Crouching Blogger, Hidden Badass

Crouching Blogger

The idea behind running this blog in my class was to go after keywords relevant to UNBC and the School of Business, and see just how far up the search results we could make it.




Today, we are rolling into week 4 of Serious Business. In that time, we have made good progress in search results, particularly for "UNBC Marketing." Last week we made it to #9 (first page) of Google results. In the last couple days we got knocked to #11 (second page), but we have multiple pages being returned, as both #11 and #12 positions are Serious Business posts. This is good news, and the results so far have exceeded my expectations.

You will notice that the top four results are on the UNBC domain. Given that we have no UNBC in our URL, it is not likely that we would overtake those positions. However, I consider the other 6 spots on the first page to be fair game. Our bump down over the weekend came from publication of UNBC's new University Plan, which got syndicated on Academica Group's website. Academica is a company that specializes in University and College Enrollment Management.

Seeing that Academica's post was really small, but took the 5th and 6th spot anyway, they are a tough competitor (for us anyway): Page Rank 5, Link Popularity 1034.

That happened on Monday. So what this scenario illustrates is that using blog articles to pursue search ranking is a very competitive, ongoing process. So far, we have primarily used social networking links (mostly Facebook) to drive the popularity of the site. Today in class, we will be reviewing our progress and discussing additional strategies we can employ over the last few weeks of the semester.

Hidden Badass

Some of our blogging activities land us in gray areas regarding University ethics and policies. So, instead of using mere media release forms for our guests and anyone appearing in media, I've gone ahead and secured Research Ethics Board approval. Just so everyone is clear on this, anyone you interview has to fill out some paperwork indicating their consent.



Furthermore, that doesn't license us to do ANYTHING we please. We still have to follow the rules laid out in the undergraduate calendar regarding behavior policies. Additionally, I still need to approve anything that goes live.

The next bit is more fun and MORE BADASS. Something we neglected to do is talk about monetizing the blog. With the click of a button we can allow Google to use the blog for advertising, allowing our site to generate ad money. The trade off is having ads on the site. Now, I doubt we would make much money, but I've already been positively surprised so I'm not totally dismissive of the possibility. But, of course, doing so would crack open a whole new can of worms. Most importantly, where does the money go?

Cash for CSS events? End of semester pizza party? Serious Business $5.00 Scholarships? For class members reading this, remind me to show you the blog's Monetize tab during our session today.

CBC News - Money - Got a word? How to promote a business through search advertising

CBC News - Money - Got a word? How to promote a business through search advertising

This article is relevant to UNBC's COMM 346 Internet Marketing course and discusses some of the same concepts we are being taught in class and experimenting with in the Marketing is Serious Business Blog.

Students use Internets ... It's Super Effective!!

I'm going to make a few quick statements this morning and add more as I get time later in the day. As orbital's post from last night discusses, the blog is doing well in search results. Despite using the blogger platform and the majority of traffic being driven by Facebook referrals, it is on the first page (2nd from bottom) of Google results for "UNBC Marketing," with just under 1600 page views in 3 weeks. That's better than my expectations for a class blog.

A Wild Blogger Appears

Using a public blog, outside the confines of Blackboard, is a double edged sword: we get to see how it is treated by search engines in real time, but it also has very real implications. There are at least 3 topics on the blog that could be stirring the pot at any time: The Commerce Student Society (CSS), the School of Business itself, and the G4G contest. We still have a month of classes, so other issues may arise as students continue to dissect topics that they feel are important.

I would like to thank those from outside of the class who have participated by commenting or by speaking with me. I see there are a couple situations in which past posts have crossed a line, and I apologize on behalf of the students; I am the one who is responsible for this blog, at least for this semester. On that note, if you find that a topic is NOT COOL, please get in contact with me and it can be revised or removed.

Ideally, this blog can compliment the School of Business. I want it to be a place where students, faculty and staff can make comments. I'm going to look at the progression of posts on all topics and make some comments in order to keep them focused, and hopefully I can tend to those issues throughout the day.

Keywords.. Keywords

The blog is doing great, ranking on the first page of google for the search query 'UNBC marketing' but we are still having a little bit of trouble with keyword density. The good news is, our #1 keyword is UNBC with a density of 2.62% which is respectable. The bad news is our #2 result is... share? Optimally we would like have our top 4 keywords as UNBC, Internet, Marketing, and Business. The question of course is how are we going to achieve this? By taking a quick analysis of keyword density of some recent posts using Site report Card (a great tool for beginning internet marketers) I have found a few issues. Here are the results of a few recent posts

As you can see we have a bit of work to do. As internet marketers we need to achieve an optimal keyword density to improve our rank on on search engines. In order to do this we need to edit some of our posts to incorporate our keywords, UNBC, internet, marketing and business.

Tropical Tigers Take a ‘Bite’ out of the Alumni Association

The UNBC Alumni Association is looking for ways to connect with as many Alumni in the most meaningful (and cheap!) way possible.

Did you know 50 million people check their email by 11:30am every day?  This is an on-demand lifestyle we are engaged in and there is no cheaper, more effective channel to share information with an audience than email.  But…before sending out mass emails, it’s important to capture the focus and attention of the reader.  So, instead of addressing every communication directly to all alumni, there may be ways to ensure the communication is meaningful to individual readers.

5 key roles of e-mail:

Drive awareness. So in the case of the Alumni Assoc., we want to provide a prelude that creates a ‘want’ to look further – what’s in it for them?

Create ongoing engagement.  Relevant e-newsletters, regular alumni events, and sharing ‘who’s doing what’ from your graduating class – pictures add value as well.

Consideration.  How do we get them to actively participate in the UNBC community?  Alumni members may need to be lured.  Discounts at the NSC?  Bookstore?  GC’s to the Thirsty Moose?  Let’s get them to the campus and keep them engaged!

