Sue H--Digital Mom report

I recently saw a report on the Today show about digital moms that caught my attention(being the mom of an active 11-yr old).  The report examines the the role of digital technology in modern moms.  Some of the findings were very interesting and got me thinking abou the ways modern technological changes have influenced my parenting.  I check my daughter's school website for any up-to-the-minute announcements, also all her sports activities are online. Her school just implemented an automatic emergency response system, which,when activated, dials parents from a computer to alert them of early closings, delays, or if there were an emergency situation in the school.  The report did mention  moms with children 12 or older are more likely to use social media and text messaging, and instant messaging. The report went on to see what a unique opportunity this was for marketers to utilize  these channels to facilitate conversations among moms and influence decision making.  A quote from the article states, "Among digital moms, the gap is closing between TV and other channels in creating initial awareness about products.  Marketers should consider the relative influence of each channel when determinimg how, when, and where to reach digital moms."

Drew- Will blog for money

I searched blogging on Google and in the suggestions that came up were, among other things, blogging sites, software, tips, project runway(?). The one that was most interesting to me was blogging jobs. The amount of websites that came up that were dedicated to finding and providing blogging jobs was surprising. Despite it being a tough time to find a job it seemed like there were about a million blog jobs out there. All different kinds of companies are looking for bloggers for a variety things. Some of the job descriptions described things that could be directly related to naked conversations. The other thing that was great was that plenty of the jobs were part/full time from home or even simply on a pay-per-blog basis. With a little extra time and plenty of digital marketing we could make some dough.

Is somebody watching you?

Many online companies have developed tools that can track every click a person makes, which articles they read, which advertisements they click, the purchases they make, the length of time on a page, and more. This has brought up privacy issues. Should this be self regulated? Or state and/or federally regulated? It is definitely great to see ads on the pages you look through that pertain to your interests. But to have a company know what should purchase? Now, that’s a different story.

I found an article from the FTC, dated back to February 12th, about the issuance of a report describing their ongoing examination of online behavioral advertising. It describes both the advantages and disadvantages of behavioral advertising to consumers.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/behavad.shtm

Liz - Google and China

TIME Magazine has some great articles on China and the Internet. I thought the following was interesting - it was pulled from the article, "A Brief History of Chinese Internet Censorship" dated 3/18/09 (link is below) ...

"A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 80% of Chinese think the Internet should be managed or controlled, and 85% think the government should be responsible for doing it."

The Pew Research Center is based out of Washington DC, but were those results filtered like everything else coming out of and going in to China? Did they alter their numbers to advocate what they do? You run the risk of arrest if you go against the Chinese government. The citizens of China are getting access to a greater amount of worldwide news even with the censorship and the existence of the Great Firewall of China. As Google puts it, "offering a limited set of information in China is better than no information at all." I guess something is better than nothing, but talk about Big Brother - most of the time people have to give up personal information to gain access to the internet.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html

I found this article "Secreets to Building a popular blog" on www.doshdosh.com

"The success of a blog often depends on its audience size." So the articles #1 advice is to have a core audience of supporters. The circulation of your blog outweighs the content. Blog readership = word of mouth marketing.

3 Strategies for builing a core audience
1. Power networking- make sure your blog offers value to the intented party w/o requesting something in return. Stay on the radar by blogging often and encourage discussions with and amongst readers
2. Content Syndication - include guest bloggings, recommendations and links
3. Use social media websites as a distribution channel like Digg or Reddit

Mark - Engadget and the wimpy guy

I thought this was an interesting blog. I had never heard of it before, but Engadget is a blog that discusses and talks all about customer electronics. From what I have read, this blog constantly updates itself with the most current information on customer electronics today. This is great for customers who are doing research and maybe thinking about buying a particular electronic product, because chances are, it has been discussed on this blog. Even for those of us who enjoy looking at this stuff, it's a great blog to browse through.

Engadget's blog

I also came across one guy's blog who doesn't like Engadget because they update their information so frequently. I guess this isn't a good thing if your a competitor in the same market, and trying to bring customer electronic product information to viewers faster. For everyone else, it's great!

Check out this guys blog and how upset he is

Kristin- Top 25

This site features the top 25 blogs for March 2009

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=most+popular+blog+sites&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebizmba.com%2Farticles%2Fblogs

When checking out this list I have heard of many of those mentioned. One that caught my eye was PerezHilton.com. For those of you who don't know...PerezHilton is a blog site created by a man by the name of Mario Armando Lavandeira. On his blog he writes under a pseudonym of Perez Hilton. He has gained an almost celebrity like personality through his blog. He posts gossip items about musicians, actors, and celebrities. For those of you(like me) who are gossip junkies this website is a dream come true. He updates his blog multiple times a day to keep everyone informed on the latest gossip around Hollywood. His blog has garnered both positive and negative attention for its brash attitude, and its role in the increasing coverage of celebrities in all forms of media. It's amazing to me how this man has become a celebrity in his own right just from his blog. Perez and his outlandish styles are often present around Hollywood. Below are just a few of his crazy styles. To check out his site go to...

http://www.perezhilton.com/