Tina's Tiny Tower

There are so much to learn in digital marketing and we have so little time. After you beat your brain out trying to absorb every piece of information about digital marketing and finally come to a conclusion that the information is just so overwhelming. Is that what you are thinking?

In this blog, I will make things easier for you. Just take 5 seconds of you life to see what I summarized for you in the digital marketing world.

No.1 Yes! Email marketing is still a thing in the digital marketing world!

Email maketing is the most effective form in digital marketing. Think about it, email is the most common activity for U.S adults on their mobile. According to Harris Interactive, 81% of online shoppers say they are at least “somewhat likely” to make a purchase because of a targeted email. Also, the return on this investment is also very promising. $1 spent = $44.25 average return.

No.2 Big Data is the trend!

One thing makes a difference from traditional marketing is the Data! According to Eric Schmidt, “Human now create in two days the same amount of data that it took from the dawn of civilization, until 2003 to create.” Big data can help marketers to make a more confident marketing decision. Using big data to understand your targets and know how to approach them effectively is crucial for every marketer. 

No.3 Content is King!

Marketing is more than advertising today. Without good content, you are nothing. Today’s marketing is all about talk to people and having a two way communication and content can help you to do that. Content can help you tell who you are to customers and what you are to them. Content also can help you to engage them and build connection with them. Content marketing believes the connection with customers can ultimately result a profitable action. 

No.4 You need to pay attention to UX!

User Experience is the one part you can’t miss. Talking about UX, there is no one does it better than Apple in my mind. Their products are aesthetic and so easy to use. This is exactly what we are looking for in UX. Make it work is no longer good enough for customers today. Considering them like a 3-year-old and important kid, then modify the UX of your product.

No.5 The trend has been shifted from earned media to paid media!

One thing good about my digital marketing class is that we get a chance to listen to different guest speakers from different industries. Thanks to our Professor Joanne to make that happen! Recently, one of our guest speakers named Nadina Guglielmetti talked about trends shift in media. Earned media is like a gift from God but not everyone can get one. Therefore, even earned media is the ideal scenario, companies now are trying to do more and more paid media. It is important for marketers to know what are the current shifts in order to make a better strategic decision.

Those are my 5 takeaways from digital marketing and hope it can help you to have a better understanding of digital marketing. Now it’s the time to say goodbye.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Hey guys, guess what is the new term of digital marketing we are goanna talk about today? “Content Marketing!” Lots of us might hear content marketing more than once but never pay attention to what is it exactly. Today, I will introduce you 5 most popular terms of content marketing and hope you will have a better understanding of it.

Source: http://contentsolutions.demandmedia.com/6-must-know-content-marketing-buzzwords-of-2014/

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015_B2C_Research.pdf

Hope you enjoyed it!

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Hey, what is the future of our lives? I bet there will be thousands of different answers but if you ask me, I would say” Connection”. The convergence of everything around you can make your life much easier. I want my AC is already working before I get home from work and my favorite show is already recorded and ready to play when I get home. My refrigerator will tell me what I can cook from all the things I have in it. When I am shopping at grocery store, I will be immediately informed to buy more dog food if my dog just ate his last bite of food a second ago. I don’t need to water my flowers because my sprinkler will do it for me whenever it detects there is a need. Everything is connected with everything so I will know the exact location of the current bus I am taking and the exact time of it arriving next stop. If you say this is just my imagination, then you haven’t seen Cisco’s latest campaign–Tomorrow Starts Here!

Cisco intends to use this campaign to explain what kind of company they want to be to the world. People use the internet of things way to much these day and Cisco enhanced the phrase and changed it to “the internet of everything”. Everything is worth knowing, from traffic lights to trees, will be connected to the internet in some ways.

The internet of things always have been a word that inspires excitement. People are looking forward to a life like that, at least I am. It can help us live a better and easier life when we can control and easily access all the information. Our society can also work more efficiently. For example, when we integrate IoT into health care system, vital signs of each individual can be monitored by the hospital. When we use IoT into home safety, the alert will automatically call 911 if someone break into your house. For marketers, IoT can help to track individual consumers and target these consumers based on the information supplied by their device.

However, everything has its limitation. When IoT creates a easier life for us, lots of people might lose their job because of it. The automation of IoT will cause lots of less educated worker lose their jobs. Moreover, our privacy issue and over-reliance on technology can also have negative impacts on individuals and society. These impacts are the price we need to pay for the evolution of technology.

