Chapter 22

I explained in one of my previous blog posts how in love I am with Skype. I especially love it now that I can use it on my cell phone. Last weekend I was at a horse show helping with my company’s booth and I was able to video skype with my boss at random times during the day to let her know how it was going and she could give me pointers. Such a great way to stay connected at work even if you’re in completely different places. We were joking about how if someone’s “working from home” you can give them a little jingle on skype and check up on them to make sure it wasn’t just a day off.

When I was in middle school, chat rooms were my favorite thing in the entire world. I would spend hours talking to my best friends or the guy I happened to have a crush on..Now I hop on Facebook chat every once in a while but for the most part my communications are almost entirely texting. Specific chat rooms like AIM are just one more thing online that I would have to keep track of. It’s much easier to just use the one that’s built into the site I already spend all my time on.

I’m sure I had a huge dumb smile on my face when I was reading about Doodle because I know it’s going to be a total life saver for me. I’m the New Member Educator of my sorority and it’s impossible to find a day that works for everyone for our meetings. I’m definitely going to be using this site to organize that.

The only commandment from this chapter is “thou shalt explore” and I certainly intend to do plenty of that!

 

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08/04/2011

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Chapter 21

I am so obsessed with mobile right now! If I knew anything I was doing on a computer I would be making apps left and right.

I used to have a BlackBerry which I loved at first, but when I looked around and saw the amazing stuff my friends could do on their phones I was definitely jealous. Especially when I looked down and, of course, my blackberry couldn’t show me any of the content on my emails because it didn’t work for some reason or another. They are very frustrating phones…Now that I finally have my iPhone I can really appreciate how amazing the mobile phone industry is right now. I can do practically ANYTHING on that phone. The other day I ordered all of my textbooks, played Angry Birds for far too long, counted and documented my calories for the day, tweeted roughly 15 times, and became the mayor of the St. Louis Arch on Foursquare. It’s just so incredibly entertaining and of course there’s not just the random fun things, there are also great apps for staying organized and getting work done. So helpful!

I’m completely convinced that mobile will overtake the industry in the near future (it practically has already). It is just an easier, cheaper medium that is available at your fingertips 24/7. Millions of people are using mobile phones in countries where access to a laptop, iPad, or even television are highly unlikely. Now, not all of those phones have access to wireless internet (most don’t) but if technology continues to advance at the rate it recently has I’m sure that will not be a problem for much longer. It’s such a huge market it would be ridiculous to not even look into making your products and company mobile-friendly.

I did a project for another class this summer that looked at one of the first advertisements designed specifically for the iPhone (for the Nissan Leaf). I am very interested in how that specific advertising form is going to explode in the next couple of years. I think companies could really come up with some creative campaigns with that medium.

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08/04/2011

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Chapter 20

Pay-per-click is an amazing way to get up to a 300% return on investment for one of the very few times you have to pay to advertise online. Even though you do have to pay, you really can’t argue with that percentage and it would be completely worth it. To be completely honest, I try as hard as possible to avoid clicking on banner ads and I always let out a little groan when I accidentally cause one to pop up. But I also know what to look for and how to avoid them, a lot of people don’t. I think that especially the search engine marketing on Google is especially tricky to differentiate from actual search results.

The WIIFM is always the most important thing to consider any time you advertise, on the web or off. If you don’t have a clear hook for your potential consumer, they will have no reason to click your link over your competition’s. It’s kind of a constant struggle to have the most relevant and interesting key words and subject line in order to snag the casual searcher. Just for fun I Googled textbook (because it’s about that time) to see what keywords popped up and what drew me in the most. Skipping over the ads, the one that most caught my eye was for Amazon because it wasn’t too wordy and it just gave me what I needed to know right up front. “Save up to 30% on New Textbooks and up to 90% off Used Listings.” The other sites were long wordy sentences that didn’t include the percentage of savings so I immediately glossed over them and lost interest. My little mini experiment proved that this chapter was completely right!

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Chapter 19

Search engine optimization is something I’ve been interested since freshmen year when several guest speakers from Yahoo! came and explained the concept in one of my advertising classes. I kind of thought it would be fun to be the one to come up with all of the possible keyword choices for a company or product. It was also cool to learn how the bidding wars work for the higher position on Google or other search engines. Everything is so much more complex than you would originally think.

