It’s not goodbye…

Nine weeks ago I started a blog and new nothing about blogging or where it would take me. I can honestly say that I actually really enjoyed the experience. I think the best part about the blog for me was that I could expand a lot on discussions I had during class. All of my blogs with the exception of the second one are a topic that we discussed during the week. It’s fun to actually take time to think about the answers given, read everything and really look at the big picture afterwards. Many of the topics I knew nothing about. After my own research I had a little more information but really it was the class discussion and time that I think made my blog even better! Blogging is a great avenue to take those discussions and expand on them and really made my class experience better. I think it is something I will continue even in my other classes!

 

Container Store

When looking at using emerging media today to market there is a fine line between the in-your-face approach and the subtle way to market products. It is so easy to have pop-up ads and texts and tweets and status up-dates but a company needs to be careful not to turn a consumer off! I think that part of the reason for this is that early on, many companies hadn’t grasped what the authors the WSJ article in our homework this week as “Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell,” (Parise, Guinan, & Weinberg, 2008). This turned me off from following brands as opposed to individuals.

The container store has a great approach to using social networking. While the Container Store does still pitch their products from time to time, they also have a fair number of conversational posts. These type of posts draw the customer into dialogue and relationship with the brand expanding and deepening the brand relationship.  I love the idea of going on there and not feeling like I am being bombarded with buying products. I think the container store is the perfect company to use their social networking sites to subtly sell their products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By teaching people how to organize a closet using their products would be something I am greatly interested in. Or show an example of a college dorm room before and after and teach people, not just show a picture, how to go in and make their room look like that! I think a lot of companies would be successful using social networking in this way but especially a store like the container store! In addition to all the resources the container store has on Facebook they also have a blog. The blog focuses more on who the company is and their employees. However, it still have really helpful information and ideas! Again, this is a perfect fit for a company like the container store. They have so many products that have a millions of different uses finding a great medium to showcase themselves is really important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Container Store. (2011). Facebook.com. Retrieved October 23, 2011 from http://www.facebook.com/containerstore?sk=wall&filter=2

Container Store. (2011) What We Stand For: Organization with Heart. Container Store Blog. Retrieved October 23, 2011 from http://standfor.containerstore.com/video-gallery/

Parise, S., Guinan, P.J., & Weinberg, B.D. (2008, December 15). The secrets of marketing in a web 2.0 world. The Wall Street Journal.

Privacy…

Privacy and rights have come a long way. I remember when I was in school learning about the Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 supreme court case where this very topic was discussed.  This was an incredible case and paved the way today for our privacy laws “A landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the ‘right to marital privacy’”. (Wikipedia, 2011) By that ruling it was stated that people have the right to their privacy and while that case was what goes on behind closed doors we now have the issue of keeping safe our information online. By definition the online world is open to millions and millions of people, so how do we keep our information safe? It seems to be a daily struggle that most people haven’t found the answers too. They do what they can and there are laws which are extremely important but the fact is that once it’s out there can you really control who uses that information? Is our information really private?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When looking at this topic it is impossible not to discuss Facebook. The entire purpose of Facebook is putting personal information out there for the world to see. Yes, there are privacy settings and ways you can control what information is out there. But still your picture, your hometown, your likes, where you are and what you are doing are a click away. There are several stories even of Facebook status updates being connected to home burglaries such as this story “Keri McMullen and Kurt Pendleton left a status update on Facebook Saturday night that said they wouldn’t be home because they were going to a concert in nearby Louisville at 8 p.m…. After posting images of the suspects on Facebook, McMullen realized one of them had “friended” her about six months ago. She says he grew up across the street from her and hasn’t seen him in more than 20 years.” (CBS, 2011) This is just one example of many where sharing too much with people is a bad thing. You would never walk up to someone you barely new and say hey I am going to be gone at 8:00pm tonight for a few hours and I live at this address. It’s crazy to think that we all do it every day! With things like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs we have to really start to think is who we are and what we are doing really private? It will be interesting to see how laws change to meet this new form of privacy that was once fought so hard to get.

