Final Reflection Blog

Hey guys! So this is officially our final blog, and I am so excited for the holidays! I have to say I enjoyed taking this class along with all of you. I am not much of a textbook reader but I enjoyed reading the textbook for this class. It taught me a lot about the different aspects of social media and how relevant it is to the world today. It also helped me gain a better understanding of each type of social media. Although I am adamite with my use of social media, reading this textbook made me want to explore the other aspects of it I never knew about.

Small class assignments, such as the blog post we were required to do this semester affected my understanding of social media. I now know how to use it professionally because it made me more aware of what people are looking for in the business world. It also gave me an understanding of how to use certain tools I had never used before such as tagging and search engines depending on the type of social media.

Along with the smaller assignments we were given, we also had a final project. I enjoyed researching and working through this project because we were able to use the design thinking process to assist our final client Fetiche. The design thinking process involves researching, brainstorming, prototyping and etc. We were able to use all of these tools to effectively help our client by understanding what they did and didn’t need. We were also able to provide them with new ideas to promote their products and bring in more clientele. 

Within the design thinking process, I like that it allows you to think freely and remain open minded before coming up with a final choice. However, the design process in some cases can be difficult when the research provided isn’t enough to complete a prototype. This makes the entire process more challenging and lengthy to complete.

Throughout this course the social media strategy that surprised me the most was the use of social media zones. When I first enrolled in this class I was expecting to learn more about what I already knew which I did. But in turn I also learned about things I never knew existed. Such as the basics of content on different social media sites. The amount each site has, and how each social media zone carries a specific target market.

Overall, learning about social media in a professional environment is valuable to me because I will now be able to use the knowledge I have learned towards my own professional career. As an impending buyer, social media is widely used so by having a clear understanding of what is deemed professional and what is not I can further myself within my career. This has increased my understanding of my merchandising career by giving me the ambition to want to explore more and see what else social media has to offer in reflection to merchandising. In all, I like the way this class was conducted I feel that I gained a valuable learning experience from all of the work that we did. However, I would like to have done more client based projects throughout the course because I found that I learned more having a hands-on experience rather than just from the textbook. Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a wonderful break!

Lauryn Texidor

Bananas Closet Podcast

Hey Guys! Here's a link to my presentation. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVRysOkSem4

Chapter 10: Social Media Metrics

Main Ideas
After reading this chapter, I found that it discussed a lot about the extent of evaluation within social media. By evaluating outcomes marketers can asses their opportunity costs and possible threats. Metrics also plays a huge role in social media. Marketers use metrics to compare results that relate to specific marketing objectives. In all, it helps develop better marketing strategies in order to prepare for the future.


Strengths & Weaknesses
I enjoyed reading this chapter, I like how it explained how everything is measured in social media. There is a certain frequency that must be obtained in order to keep a site relevant and this chapter thoroughly explains that. However, I found the chapter to be too short there was a lot more that could have been explained that I did not understand. Such as baselines, measurement maps, and tracking. These all are important factors within social media, but I did not grasp a clear reason why.

Terminologies
I have listed a few terminologies that I had never heard before while reading this chapter:

Relative Pull:  A comparison of how well different creative regards generate a response

Sales Conversions: the specific number of people who click through a site to purchase a product

Viewthroughs: the specific number of people who are exposed but do not view a site, however may revisit later

KPI's: "key performance indicators" are metrics that are intertwined with organizational objectives

Return Metrics: mainly focuses on outcomes that support the success of the brand

Metric
A metric can best be described as a form of measurement that researchers use. It's great for recording data and forecasting. It also plays a big part in sales conversions and the speed of responses sights receive from users.

Student Organizations
As a college student a lot of organizations related to the university use social media to their advantage. One I find most primitive is the fashion club within the college of business. Although I am not a member, as a fashion major I see that they promote a lot of people to join through Instagram. From the SMART objectives this strategy relates to "S" having a specific goal, "A" making those goals assignable, and "T" because they are time based.  Two metrics that can be related to these objectives are sales conversions and viewthroughs. Because they provide the data that is needed to keep up with organizational goals.

Chapter 9: Social Media for Consumer Insights

Strengths and Weaknesses of The Chapter
Strengths: Chapter 9 thoroughly explains how important observational research is, it also discusses how recorded behavior is referenced for future evidence to give organizations a better approach on new trends.
Strengths: Discusses the different types of monitoring, tracking, and research design marketers implement in order to keep up with consumers and collect data
Weaknesses: It does not explain how primary research for social media can be used effectively for "nonresponse bias". Social media is based on participation, understanding these errors would have been more helpful.


Terminologies
This chapter also had a lot of terms I had never heard before such as:
Online echo:  refers to the duplication of conversation volume that usually occurs in social media. Online echo exists due to people who share content and tend to share it with more than one community.
Sampling Weights:  Are adjustment factors that apply to differences in probability of selection between cases in a sample.  In other words, sampling weights are a percentage of popularity depending on a social media site. For example, 9% of internet users use twitter but twitter generates over 60% of content that social media monitors.
Netnography: a rapidly growing research methodology that adapts ethnographic research to study of the communities that emerge through computer interactions.
Scraping:  The collection of conversations through social media
Fetching: scraped data that is in need of being cleansed in order to get rid of unnecessary formatting

SocialMention.com
After visiting socialmention.com I ran an analysis on a popular brand I currently use. The brand is called MAC and I decided to look up the name specifically instead of adding a tag. After researching this I found a lot of different links related to it such as pictures from other sites. However, most of them were from photobucket.com. I believe there was a sampling error from the data I received because the data was only collected from a small subset making some of the results I received wrong. This is concerning because it is hard to understand the results I got if they are not related to my search.

