Digital Frontiers

Digital Frontiers opened up my eyes to a realm of entrepreneurship and social media that I had never explored. I signed up for this class with the hopes of expanding what I already knew about social media, and I came out of it with a brand new perspective.

Many entrepreneurial geniuses of varying experiences presented to our class, as they shared their unique visions with us. As the semester went on, I found that their tales wove into a single story emphasizing the same concepts: build a community, make it your own, and persevere.

Customers want to feel valued and respected, and I’ve come to realize how important it is to constantly engage with them through social media. Direct communication with customers and listening to their feedback fuels success. If any business fails to do so and ignores their customers, it will be their ultimate downfall. From this class, I was also especially surprised by the magnitude of Facebook’s capabilities as a platform for businesses to grow. 

The speakers seemed to embrace risk. Regardless of the potential to fail, they all aspired for their unique dreams and proved successful. They encouraged us to ignore the naysayer, seek opportunities, and find what we are passionate about. It is only with trial and error and a sense of perseverance that we can succeed.  

Digital Frontiers was one of the most valuable classes I’ve taken at UF. It was truly inspiring and fostered many skills through interactive learning such as creative thinking (a skill that is hindered by the typical online business class). I was exposed to many new modes of thought, especially by engaging in a hands-on group project. I enjoyed learning the technicalities behind using social media to build brand awareness for a music blog and using web analytics to measure milestones. I have learned to think like an entrepreneur and to embrace failure, which is merely a stepping-stone for learning, personal growth, and renewal. “The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” – Anonymous

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Digital Frontiers, an elective class that I registered on a whim turned out to be one of the most useful and inspiring classes.  The class, which focused on social media marketing, could have easily been another lecture-styled course structured with chapters of textbook readings and binders full of handouts to learn before exams.  Instead, the instructors stayed true to their entrepreneurial spirit and made DF a creative yet surprisingly educational experience.

The weekly speakers, experienced business owners and professors, introduced us to new concepts of social marketing.  Then, we reinforced our learning through giving presentations and writing in this blog.   Finally we practiced what we learned by helping local businesses such as UF Young Entrepreneurs in Leadership and Sustainability and Burrito Brothers jump start their own social media marketing plans.

The class unveiled to me monumental changes in business that I failed to notice before.  Facebook, a social site that I check daily but never bothered to think more of it, turned out to be an increasingly powerful marketing tool for businesses.  We all know that it’s important to attract customers’ attentions and get customers involved, but businesses today are taking this to a new level through User Generated Content, Viral Marketing, and instant feedback platforms.  What’s exciting about all of this is any start-up can get high search returns by following the rules of social media marketing and Google.  This blog is a perfect example.  Do a search on Google, and Digital Frontiers is the first on the list.   DF was nonexistent four months ago.

For tomorrow’ class we are going to play Second Life.  Yes, first day of class I would have reacted the same way and asked, “Why would we do that?”  However, after a semester of discovering value in Facebook and Twitter, I now know better.  Staying open minded and discovering the operational value behind seemingly unimportant things are just a couple of the many lessons I learned in DF.

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Would you rather look up a word in the electronic dictionary or look it up the old fashioned way?  Spending 2 minutes thumbing through the dictionary pages doesn’t mean one is learning a new word any better.  It just means less time to do the important thing: reading.

The internet is like an electronic dictionary.  It allows us to access what we are looking for faster, so we can spend our time on the important things: thinking and creating.  It gives us the works of others so we don’t waste our time reinventing the wheel.

If there is one thing that internet provides, it is a platform to create.  For example, building a website with HTML from scratch can be a tedious process, but it doesn’t have to be.  The internet is kind and allows us to share.  By right clicking “view page source” on any webpage, a notepad will pop up with that particular website’s complete HTML codes.  The programmer can now use existing codes to build a basic website, and then spend time doing the thing that matters: change the basic codes to invent something new.

Some are concerned that easy access to others’ knowledge and work would stifle creativity, but I say society forbids that.  Let’s talk about the website again; if the programmer simply copies the codes and doesn’t create something new, then his website will not differentiate itself.  In business, what catches people’s eyes are things that are new and unique.  Internet gives us a place to learn and be inspired, but in the end we do the honor of inventing.

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Premature optimization means that search engines are sending things to the first few pages based on faulty key words. No one cares if Google can find 637,000 pages in 0.03 seconds if none of the pages are relevant. One of the times when this is most frustrating is when searching for videos. Search engines are currently not living up to their potential. This is why I have a million dollar idea to revolutionize the way we search.

Imagine this. You are surfing through YouTube or any other online video web site and you simply cannot find a video that actually is relevant to what you are searching. Frustrated, you hop from clip to clip and fast forward through lengthy videos waiting for that sluggish red line at the bottom of the screen to catch up (p.s. Im pretty that this is what the angry German kid from YouTube was so perturbed about.) If only someone could find a way to put an end to the insanity!

