Social Media Madness!

Hello again world! Welcome back to my blog of awesome!

In this episode, we explore the roots that my chosen company (The Walt Disney Company©) has grown in and around the concept that we normal folk like to call “social media”. It is an ingenious concept, and it is one that has recently – in the past ten years or so – taken the world by storm!

I would explain the idea behind social media, but if you’re here reading this, then you’re already using at least one form of it! But what exactly does Disney use in their day-to-day life to reach today’s groups of highly specialized and classified people? Let’s start with the roots, like I mentioned.

https://www.facebook.com/Disney - Disney's Facebook Page

Disney. The heart and soul of many for generations. The birth of modern animation for many more. Who else would utilize a Facebook page more than this grandfathered company? Granted, nowadays the Facebook page is aimed more towards the teen to young adult crowd, but it still pays homage to its child-friendly reputation with quotes and images from the movies that everyone has grown to love.

Facebook is one of the most effective ways for this company to advertise to its large population of clients, as it is one of the most used and recognizable forms of social media on the internet. By taking a quick glance at their page, we can see that over 50 million people already “like” it, which means that with every post, image, and share, over 50 million people are seeing Disney’s words every single day. This means contests, promotions of new movies and TV shows, and important events going on around the world are viewed by their target audience in mere seconds. Quite an impressive feat for most, but Disney shrugs it off and keeps on trucking.

https://twitter.com/disney - Disney’s Twitter Feed

Ah Twitter. Not very well-received or understood as a social media platform. It’s like Facebook! Except if you could only post status updates under a certain limit! Exactly the same right? I kid, let us continue. Once more, we see that there is a large following for Disney’s Twitter feed as well, even if it’s not nearly as large as Facebook. And from taking a peek, we can see that their Twitter feed is very similar to their Facebook page in terms of content. Twitter focuses on the late teen and young adult crowd, while also giving followers a chance to retweet and share posts and updates, and they can even go so far as to find a specific actor from a movie to check out. I’ll admit that I am a sucker for finding my favourite actors on Twitter and following them, so it is logical for Disney to tag them in their updates as well.

While I can understand the need for using Twitter, I can also see that it’s not very necessary. Twitter is only reaching about 4 million people, and their posts link to other pages. But it is certainly helpful in getting their posts spread about.

https://www.youtube.com/user/disneysshows - Disney's YouTube Channel

YouTube! Seems like a fitting place for an animation company to have a strong foothold in! And yet, we can see just a mere 1.2 million subscribers. What am I talking about? I have like seven! Anyway, moving on. It’s easily seen that the YouTube page really doesn’t seem to connect with the other two social media platforms we’ve seen so far, as it focuses on the songs from classic movies, actors and singers from the Disney Channel, and it also shares glimpses into the lives of Disney Broadway stars.

Here's a link to the cast of The Lion King on Broadway singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j92B4rCiPCg 

Utilizing YouTube is a smart move, especially with all the copyrights that come into play these days online. Disney can upload clips and songs from their movies for users to view and listen to, and can then share with their friends without having to deal with ads and bad quality downloaded versions.

http://instagram.com/disney - Disney’s Instagram page

And finally we come to the ever-lovable Instagram. I feel that Facebook is the merger of Instagram and Twitter, because Facebook you can post everything, while Twitter is just status updates, and Instagram is just the pictures. Disney has chosen a proper victor in the battlefield of social media with this one, as so many people are now using Instagram tags in every picture they post, and especially about Disney. I myself am guilty of this.

The amount of followers on Instagram rivals that of the company’s YouTube page, which means that for every #Disney tag that leads back to the Instagram page, 1.2 million people are quite possibly seeing it. And that’s a large scope of people. Even more could just be looking at the posts and not following the page, which could be said for all of the above platforms.

http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/ - Disney's own Blog!

