For our group presentation, we deiced to compare Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet released at the end of Septmember, to the recently released in the beginning of November, Barnes and Noble Nook tablet. We decided to compare the Fire to the Nook instead of Apple’s Ipad because the Ipad would just simply blow every other tablet in the world away due to its strong brand name, features, and its Apple operating system. The three social media tools we used were Social Mention, Twitter Stream Graph, and Tweetfeel.

Social Mention showed us that the Kindle Fire had 33% strength, 8:1 sentiment, 44% passion, and 32% reach. The Fire’s strength, which is the likelihood that the brand is being discussed in social media, wasn’t too surprising to me because I personally didn’t even know that there were newer Kindle tablets released until we did this project. The sentiment, which is ratio of positive to negative feedback, was good to hear because the ratio was 8 to 1. So following every negative comment, there were eight positive comments following it. That’s good for a product that’s only been out for a couple months.  Passion, which is people talking about the brand repeatedly seemed at a fair level to me because it almost hit about half, where people were talking about the brand over and over again. And finally, reach, which is the percentage of people the company’s actually caught attention to about the product seemed kind of low. Maybe it’s due to the product only being out for a couple months. But with the constant change in technology these days, I’m surprised it was higher.

Twitter Stream Graph showed that for the Kindle Fire, the top key words were; black, deal, and Amazon. Black and deal were the main keywords due to the date in which we looked at the graph, Nov 28^th, Cyber Monday. Black Friday was only a few days before which could explain why deal and black were keywords. Amazon is self-explained since it’s the creator of the Kindle. Twitter Stream Graph showed that for the Nook, the top key words were; Barnes & Noble, tablet, and gift. Again, Barnes & Noble and tablet are not surprising to see since Barnes & Noble created the Nook which is a tablet. As I stated before, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the past weekend, it’s a great opportunity to buy those gifts for your friends and family for cheap.

TweetFeel for Fire showed 70% and the Nook: 74%. This shows that the Nook had more positive comments said about it. Although the Nook had a higher percentage, this doesn’t mean that it’s overall better than the Fire. For example, TweetFeel captures when someone mentions either the Kindle Fire or Nook and whether there’s a good or bad comment attached to it. But in some comments, for example, “Yay, my Kindle Fire arrived! But it’s uncomfortable to use without resting it down unless your hands are big.” Here, although the person comments, yay for the Fire, they also complain that it’s not easy to handle without hesitation. TweetFeel doesn’t take this into account and therefore accepts it as a positive comment which could throw off the entire data set.

Overall, the Fire has 29% more passion and 8% more strength. However since the Nook just came out at the beginning of November, it’s still in the new product stage where everyone buys it and it doesn’t present problems till about a couple months after its been released. That’s when people start to bash it online and complain about things wrong with it. Although both are powered by Andriod, I still don’t know which tablet I would choose for myself. I personally don’t do a lot of reading so maybe a Kindle Fire would be good for me. But am I willing to spend the extra $50 for it? I guess it’s something we’ll have to see as Christmas approaches.

1. Coach is the brand I decided to investigate its social media strategy because it is one I have personal experience with; I own Coach brand purses, shoes, and accessories. On Coach’s Facebook page, they offer a variety of options in which any Facebook user can view. At their homepage, they offer not only the basic Facebook applications such as wall, information, and photos, but they also have a cool application called “Make Your Own Animation.” When a user clicks on this application, they are brought to a virtual create your own “tag.” Coach is well-known around the world and to identify on all of their purses, bags, etc. they attach what is called a tag with the brands name engraved on it to ensure it is a real Coach product. They also have a “Welcome to Coach application in which the page displays the newest products and a video that features its tags. Also, at this page, people are allowed to enter their e-mail address for further information about the new products, events, coupons, etc. I personally am signed up.
2. I would say that Coach is using create and connect as motivators for their social media strategy. They definitely use create because as I stated earlier, they offer users the ability to create their own tags. On the main page, the “status” of the company changes daily by asking the viewers a question each day. For example, on Thanksgiving, their status was “Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for today?” and other statuses have included comparisons of two patterns and which one the viewer likes best. Another is when they offer special featured items during the holidays for example, they offer a link in which the viewer can go directly to the companies’ web page to view the products without having to start at the homepage of Coach. This definitely connects the viewer to the brand because it’s engaging the consumer in to learn more about the brand and find out why the 2,500,000+ users like it.
3. To measure the success of Coach’s Facebook page, one could use the number of “likes” the page has. In this case it is 2,516,193 users that have viewed this page and liked it. Likes can also be measured whenever the company changes its status or adds posts, pictures, and comments.
4. I have always had the problem with any purse for this matter, where I find myself wanting to buy a similar one like it for either myself or a friend but the pattern/product is discontinued. And if the product/pattern still is available, it’s nearly impossible to find. I like Coach’s Facebook page as it is, but if I had to make any suggestions, I would like to have an application or something to locate where I could find a discontinued pattern or product. It sounds like a long shot and might not be possible, but even a link to EBay, Craig’s list, or Overstock.com where someone is selling the product or it can be purchased through a different website. I know other women , and even some men who are shopping for that specific product for their significant other, would appreciate it because it would make it easy to find.

