Taken from http://rvtechsolutions.com/socialmediabreakfast/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/social-media1.jpg

As everyone is well aware, there were many commercials throughout the superbowl that contained hashtags and URLs. I think this was the first time I realized, truly, how much impact social media has had on our society and advertising techniques. I had seen hashtags throughout shows and URLs in ads before, however, the common trend of these social media techniques throughout the Super Bowl was astonishing. This is why I wanted to share some of my favorite cross-marketing commercials. I should warn you – I am a sap, therefore, these commercials can be seen as corny, sentimental or inspirational. Whether you’re a sap or not, I hope you enjoy the use of social media within the advertisements.

1. Budweiser – Super Bowl 2013 – Twitter – #Clydesdales

2. Jeep – OSR/USO Commercial 2013 – URL – Jeep.com/OSR

  

 3. P&G – Olympics 2012 – Facebook – /ThankYouMom

Do you have any other cross-marketing commercials? Let me know your thoughts!

Taken from http://www.adweek.com/files/mac-and-pc.jpg

There are certain tools I have been introduced to that make my SEO job much easier. There are other tools that would make my job impossible to accomplish. A computer is one of these tools that my job is centered around (well, that and the internet). Anyway, this fact brings me to the Mac vs. PC debate. I personally use a Mac laptop and have done so for two years. However, I use a PC (with dual monitors) at SEER Interactive and would not change anything. Regardless of my stance on this topic, many people believe Macs have come out on top. Yet, does their social media presence also beat out the PCs? Click on the image below to take a look at an infographic made in 2010 by students in this class comparing the social media presence of Apple Inc. and Windows.

Taken from trickmaker.weebly.com

So, as you can see Apple Inc. won the social media battle in two of the three rounds. They lost to Microsoft in regards to Facebook followers, however, that was in 2010. What about know?

Mac vs. PC The Social Media Standoff	Taken from findicons.com	Taken from findicons.com
Taken from findicons.com	9,015,663 “likes”	2,438,556 “likes”
Taken from findicons.com	1,198,510 Subscribers	140,965 Subscribers
Taken from findicons.com	1,567,031 (App Store) “followers”	530,694 “followers”

It looks like Apple Inc. and the Mac have made a clean sweep through the social media platforms and have come out on top as the ultimate victor. The Apple Inc. social media presence has increased by a significant amount in each category over the past 3 years. Very impressive growth!

Let me know what you think about the Mac vs. PC debate? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

I created an .IFTTT account for class that offers another way for social media accounts to be linked. You start by activating the social media channels you want affected. Then you create what they call “recipes.” These recipes will compile the specified information from the chosen social media sites and post it to whatever other social site you have requested.

I decided to link my WhatSERP Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare accounts with .IFTTT.  My recipes are the following:

Screen shot from IFTTT account

I decided to linke those networks because they make for good, fun, easy posts. Pictures and check-ins are not overwhelming to followers and tend to be more entertaining then submitting a new blog post to every social media account possible. The pictures are fun to look and and check-ins are interesting and short. Hopefully, my followers agree with this thought process.

Taken from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8j_h2SV5X_g/UDHJePRn2hI/AAAAAAAABm0/1_ecnFOFxwc/s1600/twitter-facebook.jpg

In the  presentation it was stated that in 2010 Sean Ellis termed a coined the term “growth hacking.” This phrase refers to “a person whose true north is growth.” They are a “hybrid of marketer and coder” according to Andrew Chen. Another definition is “a set of tactics and best practices for dealing with the problem of user growth.”  This problem is seen by almost every application/game/service that has every come to fruition. Two mobile applications that have followed these “growth hacks” in my opinion is Facebook and Twitter.

Some characteristics of “growth hacking” are specific to either Facebook or Twitter such as the email notifications sent out almost every week, if not more often. Twitter is most notorious for this practice. Just like Facebook is more notorious for “killing a feature.” The site tends to take away a feature on the site to see how the users react. If they react poorly, they give the users back what they wanted but even better than before. If the users don’t complain, they remove the feature permanently. I remember this occurred when Facebook was creating the new look.

Both social media sites have followed certain “growth hacking” patterns. Minimal home pages arevery attractive to users and their delay time is very short. This delay time is important because according to the presentation “a 1 second delay in a page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.” Finally, they both also have wonderful integration among different platforms meaning the likelihood of people sharing on their sites increases immensely. 

The video is fairly short (1 minute and 27 seconds), therefore, it was not too long for people to watch. In fact, most of the people that said they watched it said they watched it a few times. They also mentioned that their reasoning for watching it repeatedly was due to the catchy background song (“It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons).

I promoted the video via two forms of social media – Facebook and Twitter. I first asked my friends to watch the video through a Facebook status and a Tweet on both my personal Twitter and my WhatSERP account.  When those numbers began to plateau I started asking people individually for views and/or likes and to share it with a friend.  I reached 10 likes and 100 views in no time thanks to persistent posts and requests.

I recently joined both Klout and PeerIndex for my Thursday night class, Social Media Innovations (MIS3538). For starters, I linked as many of the accounts that are associated with this blog as possible on each site. For those of you that don’t know, these sites are used to show your influence online. You are ranked on a 0-100 scale based upon your different social media accounts and your activity on them. For this class, other than this blog, I have created social media accounts with Twitter (WhatSERP), Tumblr (WhatSERP), Vine (WhatSERP Blog), Pintrest (WhatSERP Blog), Instagram (WhatSERP), and Foursquare (What SERP).  My WhatSERP accounts were given a 39 on Klout and a 23 on PeerIndex. I can see many reasons for the discrepancy in scores.

I noticed many differences between Klout and PeerIndex but the major difference happened to be the accounts it allowed me to link with their site. Klout gave me a much larger selection of social media sites that I could link to, however, I was unable to link my blog because the domain name is for my social media class, not for my site specifically. PeerIndex did not allow me to link my WhatSERP Foursquare, Instagram, or Tumblr accounts, yet, it did allow me to link my blog. The lack of sites it allowed me to link may be the reason my score is so much lower on that site.

Overall, I enjoy the use of Klout more. I was disappointed that I could not link my blog, however, many more sites were allowed access which made it the better site over PeerIndex, in my opinion. Below is a chart listing the sites I connected to each site and the score I was given.

My score on Klout is 33