Drive purchasing.  This is your hardcore, ‘buy it message’.   Hmmmm, what are we selling?  A community, connections, opportunities, networking – in this case the customers should already know and (hopefully!) trust the ‘brand’. 

Retention and Cross-sell.  Focus on customer service, we need to make members feel important, not just another email to spam so make sure it is targeted.  Things like a considerate response email or personalized thank-you’s for participation.  Also, getting feedback to learn more about what worked and what didn’t to assist with future planning.

Additionally, segmenting your e-mail list to take advantage of social media interactions and the collective influence the email recipient has on others to get involved – the multiplier effect.

Finally, get creative! 

MacBook Wheel: Practical or Practical Joke??

The Onion News Network (ONN) declared on December 18, 2008, that Apple would be releasing a new MacBook that was designed without a keyboard. The MacBook Wheel is said to revolutionize the laptop industry by eliminating the keyboard and make "typing a thing of the past." It was unveiled at the annual Apple Expo by Steve Jobs.

The Macbook Wheels features include:
- an ultra thin humming bird battery which last 19 minutes before it requires charging
- virtually unbreakable unless dropped or hit
- includes an energy saving feature which turns the screen black after 4 seconds

The Macbook Wheel will be offered in 8gb for $2,599 or the upgrade to 40gb for $9,960. It is estimated to be released for purchase 3-18 months after the convention.

It is up in the air about whether hardcore Apple enthusiasts will be camping outside stores days before the release.

Re: UNBC G4G: Meaningful or Meaningless

As everyone has seen from our last blog update, we criticize (literally tore it apart) UNBC's Gold for Green. Although we are skeptical about this project, that does not mean we do not oppose it.
Many may think that we can openly criticize G4G mainly because we "hide" behind our superficial name, The Monkey Chicklets. However, it must be understood, it is for our safety - there are many, many mad/raging/angry/crazy/psycho Green people residing at UNBC.

This week, we wanted to take a more marketing perspective at G4G. Thus, we present our take on Gold for Green's STP. For all those non-business students and lurkers, STP is simply the Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning.

Segmentation: Identifying all segments for the product/service. The objectives of segmentation are: Break market into components; Regroup into market segments; Select which segment to target.

Targeting: To simply put targeting, it can simple defined in a question, "What is target?" Although this question is very simple and short, it can be more complicated as it can be broken down into further questions as follows: What percent of the population uses your brand?; What are the demographics?; Which media is the best to use?

Positioning: The science of perceptual strategy. It is based on a theory that strategy can only be planned in the mind of the consumer, not the marketplace.

Now that STP has been defined in a straight-forward manner, from what we believe anyways, how does this in any way relate to G4G? Well, perhaps many are still trying to understand the STP concept. But onwards!

Segmenting and Targeting Gold for Green Contest:

Finding how this contest was created for UNBC students, perhaps all the work has been completed before The Monkey Chicklets started. What we can look at is why they chose us (UNBC). Thus, we have fused segmenting and targeting together under this heading.

While segments can be defined in an infinite amount of ways, we can put broader parameters on how we define this segment. Blatantly, this contest is for students. The average demographic for UNBC students: Ages of 18-24; Income of $11,000 (estimated); Location of the Prince George area. Given that a 10-course year will cost approximately $600 including the variable costs of textbooks and those random-what-the-f fees, that's a total of $6000. Add on top of that the living fees, drinking binges, and food, that 4 months of hard labour disappears. So on the bright side, the $1000 prize is quite the benefit.

Since this contest is "open" (see our other post why we emphasize open), it will mainly target students - students that "like" UNBC of course. By targeting students, perhaps this contest is more than just the money, and transparencies. Perhaps, just maybe, they are trying to spread the awareness of sustainability to the non-green students. By reaching out now, to the younger generation, the cultural and social future trends can be changed. Or, The Monkey Chicklets just thought too much about it. We personally like the latter one.

Positioning of Gold for Green:

Now, going into the minds of the consumer, and not the market. What are the consumers in a contest? It's the contestants that are trying so ridiculously hard (sometimes going so far as obviously lying) to win. Well, winning is presently defined as being "liked." Everyone, including the Monkey Chicklets, would love $1000. Maybe not so much the Green Gift Basket. But hey, $1000 is a bonus. Make that $12,000 for this year's income!

How would UNBC G4G go ahead, and attract these segmented and targeted people? By positioning themselves within the university. How long did you guys see G4G banner, or posters up throughout the school? We saw it there for well over a month, before the club's bake sales took over (think about the amount of energy those cookies and muffins consumed, which therefore you consumed!). The reach pretty much covered the entire school population, since it was in the Wintergarden. Frequency happened at least twice a day. That's a pretty good advertisement to get those numbers.

We are not sure how many of lurkers read our first post, but we would like to say thanks to our faithful/loyal lurker (most likely classmate) mydogistoosmart.

We agree with your comment. How come UNBC does not have any regulations for companies that bid for the cafe/sandwich area? Hundreds of paper plates are given away for the wraps, and the napkins are free to take (I can take all of them, and evilly burn them for fun). As delicious and cheap as Tim Hortons' is, what about all those disposable cups and paper bags? UNBC is trying to change the company environment, their brand name. How will it change by having companies described above associated with it?

Lastly, we would like to end it with this thought.

G4G: I burn all my trash, I leave my computer on all day downloading movies, I leave 3 lights on in my room to adjust to my monitor, my laptop is on all day for MSN/Facebook, I drive to UNBC everyday (by myself of course), I never recycle because it's too far. Please vote for me!
34 Seconds Ago· Comment · · View Feedback (478)

Would they give me the prize because my friends voted for me?