Importance of Brand Sites

“Brands are spending more time—and money—engaging with consumers outside of their brand sites on the likes of YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook and many other channels. As marketing efforts move to social networks and to content sites such as BuzzFeed, what happens to the brand’s dot-com? Brand pages, although they are not very heavily trafficked as a rule, are still a primary resource for consumers seeking information about products and the companies that make them, according to a new eMarketer report, ' What's a Brand Site For? Engaging Consumers Across Multiple Channels.' An October study by nRelate found that 48% of online shoppers said they trusted content from brand websites. No other content type approached the trustworthiness of corporate sites, according to this survey—not even mainstream news sites” (Whither the brand, 2013).

Whither the brand website (7 Jan. 2013). eMarketer.com. Retrieved from <http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Whither-Brand-Website/1009585>

Mobile Advertising Increasing Worldwide

"Mobile ad spending around the world more than doubled last year, eMarketer estimates, and though growth will moderate this year, double-digit increases in mobile ad spending will continue in coming years as outlays approach $37 billion by 2016. In 2012, mobile spending was at $8.41 billion, according to eMarketer’s forecast—up from just over $4 billion the year before and $2.34 billion in 2010. eMarketer’s estimates of worldwide mobile ad spending include dollars going toward display and search advertising only, and exclude spending on messaging-based formats. Spending on tablets is also included” (Money goes mobile, 2013).

Worldwide, more money goes mobile (4 Jan. 2013). eMarketer.com. Retrieved from <http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-More-Money-Goes-Mobile/1009582>

Subscribing to YouTube?

“Is there anything on YouTube you’d pay to see? Critics are skeptical but I think YouTube is on to something with their new subscription service. According to AdAge, YouTube is about to launch a paid subscription pilot program with a few carefully chosen content producers. These channels will put their new content behind a paywall and users will have to pony up anywhere from $1 to $5 a month to gain access” (Boris, 2013)


Boris, Cynthia (Jan. 29, 2013). Would you pay to watch videos on YouTube? MarketingPilgrim.com . Retrieved from <http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/01/would-you-pay-to-watch-videos-on-youtube.html>.

Fix Oil Spills with Social Media

“The brand reputations of oil giants BP and Shell are frequently haunted by past controversies. For BP, it's the 2010 oil spill caused when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. For Shell, it's concern over its recently defeated Arctic drilling initiatives. Both companies struggle to pump up their respective brands' reputations—no easy feat in a digital world where consumers have fast access to information and social forums to post their discontent” (Dupre, 2012).

Dupre, Elyse (Dec.1, 2012). Oil giants try to stay slick while containing the spillage of negative perception. Direct Marketing News. Retrieved from < http://www.dmnews.com/oil-giants-try-to-stay-slick-while-containing-the-spillage-of-negative-perception/article/270033/>.

2012's Top Web and Mobile Properties

“Which web and mobile properties found the largest audiences in 2012? According to Nielsen, Americans on the web were most inclined to search, socialize, shop, browse or, of course, look things up on Wikipedia. The two US sites that averaged the greatest number of monthly unique visitors were web giants Google and Facebook: the former averaged over 172 million monthly unique visitors, the latter close to 153 million. Large online media sites Yahoo! (#3) and AOL (#7), shopping juggernaut Amazon (#8) and search offerings from Microsoft (#6) and Ask.com (#10), all found their way into the top ten as well” (Top Web Mobile, 2013).

Top web and mobile properties of 2012 (Jan. 14, 2013). eMarketer.com . Retrieved from < http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Top-Web-Mobile-Properties-of-2012/1009601#38uxJkf6TpLk0yzO.99 >

Coke's Social Media Campaign for the Super Bowl

“Using animated polar bears making jokes on Facebook to win the hearts of Super Bowl ad lovers? That's so 2012. Last year, Coca-Cola's Polar Bowl became one of the most talked about campaigns of the Super Bowl. Now, it's hoping to duplicate that success and do something its executives call "gamify the game" with the launch of a 60-second spot that depicts three teams trying to get to a giant bottle of Coke -- and asks viewers to help them via social media” (Zmuda, 2013).

