Blog 6- Final Blog

This class has been valuable in that it has shown me a different side to how social media can be used. Since my goals are to be a part of the business aspect of social media, it was important to learn how it makes money. Before this class, my only exposure to social media studies were qualitative things such as exposure and connectivity. It is important to never forget that social media is around to make money. It is a business first, and this class has opened my eyes to that fact. I learned things such as how to market more effectively, and how to choose better business models depending on the audience.

I think that the instructor did a good job in shaping the class. If I could make a better change I think it would be to read more articles. The videos were great, but I think my favorite was this modules pdf. I learned much more from those articles than anything else.

Overall, a great class. Bye!

Blog 5: Response Paper

One of the most memorable companies accompanying the dot com bubble was theGlobe.com.  The Globe was a social networking site that was the largest first day gain of any IPO (initial public offering), with stocks ranging from the initial 9$ per share up to a high of 97$ a share. The company has since went out of business in 2008 with their share prices averaging about 15 cents per share.

The Globe was not unlike any other publicly traded dot com business. With large speculation in the advancement of the internet and large cash flows from venture capital firms, each business was spending lots of money. So much money that virtually none of these companies would yield or even come close to turning a profit. The business plan of the Globe was to invest largely into publicizing the site, creating a large visitor audience, and wait for a solution as how to convert those visitors into revenue. The internet columnist from the New York Times said it very clearly in his example. His comparison to what these companies were doing at the time was like selling one hundred dollar bills for ten dollars a piece. The point is that this would of course bring in a large audience, but it would not have a sustainable way to continue because there is no way to make money that way. Written out like that, it would seem that the entire plan was not very solid. The entire business model started without an end in mind. They should have been more cautious with their money because of this.

The investors at the time were all inthralled with the internet sector and dot com businesses because they were simply making record breaking gains in short periods of time (up to fourty points in one day). Larry Wachtel, a top financial analyst, says that though he was an old school investor who stuck to the fundamentals, he eventually became an investor himself. Why is this? He simply attributes greed as the driving force to as why all these investors who should have known better were funneling all of their money into the dot com businesses. The reason all of these companies were jumping up so high in price was due to speculation. Speculation was good for the dot com businesses because everyone expected large and fast advancement. The speculation for advancement was so good that even the most experienced investors would ignore vital stock statistics like the price earning ratio (P/E ratio).

I think investors today are more mindful of these types of bubbles, but there are instances where they continue to make the same mistakes. Internet companies such as Netflix and Amazon, which have given enormous returns in the past few years, but also had very high price earnings ratios. Just like clockwork each company had a giant slump within the past five years that have cost investors millions of dollars.

I want to stress that this is all in hindsight. Investing is practically gambling, in that the bigger the risk, the better the return. Investors looking for big profits are tempted greatly to invest in new technologies that are not proven. After these companies/sectors have proven that they are good business models and can yield high profits in the future, the jig is up. There is no more money to make investing in proven industries, but it is just the opposite with unproven ones. There will no doubt be another technology bubble because in order to make money in the technology world, companies have to push the envelope and explore new and advanced ground.

The dot com bubble was good and bad for the internet business. A lot of internet companies today have a better foundation in their business plans. They have improving advertising schemes that actually do yield profits (Google, Facebook, etc.). Some companies had good structures already, but lost much of their investment due to the lack of faith in the internet sector. I believe that these better business models and growing faith have created better sites for the viewer, more sustainable business for the owners/employees. This translate to a better economic standing for the sector overall.

Some see a comparative situation between the dot com bubble of the early 2000’s with the mobile application market today. There is no way to tell if there is going to be a bubble in the future, but it is almost safe to say that there hasn’t been one already. Existing companies and start-ups alike are spending lots of money into the development of mobile applications. This is to gain exposure, create company awareness and gain profits through advertising and the actual purchase price of the app. I do see potential for a bubble to happen. The sectors are very similar in that these companies have lots of money invested in order to gain visitors. I do not see how there is as much opportunity to yield great profits compared to the amount of money going into the development. The mobile app businesses are correcting themselves against the mistakes that eventually lead to the demise of the dot com companies. The business plans seem much better as advertising and purchase prices are a good source of cash flow. This can only go so far though. I think that if venture capital continues to pour much more investment into these companies, investors will follow and the end result will in no doubt be the newest technology bubble. 

Blog 4: Online Store

If I were to actually make a business plan, the first step in determining whether it should be an internet store or an actual physical store, would be to make a pros and cons list. The pros that were given in the prompt are very relevant to the decision. These are...

1. Online sales are growing significantly each year as transferring money online becomes easier and more secure.
2. Online stores cost less to operate and can be managed out of the home.
3. Online stores have far greater reach because they can be viewed on a global scale.

These are all great things, but there are also cons to consider. These might be...

1. Customers might not trust the online store as much as a regular store.
2. Customer service is not face to face- no human interaction.
3. Less incentive to make the company succeed.

If I were to open a store, I think that the decision would have to be completely situational.  If I were in a situation where I had a great business plan and the correct amount of funds, I think I would make it a physical store. If the business plan I had was for a newer cutting edge service or good, I would make it online.

