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.  

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