Exercise 1

For this exercise, I decided to look at JCPenney.  I not only shop at this store, but had noticed some recent comments made about it on social network sites and in the news with the announcement of Ellen DeGeneres being the new spokesperson.  Through my research, I was able to find that JCPenney uses several different branding tools or appears on several different online tools.

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

            It appears that the majority of people online are saying positive things about JCPenney.  The few negative comments that I encountered were addressed by telling the customer that they could email their concerns to JCPenney.  Each of these responses was polite and did not attack the customer for their opinion.  The tools that people are using are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Polyvore, Kaboodle, Chictopia, and personal blogs.  On Twitter, customers were talking about the recent announcement of Ellen DeGeneres and how they could not be more proud of JCPenney taking that step.  Some of these tools were new to me, but customers are using them to share their thoughts about JCPenney.

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

            Yes, on some social media sites they are responding to the people.  I think that it is effective because they are not attacking the views of their customers.  Instead they are asking their customers to send them an email with their concerns or views of JCPenney; this was especially true on Twitter.  I feel that this is more effective because it makes the customer feel that they are valuable. 

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?     

            JCPenney is found on several social media sites.  The list was quiet surprising to me because they are only a retail store instead of a celebrity or really major company.  One can find JCPenney using the following social media sites to advertise their brand: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Polyvore, Kaboodle, and Chictopia.  Each of these tools is different, but JCPenney is using each of them to their advantage.  On many of these sites, JCPenney posted about their hot new items or their new way of pricing.  Several people commented on some of these new ideas either through encouragement from the store or freely.  For example, on Facebook people were asked questions about what they thought about new items at the store and the new way of pricing.  Each of the sites that I visited had a nice following of people meaning that JCPenney is doing something right about building online relationships with its customers.  I believe that JCPenney is on the right track of holding onto longtime customers and gaining new customers through its online social media venture.  JCPenney should keep up this way of advertisement.