World Cup 2014

Last night I was watching ESPN Outside the Lines and an interesting story came on about the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. I've linked ESPN's "topics" page here, as they consistently publish intriguing sports news/stories. Anyways, the story was about the lower and middle classes in Brazil beginning to protest the World Cup. Not because they dislike the sport, but because of the way their government is handling and organizing it. We must remember, Brazil is a relatively new country when it comes to democracy, and in some parts democracy can be hard to find.

The leaders have begun tearing down schools and hospitals just to build parking lots for the bigger stadiums. Teachers have now begun their own protests, and the exponential growth of people involved will eventually cause some kind of a revolution in the streets of Brazil.

There are articles about this everywhere, but here's one I found also related to this issue (article online from Eye Witness News). As protestors fill the streets, crowd control becomes an issue for the government -- which means pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

I guess this is the real cost of hosting a World Cup, at least in a somewhat underdeveloped country like Brazil. Although Brazil's culture calls for an ideal World Cup location, the government, transportation, infrastructure, etc. must be in place prior to attempting this type of development. Please share this story, it's important the people in Brazil are heard and that changes come sooner rather than later.

Cristiano Ronaldo - a Business Man?

We all (hopefully) know who international soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is, if not -- check out these highlights. And if you don't really know soccer, just trust me that he's good. Pretty much he's my favorite player and extremely entertaining to watch, so the recent announcement of his attempt to transcend futbol is big news to me.

Being a very fashionable individual, as well as the world's high paid footballer, meant that eventually he would probably try to enter the fashion market. Well, now he finally has... WITH AN UNDERWEAR LINE!! The question now is: will he be able to succeed in the ways David Beckham has? Beckham, an English footballer now residing in the USA, is quite possibly one of the wealthiest and most well known athletes of all time. He has endorsements with everything from watch companies, to car companies and perfumes/underwear lines at H&M. Also, he is now in the early stages of bringing a new MLS franchise to Miami! On the other hand, Ronaldo is often seen as individualistic and selfish, which may lead people to believe he is simply trying to make more money. However, he does play for a big club and is physically appealing, so the odds are in his favor in terms of marketability and reach. The linked article includes some of CR7's endorsements and deals throughout the years if you're interesting in reading more. I just thought this was an interesting development and it would be exciting for all of us to see how it progresses. Will his "selfish, bad boy" demeanor kill his fashion attempt, or will his skills and fans buy into his brand extension?

#MadeInTheATL

Last night I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to volunteer the 2013 AiMA Awards show at the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta. For those of you who don't know, AiMA is the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association. To say it was a great event would be a huge understatement. I have never had that much fun as a volunteer! It really set my sights on a career in the social/interactive marketing industry, and made me appreciate what these talented groups are doing for the city of Atlanta.

For example--a Nebo representative and fellow UGA graduate named Darien LaBeach introduced me to the Choose ATL campaign that was just recently introduced. The campaign illustrates why we love Atlanta and the reasons to live here, work here, and start-up here. Atlanta has been given a not-so-great reputation for some reason or another, and Nebo is out to fix this and re brand the city as one of America's greats. So remember to use the hashtag #ChooseATL next time you post a picture to Instagram doing something around Atlanta! YOUR picture will become a part of Atlanta's story seen around the world!

Here's a picture of me at the event's photo booth, holding up a Choose ATL sign (please excuse the picture quality).

Back to the event. My day began around 1:00 PM with gift bag distribution and banner hanging. Then we began loading in food from local Atlanta restaurants (P'Cheen, Bone Lick BBQ, and Highland Bakery). My personal favorite of the three was Highland Bakery, but Bone Lick BBQ was awesome too. They brought a whole hog! Here's a picture of me holding its head up.

Another great thing about the event was how they showcased local talent. The DJ, live performer, food, desserts, and even the music during the awards show were ALL from Georgia! I thought this was a fantastic and creative idea. This is what the lobby area looked like while I was running food. (There was also an upstairs VIP area with a balcony overlooking the stage, but I neglected to take a picture of it.)

So, after loading in food and serving Hors d'oeuvres for about two hours (all while they were filling themselves with specialty cocktails from the local mixologists), the show began. AiMA President Steven Roe opened the ceremony, and from there introduced various speakers and gave away various annual awards. It was a lot of fun to watch. Here's my view of the stage.

Following the show came dessert. Highland Bakery provided peanut butter french toast and there were cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and so forth. Last, but certainly not least, they cut the cake. This picture should say it all. I don't think there was a single person there who did not take a picture of this enormous Georgia-themed creation!

All in all, it was a great night and I look forward to more events with AiMA; either as a volunteer or possibly a member!

