Final Blog

Finally the last blog of the entire year!!! Yay!!!

When starting this class, I was excited and anxious to learn more about social media usage within businesses and how I could use it to my full advantage one day.  I liked how many different ways we used to analyse all types of social media accounts and the effects that they have on the success of businesses and success.  I did not realize how much effort needed to be put into social media within a company before this class, nor did I realize that there was a very specific and detailed way to do so.  I think that this class overall will come into play in my future by helping me successfully operate a social media account of my own for my future business or one that I choose to work for.

I love working with groups in this class.  Everyone in my group was always on the same page, and each time we did a project or assignment, we were each able to contribute something unique and beneficial to the work.  Not only were we a group during projects, but we also became our own group within the class and were able to help each other on individual assignments whenever one of us was confused.  My group became very close friends, so we even had fun doing our assignments together.  I also liked how the class had a Facebook page where we could all converse with each other when needed.  This helped me by constantly keeping up with the posts and announcements.  I am a Facebook freak, so this was very easy and accessible to me.

The Design Process was a very useful approach for me.  it taught me how to come up with my wildest and most unique ideas.  It made me realize how much creativity I really am capable of.  I kind of forgot how to brainstorm, and practicing the design process really brought that back to life for me.  I think that this process really came into play whenever my group and I were putting together our marketing plan.  To create a successful plan, creativity and accuracy is a must.  I believe this marketing plan was beneficial because I now know what to do in order to conduct successful marketing within my future business.

The only thing that I would consider changing in this class is the whole changing of the group concepts.  I think that this was hard and slightly confusing to the class because we would get used to working with one specific concept, and then have to quickly change to another concept the next week.  I would like to work one certain concept for the entire class if I could do it over again.  Overall, this class has taught me a lot about social media and will come in handy someday.  I have enjoyed learning about it and will definitely have the opportunity to put my knowledge to good use in my future career.

Chapter 10!

This chapter was all about the different types of social media metrics that exist.  It discussed what they were and what role they pay in marketing networks today.  Metrics make us capable of calculating and determining the results of our campaigns and marketing attempts.  I thought one of the biggest strengths in this chapter was how easily explained everything was, and how everything's purpose was emphasized on and thoroughly explained.  The many charts and tables available in the textbook made it that much more easy for me to understand and grasp the concepts and characteristics of the metrics.  One of the weaknesses in this chapter is exactly how much information was actually covered.  Even thought the chapter may be laid our in an organized manner that makes it easy for me to understand concepts, it can be overwhelming when one chapter alone covers tons of concepts.  It was almost impossible to read the chapter and remember everything that I covered. 

Some definitions that I was not familiar with in the chapter were:

Relative Pull: a comparison of how well different creative executions generate a response.
Viewthroughs- The number of people who visit a page, but aren't active on the page. These people come back to visit.
Blog Value Index: a simple equation that enables a company to assess whether the blog adds more value than it costs.
Measurement Map- Displays the types of branded messages produced and distributed and invitations for consumer engagement with the brand as well as the online location for these materials.
Activity Metrics- Measure the actions the organization takes relative to social media.

If I could use my own words to describe the definition of metrics, I would have to say that it means a way to measure the amount of something in particular.  When I hear the word metrics, I always think of all of my math classes that I took throughout high school.

One organization in particular that uses social media is my sorority, Phi Mu.  We post every other day.  We share pictures of the activities that we participate in, and use pictures to relay information also.  When we post things that relay information, we always make sure we do them in time to inform people of the event or action that will take place.  Two metrics that are appropriate for this form of social media usage are activity metrics and interaction metrics.  These are necessary because it is important to see how many people are keeping up with our accounts and responding to the posts.  This will help us determine how successful we are with relaying our information. 

Chapter 9

This weeks blog discussion is on Chapter 9.  The main factors throughout this chapter that seemed most like important strengths to me were the fact that the chapter discussed the benefits of qualitative research through social media analysis and how much the word of mouth about a business can benefit the amount of business that the organization will get.  The main weakness in this chapter is how little it explained the aspect of different teachings.  The book could have explained many matters in a more thorough manner.

