Week 8, Part A Blog Post: Using Social Media for Codex Alexandria

Out of all of the social media platforms discussed in this week’s lecture, I believe that every one except Snapchat would be effective platforms for marketing Codex Alexandria software to students, parents, guardians, and even whole school districts. Instagram and Pinterest, which are similar enough to each other, could be used to display images of Codex Alexandria software products that teach everything from subtopics in mathematics, history, science, language arts, foreign languages, and much more. Since the packaging for the software will remain virtually identical for every single item, the camera focus on these items would be on capturing the labels on the software. These images would supplemented by charming or informative short descriptions telling of upcoming Codex Alexandria sales or extolling all of the academic benefits that could be reaped from learning form Codex Alexandria software. Both Instagram and Pinterest accounts for Codex Alexandria could also feature pictures of smiling students enjoying their Codex Alexandria software/computer games, which would be added to the company’s official boards after these pictures are uploaded by customers and marked by hashtags such as “#codexalexandria” so that they can be easily found by users who are also searching these boards for Codex Alexandria material.

Additionally, a new Twitter account has the ability to expand Codex Alexandria’s potential customer base far beyond the amount of attention that the company may have initially attracted. For example, Twitter can be effectively used to pass on quick notices  (“tweets”) about the newest Codex Alexandria products and when certain products on sale (such as they may be during Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Christmas sales). A Codex Alexandria Twitter account could also be utilized to reach out to Twitter users and poll them about which academic subjects that they would like Codex Alexandria to produce software for or cover more in depth. By interacting with its customers and potential customers in its way, Codex Alexandria can show that it cares about its customers’ input and meeting their needs while collecting free data that help make their investments in new software projects more profitable. Meanwhile, Twitter can also by used as a method of advertising the company’s desire to hire new historians, educators, coders, software engineers, and other potential employees, although the Codex Alexandria Twitter page would obviously have to link these particular kinds of tweets to the company’s official website or job-hunting platforms that the company might be using to hire new workers (such as through Dice. Com, Monster.com, and Indeed.com).

            Arguably, due to the hundreds of millions or even one billion people who count themselves as Facebook and YouTube users, Codex Alexandria perhaps can advertise the most wildly and attract the greatest number of old and new customers on Facebook and YouTube. Naturally, Facebook can be used by the company to answer questions about its products, poll customers about their potential interests in upcoming Codex Alexandria software/computer game subjects. An official presence on Facebook would allow Codex Alexandria the opportunity to gain new customers through alliances with other educational companies with a lot of Facebook fans. These current fans of the other educational/online test prep companies would hopefully notice the fact that Codex Alexandria has managed to befriend and follow these companies, and then Facebook users would curiously click on the link to Codex Alexandria’s page, be impressed with it, follow it, and consider buying Codex Alexandria educational software. Since YouTube is the most popular social media website of   2018, so it might additionally be possible to advertise Code Alexandria software products to young students who might not use Facebook (or even be allowed yet by their parents or guardians to be on Facebook). As Internet users, potential customers on YouTube might appreciate being introduced to Codex Alexandria software, too, because they already have experience with comfortably accessing the Internet, using information technology, and maybe even turning to technological sources of entertainment such as computer games and video games. It would a smart strategy for Codex Alexandria to expand its sales by paying YouTube to run ads before videos and also maintaining an official YouTube channel so that the company can advertise its wares.

            However, regardless of how the other major social media platforms could reap success for Codex Alexandria, a Snapchat account would probably be disadvantageous and cost the company the time and the resources that could be implemented more profitably in other endeavors. For one thing, Codex Alexandria would be spending too much money on advertising its products online to simply have its advertisements disappear after 24 hours. teenagers and other users typically use Snapchat for the purpose of sharing light-hearted and sometimes funny videos that are not designed to display ambitious attempts at advertising. In general, people use Snapchat to escape from any serious attempts to market products at them, too.  Since Codex Alexandria software is meant for long-term use, the company would want to convey the idea that products that it offers are timelessly useful and will last longer than any trendy fashion of the moment.