How to be a successful blogger

March 28th, 2012 • Uncategorized

As I have never blogged, except in this class, I decided to do research on what were effective methods of blogging!

1. Start blogging and don’t stop blogging

It is important to only launch your blog when it is properly set up. (Well I have already failed there.) Pick a topic and stick with it. It is important to be consistent. Make sure you get to your point.

2. Content

Pick a topic for your blog and make sure you generate relevant content where you can encourage comments. Make sure there are pictures. Set up an about page and a way for visitors to contact you online and offline.

3. Provide Value

Why do people come to your blog and keep RETURNING? Do you provide value through a service or through your content? Get friends to check out your blog and encourage linking.

4.Offer an email version of your RSS feed

According to  Copyblogger, offering an email version of your RSS feed can double your subscribers.

5. Network

Get integrated into niche communities and link other bloggers.

6. Simple and attractive format

This is almost as important as the content. People are visual and you should try to choose a theme which suits your niche.

7. Don’t expect to make money from blogging

It is important to have a side job and not be completely focused on blogging because you will get frustrated if you are only focused on the blog. As well, don’t put too many ads because it is unattractive to the reader who is looking for quality information. Many people go into blogging for the purpose of making money but it is important to focus on building a community instead!

Anyways, start blogging!

Interesting online ad

March 26th, 2012 • Uncategorized

I’d have to say this is the funniest online Ad I saw this year. This is a beer ad from Argentina’s Andes beer.

Watch the ad and let me know what you think? I thought it was a pretty engaging way to get the consumer involved. Is this an unethical product? Is it memorable?

Seems pretty funny to me. I can see how this ad went viral in South America.

Grantoo: An online game platform that gives educational grants

March 20th, 2012 • 3 comments Uncategorized

Grantoo has come out with an amazing way to provide a better incentive for online game playing. Often times students will procrastinate and waste their precious study time on games such as: poker, puzzles, and quizzes.

Grantoo says that a Cone study has shown 83 percent of Americans want brands to support a cause, and the new gaming platform hopes to offer a way for them to do this. Their idea is to give young people a better reason to be gaming while allowing for businesses to show their benevolence in supporting a good cause.

Hype Machine: A great way to find songs and publicize songs

March 13th, 2012 • Uncategorized

With all the hype of bills such as SOPA and PIPA the past year, I have really begun to think that the music industry really needs to start adapting. I think the future is going to be with blogs and companies which focus on booking live performances. Artists can become famous on their own and with the internet there is an emergence of a DIY attitude.

I would like to introduce Hypemachine. This website has been around since 2005 and  I became a user in 2009. The neat thing about this website is it aggregates the most recent postings from a number of blogs. Through your account you can track your favourite blogs and favourite artists. The songs from these blogs and artists are presented in an easy to use format with a link to the blog posting.

Artists can send their music to these blogs and not only will it be posted on that blog but it will be linked through Hypemachine where they have an opportunity to reach the charts on the Hypemachine website and gain more publicity.

The great thing about this website is you can be the first to find the newest songs! Definitely something worth checking out.

KONY 2012: Enlightening as to the power of social media?

March 10th, 2012 • 1 comment Uncategorized

I have a huge problem with this. Invisible Children attempts to make Joseph Kony famous in this 30 minute documentary which is available through Vimeo and Youtube and has been posted numerous times on Facebook.

Let’s talk about the power of social media; as well, let’s explore what is wrong with this documentary.

1. People are sheep– This Youtube video now has 74 million hits over the past week and people will argue that this has caused much awareness. Realistically though, how many people did more research than reading the blogs criticizing KONY 2012 or looking up news articles in support of the documentary? I highly doubt that it motivated numerous people to research the history of Uganda in the last 20 years or even know the general location of Uganda on a map of Africa.

I mean is KONY 2012 and different than this?

2. Just because they’re doing some good, doesn’t mean it’s all good– We are all in awe by the amount of interest this documentary has stirred and we would like to believe that it is for a good cause. However, not everyone starts a non-profit for good intentions. It is hard for me to trust founders who would take a photo like this:

This may seem trivial to some yet if the founders don’t understand the importance of good PR for a non-profit then that is a fundamental flaw in their understanding of how non-profits run. Being a fundraiser myself, I know how important it is to withhold a certain image which is in line with the organization and any PR that deviates from this image could be detrimental to the non-profit organization. These men should have been fired from their organization after this photo.

