Glass Half-Full

Strategic Internet Marketing, or MKTG 470 as we JMU students refer to it, has been a great learning experience for me. Taught by Dr. Theresa B. Clarke, MKTG 470 has shown me the many ways marketers can use the Internet to help their company and to help themselves.  I would like to just touch on a few things I have learned by way of this blog post.

Google Analytics: Making The Unfamiliar…Familiar

Google Analytics was unfamiliar territory to me before taking MKTG 470. I couldn’t have told you anything about it five months ago, but thanks to this class I think I know my way around Google Analytics fairly well. Google Analytics can tell me that 56.16% of visitors to my website are actually new visitors, and they spend nearly four minutes of my site. This tells me as the site operator that I need to develop something that will make the visitor want to stay on my site longer. I can also see that my JMU page has been viewed 40 times, which is the 2nd highest on my site. This could be attributed to my concentration on optimizing this page and trying to raise its profile in the Google search engine.

What I Have Learned

MKTG 470 has taught me a great deal of things this past semester. I was very happy to learn how to develop my own site and learn a little more about HTML coding and how it works. It is definitely something that I believe could serve me well in the future. I also enjoyed the insights into how companies try to design their websites to attract the visitors attention. Knowing what colors work well together and where to put the search bar seem like small little details, but can make the difference between a sale and a visitor “walking” away empty-handed.

The Status of My Site: Still In Limbo

I have not decided what to do with this blog yet. It has crossed my mind to change it into more of a sports-oriented blog, but I have not made a final decision as of now. What I do know is I am grateful for having the chance to express some of my views through this blog. It truly has been an eye-opening experience.

Happy Monday after Easter to all readers out there!

Greetings again readers!

Last week my Strategic Internet Marketing class had the privilege of hosting a guest speaker while our professor, Dr. Clarke, was out for the week at a conference. Lindsay Crone, a Creative Editor at The Search Agency in Baltimore, Maryland, was able to come in with her experience and share her wealth of knowledge with our class.

First off I would like to personally thank Lindsay for coming to speak with us. She took time out of her work to help improve the mindset and increase the knowledge of college students who are on the brink of entering the work force. Lindsay, a JMU alum with a B.B.A. in Marketing, was more than kind to help out her alma mater.e

At the conclusion of her presentation, I had a few things that really stuck with me.

Every March the sports world gets infected, but not with a disease that you would see your local doctor about finding a cure. This infection is called March Madness and it is spreading throughout the country.

March Madness refers to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that is held every year during March and the beginning of April. Recently, the tournament has expanded to 68 Division 1 Men’s Basketball teams who all are vying to become an elusive NCAA champion. Tears will be shed and hearts will be broken, but sports fans will latch onto every game hoping that there bracket isn’t busted.

Every year millions of sports fans fill out a tournament bracket after the field is announced, knowing full well that they have no chance of predicting each game correctly. But there lies the fun, knowing that anything and everything can and will happen during March Madness.

Just this year, two number two seed’s lost their opening games to 15 seeds. That had only happened four times since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, so happening twice this year is truly astonishing.

Take a team like the Missouri Tigers. They finished the season 30-4 and won the Big 12 Tournament Championship. The team was expected to contend for the NCAA Championship and was rewarded a number two seed in the West Regional. But, in walks tiny Norfolk State University, who only has one student for every eight for Missouri. Well, Norfolk State was one of the two number 15 seeds to pull off the upset this year, completely ruining this blogger’s bracket.

Norfolk State celebrates after defeating Missouri

March Madness truly is the greatest time of year. From the Cinderella team to the perennial powerhouse, anything is possible in the NCAA Tournament. I cannot wait to see what the final weeks of March Madness has in store for all of America.

Ryan Braun speaking about his overturned suspension

Happy Monday all!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about two of my current interests: marketing and sports. Specifically, I wanted to address the public perception of Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun and how marketers will use him in the future.

As you may or may not know, Ryan Braun was suspended from Major League Baseball earlier this year after he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. At the time many people criticized Braun for cheating, especially during a season in which he won the Most Valuable Player Award for the National League. Last week, however, Braun won an appeal and the suspension was revoked by the league.

