When starting an online store what do you do first? What should your concerns be, your target consumers, how will you drive traffic to your site?
How do you start a business & how the heck do you figure out how to sell online? Everyone makes it sound super easy or rather intangible. Here are two articles that have helped me immensely in figuring out these topics.
Don't follow your Passion this article explains why it is important to not only sell products that you are passionate about. Rather smarter ways to find products to sell.
Research, research, research this article made researching your competition way to easy. In layman terms after reading this and going over the advice I just sat at my desk thinking that this is so easy anyone can do it!
The step-by-step instructions offered by these articles was way more than I bargained for and hopefully you find them interesting too!
In case you missed it, Justin Bieber had a concert last night in Glendale, Arizona. Who cares right? Well what makes this worth blogging is that he threw up on stage mid-song. He then runs off of stage.
Pretty nasty...
what I like about Justin is how smoothly he handled it via Social Media.
After the show he Tweeted, "And .... Milk was a bad choice! Lol"
Just goes to show how Twitter can be used properly. Bieber needed a way of cleaning up the mess, not literally, that would be ensue when the media got hold of this footage. Using n Anchorman reference is always a good way to play things off.
Top Comment:
"Awww, She's Pregnant"
-ThisAreRandomVideos
iPhone 5
The Noc
- "The Noc is an entertainment channel about the personalities and lives of
athletes."
On a recent episode, starring Iman Shumpert, the famous Knick's ball player demonstrates the new "features" of the iPhone 5. Even though the insight about the product isn't exactly helpful per se, it still promotes the new iPhone because it is shown with a well known person. Just the action of having the product on screen makes it beneficial to Apple as a brand. The video does focus on how there aren't many improvements to the devise, but it is one of the first looks at the product which is nice if you are excited for it.
Virality seems to be the word on everyone's mind and the goal of every marketing and ad department.
Since the creation of social media, the holy grial, so to say, has been creating the most popular and most viewed advertising. Just as the medical term "Viral", in marketing, being viral or virality is the spreading of information from person to person. Unlike the sickness however, you actually want to infect everyone with your marketing genius.
How do you create such a massive marketing infection? Over time, many marketers and self proclaimed advertising profits have conjured up ways to achieve this marketing super-stardom. Some have been successful, as other have not. (see examples below) These campaigns have included every tip and trick from contest incentives to catchy jingles to dancing animals and talking babies. But not all of these maneuvers work for everyone.
Dollar Shave Club viral video success.
PSP's racy subway advertising fail.
So, is virality a science or luck?
While working on creating my own viral video and covering related material in numerous marketing classes, I became curious about Virality myself. I researched blogs, websites, social media sites, and of course, youtube. After this laborious effort of trolling the internet, I finally found the answer.
Virality, while not quite a science, does have a pretty effective recipe and if followed, will increase a campaign's chances at reaching the viral level.
Viral Marketing Time: < 60 seconds Yields: Millions 1 C. Effective Content 2 C. Sharing 1 Pinch Accessibility 1/3 C. Strong Branding 1 Tsp. Humor 1 Stick User-Generated Content Mix together, cross your fingers, and share with anyone and everyone.
Now, while this recipe may change and serving sizes may be altered, the basics are still the same. Viral marketing must have interesting and useful content. Without a concrete back bone, the rest of your campaign will fall apart. There is, however, one exception and one only to this rule: humor. What viewers love more than things that they can actually apply in real life is a good piece of comedic advertising. Comedy is a balance though, so be careful. It can elevate a brand or it could ruin it.
The next key element in becoming viral is sharing. Although this may seem like a no-brainer, sharing is usually the biggest obstacle when achieving virality. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and think - what will not only grab their attention, but what will make your advertising so interesting to them that they want, no NEED, to share it with everyone they know. Knowing your targeted audience and how to reach them is the key to success here.
