New Hope for College Students Seeking Jobs

There is a new start-up in town, aiming to help connect college students with internships and entry-level positions.  They claim LinkedIn is geared more towards every career stage, making college students underrepresented.  And through the past 8 months of the internship search, I can confidently confirm this is in fact true.

From my experience, searching for internships seems like a bottomless pit.  There are hundreds of postings on websites like Indeed or LinkedIn, but it never seems like applying through those websites will actually get your foot in the door.  Of course, when you have connections, you should use those.  However, for places you don't, it would be nice to have another place to go to feel like your application is actually getting through.

Enter: WayUp.

This New York-based start-up proposes to be the solution, creating more personalized profiles and easier applications.  Clearly, they aren't the only ones that are backing this business idea, as WayUp just recently raised $18.5 million from investors.  I believe that this tool could be extremely useful, and hope that it is successful so it can help my job search next year.

The Dangers of Going Viral

So many people and companies dream of making their content go viral.  While going viral is extremely exciting since your post or content is being seen worldwide, it can be a very bad thing when something negative goes viral.  Here are some recent examples that have went viral for all of the wrong reasons:

1. United Airlines

United Airlines has had two viral incidents in recent months that have resulted in terrible press for the airline.  The most recent was a video gone viral of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight in order to make room for crew members needing to go to fix something at the destination.  The officers went as far as dragging the man in aisle to get him out.

The other incident took place less than a month ago, when two teenage girls were denied access to a flight until they changed out of their leggings or put a dress over them. The teenagers were flying under a friends and family of United employees program, but this story still gave United a lot of bad press when the incident went viral. 

2. Pepsi

Pepsi intentionally tried to make their new commercial featuring Kendall Jenner go viral, but the internet did that for them.  However, it was not for good reason.  Pepsi's new commercial that was intended to be about uniting as a people, but it came off as offensive and not genuine.  The commercial featured people of all different races, ethnicities, religions, and sexualities joining a vague "peace" protest together.  The commercial ends with model Kendall Jenner leaving her photoshoot to join in and give a cop controlling the protest a can of Pepsi.  The whole crowd erupted in cheers when the cop took a sip, assuming all of the ambiguous problems were solved. After going viral for such negative reasons, Pepsi was forced to pull the commercial and apologize. 

Be mindful of the things you post online or what is being filmed- you definitely don't want to be next.

Disney's Enchanting VR Experience

Virtual Reality (VR) is in my opinion one of the coolest and smartest new pieces of technology making its way into the marketing world.  VR technology is still very new for your average consumer, but it has made a fantastic impression.  Many companies are getting involved in VR, but the two largest ones to date would be Samsung and Google.  While they are focusing most on developing new technologies and capabilities for VR, other companies have caught on to the VR trend and are using it as a unique marketing tool.

The best example of this I have seen as of late (or really ever) is a promotion for Disney's new live-action 'Beauty and the Beast' film.  VR was built to showcase incredible visual experiences, and Disney used it for just that.  Disney created a Virtual Reality version of the song "Be Our Guest" from the new movie, as shown from Belle's perspective.  The experience checks off pretty much anything you could ask for- it's colorful, exciting, and in-your-face in every direction.  If you have seen the movie, it is like experiencing it in a crazy, unique way, reminding you of how amazing it was in theaters.  If you haven't seen the movie, go ahead and get that credit card ready because this experience is all the motivation you need.  Disney promoted this VR on the Beauty and the Beast Facebook page, showing it via a 360-degree video and provided a link to the real VR experience if you have a viewer.  

Click here to view this incredible experience on Facebook, though there really is nothing like the real VR experience with a viewer.  Considering the Facebook video already has 10 million views and counting, I believe other companies should take note.  VR is the future, and it is about time marketing is catching up.

Pandora Joins the Music Streaming Wars

This week Pandora launched Pandora Premium, the company's new on-demand streaming service meant to compete directly with Spotify and Apple Music.  While introducing new products into any market is a good thing to fuel competition, I believe Pandora will fall pretty flat, and here is why.

Switching streaming services is way more complicated than switching brands of paper towels, it takes serious commitment. Convincing consumers to switch to a new service means spending the time and effort to switch over all of their current music and playlists, not to mention losing their favorite pre-made and automatically-updating playlists. In other words, the new product being offered needs to have some large differentiators from the rest of the pack to be successful.