 

References:

Griswold v. Connecticut. (2011) Griswold v. Connecticut. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut

CBS News. (March 25, 2011). Facebook “Friend” Suspected in Burglary. CBSNews.com Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/earlyshow/main6331796.shtml

 

<embed src=”http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf” scale=”noscale” salign=”lt” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” background=”#333333″ width=”425″ height=”279″ allowFullScreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” FlashVars=”si=254&&contentValue=50085374&shareUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/earlyshow/main6331796.shtml” />

Facebook

In all the integrated marketing and communication classes I have taken thus far Facebook has ALWAYS been a topic of discussion. How could it not be… right? Facebook has more than 800 million active users (Facebook, 2010) and reaches more people from a marketing perspective than the average medium and cost virtually nothing. In terms of marketing on social networking “Social media marketing is dominated by Facebook with research revealing that over 90% of all social marketing endeavors include a Facebook marketing campaign.” (Bullas, 2011) The question that has me thinking is will Facebook last a marketing tool? It appears they are doing a lot to gear Facebook to be marketing friendly, in particular with the Ads that now appear on the right hand side of Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently, according to my Ads I love shoes and cupcakes! These things are true. The point is that Facebook Ads are now personalized based on status updates and likes that you have. From a marketing perspective this is genius! Now when you are marketing Facebook is making sure your Ads reach the targeted audience. Brands are loving what Facebook can do “Facebook is considered by brands and merchants to be the “single most effective tactic in mobilizing brand advocates and influencers to spread the word about products/services.”(Megna, 2009) It will be interesting to see if as time goes on and Facebook makes yet another one of their infamous makeovers how will the marketing aspect of Facebook fair. How will it grow and change and will Facebook in general remain on this high or will something new and better come along. I guess only time will tell, for now Facebook remains King.

 

 

References:

 

Megna, Michelle. (September 17, 2009). Internetnews.com. Facebook, Twitter and Social Media Marketing. Retrieved October 17, 2011 from http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3839521/Facebook+Twitter+and+Social+Media+Marketing.htm

Bullas, Jeff. (September 29, 2011).Business 2 Community. 6 Fabulous Facebook Marketing Infographics. Retrieved on October 5, 2011 from: http://www.business2community.com/marketing/6-fabulous-facebook-marketing-infographics-064025   

Facebook. (2011) Facebook Statistics. Facebook.com. Reterieved October 17, 2011 from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Flash Mob Mania!!

One thing that we learned about this week was the power of “buzz” and a cool example of this was the buzz of a flash mob! Flash mobs are everywhere, the first place I heard of them was Oprah’s flash mob, then there was Glee’s and even on one of my favorite TV show’s Modern Family. This week on Glee there is suppose to be another flash mob, so we will have to see how it lives up to the first one!

 

What is it about people randomly breaking out into dance in a public place that makes us all so happy? To be honest I am not really sure but all I know is that I truly do love a good flash mob! Even my favorite commercial right now is AT&T’s parody on a flash mob. I think it’s really cleaver and something that makes me laugh every time I see it! The reality is though that without technology today organizing a flash mob would be a night mare. We have the luxury in today’s society to send emails, texts, and facebook messages in a blink of an eye we can gather a group of people to randomly break out in dance! It’s really cool and I think flash mobs are the perfect example of what we can do with emerging media!

References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvt3chGuU8I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm0jRQwzKtQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd8ppk0UCx8

GOP Google Debate

 

Regardless of whatever political side you fall on, there was something pretty cool about the GOP debate that was held last week. Fox new, who hosted the debate, partnered with Google to make the Republican National Debate a first of its kind. According to Fox News “The partnership between Fox News and Google for the debate enabled the viewing public for the first time to weigh in with votes on questions they want asked. All the submissions can be viewed on the YouTube.com/FoxNews website.” (Fox News) Finally, a debate where people could get the views of potential Presidential Candidates on questions they actually care about!