And here we come at last to the be all that ends all: Disney's own Blog. This blog is so cute, I am constantly taking their quizzes and such of that nature. I am determined to figure out which Disney princess is my inner spirit animal! (Ahem)

The "Oh My Disney" blog is so eye-catching that it really keeps you on the pages, and it still remains fun and enjoyable. The funky titles and segmentation categories really make it an entertaining website. And it still follows the "kid-friendly" atmosphere.

Why is this relevant? I am a blogger you silly creature! And as such, it is highly relevant! It also really does the trick at keeping you on the pages, and the blog posts are engaging to the different age groups that may venture onto the site. 

And on that note, I am finished with today's episode of Marketing! A Tourism Management Project!

Tune in next week for the all-new exciting episode!

All images were found on the homepages of each respective website. Original posters credit. Video found on YouTube under the Disney Playlist Sessions of the Disney YouTube channel.

New Year, New Program, New Project

Hello world!

If you've seen any of my previous blogs, I was studying Interactive & Motion Graphics at Nova Scotia Community College in Truro, NS. I'm now working towards the end of my second year of taking Tourism Management and we're in charge of doing a Marketing Research project.

For this blog I'm going to be showcasing my findings and studies on a specific travel company or destination. And the company I'm planning to study is the Walt Disney Company©.

Let's begin with a brief history of this company, shall we? J The following information was found on www.thewaltdisneycompany.com on the Disney History page.

The company began all the way back in the early 1920's, when Walt signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies, and this was perceived to be the very beginning of the company known as the Disney Brothers Company. Walt's first original character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit had his first cartoon created in 1927. This character predated Mickey Mouse© by a little over an entire year, when Mickey was introduced in Steamboat Willie in 1928.

Throughout the 1930's, Walt created comic strips and the first full-colour animated cartoons involving his beloved mouse. The first full-length animated feature created by the Disney Brothers company was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937. After the success of Snow White, the Disney Studio moved from Los Angeles to Burbank, California.

Disney’s stock was first issued in 1940, and the company was now known as Walt Disney Productions. This decade saw a lot of new beginnings for the company, and since there is just so much to go through we’re going to skip a lot of the menial trivia.

The first Disney park, Disneyland, was opened in 1955, in Anaheim, California. It was open to an invited audience, and the first guests were a girl and a boy at the ages of five and seven!

Only 46 years after his humble beginnings, Walt Disney passed away at the age of 65 on December 15, 1966. It’s hard to imagine that this man started one of the greatest foundations in the world today, and he himself passed away almost 50 years ago! The rest, as we know it, is history. Following the legacy of Walt, the Walt Disney Company continues to this day to produce family-oriented films and keeps the magic alive, and the impossible possible.

There is so much more I can say, but we will discuss the company more in my other blog posts as this project goes on J

Another aspect of this project is to discuss the uses of social media and studying blogs related to Tourism and Marketing. For this part, I will be taking a deep look at three different blogs that I feel are great examples of Tourism or Marketing blogs.

The first blog I have decided to use as an example of a Tourism blog is “19 Days in Japan” (http://19daysinjapan.com/ ). This is a very interesting blog as it follows the bloggers accounts of a nearly month-long trip to the country of Japan. This is a dream destination for myself, so I am excited to use it as a reference with my own blogging. One of the reasons why it is a great example of a Tourism blog, is because at the bottom of the home page they give tips for travelers, which is extremely helpful!

The second blog I am going to use as an example and a reference is the “Lonely Planet” blog (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/blog/ ). This blog goes more all over the world for travel, instead of just traveling in one country, like the previous blog, and gives you very specific ideas of what to find in each destination, such as food and culture.

And the final blog I will be referencing is the “IKEBUKURO: Yet Another Dream Destination for Anime and Manga Enthusiasts” blog (https://triplelights.com/blog/ikebukuro-yet-anor-dream--378 ). As far as this blog goes, it focuses more on just the anime and geek culture of Japan, and discusses the places you can find the stores for merchandise and other items. This has a big impact on me and my life, and is why I chose it as a reference blog.

So there you have it! The beginning of my project! I hope you will keep checking back!