My COM 300 course experience

Upon checking out an online Vintage clothing store business, recommended by my sister, I came across the fact that this lovely online store did all of its business transactions on e-bay, and it also had a link to a hip and spiffy myspace page.  When I checked out its myspace page, the first thing I did was check out all its top friends.  I think the profile had more than a dozen top friends, all a mixture of what looked like personal contacts/friends, and other local businesses.  Then I check out those businesses if I have time, and see if they’re local and in my area and etc.  I thought that this was a smart and innovative way for a business to advertise itself.  Now I don’t know about the deal of these businesses accessing my personal information on myspace but I, as I’m sure many others, have my privacy settings pretty tight so that only friends can access my information.  Even so, my profile is so generice that this certain business really won’t get much personal information on my profile.  And I am a consumer who discriminates based on the look of the page – if it’s cluttered or just neglected-looking, I might click back and search again.  I also agree with the spam and pop-ups; those are a turn-off but it doesn’t normally deter me from navigating the page unless I’m being bombarded with a huge amount as soon as I get to the page.

 I think that local, small businesses can thrive and do better than they would normally do with some exposure from social networking sites.  It shows to me that they are with the trends and making that extra effort.  Even though small businesses can probably get lost in the sea anyway of all those other advertisements, when a person is making a local search for a business (such as a restaurant, clothing boutique, etc.), a social network profile makes the business seem more personal and friendly. 

Sorry, this is a little bit late because I totally went to the classroom thinking that we were all meeting up as a class even though there was no lecture.

The Columbus Dispatch front page was like a huge, long table of contents with teaser headlines.  The first list was the “up to the minute” news which is great and maybe standard for most websites?  Anyway, I got sort of lost looking for forums and photos.  I could not find a link for news photos until I scrolled down and looked closer at the lower middle right side…it could be listed as something else.  I guess showing all the tabs for a certain section, like all the different teams under the umbrella of sports, may be nice for the person who is a 1-clicker.  I don’t mind doing 2 clicks to find a story but I would see how a person might find it annoying to have to scroll down until I get to a section she likes.

The Democrat and Chronicle looks like your typical, run-of-the-mill news website, sort of plain and 2-toned, with the table of contents on one side, the list is compacted, though, so you would 2-click to find the story or subject you want.  It does not show any teaser videos, you would have to look for them on the videos page.  I like how the biggest headline’s font size is literally like a 14 or something like that.  The way the website suggests which news is most important is probably the order they’re placed top down.  I can decide for myself which is the most important news to read.

In my own experience with e-commerce I do like to read what other customers have to say about a product before I buy it and I think that is a very useful tool of e-commerce.  I also relate to the digital branding; I frequent the same sites for things I need and don’t venture from those sites very often at all.  I really usually buy books and textbooks from Amazon, Amazon sellers and I buy computer stuff from newegg.com; so I think it’s a great concept for companies to sell themselves farther out there with social networking sites.  I don’t know if newegg has forums for users to talk and interact but they do have customer reviews.  I don’t go on the forums but I understand that a lot of people do and according to the articles this tends to keep customers. 

I think that it’s commendable that Circuit City and other companies are using social networking to remain competitive in the industry.  If it helps and builds trust with customers that the company is putting itself out there and willing to see all the feedback that customers have for it then all the better.  I see all kinds of businesses using myspace for advertising space and I think it’s great that they see the commercial value in doing this.  But I think that the emails I get from all kinds of stores becomes sort of annoying.  I’m okay with being reminded by priceline.com or ebay.com that I patronize those places and that there are new deals to take advantage of, but sometimes I just get annoyed by all the junk mail that clogs my account.  Maybe if I got those emails once in a while then it wouldn’t be so annoying. 

 Questions:

1.  How can a company recover from possible consequences of getting bad reviews from customers, for instance a family-owned restaurant that ends up on yelp.com? 

2.  What are companies doing to improve customer service experiences for people who prefer to chat online or use e-mail?

Digital divide:  For those millions of people who still do not have a computer or use the Internet, they will still be reached the traditional way by political campaigns:  telephone, door-to-door, radio, television.  I thought the discussion we had in class about the millions of dollars that political campaigns collect was very revealing:  the reminder that most of these millions of dollars are spent on advertising, and especially television advertising, is astounding.  But I’m guessing that the population of people who actually don’t use the Internet is getting smaller and smaller, and the population of people who do are getting bigger and bigger.  Plus, kids that are being socialized the cultural concept of going online are turning 18 by the numbers and that means more votes.  I wonder if our culture will totally turn away from depending on traditional methods of campaigning and if so, how long it will take for that to happen.  I’m guessing it will be a few generations before traditional media becomes obsolete or less significant.   In the meantime though, the people who are reached through traditional methods aren’t being ignored.  It’s unthinkable that campaigns spend so much on TV advertising. 

