I am quite inactive in new media. Although I also browse facebook daily but I seldom write status or notes. However, blogging somehow forces me to share my thoughts and be active online. Haha! I am not quite adapted to this kind of lifestyle but it is still good to write blogs about new media. I have to read the PowerPoints before I start to write the blogs. In other words, writing online helps me to learn and I can remember what we have learnt after writing the blogs.
I would like my recent blog "Attention in viral marketing and YouTube- Coca-cola example" to be reviewed in detail because I think I did some analysis based on what we learnt in lesson about Youtube and viral marketing. I did not know abut digg.com or delicious.com until Christoph introduced them in class. I think these two websites' mechanism is quite interesting and I wonder if it is how people get to know there are new music videos on Youtube!
Sadly, there is only one comment on my blogs given by Jennifer. :(
Toy Fung Wing Shan, Clare Fung and Jennifer Fung are my blogmates. I think Toy's writing style is just like what people usually write on blogs, with symbols of facial expressions. Clare's blog is simple and neat. Jennfier's blog is really like a website- she has lots to share. She is a professional blogger!
I am not so a media addict so I could only tell you one affinity space that I participated, when I had interest in guitar and wanted to know more about it. It is “Hong Kong Band Forum”, a platform in Hong Kong for those are interested in music,
especially band music. The vast majority of the participants are music players. Unfortunately, I am not.:( I registered as a member in Hong Kong Band Forum
because I wanted to know more about guitars. However, as my passion was
gone, now I seldom browse this forum. But I really like the diversity and professionalism of the participants there.
The members of the forum are all Hong Kong people mainly using Cantonese as their language for communication. However, this forum consist of a variety of age groups, ranging
from adolescent to older adult. Also, they have different backgrounds regarding to occupations. From students,
musicians, construction workers to land property agent. From my observation, approximately 80% of the members are boys which is one of the reasons that I am not so devoted in this affinity space.Despite the great differences
between them, they communicate and share any information related to music. They can
even trade used instruments or promote their music services such as music
instrument repair and music lessons. This group of people are driven by "fun", thus they are willing to share information and opinions in the forum.
After years of operation, the administrators of the forum came up
with some rules. First of all, services other than music are not permitted to be promoted
in the forum. With reference to other music forums that are congested with
unrelated commercial advertisement, this rule allows members to enjoy an
advertisement-free environment to discuss about music. This forum is non-profitable and the administrators are volunteers. Second, foul or offensive languages are not allowed. As some
members are teenagers, they maybe emotional sometimes and turn discussions into
oral fight. To ensure the members are self-regulated and being responsible for their comments, registration is required to browsing the forum. Third, commenting on the selling of old instruments is prohibited. Although the price is negotiable, negotiation is only allowed in private
conversation or else it is unfair to the seller.
Recently my friend mentioned a post in the forum that was hot. A boy posted a youtube clip on a post and asked for opinions. Many people gave negative comments to him and some were very rude. Some people mediated and said "we should encourage new music players". In the end, he posted on the forum saying,"I will work harder! Thank you for everyone's comments. I am very sorry."
Although some people are rude, but it is still good to see some amateurs giving sincere comments and encouragements to new player. I hope this can be the practice in other forums too. I bet many Hong Kong people have heard of "Golden Forum". I do not really like it because there are so many foul languages and many people are rude. What do you think?
Speaking of viral marketing video, I immediately think "Coca-Cola Happiness Truck" my
supervisor mentioned when I was working in a public relations company. It is a big red ruck with a PUSH button at the back. People get curious and push the button. Could you guess what happened?
It is obvious that this video is made by Coca-cola company as a marketing strategy. However, the interesting thing is, people not only get coca-cola, but also other items such as sunglasses, soccer balls and surfboards. All people have happy smiles on their faces, which shows the message- Coca-cola brings people happiness. Audience were caught by the "surprise" and "fun" elements in the video.
Although the number of viewers (about one million) may not be significant, there are people leaving comments every day since 18 Feb 2011. Of course, the Coca-cola happiness truck did not only go to Brazil, but many other countries such as the Philippines and even Hong Kong. Many videos has this sentence at the end "Where Will Happiness Strike Next?" and people left comments to show that they want the coca-cola happiness truck to be in their countries, as can be seen in the picture below.
