Week 13: Post 2: Traditional Advertising vs. Paid Promotional Social Media

Two major problems with Likeable Social Media are 1) that it is dated, and recommends Facebook advertising options that are largely not possible anymore, and 2) it implicitly presumes that all, or effectively all, the customers of a business are avid Facebook users. For example, although it used to be possible to buy ads that said, "Your Friend Susan Masten Likes:" almost no one on Facebook has enabled that setting anymore (since the default is "disable").

Of course, Kerpen allows that other social media platforms than Facebook are more popular than the "Old Reliable" with some audiences for some purposes. However, for some prospective audiences, search engine optimization and keyword-based advertising may be the most successful choice, and for others, non-Internet based advertising may be the best choice of all.

One example where Internet advertising -- at this time, at least -- is of little help is advertising a restaurant to travelers along a highway. Signage -- whether a billboard or the sign on the store -- is the clear best choice for getting hungry motorists and car passengers to pull off for a meal. Radio advertising probably comes in at a distant third, after cooperative advertising with local hotels and similar opportunities.

Although a growing number of seniors (including Gen X-ers reaching retirement age) are becoming avid Internet users, many do not use the Internet often enough for paid Internet advertising to be effective. Here again, search engine optimization and keyword-based advertising may be a good choice, since the prospective customer is already inclined to buy when the search for a seller of the goods and services they seek.

For certain businesses appealing to relatively small customer bases, advertising in specialty magazines may be the best choice. These tend to be kind of businesses whose sales are so low that the customers search for the seller as much as the other way around.

Finally, low-income groups, persons with vision problems, and low-income people with disabilities, are difficult to reach through paid Internet advertising. Direct mail, doorknob hangers, and advertising in free publications, may be the most cost-effective advertising methods. 

Ultimately, the audience determines the messaging medium; Facebook is not the most effective social media platform for paid advertising in many cases, and Internet-based advertising of any kind may not be a cost-effective choice in other cases.

Week 13: Post 1: Facebook ads that interest me, and those that do not.

Even though I am checking Facebook for hours on end, almost every day,  I cannot recall the last time I clicked on a Facebook ad. One reason is that they are off on the right side the screen where I don't look. However, the more important reason is that the ads rarely interest me. 

For example, tonight I checked the Facebook ads, and there is one from a lawyer looking for people with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and the other promises to "pivot" my "real estate business. Fortunately for me, I do not have any Lymphoma issues, and fortunately for home buyers, I am not selling real estate. 

I reloaded the page, and this time, an "Immune System Support" medication was one advertisement, and the other is for a training program to teach me how to make better presentations that will attract more clients. The first doesn't concern me because I reject medical quackery , and as for the second -- well, I am attending Mira Costa College for that.

I wonder if Facebook advertising has become so unpopular that these are the only kinds of companies using it? Surely, Facebook can feed me an advertisement that might interest me. I've found the advertisements shown on movie screens more interesting to me.

What draws my attention to a Facebook ad? A eye-catching image obviously helps, but the tag-line is also vital. I am not clicking on something that does not interest me.

Week 12: Post 2: Blogs on which I commented

Michelle Iglesias
Nicole Ross
Dominic Zamora

Week 12: Post 1: Online petition sites and other online marketing tools

Yesterday, in response to continuing threats from the Trump Administration that they will force states like California to "re-open" and allow regular economic activity to resume, California Liberation Movement PAC (CALM-PAC) launched its first online petition to rally SUPPORT for the ten Governors who have formed multi-state "pacts" to help guarantee that each state will only relieve "social distancing" regulations in response to health considerations, rather than greed and nihilism. 

   The petition is brief; here it is in English:

To the Governors of the states of: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington:

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PROTECT US FROM COVID-19 SPREAD!

We, the citizens signed below, urge you to take any action necessary to prevent the “re-opening” and resumption of economic activity in your states until and at whatever pace objective health experts agree this can be done without undue risk to human life. We furthermore pledge to support any action that you take to protect people from death and illness due to COVID-19 virus, including directly confronting federal officials acting at the direction of the President of the United States. Life is too valuable to permit compromise of our survival.

This petition is unusual, not only because it concerns COVID-19, but because it is a call for SUPPORT of elected officials. Nearly all Change.org and Causes.com online petitions criticize and even call for the defeat of elected officials.

Moreover, support for COVID-related restrictions of social and commercial activity cannot be expressed in normal means like public demonstrations because of the need to prevent the virus from spreading. Only the twisted COVID-terrorists who oppose restrictions are able to organize public demonstrations -- even blocking ambulances from entering hospitals. Therefore, online protest is the only feasible way for the public to express public support for vital public safety measures.

