Blogging

Blogging

Bryce Brinkman

http://kykernel.com/2011/09/21/blogging-the-way-of-the-future/

http://www.webpronews.com/wordpress-follow-button-2011-09

            1 billion. This is about one in every seven people in the world. This is four times the amount of total cars plus, how many television sets we have here in the United States. This is how many people own a blog, and the numbers are rising. (It is good to note that Facebook, and Twitter are counted in these numbers as microblogs.)

            According to Elizabeth Suh, of the Kentucky Kernel, “With vast audiences and rapid publicity, blogging is the rising marketing medium.” I agree in the facts that this is not your normal “old-school” marketing. Blogs open a way for companies to start conversations with their customers, and a way to connect with them directly. This article also brings up the point of how students today should definably be familiar with blogging and that this will make them much more marketable for future employers. She also talks about how having a blog can show that you are competent in writing, public relation techniques, and creative thinking. “There’s a considerable advantage for college students to blog because it is the way of the future,” Guy Ramsey, a media relations assistant with UK athletics blog Cat Scratches, said. “A blog is like a time capsule; a blogging history shows the employer what you’re all about. It’s about community and networking.” A tip that Glenn Logan gives to win an audience is, "Identify your purpose. Before you begin, determine your interest, your field, your niche. Have relevant, incisive content. Take time, put up pictures, get help if you need, make it attractive. Do it correctly."

In other blogging related news: WordPress.com just announced that they will be adding a "follow" button onto the individual blogs so readers can now be updated when a new post is released. They predict that this will help increase page views and retention to specific blogs. I think that this is such a sweet idea because that was one thing I thought WordPress could improve on. I think that people will be more apt to continually checkup on their favorite blogs and companies now have a greater incentive to continue blog efforts on their site.

Social Media and Politics

Social Media and Politics

Bryce Brinkman

http://mashable.com/2010/11/01/future-social-media-politics/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130873983

            These articles both talk about how social media is such a powerful tool in the upcoming elections, and how more “traditional” political advisors are underestimating it. Mashable.com talks about all the different types and mediums that are being used, remember the “medium is the message.” In comparison, npr.org, talks about how social media is being a huge part of politics and how by the election after this one that we may not even be talking about it because it will be so integrated already.

            Starting with Matt Silverman’s article from mashable.com, he goes into depth about how all these new social media tools are helping politicians connect in new ways. They are posting YouTube videos, tweeting multiple times a day, posting pictures on their Facebook page, and radically changing means of “talking” to their voters. He starts of with a great comparison of how when television was first used for campaigning how young employees were given the task of this “new” way of communication. Television would eventually go on to change the way we campaign and with it some people just could not even be a factor in elections. The ones who adapted quickly were the most successful. How close is this comparison to social media today?

            Linton Weeks, from npr.org, talks about the chatter around social media and politics in this upcoming election, and how in the one after, that we will not even be discussing it because it will become so integrated into the way we campaign. It can be shocking though to have such an open look into these politician’s lives. I think today’s generation wants to be able to connect closer with the people they are voting for and don’t want just the typical “perfect, professional” image. We want someone we can relate to and in campaigning I know that the “trust” factor is huge and by becoming a online friend with someone that is now the initial way to bulid that trust that can win the votes.  He also talks about these politicians are more hands on but cautions them to remember how this is a double-edge sword because you are sharing yourself with the world. People can take comments the wrong way, you cannot control what people say, and you may share more then people want to know. Balance in social media is key.

facebook.com/thaddeusmccotter

Social Media: The Big Seven

Social Media: The Big Seven

Google vs Facebook by the Numbers

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218177/Google_vs._Facebook_by_the_numbers

Facebook Flaw Lets You Hijack Page From Original Owner 

http://mashable.com/2011/09/05/facebook-flaw-hijack-page/#comment-17640299

            With over 750 million users spending over 6 hours per week on average (not including mobile devices), and over 50% of the users logging in on any given day, (facebook.com/statistics) you would think that everyone would love Facebook and that it would be a smooth running machine. Challenges have made this not so in the forms of privacy issues, difficult list use, spam, and now the flaw that lets you “hijack” a page from the original creator/owner. Stan Schroeder from, mashable.com, reports on the new found “flaw,” or as one of my professors humorously calls it, “feature.” This “feature” is that if you assign administrators to your page they have to power to remove you as an administrator. This is contradicting to the Facebook FAQ that says, “the original creator of the Page may never be removed by other Page admins.” This could have huge consequences in cases of disgruntled employees, defamation issues, and could potentially ruin a businesses social media presence. We understand if a friend’s Facebook gets hacked and are easy to forgive potentially offensive things, but if a business loses control of its page, it will not only lose followers (likers), but also may turn people against them. 