By giving attention of the public, it also receives attention from all over the world. Many websites talk about this video because the web-users simply love this idea. The intended audience is people all over the world. Around 50 percent of viewers were from outside the United States and more
than 70 percent of blog posts about the video were in languages other
than English. Coca-cola company does not need to send a happiness truck to every city of the world to promote. They only need to post it on Youtube and people could browse it and thus to gain exposure. The media keeps growing with the development of technological products, as shown from the statistics on the left, 67, 869 people first viewed this video from a mobile device. Coca-cola also used a Facebook Hub to gain attention of the public, apart from the video clips in Youtube.
The results of the campaign was quite impressive. A total of three million views were recorded for this campaign in YouTube. But I think Coca-cola could have achieved more by getting more audience. Why couldn't it? I thought of the ways the company could further promote their products and videos, and I remembered the video that was shown in class, "An anthropological introduction to YouTube" (please watch it from 7:18). It mentions that people will view digg.com and delicious.com which are websites that increase the number of audience. I checked out the digg.com and delicious.com to find out why the "Coca-Cola Happiness Truck" could not be as popular as it could be. Digg.com only shows the most popular videos in the last 18 hours, whereas not many bookmarks are tagged for "coca-cola happiness truck" on delicious.com. This is why the videos could only gain attention for the first month since its first upload and thereafter the audience grows very slowly.
It is a pity that this interesting video could not gain very significant attention on YouTube globally. Yet many people have positive opinions after watching this video and it succeeded in catching their attention by its creativity. I wish I could press the "PUSH" button!
After learning about how visual layout of websites catch people's attention in class, I have decided to show you my idol's official website - the official Bruce Lee site.
When I opened the website, I thought it's centre-margin layout because I could only view this in my computer. The first thing that caught my attention was Bruce Lee's face and the quote he said.
However, I noticed that the pictures are not complete so I scrolled down and found the first page is actually like this below.
Now the website looks like it has a bottom top layout. I realized that the six components below Bruce Lee's head, are as the same as the six hypertext on the top of the web page. I guess one of the most important reason is that, visuals catch people's attention better than texts do.
When you click into "Legacy" page, you will be directed to this page, the biography.
As you can see from the screen cap, at the top of the page there are all the hyperlinks of other sections so readers can easily browse around. Below them, there are "the legacy", "the symbols", "Jeet Kune Do" etc. they are all related to Bruce Lee's life. The topics are arranged from "big" to "small" and "more related" to "less related" and also in a chronological order. First it is all about Bruce Lee, then his martial arts theories and later about his life as a father with a son, Brandon Lee then a daughter, Shannon Lee.
I am very impressed by the design of this website not only because of the hyperlinks, but also mix and match of the colours and the pictures.
For my own blog, I have added hyperlinks that show my classmates' blogs. I also moved the bar from right to left because people tend to look at the left hand side of a web page for navigation. But my blog is not as attractive as Bruce Lee's one, and it can never be, because of my poor computer skills. Haha!
The advance of technology intrudes people's lives in many ways. I am not a computer-addict because I feel dizzy after using computer for a while. I do not like using computer, listening to songs or playing NDS and PSP. However, I do use digital technologies to connect with my friends and for its functions. Like other college students, I have a smartphone to communicate with friends in many ways. I really like my smartphone because it allows me to check email, browse Facebook and chat with my friends through what's app. It also helps me by providing information of the best restaurants when I go out and also the location via Google Map.
Although I use my phone to access to the internet every day, some friends say I am almost invisible in Facebook. It's because I think Facebook exposes too many privacy and thus I blocked people from viewing my photos. I like Facebook because it allows you to know your friends' lives but it is sometimes very annoying to see certain people updating their Facebook a few times a day. It gives me a strange feeling also- I am not very close with those friends but it seems like I know them very well. It is good that facebook has a function that you can unsubscribe your friends' news or hide your information. Sometimes distance gives you the sense of security and freedom. Right?
Apart from Facebook, the other website that I browse most frequently is Taobao. I think many girls know it very well. it is a mainland online shopping website, which has similar functions as eBay. However, the price is much cheaper. I have a list of favourite shops and I check it out every day. Payment is made by credit card online. It usually takes less than a week for the parcel to arrive at your door. I do admit that I am obsessed with Taobao as it offers millions of clothes that are less than 100 dollars. I don't like going shopping in shopping malls anymore.
Although I do not like using computer, I still use it for its functions and convenience. I think in this course I will learn how to media change people's life. How writing online and be shared by different people in the world. I also hope that writing regularly will help me to improve my writing skills. Haha!
