Blogging the new era

The Age of the Internet has really changed how and where we get our information about products. Before computers and social media websites were invented, most people would ask friends or family members for advice before they would buy a product. He or she might take weeks or even months looking in different stores or calling around to see whether or not they should make their purchase. Nowadays you can sit at your computer and have what use to take weeks and even months available to you at the click of a button. Blogging has become the “phone a friend” technique for the 21^st Century.

When consumers are shopping on the internet they are able to view multiple reviews written by consumers that have purchased that specific product. The reviews sometimes clearly and simply illustrate how the blogger feels about the product by showing thumbs up or thumb down and can range to a full list of the product’s pros and cons. Of course this is all dependent on the person who is writing the blog and that they are not simply blogging to complain about a product. There are pros and cons to relying only on blogs for opinions about products. As mentioned earlier those who are blogging might be the extreme opinions involving those who loved the product and those that hated it. The fact that they have extreme opinions could overshadow the everyday opinion about the true usefulness of the product. I believe that as long as you look at multiple blogs and other resources then you can weight out any potential bias. Personally I enjoy blog reviews because I believe consumers are more reliable then the reviews on the product’s website. As part of marketing, I am sure a lot of the reviews on the product websites are very positive and illustrate the product in a positive light. Consumers, however, are more likely to give their honest opinions about pros and cons. I know I would trust a consumer that recently purchased a product and wrote an honest review of how the product worked. A lot of rookie consumers seem to fall in this trap and trust that what the company is saying about the product is the truth. But think about it? They want to sell it to you because it’s their product.  The positive in all of this is that now reviews are easily available to any customer that takes the time to turn on their laptop. Not only can they save money in the process but they also save time having to make a return of a product that they ended up not being pleased with anyway.

social media campaign

Campaigning in social media marketing can be effective. The biggest company I can think of that has done this effectively has been McDonald’s. For example, one of their more recent successful campaigns has been that they extended their $1 Sweet Tea deal to any drink could be purchased for a dollar. This one is still a big deal because everyone loves the idea of getting the most for their dollar. Also; if they buy the drink in the store, then they are able to get as many refills as they want and they only had to spend $1 to get the cup.

Overall, one of McDonald’s bigger campaigns over the years has been all about the Big Mac. Recently, campaign energy has been focused on bringing the classic Big Mac back into the spot light. They have also put an emphasis on the new Big Mac Wrap that allows the customer to enjoy the Big Mac taste but in a tortilla shell instead of the classic sesame seed bun. The appeal is to bring in a younger generation and remind those faithful to the Big Mac why they fell in love with it in the first place. From catchy songs to buy one get one free coupons on Facebook and through text messages, McDonalds is trying to reach customers in every way possible. I have seen over the years so much social media marketing about the McDonald’s Big Mac. This is a prime example of a McDonald’s classic that is still popular with the public of today. The reason this campaign has been so successful over the years is because they brought it to the consumer in a simplistic way by letting the product just shine on its own. Also, they have played around with the value of the Big Mac. At one time they were selling the Big Mac for only 95¢. This campaign was a huge success because of the value. The overall simplistically and value of the Big Mac has allowed it to stay around and become a favorite instead of a fad.

The Big Mac over the years, check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj95JqTAors&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz656YOEixI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UWq26V01po&feature=related

Social Media: How Can it Help/Hurt Your Professional Life?

The world is a dog eat dog world. Anything negative that is available for everyone to see can and will be used against you. Summiting a post on Facebook about the “awesome party” Friday night along with pictures form that night’s activities, might not be so cool Monday morning when your boss decides to leave you a comment on your page about the expense reports due later that day. Not only will they be able to view the festivities that you took a part in, i.e. multiple pictures of little red cups and dazed and confused you, but they know you lied about having to miss the prior evening’s late night group meeting because your Aunt died. Either you choose to morn by getting drunk and taking photos of your drunkenness or you are a bad liar, at this point it is no longer up to you to decide but your boss. You just earned some much unwanted attention that is now being brought against your character and work ethic. Management might just decide that they are no longer in need of the skills that you possess. Bad news! What the example above illustrates is that when social media is not used correctly it can affect your professional life in a negative way. It is important to be responsible with the items you put out into “web space”. Not only do they not disappear but they are a direct reflection about yourself.

