My social media experience in a nutshell!

I just realized that I started using social media when I was 13 years old with the online chatting platform called CaraMail (French chatting website). I thought it was pretty young to start dealing with Internet and meeting websites, but then I realized that my little brother who is 10 years younger than me started using Msn Messenger and Facebook when he was 7 years old. So basically, he started chatting online as soon as I learnt how to write! New generations are born with a laptop between their hands; it is part of their education! They are incredibly good at it even though their young age! However, while I was observing my little brother I realized that he had some difficulties with French vocabulary and grammar. French is a very difficult language with a lot of exceptions that you have to learn by heart. If kids spend a lot of time on Internet speaking to their friends and using abbreviations, while they are still learning their own language, they might start confusing proper words with fake ones. I saw more than once my brother writing words the way he heard them (phonetically) but he had know idea how to write them properly, which is kind of sad!

That made me wonder if social media tend to modify the way we write or express ourselves? Maybe we won’t have to write anymore in the future; maybe technology will make it easier for us to learn different languages during the first year of our lives… (I wish)! Who knows how far it can go since Technology aims at making our life more convenient than before; everything is possible!

I don’t know if you saw the Disney movie called “WallE”. I remember watching it and being surprised how assisted people are at the end of the movie. This movie is making a good point because if we keep on replacing everything by technology we might end up in rolling chair without the use of our legs anymore; robots would do everything for us. It is scary but I don’t know why it would not happen, what would stop us from getting there…?

This class made me realize how important is social media today and how much it can influence our lives. Social media tools such as Facebook have 2 purposes; they are  satisfying our needs and creating new ones; that’s why we can’t get rid of them. Social Media is a way to communicate with other people and share content through different online platforms or applications. We are part of this generation, which couldn’t live without social media. It has changed our lives and it keeps on changing it, making it easier everyday. It helps us saving our time; we can do whatever we want from wherever we are. It is convenient; we can quickly find the information we need, we can never get lost anymore; we can easily plan something and rebound from an inopportune situation. And the most important is that it’s free; everyone can use it, there is no social category barrier or age limit. Social Media appeals to everyone, and that is why social media is revolutionizing Marketing researches. It offers more information about people, and gives companies more opportunities to reach their target. There is no way that I am not using social media in my future job; it makes Marketers work way more interesting than before. Indeed, there is a real exchange between them and their customers; it add a human dimension, which is a little bit ironic since it came from virtual relationship.

I’m really happy I took this class because it opened my eyes, and showed me how important social media is going to get in the next few years. Hearing about all those new tools such as LevelUp, Clympse, Gowalla, Lokast, runkeeper, etc. made me realize how fast the information goes and how much people are investing their time and money in the elaboration of potential new famous applications! I was glad to meet some the speakers who came to our class and learn more about their experience with social media. I felt in the heat of the moment, it was pleasant to learn about new tools before the majority of people. I was proud to tell my friend about the LevelUp concept which has just been launched in the US. Maybe LevelUp will decide not to extend this application to other countries but at least I would have heard about it through this class. It has also made me want to create a social media application… But I still need to find a brilliant idea! haha

Before taking this class I thought social media was just a new trend  that offer people multiple way of communicate to each other. I’m finishing this semester thinking that social media is more than just a trend; it has a huge potential. It can changes the world, our behavior and our lives in every single aspects. However I noticed that the more convenient it makes our life, the faster the information and our time goes. Are we going to reach this point where we won’t be able to enjoy anything because of, how much stuff we want to deal with at the same time? Hopefully social Media will find a way to keep us entertained no matter what!

Thank you Professor and everyone for this very enriching semester!

Swarovski Elements holiday celebrations around the world

Los Angeles, the city of art and entertainment; of course they would do social media!

I had the chance to go to California to celebrate Thanksgiving at my friend’s Family in L.A.! For me it was all new; the big diner, the turkey, the family gathering… Everything! We don’t have this holiday in France and I was glad to experience it!

Besides the wonderful the diner, I was excited to re visit my favorite places in LA such as Beverly Hills. While I was walking down Rodeo Drive, I noticed two crystalized lampposts located in the middle of the road that weren’t here last year (see pictures below). Each of the lampposts was displaying short messages related to Holidays.