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Zmuda, Natalie (Jan. 22, 2013). Coca-Cola builds social-media game around Super Bowl spot. AdAge.com . Retrieved from <http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/coca-cola-super-bowl-ad-create-social-media-game/239327/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage>.

Indy 500 Goes Instagram

“The hashtag -- which is intended to capture the overall experience and history of the race -- will also be used in the Indy 500's other social channels, although an exact launch date for the overall promotion is unclear. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is using Venueseen technology to capture tagged fan images on Instagram. Along with images from drivers, teams and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself, these photos will eventually appear plotted on a map on a microsite” (Lacy, 2013).

Lacy, Lisa (Jan. 17, 2013). Indy 500 revs up for Instagram promo. ClickZ.com. Retrieved from <Dhttp://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2236948/indy-500-revs-up-for-instagram-promo>.

Seeing Video In-Stream with Twitter

“Ooyala has showed off its Twitter Video Card solution with a campaign from ESPN. Ooyala provides a platform for online video management, publishing, analytics and monetization. The new functionality lets Ooyala customers quickly embed clickable clips into tweets for instant playback. The new feature inserts a thumbnail of the video directly into the stream, so that followers can play it without leaving Twitter. In addition to making a company's Twitter feed more interesting, embedded video can also increase discovery of other content from that publisher, according to Brian Theodore, group product manager for insight and optimization at Ooyala. 'Before, you could tweet the link to a video, but the only action users had was to click through. Video Card keeps the experience in the stream,' he said” (Kuchinskas, 2013).

Kuchinskas, Susan. (Jan. 25, 2013). Ooyala lets ESPN embed video in tweets. ClickZ.com. Retrieved from <http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2239217/ooyala-lets-espn-embed-video-in-tweets>.

Homework Tip: APA Citation

During the semester you will cite sources using APA techniques. I used examples of in-text and Works Cited citations in the previous two posts. I will continue for another week and then return to the traditional link format. 

When you quote or paraphrase an author, the citation immediately follows the quote or the paraphrase -- with no punctuation. 

"For example, this is an in-text citation for a quotation" (Author's Family Name, Year). 

For example, this is an in-text citation for a paraphrase (Author's Family Name, Year). 

At the end of your email, letter, presentation, or report, you will list the source on a separate Works  Cited page. It appears as follows.

Family Name, First Name (Month [abbreviated when appropriate] Day, Year). Title with only the first word capitalized. Name of  publication or website in italics. Retrieved from <URL>

Mobile Advertising on the Rise

“Corporate awareness of mobile advertising is growing in the new year, according to a group of executives speaking at the Mobile Media Summit 2013. This year will see mobile ad agencies evolve the way they use the mobile platform for advertising. Things like branded apps and a better understanding of the way the industry works are starting to bring major brands [products, not companies, such as Coke as opposed to Coca-Cola Corp.] to the platform, according to the executives” (Dohnert, 2013).

Dohnert, James (Jan. 24, 2013). Mobile media summit: mobile advertising will grow. ClickZ.com. Retrieved from < http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2238591/mobile-media-summit-mobile-advertising-will-grow>.

Major Magazine Tries to Remain onTop

“The Economist - the print publication that ate the newsweekly market single-handedly via the strange strategy of maintaining extremely highly sophisticated news coverage without dumbing down its tone - now has ten percent of its subscribers as online-only paying members. The 150,000 online-only readers have not yet cut into its print circulation on a gross basis, 'but it will,' said the firm's digital editor to The Editors Weblog. The move from one million print subscribers to 1.5 million happened in a few years, perhaps hastened by the whole or partial print demise of former major competitors such as Time and Newsweek. The Economist's corporate attitude, however, is to make haste destroying its hard-fought gains with a superior online offering” ( Economist tries, 2013). 

Economist tries to destroy its print market before someone else does (Jan. 14, 2013). MarketingVox.com. Retrieved from <http://www.marketingvox.com/economist-tries-to-destroy-its-print-market-before-someone-else-does-051963/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink>

Videos Continue to Grow

“Content marketing is a growing space and video is edging its way in, evident from new comScore data. American culture revolves around video, signaling to marketers that they must build branded, watchable campaigns that push their companies in front of their target audiences. Brands can't afford to be left behind as video viewing increases and marketers jump on board. ComScore's Video Metrix catalogs video content viewing, displaying how much media Americans engage with in any given month of the year. In November 2012, for example, video saw 10.5 billion views. In April 2012, it saw 9.5 billion. Marketers can consider creating seasonal and event-related content to speak to audiences at certain times of the year” (Videos grew, 2013).

