Final Reflection

Well peeps finals are officially next week and the semester is coming to an end so this is my final blog post for the class!! This is more of a reflection on the class itself than on a chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading my opinion of what we've done throughout the semester.

For this class the textbook definitely helped supply us with the basic knowledge we needed to do well, having a good foundation of information broken down into segments was also a good approach to explaining the different parts of social media marketing.

It was more interesting to see real life examples of how social media is becoming a major component of marketing in a wide variety of companies. Having to do the small assignments such as, the infographic, was an important tool to have learned so that we can use this to present information to consumers in a fun way. I also really liked learning about layer, the augmented reality app, with the expansion of technology in the business world and our everyday lives, I see the importance for students to be aware of up and coming technologies. Even though our degree is business based, having classes that foster our creativity is an important part of being a merchandising student. If more classes could integrate technology into the curriculum to compliment the coursework it would give merchandising students another advantage over their competition in the job market.

The design process helped us understand how to problem solve by breaking down what the problem was, researching for information, coming up with ideas for solutions, narrowing down those ideas, and finally testing them. This process is the basis for how we were going to begin to formulate a definition of what needed to be addressed for the social media marketing plan project. Before we could really start working on the steps in the plan itself we needed to know how to effectively look at what we were being presented to work on. So I think spending class time learning this process was very helpful to how we would be approaching each step in developing our final project plan for the department.

Of course I was partial to the brainstorming part of the design process because I really like bouncing ideas off others and building more expansive ideas from what was original mentioned. It helps to have a small class size of students that are open to all possibilities; and I also founding it very encouraging to have the teachers make comments/suggestions to guide and shift the conversation into a particular direction. The part I’m not too fond of is research because I need an extremely detailed explanation of what to look for; otherwise I end up feeling overwhelmed and wasting time on areas that are not helpful to the progress of the project.

I was most surprised by how much terminology has already been developed on all the different aspects of social media marketing. There were some terms that I knew already but didn’t know had an official name, and there were others that were really helpful to understanding the psychology behind what goes into any social media marketing plan. Learning about all the different social media terms, zones, target audiences, types of users, and technologies was very important to prepare us for the professional aspects that will likely be a part of many of our jobs. I really think that teaching this information is an important experience for students to have, so that if we have the opportunity to get a job that handles social media we are able to understand the method behind managing a companies’ social media presence.

In learning about social media you begin to understand that this online extension of a company is responsible for connecting the company with their customers, making a more personal connection and experience for the customer so that they feel like they can easily interact with the brand. Its also helpful to the brand to have the customer openly communicate their honest opinion to help the company improve customer service and relations in a way that they haven’t previously been able to do.

If I had a do over for the class I would keep the blog posts, small assignments about augmented reality, infographics, and website tools such as Jing and Diigo, the design process workshop, and the social media marketing plan. I would eliminate the chapter quizzes because I feel like the blog posts help with retention of information of each chapter and more time could be spent in class on discussing the parts of the chapter that we will be using in the final project.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I've enjoyed all the comments, and want to wish everyone good luck on their finals!!

Social Media Research

Hello again, this week we are covering Chapter 9 Social Media for Consumer Insights, which basically is about how marketers can use social media research methods to compile data from online information.

The strength in this chapter is how much vocabulary is given to help explain the different types of social media research that marketers use to compile research information from social media sites. For example the chapter focuses on both qualitative and quantitative research in the form of observational and ethnographic research, monitoring and tracking, and sentiment and content analysis. The weakness is in how little the process for actually doing research on social media sites is covered, the book does a good job of breaking down they types of research and how they are each preformed separately, but not on how companies perform the service of collecting the information for research.

Five terms I’ve never heard:

Netnography- is a research methodology that takes information from public spaces online and uses that research to study a group without being intrusive.

Scraping- is an automated monitoring process that searches the web for conversations that relate to the criteria that has been designated to be the target and stores this information on a database.

Opinion Mining- is another term used to describe sentiment analysis, which is basically the collection of opinions from online users about a brand.

Echo Effect- is also known as online-echo, is a term used to describe a sampling error in the research process that can occur where users share other users post sometimes across many social media platforms causing it to be hard to give an accurate sampling of information.

