I came across an article today through a friend and I thought it was really interesting so I thought I’d share it this week. It is especially interesting for me, because I like understanding how to bring awareness to something wether it be a product, service, website, brand, or etcetera. Basically, I like understanding what attracts people to something and how they engage in whatever it is.

Here at Yovia, we focus on this and the fact that advertising and the way we communicate with people is changing. Yovia is a social marketing company that bridges the gap between people and products. Yovia strives to avoid an annoying message or an advertisement that just doesn’t register with an audience. You can check Yovia out more here or even join the network and boost your own traffic for your site.

I hope you find Seth Godin’s article below as interesting as I did.

The first law of mass media
By: Seth Godin

Organizations will work tirelessly to de-personalize every communication medium they encounter.

Radio ads used to be live, personal and spoken by an individual. TV ads used to feature actual people, demonstrating something, usually live. Phone calls involved a live speaker, talking, with permission, to another person. Email used to be honest interactions between consenting adults. Facebook pages (and Wikipedia, too) were built by people, not staffs. Twits came from real people, and so did instant messages.

One by one, the mass marketers have insisted on robocalling, spamming, jingling and lying their way into our lives. The pronoun morphs from “you” to “me” to “us” to “the corporation” …

The public works tirelessly to flee to actual interactions between real people, and our organizations work even more diligently (and with more leverage) to corporatize and anonymize the interactions.

The irony, of course, is that an organization with guts can go in the opposite direction and win.

My name is Seth Godin and I approved this message.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/the-first-law-o.html 

By: Matt Hite
Marketing Manager
Yovia.com

There are thousands and thousands of social media sites, but the question for many is how to choose the best ones? Social media sites that are ranked the highest are where marketers should focus on social marketing. These crucial sites are the ones that will drive the most traffic to your site quickly and effectively. Your voice in these places will have the most impact as long as it its relevant. Don’t just promote your marketing message, actively participant in the community. With more people, more networks, and more options to choose from, the highest ranked social media sites will work the hardest for you. Websites like compete.com and alexa.com can provide you with this information to understand the possible volume of your voice. These sites are useful because they go into depth with analytics, but more importantly provide basic traffic ranking and numbers. This might seem like a basic topic, but it is crucial in the realm of social marketing and letting your voice be heard.

By: Matt Hite

Intern

Yovia.com

Lets face it, people today are tired of seeing ads and being sold stuff. As people become more familiar with technology this vehicle is growing. The internet is becoming more relevant and prominent to today’s times.

But, people today do not have the time or the inclination to have conversations with marketers although. People want what they want, and often get what they want when content is involved. So in a way the content is king. This can be looked at the same way television plays into marketing because just like changing the channel you can switch websites.

So this leads us to a question of how do you attract people’s attention who are actively trying to avoid you? Because the internet allows us to socialize with people this helps solve this problem to a certain extent, but the real question how do social marketers not get avoided? Because content is so important on the internet and within social marketing, being relevant is key.

As social marketers we need to truly understand who we are talking to, otherwise we could be wasting our words and wasting our customers time. We need to understand how people interact on the different sites we are linking to and what sites are relevant to our customers.

By: Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com

Maximum numbers of businesses today have an online presence as the Internet has grown to be the new rage in the communication world. The online presence (social media) can really create wonders for your company as well as business, provided you promote it using certain methods. One such key method for endorsing your website to the world is by making the use of the famous public media platforms or social bookmarking sites. Some of the more noteworthy websites like Digg, News vine and Reddit have been viewed as the prodigal son sense the rebirth of bookmarking. These platforms allow you to build back links, create and encourage your website popularity and bring in tons of new traffic.

One of the more recent booms in the social scene is the growing popularity of Facebook. Myspace was the forefather of social websites, before the social bookmarking renaissance. Myspace was the place to be, given its popularity Myspace became the target of SEOs, Internet marketers and spammers alike. But like every Gold Rush, people see new opportunities…enter FACEBOOK.

So as you can see there is really no time to sleep in the social marketing scene if you want to stay ahead of Johnny come lately spammer.

Israel F. Swanson

Community Development

This week I read a few articles about how people see social marketing. One article said, “Social marketing, as with any marketing , is always going to be trial and error. However, with social marketing you can be a little more proactive in your approach by being a part of the social scene that you are trying to engage.” Another article I read stated, “marketers just don’t get the new technologies and the fundamental changes in the ways people interact with brands.” This led me to think about how as social marketers relevance is huge. You can’t talk to a young kid about something that would go right over his head. The message on what your focusing on is king in this aspect. For social marketers to get things right they must realize this and concentrate on their target audience. To engage these people you must put them and the message at the forefront. Your content needs to connect with the right audience, community, network, or etcetera where they are at other wise you could be talking to no one. You could be just wasting your time and money. 

By: Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com 

  http://thenextweb.org/2008/05/15/social-media-marketing-might-have-a-limited-future/
http://socialmarketingjournal.com/2008/05/15/should-you-spend-more-on-social-marketing/

Yesterday I was thinking about where advertising and marketing is headed. Now that the writer strike has happened I am so bored by what is on television and in the movies. I can’t really remember the last really good movie I saw. I thought about some of this stuff because it was brought up at one of our weekly work meetings. I know in school my teachers’ emphasis is always on how advertising is all around us even when we don’t realize it. I don’t know if it’s me and being part of the younger generation, but I think I am becoming more numb to advertising and creative things in the media. I think this is because I am being constantly presented with this stuff.

In advertising they say that being creative is one of the most important factors in a campaign. I don’t think being creative will ever run out, but I do think, when it comes down to it, people are getting used to the advertisements all around us. Being creative means you always have to push the elements. This lead me to ponder how effective is word of mouth advertising? When I look at how social people are and how I communicate with everyone, I think this could be a huge form of advertising that might become even more influential. When I look at it, I can see how checking my Facebook, Myspace, texting, emailing, making calls and just hanging with my buddies can definitely be an influential form of penetrating an audience with a product, service or message. Social Media is the only factor that isn’t seen so much as being annoying and trying to get my attention. So I wonder what will the future of advertising look like? Will we stray more from this look at me concept, or will become more engaging with the audience socially?

By: Matt Hite

Community Development Intern

Yovia.com