Monday, October 13, 2008

Is You Tube For You?

Hello friends! As I have commented earlier, I am a bit behind, and I am making up for some missed blogs. The entry I wish to submit at this time concerns the scenario where a company decides to advertise on YouTube, and I would like to discuss the pros and cons that I have identified.

First of all, I am a non-traditional student. That meaning that I originally graduated from SMSU in 1987, and returned to work on my Master's degree in 2005. I am not dead, but I am 43 years old, and technology has advanced quite a way since I was working on my undergraduate degree. I wanted to preface my first point with this information, and I may refer to this piece of history again because it is very pertinent.

The first and biggest drawback that always comes to my mind with using online technologies such as YouTube, Blogger, etc., is if the target audience is familiar with these tools. Corporate USA is advancing at a high rate of speed, but there are still older executives out there that barely know how to log in to e-mail. As I mentioned before, I am in that generation right between, because I am familiar with personal computers and some of the online technologies, but even I, at 43 years old, am a bit frightened and anxious at the thought of having to rely totally on on-line technologies. This blogging assignment has rocked my world, so I can imagine how a 60 year-old executive might feel at suddenly starting to access YouTube for marketing applications. Bottom line, there is a segment of society that is still a bit afraid of the Internet. That is it, short and sweet.

On the flip side, hopefully some of these older executives are hiring young, fresh-faced adults to help them get acclimated to online applications or are simply in charge of doing it themselves. In the bigger markets, I would assume that is what is happening, but there are still some fairly large companies in smaller markets, such as here, and I am not sure they are recruiting like the companies in New York.

Another concern to me is the cost of all this advancing technology. Again, a business owner in Springfield, MO will likely have quite a different budget than an owner on Wall Street. From everything I have read, using on-line applications can save on things like production costs, postage, etc., but they are still expensive means of marketing and advertising. It is costly to get things set up, and it will likely take a professional designer to create them.

I could go on and on, but these are a few of my concerns. From what I have read, though, companies better get used to integrating tools such as blogs and YouTube into their marketing plans because that is what the future is bringing.

Dreamining.....

As I sit here at my computer and look out the window, the sunshine helps ease the painful fact that I am very behind. I have also realized that I do not know enough about the computer to make my blog site "pretty," so for anyone reading this entry, please know that my site will soon look better. I have acquired the help of a tutor, and he is going to help me dress up this site! I am also working to get caught up on the blogs in which I have missed out.

Today, I understand that we are supposed to be talking about dreams. I have interpretted this to mean our dreams, as in goals and lifetime dreams. I have had many fantasies and daydreams about the future, but one common thread exists; they have always included helping people and doing something with communication. I graduated in 1987 from SMSU with an Organizational Communication degree, and I spent about 18 years out in the workforce. My background has been in development and fund raising, and that was my first real taste of helping people. I was at Hospice of Southwest Missouri for quite a long time, and that was really a wonderful organization to assist. I experienced burn out, though, and after working with Senior Citizens and even college development, I realized that what I really wanted was to get my Master's and broaden my ability to help people.

So, slowly but surely I returned to school a couple of years ago. I am almost finished, and what I will leave MSU with is an MA in Communication, with an emphasis is Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution. I am very interested in doing mediation and negotiation, especially for the court system. It would be an absolute dream come true to be able to help people with disuptes they have basically given up on resolving. I have that effect on people, and my family and friends tell me that this is the path I was always meant to follow. I guess just having a support system like that is a dream come true in itself, though!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Rainy Night in Missouri

I am just trying to figure out how this whole blog process works. I missed the most important night of all this, and I am sorely behind. Let' s see if this works.

Monday, September 15, 2008