            This is just one example of a “flaw” but for some reason people continue to use Facebook regularly. But do these things effect what people think about Facebook? According to Sharon Machlis of, computerworld.com, the answer is yes. Her article states that Facebook users are unhappy with the services provided and goes into depth saying that Facebook scored, “in the bottom 5% of all measured private sector companies and in the same range as airlines and cable companies, two perennially low-scoring industries with terrible customer satisfaction." (American Customer Satisfaction Index) It is interesting that a company with such a low rating could have such a loyal and consistent base of users. I think that this shows that Facebook has become a necessity to people or as my mother would put it, “an addiction.” Now addiction may be a little extreme, but Facebook has become a tool that people use regularly. People have this as their photo album, personal journal, a way to get business, to promote, and of course a way to connect with people.  Facebook has also shown that it is necessary due to its continuing influence that it has on everyday life, and its continued rise in users. It has also shown resilience to competitors boasting “better” features such as Google+. This may sound a like a thesis statement but I would argue that Facebook, despite its flaws and low ratings, has proven that this is a necessity in today’s world especially for our generation, and that it would take a lot more then more to make Facebook no longer applicable or as some say, “the new MySpace.” 

Business Card online jcom

Online Reputation Assignment

Online Reputation Results

To:	Stephanie Lewis
From:	Bryce Brinkman
CC:	Preston Parker
Date:	4/7/2011
Subject:	Online Reputation Paper Results

Memo

I decided the best way to start out finding information about you would be to Google you first. The first link that was you was the third one down and it was your LinkedIn Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/slew492 These are the things I noticed and learned form this site were some of the following:

·       Professional Profile Picture

  

 .That you are a Communications Officer at USU Neman Club that maintains the Facebook and Twitter sites along with event planning of sorts.

·       You attend USU and plan to graduate in 2012

·       You’ve been a self-employed private tutor for debate students.

From there I clicked on the links for your blog and personal website. From looking at your blog http://slew492.wordpress.com/ I found:

·       Many great writing examples and papers you completed for past classes, 100% professional.

From your website http://sites.google.com/site/slew492/ I found:

·       Personal information such as: Religion: I will assume you are the Catholic faith due to the fact of graduation from Judge Memorial and that of which the Newman Club does. That you volunteered back in the Spring of 2008. Also some hobbies are singing, skiing, and debating.

·       I also was able to see all of your projects, skills, photos, links and contact information. (Nothing negative so far…)

From your website I followed the linked personal sites of Twitter http://twitter.com/ - !/slew492 and Photobucket http://s811.photobucket.com/home/Choirstar and from those I came to these conclusions:

·       You don’t use your Twitter very much; only nine tweets. But in those tweets you can find out this info: your favorite Christmas song, your opinion on garlic mashed cauliflower, that you are not excited for finals (who is? J) and that you have a hard time remembering your password.

·       From your Photobucket (user name Choir Star) I found pictures and drawing you have done for personal use and for class work. Here is an example of one of your drawings:

Then I reached a dead-end so I returned to the Google search in hope of finding your personal Facebook page. The only other thing I could find was an article http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=44354 about a debate tournament you were in.

Alas I failed in my efforts to find the treasure of all personal dirt, Facebook. And I challenge Preston to find you on there because I used all those weird little sites like peekyou.com, and 123people.com, that show people’s information. Then I went into the Newman Club Page on Facebook to look for the page administrator and clicked on people to find them under “friends” but was not able to find a link to your Facebook page.

Overall I would have to say that if I were an employer looking at you I would have found nothing that would have prevented me from giving you the job even though I still can’t figure out what the 492 stand for in your popular user name slew492. J

Position Paper Final

Position Paper

Burger Planet for Everyone

Goal: To reach out to our previous base customer of women in their 30’s and 40’s and to provide a new image and food choices that reflect a more health conscious company.

Target Audience: Women in their 30s and 40s who are becoming increasingly health-conscious.