Some advantages of marketing with an online poll on Change.org include:

• Starting an online petition costs nothing.
• Starting an online petition includes free social media buttons to share the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.
• Easy paid promotion of online petitions: $20 for 250 impressions, $50 for 1,250 impressions. Promotion can be funded by the petition organizer and petition signers.
• Free system to email all petition signers, for free.
• Petition organizer can download all the signatures for use in other programs, like MailChimp.
• The target of an online petition -- in this case, the governors of 10 states -- learn quickly about your organization. We plan to use this petition to curry favor from the powerful men and women that work in these offices. When I lived in Hawai'i, being an active Democrat, I had special relationships with many people in state and Honolulu city-county government.

After launching the petition and sharing it with my email friends and various Facebook groups, I gave $50 to Change.org and in a few hours, I had 139 petition signers. I estimate that about 100 of those names are new people. This morning, the petition has an even 150 signers.

Today, I will begin sending out a daily email to the petition signers, updating them on the COVID Crisis, and asking them to donate to promote the petition some more. I am also going to seek some earned media attention by emailing the staffs of the governors the petition supports, along with Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times, who just endorsed California independence in his column today.

Therefore, this week I am going to use what I learned last week about Mailchimp. Moreover, in order to have content to share by email every day, I will have to write at least three blog posts on https://cal-lib.com every day. These posts do not have to be more than 100-200 words long, but a daily email is not excessive given the importance of COVID and the speed at which the situation is changing.

Of course, business that sell goods and services -- customary businesses -- should not use online petitions for marketing, and thereby betray the trust of the petition signers. However, there are times when an ordinary shop can legitimately rally the public to support or oppose some proposal or another. For example, it took Target years of battling with local merchants before it was able to open just two stores on O'ahu, especially the one in relatively undeveloped Kailua.

Bye-Yee!

Week 11: Post 2: Comments on blogs related to e-mail newsletters

I posted on the blogs of Christine Vanderpool, Miguel Velasco, and Matthew Jones.  Only Matthew is actually in my classmates group, "Group 3."

Week 11: Post 1: A Newsletter for a business

   Developing and maintaining a regular presence with supporters of California Liberation is an important part of the strategy of the organization. Collecting the most recent news and packaging it in a weekly newsletter is a good way to keep in touch with people who do not see the regular Facebook posts, Wordpress posts, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

   The most valuable content for a CALM-PAC newsletter is undoubtedly news updates. This week, for example, has been the most important week in the history of the California Liberation movement, especially with the announcement on Monday that the state of California has formed an agreement with the states of Oregon and Washington to set policies jointly as to when and how the respective states will "re-open" and end social distancing policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That announcement has caused many commentators to ask whether the new Pacific "pact" and a similar agreement between seven states in the Northeastern United States, could lead to the breakup of the United States. Today, this question was even asked by the Reuters agency in Europe.

   As the business of the California Liberation Movement PAC is disseminating news, publishing a weekly newsletter about current events in politics is just another way to achieve that mission. Indeed, if I was not occupied by college coursework, I would have been writing and publishing all week, definitely. Although I would not call the "Independent California Institute" a "competitor, they publish a weekly newsletter with original content and links to recent articles by other publications. The odd thing about "ICI" is that it seems to be a one-person "organization" who does not like to interact with other California independence activists; none of my many colleagues knows who this person is. I may just have to visit the office listed on the ICI newsletter, as it is in Carlsbad, of all the cities and towns in California.

Week 10: Post 3: Using Facebook posts on Instagram.

  This week, I made two Facebook posts into Instgram posts. One relates my calculations about the combined populations and economies of the ten states that have publicly announced they will defy orders from Donald Trump related to the coronavirus that are not based on sound scientific and medical advice.

  In addition, I made an Instagram post from a Facebook post I made on Sunday, to promote a translation I did on an article in a Mexico City publication, La Jornada, about Gov. Newsom calling California a "nation-state" at a press conference last week. 

     As far as blogging categories go, I consider the series of posts on the Cal-Lib.com website as, a "corporate" blog, or a "news and commentary" blog, since I am not trying to promote myself, other than indirectly, as the author of some of these posts. However, those posts will eventually be migrated to a true news and commentary site, "Your California Today," starting this summer.

    These posts are already "helping the business grow." For example, I understand that my post in which I urged Bernie Sanders supporters to realize that California independence is their best chance to live life under democratic socialism was -- until the last two weeks -- one of the most popular pieces of social media advocating California independence, according to my colleague and de facto publicist Marcus Ruiz Evans. I am, frankly, focused on completing Spring semester so that I can focus all my efforts on California independence activities this summer.