America's Favorites

This past week I found a couple intriguing articles to share with you guys. They're about America's Favorite BEER, and America's Favorite CITIES! These two topics are very relevant to my interests, and actually could end up meaning a lot to me (I'm in the market to relocate, so the cities list made quite an impression on me).

The beer list from the Business Insider website was published just a few days ago. Blowfish conducted a poll and worked with third-party research firm AMP to get this information. It surveys each of the United States' "favorite" beers. The beers that dominated include: Yuengling, Bud Light, Blue Moon, and Sam Adams, with Blue Moon being the favorite here in Georgia. Sounds about right to me! I could go for a nice Belgian ale with an orange slice right about now... There are a couple other tables/charts created from the study, so be sure to check out the article in the link embedded above.

The favorite cities list I found through the Condé Nast Traveler website, and drew the rankings from the Reader's Choice Awards. I'll highlight Savannah (GA), New Orleans (LA), New York City, and Charleston (SC) as my favorites, but you'll have to check out the website embedded above for the full list. Obviously (and unfortunately) I have not been to half of these cities yet, but would love to one day explore them -- and possibly live in them. This list stuck with me and brought a feeling of excitement looking towards the future. I have long considered leaving Atlanta, and lists like these are eye-opening to the fact that there are thousands of places better than my hometown. So, here's to starting an online job hunt... Wish me luck!

Free Spirits - The Silna Deal

Last night I watched one of ESPN's captivating 30 for 30 episodes; this one being about the St. Louis Spirit and its' owners Ozzie and Daniel Silna. They had created the Spirit ABA basketball organization with aspirations of one day cashing out through the inevitable NBA merger. However, when things did not go as planned, and the NBA did not accept the Spirit into the league (in part because of the irrational behavior of Marvin Barnes), Ozzie and Daniel had their own plans. They asked to be given a small fraction of the NBA's television revenue in perpetuity. At that time no one could imagine how much money would be in television, and how quickly the industry would grow. For some, this was even a bit of a joke. To this day, the Silna's have made over $250 million through the deal. Talk about innovative thinking. This outside of the box proposal has been cited as one of the best business moves ever. Watching this episode really got me thinking - what will be the next industry to explode like this? What new technology is capable of delivering an insane ROI? To be one step ahead of the pack, it is important to consider the bigger picture in ways like these.

Here are 2012 New York Times and Forbes articles for more detailed information. (Including how the deal is becoming even sweeter for the Silna's, as they seek to tap into the international broadcast revenue.)

Marketing Yourself

Marketing yourself. It is one of the most important forms of marketing everybody should master. This goes for resumes, cover letters, interviews, and really any other situation where you find yourself with an opportunity to grow. You must understand how to carefully network yourself with new connections, as to avoid boasting or being too humble. A creative post I found while browsing my Facebook feed is attached below. How awesome is that resume?! It demonstrates a fantastic way to originally market yourself, but also acts as an example of how you may possess skills in design. It really jumped off the screen at me, and I had to share it.

To expand on marketing yourself, I found a great article about understanding yourself. MarketingMag.com offers some interesting insight in visualizing data. The article explains that to see and understand your customers, you should first see and understand yourself. Big data and analytics are huge now, and can be of great assistance, but you must also understand the molecular interactions your marketing has with the customers. Interactions are key, and you must create a valuable exchange of information in your marketing. The article goes on to display multiple useful examples of how to carry out this exchange. The key takeaway, however, is that you must create a memorable, valuable and personalized campaign to increase brand awareness. To do this you must have a great understanding of your demographic, but furthermore, an understanding of how to market to yourself is vastly important.

Credit to Sam Bond on Facebook for the creative resume picture.

Sunday Night Football Feat & Soccer in the States

Browsing the Internet this afternoon I came across a couple of exciting developments in the soccer community. As you probably know, soccer is not the most popular sport in America but is by far the most popular sport in the world. Its popularity is growing exponentially here in the States, and with the growth in fans there will undoubtedly be a growth in the business sector. Having previous sports management experience through an internship with Georgia Soccer, I am very excited about what the future of soccer looks like in my country. That being said, there was also an exciting occurrence in American football last night.

Did you happen to watch Sunday Night Football last night between the 49ers and Seahawks? It was a great game, despite the one hour lightning delay. At the end of the first quarter the Seattle fans accomplished quite a feat, enough so that it is now a Guinness World Record! The fans in Seattle are referred to as the "12th Man", serving as both a football and soccer nickname. Seattle is very supportive of both their 49ers and their Sounders, holding an above average attendance rate for both teams. (It helps that both teams have become serious title contenders the past few seasons.) The accomplished feat? A world record for crowd roar. The crowd hit 131.9 decibels, beating the previous record of 131.76 set by soccer fans at the Ali Sami Yen Sport Complex Turk Telekom Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. But wait, there's more. CLink Stadium's 68,338 went on to BEAT their own new record later on in the 4th quarter, hitting 136.6 decibels. According to the Decibel Comparison Chart by Galen Carol Audio, this is less than 4 decibels away from the unrivaled noise created by a jet engine. Fascinating stuff. Keep it up fans, you're the ones keeping the industry alive!

