In class we have been talking about all the benefits of social marketing and using social networks. I think it is also important to be aware of the dangers and risks of using social media outlets. This article reminds us that there are risks to providing too much information when using these sites. Not only can these risks come to us as individuals, businesses can also face dangers when "bad guys" can get enough information to hack into important information. I'm not sure how the rest of you feel, but after reading this article I am much more aware of the information I provide to my social networks.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/28/dcot.socialmedia.privacy/index.html

Companies such as Intel are beginning to embrace social media tools to not only recruit the new generation of workers, but retain and collaborate with them as well. There are also many tools that could be utilized through social media communication, for example, real-time chat to those working from home. Progressive companies understand the importance of social media for sustaining success; they realize that, "Today's Generation Y coming out of school and entering the workforce, have an expectation around connectivity all the time, always on, whether at home, traveling or in the office"

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/29/urnidgns852573C400693880002576400075D160.DTL

Google's new tool, Google wave was released today for widespread testing. Google Wave is Google's effort to combine e-mail, instant messaging, a variety of social networks, and to bring the work place together in real time. The interesting thing about these is that you can only be invited to test the service either by Google itself or another user. The invites are so hot right now that someone has posted an invite to test Google Wave on E-Bay and as of right now, the invite has 31 bids and is at $157.50

This kind of answers my question of adoption to social networks by older crowds. It's a cool article that breaks down Facebook users by age, and gives a lot of great information.

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/25/number-of-us-facebook-users-over-35-nearly-doubles-in-last-60-days/

I thought this was interesting. I remembered hearing about it on the radio this last summer, and wanted to share it with everyone. This lady is 104 years old, and she "enjoys updating her status on Twitter in her free time" says the article. There seems to be some adoption by older crowds and Twitter. It makes me wonder if other elders are slowly migrating into social networks.

http://www.bettyconfidential.com/ar/ld/a/Top-News-Stories-104-Year-Old-is-the-Oldest-Woman-on-Twitter.html

I work at the Club Resource Desk in the SAU, and today someone came in and handed me a flier. I asked him who he was and he said he was traveling around the country to promote the launch of his new social media, FreezeCrowd. I was excited, since I am taking this class to learn more about it, and we got talking.

Basically, he is a social entrepreneur from NYC who has been traveling from East Coast to West Coast and back for the last month to promote the launching of www.freezecrowd.com. He patented the idea 3 years ago and envisions some sort of social media that involves posting photos of friend and organization groups you are in and making tag webs from these photos.

I encourage you to go to their website and sign up for the email regarding its launching. On the site they have a countdown 'til launching, currently 22 days, 18 hours, 34 minutes and 31 seconds. I thought it was a pretty cool concept, and thought it was so cool the man came to my office while I am in this class!

So I thought this article was interesting because I was actually talking recently with someone about cars and their reliability, and at some point Toyota was brought up as a company that has a fairly good reputation. Imagine my dark humor when I logged out of my hotmail account to see this article about Toyota recalling millions of Prius cars because of "floor mat" issues. Read it and be both worried and entertained, folks.

http://www.bearmarketinvestments.com/toyota-lexus-mat-recall-3-8-million-vehicles-recalled-over-floor-mats

I thought that this was an interesting article. There is not much content in this article itself, but it lists 55 other articles to read. Everything from starting a blog for beginners, to increasing traffic to your blog, to making money from your blog are listed. I thought this would be helpful for us...

http://www.matthuggins.com/55-essential-articles-every-serious-blogger-should-read/

It's interesting to have cell phones broadcast video live to the internet. You can see what's going on the real live show or see what the person doing right now. You can use your phone to see through the video wherever you are.

Read this article and what is your opinion about having cell phone video on the internet.






http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/28/next-big-thing-the-cell-phone-as-broadcast-camera/

This article has a great summary of some companies that are really using social media to their advantage. In class we talked about a few of these, like Burger King, Sun Microsystems, and Dell. The article claims BlendTec as the number 1 smartest brand in social media with its comical "Will it Blend" videos on Youtube. BlendTec proved that a huge marketing campaign does not have to be expensive.

The article talks about the main tactic each company used and why it worked.

