How Twitter Can Change the Face of Advertising

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! It has been a while since my last blog and I missed blogging. I've been so caught up with the holiday rush, last minute shopping and cramming all my work before the long break, it did not occur to me that I also have my responsibilities here. Anyway, I have so much in store for you this year and I just can't wait to share them all to you!

First is an application called twitter. It's really not that new and a lot has already been using this specially people in the US. It's an application that brings blogging to the next level. It features your thoughts in a series of tweets (that's what we call the messages or status being posted on your twitter account) and all updates are dependent on you. There are also third party applications that you can use to post from your mobile phones and I must say I love my twitterific application from my iphone 3G.

You can also PRE-type your messages and have it blasted on a scheduled basis. There are different tweet sites that will allow you to schedule your posts just in case you need to go somewhere and you run your business network in twitter. This alone will tell you that twitter can be the next phase of advertising.

Traditional media brings together three forms of advertising, PRINT, RADIO and TV. The latter being the most expensive but surveyed the most effective. All forms trying to do one single task, "tell people the good news (or the bad; or the fake info) of your products and services". But with the economic crisis bombarding us today, several small and medium enterprises are being cost efficient by lowering down their advertising budget to a minimum try to get the best of each media. Now, looking at that perspective, people now are being smart in spending their money. They realize that not all media are effective and it doesn't reach their targeted audience. As a result, money and most importantly, resources are wasted for nothing. A very good example are countless leaflets or humongous billboards are being paraded in major streets just to be blown away by the unpredicted hail storm or the billboard's size is just not enough to tell people what the product is all about, in return, companies invest their money in a dead investment.

Now, why did I say twitter can change the face of advertising. Simple... with a limited budget, you can use the internet to setup your business and in terms of your social network, there are tons of free social networking sites who battle out to get the most numbers of members just to feature different products to these wide range of audiences. Twitter on the other hand micro-blogs and informs people who follow the user the thoughts in his/her mind and if he/she is really a good sales person, he/she can funnel it to a successful sales action.

Another great thing is that the resources are now conserved. Less cost, great investment for the company and for the environment. It's a win-win situation! Don't you agree.

As of today, I am now starting to maximize my business through the use of the internet. I just hope that other people embraces the idea as well as I did. The Filipino market is still not ready for an online trading community like the US does but I am very optimistic that one day - someday, everything will be online!

Paint Me A Picture Of...

Let’s play a little game called “paint me a picture”. Although you’ll be doing this on your computer desk where I couldn’t see it, it would really help if you play this as if you are “painting” a picture to someone in the room. I’ll be describing a scenario and try to get a mental image in your head of what it would be like with those instances. The objective of this game is for you to feel what it’s like the things I’m about to describe. Now, let’s start…

•Paint me a picture of a world where computers doesn’t exist. What do you see?
•Paint me a picture of a society with no health care benefits.
•Paint me a picture of a young boy begging night and day for food.
•Paint me a picture of a bird not afraid of humans because humans are the only one who has food.

Now, let’s see what you’ve got. For the first item, I would guess you’d paint a world where mails are delivered the old fashion way, where it would take a number of days before you receive one. Or you would have an image of a person, let’s say an HR assistant, manually stacking all the employee records in one filing cabinet considering there are 30,000 employees in the company.

On the second item, a society with no health care benefits would depict a culture either overly engrossed with their daily jobs just to make sure they are prepared for an emergency or a community helping one another financially just to afford the professional fee of a certified doctor.

A boy begging for food is something we all see daily on the streets. But what if these boys multiply themselves shifting the balance between the rich and the needy? Do you think it would be a nice picture to paint?

How about birds or animals even who doesn’t care if humans would hurt them so long as they find food among the wastes thrown out by people? It would be a very scary place to be where no boundaries between humans and animals exist.

Now you would ask me, where am I driving this at? Simple… Regardless which scenario indicated above, whether pictured overly grotesque or drawn in a way where you cover the truth under a pile of lie, it would seem that the world is not responsible for all these things to happen. I read this morning on the local newspaper that local leftists are protesting for change well in fact that they themselves do not have an alternative plan. It would seem that all we ever do now is talk and talk and talk. All talk no actions. If we can’t pin the blame on someone, we blame it on something. In this case, it’s either the environment or the event that which caused the problem. I noticed that we don’t care if issues get to be resolved, what we only care about is the propagation of our own interests. In return, everything around us suffers.

