Blog Final Paper:
This was the first time I have ever kept a personal blog on a subject that interests me. I find that keeping a blog is much like keeping a journal, except I was able to personally analyze my findings. My blog topic was based around social networking tools such as the facebook.com and myspace.com. I decided to pick this topic, because one day I found myself asking the question, “What would I ever do without the facebook or myspace? I couldn’t even begin to think of a lifestyle that was not based off of the internet. This then frightened me because just a few years ago I functioned well without it. Delving into this topic really taught me a great deal about an average generation y-er’s newfound, internet based lifestyle. I now consider myself the poster girl for social networking software.
Introduction of Social Networking
My blog first introduced all of the social networking software tools. Friendster.com, Facebook.com, Myspace.com and the new, Icelounge.com. It is safe to argue that Myspace is globally aware of the power it has on our generation. I like to view my myspace.com profile, as my identity, online. It has gotten to the point that teenagers do not even have to leave the comfort of their own home to socialize and network. Yes, this is helpful, but almost unethical at the same time. The beauty of being young is to meet new people and make new friends. Myspace has now eliminated the beauty of a simple task such as shaking someone’s hand and converted it into clicking on their profile followed by clocking the “add friend” button. Society is convinced that this is just a more convenient form of networking, but they fail to take into account what myspace really is. Myspace was created so that large corporations can buy spots and advertise on it. Myspace is no godsend or special friend making tool, it’s a trap for media friendly youths who are blinded by the corporate American threshold of advertising. I personally think this is effective for marketing and advertising firms, because these interactive software sites collect target audiences to create niche markets. I do not think I would deem this ethical if I did not plan on entering this field. Facebook.com, Friendster.com and Icelounge.com all take after the theory that myspace has conglomerated.
Posts that gained much feedback
One of my posts was a reiteration of a conversation I overheard while one spring break. A group of girls were conversing at a restaurant about the facebook phenomenon. They claimed that their lives have been made easier due to facebook, which helped them make friends and boyfriends. Personally that is my main problem with these websites. How can major events such as making new friends be simplified down to the click of a mouse? There was a comment on this post that stated, “What's wrong with using a good tool to make your life easier? People have been doing it for centuries?”. My major problem with facebook and myspace is the way it affects teenagers without them knowing it. This blog assignment has helped me understand how these sites are really benefiting corporate American businesses rather than the teenagers who are commenting on friends’ pictures.
Another post was based around the addiction of facebook.com. I wanted to take a hands on approach to understanding how addicted students were to the facebook. The outcome of my qualitative and quantitative data was just as I had expected. Teenagers use these sites to their advantage on a regular basis. Personally, I am addicted to these sites as well and I do not mean to appear hypocritical. Keeping this blog has made me wonder what I did for year s without it. How did I communicate with people or spy on friends pictures? The answer is, I was not a part of the social networking services that I am today, and I functioned brilliantly.
Advertising
Advertisers and marketers have struck gold with the facebook.com and myspace.com. There is a new type of marketing that I addressed in my blog titles, emergence marketing. This type of marketing is formed around these sites and deals with how many kids use these sites. Professionals that use emergence marketing find it beneficial because they do not even need to target an audience. These sites do the job for the advertisers. Myspace and facebook both have profiles that are mandatory for its users to fill out. This then helps create niche markets because teenagers specify what exactly interests them. Now advertising agencies can create a featured profile on myspace that gets millions of hits per day because it is displayed in a small box in the login page. This is cost effective and a beneficial way to have millions of people read the ad, even if they are not a part of the target audience. Companies have also created profiles on myspace as well as facebook and have begun adding people of their target market. These websites make it simple for advertisers to target their audience in a very specific manner.
How my topic ties into class topics
Audience research is a subject that helps companies analyze specific audiences. This class has helped me understand many different topics within the advertising and marketing realm especially guerilla marketing. I view these websites as both internet marketing and guerilla marketing because the reach goes farther than the computer screen. This form of guerilla marketing targets teenagers or people who use these websites, and offers them various different tools to utilize and make their lives easier. This then helps advertisers and marketers target their audience properly.
We learned about different processes and research tools that help companies target consumers; I think this is backed up by social networking websites. These sites have now been implemented within society and have become a norm. In class we addressed buying patterns of consumers. These sites regulate these patterns as well and pay close attention to their consumers. For instance, Icelounge.com targets skateboarders and introduces new skateboarding brands to them. What other tool could target a market as well as Icelounge.com did to skateboarders? Audience research embodied the questions how do we target our audience appropriately and what type of media do we use? It is safe to assume that these websites have taken internet marketing a step further and implemented forms of guerilla marketing into it. Personally, I am happy to have researched this topic in depth. I do think these sites will stick around for a long time, at least until a new phenomenon is created.
Kim- Some of my blogs are entered on the same date due to the fact that I did not have a computer over spring break or when I went home on the weekends. You told me to write you a little reminder that I do not get penalized. Thanks again, it is greatly appreciated!

Featured Profiles on Myspace.com: http://www.featuredprofile.com/buy.php

During the course of the day, myspace.com puts up new featured profiles. A featured profile is one that was obviously paid for. Companies buy this space in order to promote their brand. Many multimedia channels use this function to its advantage, for instance when a new movie is coming out that has the same target audience as myspace, myspace sets up a featured profile for it. The feature profile is then advertised on the login page. This ensures that everyone who signs into myspace daily, will see it.

I find this very interesting because this tool can be used to reach millions of people daily. The amount of space it takes up on the actual screen is about 2x2 inches. This means 2x2 inches can be responsible for millions of dollars. Businesses should really use this tool to their advantage. I tried to research the price of a "featured profile", but I was not able to access the information. The reach of Myspace is already incredibly large. The fact that a business can pay for a featured profile and it is not just pick at random by Myspace.com makes a large difference. I'm sure now that big corporations and companies have started utilizing the feature profile function, sales will flourish. Its a very easy to gain millions of consumers daily.
http://myspace.com

Emergence Marketing on Facebook.com:
Emergence marketing is a tool that the facebook uses to a very large extreme. PhD Fred Stutzman did a study teens using the facebook and came up with many new statistics. The Emergence Marketing website looked into Shutzman's case and uncovered many interesting facts about teenagers using the facebook.com. "Over the course of a semester, Stutzman analyzed the behavior of UNC students in social network communities. He was particularly interested in Facebook because in a previous study he found that 88% of freshman had active Facebook accounts. His current study was based on a sample of all undergrads in the class of 2009.First mind blowing factoid from his study: On the first day of school, 3,193 freshman had a Facebook account. That was over 85% of the entire class, and many had already been using Facebook for many months. As it turns out, the months of June and July represent the greatest months of account creation. He found that in the two days following freshman orientation, there was a 200-500% increase in daily account creation"(EmergenceMarketing.com).
I find this interesting because, now the facebook is credited with creating friendships for incoming college freshman. I was halfway into my freshman year when the facebook came to Ithaca, so I had to make friends on my own without online help. I'm not sure if I'm at an advantage or a disadvantage. Why not use a tool that is helpful? I do not have a problem with using facebook, I just feel like it is more appropriate to reinforce the friendships I have made, than make new ones online.
The kids that have used facebook to make new friends at college are being used to conduct studies about emergence marketing. This is a bit unethical because I feel that the facebook is making students part of a lab rat type of testing. Many of the students using facebook do not fathom the amount of advertising they are witnessing. For the corporate world, the facebook is a way to "find out what the kids like", but the kids are blinded by this theory. They just want to make friends and comment on eachother's wall. I guess this is a plus for corporate America, now they can use facebook.com to target their market more efficiently.

StudioX:
StudioX (SXN) is a company designed to handle youth marketing. They also specialize in marketing with podcasts and other forms of alternative media. SXN has a new method targeted towards different brands, designed to help them design their own personalized myspace page. SXN offers numerous amounts of marketing specifically for myspace.com. They start by establishing a brands custom myspace pageso that it is a cool place with interactivity, videos, photos, and blogs. After this step, SXN then utilizes the space through guerilla marketing with a various amount of comments and bulletins. SXN has customized myspace tools that help create these effects. This makes it easy for the brand to be noticed and seen by its target market. SXN then offers the option of having a featured listing on the main page of the site to maximize the brands exposure.
SXN came up with this brilliant tactic because myspace increased its hits at a rapid pace over the past few years. Now, there is an estimated 60 million people connected to myspace, so why not create a leg of your company to sell ad's on myspace? I personally think this is a brilliant idea, now myspace advertising can be regulated by a company that knows how to navigate around msypace. Most other media companies do not branch off it on internet advertising. I'm surprisaed no other ad company has thought of devoting a whole sect to myspace. The market is over 60 million, therefore, it should be regulate and advertised in a proper manner.

ICELOUNGE.COM:
The idea of myspace.com has been hitting different social circles by storm. The facebook.com created an online inside circle for college students all around the country and now there is a new site called icelounge.com that is targeted specifically to skateboarders. Salman Agah and Dave Metty two of the worlds most renowned skateboarders, recently launched icelounge.com which is set up just like myspace, but geared toward the global skateboarding community. "We want to inspire people who are in to skateboarding and skateboarding culture to showcase their work for the entire industry to see," says Icelounge.com Co-creator Salman Agah. He also stated, "Icelounge.com is not only about exposing brands to the global skate community, but exposing the skate community to brands," he says. "As a brand you need to stay fresh and be in the know and Icelounge.com gives brands a way to stay in touch with the people who are buying their products."
I found this very interesting because the creators are more interested with skateboard brands rather than creating a place for skateboarders to chat send messages ect. The creators want to enhance sales for the companies that are funding icelounge.com through having them market on the site. This is exactly how myspace.com started to climb the online- social chain. This tactic is the only way for icelounge.com to begin marketing towards its target audience. I'm sure in a few months, once consumers are turned on to icelounge.com, the site will gain MUCH popularity.

PIMP MYSPACE: (www.pimpmyspace.org)
The layouts for Myspace pages are simple and standard, but not for long. There is a new website titled Pimp Myspace it contains different layouts and animated graphics for one to use on Myspace.com. This is a fairly new trend, yet its popularity is soaring. Everyone seems to be using pimp myspace to "pimp" their pages. The goal for this site is to let myspace users personalize their page to feel more connected to it. I personally feel that this new element will attract many more people to sign up for myspace.
Why was this site ACTUALLY created? I have been thinking a lot about this and I have only come to one conclusion. I feel as though the idea of pimp myspace is directly linked to experiential marketing. Pimp myspace lets users get even more involved in the myspace sphere, which makes it more of an experience. Pimp myspace also lets users graphically alter their page so that it shows who they really are inside and out. This was designed to make myspace a part of YOUR life. Now users can sign on and feel as though their "pimped out" profile is who they are, just on the internet. This relates it to "an experience". The experience of going on myspace and feeling even more connected to your profile. When our generation ages, all myspace users will be able to look back on their time spent with myspace and feel PERSONALLY connected, because their page truly reflected who they were at that point in time. Many people do not realize that this is yet another ploy to get more people connected to myspace. I look at it more as brainwashing. Yet again, our generation is being brainwashed by the internet.

SPYSPACE FOLLOW UP:
Spyspace was eliminated yesterday evening, thank god. To my surprise however, a new code was leaked to the internet and put on eBay at the price of $50. People actually purchased the code via eBay in order to use spyspace. Many people then uploaded it during the day and used it to their advantage. About an hour ago however the code became obsolete.
This put an end to the spyspace craze. I am totally scared to go on Myspace because I do not want people to think I'm a stalker because I was looking at their profiles. What is the point of myspace anyway? TO LOOK AT PEOPLE'S PROFILES WITHOUT THEM KNOWING. Spyspace now gave them the power to know! I think that people should just delete their profiles off myspace because spyspace successfully sucked the fun out of it!
I also sent another message to Tom (the creator of myspace) and told him my feelings on spyspace. Again, he did not reply!

MYSPACE.COM ALERT:
There is a new invention in the msypace sphere! SPYSPACE! This is a new server that you can download if you are a member of myspace.com. It's purpose is to let any user view WHO HAS LOOKED AT THEIR PROFILE RECENTLY! To many users this is horrifying! Now anyone can see that you have looked at a person's profile! This can't be legal! This now gives people the capacity to bring internet stalking to a new level. I can see this leading to horrific and infantile situations. Some hacker clearly logged on and created a code that people can obtain easily! I hope a stop is put to this! I am boycotting my myspace for the next week so that I don't get myself into any trouble.

Facebook brought up at SPRING BREAK '06!
I went to Miami, FL for spring vacation last week. I was eating lunch with my friend at Nikki Beach(a very hip, chic and annoying spring break hot spot). There were 5 other girls sitting at the table next to us and they were discussing the facebook. I could barely hear them because their voices were being drowned out by unnecessarily loud techno music. I did make out a few sesentences and boy am I lucky, I seriously got the laugh of a lifetime. One girl stated,
"You guys I love the facebook, seriously, like what would we do without it. I would have never known that you guys needed a new roommate in Kappa Lappa Mappa (clearly I forgot the real name of the sorority)!" Her friend then stated, " I know, the facebook totally hooked me and Evan up, its like such a great invention". The other friend then stated, "Oh yea, I love it too and we even got the link for STA travel off of this website, which is what got us to Miami in the first place, man, I like owe the facebook my life".
So, pretty much, these poor girls made friends via facebook, got boyfriends via facebook and made travel arrangements via facebook. HOW LAME. The facebook is seriously taking over our society gross!