There is a huge market that marketers will have a hard time getting into but if they could it would be a tremendous success. Online gaming has grown to become one of the largest online activities out there. I;m not talking about going to a website and playing an advergame, I'm talking about gamers playing on separate platforms such as PS3, xbox, and WII. These platforms have taken online gaming to new heights and there are millions of players each day that are waiting to be advertised to.
I play call of duty quite a bit with my roommates and the game will tell you how many people are playing at that exact time around the world. generally it is between 4 and five HUNDRED THOUSAND. The craziest thing about it is that that is only one game at one particular moment. Between each game there is usually about a 2 minute wait before the next game, seems like a perfect time for a mountain dew commercial. Maybe there are restrictions or maybe they just have not thought about it yet but the opportunities are out there if anyone wants to grab them.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Social Media Marketing Ethics
I recently had a friend complain to me about how he thought that it was bs that a company would look at his facebook to help them out in the hiring process. Some people feel that this is morally unethical and businesses are crossing the privacy fence. I mean that is suppose to be your private life right not your work life? If you think like this than you have missed a class somewhere in your collegiate career.
The reason that businesses look at your facebook is because when they hire you on to be employed by their organization you are not just representing them form 8 to 5. You are representing them every second that you are awake in some way, shape, or fashion. Facebook is not private anymore, when you sign up your becoming public and letting everyone who wants to see what you are doing. Sure an employer can only see what you have available to the public but at times that can still be incriminating. so take all the beer pics off and settle for having a boring facebook account. Go back to Polaroids if you want to put those drunk pictures on a wall and look presentable to other people.
The reason that businesses look at your facebook is because when they hire you on to be employed by their organization you are not just representing them form 8 to 5. You are representing them every second that you are awake in some way, shape, or fashion. Facebook is not private anymore, when you sign up your becoming public and letting everyone who wants to see what you are doing. Sure an employer can only see what you have available to the public but at times that can still be incriminating. so take all the beer pics off and settle for having a boring facebook account. Go back to Polaroids if you want to put those drunk pictures on a wall and look presentable to other people.
Product placement
As everyone know viewers will do anything to try and skip over or ignore an advertisement especially if its getting in the way of their show, movie, or video. so what can marketers do to make sure that their product is seen in a positive manner over social media settings. This is not a new tactic but i think it would work, maybe marketers should look into using more product placement. I know that a lot of people have certain channels on youtube they follow or have a certain vlog they follow so why not but your product in their hand. Heck throw a Pepsi poster behind that annoying Fred kid on youtube and see if that helps. You may not think your getting the most direct exposure but subconsciously you may be. if the seven year old kid watching Fred sees that he like Dr. pepper then I'm sure that's what he will want to drink next time.
Viewers go through leeps and bounds to skip over advertisements or at least I know I will. I will seriously switch to 5 different TV channels during a commercial break until i find one that is not on a commercial break. By the time I finally find my commercial free station its only 10 more seconds until my original program will be back. The same goes for social media sites, you have to find a way to get more and better exposer because the majority of viewers are blocking you out.
Viewers go through leeps and bounds to skip over advertisements or at least I know I will. I will seriously switch to 5 different TV channels during a commercial break until i find one that is not on a commercial break. By the time I finally find my commercial free station its only 10 more seconds until my original program will be back. The same goes for social media sites, you have to find a way to get more and better exposer because the majority of viewers are blocking you out.
Look sharp online
I just recently started getting some activity with my linked in account and before three months ago i had no care in the world about linked in. But from what i have seen here recently more and more organization are using as a tool to look for and distinguish potential employees. I had heard professors talk about and explain how we needed to polish up our accounts but i never new how efficient they can actually be. Is this the next big business world boom or bust? It seems to like this is a much more convenient and cost efficient tool to use than the ways of old. how much money could one organization save by taking a few hours to find potential employees than searching high and low from competitors or other fields to try and find someone else. I know this is frowned upon by some but how much easier would it be to contact a competitors star guy/girl privately through linked in than to call them all the time and try and set up appointments. Now i don't see linked in going much further than it already has because i cant think of how much farther it can go but who knows, I'm sure ill use it one day as a hiring tool for my business.