Several centuries ago, people were isolated by information. Nowadays, we are all connected with each other, communication is no longer an obstacle for us. It makes much sense the world will be connected in a way in the future. I think IoT is not going away, it just started its century.

IoT is like Macbook, something we all appreciate without explaining too much. As a marketer, I think clients will strive to be the first to adopt IoT before I even start promote it to them.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Imagine you are in the world that everything is personalized. When you step in a store, they have information about your basic info, buying behavior and even information about your family. They can immediately give you recommendations based on your preferences and buying habits. You don’t need to go to grocery store anymore, they will physically deliver all the things you need based on your purchase history. Every restaurant you go to will have access to know your favorite dishes and you don’t even need to bother to order. When you almost run out your skin care products, there will be companies sending you emails asking if you would like to repurchase some. Would that be the future with bigger data? Are you fascinated by a future like that?

The future I described can’t be done without big data. So, what is big data? It is rich information in form of structured or unstructured data that marketers can use it to analyze or predict business circumstances.

Marketers are all crazy about big data because it can help us to know our customers better and make a better decision for our business. So, will it also do good to customers? The answer is definitely “Yes”! For consumers, they can have a more personalized shopping experience. With all the information being transparent, customer’s unmet needs can be satisfied with recommendations done by big data. However, there are always two sides of a thing like Big Data. When information being transparent, our private life will be at danger. Are we willing to sacrifice it yet?

Besides privacy invasion issue, big data has limitations itself.

• User-Level data is typical not representative to target consumer base
• User-Level algorithms have difficulty answersing “why”
• User-Level data is subject to more noise
• User-Level data results cannot be presented directly

For many companies, having access to big data is not a problem but how to use the big data on your hand is a problem. Here are a few things I personally think companies should pay attention to when it comes to big data. First of all, you can’t trust every bit of data you get. Individuals could be dishonest with the data due to many reasons. Privacy is a big concern when they provide their info. Secondly, we can’t make our decisions solely based on big data. Big data can offer companies more insights and confidence when they make business decisions. However, big data alone is not enough, sometimes things like politics and cultures might take a bigger role than data. Thirdly, when companies make future marketing decisions, it is important for them to analyze both past behaviors and future trends. Remember how Blackberry got crushed by Apple? Blackberry didn’t focus on the future trends and the unmet needs of consumers. There are so many uncertainties in the future and companies should not only look at what’s behind you but also look at what’s in front of you.

Big data is inevitable for the future despite all the limitations it has. Every new innovation needs time to be perfect, this is just the way of development. There will be tons of uncertainties of big data in the future, but one thing we do know is that it brings more good things than bad things to our life. What is the future of big data? What future can big data lead us to? Those are two questions I will constantly ask myself and hope to have an answer sometime in the future.

Time: 8:45am Place: Starbucks

Barista: Hey, do you wanna talk about race with us?

Customer: Yeah, sure, it’s not like that I can’t think straight before I had my coffee and I need to be in my office in 15 mins.

This is the most common reaction of customers to Starbuck’s recent campaign called “#RaceTogether”. Many of you might know the news about a Milwaukee police officer fatally shot an unarmed mentally ill black man 14 times last April and this originally triggered Starbucks to start #RaceTogether campaign. Starbucks encouraged its baristas to write “#RaceTogether” on customer’s cup and hoped to simulate a conversation. This campaign aimed to spur a meaningful discussion about racial issues but it somehow had all the Twitter users united to backlash it. Here are some tweets from both customers and baristas of Starbucks.

I personally agree with these tweets, I only pump caffeine into my system because I want to be energetic enough to deal with all my work instead of having an unnecessary racial conversation with some baristas. It is brave and sweet for Starbucks to do something like this but they did it with a wrong method.

After receiving all these undesired reactions from customers, Starbucks quickly withdrew this new campaign. The campaign only lasted for a week. However, the CEO of Starbucks still defended this campaign. He said, “Race today is one of the most controversial and uncomfortable issues to discuss. We have certainly seen it in the last 24 hours. The first step in solving a problem is to stop hiding from it. ” He is proud of Starbucks to start this conversation. He wants Starbucks to be a company that cares about the communities and society.

