LinkedIn Buys SlideShare

by Natalie Bell

@nebell90

The age-old saying says that two heads are better than one, but in this case two companies are better than one.  LinkedIn, the top professional social network, purchased SlideShare, a site to share presentations, for $118.75 million yesterday.  Both parties are excited for the possibilities to come.

SlideShare's CEO, Rashmi Sinha, shared his opinions and reasons for the partnership in the company's blog.  He writes about his determination to eventually link the two companies.  This has been a long-term goal that he has made possible through connections and determination.  In his words the acquirement is "a natural culmination of this partnership."

LinkedIn is enthusiastic about the partnership as well.  In their blog they say that SlideShare has done a good job creating a portal for document sharing, and the two companies are excited for the possibilities coming out of this merge.  Deep Nishar for LinkedIn says, "This deal enables professionals to discover people through content, and content through people."  Presentations are a great way of sharing knowledge with others in a profession.  They also are great resources to see samples of people's work and true knowledge.

This acquirement by LinkedIn should prove to be a seamless transition.  Both parties say that SlideShare's capabilities will not be lost.  The companies, to prove this true, put together their own SlideShare presentation further explaining the benefits and reasons of the partnership.  To watch please click the image above.

Marketing: How Large Conglomerates Succeed

by Natalie Bell

@nebell90

Take a good look at the map above -- I bet you will be surprised.  Did you know that the majority of these small goods are owned by ten corporations?  This graphic comes is from the French blog Convergence Alimentaire.  The blog gives explains the impacts of having a small number of companies own a large number of brands -- environmentally, economically, politically, and consumer-wise.  What we PR/Marketing people think of is how the companies survive if they are selling their own similar brands as competitors.

For instance, take a look at Proctor & Gamble.  They own multiple types of laundry detergents -- each of whom compete against the others for consumers, at least from the outside.  Taking a deeper look into the detergents, however, each brand features a different benefit.  Tide is the classic detergent that focuses on cleanliness of washed clothes; Gain targets people who are highly concerned about the scent of washed clothes; Downy attracts consumers with a priority for soft washed clothes.  By advertising each brand as being the best for each purpose, Proctor & Gamble ensures that, in the end, their company gets almost all detergent revenues.  

Other companies are doing the same thing: Pepsico owns five fast food chains, but they all have unique menus from the others.  Coca-Cola sells three different energy drinks all targeting different audiences.  These products do not have extreme differences.  So what makes them different in our minds?  Marketing, my friends, marketing.  Creating unique ideas for each brand makes the products unique to consumers.  Without this created brand image detergents would all seem the same.  Energy drinks would be the same.  Marketing allows for choices and preferences between similar products, and what kind of world would we be in without choices?  

Mr. Bubble Does it Again!

by Natalie Bell
@nebell90


Bragging is often frowned upon, but sometimes you just have to toot your own horn.  Last month our team at Axiom was thankful for winning the PRSA Classics award for Mr. Bubble's 50th Birthday Bash. We now have received more good news about the party -- we are finalists for the PR Daily Award for Best Event Marketing!  All the hard work of our team and members with The Village Company paid off. This gives us a chance to reminisce with these highlights from the Mr. Bubble event:

• Creating Bubble Land in Water Park of America with giant bath tub and world's largest bubble bath.
• Filling the water park and lazy river with Mr. Bubble beach balls.
• Inviting Mommy bloggers from across the country to enjoy the party.
• Presenting (and savoring) the Mr. Bubble replica cake.
• Fox 9 News joining us for the event and showing live footage.

All in all, the day was a huge success and something to remember.

Mr. Bubble and his cake.

Children enjoying the giant bubble bath.

