Exploiting Social Media

Too often, I am made to feel like a member of a new generation of mutant youth. I hear my parents and their friends in the dining room below me, whispering about how their kids are doing things they can't understand. When I talk with my dad on the phone, he tells me, "Son, you're just different." I can understand, to a degree. Every few years, there's a new excuse to categorize a group of people born around the same time. Some of the lines of separation are more definitive than others. But I just don't think we (Generation Y, they say) are really all that different. What my parents and their like are really trying to point out is the coinciding of our youth during the rise of a digital age, and especially the social media agents that have spawned from it. So we've got drunken photos to share with each other and thousands of tweets about nothing (really). Big deal. The baby boomers on the other hand had a living, breathing Jimi Hendrix. But seriously, the baby boomers have a legitimate, distinct claim to separating themselves as a generation, whereas I believe Generation Y has just gotten hip to all the new technology faster than older age groups, which is understandable.

But still, when I tell the next "generation" about a time when Facebook (and inevitably Twitter sometime soon) wasn't laced by advertisements on every page or being populated by nosy and curious businesses of every kind, I will feel pretty old. I imagine this feeling is the reason why businesses want to be involved in social media in the first place. Maybe it's because I've lived in a world in which businesses were not obsessed with social media, or maybe it's just because I don't use Facebook for any reason other than my friends, but I just don't think it makes perfect sense for every business to have its own Facebook page.

I probably just don't like the idea of it, because I have to admit that there are still some effective ways for businesses to use social media. Like the chapters of Groundswell explain, technographics is probably the main consideration to make before a business should venture into Web 2.0. Your lawnmowing business has heard social media is all the rage these days, but it's not wise to just dive blindly into the pool. You could be wasting money in the wrong avenue, but many businesses have found success with various ways.

For me, the best use of social media that businesses undertake involve some kind of promotion. At various times throughout the year, someone in my Facebook network invites me to an event page hosted by the restaurant promoting free burritos or a great burrito deal. When college students see something like this, it's hard to ignore. It's definitely worth waiting in the absurd lines on the day of the event. Businesses should be doing this more often: rewarding its social media using customers and reaching people it might not usually reach.

Twitter is sometimes used to similarly excite customers. The twitter account for the music festival Fun Fun Fun Fest always gives away free tickets before its annual event through trivia question announcements. The first tweet giving the correct answer wins the tickets. Although I've never won, it feels exciting and worthwhile that a business is willing to interact so closely with its fan base and offer something lucrative so easily. If a user is willing to subscribe or follow more closely to the Fun Fun Fun Fest twitter account because of their giveaways, he is more likely to pay attention to other FFF Fest related announcements. The same idea applies to Facebook promotions as well.

While promotions are the best way to excite people outside of your loyal fan base, social media is doubtlessly useful in other ways for those inside of it. When I am following one of my favorite new bands on their Facebook or Twitter page, I know there's not always an amazing promotion to jump at, but any kind of news or link they post is nonetheless interesting to me. Though it might not grab the attention of someone who's never heard of the band, I'm always eager to hear about what the guitarist had for dinner through Twitter or watch a new live video clip posted on Facebook. Social media is still a great way to interact with your fans, even if you're not actively recruiting new ones.

As a Facebook user, I'm primarily interested in what my friends are doing, but I use Twitter once in awhile primarily for businesses to reach me. Like I mentioned earlier, I want those free tickets, but the only way to get them is through Twitter. Since so many more companies (in my opinion) have jumped onto using Twitter more so and earlier than using Facebook, I think Twitter has a future involving strong business potential ahead of it. Get those users out there excited for what you have to offer!

Two Inanimate Objects

Book

I think of knowledge, words, use of language, reading, academia, data, research, something to read in leisure, something to read as an assignment, transfer of ideas. I think of preservation of ideas, learning new things, facts, chapters, prologues, epilogues, introductions, authors who write, readers who read, and the symbiotic relationship between them. I think of the library, where most people have access to books. Barnes & Noble is a prominent bookseller. I think of expression of ideas through words. I think of how books have preserved knowledge and ideas for hundreds of years before the internet. I think of how ubiquitous books are. Essentially, books are considered fairly important around the world. People sometimes carry around certain books to be noticed for being a certain kind of person. People read books to learn but also to keep up with the pace of the world. People are very trusting and reliant on books for facts and ideas. In this sense, books are an enabler for people to make claims and turn in assignments.