I turned my head to the right and I saw a Swarovski information booth. I decided to go and ask them about these installations. Swarovski Elements has actually set up those sculptures for a non-profit event. Besides communicating about themselves, Swarovski Elements use sparkle tweets to raise money for a charity foundation, “baby2baby”. People from all around the world can use the hashtag #letitsparkle to tweet their holiday message to the most prestigious retail stores street of the world. Swarovski got the support of the city of Beverly Hills and the famous actress Jessica Alba for this event. It will last until January 3^rd 2012.

It is pretty interesting to see how Swarovski use social media to communicate about itself and sensitize people from all around the world to a same cause. Swarovski found a way to grab people’s attention and make them participate as far as they can; everyone can tweet, it is free and quick. Swarovski is leading a very interesting communication campaign, which implies different values such as prestige, glamour, and sensitivity. It chose the prestigious Rodeo Drive location to implement its event, got the support of the glamorous Jessica Alba actress and picked the baby2baby charity foundation in order to sensitize moms (potential Swarovski’s customers). The concept is pretty smart and can actually help parents in difficulties to get clothes for their babies.

I thought it was a nice way to use social media and I wanted to share it with you.

Generation Multitasking!

Today we are connected to Internet 24/7. We have no breaks! Social media is an addiction. It develops the same symptoms than a drug; it makes everything go faster and if we are connected for a certain amount of time, we start feeling the lake and we die to check our Facebook, our emails, our text, anything as long as it keeps us connected with other people and updated with what happens around us! The information is constantly renewed, and that is why we need to be connected 24/7; we don’t want to miss anything, we want to be everywhere at the same time. That is why we are splitting our focus into different area to make sure we get as much information as possible. That what we called Multitask.

As I was in my promotion and communication class today, we talked about how hard it is, today, to reach an audience through advertising! Even if Internet and social media help companies to get closer to their costumers, it is also harder to actually get their attention because they are more distracted than before.

Once upon a time, families were sitting in the couch after diner and were watching TV all together before going to sleep. At this time, it was easy for advertisers to convey a message and get its target to purchase a product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSrNc1v17M&NR=1]

Now, it is a totally different story; not only competition is tougher, but customers are less attentive; most of us can’t watch a movie (on TV or online) from the beginning to the end without checking our phone, our laptop, Facebook, our anything else. There are so many distractions! During the commercial, we either do something else or zap to another channel (and it is even easier to zap and switch tab when we are watching a movie online)! It has become very hard for advertisers to reach us.

What are we looking for by “multitasking”? I believe I am looking for productivity; if I check my emails while I watch a movie, for me it is a gain of time. But is it really? How can I be efficient when I am not fully focusing in any of those activities? Watching a movie is supposed to be relaxing, it is supposed to be a break in my intense day, but if my attention is still at work, or at friends or anywhere else during this movie, will I be really relaxed in the end? Also, by checking my emails or should I say, “by skimming” my emails during a movie, is there any chance that I miss something important?

Social Media has a lot of advantages but it can also have the downsides of a drug by cutting us from the real world; we need to be careful. Social media has already changed our behavior and the way we evolve. That is why companies have to change their strategies and take those new factors (social media impact and multitasking behavior) in consideration in order to reach its target.

From Luxury brand to Shoppable video!

Luxury brands cultivate an image of uniqueness, magnificence and inaccessibility! They are everyone’s fantasy! They appeal to people through amazing and high quality ads. They usually invest huge budgets to make sure to differentiate themselves from basic brands. The French luxury brand Dior is the perfect example; it spent 42 millions of dollar into its Chanel n°5 commercial reuniting Luhrmann and his Moulin Rouge star, Nicole Kidman. Biggest budget of all times!
This commercial has been seen in several countries around the world. It is social media!

My concern is how luxury brands can maintain this mysterious image of scarcity when they use social media? How can they differentiate themselves when they use free media like Facebook or Twitter which everyone else uses?

