The time has come…

…for IMC 619 to come to a close. I spent nine weeks researching and analyzing new media techniques, and learned that the world of emerging media is truly that – always emerging, ever-changing and constantly giving marketers new techniques to experiment with.

I feel that I’ve learned quite a bit in this class. One thing that I’m certain is that I will continue blogging; it’s a great outlet for creative ideas and keeps me in the loop on emerging media topics. If you’ve become a reader of this blog, I hope you’ll stick around. (Feel free to let me know if you maintain your own blog!)

On an emerging media note, does anyone have any information on Swagbucks and how it uses paid placement/inclusion? For a search engine to pay users in rewards, someone must be paying to be listed…for this I am sure. I’ve made $40 this year by searching alone. (What is Swagbucks, you say? Its a search engine, claiming to be fed by Ask and Google, that randomly rewards you with “bucks” for searching. These bucks can be redeemed for actual prizes, like Amazon gift cards.)

 

Paid placement?

Would you pay a search engine to list your page near the top of results? I’ve been trying to come up with ways to build buzz for this blog for two months now…and to think, I could have bought friends!

This week, we talked about paid placement and paid inclusion on Internet searches. The fact that companies bid on keywords in order to appear in searches, no matter the true relevancy, is somewhat ridiculous. Do these advertisements really streamline your searching, or does it just create more nonsense to wade through?

There are a few valid points to paid placement – customers on a mission (and who are lucky enough to want the keyword match item) can find what they are looking for quickly, small companies can appear fairly high in search result rankings without much of an Internet presence and online users can continue to search for free.

Is it weird and unethical that this practice occurs?

Furthermore, would you go out of your way to use a search engine that accepted no paid placement of any kind?

 

Mine magazine – for real, this time

An update to a previous post (which was slightly rant-filled): I just got my second issue of Mine, and the correct articles were included! What a feat; this was definitely better than the first issue I received, full of things about golf and money management that I most definitely didn’t request.

This personalized Lexus ads still turn me off a bit (they list your full address and look like a computer inserted them from an Excel spreadsheet), but the content this time was much better (probably because I picked it.) Has anyone else subscribed to Mine yet? I recommend it for a quick read, but it’s not really worth paying for 5 articles plucked out of random magazines (especially if they aren’t the ones you asked for in the first place!)

 

Facebook knows WAY too much about me…

So, I recently became engaged (this past weekend!) and I, of course, changed my status on Facebook to reflect my new relationship status.  As soon as I clicked okay, I was bombarded with advertisements for diet programs (way to kill my mood!), wedding planners, photographers and ways to tattoo my fiance’s name on my profile.  Seriously? I don’t even know what the last one means! I know that target marketing is a big deal, but this is over-kill. I don’t get any advertisements reflecting anything I listed in my interest section or even invitations to concerts by my favorite musical artists anymore. It’s all weddings, all the time.

Has anyone else noticed this on Facebook, or is it just me? I mean, I’m going to enjoy planning the big day…but do I really need Facebook to constantly remind me that I’m slacking off?

According to Facebook’s advertising page, advertisers can get more bang for their buck by “attaching social actions to your ads to increase relevance.”

I can’t wait to see more relevant ads…

 

What makes a good Web site?

This week, we chatted about the characteristics of a good site. It’s got to be easily navigable, pleasing to the eye and downright different from anything else available online. How does one achieve all this, and still have time to work on things that aren’t just one Web site?

Creativity seems to be the main point in setting a site apart, but how do designers feign creativity for each site they maintain, as well as form and function? Is a web team just one person typically, or is there a whole team that works to maintain a company’s online presence?

What sets a web experience over the top for me? I like it when a Web site is fairly intuitive and allows for visitor interaction. I love all the rating features of Amazon.com and how it suggest items – whoever worked on that Web site is a bit of a genius, in my book. (Does anyone know who that might be?)

 

I one-upped Tech Crunch!

Just as I was asking about the similarities between Twitter and RSS, Tech Crunch writes an article about the very same question (only a week after I made my post!)

Said TechCrunch:

Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed – whatever they grew from, they morphed into a realtime CMS for the emerging media. Twitter, not RSS, became the early warning system for new content. Facebook, not RSS, became the social Rolodex for events, casual introductions to RSS’ lifeblood, the people behind the feeds. FriendFeed, not RSS, captured the commentsphere. RSS got locked out of its own party. Today, RSS is a shell of its former self, casually subsumed as the transport for 140+ content into the social stream.

I agree with TechCrunch – RSS is not as useful as it once was and nowhere near as instantaneous as my daily Twitter feed. If only they would have credited me for their thoughtful blog post.

 

A fleeting thought…

As I continue through my emerging media class, one recurring theme seems to be personalization. As people have more and more access to various types of media, they expect to be able to pick and choose from the many offerings and have something tailored for themselves. Is this what the future is coming to? Have we, as marketers, lost all control over the dissemination of our messages?

As a consumer, being able to dictate the amount and type of information I absorb seems like a great power to have. As a marketer, this idea scares me. What good are public relations plans and marketing channels if we no longer influence where people go to get their information?

A fleeting, scary thought…but one that could be helpful to marketers if answered soon and ahead of the curve.

 

Media for the minorities

We broached the topic of positioning Web sites toward minority groups in class this week and the response was interesting. At first, many of us thought that each Web site should be at least comparable, if not identical, to the English-language site. After some discussion, we soon realized that targeted portals for each different minority group, no matter the site’s topic, seemed to be the way to go.

To me, this does not seem like Internet segregation, but smart, targeted marketing. You could have a Web site directed toward different genders, ages and ethnicities and their particular interest – letting the consumer decide what they want or need out of your Internet page. The downside to the personalization is the expense…but would the benefits outweigh the costs? The idea is so out there to me, at the moment, that I have more questions than answers!

Some companies, such as Kraft, have implemented wonderful minority-oriented Web sites. Others, such as Apple and Aetna, still have a long way to go. If they want to be big in the new media game, the need to make an effort to reach all of their publics through the same channels.

 

The swine flu is spreading like wildfire!

Across the Internet and blogosphere, that is.

Seriously. Coverage of the swine flu can be found online via any outlet imaginable. Web sites that currently run little to no health content are providing swine flu information. I’ve provided a list of examples below.

The expected Web sites:

• CNN.com
• American Red Cross
• Center for Disease Control

The unexpected Web sites:

• Order Swine Mask (a truly real site) Also, is this ethical? Should companies be able to thrive in ridiculous ways when a pandemic is in the air?
• Twitter (have you ever seen so many people tweet about the same thing?)
• Swineflupedia … does this really exist?

I suppose now is the time for companies to develop an online crisis communication plan if they didn’t have one before…

 

Is Twitter the new RSS?

Or is RSS the old Twitter? I was thinking about this the other day, when I observed that a portion of the blogs I regularly peruse were using Twitter to update their latest posts. Isn’t that what an RSS feed is for, but just in longer format? Is that why Twitter caught on so quickly, because people are using it for something that is already established?

I’m still trying to grasp the concept of Twitter. The millennial age group seems to be the slowest adopter of this technology so far, which absolutely befuddles me. How are our parents communicating in such small amounts of words, and so frequently? I thought our generation was the master of the short form communication (blog entry, text message.)

The world of technology changes so fast.