Nonresponse Bias- is the potential for social media research to be inaccurate by not capturing some information from the target population that have significantly different information from the users who’s information was collected, causing the research to be biased.

I searched Tesla Motors on socialmention.com and I do agree with the results that came up, the strength in social media mentions is 31%, sentiment ratio is 6:1 meaning the ratio of positive mentions to negative, passion is 41%, the possibility that a user will repeatedly mention the brand, and reach is 24%, is the range of influence the users have about this brand. The number of users that were used to collect the data seems a little small, but that seems to be one of the few things I wasn’t satisfied with.

 Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Social Commerce

Hey everyone, this week we are covering Chapter 8, this chapter focuses on social commerce, which is an extension of e-commerce where products are purchase online through social media or a social media application. It also covers how reviews can influence consumers, and how the reviewer uses descriptive explanations as to why they rated a product a certain way. The chapter also covers the different psychological reasons that influence customers to make certain purchases, such as, social proof, authority, affinity, scarcity, consistency, and reciprocity.

The strengths for the chapter are that it covered how social media has changed the way people shop, how customer reviews are really an important part of an online shoppers experience and how retailers can use this information to improve customer service, and all the psychological influences that motivate consumers to purchase products. The weakness of the chapter would be in how little they covered how social commerce benefits marketers, there is a short breakdown of the benefits, but I would have liked those topics to be elaborated on more. 

I have not shopped through social media ads, usually they pop up as a banner of something I have already been looking at on another app, so I don’t feel the need to click on the ad to look at the product. I see some ads on Facebook to buy custom t-shirts, but that’s not really my thing unless it’s for an organization I’m in or a run that I’ve participated in that goes to charity.

I do prefer to shop online, most of the places that I like to buy things don’t have a physical location in my area so buying online is my only option. I actually base some of my buying decisions on things I find on blogs that I’ve found through Pinterest or YouTube that I really like and I could get good use out of. I also really enjoy physically going shopping because I’m a very visual and sensory person so I like seeing the clothes I’m looking for and feeling the texture of the fabric. Before I even go to a store though I like to look online and narrow down the things that I can get the most utility out of, I find that there are so many options and trends that if I can narrow down what I really want to buy it alleviates any stress or anxiety I get from wondering aimlessly through stores without any direction.

Reviews from actual everyday people influences me way more than an expert, because customers use the product, they have applicable experience to give a review based on what they think and observed from actively using the product. 

I think pick lists is a fun aspect of social shopping, it gives the customer the opportunity to share their wishlist with others that they may not be able to buy for themselves or could be used to help others buy gifts for that person for their birthday or Christmas. Popularity filters would be more of a utility application, because it shows consumers what other people are buying or what other customers have added to their favorites to purchase later or repurchase. Ultimately I think that social shoppers find utility to be more important, because having so many options available and not being able to physically see the products, they want to spend their time finding items that they will get good use out of and won’t be a waste of their time by having to go through the process of returning it.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Social Entertainment

Hey everyone so this week we are covering Chapter 7 Social Entertainment, where we discuss how online games can be another important part of social media marketing planning. So we were asked to select an online game to cover in our post for this week, and see what opportunities we observed could be used by companies to increase or influence brand promotion and loyalty.

I chose to play a strategy game because that’s the type of gaming I enjoy, so I played Kingdom Rush! When I first opened the game on my computer I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to play this game since all the strategy games I’ve played in the past primarily have been on my iPod touch, iPad, or Play Station. In the first level it wasn’t too hard to beat my enemies, since the player is just getting used to how the game works I think it’s helpful not to be overloaded by too much information. I’m not sure if it was my computer, which is nine years old, (woohoo Mac4life!), but I did not encounter any advertisements on my screen while playing. I know it’s pretty typical of online games to have at least an ad at the beginning of the game or on a banner somewhere on the screen, but I did not see any, so I can’t really comment on how I viewed the ads or how it changed my perspective after playing the game for awhile. I did notice the game becoming increasingly harder on each level, which caused me to want to continue to play even after being defeated by the enemy on one level. I don’t have much time to play online games other than an occasional game of solitaire, Bejeweled, or Mahjong because of school/homework and work so I don’t think playing these strategy games at the moment would be fun, but I could see their appeal once I have more free time.