            This debate is a perfect example of emerging media being used, Google allowed people to submit questions via YouTube and people could go on and view all the questions that were submitted and then vote on them! It is exciting to be part of a generation that maybe will actually get to have more control over the types of people we elect. Candidates are now being challenged to be more accountable for what they stand for. People are going to have to start answering to the people, which is how the government should have been all along. It’s hard to poll people and get questions when we are calling landlines and things of that nature.

Now with text messages, Youtube, Facebook, and all the other emerging media out there people can finally ask the hard questions. You can’t say that media is asking one sided questions anymore because people now have the chance to submit the questions and then vote on which ones are being asked. It’s a really exciting time and I can’t wait to see where else we can go!

Another really cool emerging media feature Fox News did was they created a word cloud that, Fox explained “Now, here for a preview of what’s to come, let’s take a look at what’s called a word cloud. It shows the words that were used most often in all of the questions you asked about immigration. The bigger the word, the more often it was used.”  It’s cool that they analyzed what people were saying on each topic and then created a word cloud to show what was most important. While, using the word Illegeal caused an issue the fact that they created a word cloud based on the most commonly used word in that question sequence was very interesting. I think this debate was very cutting edge and it was a nice change from a more traditional debate. Again, I am excited to see what they can think of next!

 

 

 

To watch some the debate please go to the link below:

http://video.insider.foxnews.com/v/1174642073001/raw-video-bret-baier-takes-you-behind-the-scenes-at-the-fox-newsgoogle-debate/

 

References:

Fox News. (2011) Fox News-Google Debate Draws Nearly 20,000 Viewer Questions. Fox News.com. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/21/fox-newsgoogle-debate-draws-nearly-20000-viewer-questions/

Media Matt. (2011) GOP Debate Puts National Spotlight On Fox’s Use Of “Illegals” Slur. Media Matt.com. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from:  http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/201109230019

Marketing Short Films… pretty cool!

For this weeks class assignment we had to choose marketing short films to look at, I personally had never heard of a marketing short film. The one I ended up writing about was a really cool Nike Short Film that was action backed thriller which involved Kobe Bryant, and Kanye West! It was a pretty cool way for Nike to get its products out there. However, I am not sure how to market those. The way I found the short film was by Googling it and I saw it in a sports blog! Talk about using Emerging Media Markets! I think these films are  really cool and these companies should Tweet about them or post them on their facebook pages to get them more exposure! Or even show a clip as a commercial and then direct people to find out what happens next online! Even in the film they joke about how “product placement gives us a bigger budget, and a bigger budget gives us bigger explosions!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TO4yeUIPWE 

While looking for short films I also came across the BMW series which is actually 8 short films all about the BMW driving performance featuring Clive Owen. Someone else in my class wrote about them but I actually loved them! The first one I watched was with Madonna and it was really funny but also did some really cool things to show off the car! I like the films and I think they are a great marketing tool. Again, I wish companies would do a better job about getting these things out there!

Here is the Madonna one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrLYQnjzH7w

 

 

Website Design: The good, the bad, and the Google Search

 The lesson this week was a rather interesting one, website design. As someone, or rather a part of a generation of someone’s, who use the internet everyday I have never really thought about website design and my opinion of them… or have I? I suppose my opinion on website has been formulated in the past but I didn’t really realize I was weighing in an opinion before. There are some websites I love and go to all the time and others I hate because they are complicated and overall just turn me off. Being part of what I like to call the “right now” generation I like everything to be at my finger tips, and easy to use. If I have to search for more than a few minutes to find something then I have already moved on to the next thing. If I am looking for something and it’s not listed within the first two search pages on Google then I have changed topics or search words. How often do people go to the 10^th page on a Google search?

 The Good

For me personally I love when a website has everything I need in one easy to use place. When I was thinking about different websites and their design the one that kept popping into my head for the “good” is Drudge Report. Drudge Report is a wesbite run by Matt Drudge who complies all the “biggest” news stories of the day from various news outlets into one page (www.drudgereport.com). While many critics of Drudge claim the site has a conservative slant I find it to be extermely easy to use and if you go to Drudge and then watch the news at night almost all of Drudges headlines are the evenings top stories. In an article on U.SNews.com Paul Bedard exams Liberal vs. Consverative media based on Tim Groseclose book Left Turn.

