MKTG 348 - Week 6 - Popular keywords

Google and many other search engines are used daily by billions of people throughout the world. They used for further research, questions on specific topics, or even locating specific searched documents. All are found on search engines using specific keywords. What I wanted to learn about was what were the most popular keyword searches for each specific search engine. Luckily anybody else wanting to know the same information can find out the answer by using several different options from each search engine provided. For example, Google has Google Trends, which allow you to look into Google's database of different searches to see what is popular among the keywords used to search and locate different information. Another example is Yahoo Buzz Log, which essentially is the same thing. Yahoo Buzz Log will show the top overall keyword searches and rank keyword searches as well.

It is interesting to see what some of the top searches were over the past few years. In 2010, Google had Ipads, Justin Bieber, Facebook, and Katy Perry all in their top ten popular keyword searches. For Bing in 2011, some of their top ten keyword searches consisted of the Casey Anthony trial, Xbox, Osama Bin Laden's death, Justin Bieber and the Iphone 5. In 2012, Yahoo had Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, election, and Iphone 5 all in their top ten most popular searches for the year. Its very interesting to see as the years go by to see which searches remained in the top ten and what popular searches were added to the top ten. This made me think back about many things that occurred during those years.

MKTG 347 - Week 5 - LinkedIn utilization

I have just recently created a LinkedIn profile and I am still unfamiliar with a lot of the different tools and ways of utilizing LinkedIn. Now that I am finishing up my last semester in college and looking into specific jobs to apply for, I figured it was about time I finally create a LinkedIn profile to help brand myself in a professional and positive manner. What I did not realize when I first started creating the profile was how much information you can add to your profile. You can add things such as past jobs, community service/volunteer service, and many more information that will help improve your personal branding.

This article really helps people think of better ways to personal brand themselves and utilized LinkedIn in a more efficient and effective manner. LinkedIn is such a great way for businesses to recognize you and also for business to business marketing. Rocking your profile is the main focus on this LinkedIn article I read. In interesting fact I read was that you are 11 times more likely to be viewed on LinkedIn if you have a photo. The photo also needs to look professional too and cannot just be a random photo you find from Facebook or Instagram. Another interesting fact was that people viewing your profile increases by 13 times if you list your skills and experiences. These are facts I had no idea mattered so much when personal branding yourself.

MKTG 348 - Week 5 - SEO Impact

Google has been one of the premiere search engines used throughout the country and even throughout the world. Google has been making it easier for everybody to find information quicker and more efficient than ever before and they continue to figure out ways to improve their search engine to make things even easier for everybody. Google has been around since the late 90's and continues to impress individuals with multiple pages worth of links containing the information the individual searched for.

After reading about Google in a Huffington Post, I also found out that Google has helped with your brain function as well. Gary Small, a professor from UCLA who studies the aging brain conducted a test with 24 subjects. 12 people who use search engines often and 12 who do not. He gave them all an MRI while they used Google and found an increase in brain activity. He was able to see an increase in activity in many different regions of the brain. Most of the regions were located in the decision making and complex reasoning and vision parts of the brain. He also noticed that the individuals who use search engines more often had twice as much brain activity than the individuals who rarely used search engines. Its amazing to see how Google can make such an impact to our brains without us even knowing about it.

MKTG 347 - Week 4 - Facebook Demographics

I was curious to figure out what the demographics of Facebook were lately. I have been hearing lately that Facebook is becoming more and more popular for adults around the age of 50. I have noticed an increase of people around that age around my hometown and wanted to see if this is something that is trending across the country. My parents have recently entered the Facebook world and now I have noticed that many of their friends around the neighborhood, along with friends they grew up with from their hometowns are creating Facebook accounts as well.

I searched "Facebook demographics" on Google and was able to find a website that had some interesting information regarding Facebook's recent demographics. According to pewinternet.org, "Fully 72% of online American adults use Facebook." I would have thought the percent would be lower because I had no idea so many adults were on Facebook now. The website goes into more detail with specific are groups: 82% of adults ages 18-29 use Facebook, 79% of ages 30-49, and 64% of ages 50-64. After reading those numbers, it makes a lot more sense to me why my parents and their friends are all creating Facebook accounts and entering the world of social media.

MKTG 347 - Week 4 - WCIYP/Social Media Marketing Chapter 3

Job-hunting can be stressful and nerve-wracking because there is so much pressure on you to impress the employer in order for them to potentially hire you. Job-hunting can be a whole job itself. Many hours of preparation are required in order to land the specific job each person is looking for. Whether it is practicing what you're going to say in front of the mirror, researching specific information on the company you are interviewing for, gathering information on the owner or CEO of the company, all of those options take time and rehearsal in order to feel mentally prepared for the interview.

What I really enjoyed reading about was the fact that we as the person being interviewed do not need to feel powerless when interacting with the employer interviewing us. The employer has more power than us during the interview process, but that does not mean you as the interviewee do not need to feel powerless. When the company wants to hire you, the final decision from there comes down to the interviewee, not the interviewer. Both books made great points that I did not really think about at first. I am currently going through the interview process myself and this made me feel a lot better about the upcoming interviews I have.

