Overview Of Biolage Creation

So my efforts of attempting to create a Wikipedia article for Biolage have finally ended. Unfortunately, the result was not a successful one. However with this experience as with any, I did learn many things through the process. My first attempt consisted of me just putting down some basic information about Biolage, not having known of a particular format that should be used. My second attempt I then decided to keep the information but also add the link to the official Biolage website. I then checked on the article regularly to see what its fate would be. There was a soon a message that came up saying that the article needed to be further edited, and that it was going to delete it on the basis that it was like an advertisement. I assume this is because I included information about the product line, but that information was essential in an explanation. I made my last attempt yesterday, and I see that the article was already taken down. I definitely think the Wikipedia community saw my user name come up all the times I tried to publish the article and finally said no more.

Although this ending is not the one I forsaw at the beginning of the semester, it was a learning experience none the less. One thing I learned is that there are a lot of neccesary requirements to creating a new article on Wikipedia, and it is not as easy as it looks. One has to deal with copyright issues and proper citations, among other things. Another thing I learned is that Wikipedia community looks down upon articles that they just perceive to be advertisements for a specific brand or company. I do believe that this fact is comforting because the nature of Wikipedia is completely fact-based which neccesitates include objective information from both sides. This knowledge about Wikipedia is something I would have not learned unless I tried to create this article. So instead of including a link to my article (which does not exist) I am adding a link to a Wikipedia article actually about Wikipedia so you can learn about a lot of the things that I learned through this experience: Enjoy

Last Biolage Chance

So today I made my last attempt at the creation of my Biolage Wikipedia article. I decided on many different changes in hopes of the Wikipedia community finally letting this article stick. One of these was making links to other related topics within Wikipedia, and also adding an external links selection that names 2 of the main sites for Biolage, which also contained a lot of the information I talked about in the article. The information is of course similar to before because what was true before about their product line (including their different therapie brands) is still true now, but I am hoping that this change of format will be more effective. If you would like to go see it, and hopefully it is there: Biolage

Overview of Forever 21 Edits

Yet another article that I have been posting on this semester is the Forever 21 article on Wikipedia. My first post to this article was about including information about the new Forever 21 website. I mean after all, I am doing this for an IT marketing class, I think it would be good to discuss a store website - one of the best examples of IT in marketing. My second edit consisted of the store experience. Since I did not have a picture of the actual physical store, I wanted to describe what it looks like, mostly the glass-paneled storefront, which is really a trademark for Forever 21 and makes them highly recognizable from even far away. My last edit was adding to my first edit about the website. I regularly check their website, for both for educational and shopping purposes, but having paid more attention to it these few months I can easily see the changes being made. One of these changes was an expansion on their website to one of their affiliate brands - Heritage 1981 - which is showing all viewers their continous growth in this area, even very recently.

Reactions of the Wikipedia community to these edits have been positive. The addition of the website did stay, although I believe some wording was changed. My second edit also stayed, even though I believed it was moved around. My third edit has remained exactly the same - most likely a testament to the fact that it was not made very long ago. But overall, I was very pleased once again to see my ideas remain in one form or another because I do believe they were all good points. As far as the Wikipedia editors I feel like this sight is monitored more than the Febreze article, but not as much as study abroad. If one would like to go check out the Forever 21 article and my creative edits: go for it

Overview of Febreze Article

Throughout this past semester I have also been editing the Febreze article listed on Wikipedia. My edits have mainly been to enhance consumer knowledge of the different features and expansions of the Febreze line. My first edit was about Febreze Antimicrobial, which has gained extreme popularity, even moreso than the original because we know how everyone feels about microbes. The second was also about an expansion-talking about the Laundry Odor Eliminator. I just thought this product was perfect proof of Febreze building on the success of its main product and expanding to increase market share and grow.

My reaction to all these edits were positive. I would say that except for maybe one word here or there my main ideas and words have remained on the Wikipedia page for all viewers to see. This fact is of course pleasing to me and my editing ability, but I think an additional factor to take into consideration are the sites that are more popular, and edited more frequently. I have no doubt that the Study Abroad article gets a lot more of attention, and its monitored more closely. I defintiely believe this had a lot to do with the different responses that I received. If you would like to see the Febreze article : here it is

Overview of Study Abroad Blog

Throughout this past semester I have been editing the Study Abroad article found on Wikipedia. It has been very interesting to see the reaction of the Wikipedia community to my edits. My first edit consisted of changing the history of study abroad, which was started at UD, by including some current figures of the number of programs our university offers. My second edit was adding to the section about why people study abroad, with my main point because just for the experience of living life in a completely new place and embracing a completely different culture. My last edit was in the Preparation section, where I included some facts about many universities instituting mandatory orientation programs so students studying abroad know what to expect when they arrive at their destination. The reaction I received was mostly positive.

