Chapter 12

I am a Youtube junkie. I go there for everything whether I want a cheap laugh, to boogie to a music video, to watch someone rant about things I rant about, or even for a tutorial on the dreaded fishtail braid (so hard but so cute!).

I remember in one of my classes we looked at an ad on YouTube that was like one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. It was kind of like these except it was an actual advertisement. I can’t for the life of me remember the brand or the product (probably not a good thing) but I definitely remember the interesting concept. Edit: Nevermind I found it right here!

In high school I took an AP English class and one of the projects was to come up with a modern trailer for the film version of one of the classic novels we read. My teacher also had a contest to see who could market the video the best to get the most page views. My team didn’t win, sadly, but it really gave me a first-hand look at how powerful video marketing can be. The fact that some random high schooler’s english project can get hundreds of views is pretty amazing.

I know it’s an example that is used far too often but I love how Wieden & Kennedy found a way to take their hugely beloved “Old Spice Man” character and have him interact via video responses with his devoted fans by answering questions posed in youtube comments in-character. I’m not embarrassed to admit that one very boring afternoon I found myself watching a majority of them and not for once did I think I was being advertised to, which I think is a very good thing. I think that in recent years, people have gotten very sick of being force-fed advertising and if a company can find a way to make their ads enjoyable, fun, and interactive people won’t mind as much.

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07/27/2011

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Chapter 11

It was interesting to read not only about how to create podcasts, but how to upload audio files and share them with your audience. I loved being able to read a brief history of iTunes because it is something I use on a daily basis. The book states that it’s now at version 9.1 but I know that even since it came out there have been several updates. I believe my laptop has been bugging me to update to version 10.7 or something crazy. The frequent updates can be very annoying especially since I hardly ever notice a difference between downloads. I was a frequent user of Itunes radio in high school (before I discovered Pandora and now Spotify) but I didn’t know they had removed that feature from Itunes. I wonder why they chose to do that…

I have never heard of Podbean but I looked into it and it seems pretty simple and user-friendly. If I ever decide to delve into the realm of podcasts I’ll definitely have to remember that site. My fellow intern is the one who is working on all of the podcasts for the company so I asked him a little bit about them. He said they are very simple and great for a company like the one we work at (that sells equine nutrition supplements) to provide more information on their products’ ingredients and how to properly use them to get the most benefit. He said that it also makes a company look a lot more credible if they have audio and video uploads that show how much they care about their customers, and how much knowledge they have for the product and the subject.

The conclusion’s statement that “it’s truly worth your effort to take some time to understand how easy and effective it is to download audio podcasts and music” (223) definitely made me want to go out and find podcasts relating to my interests and the advertising world.

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07/27/2011

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Chapter 10

I really like the concept of podcasts. With iPods and iPhones being so popular right now I think podcasts are an extremely beneficial thing to look into if it fits your business. I think if you are going to pull off a podcast you have to make sure the speaker is interesting to people and will be able to come up with things to talk about every week/every day. My dad has two favorite morning radio djs that he isn’t able to listen to while he’s at work. However, they upload podcasts of their program every day and he’s able to download those and listen to them at the gym and on his drive home.

I think of this along the same lines as blogging, just with speaking instead of typing. Businesses can use podcasts to explain their products and how to utilize them, or just to provide news about the industry and their company in general. There may not be a huge market for that (depending on what your business is), but you will definitely be reaching out to people who are very highly invested.

I thought it was interesting that Evo Terra said to “just start, and figure it out as you go along” (203). That’s not advice you would expect or necessarily want when it comes to something for your business. When you think about it though, it makes perfect sense. You won’t really know what works as podcast subjects for your target audience until you just start throwing things out there. Then maybe you can send out a poll about what they would actually like to hear. That way you know exactly what to focus on and won’t bore anyone.

I had no idea creating podcasts would be so simple and free! I’m considering creating one for my office in my sorority. Could become very useful.

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07/26/2011

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Chapter 9

Being in college, photo sharing is a huge part of my life. Practically everything you do on the weekend is chronicled in both great (and not so great) photo memories. You instantly make friends with a “tag me in that one!” You spend hours getting ready because you know every movement will be captured on someones camera.

