Monday, April 2, 2012

Week 12: Facebook Insights

If a business wants to know how many visit them on Facebook all they have to is access their page's Facebook Insights. Sadly it seems this tool goes largely unused.

By using Insights a business can see the size and engagement an audience has on its page. This helps the business understand if its marketing approach is agood one. Your ultimate goal as a Page owner is to publish content that will reach a large audience, and that will engage and share your content with friends. The most interesting part of Insights, to me, is that you can see how many "Friends of Fans" have been reached as well as the fans you already have. This tool can help a business to know just how many people they are actually reaching rather than just guessing. It also helps a business know who to target with posts and content. With Page Insights a business better understands what their audience wants to hear about.

With the help of "People Talking about this," you can visibly see the range of your marketing strategy. Knowing what the audience is saying about the product, service or anything having to do with the business can help a business understand what to do with their marketing strategy. This tool can also help a business to engage with the audience by seeing what people are saying.

Overall Facebook Page Insights helps a marketer gauge how well they reach their target audience. It also show how to engage the audience so they are not simply getting constant updates on their newsfeed. Helping a business understand their audience as whole helps a business know what their audience wants and needs. Businesses that use Insights will have an advantage over those that don't. Insights also helps a business see and understand the strenghts and weaknesses in it campaigns and its tactics.

Week 11: Social Movements

Looking at the social movements from the 1960s comapred to todays social movements there is a huge difference.

In the '60s all it took to get a movement going were people with a common dream. The Civil Right Movement began as a result of students banding together with a common belief. The African-American students wanted to be treated like the rest of society and so stood up for what they believed in. Today, however, it seems that we require the use of the Internet to start a "revolution." Movements like Occupy Wall Street and KONY 2012 began as a result of social media getting the word out about others beliefs. No longer does word of mouth work to "get the word out."

Revolutions today begin because of what we read on Facebook or Twitter and thus it has to be true so we adopt the idea/belief. We don't join a movement because it makes sense and something should be done. Rather was join because our networks tell us to and we must follow. In the '60s it seemed that people joined because of a common belief and thought they could do something about it. Social movements will never be the same.


Like-mindedness is created through connections and social networks online that our friends and fans help to create. We change our minds daily based on the things that we see online and what we as a society think is cool. No longer does a movement spread because of belief but rather "because my 'friends' are doing it."

Monday, February 6, 2012

Week 5: Understanding Advertising

When advertisers are looking to see how people are responding to ads they use Web metrics that help them to measure this. There are many different types of metrics that help. It is true to say that an advertiser should not rely on any one metric to determine how effective their ads are.

Something that is helping advertisers today is a way to track what each and everyone of us is looking GeForce on the web. It used to be that they could only track the number of hits a website would get and go from there. Today the things we search for are kept on our computer history and helps advertisers gear their ads toward us.

Something that I found interesting is that today advertisers are looking to improve a website based on how people respond to it. Relevance is something that is key to advertisers in helping them to determine the type of ads should be used. By advertisers evaluating the relevance of content it can help them to target their audience better.

Learning the techniques of how advertisers gear web ads toward opus interesting and can help to understand why ads are set a certain way online. Advertisers only want to get our attention and they need to be able to judge that they are doing a good job in the long run. Everybody wants to know that they are doing a good job why not advertisers as well. Measeaurements are the best judge of this and so it only makes sense for advertisers to use some sort of quantitative data to help them out.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Media Usage Diary Day 5

Again checked Facebook and Twitter this morning. It just something that is now in my routine. I check it almost a dozen times a day. As well I went out for most of the evening with friends and of course there was media all around me.

While at the bowling ally there was music playing in the background. It was interesting to listen to because there eras of music was so vast. One minute there was Rhianna playing then it was Madonna. Seems that this bowling ally doesn't stick to one genre.

While at dinner myself and my friends checked in on Foursquare and on Facebook. We were also updating our status and talking on Facebook and face to face.

The final thing that we all did together was get Kilwin's ice cream. While there the music that plays all around the Town Center was playing in the background.

Before going to bed I once again watched the Food Network and a show on Netflix so that I could unwind for the night. And just before I went to bed that night I checked Facebook for a final time just to see what was going on.