And in further analysis sure to enrage critics of conservative media, Groseclose determines that Drudge, on a conservative to liberal scale of 0-100, with 50 being centrist, actually leans a bit left of center with a score of 60.4. The reason: Drudge mostly links to the sites of the mainstream media, with just a few written by Matt Drudge himself. “Since these links come from a broad mix of media outlets, and since the news in general is left-leaning, it should not be surprising that the slant quotient of the Drudge Report leans left,” he writes. (http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/06/16/book-liberal-media-distorts-news-bias)

In my opinion Matt Drudge’s website, Drudge Report is the perfect example of a well designed well laid out website. It offers everything I need in one place. Drudge goes out and does all the hard work for me. Instead of having to search multiple news sites to get all the stories around the world Drudge does it. The site is easy to use, doesn’t have multiple tabs have take you to pages you didn’t want to go to in the first place, has minimal ad’s, and overall just offers the information I am looking for.

 

(www.Drudgereport.com)

The Bad

Macy’s website is one of the most confusing and difficult to navigate. I spend a lot of time, more than I should, online shopping. Whether I go on too actually buy something or “window shop” I spend a good deal of time looking through various stores websites. I have always found the Macy’s website to be confusing.

 (www.Macys.com)

 It appears that Macy’s is trying to help its customers out by highlighting things like a sale and what’s new for fall, but in reality it just appears cluttered and overwhelming. The fact that they are displaying the sale section and breaking it out by category is great, but Macy’s is running an online sale almost every day. It would appear less cluttered if they mentioned the sale and linked you to a page where it was broke out like that. If you go on there just looking for a woman’s shirt it can take a while to even find the section. I think Macy’s should spend some time re-designing their website to be a little more simplistic and user friendly.

Pedigree Adoption Drive

I use facebook, twitter, and linked-in everyday. I remember the day my school could get facebook. I was a freshman and it was in November and I literally sat at my computer for hours on end friending everyone and trying to navigate what facebook really was. From that day on my life changed. I know that sounds very dramatic but it really did. I re-connected with old friends, looked up new friends online, I have pictures that I probably never would of saved, I have seen marriages, and births that otherwise would of never been apart of.  I think in some ways a lot of people’s lives changed after facebook and twitter. Not only lives but also the way we do business and the way we market. I mean look at the IMC program there is an entire course on social networking and how to use that to leverage marketing of new products. As I sat down tonight to write my first really blog post I started thinking about new emerging media and how I use it everyday. There is not a single day that I don’t go on facebook, or twitter, or even wikiapedia and learn something new. Whether, it’s that we had an Earthquake last week, or that Beyonce is pregnant.

When I think about emerging media and marketing I think that we see several examples everyday of how companies are trying to capitalize on this new phenomenon. For example on facebook I belong to the group Pedigree Adoption Drive. A month or so ago they were running this promotion where if you “liked” or commented on their wall they would donate a dollar to the pedigree adoption drive. It was such a simple way to get involved and it created a lot of buzz. It takes about four seconds to write a comment or press “like” on something. I know that I reposted this promotion and I had several friends do the same. Such a simple easy concept that from a marketing dollar cost no money and probably generate more buzz, helped a good cause, and most likely cost less money than running a TV ad. I see things like this all the time. This is a really interesting time to be in the marketing business it is forever changing and I am excited to be apart of it.

 

Well for my first “real” blog post ever that was exciting and I look forward to sharing more insights soon!

First Post EVER

I am completely new to blogging and pretty excited about giving it a try. I am starting this blog for my class emerging media markets and I can’t wait to see where it goes. I look forward in coming back to this post in nine weeks and seeing where I started and where I end up! I can’t wait to begin the journey and hope that this will be something I will continue to add to through my Master’s experience with West Virginia University. Here I am below with my puggle Alfie!!