Background: Burger Planet’s goal has always been to provide the best customer service possible and to remain competitive with other companies. In an effort to revamp Burger Plant’s image as a more health conscious establishment in the mind of consumers, we suggest the following to no only broaden our customers basis but also to gain back the loyalty of out target audience of women ages 30-50. Market Research has shown that they visit less often due to the fact that they think we have none or little health conscious choice for them.

Impact Objective 1: Create more healthy food options for our customers to increase business and have some be exclusive to Burger Planet.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Training for Chef Gerard DeBois on how to make new items

○      obtain healthier ingredients for new options

                                          ■Items to include the following:

●      White Chicken Breasts

●      Lettuce Wraps

●      No Mayo Sandwich options

●       Various Fruit Cups (This would be exclusive to Burger Planet)

●      Variety of Gourmet Salads

●      packets of apples, grapes, peaches, pineapple, or bananas

●      chicken breast wrapped in lettuce is available for low-carb dieters.

●      “the Mercury” burger- half the size of regular burgers for those on diets

Impact Objective 2: The hiring of Opal Whitcomb’s endorsed fitness guru, Jayne Petersen, and have her be the spokesperson for our new campaign. Her work with Opal Whitcomb will increase credibility of our revamp project and is a valuable resource to our goals.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Generate uncontrolled media messages.

                                          ■Have journalists pick up the story of our hiring and spin our new more heath conscious view. The hiring of Ms. Peterson will create a lot of hype to help this generate.

●      Press Releases to all major newspapers

●      Publicity surrounding living a more healthy lifestyle.

○      Create media advertisements showing her working with Burger Planet.

                                          ■Make television, radio, and newspaper advertisements.

●      Create story board for video and radio and have people in our marketing department create print ad.

                                          ■Start a Social Media Campaign.

●      This includes sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, and Four-Square. Set up and maintenance will be done by PR department and will offer exclusive deals for our new menu items and list tour dates of Ms. Peterson

●      Team up with Korny the Clown to re-brand our famous and friendly clown mascot. (details to follow)

○      This is our Unique Selling Proposition.

Impact Objective 3: Have a new and improved Korny the Clown in order to increase children’s interest and use to our advantage that people think of him when they think of our company.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Have him be a healthy kids image.

                                          ■Pair him up with Jayne in advertisements and appearances.

                                          ■Avoid elementary schools

                                          ■Do everything possible to avoid the “Joe Camel” affect.

Research:

●      Burger Planet Focus Group:

○      Burger Planet retained a market research company in Peoria, Illinois to conduct a focus group with its base consumer, women in their 30s and 40s who have been eating Burger Planet burgers and fries for years; these are our findings:

                                          ■Words associated with out name: Grease, Addiction, and Korny the Clown.

                                          ■Some women do not eat there anymore due to dieting, some keep eat it as a “guilty pleasure”, and others enjoy it.

                                          ■Some consider taking children there to be “child abuse.”

                                          ■People enjoy our food but consider it unhealthy. Some did not care because of the taste.

Additional research relating to our Company:

●      According to BBC News, “Nearly two thirds of men and over half of women were overweight or obese.” They performed a study and found that people who ate fast-food more than twice a week, gained on average an extra nine pounds and had double the risk of  increase in insulin resistance compared to those who went less than once a week. Washington Post published, “Obesity in America has increased by 74 percent during the past decade to 44 million adults in 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Our new food choices are more popular among women, however, they are child-friendly and delicious alternatives for males as well. We just need to let them taste it.

●      According to Professor Arne Astrup, Denmark's Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, “Appropriate action (for fast food chains) would be to reduce portions to normal sizes and to sell burgers of lean meat, whole-grain bread or buns, fat-reduced mayonnaise, more vegetables, lower-fat fired potatoes and reduced-sugar soft drinks.” Chef Dubois informed us that Burger Planet is on the right track towars the appropriate action. Burger Planet makes the most money selling soda, because of the low cost of the product to us, therefore we must advertise diet soda or bottled water to each consumer.

●      “U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, plans to introduce a bill requiring restaurant chains to put calorie information on their menu boards...The bill would add a 0.25 percent sales tax on food and drink currently taxed, except for bottled water. It also would add a 1 percent sales tax on other foods and drinks that are not taxed but considered to be sweets, according to the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.” If this passes, Burger Planet would need to increase our sales of bottled water food and soda by at least 1%. We have 52 million consumers, therefore a 1% increase would be 52,000 new loyal consumers needed.

