Archive for April, 2011
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Millions upon millions of people have created their own presence via social media. It isn’t just a place for individuals to keep in touch with family and friends, it has also grown into an extraordinary marketing tool that businesses should take advantage of. Facebook and Twitter for example have upwards of 600 million and 400 million users respectively, providing businesses and marketers with a vast platform of people to market to. Marketing is an action businesses need to take to attract consumers to their products or services. Social media marketing is just a new form of marketing in the new digital age we are living in.
Social media marketing has many benefits for businesses. Here are 4 ways social media marketing can help businesses and marketers.
1. Increase exposure: If social media is just used at its simplest form by just minimally creating a presence and updating it on occasion, you are still creating exposure to your business. Social media marketing allows for your name to be seen. Since millions of people participate in social media, the more you use social media increases your chances for exposure.
2. Increased traffic: Social media marketing allows for traffic to be increased. One benefit of social media is that you can provide links to your website or anything else related to your business. By providing links and information for people, there is a higher probability of creating traffic as your exposure becomes more proficient.
3. Lead Generation: If you think just teens and college students are using social media you are wrong. Businesses all over the world are using social media for marketing. This provides businesses with another way to generate leads and interact with them. Social media networks also provide a wider reach and database of people who could be leads.
4. Advertising: One of the main benefits of social media is that most sites are free. This gives companies the ability to have their name present without spending a dime. The best part of using social media for advertising is that users that know and like you are automatically endorsing you.
Marketing via social media is a great way for businesses to get noticed. It is easy to get started as well as easy to maintain. Social media is changing the way we market businesses, products, and services.
Tags:advertising, business, consumers, exposure, facebook, lead generation, marketers, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, traffic, Twitter
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Twitter was created in 2006 and since then it has grown into a social media empire. The 140 characters or less network is a place for users to tweet about anything imaginable whether its sharing a blog, providing a helpful link, or tweeting about a celebrity, Twitter allows all possibilities and levels of creativity. Since Twitter is a fairly new social media site, have you ever wondered who uses it and what they use it for? There are 6 categories of users on Twitter, see if you or someone you know fits in one of these groups.
1. The Rookie: This user joins Twitter right away, but then is wary and unsure how to use it. The lingo Twitter has adopted confuses the rookie, but they still try it out because friends or family they know are on Twitter. These users are the ones that tweet messages such as “I am going to take a nap” or “Just went shopping”. The rookie will realize that no one cares about their tweets and they usually abandon after 3 months.
2. The Social Bug: This user is present in all sorts of social media sites, not just Twitter. They think of themselves as a social media guru and want their followers to know that. Their tweets consist of informing others about articles, publications, postings, ect that are concerned with social media.
3. The Reaction Queen/King: This user is the typical “I can sing better than the candidates on American Idol” or “Did you see that new movie? What were they thinking? ” tweeter. They voice their opinions in an annoying fashion about celebrities in the media at a particular time.
4. The Info-Nator: This users is very knowledgeable about a certain field and they use Twitter to promote themselves. The intention of this user is to create a network of people who are interested in their same field. This user will post tweets containing helpful links or sharing what they know.
5. The Helping Hand: This user is the user to follow. They operate with great honor and integrity as they try to help others find answers. This user will use Twitter to look and observe others and use their own expertise and knowledge to help those needing questions answered. They provide helpful links relating to all sorts of things and are available within an instant.
6. The Professional: Twitter is a great tool for those in business and other professional sectors. This user will tweet about information related to their specific type of business. They may use Twitter to tweet about specials and promotions, provide coupon codes, or give links to their website and other pages. The professional either works in some type of social media marketing department of the company, interns, or is in charge of social media. This user is knowledgeable about social media with the intention of attracting people to become followers, hoping they become attracted to their product, brand, or service.
Tags:brand, brand awareness, followers, links, Marketing, marketing tool, network, Social Media, social media sites, tweet, tweeting, Twitter, users
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Monday, April 25th, 2011
We are encompassed by the words green, eco-friendly, and sustainable, but do we really know what it fully means to be eco-friendly and go green? Going green are steps we can take to replace environmentally harmful behaviors with behaviors that are friendly. These new behaviors can be simple or complex based on small or large scale atmospheres. Smaller scale behaviors can be done at home by an individual or a few others, while large scale operations can be done by corporations trying to become more sustainable overall.
Going green is centered around three words: reduce, reuse, and recycle. There are many ways to put these words into action and become more eco-friendly. One person can make a difference by following those three words in their everyday lives. One can reduce the amount of plastic bag usage by bringing their own bags when shopping. Reusable bottles can be used for water, juice, ect instead of drinking bottled beverages. And a person can take part in a recycling program at home so items can have the chance to be made into something else instead of going to the landfill.
Corporations can take their part in helping the environment by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Companies can find ways to make their packaging more eco-friendly by reducing ink and print content or the use of plastics. Amazon did this with their “frustration free” packaging by reducing content on their boxes and just having words on their packaging. They can also take their waste products from production and find ways to reuse them in other aspects of their business. PepsiCo’s UK Walkers brand potato chips did this by using the starch from their unused potato peels. Companies can also sprinkle eco-friendliness in their offices by initializing a recycling program and getting employees involved.
