There is still a large number of people out there (even amongst my close friends) who are unfamiliar with Meetup and I think this “Intervention” video is a pretty good attempt for getting the word out. It definitely is going to go viral, if it isn’t already…but I’m sure it is.
You may be wondering how I got my hands on this and the truth is, someone sent it to me…because I, Monica Yoo am a “Screen-Addict” (Computer and Crackberry, specifically) and have a high probability of developing large thumbs … and I also refer to my bestfriend, Google, quite often. =D
While the idea of Social Media has become a fairly mainstream concept in the startup, internet and technology realm, it seems as though it is finally making an entrance in other industries. In other words, the value of leveraging various online tools such as social networking, social bookmarking, blogging, and etc. are receiving the acknowledgment they deserve for the tremendous amount of influence it can potentially spawn.
The following video below demonstrates and explains how Social Media plays an integral role in marketing and driving business.
An important lesson to note about Social Media is keeping in mind and paying attention to how it is utilized to enhance marketing within the business scope. Many times, I’ve noticed that people place too much effort and weight on tactics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not undermining the value of any tactical execution because it’s arguably a necessary component of any successful marketing attempt, but there’s more to maximizing Social Media tools than just posting a video onto YouTube, creating an email campaign, writing a few blog entries and submitting a couple of articles to Digg. It’s vital to be aware that each Social Media tool has its own unique personality, environment and sense of community. What this means is that as a modern day marketer, you need to understand the culture of each Social Media micro-world to see how involvement with it will ultimately affect your business marketing goals. You want to know why partaking in some type of Social Media will move you closer to your goal, so that you have the knowledge to do other things to help achieve the aim.
I view Social Media as if it were a watch. It has many moving parts, with gears of different shapes and sizes but each that have their own purpose to tell time. Some gears work more than others, but if one gear breaks, big or small, the entire time-telling breaks as well. In Social Media management, you’re going to find that some tools have a greater value to your operation (which is a-OK) and the beauty of this is to find a balance in all of it. The objective is to effectively listen to and monitor your target audience and cater to what they want and looking for. You need to formulate a Social Media campaign that makes sense to your audience and the people you want to reach out too. Translation: Each Social Media campaign will be unique for every company.
I can’t tell you which Social Media tools are great and worthy, because frankly they’re all good in their own right (and new ones are sprouting daily). But I will share with you that an effective Social Media campaign will be one that fosters a pleasant user experience that provides all the stuff (information, links, videos, online gadgets, advice, podcasts, blogs, people and etc) that they’re looking for and might be interested in all readily and easily available.
Social Media management isn’t about managing your audience, but managing the tools to fit what your audience needs and wants.
Now that we live in a highly sophisticated world of saavy internet users, it’s faux pas for companies and organizations to not incorporate modern marketing strategies along with their traditional marketing methods.
Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!
The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.
There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.
On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.
Here are a couple of videos to watch:
If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)
…and in the spirit of it, I thought I’d post something mildly mushy and cute. I came across this video a while back and even still, I think it has a catchy tune. I <3 YouTube.
Internet access on plane rides! Is anyone as excited about this as I am?
I have been patiently waiting for the time to come where I could look forward to opening up my laptop to do something productive on the plane (besides catching up on reading and naps). With the internet universally available while you’re on the ground through wi-fi, cell phones/smart phones and wireless cards for your laptop, it’s a huge takeaway when you board the plane and can’t compulsively check your email. Yes, it’s temporary, but an inconvenience when you want to catch up on some work ordo something to entertain yourself while you sit in idle stillness. No readily available internet access is like stepping into the 1990s.
JetBlue Airways will be offering email and instant messaging on one of their planes next Tuesday – FOR FREE. They have acknowledged that the service is still in its testing phases, but it’s a great way to build awareness momentum. I, as well as the rest of the loyal internet-using population will be more inclined to purchase a JetBlue ticket over another just to try out the new service. Although I’m not entirely sure what JetBlue’s strategy is here, my gut feeling tells me that their intentions of providing these new features is to lure the young adult audience, as well as the tech-savvy. Email checking and instant messaging on an air flight? Those two features will provide more than enough entertainment and “productivity.” It’s genius. It’s important to note that JetBlue is not providing a full range of internet access, just email and instant messaging. Anything more would require much more bandwidth that they could handle for now.