I attended the Interactive Student Board meeting for students who were interested in joining Interactive Student Board. I am currently in the Interactive Marketing program taking classes to get my certificate in May when I graduate. I thought about joining Interactive Board because I thought it could open up my world to what I would really be working with in real-life, plus it’s a good resume booster J At the meeting, there were three men who used to be on IMB who graduated recently and came back to discuss their experiences in their real-life jobs and how the IM program helped.

Kevin Cunningham, now a representative for a smaller company called Covalent Marketing told us a couple good things to keep in mind when applying for jobs. He told us to always be prepared and it’s never too early to start looking. I completely agree. I personally haven’t started He told us how he was searching for jobs during his junior year which gave him a head start. The best advice he shared with us however, was that it’s okay for us to mess up while we’re still in school because we’re supposed to. Out in the real world, it’s not acceptable. It sounded a little intimidating, but it’s true and it did make me feel a little bit better about not doing as well as I expected in some of my classes. But it gives me motivation to want to finish up my last year successfully to better prepare me for my future.

Thorne Washington, now a representative for LeapFrog told us about his personal experience with his company which a very interesting story. In his junior year at NIU, he went to the Career Fair where he met a representative for LeapFrog and after giving them his resume, he never heard from them until he applied over a year later to the same company. At his interview time, the same lady whom he met over a year ago remembered who he was and his information. It couldn’t have been a more ironic situation. But in the end, having that connection earlier helped him land the job.

Will Johnson, now a representative for U-Line, works with catalogs which we discussed in Mrs. Domagalski’s 355 class which is a required course for the IM program. He told us how important it was to actually pay attention in our classes because in his job, he worked with people who had no idea what they were talking about. And when it came time to talk to the bossman, he was only person in amongst his co-workers who could keep up a conversation about catalog marketing which he learned from mktg 355.

The whole meeting was very informational and I was kind of bummed to hear that IMB wouldn’t really be reconvening until next semester because many students have graduated from the program and there hasn’t been much going on since the beginning of the year. But, hopefully next semester, after joining, we’ll meet have more people able to join and enjoy my last semester of college in the IM program.

I believe that online privacy is dead to an extent. I can’t tell you how many times I have logged onto my Facebook and right away I’m hit with ads for things such as online dating sites,  hotel deals to my favorite vacation destinations, discounts to my favorite retail stores, etc. Although these ads tend to get annoying after a while, it’s my choice to fill out that area on my Facebook page that says “Interested In,” which I indicate such information. But because I do that, marketers use that information to create specific advertisements for things I’m into. For example, when I change my relationship status to engaged, I’ll start getting advertisements not even an hour later for honeymoon suites and wedding bands. It’s creepy knowing that people can adapt so quickly to my needs. So, that’s why I believe privacy is dead. Also, when I read in the Wall Street Journal article that the nation’s top 50 websites on average installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto its visitors computers, I couldn’t help but think if I had ANY privacy what so ever. That’s another reason why I’m also skeptical about online shopping because I never know who could be hacking into my computer to get my credit card information or social security information.

