NBA Lockout-Topic of Interest

The league claimed that it was losing $300 million a year (22 out of 30 teams were losing money last season).  Unemployment is over 9% in this country and these clowns, who are already grossly overpaid, want even more money.  They can't settle the deal with the owners because they want 53% of the revenue.  It's time for the working family to stop buying tickets and supporting today’s NBA. In the past, players like Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bird, Barkley and others played for the Championship and for the team, not solely for the money. 
NBA NBA labor talks end with uncertainty 

VLog

Bob Marley

Geology Field Trip to Mammoth Mountain

It looks as though it is going to be very cold on my geology field trip to Mammoth Mountain this weekend.  The weather report says it will be in the 20s at night and in the 50s and low 60s during the day.  I am packing all of my cold-weather wear – lots of fleece and layers.  Plan to have fun and learn a lot about rocks!

How I can build my brand online

I can build my brand online by building a website with my own domain and hosting, engaging with my audience, defining my target market, keeping my eyes on the competition, and providing relevant content to establish trust and credibility.  

 I can use social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, online forums, community blogs, Google Search, and friends and family – to promote my brand and to make relationships, share information, see who is talking about my company, find other professionals in my field.

Why it is important to market yourself:

It is important to market yourself because it gives whatever you have to say or whatever it is you do a better chance of reaching your intended audience.

If you are selling something, then you want to communicate with the people who will buy what you are selling.  If you don’t market yourself, people won’t know who you are or what you are offering.  

Marketing serves to communicate with your audience and to define your product, whatever that may be. It lets your prospects see that you are unique and that you are the right one to provide what it is that they are seeking.

Why social media is important to the marketer:

In the mid-1990s just about everyone used direct mail and fax blasts to market on a mass level.  Then fax blasts became a problem because people complained that the “blaster” was using up their fax machine ink and paper.  So marketing moved to email and email “spamming.” 

Then there came the “CAN-SPAM” law which set the rules for commercial email and established requirements for commercial messages.  Today, social media is minimally regulated and rather than utilizing a one-to-many one-way communication it encourages and facilitates one-to-many or many-to-many two-way communication. 
It’s about the sharing of information and feedback and personal opinion and commentary.  It more closely reflects what happens in the real marketplace where people have conversations, rather than simply receiving one-way marketing communications.

What is Social Media

Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue (Wikipedia).  It enables the creation and the sharing with one-to-many of content generated by the user, such as and business information, ideas, preferences, activities, thoughts, photos, videos, recommendations, and more.  For marketing it is the ultimate word-of-mouth forum.

A few examples of social media types are:

•  Facebook
• MySpace
• YouTube
• blogs
• Flickr
• Wikipedia

Who would think that in 1979 two graduate students, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, thought of using UUCP to connect machines for the purpose of information exchange among users? They set up a small network of three machines in North Carolina.  Now today people using machines all over the world are connected and can share and exchange information in a matter of seconds.

How I plan to apply what I learn in this class

I plan to create a Facebook page for my own new company and to add social media links as well.  I will also provide a place on my website for blogging.  I plan to do the same for the next company for which I work.

What I hope to get out of this class

I hope to keep up-to-date with what other individuals and companies are using as current marketing tools.  This will help to keep my efforts competitive and appropriate.  When I start my own business I will utilize these tools for myself, and when I work for others I will be able to incorporate them into their marketing program.