The Importance of Blogs

When we first started this semester, I was really unsure about the whole blog thing. I thought it was just another thing that we were going to be graded on and didn't know how important it would end up being in the long run. For me, I always associated blogs with people who didn't have jobs and had a lot of extra time on their hands. However, I was clearly wrong.

The biggest problem I first ran into was not knowing what to blog about. I didn't think that I had any thoughts worth blogging about, but then I realized that all thoughts were worth blogging about. Throughout all of our readings, I'm pretty sure each have mentioned in some way either the importance of blogging or the authors' experiences with blogging. In all, they talked about how important it was in maintaining a blog and being an active blogger.

Through my experience this semester, I can see how important they can be. It's a way where I can engage not just my peers, but others in the cyber world. It allows for multiple opinions to be shared and a good way to bounce ideas off one another. In addition, I think it can be an important resource when trying to get a job. It can be used as a good example of what we can write about and our ability to positively maintain a social media platform.

For me, my blog is something that I might keep doing past this class, but what about you guys; is the blog going to be something that you guys continue after this class? Or once BU464 is done, is your blog going to be done too?

Twitter T-Shirts

The other night, my roommate was showing me this website that will sell t-shirts for you and take a big percentage of the cost for selling the shirts. I think his t-shirt cost $24 dollars to buy and for every t-shirt that was sold he would receive $1. Now this doesn't sound like anything new, however my roommate was putting his Twitter name and some of the hashtags that he uses on the t-shirts.

For a little background, my roommate has one of the obnoxious Twitters where he tweets his stream of conscious; regardless if they are good thoughts or bad (it's definitely not the most professional Twitter that we have talked about in class). However, he has something like over 700 followers and his goal is to get over 2000. For him, he uses his Twitter rather than a promotional tool, but more for a social presence. From what it sounds like, it sounds like he is trying to brand his Twitter. As you probably would have guessed, he is marketing his t-shirts through his Twitter.

Personally, I think it was a waste of his night making a bunch of t-shirts that no one will sell. Maybe I'm wrong and he's going to be throwing hundred dollar bills in my face, but I doubt it. What do you guys think?

Free Cone Day

Earlier this week, Ben and Jerry's held Free Cone Day, where just as you expected, they handed out free cones of ice cream. I remember going down freshman year and standing in line forever to get my cone. I did the same thing again my sophomore year, but after waiting for so long I decided it wasn't worth the wait. So this year, I stayed true to my statement and didn't go downtown to get one.

I was hanging out in my friend's room when a few of our other friends came in and said that Ben and Jerry's is giving out free ice cream. We told them that we knew it was Free Cone Day, but they responded by telling us there was a truck outside. To our surprise there were a ton of kids swarming the truck as Ben and Jerry's workers handed out free cups of ice cream.

I guess they had been driving around all locations in Vermont handing out free ice cream. I don't remember them doing it previously, but think it is a great marketing strategy. By them taking an active role in their marketing, they reached a lot more of their market than they would have.

Technology Obsessed

Are we obsessed with our technologies? This week the Journalism Department held a program called, Disconnect to Reconnect, which students participated in removing all screens from them for three days. For most, it was hard at first, but at a certain point students started to feel relieved that they didn't have to constantly check their text messages, emails, or social media.

Being a journalism major and a marketing minor, I feel like I'm stuck in limbo. On one side, marketing is using technology more than it ever has, and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon. From scanning QR codes on our iPhones to getting information through Twitter about a certain company, marketers are constantly using technology. I will agree the benefits are endless from a marketers standpoint, but when is enough, enough?

On the other side, the journalism department has tried to engrave in us since freshman year to be wary of the uses of technologies. They stress how technologies are constantly surrounding us and we are immune to it. No one asks questions nor do they do anything about it.

With all of these technologies that we are using, we are always in front of a screen. Whether it being the first, second, or third screen we are always surrounded and even bombarded by them. One thing I can foresee is the lack of face-to-face interactions because of all these screens. We rely more on communicating via email or a text message rather than a letter or going to see someone in person. By being infront of all these screens is there a negative effect that it will have on us?

So what do you guys think? Do you think marketers are running a fine line between using technology efficiently? Or are they over using technology? What are the benefits or drawbacks that you can see with the uses of technology?

The Joneses

I was relaxing one afternoon this break and the movie, The Joneses, looked pretty interesting. The summary that the movie gives is that it is a family living with a "dark" secret. (hope I don't ruin the movie for everyone else) In reality, the movie is based on a pretty interesting concept of self marketing.

Thus, this family moves into an affluent neighborhood and projects a certain lifestyle to their neighbors. Eventually, all the neighbors want to "keep up with the joneses" and they start buying the same products that make up the Joneses lifestyle. However, eventually the viewer comes to find out that the Joneses are self marketers of the products and what is portrayed as their life, is them actually working. They work for the company that makes every product (and the lifestyle) that the Joneses market to their neighbors. In the end, we find out that their lifestyle isn't "real" and neither are the Joneses.