I definitely think consumers need protection because now a days, there’s certain information that’s only available online and in order to access it we need to provide some personal information which can be risky. For example, most retail stores do not have all their products available at the store. At this point, they tell you to look and purchase it online through the entire collection in case you’re looking for a different size, style, etc. This is where credit card information is required in order to make such purchases and in order for me to trust an online store, I need to know that my information will be kept confidential. In the WSJ, they state how some companies had no idea that they were installing intrusive files onto visitor’s computers. How can I trust a website to not share my personal information if they don’t even know they’re doing it themselves? This is why consumers need protection. I need that guarantee no one will see, steal, or use my confidential information in order for me to keep shopping with that company.

I think that the government should develop laws to protect consumers. But it’s also a line that’s very thin, you could say. Marketers still need to be able to advertise to people and if the government makes laws that ban that all together, how can marketers can a profit or even get their company name out there in the first place? For example, many companies today make a large profit on Facebook ads. If marketers weren’t allowed to create ads specifically to a person’s likes, they wouldn’t be able to make money. That’s why I say it’s a thin line because it’s a lose-lose situation in that case.

1) 39 visits, 24 unique visitors, 80 page views, 2:57 average time on site, 58.97% bounce rate, 2.05 average page views.

I was surprised to see that I had 24 different visitors because I haven’t really shared my blog site with many people. The average time spent on my site was roughly three minutes which also came to no surprise because usually when I go to someone’s log site, I’ll read the first or second blogs they post then check out their “about me” page just to get a little more information on them.

2) Dekalb, Naperville, Sycamore were the cities in which people who visited my site came from. I’m not surprised by this since there was only one user from Naperville and Sycamore. I am from Naperville so it probably could have been someone from back home who saw my blog. And Sycamore, I don’t really know anyone who lives in that area, but then again it could be a co-worker who lives in the area that I didn’t know. Dekalb had the most visitors which definitely makes sense because I live in Dekalb and I go to school at NIU. There was one visitor from NY, NY which I thought was slightly odd, but they didn’t spend much time on my site at all which leads me to believe that probably clicked a wrong link or something. This could also explain why my bounce rate was so high because I had not only that user but about ten other users from Dekalb who spent an average time of less than 30 seconds.

3) My top two pages visited were my homepage which consisted of all the blogs I have posted and my about me page which includes information about myself and and why I started this blog site. It also includes a picture of myself on this page. I completely understand why my top page visited would be my homepage consisting of the blogs because after all, it is a blog site. People are going to my site to see the things I’m blogging about and possibly provide feedback. I’m also not surprised about my second top visited page, “about me” because generally if someone is going to visit someone’s blog site, they’ll want to see who the blogger and know a little information about them.

4) Most of my traffic is coming from direct with 78.05% followed by 12.20% from referring sites and finally 9.76% from search engines. I’m not surprised to see that the least percentage of visitors come from search engines because my cite isn’t a popular one that many people would search for nor am I the first blogger to pop up if someone Google’s “blog”. There’s plenty of other bloggers out there who blog more than once a week unlike myself. With almost 80% of my traffic being direct, it mostly comes from myself from logging in on another person’s computer just to see if anyone has responded to any posts or has questions/concerns for myself.

5) The top keywords were not surprising to me at all. They were “steph gaden” and “stephanie gaden”. Although “steph gaden” had no real time spent visiting, “stephanie gaden” did. The average time on it was about two minutes. Considering it’s my full name and I refer to myself in my whole name as opposed to “steph” this comes as no shock to me.

6) As I have stated before, none of the information really stood out to me expect for the fact that the one visitor in Sycamore spent an average of almost eight minutes on my top pages. Although I go to school in Dekalb, I don’t have any friends living in that area. It could possibly be another classmate checking up on my blog or another NIU student who has their own blog site. It’s nothing I would worry about. I had a visitor from New York, but I think it was an accident that landed on my page because the average time spent from that visitor was 0:00.

1) Personalized Fortune Cookies- Create Your Own

http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com/Custom_Fortune_Cookies_s/50.htm

Have some fun in creating your very own fortune cookie with a saying of your choice. These beautiful creations can make wonderful gifts for the upcoming Holiday Season.

