Blah Blah BYE

So we're at the end of our semester.... which means the end of this blog.


Surprisingly it wont mean the end of me blogging though... whilst I was completely afraid to take on this platform I've grown a comfort in it over the past 13 weeks, and fully intend on continue blogging socially (I mean who wouldn't want to know about me!)


It has been an interesting semester, and being on the hunt for the next SM blast to talk about has been a challenge, but one that I have thoroughly enjoyed.


A big thank you to my fellow MKF5601 classmates - you're blogs were riveting, inspiring and kept my brain ticking over week after week.
And an even bigger thank you to Wags - I know its scary to take on a new unit but you sure have made it interesting!


I'll be sure to post where my new blog will be - so watch this space...


And to end, a quote from Steve Jobs that I find so relevant to world of social media...


And no, we don't know where it will lead. We just know there's something much bigger than any of us here - STEVE JOBS


Keep Blabbing Guys!

Blah Blah BAD BRAND

With more than 800 million users on Facebook, its seems to be the go-to platform for marketers. And with access to such a mass audience that you can hypertarget... why wouldn't it be?


Throughout the semester many people (including me) have blogged about the good and bad of Facebook - what companies are doing right and wrong. Discussing what's the best way to go about approaching your market online... how to get their attention.... how to engage with them.


That's all good and well to say but an article I read on SocialBaker really took things back to basics for me...


Their study found that 95% of all brands on Facebook do not receive answers to their posts.
As the below graph shows - airline and telecom industries were the best at responding to posts and comments and ironically the media and FCMG the worst.

Source: SocialBaker

SocialBaker went on to state that they believed the required response rate to wall posts should be 65-75%. Note that NONE of these industries are any where near that level of interaction.


In the light of the GASP debacle, I think responding to your followers is the most basic way that brands can interact with their customers. Why do an extensive SM campaign, spark interest and conversation and not respond? Isn't that the point of social media --- to enable two conversation?


Do you think its arrogant of brands to expect customers to pay their online activity attention and not respond? Or do you think its too hard to keep up with all the chatter?

Blah Blah YOUTUBE

At the start of semester I was someone who really didn’t get the idea of YouTube. Yes a friend might send me a funny clip every now and then, but that was the true extent of my use of the site.

However, as this semester has passed, YouTube and I have become friends and I am increasingly beginning to understand why people use this medium to engage one another... maybe understand it an a SM platform more than I would something like Twitter.

We have all recently seen the drastic changes Facebook has been making, and I think in acknowledging their existence as not just a video sharing site, but also as an SM platform, YouTube has introduced some changes too.

·         Logoless player – a huge aspect of their brand recognition comes from the placement of their logo on the bottom of every video shared on the site. But no longer is it is requirement. They have provided users with the option to remove the YouTube logo from videos by adding "?modestbranding=1" to the end of the URL. The logo will only appear at the end of the clip. This means that professional users of the site are no longer plagued with looking like they have ripped content from another source. 

·         HD preview image – if you up load a video to the site as HD no longer will it loose its quality when played at a low quality version. YouTube has brought in the ability to preview HD images of the video that retain a high quality so that low-quality viewers don’t miss out.

·         As seen on – bloggers love to share video content and now YouTube will be introducing ‘As seen on’ pages that will enable you to compile a ‘playlist’ of the where  videos have been posted.

These features seem to have video creators on side, with YouTube’s changes removing some of the ‘amateur’ elements of their site. It seems to have given the site a much more professional look and feel with a lot more consideration for the professional user (be it sharing a video for business use or putting up a video for promotional reasons).

Even though they are a video site, they are making sharing much more about the content going up rather than just the visual impact of a video. They are making themselves increasingly orientated to bloggers that imbed or share videos, and are attempting to increase their ‘social’ infrastructure.

I think the changes to YouTube are positive and rather than just making their site easier to use is actually adding value and meaning to their service.

What do you think? Is YouTube set to rival other SM platforms?

Blah Blah POPULAR

...Yes you can be popular too... Just share your opinion on Facebook.


The below page was shared on my wall by a friend...


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2545702681966&set=a.2545702521962.2154719.1235752135&type=3&theater

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.

They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.

They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?

They would have no sex life and could not bear children.

Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.

And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.

We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.

Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?! "

(The girl on the picture is model Tara Lynn) Feel free to tag yourselves :)

In just under a week this post has attracted:

• 255,507 likes
• 166,921 shares
• 82,229 comments

And it all started from the thoughts one woman: Delphine Fieberg

The thing I find most interesting about this post is that Delphine is not a renowned blogger or infamous in the SM world... well I guess until now.

She shared a single thought and as a result over 5,000 people have subscribed to her Facebook page. 
Yes her posts since this one have been a little more 'relevant' to the world, but until this one, she was just an average word.