            On the other hand, social media can be beneficial. It can be used as your own personal inexpensive advertisement about you. Using Facebook and MySpace allows a person to put up information about themselves and broadcast it to millions of people without having to spend the time he or she would have needed to send out emails and make phone calls. For example, your resume can be passed around on all the different types of media. This will literality let the businesses you are trying to become a part of have all the necessary tools to see if you would be a fit into their growing team. Social media also connects the employer to the employee. It can be used as a tool by businesses to advertise jobs and receive feedback from many more candidates then simply placing a want ad in the paper. In general, social media is connecting everyone globally. Even though you might be competing with someone in China for a job, social media allows you to see other jobs internationally that might be available that you can also compete for. Just picking up a newspaper and looking through the classifieds would not give you the same end result.

            Only being a junior in college and not so far removed from high school I remember many instances of friends’ job hunting during the summertime. Looking back specifically at my senior year of high school, I remember some friends who would always post crazy pictures of events that would take place of Friday nights. They all thought it was cool to have these outrageous and inappropriate pictures on their page. There never seemed to be a dilemma until one of my close friend’s tried applying for a local job. He received the interview opportunity by networking through a connection from Church. On the day of his interview he received a call from the prospective employer informing him that he was no longer needed for the position. Puzzled, my friend asked why the position was no longer available and the prospective employer stated that he was no longer interested in him for the position because there was conflicting information about his character after he had gathered information from sources on Facebook. Based off of those experiences, I have learned that the most important rule when it comes to social media is to censor what you choice to place on social media sites because you don’t know who is watching.

            To have social media on your side is the most important aspect of being successful with social media sites. By keeping yourself professional in your social lives, will allow you to be fully accepted into the professional world.

Is social media marketing a fad or here to stay?

Social media marketing is here to stay and can be considered a force to be reckoned with. Most of the information we receive is found via a social network.  As a society, we don’t watch TV for information and instead we choose to simply pull out a cellphone or computer because these sources are a faster way for receiving the same information. In the YouTube video about social media marketing a surprising statistic about reaching viewers was provided. Looking specifically at the statistic of reaching 50 million users, it took Radio 38 years, TV 13 years, the Internet 4 years, and the IPod 3 years while it only took less than a year Facebook to reach 200 million users. Crazy right? By finding a fast way for people to link up, communicate, express and inform; social media was bound to be a huge success.

With the recent exponential growth in social media marketing for large corporate businesses, many small businesses are following their example to invest in this new type of marketing. It allows small businesses to have a more equal footing with the larger businesses. Advertisements in newspapers and magazines cost money. Larger businesses have funds to buy into advertisement and had a monopoly over smaller businesses to reach customers. Now small businesses can take advantage of free advertisement through the use of social media marketing. For example, think of a little surf shop that just opened in Myrtle Beach, NC.  The business owner decides to make a Facebook page of his shop to connect with locals and advertise the fact that he has the lowest prices in town. Before he knows it he has a large line out the door full of people from all around because of the FREE advertisement he posted on Facebook.

For both large and small businesses, social media marketing allows businesses to reach customers who they would not normally be able to. Everyday communication revolves around social media and it only makes sense to reach the consumer through the resources that they use daily. The one fact that amazed me most about technological advances came from the assigned videos from last week. It is almost unbelievable that within my lifetime, 25 years down the road, cellphones will be as small as a blood cell. When this technology was first created it took a whole building to contain all of its’ parts. Technology will continue to evolve at a fast rate and the only option to try and keep up is to adapt. One of the areas that this is possible for the marketing world is to use social media to reach those who would not normally be reached by what can be considered as old fashion ways to market. Taking all of the above into consideration it makes you step back and see that technology is hitting all of us at 100 mph.