Of all of the new vocabulary words used in this chapter, there were several that I was not very familiar with, including;

• text mining- the gathering and and analysis of text data from relevant sources
• Netnography- a rapidly growing research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the communities that emerges through computer-mediated communication
• Echo effect (online echo) - refers to the duplication in conversation volume that tends to occur in social media spaces
• Opinion Mining- analyze content to determine the attitude of the writer
• Sentiment dictionary- specifies sentiment indicators and rules to be used in the analysis

The brand that I chose to run an analysis on was Free People.  When I did this, the results stated as follows: 19% strength, 56:1 sentiment, 38% passion, and 22% reach.  I feel that these results are average.  I would have however probably guessed that the reach percentage be a higher number.

The brand that I chose to search on YouTube was Juicy Couture.  The very first video that popped up was a video called "Rude Juicy Couture Associate."  This is very bad advertising for Juicy, and I am sure people who have searched this brand have seen this and taken it into consideration.  The video was basically a customer mocking a sales associate from Juicy that she had an experience with earlier that day.  Other people were commenting the post, agreeing with her that all of their associates are either rude, unfriendly, or racist.  The second video was a haul video.  This video was positive, showing all of the purchases a customer had recently made and explaining why she was pleased with them.  People also commented this post, saying how they had the same bag and loved it.  Others were commenting saying that they were going to go out and buy it.

Chapter 8!

This chapter was a very educational chapter because it taught us a lot about online shopping, which is a large part of society today.  This chapter taught me the proper ways and techniques that I should practice in the future with my business in order to be successful in the online shopping field.  One of the most important points that this chapter focused on was ratings and reviews.  I think that ratings and reviews are very important for the benefits of a business because customers rely mostly on the opinions of former customers.  Personally, I rely on the reviews of customers from stores.  I feel that I would have the same experience as these other customers.  I feel like this chapter mostly focused on the potential downfalls of social commerce.  I think that it could have emphasized more on the benefits of social commerce.

I have definitely shopped through ads before.  I mostly see useful ads on Pinterest.  I don't really pay that much attention to the ads on Facebook.  On Pinterest, it gives you a direct link to the clothing sites that you are interested in.  The second most common social media site that I shop through ads with is Instagram.  Boutiques follow my account often, which leads to me checking out their accounts and sometimes ordering clothes.  Ads can be influential at times.

I think that I would rather shop in person rather than online.  I can try things on in person.  Whenever I order things online, they usually do not fit how I expected them too.  For this reason, I like trying on the clothes in person.

I think that it is very important to rely on reviews.  If customers take the time to type a review, it must mean that the business is either very good or very bad.  If a review is very good, it usually influences me to try the place out and see if it is a good run for its review.  If it is bad, I usually don't have that much of a desire to try the business.

Chapter 6

Hello to all!  It's time for the weekly Saturday blog...
Today we will be talking about social publishing.  The website that I have chosen to discuss today is pinterest!  I picked this site because I feel like it offers several good examples of social publishing and because everyone of course loves pinterest.  The site itself is http://www.pinterest.com/.  Throughout the whole website, there are several characteristics that would apply to the SEO category.  Some posts use hashtags, while others use keys words.  You can search based on the keywords, hashtags, titles, board names, etc.  There are so many different ways to explore this website based on your own desired needs and wants.  An SMO characteristic of this website is the way that the site allows you to "pin" and "like" posts.  You can also share your favorite posts on other social medias to spread the word to your friends and followers.  I do not think that this site needs much improvement as of right now.  They are constantly updating it, so it just keeps getting better and better.
Some good keywords that would accurately describe this site would be: trendy, popular, lifestyle, fashion, home décor, cooking, DIY, inspiration.  These keywords are what the website is most made up of and what it most exemplifies in my eyes.
The keyword that I searched was "DIY."  This is short for "do it yourself."  Whenever I searched this keyword, only one sponsored site came up.  It actually said the word "Ad" underneath it in a tiny yellow square.  Of all of the websites that popped up, none of the DIY sites were pinterest.  Pinterest is supposed to be one of the most popular websites for DIY projects, and I think that they could use more keywords in this category in order to attract people whenever they search these types of projects.

