Coca-Cola takes to Social Media

While perusing on my favorite and most frequented social media site, Facebook, I stumbled upon the Coca-Cola fan page on the Facebook server. Sporting the red curvaceous silhouettes of the classic Coke bottles, the fan site offers many contests and interactive applications for Facebookers to explore, including "spin the bottle" apps for Apple's iPhone and fan submitted photos and videos. Interactive games sprinkle the page with the intention of keeping visitors on the site; however what is most interesting about the fan page Coca-Cola has on Facebook is the banner it displays on the bottom...

This banner promotes environmental challenges that the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has to face, and effectively, Coca-Cola answers each one with a simple click on the respective problem a consumer wishes to learn more about. If this does not answer a customer's question or concern, Coca-Cola has added a link for questions, which is directed to the company's official company website. There is also a link to view a complete list of products Coca-Cola has to offer the world which informs and educates the consumer. This also increases product recognition for the consumer.

Lastly, Coca-Cola supplies a link to an unofficial news feed, which is very similar to a Twitter, that is filled with random facts, Coca-Cola event reminders, and trivia. This can be found under the link "Refreshing Feeds."

With over 3,709,195 fans on Facebook, Coca-Cola encourages you too to join the Coke-Fan base, write on the company's wall, upload fan videos and pictures, and learn about the company. Coca-Cola has definitely used this social media site to its capacity thus far, and this is evident by the 3,709,195 fans it has on the company's technological bandwagon. The only critique I have is if this fan site on Facebook is static, or is the layout and features constantly changing ensure a unique experience each time a fan logs on. If this page stays the same over an extended period of time, it may become dated and unattractive to fans/potential fans. The main purpose of a "fan site" is to hype up a product and news about a product. If the site stays the same it becomes dull and does not make people enthused.

Check out this funny video created by the Coca-cola Facebook fanpage creators!

Edit 10/3/2009: The Coca-Cola fanpage on Facebook is in fact a dynamic site offering recent company news and new promotions. The site remains interactive and is visually appealing. I have logged onto this site multiple times and have spent more than 5 minutes each time clicking around the page, reading and participating in several of the promotions out of interest and curiosity.

Coca-Cola has also established itself on Youtube , offering over 70 uploaded videos and commericals from around the world promoting the Coca-Cola company and its various products. However; I was a bit suprised to see that the Coca-Cola channel on Youtube only had 193 subscribers. Coca Cola's youtube channel was also difficult to find. I searched "Coca Cola" in the Youtube search box, yet the official Youtube Channel did not come up first. Instead I found user submitted videos ranging from people's video blogs to user submitted Super Bowl commericials. I didn't find the official channel until I manually entered the URL www.youtube.com/cocacola. In my opinion, the Coca-Cola youtube page could be publicized a bit more. Youtube is a great forum for the Company to get messages and videos out to the public, but in my opinion, this medium is being neglected by Coca-Cola. For example, Coca-Cola is a HUGE WELL-KNOWN company, yet its featured video has only 338 views and was uploaded to YouTube over 2 months ago. To put this in perspective, I uploaded a personal video of myself singing mediocre cover songs and I have over 33,000 views, and compared to Coca-Cola, I am a nobody. Youtube is a medium that should be stressed more for Coke's public relations effort considering it is free to use and attracts roughly 1.2 billion people a day! C'mon Coke!


Coca-Cola's Youtube airs videos from around the world.

Corperate Public Relations & Coca-Cola: An Introduction

This blog is an analysis of the corporate public relations initiatives of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. The analysis is intended to explore both the effective and ineffective corporate campaigns the Coca-Cola Company has explored, experimented with and executed; while analyzing the effects these various campaigns have had on the company, employees, consumers, and environment.

The Coca-Cola company's complete mission statement can be viewed HERE. Quite simply, the mission statement is:
"To refresh the world...To inspire moments of optimism and happiness... and to create value and make a difference." (taken from the Official Coca-Cola site)

This mission clearly described a company that is dedicated to the well-being of its consumers, employees, and environment. This mission statement seems to holds Coca-Cola to a very high standard, yet seems vague when it is first read. After reading Coca-Cola's mission statement, I was intrigue as to what makes a good/effective mission statement. I found my answer here. A mission statement translates a company's goals to the world and how it wants to make a difference. A unique feature of the Coca-Cola website is that it breaks down the mission statement and describes each part very descriptively and even gives examples of the initiatives the company takes to ensure the mission statement is fulfilled. The breakdown of the company's mission, goals and vision are found in easy bullet form here. This format to describe the company's vision makes it easy to inform and educate the public about the direction in which the company does and directs its business and defines its involvement in the environment (meaning the national/international community as well as the actual natural environment).

This blog will evaluate Coca-Cola's public relations efforts and compare that to interpretations of the company's mission statement.

One interesting thing about Coca-Cola's mission statement is that it emphasizes looking towards the future in order to foresee changes in trends, styles, and needs of the consumers. This is called Coca-Cola's "20/20 Vision." As a public relations practitioner it is imperative to look to the future and predict changes a company must make to adapt to a changing world. If changes were not observed and PR research was not done to develop changes in PR campaigns, a company's outreach to consumers, employees, environment would become ineffective or not to its potential. This is why the stress Coca-cola puts on its "20/20 Vision" is a essential component to its PR effort.

Concerns that the public relations department of the Coca-Cola Company may face can be separated into two categories: the environment and human health concerns relating to the consumption of the product. In order to counter these problems and stay committed to the Company's mission statement, Coca-Cola must execute effective public relations campaigns addressing problems that face the company. This not only minimizes negative attitudes towards the company based on environmental and health concerns, but also boosts the company's reputation because the company is taking initiative to address the negative aspects and problems the company may produce.

As a merchandiser for Coca-Cola for the past two summers, I have become intrigued by the Coca-Cola bottling company's effort to strive for quality control, product recognition, and consumor relations which is why I chose to evaluate Coca-Cola's public relations effort.

As arguably the number one trademark in the entire world, Coca-Cola's beverages and products are spread throughout every continent in an effort to "refresh the world." The Coca-Cola Company's international business example is very attractive to a student such as myself considering I am a public relations and Spanish double-major with an aspiration to contribute to the global economy and to apply my career skills to the international forum.