Like the issue of global warming. A lot of people are saying that these are not caused by man but a series of changes nature intended to be. The problem with that analysis is that while I agree that it is a change made by nature, the contribution of mankind to these changes are pushing it to its limits therefore allowing nature to change course on a dangerous level. This in return makes our world a not-so-better place to live in.
The scenarios that I asked you to paint above are results of our careless actions today. I don’t mean to generalize everyone and I know that there are a lot of non-profit groups out there with different advocacies trying to make a difference in their own way. I applaud you for doing that.

In the end, it’s just a matter of doing what you can and hoping that everyone else will do it. Not a beggar left on the streets, everyone well insured, and most of all, living a comfortable life despite any circumstances.

My Thoughts on Shopping During the Holidays...

I always feel strange when writing about shopping since my career revolves heavily around marketing. I think one of the reasons I feel reserve from the subject is because I have an idea how the marketing industry works. Especially during the holiday season where consumers flock shopping malls in frenzy just to get the best bargain. During this season, countless bazaars and mall-wide sale populate the entire city enticing each person to buy stuff they may or may not need. As high as 70% off on regular items, who could say no to that offer?

Being in the marketing field for about 5 years now, it makes sense that people buy because marketers tell them to buy. Marketers take advantage of tapping into different emotions during this time and believe it or not, it actually works! With the right image and mixture of words, retail profit shoots up drastically during this time of the year. And the funny thing is that I fall for the same tactics and the same alluring marketing ads even though I knew that underneath it all, it’s nothing but glitter.

Now looking at how our economy benefits from these “pre-determined” events, I think there is a social responsibility that needs to be addressed by these people or company who participates in discount shopping. Yes I agree that these price-offs tend to satisfy the hunger of the common shopper and it actually helps the economy revolves the trading of goods among consumers and merchants but there is a moral dilemma that I think is prevalent in this scenario. While it is true that it helps increase revenues and in return creates more jobs for the people, it doesn’t justify the fact that these companies or individuals rob people of their hard-earned money for 11 months and carelessly sell it at 70% off on the 12th month of the year. Yes, you read it right – rob! If companies or individuals can afford to sell everything at a mark down price then the months prior to that big blow out sale is nothing but a big cheat!

Don’t get me wrong, I love bargain shopping but I also have this inherent responsibility to myself and to the world I live in. I believe that in order to get the most of our hard-earned money, these stores should also give us the right quality that our money deserves. When you look at it a bigger perspective, if companies or individuals can mark their items at a discounted price for a period of time, it means that they can afford to let go of something that they are selling at a higher rate for the past 11 months. Does this not alarm you that what they could be selling on a regular day might not have the standard quality you deserve just because they stick a brand that sounds classy when pronounced with a foreign accent? I don’t want to name names but let me just tell you what happened to me before when I went bargain shopping. Brand X polo shirt cost P3, 800 priced regularly - less 50% during 3 days mall-wide sale, it now costs P1, 900. I bought it obviously since the brand in itself speaks for quality and went home with a happy and content heart. After I tried it the second time, I heard a ripping sound at the left side (arm pit section) and to my dismay, the P1, 900 Brand X polo shirt is now worth like a P50 t-shirt I could buy at Divisoria.

I am not saying that these happen a lot but for a P1, 900 polo shirt – well, I expected more. This made me think on the thousands of money we spent during holiday season just to go with the shopping craze marketers tried so hard to create. And after the holidays, we just end up asking ourselves, “where did my 13th month pay go?”

While it is true that it is tradition that we buy gifts during the holidays, this is not an excuse for us to waste our hard-earned money to something that is not worth buying. If we allow ourselves to practice this during the holidays, and then just think how this would impact not only the aspect of our financial capabilities but also our environment. So as a golden rule, before shopping anything for your love ones or friends, try asking yourself these questions and this will definitely help you make the right choices specially today where different marketing messages are thrown at us to confuse us more with our purchasing power.

1. Does he/she really need it?

2. Is there an alternative to the gift you are about to give?

3. Is your idea of a gift long-lasting?

4. Can he/she use it regardless of time, date, season or occasion?

5. Is there a way for him/her to recycle, reuse or reduce your gift to maximize product usage?