However, the next wave of internet services on airplanes will be coming in the following months by American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. The downside to their internet options is that they will be charging the service at approximately $10 a flight. Not entirely that bad if you really need or want it – especially if you think of it as a convenience cost.
I’m curious to find out how each airline plans on promoting and representing each of their internet services in the future. I’ll definitely be keeping up with this.
I had a conversation with my friend about Pownce and we both agreed that it kinda pseudo sucks, although I think his dislike for the website was a little stronger than mine. =p Basically it came down to this – he was sending me messages or doing something on the site and I wasn’t aware of it until he confronted me about it days later. Doh! This actually relates to one of my previous posts about interactivity! Pownce is great because it allows you to interact amongst your friends and do a variety of different things. HOWEVER, what’s the point if people won’t know about what kind of activities are occurring when the user won’t know about it until the next time they log on (which could be NEVER)? By that time it’s too late! Geez… I wonder if the people at Pownce intentionally left the notification alerts out, assuming that when a lot of people were to use it that inboxes would be bombarded with emails. Whether or not that was the case, they’re still beta and only people with invites are able to use it – I doubt people will have THAT much email. In the mean time, they should probably add some kind of activity alert system integrated into the site. I’m someone who actually likes Pownce – at least enough to write about it, and even I don’t feel like I have any incentive to login to the site.
It’s not unusual for me to stumble across a news article and form an elaborate thought cloud – I do that once in a while. So when I was talking to a good friend of mine about the bold plan of action that William L. McCombs had for Liz Claiborne, I didn’t think much of it. However, that changed after this friend of mine said I was weird. Yes, WEIRD. I’ll be honest, when I initially heard this, I was caught off guard and confused. Since I was curious as to why something so random came out of his mouth, I simply asked him and he said, “You have all these marketing interests.” The conversation was followed by a brief silent pause. Apparently having marketing interests makes a person weird. That’s cool. I’d much rather be called weird for having an interest in that than having a hobby like collecting stamps (sorry, no offense). =)
In retrospect, I guess my friend was just being observant. For a long while now, I have somehow formed a habit of thinking about pretty much everything from a marketing perspective or at least weave something related to marketing into my conversations. I have definitely caught myself, on numerous occasions, thinking out loud about why Brand X would make the decision to do such and such to Product Z. For instance, I’m talking about walking down the aisle at a checkout line at the grocery store looking at an Altoids box wondering why Altoids would come out with a line of gum or breath strips. It doesn’t make sense to do that. –shrugs- Sometimes I think even big shot CEOs and executives need to be reminded of the fundamental rules of marketing.
Anyway, going back to Liz Claiborne – William L. McCombs is a smart person. I’ve read tons of books and had many conversations about marketing that it still shocks me that smart CEOs and company leaders can lose sight of a company’s primary focus. One of the key problems with Liz Claiborne was product extension – a very very fundamental marketing concept. Liz Claiborne’s founder allowed too many different brands join the parent name and things got out of control. Company objectives weren’t getting uniformly understood by employees, too many layers of managers existed, issues weren’t able to be resolved and the entire organization was turning into a big grey mush. It’s what happens when companies get so large and expand horizontally rather than vertically – it was inevitable. Generally, this happens to big companies because it seems to be the quickest way to bring in immediate dollars. = Fortunately, McCombs made a bold decision to spin-off brands that didn’t fit with his new business model. His strategy is to heavily brand Juicy Couture, Kate Spade and Lucky Brand and have a few key brands drive the company. Sounds like a good plan; however, I question whether Juicy Couture, Kate Spade and Lucky Brand will able to hold enough branding power to do so. I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what happens with that. I just wanted to comment on his plan of action – that’s all.
I like that McCombs calls his strategy “stupid simple” for two reasons 1) I totally agree and 2) I’m a fan of alliteration.
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