I chose another article for the essay titled “Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe.”  It is a broader subject of my original topic.  The origin date of this article was August 11, 2005, and has had at least 500 revisions by, I would like to guess, at least a hundred different authors.  There was a notice in the discussion page that this article is “within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of India-related topics.”  I was very interested by the discussions in class regarding the submarine cables that were cut in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East in the span of what turned out to be a week according to wikipedia.  For this revised essay, I chose the subject because I was interested in just how much cable is connecting people around the globe and who owns all this cable.   

The wikipedia article had an informative introduction.  I believe that the entry I found described just one of many infrastructures of optical fiber cable laid out around the world.  This one is called FLAG – Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe.  FLAG is 28,000 kilometers long and connects the United Kingdom, Japan, and many other countries around the globe.  The next section of the wikipedia entry looks like a laundry list of significant landing points and also segments of the cable.  There are 4 segments with many landing points for each.  The entry itself did not describe what a landing point was but the hyperlink brings me to a page with its definition:  “the location where a submarine or other underwater cable makes landfall.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_landing_point  The segments are the Atlantic (FA-1), Alcatel-Lucent Optical Network (FALCON)(looks to connect primarily Middle East, South Asia), Europe Asia (FEA), and North Asia Loop (FNAL)/Tiger.  There was a short description of January and February 2008 service disruptions that I had read about, when the Internet cables had been severed earlier this month.  I found out that FLAG is owned by India’s Flag Telecom, a “fully-owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications.  The system runs from the eastern coast of North America to Japan” (wikipedia).

The article that I chose to read to compare with the wikipedia entry was ”Analyzing the Internet Collapse,” on ABC News.  The ABC News summarizes the events that took place and goes in-depth on the geographical location and ownership of these cables and the effects that the incident had on specifically named countries and regions.  Also, the article went into depth about how the cables are physically retrieved to be repaired. 

I could have found the information that I had found on this wikipedia entry anywhere on the Internet.  There were 13 references linked to the entry, and most of the titles indicate recent news such as the cable internet damage that happened in February 2008.  I thought this was a good quick-reference to the landing points of the FLAG and I think that the entry could have been written more indepth to include the history of this infrastructure of optical fiber – instead I was cued to click on a bunch of links.  Also, I found it very interesting that the discussion page was virtually not there – there were about two comments posted by authors, and no replies.  This is a stark contrast to the wikipedia entry that I had read earlier about the February 2008 submarine cable disruption – on that latter entry I had checked out the discussion page to find colorful, multiple conversations going on between authors about the content of the entry – one author wanted to remind everyone that wikipedia was to remain as neutral as possible, another author stated in this cable damage discussion that anyone who denied that the cable damage was just a coincidence was a fool and in denial of what’s going on in the world.

I thought that the wikipedia entry was accurate enough and quite verifiable with its dozen references.  I don’t think the entry itself had enough information.  I am guessing that the entry had been edited to the point of censure.  On the other hand, I found the ABC news article more captivating to read because even though the author did seem skeptical in discussing the damage of the submarine cables, the article was much more descriptive and read like a fascinating story that I wanted to read to the end. 

Works cited:

“Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe.”  Wikipedia.  Can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-Optic_Link_Around_the_Globe

search words used: submarine cables

“Analyzing the Internet Collapse,” by John Borland.  ABC News, February 5, 2008.  Can be found at http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4244474&page=1

If we never had to pay for software I would think that a downward spiral of the economy similar to the dot-com bust of post-2000 would happen except at a much more massive scale.  Everything is made of software – from the backbone of our operating systems to everything we use to read information, etc. etc.  Making software free would have one of at least two effects:  it would either turn our software into crap, because software designers will no longer have any incentive to improve their products, or because they have the incentive of being more innovative than the next designer, may start a competition of creativity and ego as they try to create the next big money-making design.  Also, they could go the Unix way and continue a spirit of cooperation, passing on what they have with their modifications. 

The two readings discussed markets and word of mouth as effective marketing.

The Wired article went into detail about the smartness of amazon.com and other online retailers in supplying products that are considered out of mainstream and considered “misses” rather than “hits”. I believe that the Long Tail mentioned in the article is the collection of products that are not mainstream but are still sought after by an audience of people that drive bigger sales over a longer period of time which is just as feasible as selling the hits up front. These online retailers are good for people who are looking for the products that are not popular enough to be at the shelves in real brick-and-mortar stores.