In my point of view, the intentions of Starbucks to launch this campaign are worth to respect. Most of companies try their best to avoid this kind of topics but Starbucks showed that they do care about the society and the people. However, I think they might shut down their campaign too quickly on this one. I figured that the reason might be that the topic itself is super sensitive and people generally don’t feel comfortable enough to talk too much about it. Even though Starbucks is brave enough to start the conversation, they are still afraid of the consequences. This shows that Starbucks is still not ready for this topic.

I admire their intentions of #RaceTogether campaign but I did agree that they executed it inappropriately. People normally don’t want to talk about such serious topics in the morning when they didn’t have their coffee. Also, talking to a barista? Come on, I bet Starbucks can do better than that! It just doesn’t feel right to talk something with the wrong person.

The is an undeniable social media meltdown of Starbucks, in cases like that, I believe Starbucks can still get out of all these troubles by using PR to handle this matter properly. Holding a PR event to thoroughly explain  the intentions of Starbucks behind this campaign. Conducting in-depth interview of the CEO to help the public understand more of this campaign. I sincerely hope Starbucks could give another shot with this topic in the future but hopefully with the right approaches.

—XOXO, CHRISTINA

What do we want to hear the most?

Our voice.

We are not afraid to express ourselves anymore but there are just so many noises. However, we keep fighting no matter how hard we can be heard. We use words, photos, paintings, videos, songs and so many other ways to keep trying. I especially appreciate photographs because it is such a brilliant existence that can convey so many contrasting emotions. Last year, a campaign that created by Nikon immediately caught my eyes, it’s called “I AM Generation Image”. I was stunned by the idea that every one of us can be the image of our generation and I started digging more of this campaign.

On Nov. 20, 2014, Nikon launched “I AM Generation Image” to amplify to voice of individuals who want to be heard in the world of visual noise. This brand campaign desires to enhance confidence of Nikon’s entry-level and enthusiast DSLR markets and to inspire people deliver more than “good enough” photos. It encourages people to use best photos to have their stories heard. From Nikon Associate General Manager of Communications, Lisa Baxt,”Each day we upload tens of thousands of images, making us the first generation to truly embrace pervasive visual communication. Whether it’s love, laughter or a call to act for the greater good, the feeling you get when you look at a photo or watch a video should reflect the intent and emotions of the person behind the lens, Generation Image was created to answer this need, and celebrates the stories of our lives and the important role that imagery plays in telling them, while inspiring users to capture more, and capture better using Nikon.“

Nikon decided to use non-traditional media to promote this campaign. I figured the reason they are doing this is because this campaign mainly targets today’s Millennials who focus more on non-traditional media than traditional media. “I AM Generation Image” includes video advertisements, digital media on relevant websites, rich media, social paid promotion and immersive website. One special thing of campaign is that Nikon selected a group of individuals as storytellers to share their lives through photographs. These individuals are not professional photographers, they are entrepreneurs, chiefs, comedians and more. They document their lives through their passions. Here is the video Nikon specifically made for these individuals.

This campaign incorporates with social media a lot. It encourages people to use #IAMGenerationImage to share their own photo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. On Feb. 4, 2015, Nikon created a new hashtag named #IAmNext contest to search for the next passionate individuals to share their story and win the opportunity to be featured as the next representative of Generation Image. Nikon also posted videos of those selected individuals on Vimeo and YouTube. Here is the one of Gay Dads Kordale&Kaleb whose picture went viral later on.

This picture earned more than 49K likes and Nikon was smart enough to reach out these two gay parents and offered them an opportunity to answer the question from the internet, “How can I know more about this family?” Suddenly, everyone knows Kordale and Kaleb and Nikon’s “I AM Generation Image” campaign. Nikon was successful with this campaign and this campaign still goes on smoothly today.

It seemed to me that Nikon did a pretty good job with this new campaign and the result is very promising. Nikon targeted today’s Millennials that are obsessed to document their lives with photo and eager to have people hear their voices. It promoted a profound idea with right tools and fascinated content. The campaign includes almost every platforms and any additions would be a waste in my opinion. Through this campaign, Nikon offered people an opportunity to be part of your generation’s image and to have your stories to be heard.

XOXO–CHRISTINA

You might think American Airlines is getting too sensitive about this tweet, nobody is that dumb to expose their terrorism plot before the action and she even spelled the name of terrorist group wrong. It turns out, American Airlines is not the only one takes this tweet seriously, so does the police.