Hair

I think of the hair on the head first, and then hair elsewhere. I think of hair colors: black, grey, red, blonde, brown. I think of hair as a sign of youth and virility in many cultures. I think of having no hair for some people. Sometimes baldness is viewed as strength. Hair is often a means of expressing oneself. I think of curly hair, straight hair, wavy hair. I think of the fact that you can't help the kind of hair you have naturally. Hair in different areas of your body, hair grown through evolution. How did people come to grow hair as a physical benefit? I think of hair gel and the many artificial things that people do for style. How important style is to people these days. I think of how hair style often determines one's class and the judgments made about someone.

Combinations

Style and knowledge seem to be potent elements to be mixed. I think of the possibilities of books about hairstyles. Books about the history of different kinds of hair. Perhaps the possibility of a knowledge website about style. I think of a very stylish coffeetable book, like Kramer's coffeetable book about coffeetables. Another possibility is a very fashionable phone that also includes a wi-fi connection, since it incorporates style with access to knowledge. Along the same lines, a pocket netbook that looks cool could also fit that idea. There is also the possibility of creating some kind of organizer that is personalized to an individual's tastes. I did a project for a Marketing Entrepreneurship class once that had the idea of creating an online calendar that could be personalized to the user's style in order to express themselves, but it also was a tool for sharing with friends what the user was doing or planning to do so that they could follow them and connect with their friends closer. Essentially, I want to shoot for something that offfers style and fashion that is also helpful for kids in their academic pursuits. Since our persona is a high school freshman, it is a difficult time in their lives in which self-image is a big issue, so style would obviously be an important matter for them. But discovering who they are and doing well in school is probably equally or more important. So a device or innovation that fulfills both needs of this persona is an ideal product for us to come up with.

Facing the Music (And its Issues)

I was shopping in a Target store last week. Whenever I go to a store like Target, I'm in and out within a matter of minutes. I know what I need and I buy it and leave. Last week, I decided to browse aimlessly for the first time in a long time. Part of the reason was that I was accompanying a friend who had driven the both of us. As he sought out the gummy vitamins on his shopping list, I wandered into the electronics section. I found myself before racks and racks of lonely compact discs, wholly ignored and attracting zero shopper traffic. It was a museum of technological relics.

Seeing it brought back special memories. Using my voracious reading appetite as a guise, I would persuade my mom to drop me off at Barnes & Noble for a few hours so I could devour their CD selections. I didn't have my own disposable income in the fourth grade, so I was content with simply learning and memorizing the artists and albums in the Pop/Rock section. I would study the cover art of albums like Beck's Midnite Vultures and Boz Scaggs' Hits! and wonder to myself what sort of sounds were contained in those jewel cases that I had never heard before. What captured my imagination especially was the music sitting in the forbidden Rap/Urban section. That kind of music was off-limits in my household, so of course I had to indulge my perverse curiosities. Before very long, I knew the name of every rap artist (along with his choice of creative spelling and jewelry) that Barnes & Noble carried. As I transitioned into my slightly more mature middle school years, my dad took me to Best Buy (only on fortunate weekends) so I could browse an even more expansive amount of CD's and, on the most fortunate weekends, choose one for him to buy for me.

Little did I realize that, at the time of the genesis of my music purchasing, the music industry was fast approaching the painful realization of its doom. Nineteen-ninety-nine saw the release of the original Napster, undoubtedly the single worst thing to happen to label executives loathe to travel by any means other than their private jets. Using Napster for the first time that year was like my first taste of ice cream. It was believing I might never feel a need to leave the computer screen, or my bedroom, again. Even as Napster died, successors sprang up to replace it, and more news of plummeting CD sales were published.

Although I was admittedly part of the growing population of listeners and fans who were increasingly forsaking the compact disc, I was not forsaking my love of listening to music, nor was the community of downloaders, I believe. More portable than ever, music was becoming more than a hobby for one's free time. It was becoming an inseparable part of daily life. There is a demand for music that never ceases to increase all the time, but the recording industry is not delivering it on their terms anymore.

