Social Media Buzz for Week ending May 20th

Social Media is a buzz in news about President Obama's mishaps last week and trying to see if it will gain traction and it isn't. With that being said and not being political I will move on to other social media news. 
Yahoo just purchased Tumblr for $1.1 Billion and the marketing experts are asking how are they going to make their money back.

 
 Image courtesy of http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/20/technology/yahoo-buys-tumblr/index.html

I have to admit that I am not a big Tumblr user so I was surprised at the announcement.  The site feels like Instagram meets Pinterest to me.  After a little research of the deal, I noticed that the two big talking points are they as they said with Youtube; how are you going to create revenue from the site and what will change now that Yahoo owns it.   As you can see above they want to keep the Tumblr magic happening as more of a silent owner.  
The other note worthy item of this story is that there claims to be a lot of "porn" on Tumblr, which surprised me.  Yahoo is going to have to come up with some sort of policy to defend against porn the same way YouTube does or feel the wrath of civic organizations around the country and world!   I was curious so I did a search for porn and came back with nothing.  However, I did a search for girls.  Well after about 5 or 10 minutes of scrolling, I came across a few topless women photos.  I wouldn't really call it porn or offensive, but I wouldn't want my 9yr to see the photos.

In other Social Media news for the week, Pinterest announced that it will be offering three new advertising pins that are part of marketing campaigns designed to highlight a large number of major US brands, which will make it easier for click through purchases.   The new pin types will be food, retail products, and movies; these pins will only work if they are from partner sites (paid).
Personally, I don't mind paid advertisements espeically for brands that I am visiting and pinning.  I think that it is a smart move in the right direction because someone has to pay the bills.   Pinterest is going to be around for a while as long as it can generate revenue directly through programs like this or through partnerships that drive customer traction to other social media and / or purchases.

Social Media Buzz for Week ending May 13th

Homework_Blog_for_Weekof_05062013

Some of the social media headlines and tweets that caught my eye: This week social media was discussing a new service called ProPublica that uses people's photographs from places like Instagram to report on events like the Boston bombing. A centralized iReport can be useful to document well known events. Using GPS information to search public photos is a good idea to capture events as they unfold. I think that we are becoming more and more a share-able society. Like Professor Osbon mentioned in our first class there are two main kinds of social media users: 1 those that put everything out on the web to see without care or concern and 2nd are those that keep their privacy and information closed off and protected. I use a filter of what can someone do with this information or posting then go from there. I have all types of people connected to my Facebook so I keep my posts pretty conservative. I wouldn't want the pastor or my boss seeing inappropriate posts. I actually use it as a safeguard to force me not to post anything too stupid. The other article that caught my attention was that Brands should be using Twitter to engage their customers. The article talks about how effective Taco Bell is at engaging their customers with clever tweeting and playful banter. I mean it's tacos for goodness sakes so it shouldn't be too serous. Target's key is sounding human and not like a big box retailer. People already love the Target experience and Ads; now they will love to follow their tweets. Lastly Whole Foods uses Twitter to address issues for all to see. Fixing problems can definitely make customers loyal especially since some of them may have experienced the very same issue.

Week of April 29th Homework blog

Just as resumes needed to be jazzed up to be notice now so does your LinkedIn profile. You can now add graphics and videos. We all should realize the value of social media in getting your next gig, especially LinkedIn because it can speak volumes about who you are. I personally wouldn't jazz it up without thinking it through. Your video should tell more about your abilities including communication.


LinkedIn Visual Profiles: This Week in Social Media
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/linkedin-visual-profiles-this-week-in-social-media/



another hot topic going around this is targeted social media ads. We all don't want to be bothered with ads but when they are relevant to what we want and need, we don't feel as annoyed. Maybe, just maybe, someone will click on them. Big data to target ads is a growing especially in social media where marketers are desperate for new revenue sources as traditional advertising dollars dwindle.



How to Target Facebook Ads Based on Purchase History, Lifestyles and More
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-partner-categories/