Youtube and social media marketing
Youtube use to be the magical viral website where you didn't have to worry about any darn advertisements getting in your way, not anymore. Youtube grew so fast and so quickly that i do not think marketers had the chance to really understand what was going on. it didnt take long though for the business world to understand what was actually there. For the most part I don't really care, i mean so what if my music video that i am trying to watch has a thirty second skittles commercial in front of it and i feel the majority of youtube viewers feel the same way.
My question is are viewers actually paying attention to those adds. Just in my personal experience i find that whenever those ads come on my screen i just find something else to look at for the next thirty seconds. what can marketers do to attain the attention of those watching. there is already so much going on at one time on your computer screen anyway to distract you from the ad. Are these ads a wasted resource? I don't think i would go that far but i really think that marketers need to do something because viewers are just clicking over to a new tab or checking out the side bars on the site.
My question is are viewers actually paying attention to those adds. Just in my personal experience i find that whenever those ads come on my screen i just find something else to look at for the next thirty seconds. what can marketers do to attain the attention of those watching. there is already so much going on at one time on your computer screen anyway to distract you from the ad. Are these ads a wasted resource? I don't think i would go that far but i really think that marketers need to do something because viewers are just clicking over to a new tab or checking out the side bars on the site.
Social Media marketing on facebook
When it comes to social media marketing for small business it came seem to be extra hard. For your average smal business who do not have large budgets for marketing it can be extremely difficult to make up that budget space for social media. That is why facebook can be the savior for small business when it come to there social media marketing.
Seeing how facebook is free it really opens up the door for their social media objectives. instead of having to maybe find an agency or any other outside source all it takes is a little extra time and ideas and you can come up with some pretty helpful marketing tools. If you have the right mind set you can really help out your small business with these free applications. Facebook isn't the only great form of free help either. Twitter has become one of the most popular forms of social media and is constantly growing. For example Griffs deli in Bowling Green has really taken these two platforms and made very good marketing campaigns. Griffs will always have promotional activities on Facebook and twitter and they will run specials on there all the time. Some days they will post on twitter that between 1-5 you can come in and get 10% discount on any sandwich. These promotional activities are free and only take a little extra time and effort.
So you dont have to have a huge budget and resources to have a successful marketing campaign. With these free tools any small business can be a viable contender in the social media market.
Seeing how facebook is free it really opens up the door for their social media objectives. instead of having to maybe find an agency or any other outside source all it takes is a little extra time and ideas and you can come up with some pretty helpful marketing tools. If you have the right mind set you can really help out your small business with these free applications. Facebook isn't the only great form of free help either. Twitter has become one of the most popular forms of social media and is constantly growing. For example Griffs deli in Bowling Green has really taken these two platforms and made very good marketing campaigns. Griffs will always have promotional activities on Facebook and twitter and they will run specials on there all the time. Some days they will post on twitter that between 1-5 you can come in and get 10% discount on any sandwich. These promotional activities are free and only take a little extra time and effort.
So you dont have to have a huge budget and resources to have a successful marketing campaign. With these free tools any small business can be a viable contender in the social media market.
Good Campaign V.S. Bad
There have been many very successful social media marketing campaigns and there have also been many disasters. So what sets the good from the bad? It is all a matter of knowing your audience and understanding what they want to see, hear, or feel and how the feel. The two campaigns that i would like to dive into are campaigns by Dove and Chevrolet.
Lets start with the good campaign. Dove's campaign with the viral video that spread like a wild fire was very successful because of a few key reasons. What did Dove do ? They took an attractive female before she had makeup on and fast forward her makeup process to show just how much different she was with her make up on. She truly was a different person and she was beautiful but the campaign was trying to hit the emotional aspect of its market. Why should this girl have to change her entire physical appearance to be beautiful? Many people became emotionally attached with dove after this campaign and was won over by the fact that they thought dove cared about them and wanted them to be who they are and not some model on tv.
This campaign was very successful because they showed their audience exactly what they wanted to hear and they stepped out of the box and went in a new direction. instead of the same old mantra of "use our product to look prettier" they went with " use our product to help you be a more beautiful you , not a fake you."
