Barbie and Ken Make a Come Back

            For generations upon generations the Barbie doll toy has been cherished by little girls hearts. Unfortunately, recently Barbie and Ken have not been making as many sales, due to new more high-tech toy developements that have surpassed the oldschool 'doll' toys. Generation Y girls are playing Facebook games and game applications on their smartphones, and not as much with old-fashioned barbie dolls.
            Mattel hasn't gone down without a fight and has many various barbie dolls, accessories, and barbie doll houses. Not to mention, Mattel has integrated their Barbie product-line named brand into social media as well. Ken turned 50, March 11th of this year, and the Mattel company had a reality show portraying 'the Bachelorette' where Barbie would find her true 'Ken'. The show is called, Genuine Ken, and is a huge success on Hulu.
             Stacey Blume is the creative director and founder of Blume Apparel and Lingerie of New York, and she saw an amazing opportunity out of Ken's 50th birthday. Mrs. Blume ignored the younger girl target market and went straight to the adults with her 'Barbie lingerie catalog'. Barbie and Ken portrayed a doll relationship that was complicated and playful which was seen by an adult target market more than a young girl would understand. The substance of Barbie and Ken's relationship was seen as glamorous and flashy, and that's what the lingerie represents in a 'firey' way.
            Stacey Blumes company created an ad campaign depicting Barbie's bedroom with her lingerie and Ken's underwear sprawled out and hung up around the room. The ad sent viewers to the Barbie and Ken website in order to vote if they 'like' the ad campaign and the new lingerie idea. Stacey Blume announced “The analytics for our website went up around 4,000 percent during the Ken and Barbie campaign...It went viral to that extent.”
            What a great idea by Mrs. Blume for using a long loved doll influence like Barbie and spice it up to get traffic through her and Mattel's websites.

Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/executive-style/2011/03/23/as-ken-doll-turns-50-reunion-with-barbie-prompts-social-media-marketing#ixzz1IVmyPd62

Use of Social Media in an Organization

            One of the best ideas for a maturing company is to look at using social media platforms to induce more prospects and sales. This social media process has to be done the right way in terms of customer satisfaction through benefits to the customer for becoming involved in their companies social media activities. There can't be a Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blogger page dropped down instantly, but more of a process of tweeking and experimenting in order to please their audience.
            Many companies have already become innovators of social media tools such as Starbucks 'myideaswebsite' and Dell's 'ideastorm'. Both of these social media tools they set up take all customer feedback and implement the data through to the customer service department for each of their organizations. This is a key form of social media at it's best, bacause it helps Dell and Starbucks improve products and customer satisfaction daily.
     Mr. Steve Rubel advises companies such as Dannon, HewlettPackard, and Microsoft. Mr. Rubel says that he advises these companies that they need a personal presence (which is way different than that of push advertising), and a process of 'shared mutual gain' where the customer benefits and the company benefits. His video discusses the thought process companies must go through to gain customer satisfaction and how much effort he goes through in order to present the value of social media for one's company.
            There are companies that are at a dissadvantage with using social media, such as health care companies, because of all of the privacy issues that come along with it. Fortunately, as social media's presence grows there will eventually be a spot for companies facing privacy issues due to opened up communities created.

Link to video: http://www.steverubel.com/video-the-future-of-social-media

Facebook: Single. Married. It's Complicating.

        Facebook and many social media platforms are free and easy. This is an easy way to get your name out 'their' as a person and/or company. Some companies aren't as suitable for social media sites such as Business to Business fields who don't have to 'jazz' any of their product up for other business's. However, if there is a reason for a company to start their own Facebook page, they should deffinately do so. Companies should not jump the gun with the process of creating social media page to ensure they make it accordingly for the public. Facebook has been on top and sure-passed Myspace in the past, due to some better features like easier access to photos and a status bar.
         Facebook stole the gold for the relationship status toolbar. Many girl's/boy's have spent endless hours wondering why their boyfriend/girlfriend changed their status to 'single.' I think that the worste one is 'it's complicating'. What does that mean? Why are there so few of options for relationship status when 'it's complicated' is in the bunch?
            Relationships have been ruined by people saying that they are 'with' to someone, and then their actual boyfriend/girlfriend leaves them, because they believe the other person isn't faithful. However, recognize how real the relationship toolbar has gotten.
             Not to mention (but I will), how fanatic people got about the 'friend' icon. I had my grandparents asking me why I hadn't added them yet! Plus, it's so easy to become a friend with someone. It is just clicks away.
          Facebook has really over-thrown any other social media platform yet to come. Their is a small majority of people who do not have a Facebook page, but it is a small group compared to the majority. Facebook has shown everyone that social media exists and it's staying here.

Can Social Media Become too Much?

