Monday, 12 April 2010

The Customer Service Industry - Revisited


This passage was taken from the conclusion of my dissertation paper which compliments this blog:

The overarching point that connects all these new media components together is that in a few years from now, the primary source of our decisions will come from peers and their information, rather than brands. This does not mean that brands will have no influence over consumers, but they must change their image and marketing approach in order to present themselves as a peer rather than a faceless corporation. New technologies will give us the ability to know our customers at a personal, individual level. With this knowledge, marketers will be able to shape their messages to the individual’s particular likes and dislikes. They will be able to measure at what time and at what location their message will be the most effective, and with data visualization services they will be able to measure the effectiveness of their campaign almost immediately. A marketer’s success will depend on all these factors, and their ability to predict what is important to their customers. Do you have any other thoughts on how markets can more easily address the needs and interests of their consumers through new media?


Saturday, 10 April 2010

Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Some of you expressed concerns with Facebook and Twitter use taking time away from other important marketing and promotional activities. This information may strengthen your concerns even more:

In a report sponsored by Social Media Examiner surveying 900 markers on their social media usage this is what was found:

A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly. 9.6% spend more than 20 hours each week with social media.


The key point: there is a direct relationship between the amount of time spent on social media marketing and its effectiveness (that may come as no surprise)


Benefits include: increased exposure, increased traffic (which can then in turn lead to increased sales), new business partnerships, and rise in search engine rankings.


Yes, it would be a problem if everyone in the business was taking 10, 20 hours a week to use social media, but that is why new jobs are being created to fill this demand. What are some other jobs that social media may give birth to?


Friday, 9 April 2010

Official Twitter App


Today Twitter introduced its first official app for smartphones, on the iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Twitter bought the iPhone client Tweetie and will rebrand & relaunch it as a free official app. They also worked with BlackBerry's Research in Motion (RIM) for an official BlackBerry app.

I am interested to see if this will encourage more people to use Twitter. Although Twitter already has a huge amount of users, I feel like most of them are businesses, celebrities, or people interested in following them. Now that it will be even more convenient to use, maybe more people will begin tweeting. Clearly, mobile apps is where it's at, but what does that mean for business and the society we are living in?

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

A Collective Effort

Thank you for all your comments! I believe discussion is absolutely crucial to the generation of new ideas, which will help us succeed in this emerging "digital society." An important point is that we need creativity more than ever right now, and in the future. But it goes even further than that- we need creativity in a whole new form- an even bigger concept of creativity. Largely, this will include being creative with new technologies. How to be creative with social media? Surpassing traditional creativity is pretty abitious, which is why it is so important to discuss and inspire eachother, for the power of two creatives is greater than one!

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

The Creative Class


Will we become "cyborgs?" Maybe, maybe not-the future is uncertain. However, Richard Florida presents a compelling argument in The Rise of the Creative Class, as to where our future is headed. His vision isn't as easy as having a robot do our work for us.

The Creative Class is a group of people whose function is to "create meaningful new forms." The super-creative core: scientists, engineers, teachers, artists, designers, entertainers, researchers etc. And the "creative professionals:" knowledge intensive industries, techy businessmen.

The Creative Class will all be attracted to the same creative cities where other creatives reside. Then a survival of the fittest type of reaction will happen-ultimately kicking out the working class. There have always been geographical concentrations of working and professional class...but Florida speaks of a more wide spread and pronounced sorting than we have ever seen. The habitats unable to attract the creative class will ultimately fail.

So, not to be bleak, but we conform to robots or to super creative classes who "create meaningful new forms" at their fingertips.
What do you think about Richard Florida's prediction of the rise of the creative class?
Richard Florida's website

Monday, 5 April 2010

Humans, An Endangered Species






History has shown technological growth is exponential.
Meaning it looks like this ----->

That basically means that in as little as a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence. The implications of such a time are quite frightening. It would mean we all would become robots, or fuse with robots, or something along those [non linear] lines.

Then all this talk about the "future of marketing" would be pointless, because humans would no longer be needed for marketing positions! We, as human/machine hybrids, would develop ingenious marketing schemes at the speed of light. We would all be immortal like Edward Cullen, minus the constant thirst for blood. Of course, you think, no way would humans hand over their power to machines. However, what if humans became so dependent on machines that there was no other option but to do exactly that?

Yes, this is total crazy talk. But entertain me. Will humans one day be at the mercy of machines? Can machines develop our marketing approaches for us?

Friday, 2 April 2010

Old Spice YouTube Ad



I heard about this video through word-of-mouth from some colleagues. Naturally, I was inclined to check it out after hearing all the fuss. This advertisement, although not aired on TV, has had over 6 million hits on YouTube. Looks like I'm not the only one vulnerable to viral marketing. What implications does this advertisement have on the nature and distribution of advertisement nowadays?

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Brad Nelson He's Our Man


In 2008 Starbucks experienced declines in sales for the first time in history. In turn, MyStarbucksIdea.com was launched for customers to post suggestions, ask questions, complain, you have it. Starbucks also has about 6 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers.

VP of Starbucks says these social medias helped re-boost business because they were “not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment.” Starbucks’ Twitter page, w about 775,000 followers, is run by the Brad Nelson, a 28 year old barista. Every day he engages in conversations with Starbucks customers about their frustrations, offerings, and casual chit-chat. Starbucks has just seen its first US same-store sales gain in two years! Wow, you go Starbucks! How can other companies use social media to boost sales?