Read more here

There was an interesting article posted by Mashable today about Smarter Transportation methods using social medias. The article is interesting because it offers a 'greener' way of traveling from point A to B- from car-pooling to finding a gas buddy to share driving costs. Obviously Google Maps is at the top of the list with innovative street view functions and satelite imaging.

The most interesting point of the article are new social media tools like #4 on the list Walk Score. Walk Score offers users the ability to find businesses and unique stops along your walking path. This social media can be especially beneficial for the client of group #8.
The link is posted below.

http://mashable.com/2009/09/29/social-media-transportation/

I thought this was an interesting article to read to understand how social media is changing today. It could clarify any pre conceived notions about how companies are acting today. I thought it was interesting that companies are pushing towards being more "humanistic" and open with their customers rather than being controlling and constantly pushing their customers.




http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/

So since we have been talking about analytics a lot lately and how the results of those findings can help gear your company/website towards a more successful way of going about business, i thought this would be a good article to show. It helps both your business and also lets your competitors know that you can be one step ahead of the game. Although, what you can learn is a way to advertise and gather feedback from your social media without letting the competetion know what your up to. Read More here:

http://mashable.com/2009/09/28/social-media-feedback/

The major online electronics dealer, Newegg is going to have an Initial Public Offering in the near future.
This is likely to be a big deal because Newegg is among the leaders in selling electronics online, and sites such as Amazon.com have copied the way of suggesting similar products a customer may enjoy. Amazon.com had an IPO of $438 million back in 1997. Newegg is expecting an IPO of $175 million, but I see that being much higher because of Newegg's place in the online marketplace. Also, Newegg has turned a profit the past 8 years and had sales of 2.8 billion in 2008.

Amazon.com was trading for $16 a share after the IPO and now is trading at $92.
My suggestion is to get in on the IPO, what do you think?

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN288093020090928

When you are a small mom-and-pop business with little to no marketing budget, Twitter is proving a useful medium to attract attention. Just like with the Korean Burrito example in class, a small business in San Francisco with a similar revenue model opened a Creme Brulee cart and used Twitter as their main marketing model. They also posted when they would be a different locations around the city, they now have 5,400 followers!

Here is the New York Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/business/smallbusiness/23twitter.html

iPhone now has 85,000 apps for customers to purchase, and sales have now reached 2 billion downloads. We have recently been talking about businesses trying to increase the traffic to their sites and improving their search engine standings. Businesses have to work through a lot of information overload and compete with a lot of companies that sell similar products. Consumers may not even be aware that a company sells a certain product if it is not a popular enough site. What I am curious about is how do different businesses that have apps for iPhones increase consumer awareness? Apple does split up the apps into some subsections such as financial and fitness apps, but what about other apps that don't really fit well into a subcategory? I think it would be interesting to know if companies can use similar tools for increasing search engine standings to increase their likelihood of becoming a top app or an app that is featured on the homepage.

Here is the article that discusses Apple's recent accomplishment if you would like to read it:
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/28/85500-iphone-apps-2-billion-downloads/

I recently stumbled across this website. It lists the top 500 most visited sites in the world and gives analytics for each of them. Google is, of course, number one, but I was surprised to see Facebook right behind it, despite how popular I know it is (I would have assumed YouTube). For a business looking for places to market itself, this would be the place to go to find the site with the most reach, and if it will stay that way.

You may be surprised to see which sites are most popular worldwide. So, give it a look. Are you surprised to see which sites are growing? How do you think this list will change in 5-10 years?

http://www.alexa.com/topsites

Here is an example of how UPS has been able to leverage social media to help their company (this is the important part of the article, for the complete article visit: http://www.radian6.com/blog/124/ups-social-media-and-radian6/ )

Currently, the UPS team is conducting ongoing and active blogger outreach, connecting with bloggers who cover key business and reputation topics such as environment and fuel conservation. They’re also on Twitter (follow them at @UPS_News) to share news and information about the company.

In addition, UPS ran a fun video program to promote their UPS Delivery Intercept service. With the support of Archie Manning as a spokesperson, UPS invited users to submit videos on YouTube and MySpace featuring the best amateur football interceptions. And just this last holiday season, they introduced the UPS Regifter program, a clever solution for all those gifts you got but aren’t sure you want to keep.

But participating is only part of the equation, and Debbie and the UPS team wanted to improve the efficiency and breadth of their online reputation management with the Radian6 platform.