That was a nice transition to the real news I discovered today. According to ESPN, Miami is lagging behind Orlando and ATLANTA in their pursuit of the next MLS expansion. A suitable stadium is holding back Miami's bid, whereas Atlanta couldn't be more ready for an MLS team. With the Falcons set to open a new stadium in the year 2017 and Arthur Blank continuously supporting soccer in Atlanta, we can only pray that our bid is accepted and we are the next city to join Major League Soccer. My train of thought leads to me the career opportunities this would create in Atlanta. Long have I thought about working with the Atlanta Silverbacks, an NASL team, but having a real MLS team in Atlanta would surpass that opportunity incomparably. So... Here's to wishful thinking and a bright future in Atlanta sports -- God knows we need it!!

Atlanta Journal Constitution Article on MLS Expansion

Also, I've attached a picture of the current state of the MLS. Cities with an existing team show the team logo, cities with a prospective team show the MLS logo. 

Content Marketing Tips & Real Time Marketing

Creating and curating content is an important factor in any marketing campaign, predominantly seen in the B2C segment. Although I am not a professionally artist or particularly skilled in programs like Photoshop, content marketing appeals to me at a very high level. Content marketing is so appealing because it encompasses any content released to engage consumers. Say, for example, this blog was a well-known brand in the marketing world; I would be creating and releasing content right now! The content must be relevant and valuable to gain an attraction and eventually a profitable customer action. Content marketing is used to make the customer more intelligent, versus rivalrous forms of marketing which target less advantageous schemes. If a customer feels he/she can rely on your content, and even gain intelligence through consumption, this creates a serious attachment and greatly increases their willingness to buy from your brand. I found two articles today with notable discussions and tips regarding content marketing.

The first linked article today comes from the Engage blog regarding Google Analytics. Content creators should understand and utilize analytics systems (such as the one powered by Google) to drive more engagement and see where their web traffic is deriving from. The first tip offered is to engineer an organic keyword/phrase. Anything original that you can twist into your content will make search engine traffic greatly increase with higher quality visitors. The next tip is to look at the top performing articles each month. Investigate what styles, headlines, subjects, etc. that your readers most prefer. Content promotion is very interesting in content marketing, and can make or break your campaign. The final tip from Engage is to round-up old content. You don't always have to release new and innovative content. Sometimes followers simply miss out on a great post, or your style wasn't quite right. This gives you a great opportunity to curate this old information into a new and more appealing post.

The next linked articles comes from Post Advertising, and is about how to shine on Twitter. Real time marketing, through platforms like Twitter, is a widely utilized medium and is growing at an exponential rate. Real time marketing occurs at random, but is mostly seen practiced during major tent pole events (Oscars, Super Bowl, etc.). The simplicity of this form of marketing is what appeals to me, although it may be easier for the large brands with mass followings to utilize this strategy. For example, Oreo released a simple picture on Twitter when the royal baby was trending that stated "Prepare the Royal Bottle Service" with an Oreo next to a baby bottle of milk. It hits the audience as a random surprise, but comes with an awesome factor. This lets your audience know that you are in fact paying attention to the world around you, and that you do want to connect with them. You must stay on your toes during a live-tweet session in order to delight your audience and surprise them at any given opportunity. Twitter and real-time marketing are two of the most exciting strategies today. There will be pressure to release the correct content at the correct time but with an effectively designed strategy and witty workers, the brand will profit.

Entry-Level Work

Hi Blogger -- been a while since my last post. (Doubt I have any followers out there anymore!) It's been a busy summer here in Atlanta. Today marks my second day of unemployment since my graduation in May. I haven't posted about any of this yet, so I'll catch everyone up real quick. I began a post-graduation internship doing Sports Management work with Georgia Soccer Association, a state organization that administers everything soccer in the state of Georgia. I worked 40 hours a week and commuted about 45 minutes a day from my home in Marietta. I describe this work as a great transition from college, as it gave me my first real office experience (definitely valuable). I sat at a computer and helped whichever department needed assistance; this work would include spreadsheets, newsletters, accounting invoices, website advancements, and much more. The highlights of the internship included a one week chaperon assignment in Tuscaloosa for a group of 17 year old Olympic Development boys, and another highlight was working the 450-team Publix Atlanta Cup tournament over Labor Day weekend. I enjoyed this internship as it was very relevant to my interests, but unfortunately it is a small non-profit that doesn't have much room to "hire in". Following this internship, I went directly into an entry-level position with Marriott International. I had dabbled with the idea of working in hospitality, although I knew nothing about the chaotic industry. I got my interview, nailed it, and was hired as a Delighted to Serve Ambassador doubling as a Guest Service Representative. Little did I know, these positions were 100% service-based and required difficult schedules in a disorganized workplace. I pick up on things relatively quickly, and I could tell this was not for me. I left Marriott a few days ago, while I was still in my probationary training period, so it was on good terms with senior management as I explained my situation. Now I am currently seeking a position more relevant to my degree, where I know I can succeed and be an asset for a long time to come.