Now Chevrolet was not so fortunate. Chevrolet decided to let their customer make their own Chevrolet Tahoe commercial online. Now this was bad seeing how Chevrolet has a rather large opposition by the " green police " who like to say that SUV's are ruining our planet. Now the majority of these videos were all about how global warming is killing our planet and how the Tahoe is the worst thing for our planet since Hitler. I would like to express my feelings about that but we don't need to go there. So what could Chevrolet have done better? They should have known that would happen, how they did not see that coming is really beyond belief. whenever you let those who oppose you get there hands on some form a free media that will allow them to express their feelings , they will tear you to shreds. Why do you think Wal-mart does not allow comments on their pages? its because they know that many people do not like them and they do not want such negative feedback on their pages. Which is very smart and the only thing i can say is that Chevy was simply not thinking. No wonder they had to get bailed out by the Government.
Lets start with the good campaign. Dove's campaign with the viral video that spread like a wild fire was very successful because of a few key reasons. What did Dove do ? They took an attractive female before she had makeup on and fast forward her makeup process to show just how much different she was with her make up on. She truly was a different person and she was beautiful but the campaign was trying to hit the emotional aspect of its market. Why should this girl have to change her entire physical appearance to be beautiful? Many people became emotionally attached with dove after this campaign and was won over by the fact that they thought dove cared about them and wanted them to be who they are and not some model on tv.
This campaign was very successful because they showed their audience exactly what they wanted to hear and they stepped out of the box and went in a new direction. instead of the same old mantra of "use our product to look prettier" they went with " use our product to help you be a more beautiful you , not a fake you."
Now Chevrolet was not so fortunate. Chevrolet decided to let their customer make their own Chevrolet Tahoe commercial online. Now this was bad seeing how Chevrolet has a rather large opposition by the " green police " who like to say that SUV's are ruining our planet. Now the majority of these videos were all about how global warming is killing our planet and how the Tahoe is the worst thing for our planet since Hitler. I would like to express my feelings about that but we don't need to go there. So what could Chevrolet have done better? They should have known that would happen, how they did not see that coming is really beyond belief. whenever you let those who oppose you get there hands on some form a free media that will allow them to express their feelings , they will tear you to shreds. Why do you think Wal-mart does not allow comments on their pages? its because they know that many people do not like them and they do not want such negative feedback on their pages. Which is very smart and the only thing i can say is that Chevy was simply not thinking. No wonder they had to get bailed out by the Government.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Viral Marketing Sensations
We have all seen many examples of viral marketing success. The dove campaign with the chick putting on make up and T-mobile with the flash mob signing if thats what its called. I have always felt like these videos are definitely a great success for these comapnies at minimal cost but do the millions and millions of views actually turn into noticble profit gains? I never really though about it until I saw that T-Mobile had one of the most successful viral marketing campaings ever and if you haven't seen the news lately they are about to be bought by ATT. Now I am sure that there were many other problems affecting the company internaly and extarnaly but if that was one of the most successful viral campaigns ever then why are they being bought a little over a year later? So how exactly does viral succs translate? I mean maybe I'm alonet here but I have seen where the hell is Matt video a couple of times but I never think about purchasing stride gum because of it. Viral marketing is not free either. It still takes alot of time and money but in most cases less money.Still its a hefty investment. The one question I would ask is whether or not that money could be more benifical to the bottom line if spent elsewhere?
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Big Dance Effect
As everyone is aware of, unless you live Turkmenistan, the NCAA tournament starts this Thursday and sport fans of every caliber are getting excited. As you know the most exciting thing about the tournament is filling out the brackets. whether you know anything or nothing about college basketball everyone fills out a bracket to try and pick the champion of the tournament. The buzz is always in the air and gone are the days where the sports fanatic has to wait for the next day paper to fill out get their bracket and fill it out. Now as soon as the picks are finished the brackets are up on multiple online outlets. Sites such as ESPN, CBS Sports and FOX sports to name a few. I do not know the numbers but i can imagine that there are millions of hits in a matter of less than an hour. With all of this traffic what does that do for the online media marketing campaigns. Is the NCAA tournament the online superbowl when it comes add space? With millions of people going to these sites at one time and the number of participants growing each year, how much will a 4x11/2 add costs marketers and how much will marketers be willing to spend.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Social Media Do's and Dont's
In many ways social media can be very viable to a persons career and social life. After all they are called networking sites and networking is one of the best ways to find jobs or move up the ladder. As many ways as they can be helpful I feel that they can do more harm than good if not taken seriously. As a 23 year old male who likes to have a good time but is still socially responsible, i constantly have to take things off my facebook page that could potentially hurt my career. The one thing that I have learned over the years is to always act like the cameras on. This you never know who's watching and what implications or consequences can arise from certain "harmless" situations.