 I chose the ARG, Genesis of Cr0n, which is a dark play ARG like The Lost Ring. The game has you set up a login online to be come an agent, the point of the game is to learn information that the Ministry of Provenance is trying to hide and manipulate from the public; you can go to the GameCity8 Open Arcade to register as well. Once you are there they send you on missions to uncover the truth with other Cr0n agents, give you a tour of Cr0n underground headquarters, you then travel around the city of Nottingham, England finding clues and information to overthrow the Ministry of Provenance. It’s not required that you participate in the physical activities of the game since not everyone lives in England, but online users are asked to help by continuing on to the Apocalypse of MoP to keep the game going. This game is focused on the use of technology, theater, gaming, spies, and conspiracy, so some major companies that might sponsor this game could be any major Hollywood production company, Apple, Google, Infectious Media (internet advertising), or the Ambassador Theater Group. I think anyone of these companies could benefit from sponsoring this ARG, especially any technology based company that has the ability to help fund an intricate game like this, and it would also allow gamers the opportunity to use the companies products to enhance the game activities.     

Well thanks for reading! I hope you all are enjoying your weekend and I hope to have you back next week!!

Design Thinking

Hey guys, week before last we attended a workshop at the Think Center, I got my posts mixed up so I'm doing the post this week instead. The purpose of the workshop was to help us improve our skills in the Design Thinking process!!

The workshop with Ms. Sayger helped me to gain a better understanding of the Design Thinking process (define, research, brainstorm, prototype, choose, learn), and it helped to have her input on how we would come to our conclusions in each step. By giving us the appropriate questions to ask ourselves and each other for each step, we were able to concentrate our ideas and extend off those main ideas. I also liked that she came around to each group, listened to our ideas, and then asked more tailored questions to help guide the conversation into a particular direction.

My favorite step in the Design Thinking process would have to be brainstorming, because I love using creativity to help spark an idea that inspires someone else’s thought process, which could possible lead to even better ideas. Being able to sit in a group of people who all feel comfortable sharing their ideas is way better than just one person, and having other people to brainstorm with brings an array of experiences together that influence each person differently.

I would have to say the step I struggle with the most is research; I find it hard to focus on where to start when doing research. Research is usually so broad in the beginning that focusing in on the proper keywords can be somewhat challenging. It’s also not always the most exciting part of the process for me, so that’s part of why it is not my favorite step, but certainly I have researched topics before and become completely engrossed in researched it, particularly history. So if I was given more direction in this area it might help me have a better understanding of this step, and allow me to attack other research topics more easily.

I think just being able to confidently go through each step of the Design Thinking process could help improve how I approach marketing plans in general. It’s so important to have an effective social media marketing plan in any company, that being able to find a plan that retains current consumers and attracts new customers could make a huge impact in the success of a company.

Using this process is going to be the most effective way for our class to address the issues we are being presented and how to come up with solutions in our final project. By using the define step we can determine what things need to be addressed to reach our goal, research can give us insight into what has already been done or is currently in place so that we can come up with an effective prototype. After choosing a plan to implement, maybe this will pave the way for change and improvements, and hopefully others can learn from our ideas.   

Social Publishing

Hi everyone! This week we are covering Chapter 6 Social Publishing, specifically search engine optimization (SEO) and social media optimization (SMO), which both are a part of social publishing strategy to increase search engine rankings (located preferably at the top of the results) and increasing share-ability by users. We were asked to analyze these aspects on a website of our choosing, so i chose Nordstrom.

The website uses highlighted items and different colored fronts to draw attention to certain perks that they offer, there is also a banner for a special limited time department called Pop-in shop, a link to see what a particular employee recommends buying, and a link to their blog and other social media websites. The only problem I see is that the banner promoting interactive aspects of the website and links to published content on other social media sites is at the very bottom of the page. I think the idea behind this is that for those using the traditional website, who want to get more connected to the content the website is sharing, the publisher thinks that the user will go looking for that information near the bottom of the website. The opposite is true for users of the iPhone/iPad app who may be more technologically savvy; the publisher has pictures that link to the blog, Instagram, the pop-in shop, and the new favorites of the Director of Creative Projects at the top. The problem I have with the tradition site having all this interactive information and links to their social media sites at the bottom is that I think they are selling themselves short. Their audience is pretty technologically driven so even if the user is on the traditional website, these links should be near the top increasing the possibility of increasing the search engine optimization and social media optimization.

