Advertising and Interaction

While many people think of blogging and Twitter when they think of media, I also think of advertising. After searching for related advertising information, I found press release regarding Cooliris and Infiniti. Cooliris, a publisher network and Infiniti, a car manufacturer, have joined together in their next project.  

Cooliris has created a new internet advertising strategy where corporations can have an constant, unlimited 3D content. This collaboration between one creative team and one technology team is becoming more common. It’s very common now to create a new, advanced experience for the users viewing the site with up-to-date technology. The press release says that over 8,000 other companies have started using the new Cooliris 3D wall. The wall helps enhance visual navigation and allows for unlimited content. The new advanced technologies that are being used on these websites help lure consumers and keep them interested in a company.

Another very interesting advertising article I found was on the Forbes’s website. It explained that almost $8 billion is being spent yearly on advertising and almost 75% of the are entirely unnoticed. Thinking about my own internet usage and advertising viewing, I am not surprised that 75% of advertisements are unnoticed.

Don’t get me wrong — I noticed them, I just don’t click on them. For example, Facebook does a great job of relating the advertisements to the particular viewers. On the side panels of Facebook there are ads that are directed at me specifically. Not just “Shop here to buy dresses!” but I get ads that say “JMU students! Come to Craving Cookies!” The advertisers really know how to grab the attention of their potential clients because they directed it specifically at JMU students in the right places. Placement is another key aspect of advertising — not only placement on the correct websites for the correct audiences but the right location on that site.  

Although I notice the ads, I don’t respond to them and click on them. For one, I know that by clicking on an advertisement, I may get a virus on my computer. The advertisement may lead you to an unknown website with an unknown source that could leave your computer with a variety of viruses. Since 75% of ads are unnoticed, it’s up to the companies interact with the consumers to get their messages to the consumers.

Spread the News and Listen Carefully!

One of the first things that Sean Cheyney, author of  “The 5 newest interactive trends: How will they affect you?” wrote in his article was how surprised he was how news is so instanteneous these days. It’s surprising how times have changed — he thought “back in the day” that you had to wait so long for someone to publish a blog about important news or events. He doesn’t even mention having to wait “all the way” until 5:00 for the nightly news. Cheyney believes that the internet is definitely helping share the news. Twitter is now being used to spread updates instanteously, as soon as it happens.

He writes about how companies are facing the economic crisis that is currently going on in the United States. While many corporations are going under, the internet and the interactive industry are still struggling a little. All of the websites and corporations’s ideas are getting down to business: they are getting more creative and are engaging more with their consumers to keep their business.

Many media outlets and celebrities are using Twitter to update their fans, followers, consumers and friends 0n the happenings of their lives/businesses.

Corporations are using their social media tools to update their clients, but are also there to get feedback from there. Another one of Cheyney’s main points is to listen. Listen to the consumers’s praises, problems and ideas for future products.

An interesting press release I found was ”Digital Research Inc. Launches Waggle ” which talks about a business in Maine that is using a new social media tool, Waggle, to facilitate marketing research. Waggle will help the corporation track trends and receive input from their consumers.

Importance of Internal Interactivity

While we have talked about the importance of internal activity a lot during class, I wanted to go a little bit deeper into the topic.

Internal communication is essential. The “Internal Communication Strategies” article by Robert Bacal really helped me understand the importance of the interactivity that goes on behind-the-scenes at corporations.

Bacal believes that many corporations only address their internal communication strategies at the last minute, or when there is a crisis that needs to be addressed.

The author shares many of the advantages of internal communication. For one, with the help of communicating, the employees will be better prepared to make experienced, rational decisions. Another point is that the company will all be aware of the rules and goals of the company and make a conscious effort to enforce the rules and work towards the goals everyday in and out of the workplace.

It’s important to remember that internal communication exits to help companies over long periods of time. Bacar believes that there are four things to keep in mind:

1)      Plan for the long-haul

2)      Easily understood company values 

3)      Incorporate all employees when trying to accomplish the goals

4)      Encourage employees to remember the goals by constantly reminding them of the goals

 Like we’ve learned in class there are several steps to follow to establish an internal communication.

