Social Media Insights: Assignment 14
I learned a lot about using social media tools. I thought it was very cool and interesting. My group used a number of these tools: Google Insights, Tweetfeel, Social Mention, HowSociable, and Twendz to evaluate our brand, Nike and its competitor, Adidas.
Tweetfeel:
Firstly, Tweetfeel monitors positive and negative feelings in twitter conversations about stuff like movies, musicians, TV shows and popular brands. Also, they compare your search result against a number of indicators to determine whether a user is positive or negative towards your term. They use complex algorithms to ensure that results fairly display the true feelings. Lastly, this tool is not 100 percent accurate because some terms are mistakenly termed as negative when in reality it is positive and vice versa. This tool can be valuable assuming it is accurate because it is in real-time and dictates exactly how users are feeling. I think that this site is very cool because comments occur in real-time and are actual feelings consumers are “feeling.” I also found it weird that there were glitches with the inaccuracy because I would imagine that such a popular social media tool would be very accurate to maintain credibility, which is not exactly the case here.
Social Mention:
Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the world into a single stream of information. This tool allows one to track and measure what people are saying about a company, a new product, or any topic across the web in real-time. When we used Social Mention, we discovered that Adidas faired better. Adidas scored higher in terms of strength, passion, and reach. My group believed that if Nike could have increased their reach and passion if they combated negative criticisms against them considering they have 59 negative posts compared to Adidas’ 33 (like defend themselves but in a positive way or at least extend an arm to one that feels so strongly against the brand: make an effort). I’m not surprised Nike has more negative comments especially with the sweatshop issue that is still around. I think that this site would be more understandable if there was an option to translate certain comments because there were some in different languages. I did not understand what they meant, so if Social Mention provided an option to translate it to one’s primary language, it would be very helpful.
Twendz
Twendz is another tool that correlates with Twitter because it uses the power of Twitter Search, highlighting conversation themes, and sentiment of the tweets that talk about topics one is interested in. I think that it is cool that even the topic or interest changes, so does the Twendz application because it evaluates up to 70 tweets at a time. Basically, when new tweets are posted, they are updated, minute by minute. When we used Twendz, Nike faired better by generating a 73% positive rate compared to Adidas’ 67% rating. However, both Nike and Adidas had a negative rating of 21%. If both brands like stated previously dealt with the negative posts, their ratings could have improved.
How Sociable
How Sociable provides a simple way for a company to measure their brand’s visibility on the social web. They also use three indicators to determine one’s visibility: presence, brightness, and audience. Nike faired better here because we found that Nike had a much higher visibility score than Adidas on every social media site that HowSociable tracks. This is important because it shows us who is talking about you and where they’re doing it at.
Google Insights
With Google Insights, one can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. My group used Google Insights to measure how many Google searches our brands were responsible for. Nike faired better here because it had a higher search rate (67) per day than Adidas (36). Nike was most commonly searched for in Oregon, whereas Adidas was most commonly searched for in Delaware.
Based on our research, it is evident that each social media tool can be helpful for certain aspects. I think it was a great idea to implement the use of a number of these tools because it increases our options and knowledge about our brand or company. I believe that once glitches are fixed and theses site become as close to perfect, they can be very powerful indicator in the future.
Social Media Strategy- Assigment 13
This assignment requires me to evaluate the social media strategy of a brand. I chose to evaluate Chinese Laundry Shoes (CLC). CLC offers women’s shoes and accessories, and I chose this brand because I am a fan of their shoes. There are so many different styles and colors at affordable prices.
Although we are only required to evaluate their social media plan on Facebook, I thought it would be cool to check out their Twitter page as well. CLC uses Facebook to alert consumers about new stores. Also, they share blog posts made by their spoke models or posts that are related to the brand. They even offer tips on how to “steal” or imitate a celebrity’s look or outfit. They offer sales as well. In addition, they offer numerous sweepstakes and contests. It is very evident that CLC is active on Facebook. Their twitter page was almost an exact replica of their Facebook page. They would tweet about similar posts made on Facebook. I thought that was very interesting because I expected significant differences. However, it shows consistency or maybe implies that the same people are involved in both social networks.