It was very interesting to read markets described as conversations between people and the idea that marketing used to be so personal before mass media and mass production needed marketing to become this generic message of psychological persuasion to a large group of people. The cluetrain manifesto likens the purpose of marketing to putting a large axe in our heads: the jingles, the catch-phrases, and the unconscious message to buy the product. It seems to me that the Wired article already assumes that this is a fact because it doesn’t talk about it too much. The cluetrain takes a more hostile view to marketing, I think, where the Wired magazine just kind of reminded me of the BusinessWeek article that I had earlier: the Wired article has a much more positive tone, talking about the more innovative and effective way that online sellers appeal to customers. Both talk about the effective way to reach out to the consumer, which was appealing to a sense of individuality (Wired: the consumers want products that are not always the bestsellers; Cluetrain: consumers talk to each other before they can trust a product, therefore pay attention to the reviews).

Questions:

1)  How will the role of public relations for smaller companies evolve in the next decade?

 2)  In what way can we bring consumerism back to the time when companies were more personal in selling us their products?  Is it practical; why or why not?

The personal appeal of MySpace is that it seems to transcend generational gaps between age groups.  No matter how old (and apparently young) you are, you can open a MySpace account and be considered in with the times.  Of course, that statement in itself may show my lagging behind in terms of what’s in and what’s not in.  I opened a MySpace account in 2004 and since then have been able to get in touch with friends, old and new.  There were other social networking sites that I remember in the 1990′s such as AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, Friendster, and more.   So while I find it a blessing that I found a venue with which I can continue my relationships with people, I also know that I am a cog in the wheel that forms the bigger picture.  I mean, someone needs to be making money while I log in hundreds and hundreds of precious hours on MySpace.  So I chose the opportunity to read further on how MySpace has become a big business, and what drives the sociological phenomenon of MySpace membership.

 I chose “The MySpace Generation” which I found in BusinessWeek online, and “The MySpace Culture” from a scholarly journal for articles to read and assess for my essay.  Each have the same type of information about the use of social networking sites such as MySpace, and each in its own way addresses concerns such as online privacy and the popularity of these sites among teenagers.  But each has a differing tone in content. 

“The MySpace Generation” article in BusinessWeek was very much a narrative that follows the whereabouts of a small handful of people who made their way into the business of Social Internetworking because of their own needs, namely the need to interconnect with others who share common interests. Amanda Adams, who started at 16, desired to follow a musical group after it had disbanded, created a network with other people who shared her interest in that band. In this network they were able to share music, make CD compilations of favored songs, and then organize what sounds to me like music festivals. These activities caught the attention of Coca-Cola, who paid for advertisement on their websites.

Another story caught in the article was that of Tom Anderson, the creator of MySpace. His original idea was also to network with music bands and log into a designated space where they can share music and information. MySpace became what it is known to be today, through networking and more networking, and also advertising space. The success of these up-and-coming, innovative individuals sky-rocketed and was based on the idea that teenagers will do whatever their friends are doing. That is what keeps the network expanding.

“The MySpace Culture” article from Voices From the Middle was much more formal. The article was full of factoids, such as 75% of tweens and teens aged 9 to 17 make at least weekly accesses to social networking sites. The article has a more psychological/sociological approach to the subject. The biggest appeal of social websites is just that, the opportunity to for teenagers to socialize. One thing I read that I found interesting was that a survey showed that 7 out of 10 teens keep their profiles private, and 91% of MySpace users of minor age left out their full name when registering. I find it most interesting because it means to me that most teenagers are exercising precaution when being online.

The scholarly article definitely seemed more scholarly, shared many facts and explanations for the social behavior of teenagers. The BusinessWeek article was proof that teenagers are a viable customer base. It was written in a positive way, maybe as an example for entrepreneur type people who are inclined to invest in E-business ventures or other fields for social networking.

I think that I had some difficulty in searching for relevant articles for my topic, and perhaps because my search was a little broad. I ended up using the Google Scholar search for my scholarly article because of the difficulty in finding something more recent for my purposes.

Works Cited

Hayes, Sandy.  “The MySpace Culture.”  Voices From the Middle.  Urbana:  Dec 2007.  Volume 15, Issue 2, pg 59, 2 pgs Found at http://proquest.umi.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/pqdweb?did=1405231301&sid=17&Fmt=3&clientId=2302&RQT=309&VName=PQD

In 1983 I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade.  We had a very large computer lab that was equipped with Apple II computers, and it was on these that I learned to type with blinding speed and amazing accuracy.  (Just kidding).  The Apple II’s were great except that I swear I remember we had to boot the disk operating systems manually with those huge floppy disks.  We definitely had to install every software as we needed and there were procedures on how to do everything. 

I think that PC’s must have been very expensive back then and not a lot of people really owned one.  If they did they must have been rich.  I do remember people having Tandy, or Franklin, or IBM computers at that time and I think these were still a novelty – you must have either had too much money to spend or you were a business person who did work at home.  So computers, outside of our classes, were not really a typical part of life as I remember it.  And for us elementary school kids, the computer was basically either a huge video game player or a word processor.