Week 2: Empowering the Customer

Articles:
-"How to build your startup without learning code"
- "Introduction: The Dawn of the Human Network"
-"Why the Groundswell and Why Now?"
-"Web Video; the New, New Thing"


10 June
The article "How to build your startup without learning code" is one of the most relevant articles I have read to date.  A friend and myself have had a lingering idea for a website business that we are both very passionate about that offers a unique service which is not currently offered. However, both of us are computer illiterate when it comes to writing code and producing websites.  Therefore, our idea has been just that, an idea.  This article has provided a road map on how to take steps in the right direction and get our idea out of hibernation.  First, the idea of creating a powerpoint that mocks the website as we see it is a brilliant idea.  Then, the article offers multiple companies who specialize in helping startups getoff the ground, which has been a major hurdle for us.  Overall, I chose to take this class to gain knowledge and hopefully educate myself in the area of digital marketing to one day make our idea a reality.  This article does just that.

15 June
The key insight I gleaned from the article "Why the Groundswell and Why Now?" is the true effect that the internet audience has in terms of marketing power and overall influence.  The vast reach of information to internet users and inter connectivity between users in a short amount of time corresponds to substantial power and influence for the internet users.  As the article points out, companies can either resist this fundamental change or learn to accept and even thrive in this environment.  But, either way the groundswell shift is already upon us and is here to stay.  For companies that embrace this shift, there are numerous advantageous opportunities at hand.  The most lucrative that comes to mind is advertising revenue.  A company tracks all data including the number of people who log onto a website, where they click, and even personnel preferences with certain products.  Having exact numbers and preferences provides a sold platform for advertisements.    For example, a peer that I graduated with started a  movie trailer website.  The idea is to allow people to watch all types of new and old movie trailers with a ranking system; the more trailers you watch the more points you accumulate which can then be traded for movie tickets, etc.  Data would be collected on the number of people who logged in and at what times.  Then, my peer would offer double points or triple points for watching a specific trailer at a specific time.  This works on two different levels; the company producing the movie knows that if they pay to have their trailer on the website at a certain time, they will have X number of people watching it.  Then, for other companies that want to advertise, they know at exactly this time, they will have target audience of X number of people.  Overall, the fundamental change with the Groundswell has altered marketing by shifting the power from the corporation to the internet users.

16 June
A somewhat continuation of the last post, the article "Web Video; the New, New Thing" presents the ideas of webvideos and how advertising has had a major influence on its development.  Again, the central idea around this article is increasing viewer volume; the more people who view a certain video or site, the more leveraging power with advertisers.  There is one point in the article, though, that intrigued me.  The idea that the person who develops a TiVo like function that can fast forward and skip ads.  It is a very interesting idea, one that is over my head in terms of technical know-how.  However, the website Hulu has devised innovative ways to include advertisements in there videos.  The first development was allowing the viewer to chose which advertisement to watch.  There would be 3 possible ads which makes the viewer take ownership of the ad and makes them more receptive to the ad itself.  Even though no one wants to watch ads, the power of choice for the viewer makes the experience a little more bearable.  The second development by Hulu was the timing of the ads.  Again, Hulu gives the viewer the option of watching all 3 ads before the video starts thus no interruptions during the video or they can watch the 3 ads independently  during the video.  Both these developments focus on giving the viewer a choice in advertisements; something that is new and, in my opinion, very beneficial.  The end goal of advertisements is marketing a product to a wide audience.  Therefore, giving the viewer the option of what ads to watch and when still meets that end goal but gives the viewer a sense of control and ownership over their viewing experience.