CLC meets a number of consumer motivations. Firstly, consumers are able to connect with CLC by writing on CLC’s wall and receive prompt feedback. I think that is prevalent for companies or brands to respond to their consumers, whether it is because a customer likes a product or has a question. This shows that the brand is truly interested and cares about their customers. In addition, they can “like” the page, a photo, a status, and etc. Customers can compete with each other through the frequent contests or sweepstakes that CLC offers constantly. In Twitter, they reply to customers tweets very promptly as well (connect). Customers can also “follow” CLC if they would like.
There are multiple metrics that the brand uses to measure success. The first is the number of “likes” on Facebook. The second is the number of people “who are talking about” the company. In Twitter, there is a similar approach, which is of no surprise. The metrics here are the number of followers or mentions towards CLC.
There are a few suggestions that I would suggest CLC implement. The first is to allow customers to create. This can be accomplished by encouraging customers to post images of themselves with the CLC products. I think this would generate a positive image for the company as well. Also, I think that CLC should stimulate more competition among consumers by holding contests about ideas for CLC, what would go best with a new product, have a contest, where consumers challenge each other on who can make the best outfit, or etc. I think that it would be cool also if CLC can create a virtual app similar to what we learned in class few weeks ago with the jewelry and clothing. I believe customers will really enjoy that, and it would stimulate customers to continue visiting the page as well as visualizing if that product is something that would look good on them. CLC should maybe also offer coupons as well as offer more images of products or at least allow customers to see more of what they are offering.
Online Privacy: Assignment 12
The World Wide Web is new and is growing so fast. Ads that used to be sent to people’s mailbox or placed on billboards in popular roads are now online because now companies can advertise on the internet through a variety of creative ways to communicate to consumers from videos, emails, to slideshows, or just a plain ad like you would see on paper. The fact that internet has become such an integral part of consumers lives nowadays, it has become so easy for consumers to access the internet (through their phone, libraries, school, or even at home). I believe that online privacy is an intrusion on the lives of the user. The Journal’s study revealed that “the tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in vanguard of the industry.” Since the internet is continuously upgrading, consumers have a hard time catching up to those people whose job it is to collect their information because we have jobs, go to school, and etc. I understand that yes the data doesn’t have the person’s name, but it does sell our identity like who we are, from age to likes and dislikes. People should be able to earn money out of their own data not companies, even worse companies that plant tracking files that the big companies are unaware of. For example: Comcast didn’t know that Clearspring had planted 55 flash cookies, which the Journal discovered. The government needs to do better to protect consumers. U.S. courts ruled that it is legal to deploy the simplest type, but haven’t ruled on more complex trackers. I believe these complex trackers should be monitored and regulated by the government. They can accomplish this by creating laws that protect our privacy and punish those that steal our “secrets.” Marketers in turn will have to pay the very consumers that support them. In fact, many have already approached this the right way by asking if consumers can participate on surveys and reward them based on how much data was given, and yes it will be convenient for both parties if it is done correctly. Consumers can receive great deals on things they search for and like but not be bombarded about sensitive issues they may have searched such as weight loss or urinary disease.
This reading really made me see through things through a different perspective. I was unaware until now that my visits to certain sites are or can be tracked. I like to keep to myself, and there are certain pieces of information that I do not want people to get a hold of and use to their advantage. For example: If I search for workout related products, I do not want a marketer to advertise “how to lose weight advertising” or other material that may imply negative perceptions. I really would like the government to take a firmer stance on this privacy issue, and at least have companies tell consumers that this information may be used for such and such.