I think some good tags for the website would be department store because it is one, personal stylist and free shipping because those are two of the first things I noticed right below the name, at the top of the page.

When running the search for these keywords I found that department store was effective as it was on the first page of the search, but it was not in the top three listings. I think it wasn’t listed in the top three because there isn’t a physical location close to where I live, a lot of the results on the search are based on proximity to where I live, and the further down I went the more broad the results were. As for the personal stylist search, it was the top listing on the page, so that is also an effective keyword. I typed in free shipping into the search engine and the website was on the first page as well as the top listings, I think since it is a highlighted item that not all department stores offer it increases the chances of having the website listed at the top of the page.

If I had to compare the organic results between all the searches I would have to say it would be a close tie between free shipping and personal stylist, because the free shipping results had no sponsored links above it at all, and the personal stylist results had just one sponsored link above it. If I had to compare the sponsored links, the department store search results would win, because a direct link to the website is listed as the sixth ad link on the right side of the page.

Social Community

This week we are covering Chapter 5 Social community and how our identity on social community websites reflect ourselves and our activity on these websites make up our online identity.


We all leave a digital footprint of some sort that represents who we are in real life; it may be an accurate depiction or skewed depiction of the person we want people to see. Ultimately any information shared or communicated leaves a footprint that collectively makes up your digital profile. There are many different social media websites that users can utilize to share information with their friends, the easier it is to share information the more likely a user is to share the content. It is vitally important for any company to increase their social media presence and get users and fans of the brand to actively participate in promotion of the brand, as well as, the brand providing the opportunity for a nurturing relationship with their loyal fans.

This chapter has a lot of terminology for social media activities and techniques that we all use everyday and just aren’t aware of. Gaining the knowledge of these terms is something many people could apply in their own company or employer to set themselves apart from their competitors. With so many older generations still in the workforce it’s hard for them to adapt to the powerhouse that is social media, it’s not your traditional form of promotion, and it takes the right knowledge to create an effective marketing strategy in this relatively new medium.

Some terms that I was not aware I knew were: ambient intimacy, directed communications, social media omnivores, social network fatigue, and return on emotion. Ambient intimacy being the intimacy that social media provides by keeping people connected to people they otherwise wouldn’t have the time to keep up with. Directed communications is one-on-one communication such as instant-messaging and direct messages between two people. Social media omnivores is a person who actively participates in more than one social media website on a regular basis, they are users who aren’t afraid to share content on multiple platforms. Social network fatigue is a term used to describe what users feel from having to keep up with so many social media outlets; they feel tired of keeping up with so much information over multiple social media sites. Finally, return on emotion is what a brand gives back to its social media fans by building their social media relationship through brand value and communication.  

I’m not entirely sure that having social networks own our social data is not an invasion of privacy, I find it kind of odd when I look at a shopping website and then miraculously when I’m on Facebook there are ads displaying something I looked at previously. I understand the appeal of displaying ads that are personally targeted to that individual, especially since our advances in augmented reality have made it possible for users to interact with their surroundings through a digital device or app. Maybe if this new type of data was more heavily regulated than it is now, then it might not feel so much like an invasion of privacy.

I don’t think it’s a good thing to “friend” your professors on Facebook because I feel like that is the private side of myself, not that I don’t mind sharing but I feel that my relationship with my teachers is not the same relationship I have with friends. Now adding them as a friend on a social community website like LinkedIn is something I don’t have a problem with, because it’s a community specifically geared towards professional relationships.

As for whether or not Facebook friends are the same as real friends, I think it’s both, because some friends on Facebook are simply people I went to high school, college, or worked with and would like to keep some small communication with where others are friends that I see all the time or talk to on the phone on a regular basis.

The brand Facebook profile I chose was Grant’s for Her, which is a local higher end contemporary boutique in Biloxi. They have consistent posts about products including pictures of outfits, special deals, and quotes or jokes for Sunday when they aren’t open. They also have a clear information section and review section

Thanks for reading my blog, hope to have you back next week!!

