Week 14

Measuring Social Media Marketing

• http://www.business2community.com/social-media/measuring-social-media-sentiment-without-keywords-smiley-faces-0162009

This article describes measing performance of social media marketing in the form of website traffic, conversions, and customers ( from social sites). A measureing tool that monitors positive, negative or neutral words on the social sites are used to measure the effectiveness of the SMM. The article talks  about correalation for positive, negative and neutral measurements. These involve people visiting the website, where they came from , and conversion rates.

• http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/04/13/analytics-focus-how-can-social-media-be-measured

This article tells how there really isn't an honest way yet to measure ROI for SMM. Alot of analytics for SMM aren't really helpful, because trying to measure it isn't easy. The best way to measure it is manually. This makes many business not want to step into to SMM, especially when it's hard to measure. But there was one solution meantion which is Adobe social. This measure SMM through words used and people on mention the brand on social media sites.

• http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/google-adobe-social-media/

This article tells about Adobe social and Google's Analytics. Both are good for measuring social media marketing in their own ways. A big difference between both is that google's is free.  A little detail is given on how each works, but not enough to understand the software fully. Still after both these tools have been mention, the same conclusion comes forth as all the other articles; there is still no 100 percent way to measure social media marketing.

Summary-

After reading these articles i have came to a couple conclusions on the subject of measuring the success and ROi of social media marketing. There is actually no way to fully measure social media marketing, but there are tools to help somewhat. Adobe offers its software which is Adobe Social. This software links to the social media sites and gathers data which can be used to help see what people are mentioning your brand. And then there is Googles Analytics. This software is free and doesn't gather data from the social sites, but actually from your own site (traffic).

Since there really is no way to measure social media marketing, many businesses don't go into the trend. How safe is it to invest into a marketing strategy that is difficult to measure results. But i see this as a good thing. With businesses less willingly to step into this marketing, this leaves room for startup companies to move in. If they can gather enough information on how social media sites work ( from person use such as facebook), they will be willing to step in and try it, with out caring of ROI. This can provide a cheap marketing strategy that can benefit small mom and pop businesses. It is well known that big corporations are always thinking ahead and trying not to lose money, and not being able to measure results for boards to see, keeps them away probably. And overall, taking this class has put me in the place to take my step into social media marketing for my startup business and expect not to measure results from it, but to see it, through increase in customers, increase in knowledge of my business, free marketing, and relationships with my customers through posting.

 



Week 13

www.bassproshops.com started off in 1971 by Johnny Morris. He created the business from traveling all over the U.S. in a uhaul picking up all kinds of fishing tackle because of lack of tackle in his city. He then sold it out of his fathers liqour store and this started Bass Pro Shops. His first marketing strategy was actually catalogs. Many people wanted catalogs to see all the selections of tackle and gear he had in stock. But eventually technology grew and soon came the internet. Now with the internet marketing has changed dramatically. Social media marketing has came into affect and changed the way marketing is today. Bass Pro Shops has taken a step into the door towards this new strategy. Bass Pro Shops has their own facebook, twitter, and google blogger accounts. We will discuss how they use these channels and how they're effective.

Facebook

Bass Pro Shops uses facebook in a way i haven't seen any other businesses yet, gift cards. Anyone can purchase gift cards for Bass Pro Shops simply through facebook. This is easier than going to the store to pick one up or going to the Bass Pro Shops website when you're already on facebook. This feature easly attracts followers and increases sales. They also currently have over 1.7 million followers. Now imagine if even 5% of these followers purchased a gift card from facebook, it can be said Bass Pro Shops facebook has made them business. 

Besides from the basic photos that show off many outdoor fishing and hunting scenes, they have videos on their facebook. They have videos of their products and just simple fishing videos with no advertising. These videos can attract followers and keep them on their page by keeping them entertained with these videos. With their advertising involved in videos and through the page, this can create more potential sales. If not sales, also makes the follower come back if they decide they want a product later.

