MKS Blog

The popular bolgging site, WordPress.com announced a program today that will offer their users a new way to make money from their sites. It’s call WordAds.

Sound familiar?

Google’s AdWords (part of AdSense) is the current option for bloggers to have ads on their site, and WordPress is now directly competing with the program. WordPress’s WordAds makes use of its partnership with Federated Media.

The announcement was no surprise. Bloggers have been asking the company to establish an ad program for some time, but WordPress just now caved. The CEO, John Burke, said that the company wanted to wait until they created something better than Google’s “state-of-the-art” program because “users deserved better”. Not very many details have been released regarding the difference between AdWords and WordAds, but the company encourages all interested bloggers to fill out a form on the website.

I am not an avid blogger, but I think that Google needed some competition in regards to advertising on these sites. They have pretty much taken over a lot of activity online, but WordPress’s new program will allow users to make the best choice. Also having a program run through the blogging medium could create much easier access to these ads, and more communication in terms of payment and reach. Being a business major, my mindset is that competition makes for progress, so I am glad that a company challenged Google in this space.

Walt Disney Pictures’ The Muppets will hit movie theaters across the country tomorrow. The film’s release has been promoted heavily throughout the social and digital spheres, which has helped to revive the Muppet brand.

The two-year marketing campaign has truly embraced social media as a marketing means. It all began with the cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which was then followed by more songs, iPhone apps and witty responses to the spouts of backlash online. The successful campaign was driven by keeping the brand and its characters relatively the same to satisfy its loyal fanbase.

The folks at Mashable called the Muppets’ campaign, “one of the most socially savvy we have seen from any studio for a major release window”. Honestly, I am not a big fan of the Muppets, but this article really put into perspective the ways a unique brand can increase its target market and bring back a concept that has been dormant for several years. Having Disney as the producers has had a huge impact in their reach on social platforms because of Disney’s large presence on the web, but I think that the word-of-mouth piece was key to reach the niche market of a Muppet’s fan. In class, we talked about going viral and social media a lot, and I think this is a great example of how crucial being active on social media as well as digitally can really be a game-changer in this competitive environment. We shall see how successful their opening weekend is, and if these efforts have paid off.

Our generation spends so much time online using social media platforms

What if we could shop on sites like Facebook for our Christmas gifts this year using some of most high tech apps on the market?

Many of the apps in the article create personalized gift suggestions for your Facebook friends. Other apps match those friends to products on specific sites, such as Etsy and Amazon. Some of these apps crowdsource cash or other contributions for special and convenient presents.

Here were some of my favorite:

• GiveEmThis: Pick a Facebook friend, enter in that person’s gender and age, and then apply their Twitter handle if they have one. The site will suggest gifts that relate to there interests and attributes. Tends to be most accurate among an  older audience.
• Giftly: You can send personalized gift cards to any establishment you want through email, Facebook or tradition mail. The recipient can redeem the gift card by showing the receipt on their smartphones at the time of use. You can choose any dollar amount as well as the image on the card (which can be a picture from Facebook or a stock image)

I always seem to wait to the last minute to do my Christmas shopping, and sometimes that results in sending cards or gifts late to family out of town. These apps could really be beneficial in aiding me in this process, while still keeping the fun of a surprise in the gift. Also, these gift suggestions all better than sending money and our creative! These concepts go to show the power of social media in today’s society, and establish Facebook as the primary social media platform.

The New York Times reported today that Disney and YouTube are set to announce a partnership worth between $10-15 million. Under this agreement, YouTube will invest millions of dollars on an original series produced by Disney, which will only be aired on both YouTube and Disney.com.

The Co-President of Disney Interactive said that this move was to “go where it’s audience is”. For YouTube, this partnership was part of its efforts to bring premium content to its site.

I think that many of the entertainment companies will follow Disney in joining YouTube to create videos for customers to watch at their leisure for free. These videos put the viewer in control, another blow to network’s power.

On Thursday, the social networking giant, Facebook,  joined the U.S. Department of Labor in a new initiative to lower the national unemployment rate. The partnership between the two will bring job hunting to Facebook for the first time, and may eventually include a Facebook job posting system.

A major component of this plan was the launch of “Social Jobs,” a portal that provides the user with job-search tools and advice from different sources. This page will be promoted in the 10 states with the highest unemployment rate, as well as Puerto Rico.

This type of service will directly compete with LinkedIn and Monster, as Facebook tries to enter the job posting market. Although, no additional initiatives are confirmed, Facebook stated that this is an avenue they see themselves adding value to the user’s experience.