Because of my personal love of music and my relationship with its past business models, I want to explore answers and possibilities for where the recording industry can and will go in the age of downloading. Although I love downloading music, I can't rationalize to myself that billions of unpaid downloads are not hurting the health of music in general and the pockets of working musicians. I still buy physical releases of music through vinyl now because of the advantages in analog sound quality over digital, but also because I care about the artists I love and I want their careers to last.

The time now is a pivotal one for music. Art has been forced to adjust to technology in the past (Theaters facing VCR's) and this particular battle is proving to be an especially lengthy and contentious one, without any clear winners yet. The ultimate goal of reconciling the needs of the music industry and the needs of the music listener must no doubt be achieved through the insights of listeners and their experiences. Knowing the many factors that go into the decision processes of these consumers are invaluable to reaching this goal. An article by Andrew C. Humes called "The Day the Music Died: The RIAA Sues its Customers", published in the Indiana Law Review (http://ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16404958&site=ehost-live), offers more specific details of the recording industry's campaign against downloaders and even some abstract possibilities of solutions that could satisfy the concerns of both the RIAA and its consumers. I'm hoping my research into this topic will also yield satisfactory answers that could lead music toward a more fair and thriving future.

My Persona

I was born in New York City in 1989. My parents are immigrants from Taiwan. They were married in their early twenties there before moving to New York City for my father’s doctorate degree. He received his Ph.D. in Material Science from Columbia University. He accepted a job at Motorola in Austin, Texas, where we moved to when I was about three years old. I grew up in a suburban, middle-class home in Austin until I moved to Japan at age twelve and lived there for two years. After that, I moved to San Jose, California and lived there for one year, my first year of high school. I spent the rest of my high school years in Austin, where we moved back to. I have experienced going to a wide range of high schools with different demographics. I have experienced a Japanese school, an ethnic Asian majority high school in California, and an overwhelmingly White high school in Austin. I like to think I have a more culturally and experientially diverse background than most people.

I am now 21 years old. While I did work minimum-wage type jobs at Randall’s grocery store and Blockbuster Video in my high school years, I currently have no income. I am instead focusing on being a full-time student. However, I do work internship-type jobs during the summer break which usually pay about minimum-wage or slightly more.

I am currently in my fourth year of college at the University of Texas at Austin. I am an undergraduate majoring in English and Marketing at the McCombs School of Business. I am preparing to enter law school soon after graduation. I am currently renting a house with my friends in North Campus.

Like other personalities my age, you could describe mine as curious, ambitious, yet still generally uncertain. I tend to spend money sparingly. As a consumer, my desires align with many of the “Realities of Today’s Consumers” PowerPoint slide: Desire for value, uniqueness, and convenience. I make strong efforts to search for the best value in the product I purchase. For example, I often search for coupons for restaurants online. I am also concerned with feeling and appearing unique (in a marketer’s words…it sounds funny coming from me). For example I spend money regularly on buying vinyl records to listen to, although this hobby is mostly because I like the sound better, rather than because I want to seem unique. Convenience plays an important role as well. For instance, I will choose restaurants that are close in proximity to my house. Mostly I spend money on restaurants and hobbies. A good amount of my money is spent on my girlfriend of one and a half years, who is also a student at the university.

I don’t consider myself especially active physically, but I do make an effort to visit the gym to play basketball and do some weight training when I have free time. Like many other students, my primary mode of transportation around campus is the bicycle. My most significant hobbies and interests are in music, film, books, web surfing, and the news. My less prominent hobbies are activities like television, live music, and the outdoors.

Like I mentioned, I primarily engage with music through vinyl but I also download digital music very frequently. I have a pair of high end (but still excellent value!) headphones because audio fidelity is important to me. I will mostly buy music at local record shops or conventions, but occasionally online. Also, I primarily discover new music through cutting edge music blogs but also older publications, as well as online recommendations. I will sometimes go see movies at theaters, but only for movies I know are on some level respected or worth seeing (based on word of mouth or critic reviews). Otherwise I will use the Netflix Instant View option (value!) or rent more obscure titles at local video rental stores (uniqueness!).

