Everyone’s doing it…

Bandwagon effect

Something interesting happened at work today. I work part-time in Marketing for a  small company and the business has been around for a while. But today, I get into the office and they approach me about the prospect of doing a Facebook page for the company. Being as immersed in social media as I am, I had already planned to approach them about a social media marketing component of their overall marketing plan, but as we’re in the middle of a website redesign I thought it would be best to wait until that was completed. It’s very cool to me that even people who’ve been in business for a while are realizing the need for social networking and I’m kinda excited about it (yes, I’m a little bit of a nerd). Of course it is a case of  institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) ..which is a theoretical concept in organizational culture studies that more or less refers to the ‘bandwagon effect’. Applied to the company I work for, institutional isomorphism basically means that my company is seeking to replicate the successful social networking practices of other institutions…and there’s nothing wrong with that, because it is how business sometimes works. For me, the key will be finding a way to adopt those methods which have been successful while making them our own. As I haven’t yet decided on a topic for my graduate thesis, I’m thinking that this just might be a good case study for me but we shall see.
In other news from the big city, the semester is almost over and I have three research papers due in the next two weeks, so hopefully I emerge alive. All of my papers explore some aspect of social media (journalist newsgathering techniques w. social media, Facebook as narrative and public opinion via social networking sites). I didn’t start grad. school with a clear idea of where I wanted to take my research but I feel now as if I’ve found my niche. So for my college readers, don’t feel too stressed if after the first semester you haven’t decided what you’d like to do your thesis research on. Back to the books now…signing out.

Reading + Me = Fabulousness

I miss books. Yup..those things with lots of pages and plenty of words. Over the last year or so I’ve been suffering serious withdrawal from novels. Being in school and even more so now with the internet and social networking sites, I seem to only be reading journal articles, educational books and random news articles on Twitter, Facebook and everywhere else. It’s not good. I grew up reading voraciously (thanks to my Momma who devours books by the week). I would read Enid Blyton’s adventure stories, any classic I could get my hands on (still read Wuthering Heights every two years or so) and would even sneak my mom’s romantic novels at an age when I really should not have known any of what takes place in romance novels. I would read at the dinner table (much to Mummy’s disapproval), I would read into the wee hours of the morning (much to Mummy’s disapproval) and really anywhere else that I could take a book. Nothing was better to me than reading out on the front porch on a Sunday evening after Sunday lunch….good old days.

It’s sad to me that I don’t read like I did before college anymore. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I can’t seem to find the time to! Last summer I somehow managed to get through Obama’s Dreams from my Father but besides that, the reading landscape has been populated by communication theories and news. So what does this have to do with anything you might be asking. Well, I was reading a post over on 5 a.m. at Mango Media about creativity and the ways that folks get their creative juices flowing and it started me thinking about my own creative process. Reading has always been central to that creative process for me. The ideas, the phrases, the situations that books present have always triggered streams of ideas in my head. Without original content and writing styles, my creative processes can sometimes run stagnant and as someone in a creative industry this is a problem.

Just yesterday I read an article on the top meaningless phrases of 2008. Communication professionals really do need to tap deeeeeeep into their creativity at times to avoid falling back on the tried and true phrases and being like everyone else. So if there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this, for me, it’s that in the absence of being able to read as much as I’d like, I have to find new ways to allow my creative expression to flourish (part of the reason I started this blog). And ultimately it’s a lesson that everyone in a creative industry can use.

Is it better to be great at one thing or mediocre at many things?

Well this is my first real post since migrating to WordPress, so let’s see how it goes shall we. Once again I’m awake at 1:04 a.m. neck deep in a rhetorical analysis of Facebook. It’s actually quite interesting to view Facebook through an academic lens but tiring as well, so I’m taking a break to write a quick post. Onto the topic of the day.

I recently had some email correspondence with one my twitter peeps (shoutout to @AerialEllis of Urbane Imagery) who gave me so good advice on being in the PR field and on being female in the field…it was really good advice. One thing she said however which I’ve been thinking about is that you should attend conferences and events in the industry you’re interested in. Anyone who reads this blog (not much of you I’m sure ) knows that one of my greatest passions is my beloved Caribbean, unfortunately, living in Philadelphia there isn’t much of a ‘Caribbean industry’ for PR and marketing. And while NY, the city with the highest concentration of Caribbean folks, is only two hours away, there still aren’t that many agencies/organizations who focus on that segment. What’s a girl to do.

Well it got me thinking that while I can work with Caribbean brands on my own time, professionally I need to have an industry. There are tech PR folk, travel PR folk, financial PR folk….and the list goes on. While at my previous internships I found that at times it was hard to get excited about an industry which you really have no passion for. Don’t get me wrong, actually doing Marketing/PR stuff no matter what the indsutry is exciting for me but I feel like when you are passionate about insurance, or non-profits or whatever, your work will mean so much more.

So here’s my full  list of industries I would definitely want to work in.

1. Caribbean entertainment/fashion/events/products/services

2. Travel (Airlines, Cruise ships)

3. Sports (I’m thinking a Nike, Puma, Reebok etc.)

4. Education (Higher-ed)

5. Lifestyle Technology

My list is slightly amusing to me because although I’ve had a ton of internship and job experience, none of that experience has been in the industries on my list..LOL. Guess I’ll have to do something about that. I’ve heard it said before that it’s better to be great at one thing than mediocre at many things and while I tend to want to agree with that sentiment, I still feel like you should strive to be great at many things. So until I find my niche I’ll keep doing that.