Social media monitoring with Radian6 also helps UPS stay informed about interests and issues that capture the attention of the public, and identify conversations where they can join in and provide information and insight to the community.

We have talked about  Twitter a lot and if you are still wondering if Twitter is going to be around for a while, here is the answer. With a new injection of cash into the business, it is just a matter of time before they decide on a business model that can sustain them in the future. Biz Stone mentions that advertising is still an option for Twitter but they are exploring other ideas as well.

Read more at


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8275792.stm

Here is an important link for you to follow. We did not have time to discuss this in class on Wed but we will cover this in detail this coming Monday. Basically, it tells you to clean up your profiles, avoid information that could be considered negative and play it safe till you sit down at a stable job. Also dont post about looking for a job when you are currently employed by a firm.


Read more at.


http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/social-media-screening/

My dad works for Kodak and their CEO sent out this letter a few days ago...

Here is a list of companies that interact the best with their customers, via customer service and their websites.
http://www.engagementdb.com/Report
The best is apparently Starbucks and most people would agree they reach out to their patrons alot.

So I came across this video about a Twitter like app called Flutter...I'm sure some have seen it, but still funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLZCy-_m3s

I stumbled upon this article which combines Post Rank Analytics with Social Medias. The new data collection service provides useful statistics as they relate to various social medias. This may be a beneficial way of measuring the return on investment when soliciting social medias as a marketing tool. The link to the article is below.

http://mashable.com/2009/09/24/pagerank-analytics/

To help promote the upcoming release of the newest Windows operating system Windows 7, Microsoft has teamed up with Houseparty.com to make promotion and information available...right in your own home, and even secure a free signature copy of the OS just for you! It's simply a matter of filling out the online registration form and agreeing to be a "host" for a Windows 7 Launch Party, and then waiting to see if your application was submitted in time. Here's a nice article that outlines a lot of what's going on, including where to go to possibly join a party near you!

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2009/09/host-windows-7-launch-party/

What do you all think? Does this seem like a good deal?

I was checking out some news this morning and I came across this article about Marketing through text messaging. They are now saying that Marketing through text messaging is a guarantee of it to be read by the consumer (97% and 83% read within the first hour). There are a couple of interesting facts that I didn't know. I think this is an interesting article to read if you want to know how wide marketing is.

So I was just checking my e-mail, and I get a weekly update email from USA Today of the top articles. I find it very ironic that the top article and title of the email was "USA Today: Do Social Networks Change Behavior?" Not to my surprise, the world outside of our internet marketing class is buzzing about social networks and their impact. I am linking the article I was emailed below. Toward the end especially the article notes some crazy situations and statistics on social network use.

USA Today Article

Kaity Werner

Something that has interested me through this Twitter craze is the obvious question- are businesses reaching their intended target audiences? As we discussed in class, marketing sometimes misses the boat when using social medias- like the example Dr. Murthy presented about Motrin- publishing questionable video advertisements.

For a common business entity it seems like a no brainer- why not seek inexpensive social medias to bring attention to your business. An alternative question is- are these companies wasting their time tweeting at impenetrable market segments? This doesn't mean, however, that all companies on Twitter are wasting their time, (or maybe they are).

The link below is about a Twitter campaign launched by Skittles. The marketing scheme- to post live Tweets, on the corporate Skittles website, anytime a Twitter user posted the word 'Skittle'.
Is it a marketing stroke of genius or a waste of time? Any thoughts?


http://www.youthmarketing.com/tag/generation-y/page/2/

This is an interesting little article about YouTube's new site FastForward. The goal of this site is to help professionals get reliable information on marketing; specifically social media marketing. Although it is sturggling (mainly because it is brand new) some of us should really consider bookmarking this site and using it as a reference in the future. Once the site is improved it will be a great tool for many of us.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/youtubes_fastforward_biz_site_off_to_slow_start.php#more

This is an example of another way that Dell is promoting through Twitter. I thought that it was relevant based on what we discussed in class today. Check it out.

http://www.adoptamini.com/

http://twitter.com/#search?q=adoptamini

I thought this article was interesting considering it talks uses for Twitter that I never even tought about. Everything from wearing a device that Tweets every time your unborn child kicks to having hospitals use it in order to monitor patients blood sugar levels or blood pressure, or talk about procedures they are doing. I think it will be interesting to see where the whole using other devices to tweet when something eventful happens will go. I think this opens up a new world of opportunity, but I also think that this can turn into a privacy issue concerning patients of doctors Tweeting about the surgeries performed on them and how big the size of the tumor they pulled out was...