Design Thinking Process

Hello again! This week classes with the design thinking workshops were really fun for me.  I think it was a cool change in the normal class atmosphere and a chance to really show our creative side and practice doing so with a team of my friends.  Not only was this week a fun week, bu tit was also a week that was able to teach me a lot about the importance of design thinking in a business or program and how i can use this type of thinking to best possible benefit.
Through these workshops, I was able to better grasp the actual idea of brainstorming and what it really is.  Before the workshops, I knew that it had to do with coming up with random ideas, I just didn't know that you could be so broad and crazy with the ideas that you came up with.  Doing these brainstorming exercises showed me just how capable I am of coming up with cool and unique ideas and thoughts on my own.  It showed me how easy it is to be creative when thinking about a designated subject.
As you can see, my favorite step of the entire process was the step of brainstorming.  Whenever the teacher gave each group a subject to brainstorm about, it was fun to write down whatever popped into my head.  I never knew that i could possibly come up with that many thoughts about one subject within such a short amount of time.  it really opened my eyes to how many possibilities of creativeness exist within each subject and matter.  Once i started, the ideas just kept flowing.  It was a nonstop process of information for me.
I think that the design thinking process could definitely be used to my advantage in my future career processes.  Without brainstorming, it would be extremely difficult to come up with new ideas.  If i were to open up a store or boutique, like I someday hope to, I would certainly need to have a thorough understanding on the entire brainstorming process.  This process taught me how to look at a subject, completely take it apart and distinguish every part of it, then bring the parts back together to invent a greater solution and approach to the matter.
Overall, I think that this week was both very fun and educating for the whole class.

Chapter 5

This chapter mainly discusses the multiple different types of social communities that exist in our society.  These types of social communities solely exist to create different online relationships.  These types of relationships are very important because different people in different areas are able to converse with one another to build personal and professional relationships.  Through different social media sites, people are able to communicate in many different ways.  These people use these different social media sites for different advantages, and they are very capable of benefiting businesses in multiple ways.  Consumers rely on social media sites to inform them on the updates of their businesses.  Because of this, social media sites are a main factor in today's advertisement techniques.
Throughout this chapter, I think that the only weakness was that the chapter didn't fully describe the dangers that different social media sites have to offer.  Whenever people agree to using social media accounts, I don't think that they realize the long list of risks that apply to the different accounts.  For example, whenever people use these accounts, they are exposing their names, perosnal information, photos, etc.  Not only can random people acquire this information, bu they can also acquire their personal usernames and passwords.
The five terms that stuck out in this chapter to me were: friendvertising, identity cards, social network fatigue, fandom, and gift applications.
These terms mainly stood out to me because I have never heard of them or any term pertaining to them before.  It was interesting to learn about a new phrase.
In terms of a social network owning our social data, I believe that that would be a major invasion of  privacy.  I believe that people have intentions of being mindful and considerate of posting what they do on social media.  With that being said, it is best for social media to not serve a main spot in social data.
I believe that it is okay to friend your professor in some situations.  If you are still in class with that professor and you two do not have a close relationship, I don't think that it is necessary to friend them.  If you personally converse with your professor on a regular basis, I think that it is acceptable to friend them.
Facebook friends do not always consist of people that you personally know in the real world.  Most friends on Facebook are your friend because that like to view your account or because you two are normal acquaintances.
When examining Facebook, I looked at a boutique from my hometown.  Whenever they advertise certain brands, they use poor grammar and are not very passionate about it.  Because of this, I think that the business of the certain brand is lowered because it does not seem like a serious brand in the advertisements.
I feel that the chapter more educated me of what a social community is rather than how a social community would benefit me. 

Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, I learned a lot about the different types of social communities that exist amongst each other.  In each separate community, the social media interactions are similar but different at the same time.  Each online community is built on an individual foundation of certain information, which is what makes them all so unique.  Within these foundations, lots of ties within nodes exist.  Within these nodes, it is made possible for ideas and information to be exchanged back and forth between multiple resources.  These types of communities revolve around conversations and the exchange of thoughts and ideas.  In these communities, they abide by their own set list of rules, and each person has a special job in the participation of the membership of the community.  Overall, these people are able to come together socially in a civilized manner to exchange information with one another.

Overall, I think that the chapter was very educating and interesting.  I got a good sense of what a social community is.  By giving several well known examples of social community websites throughout the chapter, it helped me to more fully understand what a good example of a social community would be because I was able to compare these sites to the descriptions in the book.  If the chapter had a weakness at all, I would have to say that some of the definitions could have been explained and exemplified a little better, making the readers have a better sense of understanding when discussing the terms.