It’s cool to think of the internet as basically a big huge math formula. I first heard about web algorithms when The Social Network came out and they were trying to come up with a formula to compare student’s attractiveness. It was like a little lightbulb went off “Oh, of course that would have to use an algorithm, how else would that be possible?”

I had no idea there was that little spider that runs all over the internet and not only looks for keywords and categorizing the content on the pages. I also didn’t know people tried to cheat the system and usually failed because of those awesome metaphorical spiders. The internet is a crazy and overwhelming place when you really think about everything that goes into it!

I can totally relate to forgetting about page titles. When I took my web design class I lost points on almost every assignment because I forgot that key step. You’d think I would learn but it’s so easy to blow off. The commandments (like in every chapter) are extremely useful but especially for this chapter. I think a lot of times people who build their own web pages but aren’t completely trained in it would easily forget these crucial steps to get the most out of search engines.

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08/04/2011

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Chapter 18

RSS feeds didn’t seem necessary to me in the past, it wasn’t really something I was interested at all. However, I just recently felt the need to start up an RSS feed for all of the sites I’m finding, loving, and wanting to remember. I was finding it difficult to remember to check various sites that maybe aren’t my most frequented (random blogs and humor sites) and would sometimes miss out on great stuff! I think that most sites have the option of an RSS feed and if they don’t they need to get with the times. It’s a perfect way to grow a loyal following, especially if you plan on updating your site frequently.

I’m currently using a provider called Feedly which I think is just a Google Chrome app for an RSS feed, but in the past I have also used iGoogle and liked it. I thought it was pretty interesting that there is such an abundance of possible providers to choose from. I just think that most people would go with the main choices like iGoogle or through their email provider.

Like it says in the conclusion of this chapter, an RSS feed provides a one-click solution to provide your subscribers with instant notifications of any new content. Most importantly (I think) is that it notifies without being annoying like constant emails or texts. With an RSS feed, you can either check the new content or not without having it shoved in your face.

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08/04/2011

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Chapter 17

I’m definitely not a gamer. The only virtual game I’ve ever played was Neopets way back in middle school and even that was more about having the cutest character, not actually gaming. I know it’s something my guy friends are hugely into even though most of the time they don’t like to admit it. It’s always amazing to me in the few times I’ve seen the games in action how incredibly detailed they are. It really is an entire world you can retreat to when you’re bored or crabby or just want to blow stuff up, which would be the favorite or my friends…

I would never think to advertise in a virtual game. It would seem to me that everyone would be so completely immersed in their game they wouldn’t even notice any product placements or in-game ads. Maybe that’s the whole point, it could be hitting on the whole subliminal angle. Obviously in-game advertising is doing something right if Google is willing to shell out $23 million dollars for a video game advertising company.

By doing a quick Google search it appears to me that a lot of hard core gamers are very frustrated by the amount of advertising in their games and feel that video games are the one place they could go to to escape ads and the pressures of the real world. Personally from the examples I found I think the advertising is actually pretty subtle, being found on billboards, the sides of buses, and on buildings. I think that the in-game advertising makes the world seem more lifelike and realistic because the brands are what are familiar to you. I definitely think it’s sneaky, but it’s cleverly sneaky that isn’t too in-your-face to be distracting (yet).

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08/02/2011

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Chapter 16

I have to say I have had a very negative outlook on virtual worlds in the past ever since I saw an episode of Taboo about a guy who used Second Life for nothing but sex, sex, sex. It totally creeped me out and I definitely had no interest in going anywhere near a site full of creepers (and he was definitely a creeper). After watching what thousands of people use that site for it really surprised me when I read this chapter and heard about companies having business meetings on the same site. I have no idea how Second Life works so honestly I pictured a bunch of businessman Sims characters sitting at a virtual table with random people dressed in bikinis and in tiger suits run amok around them. Not exactly a very appropriate environment for getting any business done.

However, I got over my avoidance of Second Life and managed to do a little investigating and it is actually an interesting and fun way to hold meetings. I definitely know first hand how boring it can be to sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day and the thought of creating a little virtual me to have a meeting kind of turns it into a game. Also, what a great way to get in touch with people halfway around the world! I guess it just goes to show you can’t always judge a site by one television show.

