Week 3 Materials

Items Viewed / Read / Listened To

·         Chapter 1: "The Origins of Social Media," in The New Influencers, pp. 1-14.

·         Podcast: "Gil and Frank Discuss the Long Tail”

·         Chapter 3: "Making the Transition to the Social Web," in Marketing to the Social Web, pp. 31-47

·         Chapter 1 "The Long Tail," in The Long Tail, pp. 15-26.

·         The Seven Segment System for Online Marketing

·         The Point of Twitter (from NPR "On the Media" program of April 23, 2010; 9 minutes)

Week 2 Analysis

This week’s material tied in nicely to the Twitter paper that our team is working on.  As an example, the “Brand Communities” podcast was very relevant, as I saw how companies like Harley Davidson have been able to develop “cult” followings of their brand and product by creating a community.  For our Twitter assignment, we are covering Johnson and Johnson.  Despite being a great company, JNJ has a widely diversified target market, various brands, and several different types of products, which makes it difficult to create that type of following for the parent entity.  JNJ is using Twitter as a means of building goodwill and showing that the company cares about its customers, but it does not appear to be able to build the type of brand community that a company like Harley Davidson has built.

The Crowdsourcing piece was the most fascinating that I read this week.  Companies that have taken advantage of the vast resources that the public can provide them have been handsomely rewarded.  It is amazing to me to read about companies like Threadless, that get so much input from the general public, even to the extent that the public is actually coming up with the intellectual property that Threadless then wholly owns!  This article was a true example of how companies have certain creative limitations internally and how they can leverage external resources into very significant benefits.  By paying a nominal prize to whomever’s t-shirt design is chosen, Threadless has effectively spent research and development money as cheaply as possible, and gets to reap the long-term benefits.  It seems to me that many other companies that are “idea driven” should follow this type of business model.  A few hundred people internally simply cannot come up with the amount of creative material that millions of people in the general public can, even if the internal staff is highly talented.  This is quite an ingenious business model and was a fascinating read.

I also wanted to address the Groundswell reading, as it applies directly to a few real world items today.  First, I have always been aware of the power of groups banding together, so it was no surprise to read in the article about how Digg.com handled the release of the HD-DVD processing key.  My takeaway from this reading is that the “market” dictates what will happen is most situations.  In the case of Digg, once the code was released it was simply a matter of time before people reposted it across the internet, and the groundswell had begun.

I would like to relate this to a couple of real world examples.  First, we all saw the fiasco recently regarding President Obama’s birth certificate.  I would suggest that this relates to groundswell in that the people (albeit mostly Republicans) banded together and created enough stink over the topic that eventually the “authority” relented.  In this case, the President finally released the birth certificate.  In my industry (casino gaming), I see another example of groundswell coming to the forefront.  Right now internet gambling is illegal in the US, but there is a large ($6 billion+) underground industry that takes place.  Because of this presence, and because the “market” (i.e. consumers) dictates that they want these offerings to be available, I believe it will inevitably be legalized.  This is not an industry that the government can stop, so in the end they will likely relent and decide “if you cannot beat them, join them” and will regulate and tax the industry.  Both of these examples illustrate the power of groups, many of which are banded together using technology such as the internet to influence outcomes.

Week 2 Materials

Below are the readings, videos, and podcasts that I chose for this week:

·         "Introduction: The Dawn of the Human Network" in Crowdsourcing, pp. 1-19.

·         Podcast: "Brand Communities" with slides and audio

·         Chapter 1: "Why the Groundswell and Why Now?" in Groundswell, pp.3-15.

·         Chapter 6: "Web Video: The New, New Thing," in Digital Engagement, pp. 112-13.

·         "Star Search" (from NPR's "On the Media" program of October 9, 2009)

Week 1 Analysis

This week I was able to cover a great deal of material in our first week of the course, and I found each of the items to be quite interesting.  First, I found Gil and Frank’s analysis of the newspaper industry to be quite interesting, especially since I am someone who grew up reading newspapers but no longer does.  As a child, I would read the sports section first and would then continue on to the front page and other relevant news.  However, now I get 100% of my news from online sources.  Websites like CNN.com, StlToday.com, and the Drudge Report are top websites that I frequent regularly.  In addition, I get a great deal of my “breaking news” from sites like Facebook and Twitter, where my social network gets news to me faster than many news outlets possibly can.  I also did not realize that newspapers get a great deal of their revenues from classified advertisements.  I always assumed that corporate advertisements and subscription fees were the main sources of revenues.  Therefore, it is easy to see how virtual classified ads, such as Craig’s List, have taken a huge chunk of the newspapers’ former revenues.

I found the articles by Nicholas Carr and Clay Shirkey to be interesting contrasts to one another.  Carr makes some interesting points, and the sheer amount of information and distractions on the internet could potentially make it more difficult to concentrate and retain information.  However, if Carr is right, it makes me wonder just how effective my online education is!  In general, though, I side with Shirkey’s analysis.  While there are certain negatives that come with new advances in internet technology, as a whole I believe society is much smarter.  As I was reading his article, the entire time I was thinking about the website Wikipedia and all the value it brings (which Shirkey winds up mentioning in his article).  Wikipedia is a site that I wind up using multiple times on a daily basis, and is a means of shared social network learning for millions of people that would not be available without the internet.  In addition, the speed and sheer amount of information that is available on the internet makes it an extremely positive learning tool.

Finally, I wanted to discuss Alex French’s article on Mark Zuckerberg.  The article was interesting to read today since it was written over two years ago.  Since that time, Facebook’s accepted valuation has increased greatly, the movie Social Network has given the general public a more detailed and intimate look at the inner workings of the company and Zuckerberg, and the company has added new features to the site.  However, the general discussion is one that still holds true.  Facebook, as it stands now, is valued much higher than simply a multiple of the cash flow it is currently generating.  The database and information that Facebook has been able to generate is something that one day should be able to be significantly monetized in the future.  However, just like French, I eagerly await when and how Zuckerberg and Facebook will do this.  It is amazing just how much of our private lives that Facebook has given us comfort in making public.

Overall, this first week provided a nice blend of material that covers how marketing has changed given the advancements in the internet.  I look forward to reading in future weeks how companies are using these tools, and others, to advance their businesses.

Week 1 Materials

Below are the readings, videos, and podcasts that I chose for this week:

·         Chapter 1: "Made to Engage", in The Age of Engage, pp. 1-26.

·         Podcast: "Welcome and Course Introduction"

·         Podcast: "Gil and Frank on the Newspaper Industry: Part 1”

·         Podcast: "Gil and Frank on the Newspaper Industry: Part 2”

·         Podcast: "Gil and Frank on the Newspaper Industry: Part 3”

·         "Does the Internet Make You Dumber? (by Nicholas Carr, the Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2010)

·         "Does the Internet Make You Smarter? (by Clay Shirkey, the Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2010)

·         What is new media? (from The New Media Reader)

·         Article: "Do You Trust This Face?" by Alex French, GQ, December, 2008.