Last, but certainly not least is user-generated content. Referred to as UCG in the internet world, user-generated content is, well, exactly what is sounds like: content created by users. This is important when creating viral marketing because the more active a user can be in a campaign, the more interest is drawn and the likelihood of them sharing your advertising significantly increases. Forums, photo contents, Twitter contests, Facebook likes, and blogs just like this are superb examples that will engage your audience and send your advertising to the top, or, well, pretty close. So next time you or your company wants to create the next best viral thing on the internet, try this recipe and pray to the marketing gods and maybe, just maybe, you'll be among the few to achieve internet marketing greatness.
Google currently
uses its PageRank formula in order to determine ranking in Google
searches. By ensuring that pages have good content through linking
to other pages, Google can be confident that there searches are going
to give their users the content that they're looking for.
However,
Google's patent on PageRank is coming to an end, and they need
another search funcction that will give value to the companies that
use their ad systems, and their users that use the search engine.
AuthorRank is Google's solution to this problem. Like Panda,
AuthorRank will be an update to the logorithm Google uses.
AuthorRank will
use an author's rank as another element in ranking searches through
the search engine. Google's Google+ service will be the main way
authors will be determined. When making an article, if an author
uses their Google+ profile to connect themselves to the article, they
will be used in the ranking.
Google has
wanted to rank web pages by the people who created them for some
time. Originally, AgentRank was going to be used for this matter.
Back in 2005, Google created the concept, but it never went anywhere,
mostly because there was no simple way to identify individual people
efficiently. However, with the release of Google+, Google has an
easy way to connect their authors and know what people make good
content. When an author posts their article and connects it to their
Google+ profile, they build a network of articles that will give an
idea to Google as to how good their content is.
This has large
repercussions for Google+ and other social network. Since most
authors will be using Google+ now so that they rank higher in Google
searches, Google+ is not going away. The popularity of Google search
is going to support and fuel the future popularity of Google+ as a
social network.
Go to the website klout.com and see what your "score" is.
That's right, Klout, a social media influence website, has set up a way to score how well you influence others through your social media outlets. This includes number of followers on Twitter, likes on Facebook, retweets, comments, shares, etc. You can link up your other social media accounts (LinkedIn, Youtube, Google+, etc), but these do not have as much influence as Facebook and Twitter yet.
Users have a number of "topics" that they can be influential in/ These are determined by Klout or by the user. Users can then vote on the influence of others by giving them "+K's" in certain topics. These can help lead to score increases, both to the reciever and the giver.
Does having a high score matter? Some people argue yes. For example, from personal experience, I applied for an online marketing job and they asked me what my Klout score was (at the time of this blog post, it is 63). Klout has a number of perks you can unlock depending on your score and what you are influential in. Finally, it can fuel competition with friends and give someone bragging rights.
But how much can truly be determined by an online algorithm? It is a starting point, but not everything. A downside to it is that quite a bit of the influence is determined by how often you use Klout. For example, I did a comparison of my score to scores of people I learned how to utilize social media from. My score is 63. Neil Hair, one of the faces of the Saunders College, has a 44. Mike Johansson, my "Social Media and Public Relations" professor, has a score of 68, only five points higher than me. Both of those individuals are much more of an influence than I am.
In conclusion, in my opinion, influence cannot be simply determined through a score online. It can be a good start to digging deeper into it, but if you want to make a profound impact on the world, take it outside of the computer.
Say and act like what you tweet.
Instagram is all about pictures. I never heard of it, until my facebook friends have posted on my news fees stating that my friend posted a "picture" from instagram. I started using it and now I am addicted to it. I like looking at my friends pictures and celebrity. Im not the only one whos addicted, i have seen people post pictures like 4-5 times a day. My opinion on on girls using them to get attention when they are posting themselves almost half naked or being so sexy and boys use them to look at girls. I want to know what is your opinion on instagram if you have one. How did instagram boom so quickly?
In a recent article by Ad Age big brands are generating buzz on Twitter by using national TV advertising . Actors and celebrities are playing a huge factor in getting people to tweet and generate buzz about companies like Starbucks and Subway . This isn't a new strategy but by combining TV ads and the power of
social media brands are now able to get more recognition than before.Google jumped on the opportunity for some twitter buzz when Apple decided not to use Google Maps. To get over 41 thousand retweets and 65 000 comments Google Tweeted:
Dear #apple. Why have you got rid of Google maps - there is no street
view and I am unable to fly like an eagle through your satellite view.
