Socially (un)Acceptable: An Exploration of Social Media and Internet Marketing

Sometimes, videos are posted on YouTube that become insanely popular in a VERY short period of time.  I read an article about some soldiers in Afghanistan who made a remake of the Lady Gaga/Beyonce video for Telephone, and of course had to look it up and watch it.  My roommate and I were on the floor laughing, and of course showed it to friends.  The article that I read about two days ago stated that at the time, the video had over 200,000 views which was surprising because the video had only been posted about a week before.  Today when I checked, the video had nearly 2,286,000 views!!

This is the perfect example of what it means for something to “go viral!”  People hear about it and share it, and soon, millions are watching.  The best part, I think, about this video is that the soldiers who made it just meant it for their friends and family back home…now well over 2 million views later, I’m sure that their friends and family have not been the only viewers!  If you would like to add to the number of views (and be very entertained), check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haHXgFU7qNI

This week in class, we watched a TED Talk about new technology that literally allows your internet browser to be projected on any flat surface.  The device is made from a smart phone, a camera, a mirror, a mini projector, and a web cam.  The combination of these things allows for users to project a computer screen on any surface, and use their hands to navigate through web pages.  Now, this sounds pretty neat, until you get into the nitty-gritty of it all.  People using this device can simply look towards any person on the street, and use the web cam and facial recognition technology to look said individual up on the internet, and even project facts about the person onto their shirt!  I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of my personal information being projected across my chest.  Doesn’t that sound a little crazy?

Back to the cool bit of this technology.  It would be pretty neat to be able to access the internet anywhere and on any surface, and that probably has a variety of practical applications.  There are a lot of uses for unlimited access to the internet–but isn’t that why smart phones were developed?    Personally, I think that this is taking things a step too far.  People are already so incredibly closed off from the world through use of things like iPods.  I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times where I’ve said hello to someone who I pass on my way to class, and they don’t even acknowledge me because they are in their own little world of music.

I think that there comes a point when technology has gone too far, and I think that we are nearing that point.  What happened to “the good old days” when in order to ask a question of someone nearby, you actually had to walk over to said person and ask them face-to-face?  Personally, I love face-to-face interaction, and feel that technology is nearing a point where this type of communication is inhibited.

What are your thoughts?  Is there a point when technology goes too far into the realm of cutting off in-person interactions?  How close are we to that point?

I spent the better part of last week in Missoula, Montana for an undergraduate research conference.  The conference was great, and I was so happy and honored to be able to represent my school at the conference!

Now, Missoula is a fairly small, rural town.  There’s not a lot there aside from mountains, trees, and lots of open space.  The people who we met while there seemed to be ever-relaxed type who don’t get stressed easily and enjoy sitting back and watching the world turn.  It was incredibly refreshing to be in this type of environment, and upon returning home, I have found myself to be much more relaxed!

So with the culture of the town being so drastically different from what I’m used to, I must admit that my jaw hit the ground when I saw a sign on a little hole-in-the-wall casino that declared “Become Our Fan on Facebook!”  This illustrates just how wide the sphere that social media has influenced has become.  Even in a small town in the middle of the Big Sky State, casino owners feel the need to advertise on Facebook.  Really now?  In that type of an environment, I had almost hoped that the fast-paced current marketing trends had backed off just a little.  Sad?  A little.  But interesting?  Absolutely.

Now that I’ve been able to personally witness the wide reach of social media, there is no doubt in my mind that this truly is the future of marketing.  If a hole-in-the-wall casino in Missoula, Montana uses Facebook to spread the word about their establishment, I think that everyone should be able to do the same.

So, now that I’ve been in internet marketing for quite some time, the term “RSS” is still something that confuses me.  Thanks to The Social Media Bible, however, I have been able to figure it out a little more.  They describe it by saying: “RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, and although it is the name for this category of tools, it’s a bit like using the brand name Kleenex as the category title for all facial tissues.  Rather than debating the category name, it’s easier to recognize, in general, the common functions of these tools.”  So, essentially, RSS feeds are a way to constantly see information from your favorite sites or sites that have a lot of information that is pertinent to you.

RSS tools like FeedBurner allows people to push their web content.  For example, if you use the basic, free service, you can alert your blog readers when you have new content published.  Eventually, if there are enough people who follow your site–for example a site that sells a product–you may even generate a profit from the increased traffic.  The Social Media Bible says that this type of tool simplifies RSS use for people who aren’t very tech savvy (like me!).  There are a variety of other tools available, but Feed Burner sounds like the easiest to use, and the most practical for the most people.  It now works with Google, so that makes it an even better way to gain traffic.

Now, next time I see the little RSS icon on a web page, I will know what it means.  The symbol was always one of those things that I wondered about, but never clicked for fear of what it might do.  If you hadn’t noticed, I’m not the most tech-savvy person out there…so I really didn’t want to mess up my computer!

A good friend of mine is COMPLETELY addicted to Twitter–so much so, that he felt he should give it up for Lent.  He is now back on Twitter because Lent is over, but another of our friends has to hold up her end of the no Twitter for Lent deal.  She agreed that she would sign up for a Twitter account and use it at least once per day if the first friend was successful in his 40 days without Twitter.  I am curious to see if she will become as addicted as he was. 