Reference: York, Emily Bryson. “STARBUCKS GETS ITS BUSINESS BREWING AGAIN WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.” Advertising Age 22 Feb. 2010: 34 Vol. 81, Issue 8

Monday, 15 March 2010

Facebook Tops Google

A sad day for googlaholics.

Since September 2007, Google has been the number one most visited site in the US. Last week, Facebook received more traffic than Google for the first time in about three years. Facebook accounted for 7.07% of U.S. Web traffic, while Google received 7.03%. What does this indicate about the way Americans are beginning to search for content?

Reference: Pepitone, Julianne. "Facebook Traffic Tops Google for the Week." CNNMoney.com. Cable News Network, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/16/technology/facebook_most_visited/>

What's next after Facebook?


Let's face it, if you're not on Facebook, you don't have a face [in society].

A recent survey by Business.com studied 1,700 small-businesses leaders on their social media usage. Findings show that every respondent used at least one form of social media in their day-to-day job. Although social media has proven to be a useful business resource,
where will we turn when these resources become so conventional to the point that every company has a [Facebook] account, making one no more influential than the other? Do you think that will even happen?

Reference: Quick Study: Social Media in Small Business; Readers' News Story Preferences; Best Brand Equity; 500 Finds Twitter. Publication. 10th ed. Vol. 66. Pontomac: PR News, 2010. ProQuest. Web. 24 Mar. 2010.

I'm in a Locationship w my BlackBerry Smartphone


Location, Location, Location! I think this will be many marketers' motto in the near future, as more and more people become emotionally attached to their handheld computers. Foursquare.com is gaining increasing popularity, a service that lets you publicize your location so friends can see where you are, and [PLUS!] businesses can aim advertising at you! Many other services similar to Foursquare are being developed as we cyberspeak. I personally rather not publicize my every second whereabouts, but I'm a sucker for coupons...so if I can get a free coffee at the local Starbucks by checking into Foursquare, I'm all for it. In times of economic crisis, I'm sure you're lovin' the coupons as well :) Do you think location based services will be the next new thing? Yes? No? Why?

Sunday, 7 March 2010

iPad 



The much anticipated iPad will come out on the 3rd of April, 2010. The day when all online/offline digital services morph into one. New media is pervading much [all] of our day-to-day lives. Who needs a computer AND a television, when they could very easily be the same device? Books? Psh, I don't need to be bothered by flipping pages (although I doubt an iPad smells as good as a library book). My roommates don't understand that last comment-confirming my assumption that no one reads books anymore. Anyways, what does this rapid conversion of media mean for the business/marketing world?

Friday, 5 March 2010

Tweet-a-leet

I am proud to say that CultureCritic's Twitter account brought 200 new visitors to the website this week! I know this thanks to the data visualization site, HootSuite.com. It's incredible how I can observe the activity happening on Twitter and on CultureCritic.co.uk with these new technologies. What would I ever do without them?

I think I post some pretty brilliant Tweets throughout the day. Some of my recent favorites include:
However my handy HootSuite tells me that my most popular (received most clicks) recent tweet was:
  • What's your favorite film nowadays? I think this one is in my top five for sure... http://ow.ly/1tBTs

What is that supposed to mean?


Monday, 1 March 2010

Love Never Dies

I recently saw a preview showing of Love Never Dies, and although I left the theatre speechless, there were some major technical difficulties. In fact, they even had to stop the show within the first ten minutes in order to fix these technical difficulties.

Nevertheless, I was still blown away by the performance, and gave them some slack considering it was preview week. However, other Phantom fans were not so understanding. A recent Times article expressed Andrew Lloyd Webber's concern with the large volume of negative reviews being posted on online forums. This is an obstacle that directors, producers, and companies in general never had to face before the emergence of the digital age and the increasing popularity of blogs.

In a study by Nakee Park & Kwan M Lee, it was found that even one negative comment on an online news forum can have significant negative impacts on corporate reputation. This suggests the power of online communities, and the importance of managing negative opinions about one's company.
Is there any way for business to avoid this negative feedback, or use it to work in their favor?

References:
-Park, Namkee, and Kwan M. Lee. "Effects of Online News Forum on Corporate Reputation." Public Relations Review 33.2 (2007): 346-48. EbscoHost. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
-Hoyle, Ben. "Lloyd Webber Sequel Incurs Scorn of Online ‘phans’." TimesOnline. Times Newspapers Ltd., 5 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

INTRODUCTION


Hello all you World Wide Web users, exploring the world of virtual communities! My name is Samantha, and I like to consider myself as the voice of CultureCritic.co.uk, a website bringing you all the latest arts and entertainment reviews. I am responsible of managing their social networks (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc.) Weird, huh? Who woulda thunk that would be a real job one day!

Once upon a time...people used typewriters. I don't believe they make those anymore, and if someone is they should really invest that money in a MacBook Pro or maybe an iPad. Times are a-changin' my digital society citizens! And in times of change, we must change with them.

This is why I am researching the implications of new media and social networks on business and marketing in particular. So for the purpose of this blog...let us discuss...what is the future of marketing?