saying,

“With the ability to target people only when they are within purchasing distance, brands will be able to come that much closer to targeting nirvana. Offers can be made only to those meeting certain location (and even demographic) requirements, reducing waste and actually saving a brand a lot of money by minimizing its old school spray-and-pray mass marketing techniques. In a nutshell, mobile will, once and for all, make it possible for a marketer to target without waste.”

I plan on pursuing a career in advertising and this technology will clearly be a critical part of the job that I want to be familiar with.

As it develops and spreads, this technology will reshape many current social theories and even open up a whole new set of potentially controversial issues such as the idea of having businesses and peers being able to literally “track” us and know our location anytime that we carry our mobile phones. With social networks, our lives have clearly become much more public but would this people-tracking technology and direct marketing finally cross the line?

My methods for studying this topic will be to first research the location-tracking system itself. I want to learn much more how it works and how it has been used in the past. I also want to look more into which applications (Foursquare, Facebook, etc.) are utilizing the technology and what they are planning for the future. I want to conduct some in-depth case studies on certain companies, such as Starbucks, that are leveraging the location-tracking apps for marketing purposes and evaluate their success. I also want to try to predict how it will be used for future marketing endeavors and how people will react as it continues to spread.

Hopefully, in the spring I can use my research to develop a location-based marketing campaign for a client as a part of my Capstone project.

As you can see, this topic would be fascinating to learn more about because of the immense impact it has on the sociological and marketing worlds.

1)  Since social scientists haven’t figured out how to adequately measure human behavior, how do companies like Twitter and facebook–who rely so heavily on behavior–even begin to brainstorm methods to advance their products?

2) Does quantitative research via surveys only reach a certain demographic? Unless there’s honorarium involved, I’d think there’s only a handful of personality types that actually participate in surveys (these are the same people who collect your newspapers for you when you go out of town).

3) Some industries value quantitative research over qualitative research any day of the week, and vice-versa. How are we as researchers supposed to know what our audience will hold in higher regard…qualitative or quantitative research?