Digital Frontiers

This whole semester, I’ve been sitting in this digital marketing class that my buddy, Shaan, convinced me to take. Since I didn’t have anything else to take and I wanted to take a class that was relatively easy, I thought to myself: “Sure, why not?” So here I am, 18 weeks later and I can honestly say that for a class that I took just to satisfy my credit hour requirements, I may have learned more interesting concepts and done more cool things than I have in 99% of the other classes that I’ve ever taken. So in the interest of simplifying things, I’ve decided to limit the seemingly endless concepts floating around in my head to a list.

This guy already took my idea. I guess he must've taken Digital Frontiers

Things Donnell Has Learned

1. If there is anything that is more important to success than networking, someone please tell me. I’m all ears. It’s okay. I’ll wait….Oh, really? Nobody. That’s what I thought…You see, you can have the best ideas in the world but if you can’t get anybody to get behind them (more importantly, if you can’t get the right people behind them), you won’t get anywhere with them.
2. SCHOOL IS FOR FOOLS!!! Now that I have your attention, I only halfheartedly meant the previous sentence. If we look at some of the world’s most successful people, many did not complete college. Instead, we learned that sometimes it’s better to devote 100% of your efforts to the thing you are passionate about than to go 75% with fall back plans. Like the creators of Grooveshark said “What’s going to be there in 4 years? Your business idea or college.” I’m looking to “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.”
3. If you are broke and you have no name, there is still hope for you. For example, there are simple ways to market your product or services without paying for an expensive mass media campaign. Instead, you could implement social media into your campaign. As an aspiring rap artist, I have seen the success of other entertainers such as Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em launch successful careers via viral marketing on sites such as Youtube.
4. Many times it’s important to build a culture around your organization using an online presence. For example, a blog can do wonders if it allows for public interaction, keeps people informed, and most importantly, keeps people interested. The way to keep people interested is by understanding your public, catering to their interests, and updating the website with interactive content. A great example of this is the blog called Spine Magazine which is updated with videos, podcasts, links to free downloads, news, and reviews. People interested in hip-hop music can delve deeply into the realm using this website and can even interact with the writers by adding comments.
5. Bad ideas are not always bad ideas. Sometimes a bad idea just needs a little tweaking in order to make it a good idea.

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It’s Saturday night (or as a true “bro” would call it, Fraturday) and the most important night of the week for you. If you can’t land any hot sorority slam pieces tonight, you’ll have spent every night of your week empty handed (or almost). You know what that means. Your bro cred (similar to stock prices in the frat market) is dropping faster than freshmen drinking their first beer during  Summer B. Only GDIs (specifically, honors kids) should be dateless for the weekend. But, stop pulling out your hair over your repeated failures with those of the opposite sex (after all, you don’t want to destroy that carefully groomed frat shag). I have the answer for your troubles. Log in to TopTier Friend Finder.

Frat daddies such as this guy are way too top tier to be without a date to their functions. Just scope the bow tie, frat shag, and let's not forget about that little guy riding the horse on his shirt (let's call him Ralph).

The website, designed similarly to social networking sites such as Facebook and eHarmony, was built to match good looking frat bros like you with sorority girls. After all, you frat way too hard to have nobody notice you. And the process is so simple you can navigate our interface in order to scope the countless bras (sorority version of bro, but if I had to tell you that then this site probably isn’t for you) with a Natural Light in your left hand and 10 more empty ones on the floor. All you have to do is create a profile (for free) complete with pictures of you in your Ralph Lauren button down, pastel colored short shorts, Sperry boat shoes, and frat goggles (Costa del Mar croakies advised). Then, you enter the fraternity that you are in and on which campus (example: Phi Gamma Delta at the University of Texas-Austin). We have field experts at most major college campuses throughout the South (looking to expand soon) who have ranked fraternities and sororities into tiers. This is done to maximize similarities between you and your potential dates.

As you can see, sorority slam pieces can range from really hot to not so much. Thus, we will provide the whole spectrum for you.

Sorority girls are ranked in our database according to a formula. Our experts survey every girl interested in entering our system around the following criteria: 40% of the formula is based on looks, 10% is calculated from personality, 30% level of inhibition, and 20% level of partier (all calculated out of 10 points). This is all multiplied by a sorority tier multiplier(lower tier sororities range from .5 to 1 and middle to top tier sororities’ multipliers can go as high as 1.3). Most importantly, only a female GDI with at least an 8 out of 10 in the looks department will be allowed to create an account (ad their multiplier is 1). No male GDIs are eligible for this service (sorry, try eHarmony big guy).The higher the final score, the higher she’ll be rated. Now for those of you who think you’re deserving of a high scored broad, you may be mistaken. That is why the same formula is used for you. For example, if you’re a lower tier bro with a final score of a 6.3 (which is very high for a lower tier bro) don’t expect to be paired with a top tier sorority girl who is rated as a 8.7. Instead, your options will be limited to a decently rated middle tier sorority  slam piece or a rare ugly top tier sorority girl (good for you, buddy).

