Marcus Kosloff 4/20 post

This week in class we had two guest speakers come in and talk to us. One of which worked for Razorfish, Zach Wright and Whitney Kelly who works as social Strategy manager of Hyatt Hotels. Both professionals talked about target audience and how that works through social media. Better know as the Rules of Engagement stated in our textbooks. In addition to covering these things we also went on to talk abut making ethical decisions through various facets of social media in addition to covering credibility and honesty.

A major point that was brought up in our Skype call with Whitney was creating an identity of your brand through social media. She gave us a personal example from her past work with Sharpie. While working with sharpie Whitney needed to create a persona as described from our textbook. Her persona was that of a teenage girl. She used this persona to further the brand and to also engage their target market/intended demographic. This example perfectly illustrates, and gives a real world example of the fourth rule in The Rules of Engagement expressed in our books. The forth rule states “ Have personality”.

While Skyping in with both guests it was very clear that they had a strong passion for their work but also had a great deal of experience working with social media. In both interviews the question of how you gain experience through social media marketing when social media is evolving faster then it has before. Zach Wright answered this question by saying that there are various different apps to track social media trends but he also explained that despite whatever outlet you chose there is one rule. Know how to use the outlet to help benefit you. This was interesting because it was a combination of both rules number one and eight in our textbooks. These rules are important because without knowledge of your social media tool you won’t benefit from using it. Simply, social media profiles are not created equally. Whitney also suggested several different ways to gain experience. Her best advice was to start blogging or working, under a companies social media department.

Week 3: MKTG199

Friday, April 18th, 2014

By: Sophie Senarath

 

This week in MKTG199, our class had the pleasure of having two guest speakers. The first was Zach Wright of Razorfish. Zach was extremely informative about his past job experiences and his current position as a Social Media Strategist. Zach talked a lot about brand voice and focusing on who the audience is. Our text also references this idea in our assigned reading for this week. The passive strategy in Social Media Marketing focuses on searching, listening and responding. This tactic is a great way for a brand to get started on social media. Being familiar with your target audience and interacting with them in the same way they interact with the company can really help make a connection between the two. Hearing Zach talk about how he applies concepts like this one cited in the text in his real life job really helped me understand the concept better. He also talked about using platforms differently and the importance in knowing the size of the platform being used. Chapter four also notes this idea in it’s Rules of Engagement. Rule #1 says to “use social media channels as intended.” Different channels allow for different kinds of interaction and knowing which platform is effective for the message being sent is crucial in the marketing world. I really enjoyed hearing Zach speak about his passion for Social Media Marketing and am grateful we had to the chance to interact with him. Whitney Kelly, Social Strategy Manager of Hyatt Hotels was our second guest speaker of the week. Our class had a Skype conversation with Whitney on Wednesday and her relatability and explanation of Social Media Marketing concepts was clear and very easy to understand. Whitney went over Hyatt’s marketing goals and explained how they were executed on social media. She talked about the outside resources her brand uses to fulfill their goals and importance of sticking to brand voices. Whitney, too, highlighted concepts in the text such as Rule #7 of Social Media Engagement, “Have a Personality.” She explained her past experience at Sharpie and how the company had success taking on the persona of a teenage girl on their social media channels. Both Whitney and Zach’s energy and enthusiam for social media was inspiring and I can’t wait to see what guest speakers our class has lined up next!

The Rise of the Vlog

Author: Collin Smith

Date: April 17^th, 2014

Chapter five in our textbook, Social Media Marketing, A Strategic Approach by Baker and Baker, focuses on publishing blogs. The chapter defined the term blog, highlighted the benefits of publishing one and provided tips for succeeding the world of blogging. The chapter primarily focuses on written blogs but as we have learned in class, social media is constantly changing and evolving. One major change in the world of blogging is the emergence of “vlogging” or video blogging. Wikipedia defines a video log as a form of blog for which the medium is video, and is a form of web television.

Vlogs have been made possible through two majors breakthroughs. The first is a technological emergence in terms of the accessibility of cameras. Laptops, phones, tablets and other technological devices are now usually equipped with high-resolution cameras. The accessibility to these devices makes it easy for users to create a vlog in essentially any location. The second is the emergence of social media platforms for posting and sharing vlogs. YouTube is one of the major social media platforms for posting vlogs with their vlog category being one of the most popular sections of the website. Other social media platforms that enable vloggers include Vimeo, Keek, and Instagram. On may even argue that Snapchat’s “My Story” could be considered a one-time view vlog!

The tips for successful blogging are applicable for vlogging as well. One of the tips, keep posts focused, is very important to highlight when creating a vlog. We are more susceptible to rambling when we are talking as opposed to writing and that must be avoided when posting a vlog. It is imperative to keep posts to the point and informative. One of moolahblogger.com’s tips for vlogging suggests to write a script, which ensures that you cover all of the important points in your video (http://moolahblogger.com/vlogging-tips/).

Millions of people are creating and posting new vlogs every single day. Subjects range from the hottest fashions to what food to eat. Even certain individuals, such as the vlogbrothers, make a career out of vlogging! Check out the vlogbrothers video below for an example of a successful vlog. The biggest take away from this post should be that anyone can be successful at creating vlogs. Vlogging is a fun and unique way to make you standout through social media, on the internet or even to an employer. Just find a topic you’re passionate about, grab a recording device and start posting content online.

Follow: @Real_CSmith

Connect: http://www.linkedin.com/in/collincarversmith/