Post status on Facebook, share a link, tweet, re-tweet or post video on YouTube.
I'm pretty sure either one of these have become so common to us or the least I can say, everyone do this. But, have you ever think of how many people actually view them, share them and concerns about them?
In common case, it's not gonna be one person, not two, not three, not a few. It's actually a lot!
Let's say, you posted a YouTube link on Facebook, then three of your friends (this is like the least number I guess unless you posted something totally not interesting at all :p) like them and some might share them on their page. And friends to your friends gonna watch it and share it on their page. Then, it goes on and on.. This might seems not really a lot to some of you, but let's put it in a figure.
Don't you realize it's like a virus that spread everywhere in this "internet world"?
Of course it's gonna be awesome if you post something good, interesting and pleasant. It's like you giving a medicine or vitamin to people.
But, what if the post somehow might be offensive or unpleasant to some people or certain issue. Can you imagine how they might be "infected" by this action?
Here I just would to share a video to show how bad this virus can be. Check it out~! and think about it..
The "virus" actually come from you. and you might become one of the carriers. So, think first before you post something, before you share a link or picture, and before you tweet and retweet. :)
Bing It on Campaign: Bing vs.
Google
Bing (not known for being better than Google) is starting a new
campaign saying it IS better than
Google. By 2-to-1! That’s some serious bragging from Bing who people usually only
resort to if; that’s the default search engine that came with their internet
browser; or they don’t care about the relevance of their search results.
I just took the challenge and, believe
it or not, Bing gave me more relevant info than Google! I didn’t believe it at
first so I tried again using different search criteria. Same thing. Bing won.
I would like to know more of the social outlets. What’s your
favorite and why?
If you could change something what would it be, anything the
sky’s the limit?
Until now I never wanted to be so woven into the social
network. I am ignorant in its mass appeal. Lately I see it as more of a helpful tool
than a life line to the outside world.
How do I go out and see the rest of the worlds blogs?
Samsung has announced that their new Galaxy S is going to have it's own web browser based on WebKit, which is the base of both Apple's Safari and Chrome's mobile version. The forecast is that the new Samsung browser is going to compete with Chrome.
According to this article by Hwang Tae-ho (Full report here) Android, iPhone, and Opera made up 65% of the global mobile internet browser market last month. With these numbers, a few questions are raised. How is the new Samsung browser going to affect mobile internet marketing if they succeed in competing with Safari and Chrome? Also, does this mean websites are going to be optimized for the Samsung browser too?
It looks like internet marketers have a few challenges up ahead with mobile browsers.
Jimmy Kimmel pulled twitter prank while hosting Emmys when Jimmy and the some of members in the audience tweet that Tracy Morgan had passed out on stage. This caused 25000 people to tweet "OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage during the Emmys, turn on ABC." as well as throwing off presenters Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere the prank ended with Morgan being carried off by 4 fellow actors. This prank showed how much power a celebrity has on social media similar to when the Rapper 50 Cent told his twitter followers to buy a stock which he sold the next day and made 8.7 million dollars.
Since
the advent of social media, there has been no shortage of celebrities and other
famous people getting involved. Their troves of loyal fans elevate them up the
social media ladder and bring them closer to the level reached only by the
likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. These followers are not always the greatest
thing though, especially in times of crisis.
Monday,
September 24th is a day will live in infamy. The Green Bay Packers
lost their game to the Seattle Seahawks by intercepting a pass and preventing a
touchdown, or so it seemed. The referee’s, unable to correctly interpret the
play awarded the Seahawks a game winning touchdown and in turn, set the
“Twittersphere” ablaze.
Almost
instantly, viewers of the game as well as players began to voice their
opinions. TJ Lang, the Packers’ offensive lineman took to the 140 character
social media site in a way that created one of the most viral post of the
night. His wrap up of the game was, “Got f*cked by the refs.. Embarrassing.
