Assignment #3: Marvel (Brian Chan)

I'm doing an evaluation of Marvel's Facebook page. In case the reader doesn't know, Marvel is a media company responsible for comics and comic book movies such as Spiderman, Thor and X-men. They should not be mistaken with Marvell which makes semi-conductors.

After perusing Marvel's Facebook page, I have come to the conclusion that they are not doing a very effective job of social media marketing. Although the content flow is great, they frequently make posts about upcoming movies and comics, they do not engage their followers. User-generated content is mostly in the form of comments and a few cos-play (people dressing up as comic book characters). It would be wonderful if they had a Facebook app, where you can shoot some villains or rescue a damsel in distress. There is somewhat of a customer service portal where people can poll their favorite comic books characters. But only for positive stuff. There is a little participation such as an iOS app were you can learn how to draw your own superhero on a tablet. There are no premiums. It is mostly "come buy this" or "go to this Marvel themed attraction".

There are suspiciously very few negative comments on the page. Negative, but constructive criticism on a Facebook page doesn't detract from it but enhances it. These comments make the site look more genuine. Despite their efforts, a few trolls have gotten pass the screens. One person said "Howard the duck" was what they envisioned as the scariest Marvel villain. That is hilarious since Howard is a large, anthropomorphic duck, but is no way associated with Marvel.

In terms of improvement, I would recommend Marvel make their page more interactive. (This may be limited as Facebook doesn't currently have very many avenues for that). However, they could still conduct more polls and give away free stuff, or sponsor "real-life" competitions to generate excitement for upcoming movies. Their Facebook page is also very cluttered. I also dislike the old-fashioned drawn comics. They
should focus on posting content from their product lines that are generating the most revenue. For example, the characters from the actual movies.  They should also stop posting Disney-related stuff of the page, because although Disney now owns Marvel, they cater to very different audiences.

I looked at a couple other Marvel Facebook-related pages and it feels like their strategy on Facebook is divided. It seems as if they're not sure where to concentrate their money. A more united approach may be to their benefit. For instance, I would design the Marvel Facebook page as a portal to their franchises and develop the franchise pages as "hooks" with lots of interactions and some carefully dispersed premiums.