The Rambling Fawkes

I hate to write that this is my final post as I hope to one day return to posting on a blog. But one must be realistic about one’s time, and right now my available time is running pretty thin. I will say though that the last number of weeks has certainly opened my eyes to social media, its applications and impact on the world around us. I can happily say that I now retrieve approximately 80% of my daily news via Twitter, which is something I had never used in the past. I also am now a huge fan of Hootsuite, as I find it saves time and gets me the information I want and need in a very efficient manner. I am also now more sensitive to the connectivety associated wth social media and the “real world” so to speak, and via our project, can see how you can strategically link to the two in order to produce real world results.

I suspect that my usage will maintain, if not increase, since being invovled with this blog and BAMA 513. I now feel better equipped to sort through, analyze and evalauate social media technologies to see how they can fit in and enhance my life and my relationships with others.

I also realized through this process that I was a reluctant user, whereby I knew I needed to be “connected” but in a way rejected participation as it requried me to learn how it could be integrated into my daily routine. Being negative allowed me to reject it with a reason, even though the reason was not sound. I can now say that I am a convert, ready to accept these new things, and take the time to give them proper attention before forming an opinion either way.

I await the next technology with open arms.

Bye for now…

on Vimeo

Cool application of something everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad can relate to that in effect ties the common use of the device with the Audi brand. Tying two cool things together is never a bad idea in my opinion.

Wired Magazine: August 2011

From: Wired Magazine: “Rate This Article: What’s Wrong with the Culture of Critique”, Chris Colin, July 26, 2011

This article raises some very interesting questions about the effect that reviews of, well, pretty much everything online, have on our psyche and, more importantly, our opinions toward whatever the subject of the review may be. The article asserts that the impact is especially true when we have not experienced said reviewed experience before being subjected to the review. Chris Colin proposes that on some level we are polluted by exposure to these reviews, whether we like it or not. This pollution in some way diminishes “a tiny but vital part of us,” and “we start to doubt our own perspective.”

His position is an interesting one and certainly worthy of further review from a marketing perspective. What he is essentially suggesting is that there is value in the blind experience, of doing something without any preconceived notions of what the experience will be like. Although on some level I concur with this viewpoint, as a new, unexpected positive experience is certainly exciting and pleasurable. However, as it relates to reviews, my support for his position is strictly from a scientific perspective. Scientific in that there has been significant psychological research with regard to the power of suggestion and its effect on our perception of the world around us. So yes, the reviews have an impact, and they do paint a certain preconceived notion of an expected experience before we are able to experience it. But this is simply human nature, it happens regardless of the source of suggestion, whether it is advertising, or reviews.

At a base level, we are beings of experience. It is an essential part of life. We also strive to maximize our happiness, meaning to engage in as many pleasurable experiences as possible, and to reduce the number of as many un-pleasurable experiences as possible. Given our awareness of our finite time on this earth, we also turn to each other to help guide each other through life in order to achieve this goal. We have always done this, and quite frankly I believe we always will. It is part of who we are. Think of what might have been the very first review you encountered as a child, when your mother said, “Don’t touch the stove, it’s hot and you will burn yourself.” This is a review of the experience of touching the stove and what you can expect should you do so. If you were like me, you touched it anyway, and screamed in pain as you pulled your finger away, and thought, hmmm, perhaps I should have listened to that review my mother provided, I could have avoided that painful experience. And so it begins, we learn that much can be learned, and much pain can be avoided, by simply listening to others who have experienced it.

So what impact does this have on marketers? I think that the existence of review mechanisms is testament to the fact that people are weary of claims that marketers make when promoting their products or services. People simply don’t believe. Benefit statements claimed by marketers meet such resistance from consumers who are inundated with these messages that it soon becomes difficult for people to make any decisions that they feel comfortable with. Add to this the magnitude of choice that exists, and the probability that a consumer will encounter a negative experience increases. Consumers know this, and so their anxiety increases further. Enter reviews. Reviews act as that third party validator, an unbiased comment on the benefit statements being purported by the marketer. Their existence reduces the risk associated with making choices, and provides marketers the ability to say, “See, we told you it was good!”

Considering this in the context of Chris Colin’s theory that too many reviews “becomes an unnecessary handrail, too many floodlights along the dark path,” I say, “So what?” Perception is my reality, and if I am told that I will enjoy a piece of pizza from a particular pizza joint, and I go to said pizza joint and enjoy a piece of pizza, then I am happy, which is my goal. Is it really relevant whether I formed this opinion or not, or that I enjoyed the pizza? I argue the latter, that pleasure is pleasure, influenced or not.

However, there are dangers with unfiltered, anonymous reviews. Namely, there is the danger of review contamination from marketers posting false reviews, which, if they become commonplace, could jeopardize any value that online reviews may provide. I would purport that the likelihood of this occurring is low though, for the same reason that the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia has increased the more people that review and contribute. Specifically, false positive reviews would entice people to purchase, which would spur negative reviews once it was discovered that the experience was not as reviewed. Over time these negative reviews would contaminate the positive reviews, which would reduce the weighting people place on the positive reviews and push people to alternatives where no disparity, or at least lower disparity of opinion exists. In short, it would be self-regulating.

So does all of this exclude my desire for fresh, unbiased experience, no. We all like to be the first; this is also in our nature, particularly in Western culture. This desire is especially true in a world of so few firsts, making them all the more special. But all in all, a world with reviews to help guide the way to pleasure is a better world then one of burnt fingers and stubbed toes due to the lack of floodlights.

Woman gets stranded in SFO 

US Airways could now be known as the most heartless airline of the skies, all over $30. Given the details of the story and US Airways response, I would venture to guess that the distribution of this story along with the negative attributions associated with it will cost US Airways much much more.

Source: I cam across this on Yahoo News while I was logging into my email account.

My Audi

Using social media to sell my car, a very practical application.

Lowest Trick-or-Treaters since 1988

I came across this story when I was about to log into my mail account. Yahoo does a great job of putting a lot of media in front of you in such a way that you are compelled to click through. I suspect that I will click through on a story perhaps 3 out of 10 times when checking my email, or closing my email down. This story was interesting because I really wanted to to know why there would be less kids this year! It is a timely story with a good hook, and something we can all relate to, trick-or-treating!

Welcome to my blog. Although I have in the past produced a web page and added some content to it, this is the first time I will attempt to maintain a blog that is up to date and reflects, on some level, content that others will find interesting. I mean, that is the goal is it not, to write something that others are interested in reading? Why else would you blog if you didn’t expect others to want to read what you have written. If this is not the goal, then you are basically engaged in documenting your thoughts in a public diary, which , quite honestly, is just strange.

But what to write about? Given that I am writing this as part of my BAMA 513 class on e-Marketing, I think it is only prudent that the focus of the blog represent some interaction with social media and the web. In keeping with the premise of e-Marketing and social media, which in my opinion is about online interaction and intersection with goods, services, media, news etc., I think that my blog will represent my natural interaction with these items as I intersect them. As I see something of interest, something that truly captures my attention, I will post it and comment on it and why it caught my attention, how I came across it and what effect it had on me.

Let the blogging begin!