I remember being in summer camp and it was crucial to only photograph the most important things because you only had so much film to last the whole week. The digital camera has changed that completely. Now it is possible to document things that are occurring and upload them instantly if you use your phone’s camera.

I love using flickr for various things and I know many of my friends use it for useful things relating to their major. My cousin right now is on a journalism trip to India and is documenting his trip using flickr, facebook, and tumblr. He uploads only pictures and so far has not said one word. He lets the pictures speak for themselves.

I thought that the “design a Coach tote” contest was a really good example of how to utilize photo sharing from a business perspective. Girls love to design their own stuff (my sorority sisters and I design rings on Tiffany Co.’s website all the time) and I think this strategy really hit on that. The contest made me think of the site Polyvore.com which allows you to design an outfit and then shows you where to purchase those items.

For a more business-to-business example of photo sharing, recently the company I’m interning at celebrated their 20th anniversary and an agricultural blogger came and photographed to whole thing for use on his blog. He provided a link to his flickr account where hundreds of photos were uploaded. He even allowed our company to use his images on our own website. Great way for companies/individuals to help each other out!

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07/26/2011

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Chapter 8

I LOVE WIKIS! I may be getting a little overzealous here but I don’t think one day has past recently (like since I entered college) where I haven’t used Wikipedia to look something up. Now that may sound a little pathetic but it’s actually awesome because I am like a pop culture sponge and I have learned so many cool things from wikis that I never would have otherwise known.

Even though I know we’re not supposed to use Wikipedia as a source for schoolwork it is still always the first place I look because it gives me a perfect general overview of what I am studying. I look at everything on the page and it generally allows me to start thinking of a great outline to research further. I think Wikis are very trustworthy for the most part and it’s pretty obvious when a page doesn’t seem like it’s right.

I had never even heard of WikiHow before reading this book but of course I immediately had to go check it out and I am already in love. The first link I saw was about how to plan the perfect road trip. Coincidentally I was currently searching all over the internet for various road tripping tips. It was incredibly helpful to find such a great resource that was actually helpful and wasn’t just some guy sitting at a cubicle or in his basement assuming what he’s writing is about road trips. P.S. It helped a lot!

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07/25/2011

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Chapter 7

I think that blogs are still some of the best means of social media for companies. I love reading in-depth blog posts from my favorite companies about new products, store changes, great deals, or even job opportunities. There are also blogs I follow for makeup/hair tips and general college tips. A lot of the most popular ones are given tons of free products by various companies as long as they mention them in a blog post. This is GREAT for companies because it gets very positive reviews of their products to hundreds or thousands of subscribers from a very trusted source (if you’re following someone’s blog you definitely trust their opinions).

I haven’t tried blogging in the past because, much like any time I try to start a journal, I can’t think of anything to write about and I quickly give up on the project altogether. Many of my friends have used tumblr or wordpress to document trips they have taken for school or just for leisure. It is a great way for us as their friends to stay updated on everything they do, and it is also a great way for them to document their travels.

It’s great that the book states that “one of the most important features of a blog is the reader’s ability to interact with the author through comments”. Most of the time I think this is a very beneficial aspect of blogging that starts great discussions. An example of a company using blogs very poorly is the recent Netflix fiasco. They virtually ignored the thousands of angry comments they received and even went so far as to delete a good majority of them. This only fueled the angry fire when a much better idea would have been to answer comments with understanding and attempt to help people understand the changes better.

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07/25/2011

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Chapter 6

I have to admit I’m not completely familiar with forums. I suppose comment pages could be counted as a kind of forum so I definitely am active on the televisionwithoutpity.com forum. I love all of the clever things people from around the world have to say about things (and I’m a television junkie).

I definitely see forums as more of an outlet for customers, loyal or infrequent, to gather and talk about your store, product, or website. I see it as more of a customer service opportunity than advertising or marketing. I think it would be a very smart move for any company to include a small forum on their main site (that is monitored of course) for customers to get questions answered, find great deals, rant about customer service issues, etc. Now that I think about it I did see a forum once that was dedicated to Black Friday. Contributors (mostly women) would find mentions of deals that would be going on, people were forming friendships and shopping buddies for that day, and they were planning their means attack on the various stores. Forums are definitely something I’d like to check out in the future on various subjects that I’m interested in. I would love to get other people’s perspectives on things that I am passionate about.

