The Super Bowl always have the best commercials.

Over in America, the Super Bowl can only be described to be as big as our very own AFL grand final... but bigger! The Super Bowl hosts the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), which is the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the world; so it attracts many marketing managers every year in wanting to purchase ad space to run their commercials between intermissions.


According to Suzanne Vranica (2012), who cited Comcast Corp., marketers are paying on average $3.5 million for a single 30 second time slot! Here's one I found on YouTube, taken from the 2012 game day commercial for Audi's S7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw9ZeXB2uKs


So what do you think?

Thinking about the power of social media like YouTube and its incredible reach, do you think its would have been possible to create the same 'buzz' using Social media that doesn't cost millions of dollars?

My personal opinion is that even given all the bizzare outcomes of viral videos and buzz created on social media, there is an extent to how far digital marketing can take a product. Whether its gaining international stardom, or gaining free to air mass marketing publicity, there is an extent to how far a video online can impact me personally to go out and buy a product. Maybe its just me, but I personal like my ads on newspapers or TV; and I cant explain to you why, but advertising through YouTube just doesn't appeal to me as a proper advertisement that I would pay much attention to. When I see an ad on TV I know its an ad. When I see banners at the bottom of my YouTube video, or ads on my Facebook, I think junk.

So is it just me or do you agree?

Social media being used in Court.

The issue of regulating Internet space has always been a difficult area to govern. What people say and what people do on the Internet is increasingly become more and more of a ‘hot topic’. But in recent times, there has been an increasing number of cases where video footage and social media profile information have been used in a court of law to help with providing evidence.

According to Dishon & Block Family Law Attorneys, social media has been a key part of nearly 700 cases since 2010. Information gathered from social media is increasingly being used in court. Information on a persons state of mind, evidence of communications through message logs, evidence of time and place, and even evidence of action. An example is with divorce proceedings that have involved the use of photos, message logs, or even video evidence to help settle cases. an example that Dishon & Block Family Law Attorneys highlighted was a case involving a woman named Ms. McGurk who wished to sue her former ex husband for alimony for support, from an accident that she claimed to have disabled her during the marriage. However, evidence pulled from Facebook and MySpace showed that four years after the accident she was an avid belly dancer. The judge accepted this as proof and therefore she was denied all support claims made against her ex husband.

Even YouTube has been used to find and gather information on wanted law offenders who were filmed on cameras of bystanders or captured on security footage. Crime stoppers Victoria is a crime fighting charity that works with the Victorian Police. They have their own YouTube channel to which they use to try and get more feedback on information from the public, in relation to an videos they post up of crimes caught on camera.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CrimeStoppersVicAU


Other cases that sparked YouTube controversy and made headlines over video footage uploaded, range from animal abuse, to bullying, to hoons, to out-right bloody gang fights. All these videos were as if a plea from the public uploaders to help find these people and for them to be brought to justice; and thankfully most of them were. For instance, the incident involving the "puppy thrower"; When video footage of a girl was uploaded onto You Tube of her throwing defenceless newly born puppies into a river. Who was later identified, through the use of social media, as Katja Puschnik was taken to court, however, in this case the offender was not charge because of her age.

The Future of Social Media - Mashable Media Summit

A Great video, and a highly recommended listen if you have some time.

The guest speaker is the CEO and founder of Mashable, Pete Cashmore. He talks about the current state of social media, and outlines what is to be expected in the future, by looking at trends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhOwWeS7FT8&feature=related

Pete Cashmore is introduced at 2mins30s. =)

Cleaning up your social media presence.

We now know how important social media can be and how much it plays a part in our daily everyday lives. Now considering how important social media can be, we need to start questioning what we put online in a public arena where just about anyone from anywhere can view the content you upload, comment, update, or ‘like’.

Would you be okay with your boss, friends, or family seeing what you post online? Personally I'm not particularly a big fan of my mum seeing photos of me passed out on the floor with Picasso drawings of male genitalia by permanent markers on my face, but hey, maybe that’s just me.

So how safe are we, exactly, from accidentally exposing ourselves to unwanted attention from our loved ones? What are some ways to help lowering the risks of exposure?
There are some pretty simple but effective ways to protect yourself from leaking those inner darkest photos onto the news feed of someone you don’t want to see; like your mum.

