Comments on recent videos that went viral

I came across two videos that went viral online The first one is Dove's "Real Beauty Sketch" ad and the second one is Evian's global "Baby & Me" campaign commercials.


By just looking at Dove's video, I can certainly tell that they are sending a positive messages to all women on the world this campaign might be geared more towards social media marketing and might have gotten through the social media funnel. However, when it comes to conventional marketing, I am unsure if Dove is trying to sell anything to consumers? One of the comments below asked " did this ad make you wanna buy Dove?" Yes, this would be a critical question to ask if Dove is pursuing ICM, aiming to have customers buy things from them.

I personally liked the Evian ads and commercials a lot because they are so eye-catching and creative! The music is very nicely done too! Bottled water is something that many people consume on a daily basis, therefore, I think this campaign will eventually lead to success of increased sales! (At least for me, if I see Evian water in supermarkets or convenience stores, I would be reminded of the campaign videos and that would make me want to buy it!)

Role of social media in emergency situations

The bombing that happened at the Boston Marathon this afternoon was such a dreadful news to hear. I really don't get why things like this occurs. It is supposed to be an even in which everyone's all cheerful and such. The photos on CNN are pretty graphic and very saddening indeed. My prayers and thoughts go to those who were affected.

A moment ago I logged on to my twitter account and I can see all sorts of tweets related to the incident. I found one interesting tweet, which posted a link to the "Google Person Finder". I never knew something like this existed! (Yes I was surprised!) It certainly serves as a great example of how the internet can help during incidents like this. The Boston Marathon official twitter account is also sending live commentaries to inform people about all the related issues such as baggage claims. People has been using various hashtags such as #bostonhelp to post blood donation announcements, links to different charity groups, and even links to a list with contact informations that people offers to accomodate the runners for a night or two. It's really heartwarming to see such thing happening within just few hours.

This incident, though it is uncertain whether it's a terrorist attack or not, reminded me of 911 attack back in 2001. It makes me wonder what role would social media play in situations like this (including any other emergency situations). I am certain that social media can help everyone stay connected--- many people are certainly willing to help those who were affected in any possible way they can, just like those who are offering a free place to say for the marathon runners!

p.s. see some screenshots of #bostonhelp here

Facebook insights of my own fanpage

I have been managing a personal Facebook fanpage since a year ago about my travel-study experience in New York. I share mainly photographs I took in NYC; sometimes I post about my student life in Albany, and sometimes my own drawings. Since I'm from Taiwan, I usually write the story and picture captions in both mandarin Chinese and English.

For your personal interest, here is my fanpage: http://on.fb.me/14Beo5x

It's pretty amazing to see and fun to study all the Facebook insights that FB provides you every week. There are so many terms such as "virilality", "reach" which can be very confusing, but it does help you understand the demographics of your fan-base. It even shows how many people unliked your page during the past week. I find it interesting how among the fans that liked my page, there are much more female fans than males. This also seem to be true for other friends of mine, who also own fanpages telling their travel stories... (I wonder if there are insights that will help answer this question?)