Tag Archives: Recommended Reads

Classroom Activities and Exercises, Social Media

Getting students to think about smartphone addiction (cell phone addiction lesson plan)

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Cell Phone Addiction

“Cell phone addiction” is a strong term that may or may not be appropriate to describe our current obsessions with our phones. But, now that I have your attention, I think it is important to bring into the classroom a discussion of the wider, perhaps unseen and perhaps deleterious, implications of cell phone culture in today’s society.

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Tech Trends and Analysis

The Super Social Super Bowl? Great Reads You May Have Missed

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Another week is almost over.  This weather has really made it challenging to get in the flow of the semester. Classes were canceled on Monday, and school didn’t open until Wednesday at noon. I want to take a quick minute to share some great reads from the week:

Super Social

The big talk this week has, of course, been about the social media and the Super Bowl. Here are a list of great articles I came across about how brands used social media for the big game:

Before

PRNewser’s Study: Doritos, M&Ms, and more score perception bumps with super bowl previews – As we know, brands now release their big super bowl ads before the game. What is the effect? This article explores.

Strategy

audi_snapchat

Fast Company had a great article looking at Audi’s plan for the big game. While many were talking about the dog commercial, what went unnoticed by many was Audi being an early adopter of using Snapchat for advertising. From the reactions I saw via Twitter, people seemed to enjoy Audi’s Snapchat photo memes.  Missed them? They were only around for 24 hours (unlike the 10 second limit for interpersonal messages). These messages were unbranded, and not related to cars. Here is one review. Personally, I applaud Audi for trying something new and different!

Winners and Losers

But the big question is often who are the “winners” and “losers” after all is said and done? Opinions of course vary, but you’ll see some trends emerge on these articles.

PR Daily’s “Social media ups and downs for Super Bowl advertisers” –

Marketing Land’s “25 Most Fantastic Social Media Updates From Brands During the Super Bowl“

And The Metrics?

Here are some interesting stats from AllTwitter, including noting that game-related Tweets increased by 800,000 from last year.

And Media Bistro put together an insightful infographic of the social chatter, including a look at sentiment for different brands.

So what was my favorite Super Bowl ad? Putting everything aside, I have to say… Radio Shack’s #InWithTheNew 80s giveaway.

Really!?

Talk about the 80s in your ad (oh, nostalgia! My love for the 80s is only eclipsed by my love for the 90s), give away a table-top Pac Man arcade (I spent many of my high school years saving up for one of these only to never get a chance to buy it!) via Twitter to increase engagement, and you’ve got my attention. Doesn’t that make them the big winner? No. I’m not sure what Radio Shack’s future is… they tried to rebrand themselves to “The Shack” just a few years ago. And I honestly don’t know how long they’ll be around. But I loved the commercial… but it looks like despite my Tweet, I didn’t win that arcade game.

Maybe next year!

That’s all for now! I am hoping for warmer weather and less snow in the coming weeks. Though if my WeatherBug app is correct, I won’t get what I wished for. 😛

-Cheers!

Matt

Activities and Events, Classes, Social Media, Teaching Social Media

Born to Blog author talks social media challenges, opportunities, and more!

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I always learn so much from our guest speakers! This week we were very fortunate to have the author of our class text, Born to Blog, Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer) Skype with our class.


If you aren’t familiar with Mark, he is a very well-known name in the social media field, author of the popular Grow blog, a sought after consultant, and the author of Born to Blog (a book I’ve reviewed on this site and which inspired me to start this blog), and another great book I’ve read Tao of Twitter. I haven’t read his 2nd book, Return on Influence, but I hope to soon.

Here are some highlights from his presentation to this semester’s Comm 322 Social Media class.

Challenges and Opportunities in Social Media – Mark said that a major challenge today is information density. Today, we have so much information that people are reaching information paralysis. How do companies adapt and thrive in this space, with so much competing for our attention? Though not specifically about information density, the article “How the physics of social media could kill your marketing strategy” offers what I believe is a good look at the general issue.

Why do some businesses succeed on social media and others fail? Mark said it really boils down to corporate culture. Questions that come to mind after hearing Mark discuss this topic are: Does the company understand and embrace the social space? Are they agile and responsive? Do they want to adapt?

What Metrics Matter?: Since I’ve been seeking to teach my students basics of Google Analytics, the importance of, and how to track metrics, I ask guest bloggers what metrics matter to them. When asked what the key metrics he tracks are, Mark said there was one that matters: returning visitors. Are they coming back? If people come back, eventually they’ll bring their friends. Traffic doesn’t create business benefits. Returning visitors do.

We’re All Students – the media landscape shifts so rapidly, it is difficult to be an expert. We all are students. And we should strive to keep learning and adapting. As a professor, I loved hearing this reminder. I am always looking to learn, change, grow, and adapt and it is great to hear someone with as much experience as Mark talking about the importance of being a lifelong learner!

Tips and Advice for Students

The Power of Blogging for Students – Mark echoed another class guest, Nate Bagley, when he encouraged students to blog, build an audience, and create meaningful content. He said that it was a valuable tool to show potential employers that you can build and sustain an audience. He said that often times he finds students or grad students are not blogging, and was glad to see students in our class were blogging as a semester long project. I was, of course, very happy to hear this. 🙂 So students, if you’re reading this, keep blogging!