LinkedIn Targeted Updates

by Natalie Bell
@nebell90

LinkedIn has been available to professional individuals for nearly a decade.  Initially, the site began very small and grew slowly.  As other social media outlets gained popularity LinkedIn worked to improve.  The site opened up to students in addition to working professionals.  Companies are now able to have pages.  People and companies can post status updates.  One feature that Facebook and Google+ had over LinkedIn was the ability to  post updates to specific audiences.  Google+ has it's circles, Facebook has it's lists, and now LinkedIn has Targeted Updates.

So what are the benefits of Targeted Updates?  As a marketer overseeing our company page, I find this very exciting.  We are working to update our page and add new features -- perfect timing for a new feature to be introduced!  Targeted Updates allows you to send updates to specific subgroups of your followers.  The post will show on the news feeds of those you choose, but be visible to everyone who visits your page.  This means that the people who see the update are the ones most likely to be interested and engage with your company.

Targeted Updates gives you the availability to post to very specific groups based on their page information.  Followers can be broken down through five categories: industry, job function, company size, geography and including/excluding company employees.  Before posting you can sift through your followers to get a narrowed audience and create a higher chance of engagement.

The video below gives a quick explanation and tutorial for using LinkedIn Targeted Updates.

Marketing at the Twin Cities Auto Show: There Is A Time and A Place

By Natalie Bell

@nebell90

Last night after work I went to the 39th Annual Twin Cities Auto Show -- by choice.  I love going to the auto show and looking at all the cars.  My love for cars comes to a surprise to most people that know me, except for those who experienced my Hot Wheels years.  When I was younger my father and I would play a game where we had to name each car that went by and boy, did that make road trips to Ohio seem a lot faster.  To car lovers like me the car show is a candy store (only much more expensive)!

Being surrounded by $15,000,000 worth of vehicles was so fun.  Every car was new, shining, clean, and had that wonderful new car scent.  Spokespeople for each dealership were dressed to the nines; women in dresses and heals and men in business attire.  All-in-all it was a classy event.  

With good comes bad, however, and one dealership's marketing was not fitting for the auto show.  Kia Motors had "Kia Karaoke" going on the entire time I was at the show.  In Kia's section there was a stage set up in which visitors were called onto stage, dressed in obnoxious outfits, and singing loudly.  It came to the point where I and others had to walk to the other side of the convention in order to escape the off-key voices.  

I am not saying karaoke can't be good marketing, but there is a time and a place.  This year's auto show was neither of these.  At a high-energy event this would have fit in perfectly.  However, the auto show draws families and couples seriously shopping, car junkies drooling over the engines displayed, and others just there to look and dream.  No one is there to be loud and party.  The key to a good campaign is to think of your audience.  A great idea can go to the pits if not presented at the right time or place.  Similar to what my fellow employee, Shelly, explained in yesterday's blog, lots of thought needs to go into a campaign as to who your target audience is, what their preferences are, and the way you want them to respond.  

Of course the misfit karaoke didn't ruin people's nights.  With so many cars to explore that would be extremely difficult.  My personal highlights from the night are:

• Seeing the Fisker Karma, which was admired by all at the event
• Sitting in a Range Rover
• Seeing old classic cars
• Sitting in my dream Audi convertible (shown below).

Pinterest is Proof that Visuals Work for Social Media Success

By Natalie Bell
@nebell90

Pinterest was introduced within the last year, but it has already beat out other social media outlets for average time spent on the site per month. The online bulletin board's member count has exploded in the past few months even though potential members still have to wait to be invited. Below is a visual of Pinterest's significance online; time spent on Pinterest is over four times the amount spent on Twitter alone. So why has it beat other social media sites? Visuals, my friend. Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr are focused on being aesthetically pleasing. As we were revamping Axiom's Facebook page this summer, our big focus was how to make it eye-catching. The biggest thing was adding visuals to pages; in fact some pages are entirely visuals.

Pinterest has made their site a candy store for curious eyes. Not only do visuals attract attention, but they maintain a user's attention. This aspect of Pinterest has made it extremely popular despite it being the baby of the social media world.