This image and the use of the KONY 2012 kits, makes me wonder what Bailey, Poole, and Russell’s intentions are. There is a fine line between doing something because it will raise great awareness and doing something for celebrityhood which can come across as gimmicky.

3.Issues with the message- If you look at this video below you will have a better understanding of why the message of KONY 2012 is misleading and how it has angered citizens of Uganda. I was interested to know that making a KONY shirt was extremely insulting. I suppose it would be like wearing a Hitler shirt in Europe.

4.North American Attitude- Finally, this form of online marketing and use of the KONY kit is a North American solution. The CEO’s of invisible child may argue that they Ugandans don’t understand these methods of promotion which will eventually solve the problem. In an interview I watched Jason Russell talks about how it is important to have a “bad guy” that everyone can relate to similarly to all the fairy tales we read as a child. He stated that by focusing on this one person it was easier to get people to support the cause. His method of publicizing Kony is a paternalistic attitude where the North Americans “know” what they’re doing and are solving the Ugandans’ problems for them. Frankly, it is insulting, even if there was good intention.

Video Marketing: A New 1 to 1 Model

February 28th, 2012 • Uncategorized

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dydei-tK5mE

Timbooktwo has created a socially responsible company based around a new model for online video marketing. They’ve decided for every video they make for  a tourism company, they will make one for a charity of that company’s choice. The tourism company will only have to pay for the price of one video but Timbooktwo will put in their own effort and time to create a second video which will encourage charitable donations.

This is an example of another Belgian company who is trying to give back to their customer and make a difference in the world!

I think online video marketing is a cheap effective way to promote businesses and charities. It gives them an opportunity to go viral if they are successful, and help spread the word. What do you think of this E-marketing strategy?

E-Marketing Humans

February 27th, 2012 • 7 comments Uncategorized

We all use social media everyday but what are the effects of these mediums on ourselves? We are marketing ourselves online. We make ourselves readily available through: Facebook, Twitter, Eharmony, Google+, Plenty of Fish, Myspace, Nexopia…..the list goes on.

Dr.Larry Rosen at California State University noted that 48% of people post on Facebook as soon as they wake up. It seems our society is getting more and more narcissistic with a need for fame as people expose their daily lives all over the internet. People are advertising themselves and seeing if people will receive them.

However, the most interesting thing discovered from his study was the creation of “virtual empathy”. This “virtual empathy” is similar to the Random Acts of Kindness marketing strategy that I posted on previously. People perceive empathy as anything that is in-person activity showing relatedness. Rosen found that the virtual empathy received online was a positive influence that helped distressed teens.

I don’t know how valid these findings are though. I mean, wouldn’t someone who received more “virtual empathy” from more friends have a higher self-worth caused by Facebook compared to someone who received no “virtual empathy”. Not to mention, Facebook and numerous other social networking sites are set up so that people feel like they are being compared. Is that really healthy?

Social networking sites provide a means for self advertising. By “buying in” to social media you are accepting the societal norm that everybody must have a profile page to showcase who they are. I read an article a couple months ago about how narcissism is directly linked to personal social media use. For example, the more self photos that someone has, they more likely they are to be narcissistic. They do this so you will perceive them as more attractive and more likely to be friends with or to have as a partner.

I’m beginning to wonder how much people derive their impression of a new person from using social media. If someone were to add me on Facebook, they might make judgements about my “brand” through our mutual friends. Are these friends likeable? Are they people you would judge to be part of your inner circle of friends or someone who you could let in or are they people you would never associate yourself with but have them on Facebook to appease them? Next, they might look through your profile photos. Oh, she has a photo partying at that crazy music festival…out of question. Or, wow he’s in THAT fraternity, I never knew.

The big question is, are we going to have to learn how to modify our “own brand” from a young age or are we going to have to realize that brands are only perceptions which aren’t the truth. I could use E-marketing to sway your opinion of myself through using this blog. I could use E-marketing to make sure I have the right Facebook photos and right Facebook posts. Are we moving to a new generation where half our life is lived online?