I have noticed that I am most strongly marketed towards when I engage in certain activities. Most significantly, when I use the internet. As a principle of the “Customer Economy” mentioned in an Impact of Insights slide, new technologies are resulting in customers having and demanding access to more information. I take part in this idea by regularly reading certain sites for information. Austinist, a site covering local news, is one I visit frequently for my need to be constantly consuming information. The site is filled with advertisements targeting the local population, but also the young and hip crowd with disposable incomes. The same idea goes for the music blogs and national news sites that I read.

I think that, in terms of characteristics that I share with most of my peers (or generation?), I enjoy engaging in a kind of consumerism that is more intense than older generations. There seems to be more of an emphasis on owning the trendiest material goods and finding the most high-paying jobs to do so.

I hope this offers some value for a marketer out there!

"The urge for good design is the same urge as the urge to go on living." - Harry Bertoia

Two months ago, soon after an unusually mesmerizing fireworks display at Auditorium Shores had closed with its final shot, I found myself stranded in a sea of mothers, fathers, and children, caked in sweat from the Texas heat with lawn chairs over their shoulders, shuffling to return home. No automobiles were allowed for miles and cell phone connections were jammed. I dispersed slowly along with the stream of other celebrators across the Congress bridge toward the lights of downtown Austin. Wandering among the boutiques and wealthy shoppers with their daughters in Sunday dress, I felt like I was misplaced in another world. And then I found the above quote printed on the glass wall of a design boutique and suddenly I felt reoriented by the truth and simplicity of the designer's message.

It reawakened in me the memories I kept from my two-year adventure in Japan. I arrived as a 12-year old American boy and left with an imprint of a culture with a unique sense of design. I believe the general atmosphere of Japanese design truly embodies Henry Dreyfuss' idea that "if people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient, or just happier, the designer has succeeded." While there are many fascinations in Japan to choose from, when people ask me about the experience, more often than not, I will recall for them the phenomenon that is the Japanese toilet.

Installed in more than 72% of households in Japan (thanks, Wikipedia), it is a toilet that considers more than just the consumer's need to sit and flush. The advanced toilet is equipped with a control pad for its many helpful features. The heating option allows the user to set the warmth of the toilet seat at many different levels, which, speaking from experience, is quite key during harsh winters. Some, though not all toilets, will play soothing music to accompany your business handling and automatically flush after you’re done. The deodorization option will clear the air after use, and the bidet option allows the user to electronically control a jet stream of water that washes and cleans your area after an especially messy session. Although I never personally witnessed the following features, some Japanese toilets boast germ-resistant surfaces, a soft close feature that prevents the slamming of the toilet seat down, air conditioning around the seat for those hot summer days, and sensors that detect when you are facing away to take a seat on the toilet (in which case the toilet lid will automatically open) and when you are facing the toilet (Both the lid and seat are automatically raised).

While the western world may think of using the restroom as a fairly no-nonsense process without room for improvement, Japanese design proves that even a basic toilet can be designed to empower its user, a key principle to keep in mind when considering design ideas. Like other Japanese products, the toilet is designed with the intention of bettering lives, even when consumers don’t realize how their lives could be bettered by a different kind of product. While the selection of the toilet’s features is fairly large, it is presented in a highly user-friendly way. Depending on your needs, the toilet’s features are only a button click away from the seat. The neatly designed control pad fulfills another key design principle – simplicity. Since no individual is excluded from the need to use toilets, it has been imagined with the majority of people in mind, and its widespread use among households is a testament to the fulfilling of this principle. It isn’t difficult to imagine the designers behind this product focusing on the safety, comfort, and happiness of the user while creating what has become a nearly universal household need.

Bertoia’s quote resonated with me especially because I had seen up-close and had my life improved by that very same urge for good design. When I shared this quote with some friends later on, I was met with a great deal of indifference and a few differences of opinion. But, really, if your urge to go on living isn’t motivated by the hope of improving your life or other lives (as it is so in the case of good design), why even bother?

Welcome

Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?

- Hakuin Ekaku