A lot of luxury brands are actually using social media all the time! A study has shown that the top 10 luxury brands using social media are: Bergdorf Goodman, Diane von Furstenberg, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Gilt Groupe, Marc Jacobs, Mercedes-Benz, Neiman Marcus, Oscar de la Renta and Ralph Lauren.
They are very active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. They fully take advantage of those new communication means. They are closer to their customers than they have ever been before. They tweet several times a day, they launch open casting calls on Facebook, they upload fashion shows on YouTube, they create online contests, etc. They seem more approachable for their customers! However, they maintain this image of scarcity through a skimming strategy: expensive items, pure and simple designs, high quality ads, etc.
They keep on differentiating themselves by using unique and original means of communication. Have you heard about the “shoppable video”?

Shoppable video enables retailers to maximize the impact of their e-commerce sites by adding interactive merchandising features to product videos. Shoppers can navigate the video by clicking on a product, learn more about it, and add it to their cart without ever leaving the video environment.

Bergdorf Goodman made a shoppable video to promote its 5F brand (copy and paste the link below):

http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/store/catalog/templates/Entry.jhtml?itemId=cat374801&parentId=cat230300&masterId=cat000000

I think this is pretty cool. I like the fact of being able to select a product from a video. The product is highlighted, it seems to have a personality and an allure, and it happens to be more appealing to customers. It is like looking to a movie where good-looking people wear super cool clothes! We want to be like them, we want to purchase what they are wearing! Shoppable video is a good encounter between marketing and social media! I think it will have a positive impact on online Fashion! What do you think?

Spotify: the meeting between music and social media?

The music industry has amazingly evolved since the beginning of Internet. People, started downloading music from different websites; in France E-mule  has been one of the first popular downloading website. Then came LimeWire, which had been very famous too but had recently had to shutdown mainly because of its illegal activity. The 2 last famous websites I heard about are called Video2mp3 and Dilandau. They are faster and more efficient. As opposed to other downloading websites, they allow us to  listen to the music before downloading it, which prevent us from bad surprises!

There are also websites like Pandora where we can listen to music online. In France we don’t have Pandora but we do have Deezer, which is kind of the same concept.

The online free music business appeals a lot of people. However, in order to  respect the artist work and reward them, some companies such as iTunes try to change things and make people pay for the music they download . So some people actually do pay for music while other don’t. Either way, the online music business is taking a serious place in today’s society!

Social media noticed that and tries to take advantage of this successful niche! Indeed, Spotify is the new trendy website which allow people to listen to music online but also off line and on from a mobile if we pay a membership fee. Spotify is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe, according to IFPI. This platform offers an incredible number of songs and artists. Music can be browsed by artist, album, record label, genre or playlist as well as by direct searches. It is kind of the same thing than Pandora for me (since I’m not a member), except than I can share what I listen to with my friend through social media like Facebook or Twitter!

Can Spotify become the Music version of Facebook and reach 800 000 million users one day? What does the future reserve for this emerging online platform?

Spotify seems to be successful with already one million of users with membership and more than 15 million of song. Nevertheless, Spotify doesn’t seem to please everyone. According to the following article, Coldplay and Adele don’t want to cease their right to Spotify or any streaming websites.

http://mashable.com/2011/10/27/coldplay-adele-streaming-services-spotify/

 

It is said: “Recording artists only make about three-tenths of a cent every time one of their songs is streamed, and 20 cents for every song sold on iTunes, according to estimates published in Rolling Stone.

The artist gets paid for the use of its song  but obviously the revenue per streamed is not considered high enough for certain artists.

Spotify spend a lot of money to get new songs and new artists in its library. They have to update their content all the time to make sure to satisfy its current users and to attract new ones. The more music Spotify can offer, the more people it will appeal, the more money it can make through Advertising and subscriptions.

Spotify said “We have paid over $100m to rights holders since our launch, and the overwhelming majority of our label partners are thrilled with the revenues we’re returning to them.”

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/09/spotify-responds-to-artist-payments-controversy.html

So to sum up, Spotify seems to be a very good tool, which links the music business to social media. It appears to be a good solution for the million of people who have already subscribed and for all the other people who haven’t subscribed yet. Even if some artists are ready to sell their record label to Spotify yet, they might change their mind one day. Who knows how is the situation going to evolve? How far can Spotify go and how important it can get, if the social media spiral aspirates it?

Halloween… such a cultural gap!

Halloween is such a big event in the United States! I can’t believe that! I knew that American take it very seriously but I couldn’t imagine that much!