Videos grew by 59 percent in 2012 (Jan. 23, 2012). Brafton.com. Retrieved from <http://www.brafton.com/news/video-views-grew-by-59-percent-in-2012>.

Welcome to English 202

Welcome to English 202.

Various individuals have given English 202 different names. The school calls it advanced exposition. I call it business writing. I should rename it "Reading and Thinking."  The name probably sounds odd or too elementry. Not so. Most individuals do too little of both--in the world of school and the world of business. As you will hear me say, probably more than once, "We think we think more than we think."
To perform at an average level in this class, you will need to read all the assignments about Internet marketing.You will read to have information that your imaginations will re-formulate into unique concepts. When you do that, writing becomes easier, and you will hold the attention of a reader--a person with blood in his/her veins, who gets bored, who wants information, who does not give a darn about you or me because in the end reading is an egocentric act.
To achieve above-average work, you must think--not merely parrot (repeat) the ideas you will have read and those you hear about in class. In other words, you must learn how to integrate new ideas with old ones in order to create a different perspective for the reader. Otherwise you are wasting the reader's time.
When you write to another individual, you ask him/her to surrender her time to read your ideas. Why should the reader trouble herself with your ideas? Are you offering the reader [teacher, classmate, business associate] a "new" way of seeing a problem? Are you proposing a concept that will make the reader's life easier? Are you advancing knowledge--whether the subject is particle physics or the latest cosmetic disaster for a pop diva? Are you offering your ideas clearly and logically--based on standard American English? In other words, the average reader (not your friends reading a tweet) wants to know what she is getting out of reading your work.
You,therefore, earn a reader's respect by offering her a new perspective or new idea in a format that makes it easier for the reader (not the writer) to understand. If you cannot achieve that, you fail--in business and in this classroom.
How do you come up with new ideas or perspectives? Reading. And you do not merely repeat what you have read. In that case, you only rehash information that a reader already could access. You read to pick up facts and ideas from experts in the field. You then take that information and integrate it into how you think. Eventually an original idea or perspective (original for you) will come out.
For this class, you will need a computer with Internet access. Use your own, a friend's, or one of the many in the school's library. Will I tolerate the excuse my computer crashed and I lost all my work? No. Save your material on a thumb drive, portable hard drive, or to a storage system on the Internet, such as Google's G-Drive (it's free if you have a Google account, which is also free).
You will need an office suite, such as Microsoft Office. (Microsoft Works will not work in this class.) You can get free office suites: OpenOffice, Libre Office, and IBM's Symphony. I use OpenOffice and Libre Office. They are excellent products that are compatible with Microsoft Office. The three have word processors (like Word), presentation software (like PowerPoint), and spreadsheet software (like Excel). OpenOffice and Libre Office also have graphics and data base management software. All three products have been around for more than a decade. They are reliable. If you have a broadband Internet connection, downloading will take about three minutes and installation about 20. OpenOffice and Libre Office work on PCs and Macs.

You will not need to buy a text. I provide you your reading material through links on the syllabus. You can access the syllabus from the class web page: http://www1bpt.bridgeport.edu/~jconlin/. Here are the links that you need for now.



Syllabus: <http://www.bridgeport.edu/~jconlin/Fall2012Spring2013English202.pdf>
Course Description: <http://www1bpt.bridgeport.edu/~jconlin/CourseDescription.pdf>
Class Webpage: <http://www1bpt.bridgeport.edu/~jconlin/>
Class Blog: <http://dana238.blogspot.com/>



Start the semester right. Read the syllabus.
Finally, you will use APA citation formats for everything that you write this semester. Most students already have learned, and maybe mastered MLA. APA is not that different. Scroll down two posts and you will find the format for APA. Why am I making you use APA? Because UB's Business School has designated APA as its citation method of choice and the citation method that its MBA students must use. You can see examples of APA citation (intext and works cited listing) in the previous two posts.
See you tomorrow.