Week I - Pandora, LinkedIn and Facebook

As I start synthesizing my thoughts, Pandora is streaming on my PC

Between this week being our first week, two business trips to Atlanta and Chicago, and figuring out teh workload for the 3 courses I am taking, this will be my lone week I post.

My learning goals for the week are to gain an initial insight into the topics covered in th ecourse, and into some of the services I use on a regular basis, Pandora (love it), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

I started by reading the "Made to Engage" chapter, then watched the videos on Pandora & LInkedIn, and finally read teh GQ article "Do You Trust This Face."  I stopped there as the notes I had taken were gwetting close to the 750 word limit.  I chose the suggested materials based on interest for teh topics as well as the format.

1. Business Principles
1. The three founders truly believe that they have a social mission and are making the world a better place.  Westergren describes Pandora as a business that has a bog impact on people through music; he wants to change the world through music.  Hoffman sees LinkedIn's mission as improving people's life and helping people solve problems, "transform[ing] people's economic life." Zuckerberg is quoted as saying" "we believe that what we're doing is a good thing in the world."
2. They also believe that their companies are bigger than them.  Westergren, for instance, went out and hired a CEO, while Hoffman took over as CEO because his skill set was better suited to the direction LinkedIn was taking:  He is an innovator leading an innovative company.  Incidentally, Zuckerberg's motives are a lot harder to figure out: French writes about his "naive idealism or calculated misdirection."
2. Marketing Principles
1. Denise Shiffman, on page 4 of the "Age of Engage" introduces a key idea.  We are moving from a corporate-created to a user-created web.  Furthermore, the world of entertainment is moving from a "push" mentality to a world where individuals are "pulling" the content they are interested in.
2. "Tapping into this information [available online] will forever change marketing."  Pandora is a top-seller of songs on iTunes and Amazon.  The 90,000 artists on Pandora enjoy unprecedented access to the public.  Hoffman talks about a more intelligent use of "groups," going beyond chat rooms, where you talk with strangers, and using real relationships thereby adding much more value to the discussions.  And of course, there is Facebook, which observers describe as possessing "quite possibly the most valuable database of consumer information in the history of man."
3. Use of data for targeted marketing.  Often times I might do a search for a specific brand of clothing, or a line of hotels, and then that brand will appear in banner ads when I check my email on Yahoo.
4. The role of privacy.  A key issue for Facebook.  My theory is that people are fine shring their musical preferences, or professional background, but are a lot more sensitive when it comes to personal data.  I like the option of opting-in v. opting out... Hoffman's tke on separate social and professional profiles is insightful.  Privacy is both a key and very dynamic topic.  I believe our expectations are rapidly changing.
5. The role of mobile technology. Th eiPhone changed how customers saw Pandora.  You can now take Pandora with you.  (challenging Sirius/XM?)  Mobile technology is huge for connectivity, though multiple devices might have discrete strengths, with cell-phones used for communication, BlackBerry for Outlook functions and the iPhone for teh web.  One of the takeaways from last quarter's marketing assignment was how many tablets were announced in the 11 weeks that spanned our assignment.  The pace of the growth of the tablet market is incredible!  As Shiffman states, "we can no longer write a marketing plan at the beginning of teh year and execute against it over a year."
3. Other Key Ideas
1. "The traditionaol media industry doesn't need to play catch-up; they need to reinvent themselves." I believe this is becuase "opinion" has long overtaken "journalism."
2. "A lie won't stay a secret for long in his consumer powered web." I find it unfathomable that politicians, celebrities or business people would behave illegally/unethically/immorally and expect to get away with it in this day and age.  I blame it on hubris, or utter lack of judgement.
3. "Value isn't static."  This will be something I ponder going forward.
4. "The 6V's."  The idea was compelling, though I wonder how broad an adoption the concept has had