Good news for anyone interested a career in social media marketing

Being a marketing student, and an avid user of social media, it makes perfect sense to jump into the field of social media coordination and developmental strategies. Why?

An article from  Mashable.com headline reads: Most Marketers Plan to Increase Social Media Spend this year.

• 70% plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% this year, according to a poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable.
• Primary social media goal is to increase Facebook “Likes.”
• Spending will go toward trying to find new Facebook fans, which 35% of respondents said is their main goal in 2011. “Increase our presence on mobile” was number two on that list, coming in at 22%.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/19/marketers-social-media-spend/

With these findings from surveys and polls, I am confident that social media has opened the doors to a new era of marketing and is paving a successful path for new marketing plans. I love that a job is created from such a relationship based outlet. I know I have been looking in social media coordination as a possible job option, are any of you?

Facebook Teams up with MTV

Facebook is the world's largest social media outlet, encouraging you to share as much information as you can. Ironically,  the company itself is one of the most private companies on the Earth.  MTV's aired a  behind-the-scenes micro-documentary, "The Diary of Facebook" on march 30th.  Mark Zuckerberg, himself, appears in the prologue and really explains the culture set up.

This is a great PR opportunity for Facebook! This was the first step, for facebook's company to be on camera. Will Facebook allow more publicity interaction and open-up to "share" with the world? {if there was a "LIKE" button, I'd hit it}

I normally don't watch MTV much anymore, but when I heard they were shutting a documentary about facebook, the company, i wanted to see what it was all about. I saw the documentary and really liked it. I feel like facebook has so many diverse workers and different specialty jobs within the company. The facebook culture is so different from the normal corporate world. They host hackathons to help employees be innovative and create new ideas and applications with facebook.
I love how Facebook has created jobs and opportunities. I think working there would be an experience of a lifetime!


Here is the trailer - a sneak peak- to the show if you want to see it.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/?id=1660746

If you saw the show what did you think? would you want to work there?


Article: http://adage.com/article/digital/mtv-facebook-real-world-treatment/149624/

Zuckerberg's Law

Zuckerberg’s Law: Every year, you share twice the amount of data than the year before.

The creator of facebook is now claiming laws within his social media empire.

"Publicity, exposure, openness are the central tenets of the social network's mastermind Mark Zuckerberg, who famously stated his belief that privacy is outmoded, that there's little purpose to being online if you're not going to divulge who you are and what you like."

With the rise of social media, data privacy is a hot topic. Consumers and regulators are all becoming concerned.  Facebook, inevitably has won the privacy battle thus far. However, Facebook doesn't take personal information, its given, BY YOU, the user. By signing up, users give facebook the permission to collect data on an individual voluntarily.

My opinion is that Mark Zuckerberg created a space where people don't want privacy. Users want to view other's profiles, walls, information and photos- and users want to be viewed. Until facebook, online communities contained anonymity (mock usernames).
The only concern Ive already recognized  is that even if u "delete"something from Facebook, they still have it. The moment the material is posted, Facebook owns it. I think users don't realize this attribute: what you put on the Internet, stays on the Internet. I know that facebook has a spam protection dept within the company that protects users and employees that monitor it every minute, but it still doesn't protect every aspect-- its now a hunter's paradise.

There is talk that the most likely form of regulation will be of third-party data collectors. I don't think the battle over privacy control is quiet over yet as new developments keep coming into existence with Facebook. I am eager to see how the government will continue to try to stick their hand in this cookie jar....

A Directory of Presentations: Slideshare

*Check out this slideshow video about branding yourself that was created using a new tool called: SLIDESHARE*

http://www.slideshare.net/nateriggs/the-resume-is-dead-building-brand-you


Slideshare is a social marketing activity that is similar to an index of videos like youtube, but instead of videos, its a directory for powerpoint presentations. This is a creative media resource for us as students and as marketers to learn to use. These (short, creative, and informative) presentations are posted onto slideshare and then are shared with social networks.
The article gives 5 great tips for using slideshare
1. Use lots of visual metaphors: No powerpoint should be text heavy, and it should keep the attention of you auidence.
2. Include a call-to-action: incorporate buttons or links for viewer to get additional information.
3. Create lead gen campaigns with LeadShare: this a a low fee program that generates leads rom within slideshare interface.
4. keep the presentations short:  the article recommends between 8-15 slides, but its a personal defination of "short". It needs to be long enough to get your point across, but short enough to make viewer wanting more.
5. Make descriptions and tags keyword rich: Make sure all of these are keyword rich (just like blog posts and videos) so they are more easily found

This is the first I have ever heard of slideshare, but it sounds like a great tool for student and professional projects. This may be a great tool that universities and companies should incorporate.


Topic found from article: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/blogging-and-content-creation/top-5-slideshare-marketing-tips/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ConvinceandConvert+%28Convince+and+Convert%3A+Hype-Free+Social+Media+Consulting%29

Happy 5th Birthday, Twitter!!

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/03/21/n_twitter_05_0321.cnnmoney/

The video link above is a report that cnn conducted about twitter and its progress over the past 5 years.