Digital Communities

Hey everyone, this week we are covering Chapter 4, this chapter is about digital communities, which is defined as a group of people who are guided by community policies to come together and communicate online. The chapter focuses on different types of communities, their structure, and the characteristics that make up the community and their interactions. The chapter also covers how certain types of communicators lead or direct conversations or initiate the flow of information within the community that influence other members; and also how these influences can lead to indirect capitol gains for businesses in the form of relationships, connections, and information.

The strengths in the chapter is that it covers a lot of vocabulary that the average social media user is not even aware has an official term, I think having the knowledge alone of these terms helps the user to better understand how to utilize social media to their advantage. The weakness in the chapter is on the evolution of online communities, I would have liked to read more about how our connections to the online world have changed our physical world interactions, and how might businesses communicate in ways that help the members of the community to feel more connected and create positive interactions that can be used in the physical world as well.

Five terminologies that I’ve never heard of:

 Nodes- members that make up a social network that make connections through their relationships with other people in the network.

Small-World Network- a mathematical model that states that most nodes in a network are not directly connected to ‘friends’, but are indirectly connected through other ‘friends.’

Flaming- the use of all caps to express anger in a post.

Homophily- is the degree to which two people are connected base on their level of education, social status, and beliefs.

Anomie- is a condition of modern society that causes members of the society to feel alienated even with modern advances, which potentially could lead to suicide.

The majority of my connections on Facebook are weak-ties; they are people I used to interact with in the physical world on a regular basis, but now because of distance or time apart I no longer have direct contact with. My strong-ties would consist of 6 people; they are my husband, mom, dad, sister, and two of my best friends. I would consider them my strong-ties because they are all people I talk to on the phone on a regular basis or have seen in person on a semi-regular basis (three are in Alaska and one is outside of Baton Rouge). I think Facebook helps me to feel more connected to the people that are far away or that I haven’t actually talked to in awhile, but on the other hand, it does give that false sense of connection because you aren’t talking to each other the same way you might in person or if you were able to go out to lunch/dinner or spend an afternoon with them.

One of my favorite people is Suze Orman the financial guru, so I looked up #suzeorman on Twitter, and the other tags associated with that hashtag were, #studentloandebt #terminsurance #MotivationMonday #FICO #stocks #equities #productivitytips #savings #financialfreedom. I don’t have a Twitter account so I can’t really see much, but this pretty much raps up Suze Orman’s message, she likes to give everyone the knowledge to make informed decisions about their finances in the economic downturn we live in, so that her followers can be prepared for anything financially, which ultimately is a behavioral activity that most people don’t understand.

I do feel that this chapter has helped me to better understand social communities, as I said before simply knowing the terminology that goes along with these communities and communications gives users a better understanding of how this can be applied to merchandising.   

Social Consumers

This week we are discussing what areas we ‘consume’ information from, and how our actions online produce a social footprint of who we are.

My largest footprint would be in social community, I post status updates, pictures, check-in to restaurants and various other businesses that I enjoy going to. Each place and picture has a meaning behind it, which is why I share it on Facebook with friends and family so that they might share my experience even when they aren’t with me. I do have a little footprint in social commerce, I have ‘liked’ every business that I want to keep up with or that I have purchased products from, my purchases would tell you I enjoy shopping for clothes, shoes, accessories, but I also take my time and only choose a few items that I can get a good amount of use out of. I don’t really have footprints in social publishing until I started taking Integrated Merchandising Channels, which caused me to start writing this blog, and I finally join Instagram. I don’t have any footprint in social entertaining because as I said before I’m not that into games in general.

If I were a brand, my digital brand name would be, gourmetsocial. I enjoy going out with my husband and friends to restaurants and bars that provide a gourmet experience, and getting to tap into the social aspect of being influenced by your surroundings. I along with my husband have a passion for good quality food, and I find the history of wine and spirits interesting. Both food and mixology have become very artistic in the last couple of years; people are becoming more interested in quality and presentation, and the art that goes into creating the perfect meal or cocktail.