Thanks nfl.” The post, less then 24hours later had received 67.4k retweets and
16.7k favorites as those around the country shared his same thoughts. There in
lies the problem though.
Professional
athletes reflect the teams and the league they play for. They are employees and
needless to say, their employees (and their followers) do pay attention to what
they say. This means that there are lessons to be learned from actions like
these for the rest of us.
1.Think before you Tweet: No matter how angry, upset, heartbroken,
excited, or emotional you are, think before you act. Once content lives on the
internet, it stays on the internet.
2.Don’t insult your
employer: There is no positive thing which will come out of saying your
employer sucks. Not even if they switched from the comfy, high quality toilet
paper to the horrible cheap kind, insulting them on a social network only makes
you look bad.
3.Do it in private: If you really need to
use Social Media to spread your angry rants, make your profile private. That
way people won’t be easily able to see how much you hate Roger Goodell, a
random politician, or your freshman year Data professor.
4.When in doubt, yell it
out(loud): If you really aren’t sure if you should post something to your
public account, just ask yourself “would I be comfortable saying this out loud
in a room with my boss or prospective employer?”
Professional
football players and those alike have made the mistakes already and will suffer
a marginal fine because of it. Would you really want to risk losing your job
though? I can bet you don’t make nearly as much as they do to be so cavalier
with your words.
I know, the title sounds a little odd. However, in a country crazy about soccer and with over 80 million people who can access the internet, it makes sense that the way soccer clubs reach out to their fans is changing. First division soccer clubs in Brazil now all have Facebook pages and can be followed on Twitter. They also are developing mobile applications.
"The connection with the fan has changed. With new technologies, clubs are in daily contact with their fans, not just when they go to the stadium" said Guilherme Costa, a sports marketing specialist.
The goal of the recent addition of social media is to turn followers and fans into consumers letting them be able to have constant access to paraphernalia and tickets without having to go to a physical store. Social media also allows the clubs to conduct marketing surveys
"The connection with the
fan has changed. With the new technologies, clubs are in daily contact
with their fans, not just when they go to the stadium," explained
Guilherme Costa, of the Maquina de Esporte website, which specializes in
sport marketing.
First division clubs
therefore, in addition to having an Internet site, also have a Facebook
page, a Twitter account, online television or even a smartphone
application.
"The connection with the fan has changed. With the new technologies,
clubs are in daily contact with their fans, not just when they go to the
stadium," explained Guilherme Costa, of the Maquina de Esporte website,
which specializes in sport marketing.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-internet-strong-tool-brazilian-soccer.html#jC
First division clubs
therefore, in addition to having an Internet site, also have a Facebook
page, a Twitter account, online television or even a smartphone
application.
"The connection with the fan has changed. With the new technologies,
clubs are in daily contact with their fans, not just when they go to the
stadium," explained Guilherme Costa, of the Maquina de Esporte website,
which specializes in sport marketing.
First division clubs
therefore, in addition to having an Internet site, also have a Facebook
page, a Twitter account, online television or even a smartphone
application.
"The connection with the fan has changed. With the new technologies,
clubs are in daily contact with their fans, not just when they go to the
stadium," explained Guilherme Costa, of the Maquina de Esporte website,
which specializes in sport marketing.
The Art of being Clever... and my thoughts about tapping into your inner child to grab people's attention.
As an advertising photographer I've learned many things. I've learned that the right lighting can make even the most beautiful person look awful. I've learned that cats can be extremely temperamental and will very rarely ever truly cooperate. I've learned to expect the unexpected because everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And, finally, I've learned that sometimes you have to step back and realize that the best form of advertising can be by making the reader/viewer smile... or by making their day just a little bit better.
Don't get me wrong, shameless self promotion definitely has its place, as does spamming advertisements and viral marketing. But, personally, I don't always think it's the tried and true ways that are the best. Sometimes you have to think more outside of the box.
Let me give you an example... and you can take it or leave it.