Every little bit of time we take to do things to be more eco-friendly helps our planet. So what does it mean to go green? Anything that will help the earth is an act of going green. Whether its done by an individual or a corporation, we can all take out part in protecting our planet.
Tags:earth, eco-friendliness, Eco-Friendly, environment, environmentally-friendly, go green, green, packaging, planet, recycle, reduce, reuse, sustainable
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Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Today is the day we honor our home planet and bring awareness to environmental causes, hoping to inspire and educate people to act eco-friendly. The first Earth day was in 1970 and since then over 175 countries celebrate our planet and promote environmentalism. This year Earth Day has been centered around a campaign called A Billion Acts Of Green. This is personal, organizational, and corporate pledges to live and act in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner. This campaign is the largest environmental service campaign in the world and is constantly gaining individuals, companies, and governments committed to taking their part in helping the environment. Whether an individual decides to take an initiative and create a change or a corporation decides to create sustainability in their company, A Billion Acts of Green welcomes an sort of help in reducing carbon emissions and helping the Earth.
This campaign shows how people can take their part in protecting our planet. Every bit of help counts. When individuals and organizations make commitments to better our environment, possibilities for success are endless. Cooperation and dedication are portrayed when millions come together to support a cause.
Other elements of Earth Day 2011 include:
-Athletes for the Earth: Voices of Olympic and professional athletes speak out to help the environment
-The Canopy Project: Deals with the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have been depleted from the effect of deforestation
-Green Schools: Helping schools become eco-friendly
-Women and Green Economy (WAGE): Encouraging women leaders to develop ways to green our economy
-Creating Climate Wealth: Finding ways to solve the concern about climate change
-Arts for the Earth: Honor environmental artists who have made art that has brought sustainability to our world
Happy Earth Day!
Tags:2011, A Billion Acts of Green, awareness, carbon emissions, celebrate, Earth Day, Eco-Friendly, educate, environment, environmentalism, sustainability
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
I’m sure you have heard of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. But have you heard of Generation Z yet? These are people born between 1992 and 2010. They have witnessed 9/11, an economic recession, wars in Iraq, a growing environmentally friendly conscience, the first African American President, and a world that changes everyday. Some categorized in this generation are just learning how to walk and talk but yet they changing the way products are bought, services are used, and how communication works. This generation is very interesting because they have never known a life without personal computers, mobile phones, MP3 players, and the Internet. These are the true people within the digital age that are very comfortable with technology and are used to it changing.
The way this generation communicates is intriguing. Their main way of communicating is through mobile devices and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Marketing efforts via social media will be important in attracting this generation to become potential consumers of products and services. One thing marketers need to understand is that Generation Z’ers are not your typical consumers. They do not take well to branding initiatives, considering how everything around them changes so fast. They expect constant feedback and instant results, meaning marketers need to keep pace with these individuals. Creativity needs to be used to reach this generation. Marketers also need to be aware that one form of marketing to this generation will not be enough. They are notorious for being multi-taskers, which means they are checking multiple social network sites at once, or shopping online at more than one store. To reach these people, multiple outlets need to be used.
Generation Z will be a fun generation to market too. They already have a knack for technology, which will allow marketers to use creativity to attract this generation as potential consumers.
Tags:Blu-Ray technology, environmentally-friendly, facebook, Gneration Z, internet, Marketing, mobile devices, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, technology, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Last week we featured a blog about Dell using mushrooms for their cushions in the packaging of their servers. Well this week we will be talking about Ford. They have also decided to dabble with mushrooms. Evocative Design is an eco-start-up company specializing in the development of using mycelium to make biodegradable materials. They collaborated with Dell and now are working with Ford to develop a biodegradable foam made from mushrooms. This foam could potentially be used in bumpers, side doors, and dashboards, and will replace petroleum based foams and insulators.
This new breakthrough has allowed Ford to become a more sustainable company. Not only is the mycelium material eco-friendly, but it is also cost effective, fireproof, waterproof, and will decompose in about a month when it has reached the end of its life. Ford plans on using Evocative’s mycelium material to outfit every car in the near future. They have also started to explore other environmentally friendly options including cooked chicken feathers, algae, and wheat straw. Ford has rigorous goals to make their vehicles more green and plan on replacing 30 pounds of plastic per car.
Tags:biodegradable materials, decompose, Eco-Friendly, environment, Evocative Design, Ford, mushrooms, mycelium, packaging, sustainablility
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Friday, April 15th, 2011
Basically everything we do is online. The Internet is where we communicate, shop, watch videos, read the news, listen to music, and many other things. What you may not know under a business perspective, companies use the Internet to generate leads. They do this by setting up online queries for potential customers to get information. For successful interaction with these potential customers, some contacting needs to be done. Firms are not acting fast enough to follow up on leads.
