Objectives:
Familiarize myself with the structure and general content of the course
Understand what traditional marketing strategy looked like prior to the web
What marketing strategy looks like today, how that evolution occurred and the role the web has played
What now?
Made to Engage provided the most comprehensive overview to traditional marketing strategy and its evolution with the advent and proliferation of the web. The pair of WSJ articles played into this well by questioning whether this transformation is good or bad, each playing the devil's advocate to the other. Both authors acknowledge that in either case, Web 3.0 and social media are having an impact on our society. The article with Zuckerberg in GQ in December 2008 dives deep into one of these changing social norms - privacy. Described as a "forward-thinker" on privacy, Zuckerberg is leading the evolutionary charge in this area through his product, Facebook. After pushing too hard, too fast with Beacon, Facebook stepped back and is gradually imparting the benefits of sharing information and developing community beyond its own screen by linking through to other sites using Facebook Connect.
Jeff Bezos also addressed the changing world in his experience through Amazon. Beginning as an internet-based bookseller, Amazon has continued to embrace emerging technology through the development of its online marketplace and its own ereader, Kindle. As a Kindle 2 owner, much of Bezos conversation with Charlie Rose resonated with me. Though the interview was recent in the grand scheme of things, it's clear how rapidly technology evolves with the improvements that have already been implemented but were mentioned as distant thoughts at this time. In the interview, Bezos indicated that of the books available on Kindle and hard copy, 10% of sales were ebooks. This past week, Amazon announced that in this same demographic, Kindle purchases outweighed hardbacks. How quickly one exciting milestone gives way to the next.
So the internet is changing the world. Specifically, it's changing the consumer and marketing world. So what? Mastering the Hype Cycle addresses what this means for businesses. To stay competitive, organizations need to leverage the hype cycle in forecasting. They need to accept the "Age of Engage" and become part of the dialogue rather than fight the wave of technology and the ensuing hype cycles in order to be successful.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Week 1 Completion List
Read:
"Made to Engage"
"Does the Internet Make You Dumber"
"Does the Internet Make You Smarter"
"Mastering the Hype Cycle"
"Do You Trust This Face"
"The New Conversation: Rethinking Enterprise Marketing to develop meaningful relationships in the age of connectivity"
Listened:
Gil and Frank on the Newspaper Industry Parts 1-3
Watched:
"Welcome and Course Introduction"
"A Conversation with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos"
"Pandora Founder Tim Westergren"
"Made to Engage"
"Does the Internet Make You Dumber"
"Does the Internet Make You Smarter"
"Mastering the Hype Cycle"
"Do You Trust This Face"
"The New Conversation: Rethinking Enterprise Marketing to develop meaningful relationships in the age of connectivity"
Listened:
Gil and Frank on the Newspaper Industry Parts 1-3
Watched:
"Welcome and Course Introduction"
"A Conversation with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos"
"Pandora Founder Tim Westergren"
Engaged, or Not Engaged, That is the Question
When do marketers have an audience? Anytime. Where do they have an audience? Anywhere. Who can marketing products? Anyone. How can marketers capture their audience? Using as much innovation as possible. Web 3.0 has brought with it a slew of new benefits and challengers to marketers and consumers alike. Potential consumers are both a click away from your product and can turn away in a click.
Innovation has become a more significant differentiating factor in marketing. A clothing company recently replaced racy billboard ads with QR codes acceessible by some mobile smartphones to link to the ads on their site. Old Spice has tapped their audience to interact with them to generate viral videos as part of its marketing campaign.
The key to marketing with the new Web 3.0 is embracing the inherent interactivity of dialogues in the new world of social media. Dan Tapscott and David Ticoll state, "Transparency is being done to the firm whether they like it or not," in their book The Naked Corporation. Rather than creating electronic advertising content, companies need to engage in interactive dialogues leveraging a whole new set of tools available with Web 3.0 such as Wikis, Twitter, Facebook, comments, voting, sharing, and RSS feeds, just to name a few.
How has social media transformed your purchasing habits?
Innovation has become a more significant differentiating factor in marketing. A clothing company recently replaced racy billboard ads with QR codes acceessible by some mobile smartphones to link to the ads on their site. Old Spice has tapped their audience to interact with them to generate viral videos as part of its marketing campaign.
The key to marketing with the new Web 3.0 is embracing the inherent interactivity of dialogues in the new world of social media. Dan Tapscott and David Ticoll state, "Transparency is being done to the firm whether they like it or not," in their book The Naked Corporation. Rather than creating electronic advertising content, companies need to engage in interactive dialogues leveraging a whole new set of tools available with Web 3.0 such as Wikis, Twitter, Facebook, comments, voting, sharing, and RSS feeds, just to name a few.
How has social media transformed your purchasing habits?
Pushing the Privacy Button
In December of 2008, Alex French addressed the impact Facebook is having on our perception of privacy and the ways our perception of privacy has limited Facebook (FB). FB started with a goal of recreating the "social graph", or replicating online the social connections already in place in our 3D world. This approach seems to have had the most significant impact on the evolution of our collective view on privacy compared to similar ventures; individuals volunteer a variety of information in a "safe" environment on Facebook, which started off in an even more insular, academic environment.
The evolution of media and technology is rapidfire so much has changed even over the year and a half since French's article was published. The Facebook Connect feature introduced at that time has continued to grow and integrates with additional sites such as CNN. The initial backlash to NewsFeed has dissipated and is now a top feature, displaying this shift in perception of information privacy on the internet. There is certainly a great deal of debate on what should be allowed and how information can or should be shared, but this is changing rapidly.
Personally, I don't put anything on the internet that I'm not okay with everyone and anyone knowing. I think that has to be a general expectation for shared information on the web (or anywhere with the prevalence of smartphones and mobile technology). That being said, I also am comfortable sharing a great deal more than my parent's generation as a whole. Privacy perspectives, in my experience, do vary greatly along generational lines.
How will Facebook change in the next year and a half? Only privacy-forward-thinking Mark Zuckerberg knows. The question that is more intriguing and likely more important, is how Facebook will change our privacy social norms in that same time.
The evolution of media and technology is rapidfire so much has changed even over the year and a half since French's article was published. The Facebook Connect feature introduced at that time has continued to grow and integrates with additional sites such as CNN. The initial backlash to NewsFeed has dissipated and is now a top feature, displaying this shift in perception of information privacy on the internet. There is certainly a great deal of debate on what should be allowed and how information can or should be shared, but this is changing rapidly.
Personally, I don't put anything on the internet that I'm not okay with everyone and anyone knowing. I think that has to be a general expectation for shared information on the web (or anywhere with the prevalence of smartphones and mobile technology). That being said, I also am comfortable sharing a great deal more than my parent's generation as a whole. Privacy perspectives, in my experience, do vary greatly along generational lines.
How will Facebook change in the next year and a half? Only privacy-forward-thinking Mark Zuckerberg knows. The question that is more intriguing and likely more important, is how Facebook will change our privacy social norms in that same time.
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