Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Social media platforms provide some of the most effective techniques for successful marketing.

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The Kmart video advertisment showing their customers "shipping their pants" went viral in 2013. This video campaign became "the fourth most popular ad of the year and has been watched over twenty million times."  Furthermore, "it has been shared over three million times on Facebook alone."  This marketing campaign is a prime example of how social media is taking over the world of marketing and advertisements.  Social media marketing is going viral.

Facebook is the most effective social media platform in marketing to reach a demographic of 13 to 55 plus years of age.

Research published in Marketing Science by V. Kumar, Vokram Bhaskaran, Rohan Mirchandani, and Milap Shah demonstrates that Facebook provides minimal effort for sharing with moderate costs of tie information while reaching 64,000 people in regional adoption and holds about 57 percent of local connections.  This means that very little is required in operating the marketing campaign through Facebook and in addition to the minimal effort necessary, costs are extremely low which allows for higher budgets or profits elsewhere in a business model.

Another empirical study done by Abu Bashar, Irshad Ahmad, and Mohammad Wisiq surveyed 150 individuals from 18-60 years of age.  This study demonstrates that Facebook is the most popular social media platform and that one's "motivation to follow a brand or join a brand page" is at its highest when the invitation to follow or join is sent by a friend.  This is due to the fact that if one recognizes their loved ones' interest or support in certain products or services, they are more likely to trust and have faith in the review or recommendation, leading and encouraging them to follow their loved ones' steps and purchase or at least research the product or service.

A randomized survey, performed in 2011, of 1000 undergraduate students, between the ages of 18 and 33, at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with 257 respondents showed that 98.83 percent of respondents found Facebook to be the most popular social media platform. Twitter was second at 17.5 percent and LinkedIn as third with 9.73 percent.  The bar graph to the right represents the data from this survey.


Another factor to be considered is how many accounts each individual has and on which platforms.  The aforementioned survey shows that 65.76 percent of respondents have only one social media account while .39 percent of respondents had at least four accounts.



Social media creates marketing platforms that not only allow for greater brand awareness but also the ability to form relationships.


Each company, organization, business, and brand works to earn the loyalty of specific target audiences, markets, demographics, and ultimately customers and proponents.  These relationships that are created via social media not only create loyal customers but also contributes to free publicity through "sharing" and word of mouth (WOM), both of which are great for marketing, if reviews and public opinions are positive.

The best examples of sharing and WOM can be taken from everyday life; look at your Facebook newsfeed, twitter feed, emails, or recent text messages.  It is highly likely that on at least one if not more of the aforementioned medias you will find some form of suggestion either from you or from an acquaintance encouraging you to watch a video, read an article, learn about something or buy a product.

The Social Presence Theory was developed by John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christies in the 1970s.  Social Presence has been defined as “a measure of the feeling of community that a learner experiences in an online environment” (Tu and McIssac, 2002) and Social Presence Theory is a further explanation of this concept and how it helps to build relationships.  The video on the right details the Social Presence Theory and how it is used to create, build and maintain relationships between consumer and provider.



Benefits to social media platforms used in marketing strategies include much more than WOM and influential relationships. 


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Social media platforms allow for much more in the eyes of a company trying to reach their target market and advertise or promote their services and products.  These platforms allow for greater web traffic (i.e. more page views), customer loyalty, product, brand, and service awareness, and even contributes to successful product launches such as the new Pepsi True soft drink.  Marketing online will increase a company's online presence.  Anytime somebody is pleased with their purchase, or when there is a sale or promotion, more and more consumers see, and those consumers' friends and families see as well and the potential target market expands, this is WOM.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Eric33 Youtube Clips

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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Apple Partners with China Mobile to Seek New Growth Opportunities and Increase Sales in China.



Apple has recently been criticized for the potential limited growth capabilities and sales potentials.  These are the company's investors' biggest worries, but not for long. Data shows that adding a new product such as Apple's iWatch wouldn't even make enough of an impact on the company's sales to increase growth or revenue.  After much argument, research, and studies of the market, strategies, and potential solutions or outcomes, Apple has determined that breaching the smartphone market in China holds the most opportunity for a long-term increase in sales and revenue.

While analyzing this article, it becomes clear that the publisher and author truly attempted to achieve effective usage of all four aspects of the P-I-C-K concepts.  This is largely due to the article's effective use of graphs, images, and charts and further explanation of the content they demonstrate.

Embedded charts, graphs, and subheads create contiguity and interactivity within the article.


In this article, interactivity and contiguity, although two separate concepts of P-I-C-K, work together through the readers' ability to view, interpret, and understand the charts, graphs, and images.  The author of the article specifically explains the findings and data in the charts to help create an even clearer understanding of the material for the reader.  This creates contiguity by allowing the ordering and placement of the charts to work with the written explanations and interpretations causing an association and clarity in the readers' minds.

Furthermore, the charts, graphs, and images create interactivity through engaging the reader to stimulate their mind and understand what the graphic is explaining.  In addition to the graphics, the subheads give the reader an idea of the data and information in the coming paragraphs.  All of these tactics helps to keep the readers engaged in the material and article.

Although not completely obvious, this article is very personalized. 

The author uses a basic vocabulary and language that is easy for both the general public as well as field experts to understand.  This helps to cater the article towards the average individual and the lack of jargon creates a small personalization.  As shown in the image of the article to the right, it is easy for an average reader to understand the content of this paragraph.  It states quite simply that the up and coming iWatch could be the next big thing, possibly something to help with Apple stock.  Lastly, the links in this paragraph allow the reader to continue to learn more and even become involved in the newest Apple product, catering to the readers' interests.  These two techniques create some, but not much personalization.

The lack of kick-outs helps to keep the readers engaged and actively reading the article.

This article is very well done in that there are not only no pop-up advertisements but there also weren't any embedded advertisements throughout the article.  In total, there was only one advertisement, placed at the bottom of the article.  The placement of the advertisement almost forces the reader to engage in the advertisement, as seen to the right.  In addition, the links at the bottom of the article deceive the reader and do not directly lead to what they say they do.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Diseases of the Heart are the leading cause of death in the United States

Top Causes of Death are Diseases of the Heart, Cancer, and Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases

A study done by Donna L. Hoyert, Ph.d., and Jiaquan Xu, M.D., for the Division of Vital Statistics, published in 2012, shows that of the fifteen highest causes of death in America, diseases of the heart are the most common.  The following two leading causes are cancer related deaths and chronic lower respiratory diseases. 



Death rates were measured  per population of 100,000.  The study broke the death rates down into demographics by age, sex, race, and hispanic origin.  The study shows that rates in age-adjusted deaths have decreased with the greatest decrease in white males.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Ohio University Student Senate President receives death threats for Anti-Israel video.

After Ohio University Student Senate President, Megan Marzec, released an anti-Israel ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video last Tuesday, she has faced death threats and been asked to step down. The Jewish Student Union on campus has raised their voice through protests, rallies, and social media.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Anna3

I am currently declared as an undecided business major.  However, I plan to declare a double major in marketing and psychology with a minor in Spanish.  

I believe that society is driving the development of new technology through the constant drive to facilitate and improve the quality and standard of life.   In today's day and age, society views material goods and simplicity as a symbol of higher stature.  Therefor, those who are able to maintain a more comfortable lifestyle buy in to the idea of having information at the touch of a finger but always will always strive to have more.  To keep up with society's demand for more, companies will increase research and development and eventually production, marketing and sales in order to improve and produce new technology that society asks for.