I should get back to that paper now

So I made a change

I had been pondering this move for a while and finally did it last night. WordPress seems to have more functionality and is sleeker than Blogger. In the coming weeks I’ll be doing more, so don’t be alarmed. Anyway, this was just a post to say that.

Rebranding lessons from the Carson Daly show

.As a student, I’m usually awake at random hours of the night writing papers and what not. As a result I watch alot of late-night talk shows, my favorite being Conan of course! Generally, I would always switch channels whenever Last Call with Carson Daly came on. Not because I dislike Carson or anything, I actually grew up enjoying Carson on MTV. But honestly, Last Call just sucked. From Carson’s lame attempts at stand-up comedy type jokes to the awkward half-way scripted interviews to the generic Men in Black suit, it was painful for me and I’m sure for him

But a few weeks ago, Last Call debuted a brand new format of the show…and surprise, surprise it’s actually quite decent. It features Carson on the road at concerts, back-stage at shows and interviewing his guests in a much cozier and personal setting. The editing makes the show seem edgy and Carson looks comfortable in jeans and tees most times. I actually find myself enjoying the show now.

Folks in the Twittosphere seem to agree with me too:

“Last Call with Carson Daly is now a respectable show. He ditched the typical late-night format. The show’s new focus plays to his strengths”

“love the new carson daly format. worth a tivo. lots of debut performances and sit down chats. way less douchey”

“Carson Daly’s new format is so much better for him. He was terrible as a formal talk show host.”

“I don’t watch Last Call w Carson Daly due to its douchiness but must admit the newformat aces.”

All in all I probably came across one person that disagreed with this sentiment. It would be interesting to see if his ratings improve with the new format. But I think that this is a great example of how rebranding should work. I still don’t know if this format is permanent but it really does play to his strengths as an interviewer and is how I think all organizations should approach a brand overhaul. A new look and feel does nothing if it doesn’t play up the brand’s strengths. In addition, why do companies try to be something they’re not? They try to force their square brand into a round peg just to be edgy. I’m not saying companies shouldn’t try new things in marketing their brands but sometimes a complete 180-turnaround fails miserably. So what works for Skittles may not work for a computer company. And by the same token, the image that worked for singer Beyonce may not have worked for singer Rihanna. So yes, I think Carson’s new and improved looks is a good little lesson for companies that try to force their change down consumers’ throats.
That’s my little rant for today.

Balancing school, work and my Caribbean passion

It’s 8:40 a.m. and I’m awake…it’s a minor miracle. I’m still groggy but thought I should crank out a post as it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Why did I think that balancing 3 days of grad. school a week, working part-time four days a week and volunteering for several projects would be a good idea?
But anyhoo, life in the Big City is definitely moving at top speed. In about six weeks I’ll be done with my first year of grad. school (Go me!) and hopefully I’ll be interning somewhere. So while I’m looking forward to summer, I know that the work won’t be over anytime soon. I’m reminded here of a post by author Seth Godin. In it he talks about sprinting, not in the literal sense of the word but as it relates to getting projects done. It struck a chord with me because sometimes we do need to sprint to get papers done, to get projects completed and when you’re doing it, your fears really do fall away and your creativity and resourcefulness come into play. But I’ve come to realize that I’ve been doing a lot of sprinting lately and that can quickly lead to burnout. So as exciting as the Big City is right now, I know I have to pace myself if I intend to accomplish everything I’d like to. So that’s that.
In other Island Girl news, I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on Caribbean events taking place in North America as I hope to get involved through volunteering and such. What I’ve discovered is an appalling lack of information on so many of the events and happenings that have been billed as big Caribbean hapenings. Granted I’ve been doing my research via the internet and not by phone, this is the way that most people research events these days! If there is a web presence, it is not as polished as it should be in order to attract sponsors and attendees. Without naming organizations, (and I know I’ve harped on this before) the Internet is the cheapest and easiest way to garner publicity, so use it to your advantage! That goes for every organization and that concludes my post for today. Hopefully I get around to posting more often even as the semester starts closing in around me
Also, I’m thinking about moving the blog to WordPress, so stay tuned.

The two-step flow in developing marketing strategies

As marketers and PR professionals, an understanding of how people acquire information from the media is necessary for developing successful strategies. One popular academic theory is the Two Step Flow Theory (Katz & Lazarsfeld). It basically posits that in general, people are more influenced by personal contacts rather than news sources when they have to make a decision. It’s a two-step flow because opinion leaders first receive the information from the mass media and they in turn pass on the news content along with their own interpretations. This theory can explain why some media campaigns fail…they simply aren’t targeting the right publics, the opinion leaders. Just something to keep in mind as strategies are developed.

Think about Twitter and alot of other social media. The early adopters are generally the ones who influence others to use. You didn’t sign up for Facebook because you saw an ad..you did it because the influencers in your circle may have mentioned how and why they use it and then you subsequently adopted. Will this approach work for your product? Thinking about this may save alot of marketing dollars.