Exercise 1- Anthropologie Apparel

Exercise #1

The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience using social media monitoring tools and looking at an organization's overall use of social media. Choose a for-profit company that you're at least somewhat familiar with. It could be a clothing company, car company, software company, food manufacturer, etc.  Due Sunday September 16

Use some of the tools we discussed this week (or any you discover) to find out the following:

Organization: Anthropologie

1. What are people saying about this organization online? What tools are they using to talk about the organization?

The reviews are generally positive about Anthropologie as an organization. There is a place for reviews on their website next to each product and customers are satisfied with the clothes as well as the shipping and quality. If one wanted to know about the quality of these items, there are many blogs of happy customers. Anthropologie is an expensive clothing store, so it is important to customers that they are getting quality clothes. People are using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and blogs to communicate with the organization. This is helpful because as the organization responds, more business is being generated. 

2. Is the organization responding to these people through social media? If so, how effective do you think they are?

Anthropologie is responding on some of its social networking sites. On others, they are simply adding more material each day. There are new outfits and new products coming out all the time. There is a visible response in how the product design follows what people are liking on the social networking sites as well as what they are buying online. I am not sure this is the most effective organization at communicating with their clients because the responses are not directly to the customer but to the masses. This can make the customer feel unimportant. 

3. What social media tools is the organization using to proactively communicate with their user base (rather than just responding)? How effective do you think they are in building relationships and engaging their customers online?

Anthropologie is using many of the popular social media sites to communicate with their users. They have a tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest pages. They showcase their latest products and advertise different looks. On YouTube, Anthropologie interviews their artists and designers. They give the customers a look into the different aspects of design. This gives their company a feeling of being open. Because there are not Anthropologie stores in many cities, they need to market their product online. There are many sales online and coupons are advertised through their social network sites. The customer can click on a photograph of an outfit and a page with all the pieces will come up. This gives the customer one place to create the look from. 

It seems as though Anthropologie is good at creating relationships with their customers through the social media sites. There are many followers and comments on the sites that show customers are excited about new products and ideas. 

Resources:
Product Reviews: http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/product/shopsale-freshcuts/24724130.jsp#BVRRWidgetID

Anthropologie Blog: http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/

Anthropologie.com http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/index.jsp

Tumblr http://anthropologie.tumblr.com/

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/anthropologie/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Anthropologie

You, Me and Anthropologie: http://youmeandanthropologie.blogspot.com/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAAHVNyprh0&list=PL5949E126C78077F1&index=2&feature=plcp