The police later actually arrested Sarah and opened an investigation. The truth was Sarah was not involved in terrorism by any means. It was just a joke to a 14-year-old girl. Why police took it such seriously? It was just a tweet. Shouldn’t terrorists use a more formal way to communicate? The answer is no. Marketer loves social media, so does terrorist. It has been a long history since they learned how to use social media to spread their beliefs or fears.

Recently, it was reported that ISIS has over 46,000 twitter accounts. Those accounts are used to attract new recruits and inspire lone actor attacks. As you can see the chart below, ISIS has been expanding its reaches on social media since 2008 and its presence has risen sharply.

ISIS even posed death threats to the co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey and employees in order to keep their twitter accounts active. Why doesn’t US government block all terrorists’ twitter accounts? It is definitely unlawful to let foreign terrorist organizations maintain their social media accounts. According to Brookings researchers, massively block twitter accounts of terrorists could simulate the speed and intensity of counter-terrorism experts to de-radicalize the followers of terrorism and probably cause failure.

Social media are tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information or ideas. Companies use social media to share valuable contents to their audience and to communicate with them. I know it is inevitable that social media can be utilized in a wrong. Things like cyber bully never stop happening. However, I never thought terrorists could use social media to broadcast their belief, death and fears. This is such a big potential risk for teenagers, especially when they are in a stage to form their perception of the world and try to understand the value of life. It is the most vulnerable time of their life in my opinion. I couldn’t bear the thought that such things are very much existing in social media that teenagers touch on a daily basis.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Imagine on a beautiful afternoon, the sunshine comes through your front porch and softly landed on your face. You are sitting on your comfortable rocking chair with your fuzzy blanket to keep you extra cozy. You can smell the freshly baked blueberry scones with a hint of your exquisite tulips that is sitting in front of you. A cup of rosemary tea is waiting for you on the coffee table that is right next to you. Then something made you chuckle a little bit and that are those photos in your hands. You are reliving those laughter, joy, sadness, surprises and even anger through those photos. That’s how I want to remember my life in my older days.

I love to record my life with photos and that makes me feel secured with my memory. Most of the time I tend to keep those photos to myself but sometimes I want to share them so bad. I just can’t stand the idea that I am the only person seeing those beautiful and breathtaking views. On top of that, I adore today’s technology that could make photos even more captivating. There are thousands of camera apps that could help you reach the same result of professional camera and sometimes, make it even more attractive. Today, I am goanna share with you guys my all time favorite.

Camera360

Camera360 is a free photo shooting and editing app and it is available in worldwide. You can simply use it to take selfie, filter your photo with different styles, edit your photos and even take your ID photo. It is rated the No.1 app in Photo & Video category and here are the reasons.

I personally found it is very pleasant to use. You can choose different types of camera to shoot. It has easy camera, poster camera, ID photo camera, effect camera, selfie camera, night camera, sony camera and etc. I didn’t even know there are so many different types of camera you can choose before I use Camera360. Some people might be dazzled by such wide range selections, but I certainly love to explore each option and appreciate every type of photography.

Those filters really come in handy and the effect makes more than satisfied. I can easily make my blemishes disappear if I want to. Bam! Magic happens. Sometimes I enjoy adjust different lights of my photos to make it look more vintage or colorful to express my feelings.

Camera360 is not just a simple app. It is a way to record those inspirations in your life. It is a way to inspire your life. It helps you to remember those lost feelings and it reminds you of happiness. It demonstrates your very own art gallery of your very own life.

Art Inspired By Life

Taking photos has become part of my life and using Camera360 has also become part of my life. The app is designed with simple sophistication and super easy to navigate. I wouldn’t call it an innovative app since there is millions of similar app like it on the market, but I can say this one is the best I have ever used.

Photography lovers could also find their tribe of Camera360. There is a Fan Forum on the website where fans post their favorite photos to share. You can taste the happiness of others through their photos there. That platform not only ties fans to Camera360 but also ties fans to each other.

I had so much fun with this app and I want you guys experience the same joy. I couldn’t be happier to use this app and appreciate those efforts that Camera360 did. It satisfies all my need with my photos, my life diaries. Live your life to the fullest and memorize it properly. You will not regret it.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Stranger: “Hey, your daunghter is very beautiful!”

Mother: “That’s nothing. You should see her photography.”