To my first edit about # of programs, the community rephrased it to just make it sound like today there are many more programs, instead of keeping my numerical figures. My second edit about the "experience" was pretty much untouched except for a few words which made me really excited that my ideas were "accepted". My last edit was the one about the orientation programs, and although my section was deleted, another member included in another section the concept of orientation preparation for study abroad.

So overall, although my "words" might all not have stayed on the actual article, I must say I am glad to see that my "ideas" are still noticeable in the material. It was very interesting to see what other people liked/dislike. If you would like to go check it out: Study Abroad

Opinions about ClickZ article

I recently read an article on ClickZ talking about how, "Online Classified enter a Social Phase." There has been an increasing trend for relationships between online classified and community networks. Two recent examples are Friendster and Facebook who added free classifieds services on their sites this week, following in the footsteps of MySpace, who paired with company called Simply Hired to serve up job listings to the high school and college crowd. Facebook paired up with Oodle, who actually already provides a "campus network" of hundreds of colleges and universities with undergrad-friendly classifieds collected from everywhere online, along with directions of how to post these ads.

I personally see these relationships as being an excellent idea for all parties involved. These social networks contain certain target markets such as the high school/college age that can be very hard to reach. So from a classified standpoint, having a pool of applicants that fit your needs is very valuable. From a member standpoint, of one who belongs to one of these sites, having the ease to find classified especially ones that are pertinent to you and your needs is extremely convenient. And of course, having a happy member/customer only helps the success of these social networks. With the increasing popularity that has been seen with social networks, I can only imagine the proliferation of relationships of these networks with online advertising companies to come in the future. Overall, it was a good article highlighting some new trends that one can see in their everyday lives.

Reflection on CLass Material

In class this week, my professor took some extra time to teach the class some basic HTML code neccesary to start a web page. I most definitely am not a big computer person especially when it comes to the technical aspect of it. However I must say I was interested in learning these basics which are essential things to know. I do know programs out there exist where pretty much all background stuff, like actual codes are taken care of by the system, but just how we should know how to do math and not just how to use a calculator, I believe it is essential to know the simple basics in case our programs do happen to fail us. I must admit it is much easier than it appears to be when viewing a source code on any complex webpage.

Seeing as how I am lucky to have my professor teach me these things, I decided to see how available this informtion is to the general public. After all it is key information but its importance is wavering due to technology taking care of even that. I must say I was pleasantly suprised to find a plethora of different websites offering tutorials including: Hypergurl Tutorial and Ewebtribe Tutorial

There is also additonal concern for HTML due to Microsoft's ASP.NET possibly taking over. I found an interesting article that addresses the diminishing importance of HTML with some very compelling reasons why: here it is

Comments on a Classmates Post.

I recently read a posting from Ben Gruber's blog about an article he read on the Devaluation of Online Advertising. I thought his choice of article was very interesting, as well as being extremely pertinent to the subject matter we discuss in class. Ben discussed his opinion on this article, written by Dorian Sweet, and I must say I agree with his points. The idea that media consumption has become more of an addiction than a choice for most people is such a perfect portrayal of the current state we are in. It is a simple fact that those people who have become accustomed to computer access on a daily basis would feel a sense of disconnect with out it. I personally remember not having Internet for a few days because Comcast was changing my cable plan and I felt somewhat lost not being able to check my email or talk to people online so I knew everything that was happening.

As far as the essentials for online advertisers, Sweet has created a list of four essentials: keep a close eye on what your customer is doing online, make sure to track your ads, to trust and use the information you get from tracking the ads, and to remain creative. I believe all these are important points to ensure success in online advertising. Ben makes special mention of creativity of ads to be probably the most important. I must agree with him that from a consumer attention standpoint, creativity is the key factor. After all, consumers are bogged down and overwhelmed by tons of online ads every single day. This fact suggests they have seen pretty much everything, so it is important for advertisers to think outside of the box and make their ad stand out among all the competition. I do however also agree that Sweet's other points should not be taken lightly. Attention, gained by creativity, is obviously important because without gaining the consumer's attention one has nothing. Yet in order to maintain a long lasting advertising campaign online involves receiving and analyzing data about one's ads and how the customer base is responding to them. Overall, an excellent article by Dorian Sweet and a great blog posting by Ben Gruber.

Reflection from required blogs list.

I recently read an article on the Diva Marketing blog that focused on how good relationships should impact the bottom line. It references two other authors Rajesh and Geoff Livingston that have blogged about the subject of customer relationships. I really like how the article addresses this important issue because very often in this extremely competitive market, people seem to get extremely hung up on the concept of price. Do not get me wrong, I strongly know that price is important, however it good customer service should not be sacrificed just to save a couple pennies.

