Mobile Marketing is a Must!

I may have mentioned it in one of my earlier blog posts, but I conduct most of my internet activities on my phone. I love my phone. I'll be an adult and admit it; I'm completely addicted to it. It's just easier to grab my phone and use it as opposed to opening my laptop and logging on, or having to get up and walk all the way across the room and log on to my desktop computer. That's pretty lazy, isn't it? Either way, when my phone is right there next to me, why not just grab it and use it? The term 'mobile marketing' was first introduced to the world at the 2009 D&AD Awards. This was before the introduction of tablets to the market, and when it wasn't essentially a given that most people carried a smartphone around with them. Mobile marketing is an extremely broad term that encompasses many different tools marketers use, or can use, to reach their target market. Things such as mobile device applications, SMS, MMS, location based marketing, mobile gaming, QR codes, and push notifications are just a few examples of techniques used in mobile marketing. Unbeknownst to me I was using mobile marketing before I knew there was a term for the app on my phone, or the SMS messages I was receiving from my local grocer when I was in the store. In my opinion, mobile marketing is a must have for companies as part of a marketing plan. The analytics are relatively easy to track, and below I've attached an infographic from the Mobile Marketing Association which shows that about a quarter of people admit to being addicted to their phones, like me.

 































Knowing these facts, I wonder what the reasons are for businesses not to use mobile marketing?

Best Practices for Blogging

How do I blog? What do I blog? I am a writer, and I love it, but I asked myself these questions before I started this blog. After much thought, and some research online, I’ve come up with some best practices that I think are practical, realistic, and completely doable for everyone! First, keep variety the name of the game! Find content from many different sources. Step out of that box and have fun with it. Even if the content you want to blog about isn’t the most exciting, find a video, picture, slide show, or something of the like, that makes it fun for you and the reader. Now, just sit down and write. Sure there are grammatical and spelling rules that should be followed as a whole, but just sit down and write. Write it out by hand first, if it’s easier and if you have the time, then transfer it over to typed form on your computer. If you’re not comfortable at first, be patient, it will become easier as you go. Next, write to who is reading your blog, not to yourself. If you wanted to communicate with yourself, you might as well just talk to yourself. Put yourself in the shoes of who you’re writing for. Write to what you’d want to hear and learn about if you were them. Now, let’s talk feedback. Criticism, critiquing, complaining, or complementing is all a fact of life. They are also going to occur whenever with no matter to whether you want it or not. That’s true in life, and it’s true in blogging. It’s actually a necessity in blogging. It tells you what you’re doing right, wrong, and how to improve. Some feedback may not feel as if it’s worth reading, some is very valuable, but read it all! It could be through that blatantly harsh critique of a particular post that you missed a point or fact that would have helped sway favor to the point you were trying to make, or to a $1000 sale your company was trying to finalize. From comments, good or bad, you can learn, but silence is a great teacher in the world of blogging as well. If that happens, learn what works and what doesn’t from previous posts and stick with that. How much do I write? Is there too much or too little? Sometimes readers just don’t have the time, or they just don’t want to, read a long post. Short, sweet and to the point is okay sometimes. A break from the pressure is good for you too. Now don’t go overboard and go short for an extended period of time. Your market readers may feel you don’t have time for them. Let your personality through! You have one, so let it show. Be yourself and be personable. This isn’t a computer just spitting out tag lines, bottom line numbers, and statistics that would make the most dedicated financial person take a nap. Business doesn’t have to be dry. Being professional doesn’t mean you can’t let your personality come through. I don’t mean go up and do your standup routine you perform at the comedy club on the weekends. Just be you. People want to like you. They want to trust you. How can they do that if you sound like a bad textbook? All in all, blogging shouldn’t feel like a chore. You can, and should be able to, enjoy it. Make your blog your own, even if it is for your company. You are an individual that is part of a whole at your company. Help to make your readers feel the same. Good luck and happy blogging!

What's Mine is Mine and Sometimes Yours...but only if I Say it's Okay

There used to be a time when knowing what was and what wasn’t intellectual property was pretty clear cut. Now with the advent of social media and persons everywhere posting, sharing , tweeting, tagging, and all the other terms for putting content on the internet, that right to the intellectual property you think is yours, just might not be. The lines are no longer black and white. They are definitely grey with a little light blue, red, and orange thrown in there because where laws pertaining to intellectual property and social media are concerned it’s a little, no a lot, fuzzy. Take for instance a case brought forth by a Facebook user in 2011 against Facebook. The plaintiff claimed Facebook was using his image without authorization in a particular advertising service. What was happening was the plaintiff’s friends would see his image in the ad section of their news feed because he, the plaintiff, had previously liked that particular products brand Facebook page. Essentially Facebook was using the plaintiff to endorse those product brands to his friends that he had “liked”. In the end, the plaintiff ended up winning to a point because Facebook agreed to settle. There were many stipulations made in the settlement, with most of them revolving around privacy issues and the use of minors’ information. Facebook also agreed to pay a certain amount to all users who could prove unapproved use of their image. The payout was minimal to each plaintiff, but that’s not the major point of this case is it? Twitter also has an issue with intellectual property violation. “Twitterjacking” is a relatively new term that describes when someone creates a Twitter account under the name of a celebrity or public figure and does not disclose that they are NOT that person, and tweets as if they are. This is such a new intellectual property violation that not many cases have been filed on the federal level, but are being handled on the state level. When setting up a business page, Facebook gives you the option to claim any or all other Facebook pages that are about your company, as long as you are the official representation of that company. Twitter allows you to link your company webpage to your Twitter account so whoever may see, can see you’re the official Twitter profile. We have yet to see the bulk of what intellectual property and social media will produce. By that I mean there will always be someone, somewhere who will be trying to bend the rules in their favor, whether that is social media companies or the users who love them. Many laws will be born of this issue and the end is nowhere in sight.