I would have to say yes and no to being a social media addict, because the first thing I do when I wake up every morning is check Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, followed by email. I can’t imagine my day without checking these sites/apps, or even spending hours on any given site on a regular basis. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming the amount of information that’s being transmitted to you through a feed to the point where you would just rather not be on any site, so there are times when I might be bored or feel like I can’t keep up with all this information so I need a break to refocus.  

The target audience for the Fashion Merchandising Organization (FMO) would be its members, the campus community, alumni, and other organizations. The geographic segmentation of this target audience would be students or faculty that live near USM Hattiesburg, or previously lived in the area to attend school. The demographic segmentation would be male and female, ages 18-45, who have received a college degree or are currently seeking to obtain a degree, and who have a passion for fashion and/or marketing. The psychographic of the target audience would be college students and college graduates who have a passion for fashion, but may just be starting out in the working world, and our faculty who like to see us succeed in activities that compliment our course work. The benefit segmentation would be individuals who want to expand their experience in fashion, gain a group of friends that could help them increase their knowledge of the industry, and create job connections for the future.

The majority of our target audience is a part of several online communities such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. They participate in ‘liking’, sharing information, commenting, posting status updates, and posting pictures, just as they would tell a friend that they had a good experience at a business and what they have been doing with their family or at work lately. Social technology plays a big role in our target audiences’ life; they use it every single day on many different platforms to connect for a variety of reasons relating to them personally and professionally.

Thanks for reading my blog! Hope to have you back next week. 

Social Media Marketing Planning

This week we are discussing strategic planning with social media, how it compares to typical marketing planning, and what strategies have some of our favorite brands used with social media.

Both marketing planning and social media marketing planning use situation analysis to address internal factors that effect their plan such as what has the company used to set themselves apart from other brands and created added value to their brand, external factors such as who are their competitors, and SWOT analysis which looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The difference in these two types of planning happens in how the plan is executed, social media planning addresses how the different zones of social media (community, publishing, entertainment, and commerce) can be used to execute the marketing plan. Traditional marketing planning focuses more on target market, product, pricing, promotion, and supply chain strategies, which concentrates more on the product itself using traditional forms of marketing vehicles and not how each vehicle can be used differently to target a specific type of consumer.

I think my strengths would be found in step 1, conducting situational analysis and identifying key opportunities, and step 2, stating objectives. I enjoy creating the foundation of a plan to help me keep everything organized and focused, so conducting situational and SWOT analysis would be something I would be comfortable performing. The same goes with stating objectives; setting up a focus on what the organization is expecting to accomplish with the plan allows me to draw inspiration from that objective. My weaknesses would be in step 3, gather insight into target audience, and step 5, create an experience strategy encompassing selected zones. I have a hard time imagining who would be the target market outside of the obvious targets, so being able to identify more abstract targets would be challenging for me. I don’t have much experience participating or developing experience activities in social media marketing such as tweeting, submitting pictures for competitions, and sharing promotional information. I plan to strengthen my weaknesses in these areas by becoming more informed about these steps and maybe even perform them for clients we will be working with throughout the semester.

One of my favorite brands is Free People, they use their website to sell clothing, shoes, and accessories, as well as provide links to their blogs and social media websites, which creates a uniformed platform across social community, social publishing, and social commerce. Their focus is on apparel, music, natural living, exercise, travel, and art; so it’s not just an apparel brand it’s also a lifestyle brand. This type of natural, positive, alternative lifestyle resonates with their target market because their customers are young, open minded, creative individuals who support living a green lifestyle that focuses on bettering themselves naturally, making a difference in global environmental issues, and contributing to a more artistic culture.

Another brand I like is Roxy, who partnered with Diane von Furstenberg to create a collection of bathing suits, surfing gear, and accessories. This collaboration combines a high-end fashion designer and a world-wide surfing brand; for those who don’t know a lot about the surfing world, there is a lot of style and fashion that goes into what a surfer wears in and out of the water, how they surf, and what their board looks like. Just like in fashion all these factors are an outward expression of the person inside, so a surfers style is unique to each individual. DVFlovesRoxy was promoted through the Roxy and Nordstrom websites, the Nordstrom catalog/app, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and email. The campaign utilized many different social media tools to allow users to share the promotion, gain access to exclusive prizes, and purchase the merchandise. By allowing users to share the promotion of this collection on so many different social media websites, they broadened the target range making it possible for a limited time promotion to reach more people.