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08/02/2011

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Chapter 15

There are both good and bad sides of livecasting for me. The concept of broadcasting every moment of you life for a year completely freaks me out. Why would you want thousands of people to be able to see that? I guess I just don’t get it. I also don’t know why anyone would want to watch some random person’s everyday life. Now that I think about it though it could be a very interesting way to document something like a mission trip or a time spent in the peace corps. I guess I just favor my privacy (especially with all of the internet creeps out there) more than livecasters. I’m not brave enough for that one!

I do absolutely love internet radio and there is a station that I have been listening to when I get ready in the morning practically every weekday since high school. I often find regular radio stations to be pretty annoying and repetitive but on the internet there are less advertisements and more diverse music selections. It’s also not censored to heck which always drives me crazy on regular radio stations.

My dad talks a lot about webinars that he participates in at work, especially now that you can shoot live videos from your phone (a workaholic businessman’s dream!) I haven’t participated in a webinar for a work meeting but I absolutely love Skype. I don’t know if I could have made it through this summer 3 states away from my friends if I wasn’t able to skype with them a couple times a week. It’s so much more intimate than a phone call or text and some of my hardest laughs and heartfelt moments have been over Skype. There’s something about being face to face but far away that creates great conversing. It’s also really fun to have 6 people waving and saying hi on the other side of the screen 🙂

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08/02/2011

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Chapter 14

Oh microblogging… My biggest source of procrastination. Twitter and Tumblr are absolutely where I spend the most of my time on the internet, even more than Facebook lately. I think that Twitter is the ultimate social media tool. I love following my favorite companies, my friends, my school, and celebrities all in one place. I don’t know why I care about what Neil Patrick Harris ate for breakfast, but for some reason I end up reading about it. I especially love when companies tweet secret sales or discount codes. I feel like it’s my own little sale.

Paying for sponsored tweets seems pretty lucrative to me. The fact that your business’ twitter is what pops up when certain keywords are searched could potentially reach thousands of people. The only real problem I see with that is that it’s pretty obvious that it is an advertisement and a lot of people (including me) avoid those. However, there are people who would click on the link and that’s a market it would not be smart to avoid.

The best thing about microblogging from the business perspective is that it’s completely free while possibly reaching thousands or even millions or potential customers. The worst thing is trying to fit your message into 140 characters. Part of my internship duties are to run the company’s twitter account and it is so hard to condense everything into such tiny sentences! Usually I just give a little blurb and then link to the blog post or article. That’s usually the easiest way. It’s especially difficult because I refuse to use text speak in a business accounts tweets, I just don’t feel like the message would be as trusted that way.

The corporate twitterers section on page 266 was a life-saver when I felt completely stuck. Checking out the interesting ways they have used microblogging helped me get out of my tweeters block and got the creative juices flowing!

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07/28/2011

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Chapter 13

I remember the video of the blenders shredding the iphone being passed around with my friends. It always astounds me how willing we all are to watch such nonsensical videos but we LOVE them! Who ever would have thought that some of the most popular videos would include a sneezing panda and a laughing baby. I think at the end of the day people just want to be entertained. Those are certainly the videos that get the most views and if you’re a company that means reaching the most potential customers.

I think it’s smart when you start getting really into social media to have a blog or website where you can display all of the different places you are uploading content. Or even better, to link to everything from that blog or webpage. I hate when I’m following something and I have to check all of their different social media outlets because they don’t have somewhere to showcase everything in one place.

I’m surprised BitTorrent was included in this book because it’s pretty much all illegal content and I feel like it would be a blacklisted site or something but I appreciate its inclusion because it is a huge part of the internet right now. One of my friends uses it every day and burns everything he finds to disks. Right now he has movies in his collection that aren’t even in theaters yet. I of course am too much of a chicken to do this (and don’t have 50 million dollars for a lawsuit) but I’m always in awe of what you can get for free on the internet.

Commandment #4 on page 254 interested me because I have watched tons and tons of videos on youtube but I hardly (if ever) comment on them. Plenty of people do considering most videos have a plethora of them, it has just never struck me to leave one. The more I think about it though, how can I expect to attract people to my page if I’m not active in the community?

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07/27/2011

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