I found this article while browsing LinkedIn a few days ago, and thought it was relevant to my situation, as well as countless other graduates out there. It is titled Quit Before a Year? Here's What to Know, posted by JT O'Donnell. It is definitely worth a read if you are in a position like me. It explores the ideology and consequences of leaving a job within the first year. She describes that leaving the position should have nothing to do with the management or pay, and should be centered around your individual marketability. Criticizing your former company will not impress potential new employers, so you should carefully phrase your decision as follows. "You fear you won't be marketable in the future if you don't proactively move your career forward now. In short, show them you are a business-of-one who knows it's up to you to stay relevant and employable long-term." This quote from JT O'Donnell really hit home for me, as I knew I would not be given the opportunity to grow the way I wanted with Marriott. Staying in a stagnant position can hurt your future marketability and may lessen your chances of learning new skills as well. She finishes the article by explaining what most of us already know - that we should not make this a habit. My next course of action is to take the next couple days and really research what I want to do with my career. Find a company/industry where I will fit and be able to work for years to come. That being said, be wise with your decisions but if you know it's not a fit, then don't be scared to quit. 

Driver-less Cars, Google's Latest Innovation

I'm really excited to watch the progression of driver-less cars, as new videos have recently gone viral showing the potential this industry has. Autonomous driving is a huge market that deserves monetary investment from the biggest corporations. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is backing Google's claim that these cars will save lives, in particular using automatic braking systems and steering wheel control. Less people will drift into neighboring lanes, and accidents could see an immediate decrease. I'm very interested in what this brings to the table, including new insurance pricing and the possibility of needing a new driver's license. Here is an interesting video and an article from Business Insider to consider as this innovation begins to take off.

Demographics and Tips

I found another couple interesting articles today to share with you all. The main theme of what I found today had to do with demographics and tips for what to know about demographics in social media marketing.

The first article was in the form of an infographic from MobileMarketingWatch compiled using information from Pew Research Center's 2013 survey on social media. The picture explains that 62% of males use social media compared to 71% of females. The 18-29 age range had the most users, totaling around 83%, with the lowest usage being with 65+ at 32%. Household income did not seem to make much of a difference to usage versus non-usage. Next, as expected, urban areas have around 70% usage with suburban and rural at 67% and 61% respectfully. Education level also did not seem to make a difference in social media usage. As for race/ethnicity, hispanics came in with the highest percentage at 72%, followed by African Americans at 68%, and caucasians at 65%. This is all very important information and data to keep in mind, but you also have to consider who your market is and what your products are. Also, it is never a bad idea to hire an ad agency or research company to compile similar and customized data for your specific company. The article goes on to talk about which platforms are the most popular with which demographics, overall. Pinterest appeals mostly to rural residents, white females with some college education or higher. Facebook is, interestingly, most appealing to white women aged 18-29, although I can't think of a demographic that isn't on Facebook... Instagram is appealing to urban African Americans and hispanics, aged 18-29, and female. Twitter is 18-29 year old urban African Americans. These numbers all speak for themselves and make sense, since the trendy new platforms will of course be most popular with the trendy and hip 18-29 demographic. An interesting chart is shown next with figures depicting which platforms adults like to use online. Facebook is the most popular with 67% usage, LinkedIn follows with 20% usage, and Twitter is next with 16% usage. These numbers are pretty important and reiterate the fact that Facebook is HUGE to social media marketing campaigns. Adults are all over it, and growing, so they must be targeted on here. It is crazy that this is their highest used platform, but what strikes me is that LinkedIn is so far behind! I guess adults really do think of Facebook as the hip place to be these days. The article ended by stating that the demographics aged 18-29 have been consistently the highest users of social media, not a very big surprise there.

