The most important thing I learned in class was how to actual implement keyword research. The video we watched emphasized working within the hierarchy of one’s page first and then going onto the keywords that are demanded deeper into the hierarchy. This helped me understand site architecture better and more about how search engine optimization works. This is valuable to my life and career because it is important to be able to realize what the hierarchal structure is of your clients’ website and how to work with or fix that structure so that one can best optimize their keywords. As we learned in class being able to know what your clients’ customers will be searching for greatly effects whether or not your client will be the website they find and of course you want your clients page to be the first result if a customer is searching for an organization like your client. Also, one quote really stuck out to me from chapter 11 in Groundswell that said “companies need to be ready to fail often, fail quickly and most important fail cheaply” (Li & Bernoff, 229). It is interesting to relate this quote back to a possible not for profit client whose website could be failing like the private school we discussed in class. Therefore the question that still remains unanswered for me is how does one quickly create a positive hierarchy on a clients’ website that fits well with their keyword demands and really does make them more prominent on search engines?  

The most important thing I learned in the reading was the marketing funnel in Groundswell. This chapter emphasized how it is important to make connections with those in the middle of the funnel and how the influence of the groundswell is strongest there. One point that really stuck out to me was how important it is to create a presence on one’s website that encourages interaction so that not only are you drawing visitors to your page farther down the marketing funnel, but that you are also facilitating a space where those visitors can influence others. This is valuable to my life or career because I am particularly interested in not for profit PR and it is crucial for not for profit organizations to be continually expanding their reach so that they are finding more and more volunteers and donors. Therefore, learning how to use social media so that those already interested in the organization pull others in is very valuable to the success of whatever organization I might be working for. In class we were learning about Search Engine Optimization and how it is better to have visitors coming to your site through another channel than just searching it on Google. Maybe I miss heard this part, but if this is correct my question then is by coming through other channels are visitors showing us that connections are being made and that visitors are being influenced and possibly moving farther down the marketing funnel?  

The most important thing I learned in class yesterday was how Facebook is heading towards being a more open environment to keep up with Twitter. I also did not realize that Twitter’s whole purpose is to create such an open environment. Although I have a Twitter account I never bothered to look at the privacy settings since I only follow my coach and I never tweet so it did not really matter to me if anyone was following me. This is applicable to my future career because these open environments not only mean that everything I am doing online is available for future employers and clients to see, but also it shows how valuable these mediums can be for helping to network and gather new information. The openness of Twitter and perhaps Facebook one day will allow me to connect with more people than ever before and as Gina Chen showed us I can search for people I want to connect with based on a particular topic of interest. This could be very practical in a future career just like how Gina Chen explained that she even found story ideas by communicating with various individuals on Twitter.

In the reading in Groundswell I also found the POST method applicable to what we talked about with Radian6 last week. Under the People section Li and Bernoff state “what’s important is to assess how your customers will engage, based on what they’re already doing” (Li and Bernoff, 67). This is very applicable to a company if they are using Radian6 or a free program that is similar by using these programs a company can see not only what their publics are talking about but also where they talk about it. If ones company is having a lot of negative chatter happening on Twitter then having a Twitter account for your company and starting to address the issues brought up that way is practical since that is the medium your public is already engaging in.

            This is applicable to my future career because it will be important to listen to what my publics are talking about, but to also pay attention to how they are talking meaning what mediums they prefer to use.

            This all leads me to ask do I need to start building my social network now on Twitter? Or could creating an identity on Twitter now be detrimental when I am still deciding what direction I want to go in as far as my career that I would not want to have a set identity and then completely change my interests? The unanswered question I have regarding programs like Radian6 and how applicable they can be in terms of seeing where your publics are already talking, but what if they are not already talking do we then turn to traditional research such as surveys and focus groups to figure what social medium to use to best reach our audience?

The most important thing I learned from our reading in Groundswell was how important listening is and more importantly how one uses what is gained by listening. The example about BMW’s Mini Cooper American branch was really helpful for understanding this. Trudy learned by listening to the natural conversation that was already going on about Mini’s cars that “Mini owners would rather see themselves as members of an exclusive club of people who belong together” (Li and Bernoff, 91). This helped her develop Mini’s new strategy of marketing to Mini owners not prospective Mini buyers. This is valuable for my future career because it is very easy to think you know what is best for one’s company. Trudy could have kept on marketing to future buyers like most car companies do, but instead she took the time to actually listen to what was being said about her brand and then put what she learned into action. If I can learn to listen and then put what I have learned into a successful campaign then that will have a positive effect on my future career and life.

The Radian6 demonstration in class definitely showed us how a company can really listen to the natural conversations that are already going on about their brand. I know Lauren answered my question that there is no typical size of company that uses Radian6, but  logistically is there a size it would work best for? It seems to require a substantial financial investment, even with the not for profit discount, plus the expenditure of the man power required to then effectively use the program would also cost a company a substantial amount of money. This leads me to ask what will a company do with all of this information if they do not know how to turn it into a marketable campaign for their company? This is especially relevant for a company to ask before they put in such a financial investment because they need to have some sort of plan of how this expenditure will increase their revenue.