Blog Post 8

The media site I am going to do my final paper on is The Clash Magazine blog (for now at least). If theres one thing I would say I've learned, not from just this site, but from many other blogs and sites that I follow, is that they are constantly evolving and changing to please the customer. People on the internet get bored quickly and sites have to keep there content and image fresh so people dont get worn out. With the ease that exists today in creating your own website and blog roll people on the internet can leave a site within seconds if they are not satisfied with what they initially see, so first impressions are everything if you hope to retain viewers. So all in all the one big thing I've learned is that content and first impression is everything, because customers almost always have another option to turn to if they don't like what you are offering them.

Blog Post 7

My favorite module of the semester would have to be Module 4, regarding the dot com bubble and whether or not we are headed for another one. The reason I would say this is my favorite one is because it made me look at social networking in a totally different way. I always assumed that if a site had a lot of hits, then it must be viable as a money making business or entity. I, like everyone else who partook in the first dot com bubble was suckered by this thought. As it turns out, this thinking goes against traditional business model aspects that can determine whether or not an idea is profitable. I also found it very interesting to analyze recent social networking sites, such as twitter, and note how they are still continuing to make the mistakes that past websites had made and assume that site traffic correlates directly to profits, which is simply not true.

Blog Post 6!

If theres one thing I've learned from this class its that the next new innovations in marketing and media can be created by one person sitting down at their home computer. Unlike what conventional wisdom use to teach you dont need a college degree to be able to market yourself or your business intelligently. If you have basic computer skills and are creative enough you can market your own business from your own computer, which is something that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

Also I've learned that although marketing within social networks may be the newest segment of marketing, it is also the most important. It can be a cheap alternative that if established properly gets people to market your brand or product for you, without you having to pay them.  This was evident in the discussions that noted large companies pulling their paid facebook ads and instead choosing to use their free brand facebook page to market themselves on the social network. Through interactive aspects potential customers spread the word of their brand for them by viewing their page and sharing opinions with friends. These opinions also can go a long way as compared to paid ads, because people are receiving them from a trusted source (friends) rather than straight from the company themselves.

I'm not sure if I could think of one specific thing I would've changed about the class.  As compared to other online classes I've taken this one has kept me fairly involved in the course material. I think thats the most important aspect of an online class, staying involved with the content. The course material was engaging and interesting, which made it much easier to stay involved and relate with the material.