Web Analytics: Assignment 11
This week we learned how to use Google Analytics. I had 28 visits on my page, 10 unique visitors, 50 page views, average time spent on site was 1:54 minutes, the bounce rate was 57.14%, and percentage of new visitors was 17.86%. I had 27 visits from the U.S. and one from Switzerland. I had 26 visits in Illinois and one in Michigan. I had 15 in DeKalb, 4 in Naperville, 4 in Barrington, and 3 in Amf o’Hare. My top pages were my home page (37 views), my about me page (4 views), My LOL cat post (2 views), the Google AdWord post (2 views), and the Melvin Flowers Extra Credit post (1 view). Most of my traffic came from Direct (71.43%) and referring sites (28.57%). I had no traffic from search engines. Thus, I had no top keywords from search engines.
I found it surprising that I had a visit from Switzerland, Michigan, and Amf o’Hare. I could not possibly imagine who could be viewing my page from those locations. The fact that I had 28 visits was surprising because the number seemed small. Also, the average time was so low. I guess I could work on making my site more “interesting” for users, so they can stay longer. 
But overall, I enjoyed using Google Analytics. I had no idea I had access to such information regarding my page.
Paid Search Ad Words: Assignment 10
Variety of Flavors and Colors to choose from
Up to 5 FREE Custom Messages in Entire Order
My target demographic would busy but creative consumers of the age 20 or older, who like to personalize their gifts (i.e. fortune cookies). These consumers have busy schedules and choose to order online instead of physically going into a store. My call to action is to customize the message inside the fortune cookie. My destination URL is the home page of the Fancy Fortune Cookies website, however, my landing page is the page where one can select from various fortune cookies to customize from. The three relevant keywords I used were fortune, cookie, and messages.
The keywords I chose to use for the Google Adwords Keyword Tool was “fortune cookie.” The competition for those words were medium. The monthly global searches were 246,000 while the local search volume was 165,000. There were two suggestions I decided to choose from: Fortunes for Fortune Cookies or Fortune Cookie Messages. The two choices were good selections because they had low comptetion and pretty high figures for monthly global searches and local search volume.
I decided to use Fortune Cookie Messages because it was less confusing than the other one. I figure a consumer would more than likely type Fortune Cookie Messages into a search than the other selection. It’s monthly global search was 22,200 with low competition, and the local search volume was 18,100.
I decided to keep my MAX CPC at $1 because surprisingly my estimated ad position was number one, and my estimated daily cost was $0.0 There were also zero estimated clicks. I tried lowering the MAX CPC to see what the results, and the only effects I saw was that the ad position dropped to zero. I also tried raising the MAX CPC, however, no changes were seen. I believe maybe I should have chosen a different keyword selection to possibly drive more clicks to the page.
Almost forgot about the Extra Credit…Ralph De La Vega
Last Wednesday, October 19th Ralph de la Vega, who is the President and CEO of AT&T Mobility came to speak at Barsema Hall. He talked about his past as well as his life now and provided us with some background information. He also talked about the obstacles he had to overcome and how it motivated him to succeed.
Mr. Vega shared many stories about his life. Some of them were quite sad, and I’m glad that he used these experiences as a way out or as an opportunity to achieve something positive. Vega was born in Cuba. His family decided it was best to move to the United States because of the Cuban Revolution, however, only Mr. Vega was allowed to go. He had to leave his family behind and was led to believe that they would follow shortly. I cannot imagine what I would do if my parents could not move to a different nation with me. I don’t think I could have survived one year, let alone four years like Mr. Vega. He was brave and had a strong heart. This was only the beginning though for Mr. Vega because when he was in high school even his teachers did not see the potential in him. Vega followed this quote: “Don’t let anybody limit what you think you can do.” This helped him to continue to work harder and never give up no matter what the circumstance was.
Another story Vega shared was when he was working in South America. During that time, the currency was changing. At first the ratio was 1:1 (dollar to peso). It was now changing to 1:4. Because of the change, Vega had to raise prices on his products. Consumers did not like the change in prices, thus, riots arose in Argentina and Venezuela. Vega then ordered his staff to collect the money that the customers owed them. However, he also failed to pay his billion dollar loan because of the riots. Vega was able to resolve that problem and continued to reflect on that every year. I do not think Vega could have solved that issue if he was not motivated in fixing problems that others deemed as “unfixable.” I admire that trait in Vega because not a lot of people have that. Most people when faced in a similar situation always take the easy way out or just quit instead of taking on the challenge and winning.
