Too Much Technology Too Fast

Imagine walking down the street headed for the subway when a notice pops up in front of your eyes saying its suspended. Not a billboard or a sign, but a small notice projected onto the lens of your glasses. Freaky, right? That’s only the beginning. Throughout the day, while walking through town or working, notices pop up on your lenses for reminders, the weather, your calendar, new messages, take pictures and all sorts of nifty things. You can set reminders and alarms and answer messages with your voice during your stroll as well. This might seem like a ludicrous, futuristic idea, but how far off is it really?

Cause Marketing Not as Good as it Sounds

It’s no secret that companies like to tug at our heart-strings with their advertisements. For decades companies have employed cause marketing, which allies them with a nonprofit organization. We’ve all seen the ads, some big company wants us to buy their product, and when we do a portion of the proceeds will go to a nonprofit organization or a charity. It seems like a great idea, especially if it is a product you would use anyway. Some recent examples that you may remember are the Yoplait “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign and the Coca-Cola “Protect the Polar Bear” campaign. 

Virtual Goods? No Thanks

Dairy Disappointed

Sorry folks, I’m still not a believer. Well, in FarmVille that is. My experience with my Zynga Game Card cannot be described as a pleasant one. Better words could be annoying, stressful, and confusing. Not to be a “Debbie Downer,” but virtually milking cows and harvesting strawberries is not my cup of tea. However, let’s rewind a bit…

Virtual Goods, are they worth it?

Let me start this post off by saying i’m frugal. Well, frugal might be too nice of a word; i’m cheap. To me, the idea of buying “virtual goods” seems a little silly. Granted, I’ve never bought any myself, so I have no real life experience or testimony to offer. 

For a class assignment I have to use a prepaid Zynga card. which is for buying content for online games such as Farmville or Cityville. To be honest, hearing that I had to buy a card and play games for this assignment didn’t leave me very enthused. Sorry to anyone who loves these games, they’re just not my forte. Also, I personally don’t see the point in paying out-of-pocket for virtual goods and content when there are free versions available. So what if you can’t get pink tractor? There are other, free, options for harvesting your crops. 

Bona's Big Twitter Presence

Venturing Outside the Bona Bubble

During this past month tweets from die-hard Bonnies fans have blown up my twitter feed. With both the men’s and women’s teams defying expectations and reaching the NCAA tournament, Bonnies fans have rallied to show their support in 140 characters or less. Everyday countless new tweets about St. Bonaventure University’s basketball programs and March Madness have accounted for just about every other tweet on my feed. Reading all of these tweets always fill my soul to the brim with Bona Pride. For such a small school to have so many supporters is amazing, and that support is what inspired me to blog about the realization that tiny St. Bonaventure University has a huge Twitter presence, outperforming larger schools in the twitterverse.

Type “St. Bonaventure University” into the search bar on Twitter and you’ll be amazed to see how many tweets and people results are shown. Many campus organizations have Twitter accounts with hundreds, if not thousands, of followers. For the consideration of the amount of space I have and the amount of time I can keep readers interested, I decided to focus on four of our proud university’s associated accounts: St. Bonaventure U, St. Bonaventure Athletics, SBU JMC, and Bona’s Notice Board.

Consumers do the Adverstising on Pinterest

Social Media Marketing

It’s not breaking news that companies have started to become more innovative by using social media as a platform to market their products. As social media sites began to rise, so did companies efforts to conquer the digital realm. A company’s involvement in these sites can greatly impact how well they compete with the competition, and subsequently, how long they will stay in business. In the past few years, the competition to have the best social media approach has been fierce, with companies paying people for the most inventive ideas. Companies on Facebook and Twitter? That’s old news. The headlines now should say, “Are companies making enough of an effort on Pinterest?”

Republican Candidates use of Social Media

Game-changing election

President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was a game-changer. Obama’s campaign utilized social media like no one had ever seen. Obama won the election with his social media use, no doubt about it. The 2008 election was a learning experience for politicians. To see just how much they learned, I conducted a little experiment of my own. Facebook and Twitter are undoubtedly the most popular social media platforms, so I decided to take a look at just how well the four Republican presidential candidates conquered the social media realm.