It is important for businesses to look at the lifetime value of a customer and therefore create a maintain a very good relationship to ensure they can benefit from all this value. Although this process may take longer, it is worth it in the end and results in a win-win for all sides. Even one customer was quoted in the article stating how in the long run the relationship with a business will save one more than just a lower price for right now. It was very refreshing to see many people heavily entrenched in the marketing world address what I believe to be a very important issue.

Wikipedia Edit for Forever 21

I recently edited my watched Wikipedia article on Forever 21. In one of my previous edits I focused on adding a particular section talking about the website that they recently implemented catching up with the new technological times. Well, I have been frequently checking this website (yes mostly for personal use) but I recently recognized a new link/section for Heritage 1981, one of the stores in the Forever 21 Chain. I decided to edit regarding this new information because it is very indicative of the expansion and effort they are putting into their website.

These changes show how most companies are realizing the importance of a website as an amazing marketing tool. Expanding and enhancing the current website will only draw more people into this wonderful marketing tool as well as make this medium a place where they would like to do their shopping. It is amazing to see the changes that have been made in the few short weeks that I have been watching this article,and in particular - its website. Once again, a link to the Wikipedia article: Forever 21

New Wiki Edit

I recently edited my Wikipedia article on Febreze, a popular de-odorizing agent. My edit was about the actual product packaging, and how on every bottle there is a Good Housekeeping logo that is a limited warranty for consumers to get a refund or replacement for a defective product. Although we tend to get used to these warranties that appear on many different products, we must realize their importance.

Warranties and logos such as this one reinforce the confidence a producer has in their product. After all, if a product was not effective the cost of upholding these warranties would be egregious thereby strongly suggesting confidence in a product. This warranty also allows for the inevitable bad lemon or defective product that can occur in the mass production of any product. From a marketing perspective, these warranties are an important element of a product that can positively affect a consumer's feeling about a particular product or product line. It shows a company's desire to take responsibility for any defect and truly helps a company's image. Here is a link: Febreze

Wikipedia Edit PoSt

I recently edited one of the Wikipedia articles regarding the issue of Study Abroad. As I have stated before, this issue is such a large and important topic, especially for college students that make up the majority of study abroad participants. In the article, there is a section on the neccesary steps that one must go through to study abroad, including obtaining a passport and other neccesary documents. All of these requirements are true, yet I believe there are also other "neccesary" steps that should be included in the pre-study abroad departure.

I am taking my lead from the University of Delaware, my current school and home, through which I studied abroad. One of their common practices is for students to go through mandatory orientations that address different issues that they will/might face while abroad. These orientations include possible medical issues because obviously health is of key importance, but also cultural issues which can be just as important. At many of these orientations former students who have studied abroad speak of their experiences and offer some of the best perspectives to those planning to study abroad in the near future. I believe this detail is important for other study abroad programs who might considering implementing such orientation programs.

From a marketing prospective, I believe the existence and publication detailing these orientaitonprograms would prove very beneficial to possible study abroad participants that are somewhat hesitant about the whole process in general. Here is a link to my edit: New Study Abroad Edit

Wiki Post

I am writing about my most recent attempt to publish an article on Wikipedia about the Biolage haircare company. My reasoning is still the same based on my previous post about this great new haircare company that I believe the Wikipedia community should know about.
Seeing as how my first attempt was unsuccessful, this edit not only reiterates most of the same important information, but I paid more attention to referencing of this valid information. Valid information is a big concern for the Wikipedia community because after all this website is used as a resource by many with a desire to obtain verified information. So here is my new "edit" for a creation of Biolage. Biolage

Class Aftermath Posting

One very popular topic that was discussed this week was search engine optimization, and how exactly one can go about acheiveing this goal. On Monday we had one of the founders of SEO by the Sea come in to talk about this growing lucrative business.

Basically anyone who has used an internet search engine for attaining some type of information can tell you the importance of any particular company/website's ranking. After all, let's be honest, no one is going onto the 10th page still looking for the right answer. Instead they will just change the search. Because of this fact, companies have 2 goals of making sure they come up high on the list for appropriate keywords as well as making sure they know the right keywords to be listed underneath.

One important fact we learned in this class is that the amount of links coming in and out of a website is an important factor in changing/improving one's ranking. This factor explains why sites such as Wikipedia rank very high for searches because of the multitude of outgoing links.
As a marketing major, I have to see the importance of the Internet and SEO is one of the best free marketing tools a business could ever get. After all a user has to be able to find your business, and find out about it so that they can become a possible customer.

One interesting site I found is SEO Chat which is a site which allows people to interact and talk about different search optimization strategies. This area is huge and bound to keep on growing and be a hot topic for years to come.