As far as I know I have never had any consequences from social media, good or bad. On the other hand I have had one family member get into some trouble. This family member got into a little altercation at work and instead of dropping the whole ordeal he decided to vent his frustrations on a facebook post. Well wouldn't you know his superior saw it and there were some minor punishment taken but who knows how that affected his standing in the organization. That boss may have been thinking about promoting him the next day but instead cam across a "harmless" post. I hope that this is the last time i have to hear about this happening but I am sure its not. to many people feel that the internet is a harmless vent machine but everything a person does or says socially will some way come back and find you one day.
In conclusion, using social networks sites can be great if you treat appear respectful and responsible but make sure you realize that everyone can see what your doing or talking about. Don;t get kicked in the butt by your own stupid mistakes and everything is great.
As far as I know I have never had any consequences from social media, good or bad. On the other hand I have had one family member get into some trouble. This family member got into a little altercation at work and instead of dropping the whole ordeal he decided to vent his frustrations on a facebook post. Well wouldn't you know his superior saw it and there were some minor punishment taken but who knows how that affected his standing in the organization. That boss may have been thinking about promoting him the next day but instead cam across a "harmless" post. I hope that this is the last time i have to hear about this happening but I am sure its not. to many people feel that the internet is a harmless vent machine but everything a person does or says socially will some way come back and find you one day.
In conclusion, using social networks sites can be great if you treat appear respectful and responsible but make sure you realize that everyone can see what your doing or talking about. Don;t get kicked in the butt by your own stupid mistakes and everything is great.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Social Media Marketing: Fad or Trend
First off let me start by saying I am definitely not the social media expert. Essentially the only reason I have a facebook is because my fiancee insist on it, which also means that there is a better chance of me hooking up with Eva Mendez than me checking my facebook account every day. Even though I have read countless articles on social media marketing in magazines such as Forbes and business week I still have my doubts. My opinion may be skewed but hey that is what its all about right, my insights.
In this modern technological age everyone is connected and more and more people are seemingly glued to their mobile devices and computer screens checking their social media circles. As Gillen states in his book that the average young adult checks their facebook 18 times every day which is astounding and rediculous in my mind but who am I to judge. This being so it would be down right dumbfounding if marketers did not take advantage of this. As my title reads, is Social media a another fad or is it a trend. There are huge differences between fads and trends. A fad is something that comes and goes, it catches the minds and potentially pocketbooks of those involved for a few months or potentially years and then drifts off into the night with very little identity or presence left behind. you could call big hair of the 80's or Jesus sandals everyone wore in the late 90's a fad and hopefully skinny jeans will be the same. In a business format fads are things like new products, the latest and greatest that seem to never really catch on. Im sure 10 years from now no one will know what a sham wow is. A trend on the other hand is something that is hear to stay and no matter what, it seems to hang around. Trends can be found in all forms of life. In the business world trends are things such as customer service, JIT shipping and Blackberry's. social media marketing is having its boom and whether or not it stays is just a matter of time.