Another article I stumbled upon today was from business2community.com and listed some helpful tips regarding social media marketing. The first tip was to cross-promote your social platforms. This means posting/sharing things from Twitter on Facebook, or from Instagram on Twitter, etc. This will help drive awareness and engagement across all your channels, which is very important. For this reason, it helps to post different types of information on the different platforms, obviously being consistent with how the platform works and what the norms are. Creating a community of your fans online is another tip given on this website. This is a clear and necessary way to drive engagement. You want your fans to associate themselves with you as well, and feeling like they are a part of a community will do this for you. Another tip is to keep interactive. This means not just pushing out information and never responding. It is important to not just have a presence on social sites, but also be a real and tangible person. Next, becoming a source of information. This is what we like to call content marketing. This will help to keep people coming back to your site. It's important to curate relevant information and publish consistently to keep your awareness and engagement up. The final tip is to utilize crowdsourcing. This includes voting contests and social promotions. This way fans feel like they are a part of a decision or a part of the "event" that is happening online. Check out the site -- it's pretty good information and has examples used by The North Face!

That's it for today, and actually the last required post for the semester as well. But don't worry -- I'll keep pushing information out there for you guys (aka my one follower). Until next time, have a good one.

-Steffan

News This Week

I ran across this article today from CNN about social media and vandalism. Summed up, it states that vandals are putting graffiti tags all over rock formations in Joshua Tree National Park in California. The park's had to be closed temporarily to try to weed off this trend. What the article kept saying that confused me, however, is how social media is driving this trend. I don't know that I could ever see this catching on in social media. I personally wouldn't support this as it is illegal and defacement of National Park property nonetheless, and I'm sure social media communities would react similarly to the way I would. It's hard to stop something like this from happening... Maybe a social media campaign should be put together to raise awareness and the community can help stop it?

Another couple articles that caught my eye were about the Master's golf tournament that were held in Augusta, Georgia this weekend. What was interesting this year was that the tournament was broadcasted on a split between CBS and ESPN, so it was rather confusing to follow at times. Also, it was never on TV for a full day of action, rather it started around 2 or 3 PM everyday. Following online may have been your best bet. Think of the simplicity and convenience for people to follow online rather than the time consuming process of sitting and watching every slow-paced shot, just waiting for some action. Vine accounts were created, which is a great platform for highlights given it's 6 second, chopped video capabilities. Live streams were also created online, at CBSsports.com, so along with that comes a "Social Hub" for engagement and interaction during the stream. An all-in-one destination is ideal for the future, but could bear quite the cost for one station to get the rights by themselves. But with the social media buzz around events like this today, if a proper campaign is crafted alongside the purchase of these rights, engagement will push the awareness and satisfaction associated with your channel. It's a risk that major networks should be willing to make. I personally can't believe that someone like Golf Channel didn't want to be the face of the Master's coverage. Maybe next year.

Instagram Social Marketing Platform

I found an interesting article today on TechCrunch about Fanbase Media debuting a social platform for Instagram. Fanbase Media, if you haven't heard of it, is a new social marketing start-up (I swear there are soooo many social start-ups these days!). The company is only manned by 3 people who just help companies like Michael Kors run promotions and contests on the photo sharing site, Instagram. Fanbase believes social marketing is going from a stage of simply pushing out content, to a stage of compiling and gathering user generated content and using that content to get marketing results. The engagement and interactions using user-generated content completely outweighs just publishing content. Fanbase has already begun making an impact on the Instagram community, but has also recently started working with Vine (a Twitter created mobile app).

They believe the place to be is with strictly mobile apps where people take pictures/share stuff directly from their mobile phones. This makes sense as this industry is exploding and people cannot get enough of these social apps. Apps, smartphones, and the marketing that goes along with them is constantly evolving and is super exciting to me! Even in the last year there have been crazy shifts in social platforms and a huge shift in marketing on these platforms. Companies are finally coming around to social media, as they should.

Fanbase is smart for creating the platform they did, but in this industry I believe it's tough to survive too long because so many new start-ups come along every day. With technology, nothing is going to last forever since someone will always come up with a more creative/faster/cooler way of doing something. Also, the platforms like Instagram and Vine are not to be dwelled on, as we have no idea how long they'll last. Sites like Vine and Instagram are trendy, but not as powerful as Twitter and Facebook in my opinion. However, this doesn't mean there are huge opportunities there, because there are!

Social Media Marketing Tactics

Today I found an insightful article from RIS media about social marketing tactics to share with you. This was an eye opening article, and important in todays day and age. Almost every company is doing something social, but without thinking of the tactics that should go along with it. It's not only important to have a presence online, but you must also use it appropriately.

This article states that for both B2B and B2C marketing, improving customer engagement is the most important objective of social strategies, followed by increasing website traffic and increasing overall content reach. It is impressive to me that the people at RIS understand that these objectives are more important than increasing sales revenue, since they will eventually do that as well.