The Brewers claim there would have been little to no difference in the team’s marketing efforts if Braun had to serve his 50-game suspension. However, marketing Braun as the individual might be a different situation. He has stayed very active in promoting himself with companies such as Nike, but future companies might be wary of teaming up with Braun.

Marketing experts believe that the damage was done when Braun initially tested positive, and it might take a while to get that image out of the minds of companies and consumers. Local advertising deals might come sooner than a national deal with many larger firms likely taking a wait-and-see approach with Braun. It could be a year before Braun sees any lucrative deal.

For now, Braun will prepare for spring training with his teammates and be thankful he doesn’t have to sit out 50 games. But only time will tell how Braun’s future in the eyes of the consumer plays out.

Happy Wednesday to all! (or Thursday depending on where you are reading from!)

We finally saw a little bit of warm weather again in Harrisonburg after a little bit of a cold spell. It got up into the 50s today and will reach the mid-60s tomorrow.

JMU's Quad

You can see everyone around campus getting a little excited about the weather tomorrow. The Quad might have some visitors tomorrow with it being so nice. Frisbees may be thrown and a game or two of catch may happen. Studying can happen outdoors instead of being confined to a cubicle in ECL (East Campus Library). As you can tell by the picture to the right, the Quad is the place to be when warm weather hits Harrisonburg. That’s the greatness that accompanies warm weather.

Golf season has started up and it is giving me the “golf itch”. This term is something I have made up completely on my own and it describes my desire to play. I would have loved to have hit the course at either Lakeview Golf Club or Heritage Oaks Golf Course to play 18 holes with the weather being great. However, my golf clubs sit in my garage back home in Marshall, Virginia so the round will have to take a “rain check”.

I can only hope it is warm wherever you are reading from. We can only hope the warm weather continues for the rest of the month and the snow/rain is gone for good! Have a great end of the week and enjoy the weather!

First off, Happy Monday to all!

I have been exploring the world of Twitter for a bit and trying to look past just the content of the tweets to see how Twitter really offers a new prospective to its users. Twitter has been a part of my world for a couple of years now, but I am still learning new things about Twitter daily.

When I first started using Twitter, I used it mostly as means of escaping Facebook for a hour or so. But now, it has become a way for me to share interesting stories I come across during the course of the day that my peers may not be able to see. Also, as I share my stories with my peers, they are also able to share interesting stories that they believe are worth reading. One of my favorite things about Twitter is to read a good article that has been ‘retweeted’ by a friend from a news outlet that I don’t know about. It’s a good way to learn about the news in different parts of the world.

While Twitter is believed by many to just be a way of connecting to people and to post meaningless 140 character sentences, there is also a business aspect to Twitter. Individuals like myself can connect to businesses and learn about new product breakthroughs or stories about their operations. Businesses can tweet out new concepts to their followers or any special deals that they may have running. It truly could be considered the easiest form of publicity for a business.

Well that ends my Twitter rant for now, but I encourage all to explore the world of Twitter and see what it has to offer you. I also invite you to follow my Twitter account here. Have a great day!

Hello all!

Well, as you can tell, I have made a couple of adjustments to the design and look of my website. I wanted to have more of a slick and darker feel to my site, so I started the search process in WordPress. Using the ‘Appearance’ tab on the left of my screen, I clicked on ‘themes’ and then proceeded to click on ‘Install Themes’. From there I was able to search for the exact theme I was desiring for my website.

Although the WhiteHouse theme I had before was satisfactory, I was looking for something closer to a black or blue background. My search returned many results, but after the first few pages I couldn’t decide on a them that could keep much of my site intact. I went back to the search window and decided to type in ‘simple’ in the search bar, and choose a darker design from those results. I found the Back2Black theme designed by Bingo, and it had everything I wanted.

After installing the Back2Black theme, I discovered the Twitter feed on my site was no longer showing. I also noticed the ‘RSS Posts/Comments’  in the top right corner was a little distracting, so I will have to discover what is causing these issues.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the new theme for my website and please let me know if you experience any issues with my new theme!

Welcome to my blog.  I am currently enrolled in Strategic Internet Marketing (MKTG 470) taught by Dr. Theresa B. Clarke at James Madison University.  As one of the course requirements, all students will be completing some of the assignments as blog posts.  This is my first official blog post for Dr. Clarke’s course in the JMU Department of Marketing.