MKTG 348 - Week 4 - Buyer Persona

This past week we learned about buyer personas and we were able to choose three different buyer personas for our website for the class (rgbexchange) and explain a little bit of information of each buyer persona. I chose three different generational age groups: the baby boomers, generation X, and generation Z. I thought those three generational age groups would be a good choice because each group is completely different than the next and its interesting to see how each generational age group functions on a daily basis.

I found generation Z to be more technologically advanced and have shorter attention spans than the baby boomers. This could possibly be due to the fact that technology is becoming more and more apart of our everyday lives for the younger age groups. The baby boomers never had to deal with smart phones, social media, or tablets when they were around the age of the generational age group of generation Z. Generation X is right in the middle of those two generations and its also interesting to see how they interact on a daily basis. Some are like generation Z and some are like the baby boomers.

MKTG 347 - Week 3 - Chapter 2

Chapter two talks about how in today's world and with technology far more advanced, Google has essentially became the new "resume" for companies to look at when looking to hire future employees.  Its funny to think about how several years ago employers looked at only the resume that the individual applying for the job created. The employer had to base his decision off of the resume and the interview. Now, they have people searching their social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media to see how the applicant is on a daily basis and away from work. This can benefit some applicants, but also really hurt the chances of being hired of other applicants.

I was happy that the chapter also had tips on how to build your "Google Resume". The four steps to helping you build your "Google Resume" are: Edit, Fill, Expand, and Add. Each step had a detailed explanation of what that meant and gave examples of how to do each step. Edit for example, consisted of getting rid of posts with bad grammar, inappropriate, or anything that would have the employer thinking "maybe this isn't the guy for us.".

MKTG 347- Week 3 - Facebook Page Creation

This week in class we were required to make a Facebook page and then post it in the LinkedIn group discussion all the classmates are apart of. I decided to make my Facebook page about the Chicago Bulls. I am a huge fan of the NBA and more specifically, the Chicago Bulls. I have been a fan for as long as I can remember. I have been through the good and the bad with the Bulls. Unfortunately I was too young to see the glory days of Michael Jordan and those successful Chicago Bulls teams. I was lucky enough to see the Bulls draft Derrick Rose and watch him become the youngest MVP in NBA history though. I also witnessed one of the more tragic injuries an athlete can suffer, a torn ACL. It was a nightmare I will never forget when I watched Derrick Rose tear his ACL on TV. I continue to this day though as being a diehard Chicago Bulls fan and I figured what better page to create on Facebook than to create a Chicago Bulls Fan page that contained the latest news, updates and rumors for the Bulls.

I never realized how simple it was to make a page on Facebook. When I first read the assignment on LinkedIn, I thought this was going to be something very difficult to create and also being a very long process, but it actually ended up being something very simple and I would definitely use it again when I think of another page to create.

https://www.facebook.com/chicagobullsnation/?skip_nax_wizard=true

MKTG348 - Week 3 - rgbexchange/social media post

I have posted my specific article on www.rgbexchange.org to two social media websites. I have posted my article to Facebook and LinkedIn. These are two very common social media websites and I am hoping that my friends from both websites will take a look at my article in order to raise the popularity of the rgbexchange website. I have a lot more friends on Facebook since I have had that for years now compared to my recently created LinkedIn account, so I am hoping the Facebook post is somewhat effective because I am not so sure how effective the LinkedIn post will be for me personally.

Part of the assignment also required us to think of a few ways to help improve our article. I believe my article could use a little more content. Right now, the article is rather broad or vague, and I would like to have it more detailed and include specifics of some of the tips and ideas that the fundraising idea website (fundly.com) provides. They had some very good ideas on the website and they deserve the credit and recognition instead of just summarizing it like the way I did on my article. I also believe I should add more detail in why I chose military and veteran fundraising. There are many different fundraisers that all deserve to be promoted, but I chose military and fundraising and I should explain why I chose that specific type over the other types. http://www.rgbexchange.org/nonprofits/fundraising/fundly-com-overview

MKTG 348 - Week 2 - Fundraiser selection

This past week we were to find a fundraiser idea website of our choice. I chose a website that was easy to find, had a good variety of fundraisers and creative ideas and tips for each one. I chose fundly.com. More specifically, when I went into the website I chose the military and veteran fundraising ideas and tips because I truly believe you can never have too many fundraisers for the men and women risking their lives for their country and all the veterans who have served for our country. They need to be appreciated and I even believe they should be even more appreciated than the credit we already give them.

One of the cool ideas the website had was to detail your cause. It seems so simple, but if you think about it, many fundraisers don't have a specific and detailed cause. So for the military and veterans specific ideas fundly.com had, they provided examples such as helping the surviving family members of a fallen soldier, cover additional medical expenses of a wounded soldier, supporting soldiers dealing with emotional trauma from their past tours, train service dogs to help soldiers with PTSD, and provide career assistance and job placement for veterans. All these ideas were a lot more specific compared to just fundraising for the military which would help differentiate from other military fundraiser groups.