Random Acts of Kindness

February 26th, 2012 • Uncategorized

So, I often peruse Trendwatching.com to see what’s the latest thing. I came across Random Acts of Kindness and found it interesting.

The three driving trends toward this Random Acts of Kindness movement are:

1. Human Touch: Making brands seem more human-like. Brands even have their own Facebook pages which function virtually the same as our own personal Facebook pages.

1. Putting it Out there: Everyone wants to be public. They want to be on your newsfeed which is no different from your local celebrity tabloid. People list their whereabouts, their thoughts, their moods, what they’re doing at the moment, and anything they can think of.

1. Passing it On: We share to connect with others. The internet allows for easy instantaneous sharing which can go viral.

Examples that I found online were:

Biotherm’s response to a tired tweet.

Proctor and Gamble owned deodorant, Secret, actually brought products from the United States to Italy through one of their agency executives personal trips just to send them to a customer in Spain who had wrote on their Facebook wall about not being able to get the product in Spain.

An interesting campaign called the “Share Good Campaign” launched by Emergen-C so that people can tag their friends who may be having a tiring day so they can receive a free sample of Emergen-C.

So, what do you think? Is it too intrusive? Does it make the brand seem more real? From a cost-benefit analysis, is the retention and acquisition of new customers worth the time and effort they are putting into this?

We’ll Give you Free Internet?

February 24th, 2012 • Uncategorized

I came across this and found it quite ingenious…if it works.

In Belgium, a mobile operator called Mobile Vikings released Viking Spots, which would allow for customers to receive free internet service assuming they took part in the offers from local businesses. What a great way to promote local businesses!

On Mobile Vikings blog, they state, “Everybody has the right for drinking water, energy and education. Similarly, we believe that everyone should have free access to information and digital services. Mobile Vikings wants to be a movement that accelerates this process. We think that VikingSpots can help to achieve this.”

The way it works is, users interact with the allocated spots to receive “Viking Points” which can be exchanged for mobile service; as well, they receive free mobile internet service. The project is currently in the Beta Phase.

My only question is, would there be enough Viking Spots to warrant this new technology and would this free internet cut out as you left the area where you utilized the app? Would it be worth the hassle of going through numerous advertisements and offers as you hit different Viking Spots or would you only have to deal with one offer and you would have internet for a certain amount of time? Finally, would it work in Vancouver since we have an influx of a million coffee shops which already provide free internet. I know that Rogers had a deal that allowed free  phone calling, assuming you found a free internet spot in Vancouver…which is not that difficult with a Starbucks on every block.

#1 Internet Bad Guy of Now

January 9th, 2012 • Uncategorized

Vic Toews. The biggest criminal of the year? Actually, he is Canada’s Public Safety Minister under Stephen Harper. Funny how you’d mistake him for a criminal if you were following the media this past month. So, how could this guy have a big affect on the internet and e-marketing? Well, for now let’s hope he doesn’t have an effect.

Vic Toews introduced Bill C-30 which would allow any “lawful authority” to monitor Canadians’ internet and emails and they would also be able to access any information from internet service providers and cell phone companies without a warrant. This “lawful authority” extends to police, as ruled by the judge.

The bill titled as, “The Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act” is purposefully polarizing.  “You’re with us or you’re with the child pornographers,” Vic Toews had stated to critics of Bill C-30 earlier this month. Is this a sick joke? Thankfully, this tactic of being purposefully polarizing created massive backlash from Canadian citizens.

This need to invade the individual’s right to privacy will change online marketing. People will need to become more invasive to be competitive. All information will be available online and through databases. This could mean that corporations will use corrupt methods to retrieve data through the use of police.  All our data will be in one place! Do they really think hackers won’t be able to defeat the government’s security measures?

According to CIA, 80% of the population uses the internet in Canada. Do we really want to give the government and police access to almost the entire population of Canada? Not to mention, they would now have access to our personal texts. We already thought Facebook was bad enough.

With these new and upcoming “invasion of privacy” acts, the scope of internet marketing will drastically change. Now will technology evolve fast enough to defeat these dictatorial acts from our very own Canadian government? Definitely something to think about.