Before taking Internet Marketing, I had a vague idea of what Twitter was thanks to this Twitter-obsessed friend, but only knew the social aspect of Twitter.  He would constantly update everyone on everything that he heard, said, or did.  I didn’t understand this phenomenon and couldn’t grasp why this was such an addiction.  After discussing microblogging in class and reading about it in the Social Media Bible, I understand it’s application to businesses.  The more people that have Twitter accounts, the easier that information can quickly be spread–it’s like a virtual word-of-mouth.  Same goes for the social application of Twitter: if one person (especially in a contained environment like Dominican) tweets something that they overheard in the cafeteria, then the entire school will probably know about it before the end of the day.  The same holds true (on a much larger scale) for how businesses can spread the word about their exciting new product.

With all this in mind, I’m still not sure that I will ever get a Twitter account unless it’s for business purposes, but it sure is an interesting phenomenon to look at!

Today, I checked on my team’s AdWords campaign and was not pleased to see that our CTR has dropped by a good deal (where last week it rose) and we still have about half of our budget left.  I was also disappointed to see an inverse relationship between our CTR and number of impressions.  Currently, I’m not quite sure what else we can do to improve our CTR–we have added as many new keywords as we can think of and upped our budget to no avail.  Our number of impressions is fairly high–definitely more than I was expecting when we went into this campaign.  Hopefully, over the next two weeks, our CTR will rise and our campaign will have a positive impact on our organization.

Any advice from everyone out there who can help us improve our CTR?

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell presents a fantastic grouping of stories that are all interconnected relating to what makes anything turn into an epidemic.  From syphilis to Sesame Street to Paul Revere’s message, what is it that makes a phenomenon turn into an epidemic?  Social media has become one of these epidemics, but how did that happen?  Most likely because people who are considered by Gladwell to be connectors, mavens and salespeople got their hands on the concept.  Connectors are the types of people who know everyone.  Think about your circle of friends–is there one person who knows everyone else?  Whenever you go out, this person probably runs into someone who they know and has a brief conversation.  Next come the mavens.  These people are those who collect information and store it away in their minds for use whenever it becomes appropriate.  Mavens are people who know everything about everything and are willing to share whenever you need assistance.  As related to social media, mavens were probably the people who found out about sites like Facebook first and shared it with a few friends, some of whom were probably connectors.  Finally come the salespeople.  I’m sure that we have all run into the traditional definition of a salesperson–think car salesman.  In the social epidemic sense, though, salespeople are slightly different.  They love to talk, and want to share their knowledge and any new information that they have found with as many people as they can.  Salespeople are not only the talkers, they are also extremely convincing.  A good salesperson takes the time to get to know you and explains how their product, service or bit of information fits into your life.  In terms of social media, the salespeople were most likely present on college campuses and had the ability to convince all their friends to go and join Facebook because they couldn’t live without it.

Now that Facebook is an established site and a huge part of our culture, I don’t know how we could live without it!  Apparently, the connectors, mavens and salespeople did a great job because the Facebook epidemic sure did tip.

After hearing Joey Shepp of earthsite.com speak in class this week, I am a little shocked at how much I didn’t know about web design.  I was aware of the basics like having to make sure that your site is easy to navigate and pleasant to look at, but realized that I hadn’t even begun to think about the actual content, deciding what web hosting company to go through, and site security to name a few.  Previously, I had thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make your own website, as I am only familiar with FaceBook and Word Press, but now I would most definitely hire a web designer!

In order to totally take advantage of Search Engine Optimization, Jon Rognerud (author of Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization) suggests that using links to similar sites can be extremely beneficial.  Rognerud says that: “links are like ‘votes’ for your site, as each link functions as a ‘recommendation’ from another site to check yours out!”  I had not thought about this concept before, but essentially, linking your website to another site is sort of like a free advertisement.  If someone is browsing the web and comes across a site that they’re interested in, it is very likely that they would check out any links that are on that page.  By linking your page to any sites that share similar keywords and topics, webmasters are able to piggy-back off of another site’s SEO and add it to their own.

Another way to utilize links is to link to not only the homepage of your site.  When the links are to deeper layers of your site, the person browsing the web is able to move through your site and see all that it has to offer.  Rognerud suggests that when selecting sites to link, webmasters should “make it natural and mix it up–link to the home page, inner pages, and deep/lowest pages in the web site structure.   Make sure the relevant links point to the correct pages; don’t just link to the home page–a common mistake.”

Keep in mind that links can be very valuable, but also be a detriment to a site.  When putting links on your site or having your link put on another site, it pays to be picky.

I am so excited to start the Google AdWords challenge!  Working on all of our buyer persona profiles this week has been so much more fun than I expected it to be, and I can’t wait to get our campaign underway.  It’s so interesting to break your target market down into specific people because that is something that I never would have thought to do.  Our client, BOK Ranch (check out their website at www.bokranch.com), has quite a few market segments that we’re targeting with our campaign.  The main categories that we’re looking at are future students, volunteers and donors.  Within each are so many potential target segments!  I was working on a profile for the parent of a future rider, and surprised myself with how quickly I was able to come up with a person to represent this parent.  It was really fun to decide what interests the person would have, what they would be searching for online, and a variety of little details about their personality.

Another piece of the challenge that I’m really enjoying is actually writing the ads.  Working to create an appealing ad in a very limited amount of words is more difficult than I thought!  Each time I write a new ad, the allotted characters seem to disappear faster and faster.  This is, however, the type of challenge that I look for and thoroughly enjoy.

My hope for this campaign is that we can drive more traffic to the BOK Ranch website and recruit more riders and volunteers.  It is an incredible program, and I’m so gald that my team has the opportunity to work with them!