Although there are the ethical issues surrounding self marketing and what the movie entails, I thought it was a clever idea. It makes sense that everyone in a sense does try and "keep up with the joneses" and for a company to take advantage of that and sell their product sounds like good business.

What do you guys think? Do you think people buy certain products to fit into a specific lifestyle?

YouTube Employees

Have you ever been browsing the Internet and clicked on a link from say, YouTube and it says that the video or song has been deleted? I'm sure all of us have, but recently I was curious as to how big of a department YouTube has whose main goal is to make sure all videos are appropriate and comply with copyright rules. I did some research and it says that about 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube. That's more than I ever imagined and can't possibly picture how many people there are to make sure everything that is uploaded is okay. It seems like a daunting task, but quite necessary for the company. In addition, I was curious as to how long it would take YouTube to take down a video that someone reports. Clearly, YouTube has figured this all out, I would just be curious as to what the actual numbers are.

Ben and Jerry's Lin-Sanity

As I'm sure most have heard by now, Ben and Jerry's started a frozen yogurt line. One of their flavors in particular is called, Lin-Sanity, after the New York Knicks rising star, Jeremy Lin. The biggest problem that Ben and Jerry's faced was their original idea of putting fortune cookies into the frozen yogurt. This caused a slight public disturbance due to the association with being Asian and the stereotype surrounding fortune cookies.

For me, I'm impartial to the problem-- I can see how both sides could be offended. In a world that is becoming increasingly more politically correct, it seems like more of a PR move to keep the public happy which is understandable. It just seems like everyone gets offended by everything in this day and age.

BUT, when I was reading this, I wondered how wise is it to put all your eggs in one basket. As of now, Lin is a great athlete and has put up good numbers to support his fame, but what happens when his fame runs out? Not only could Lin be a one time wonder, but also Ben and Jerry's is stuck with a product name of a one hit wonder too. Does the company keep the name? Or drop it?

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Nike's Marketing

I recently just looked at a graph in Fortune on Nike's marketing expenditures. If I'm interpreting the graph correctly, it says that Nike spent $113 million on traditional media (print, tv, and radio) and spent $771 million on "unmeasured media" including direct marketing, internet paid searches, and social media. Clearly, this shows the ever increasing movement towards online advertising and the use of social media.

As we have seen this evolve over time, it is fair to say that people are really shying away from using traditional outlets for advertising. My question is: since we are always progressing over the years and making technological advances, what will be next after social media? Will this be the end-all-be-all? What could possibly replace these forms of marketing in the future?

Product Placement

Yesterday, I went to see Safe House, the new Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds movie. Above everything else, it was a pretty bad movie, but one thing I saw a lot was product placement. In one scene, Ryan Reynolds opens a refrigerator. The camera pans the fridge starting at the top of it and as it moves down towards the bottom, cases of Red Bull sit on the bottom shelf.

This is nothing new; I'm sure we've all seen the blatant advertisements of Coke and other major brands in movies.  One thing I'm curious about is how much does it cost to place a product in a movie like that. In addition, which products get chosen and which don't?

Sidebar Advertisements

For my Global Communications class, we just took a test on the world map. We had to know every country and know where they are located on a blank map. I spent all week Googling countries and maps and all of the sudden, every advertisement on Facebook and Google had to do with countries that I had been googling.

I realize that advertisers do this, but it never occurred to me how quickly they did it. Normally, I would see ads for fishing or skiing things and assumed that over time advertisers had put it together. I never would have guessed that it only took a matter of a few days to narrow in on me.

Granted, this is something that has been going on for awhile, I think we forget about how prominent advertisers are in our lives. The question that I have is, how far is too far? Does anyone feel like we are always being monitored and our privacy is being invaded?

Facebook's IPO

After hearing that Facebook filed for an IPO of $5 Billion I was shocked. It wasn't the monetary value that shocked me, it more had to do with how much Facebook has grown over the years. I can remember when I got a Facebook during my sophomore year of high school. When I first got it, I simply used it to connect with friends, look at pictures of what they have been doing, and toss around inside jokes. To think what it was then, to what it is today is unbelievable. I never would have guessed how it would have progressed social media so far. Everyone has seen the advantages of Facebook, especially businesses that use it.

However, I still have a hard time grasping at the reality that Facebook can be used as a legitimate source of information. To me, there still seems something impersonal about it, but I just might be old fashioned. It seems like the days where face to face meetings are gone and no one has to meet in person anymore. Is it possible that the use of these social media sites will hinder our abilities to communicate in person?

Obviously, I can see the advantages of these sites, but do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

The Advantages of Twitter

It never really occurred to me how useful Twitter can be. I've always been a bit apprehensive in accepting the advances of social media as legitimate sources of information. However, after creating our Twitter accounts and exploring the Twitter world, I have a new understanding of the advantages of it. Twitter makes it so easy to get the message out quickly and directly, something that is very important in the marketing world. It also allows for a more direct control of the message to its target market. In addition, I think Twitter also personalizes a business more by almost providing a "face" to the business. The only question I have, is how long will it last? Technology is always evolving, so how long will Twitter really stay around for and be such a dominant form of information?