Since this resource is free for all of you bros, you’re probably wondering how we make money. Well, my natural response would be to say mind your own business. But, in the interest of my business, I’ll tell you. You may have heard of this new technology called advertisements. Well, if you look closely at our sidebar, you’ll notice the advertisements for frat essentials such as frat goggles, boat shoes and clothing companies such as Ralph Lauren, Vineyard Vines, Guy Harvey, North Face, etc. I can’t legally tell you that you must click on these advertisements, but if you see an advertisement that appeals to you, feel free to click your mouse on it. You can also buy novelty items from our visitor shop such as TopTier frat tanks, coozies, cigarette holders, etc. These essentials will ensure that you are not ever caught off guard wearing brands such as Express, Gap, American Eagle, Aeropastale, or Abercrombie or wearing shoes like K-Swiss.

You’ve never heard of it, you say? Well, that is good in a way. We don’t want GDIs coming out of the woodwork to try and create profiles. But, we do want those of you who frat hard to enjoy the benefits of being frat. So, we are working diligently towards a marketing plan. Firstly, we will host a blog which will link with other social networking sites such as Facebook (bros aren’t lame so they don’t read Twitter) and other blogs such as broslikethissite.com and frattinghard.com (which are about the only blogs a bro might read). We are paying for targeted advertisements on Facebook (for example, a bro at the University of Florida who states an interest as Alpha Tau Omega will see an advertisement to our site). Also, a regularly updated Facebook fan page complete with testimonials and videos will be used.

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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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If only he knew that web analytics was the only way to ensure his awesome doohickey would sell...

So you thought that sweet ad you just saw was so cool you had to just click on it? And that resulting webpage you just visited with all of those cool pictures of awesome toys and gadgets was created just for your enjoyment? That sexy design with the soothing blue and yellow trim and easy to navigate template was all for you to visit and leave, huh? Well, not exactly. You see, that website you visited was really designed as a trap. A trap, you say? Well, it’s not as sinister as you may think (ok, kind of).

A website that sells products such as Amazon is designed to get people to visit their site through advertisements and eventually buy something. That’s right, they want your money.  All of it (insert evil laugh here)! Not quite, but almost. However, not everyone is willing to give a website their money just because they visited and left an “impression” on that website. In fact, most people don’t automatically buy something just because they visited a website (known as the bounce rate). Thus, the job of these evil corporations who run these websites is to trick you into buying something. This is where conversion marketing and analytics comes into play.

Conversion marketing is simply the art of improving your ROI (return on investment) and having potential customers become actual customers. Web analytics is the tool used to determine how effective your website and its advertisements are in getting people to actually buy something. Furthermore, analytics can determine trends and compare your website to other industry leaders’ website. That way, you can see how they effectively use their website’s design to imrpove their conversion rate.

For example, in the project my group is doing in our class, we can use web analytics to determine how successful the MSE program (Master’s of Entrepreneurship) website is at getting people to fill out an application. So, let’s say that 2 out every 100 people who leave an impression on the website actually fill out an application. Then, let’s say that the program would like 9 out of every 100 people who leave impressions to be come applicants. The web analytics tool can pinpoint which areas of their webpage are weaker points from which people can lin

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Entrepreneurhip is defined by innovation and creativity. Any program claiming to be about entrepreneurhip should capture that meaning in its message

I always thought that being an entrepreneur was thrilling and gave people the urge to try new things. Well, if  the University of Florida’s Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship’s website is any indicator of excitement, then any normal person would rather be read the Merriam-Webster dictionary than go through their website. Their program IS exciting and does include so many interesting lecturers and concepts. Yet, the program has not yet found a way to capture the idea that they are not your traditional MBA program.

For one, it fails to distinguish itself from the crowd of masters degree programs. Specifically, there is already another program that goes by the name “MSE.” This program is Materials Science Engineering. When you type in MSE program at UF into Google, the entrepreneurship program does not even come into the first page of results. Rather, the aforementioned Materials Science Engineering website is the first to pop up. Think of the numerous people who may have been interested in the entrepreneurship program but were turned away after not finding their website.

