Week 3: Microsegmentation and Social Media

Materials:

• Read “Origins of Social Media”
• Read “Death of Segmentation”
• Watch Seth Godin’s Ted Talk
• Read Community Relations 2.0
• Watch recorded Breeze session
• Listen to “The Long Tail” podcast
• Read “The Long Tail” article
• Read “The Point of Twitter”

Lots of learning objectives this week – I was travelling and there were more requirements than usual in terms of content, so I fell a bit behind in terms of my completed objectives. I will have a bit to catch up on this, but I did enjoy the content I was able to review, especially “The Long Tail” and “Point of Twitter” articles, which I found very interesting. 

Chapter 1 "The Long Tail," in The Long Tail, pp. 15-26

I enjoyed this article.  I have specific experience in the long tail.  I have an app in the App Store that isn't really niche, but for some reason it still manages to get daily downloads and in-app sales.  With the Apple App Store boasting nearly a million apps, it's nearly impossible to reach customers other than paying for advertising to fight into the top 100.  To compete, as a small developer, I must reach an audience that is looking for something 'different' from the mainstream.  With search keywords as one of the only free tools for advertising, I use keywords that are less searched for, but have considerably less competition.  These long-tail search terms put my app as the first result instead of being buried underneath hundreds of other apps.

The concept of niche products vs hit products being worth the same in net profit to an internet retailer is an intriguing idea.  I'll think more on this concept.

The Point of Twitter (from NPR "On the Media" program of April 23, 2010; 9 minutes)

I enjoyed listening to the NPR piece about Twitter very much. I had to laugh at John Stewart’s comments a couple of years ago – and admit that until quite recently, I felt the same way. To be really honest, I am still not sure I understand the point of Twitter from a consumer’s point of view as the technology becomes more widely adopted. As advertisers have begun to realize the potential gold mine of marketing that is Twitter, it has become more and more of a strictly advertising platform. Yes, there are still the tweets about Justin Beiber, or the newest Kardashian baby name, but increasingly, my feed is full of branded tweets from companies trying to interact with me. The point of Twitter (assuming I get it) is communication among people – and often about how they feel about a company or person or event, etc. I think the interesting thing will be to watch what happens and whether Twitter can balance the communication of its users with the advertising machines trying to communicate to its users. Personally – at some point, there is a magic ratio – I’m not sure what it is – but when my Twitter feed begins to resemble the home shopping network (nonstop commercials all the time) it’s probably time to re-assess whether it’s a tool that I really want to use.

Twitter Infographic:

Week 2: Empowering the Customer

Materials:

• Read “The Dawn of the Human Network”
• Read “How to Build Your Startup Without Building Code” (looking forward to this article.)
• Read “Why the Groundswell and Why Now?
• Listen to “Star Search” clip                    
• Read “The Internet Before Search Engines” 

I was able to complete my learning objectives for this week – and felt that both the Groundswell and Startup articles were quite compelling. Both made me think about my own situation and how best to apply the concepts contained in the articles. 

http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/30/how-to-build-your-startup-without-learning-code/

This quick article by Tony Navarro on VentureBeat attempts to breakdown the barriers between having a web startup idea and actually building the idea.  The major hurdle for most people is actually creating the code.  Navarro recommends his non-coding audience simulate/prototype the idea, take advantage of the low-tech options for branding and marketing, and then try some Web 2.0 sites for fundraising.

I do have some programming skills, but that doesn't make the process a lot easier; in fact, as the founder of a startup, it may be detrimental to have the skills to personally build your idea.  Instead of focusing on the bigger picture of building a business and monetizing you may waste your time fighting bugs and implementing useless features.  Programming skills aren't completely transferable either.  Building desktop applications for enterprise customers won't prepare you for building a dynamic and user oriented website.

Regardless of programming skills, it may always make sense to outsource your code to someone with more free time.

"Why the Groundswell and Why Now?" in Groundswell, pp.3-15

I really enjoyed reading this article. Having been a longtime user of Digg and other user-driven sites, I have seen firsthand how a community can backlash at its “host” for perceived wrongs, etc. The article really made me think about how so many companies want to get on the social media bandwagon, and want to engage their communities… but I can't help but think about all of the companies that have gotten so much more than they asked for. Engaging users is dicey business. I’m sure it’s fantastic when it goes right, but when it goes wrong… it’s hard to control, as illustrated in the “Groundswell” article. What’s worse, when a company makes a mistake in their social media strategy, media tends to love covering it.

McDonalds created the Twitter hashtag  #mcdstories, with the intent of engaging their customers to tell great stories about McDonalds. Instead, the hashtag became widely used to lament horror stories from the restaurant, from wrong orders to surly employees to a full host of digestive complaints. So in essence, McDonalds ended up paying for terrible, and sometimes terribly funny, bad publicity. Making matters worse, the mistake was widely covered in the media.

American Apparel made a similar blunder, tweeting out to its users during Superstorm Sandy that in case they were “bored” during the storm, there would be a big sale in those states affected.  I’m sure their official social media strategy did not call for turning national disasters into advertising opportunities… but that’s what ended up happening. These are just two of the examples I remember of a social media strategy going horribly wrong – and they both illustrate how essential it is to have tight control over social media campaigns and consider all possible outcomes! The groundswell can be hard to gauge, and even harder to control once a mistake has been made.

History of Social Media Infographic:

Week 1: How the Web Has Changed Marketing Strategy

Materials:

• Consumed introductory materials.
• Begin to dive into course materials and understand the framework for assignments and deliverables.
• Read first 50 pages of textbook, understand Business Model Canvas.
• Read “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” (I really, really hope not.)
• Read “Do You Trust This Face?”
• Watch clip of Katie Couric & Bryan Gumbel discussing the “series of tubes” that is the internet.  (Wow)

I was able to complete all of my learning objectives for the week.  I really enjoyed the readings and video clip.

"Do You Trust This Face?" by Alex French, GQ, December, 2008

I had an interesting experience the other day that brought to mind the “Do You Trust this Face?” article from GQ. The experience really reinforced to me the ways in which Facebook has changed the way we approach the internet – and what it has made possible in doing so.  Earlier this week, I signed up for an account with Airbnb.com, a service devoted to helping strangers rent their room/apartment/house to other strangers for short term stays.  In order to establish my identity and have the site confirm me as trustworthy and legitimate, I had to provide my Facebook and LinkedIn information, which were then cross referenced to prove that I was who I said I was, that I was a legitimate, real person, worthy of renting someone’s apartment. The fact that I was willing to give up my privacy and share with other members a sense of who I was in “real life” to legitimize myself online was interesting to me. Would a site like Airbnb work without exchange of cross-referenced personal information? The more I thought about it, the more I thought that yes, if I was going to rent my house to someone, I would like to see their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.  Really made me think about how these services have changed the way we do business, approach strangers, and market our services. Airbnb has found a unique way to bridge the awkward issue of letting a “stranger” stay in your house – creating an interesting market space that may not have been as possible or approachable without social media.

Social Media Explained

First Post

Hello World!

My name is Kelly and this blog was made for my KSB class X501: Marketing in the Era of Digital Technology.  I will post my thoughts on class readings here weekly.  Please feel free to comment and share.