2) The choices I had for the head line were basically customized/personalized fortune cookies or different fortune cookie sayings. The target demographic for this website would be anyone who’s looking to create their own personalized fortune cookie for whatever reason whether it’s for a birthday, graudation, or just to cheer someone up. The call to action is to get people to go to know they have the option of choosing their own type of fortune cookie. URL: http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com

Landing Page:http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com/Custom_Fortune_Cookies_s/50.htm

3) Keywords: Personalized individually wrapped, fortune cookies, and custom fortune cookies

 Personalized Fortune Cookies

4) There is high competition for my keyword.

5) Global and monthly search volumes are both 9,900.

6) Custom fortune cookies / Fortune cookie sayings- I chose these two phrases as good suggestions because they had very high global and local monthly searches: high competition with 12,100/9,900 and low competition with 27,000/18,100.

 7) When I entered my MAX CPC as $1.00, the Average Estimated CPC was

 SEO is a short for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the method of analyzing and constructing individual web pages and sites so that they can be discovered, analyzed, and then indexed by various search engines. SEO can make your web page more attractive, more relevant and easier to find by other search engines. This is important because how are potential customers supposed to see your business without having so much as a phone number, e-mail, or address to contact you? When someone uses a search engine such as Google or Bing, and their searching “fast food restaurants in Dekalb,” SEO allows the most relevant pages and  your business could show up first to guarantee that they will notice you.

Top 2 Word Phrases: marketing student and posted uncategorized

Top 3 Word Phrases: uncategorized leave comment, post uncategorized leave, and interactive marketing student

I was not surprised at all to see that these were the top phrases in throughout my blog post because I am an interactive marketing student and it’s the whole reason why I created this blog in the first place. It also makes sense that the other phrases have to do with me categorizing my posts since I don’t have them categorized. And every time I post something to my blog, it will ask to “leave a comment” or “uncategorized.”

I was really impressed with Ralph de le Vega’s presentation about his success in life and with AT&T. He had me at his first story when he told us that he was only ten years old when he was forced to leave his family and come to America alone with no family here. The fact his parents decided to give him the opportunity to live a better life is wonderful. It sounds like something my parents would do for me. And it’s something that my grandparents did for my mom and her older sister. With a family of 13, my grandparents sent only my mother and aunt to the US to ensure a better life for them.

Another major obstacle Ralph overcame was when he was affected by Hurricane Andrew. I can’t imagine anyone going through that kind of situation. But he handled it with as much preparation as he could and kept his company safe.

I couldn’t imagine having someone who’s supposed to be a mentor, like his school counselor telling me that I should choose a different career because it would be better. I think one of the best quotes he had for the night was, “don’t let anybody put limitations on what you can achieve.” That to me was something very inspirational. I know I’ve been told that in my life, but it means a lot more from someone who’s been through a journey of a lifetime.

Overall, I think Ralph gave a wonderful presentation and really showed us that dreams are possible, even when someone says they’re not. “Dream big, and believe in yourself,” is his idea for success. That, along with his triangle of principles, I think anyone who saw his presentation would agree that the guy’s great ethics and look to success in life. The only thing I wish he could have talked about was the T-Mobile/AT&T possible merge, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see another presentation or look to the TV.

1. It was very easy to find an IT job description based off the page we were given to start off at. It was only a few clicks until I found a variety of jobs for OMIS majors. Right after I clicked “Search Jobs” I was directed to a list of the different areas to work in and had the option of choosing which area to look for jobs in, (IT), and it also allowed me to type in a keyword for an even more specific area within IT and the state in which I’m looking to work in. At the next page after filling out my requests, I was directed to the specific jobs and could click on whichever job I chose which directed me to the exact job description. I liked this page because next to the job title, it indicated what city the position would be at in my chosen state. At this page, not only was there a specific description of the job, it had requirements, key responsibilities, and gave the option of adding this application to “my cart” or “e-mailing this application to a friend.” These options help a lot because they allow me to go to my cart later to review which jobs I want to apply for before taking the time to do so. Having the ability to send a job application to a friend also helps if I know someone else who’s looking for a job, and might be good at the one I’ve found even if it’s not necessarily for me.
2. Again, within less than a few clicks, I found the career benefits pages. Once I clicked the Employee Benefits link, I was directed to a page where there were about four different employee benefit topics I could chose from including, health and protection, pay and rewards, investment in the future, and the balancing of my work and life. Within those pages, they covered a lot of the essential information one would want to know about the benefits. I thought that was very helpful especially within the health benefits because it included, dental, medical, and visual health information, etc.
3. Although I have never considered a career within the McDonald’s corporation, this website made it very helpful for anyone who is looking for a career opportunity with this business. The navigation bar was very helpful in explaining the topics in simple wording but specific enough for one to find what they’re looking for. In the job search, I liked that it gave the option of choosing which area to work in as well as the state where I’m looking to work in.
4. Design and Usability