Week 10: Post 2: Extra Credit for Installing a Google Analytics tag

As illustrated below, I just installed the same Google Analytics tag two different ways. I may be getting double responses; I'll have to check later. However, Google Analytics console is reporting that there is one active user (me) viewing the page, which indicates that the tag is being read correctly. That's all, folks!

Week 10: Post 1: Human Interest in Business-Oriented Blogging

  Unless you remember television in the 1990s, you probably don't know the character of J. (Jacobo) Peterman, one of the most outrageous characters ever to appear on Seinfeld, a show in which literally every character was outrageous, extreme, and often unbelievable. "

   "J. Peterman," in Seinfeld, was the owner of a company that sold items imported from the Third World, each highlighted in a a print catalog (this was before "e-commerce") that paired each item with a multi-paragraph memoir from Peterman himself, relating the events of some fantastic foreign travels he had been upon when he discovered a particular item that his company had begun importing to the United States. 


    To explain, here are some examples from the show:

Then in the distance I heard the bulls. I began running as fast as I could. Fortunately I was wearing my Italian cap-toe oxfords. Sophisticated yet different; nothing to make a huge fuss about. Rich dark brown calfskin leather. Matching leather vent. Men's whole and half sizes 7 through 13. Price $135.00.

And there, tucked into the river's bend was the object of my search. The Gwon-Jaya River market; fabrics and spices traded under a starlit sky. It was there that I discovered the Pamplona beret. Sizes seven-and-a-half through eight-and-three-quarters. Price? $35.00. 

   In other words, the appeal of the wares of "J. Peterman" was romantic fantasy; a whiff of exciting adventure you could possess as soon as the UPS shipment could reach you. 

   However, if the imaginary character of "J. Peterman" was not amazing enough, you might be even more surprised to know that there was a "J. Peterman" catalog before there was a "J. Peterman" character on Seinfeld. The writers had lifted the story of a real person living an unbelievable life to create an imaginary person living a life no more improbable. Thank goodness for the First Amendment right of parody!

  Moreover, even though the Seinfeld show -- the world's most successful "show about nothing" --  left the airwaves in 1998, the "J. Peterman Catalog" remains an institution. In a particularly Seinfeld-like touch, the actor who played "J. Peterman" for four years, John O'Hurley, serves on the board alongside of the real J. Peterman!

   In 2014, O'Hurley explained the not-so-secret secret of the J. Peterman brand as "the idea of searching for life as you wish it could be." However, the J. Peterman customer is probably not  actually living life like J. Peterman, but "living" (I guess) their life in a way that earns them enough money to easily afford items sold by J. Peterman, and thus attempt to live the life of J. Peterman vicariously. It is "alternative life" purchased on a Gold Card, or more truthfully, an ersatz life, a fake life, or so-called-life. It a life like the one lived by the successful Japanese businessman whose greatest joy is to put on replicas of a California Highway Patrol officer uniform and roll down the Tomei Expressway on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 

   The cynical Elaine Benes in me sees personal blogging for marketing the way I see the J. Peterman catalog. Tying an experience to a product doesn't make the product more authentic; it changes the anecdote from genuine to crass. Moreover, when spend my money, I want it to spend it to have some of my own experiences -- like the experience of wearing a new dress and shoes at a party -- rather than vicariously sharing an experience with someone else. Moreover, mererly reading the J. Peterman catalog is all the vicarious experience I need.

    Setting aside my personal insightfs, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American. I suppose that the price for having the freedom of someone like J. Peterman is slavery in the same cynical enterprise. Thus is my explanation for "how adding human interest to a post can appeal to peoples emotions because it describes personal experiences."

   Moreover, the J. Peterman story suggests that anything sold "B-to-C", i.e., business to the consumer, can be marketed with human interest stories. Clothing is an obvious choice for anecdotal-based marketing, because any article of clothing -- from a plaid flannel shirt to a white linen jacket -- carries historical, geographical, and cultural associations. Furniture is another such item, although one that is less disposable.

   However, even a product as prosaic as plain white flour -- the sort suitable for making cakes, pies, and bread -- has been marketed according to it cultural allusions for at least 100 years. For example, in the hardscrabble 1930s, one W. "Pappy" O'Daniel connected the "Hillbilly Flour" brand to rural home life by sponsoring a weekly country music radio program, featuring "The Light Crust Doughboys," that opened with a voice saying, "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy!" Meanwhile, up in Minneapolis, the Washburn-Crosby flour concern (later, "General Mills") invented a fictional "Betty Crocker" to first answer questions from homemakers about baking, and later to grace the boxes of the company's products.