Their post contain information about tackle to use during the days forecast and water condition. Also they talk about stories that involve the outdoors. Followers find this as informative and would like to read them if they are in the outdoors. This makes the business seems informative on outdoor topics and appeasing to followers. Contest are also brought up in post. This is a big attractant for followers because who wouldn't want to be in a contest for prizes. This brings many eyes to the business and potentially viewing of the website to see more detail. They have really used facebook to their advantage in gathering attention to them and followers.

Twitter

Twitter is more of customer service feature for Bass Pro Shops. I see many people post issues or feedback about purchases or products and  Bass Pro Shops comments back. This makes Bass Pro Shops look really good to consumers.  They also inform people on sales and discounts which also points to the website and pages that contain the bargains. This can draw people into the website by people wanting to take advantage of the deals. If this information was passed through e-mails, many people wouldn't bother for many reasons. But because this is right there in front of them and safe, they will click and check out the deals. They currently have over 37 thousand followers. This is a pretty high number of followers. With this many, business should be seen as higher compared to before social media marketing.

Blogger

 





Bass Pro Shops blogger has an amazing background and pictures. This is really appealing to a viewers eyes and looks highly proffessional. The blog is also catagorized by outdoor hobbies, and sub catagorized from there on. This makes it really easy to find a blog if needed. Their main page has blogs about seminars and new products. This is really good to keep bloggers or followers informed about such events. Their blogging is high proffessionaly and is one of the best i've seen yet. 

Week 12

Cabelas

 www.cabelas.com is a well known business for all kind of outdoor needs. They have been around since 1961. Since then alot in the business and culture of outdoors has change. Social media is one of the changes that has created a big impact. Cabelas noticed Social media as a channel that must be taken advantage of and they did. They didn't only use one way such as facebook, but many. They use facebook, twitter, and youtube.

Facebook

 Cabelas not only take advantage of facebook, but users also take advantage of cabelas being on it also. Cabelas facebook is loaded with information about the company. It gives details of its history, pictures of its stores, and maps. But this is not the main attract for its followers. They keep followers updated with new products, sales, information updates, events, giveaways, contests, and product testings. Product testings is something new i haven't seen anyone do yet on a social media site. With product testings, users are sure to follow the page to get their hands on products to test for free. The testers also provide feedback that go right onto the page and let other followers learn about it. The contest are not only for indviduals but also for groups. I see their are contest for all kinds of prizes, and these contest involve the outdoors and teams of people to take it on from all over the world. This kind of tactic enables cabelas to make a larger reach than before and provide people all over the world with facebook to take advantage of these contest and giveaways.

 Twitter

Cabelas seem to use twitter a little bit different than they do facebook, but in a positive way. Instead of keeping followers updated about contest, giveaways, products, they maintain understandment of their followers. They read followers tweets and reply to them. They also answer many questions that followers have about products and pictures. I see this as almost customer service live and easy. By providing a service like this, it gives them huge credit and great business.

Youtube

Youtube is the channel they use for showing off products. They have many videos about new products and features. They have experience and respectable people talk about a product and it's features. This is really good for followers that want to see the product in action and how it looks without just pictures. This is what the video's do, provide followers with the capabilites of seeing the product in action. This can urge followers to want to purchase these products and provide more sales to the business. They also reply to questions about the videos and keep followers happy with the feedback.

Lab 9

Heres the link to my twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/Joeypongallo

Rankings:
3rd: Janns Netcraft. They haven't tweeted since 2010. So this makes them the worst since they are not up to date on twitter. They really didn't talk about any of their products either.

2nd. Sage. They mention their products and how people are using them. They also post links to video's of their rods in action. No sales or prices are tweeted though.

1st. Orvis. Orvis talks about products to come and discusses how some of them are used in fishing in different locations. They provide links to pictures and videos and have a picture of the day with a fish and a rod or lure.

