I am the trifecta!
Mobile & Youth Engagement with Curt Prins and Lisa Foote
Presenting on using mobile to engage youth, experts in the field Curt Prins and Lisa Foote did an amazing job of explaining how the youth of this new world we live in will eventually interact with each other. With 2,272 text messages being sent out on average A MONTH, there is a new wave of communication going around our young adults. The old fashion note passing is nearing death, under the desk typing is in (sucks for those kids with iPhones). 73% of these young adults are using social media and they are using it on their phones! These kids are now having 5 different conversations at once, and not paying attention to their surroundings, which has been a major safety concern in many states.
What I found fascinating is that MySpace is still the major platform for kids in the rural areas and southern states; while the urban/suburban kids stick with Facebook. I would have guessed the market share was distinctly dying for MySpace but I guess not!
The youth will take over the market, and my prediction is everything will eventually go mobile, to the point of no more sms alerts, you are looking at most kids having the data plans, and with that comes the kid who's parent's won't give him the phone with the data plan and he is stuck being 'lame.'
What is relevance? According to our session, it's many things. Relevance is how something relates to yourself, your client, your surroundings, and/or your environment. Design is an imperative step in this process of communicating relevance to anyone. Humans are emotional creatures. We react positively when we have a good experience and vis versa. This session focused on being relevant in today's world, as well as, maintaing credibililty throughout this transition from a sectioned world to the flat version.
Amazing Quotes from the session:
"Experiments can lead to beautiful things."
"Design affects perceived credibility."
"Brand awareness affects evaluation of performance."
"Good marketing can improve a bad products, yet good products can be affected with bad marketing."
So what do people want?
Ease.
Functionality.
Asethics.
Legitamite.
Important.
Common Sense.
Appreciative.
Social Media Research with Dan Frankowski
Social media to research. I would love to see more companies doing this. Would this set Minnesota ahead of the rest? Possibly! This session focused on researching using social media. Using Twitter/Facebook/Social Media in general to "listen to learn."
We can engage with our social media by responding, we can monitor silently by looking at brand reputation, product opinions, and we can research to see what others are saying about us. We can utilize this to gain insight into our brands. What are people feeling? Do they like what they see? Using their share of voice, you can see where your brand is heading. To research use the following list of places to start:
What you choose to do with the information you find is up to you, and your brand. Get more out of your brand, take action using this new media! Share YOUR voice!
Selling Social Media To Executives with Andrew Eklund & Meghan Seawall
How can you sell social media, a new communication standard, to executives who can be (let's just be honest) somewhat closed minded to new ideas? This was the topic of debate in the session that was (in unsummit fashion) merged with Meghan Seawall's presentation about Employees Representing Organizations Online.
Understanding how executives tend to think is important to understand. You need tangible items, numbers with most of these people. They don't care how 'cool' it might be, if there are no numbers to back it up, what does it matter. Also, wording your pitch is extremely important.
We use... Followers .... Could use... Hand raisers.
We use... Fans.... Could use... Advocates.
We use...Tweet, Post, Message.... Could use... Communicate.
Traditional advertising is dying. Social Media and Internet are taking the lead.
Profound findings can come from the unknown. Unsummit4 was full of information, innovation and intelligence from many different subject matter experts. With the day packed full of amazing sessions, it was hard to boil it down to what I wanted to do. Being a social media nerd, I found most of my time spent learning about new 'best practices.'
Foursquare with Christopher Lower
This session was a great 101 on Foursquare which will prepare me for JMU612. In April 2010 alone, 1 million users had logged on and were active on Foursquare1. When this number was stated, I couldn't believe the reach that Foursquare now has. Businesses need to start utilizing the amazing amenties it could bring to their table. Think about it, specifically in retail we are always wanting to reward loyal customers. What better way then to follow industry leader, Starbucks, and create a 'mayor' reward! I think its time to seriously think about change!
What this session came down to was that while Foursquare is really hitting the market, they need to flush out their business practices...now.
I am the trifecta!
I am the trifecta!
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