Groupon or Google magic?

How does Groupon work?

Groupon negotiates huge discounts, and usually they are about 50-90% off. Groupon negotiates all these deals with popular businesses, after they have done all the negotiations Groupon sends the deals to thousands of subscribers in their free daily email which sends the businesses a lot of new customers, that is the what is called the ''Groupon magic''.  There is always a deal of the day for Groupon and customers take advantage of these deals, this type of marketing i growing more and more.

Google tried to buy Groupon for 6 billion dollars, but it was turned down by them, apparently they had a bigger strategy and bigger vision for their business. Google is launching their own discount coupon business-like which it will also include Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Google Buzz and e-mail sharing options. This type of business attracts millions of people and will keep doing, so expect for this to become a trend in society if it isn't so already. 

A new competitive fight!

While Groupon does bring small businesses customers; they would have never had as well as the much greater opportunity for a repeat customer. Those customers will always be expecting a deal moving forward. As Facebook adds more functionality and simplifies things for small businesses, their value grows exponentially because they have the strong social bond already in place and much more personal data about the interests of the consumer. Google in my eyes is the winner today. They give a local business owner the most targeted customer. The customer who has intent to search for an immediate solution to their problem. Consumers with an issue they want to fix are very motivated to purchase.

Companies Trying To Make The Best Out Of Technology...

As we all know we are in a generation based on technology, everything has to do with it now days and companies of every industry all over the world are trying to make a transition within all their services because in my opinion by doing so, will be the only way to ''survive'' in these times.

Take Google for example, one of the biggest companies in the world are planning to work out a way of installing near-field-communication readers or NFC which is a set of short range wireless technologies. Google wants to install NFC readers in merchant locations so that consumers may tap their devices against registers to pay for the products they are purchasing; I am sure that this method will facilitate customers on making payments, it is estimated that this type of technology will replace credit cards, debit cards, gift cards.

Continuing with technology, MySpace is trying to revive its brand by getting into the artistic world. It has been written that MySpace is pushing its boundaries by representatives of the company attending different types of event such as concerts and film festivals, they are pushing hard to in a sort of way to ''revive''. On the other hand web users are visiting MySpace less and less, making it hard for them to make a revival happen. It is going to hard for MySpace to be saved, what do you think?...

Last but not least MySpace's ''competition'' Facebook has been granted a new search patent that concentrates on search results based on the preferences of someone's personal network. This method gives the user bigger networking possibilities with not only your friends but with ''friends of friends of friends'' so any search results will be matched with your profile settings and most definitely will give you are exact search of what you are looking for, which means less popular option when searching.

Technology keeps on making life a little easier for everyone... If we may say that...

Is MySpace Going To Be Saved?

Once upon a time there was a web site created by a man named Tom Anderson, that particular web site founded on July, 2003 by the name of MySpace was a web site created for interaction with others. This website became a big hit in no time, most human being around the world started jumping on the MySpace bandwagon because it was an easy to use site; where people made connections with others by just adding someone as a friend. Also it gave people the choice to create a profile with different backgrounds and even post pictures or anything on their profile. Most people learned to deal with HTML's with MySpace because that was the way used to post stuff on a user profile on even on another user if you wanted to post some kind image or link. MySpace also gave new and existing artists to post their music or art on the Artist/Fan pages, MySpace was a really cool innovative website.

MySpace was on the ''top of the game'' being the most used web site by people for interacting purposes, but one day on February, 2004 a new web site was created named Facebook this site was created by a College student named Mark Zuckerberg he created the website at first so that College and University students could interact with each other. The beginning of Facebook was not that good, but with some time it would start becoming a more visited site, not only College students but any person started opening  Facebook accounts; After,  Businesses and Artists' started jumping into Facebook. By then everyone was using this web site more and more, people started forgetting MySpace even closing accounts on MySpace because everyone was using Facebook more regularly. By 2009 a web traffic analysis web site Compete.com ranked Facebook as the most site used for social networking by worldwide monthly active users.