-the image to the left is from a blog called Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I found this blog about two years ago when I first arrived at college. The blog has quite the following, and images like this have been turned into T-shirts or used as an internet meme.
This style of drawing, which is reminiscent of paint attracts a person to the blog. The blog itself uses these images to support what she is saying and to help with the humor aspect of the blog.
Now, using humor is an obvious tactic- it makes people laugh, it makes people feel good, and because they feel good, they tend to stay on the page and read more, or come back to it to feel that feeling again.
I'll give you another example... The image on the right is from a blog called Cat Versus Human. It is another humor blog, but also another wildly successful one. While Hyperbole and a Half does stories and adds images to illustrate certain aspects, Cat Versus Human uses a comic-book like format to tell the story. It's clever, humorous, and people enjoy reading it because it makes them feel good. Both of these blogs have products and market them to their readers, but it's not obnoxious. It's thrown in casually, or sometimes it's not even mentioned. Stemming off of that thought brings me to my next. Maybe these blogs are so successful because they don't market themselves to fit some kind of niche. They communicate their messages in a clever way. Both blogs choose to illustrate their concepts in a way that's easily understandable and that most can enjoy without much effort. And... you know... maybe that's best! Now for my last example... I promise this post will be over soon.
Look! I made this! It's beautiful right? I thought so too... Not really. This advertisement is mine, I'm not lying about that, but its by far not the best advertisement I've ever seen. My point that I'm trying to make though is that you probably stopped to look at it and read it. Why? Because it looks like it was drawn by an elementary school student, and you probably questioned what was happening. This advertisement turned out to be quite effective. People looked at it with confusion, but it sparked an interest in what the event was and it got more people to attend the event that we expected. So finally... my point. Yay!
Being traditional and following what has worked in the past when it comes to marketing is admirable, but maybe its more effective to push boundaries.
Making a connection with your consumer in a way that is understandable and makes them feel like they can relate may in fact be better. Why? Well look at the examples I showed. Both are humor blogs, yes, and neither of them are companies, which is true, but they are popular. People purchase the T-shirts and the books because they like the blog. And, if you look carefully, they do advertise on their blogs. But, first, they make that emotional connection with the reader and draw them in.
Do I think companies could follow in that example?...well maybe. Maybe it would be hard for a company blog to appeal to a consumer. Maybe they can't draw like a child to advertise. Maybe it would be an awful idea and I'm completely wrong.
But also, maybe I'm not. Maybe being clever and innovative is what is required to have a higher following/ consumer base. A company is nothing without its consumers, so why not appeal to them and step down to their level? Make them like you. Be clever. The worse that can happen is you learn what not to do. I mean, you only live once, right?
The Internet has created an outlet for marketers to generate brand
awareness. Now a video of your child's football game can become an
overnight worldwide sensation. I posted the video below of my son's first football game on YouTube to share with my three family members. Yet there are over 60 views of the video. This is a small scale example of how online marketing has become a treasure trove for businesses and individuals.
Another example of how online marketing has gone viral and brought a vast amount of attention to an individual is the video of the Greece School District bus monitor who was being bullied by middle school children. As a result of this video Karen Klein has received over $700,000 in donations.
This is a demonstration of how powerful online viral marketing can be and how even home videos can be turned into profitable online ventures.
B2B blogging is a different beast than simply sharing daily events, videos and cupcake photos.
Culled from a list of B2B bloggers, here's my top 7 recommendations for any business relationship blog.
1. Create a personality for the blog that aligns with the brand.
2. Create content - don't simply repost. Include images and be a brief as possible to acheive your goal and encourage interaction. Be ready to create a lot of content. Keep your blog fresh.
3. Make sure you blog exists as part of your website - avoid having your blog live on a generic blog hosting site
4. Include links to other key content on your site and create a call to action.
5. Don't be afraid to post ideas that challenge your readers - a bland post will neither engage, nor result in comments.
6. Measure for success - you need to watch how your blog is used, what content is most effective, and what actions blog visitors take.