In fact, the marketing of flour with associations to home, kitchen, and families, serves as a classic example of "selling to the need" of the customer, rather than selling the product itself. In the hands of "an ad man," a five-pound bag of flour is a sack filled with possibilities, and redolent of memories. A package of nylon stockings promises the love of a handsome man. And a pair of shoes symbolizes the hearty masculinity of a young man testing his courage against certain death.

Week 9: Post 2: Experimenting with Instagram to promote Hand-sanitizer

I posted on Instagram three times using the "CalPride Products" account.  https://www.instagram.com/calprideproducts/. Once on Sunday, and twice today. 

Each post used a photo of some part of our production process in the making of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, to demonstrate our professionalism and attention to safety. 

The hashtags were all popular ones: #handsanitizer, #covid #coronovirus #coronakindness and #California. I found them by using the ones that came up automatically on the Instagram phone app.

In total, my posts received two likes, both from CSIT 155 classmates. I don't think that any particular time during the day or evening would be more or less effective, given that most of the people of California are under a "stay-at-home" order.

The most important lesson I learned from this exercise is that COVID-oriented products are not a good thing to try to promote of Instagram, at least not without a substantial follower base. At any event, I have not finished setting up production, and I already have enough demand from friends to keep me busy for now. I think this product will be promoted best through friends telling their friends, and earned media looking for a local angle on #coronavirus countermeasures. 

Week 9: Post 1: Using Instagram to promote sales of COVID-fighting Hand Sanitizer.

     First, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I started a new business making alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Here is the sample label I created:

   That means, from here on out, I will probably be doing most of my assignments on the "CalPride Products" social media. I set up "CalPride Products almost three years ago, but now it is a working business, and an important one. The hand-sanitizer project is being set up to sell product at prices competitive with pre-emergency prices (i.e., no "price-gouging") and all proceeds will be used to set up another project proposed several months ago, a relief organization focused on responding to disasters in the three California states: California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur.

   Although "CalPride Products" was originally intended to be primarily a clothing and accessories brand, due to the COVID pandemic, it is now a "Health" supplies company.

   Here are how other Health Supplies company use Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/byramhealthcare/ - 141 posts, 1,356 followers. Last post: 8 hours ago, on "International Autism Day"

Liberator Medical Supply - No Instagram account

https://www.instagram.com/jnj/  - 33 posts, 19,200 followers ("Johnson & Johnson"). Last post: December 1, 2018, on HIV drug trials in Africa.

https://www.instagram.com/medlineinc/ - 48 posts, 1,771 followers. Last post: March 6, on the "Medline Infection Prevention Squad."

https://www.instagram.com/mckessoncorporation/ - 1157 posts, 5,476 followers. Last post: March 30, 2020, on their role in the national coronavirus effort, specifically complimenting Donald Trump.

   All four companies that use Instagram use it for purposes that are common for corporations: Corporate image and to highlight specific personnel. Even though McKesson has the most active account, they still only use it for relatively mundane purposes.

    I was particularly interested in Instagram use by Byram Healthcare and Liberator Medical Supply, because much of their sales are direct to consumers. Liberator Medical Supply, for example, is one of those companies that advertises on television, promising to send viewers something, and "we'll bill Medicare."

   That's the reason, right there, I think: Since Instagram is not seen as a popular social media platform for seniors, it isn't used much by health supplies companies. Our hand sanitizer may face the same issue: Younger people are much less concerned about COVID infection than even middle-aged people, and thus Instagram may not be a good platform for us.

   Only two of these feeds are truly active: Byram and McKesson, and the Byram account seems utterly disconnected from the greatest health crisis in 100 years.

      The McKesson post on COVID has received 32 replies, but all or most from McKesson employees praising the company and its CEO. The second most-recent post, showing a photo of their warehouse, has received 5 replies, again, nearly all from McKesson employees praising the company.
   The third most-recent posts, on March 10, was about a program McKesson sponsored on International Women's Day. This post has drawn 11 replies; most are from happy McKesson employees, but two are complaints about the company not delivering personal protective equipment needed by medical personnel dealing with COVID.
 
    In other words, the most interactive use of Instagram is similar to what is typical on Twitter, desperate complaints to the company.

   In selling CalPride Products hand sanitizer, a major problem is that "health protection" is hard to communicate visually. Instagram could be used to show photos of products ready for shipment. Another photo subject suggested to me -- although I have been reluctant to do so -- is the equipment being used to make our products. I am reluctant because I am making this non-sterile product on the kitchen counter at home. However, I have a new light-box type of "studio" to help me shoot professional looking photos of our equipment, so that might work out well.

   As for hashtags, the obvious ones are those being used by people looking for help avoiding COVID-19 infection: #COVID, #coronavirus, #coronavirustoday, and so on.