Facebook: Where people can pay for you to "Like" them

As a marketing intern for a cosmetics company, I can't help but talk about Marketing on the site. It's funny how a site meant to keep people connected has turned into an advertising and marketing goldmine. The amount of businesses advertised on Facebook has grown immensely, and with more lenient privacy presets and more personal information being added to the the site, Facebook has become every advertisers dream come true. With personal preferences just a click away, companies can hone in on the exact market segment they want to capitalize on and spend thousands to get Facebook users to "Like" them.

I interned at an ad agency in Tallahassee this past spring semester and it amazed me that the bulk of their creative development meetings were based around what kind of apps could be created to advertise companies on Facebook. The company being advertised was spending over $25,000 in Facebook applications, advertisements and contests, and thats only the amount they spent as the grand prize for one of the contests.

Facebook users are averaged at spending around 7 hours a month on the site. 7 hours is more than enough time for advertisers to capture their target audiences attention and draw them into a product using Facebook apps and games so users will be convinced into playing the game and ultimately learning more about the company.

My marketing ventures on Facebook and Twitter aren't funded so I mainly rely on creative posts that will catch the attention of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. I also don't have the proper software for graphic design, nor do I have significant experience with it so it was a little difficult creating the background for the Twitter page and the default for the Facebook page. Check my pages out and let me know what you think!

Honeycat Cosmetics Facebook Fan Page

Honeycat Tweets Twitter Page

Here's an article about online interactive marketing that is worth taking a look at for a little more insight into how marketing has changed through the evolution of technology.

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Varadarajan, Rajan. "Marketing Strategy in an Internet-Enabled Environment: A Retrospective on the First Ten Years of JIM and a Prospective on the Next Ten Years."Journal of Interactive Marketing 23. (2009): 11-22. Web. 25 Jun 2010.

Stay where I can See You

Over the past few years, video chatting on computers has seen a rapid increase in popularity. How can we possibly resist the opportunity see and talk to friends and family without having to use a phone or be in the same place?

I have a Macbook and the ability to video chat on it is one of my favorite characteristics about it. Keeping in touch with friends and family is so much easier and fun with ichat. Although, I also tend to spend hours at a time on ichat, which probably isn't the best way to be spending time. Shouldn't I be spending more time with people that are physically nearby? Is there a difference in the quality of interaction if one form is done through a computer screen and the other is in person?

Another popular trend is Chatroulette. A site that allows users to video chat with complete strangers. I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are regarding this concept. Personally, I haven't used the website, but I know several people that have and it is mostly people fooling around rather than looking for a real conversation.

Here's a video posted on Youtube with an interesting usage of the site Chatroulette. Be forewarned there is mild swearing.

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Jenny Preece , Diane Maloney-Krichmar, Online communities: focusing on sociability and usability, The human-computer interaction handbook: fundamentals, evolving technologies and emerging applications, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 2002

Electrical Attachments

It is interesting to consider the dependency that people have acquired on their cell phones, myself included. During my most recent phone shopping experience I recall having been very frustrated at the selection of phones my carrier had available. I simply wanted a phone that would be able to have a basic media package that would allow me to occasionally check my Facebook (Facebook being an issue to be discussed in a later blog post). Instead of a simple phone, the only phones that seemed worth looking at were smartphones and pda's, all which came with more features than I was interested in.

Whatever happened to the days when cell phones were about convenience and functional size? To this date, I still think the Motorola Razr is the best phone that was ever created. The sturdy design allowed for multiple falls without major damage. The smartphones being created today may have more features, but the iphone glass shatters with falls and my plastic Blackberry is so scratched and damaged it looks like I threw it in a blender - something I would love to do upon replacing it, considering it has been one of the worst phones I have ever owned.

My point in this random rant is that upon finally deciding on a smartphone, I have acquired a new dependency on my phone, and its a little frightening. Just a few years back, if I was feeling friendly, I might strike up a conversation with someone sitting next to me in a waiting room. Now, whenever I find myself having to wait somewhere, I instantly whip out the rattled Blackberry. I'll check for missed text messages and phone calls, go through both of my e-mail accounts, check Facebook already knowing that there won't be any new updates since I last checked, and when I run out of things to look at, I'll think of more. The worst part being I never notice the people around me, never even think about talking to them, and if they talk to me, I'll usually get a little annoyed because I'm trying to do something on my phone.

New technology is designed to keep us connected, but at what point does it start to interfere with our connection to reality?

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Downes, Edward J, and Kumiko Aoki. "An Analysis of Young People's Use of and Attitudes Toward Cell Phones." Telematics and Informatics. 20.4 (2003): 349. Print.