Strategically Communicating

Surprisingly Snoop Dogg comes up with a new way to discount fragrance using social media. Snoop’s main page “Snoop’s Deal of The Day” links to a “Shop Snoop Now” site that connects to the F-commerce site. On this site the entire line of FragranceRebel products are available to be “liked” and discounted (one product a day is available for the program.)  The cost of fragrance actually gets cheaper as more people “like” the product on Facebook. Snoop Dogg himself has nearly 10 million Facebook fans who will bring the cost of the product down by “liking” it daily.

This past Friday, Snoop released the product BOD Man Really Ripped Abs Fragrance Body Spray. The product, which is sold for $7.99 originally, went down to $7.20 when it got 100 “likes.” Snoop caps the discount off once the product reaches a 30% discount or 300 “likes.”

Who would have guessed Snoop Dogg would strategically communicate and come up with a new way to market himself as well as a product. He has now developed an “industry first,” seeing that he is the only person to use “likes” on Facebook to discount products. I have to hand it to Snopp Dogg and his team for creating such an innovative promotion. It will be interesting to see how successful the promotions are, and if more brands and celebrities use “likes” to discount products.

I leave for Oslo, Norway in eighteen days. I have never been to Europe, and I have never been to a different country by myself. As I get ready for my adventure abroad, I have begun to ponder what I will do without my cell phone, and constant access to communicating with my peers. What will I do if I meet some nice Norwegian; I don’t have a phone number to give them? A sense of panic took over when I realized this. Luckily I have a Facebook and Twitter, but how prevalent are these two forms of communicating abroad? These are things I will just have to figure out when I arrive in the quaint Norwegian town, well I don’t know if it’s quaint, but I have only heard great things.

Aside from connecting with people while abroad, I also have to stay in contact with my family while I am in Europe for two months. I think it is a little unsettling for my mother to realize she won’t be able to drive two hours to see me, or be able to call me whenever she wants, but she will get over it. I have decided to not take my computer with me, due to the fact I will only be there for two months, and I will have access to an iPad, which will be nice, that way I can start a blog. I am thinking that my main form of communication with all my friends and family in America will be my blog, so hopefully I will be diligent when it comes to updating it.

I am interested in finding out how I will actually communicate with the people I meet while abroad, and also the people that want to know what kind of adventures I am getting into back at home. Regardless, I am thoroughly excited to see what role social media plays in the way of communication in Norway, and the numerous other countries I will be visiting.

Unless you were born yesterday, it’s pretty apparent that social media sites aren’t going anywhere and are likely here to stay, just maybe not Facebook and Twitter specifically. They will be adapting and filtering in newer and more exciting social media sites that will create the new buzz in the world. Yes everyone, Facebook will soon take Myspace’s place as the social media ghetto.

It’s just the way it is, yet in businesses, it’s become a growing trend to utilize these sites for work-related purposes and expanding their brand. This is where our problem comes in, even if you don’t need to update a Twitter feed as part of your job, someone at your company probably has to. And if they decide to share some confidential information about a new contract your company landed on Facebook, what are you going to do about it? Can it be prevented? Can he be fired?

Well actually you can’t do much about it because there’s no policy for it. But that’s why various lawyers and HR professionals have been up to their elbows trying to find ways to create some.

I came across this lawyer,  Joseph T. Bartulis, a partner at the Worcester-based law firm of Fletcher Tilton who created this list of all the potential policies that social media sites should have to prevent situations like this from happening at your company.

1) a clear statement that if an employee misuses social media and/or violates the social media policy, he or she will be subject to discipline, which could include termination.

2) a description of the misuses of social media. This section might refer the employee back to existing sections of the employee handbook on the handling of confidential company information.

3)  a prohibition of the use of any company logos or the company name on any social media sites.

4) a prohibition of the use of social media sites during work hours unless the person’s job requires it.

5)  a prohibition of using a corporate email as the login for personal social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. (Bartulis acknowledges that a corporate email likely makes sense for a business-related social media site like LinkedIn).

6)  a note that the employee cannot violate other company policies on social media sites. For example, sexually harassing a co-worker via Facebook is grounds for termination, just like sexually harassing an employee at the water cooler.

I loved this list, these kinds of issues are important to think about considering the growing presence that social media has on our daily lives. We need to have a way to discipline those that are violating rules that are causing serious problems for their company. I really liked the policy about the company logo considering I see that kind of issue happening all of the time. What if an employee is caught sporting the company logo on his T-shirt at a party drinking heavily? Shouldn’t there be a consequence?

I loved how this article closed with an extremely important concept to remember by Tracy Burns-Martin, executive director of the Waltham-based Northeast Human Resources Association.

Social media sites “can be very powerful, if used correctly.”