1)      Establish the common values that are needed and wanted – major difference between NEED and want.

2)      What are the available communication tools that could be used to implement the plan? Newsletter? Intranet? Blog?

3)      Which specific tools should be allocated to each specific goal?

4)      Implement the tools

5)      Observe the progress & adjust the tools if needed.

This article about The Effective Voice gives communication pointers for when a crisis arises.

Interactivity or Interactions in Online Courses

Interactivity is extremely important for anyone in everyday life but especially in education. When I’m at JMU, I make it a point to meet my professors, go to office hours and receive any help I can get in my courses. This summer I thought it would be a good idea to get ahead, although I was worried about the interaction aspect of online courses. Thankfully, this class is run so well and Dr. Holman makes it so easy to interact with her through emailing regularly and phone calls (if needed). I also think it is a good idea to have the group projects to get to know the students in our course. I think we worked really well together and are already planning on hanging out at school (even though we’ve never actually met in person…which is kind of unusal).

I found a very interesting article to go along with online education courses titled “The Importance of Interaction in Web-Based Education: A Program-level Case Study of Online MBA Courses.”

The authors state that the more interaction the students have with each other, can lead to more effective learning and more satisfaction with the course. After doing research in several books, one author clarified the difference between interactivity and interaction. Wagner explained that interactions are need at least two actions while interaction occurs when the objects both influence each other. 

I believe that our course is definitely influential in my life. I am constantly thinking about how the social media we’re using is changing our lives, whether it is making interactions between friends easier, finding information faster or learning new technological advances as they are invented.  

The diagram on Sloan’s site also helps us understand the interactions that are made online.

Elders in New Media

When I think about who is interacting in social media today,  I want to know WHO is doing the interacting. While I was expecting to see a jump in the middle-aged people; it was much higher than I expected.

In the blog about the “2009 Facebook Demographics & Statistics Report…” there was a 276% growth in the 35-54 year old users. In June of 2008, there were about 1,900,000 users and by January of 2009 there were approximately 7 million users! That’s over three times as many users than in 2008!

With that many elders now using the internet and social media sites, it is that much more important that corporations have their advertising and marketing techniques reach all of their potential consumers. Today, all consumers expect to be heard and to have their opinions really taken into consideration. When consumers take their precious time to give their ideas to businesses, businesses should be jumping at the chance for feedback and work to make all of the customers satisfied with them.

According to the report, the younger age group of 18-24 year olds already had ~14 million users in 2008 but also increased a few million up to ~17 million within six months. The growth with this age group is only 20% but still holds the highest percentage of users in an age group with 40.8% (which is down from the last report).

In the article “More Older People Active Online Now Than In Past“ explains the increase in Interact activity of elders. One line explains that the siginificant increase can lead to a new outlet for journalists and viewers who are more aware the media and those who scrutinize it more. We, as Internet bloggers, should keep an eye out for the elderly and make sure they are included and targeted now, more than ever.

Keep Your Information Private!

When I was thinking about my blog post for today, I realized there was one very important issue that I should cover: privacy!

In middle school when MySpace was popular, many of my friends (including myself) had one. One of the features I used right away was the privacy settings. Not only had my mom told me several times, but I also knew myself, that if you don’t adjust the settings on your profile, ANYONE can look at it. Anyone including older men that don’t know you at all.

Since my MySpace days, I have moved onto Facebook. I believe Facebook does a better job of trying to secure the profiles. Many users are only allowed to the profiles of their friends. Other profiles are more public but still private enough that only members in their Network can view them (networks including JMU, Washington DC, Virginia Beach). I have set my profile so that only my friends can view my profile, photos and comments.

Many SNS are used to connect with others, whether the relationships are with new friends or old. When interacting with friends-of-friends or other new people, keep your most personal information private!