The next chart showed the most effective social tactics for B2B and B2C marketing. Creating articles and blog post content was ranked #1 for both B2B and B2C, followed by creating social share buttons for B2C and creating research articles for B2B which makes sense.

The final chart illustrated the most difficult tactics to execute for B2B and B2C social strategies. Creating audio/video content ranked first for both categories. This does take time and effort, but then again, you should spend most of your time curating content, so this makes sense. You will not achieve a successful campaign if you do not take the necessary steps in creating the content. People these days are good at estimating the effort put into ads, etc. so it is important to put a lot of time into this.

Spring Break Experience & Google Reader

Been a while since I've blogged... Nice to be back on here again. I'm finally back in school-mode after a week of tests and papers. Two weeks ago I went on a Spring Break cruise to Nassau/St. Thomas/St. Maarten on the Carnival Dream. If you haven't heard of this boat by now, you must live under a rock. To sum up the story, the boat broke down in the St. Maarten port (similar to what happened to the Carnival Triumph a few weeks before). Air conditioning was off for maybe an hour, elevators didn't work, and some toilets overflowed. It wasn't bad at all. The staff kept us very educated as to what was going on, and a time frame for recovery. When I woke up the next morning still in St. Maarten, we knew we weren't going anywhere. It ended up being an engine problem, and we'd all have to be flown back to Orlando on charter flights. (Rough couple weeks for Carnival... $$) But as it relates to social media, it was crazy on CNN how blown up the story got. CNN made it seem like our conditions were horrible and exaggerated 10x more than I ever expected. Once I was back home I went on Carnival's Facebook page. They were very quick to update and inform their "fans", which I was impressed by. It's important to be responsive in an eventful time like this. I will still ride Carnival, and have no problems with the cruise line whatsoever. (The 50% off another cruise coupon helped a little I suppose...)

The next issue I chose to blog about today is Google's decision to shut down their RSS feed, Google Reader. To me this is somewhat shocking as it is a widely used and reputable tool. Some quotes from the article suggest that social media may be the new RSS, and that the shut down of Google's program may be a net positive overall.  A lot of new programs have been made in the last 5 years that haven't seen action because of Google's program, so this is an interesting development. The effect of this decision hasn't been seen yet, but I'll be sure to update you when more data becomes available. It is sure to make an impression on the content marketing scene and in social media.

-Steffan

Social Marketing Tricks

Today I found a few interesting articles offering tricks in social media marketing. The first article was from Mashable and offered tricks that top brands utilize. (I thought it was relevant that in italics before the article started, author Wasserman noted that the post had also been published on American Express' OPENforum, a community based forum I have previously mentioned...) Wasserman goes on to identify three social marketing tips used by large brands that you could use too. 1. Becoming a passion brand. An example in this category is Nike, consistently highlighting the same underlying point: athletic achievement. This is a topic that all athletes are passionate about and can connect with on some level. The second tip comes in the form of becoming a personality brand, such as Skittles. Skittles does not have the same opportunity as Nike to attract passion but rather can utilize a stream of consciousness updating on outlets such as Facebook to drive involvement. One funny example of their posts is, "the frenemy of my frenemy is my enefriend. This entertains followers and comes off as witty and clever. The last tip from large brands is to be transparent. A good example of transparency comes from Microsoft, who regularly post blogs about current initiatives, etc. Transparency is highly valued among consumers and creates a certain level of trust.
Another excellent article I found today came from the Examiner regarding the idea that social media strength lies within content/audience, and not the viral factor. It is safe to assume that brands do not produce anything "ground-breaking", and as a result you can see that a good social strategy must be based on the content published and audience involvement. Viral videos are really quite random and short-lived, usually individual user generated, and do not seem to thrive in the big business social world. Instead social strategies should aim to strive in responsiveness and to publish information specific to the needs of your audience. Finally, this article states an interesting development- the circle of content life breakdown. In this model, there are three circles of reach for a brand. Circle 1 being your immediate family, followers, fans, etc., circle 2 being your family's connections, and circle 3 being the people that are unreachable to you but that circle 1 can share information to. The article also goes on to reiterate the importance of quality over quantity in posting and information sharing.
The final article I found for today from NDTV.com touches on a different subject, the risks of social media marketing. The prime example illustrated in this article is of the recent McDonald's hijacking of the Burger King Twitter account. The daunting task of managing a company's social media feeds is becoming more and more difficult, as hackers seek to complicate the entire process in a variety of ways. Hackers posted on the Burger King feed that they had been "sold to McDonald's". Wow, think of the implications here. This shows the importance of being a step ahead of hackers - you must have prepared statements for such emergencies, and be ready to react quickly. Public relations and corporate communications is a major part of the success equation today, and must be managed correctly.

I hope you enjoyed today's post or learned something new. See you next time.

