The Weekend

I'm pretty excited about this next upcoming weekend because there is a lot going on! I'm the maid of honor in my cousin's wedding in January and we are having her bridal shower in Sylvania this weekend! I'm excited to see all of my family and catch up with people I haven't seen in awhile.  My best friend is also going to be there and I haven't seen her in quite some time!! There will be delicious food and fun games to play and I think it is just going to be a really exciting day for my cousin! Then on Sunday we are going to have my families Thanksgiving.  It's a little early this year even for us but my cousin has recently relocated to Alabama for a job and he and his new fiancé will be home this weekend! I haven't seen them since June for our family vacation and I'm beyond excited! This weekend is just what I need.  Things have been getting rather stressful here in the magical land of Ada and being surrounded by so much family for two whole days is just the cure to get me refreshed and thinking straight come Monday morning.  I hope that everyone else has something exciting planned for their weekend and has a great time doing whatever it is that they enjoy!

Don't be Creepy

In an article I read on Technorati.com they talked about marketers using social media to their advantage without being a social media stalker. I really think there is a fine line between the two these days and it gets more blurry everyday.  The article offers some good advice for marketers in the present time.  It says to be helpful but not pushy.  This is great advice.  When I walk in to a store and the sales clerk instantly runs up to me and wants to follow me through the store and basically shop with me I get super annoyed and want to leave as quickly as possible.  But on the other hand, when no one acknowledges my existence I get almost as annoyed as if they were stalking me through the store.  I feel the same way with my social media.  I understand that you have a job to do and that job is to get your product out there in to the market for me to see. But if you proceed to shove the product down my throat I can guarantee that I will become uninterested just as quickly as I became interested.  The list of advice is very helpful for marketers but this one was the one that struck me the most.  It is just a very thin line for me on whether I am impressed by the way you are presenting your product. And this is a good thing for marketers to know. If you anger your customers who will buy your product?

Banks using Social Media

In an article I read it said that banks are now using customer's social media to learn how to better advertise to certain clients as well as learning whether or not the customer is responsible with their spending and saving.  This is a smart but scary concept.  Writing anything about losing a job or a house can alert the bank to any financial problems you may be experiencing.  Some people view social media as an outlet where you can share, celebrate, gripe and complain to your friends, coworkers and family but more and more it is becoming something to be very careful with.  Companies are catching on faster and faster that they can use these tools to provide them with very vital information.  So I know you have heard it time and time again but be careful what you put on social media. I know I get sick of hearing it also  but it is so true, especially now that it could even influence my chances of having a bank work with me as well as my future employment.

Measure What Matters

In Katie Paine's book Measure What Matters it talks about measuring your business or companies effectiveness.  I though it was interesting that she made a point of differentiating between measuring and counting.  All companies have an accountant and know how to count all the things they need.  But measuring means something different altogether.  She also mentions that your customers talk and trust each other more than they do the company.  They look to each other through social media platforms to find out what the best deal or best product is.  Therefore as a company it is best to be open and honest about everything that you are doing in order for your customer to feel like they can really trust what you are doing.  If the customer can trust you a minor glitch isn't going to be as big of a deal if you were honest before and after whatever it is that happened.  These are some recurring themes that we have read about in the past books but I think they are important enough for all of these writers to cover and every author shows the concept in a new light. I'm looking forward to reading more of Paine's book.

Halloween

While I have been at ONU for 4 years now I have never had the priveldge of handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  Living in a dorm or on campus apartment doesn't really allow much opportunity for this.  Freshman year the trick-or-treaters walked through our dorm but I wasn't there that night and somehow I just don't think it would have had the same feel.  So you can imagine my excitement this year when I realized that living in a house on Main Street is actually the perfect set up for handing out candy.  My roommates and I got so busy this week that we kind of let it slip our minds as to what day the trick-or-treaters would be arriving. But I was sitting up in my room tonight and I saw children walking down the street through my window! I ran and told one of my roommates and we had to quickly run to the store because we didn't have any candy to pass out. (A college house without candy? That's just wrong) We missed maybe the first half hour of trick-or-treat but caught the last hour.  It was so fun to sit out on the porch with my roommates and see all of the kids dressed up.  At times I felt old because kids would come up to the porch dressed as something I had never even heard of and act like it was crazy not to know! I need to brush up on my cartoons apparently.  Overall it was a great night and I'm glad we didn't miss it!

Universities Using Social Media

A blog on mashable.com says that universities are trying harder than ever to have an online and social media presence for their students and alumni, as well as their prospective students who are still in high school.  The blog said that 100% of universities have some sort of social media presence and it is growing with each day.  I think this is a great idea and will always benefit the school.  The more you can find out about a school the better.  When I was in high school looking for colleges I was interested in the first thing that turned me away was not being able to navigate their website or not finding any information that I found useful.  I think the universities should have students blog about the school and their time there. The students could say what kind of clubs or sports they are involved with, what their major is and even just what they like to do on the weekends around the area.  If this had been a bigger option when I was in high school I think my friends and I definitely would have taken the time to read the blogs because it is always nice to get an honest feel from a student's prospective about the place you may be deciding to spend the next 4 years at.

Webinar

This webinar was the first one that I had ever experienced.  I'm not sure that I really liked it.  I feel like it would have kept my attention better if I could have actively seen the speakers talking.  The concepts that they were talking about were interesting to me but I'm not great at listening for a long amount of time when I have nothing to pay attention to.

The most interesting part to me was when they were talking about the company being their own publisher. I think that is a great way to explain the company explaining themselves to their clients.  The speakers made very good points on this subject.  They explained that this concept allows the company to reveal the people that they have working for them.  It also allows the company to click with their clients in a way that other companies may not take advantage of.  And the most important part is that the company being a publisher allows the company to listen better to the market.  Overall the webinar made some great points and was very fast paced and kept the questions coming.