With the school year coming to an end (mine actually ends as soon as I publish this post) many of us will be starting our summer insernships.  I hit the pavement tomorrow morning so I started doing some research on how to survive in the professional world.  Here is the advice I took away:

1. Stay Positive.  No one wants to be know as a buzz-kill. 

2. Don’t be a suck-up.  Although we want to get on good terms with our bosses, being overly eager and clingy will only annoy them and make us seem inexperienced.

3. Network.  Don’t act like a temporary employee and remain unnoticed.  Get to know as many people as you can to maintain contact remain in good graces with the company.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  To the right people.  We are there to learn so it is okay to ask questions, just don’t bother your manager with a question you could ask a co-worker.

5. Find a mentor.  If you feel a connection with someone more experieced than you get to know them, ask them to lunch and pick their brain.  The best way to learn how to survive in your company of choice is to talk to some one who is already doing it.

These are the five pieces of advice I found across several blogs that I think would benefit us the most.  If you want to get more advice, these are my favorite two posts. 

http://www.quintcareers.com/internship_success.html

http://www.wetfeet.com/Undergrad/Internships/Articles/Super-Intern.aspx

Good luck everyone!

(I, and no one else I know is in this picture.)

Memorial Day Weekend is over, the end of school is approaching at an exceedingly slow and difficult rate. To blow off some steam many of my fellow college students and I went on a “vacation”. For most of the University of Oregon college students it was either a trip to Lake Shasta in California or Sasquatch the music festival. At these two events, such activities took place that ones mother may not want to know about. If so, why does a student feel the need to portray it all over their social media site? Facebook is littered with photos of red cups and keg stands. Twitter has such inappropriate hashtags of things like #ivegottheballstotweetthis. Is this necessary? No. I understand, we are in college. We are suppose to go out, heck, even expected to do crazy things. Does it have to be publicized on the internet? No, it does not. It only makes your friends, your sorority or fraternity, and your school look trashy. I myself am guilty of partaking in some of the photographic evidence activities. However, there is no evidence, so it can not be proven to any future employer. Smarten up college students, we have a future ahead of us. Stay classy my friends.

Saturday night, I went to my grandma’s birthday party. While I was there, my 8-year-old cousin, Jordan, would NOT stop talking about his iPod and iPhone. He took me on a “tour” of all of the special features and applications that he has on his ipod. While the tour lasted well over 20 minutes, I was shocked at how much this child knew about technology.

“The IPS technology on the iPhone is one like none other; this phone is the strategic communicator of the future,” Jordan said.

IPS technology? Strategic communicator? When I was 8 years old the biggest word in my vocabulary was Nickelodeon. How did this young boy know so much about technology? When I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he simply replied, “The CEO of Apple.”

What caused Jordan to become so obsessed with this “toy”? Because he downloaded over 200 applications, he had to delete all of his music. This fact requires us to re-evaluate our views on the primary use of the iPod. Maybe the iPod is evolving into something way more than a music device. As Apple’s target audience and consumers get younger, the company is forced to establish “toys” and products that will appeal to this younger age.

By: Crystal Greenberg

As if getting a job or an internship in any field wasn’t competitive enough these days, Victor Petit just took the resume, to a whole new level. Victor Petit while trying to figure out what made him stick, decided to put a picture of himself on the back of his resume with a picture of an iPhone with a QR Code on the screen, over his mouth. When the HR person sorting through applications uses their QR Code app. on their iPhone (hopefully they have one) they are directed to an image of Petit’s mouth, which is a YouTube video, and takes personalizing a resume to a whole new level.

In a time where everyone is trying to stand out among their peers to show who is better and who will be a bigger asset to a company Petit is thinking ahead and showing what’s possible. As students and people soon entering into the working world, trying to make ourselves stick and stand out is one of the hardest parts. The new generation of college graduates with degrees in Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, and Communications and other social media and technology focused majors, are for the most part, very experienced in various social being able to put “knowledge in social media” on your resume isn’t enough anymore. Petit has proven himself to be an influencer and a thinker with his innovative resume.

By showing his ability to think outside the box, Petit has shown his ability to listen to the demand employers who need more from applicants in a way of differentiating themselves. We can’t just be listeners and monitors when we are in the work force looking for our company’s name to pop up but we need to be listening and monitoring what’s big and new in the world of social media and technology and how they work together in order to even get the job. I am curious to see how many people catch on and start putting QR Codes on their resumes and also to see the reactions of HR people. New technology is among us and we are part of a generation in which technology is constantly changing and we are all expected to keep up and be experts in all of it when applying for jobs. Listening to, and monitoring what, the new up and coming technologies are will ensure that we will be able to stand out above all other applicants and prove that we are right person for the job.