Position Paper Draft

Position Paper

Burger Planet for Everyone

Goal: To reach out to our previous base customer of women in their 30’s and 40’s and to provide a new image and food choices that reflect a more health conscious company.

Target Audience: Women in their 30s and 40s who are becoming increasingly health-conscious.

Background: Burger Planet’s goal has always been to provide the best customer service possible and to remain competitive with other companies. In an effort to revamp Burger Plant’s image as a more health conscious establishment in the mind of consumers, we suggest the following to no only broaden our customers basis but also to gain back the loyalty of out target audience of women ages 30-50. Market Research has shown that they visit less often due to the fact that they think we have none or little health conscious choice for them.

Impact Objective 1: Create more healthy food options for our customers to increase business and have some be exclusive to Burger Planet.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Training for Chef Gerard DeBois on how to make new items

○      obtain healthier ingredients for new options

                                          ■Items to include the following:

●      White Chicken Breasts

●      Lettuce Wraps

●      No Mayo Sandwich options

●       Various Fruit Cups (This would be exclusive to Burger Planet)

●      Variety of Gourmet Salads

●      packets of apples, grapes, peaches, pineapple, or bananas

●      chicken breast wrapped in lettuce is available for low-carb dieters.

●      “the Mercury” burger- half the size of regular burgers for those on diets

Impact Objective 2: The hiring of Opal Whitcomb’s endorsed fitness guru, Jayne Petersen, and have her be the spokesperson for our new campaign. Her work with Opal Whitcomb will increase credibility of our revamp project and is a valuable resource to our goals.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Generate uncontrolled media messages.

                                          ■Have journalists pick up the story of our hiring and spin our new more heath conscious view. The hiring of Ms. Peterson will create a lot of hype to help this generate.

●      Press Releases to all major newspapers

●      Publicity surrounding living a more healthy lifestyle.

○      Create media advertisements showing her working with Burger Planet.

                                          ■Make television, radio, and newspaper advertisements.

●      Create story board for video and radio and have people in our marketing department create print ad.

                                          ■Start a Social Media Campaign.

●      This includes sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, and Four-Square. Set up and maintenance will be done by PR department and will offer exclusive deals for our new menu items and list tour dates of Ms. Peterson

●      Team up with Korny the Clown to re-brand our famous and friendly clown mascot. (details to follow)

○      This is our Unique Selling Proposition.

Impact Objective 3: Have a new and improved Korny the Clown in order to increase children’s interest.

●      Process objectives and tactics:

○      Have him be a healthy kids image.

                                          ■Pair him up with Jayne in advertisements and appearances.

                                          ■Avoid elementary schools

                                          ■Do everything possible to avoid the “Joe Camel” affect.

Research:

●      Burger Planet Focus Group:

○       

●      According to BBC News, “Nearly two thirds of men and over half of women were overweight or obese.” They performed a study and found that people who ate fast-food more than twice a week, gained on average an extra nine pounds and had double the risk of  increase in insulin resistance compared to those who went less than once a week. Washington Post published, “Obesity in America has increased by 74 percent during the past decade to 44 million adults in 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Our new food choices are more popular among women, however, they are child-friendly and delicious alternatives for males as well. We just need to let them taste it.

●      According to Professor Arne Astrup, Denmark's Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, “Appropriate action (for fast food chains) would be to reduce portions to normal sizes and to sell burgers of lean meat, whole-grain bread or buns, fat-reduced mayonnaise, more vegetables, lower-fat fired potatoes and reduced-sugar soft drinks.” Chef Dubois informed us that Burger Planet is on the right track towars the appropriate action. Burger Planet makes the most money selling soda, because of the low cost of the product to us, therefore we must advertise diet soda or bottled water to each consumer.

●      “U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, plans to introduce a bill requiring restaurant chains to put calorie information on their menu boards...The bill would add a 0.25 percent sales tax on food and drink currently taxed, except for bottled water. It also would add a 1 percent sales tax on other foods and drinks that are not taxed but considered to be sweets, according to the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.” If this passes, Burger Planet would need to increase our sales of bottled water food and soda by at least 1%. We have 52 million consumers, therefore a 1% increase would be 52,000 new loyal consumers needed.