Gezellig Brands

For this post I am going to talk about 4 different gezellig brands that fill the categories of fast, smart, strong, and social. Gezellig, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, means a brand that is viewed as friendly, comfortable, socialable, etc. It is a brand you would like to associate with.

The first category is "fast". A brand that fits here is McDonalds. They are one of many fast food chains, and are very popular and widely known. McDonalds appeals to everyone because they have cheap fast food, and also have characters such as Ronald McDonald who are non-threatening (unless you have a fear of clowns) and promote positive feelings. They are the most well known of their competitors who are Wendy's and Burger King in the category of "fast".

 

The second category is "smart". The brand that exemplifies this is Apple. They are the makers of the first widely used smart phone which was a giant breakthrough in the world of cellular phones. They have gained a large fan base who love their interfaces, and products. Their largest competitor, Microsoft doesn't have a fan base as loyal. Apple is a friendly brand in that they aim for simplicity so anyone can use their products without dealing with a large learning curve.

 



 

 

The third category is "strong". The brand that fits this is Nike. They are quite dominant in the world of sports, and probably the most recognizable of their large list of competitors (in the US at least). They sell products and equiptment for nearly every sport, and their brand has become iconic. It is associated with being a top athlete and people are willing to pay for their products.

The fourth category is "social". Facebook is a prime example. It has been the most popular social media site for many years after it took that spot from MySpace. On Facebook you can connect with old and new friends, meet new people, and just be social. Facebook after all is a SOCIAL media site. It is simple for a person of an age to use, and is a great place to share what is happening in your life.

 





 

Facebook Studio Awards

After looking through the 2013 winners for he Facebook Studio Awards, I have to say my favorite winner was the Allstate Mayhem Campaign.

 

 



I really enjoy these commericals when I see them. The character Mayhem always causes accidents that you would need insurance to cover, leading you to look at Allstate for insurance. These ads never fail to make me smile, and are one of the few ads that I won't change the channel when it is on. The main competitors of this ad campaign are Flo from Progressive, and the Geico Gecko. Mayhem is disadvantaged being that it is newer, but I believe it is the best campaign of the 3. I find Flo to be just plain annoying, and while the Geico Gecko is still creative, it has been getting less creative lately.

If you would like to check out more on the Mayhem campaign, and some examples of the advertisments, they can be found here http://www.allstate.com/mayhem-is-everywhere.aspx.

CCSU Lockdown Experience

So as most people at CCSU, and apparently around the world (one of my friend's sisters who is in Paris actually saw it on TV) saw there was a lockdown at CCSU due to a student who wore a threatening looking halloween cosume on campus and caused a huge panic. I was in Memorial Hall (dining hall) during the lockdown and I stayed calm. My first thought was honestly thatsomeone was wearing a halloween costume and someone mistook it for a gunman. media completley changed how I viewed this situation.

                                          


While at the lunch table a girl and guy sat down next to me while a friend of hers texted her information on the situation that turned out to be completley false. She read exts saying things like shots had been fired, there was a hosage situation, there were 3 people involved, and the guy was taking out anger over a girl. She was very adamant that hes source was credible and it honestly got me worried. I then foolishly texted these rumors to a friend asking for information (he was off campus). The TVs were on in the cafe at the same time and the news people were perpetuating some of the same rumors. After I learned it was only a halloween costume I felt foolish.

                               
Social media in this situation worked similar to the game "telephone" that we played as children. Here someone starts a message and it gets passed along through a group. At the end the last person repeats the message and it is usually different than it was originally. The original message from the 911 caller was that there was a man with a gun, sword, camo, a bullet proof vest, and knee pads walking across campus. All the information was added and spread creating more problems. Social media made this situation worse.

Something Interesting I noticed on Social Media

Lots of people watch TV shows. I watched Breaking Bad and The Sopranos all the way through and liked them a lot. I started both of these shows late (Breaking Bad before season 5 part 2, and Sopranos many years after the finale). I made it through Breaking Bad without having any of it spoiled. I knew the Sopranos ending before watching since I started it over the summer. I currently watch The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, both of which are also great shows, and both of which I have had to activley avoid spoilers for. The Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones "Red Wedding" was spoiled for me quite early which was disappointing because it was such a major event in the series.

One thing I always see, especially with The Walking Dead, is that people just love to post about it on social media. Many of these people give away spoilers too which I cannot stand. I really don't see why people do this. Are they just trying to fit in and tell other people that they watched the same thing others have watched? Since by posting spoilers from the show you are almost guarunteed to ruin it for someone,  I'd assume people would act like me and not spoil it. I guess I was wrong since people do it all the time.

Mentionmapp

Last week in class we learned about many tools on the web a person can use for research in social media. I found one more interesting than the others which is called Mentionmapp. Mentionmapp connects with Twitter to show a map of who connects with you and how. You can see the relation between yourself and other people through hashtags and mentions. The map is interactive and you can move it around and click on the links it provides. You can check out Mentionmapp for yourself here: http://mentionmapp.com/

Investing in stock. Twitter or Facebook?

 

If I were to invest in stock and had to choose between Facebook or Twitter stock, I would invest in
Facebook. Twitter is new to the market making it unpredictable. I recently watched a video from Fox Business about this very topic. Facebook and LinkedIn both sold stock. When Facebook began it flopped, but over time it has gotten better and is currently doing well. LinkedIn did very well from the get go, though they only sold 10% of their stock to the public. Twitter could go either way at this point. I'm not financially secure enough or bold enough to take a risk with Twitter so I'd go with Facebook stock.

                                                


 

Selective Exposure Theory

Of the 10 theories we discussed in class, I'd say the Selective Exposure Theory is the most relevant to social media. This theory says that people will choose to expose themselves to media that is in agreement with their own opinions. They will also block out those which are in opposition.

                                                              

I do this with my social media all the time. On Twitter I follow accounts of people I like and know, as well as famous people, joke accounts, and brands who go along with my views. I will unfollow or choose to ignore people and accounts that go against my views or make me unhappy. I don't want to deal with anything that makes me unhappy, so why would I expose myself to it if I have the choice not to? I wouldn't.