I was in middle school when AOL instant messenger and chat rooms became the big craze and it seems as if the social media world has grown exponentially since then. With myspace being the first monster and now face book. I do not feel that social media marketing is a fad at all. It seems like every day we find new ways to communicate via the internet and technology and the possibilities are endless and marketers have taken note and are doing a great job tapping the source but the source itself is forever changing. What I'm saying is that social media marketing itself is not a fad but a trend but the social media outlets are a simply a fad. Take a look at what has happened in the past. Instant messenger and chat rooms were the start of the revolution and marketers were strong to the punch there but with time came a new media outlet that became the latest and greatest and users of the old jumped the chat room ship and joined new networks. The only problem for marketers is that they were left with the leftovers. marketers were invested in these networks and sites and when everyone left they were still there having to deal with no traffic, bad contracts and lost profits. Same goes with Myspace which at one time was the the coolest thing on the market and now look at it. It was purchased for billions and sold for almost nothing a few months ago. Does facebook face the same fate? Just remember that history does not lie and always repeats itself. That is why marketers need to do extensive research when dealing with social media outlets. The key demographic for facebook 4 years ago was that of only college students so what would you advertise? Maybe the latest cell phones , ipods, or video games. now that it has evolved every demographic from teenagers to senior citizens are using it and marketers need to pick their battles and which demographics to target and if it makes sense to do so on such networks. So its not easy at all. With Facebook starting to look like the next myspace waiting to happen should marketers invest millions of dollars in what could soon be a declining market?
Coming from a dinosaur who wishes that everything was of the old and I didn't have to live by my cell phone day in and day out I do feel that social media marketing is here to stay. Although there are many opportunities within social media marketing, marketers need to be extra careful when picking their investments. This trend is not going anywhere and is goin to grow and grow and grow, but which outlet will be the next big thing. This market is forever changing and evolving and the marketers that will survive will be the ones that are innovative and are constantly looking into the future not those who live in the past.
In this modern technological age everyone is connected and more and more people are seemingly glued to their mobile devices and computer screens checking their social media circles. As Gillen states in his book that the average young adult checks their facebook 18 times every day which is astounding and rediculous in my mind but who am I to judge. This being so it would be down right dumbfounding if marketers did not take advantage of this. As my title reads, is Social media a another fad or is it a trend. There are huge differences between fads and trends. A fad is something that comes and goes, it catches the minds and potentially pocketbooks of those involved for a few months or potentially years and then drifts off into the night with very little identity or presence left behind. you could call big hair of the 80's or Jesus sandals everyone wore in the late 90's a fad and hopefully skinny jeans will be the same. In a business format fads are things like new products, the latest and greatest that seem to never really catch on. Im sure 10 years from now no one will know what a sham wow is. A trend on the other hand is something that is hear to stay and no matter what, it seems to hang around. Trends can be found in all forms of life. In the business world trends are things such as customer service, JIT shipping and Blackberry's. social media marketing is having its boom and whether or not it stays is just a matter of time.
I was in middle school when AOL instant messenger and chat rooms became the big craze and it seems as if the social media world has grown exponentially since then. With myspace being the first monster and now face book. I do not feel that social media marketing is a fad at all. It seems like every day we find new ways to communicate via the internet and technology and the possibilities are endless and marketers have taken note and are doing a great job tapping the source but the source itself is forever changing. What I'm saying is that social media marketing itself is not a fad but a trend but the social media outlets are a simply a fad. Take a look at what has happened in the past. Instant messenger and chat rooms were the start of the revolution and marketers were strong to the punch there but with time came a new media outlet that became the latest and greatest and users of the old jumped the chat room ship and joined new networks. The only problem for marketers is that they were left with the leftovers. marketers were invested in these networks and sites and when everyone left they were still there having to deal with no traffic, bad contracts and lost profits. Same goes with Myspace which at one time was the the coolest thing on the market and now look at it. It was purchased for billions and sold for almost nothing a few months ago. Does facebook face the same fate? Just remember that history does not lie and always repeats itself. That is why marketers need to do extensive research when dealing with social media outlets. The key demographic for facebook 4 years ago was that of only college students so what would you advertise? Maybe the latest cell phones , ipods, or video games. now that it has evolved every demographic from teenagers to senior citizens are using it and marketers need to pick their battles and which demographics to target and if it makes sense to do so on such networks. So its not easy at all. With Facebook starting to look like the next myspace waiting to happen should marketers invest millions of dollars in what could soon be a declining market?
Coming from a dinosaur who wishes that everything was of the old and I didn't have to live by my cell phone day in and day out I do feel that social media marketing is here to stay. Although there are many opportunities within social media marketing, marketers need to be extra careful when picking their investments. This trend is not going anywhere and is goin to grow and grow and grow, but which outlet will be the next big thing. This market is forever changing and evolving and the marketers that will survive will be the ones that are innovative and are constantly looking into the future not those who live in the past.
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