Blogging about Blogging



To blog are not to blog, ummm

So as part of a class assignment I had to write 10 Blogs. Let’s start with what I liked and what I dint like. Ok well heres a few bullet points of what I did like:

• It’s cheap
• It’s easy ( you don’t need to be a computer genius to write a blog )
• It’s search engine friendly (although I might cringe a bit at the idea of people actually reading this, especially my poem)

Lastly in some ways it was fun, I enjoy writing and like been able to express myself. Some of the topics we had to write on did not interest me as much as others, but once I got writing I realised I had a lot to say. The public nature of blogs made me a bit uneasy. That soon went away after a while.The article on the flowing link raises some good points:

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/elsua/10-great-strategic-benefits-of-blogging-9233
 

It made me start thinking what blogging could do for business

I suppose in my final year of marketing I should be looking at everything from a business perspective.  The fact that it is search engine friendly defiantly creates a big appeal but there’s more than just that it is sure to make your business more accessible to customers and build a good deal of brand awareness. It’s a two way platform as customers are able to comment and in turn it’s also building relationships and gives a unique insight into your customers.

Mobile commerce helping build relationships

Mobile commerce, when this topic first arose in class I thought of my mobile phone and all the things it can do. So I had a look at a few examples of what M-Commerce is being used for, which can be seen in the image below.

It was clear that communicating with customers through their mobiles was a very valuable observation and then I thought of why. Here are some of the contributing factors I feel are at the forefront. But first lets get are head around the idea with this great video I found on YouTube





Customer’s needs wants and expectations are constantly changing, in a world ever increasingly lead by innovation customers will seek new technology based ways to serve their wants/needs.

Due to mobile phones and the internet people are more connected than ever. I want you to imagine a person you know (someone that is not with you now) and think of all the ways you can communicate with them. The list is massive, call, text, email, Facebook, skype and may more.

How many of these do you have?

Word of mouth is a valuable asset here; imagine you were to get a text from a business telling you their product is great. What would you trust more that, or a message from your friends “wow Andrea that new products great, works a treat!” I bet you thought no.2, I sure did. Customers respond better to companies that try and build relationships with them. M-commerce allows for this trough customer service with the use of technology.

Businesses are also changing the way they do things; they want new and exciting ways to build an active relationship with customers. The best thing about technology is that the relationship is two sided. Not only can business communicate with their customers but customers can also communicate back! The part that I find most interesting is that not all these methods are of a high cost smaller business can now find lots of useful tools online such as Facebook and email, these can all be communicated trough mobile devices. How many people do you know that do not have a mobile phone? I bet you can’t name very many and hence the target market expands.

Talking about the bold stuff!

The Online adult industry what exactly is it all about?

When this topic was first raised in class I was very surprised. Then I began to look at the facts presented to us. Facts that are lecturer told us included the following:

•        Some sites have reported as many as 50 million hits
•   6.5% of the male internet population report spending nearly 6 hours per week engaging in cybersex
• Pornographic websites are making 4.2 million that 12% of total websites!

Check this video out for more shocking facts!

From what I have studied I can see that there is vast profits to be made in the industry but I can also see that see that it is hidden in the closest and rarely talked about. At this very moment I am sitting in my college library writing this blog post. My internet at home isn’t working at the moment, I’m afraid of my life to be seen watching the above video or for anyone to see the word porn popping up on my screen. I’m not doing anything illegal merely looking at the information on the topic yet for reason that’s not ok in today’s society.  I can understand why and at the same time I kind of agree. 

Hiding?

One thing that can’t be denied is the innovation and technology based advances rooted in the industry.  These include the videos, payment systems, live chats, security features, advertising methods and the keen focus on creating more and more profits. It can’t be doubted that as people in business we have a lot to learn from the industry even if we don’t agree with what they are doing.

Setting Standards

Web standards and accessibility is a very important topic in my opinion. Web standards refers to a set of standards put in place by the WSC further information can be found on webstandards.org.

It mainly refers to how code used in web pages should be written. I would have never understood the importance of this until we started using code in class and furthermore we were shown a firsthand example of a blind person using the web. She was a lecturer from are college and show us how she used a programme called JAWS to surf the web. So many factors were at play that decided if her browsing was going to be an easy process or a torture! Anti-virus software, the speed of the internet and of course the code it’s self to name a few. Heres a quick example I found on YouTube.