Now imagine if you could search through any video with a click of a button. Not simply by keywords that whoever uploaded the video associated with the video, but by actual content within the video.

Instead of skimming through a thirty minute video which to find where it may or may not discuss, let’s say, redox reactions you can now search for “redox reactions” and a bar will pop up showing you at which minutes in the video they discuss it.

The technology behind such an idea may be complex, but the idea is simple.

Find what you are looking for faster and more efficiently.

This idea would best be marketed towards specific companies that depend on videos for their online components. For example, online educational websites could benefit because they could make much longer videos. With this product they could make long videos that encompass entire chapters or courses, and people could use this to search through the videos, almost like a video glossary.

Aside from approaching individual companies, this idea could be marketed using Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and other sites by making pages and even videos that explain the product. Then, with these platforms, I could reach out to businesses and people that could benefit from this idea and show them not only why it works and what it does, but why they need it.

Long gone are the days of hit or miss keywords and being “RickRolled”.

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Who says education is a gift to the elite few, and the other children of America have to wait around for policies such as No Child Left Behind?  Who says education has to be organized?  Who says learning has to be restricted to what’s offered in school?

Any person can be a teacher, and with that in mind I came up with my million dollar idea of creating a nation wide online tutoring service offering any and all subjects: from the traditional math, science, English, to graphic designing, investment banking, cooking, break dancing, the art of socializing, anything!  As long as there is someone out there willing to teach and someone willing to learn, knowledge can be passed through one screen to another anytime and anywhere.

This 24 hour online tutoring service is nothing more than a platform to connect those who want to learn and those who want to teach.  The more votes a tutor gets from his tutees, the better his ranking and reputation, and thus the more client requests he will get.  The service charge is completely up to the tutor; however, a certain percentage of this income will go to the tutoring service.

Marketing strategy on a “$0.00″ budget:

- Word of Mouth Marketing: the tutors and pleased tutees will be the main marketers for the website.  The service’s good reputation will spread mainly through word of mouth and eventually through recognition by other organizations and news media.

- Social Media: Fan Pages, twitter accounts, and Youtube will be created to advertise for the tutoring service website.  Top ranking tutors are rewarded with spots on the media pages to recruit tutees.  They can post helpful contents, quick tips, or high quality sample videos.  The pleased tutees can create “thank you” videos to help their tutors get more client requests.  The media pages will be frequently updated.

- Feedback: free online feedback tools such as Google Analytics will be used to track what attracts viewer’s attention and what does not.

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Imagine a world where you can find any bit of information that you could ever want. Now, imagine a world where you are entertained at the click of a button. Lastly, imagine yourself in a virtual world where you can network and develop relationships with people you have never talked to face-to-face. That scary little world, my friends, is called the Internet. Ever since Al Gore created the Internet, people have become addicted to their computer screens because of all of the cool things and endless entertainment that it provides them.

In the United States, most people equate the Internet with the accessibility of dirty pictures and videos. But, there’s way more to it. Instead of relying on the snail mail for a birthday card from your grandma, you can instantly send and receive letters, cards, etc. via electronic mail. The best part is it’s FREE! But, that’s not all. Some people may be a little too tired, lazy, or incapable of going to the bank. So, of course Al Gore and the Internet gods had a solution. Why not create online banking? Now, people can handle their money online from the click of a mouse. Of course, now that there are online banks, there are online bank robbers also known as “identity thieves.”

Imagine John Dillinger without guns, fancy clothes, safe houses and you have a modern day identity thief. A little less glamorous, huh?

A few trends have developed with the emergence of the Internet. For one, people are networking more than ever. With so many faces to book and so many things to tweet, people are learning things from…each other (gasp). And now, there’s this thing called Chat Roulette where you can either chat with a student halfway across the world or make fun of old, morbidly obese shirtless men.

Also, we see the Internet becoming a one-stop portal for everything in our lives. Sooner or later, I envision a world where the instant we turn on a computer, we will instantly gain 25 pounds and grow pimples because of the addiction that is the Internet. People will become creatures similar in color to the creatures in I Am Legend (that is until the Internet offers some sort of tanning service) due to lack of sunlight.

Regulation, however, is not necessary.We live in a free society and although there is a lot of potentially offensive material (see Chat Roulette), it is up to parents and individuals to censor themselves and their children.

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Imagine a place where people can share their wealth of (mis)information, stories of their lives (because there is someone who will care or can pretend to care about how cool you were in high school like a prospective employer weaving through your drunken escapades in your facebook photos), or even sell you stuff. Well friends, that dark place exists. It has forever carved itself a niche in the dark world of the Internet dubbed user generated content.

Do you really trust this guy to contribute useful information through user genrated content? If you haven't already, think twice.

Sure kids. It sounds pretty freaking awesome to be able to share content with random strangers who you’ll never even meet (like youtube pages. You can share knowledge with people about cool things such as how amoebas reproduce, show strangers pictures of your cute kids, or even market things to a targeted audience.  For example, Domino’s Pizza now uses facebook and twitter to inform customers about upcoming events and special offers. What makes it kind of intriguing is that random people can discuss how much they love Domino’s Pizza and share information about the pizza company.