Know Stats – Mark said education in stats is important. Increasingly, data and numbers are driving online business. You don’t have to be an expert, but you need to be able to ask questions and the ability to think critically, and choose the statistical analysis needed to answer those questions. While many students were probably grumpy to hear this, I agree completely. Stats and research methods are more important than ever.

It is not often that students get to speak directly with the author of a class text, and it meant a lot to me for students to get this wonderful opportunity. So thank you so much to Mark for being so generous with his time and knowledge!

-Cheers!

Matt

Tech Trends and Analysis

Web Roundup: Social Media Education Infographic; Zimmerman juror book deal sabotaged; Cool Professors; More!

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This week flew by! Today’s Web Roundup contains a variety of articles.

 Search:

This week’s subject has been search, as on Monday I published a post on Snickers use of search in a very creative campaign – if you haven’t seen it, check it out!  In an article “Why search is much bigger than you can measure,” Chris Penn talks about some of the ways in which web traffic from search is being masked, preventing us from realizing the true volume of people who are being referred to our site from search.

Social Media and Education:

Recently, Karen Freberg (@kfreberg) Tweeted a great article with Infographics from MediaBistro on social media and education. Of course I agree with the article that: “Social media has revolutionised many industries, but it’s perhaps its impact on the classroom, and the education system as a whole, that is the most striking.” There is a lot of interesting data here. A few things that stuck out to me:

59% of students who use social networks talk about education topics online

50% of those who talk about education online talk specifically about schoolwork.

Also, there is a great infographic exploring just some of the benefits of using social media in school for teachers, students, and parents. There is also another infographic showing the uses of a variety of social media tools to enhance the classroom.

Current Events and Social Media

“Twitter user swiftly sabotages Zimmerman juror’s book deal“ on Yahoo news – With the outpouring of emotion and opinion regarding the verdict in the George Zimmerman case, one person turned to Twitter in an attempt to block a juror in the case from getting the book deal. She succeeded. Here again we see the power of social media to rally support for/against an event. I’m not so sure such the effort could have succeeded in the pre-social media age, or at least so quickly (The article claims she succeeded in 6 hours!) The decision by the Martin Literary Agency to seek to publish a book on the controversial trial has certainly left many people shaking their head. The agency was forced to respond to social pressure and did so quickly, releasing a statement. What do you think about how the Martin Literary Agency responded to this situation?

Friday Fun!

Lastly, just for fun:

I’ve seen a lot of creative professors over the years. This photo album of “18 clues that your professor is cooler than you” shows just how witty professors can be!

If you’re an old school Internet nerd like me, you’ll appreciate this list of “Things that will make you miss the old days of the Internet” from the masters of the web list, BuzzFeed Rewind. Take a walk down memory lane with classic screen savers, AOL, the comforting sounds of dialup, and much more!

Dr. K Roundup

In personal news, my wife Kelin and I will be getting our very first puppy later this month, a bergamasco! My wife grew up with dogs but this is all new to me! I’ve been reading a lot of Cesar Millan books! I’m considering joining Instagram or another photo-sharing social site to share photos of our new dog experience. My Instagram knowledge is rather limited, so this may be a fun way to get up to date on this burgeoning social network. If you’ve got any thoughts on what the best photo apps are, or have any tips and tools, I’d love your input.

Hope to see you at #AEJMC next week! Have a great weekend.

Cheers!
-Matt

photo: CC opensourceway.

Tech Trends and Analysis

Web Roundup: Content Marketing: Does it matter?, Big Data and Politics (7/12/13)

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coffee

Happy Friday! Here are some great articles from around the web that caught my attention this week.

For the politics and social media lovers:

  • Election 2016: How Big Data + Social Data Will Determine the Next President – A must read for an interesting perspective on the future of social data and micro-targeting! I find big data and predictive analytics both fascinating and scary. It seems things have shifted. It used to be campaigns took their cues from business tactics. With the costs of presidential campaigns skyrocketing, it seems the tables have turned. This article discusses the innovations of 2008 and 2012 and what they may mean for the 2016 election.

But the big theme this week is something I’ve talked a lot about on this blog content marketing:

  • Gary Schirr asks “Is content marketing the NEW new thing?” with some thought-provoking Google trend graphs showing the exponential growth in search volume for “content marketing” versus other popular marketing trends. As the data shows, there is no question – content marketing is as popular a term as ever.
  • Mark Schaefer proclaims “Why Content Marketing is a ‘do-over’ for social media – arguing that content marketing offers a new and exciting opportunity for online marketing in response to what Mark sees as a failure of social media marketing. The upside, according to Mark, is that content marketing represents a maturation of the field. To me, the failure is the ‘out-the-box’ approach to social media, or as Mark describes it: checking it off the list. Still, it is interesting to hear someone call social media marketing a failure. I’d say the failure sounds more like a failure of social media marketers.
  • And Robert Wynne offers the “real story” of content marketing – where he examines whether content marketing is something new or a buzzword for something that’s been with us for a long time.

Have a great weekend!

– Cheers, Matt