A long time ago…in a time far far away…there was no social media. There were no trends on Twitter. There were no Facebook “friends”. It was a simpler time.
It’s hard to find a company today that doesn’t have a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blog, etc. social media has supplied many companies with virtual gateways to their customers and fans, but the question is: When is Social Media too much?
Lucasfilm Ltd is a company that takes advantage of several social media platforms, but they use it minimally. First of all they do not advertise any social media involvement on their website. The user must go on a mission to find them. While Lucasfilm has info Facebook pages (only supplies information on the company – it does not have a wall or any fan interaction), it uses Twitter and Facebook mostly for people looking to “Join The Force” at Lucasfilm.
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| Spanish George Lucas? WHAT?! |
Even though Lucasfilm Ltd. does not have a Twitter (this also includes George Lucas – this and this are fake), many of the divisions of Lucasfilm have a social presence. Industrial Light & Magic and Lucas Arts Games can both be found on Twitter and Facebook. Industrial Light & Magic uses these social media platforms to reach out to fans and other stakeholders to provide updates on their productions, while also gaining feedback on their web content.
The problem with web content, which is “the most important thing on the Web and the least cared for,” is that it doesn’t always represent companies in a professional manner. Authors and content strategy gurus Kristina Halvorson and Steven Rosenbaum discuss the importance of this topic in great detail. Halvorson expresses that “web content needs to meet users needs & support key business objectives,” (pg. 15). She claims that since there tends to be no ownership of a majority of the content on the web, it is easy to have any project/website turn into the “wild west of content development.”
This “wild west” is attributed to many companies relying on users to produce content for their websites. The issue with relying on users, as said by Steven Rosenbaum, is “content isn’t the stuff you use to fill up your wonderfully designed website. It’s the voice, the message, the meaning that your customers come to engage in,” (pg. 200).
Which division of Lucasfilm is the Jedi master of controlling their content? STAR WARS. The website for STARWARS uses many different aspects of social media to expand their message while interacting with their fans. The homepage of starwars.com has several categories to engage the user: Explore, Play, Watch, Connect, Shop, and Search. Under the “Connect” tab the user can find the STAR WARS Blog, Around The Web, and Fan Sites. This is where Lucasfilm and STAR WARS take advantage of content created by users. Through Flickr pictures streams, users can send in their photos of STAR WARS related topics (like costumes) and the website with create albums to share with everyone. They also have a blog that discusses the latest happening of the STAR WARS franchise and even features a feed of the latest tweets from the STAR WARS twitter account and a link to their STAR WARS YouTube page. Through featuring fan sites, they no only include fan content in the STAR WARS website, but also show their fans that they can be involved in what they publish.
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You know, being a huge Star Wars fan, I'm interested to see that social networking and blogging for Lucasfilms is only kept to Starwars, especially with Lucasfilms creating later works like Indiana Jones 4. I have to do a bit more digging about that.
ReplyDeleteGood read! Now back to looking for those droids...
This is really interesting Lacey!
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