Steffan Pedersen

Interesting Articles

Doing my weekly scanning of GoogleNews' "marketing" and "social media" articles I found a few intriguing ones this week to write about. First of all, PC World published an article regarding recent surveys done by Pew and GlobalWebIndex about social media platforms. It stated that whites are more inclined to user Pintrest, Twitter is mostly populated by African Americans and people who live in cities, Facebook has more women than men, and Instagram is most popular with adults under 30 years old. With surveys like this becoming readily available, just think of the marketing implications. Knowing this kind of stuff makes segmenting so much easier and you can really target whichever audience suits your product. Social media campaigns are undoubtedly becoming more and more specialized with these types of facts in mind. The article goes on to highlight more demographic information of the various social platforms. The most interesting statistic, in my opinion, was that 67% of internet users are active on Facebook (crazy!). The next article was from UK's Guardian about baby formula milk and how marketing promotions aimed at women are causing a decline in the number of women who naturally breast feed.  Gifts and samples are given out with misleading information about the nutritional benefits of formula as opposed to natural milk. This is illegal and in fact putting children at risk. It's horrible to think that through marketing and promotions a company can cause mothers to change their habits and attitudes towards such products. And the fact that they are publishing misleading information about what to feed newborns just for monetary gains is horrible. To them I say: let mothers make their own decisions, and be more careful about the information you publish. The last article I found was from Yahoo about recent hacks on Facebook, Twitter, and news websites. The attacks on Facebook and Twitter were not to hurt the sites, but to infiltrate user accounts and obtain email addresses, names, etc.  The hacks on the news sites were by a Chinese hacking team that wanted to control the sites' coverage of China. With overall technological knowledge increasing globally, attacks like this will continue and could potentially lead to the downfall of such sites if precautions are not taken. Facebook is an extremely powerful social site, and with over 1 billion users it is scary to think about someone hacking into it. Apologies for the randomness of topics covered today (especially the breast feeding). Hopefully you learned something or at least found this interesting.

Content Marketing and Integration

I found an interesting article today on clickz.com about content marketing trends for 2013 and thought I would share it. (January seems a little early to forecast the years' trends, but I found them very interesting...) Smartphones are flying off the shelves, and marketing is yet to truly catch up to this demand. Integration is becoming the norm-- you can see it at every corner, in every restaurant, and at every store. E-commerce is thriving, and businesses are becoming desperate to receive your "likes" and to have you use their Apps. Ideas, philosophies, and people are even turning into brands. It is actually becoming quite scary and overwhelming.

A trend is currently forming around authors/bloggers who are joining together behind a common cause/passion to create "brands" of their own. Creative partnerships of this nature are actually quite exciting and I believe can lead to great innovation. Voluntarily combining your website or work with another prominent persons' work is a genius idea and should be supported to the fullest. I certainly hope this trend explodes in 2013.

Another topic of discussion comes in the trend of brands evolving into thought leaders. This means that brands who have immense followings and experience in their content marketing campaigns are now actually becoming the "go-to" places for customers seeking advice or help with critical interests. It takes patience and perseverance to achieve this placement in consumers' minds, and very few companies are actually able to accomplish this. An example of a thought leader, to me, is that if I have any issue/question about budgeting I will head to the American Express website or blog (called OPEN FORUM) to find my solution. This is extremely intelligent and I believe will be an area of growth in 2013. What company doesn't want their brand to be known as the "go-to" place for information for consumers? The connection this creates between people and brands is amazing.

A final trend from the article I agree with and see exploding this year is the rise of infographics and outlets such as Instagram and Pinterest. Visual narratives are extremely powerful and much more convenient and attractive for consumers than reading a whoooolllleee page of letters. Once a consistent stream of visuals are created and published, followers will flock to your website to gain knowledge and "re-tweet" or share what you post. Integration of information in to social media in this way is very interesting. It allows people to have a constant "feed" of information they are interested in, without having to do any research. This trend, along with the rise of infographics, will certainly continue throughout 2013, and probably even become the new norm. Personally, I think they are very appealing and I thoroughly enjoy Instagram in this way. I can scroll though 10 posts on Instagram and learn the same things I would learn in 10 articles, but at a fraction of the time.

Content marketing and our generation's continual integration are interesting topics that go hand in hand. I look forward to seeing what 2013 has in store for them.

Until next time,

Steffan

Social Media and Celebrities

Let's get started by addressing the Falcons' frustrating loss to the 49ers this past Sunday, leaving Atlanta title-less for another year when everything was seemingly falling into place. I'm so mad I think I'll go to my Twitter to binge-tweet some smack talk to Colin Kaepernick... Just kidding, but on a similar note - an article I read this week from the Baltimore Sun addresses this sort of reaction. Wes Welker's wife, along with other frustrated NFL players/spouses, Facebook ranted about Ray Lewis' 6 kids, 4 wives, and murder case after the Ravens knocked out the Patriots in the AFC Championship. She has since apologized to the future hall of famer, but this comes to show how deeply social media is integrated these days.