• You can always block. Is probably the most effective way of nullifying exactly who you don’t want to see these photos. The down side is of course is now you've just unfriended your mother and will probably be frowned upon when you return home. 
• Play around with custom settings. This allows you to block selective people from being able to view different aspects of your profile. For instance you can block all those inappropriate bursts of joy when you’re updating your status about how amazing your day is sitting in the sun reading your book by the beach when you've actually called in sick. 
• Beware of what you ‘like’ on Facebook  what may be hilarious to you personally one day may not appear to be so in the eyes of another. 
• Have your profile settings on private so that it on mobile aps like Instagram, your photos wont appear on the public photo feed and also allowing more control over who is ‘following’ you and viewing your photos.

These easy steps are so simple, yet so many of us neglect the use of these features, whether it be because you simple don’t know about it or you’re not fazed by the idea of having your personal life out there for the world to see.

Coming back now with relevance to digital marketing, why should we care? How does your personal online presence affect work?

Drawing upon an issue earlier this semester, with the case of Charlotte Dawson being told to go hang herself, on twitter by a 'twitter troll', we see this to be a growing concern for many. As stories of cyber bullying continue, we see a growing concern for what and how you present yourself online. You have to be very careful of the content that you make known to the public, because sometimes all it takes is one awkward photo, one misunderstood 'like', one joke taken too far, and it could change everything. Now, even though Charlotte Dawson may have taken it a bit far by tracking her twitter troll down and physically calling her place of work, getting her suspended from work, and exposing everything to the public; it further shows that it can be done. People can find out about you and piece together little by little who you are and what you do.   Facebook argue that all they information you put up, you put up willingly and you are volunteering your information on their website. That's why privacy settings are just so important, its not just about hiding embarrassing photos of the weekend, but in meaning to help you realise that what you do and say online can not only affect you, but can impact on even your place of work and what you represent. Using one of the biggest scandals this year, as an example, was the much publicised leaked naked photographs of Prince Harry; which was made possible through... yes, you guessed it, social media streams. So I don't think the Queen would have been too happy about that.

Hate it, or love it. We all know it.

It’s the viral video craze that’s swept the world.

South Korean rapper PSY performs his massive K-pop hit Gangnam Style live on NBC'sToday show in New York.

YouTube has always been a rich source of outlet where people upload and share videos for entertainment. But did we ever foresee it as such a powerful mass marketing tool that can create a driver of influences all over the world so quickly? Maybe not. But there has never been a better time to hint to the business world of this power. Take for example the Korean pop sensation Psy’s 'gangnam style' music video. As cited by Brian Anthony Hernandez (2012), since the release of the video on July 15th 2012, gangnam style has rocketed through YouTube list of top 30 most viewed videos, with over 481 million views to date and counting! Even simply searching up the words “gangnam style” returns a search result of over 120,000 videos on YouTube  That’s over 120,000 separate videos who have tagged themselves to be related to gangnam style. If you don’t know it, here’s a link for your enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Psy became so popular that it was able to land him a record deal with Schoolboy Records, which is the same branch Universal republic records that signed Carly Rae Jepsen, for her release of ‘call me maybe’ song. Psy has also made TV appearances on Saturday Night Live, Today, Ellen and the MTV Video Music Awards.

It still astonishes me just how much fame one viral YouTube is capable of delivering.
So what does this prove to us? What are some of the marketing implications that we can infer from this example?

First off, as previously discussed, YouTube is a very powerful tool which is free to use that gives just about anyone the opportunity to ‘make it big’. And as this example proves, it not only gives you an opportunity to make money, but a gateway to international recognition and fame. Psy, and previously mentioned Ryan Higa, have all become massive Internet icons through their videos by using YouTube. How?

As those of you reading this who are studying digital marketing may already know, YouTube is one of the most powerful social media influences on-line with tremendous reach. They have over 800 million unique users who visit YouTube every month, generate more than 4 billion views per day, and 72 hours of video footage is uploaded every minute (according to YouTube’s press room), it’s quite astonishing really.

I’m working in the wrong field.