Vega also talked about his work with AT&T. He told us that AT&T was coming up with many new and innovative ideas, such as the electronic pill bottle. It has the ability to connect with one’s Smartphone and sends a message to the user reminding them when they need to refill the bottle. The user can then push the button, which makes pharmacists aware that a refill is needed. The electronic pill bottle also reminds the user if they forget to take the pill. I found that to be very cool because I, like most consumers have the tendency to forget to take even the simplest pill, such as vitamins. It is so crazy what is becoming of technology nowadays.
Lastly, he also talked about the six pillars of character. He emphasized that Integrity was the most important principle. I totally agree with him because no one likes a dishonest person. In the business world dishonesty is frowned upon and if businesses see such a trait, no one will want to work with you. I hate dishonest people and pride myself in the honesty I carry and bestow to others.
Overall, I enjoyed his speech because it was every inspirational, and I learned so much. It is also so assuring to see that Vega never gave up even though it seemed like everyone had their backs against him. I hope if I was faced with a similar situation that I can come out strong like Vega did.
Search Engine Optimization- Assignment 9
SEO is all the techniques used to cause a webpage to be highly ranked on one or more search engines. It is important because unique content creation is key because it helps drive domain/page freshness, keyword relevancy, internal like opportunities, and external link acquisition. Also, one wants their webpage to show up as one the first selections because there is a higher probability that a user will click on their page, which is why it is important to be unique.
I chose to focus on my “top five” words out of my total of 380, which were:
1. Market (24)
2. Business (18)
3. Marketing (18)
4. Face (18)
5. Flowers (17)
The first three words do not surprise me because considering this blog is for a Marketing class, it is natural to use Business concepts learned from class or from prior knowledge. My fourth word “face” surprised me because it is random, but then again, there are different meanings for the word “face.” The fifth word I am a little bit surprised about because I did not think I used his Mr. Flowers’ name that much, but apparently I did.
Melvin Flowers Extra Credit
Melvin Flowers spoke to many students last Wednesday on behalf of NIU BELIEF. The purpose of NIU BELIEF is to instill ethics into the college curriculum. The turn out was really great because the room was full and some students ended up having to watch the presentation in a different room. Mr. Flowers was chosent to speak to students about the positive effects of being ethical and reflected on personal experiences.
Mr. Flowers is a NIU alumni, he graduated 36 years ago, where he majored in Accounting. I found it sad that most of Flowers’ relatives looked down on furthering their education. Apparently, they saw a negative connotation with college. It is comforting to know that Flowers decided to further his education especially doing it here at NIU. I enjoy learning about how anything can be achievable and to never give up even if there is doubt. I also like to hear from past NIU students because it acts like a motivator for one to be just as successful. I know after hearing alumnis speak, I want to be like them post graduation. Also, I can relate to Flowers because not a lot of my siblings went to college or even finished college. It is always comforting to see that people in similar situations like myself see the positive side of things and use it to their advantage.
Flowers talked mostly about how he got to where he is now. He currently works for Microsoft, where he started in 2003. Microsoft competes with most technology companies because it is on almost all types of technology products. Flowers noted that companies should take on challenges because it helps the company be one step ahead of others even though it may not always be successful because basically companies have to compete for the top spot. If you are not trying to better oneself, someone else will steal your shine. Flowers is the Chief Executive Officer of Audit for Microsoft. Basically he reports to the audit committee about potential problems, provides an overview of what is occurring within the company, and anticipates what the audit committee is going to do.
Flowers also talked about situations in his life where he faced with an ethical dilemmna. For example, when he was working in Texas for this company called Mobile, he received gifts from everyone. Flowers thought that these people were awfully nice until he found out what the motive was behind the “gifts.” Apparently, these people gave him gifts to avoid being audited as he later found out. Flowers chose to decline accepting gifts because it was unethical. He eventually retired from Mobile because the way the company ran was unethical, and he disagreed with it. It is so crazy how people will do almost anything so that rules can be bent for them. I’m glad Mr. Flowers decided to do the right thing and not accept gifts.