In fact, some may argue that if Domino’s had been in the loop of user generated content, they could’ve prevented the crisis that occurred when two employees posted a youtube video that depicted them doing unsanitary things to a pizza. So, now that they are down with the new generation they can monitor viral situations such as that. Further, I will admit that their use of facebook is clever. In fact, when you click on their fan page, you aren’t even taken directly to their wall. Instead, you are taken to  marketing tab titled “stop the puffery” which basically bashes the competition’s use of inflated language in their digital media campaigns. Also, their page is full of cool stuff like coupons and daily special offers.

Yet, even with all of this cool stuff, I’m not completely sold on user generated content. Imagine a world where you could fabricate something believable, publish it online, and have millions of people believe it instantly. Well, that world exists. Check Wikipedia. I bet you could find in one of their sections about Dr. Dre that he is a critically acclaimed medical doctor. Thus, one could say that with user generated content, history and reality are both written by those with power (which has become virtually everyone). For example, I could create a facebook page for a fake person and friend everyone that I could find. That would not make my fake person real just because their image is on the internet.

To conclude, user generated content is great to a point. We must, however, take it with a grain of salt.

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How we can we create more word-of-mouth for our local businesses?

I have an answer, but I want to see if you can figure it out on your own. To help you do this,  I’m going to present a quick case study which will allow us to see why certain forms of advertising work better than others. My goal is for you to read this post and to come out with knowledge applicable towards improving the marketing plan of your local business.

I formed this idea after reading the post by Matt Garrett about Leonardo’s Pizza’s presence in Gainesville.

This picture is a link to Matt’s post (you can click it) and within the second paragraph, Matt presents some digital marketing strategies of Upper Crust, Burrito Brothers, and Leonardo’s Pizza. To begin this exercise, I want you to look over the following three web pages, spending as much time as you need to form an opinion about them. (please take this seriously!)

1. Facebook page of Upper Crust
2. Twitter page of Burrito Brothers.
3. Facebook page of Leonardo’s 706.

Now that you have your opinion, see how your experience compares to mine:

When I glanced over these pages, I first noticed they were covered with blurbs that looked like they came straight off the “specials of the day” chalkboards. I then clicked on the miscellaneous Facebook tabs to make sure their wasn’t anything important there and then hit the back key to continue reading this post. In other words, they were extremely boring, and I just wanted to get back to my own business.

This leaves us with the question: Why were these pages so boring?

To get the answer, lets compare these websites from above to a website I find to be much more interesting. This website is the facebook page of Burrito Brothers. (FYI, I had no intention of selling the success of my local business’s web page. Remember, this is merely a case study which I want us all to learn from).

Now, I’m guessing most of you looked at this Facebook page and didn’t find anything different about it. It has the same pictures and the same info about the soup and guacamole. Why did I find this  Facebook page more interesting than the others?

You will find the answer by asking yourself, What Would Google Do?

If you read the book, the answer should come instantly. This Facebook page was successful in catching  my interest because it allowed me to see the word-of-mouth of Burrito Brother’s customers and it invited me to participate in the discussion. If you can’t see what about this web page I’m talking about, click on the “discussion” tab or click here.  This discussion section serves as a platform that enables its fans to create their own conversation and to, unknowingly, create positive word-of-mouth.

Isn’t it interesting to see how we can apply the perpetual words of Jeff Jarvis?

Now that you’ve made it through my case study, I hope you take the time to come up with your own idea for optimizing the word-of-mouth about your local business. Please feel free to create your own discussion below.

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When our group was first assigned to the MSE Program at UF, I must admit that I was a little perplexed. After looking into it for a few moments I was horrified that we were going to have to make an online marketing plan for the Materials Science and Engineering Program.
After several searches we realized we were really going to be working with the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship, which is certainly more interesting, not to mention it directly pertains to this course.
There was just one little problem.

The MSE Program has NO GOOGLEJUICE!

Although it is terrifying to have to work with a program that isn’t even easily found on Google, I decided to stay positive and think of this as a wonderful way to build a great brand for this equally great program.

We have decided to stay true to what our “product” is.

The MSE program is all about innovation, so we want to create a whole new website, under a new brand name, that will be a platform for students and teachers to create whatever they want to.

I know this sounds broad, but we want to integrate all the necessary social media sites and capabilities (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) into the site and make it a place for constant learning and innovation.

We have our work cut out for us.

However, I envision a site that incorporates blogs from leaders in many different fields, allows people to converse about these blogs and topics, post videos, link to any and everything they want, and, most of all, innovate.

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This week’s speaker was Jamie Kraft, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Florida.

He kicks off our lecture series discussing how innovation – both sustaining and disruptive – affects industry and how students can work to develop their entrepreneurial DNA.

You can watch his talk on iTunes U.

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