How to Create a Successful Company Blog

This article I read on mashable.com is about the use of company blogs and why they are important for business. Blogging helps a company to become closer to its customers and shares relevant information with them about the products or events concerning their products. It is also a great way to connect with customers publicly, and provides a way for customers to really get to know the company and what it stands for. Blogs are also cost effective; starting a blog hardly costs anything and it doesn't take a large task force in order to maintain it.
One major question that companies have is "What do we even blog about?". According to this article, it's important to first identify your target audience and what you think they would find to be valuable information, while also keeping in mind things that your company is passionate about in order to fuel motivation to maintain a blog. Many companies start off a blog that they think will be interesting to their customers, but they are not particularly interested in the topics so they end up stopping updates to their blog.
The article lists 6 things that companies can do in order to create a successful blog:
1. Be Authentic: in order for a blog to be successful, readers must feel that the author has a true passion for the topic at hand. If the readers feel that the writer is just going through the motions and isn't genuine, they won't be as inclined to read it.
2. Be Transparent: this goes along with the last one, but focuses on the fact that writers are writing as PEOPLE, not as companies. Consumers will connect more with pieces that are written by someone with opinions and feelings rather than someone who sounds like a textbook.
3. Get Inside Your Reader's Minds: keep in mind your target audience, and blog about things that you think they want to hear in a way that will be effective to them. For example, if your target audience is 55+ women, using pop culture references and more modern lingo probably wouldn't get through to them as much as it would to a younger generation.
4. Solicit Feedback: ASK your customers what they'd like more information about. ENCOURAGE them to voice their opinions about topics! The best way to build and maintain an audience is to engage them, or else they'll be bored.
5. Don't Be Offensive Or Take Big Public Risks: try to keep in mind different viewpoints and lifestyles when writing a blog. The article gives the example of a blogger calling one of the people who commented on one of his products "retarded". Obviously, this could really offend some people and result in a loss of followers and respect. Basically, companies need to try and be as politically correct as possible in their blogs. However, the nice thing about social media is that if something happens, companies can remedy it quickly by addressing it, apologizing, and moving on.  Just keep politics out of it!
6. Have Fun!: it's obvious when someone is having fun with what they're doing and it's obvious when they're not. It's hard to follow a blog when you know someone is doing it just to do it, not necessarily because they want to. These feelings are reflected in the writing style.

Viral Videos

Viral Videos: you know, THAT video, the one that almost everyone has seen. Viral videos often contain something humorous that happens, and can range anywhere from videos shot on a cell phone (a mini example of a viral video here would be the guy who got tazered in Subway) to comedy skits on TV (like all of Justin Timberlake's Lonely Island productions). Viral videos are talked about from consumer to consumer, and some companies actually strive to create a viral video campaign (one example of this would be the Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign), where others, such as the "Leave Britney Alone" video, don't necessarily plan on their video going viral...this guy has over 40 million views on this ONE video!
When we started studying viral videos, I immediately thought of the "Where the Hell is Matt" video that I saw a couple of years ago. While slightly humorous, this video doesn't really have much in common with other viral videos, but I enjoy it the most so I thought I'd share.
So what do videos need in order to go viral? There's no way of telling when a video will go viral or not, or how a viral video campaign will be taken by consumers, but a couple qualities the videos should have are that 1. they are catchy and 2. they promise something different than the normal.
What do you guys think that companies should do in order to have a successful viral video campaign? We talked about several in class: All State, Samsung, and Google Chrome to name a few. What did these videos have in common?

Cellphones and College Students

It's safe to say that at this point in time, at least 98% of our peers own a cell phone. Of course, the functions our cell phones can perform may vary, but as time goes on, smart phones seem to be phasing out regular phones. I read an article on Mashable.com this week that I'd like to share with you all, since it pertains to all of us. According to the study done in this article, 88% of students text during class (guilty), 40% use their phones for last minute test prep (now that my phone can pull up documents, definitely guilty), and 25% take out their cell phones at least once during each class (I'm pretty sure every student in my classes does this). The article also included an infographic to further delve into our cellphone usage. Take a look and let me know if you guys agree with any of the statistics!

Also, since we are all a part of Generation Y, have you guys seen a change in the way you or others use cell phones since smartphones have come out? I know that personally, my phone usage has probably tripled from what it used to be, simply because we can do so much more on our phones now than before.