Effective use of twitter:

From what i have learned so far about twitter, i have came to a few conclusions about the effective use of it for SMM. A businesses should mention their products ;new, old, and upcoming, through tweets frequently. They shouldn't really tweet tweets that don't seem proffesional. I seen some while looking through tweets, and it made me not even want to follow or read any of their tweets anymore. Links to products and videos should be posted. But the biggest thing is sales and discounts. These are really attractive to see and yet not many businesses are posting them.

Is twitter for some organizations and not others?
I truelly think twitter can be used for all orginazitions, but only if it is done correctly. I think any organization can take advantage of twitters tweeting to get information and news out. It's just like facebook but without pictures, only text. If an organization has to get news out, then its perfect, and almost all organizations have news to get out: updates, sales, products, services, etc.

Other Social Media sites:

Deviant art is great for artist that want to share their art to the community and world. Artist from all over the world come to this social media site because they all share the same interest: art. I see marketing opportunities here for businesses expertising in art software or tools.

LiveJournal seems to be almost for blogging entries. It seems like an online journal for people that post to it like entries in a journal. There is alot of different subjects , but they all seem to be about something and not random, like there is on twitter and facebook. Marketers in the field of journal entries, magazines, and books might have a shot at marketing here. It's really hard to tell since it seems everyone is only on the site to post stories/ entries.

Tagged is a site for meeting people. Seems to be just like the online dating websites. I joined through my facebook to find out what it is and it seems to be filled with advertising for cell phones. So im guessing the best marketer here is cell phone companies and any other that has to do with digital communicitations.

Week 8

HTC

I thought this youtube marketing video was pretty good. It show many of the features of the new phone that is to come. The background music is decent for the video also. It's not to loud or fast, but slow and soft, which is appealing to the ears. The colors selected, like for the font, seem to work good, because of usual color of the logos of the company match the same color. The video is also pretty quick. This makes the watching the video easy, by not having to watch a long video that might get boring after awhile. This could lead to the loss of viewers and even product sales. The ending of the video shows a link to find more information of the product, which is helpful and smart.

RED WOLF PRODUCTS

To start off , the spokesperson/speaker makes this marketing video effective. He is a quick talker but not to quick to be not understandable. He has a loud voice and keeps a good form during the video. The beginning scene is pretty cool also. This makes the company seem like they are really professional, with the digital effects. This makes the company more trustable.  The details that are given through the video are clear and straightforward. There's no information given that may confuse the viewers or make them not want to watch the rest of the video. I think this is one of the most effective and professional marketing videos I've seen yet.

Sage Fly Rod "One"



This video's strongest points for effectiveness in marketing is its clips of the rod in action, clips of the rod being built, and the speaches of the people that used it/make it. The visual effects at the beginning are professional and make the company look professional even more. The background music was also soothing and fit the video perfect. This video was another effective marketing youtube vide, and would even make me want to buy the product.

Conclusion

In conclusion I found some features of a youtube marketing video that make it effective. The background music is important. The music has to fit the video and not annoy the viewers. The spoke person, if one, has to look professional, knowledgable, and speak loud and clear. This is important when the customer needs to trust what the person is telling them about the product. The visual effects are also a plus. The more professional the visual effects, the more professional the video and the company look. A video with old technology or crappy effects, won't look appealing. Finally, a link or information about where to find out more information about the product is needed. This is important if a viewer wants to purchase the product, share it with friends, or just want to look up additional information or testimonials about it.

Week 7

Troutlet is a company that is all about fishing. Their facebook page is really good with information on the deals, products, and promotions. They have contest that followers can participate in to win products that range from expensive to non expensive, to new and old products. The keep their facebook up to date about once to twice every two weeks.  They have awesome pictures that followers submit and they business employees post themselves. I rank them as effective because of what they provide and keeping up to date on their posts. The main attractant to follow them is product giveaways, which no one wants to pass up, and news up the new products.