Technology is moving so fast, and it's amazing looking back to 5 or 10 years ago when it was starting to really catch on when considering the growth of the internet. Our internet has gone from website numbers in the double digits to enormous levels of websites that have been created to touch every possible subject matter that someone could think of to search.
Not only has the internet been successfully updated with many technological advances, but even more capabilities have sprung forward within the last couple of years called social media. Social Media connects the world in more ways than ever imaginable. This is done through way of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. to stream through the internet in a 'social' way of introducing yourself to billions of people around the globe while sitting on the couch with no one personally around. Not only is their just Facebook, but also tools like Foursquare, Groupon, and Digg.
My ultimate question is can this source of social power become overwhelming to our society?
There seems to be so much information streaming in that it seems like our society should be robots with computing so much miscellaneous knowledge and know-how.
Or, is this the biggest move our society has done as a people to further the educational resources that we receive from communicational endevors?
         Libraries have become less significant, because the internet has become an excellant secondary resource that has changed our means of gathering research. Social Media has connected social relationships among people, and has become an excellant business resource. Social Media is a new way of doing things and is growing rapidly. We will just have to see how wide-spread this tool will be taken.

Can Online Communities Be valuable to the players?

Second Life

       Melanie Fudge has many concerts that she creates on Second Life and is a solo singer. Her name in Second Life is Mel Cheeky, and has a huge fan base in real life due to her performances in Second Life. She went from playing the few songs that she knew for an hour to 50+ self written songs. Melanie grew a fan base from her many concerts she eventually grew on to perform.  This social media tool is very interesting, because you can build anything and become famous for doing so within the game. A 9/11 shrine was created to show dedication to the loved ones lost throughout the 9/11 travisty. 

       Internet users can live alternate lives through their avatars, and one of the various ways play is you can create business corporations and be the head boss. Someone can achieve recommendations from employers if they prove to be a great bussinessman from Second Life credentials to Real Life career opportunities. Not to mention all of the coinage they produce from their production through gaming. 

     The disadvantage of Second Life is that there is a lot of sexual activity growing within the game, and this is causing the game to lose value due to it's explicitness.

Does anyone else have any input on Second Life or any other online communities?

http://www.melcheeky.com/

Can Social Media Become Too Much Clutter?

Social Media tools have endless resources coming in from the public to a point where there is a colossal amount of information continually flowing through the network. There are sites such as Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and many other Social Media sites that produce gratuitous amounts of tweets, blogs, and comments! For a marketer trying to find information for topics such as consumer satisfaction/ preferences how could they even begin to do so? Also, will this cloud of information on hobbies and feelings become overwhelming to the Social Media venue?

In the book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Tamar Weinberg, wrote an article called “How to Deal with New Media Overload” about special social media tools she uses to organize her vast amounts of social media ‘overload’. Tamar said she uses a web-based news organizer called ‘Bloglines’, which “…makes it easy to read information published using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which is a format that pushes information from Web publishers to subscribers” (page 43). This tool makes it easier for all of the blogs, related to a specific search, to be condensed down from hundreds of thousands of blogs into one simple display. This makes the search for blogs, at least, more simple and to the point when in need of information.

Tamar Weinberg also suggests another way for organizing data through way of social media with typical search engines such as Google, Ask.com, and Bing by using the ‘advanced search’ option. This can save marketers immense amounts of time by grouping the most significant websites into the search and leaving all of the miscellaneous related searches out. Also, putting certain words in parenthesis in your search helps signify the important information that is needed. For example, when looking for a hotel in the Netherlands one might search, ‘best Netherland hotel resorts’ which would bring up less more reliable searches than best Netherland hotel resorts without the parenthesis, because the parenthesis ask for hotel resorts in the Netherlands and no where else.

This topic is important, because there is a need for the organization of this data in order to use socail media to the most prosporous destinations. Tools like Bloglines and Digg make customizing useful information through the Web easier to gather and formulate into business. Finally, this process of social media organization should make the whole information gathering less overwhelming to researchers.

Successful and Unsuccessful Social Media Campaigns

        Some social media campaigns can be spot on when it comes down to reaching their target audience and making them a part of the experience in a positive way. Movie campaigns are probably the easiest campaigns to pursue, because they have to do with media and have to reach all aspects of media in order to encapsulate their viewers. Plus, word of mouth has always been the best way in order to sell someone on going to see a movie, and social media is the base of word of mouth on the internet.
        When it came time for Pixar and Disney to release Toy Story 3 they went all out with setting up a Facebook page, created an ad for the iPhone, and also created viral videos for people to enjoy aside from the movie. All of these tasks go beyond the cliché billboard and banner advertisements and showed an interest in their viewers. This campaign worked, because it was easy to set up a Facebook page and make some quick YouTube type videos in order to gain more viewers. On their Facebook page was a ticket buying application to get people to purchase their tickets ahead of time.
        The Molson Canadian Beer Company tried to engage with their audience and in return failed miserably with their “Cold Shots Campus Challenge” on Facebook. Molson was intending for its consumers to give their brand greater recognition by asking them to post their best party pictures in order to win ‘best party school’. Molson failed to realize that this game would consist of college students drinking way over the limits of intoxication in order to win best party school, which could have caused death or serious injuries. This caused uproar with school Presidents and Deans, because these pictures were defacing the value and academic intelligence of their institutions. Molson had to pull out of the campaign a month before its designated end.
        Sometimes Social Media can help one another and at other times it can hurt them. The best way to make a Social Media campaign is to make it fun and not too difficult in case of hidden flaws that could tarnish the company and campaigns objectives.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/14/social-media-campaigns/