Many companies already have a careers page or portal linking off of their company page on Facebook to assist users in the job search (e.g. Verizon), but I think that if Facebook were to offer such a service it would dramatically increase overall usage. While nothing that Facebook does is not linked to their bottom line, I think that this program with the U.S. Department of Labor will give Facebook a positive image online. In contrast, LinkedIn and Monster must adapt some form of differentiation in order to compete with Facebook head-to-head. The only downfall I perceive from this move is the balance between personal and professional when interacting on Facebook.

Facebook users noticed something different on their new timeline profiles last week. Users could see who had unfriended them over the past few years.

The defect was quickly fixed.

Under your friends you would see an option to “Add as a Friend”, instead of the normal check mark next to the word “Friend”. Now those people are removed from your friend list altogether.

When I first read this article, I found it almost comical how Facebook’s minor flaw could potentially end friendships and create drama both online and offline. Then I realized that there were definitely people who I had defriended over the years or just never befriended, and now, looking back, I find it so immature but if that surfaced now it would reflect badly on myself. Facebook has such control over the way we communicate and participate in relationships that a minor deflect really does impact the connection we have with those in our lives.

Yesterday the London-based designer Burberry joined with Twitter to create a “TweetWalk”. Twitpics were taken backstage before the show even started and shared with Burberry’s fans internationally via Twitter.

This creative idea shocked the rest of the design world because now Burberry fans could see the collection before anyone else. The show also streamed live through burberry.com and its Facebook page, as well as he various social networking platforms in China.

I think this concept of a “TweetWalk” will be implemented by other designers across the world. Ultimately using Twitter and other social media sites will give these fashion designers more publicity as well as Fashion Week as a whole, but really this action gives more power to the consumers who would be unable to catch a glimpse of the latest fashions until after the event. As Mashable described, “…livestreaming is transforming Fashion Week, once a largely private trade event for press and buyers, into a global, consumer-facing experience.” This shift will benefit both parties, and may be the factor that saves these high class designers from failure.

The internet has opened doors for consumers since its very beginning, but I think this example from the fashion world speaks volumes as to the continued increased authority given to the average consumer.

The big search engine giants like Bing and Google admitted that their search results are positively impacted by “social signals” (tweets, Facebook status updates…etc).

High quality content used to be the primary indicator of a website’s Google rank, along with the quantity of links to other quality sites.

Now the higher the number of links shared by the end user, the higher the site can climb on Google. One powerful website cannot improve its ranking unless it communicates with its consumers on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Also, the search engines offer real-time results to their searches, which show up above the rest of the content.

The internet has been said to give power to the user. I think this is a perfect example of just that. Companies cannot buy their way to the top of Google or Bing’s search results, but must appeal to the consumer in order to reach that prime spot. In IMS we are analyzing the use of social media in the world, and I think more than ever it is evident that social platforms are shifting from strictly personal to the simply the everyday spread of information. In a different direction, we can all look at this transition as one that give us more of a say. We can have an impact on the information communicated around the world by being active online.

Fifty dollars off a massage. An extra twenty dollars deducted from your pizza order. Sixty percent off college tutition?

Groupon, the “deal of the day” website known for discounts up to 90% on local favorites, announced that it will offer a discount for the National Louis University entry-level education graduate courses on Tuesday. Up to 25 participants with a valid undergraduate degree can “buy” this deal.

The university sees this as an opportunity to encourage interested individuals to pursue the career they always wanted and to avoid some of the various hurdles hindering them from achieving that goal.

Groupon representatives named this college as one of the many experimental organizations that use its services to reach its consumers. They welcome the opportunity to potentially provide jobs for their subscribers.

It’s hard to think of colleges as a business, but that is exactly what they are. I think we can all learn something from this small university in the ways to use social media to not only communicate with potential consumers, but to increase the number on the bottom line. I believe that this only alludes to the power Groupon and other similar companies hold.

Is social media really a revolution?

In Pew’s recent phone survey only 50% of respondents said that they participated on social platforms. The sentiment was echoed by another question which asked participants to describe their experience with social media in one word.

The most common answer?

“Good”.

Even with the dramatic growth of social media over the past few years, the overall usage by the American population has yet to become dominant. If the trend among the baby boomers continues to gain momentum, we may be seeing some dramatic changes, but until then email anyone?

In IMS 201, we utilize social media sites to communicate with each other and the student body as a whole. While this is an appropriate means of communication among the college demographic, we must broaden our horizons when dealing with those in the Oxford community and the adult population in general.