Media Usage Diary Day 4

Facebook and Twitter are the two things that I always check in the morning. In fact before I got out of bed this morning I checked both just to see what my friends had been up to.

I also checked my email about four times a day. I get so many emails a day that if I don't check it I will be so far behind.

Had to go out today as well and so in my car I have a revolving set of CDs that I just pop in when I am sick of the previous CD.


In the evening I watched Netflix and the Food Network. When my roommate is watching tv in the living room I watch Netflix on my laptop. Lately I have been waching Warehouse 13 and Ugly Betty. I seem to switch around on Netflix.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Media Usage Diary Day 3

Again the first thing that I did when I woke up was to check my Facebook and Twitter to see what people where saying and to see what was going on in the news world. The place that I get most of my news sources is from Twitter.

Wednesday's are my busy days so I was in and out of class most of the day, but at night it seemed that the tv was on. Only it was my roommate who was watching television. So when I cannot watch television in the living room then I go to my room and watch Netflix. I decided to start watching a show that I was always interested, Warehouse 13. It is a crazy science fiction show about collecting strange artifacts.

As well I downloaded a new application in the form of Texas Hold'em. I had always wanted to learn poker so why not from an app.

Media Usage Diary Day 2

When I wake up in the morning I always check my Facebook and Twitter updates. Tuesday was no different. It may be because my phone and iPad charge next to my bed.

Even in class I check my Facebook, then again we do post interesting social media links to a class page where we can see what is going on in the media world. Yet I also check on my school email to see if I have any important udates. It may be the access to the Internet.

As well that morning I turned on Food Network so that I could get some new and healthy recipes. While out picking up some groceries I noticed that the radio was playing in Publix yet no radio on in Walmart.

While washing my dishes in my dorm I turned on my iPad and played some music so that it wasn't so boring.
For the rest of the night I watched random television; everything from Disney Channel to
Food Network until my sorority meeting.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Media Use Diary {Day 1}

It was a boring day yesterday, spending most of in my dorm watching television on my laptop. Netflix always seems to have shows that are targeted just for me which I love so I don't have to constantly go looking for something.

From time to time I would check my Facebook and Twitter accounts just to see what other people where up to. For the most part people where posting Martin L. King Jr. quotes. That evening I updated both Facebook and Twitter.

I would look up occasional videos on Vevo from my iPad and create playlists that I would enjoy. As well I listened to some of my playlists on my Itunes that I had created while I washed the dishes.

In the morning I turned on Food Network to see what new recipes I could learn to make. Bobby Flay is one of my all time favorite chefs and it was great to see him working on the grill. And I learned some heart healthy recipes from the show Hunger Girl that looked so delicious as well.

It is incredible to see how much media I take in every day.

Monday, January 16, 2012

{Week 2} Yahoo vs. Google Advertising

Since the Internet boom advertisers have been looking for better ways to get at consumers. And what better way than to target the "search engines" that they are using everyday. Yahoo truly believed this and so joined with advertisers. The interesting thing to me was how much time and money Yahoo focused on the advertising and how little time they focused on the programming of the "search engine." From the get-go Yahoo never really seemed interested in the search aspect of the company, which I thought was the main reason that the company came into existance. As well I thought in order to even be able to set up advertisements you would need a great programmer. I suppose I can understand not wanting to be a so-called "technology company" especially with the emerging Microsoft back then. And seeing Netscape be completely crushed by them is a scary thing to see. Yet without the best programmers or code writers Yahoo was not able to keep up with the growth of the Internet. Focus less on advertising and more on what the company is supposed to be, a "search engine."

Google it seemed went in a different direction and focused on being a search engine with only text-based advertising. It is interesting to see the change that Google has taken as far as advertising goes. By buying DoubleClick advertisers can better see how the ads are working and how the ads are targeting consumers.


Yet one thing that both these comanies forget is the consumer and the fact that we have a say in what we see. If I don't want to see an advertisement I turn it off or I ignore it and focus on the text instead. Clutter is all over the Internet and advertisers need to work with search engines to see if they can find a way through the clutter and get the comsumers attention.