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25380527/Molson-Social-Media-Marketing

Social Media: How Can it Help/Hurt Your Professional Life?

Social Media is an outlet of consumer perspectives and opportunities waiting for marketers to gobble this valuable information up in order to formulate better target markets for products/services. In the book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin wrote a section in the first chapter about the opportunities to go further with a company through use of Social Media and the negative/positive perceptions and feedback from consumers.

Fiskars, a scissor selling company found through Social Media that their target market was not companies that valued the precision of their scissor  blades (even though they fulfill this market as well), but that of a younger crowd of women in their 20’s that enjoy scrapbooking. This was profound information that set up many opportunities for Fiskars Company, because Social Media uncovered their ultimate target market which could possibly have ruined the company if not revealed. Social Media can also uncover the past of present and future job seekers and information found about them can ultimately be devastating if an employer views rude conduct, excessive partying, and/or drug use all over the internet.

 Facebook and MySpace are known for being checked by employers, because they want to hire someone who is responsible and takes care of themselves. Social Media also provides employers with background information on recent jail, prison, and/or institutional visits when they are searching. I have researched ‘my name and my most recent employer’ under search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) and have found nothing incriminating and everyone should take time out to search their name before any future interviews. Brian K. is a friend of mine who has a degree in Family Studies and had been declined a job due to a DUI on his record from within the past 5 years. Caroline, was a peer that I worked with in the past who was fired from Kohl’s when they found out about a past shoplifting crime that was on her record.

Cnn.com posted a video, The Help Desk: Verifying Your Background Check, which identifies cases in which people are victims from their own background checks and receive loss of employment in the job market.

Unfortunately, Social Media can harm some people but in other cases can help people as well. All someone can do is keep their criminal background clean and try and get some sort of credit for achieving goals in the workplace posted up under your name. An example for a photographer would be to have many of his/her photos up on the internet so that when they have their name checked by an employer the search engine might bring up all of their beautiful works and get them the job.

           Gillin, Paul. Secrets of Social Media Marketing. Quill Driver Books (2009).

Link to Cnn.com video: http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2009/09/30/pf_data_broker_privacy.cnnmoney/

Is Social Media a Fad? Brent Hudson

          Social Media has been around since the introduction of the first product/service to consumers by way of Word of Mouth (WOM) communication. There wasn’t an exact name for it and now there is. Social media should be a tool  used by every company and marketing team  in order to pin-point the exact target market to reach out to; understand the consumers opinion (positive or negative; and reach out to them by way of Social Media ( Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, etc.) to maximize profits and consumer preferences. Social Media has been around without most peoples recognition until recently when it was discovered as a useful tool in today’s technological world of mass internet users. Social media is not only permanent but a wide-spread trend that can only get stronger and lead to even greater results in the future. WOM communication is a huge part of Social Media and our society thrives on it and a speaker on Bizaarvoice.com said “The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers.” (Keller Fay, WOMMA, 2010). Movie theater and Video store rentals rely on WOM communication and have from the very start of business.

          Social Media is so profitable because it subtracts hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been spent advertising in order to reach the target market when they have more success through Social Media forms like twitter and Facebook. Also, advertising has become obsolete compared to social media, because people choose to avoid the annoying pop ups compared to sharing what they feel about a product/service to their friends and/or family.

          According to a survey from US mom internet users says, “Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted -- nearly 12 times more -- than descriptions that come from manufacturers” (eMarketer, February 2010). This statement is powerfully true, because a manufacturer will say whatever they can in order for a consumer to buy their product, and some consumers have been ripped off and left angry. However, Social Media has made it easier for customer complaints so now there is also more of a chance of knowing a company’s dark secrets and on the other hand can check out some new places your friends suggested due to their satisfaction.

         Social media will continue to be a major success for marketers and all companies that use it. Technology has risen to great heights and now it’s time to be as advanced with the internet as we are with the television to reach further into the potentially strong customer relationship status. Social media is not only a trend but a step toward the future for greater expectations met by companies due to the information gathered.

www.womma.org