To me this example shows the true power of the SM world - how it can all of a sudden make a single persons opinion count. But I believe it really brings up some bigger issues... how does one interesting thought make you an opinion leader in the online realm? 


Maybe I havent really thought of any solutions to this question but I guess I'm asking, do you think one 'popular' post makes a person's opinion count? 

Blah Blah STEVE JOBS

Today we lost one of the most influential people in the technological world, Steve Jobs.

Being reknowned world over as ‘our generations Edison’.... Steve Jobs has truly left his mark on the world and is responsible for breathing life back into the Apple brand through the introduction of iMacs, iPhods, iPhones, and the newest addition - iPads.

The online and social media worlds have been a flurry of activity!

Apple have replaced it home page with an Image and Message: www.apple.com

Whilst celebrities and Apple fans have expressed their condolences through blogs, tweets or even simply sharing the Apply symbol.

Seth Godin – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Lance Armstrong http://www.facebook.com/#!/lancearmstrong

Oprah Winfrey http://www.facebook.com/#!/oprahwinfrey

 

Barack Obama

Mark Zuckerberg – http://www.facebook.com/zuck

Within minutes of the announcement of the news Facebook users feeds quickly filled up with news and reaction to Jobs' passing. Whilst five of the top 10 trending topics were related to Steve Jobs – RIP Steve Jobs, #ThankYouSteve, iHeaven, iClouds and Only 56.

All of a sudden it seems the entire world has something to share.... the sadness of Job’s tragic passing after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer.

And the world seems to be asking “how will this all impact Apple?”

Stocks

Jobs death comes only a month after his shocking step down from his role as CEO. This caused Apple stocks to take a 7.4% hit....

Product Development

The iPhone5 and new iPad were proposed to assist in boosting sales and stock prices post Jobs resignation and as we all saw yesterday the launch of the iPhone 4S has already got consumers off side... rather than aesthetic and camera upgrade does Apple have anything new to offer? Or are we set to see the Tim Cook attempt and re-produce Jobs’ brilliance?

The Future

Set to stay in a strategic role after his resignation and responsible for the development of technological innovations such as the iPad... where will Apple head to next? It Tim Cook ready to fly solo?

So what do you think? How will Jobs death impact Apple and where do you see their future?

Blah Blah ASOS

I used to be a skeptic of online shopping and now I just cant seem to get enough! My first introduction to the bank-breaking relam was through ASOS.com

ASOS.com is a global fashion retailer that really has changed the way that people shop. Launching in 2000 they begun as UK based online store before extending to outlets in 2008 (yes they did it the other way around….!). With over 50,000 brands including their own-labeled products available on the online store, they are seen to offer the latest trends in clothes, accessories and beauty products.

Fashion magazines of the world have acclaimed ASOS.com as going from a “niche get-the-look website to massive internet phenomenon” …. And with over 13 million unique visitors a month from over 160 different countries, I would not be disagreeing.

So what has been the source of their success???

1.     Even balance between being a global brand but also tailoring to domestic shoppers – the site can be priced in various currencies and year round offers both summer and winter fashions

2.     Product development – they offer an extensive product ranges that includes jewellery, womens clothes, mens clothes, plus size, bags, footwear, beauty products, swimwear. This isn’t limited to their own style but to many other international brands.

3.     Their customer service, shipping is FREE to most countries, they have regular mid and end of season sales as well as maintaining a very proficient returns policy – where a full refund will be provided within 5 days or items can easily be exchanged.

4.     Their ability to be socially savvy online…. Targeting fashion forward 16-34 year olds they are targeting what is known as the “social networking demographic sweet spot”…. Any they have really made their online presence known and effective…. HOW?

·       Launch of a the ASOS Facebook Shop last year – not only are they top in discussing the trends consumers are able to buy them here as well. They currently have one million Facebook followers.

·       The ASOS Follows Fashion Twitter account, an aggregate stream which followers the tweets of top trendsetters online

·       The ASOS Twitter account with almost 200,000 followers.

Being online gods, you wouldn’t expect them to have anything less but a full-on social media presence.

In further new, this month ASOS.com finally launched in Australia – as its second largest market following the UK, it has been long awaited by consumers… and will proves to be an important boost for ASOS.com’s world domination!

International Director, Jon Kamaluddin spoke exclusively at Online Retailer 30 minutes before the site was launched. 

So what’s your verdict? Online shopping or in store experience? 

Blah Blah UNBOXING

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, Toyota have jumped on the unboxing bandwagon - creating a parody clip of the online fad. They recruited online and stand up comedian Adam Frucci to 'unpack' a Toyota Yaris, and basically had a bit of fun with it.





I find it refreshing that such a big band isn't afraid to be inventive with their online presence, and were smart enough not to try and start something themselves. Why not just reap the benefits of something that already has momentum?


Thoughts?