As I mentioned in the last post, the MBA students in my Internet Marketing class this semester completed a social media project. In the project, they observed the social media efforts of two competing companies over the course of three consecutive weeks. It is not possible to repeat all the 20-page reports in a blog post, but I thought it may be fun for you to see which company within each pair was considered to be better. By better, I don’t mean what the companies have but instead what the companies do. In other words, we don’t use the sheer number of followers, fans, etc. as the judging criterion, as that can be easily skewed by the company’s existing market position. Instead, better is defined in the sense that the winning company is doing a better job interacting with and engaging consumers through these social media channels. In most cases, the social media channels observed were three of the following: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and company blog.
Before getting to the results, I’d like to thank the 21 students who put their hard work into the project and made this information possible. You guys/gals rock!
Now are you ready to see who won the showdown? Here you go!
| Industry | Opponent 1 | Opponent 2 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airline | Delta | Aeroflot | Delta (barely) |
| Automobile | Audi | Lexus | Audi |
| Automobile | Honda | Toyota | Toyota |
| Camera | Cannon | Nikon | Canon |
| Entertainment | Tiesto | David Guetta | Tiesto |
| Entertainment | The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) | Bellator Fighting Championship | UFC |
| Financial | TradeKing | E*Trade | E*Trade Baby |
| Food & Beverages | Pizza Hut | Domino's | Domino's |
| Food & Beverages | Panera Bread | Schlotzsky_s | Panera Bread |
| Food & Beverages | Red Bull | Monster Energy | Red Bull |
| Food & Beverages | Starbucks | Green Mountain Coffee | Tie |
| Health | WeightWatchers | Jenny Craig | WeightWatchers |
| IT | Microsoft | ||
| IT | NVidia | AMD | NVidia |
| Media | Martha Steward Wedding | The Knot | Tie |
| Non-Profit | Saddleback Church | Fellowship Church | Saddleback Church |
| Online Service | Match.com | eHarmony | eHarmony |
| Online Service | Living Social | Groupon | Groupon |
| Sports | Billabong | Oneill's | Tie |
| Sports | Nike | Under Armour | Nike, though both are doing a good job |
| Sports | NFL | MLB | Tie |
Do you agree with the students’ observations? Please tell us what you think!