Guitar Center has a super effective page. First they have apps. This is for contest and careers within the business. These are what most people like to see in a page. But even better is their guitar lessons link. This takes you to guitar lessons on youtube. This is pretty cool if your a musician. Musicians find this handy and fun to view when their facebooking like myself. They keep up to date constantly and tell of new products and promtions. I rank they as very effective.
https://www.facebook.com/GuitarCenter

Around the corner is a bar business. Their page seems alright, but doesn't offer alot to its subscribers. It keeps people up  to date on specials and event and shares pictures of events and people. Other than this it doesn't offer much to people. It couldv'e been more attractive if they had print out coupons or games you play to get free drinks. Id rank this as the least effective out of my three choices. They could use more information like hours, dj's, food hours, and menu.
https://www.facebook.com/GuitarCenter#!/ATCcafe

Google+ and Facebook

Google+ and Facebook are closely similiar. I just setup an account with Google+ and even the layout is similiar to facebooks, except it doesn't have any of the annoying features facebook added, like the timeline. The advantage that Google+ has is its audience. I really don't know anyone that uses it, so it's aim may be more towards businesses. When their is a marketer at a company, im sure they try to make profiles on most every social media site, and google+ maybe one of them. So this may be an advantage. A big advantage is e-mail capabilities. All the recipents that are sent in gmail, are added to your google+ account. Which helps if you have a business that email's customers, alot. This enables them to follow you easier and find you quicker.  The pages on Google+ don't have apps, atleast that i couldn't find. This may be an issue if companies put out apps for features such as products listing, or games. Other than that, i see google+ as way better than facebook. It's layout maybe similiar to facebooks, but it seems cleaner and more appealing. It's not cluttered up like facebook is since it's been adding more and more annoying features.

Week 6

Classmate Blogs

Tommy has a great blog on Social Media Marketing. He provides definitions of words that have to do with Social Media Marketing for clarity. This helps the readers understand his topic and points of view. But what is most impressive about his blog is his examples. Using an example with the president Obama creates a strong impact. This helps readers understand his concepts and deffinitions from a point everyone can relate to. He deffinetly shows that he has done some research to his topic and understands it. http://tommyf-tommy.blogspot.com/#!/2012/01/social-media-marketing.html

Jason has a very impressive blog on Social Media Marketing. He went the extra mile to include images. This deffinetly makes his blog more appealing and interesting. His images are easly to understand and have a color scheme that matches. Instead of just reading his blog, the images provide information about his blogs and and social media marketing. The one with comparisons to social media sites, makes it appearant who has the most users and viewers. I'd like to see more blogs like his.
http://ramul.tumblr.com/

Other Blog

The Landscaping of Social Media: Tactics vs strategy
   This blog is very interesting and easy to understand. Yotes explains social media strategy and tactics in an easy understandable way by using lawn service as an example.  This really takes out the confusing jargon used to explain some of the tactics and strategy of SSM. He explains the positives and negatives of keeping up with your SSM by referencing to the same with lawn service. As in hiring someone else to do the work for you or keeping up on it yourself. The post might have not go into deep detail but the blog is broad enough to get the simple understanding of what hes talking about.
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/tactics-vs-strategy/

Enterprise Social Networking is More Than Facebook Behind a Firewall
 Solis bring social media to a different step in which is enterprise. I have never heard of this subject before and it may be on a different subject than marketing, but it still involves social media and the way it can be used for a businesses benefits. When introducing enterprise social networking, it allows the employees to collobarate among each other and have new goals and ideas come forth and overcome. This helps the business/enterprise communicate more easly than ever before.  It helps employees engage in communication and experiences among the workplace. With more social networking technologies coming out, goals arent clear and neither is communication among them all the time. A leader/decision maker should be used to push it forward and make it work among the employees. This blog deffinetly brings a different aspect of Social Media that i have not thought about. It seems to be beneficial in a workplace that has many employees like an enterprise.
http://www.briansolis.com/2012/03/enterprise-social-networking/