I really enjoyed Mr. Flowers’ presentation. Like his goal, Flowers chose not to fail and to accomplish what he set out to do. I believe that there should be more people like Flowers around because it is always great to have someone who does “the right thing” instead of someone who tries to better their life at others’ expense.
Website Analysis: McDonalds vs Walgreens (Assignment 8)
This week’s assignment involved me analyzing websites. I took on a role as an OMIS major, who was looking for an IT career opportunity. I compared the usability, navigation, and etc of two websites: McDonalds and Walgreens.
McDonalds:
1. It was pretty easy to find relevant jobs under the Operations field. It took me roughly five clicks to arrive to a page that had a relevant job description. I understand that a website where a user goes through more than five clicks is deemed as bad, but McDonalds just barely made the cut. Although, I had five clicks it was still relatively easy because everything was basically prompting my action.
2. I thought it was pretty easy to find the information about careers and benefits because the option I was looking for was clearly visible and self explanatory. For example: If I was looking for benefits, I just had to click on “Employee Benefits” on the left side of the page.
3. I did not find this page to be compelling at all. It was very dull. Although they used the red theme for users to associate with McDonalds, it was not very engaging. There were no picture or videos to bring interest to users. There was a lot of passive white space, which means that the white space was not used effectively. Also, the website does not make me want to work there because it looks boring and plain. However, considering McDonalds is a profitable company, I may overlook the dullness.
4. I believe that this website was easy to navigate. McDonalds used breadcrumbs, where the user can see the trail of what one clicks on the site. Also, the website was designed in terms of left to right, which means the reader would look at the left side first then to the right. However, there were no visual cues for navigation. The colors were very dull, I believe McDonalds should use a better color scheme to attract the user’s attention. Again, there were no engaging content (videos, pictures). The ease of use was very easy because everything was straight to the point.
5. I suggest that McDonald add more color to their site. They should add pictures and videos to engage customers. They should create active white space, which are white space that is necessary to help with the website’s design and intentional. McDonalds should also consider doing some testing to make the user click less.
Walgreens
1. It took me two clicks to get from the homepage to a relevant job description. It was very easy to find exactly what I was searching for.
2. In comparison to McDonalds, Walgreens was more engaging. It had pictures and symbols to create some excitement for users. Walgreens also applied the breadcrumbs scheme as well as the left to right concept. There was still some passive white space, but it was not as much as McDonalds. Walgreens also used more colors than McDonalds and had engaging visuals that would gain a user’s interest longer. It was very easy to complete a task, and the website made me want to work here more than with McDonalds because the page was more exciting and lively.
Animal Shelter – Photoshop 2
I decided to create ads for The Animal House Shelter because it was a shelter in Barrington, where I currently reside.
1. The design I selected effectively communicates my objectives because the images itself are pictures of a cute dog and cat. The cute cat or dog is supposed to attract the viewer and gain their attention. I decided to put the call to action at the top because I felt like that would be one of the first things that the viewer sees. Also, I cited the images I used at the bottom of the ad to avoid any copyright infringes because I took the image from the Animal House Shelter website.
2. A/B testing is where the marketer presents one offer, creative executon, and etc. to a group of prospects, and another version of the same offer, creative execution, and etc. to another group of prospects. The purpose of A/B testing, is to let the marketer know which ad is more effective with consumers (basically which ad is doing the best job or working the best). I performed this on the ads by having one ad with a picture of a dog and another ad with a picture of a cat, where the message and call to action were the same.
3. I picked the landing page to land on the “donation page” because my call to action was for the viewer to help the abused and neglected animals by making monetary donations to the shelter.
4. The metrics I chose to use to measure the effectiveness of my ads were: a). reach, which is a measurement of the size of the audience to whom one has communicated with one’s advertising schedule b). frequency, which is the number of times your schedule was exposed to an average person or household during a time period c). impressions, which equals the number of exposures of an ad or commercial to people or households in your audience