7. Combine your posts with other marketing activity into an integrated marketing approach. Running mass media ads? Reference the concept of the ads in your blog. Attending a trade show? Discuss your preparations in advance and provide post show analysis.
Random Myspace checks were a norm in the Smith household. At
any time our parents would look through our homepage, notes, top friends, and
friends’ profiles. If you didn’t want Mom and Dad to see something, you didn’t
post it. This was a valuable learning lesson for my brother and me.
Our Internet Marketing class is supposed to start posting
about subjects related to class. However, something I feel the need to discuss
pertains to everyone. Whether you’re posting on a blog, Facebook, Twitter,
Flickr, Instagram or Myspace (but let’s face it, no one uses Myspace still,
right?), you have to keep it classy. I know, I know you’ve already been told
this by Mom, Dad, and various professors. My question though, is why do some
people blatantly not follow this?
My Facebook and Instagram “friends” upload pictures of them
and/or alcohol on a regular basis. At least crop out the bottle people, and
don’t post the shot glasses on Instagram. People on Twitter like to run their mouths; is
it that difficult to not post about sex and drugs or use vulgarity 24/7? I
understand that there is freedom of speech in America, and that people can post
whatever they please, but saying the F-word doesn’t make your point stronger.
Besides that, once something is posted, it is out there forever. The government
saves all tweets in a database and Facebook owns all your photos to use as they
please.
I am friends with my parents, boyfriend’s parents, and
bosses on all of my social media sites. You don’t have to accept these people,
but it looks bad when you don’t. As a rule of thumb, when you are friends with
these people, you do not swear, post ANYTHING about work, or basically do or
say anything that you would not do or say to your grandmother. I’ve seen people
learn this lesson the hard way on more than one occasion. Companies find you on
the Internet and look through your stuff. Even if your sites are private they
can find some sort of information. They won’t hire you if you don’t present
yourself in a professional manor. Even after you’re hired, you can get fired
for posts.
Am I saying that I’ve never posted something questionable?
No, but as we are maturing and coming upon graduation, we are going to be
looking for grown-up jobs, and those people that are going to hire us don’t
want to hire someone that is going to be more focused on their social life than
work, or someone who will potentially call off after a night of partying.
What do you guys think? Do you think employers really care
what you do outside of work? Do you think it is alright to post whatever you
feel as long as your account is private?
*All of these pictures are made up and are supposed to
describe things I see on the Internet on a regular basis. I do not mean to
offend anyone with these photos and I am not talking about anyone in
particular*
While everyone is hyped about the iPhone 5 being released, current iPhone owners such as myself would like to know what is the so great about the iPhone 5?
So I did a little research on the iPhone 5 and apparently the body of the phone is thinner, it has a wider and bigger screen, the internet is faster and there are more speakers apparently.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/?cid=wwa-us-kwg-iphone-00001&siclientid=5894&sessguid=0ca0a050-d5dc-45b9-8bd2-a4dbcff6c426&userguid=0ca0a050-d5dc-45b9-8bd2-a4dbcff6c426&permguid=0ca0a050-d5dc-45b9-8bd2-a4dbcff6c426
But then on Wednesday, my iPhone 4s told me that the iOS6 was available for update on my phone. So I did it, I updated my phone.
While waiting for the update to finish downloading, I decided to read what exactly on my phone was updating. Apparently, over 200 updates were being made AND I was getting all the iPhone 5 features on my phone.
So basically, my phone is the iPhone 5, just the outside looks like an iPhone 4s.
So if you were considering trading in your iPhone 4s for an iPhone 5 I say save your money and just do the update!
Are we on our way towards a direct democracy? Twitter could be the first step in that direction, what do you think? Imagine if politicians minded the public opinion the same way TV producers do.
"There's a new critic in television writing rooms pressuring some producers to tweak scripts: the Twitterati."
"Comments posted on Twitter and other social-media websites about television shows have exploded in the past year, to 75.5 million in July from 8.8 million a year earlier... the comments are beginning to have an impact on the writing of shows."
