My Favorite Blog Demographics

Unfortunately, my favorite blog "Have-a-little-hope" was not displayed on quantcast.com or alexa.com because it did not have enough traffic on the site. I think that Hope can improve her presence on social media and she will be surprised with the amount of visits that she gets on the site.

For the sake of this assignment, I chose another one of my favorite blogs: http://karlascloset.com/. Karlas closet is a fashion blog so I expected only women in their 20s to view the site.

1. What are the primary demographics?
Women is the only gender that view the site. Additionally, college and grad students who live and work in the U.S. are primarily viewing the site.

2. Do the demographics match up with content of the blog?
Yes, the demographics of the blog were exactly who I imagined them to be. Although it did not give me a specific age range, it told me that most of the viewers were college and grad students which lead me to believe that most viewers are in their 20s.

3. What is the Bounce Rate for the site?
The bounce rate for the site is 71.10%.

4. How many Unique Visitors were there in the last month?
6.4% of the viewers last month were considered "unique visitors"

5. What is the trend for visitors to the site?
On the graph posted in Alexa.com, it shows that people view the site very sporadically. Although the number of people who view the page in a day are high, the trend runs sporadically.

6. What is the spread between mobile and Online viewers?
Last month, the number of mobile viewers was very low, totaling to about 5.5%.

Super Bowl Sunday 2013

After I saw the various super bowl 2013 advertisements in class, I decided to do some more research to see if I really thought the ones shown were my favorites for the year. I also began to think back to when I watched the super bowl and unfortunately, I did not even pay much attention to the advertisements this past game because I was studying abroad in Rome, Italy. The game was projected on a screen at a local Irish pub and many Americans came to watch the game but it was more about the atmosphere for me than actually watching the game or even the advertisements. Because of this, I tried to watch as many super bowl advertisements than I could from 2013 and I tried to compare the social media “tie ins”. 

            I came to the conclusion that out of the entire 2013 super bowl advertisements, the Budweiser “Brotherhood” advertisement was my all time favorite commercial of them all. I think that the ad did a great job tugging at the heartstrings of the viewers watching by showing the connecting the horse and the owner had. The advertisement was extremely touching which therefore made it a memorable ad in the minds of all super bowl 2013 viewers. The Budweiser advertisement was also one of few that I personally think did a good job with their social media presence. At the end of the advertisement, they present the #Clydesdale as well as asking viewers to tweet there thoughts and help name the horse in the commercial to Budweiser.

            The other commercials that I thought were really well done were “Jeep: America is Whole Again”, “Kia Sorento: Space Babies”, “Volkswagen: Get In, Get Happy”, and “Doritos: Fashionista Dad”. The Jeep advertisement had a similar idea as the Budweiser advertisement. It was very family-oriented and drew emotions from the viewers because bringing the troops into the ad allowed viewers to relate to the advertisement. Although, this advertisement did a good job, they failed to show any form of social media. Similarly, Kia Sorento and Doritos commercials did not show any form of social media during their advertisements, which definitely lowered their credibility to the viewers. Volkswagen had a controversial advertisement that I actually enjoyed and they did a good job showing the viewers their hash tag on the last image of the ad.

            In conclusion, from watching a good amount of the super bowl 2013 advertisements, I predict that the 2014 ads will be a lot more interactive via social media. I was extremely surprised to find that the majority of advertisements did not have a twitter handle or hash tag to show the viewers and if they did, it would be flashed on the screen and in such a small font that it went without notice. I think that instead of just showing the hash tag for the last 2 seconds of the ad, the twitter handle or designated hash tag should be up on the screen throughout the whole ad. It does not need to be obvious but I think that it is definitely worth having in the bottom right corner throughout the whole advertisement and I think that companies will be surprised with the kind of results that they receive from viewers on social media.