Other social networking web sites have been created since then, but none have been able to top Facebook. Now what happened to MySpace?... They have dropped in the last years and now it does not look good for them on a Business stand point, they are on sale. Most reports say MySpace will be sold to the owners of Facebook so that they can be saved and linked in every way, that just shows the supremacy and the decay; on one end Facebook is the most successful networking site and on the other end MySpace keeps on getting less and less traffic.

Will My Space be saved?...




Links:

www.facebook.com

www.myspace.com

www.compete.com

www.marketingshift.com

Social Media Rapid Growth

There is not a doubt that social media has grown immensely during these past couple of years. With the creation of MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, people and companies have 'expanded' in a sort of way. For example, companies have started to implement their products and information on social pages, by opening their 'like' profiles. A lot of companies have gained success doing this type of marketing because in the world we live in today, it is all about networking.

When an individual clicks 'like' on a Facebook profile which belongs to some sort of company or artist, it gives that person a sense of having a 'relationship' with someone they never thought of. That, I believe is one of the biggest points why someone likes a page. It is important for companies to keep in touch with their followers whether is on Facebook or Twitter because that creates more opportunities for them to create business relationships; it may be to strengthen one or it may be for the creation of a new relationship.

I use the method that companies and artists use these days with my own music company. I have a Deejay company named Power Beatz. What I did was open a Facebook page to keep in touch with my customers; by having my old customers or followers like my page I gain other new followers which creates business for me. It is not easy I admit it, but I try to post almost every day some new info or even sometimes new mixes made by me, I also ask for feedback and even comment on my followers status updates so they see I care for them.

According to different studies, research shows that Facebook has a lot of marketing potential for many different reasons. One of the reasons is that people spend 1 minute on Facebook of every 3 minutes spent online, meaning people may spent up 23 hours on Facebook a week. Another reason is that the ads put on Facebook which appear on people's profiles are seen by others so that attracts many people. For those and many more reasons companies are turning their focus on marketing all their products and services on the web.

E-Marketing is becoming more important than we think!

Sources:

www.facebook.com

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-marketing-studies/

http://www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/news2010-02-18-facebook.shtml

Be Careful! An Application Might Take Your Job.

It seems as if the world we live in turns each day into an 'app'. If we think about it, now everything has an app. For example Banks, Movie sites, Stores, Restaurants, Health institutions. Everyone has a Smartphone these days and developers are implementing more applications everyday. Where are we going with all of these ingenious apps? In a sort of way it is fine to have some apps in a cellular phone, but having so many companies creating applications for so many different purposes is making this world more and more reliant on technology. Do not get me wrong, technology is a great accomplishment made by the human being, but to a big extent is making our world and our habitants rely all the time on a machine to do everything for us. Where are we all going with it? I will tell you where. Picture this in your head. Every human interacting through a screen or a simple artifact like a watch and seeing people there or even having simulators to make us feel as if we are physically on a place shopping, eating or whatever the case may be. These so called inventions are making us be less productive with our minds and potentials. We are getting so comfortable that some of us are not noticing how bad is going to be for us in a future not distant.

A simple thing as an application on a cellular phone is taking jobs away from people. for example the  Starbucks card mobile app might very convenient for someone wanting to pay for a Vanilla Bean, Mocha Frap, Marble loaf, or even a box of gum, but the truth is that if we really think about it, the app is taking a simple job from someone who can do the same by just processing the card or get the cash for that product purchase. In addition, it makes it less personal. I mean tell me which company does not care about customer service. Personally I like when I go into a restaurant or any store and someone approaches me to ask if I need help or is just there to greet me when I order something. Believe the next step is going to be just going into a Starbucks with a bunch of machines and using your app to pay and even order and that machine just gets your coffee ready.

Technological advances are great to certain extent but it is going too far.




Sources:

http://www.appolicious.com/shine/articles/4969-starbucks-rolls-out-payments-nationwide-with-starbucks-card-mobile-iphone-app

http://www.apps-world.net/northamerica/

http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=490