Ch. 18 -Social Media and Marketing

The subject of going "viral" in social media is aptly named, as topics of conversation are passed one from one person to countless others via tweets, posts, and blogs just like a virus traveling through a sneeze, a cut or by eating something someone else didn't like enough to finish. 

It is not surprise then, that any company with hopes for growth and recognition infects society with itself. And although sometimes this is unintentional or unwarranted (people to tend to talk about things all on their own sometimes), many companies use this system to monitor and influence
public opinion of their products or brand. 

In addition to utilizing # (hash-tag) functionality to find common subject posts and tweets to get a feel for what people think in the big broad world, Tesla uses giant media and social hubs such as Facebook and Twitter to seed conversation topics in the form of general information or event publication in the social discussion pool. 

One form of monitoring is direct public positive feedback in the form of "likes". The story of a Tennessee Tesla owner for example, whose car had struck object on the highway then instructed the driver to pull over safely before it shut itself down (eventually catching fire once the driver was safely out side), received close so 6,000 likes on Facebook as of now, showing great appreciation for the cars consideration of user safety. 

Beyond likes on the company Facebook page, tweets and comments on the company Twitter account, I myself, in this very blog, exhibit a form of unprompted positive social media presence supporting the brand and the product with my opinions. Although it is highly likely that hardly anyone reads my posts, I am but one of many, and some blogs become so popular they become a business in and of themselves. Despite being able to contribute some positive information into the pool of social media, it is very much a beast with no master, that reacts more to a company's' actions than it does to it's words.