Thursday, December 10, 2009

Goodbye ::sniff::

Well, our class is finally drawing to a close and with the food drives and events squared away, it seems like Project 4063 is about ready to wrap up.

This experience has truly been a unique one. At first I was quite skeptical as to how social media could be "taught" considering it's still in infancy. However, it was interesting to see the ridiculous amount of social media platforms that can be leveraged for something as simple as raising food and funds for an organization. People rarely ever think of using social media to do good and I'm proud that Project4063 not only spearheaded an effort to show just that, but did so successfully.

This class/project was somewhat atypical of what one would expect in an "interactive marketing" class. Personally, I thought our butts would be lodged firmly in those uncomfortable chairs for two and a half hours every week and that our professor (this was before Dave walked into the room) would drone on for the duration of the class about things that, frankly, I couldn't give less of a damn about. The idea of taking notes in another marketing class and sucking up to yet another professor was unbearable to me. Luckily, I didn't have to do either.

Quite frankly, this class was a pleasant and a welcome surprise. From going to visit William Byrd Community House to talking about Twitter and cyber stalking various individuals, this class was truly a mix of the good, the bad and, well, if you saw some of the pictures on our Flickr account, at times quite ugly.

In the end I'm hoping everyone else in the class will walk away with the same appreciation for social media, and interactive marketing, (and maybe Dave) as I did.

And, if there's one thing I've learned from all of this....Google's gonna be big.

-Ana

Food Drive

I just wanted to say thank you so much to those who participated in the food drive.  We were able to donate a lot of food to the WBCH.  They appreciated our efforts very much.

The semester has gone by so fast.  I can't believe that class is about to end, and how much the blog has developed.  The blog started out with posts about anything and now we are posting with a purpose.  It has been really interesting seeing the progress, and how much everyone has learned about social media.





- Caitlin

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Project 4063 Coming to an End

(by: melissa calabro)

Greetings all!

With the semester coming to close, Project 4063 is also coming to a close. We've had an awesome semester, learning a little bit more about William Byrd Community House and their involvement in our community and a lot about social media! We ended up donating about 10-15 bags of non-perishables from our food drive, and cannot thank you all enough for your support. It's been a fun ride, and I hope you all have enjoyed being a part of this project as much as I have!

Also, consider volunteering with WBCH during some of that free time. Non profits can always use an extra hand with something and WBCH is doing great things for our community!

Thanks again for all of your support! Have a happy holiday and an awesome new year! May our paths cross again soon....

Cheers,
Melissa

Saturday, December 5, 2009

The semester is all but over

Well Project 4063 had our canned food drive this past Thursday. I would call it a success. We had several bags and boxes worth of food to donate to the William Byrd Community House. Thank you to everyone who donated, it means a lot to us, but more importantly, it means a lot to the people who are struggling to support their children and received the food. Project 4063 was a fun experience. I think we all learned a lot about using the internet as a means for marketing. At the very least, I can say I know more about blogging now. Stay tuned for more updates about the future of Project 4063.

-Yvonne

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thank you so much

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and donated during our canned food drive today - what a success! I don't know personally the final number of food items we recieved, but I do know that when we were packing everything up to bring to WBCH it took quite a few bags/boxes and some heavy lifting.

I'd also like to thank everyone in Project 4063 for making this drive possible - special thanks to Yvonne for coming through with a banner at the last minute, and Melissa and Lynna for dropping all the food off at WBCH.

Great job everyone!

-Sophia

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Hey there! Got a minute? I'd like to share some cool ideas.

So as you may or may not be aware, the class, Mass Communications 491 - "Interactive Marketing", and Project 4063 (the student-led community service effort of this class) are both quickly coming to a close. 

In fact, this week of November 29th to December 5th marks the students' long-awaited dream finally realized: The last week of classes. 

Yet, we students "aren't out of the woods yet", as there is, after this said week, the week for final exams. Lo and behold, although the classes shall cease, we still must look forward to an exam for this class.


What on earth does this have to do with my title of: "Hey there! Got a minute? I'd like to share some cool ideas."? 

You might be thinking right now, "Where are the 'cool ideas'? I'm leaving this blog post!".

      
Not to worry, my friend, I do have some cool ideas to share as I promised. I call them ideas because I'm not exactly sure of the validity of them yet. They are things that I've learned from this class experience:

  • I learned that on social media networking sites (such as the likes of "Facebook", "Twitter", et cetera) it is rude to not respond to someone who has left a post on your profile. 

  • "You tube" and many other websites are studied by some people in order to observe the user behavior on these places. "You tube analytics", for example, provides data on people who use You tube. These studies are very much like market research.
  • Finally, if you want to draw eager attention to something, you must demonstrate to people why they should care. People are busy and are focused on their own lives; so you really need to be interesting in order for folks to take the time with something you are showing to the world.

-Stephanie