Marketing and Search Engines

The web is a very effective tool for advertising. We live in an age where most of our time is spent on the internet compared to any other form of technology. Knowing this information means that marketers need to advertise on the internet effectively and provide the most relevant information to the consumer.

As we know, the world of marketing is now changing dramatically. This is especially true for marketers who are targeting Generation Y. No longer are the days when advertising was done only through T.V., newspapers, and radio. In today’s world marketers have to use non-traditional methods to get the attention from Generation Y. Generation Y is active, doesn’t watch much T.V., and is on the internet constantly. So what do we do about marketing to this generation? How does a marketer stand out from all the noise that distorts or disrupts a message?

One of the ways to get consumers to pay attention is through effective search engine optimization-SEO ( the process of increasing the probability of a particular company’s web site emerging from the search). This is a way marketers can increase brand recognition with consumers. A marketing excerpt entitled A Web of Interactivity, states that 80% of all web traffic begins at a search engine. This means your company’s web page better appear close to the top of the search results if you want people to visit your site. This also means knowing what key words to include on your site so that it definitely will come up in the search results list.

Overall, a company’s website needs to have salience at its core, come up close to the top of a search engine, and take part in viral marketing (preparing a marketing message that in some way is passed from one consumer to another online)to have the best web interactivity with consumers. People visiting the website and learning relevant information from the site will be more likely to foster brand recognition and brand equity with the company and in turn be able to recall the product at the point -of -purchase.

Social Networking Sites and Your Employer

After reading an article in BusinessWeek entitled, Companies Want to Monitor Workers on Social Networks, I found the topic to be quite debatable. The article states,

“A new survey from Deloitte underscores the growing role of social networks and the dilemma they present for corporations that spend huge amounts to burnish their image. The professional services firm found that 60 percent of the executives interviewed believe they have a right to know how employees portray themselves and their organizations.”

On one hand, your employer shouldn’t be able to tell you what you can and can not do on an online social network; but on the other hand, I can see why companies would want to make sure their employees are representing themselves and the company in a professional manor to the public. However, how would you even be able to monitor something like this?

I think the issue is a tough situation for the employer and the company. I definitely do not think it is fair for a company to have control over your online behavior. The only thing I think a company should be allowed to do is make it known in the company policy book to leave the company name out of content online that is not professional looking to the public. This way the company makes the situation clear to employees, but they are not monitoring your content.

This issue reminds me of a rule at the park district I used to work at. The supervisors would tell all of the camp counselors to not wear our staff shirts out at bars because they did not want that image of the company portrayed to the public. They were not saying we couldn’t go to bars they were saying just don’t associate the organizations names with your actions at a bar. I think that same concept needs to pertain to the online activity issues. If you’re going to have unprofessional content online, just leave the company name off of the site.

However, even with saying to employees, leave the company name off of web content that is unprofessional, how do we deem what is and what is not unprofessional?
It will be hard to define a clear definition of what is and what is not unprofessional to all people. What one person thinks is ok, someone else may not.

The bottom line is the situation is hard to control any way you look at it.

Twitter

I have to admit I am not a fan of Twitter, and actually agree with Kanye West’s thoughts on Twitter. In the article Kanye West lashes out against Twitter, Imposters, he states
“he's "too busy actually being creative most of the time" and that "everything that Twitter offers I need less of."

I would rather have my favorite artist working on their career than Twittering all the time.

The concept of constantly telling people where you are and what you are doing is just not something I want to be apart of. People don’t need to know where I am at all times, and I don’t need to know where my friends are at all times.

When talking back in fourth with a future employer about setting up a time to interview, he actually asked me to send him my Twitter account, Facebook page, and a photo of my self. He told me not to worry about social content in anything and that he just wanted to get a feel for who I was. I was really taken back by the request to say the least. The job was in public relations for a promotional company, so I guess he wanted to see how I would fit into the social scene by seeing what I was like. I didn’t even have a Twitter account to send him, and at that point I felt like the job wasn’t for me. I did not think it was appropriate to ask someone for such personal information prior to an interview and I could tell the job was not in fit with my career goals.

I guess I am finding out as I get older that I am valuing real face to face interactions/relationships more than the social networking interactions with people. I would rather talk to some over the phone or visit with them than connect on online. I do however think that it’s nice to be able to talk online when someone is living far away and you can’t see them in person. There is good and bad to all of the social networking sites. Although I do not like the concept of Twitter, I do like Facebook. I like that Facebook allows you to share pictures with friends and re-connect with people you have not seen in along time.