When it comes to a company or brand not being a good social media user I couldn’t pin point any brand or company in particular, but I would say that having inconsistent posts would be the biggest mistake that smaller companies make in marketing their company. In our technologically driven society people have a drive to share and connect with like minded people, so by not giving customers the opportunity to promote a brand or company they believe in, those companies are passing up a great avenue for brand awareness and promotion. 

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope this sparks some inspirational thought, as so many of the brands I follow do for me!

Social Media

Social media to me is a way of connecting with your friends and family to share ideas, pictures, videos, articles, and interests. It can also be used to connect people with businesses giving them simple information such as hours, location, and reviews from other users, as well as, detailed information about products, special events, and promotions.

When it comes to social media I’m afraid I am somewhat behind or slow to adapt to new forms of connecting because I don’t like to follow social trends just because everyone else is raving about it. I realize its hard to be original when everything has been done before so I guess my stubborn need to try to be original is not realistic, and I do see how being slow to adapt could actually do more harm in our technologically driven society, especially in a forward thinking industry like fashion. Currently I use Facebook as a social community by connecting with friends and family, social publishing by posting pictures, sharing blogs and articles, and posting status updates, as well as social commerce by purchasing products and sharing information about my employers business. I am a big fan of Pinterest because I have always been a magazine ad collector and collage maker, so having a digital version that gives me access to even more information and images is a dream come true. I have the least experience with social entertainment, because of course I never wanted to become addicted to social games, as so many of my Facebook friends have. I would, however, like to explore more with Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs so that I might become more familiar with these forms of communication, and maybe use that knowledge to my advantage when finding a job after graduation.

I think that crowd funding is a great way to raise money and awareness for projects that need financial backing. I have participated in funding a Kickstarter project called, The Winter Project, which is a snowmachining (snowmobiling for you lower 48’ers) movie about riders who grew up riding in Alaska’s backcountry; how their love of riding actually changed the industry into an extreme sport, and put snowmachining on the map at X-Games. Having grown up in Alaska, and eventually knowing quite a few people that love to snowmachine and some who are friends with the riders in the movie, seeing this project become possible was extremely rewarding to me. It was also inspiring, in such a close-knit group of people, to see how quickly, with every single persons help that the funding needed to finish this project was met. There were regular updates by email telling the backers how the project was going, giving behind the scenes videos of filming, and the expected premier of the movie and release of merchandise.

I actually have not taken the opportunity to use social media as a venue to complain about a business or service that I had a bad experience with, but I have seen one company share a link to leave anonymous comments about customer experiences both good and bad so that if there were any problems or complaints, the company could address them.

If the Fashion Merchandising Organization (FMO) could make sure that all of it’s members are connected to the organizations’ Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts it would allow more information and awareness about the organizations activities to be communicated; this would also enabling it’s members to interact with each other in those experiences through social media. Regular activity and updates on the FMO Facebook and Twitter would also help to solidify the organizations social media presence, giving its members more confidence in the ability for FMO to inspire them and create a sense of community that most of us are looking for in school organizations.

Well I have most definitely gone over the word count requirement for this post, but I hope whoever is reading this will find it at least mildly entertaining. Thanks!           

Introduction

My name is Marcy Bongiovanni, I am a senior Fashion Merchandising major at the University of Southern Mississippi, and I am starting this blog as an assignment for my Integrated Merchandising Channels class. My goal in writing this blog is to find my voice as a writer and to improve my knowledge of communication through social media so that I might be able to use this knowledge in my professional life. My ultimate goal after graduation is to move to Los Angeles to become a buyer for a major department store or a specific brand that reflects my personal style.

We have been asked to list three strengths and weaknesses, so my strengths are loyalty, dedication, and attention to detail, and my weaknesses are procrastination, perfection (taking too much time), and public speaking. I hope to improve on my weaknesses especially public speaking through all of my classes, which will force me to give speeches hopefully allowing me to become more comfortable.

My favorite social media tools are Facebook because it can reach so many different people, I'm also a fan of Pinterest which allows me to follow fashion blogs I like.