In a study reported in the Harvard Business Review showed that 37% responded to a lead with in an hour, but 23% never responded at all. The issue here is that online leads go colder faster than any other type of lead. Since the Internet is a giant marketplace for anything imaginable, it is easy for a potential customer to go looking somewhere else. It was also found in the same study that U.S. firms who tried to contact potential customers within an hour of their online query were nearly 7 times as likely to have a meaningful conversation and create communication. This then can turn into a business relationship that could potentially turn into a sale.
The moral of this story is that companies need to focus on following up on online queries faster, otherwise the chance to communicate with a potential customer will vanish quickly. All it takes is one phone call with in an hour of the query to increase chances of qualifying a lead.
Tags:business, communication, follow up, Harvard Business Review, internet, leads, Marketing, online queries, qualify a lead, relationships
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Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Marketing is an activity and process for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value. It is how products and services gain a voice for customers, clients, and businesses to know they exist. Marketing is an aspect of business that has been around for many years. Have you ever wondered how it all started though? Marketing is based on the technologies of the era, because those technologies is how marketing messages were pushed through channels. Technology has evolved rapidly and continues to change everyday. We have things like social media and Internet today that is a must use tool for marketers, but it didn’t start out that way.
If we take a step way back to the Stone Age, messages were communicated by cave paintings and carvings. Since then, our lives started to evolve and stepping towards advancement. The Renaissance Era in the 15th century produced learning and research as we stepped out of the Dark Ages. We then entered the Age of Discovery, and in 1450 is when things started to change. The Gutenberg press was created, allowing for type to be movable, which is where mail order catalogs got their start. The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s increased demand for manufacturers to market their goods. The 1900s helped develop the marketing concept as science and technology started to change. Competition, communication, advertising, and branding become key factors in business. The focus on selling also grew. Direct marketing surfaced in the 1950s and telemarketing in the 1970s.
The 1990s were characterized by the boom of the Internet, which led to a vast amount of marketing platforms. The early 2000s sparked the launches of Wikipedia, Apple iTunes Store, and Gmail. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter followed. Today we are in the midst of the social media and mobile era. How ironic is it that we started out writing on walls to communicate and now we continue to do just that only not literally this time. The future holds potential for more advances in technology, which will be interesting to see what will happen next.
Tags:communication, facebook, history, internet, market, Marketing, science, Social Media, technology, Twitter, youtube
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Monday, April 11th, 2011
Dell has become a company that is dedicated to finding green alternatives for their packaging. They have announced that they will be using mushrooms as part of their cushioning for their server packaging. The brilliance behind using mushrooms is they are grown, not manufactured. This allows less energy to be used to produce the packaging. Mushrooms are also more dense, meaning they can support the weight of Dell’s servers and they can be grown quickly. The end result is an eco-friendly alternative for packaging that consumers can compost. Dell has already experimented with bamboo packaging in 2009 and will combine it with the new mushroom based packaging.
The process of conducting such a sustainable creation for packaging is very interesting. It is a fairly short process, lasting between 5 and 10 days. It starts out using agricultural waste products, mainly cotton. The cotton hulls are placed in mold and then implanted with mushroom spawn. It then develops into a root structure of a mushroom. They have tested and retested this new development in sustainable packaging and will pilot run it with its PowerEdge 710 server. If this test is proven to be a success, they will expand the mushroom packaging to their other servers.
Dell has many goals in becoming a more sustainable company. They plan to eliminate 20 million pounds of packaging material by 2012 and make sure packaging is recyclable. They have made an extraordinary accomplishment by finding a green alternative for their packaging. Dell also keeps working hard everyday, looking for other ways to reduce their carbon footprint and be a more environmentally friendly company.
Tags:bamboo, carbon footprint, compost, Dell, Eco-Friendly, environmen, green, green packaging, mushrooms, packaging, recyclable, sustainable
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Packaging Design | No Comments »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
When consumers reach for a product, the first thing they see is the packaging. We are a very visual society and we shop with our eyes. In order for a product to be considered for purchase, the packaging must grab the attention of the consumer. Consumers look for enticing and functional packaging. The strongest visual cue consumers use as a decision aid is color. Color is placed higher than texture or sound and smell, and is a primary reason a consumer buys a product.
Colors have different ways of inviting a consumer to buy. Have you ever wondered why clearance stickers are always red or why black portrays luxury? When colors are used in the right context, they capture the attention and mood of consumers. Colors have this amazing power of attracting consumers and influencing their behavior.
According to KISSmetrics, below are what colors mean:
Yellow: Optimistic and youthful; often used in window shopping
Red: Energy; creates urgency which is why it is used in clearance sales
Blue: Creates trust and security; associated with banks and businesses
Green: Easiest color for the eyes to process; used for relaxation
Orange: Aggressive; creates pressure to buy, sell, or subscribe
Pink: Romantic and feminine; used to target women and young girls
Black: Portrays powerfulness; used in marketing of luxury products
Purple: Soothing; associated with beauty products
It is interesting to know that colors affect how consumers buy. Packaging has a huge impact on consumers and colors should be taken into consideration when being designed.
Tags:attention, attracting, behavior, buying, colors, consumers, design, impact, influence, KISSmetrics, packaging, visual
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