Of all of the new terms introduced to me in this chapter, a few specific ones stuck out to me.  I always new that there were several types of different power levels within communities.  However, I did not know that these power levels also existed in social communities and that there were so many of them.  These power positions include:
reward power: one's ability to provide others with what they desire
coercive power: the ability to punish others
legitimate power: organizational authority based on rights associated with a person's appointed position
referent power: authority through the motivation to identify with or please a person
expert power: recognition of one's knowledge, skills, and ability
information power: one's control over the flow of and access to information

Out of all of my Facebook friends, I would have to say that a large majority of them are weak ties.  I have some of 4000 friends.  Out of all of these, the ones that I most regularly keep up with are: my family members, my friends, and my boyfriend.  I have a huge family who constantly posts things to me on Facebook, as well as a large group of friends.  Most of the things I see on my newsfeed are posts from friends of mine that I have not seen or talked to in years.

On my twitter account, one of the accounts related to fashion that I most keep up with is the Free People account.  They constantly post tweets consisting of links and pictures related to their newest designs and collections.  Whenever posting a new design, they always come up with a clever hashtag to go along with it, for example: #FPsweaterweather, #FPfallclogs, #FPautumnanarchy.  Whenever followers see these new trends and their hashtags, they began to share them if they like the trend, therefore spreading the word to other potential consumers. 

Overall, this chapter was very educational in the means of informing me exactly how social communities work and function.  By learning more about each individual part within each different social community that exists, I will now be able to more fully participate in these communities for my own business advantage in the future.

Chapter 3

Throughout all four social media zones, I have a special social footprint for each one.  In the first zone, social community, I have several social media accounts that would apply to this zone.  On my accounts like Facebook and Twitter, it is not hard to regularly leave a social footprint.  On Facebook, I am constantly posting statuses, pictures, and other types of updates.  My newsfeed is very active and always updated.  On twitter, I usually tweet a few updates every day.  because of these constant updates, it is very easy for my followers to keep up with my updates.  In the second zone, social publishing, I also have a few social media accounts that would apply to this zone.  I have a YouTube account and an Instagram account.  On my Youtube account, I don't usually make videos myself, but I do favorite or share videos that I like.  On Instagram, I frequently post pictures and videos of my weekly activities.  Through these accounts, my followers can easily access photos and interests of mine in a simple and quick manner.  In the third zone, social commerce, I have several accounts on multiple apparel websites.  With these accounts, I am able to save styles of clothing that I like and purchase styles of clothing that I like.  I have a collection on each website of the articles that I favor, therefore leaving a social footprint.  In the fourth zone, social entertainment, I have several applications on my phone that would apply to this zone.  One application in particular, called Flixstr, is an application where I can keep up with and subscribe to updates about movies that come out in theaters. 

If I had a brand, I would want a very catchy and cute digital brand name.  This would take a lot of thinking and planning to figure out the perfect name. 

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a social media addict, but I do believe that my life as it is now would be very difficult without it.  I think that I have became so familiar with relying on social media to communicate and share information, and that would be difficult to complete those tasks without it.
An organization I would like to discuss is Phi Mu sorority.  Some market segmentations  of this organization are: women who want to excel in academics, women who want to find a strong sense of friendship, woman who seek a Greek lifestyle, women who want to participate in community service, and woman who want to become more involved on campus.  Some online communities that this organization belongs to are: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Of all of these social accounts, each section of the market segmentations overall have an account on all of these social media sites.  Through these sites, they are able to keep up with the organization and all of it's updates and success.  If a member ever had a question regarding any information on Phi Mu, they could just check any of the social media accounts and most likely find their answer.  These organizations are also used for contact within the organization.  Without these social accounts, it would be difficult for curious potential member to access information or contact with the organization without physically visiting it. 

Overall, I think that this chapter has educated me pretty well on how to use social media in merchandising and marketing in specific manners.  It taught me the exact advantages that social media marketing is capable of and also taught me the situations in which social media would be able to benefit me and my business in the best ways. 