Not only are photos a great ways to catch attention, but they can quickly communicate with viewers. A one-line tag can give the user all the information they need to understand what it going on. Precise and concise are keys to social media. Combine visuals with these factors and you have the perfect trifecta for a great social media site!

Changes in Internet Tracking Abilities

by Natalie Bell

Have you ever noticed that ads on the side of your web browser page seem to fit you personally? This is because browsers and sites track the pages you visit, what you click on, and what pages you "like." This may be news to some, but it's been occurring for quite some time now.

I first noticed it this summer when researching competition for Gracie's Fruit Innovations, a new client. All of a sudden the ads on the side of Facebook's pages were all fruit related. This continued until I worked on research for a countertop company. My ads switched to home remodeling. Later Saint Mary's University Pathways Program signed on as a new client and I was putting together a report to help structure their up-and-coming Facebook page. To do this I visited and analyzed other schools' pages over and over again. One day I noticed that the ads on the side of Facebook's page were entirely education-based. With each client project my ads changed to a new, completely unrelated topic. Try it yourself and you'll see! Search something on Facebook, Google, or other sites that you normally wouldn't research. Odds are you'll see your search topic pop up in more and more internet advertisements.

If you are going to try this experiment, you'd better do it sooner rather than later; the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) has made moves to ban tracking of web use for most purposes. Each specific browser (Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer) is installing a Do-Not-Track button that allows users to easily opt-out of being tracked. This option has always been available, but has been difficult to find how to change this specific setting. New, easy setting features will automatically be included in upgrades and downloads of browsers by the end of 2012.

Limitations to the Do-Not-Block features, as with most things, are present. Browsers can use your web usage for market research, product creation, and when requested by law enforcement. What the feature really blocks is your information being used to create targeted ads and to be sold to companies for anything besides market research. For example, no longer can browsing information be sold to insurance, credit, or healthcare companies for any other purpose.

Do-Not-Track features will change how companies target audiences. Browsing information gives advertisers the ability to create extremely specific target markets. Depending on what a user is looking at, a different ad will appear on their page. This creates a higher chance that the user is interested and clicks on the advertisement. Now these organizations will have to create promotions that apply to a wider audience with a lower chance of clicking. This agreement gives the public peace of mind, but a challenge for marketers.

Video Post: New Twitter Advertising Policy

Tweet all about it! Businesses will now be able to create promoted tweets similar to Facebook. To kick off their new strategy, Twitter had partnered with American Express. For more on this join Natalie as she gives us the rundown in today's Daily Axioms.

Power of the People

by Natalie Bell

It's Friday, Friday, Friday. Just those four words make almost anyone think of Rebecca Black's music video on YouTube. A year ago most the nation would say "Rebecca Black, who?" Now she is well-known across the world. Her Friday video went viral immediately and earned YouTube's top watched video of 2011; to date there are over 23 million views. She has been invited on talk shows, her song has been performed by Justin Beiber as well as the Jonas Brothers in concert, and she even performed live at one of Katy Perry's concerts.

So what catapulted Rebecca to stardom? Well friends, it is all of us. When we see something we like we share it with each other, and social media has made this easier than ever. Send a tweet and it reaches countless numbers of people, all of whom send it to another countless number of people. This pattern continues over and over and over. . . until a normal Joe Schmo is all of a sudden known around the world. Whether or not we share videos because the performer is incredibly talented, extremely funny, or painfully entertaining, videos get passed and a star is born. Four times as many people have "disliked" Friday compared to "liked" the video, yet Rebecca Black is known by thousands of people because of the song.

In decades before it was up to the media to decide who's who and who's not. In order to be famous you had to have that "special something" that others did not. Now not having that "special something" is what can make you a celebrity. Quirkiness and flaws sell. Instead of being simply the audience, social media has made us common folk both the audience and the medium. We now are able to choose who we hear about and how often. In the words of Miss Black, "we we we so excited" to see who will be the next viral star.