Read more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14twitter.html?_r=1

I found this really cool article online that shows a youtube video posing the question: Is Social Media a FAD or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? It also has some really cool statistics out for you to see.

Is Social Media Bigger than You Think?

Definitely check it out. Professor Murthy-- maybe we can show it briefly in class? Some of the statistics are awesome and really prove how important an internet social marketing presence is!

They also mention a cool book I want to look into so wanted to share with you: Socialnomics by Erik Qualman.

Kaity Werner

Hey Class--

I was looking through the "Read Write Web" blog Professor Murthy showed us, and I really like some of the things they talk about! One article I found really interesting is at this link:

Poll: People Say Twitter is More Important than LinkedIn

Check it out and send me some feedback! I think it is really interesting because I always thought that LinkedIn would be a more important self-marketing venue as you are able to upload your resume information and past work experiences and more. But, when looking at it from a "unique visitor" perspective and realizing how many unique people actually see your Twitter information, I was pretty impressed! Toward the bottom, the article also points toward different employer markets and sizes that prefer and benefit more from viewing your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts--maybe this can help you in your job search.

Kaity Werner

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been experiencing many technical difficulties on Facebook. I decided to look into this problem. In the article I found, Facebook acknowledges the site wide issues, but admits they do not know the source of the problem. Just thought other people might want to know that they're not crazy, your Facebook IS PROBABLY experiencing these problems too.

Read more at
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10358003-36.html

I came across this article today and thought that it supported some of the revenue model ideas for twitter that came up in class. It seems to be the main idea to make twitter profitable right now.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_ultimate_twitter_revenue_model.php

Yahoo launched its new portal today. Propelled by a 100million dollar advertising campaign, Yahoo expects the new site to draw in more search traffic and increase its revenues.

It still looks like the old yahoo to me, with a little less content on the homepage. What is interesting is that this news coincides with Bing's recent growth that we talked about. Google's innovation engine is still running strong so I  will wait for Caffeine, Google's yet to be released search engine before making up my mind.

Read more at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8270081.stm

Internet providers will be barred from slowing down or blocking streamed video, music or other content that uses up a lot of bandwidth, under plans outlined today by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The proposals require both cable and wireless internet companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to treat all legal Web content equally and to make public the details of how they manage traffic on their networks.

This is an interesting development on an issue that was under debate for quite some time. While I support this idea, I am concerned about the reaction from the big telecommunication firms that control much of our bandwidth. Time Warner is actively pursuing the idea of charging users (larger usage for video, music etc translates to more usage of individual bandwidth) based on the amount of bandwidth they consume. Given this news article .............. What will happen next?



 Read more at
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6843078.ece

Ashley Highfield of Microsoft UK believes that TV needs to find ways to generate significant revenue from online video and to make it easy for advertisers to buy ads in bulk for online TV.

The real question is, would consumers continue to embrace TV shows online if advertising increased to broadcast TV levels? Is this a reflection of an overall cultural change of consumers demanding TV on their terms.

Read more at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/29/ashley-highfield-edinburgh-tv-festival

While I am not entirely surprised by this information one has to wonder why future business models are even looking at click through advertisements for mobile internet content. There are at least 5 other ways in which mobile phones and devices can be used as a medium for advertising without trying to squeeze in the ads into webpages viewed on a mobile platform.

Read more at
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/09/iphone-users-stingy-with-their-ad-clicks-says-study.ars

Starting this Thursday Twitter users can start calling (yes, voice calls) directly to one another. This service is powered by Jajah and will be available for free ( up to 2 minutes) during the beta period.

Read more at

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10355319-52.html

Bing is growing! While Google still controls over 60% of the search engine market, bing is slowly capturing back some of the marketshare it lost over the years with live.com . Bing is Microsoft's new replacement for the live.com portal.

I am left wondering if it is merely a result of the bing.com cashback deals that Microsoft has been doling out over the last several months. Any other factors that could explain this rise?


Read more at
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10354394-75.html