Week 5 Recap: Blogs and Email

As we dive deeper into the channels that support an IMC-driven campaign, you can now see how email marketing and blogs help deliver content in various ways.

• Emails are a form of push marketing, bringing content to the user. 
• Blogs pull the customer in, hopefully with well-written, useful content. This helps SEO efforts, keeps a site fresh, and gives your company a voice as well as place to engage with your customers.

This week's assignment

Great job analyzing your 5 favorite blogs! I encourage you to check out some of your classmates' recommendations on blogs. I think I have some new favorites and will definitely be subscribing to some of your favorite blogs!

Please, read the feedback/comments I provide you. I am giving you tips on what I am looking for, what I liked, what I expect -- it will help your grade as well as hopefully provide you with some insight.

I have chosen the following student blogs to highlight this week. They answered the assignment questions, utilized additional articles/resources/links to bolster the points they are making, and have great tags on their posts. It was really hard to narrow down to just a few to highlight--- there were some great ones this week!

• Blogging Right Along
• Five Blogs that Keep Me Coming Back
• What's Important in a Blog
• Blogs: Uniquely Building Brand Awareness

I am looking forward to those of you participating in the Bonus Point Instagram Challenge this week! Here's to a great week 6! Speaking of which, this week, you will be receiving an email from UF with a mid-semester survey on this course. Please take the time to fill out. 3 bonus points will be added to your grade when you complete the survey!

UF Intro to Multimedia Communications Instagram Challenge

Here's a fun way to earn up to 5 bonus points to your grade!

For 5 days, beginning on Tuesday, September 24, when you upload a photo to Instagram, you will earn 1 point. You can participate every day, or skip days.

In order to get your bonus point(s), you must do the following:

• Upload a photo on Instagram based on the day's theme
• Use a caption
• Use tags as listed below and add any others you want that are appropriate
• Make sure photos are appropriate since we are tagging as part of the UF program!
• Feel free to share your photo to your other social networks if you would like (not required)
• Visit the discussion board in e-learning labeled Instagram Challenge. Create 1 post for yourself and let me know what days you participated in and provide your Instagram URL link.

PHOTO-A-DAY THEME
Tuesday: Black & White
Use a caption and Tag photos with #UFSocial #blackandwhite #challenge

Wednesday: Love
Use a caption and Tag photos with #UFSocial #Love #challenge

Thursday: Pink 
This particular day's themed photo strikes close to home. One of my high school classmate's father, Bob Levinson, is being held hostage in Iran. This Thursday, September 26th, is Pink Shirt Thursday to support the cause to bring him home.
Use a caption and Tag photos with #UFSocial #PinkShirtThursday #HelpBobLevinson

Friday: TGIF
Use a caption and Tag photos with #UFSocial #TGIF #challenge

Saturday: Gator-related 
Use a caption and Tag photos with #UFSocial #gators #challenge

Week 4 - Websites Recap

We are one fourth of the way through the semester! Wow!

This week we reviewed push and pull techniques, and how websites play a role in IMC. As you can see from your assignments this week, social media is just one multimedia channel in the grand marketing plan. Although social media engages, the website is where you want your customers to go to be fully immersed in your brand at every turn with no distractions popping up on a news feed! It is the home base for content delivery.

Websites can improve a brand with content, items to engage the customer such as chat or contests, cross-promoting social sites, and they should pull in a customer by having them sign up for an e-newsletter, text alerts, anything to capture their info (pull) so they can push info to them. A coupon code never hurts!

This week, I'd like to highlight these blogs for some great writing and insight into brands' websites. There were some great blogs this week, and I can't highlight them all, but I encourage you to check out your classmates' blogs. All I know is after this week, I want to go to the mall and hit up Kate Spade, Anthro, Pottery Barn and more!!

When it comes to push marketing, Oreo's website crumbles

BarackObama.com: A Brief Discussion

Google Marketing 101

Alexis also brought up a good point in the e-discussion that our own Florida Gators do a wonderful job at posting on social networks to direct followers back to gatorzone.com which houses some meaty articles for sports enthusiasts.

Looking forward to your responses this week as we look at some more multimedia channels that help reinforce the brand message -- emails and blogs.

Week 3 recap: Integrated marketing - a must in today's saturated world

I love IMC! I've always enjoyed putting together an entire project/campaign and working on several areas. IMC allows you to learn so much about multimedia options from video and mobile to print and websites. You may not be an expert in all the channels, but some experience in each can definitely help you on the job search. I know I'd rather hire a candidate who has journalism background, perhaps some design, and can upload to a website than just strictly a writer. In this age of IMC and new technology, you must possess a variety of multimedia skills!

Don't forget IMC and branding is more than social media and websites. It encompasses ALL channels: direct mail, billboards, point of sale, television, radio, on-hold phone messages, in-store audio, banner ads, blogs, packaging, store signage etc. Or what about Abercrombie where you come out of their store SMELLING like them?!

What's wonderful about these offline channels-- you can easily tie them to online ones with #hashtags on commercials, social media icons on packaging, URLs listed in ads, or QR codes on displays. Each medium you use should always provide a way for your customers/users to find another way to connect with you as well.

You had great posts for Week 3! I encourage you to read your classmates' responses to the discussion question in e-learning as well as to check out their blogs.

Just some highlights from this week from your classmates:

• Pottery Barn Knows the Way to My Heart: Integrated Marketing Communication Done Right!
• Jack of All Multimedia Spades: Kate Spade New York 
• Oreo's multimedia is a slam dunk...or twist!

 
I love this infographic and wanted to share.

Online teaching requires planning

My former professor, yet always a mentor, Dr. Julie Dodd wrote about how my UF class was developed this summer. There was a lot of planning that took place in my first-ever online class and she goes into step-by-step detail. Her blog is also just a great overall resource for educators.

Check out her blog, Thoughts On Teaching/Teaching, Jobs and Internships to read more!