When searching for information about privacy settings, I found “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.” One of the first things O’Neill mentions is to remove yourself from search results and Google (and then shows how to do that). O’Neill also explained that it is best to keep your tagged pictures and albums on limited access. I definitely agree with this, because it’s important that even if your profile is private, you should set your albums to “friends only” as well. Or you can even designate which “Friends” cannot see your photos. For example, if your boss at work has Facebook, it’s probably best that he doesn’t see what you did last weekend when you turned 21. O’Neill (and I) believe that it is best for everyone to keep your information private (and only available to your real friends!).

Here is another helpful article to read over when making your SNS private.

All in all, make your profiles private and don’t share important information like your cell phone number or address with those you don’t know well. This may sound silly, but even when commenting a friend your address, one of their friends may copy the address and follow you somewhere… so just to be safe, again, keep your information private!

Friendster — Failure or Forever?

After hearing about the social networking site Friendster, in yesterday’s readings I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to learn how it was started, the purpose, the user interaction that occurred and the differences it has with the successful SNS of today.

I visited the Friendster homepage to see the similarities and differences it has with Facebook. The homepage looks similar to Facebook, with the sign-in screen and information about the applications, connection and fan pages for the users to use. There are also links to blogs, videos and Featured Fan Profiles. 

According to a 2006 New York Times article, “Wallflower at the Web Party” by Gary Rivlin, Friendster was started as a place to meet friends. Actually, more specifically Abrams “started Friendster as a way to surf through his friends’ address books for good-looking girls” Pincus, a close friend of Abrams told Rivlin. 

Rivlin explains how Friendster failed for many reasons. In 2003 Google offered creator Jonathan Abrams $30 million for the site but he declined. Rivlin stated that Friendster was a disaster for a variety of reasons.

“There is no single reason that explains Friendster’s failures, Professor Piskorski [of Harvard Business School] added, which is what makes it academic fodder. “It’s a power story,” he said. “It’s a status story. It’s an ego story.” But largely, he said, Friendster is a “very Silicon Valley story that tells us a lot about how the Valley operates.”

I believe that Piskorski’s quote means that the technological area of the Silicon Valley is very tricky for everyone. On good days, companies and ideas succeed (Google, Youtube), and in bad times they fail (Friendster). In “Wallflower at the Web Party,” an early investor in Friendster states that it and similar SNS were ahead of their time. But in the beginning Friendster had a large, large following of V.P.s, C.E.Os and executives. Rivlin wrote that with all of these high executives to please, Abrams lost his focus and his business started crumbling down.

Even though Friendster failed in the past, there is still time to try again!

Break From the Pack — Interact!

When I first looked at the topic choices for this blog project, I was immediately drawn to the interactivity option. While we go over many important reasons for consumers, friends and employees to interact online in class, I feel like I can dig deeper with this blog.

I first searched on Technorati about social media and interaction and the result list was very different and scattered. I then searched the same key words on Google and decided to look at Alexander van Elsa’s blog on “New Media Technologies and Their Effect on Social Behavior.”

Van Elsa is the CEO of Glubble, an Internet browser that caters to families with small children using the internet. His June 2, 2008 post related the most to social media and interactivity. He believes that everyone is joining on the social media bandwagon for the interaction! Like we will learn with our class blogs, van Elsa wrote about how hard blogging is to get started. You need time, effort and passion. He explained that not everyone will take the time to read your posts; but when people comment and tell you their feelings about the posts, the interaction will spark interesting topics to write about.

I agree with van Elsa and believe that all of the new social media outlets (from Twitter to blogs) are gaining in popularity because of interaction. People crave attention and interaction from anyone, including people they may never see in person. Anyone can use blogging as an outlet to write all of their business ideas down, collaborate with peers or simply relieve stress. For the many people who use social media to advance their careers, they are seeking their interaction with future employers.

Another blog I looked at was Speckyboy Magazine’s. The guidelines on their blog explain that everyone should adopt the changes in the social media world but also do the research on all of the different options available.

When you do adapt to a new social media outlet, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or wordpress.com, be sure to interact with the other members to get the most out of it.