With all the research and ideas we've been discussing in class, one aspect of digital marketing that really connected with me was branding online. There are so many companies and organisations that use digital marketing to create an on-line presence for their brand. But it’s not just companies that do it is it? This thought came across my mind the other day when I was on YouTube visiting one of my favourite subscribed YouTube partners: Ryan Higa, aka. Nigahiga. For those of you who don’t know who he is, here’s a quick link to a relevant video on Facebook he made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHYG5u4lwus&feature=player_embedded

His videos are mostly funny parodies, sketch comedies and music videos. Ryan Higa is YouTube's number 1 most subscribed to channel with over 2.6 million subscribers. With such a large audience, Ryan has turned his YouTube channel into a brand in itself. What does this mean? Well to put simply, we all know that if you become partners with YouTube  you can make money from uploading videos. But do you want to know just exactly how much? 

In an article by Megan O’Neil (2010), highlighting the top 10 highest grossing YouTube partners, she cited information from Business Insider who used statistics from an on-line analytic program called TubeMogul. This particular research was used to estimate revenue from banner ads alone. And if you really want to know how these statistics were generated, Megan O’Neil explains: 

“TubeMogul took into account the facts that banner ads have a two-second load delay and that, based on previous research, 2.59% of users click away before the ad has a chance to load, banner ad CPM is $1.50, and YouTube splits all ad revenue with partners, 50-50. Therefore, they got their figures by taking all the partners views from the last year, getting rid of 2.59% of those views, dividing that number by 1,000, multiplying by $1.50 and then dividing that number in half.”

Based on TubeMogul’s estimates Ryan Higa is the fourth highest grossing YouTuber  earning $151,000 a year!!! Keeping in mind that this is an estimate that was only considering earnings from ad banners that appeared at the start of the videos from the channel Nigahiga; Ryan now has multiple channels and features on other fellow YouTubers and is making money from those videos too! In addition many YouTube partners don’t just earn money from ad banners they also make additional money from sponsors, contests, promotional videos, personalised t-shirts and merchandise. 

All Things Facebook.

How many of you have actually taken the time out to have a look around at Facebook’s home screen before logging in, or after logging off? How many of you have actually visited and ‘liked’ the official Facebook fan page? Not many, right?

Why do I say this? Because according to statistics taken directly from Facebook’s newsroom, there are over 955 million monthly active users at the end of July 2012, and 552 million daily active users on average in June 2012; but only 72 million users have ‘liked’ their official fan page; that’s only about 7% of the total population of active monthly users of Facebook who have, I guess you can say, who actually openly expressed that they like Facebook.

So if only 7% of people that use their product have actually expressed their liking for their product, does this make Facebook as a product unsatisfactory in meeting customer needs? Does it make Facebook a bad investment? I would hope that your answers were along the lines of most definitely not!

So the questions I want to put out there is; if ‘likes’ aren't the most accurate representation of how well a business is doing, or how much it is actually liked by consumer; what use is it really? What does a single like mean to businesses in terms of dollars? How do people actually go about justifying the use of Facebook as valuable part of a business? How would you tell your manager that he/she should spend X amount of dollars in using social media, like Facebook  to improve your business? I'm interested in knowing especially if you actually have implemented social media to your place of work, and how it was convinced to your manager as a good source. Was it sheer numbers and statistics of on-line users that did it? Or was more because most people already use Facebook and don’t really think much of having an extra page?

Fun post on Facebook

Also, in relation to my previous post, undoubtedly, I’m going to go ahead and assume that most of you, like myself, who have a Facebook account likely joined simply because everyone around you decided to join. You joined because you wanted to stay connected, stay ‘in with the crowd’, and though you questioned it at first, you probably ended up accepting it quicker than your total alienation of your once vibrant Myspace. None of us did background checks, looked at their fan base, or compared company reports, etc. just to see how they were going, and if they were worth joining. But somehow or another, we all just decided to make the leap into Facebook. And now look at us, without even thinking about it, we use it at home, we use it at work, we use it in school, on our phone; needless to say going by definition, this behaviour can now only be described as an ‘addictive behaviour’ for most of us. The transition from doing things out of habit to an addiction. Just like smoking, drinking, shopping, eating and sex.  

So if you realise that your using Facebook more times in one day than you can count; if you realise you've allocated time out in your everyday to check, like in the morning, at night and in between meals; if you realise that you unconsciously open Facebook on your phone in awkward situations like waiting in a line or café while your friend goes to pee cause you cant stand or sit still for that extra 3 minutes; you are addicted.
But its okay, we’ll get through it; I welcome you with both arms in our first steps to beating our addiction in saying:

"Hello, I’m Jamie, and I'm a Facebook-aholic." - Haha

The need for business to evolve over time.