Name one thing that you wouldn’t leave the house without. Camera! At least mine is. I love taking pictures, either selfies or fascinating views. I see it as a way to record my life. Currently, I am looking for a good camera on the market and Samsung sure does catch my eyes. Today, I am gonna tell you my experience with Samsung and how its website played a role in my searching process.

Website

To be honest, I never owned a Samsung camera before but I adore their designs. However, I knew I have to learn more about their camera before I actually purchase one. I hoped that I could find some customer reviews on their web.

The first thing I noticed of their website is their different kinds of cameras. Besides, there are lots of introductions of features and cameras if you keep scrolling down. It is very pleasant to use. The “Shop” button is pretty obvious to me. I can easily access the shopping page if I want immediate purchase. On the shopping page, I can see customer reviews of each style of camera. Detailed descriptions of cameras are easily approached. Comparison of different cameras is also available for you to browse. The layout of the main site is well designed and easily readable. Highlighted functions of each camera type are accompanied by artistic pictures. The site is very educational and pretty much providing all the information I can ask for. However, I still felt there was something missing. I wanted to know more.

iPad

I got kinda of tired by sitting in front of my desk and staring at my laptop. So I decided to make it all comfy and cozy before I go back to my research. I made a cup of jasmine tea and put on Sia’s new album. Then I grabbed my iPad and lay down on my couch. I decided to dig more through their social media platforms. I went to their YouTube channel and hoping I could get more insights of functions of those cameras.

 

I couldn’t say I was thrilled to see their YouTube channel. There are only 6 videos and some of them are event promotions instead of camera demonstration. Then I went to their Google+ and I wasn’t disappointed this time. On Google+, Samsung posted tons of pictures took by their cameras and they all look super professional. Those pictures are fascinating and inspiring. They simply demonstrated the beauty of lights and how capable their cameras can be. That is what I was looking for and I felt I am only one step away from purchasing their camera.

Mobile 

I am a 100% mobile shopper so I decided to leave my final purchase step to my phone.  Before I actually buy my believing camera, I reminded myself of checking their Facebook and Twitter. I went to Samsung’s web first and I pleasantly found that its website applied responsive design for both iPad and iPhone. It was more enjoyable to browse those picture of their gallery on iPhone. Anyway, I went to their Facebook and Twitter page and I found Samsung basically posted similar stuff on these two. I couldn’t say I was disappointed because I didn’t expect much at the first place. However, it was good to see some users shared their photos on these two platforms. I feel Facebook and Twitter are more like a community of Samsung camera.

I am satisfied with all the information that Samsung offered to me and I feel like I could ask for more. However, buying a camera could be a big investment. So I decided I might just stop by at BestBuy sometime to check them out. You know, you need to be smart when it comes to spending.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA

Why people are so fascinated by personality test these days? Are we consistently searching for approval from friends? acquaintance? or strangers? Does “finding your true self” really matter? If so, how could you be sure the “true self” you found is true? Those questions are worth to think in my opinion.

Don’t get me wrong, I love personality test. I somehow found they are really entertaining. We are in the world with all kinds of personality tests, you can easily find different types of those tests on the first page of Google. When I heard there is a Fascination Test, I took it without any hesitation. The Fascination Test is suppose to tell you how other people see you in their eyes. I was very pumped up for the test after I listened to Sally Hogshead, who is the inventor of the F-test. However, I’ve lost my interest during the test. I became doubtful when I saw question like ” Do people see you consistent and stable?” I don’t know how people see me and sometime I don’t even know how I see myself. I realized that people couldn’t see me when I am not seeing myself. The person they saw is someone else.

My answers to the Fascination Test can be totally different from time to time. I meet different people everyday; I think different questions everyday; I learn different things everyday. The test desired Prestige and Trust as my primary and secondary advantage. I can see myself as Trust but not Prestige. In Sally Hogshead’s opinion, Prestige is about respectful. People respect you and I am not it. Anyway, even this is true, I still don’t want to label myself as Prestige or Trust. I don’t want to label myself at all. Is personality test the new way to help others label ourselves? Does label make one individual easier to be remembered? Do we all want to be labeled?

I suddenly realized that maybe I am not as open as I thought for personality test. Maybe I unconsciously refuse to label myself after all and I see those personality tests as a labeling machine. Maybe I rationally want to label myself because others are already labeled. To be labeled or not to be labeled should be the choice made by me instead of the world.

–XOXO, CHRISTINA