RATINGS

Sony ericsson has a blog that talks about its phone new improvement/addition. This blog I think is a little weak and so i give a rating of C.There is not much detail about the product as in why the change is being made, when , and how it may effect the customers. The was comments left by followers that were not all so pleasing. This blog could have also made an attempt to tell of new features that may be coming out or phones/products to look forward to. This blogs post deffinetly needs more work and detail.
http://blogs.sonymobile.com/products/2011/04/13/sony-ericsson-on-android-market/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed2Fproducts+29

Rio products has an awesome blog page. I give them an A. They have post about their products and upcoming releases. The products have as much detail in them as needed. Not one thing is missed in the blogs. Customer reveiews are also available to view and so is images for showing the products. A small overview of the company is summed up at the bottom too, which helps the reader learn more about the company also. I would deffinetly subscribe to this blogging.
http://www.rioproducts.com/blog/?p=669#more-669

Bonar Custom fly Rods blog is a great example of a mom and pops shop hitting the blogs. They cover many good tactics and strategies in their blogs. The coloring of the page is nice and appealing to the eye. A summariziation of the history of the business is shown and short in length. This helps not to make the reader want to skip it. The pictures of the custom rods are high def which adds to the appealing of the blog. There are many images of all different kinds of rods that were built, this adds to the reputation of and effectiveness of his blog. I give bonar Customer Rods an A+.
http://bonarcustomflyrods.blogspot.com/

Social Media Market Planning

The slide show i viewed had some concepts similiar to the ones of Mr.Zellers slides but also a bit more. One of the strategies that i viewed and understood was to listen, understand, and engange. This kind of strategy seems basic and makes alot of sense. This has to do less with business jargon like the other slide shows. It pretty much makes sense and can be understood from any point in my opinion. But this concept is not for planning i think. Planning has alot more involved than just this. This is more of just a concept to follow to keep social media marketing moving for a business.

The devices that are used have an emphasis placed on it unlike the other slideshows. This comes to me as a technological view of marketing social media. When it comes to planning for a social media market, technology should always be considered in my view. If more people are viewing SM sites through phones and other handheld devices, maybe a direction or plan should be made for these. Maybe like an app that can be used on a SM website, or statistics that show which platform was used and why. These could contribute to understanding the consumers and their actions towards SM and branding.

When it comes to actually planning for marketing in SM, this slideshow didn't have much value in my opinion like others. Definetly planning is important, especially for disaster.  I understand that the marketer should understand, listen and reply to users/consumers, but planning maybe should be considered first. Or is actually second? This is what confuses me. If you don't plan and listen and understand about your business/firm from online social media, then would you have material to understand plan for or should a plan be made first before hitting social media. I see pro's and con's from each. How can you plan for something that you don't know what the result maybe from? Maybe a plan for disaster should be always made in social media marketing just in case, but to start in the market, maybe a simple plan can be made, and after in the pools of social media are established, than comes the complex plan. After learning and understanding the followers/users, than can a plan be made to interact with them to gain positive results in the market.

Overall i found this slideshow informative on what to focus on when using social media marketing, but deffinetly not for planning.

http://www.slideshare.net/djc1805/social-marketing-listening-and-engagement

Project Marketing Plan----

After viewing the slideshows I think what you have given us is pretty concrete.  I have no considerations to give. You have included what i think is the most important in the planning which is objectives/goals, content and metrics of the plan.With the plans you have given, the marketing should be easy to follow and understand and get results. If anything that is needed, would be found during the marketing on a social media site. Then it would be incorporated into the planning.

I do think it is a good idea to solicit ideas from the students. Students may have ideas or experiences that a teacher may not have. This could help build the planning more concrete and effective. It also makes the student feel as though they have a say in what the planning, giving more motivation.

One thing i dislike about the project is what it's for. Using the business division isn't practical i think and makes the project boring. I can't emphasize on how boring it makes it. I know you give the option for students to use something else, but i think it should be mandotory. Why not just have students use their creativity and make up their own business and a product, then make them use the planning for that. This seems more fun in my opinion.

McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan had great views on media and its growth.  He explains how media is a type of extension of a person in form of a function. If you think about this and something such as a cell phone it makes sense. A cell phone is like an extension of a person that extends the communication boundaries of themselves. Now a person can communicate miles away without even having to be near someone. Same with television. To tell someone a story verbally is not needed since it can be sent to millions of people worldwide at one time. So many examples can be given with this theory and be obvious.
 In one of his quotes he tells about the power of advertising. This i have never thought of and now has come to mind as one of the strongest influences in our culture that changes us. If most advertisements on media is about a girl and a structure that attracts men, this can shape our culture into believing and applying it. Women see this and shape themselves into what is thought that men seek and men may seek this because of the thought it is norm or what is wanted.  The power of advertising is tremendous. Think about products you own. How did you first hear of them? Guarentee is was through media or someone that had seen it through a type of media. Media has the power to change much of anything in a society and culture.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/mcluhan.html <Qoute

McLuhan's tetrad is an unbelievable logic. The tetrad ask questions of what does a medium enhance, obsolete, retrieve, and push to the extremes. After answering these question about a new technology or medium, it can be seen what is happening in technology. A HD 3d Tv is a good example. It enhances standard CRT tv's and graphics. This makes the standard tv's obsolete at some point. This brings back the usage of TV instead of computers all the time , especially with the 3D. When the tv was pushed to the limits the HD and 3D capabilities were invented. I can see the limit being pushed further and maybe becoming TV that appears as holograms maybe. This tetrad can make people think about what advancements have came and what can come at the same time. This tetrad  can be see as a tool for technology and media enhancements and evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrad_of_media_effects

SMM Assignment 2

After reviewing the interviews with the group of people that use Social Media Marketing and other classmates blogs, i have found a few things they all share in common.

1. Always have fun with social media marketing. Many of the people that you social media sites do it for fun and connections. If people start to take it to seroius it becomes less fun and less people will visit it or read peoples' feeds. Firms should do the same. If they take to it to serious and put much pressure on people with their feeds and updates, people will be pushed away more and less attracted. Many of the reviews I have read state this and seems to be a basic principle to follow.

2. Keep your companies page/post updates with current news and products, but don't flood people with to much. Many firms will post updates about information that are really important, like leagues, products, news, updates, sales. Sports especially put this as a high value. They keep people update to date with stats and players just like Eva from Flat Track Derby. http://lccc-ciss-mzellers.blogspot.com/2011/07/social-media-marketing-interviews-eva.html

3. Get people to participate into the company or product. Maybe by asking them to participate in naming a product or trying for a contest. This gathers much interest. Maggie did this for one of her cupcakes and drew lots of attention. By having followers help name a cupcake they felt as if they help made it and will remember the cupcake. This provides almost a kind of attachment and feeling with the company and people, since they "sort-of" have a say in something the company does. http://lccc-ciss-mzellers.blogspot.com/2011/07/social-media-marketing-interviews_25.html


4.Do not offend people in anyway. This can be religon and polotics. The purpose is to draw in peoples interest and not push it away. This i find as a basic rule everyone should follow. I first read this in another classmates and understood it. No firms that want to attract and retain customers won't try to offend them. http://benb72.wordpress.com/

5.Provide feedback to people's questions or comments. This gives a good impression and creates people to spread the word around about you in a good manner. This can draw much attention to your site. The more attention that is drawn can lead to more sale of products, goods, or site traffic. If people don't keep up with updates or feeds, people may find them not as informational as they should be or a waste to have on there, which will lead to them being removed.

Social media marketing

Social Media Marketing is a kind of network among people that can be used for marketing. Facebook is a good example this. Firms can create a profile and network themselves among other firms and people. This opens up a network of people allowing others to discover and find out about a firm/person. With this kind of network for a firm, more customers can be gained easily. Customer reviews are right in front of people who discover the person or firm, and these are the people that are networked. Social Media Marketing is a marketing concept that i can see a requirement for the future to be sucessfull in a market, especially an online market.

Some useful links ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing
http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/  -- case studies