Thus, the first thing the MSE program must do is to recreate its image. We propose that the program create a different informal website with the name innovateUF.com. The name captures the mission of the program and resonates with people who are interested in the things the entrepreneurship program does. Furthermore, the new website will allow visitors to interact with the site more. We learned from Google that an organization’s best assets are their customers and members. By putting videos, links to news articles, and allowing lecturers, professors, students, and guests to post content people can learn from each other (the goal of any educational institution). Also adding a Youtube video page would allow people to access some of the content by relativity to other content.

Basically, the main thing that the MSE program must do is make its information more accessible. Creating awareness by rebranding the program and allowing more accessibility will spell more success for the MSE program.

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One thing about music is that when it hits you feel no pain (unlike most rappers’ gunshot wounds). And from money, to the cars, to the clothes, and tantalizing women in their videos, hip-hop artists have always symbolized the epitome of success to me. I met the hip-hop game at an early age and since then she’s changed and grown into a full-fledged beauty. Now, I would love to do her when I grow up.

Origins

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Walking into class on Friday, I braced myself for another boring lecture in which I would pretend to scribble notes frantically but actually work on another class time masterpiece like a stick figure with long hair or a rocket ship. However, when I got there a surprise awaited us. Instructions: Create Value Using Post-It Notes. I envisioned the creator of this “experiment” as some evil, mad scientist type who loved to mess with sane people’s minds. How can you create monetary value out of yellow paper besides selling origami post-it notes? Well, my group members and I thought about it and realized value could be anything that people will cherish or hold dear.

When our instructor just stared at us after he announced the instructions, we realized we had to get to moving. We went outside and starting brainstorming. Should we create value by speaking out about an issue or should we do something artistic, fun and light hearted? Maybe we should speak out about Haiti? Maybe we should speak about women’s rights? We decided to speak out about Haiti. Then, we walked to Turlington Plaza and to our surprise two of our classmates had an awesome idea for awareness about Haiti. Feeling defeated, we went and thought of another idea.

As we wandered toward Library West, we saw a group of students organized for Writing on the Wall (an event put on to symbolically knock down the walls of intolerance). We decided to piggy back off that idea and create a way for people to post a pledge to break down the walls of intolerance and “speak no evil.” Yet, the project got off to a rocky start when people rejected us for literally a minute of their time left and right. Yet, we persisted. Let’s be honest, our grade depended on it.

Afterward, I definitely reflected on the fact that this experience taught me that thinking outside of the box can lead to bold ideas. Also, the project opened my eyes personally to the hypocrisy in my own life in terms of the way that I treat others. Many times, the words that we say have an effect far greater than we could have imagined. All in all, this project taught me a lot about myself and I got to work with a great group of people along the way.

Here’s a video that shows our wall.

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I personally don’t think he does. However, he does give excellent PowerPoint presentations. Who wants to hear someone read off of a PowerPoint? Not anyone I know. Steve Jobs wants you to be included in the conversation. Therefore, he minimizes the amount of material that is displayed in a slide in order that the audience stays actively engaged in the discussion. When talking about products, he uses terms that everyday people could comprehend. For example, instead of stating the number of gigabytes an iPod has, he describes it as 1,000 songs in your pocket.

Steve Jobs’ success can be attributed to his knack for selling people on his ideas. A person can have a great ideas, but if they can’t get anyone to buy into them, they are doomed to failure. Steve Jobs, whose wardrobe seems to compare to famous Nickelodeon character Doug’s closet, does not fit this category. Many times, Steve Jobs comes off as eccentric. In fact, some people may have even believed a statement as outlandish as Steve Jobs eating babies. However, his eccentricity makes him a brand in himself and he has an army of weirdos buying his products. The simple fact remains he is very good at what he does.

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Hey everyone. My name is Donnell Moss, a Junior majoring in political science and public relations and minoring in Spanish. Last year, I was the president of my fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi. Now, I am looking into other opportunities such as trying out for the UF cheerleading team. I am a writer who performs hip-hop and sings rhythm and blues. In fact, I am interested in the class Digital Frontiers because I want to learn how to create effective social media campaigns in order to market my music. I have a facebook page, an iPhone and  am in the process of creating a blog for my ghost writing group, Serious Thought. I’m hoping to use the skills I learn in this class as supplemental material for the concepts i am learning in my public relations classes. I’d have to say that my favorite tech company is Apple because of their unmatched innovative ideas.

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