         


It is not only blind people that have accessibility issues on the web, its people of all disability types including deaf people. What I don’t understand is how the WSC could please everyone. So I did a bit of research and I can see that of course they can’t. What they can do is provide the greatest benefit for the largest number of visitors that they can. They also consider other elements such as does this help in the long term or just short term and does the help provided work on different types of browsers software and devices ( such as mobile phones ).

So I’m studying marketing and although I think it’s quite clear these standards are important from a human rights and equality perspective I can also see that it is valuable to return on investment within business. The name of the game for business is reaching a larger target audience and making your website more accessible can do just that.

Reach for your customers

The Expression behind Expressionism

Like I have mentioned before I used to study art. One of my favourite genres of Art has always been Expressionism.

I think art is one of the most pure ways to express yourself and like everything art has a number of different areas.I would consider expressionism one of the greatest art movements of our time, not only in art but in dance music and literature.

There is a certain vagueness and open endness about the term expressionism it can be understood on a Varity of different Levels and has eluded all attempts to give a precise definition. Expressionism was a very short period and was not limited to fine art. What these artists depicted was a simple organic symbiosis based on the rhythm of nature. If you not familiar with expressionism below is a collage of the work of one famous artist Salvador Dalí.

Another artist I love is Arshile Gorky. He once said the following about his work

 ‘’I like the heat the tenderness the edible the lusciousness the song of a single person the bathtub full of water to bathe myself beneath the water… I like the wheatfields the plough the apricots those flirts of the sun.  But bread above all.”

I love this! The very words bring his work to life, you can taste the passion in these words. This quote leads me to draw up assumptions of what expressionism is, it is feelings and emotions put to paper. It’s the human mind drawn.

One of my favorite expressionist works was “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.

I wanted so badly to capture this emotion in my work. Below are some of pieces inspired by expressionist work, its quite clear they will never macth up to the greats like Edvard Munch and Henri De Toulouse but its good to try.

                  

Digital marketing From a Marketers Perspective

So why is Digital Marketing good? The name of the game has always been rooted in the size of your customer base. Digital Marketing widens this scope greatly! It's not just all hear say, it has been proven that investment in online efforts has been greatly beneficial to the success of your campaign.

As a marketer I feel Digital Marketing is no longer an optional part of your campaign it is simply essential for a number of reasons:

• It gives results
• Adds much needed impact
•  The success of online efforts is far more measurable than traditional efforts
• The reach/scope of this efforts is far greater which is a great asset for brand awareness
• The audience can be very influential ( such as young users )
•  It’s cheaper! Online efforts simply do not cost as much as the traditional endeavours

Michael Heraghty explains the topic well in  his article entitled “How to Get Googled”

http://www.heraghty.net/publications/articles/how-to-get-googled/

 

Lets look at another point of view I found on YouTube:

I like this video as it sums up some very good points. Another important thing to remember is that although the media is cheap the content is not its uses valuable time and resources, which in my opinion are merited.  Google is the top player and if we want to get noticed we need to try are best to get to the top of Google. If you Google my blog you won’t find me at the top so maybe I have perfected that one just yet!  

“Fear” A poem by Andrea Coffey

I studied Art Craft and Design for a year before I began business in DKIT. While doing so we partook in some creative writing classes. I chose to write some poems instead of short stories. Here is one of the pieces I wrote entitled “Fear”.  It was inspired by the rise and fall of one of my favourite Artists.

I love the colours in this

Fear

I fear this woman as she sits in the old wooden rocking chair

Swaying back and forth,

The wrinkled vessel cradled in its solemn arms.

She grins to reveal a gleaming row of yellow stained teeth

Her face soon changes now,

A wrinkled crooked smile to hide a crooked soul.

I fear this woman, the smoke of sins envelopes her

Consumes her whole

She gazes at the clock above her head

Although time has no bearing on her anymore,

It meant something to her once upon a time

Like the fairytales her mother used to tell.

The hands of time stretch out to reach the frail old woman

They begin to choke her essence

A tight suffocating grip accompanied by a whisper in the winds

Beckoning the end of days

She was young once a wasted life she let slip away

One day, one day soon her black soul will become part of the winds.

I fear this woman

I mourn her life, her chosen path

I fear this woman

As she gazes in the mirror

A tired wrinkled face gazes back at me

I fear this reflection but most of all

I fear this woman as she is me.