Another interesting article I read about social media and celebrities came from the Huffington Post. It pertains to the "branding" of celebrities online and how there is A LOT of pressure on their profiles and posts. Anything they do or say in social media can have an enormous impact on any one of their millions of followers. On Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube celebrities are beginning to engage in marketing practices to keep their pages relevant. For this reason, I think it may be smart for celebrities to consider opening their accounts to their agents or PR/Marketing firms in order to save themselves any embarrassment or scandal.

Another interesting trend I noted in this article was the creation of the celebrity/fan relationship. Social media's integration has shifted conversations from a one-way message to more of a back and forth channel. I can personally say this is true after tweeting back and forth with one of my favorite artists a few months back. As the article states, this does create a powerful and meaningful way for celebrities to engage and increase their fan base.

In other news, Facebook's marketing company GroSocial was recently acquired by Infusionsoft for around $54 million. Infusionsoft released statements addressing their stance on helping small businesses achieve large social media presences, and how GroSocial has excelled in doing so. The 19 person team at GroSocial joining Infusionsoft means that they are now a 370 person team. Infusionsoft's customer service, larger employee base, and various tools are sure to make this a seamless acquisition. In other words, I'm sure the Facebook ads will continue to get better and better...creepy...

Until next time,
Steffan

Interesting Developments...

So I figure it's about time to give this whole "blogging" thing a go. Although it's only been a week, my Social Media Marketing class here at UGA has already sparked my interest in the topic (and possibly even as a career path as well). So what do I do when there's something I'm interested in that I'd like to find more information on..? Hit up Google: News and search for relevant or interesting articles from the past couple days. As I did this today there were a couple different things that really caught my eye:

The first article, off of Forbes, was about managing relationships and how 150 is said to be the maximum number of "friends" any person should have. We are not intellectually capable of managing more relationships than this, but channels like Facebook/Twitter may actually be conditioning us to be capable of increasing this number. There is nothing wrong with having 5,000+ friends, since we know each one of them will not be thoroughly examining your profile or your status posts. "Quality comes in Quantity". We cannot search for quality alone, so we eventually find it in quantity instead. Also there is the Networking Effect. Simply put - the more, the merrier. On a platform like LinkedIn, for example, you would never reach all of your 3rd party connections if you haven't connected with all of your acquaintances. In this sense, there is strength in numbers. So in conclusion to this article, I do believe having 150+ "friends" is beneficial, but you must find the best way to manage them. (I can't imagine scrolling through Twitter/Facebook feeds following 1,000+ people...)

The next article I found, also on Forbes, talked about the BCS National Championship game, stating "Alabama Beating Notre Dame in BCS Battle of Social Media Buzz". I thought it was very interesting to read that Alabama was mentioned twice as often as the Irish leading up to the game, and Coach Saban was mentioned about 5 times more than Coach Kelly. Poptip, a social data company, was hired to track and analyze all of the buzz leading up to the game. I decided to look into Poptip a little more after reading this. They provide REALTIME polling for Twitter results, which undoubtedly is a game changer for anything in social media. (At this point I'm actually enjoying blogging; I would've never known about Poptip.)

In a few weeks, look for a follow-up post from me regarding the Super Bowl, as I'm sure it will dwarf anything created by the BCS National Championship. Usually some pretty crazy stuff happens in advertising that day if you're not familiar.

The next article I found interesting was from Mirror, a UK-based news outlet. The article talked about Facebook launching a new search engine to rival that of Google's, and possibly tapping the Smartphone industry. The search engine would provide results for people sifting for information on business/people/events/etc. It would be allowed to connect to your Facebook account to answer questions for you like, "Where should I eat Mexican food tonight?" This is pretty scary stuff. I'm not sure I want algorithms making my life decisions, Zuckerberg.

And the last article I found was on good-old Fox News, stating that Twitter (and other social medias) may be the new and best way to lose weight. The University of South Carolina did a study with around 100 people where half would receive bi-weekly podcasts, and the other half would use a Twitter app on top of the podcasts. Researchers ended up finding that every 10 posts on Twitter corresponded to about 0.5% weight loss. Twitter has the capability to become an online social network support group for anyone seeking help with something like this. Traditional interventions with group meetings or face-to-face are often time consuming and expensive, so my advice to you is to start a workout program (still counts as a New Year's Resolution, right?) and use Twitter or Instagram, anonymously if you'd like, to monitor your results.

Until next time -
Steffan