Youtube
After reviewing socialmention.com I looked at several videos on YouTube related to this brand. Most of these videos were user generated however, a few were related to corporate. Anytime I go on youtube I notice most of the comments are user generated. However, I was able to gain insight from reviewing these videos based on the opinions people had. As the chapter states, social media solely relies on participation, so the more conversations people interact in the more popular the video becomes, leading to more views. In all, everything is a chain reaction.

Here's a list of the videos I viewed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyvR6KBOPP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoEmHecXUmo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9EwwCBwzWhGGlNJujnnnRA?v=EuUxM01jhxQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Vn5Jjojck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcpHo6zIs0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02E_uq_OJ8w

Chapter 8: Social Commerce

Main Ideas

After reading this chapter I have found that social commerce shares a relationship with e commerce through a sub set. The difference is the use of social media and social media applications. This chapter also talks a lot about ratings and reviews because they are a form of product endorsements. Marketers use this to their advantage by allowing consumers to refer friends in exchange for premium benefits and offers. In all, social commerce is a digital shopping experience that enables online shoppers to interact through the use of social media applications.

Strengths and Weaknesses
From all of the chapters we have covered in this course I feel this chapter was the most short and concise. I liked how it discussed the different uses of social shopping and social commerce and how it can be beneficial to the consumer and the retailer. I also liked how it talked about the psychology of social shopping because it plays a big part in the decision process a consumer makes before finalizing their purchase. However, this chapter could have covered more on the social commerce shopping process, and the tools retailers use to get consumers to want to continue repurchasing from them.

Shopping Through Ads
I love shopping online! I don't usually go to malls or department stores because I don't care for fighting through crowds of people just to get to one store. Also, after shopping for so long it can become very exhausting so in turn I prefer to online shop. I also have found that by shopping online stores have more products that aren't sold in store so you get a better deal. I have shopped through plenty of ads on social media, usually if I see something I like I just click on it and go from there!

Ratings and Reviews
When it comes to ratings and reviews I always look at them first before purchasing anything or when I am trying something new. I have found them to be very helpful and useful in the end. Now, when asked if I prefer reviews more from customers or experts I would say customers. Although experts provide valid information for products, I think customers are more genuine about their experience. Not every customer is the same, however I feel a better relation to customer reviews on products rather than experts because I more than likely will think the same.

Social Commerce Tools
In the book on page 175 there is a table that provides a list of social shopping ads and social commerce tools. A few sites that are listed include Hallmark, Yelp, Facebook, and Google. I believe that Yelp and Google are social shopping ads that provide utility, while Hallmark and Facebook provide fun. In my opinion the aspect that is most important to shoppers is price. If a shopper feels they are not getting a good deal on a product, or that they can find it somewhere else for a better price they are more likely to stray away from the site and not purchase the item. I as an active online shopper am always looking for items that are of value and appropriately priced. In the end, consumers never want to spend more than they have to.

Chapter 7: Social Entertainment

Branding and Social Entertainment

Hello Everyone! So today I decided to play a game that I have never played before in order to explore the different uses of brands and advertising. By playing "Farmville" through Facebook I found that my experience was fairly enjoyable. I am not too much in to games because when I get stuck on a level I usually get frustrated and stop playing. However, Farmville was very user friendly and the concept I got from it was the use of social gaming. Although this game is not multiplayer I found it to be very goal oriented and interactive with the rest of Facebook such as through sharing and leader boards.

This game used different branding and advertising components through the use of display ads. As I was playing I noticed a variety of ads that were being offered on the side window. The ads consisted of movies, television shows, and recommendations for other games. What I found most interesting is while I was playing the game I had a tendency of looking to the side of my window to see what the moving ad was. This has changed my attitude towards branding by giving me a better understanding of how social games can be utilized to refer specifically to a brands target audience. It also taught me low intrusion methods of promotion. By integrating display ads into a gaming environment brands can reach a higher level of engagement.

Chapter 6: Social Publishing

SEO & SMO

SEO and SMO go hand and hand, they both require components that are used to maximize factors to obtain the highest result. SEO is the process of modifying content, such as a sites characteristics or connections. SMO ties with this by making the content more visible for viewers on a specific social media platform. After researching both of these forms of optimization I found a website that complies with these factors.

Nordstrom.com, is a great example of SEO, and SMO. This site has high search engine rankings and connections. By optimizing the value of their content through the use of tabs makes the site very efficient for users. They also include share tools, for other sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram for users to promote items that they like. However, this site could be optimized further by condensing some of the tabs offered. By putting things in a joint category users can maneuver around the website easier instead of having to click on 4 or 5 tabs to find exactly what they are looking for.

Keywords
After reviewing this site I found a few keywords that would be good tags to use, such as affordability, clearance, new items, skin care, and women/men's clothing. I also decided to research a few of these keywords on a regular search engine and I found that Nordstrom popped up on the first page of rankings for women and mens clothing. I believe this makes the site more successful by increasing its credibility because people usually click on what they see on the first page. The other sites offered differed in that they were only online sites. Nordstrom has both in store and online usage making it more influential when conducting a real search.