LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Fall 2010)

I chose the clothing retailer Ann Taylor and their sister company LOFT because I often shop at their stores with my mom for casual, yet stylish clothes in petite sizes. I just visited their stores this Labor Day weekend. In researching how the Ann Taylor and LOFT brands are perceived online and how the company uses social media, I used these tools: Google Alerts, Google Blog Search, BlogPulse, Technorati, and Twitter Search.

I chose to review the Social Media usage of Netflix. Netflix, Inc. is a for-profit company. It is the world’s largest subscription service for streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet and sending DVDs by mail. I think Netflix is such an interesting company as it’s business model was enabled by the Internet, and in essence it is a virtual company, and if not a Web 2.0 company, at least it is a lasting result of the dot-com boom area. While the company has a physical presence in form of distributions centers and headquarters, the company’s customers “shop” and interact online.

To evaluate the online reputation and social media presence of Eddie Bauer, the clothing store, I conducted searches using the following social monitoring tools:   Social Mention, Yelp, Google Blog Search, Blogpulse, TweetScan, and HowSocialable?.

I chose to cyberstalk Borders this week, as I worked there for 2 years as a supervisor before entering the SLIS program. 

I was at an Oakland A's game earlier this week and thought they would be fun to evaluate for this exercise.  If you go to their official website, they actually have a page called Social Media Clubhouse (it's not super easy to find on the front page, you need to click the "Fans" tab for the link to appear).  This page consolidates many of th

Boundary Bay Brewery is a brewery and restaurant in my home town, Bellingham, Washington. They brew and serve a tasty assortment of brews – many with remarkably high alcohol content, and serve mainly traditional pub food with a local twist. An example is the “Great Northwest Pizza” that includes salmon in its toppings.

Most people are probably familiar with Lands’ End (LE), the clothing company that’s been around for decades. I’ve bought lots of clothing from them over the years and was interested in finding about how they appeared online. On Google Search the company’s main consumer site is at the top of the list, which tells me that they’re savvy about using search to their advantage.

Weight Watchers International uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace to interact with the public and entice future members.  I used the following social media tools to gather my information:

SOCIAL MENTION
YELP
GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH
KEOTAG
BLOGPULSE
TWEETSCAN
BACKTYPE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
MYSPACE
YOUTUBE

Social Mention presence

Since my other classmates already covered two of my favorite companies (Tracy picked Nordstrom and Hayley picked Target), I had to think about other companies whose products and services I really like. Then it occurred to me that I have always had this obsession with Ford Mustangs, even though I have yet to own one myself (I did help my son get a 2007 Mustang and he now shares my passion for this car!). I went to the Ford Motor Company web site, and of course, it is designed to entice consumers to buy their cars, with plenty of colorful pictures of their newest models.

Target has firmly established itself as a well-loved retail brand. Many of the results from Yelp start with “I love Target!!” and go on to list what people love: the prices, the selection, convenience. To its many devotees, Target (or Tar-jay) has transcended being a discount retailer through a smart brand positioning that has focused on high profile and edgy designers, making Target a really cool place to shop.