My Favorite Blog

It was very hard picking my favorite blog because a few of my friends do a great job blogging. As I was reviewing each of their blogs, trying to decide which one I related the most too, I found that each of them have very similar formats and set ups that immediately grab my attention. None of the formats are busy. Each blog is simple yet extremely unique in various ways. As I narrowed it down to two blogs, I started to just look at content. Which blog had the most interesting and enriching content? I finally came to the conclusion that my favorite blog was “have a little hope”, found on Tumblr.

The blog, “have a little hope” is a very simple blog that my friend, Hope, created for pure enjoyment. She wanted a place to record her daily reflections, music, videos, quotes, and other random discoveries to help start others days off right. When you first enter the blog, the most recent post is first on the page and as you scroll down, older posts are below in a straight line with nothing on the right or left. It is simple yet grabs my attention instantly and directs it to the image of the day. Her writing style is very casual. She posts quotes, inspiring commercials, songs, tv episodes, bible quotes, and the list continues. She posts whatever made her happy that day. I am intrigued and incredibly interested in this blog as well as her writing style because it is inspiring in such simplicity.

Hope has many great things on her blog but I think the best element is that she always posts something new and very rarely repeats herself. Every Sunday, she posts about the Gospel and Homily at Church but besides that, she rarely discusses similar things. Something good that Hope does is that she adds her own commentary to her blog posts. Most of the times, she adds to the quote, song, bible verse, etc. but she can try and improve on doing more of that. I think it is important to add your own opinion on every blog post, whether it is a reaction to something or a simple statement discussing why you chose to post this on the blog. I think that she needs help with posting everyday. I understand that she is a college student with a wide variety of activities she participates in as well as a heavy course load, but in order to keep the intended audience she would like, she has to be more consistent on posting every day or a couple times a week. I think that if she sets aside a time each day or a specific couple of days a week, she will be able to continue positing regularly and opening up her audience to a larger amount of people.

Hope does not do a great job with using social media to promote her blog. The only form of social media she has used was Facebook when she first set up the blog a couple of years ago. She has a twitter but rarely uses it and definitely does not use it to promote her blog. I think that this is an area that can be improved and in return, she will gain a larger audience. I tweeted at Hope to tell her I really enjoyed her blog but I have yet to receive a Twitter response. 

"Social Media is Incredibly Local"

The phrase “social media is incredibly local” definitely makes me wonder what social media actually is and the purpose of it. Is social media intended to reach a local audience or is it really the complete opposite and is it intended to reach a global audience? Can social media be used for local leisure and local business or used for global leisure and global business? After much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that it does both. It is up to the receiver and the audience of the particular social media they are using to decide what their intention is in using the various social media sites.

Personally, when I think of local, I think of my community. Local social media allows small businesses in my community to thrive because they are able to spread the word about events and activities going on within their own organization. When I was reading blogs, I found this example of a small restaurant in Miami called Lulu. The author, Hugo Guzman, explain how they use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yelp to promote their business. Guzman said, “What makes them successful in their social media endeavors is their willingness to blend “real life” interaction with social media interaction”. They have excellent customer service on their designated social media sites—responding to customer’s reviews, posting pictures, and actively engaging in conversations with patrons. This example applies to many companies but defines how social media can be incredibly local to such a small local family-run restaurant in Miami. Lulu has found their own niche and most importantly, has found how they can reach that niche and their local community through various social media tactics.

On the opposite side, social media is extremely global. International companies use the same social media sites that the small restaurant in Miami does but does so in a very different way. They use Facebook and Twitter to attract an extremely large audience of people, all across the world. For example, LinkedIn was a small online site that allowed business members to connect with each other and over the past couple of years it has expanded immensely, reaching an international market. This growth to an international and global market has allowed business executives in other countries connect and learn from each other’s strategies and sometimes even become successful partners. In this example as well as many others, it is proven how global social media can be.

“Social media is incredibly local” has definitely sparked my interest in the debate over what the real intention and purpose of social media is. Was it created to promote local businesses to their own community or was it instead created to globally connect people to learn about the world? I think that the person using the social media site decides what they ultimately want out of it. Some people just use Facebook to interact with their friends while others use every social media site available in order to promote their business locally or globally. Ultimately, it is up to the consumer to decide.