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07/25/2011

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Chapter 5

Wow I cannot believe just how much hard work goes into web pages. It’s crazy to think about how something you usually just use to waste time (facebook, tumblr, etc.) is so complex and intricate.

I just recently changed my major to advertising and have not taken any marketing classes so the concept of the “sales funnel” was very interesting to me since I have never seen it before. I know that I follow exactly all of those steps whenever I’m looking for something so it seems to be a pretty accurate representation. The company I am interning with has recently decided to completely revamp their website and allowed me to help so the section explaining homepages was a life saver. It is so convenient to have this reading assignment coincide with a social media internship! The current site wasn’t up to date and it didn’t really direct a potential customer anywhere. The information was presented and was clear but there was no flow or reason to stay longer than a minute or two. The site did have a couple things going for it that were mentioned in the book though (concentrating things on the top left corner)

The Staples example was very interesting to read because I remember participating in that when it was actually implemented. It was cool to read about the background of it and the fabulous results. It reminded me to look into that and programs like it again for the upcoming school year.

The expert insight provided made me reflect on recent ways the internet has not always been using for education and light entertainment. When Vint Cerf addressed spammers creating “abuses of this online medium” to hack people’s accounts it made me immediately think of fake facebook links or advertisements that are interesting subjects that people click on and are immediately spammed and inadvertently spam all of their friends. Thankfully, I have learned how to avoid these but many people haven’t and it’s unfortunate.

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07/25/2011

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Chapter 4

Unlike many people my age, I still really like using email to communicate.  I will admit that my personal email account is used mostly for deals and coupons that get sent to me from my favorite stores, but it is also a huge tool for my schoolwork. I’m a big fan of email when it comes to little questions I have about assignments in class. Instead of fretting about it all night or doing an assignment wrong, I just send my professor a quick email. It is also a huge deal in the corporate/business world as I have come to find out. I have to constantly check my email at work to make sure I never miss an assignment or a meeting. Outlook is my connection to everything going on around me at my internship.

The tips, techniques, and tactics section was very interesting to me because I didn’t know anything about the “second rules”. Once I read the section though it made a lot of sense and I realized that I am very much influenced by how much a headline grabs my attention. If I receive an email from Express and it doesn’t say “Huge sale going on now” I delete it almost immediately (I get emails sent to my phone). I’m very selfish with my WIIFM when it comes to my personal email account. I can see the 5 second rule being true also for people who actually take the time to read them. I am a very visual person and I am also very impatient (to a fault usually). I want to see a picture and maybe a few words and know the WIIFM of the email.

I loved the section about day parting. That’s another thing I have wondered about but never really took the time to investigate. I thought that the fact that there were even specific times to send an email for niche subjects like canoeing very fascinating. I’m sure this is something that not many companies consider when sending out their emails.

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07/25/2011

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Chapter 3

It was really interesting to see the history of publishing laid out from its beginnings as an oral tradition, to cave painting and papyrus scrolls, and finally up to the instant gratification of online publications. It is easy to get lost in such a technical world and forget all about humanity’s humble beginnings. A recent bout of boredom had me exploring a museum that is nearby to my house. When you really stop, put away the iPhone and explore where we came from it is very eye opening.

I know it will take a while but I will be sad to see printed publications die out. There’s nothing I like more than grabbing a magazine and a Starbucks iced latte and laying out to enjoy a day off. Electronics cannot beat the feel of flipping a page, filling out a quiz, or ripping out a tasty looking recipe (or picture of a celebrity…). I feel the same way about books. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a Nook because I’m an avid reader and all of those books are such a pain to transport in and out of college. But I can’t bring myself to part with my dog-eared, cracked binded, fully loved paperbacks.

Tony Mamone’s report about his online magazine Zimbio peaked my interest, especially because I am interested in seeing how the print industry gets out of the funk it’s in. A fellow intern I work with told me he was majoring in magazine journalism when we first met and it took a lot for me to hold my tongue from yelling “are you crazy?!” Before I had the chance he quickly added that his other major was broadcasting with a minor in computer science and that his dream was to develop an online sports magazine that was as respected as Sports Illustrated. I swallowed my previous astonishment and admitted that I was impressed. I think in this quickly growing technological society it is very important to always be thinking ahead.

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07/13/2011

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