In France people barely celebrate it, I mean they would go to a club, which has a Halloween theme, and sometimes wear a costume but that’s it, it is not a big deal like it is here. Some clubs would actually throw a NON-Halloween party for people who consider themselves “too cool” to wear a costume!
In America it is the perfect opposite, I heard that people get crazy about Halloween:
- Students would get a different costume for every night they celebrate it (about 4 nights)! It is insane especially each costume cost around $50!
- Some people are really creative and would come up with really cool costumes, usually made by themselves! I can’t wait to see all these really nice costumes!
- Girls would go to the tanning bed to look perfect in their Halloween costume! People invest so much time and energy in this event, it is so far away from what we do in France!

I could tell the cultural gap just at looking up at my Facebook events; I have a Halloween event request for each night of this week starting on Thursday night in Boston while I have zero invitation for any French Halloween party!

I have to say I am pretty excited to curve my first pumpkin this coming Thursday! I have always wanted to curve a super cool pumpkin, however now that I actually going to do it I have this feeling that my pumpkin won’t look better than this pathetic one… haha

I actually got the idea of writing about Halloween when I discovered this following link about the “12 awesome Halloween pumpkin carvings”:

http://mashable.com/2009/10/28/halloween-pumpkin-carvings/

It is interesting to see how every single event is now related to social media. Even traditional events like Halloween, Valentine’s Day, mom’s & dad’s day, 4th of July, etc.; they are all promoted through social medias. Companies are deeply using Facebook and Twitter to aim at specific targets and make more money. Even if people are still enjoying them, I’m afraid that someday, those special occasions will only be seen as unpleasant events strictly based on money.

I personally still take pleasure celebrating them because usually they give me the occasion the gather with my friends and/or my family. But for instance, I know that a lot of french people don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day because they think “it’s just about making people spend more money”! What do you think about it? I am curious to know how Americans perceive traditional events nowadays…

Monitor or Undergo your Reputation!

3 days ago I watched a video that my friend had posted on Facebook. You might have seen it; it’s about 2 little girls who get the chance to meet their favorite artist, Nicki Minaj, on the Ellen show (see below)

I randomly clicked on this link and watched it. The video was pretty cool and one of the little girls was just amazing! I posted the video straight on my friend’s wall. I guess everyone had the same reaction because the day after, everyone was speaking about this video at school!

Indeed, I just got into my morning marketing class, when I heard this girl telling her friends “have you seen the video with Nicki Minaj”? Most of them had already seen it, but one of them hadn’t and they went “you have to see it it’s amazing, blablabla”. So the girl watched it straight after class. Then I went to Hillside for lunch; I looked around me and I saw this girl showing the video to her other friends while they were eating! Later at night I went to my friend house for diner, and guess what? We talked about this video one more time!

It’s crazy how fast the information goes! In one day everyone was speaking about the video! And what is even more surprising is that 3 days after no one speak about it anymore; it’s already gone. I guess something else had already replaced it!

Internet is an amazing communication tool, and as we have seen, word-to-mouth is really powerful. It can be used to promote a video, a brand, an image, an artist, a company, or quite anything else, but it can also be used to destroy them.

Negative advertising can kill “someone” reputation very fast.  Companies have to be very careful. Especially now that everyone is connected and share contents all the time. I was really surprised when Professor Kane said that someone tweeted faster than the earthquake speed:

“The 47-second short notes draws attention to the fact that Twitter messages hit New York City before Virginia’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake had a chance to reach the Big Apple.” Mashable.

Technology has put such a big power between our hands! It’s hardly controllable! You can build a good reputation as fast as you can demolish it. Usually, it takes longer to build it but today people change their mind very quick.  As long as they can find an advantage for them they wouldn’t mind forgetting about what happened in the past. Our generation is living and focusing about the present time, not about the future, not about the past. They won’t necessarily forget but they would be up to give a second chance to a company, a brand, an artist, or anything else which/who show that it worth it!
To conclude, we have to be careful with Internet and protect our image. Social Media can serve us making good connections, building ourselves an interesting profile for recruiters and develop rapidly a good notoriety, but the hardest part is the maintain this

good image. People like scandal, gossip and don’t care about boring perfect story. So we constantly need to update our profile/website with interesting and valuable content, which can feed people and can’t be used against us in the future.