Chapter 2

Hello to all again!  Thank you for checking up on my blog! To begin with Chapter 2, I think that both strategic plans and marketing plans are crucial for every organization.  In order to succeed in any field, you must have a general idea of what you desire to accomplish.  Whenever organizations make a strategic plan, they are considering all options and routes that are possible for the organization to take in order to achieve its goal.  Strategic planning is very important because that is the step of planning in which the organization decides what the best strategies and tactics are in order for the organization to fulfill its mission.  Without strategic planning, it would be really difficult for organizations to figure out with type of plan would most benefit them in the means of being successful.  Strategic planning may be a large part of an organization, but having a market plan is just as important.  Without a market plan, organizations would not be able to plot out the proper characteristics that the organization must demonstrate in order to achieve their goals.   Within a market plan, the certain pricing, demonstration, production, and promotional strategies are carefully thought out and perfected in order to achieve the best results possible.  Because we are discussing the importance of strategic planning and marketing plans, I feel that it is necessary to touch base with the social media marketing techniques.  Not only is social media a large part of our society today, but it is also a large part of what consumers consider whenever they are going to purchase an item.  Social media is extremely popular because it is simply so easy to keep up with.  It is the easiest way of modern marketing to spread word about products within seconds.  Not only has social media spread like wildfire within the past few years, but it has also been able to increase the sales of numerous products. 

Whenever we think about social media, we usually think about how it is available for anyone to use.  However, in order to use social media to your marketing advantage, you must have a special sense of social media marketing maturity.  This basically means that you must have experience with being able to properly market the necessary materials in order to make good sales within your business.   If people do not have maturity in their social media marketing areas, what good does it do to even advertise via social media? This concept is very important because it can either make or break you. 

Another very important concept of this chapter is the SWOT analysis.  A company can help itself immensely by carefully using this analysis.  When considering a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it makes it much simpler to plan out the company’s path.  A company can either choose to be more successful because of these factors, or choose to decline.  Opportunities and strengths are the biggest advantages that a company has; this strategy teaches companies how to use these for their biggest advantages. 

Throughout this chapter, the benefits of strategies are elaborated on.  I think that this is a very important part of marketing, and if done right, these types of strategies can greatly benefit any organization interested.   

Hello to all and welcome to my very first blog!  My name is Gabrielle Mosher and I am a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi this year.   I am a double major in the areas of Marketing and Fashion Merchandising.  I am 21 years old and am from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  I am crazy cat lady, a fashion fanatic, and a proud member of Phi Mu sorority.  Even though it took me three different changes to finally decide what major I would choose, I couldn’t be happier with my final decision.  By having both of these degrees, I have a broader list of occupations to choose from within the marketing field in case my fashion dreams for some reason do not work out.  

While enrolled in this Integrating Merchandising Channels class, I hope to learn a better understanding of the proper methods of social media that should be used in order to successfully advertise for a business or organization.  Since social media is such a large part of our society today, it really has the opportunity to make or break an organization.

As far as my personal and professional goals go, I am still deciding on exactly what I would like to accomplish in the future.  As of right now, I am focusing on trying to open my own boutique eventually.  Because this can be a very difficult task to achieve, I am doing my best to educate myself on all of the helpful tips that I have been learning from all of my fashion teachers.  I hope that all of these classes combined will turn me into an experienced and prepared boutique owner.  Of all of my characteristics, I do have a few strengths and a few weaknesses.  Some of my most important strengths that I have are compassion, creativity, and dedication.  I am compassionate about my goals and am willing to do anything in order to achieve them, I love coming up with creative ideas and scenarios, and I am very dedicated to things that I am eager to accomplish.  Some weaknesses of mine include stress, being able to hold focus, and intimidation.  If I am involved in a lot of things going on at once within any task, it is very easy for me to become stressed.   If something does not seem interesting to me, it is very hard for me to hold focus on the task while trying to complete it.  Intimidation comes into play whenever I have to compete against somebody else in order to gain a title or job.  It is hard because I know that there are many other people competing for the same position, and that makes me very nervous. 

I absolutely love social media.  Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are all of my favorites.  They are fun because you can instantly share statuses and pictures with all of your friends, keeping up with their posts at the same time.  It makes it a convenient way to document your life via internet.  Social media has made it very easy for our society to share things with one another, and I love being able to keep up with everyone and everything on all of my social accounts.  Throughout this class and blogging experience, I would like to gain knowledge on the proper ways to use social media for my advantage.  If I could achieve this, then I would be able to become a great advertiser to the public in my future of being a boutique owner.  With small businesses like that, it is crucial to advertise and get your name out there for others to become familiar with.  By learning to ways of proper social media usage, this could easily be possible in my future career.