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.

Social Media Touchdown

Biggest Day of the Year
In the United States it is a well-known fact that, at least in terms of advertising, the Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year. There is over a hundred million anticipated viewers, all of which are potential customers.  In the weeks leading up to game day you’d have to be deaf not to hear a comment like: “I can’t wait to see how good the commercials are this year,” or “did you see that commercial with the dog during the Super Bowl? It was so funny!” You’d also have to be deaf not to hear people say “times are changing.” That saying is 
undeniably true, especially for advertisers.

Adapting to the Times

With the rise of the internet, and subsequently, social media, advertising companies are constantly having to change their ways and adapt to the new media-driven world. The industry is cutthroat. If a company is too reluctant to change their ways, they quickly fall off the radar, and ten new ones take their place.

Do You Know What Your Kids are Doing on Facebook?

“Molly, can I add you on Facebook?” Working at a summer recreation program, I was shocked the first time I was asked this by one of the kids. My initial response was an immediate no, followed by a question of my own, “aren’t you a little young to have a Facebook?” “No, my mom helped me make it,” they answered, leaving me to pick my jaw up off the floor.

I soon realized that this question would plague me over the six weeks I fulfilled my counselor duties. The recreation program only allows children up to the age of fourteen, so it would be logical to think only a few would have accounts, since the terms of service for Facebook states that a user must be at least thirteen to join. I couldn’t believe just how wrong I was. The youngest to ask me to be their “friend” was around nine. When I told her about the terms of service, she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and begged me not to report her. She was a Facebook junkie who hadn't even hit her preteen years yet.

What My Facebook Famine Taught me

On the first day of class, my professor assigned a task that most students would shudder to think about: abstaining from social media. Well, not all social media, just our favorite site for communicating with the masses. In my case, that meant Facebook. For two whole days, I had to restrain myself from signing in to my lifeline and forgo the satisfaction from the constant stream of status updates from my peers.


As a self-admitted Facebook addict, the first 12 hours were something close to torture. Several times I found myself typing www.faceb... before realizing what I was doing. However, I persevered. Eventually it became easier. The “Facebook cravings” I had slowly became less intense, but over those 48 hours, they never truly went away.