The three biggest ideas from this class

Data Mining - This is the concept of sifting and organizing data on consumers (both individual and collectively) to help steer your marketing efforts.  

I think this concept is important because all too often companies gather information about you but then have no idea how to use it (beyond a mailing) to help them market to you.  I know that after learning more about this concept I will take Data Mining to the company I work at to help market summer camp to kids.

Ad Serving - The whole idea of advertising on the web (or even producing a cheap tv commercial) through companies that ad serve was new to me, and I think it is the wave of the future.  Much like infomercials of yesteryear (and still going strong) this new way to advertise gives legitmacy to companies and provides them with new and affordable ways to reach out to their customers.

Online is where it is at -  This class helped solidify that having a presence online is needed for any company to stay in business these days. It doesn't matter if your a mom and pop gas station or selling wild rice (www.willowwildrice.com) if your not online your not going to be as susccessful and in fact it can be the difference between the life or death of your company.

and a bonus idea - Blogging is hard!  To be able to create information that is informative and entertaining even just twice a week is hard work.  I have a new found respect for my favorite bloggers and give them major props for doing this day in and day out.

Data Privacy

This weeks emphasis on data privacy has me scratching my head.  As consumers we don't walk into Target expecting that they aren't compiling data on how we shop so why should the internet be any different.  I don't have any problem with a company tracking my clicks through cyber space and marketing to me because of the information they gather.  Every major search engine has a way to browse privately and if your concerned about privacy you can turn it on.

By allowing marketers to cater to my purchases by giving me better deals and coupons I save money and I am ok with that.

TRUSTe

After learning about TRUSTe this week I have to say that I don't get what the big deal is.  There video shared that it isn't what a website is about but the perception of that site.  I agree!  That is why if I were a company I would make sure that my website had the look and feel of one that someone would want to do business with but I don't know that I could ever justify the cost of $1000 a month to have the TRUSTe logo.

Maybe for big companies it is needed but for now I am happy not worrying about this.

What Facebook knows about you.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/facebooks-file-on-you.html

Normally I would write more about what I think, but I wanted to share this link with my readers so that everyone is aware of what information Facebook has on you.  It is well worth the time it takes to read the article.

The Cola Wars are back!

Using the site www.websitegrader.com I rated  www.stcloudtimes.com.  This is a website that I click on daily to get my news and information about the community.

It rated at a 97 which means that it scores higher than 97% of the websites currently out there.

A.      It found that the site had a blog.

B.      It gave that blog a score of 52

C.      No recent  blog articles were found

D.      There were 77,500 indexed pages

E.       The readability level was at Secondary/High School

F.       There were 59 heading summaries

G.      There were 68 images found (too many)

H.      The domain is set to expire in 5 months

I.        The MOZ rank was 5.3

J.        There were 2831 linking domains

K.      There is a mobile version of the website

L.       The homepage has been tweeted 153 times

M.     The Tweet grade is 91

N.      There was no Facebook link

O.      It had a traffic rank in the top .27%

I wouldn’t recommend much based on these rankings.  I guess if anything I would suggest a Facebook presence.

I then put into the grader www.coca-cola.com and www.pepsi.com. This comparison had some interesting results but ultimately Coca-Cola came out on top with a score of 92 versus Pepsi’s 89.  Most interesting was that Pepsi did not have mobile viewing optimized.  As their advertising has traditionally skewed younger I was surprised that their website was not optimized for mobile viewing.

I would recommend Pepsi immediately launch a mobile website and have it connected to social media like twitter and facebook.  For Coca-Cola I would dumb down their site some.  They are currently at an advanced/Doctoral Degree level whereas Pepsi is at a Primary/ Elementary Level.  This tells me that Coca-Cola has an opportunity to reach out to segment of the market that might not understand their website.

Customer Care Technology

Help Desk - The College of St. Scholastica has a help desk that you can call when you have trouble with Blackboard.  I have forgotten my password on numerous occasions and have had to call them.  I am not sure who the help desk is staffed with but I have always been met by professionalism and have had my questions/problems resolved quickly.

Interactive Voice Response – At my new job of being a camp director I have had the good fortune to be able to purchase thousands of dollars of new program supplies.  One of them in particular was the purchase of Frisbee Golf supplies from Innova. They have interactive voice response system that doesn’t require to press any buttons just say what you are looking for. What is nice about this is that it seems to save a lot of time getting routed to the right department.

Wireless Applications – Again as I am ordering a lot of new supplies they are being delivered by Fed Ex and UPS.  Both companies have a wireless device that they ask you to sign so they can update their systems as having “delivered” the product.  Even just a few years ago these updates where collected and then downloaded every night. But now with wireless technology they are downloaded instantly and I am notified that a package has been delivered and can even call up a photo of my signature instantly.

Streaming Media -  I recently had to order and replace a starter switch for my dryer.  I was able to log-on to Kenmore’s site and find the part number and a link that showed me how to install the piece.  Using my ipad in my laundry room I was able to replace the piece very quickly. 

Spam, Spam, Spam revisited

In today's blog I am going to talk about Spam. Unlike my last blog though I will not be talking about the canned meat product but those annoying emails we all receive asking us to buy penis enlargement pills, or to send money to a Nigerian prince.

Spam is an annoying aspect of the internet, but the surprising thing about spam is that it works.  This is because it only takes a small percentage of people who open a spam message to respond and the "sender" can make money.  Email is very cheap, and the cost of sending them dwarfs how much money can be made.  I guess the lesson is we have only our selves to blame for the Spam we receive.  There is good news though.  The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 tries to regulate the Spam, and the penalties can be huge for companies who send out SPAM. In fact those penalties can range from $16,000 per email sent, and can even include prison time.