Navigation- It was very easy to navigate through the website. Each link wording was specific enough to tell me where the link would take me to. And each link provided the exact information I was looking for.

Spacing/Layout- The overall layout was very neat and professional. There weren’t any areas I had trouble comprehending and the font size was easy to read. There was enough spacing in between topics. There wasn’t a lot of clutter or too many words on one page.

Colors- I like that they made the links in red because that’s one of McDonalds’ colors. Red is a very attractive color and it draws attention to people. However, there is a lot of it and because the website is mostly in black and red, it’s hard to keep the attention going.

Engaging Content- There were little images included on the actual pages within the career site. There really were only images on the main career page. There were no videos included. So overall, I would say the engaging content was lacking due to the fact it didn’t keep my attention.

Overall ease of Use- I would agree that the website was overall easy to use. The main navigation bar made it easy for me to find where I needed to go. The website also made it easy because it allowed me to search for jobs in a career field and the location where I desired to work.

5.  Overall, I think the website is attractive; however, if I were to add anything I would say they should just add more color to the webpage. It looks very professional which is how a website like this should look especially a career opportunity page. Maybe put more pictures on each page or change some of the link colors to a different color on different pages such as having red and a darker yellow, so you can read it since red and yellow are McDonald’s colors. Adding videos would help as well. It might be out of the ballpark, but if the website provided a blog, maybe people could get a better idea of what they’re looking for and also speak with others who are searching for jobs. McDonald’s could add their own testimonials from current and/or former employees and this way people could ask questions they don’t already haven’t found  the answers too.

1. Like the McDonald’s website, it only took a few clicks to find a job description in the IT field. It also included an option where I could filter my job desires which even included a specific zip code if I was looking for a job near my home.
2. 1. Usability-The Walgreens website does make it easy to apply for a job. It offers a variety of areas to work in which are easy to find and it also, like the McDonald’s site, offers a “cart” where you can save an application to review it later.
   2. Persuasion- In terms of persuasion, I wouldn’t personally consider a career at Walgreens, but if I were to do so, I think the website does an okay job of persuading me to work there because although it’s very informative, there are no videos or testimonials from current or former workers that would persuade me to want to work there like the McDonald’s website. I do like how both web pages offer a specific location to work at. However, the Walgreens page offers a specific zip code in which to work in whereas McDonald’s only offers the state.

1) I think that using the cute puppy behind a fence represents that he clearly is lonely and wants someone to play with him. Therefore, the volunteer today informs people that you’re not obligated to adopt a pet, but rather are allowed to get to know them and just play with them at your convenience.

2) The purpose of A/B testing is to test a baseline control sample and compare if to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates. Using these two advertisements, I chose different wording in the top right hand corner to see which ad people would respond to better.

3) I chose this landing page because not only does it direct you to the Tails website, but it brings you directly to the volunteer webpage where you’re able to find more information if desired.

5) Personally, if I were to stumble upon these two ads, I would  use persuasion and accessibility as a metrics to test the effectiveness. Definitely, I would use persuasion because that’s what the ad is really about, trying to persuade something to do something. And in this case, I would most likely volunteer to either ad because I’m a big puppy lover. Accessibility is the other metric I would use because I would want to know whether or not I could get to the right landing page or if it will take me on a wild goose hunt looking for it.