Week 2 ::Four Ways Brands Can Use Social Media in New Product Launches::

By:  Normah binti Hassan  2009459324 

As we all know, using social media are now becoming a trend in promoting a new product.  Many organizations are using this medium to compliment their traditional marketing and PR activities. According to the writer, George Guildford; Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, enabling them to interact with customers and introduce product and campaign concepts in a way previously unavailable. There are four reasons why more brands are now using social media as a part of their marketing and PR strategies for new product launches.   

1. Create early ‘buzz’ around the product –connecting with potential consumer through social media is a fast way to increase the brand name and develop word-of-mouth. Besides, if companies are able to get public talking about their new product and campaign in their own social media profiles via “likes” and shared posts, it can increase in consumer awareness. Facebook is one of perfect place to promote new brands and create awareness about new product by posting teasers, promo videos and even apps. 
2.  Utilizes customer and fan feedback –in launching of new products, it is important for brands to pay attention to their customers respond as much as possible, as example, by receiving the feedback from customer about their perception of a campaign or product helps them to change their strategies and approach accordingly. Furthermore, social media help the brands to test new ideas, engaging companies to be innovative in their approach and adapt new idea that posted in feedback from their consumer in order to develop and focus upon the ideas that work. 
3. Enhance and extend traditional marketing and PR activities – through social media, brands can also tie in their marketing and PR strategies with mobile marketing, SMS and exclusive content accessible on smart phones. The good example of new product launches by using the social media are launched by Sony Ericsson Company. They use facebook as their channel to engage with their potential customer which is youngster. The launch of their latest smart phone, Xperia comes with many contest, mystery post and promotional videos. Sony Ericsson was able to utilize its social media channels to raise awareness about its new product.
4. Competitions and rewards –companies are able to reward those fans and followers that are sharing, liking, posting, re-tweeting and generally talking about their new products. Besides, introducing new product launches with Facebook and Twitter competitions, the company can reward their customers with special offers, exclusive discounts, additional content, and even free products. 

As the conclusion, it is important that the focus remains on ‘utilising’ social media as part of a wider strategy, rather than ‘relying’ on social media to launch the product. Even though we can see lots of unique campaign through Social media that may give more impact in promoting their product, we should not depends on one channel and forget about traditional marketing and other PR activities. Based on the article, the most success is often seen by those brands that are able to effectively integrate their social media, marketing and PR efforts into a focused, innovative and overarching narrative - creating engagement, interaction and consumer ‘buzz’ across multiple platforms as a result.

http://socialmediatoday.com/george-guildford/268906/four-ways-brands-can-utilise-social-media-maximise-launch-new-products