I believe that the internet has improved commerce, because it has given people a low cost alternative to present the public with their goods or service. This has also lead to an influx of terrible goods and services, but as the economics always does, it weeds out the losers.

I do not think that traditional stores will be a thing of the past, because there are things that we need that cannot be shipped. Sure there are places like restaurants and grocery stores that allow the customer to shop perishable goods for quick service, but they will always be around. I still believe that stores have a factor that will always keep it's reliability above online stores and that is the one on one interaction. Having someone there to give you help when you need advice is a service that can never be replaced by a screen.

Blog 3: Redesign

I think in order to redesign my blog to be a top blog there would be two main changes, visual and connectivity. If I attempt to become a social media guru of sorts, I would want to showcase how I personally use social media sites for my own company or personae. To do this I would add a “connect with me on Facebook” or “follow me on twitter” button link to the sides of my blog. Adding a RSS feed would also be a good touch because it would give the viewers of the site better insight to the tweets I have been sending. Finally, like Chris Brogan suggests as the “first sale” of creating customer/audience relationships, would be to ask for them to sign up on my blog’s email list.

Secondly, would be of course the visuals. In this age, aesthetically pleasing web design is the first step in convincing a user to stay longer and explore the site. My blog’s wallpaper as of now is a default, which by my own experience, screams that I do not take this seriously when it comes to attaining followers. Adding pictures and a better interface would also help to make people start coming to my blog.

Lastly, I would like for my blog to have a better community section. If I took this blog to the next level, comments and criticisms would be a top priority for me. Even if the community discussions do not pertain to me personally, it would still give the site more content for appeal that I would not have to create myself. Win win.

Blog 2: Examples of doing it right

Why Republican's Don't Get the Internet

Obama's Social Media Campaign 2008

I chose to divulge on the 2008 presidential campaign, because it is one of the most obvious indicators of social media marketing's importance in today's society. There is no argument that Obama owes much of his campaign success to his faith in social media while it was still a relatively new medium. It proved a tried and true mechanism when it came to gaining popularity among the masses of the United States.

Above you will see two articles. The first is written from the perspective of John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain. Like her father, she is also a Republican. With all of her sympathies aside, she wrote an interesting essay pinpointing the Republican party's misuse of the internet and why it inevitably lead to her father's loss in the Presidential campaign. Though the campaign generated an unprecedented one fourth of the donations, it did not help with the issue of inspiring indifferent voters. She claims that not it is not that either party is more or less inept at using social media, but that the Democratic party did a better job at creating a cult-like following with grass root campaigning. At the time of election day, President Obama had over five and half million Facebook supporters while McCain had a mere five hundred thousand. McCain blames a portion of the Republican party's faults lie in the way they use social media. Just being on the social media sites does not guarantee anything. You have to pay a particular amount of detail in the message that you want other people to identify you with. Message is the key to success.

The second article describes just how Obama was able to tap into the social networks so successfully. They point out that because Obama was only a junior Senator before running for Presdent, he did not have much of a brand at all. The most important role that social media played in his campaign was that it helped build this brand. Social media allowed for Obama to create a connection that was closer than any other politician before him. The heavy reliance of social media also created a super database of potential voters and supporters of his Presidency. By having an online database of people, the cost of contacting these people is virtually zero dollars. Within the campaign he was able to save hundreds of thousands of donations due to this.

As we gear up towards another Presidential election, I think that it will be interesting to see the angles both parties take when it comes to online media. My guess is that Obama will again reign supreme in the land of no boundaries. I will no doubt be on the lookout to see if the Republican party has learned from their last Presidential race disappointment. If they have learned to use this technology the right way, as opposed to just using it.

 

Blog 1: My social life

When it comes to my personal social media presence, I would say that I sit in the middle of the road. The only social media sites that I am on are Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon. I use them all for different reasons because they each have strengths that the other ones lack.

The site I use most frequently is of course Facebook. The site's perimeters make it very easy to just check on and be done with in a few minutes. It is also the most important source at connecting with friends directly and privately.

The second most used would be my twitter account. Though I do not add much content on Twitter, I like the content that is on it. Every time the page loads, I can immediately count on a tweet that will make me laugh or let me know a good deal online.

My third most used is also my favorite. The reason I do not use Stumbleupon as much as the others is because I do not allow myself. I say this honestly that it is the heroin of the internet. When I first created an account, the next two months were chalked full of me wasting time learning wildly fascinating things which contributed virtually nothing to my real life. At times these stints would last for over three hours, which I would never have back.

Even though I inhibit myself from using it to it's fullest, it is still my favorite. I only use it about two hours a week now. My favorite part of the site is that it continually works to improve itself to meet your needs. If you like a site, the next one is even more towards what you want to see on the internet. If you dislike the site, it will stay far away from any site that is similar. I also enjoy looking through my friend's archived liked sites. If I trust a friend's taste in culture, I can look at the things that interest them, and it does two things for me. The first is that it expands my own interests and the second is that I find out more about them than I knew before. Stumbleupon is the ultimate entertainment source for the internet.