Reflection

                 In this course I have learned various methods and thoughts that go into web marketing. I enjoyed browsing the multi social media sites and using them for promoting the flash mob. In my old job, at Billabong, I was one of the Twitter account managers and was in-charge of tweets, followers  and organizing; I wish I had known some of the things we learned throughout the course prior to my work so I could have use them to improve appealing to customers. I hope to take what i've learned into my new field at World Vision to provide interaction, immediate and involving as well, of course, as information driven. 
                       I enjoyed the different aspect of the Internet we used to communicate during the course and the flash mob. It is unfortunate others weren't able to comprehend the functions which sometimes made collaborating difficult, but was useful when enabled. Christine was very helpful and was able to present the information in an engaging way by class discussions and this blog. 
                        If it were a perfect world and we could change anything, I would have done the flash mob in smaller groups 
or individual; I am, as are many other students, very busy which makes it difficult, and rely on others when completing a project. I feel the Google+ would have been ideal to use if other members were able to, otherwise it is stressful trying to teach others how to use tools to do the project.
                      Thank you to Christina DeVries for the time and effort that was put into each class in preparing us for the business world online.



- Heather A. Stevens

The Future of Social Media

Social media has grown from a way to connect with your best friends to a commercial entity which allows regular people and businesses to build relationships, attract customers, and grow their product or service. We all understand the power that social media has today and the kind of prospects it has in the future, but what exactly can we expect in terms of personal and business oriented social media?

Social media and our Personal Brand:

                Social media can help any individual build their own personal brand. They can portray an ideal image of themselves to others so as to grow their connections and value. Much like LinkedIn currently, social media in the future will allow us to connect with the people we know and build connections in our chosen profession. Employers will also be able to check our work experience, our references, and even what kind of person we are based on our social media profiles. On a more personal note, our social media applications will let us see exactly what friends think of a certain restaurant or what they recommend to order and, much like this proposed product from Google, will let us see these things on the fly with a type of augmented reality.

A way augmented reality may work in the future.

The Future of Social Media in Business:

                Today, businesses can attract customers and increase sales with social media, but as it evolves, social media will help in a number of ways. Social media will be a great avenue for businesses to gain access to its customer’s activities and ideas. For example, businesses could further define their most frequent customers and target them over less frequent visitors. This increase in awareness of customer traits will also result in more personalized products and experiences. Also, because users can “check in” when they go somewhere just like in the Google video, the business will be able to see when a person enters their store and can send the customer information about sales or even directions to a specific product through their social media application. Essentially, the future of social media in business will allow companies to personalize the customer experience and gain further knowledge of its target markets.

An interesting video on social media

The future of social media is already happening today, such as the “check in” feature on Facebook, and these services will continue to evolve and change as time goes on. Eventually everything will be integrated and will let businesses and consumers expand their reach and gain access to other people’s opinions and thoughts on specific places or products. How do you think social media will change in the future?

Thanks for reading

Dusan Andic.

By the way, here’s an interesting article which interviews various people about their ideas of what the future of social media is: http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-social-media-2011-11?op=1

Article Sources:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/may/9/charlene-li-future-social-media/

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/may/23/liz-strauss-future-social-media/

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9b331e0-9f7e-11e1-a255-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28jklnLuE

Business Models

Before we start talking about business models, it is important to know what a business model is. According to our text book, “a business model is how a company makes money or a non-profit organization achieves its revenue objectives, how an entity sustains itself”. The most common way for a website to generate revenue is to sell goods or services. Non-profit organizations can raise revenue through donations.

Making money on the internet seems easy, but it is not. Even successful companies have a hard time expanding to the internet, especially when trying to engage with social media. As a business owner who operates solely on the internet, I can assure that it is a competitive, aggressive and hard-to-understand market. But, once tamed, it can also be very profitable and fun – especially when you, just like me, play videogames for a living.

The basic web business models described on our text book have both B2C and B2B applications, a few have non-profit applications, and are the following:

1)Brokerage Model: brings buyers and sellers together.

2)Advertising Model: displays advertisements during navigation.

3)Infomediary Model: resells useful information.

4)Merchant Model: provides good and services.

5)Manufacturer Model: takes place when a manufacturer reaches buyers directly

6)Affiliate Model: offers incentives to partner sites.

7)Community Model: connects individuals and groups.

8)Subscription Model: delivers services and content for a fee.

9)Utility Model: delivers services and content on a paid base.

Machinima Logo

As I mentioned earlier, I play videogames for a living. How do I do that? Well, I work under a modified Brokerage Model. I own two Youtube channels – http://www.youtube.com/BRKsEDU and http://www.youtube.com/PequenoSapeca – and both are partnered with a Youtube Network called Machinima. What Machinima does is place advertisements of companies willing to promote through Youtube on my Youtube channel. Basically, I sell advertisement space, which is bought by the advertiser through Machinima (the broker).

I can also, on my own, sell ad placements on my Youtube channel (on my channel’s background or on videos), which is shown below, and promote products, brands and services on Twitter and Facebook, which I use to better engage with my audience but which also work as a form of promotion for me and / or for other companies businesswise.

BRKsEDU Youtube Channel - 288,240 subscribers - 32,338,072 total views

If you have any question related about Business Models, Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, feel free to ask them in the comments section or to contact me via Twitter or Facebook.

Clickable Ads

Online Ads include all of the methods by which businesses try to get Web surfers attention and sell their products and services. No matter popping up ads, banners, sidebar links, social networks, emails or affiliate networks, they are all strategies used by marketing people to attract new consumers and gain leads for company. However, advertisement on the Internet has been around for near fifteen years and many users are looking at the ads they skim on the Web in a different way. Online web promotion strategy is becoming more and more of a science as everyday surfer of the Internet are turning increasingly irritated by the many ways that web advertisement can often surreptitiously take over a "www" that one is trying to use. The challenge today is considering and finding other ways of getting people's attention.

The methods for Internet promotion hasn't really changed quite in the past ten years. Popping up ads are still a big weapon among tons of advertisers, which already drive net surfers crazy. Related researchers are fast to point out that "pop-ups" are the highest rated form of despised advertisement. Ads that attempt and bait potential consumers into clicking on it rated just as low and ads that suddenly pop up and hide what you are really wanting to find are also widely disdained. When Internet advertisement doesn't have close buttons, and when it floats across your screen, or plays surprisingly without your permission, those ads are really nothing but annoying to people according to research. Therefore before a potential consumer ever relies on those pass kinds of online web advertisement ploys, more energy and money should be spent on highly proven methods of promotion. 

In my eyes, nowadays online web ad is moving forward of being a partner with the idea of helping people find answers, not just making a sale. This is maybe a tough concept for hardcore salesman to accept, but in the process of helping consumers find answers to their questions, more business goals can ultimately be achieved. For example, the blog is a great chance of writing personally, without a bunch of hype and it allows the writer to become a sort of expert or "turn to" person when potential clients or customers have questions ( just like us ). It also can have sidebar invitations to visit company website and an invitation at the end of the blog, and it should be used for informational functions, not related to product presentation. The idea is to get potential consumer to come back again and pass blog on to others for their enlightenment as well.