Let's talk apps!

I'm one who uses their phone for pretty much everything. I admit it, I'm addicted to it, and I find myself checking it all the time. I don't like putting a lot of apps on it though. That's strange, right? I actually prefer to go to the mobile site and do business there. However, there is an app I have on my phone that I love! It's called Overdrive Media Console. For any of you out there that have a digital eReader (or tablet or even a smartphone!), you might already be familiar with this app. Overdrive allows you to find and save library systems and library information on your mobile device through the Overdrive app. Now when I want to read a book, I simply open the app, chose which library system I want to search, log into my account with the information the app has saved for me, and search that library systems digital library. When searching with Overdrive, only the digital titles the library has will be searched and displayed. I have six library cards, two are in states other than Colorado, and so I have six library systems saved in my app. I can go to any of those library choices, regardless of my location anywhere on the planet, and search for a book I want to read. If their digital copy is available I can borrow it right then and there, and it will download to my Overdrive app and be put on my virtual bookshelf in the app. If the title is not available, it will give me the option of putting the title on hold, and then entering an email address to notify me when the title becomes available. I can also look at my account status with each library to view my wish list of books that I've made, or to view or change the settings related to that library system and how the book is shown on my screen when I borrow from that library. I'm never without a book, and sometimes I have more than one going at the same time. I'm a huge advocate for borrowing books from the library, and now that I have the ability to do it digitally, I'm constantly trying to juggle which book to get from where and keeping my fingers crossed that it becomes available at a good time in my reading schedule. If you haven't heard of Overdrive, I urge you to check it out. It's truly an amazing app!

I came to learn, and I learned....about Adobe Connect, and Facebook too of course!

Like I said in my first post of this blog, I'm pretty much a novice at all things Web 2.0, and giving an online live presentation, social media related or otherwise, was completely brand new to me. I admit it; I was intimidated by the enormity of it with it being our midterm grade and never before having used any type of webinar platform. I'm very thankful that my instructor, Dr. Alice, offered a few opportunities to get into Adobe Connect and practice and learn. It's definitely a good thing I attended both practice opportunities because I had microphone AND software issues with both Chrome and Internet Explorer. My mic never worked with Chrome but I was able to upload a document, and then...I just wasn't able. It just stopped working in the middle of my practice. Then, with Internet Explorer, again my mic didn't work but I was able to upload a document without problem, however, I wasn't given the option to exit the meeting. The link at the top of the page just wasn’t there. It baffled me and Dr. Alice so she contacted someone who could help and we learned that Firefox has the most stable platform to use with Adobe Connect. I downloaded Firefox and was good to go! Giving presentations has never really bothered me, however, the element of an unknown delivery system, and technical problems during practice on top if that, had me waking up at 3 in the morning thinking about all of it! Needless to say, the presentation went well, technically, and after listening to the recorded version of my presentation, I'm pretty happy with my delivery of it too. I'm not under any disillusion that it was perfect, mostly because I'm unsure if the citations are correct, but I think did pretty ok. At the time of this posting, I haven't gotten a grade back yet, but I'm hoping Dr. Alice agrees with me. :)

Great YouTube video about integrated marketing. The sports analogy is a bonus!

I like this YouTube video from Monitor Group about
integrated marketing. They explain how marketing met the needs of the consumer 30 years ago as opposed to how marketing has had to adapt to the introduction of the internet and eventually Web 2.0 and social media. In their explanation of how to approach needs for a marketing program in today’s internet environment, and how the company needs to rethink man power for it, they use the analogy of football versus hockey. I like this approach in breaking down where needs are, and in turn where to distribute man power due to those needs, because the sports industry is where I’m hoping to find employment, and this video’s demonstration of the direct connection between a marketing programs needs and man power allocation combine both of my interests of sports and marketing. If you enjoy sports and are looking at ways to diversify your marketing team, watch this video for ideas of how to do it.

Facebook Personal Learning Webinar

I recently gave a personal learning webinar presentation about Facebook. Now, while I'd used Facebook for quite some time, I'd never really taken the time to delve into the inner workings of Facebook and really see what kind of controls I can set, or even how to create a page other than my personal page that was created when I originally signed up for Facebook. So I went to work. My mother owns a tutoring business for high school kids and has wanted me to create a Facebook page for her business, so with that in mind, I got down to the business of creating a business page for her. Once I logged into my Facebook account, I went to the gear icon at the top right of the page to see if I could start there because I just wasn't sure. Once I clicked on the gear icon link I realized this link is the portal to most things you can set and create on Facebook. There are links here to set or change all your settings, to create a page, and you can also switch between which profile or page you're using Facebook. Once I clicked on 'create page', I was guided through 5 easy steps to create the page. After the page had been created, I went back to the gear icon and clicked on the settings link, and from there I was able to set things like who can see my posts, who can post to my page, whether or not I want to review those posts first, who can tag me in pictures, and who can see my pictures. That's just a small example of the settings you can set on Facebook for your privacy. A few examples of business uses for Facebook could be tracking how many people have liked a certain post you have put up, or what customer complaint or compliment posts have been posted to your business page. Again, there is so much more beyond that for your business with Facebook, so log on and go exploring!