Since early on, technology has always been a valuable part of business; irreplaceable in fact. No matter where or what business you were in, there was the use of technology somewhere along the way. The use of computers to laptops; moving through to the influence of the Internet; to building a connection; and managing these relationships using a sales forces, and now, to social media.

So how has this new technology that’s being used, help businesses with their business?

Well according to James “Mick” Andzulis, Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, and Adam Rapp (2012), who have written a journal article reviewing social media implications to the selling process, “argue that using current social media applications must be viewed as a living, dynamic process in the firm. It is a strategy that will require substantial commitment and continuous monitoring.” This argument cannot be truer, don’t you think?

When I first came across this article, it was interesting to read that they compared social media to Darwin’s theory of evolution. It is the perfect analogy. Just as Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on random genetic mutations which occur within an organism’s genetic code, keeping all the most beneficial mutations to aid survival (Nelson Bridgeford, 2009); so too has computers, laptops, the Internet, and social media, been the beneficial mutations in which evolved all businesses today; evolving ‘the way we do business’ in order to survive. 

In order to stay competitive, stay relevant, and stay in tune with the connections you have with your customers, constant developments need to be made to a business in order to adapt to the changes that surround them. In other words, to create, deliver and communicate superior customer value. 

Just so as the Internet was estranged to businesses once, so too is social media now. But the gradual acceptance of each of these has proven to be invaluable adaptations made in business in order to keep up, and survive. We see this everywhere; take a look at Olympians. Every year they come back with a better pair of running shoes, a firmer grip or better racquet's, to the specific materials used in making swimsuits to allow swimmers swim faster. 

Domino’s Pizza made the jump to social media. They used to be solely reliant of traditional methods of marketing through newspaper and advertisements in magazines and TV. But now in recent years they started using social media and incorporating it into their marketing strategy through the use of Facebook. It opened up an entirely new revenue for feedback that Domino's never had previously. It let them inform their customers of upcoming special deals and tried to get feedback of new toppings for upcoming pizzas for instance.

Allowing the incorporation of social media is to design and deliver something different, something unique, something that gives them the chance to differentiate themselves from their competitors; to stay ahead, stay competitive, and survive. 

Evolution in business. 

Welcome!

The year was 1990, it was a special year; the dawn of a new era, I'd say. 

Changing lives, cultures, the very people, their perceptions... and everything in between. 

It was when the Internet was very first introduced, by a man named Tim Berners Lee. 

People and especially marketers, have always feared it, and yet, at the same time was ever so curious to what its future held. 

1990 was before the time of DVDs and downloading movies, in fact, the Cinema, really was pretty much the only place to watch a movie. Would you believe that the top selling movie at that time was Ghost (you know the one... yes, that pottery scene)? Haven't seen it? That's okay, here's one you're sure to remember, and probably loved, from when you were younger (for those born in the 80's); Pokemon was released in 1992 would you believe!? Surprised? I was. My point being, the Internet wasn't something that occurred that long ago. Its not ancient, but it certainly feels like it. Why? Because of the enormous potential that it posed for everyone. Straight from the-go, the World Wide Web took off, and has become this super web that binds our generations, and dramatically shape the very culture of our lives today. In just over 22 short years, the Internet has become something so extraordinary, so complex, and so integrated to our everyday lives, that its almost hard to imagine what it would be like without it. The eyes of the business world caught on. 

In the short time that the Internet has been around, businesses of all sizes have started exploring the Internet as a main stream of viable resource. Marketers are starting to utilise the technologies of the Internet to understand, develop, create, communicate, and deliver value, to those customers. The Internet opens new doors for businesses, providing them endless opportunities to expand coverage, which allowed penetration of new markets. Some small businesses rely so heavily on the Internet that they even went on to report in a national survey that they would go out of business if it weren't for the Internet. 

So the Internet has become quite important to business. No doubt. 

However, the mission of iSocialike, is not just to validate the importance of the Internet, but in discovering growing trends of the world of digital marketing and the use of social media as a revenue for current and future marketing strategies. Its about exploring what makes digital marketing so special? How did we all come to accept it so quickly? Will the use of digital marketing become so powerful to the the extent where one day it will make marketing communications such as radio, television, and magazines almost obsolete? 

In the next 10 weeks, I will try to uncover more in the world of digital marketing. To explore various issues which will help nurture our understanding of digital marketing, and hopefully, answer some of these questions.  

Leave a comment :)