      On March 21, 2007 a mircoblogging site was born. Co-founder, Jack Dorsey wrote the first inital tweet that day. Only 5 years old and twitter has changed how we communicate online.
"Twitter now has 200 million users, including tech luminaries, celebrities and the president of the United States. It started off slowly: In 2007, Twitter averaged just 5,000 tweets per day. "

Polital uprisings and natural disasters around the world has contributed to making social media site a huge communications line. The usage and promotion of Twitter from celebrities (Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears)and even politcal figures (President Obama) has also added to the wild spread of people becoming "Tweeps".
"Twitter currently fields 140 million tweets in a typical day, or more than 1,600 every second."

As of now, Twitter is not profitable. This is the next challenge that the founders and management are looking to accomplish to ensure survival.

My own experience with twitter, just started during this year. I had heard about it about a year ago, but was hestitant to take up yet ANOTHER social media outlet. I just didnt think I had enough time to learn to use it and check on updates everyday. My friend pretty much started setting up my account for me and now I love it! It's how I look up about current events both nationally and globally (on my phone). I can check in with friends I follow and see (much quicker than facebook status updates) what they are doing or thinking about. I use it to look up job opprotunities, follow sports, and express my thoughts and actions during the day. Twitter is also becoming a prominent tool for used marketing research. If your not on Twitter, I encourage you to try it out.
I can't wait to see what how twitter will grow within the next 5 years.

 ARTICLE:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/21/technology/twitter_turns_5/

Advertise about the good, the bad, and the ugly

I want to discuss a topic that marketers fear about social media. They are afraid that people will leave negative comments on the sites. Today, people are increasingly utilizing social media to express their experience with a companies service or product. It can be either negative or positive comments. Its been proven that people are more likely to talk about their positive experiences (bloggers are 6x more likely to write positively about brands--power point notes), but businesses beware:  becasue social media IS a way people can communicate a negative experience as well as positive. We all have seen examples used in class. The most common example I think of is  of this singer that made a creative youtube video where united breaks his  guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

You may be wondering why this topic came to my mind. My recent experience involves using vactionrentals.com. We used this site to rent a house in Fort Lauderdale, FL for spring break a week ago. The site allows private renters advertise their houses. you can see pictures and descriptions and contact information. The house we choose had false advertisement. It said the house had a heated pool-- NO, pretty sure I recieved a cold after jumping in. The advertisement also said the house was located only a mile from the beach--No, it was atleast 3 miles away. We discovered these notions upon arrival. After the week, the landland tried depositing our deposit, and displayed unprofessional conduct leaving inappropreiate messages on my friends phone. He took our whole $1000 deposit for a slight burn mark from a hair straightener, then shut off his phone and all contact with us. What I then precided to do was check the reviews, which are only viewable ever so often. There were several other similar complaints made. My friend that booked the reservations said that until the week of spring break, the reviews were not available to see. Can the renter control the views or does vacationrentals.com have a gliche in their system? Either way allowing a negative renter advertise on their site reflects bad on vactionrentals. We have already decided that we are going to politely post a negative review on the site to communcate our experience to other renters.
My opinion, I definately want people to communicate bad and good experiences on social media sites. This is an opprotunity for businesses getting negative feedback to improve their services, and consumers get the information and make great choices.
WARNING TO BLOGGERS: Dont burn bridges and stay completely professional, even during a negative post. There are always classy ways to deliver ugly messages. Don't be scared to embrace and contribute to advertising and posting on social media sites with both good and bad exepriences.

The Social Network --The Movie--

Here is the link to the trailer of the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB95KLmpLR4&feature=player_embedded

I'm going to attempt to give a brief synopism of the movie, that won't give it away (or ruin it) for anyoen that hasn't seen the movie.
This movie is about the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. The movie takes us back to the beginning-back to even the idea generation. Mark is the computer genius that has the ability to create the programing that makes facebook happen. Mark stuns administrator's and captures the attention of thousands. "Within half an hour after that, the site is so popular, it takes down the entire Harvard computer network." That is when the realization hits Mark and his friend (monetary supportor for the site).

This movie is about innovation, greed, and obsessions. There are many key characters in the movie that have different view points. You have Mark: the creator, Eduardo: the business backbone and financial stability for the company, the twins: claimed that mark stole the idea for them, and Sean Parker; the co-founder of napster in the late 90's. I personnally find that each of theese characters make compelling arguements.
Im curious: If you have seen the movie, which character's view point do you agree with? Did you like the movie?

This movie is absolutely brilliant!! I feel that it is essential for users (especially in today's world that practically is revolving around social media) to understand where a product that generates this much buzz comes from. especailly if your utilizing facebook, you should want to know how it orginated and background story. I highly recommed this movie to anyone! it's a must see!!

FYI
Awards that the movie recieved:
4 Golden Globe Wins for “The Social Network!”
Best Picture Drama Golden Globe Win for “The Social Network”
Best Director Golden Globe Win for “David Fincher”
Best Original Screenplay Golden Globe Win for “Aaron Sorkin”
Best Original Score Golden Globe Win for “Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross”