Ad Storm #2 - Social Networking and Online Communities

Hey Guys,

I was thinking today about the plethora of Social Networking and Online Communities that are available today and just felt excited about the future. Most people look at this crowded space and feel it's cluttered and that Myspace/YouTube/Facebook is all you need. In a lot of cases, to go viral those three will do just fine, but there are real strong opportunity in being able to take advantage of smaller growing networks. The main benefits is less clutter to break through, wider exposure, and higher search engine visibility.

Go to Google and look up Alex Merced

I've made a lot of efforts to know who are the other Alex Merceds in the world and to make sure my results are on top. I've been able to beat results and lay a stronger search engine foundation than the Alex Merced from popular Metal Band, Necrophagist. While my highlander "there can only be one" approach to dominance in the Alex Mercedosphere may be a little much, this shows many of the benefits of being an online socialite.

Before we go further, read this article on growing social networks.


So Let's Explore these Benefits:



Less Clutter/Less Competition:

Sites like Myspace and Facebook have such large user numbers, it sounds like a great promotions tool due to the sheer amount of audience. Like my professor Earl Boatwright mentioned, facebook is getting special attention due to it's built in segmentation.

This is all true, these are great promotional tools and they are probably a better investment arguably than traditional broadcasting. Though we can't forget about the value of niches, and while Myspace and Facebook can sort of cater to niches but not like a niche social network can. Take a look at a site like Dogster which caters to a very niche market, Dog Lovers.

Although the problem with Niche social network is while you segment is at easier reach, the clutter among competition is greater since every ad is probably for similar products than yours.

This is where all these smaller general networks like Multiply come in handy cause it's not an obvious ground for competitors and probably has less clutter than myspace, meaning the odds of your ad shining through to more people.


Wider Exposure/Search Engine Visibility:

Ok, now imagine an avid net user checking all his profiles at all his favorite sites and the same ads keep showing up for this New Rock band, now he goes to search on google for the latest rock music. In the results are the profiles of that band in the ad at a lot of different networking sites his curiosity increase. He then finally check his myspace and see the band featured on the music page and finally he gives in to the frequent EXPOSURE to this band and checks them out.

I mean it's not really anything we all don't know already, but this extra effort to hit every end of the web payes off in many ways. If the wider exposure with the ads and profiles isn't enough, the amount of search engine visibility those profiles generate should be a clincher.

Check out AlexMercedRocks.info look at the right menu and see my many profiles

You'll notice not only did I have a lot of profiles I joined many niche communities and activley participated, yes this takes a lot of time and effort, but your spending it socializing which really isn't a bad deal.





A lot of old tools I feel aren't as utilized as much as they used to be. While mailing lists are still as popular as ever, Message Boards have been relegated to sort of standard site feature. While every website should have a message board, it's kinda useless if you don't put efforts to stimulate it's community.

- Create many fun threads that are always reply worthy like "What are you listening to now?" or the "Random thread" I've seen these go viral on many message boards and give something fun for community members to do and build inside jokes and board culture around.

Message boards single handedly made the opening day for The Gamers Lounge a huge success. I would go around and actually hang out at local gaming events and tell people about the store opening and tell them about special events that will be announced on our message board. We had almost 1000 posts before we even opened, although after we opened the in store community was so strong it kinda replaced the online activity, but luckily the message board became a built mailing list of everyone who already signed up.

Before we opened we had a special Beta Test event we announced on the message board where we had people come in and play for a few days before the opening to make sure all the computers worked. We also would have secret late night events announced on the message board which kept people signing up even if they weren't always posting, but posting did stay alive for quite a bit.

Bottom Line: Join as many social networks and online communities as possible... why not.

Ad Storm #1: Personal Branding

Before reading this post listen to this podcast from the foward blog
" Who you was is not who you is" -Mitch Joel

This is resonated with me when I listen to this, and having interest in personal branding for years listening to this really made me want to discuss it a little bit. I really enjoyed listening to Mitch Joel and Paul Young discuss personal branding and eliciting values and molding peoples perception of you on your own terms.

People are going have an opinion no matter what, don't you think you should have some say in what people think about you.

This is the fundamental idea behind personal marketing, I've always been more fascinated in a more product oriented approach which I usually describe by the quote:

"You are your best product"

When I think about it this way it makes me realize the following:

- If I'm a product, what attributes do I have - How do I want to position myself - what are my Marketing Communication Goals (awareness, perception, attitude)
I get some slack for my quite cold approach to myself as a product I'm selling, but to me marketing isn't about making a profit it's about creating value for consumers. I don't sell cause I want profit, I sell cause I want to give value, profit is just testimony to the value I've given.

So I now understand what is my personal brand and what I want to do with it, what's the next question:

- How does my product give value - Who is the target market (like minded people)

At this point you are ready to begin building awareness of you Personal Brand. Here are many things I would recommend to elicit your values to connect your target market:

- Blogs - Social Events - Social Networking Sites - Volunteering - Flyering (that's right, put up flyers about you and your personal brand)

Here is an example of a flyer promoting a personal brand: Alex Merced (myself)




Very obvious we know a lot about the Alex Merced Brand:

- It heavily related to music events and information
- Several Blogs that have information which is valuable
- A Radio show which has entertainment value

conclusion:

The Alex Merced Brand gives me value through Music Information and Entertainment


Now it's your turn :)
Discuss your personal brands in the comments, I'd like to know about your brand

AD Memorial #6: Alex Merced Art Contest

Me and my good friend the super charismatic Richard Ehrbar a.k.a Rich C $ decided this semester we're taking the personal branding approach for our shows to the next level with extensive cross promotional flyers. This being my final semester before I graduate means my show comes to an end so I hope to create a stronger fanbase before my Bowling Green Legacy finishes it's final chapter. Also with my other project, Fashionably Numb Music, I'm promoting a show called FestFest 07 this weekend and we thought we'd leverage our DJ status to help promote it with this next flyer.

Ad Memorial #5: GamerHeadz

During my time with The Gamer Lounge we eventually started to feel that the community was starting to lose it's appeal so what we did is create a third party community. The Gamer Headz was an organization within the store completely run by customers sold on the idea of democracy and giving our customers a voice on what goes on in the store. Giving the organization a small budget, writing them a organization constitution, and organizing the first meeting was all that was needed to be done to get this organization off the ground. Afterwards, it gave the customers an identity to buy into outside of being a customer, they would organize events and pretty much be the in house community with enough autonomy to appear as more than a sales promotion or Public Relations campaign, although it was both. In the constitution I wrote in there would be a volunteering committee to get the organization to volunteer around town which I would use to get them press which in turn brought us attention.

As usual my community based branding techniques proved successful and multi-faceted. It worked especially well in a hobby retail store since the appeal of such a store usually is the community.

Ad Memorial #4: AlexMercedRocks.info

Hey Guy,

Now to talk about my grandest long term marketing campaign of all time, Myself. I first began the journey in creating the Alex Merced brand in high school by using a domain, Ybull.net, to be the home of the Alex Merced Fan Club. Ybull.net no longer exists but you can still find the old logo created by a friend of mine, Lee Wilson, at Ybull's ZZN email service. Ybull for many years served as the hub for many projects such as campaigns for class president, a fan club, several free online gaming products and more. Eventually once I started my time at Bowling Green State University I decided to mature and grow apart from the large yellow bull that was such a fixture of my high school years.

The first couple of year there was no real Alex Merced Fan Club until my radio show finally adopted the name "AlexMercedRocks... the show". At this point I invested in the AlexMercedRocks.info domain which went through many incarnations which mostly just were sites with links to many things I was involved such as WBGUFM and Fashionably Numb Music. During this time I'd put flyers all over campus discussing the The Alex Merced Fan Club which started up on myspace.com and facebook.com and became a psuedo local celebrity and many times was recognized at parties, even had people buy shirts with my face on them. At this point my personal brand equity was at it's highest and I put it to use in my concert promoting.

Nowadays AlexMercedRocks.info is a blog where I post links to all my projects, music, and write about what going on with my highly driven ambitious life as a persistent social networker. Flyers are still being hung promoting the Alex Merced brand with a new logo and new focus from many marketing classes and some online courses on copywriting I'm out to take over.

Ad Memorial #3:Fashionably Numb Music

Hey Guys,

Today I'm going to talk about my promotions agency, Fashionably Numb Music. FNM is in the business of promoting music whether it be through live events, PR, or other means if there are musicians I like I put FNM to work. FNM got started cause of my Involvement with WBGUFM. With Budget cuts preventing me to promote shows with WBGUFM anymore I began using my money to book concerts and in that process I decided to develop my own brand to do it with. Here is an example of the flyers from over the years.

This show in particular is interesting since I'm gonna be trying some club promotional techniques by having girls get in free. We'll see if this helps promote the show a much as I'd like. Fashionably Numb is pretty standard music promotion, press releases, handbills being passed out on the streets, flyer's, radio interviews with artists, etc. Fashionably Numb Still exist and has gotten some press.

RELATED PRESS:

Junior 'Numbs' BG

Howards Feeds BG Music Scene

Ad Memorial #2: WBGU 88.1fm (18-22)

Hello Everyone,

Today I'm going to talk about my promotional experiences in my different positions at my college radio station, 88.1fm. It began with me just as another DJ when I was 18, then I became the promotional director while I was 19-20, then I took a year off where I played a more advisory role while I operated the Gamers Lounge. currently, I'm serving my final year at WBGUfm as it's Underwriting director.


As a DJ: After four years of having a radio show, which was good experience in branding. The first couple of years I went through many show names trying to find something that clicked and was marketable. Eventually a name stuck, "Alex Merced Rocks... the show" and thus began my enjoyment of personal branding. Through flyers and involvement in the community I became a highly recognized name in the community which led to my own level of local brand equity.

As Promotions Director: When I first became Promotions director I was still yet to have any marketing/promotions experience so I kind of had to make a lot of mistakes to learn a lot of basic lessons. I first started my main responsibilities which where to put up peoples flyers for their shows and secure on air giveaways. I expanded my duties into organizing events, primarily concerts. That first semester I organized three concerts, two benefit shows and a 12 hour on campus extravaganza known as the WBGUFM expo. The two benefit shows did very well and the 12 hour show ended up on fall break weekend making for a very long 12 hours.

The Following semester I learned about diminishing returns and supply/demand when i raised the number of concerts I organized from 3 the whole semester to up to 3 a week. After a semester of concert overload I toned it down a bit the following couple of semesters and kept doing the semesterly WBGUFM Expo until we did the Expo IV which afterwards I had to make my hiatus to run The Gamers Lounge. Due to my efforts at personal branding for my show, I became synonymous with the station itself for a brief time, which caused resentment against my fellow staff since I was mentioned and consulted on almost all the newspaper articles on the station that year. Being promotions director also was my first experience writing press releases and working with Media outlets and local businesses. Sadly, I no longer have any of the flyers and promotional materials I had made during this period of my life although I was only beginning to familiarize myself with flyer design and promotions at this time. It wasn't until The Gamers Lounge where I really refined my promotional skills.


As Underwriting Director: I have only started this position but after all the marketing classes the experience of running two different businesses since I've joined the station has prepared me to be an effective Underwriting director. I designed what I hope is a logically sound plan to reinvent what over the last few years has been a very unproductive Underwriting department. The reason this department has failed over the years was due to it's complicated price structure and it's lack of perceived value. By simplifying the price structure, including a few premiums, doing some research and work in the perception and position of the station the perceived value of our underwriting will increase to the point to create a workable department that can evolve beyond my time here at the station.



My time at WBGUfm has yielded for me a lot of benefits and given me a platform to learn a lot about promotions, graphics design, audio production, branding, and more. It has also helped me build many contacts within the music industry, overall a very productive time of my life.


RELATED PRESS:

WBGU sponsers 11 band show in Union

WBGU brings progressive pop band, Shirock, to Union pub

WBGU's Free concert to feature seven bands

Ad Genesis #1: Albagan.com

Hello Everybody,

While the Ad Memorial articles is where I talk about my past in Marketing, Ad Genesis will display me exercising my marketing muscles by creating fake products and creating ads and campaigns strategies for the product.

Today's Fictitious Product is Albagan.com (the domain doesn't exist)

Before I tell you what Albagan is hear is the ad to see what you can get from it.



From this ad I was hoping to communicate that Albagan.com has to do with music albums, and then do an individuality appeal. Now the question is what is Albagan.com.

It's a social networking site built around Music Albums, the idea would be that music labels make profiles for their new releases and back catalogs and that instead of like more general use social networking sites like myspace or facebook, you add albums instead of friends. This takes into consideration that in order to succeed in establishing a new Social Networking site it must be based in a niche cause myspace and facebook already fill the general social networking demand. The appeal of these sites is individuality and community, so a product must not only establish a niche but establish new ways for consumers to establish individuality and join communities. Thus the message is that at Albagan.com you establish individuality by showing which music albums define you, and by adding these albums to your profile you are joining communities built around each album.

I came up with this idea based around two interesting and successful sites, technorati.com and spout.com. Technorati and blog directory where users can have profiles and add their favorite blogs to their profile, and then theres spout.com a independent film focused site with some social networking aspects. They both base themselves in niches, and within these niches the consumer becomes an individual, that's the sign of a successful online community.

As far as marketing goes, I'd probably take a page out of Spout.com's genius campaign with Four Eyed Monster where by consumers appreciating the product @ spout.com the the makers of the product get paid. More specifically the more people who enjoyed indie film Four Eyed Monsters that join Spout.com the more money towards the films debt that gets paid. So I would venture to find a awesome musical act and do the same thing, everytime someone adds their album by signing up for albagan.com, we'll give them a dollar to record their next album.

Other things to note is the slogan, Hear Yourself, which in two words expresses most of what albagan is:

- Music Related
- serving the individual

Why is it called albagan - 2 Reasons

- The flow of the word is kind of fun to say, and odd made up words tend to stick to memory if it flows right. Although I did start out this made up word with alba which is similar to album, just to make it seem loosely connected.

- Also names like this are usually available, which is great as far copyright and trademarking issues are concerned.


Well that's all for Ad Genesis today, keep on checking for more stuff!

AD Memorial # 1: The Gamers Lounge (age 20-21)

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to Alex's Ad Factory. I am Hector Alexander Merced and I made this blog to discuss my experiences in Marketing and the techniques I've used in the past to establish my marketing experience. This first post will discuss one of my more fruitful experiences in being the owner of a hobby retail store chain, The Gamers Lounge.

THE STORY: The story is me and a friend, Spencer Marugg, wanted to start a store in Ohio. Back in my days in Connecticut I use to go to hobby stores and LAN centers so I suggested we make a mix of the two. I started off by making a series of surveys with surveymonkey.com and got people in our target market to participate. I defined our target market as college aged Video Game and Anime Fans. Using the results from the surveys I built a business plan and we secured the funding for the venture. Later on met David Baum who helped us with the hobby retail portion of the store and eventually merged with us to make it a multiple storefront operation. (For the record at the point I was still days away from my 21st birthday)

Marketing started months before we even opened, I had made the website and started a message board. I would go to the Anime and Gaming Club meetings at the BGSU campus and tell them about what we were doing. I encouraged them to sign up for our message board which became quite alive and helped build word of mouth and a customer mailing list all in one. We then had many of those looking foward to the store help us paint the store which helped foster the vestment important in community based marketing. Opening day was a huge success having an all day rush of customers.

I was in charge of many of the promotional practices used by the stores here are some of the examples of Flyers I developed for ad campaigns.


This is my Tournament Flyer

This flyer was supposed to really be just a basic flyer to get the info out about a couple of our tournaments. We tried to have a lot of events going on a daily basis to increase the value of coming to the store on a daily basis. Every flyer since the beginning had our logo which became quite recognizable and became so unanimous with the product category that other stores in town started getting referred to as Gamer Lounges.



This is my Halo FLyer

This flyer tried to emphasize the joy of leisure time with friends. We attempt to sell the idea of the store as a place to enjoy time with friends which worked very well as The Gamers Lounge became quite a friendly community.

All the flyers made during my time with the gamers lounge where completely designed and created by me, many of the images I used off Google images. The logo was created by me in Adobe Photoshop along with all the flyers. Also during this time I mastered my ability to spin any event to make it press worthy which got the Gamers Lounge a lot of press among local newspapers. Like here's a few articles on it that are of interest:

RELATED PRESS:

BGFILE.com ARTICLE ON THE GAMERS LOUNGE

Students Open up Shop

Get Your Game On