Week of September 9th

I really enjoyed the readings from both last Thursday and for tomorrow. Squirrel Inc and Made to Stick are very conversational, which makes them easy and interesting to read!

I am so intrigued by the way Squirrel Inc is formatted. I am learning about how to tell a story by reading a story about a character teaching another character how to tell a story-- ironic. My favorite tip thus far is to remember not to include to much detail in stories. The more simple they are the better. I can definitely agree to this because if I am listening to a story and the storyteller is drowning it with every detail down to the type of chips the main character ate with his sandwich for lunch, it distracts me and I become bored.

 This idea of stripping a story of too much detail is brought up again in the Made to Stick book. One of parts of the SUCCES's is simplicity. There is a fine line though because you have to be careful not to take away all of the detail. If that happens, the story isn't a story anymore, but online a bite of information. While people won't get bored by a quick snip of information, they certainly won't retain it.

In the chapter on stories, the idea of creating stories that mental stimulate an audience was brought up. I agree that this concept is very important in grabbing attention. You want to put the audience inside the story so that they take each step as the characters do. This makes a story memorable and pushed the audience to act-- which is the point of telling a story isn't it? If you can get someone to mentally walk through the process, then they are more likely to take action and actually complete the goal you want them to in reality. We have to forget that audiences are just ears listening to us blab on and on. It is key to take advantage of an audience's minds and make them active within the story. In the end, they will feel inspired and act.

Week of September 3rd

I am writing on the reading for last Thursday. I can already tell that the Shuen book is going to be the most challenging for me to read. It is not written as casually as others, therefore making it less interesting. Shuen's book is a little dryer, but it does give some hard facts about the business of the internet.

However, I did find it very interesting to read about how websites like Flickr and Netflix became so successful. I am familiar with both so I was intrigued to know more. After reading through the first two chapters, one lesson stood out the most: happy users make for a successful company. It is all based on the relationship with the user so that those users spread the word, and getting new people to become users. The more people involved, the better the profit. What attracts users? Free membership! Otherwise coined as "Freemium". Yes, Flickr has payable upgrades, but the freemium includes everything that an amateur photographer could want: easy uploading, storage of photos, photo sharing, etc.

There are so many things that Flickr did right to ensure for a successful company. For one, building a good search engine can be extremely expensive. Flickr chose to use its large user base to help build one for free. They created the option to tag photos with descriptive words. With the tagged words, the users build a database that others can search through. This is a huge cost that Flickr dodged by taking full advantage of its users.

Flickr makes its money through a multi-stream model. Money comes in through the upgrade subscription fees, advertising transaction fees, and and sponsorship fees. Flickr may not have been a huge profit from the get-go, but once they invested a lot of money at the start, the return profit was huge!

As boring as I think that this particular book is, I agree that it is important to know the in's and out's of what makes a successful internet business. Learning the history of some of the most successful and long-lasting companies gives me a lot of insight on what are the right steps to be profitable.

Week of 8/27

After reading parts of "Secrets of Social Media Marketing" by Paul Gillin, I feel as though I have just scraped the surface of how to perfect marketing in the booming age of social media. Gillin makes many valid and convincing points throughout this book, backing them up with examples from the real-world. He advises that when one is venturing into the world of social media marketing that they should create a plan. You should not just jump to a social media tool and try to mold it into what you need. Instead, recognize the goals of your project and then pick a social media tool that will best support your plan. It is also important to not get caught up in the always-advancing social media tools out there. If you already understand some basics of social media tools, don't buy into the fancier ones because it may not be worth the time spent re-learning all new gadgets. Along with this, it is important that one does understand how to use a variety of social media tools because different tools can be used to the best of their advantage for different jobs. While using social media is becoming a popular marketing strategy, Gillin says that it is not always the best path for every situation. For example, think about the audience you are trying to reach. If they are over 60 years old, the majority of your target audience is not hooked up on social media tools. Therefore marketing via social media would prove to be pointless because your audience doesn't access it.

Gillin stresses the point of relaxation. Too many large corporate companies are strung too tightly. They may react to the company being posted about on the internet negatively. In turn, they can harm themselves even more than if they would've just laughed it off. Attacking a customer is never a good idea, especially if they were posting something that was to boost the company brand. He reiterates the Dell computer story- a perfect example of the importance of relaxation over silly social media posts.

Later on, Gillin explains some of the highlights of social media marketing. One being the low cost for companies, which is an obvious incentive. Another being, that you can reach a large mass of people with a variety of interests at the click of a mouse. Not only does social media marketing reach people here in the United States, but Gillin says that some of the largest social media tools are in the overseas markets. No matter the location or the tool, the author states the all social media outlets have some general similarities: anybody can connect to them, users can personalize their information, and they support software applications. Keeping these general aspects in mind, it is most important to understand the individual "personality" of each tool. Knowing the purpose and drive behind social media sites can help one choose the best social media tool that will do the most for their marketing plan.

Dr. Howard gives a great introduction to the production of social networking communities and what we are doing with them these days. Companies are beginning to use the booming memberships of social networking sites to their marketing advantages. The way to be successful in creating an online community that lasts is summed up in the acronym RIBS:

Remuneration

Influence

Belonging

Significance

The second chapter clarified a lot for me. I didn't realize that a social network and an online community were not different things. Up until I read this chapter, I thought the terms were interchangeable. The main difference is their purposes. A social network's main focus is the users personal relationships with other users. An online community's main focus is that there is a shared purpose between all of the members, not so much on the individual relationship from one member to the other. I am interested to learn about RIBS more in depth as I continue to read through this book.