Month: November 2010

Crystal Chu

Looking at Crystal’s blog, I realize how soon Christmas will be here. That is one thing I haven’t thought of for a while, another thing I haven’t thought of before is the business of Christmas.

If you look at its (Christmases) origins, it comes from religion. The only way that it has changed and become such a commercial period of the year is because of marketing. This is an extreme example of how powerful marketing is. It managed to changed the philosophy of a holiday from religion to commercial. Now, for many companies Christmas is there most successful time of the year. They can sell everything and anything to anyone. The only problem for these companies is the competition.

I think that the Christmas spirit has been created by marketing. People talk about presents, lights, trees, food, family, cold, etc. Although its wonderful to have these things, they are not important and actually have no reason to really be around Christmas. Yet they are, Christmas has been commercialized and the marketers that did this were extremely smart and successful.

I recently read a blog from a fellow classmates, Berent Hagen, who discussed temporary tattoos that stay on for a couple of weeks and how companies are paying people to get these tattoos. I would like to take this idea a little further into how some people get real tattoos of a company.

Take, for instance, this guy. I do not know specifically why he got this tattoo but I do know people who have been offered thousands of dollars to have a companies logo tattooed on themselves.
I question the morality of this all. Has advertising gone to far and has it broken too many ethical boundaries. I understand that companies are always trying to gain the upper hand over their competition but I do not see that this is the best way to do that. In fact, I think that this might have a negative effect on a company. I know personally that I would dislike a company if I saw their logo tattooed on someones body, but who really knows. I mean, I’m just an average ordinary consumer like the rest of the world…..

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/social-media-secret.html

“Most people fail miserably at Social Media Marketing! Why? Because they don’t really get what it’s all about. They think it’s about promoting their companies. It’s not; it’s about MAKING FRIENDS.”

I do not claim to be a social marketer, in fact, I far from that. However, I seemed to have surrounded myself with people who are always online doing social media and marketing themselves.

When Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of online communication first arose I was hesitant to get involved. I seemed to be the only one who didn’t have Facebook and the only friend who refused to use Twitter.

Nevertheless my perspectives have now changed. I see how my friends talk to each other online constantly, they are always in  contact with each other and always know what each other are doing. In addition to just themselves, they have begun to meet new people online. One of my friends has formed a friendship with a UFC/MMA fighter called Pat Berry and he has also managed to get an interview with him. Another friends that I have starts many of her relationships online. When she first meets someone she adds them. Then she talks to them online and eventually they become friends. She networks like crazy meeting so many people that I just can’t keep up.

This is why I have realized that social media is not about promoting themselves or their companies, its about making friends with everyone online. Its about forming bonds with the people online to make them feel like individuals instead of part of a corporate chain.

The media blog that I have linked this to taught me a lot as well as solidify many views that I previously had.