So the question remains, does Pandora Premium seem worth the switch?  While the product is not being used by consumers yet, the description proclaims less-than-exciting service differentiators.  The two main selling points for Pandora Premium are its use of recommendations and its interface.  Pandora Premium tries to focus on giving consumers a more personalized experience with better recommendations, looking less towards new releases.  I can understand why some people would like that, but one of the major features that made streaming so wildly popular in the first place was its emphasis on listening to new music instantly.  In fact, some artists choose to exclusively stream their new albums on specific streaming services.  

Now for Pandora Premium's interface.  It sports a very sleek and clean design, featuring a color-adapting "now playing" page based off of each album art as shown below.  As appealing as the product looks, consumers are not going to switch services for just the look.  Besides that, Pandora Premium sports the same features as its competitors, including downloadable playlists, search capability, $10 price, and on-demand song choice.

Overall, this product could very well bring some new consumers from Pandora's free streaming service, but the chances of people switching from their current service are slim to none.  The lesson here is simple: being different is everything when breaking into a competitive market, and Pandora misses that mark. 

What Happens When The NBA is Told to Play Nice

Last week, the NBA sent out a memo to the teams emphasizing rules that prohibit “mocking and/or ridiculing” opponents, team personnel, or game officials over official team social media accounts.  This alone shows the profound impact that social media, particularly Twitter in this case, has on society and organizations.  This means the NBA truly believes that the Portland Trail Blazers Twitter account tweeting a GIF of Memphis Grizzlies player Chandler Parsons shooting an air-ball with a sassy message will seriously effect the team or player’s reputation. Or, maybe the NBA is just trying to set a non-bullying standard to be a role model for its followers.  Either way, no matter what the official team accounts say, trash talk will never just disappear.  Professional basketball is an extremely competitive sport and tensions can easily rise between teams and fans quickly.  No tweet will change that. 

That being said, since the memo was sent out, a few official NBA Twitter accounts have showed their opinions about the rule in the best way possible: humor and sarcasm.  Here are some hilarious exchanges between the Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks during their recent game:

If that wasn’t enough for you, don’t worry because it only gets better:

Isn’t it incredible how these teams can strictly follow the new rules and completely make a fool of them all at once?  This truly is the beauty of social media, being able to express your feelings in any way you please.  No rule, even from the NBA, is going to change that. 

Read Receipts: Friend or Foe?

In this day and age, there are a billion and one ways to send someone a message through a computer or phone.  Between iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Twitter, LinkedIn messaging, etc, it is pretty simple to send out a message to someone, no matter whether they are a complete stranger or your best friend.  The golden question now has become, will they respond?

Read receipts, which is how you can tell if your message has been opened, are the best way for you to  answer that question.  Let's say you are interested in a job and sent a message on LinkedIn to a recruiter.  If you go back a week later and see the message was read, then it is safe to assume you won't be getting a response.  While this is very helpful to know for you as the messenger, it will definitely hurt the recipient's reputation in your mind.  Now imagine you are the recruiter. Your inbox is constantly flooded with messages from hopeful college students, and you just filled your last position seeking students.  Is it worth your time to respond with a "no" to each and every one of them? Most likely not.

On a professional platform like LinkedIn, read receipts are normally seen as more helpful than anything because the messages should be about business and shouldn't be taken personally.  Though, even on LinkedIn, you have the option of whether or not to send and receive read receipts.  In fact, most messaging services give you that option.  That being said, one very important and personal platform is notably missing that option.  That platform is Facebook Messaging.

Everyone either loves or hates read receipts for their own personal reasons, but why is it that Facebook of all platforms has no option to turn them off? There is no official answer to that question, but in my opinion, Facebook keeps them on to encourage conversation.  Let's face it, you are much more likely to respond to a message if you know that the sender can see if you've opened it, especially if the message is from someone you could run into at a later point in time.  However, the guilt of having to respond has led many people to just simply never open the messages.  People are just reading the preview they get on their phones, and if they don't think they will respond, they just leave it unopened for an extended period of time or even forever.  In a way, I think it is noble of Facebook to not give the option to turn the read receipts off because it encourages more honest communication.  Though, how honest is too honest? That is for you to judge.

That Moment When... Lady Gaga Didn't Get Political

It is times like these in America where we just expect controversy.  We expect drama.  We expect politics.  But as America, and the rest of the world, watched the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Lady Gaga, we were shocked to find the lack of something overtly controversial or political.  It is almost as if for one second, America paused and realized that it is acceptable to just watch an entertaining performance with no distractions.

And for those of you who forgot.. the performer was Lady Gaga: an activist who has dedicated so much of her life to fight for equal rights, LGBTQ rights, and human rights.  In this heated political time, it was honestly shocking to see such a passionate performer not say or do anything overtly controversial.  Yes, of course, "Born This Way" is a political song in itself, but it is one of her top hits, which is what an artist is expected to play during the Super Bowl halftime show.

While everyone will always have strong opinions about Super Bowl halftime shows, the response to Lady Gaga's performance was generally very positive on social media.  If one of the main criticisms was her "copying" Pink by doing some acrobatics, then you know she did a pretty fantastic job.  As much as some people may have wanted to, it is hard to argue against her amazing voice and energetic dancing.  With no controversy to comment on, people on social media did what they do best: have some fun.

Slack: The GroupMe For After Graduation

If you are a college student in this current day and age, chances are you have used GroupMe before.  Better yet, it is probably more likely that you are a part of at least two or three active GroupMe conversations at this moment.  Or, you could be like me and have twelve currently active GroupMe conversations.  Everything from clubs, to class projects, to keeping up with a large group of friends are among just some of the reasons college students use GroupMe.  Everyone seems to have a different opinion about GroupMe, but this tweet probably best sums it up:

As frustrating as it is when your phone is buzzing uncontrollably between the hours of 12 a.m. and  8 a.m., it is undeniable how convenient the app makes communication, even with strangers.  For example, my whole apartment complex has a GroupMe with 546 members.  I definitely take advantage of the mute feature with that one, but it is so simple to write in that GroupMe if I ever had a question or maybe just needed to borrow some sugar from a neighbor.  Is that GroupMe conversation really necessary? Probably not.  However, it is an easy way to distribute information about any incidents happening in or around the complex, and I constantly find myself checking it just to be in the know.  While many college students love to pretend like they do not care to be in know, they always do.  I believe this is one of the reasons why GroupMe is so popular among college students in the first place.  

Though, this leads me to the question, what happens after we graduate?  As everyone starts to enter the real world, the importance of making so many various group conversations with different people fades, and communication with your co-workers throughout the day about different projects will start to take over.  The solution for such a switch? It's Slack.  

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Slack, it is curiously similar to GroupMe.  Instead, the focus is just more on having different conversations or "channels" with various people from the same "team." This is opposed to GroupMe, which is more focused on making various group conversations with different people in every group.  Slack also makes it simpler to send documents or pieces of code; whereas, it is more likely to be sharing pictures and videos over GroupMe.  Those being the main differences between the two applications will bode well for millennials starting to enter the workplace.  Slack is familiar, yet professional, which is something recent college grads would love to get on board with.  

Slack interface

Barbie Goes Digital

What do football-loving Dads and little girls have in common? Their love of Barbies of course!
Well, maybe that wasn't the first answer to pop in your head, but after witnessing Mattel's new campaign for Barbie, it is difficult to think of anything else.

During the NFL Playoff game this past weekend, Mattel launched a new digital marketing campaign, Dads Who Play Barbie, with a heart-warming commercial.  The commercial shows a variety of Dads putting aside their love of sports to play Barbie with their young daughters, complete with high-pitched Barbie voices and all.  Directly following the commercial, Barbie released a series of videos on Youtube with more background on each of the father-daughter pairs.

The commercial sparked an incredible response on social media, filled with nostalgia and plenty of "awwww"s to go around.  There was even an article posted to CNET titled "'Dads Who Play Barbie' ad is the real Patriots-Steelers winner."

While this campaign is nothing short of adorable, it really shows how far Mattel has come in
modernizing the Barbie brand to fit into today's society.  It wasn't too long ago when Barbie was being constantly criticized for a lack of racial diversity and sensitivity to different body types.  Parents even began to see Barbie as a negative influence on their children.  However, Mattel finally caught on to this and started adapting.  First came Barbies of different races, and more recently, Barbies of different body shapes and sizes.  They also began to focus more on empowering young girls and showing parents a more positive image by releasing their new "You Can Be Anything" tagline. Though, Mattel did more than just adapt their product and messaging to fit into today's society; Barbie went digital.  Mattel launched the campaign with commercials and new digital and social media efforts in order to directly target these apprehensive parents.  The switch to digital has been more difficult for some companies than others, but mixing adorable little girls playing Barbies with their supportive Dads makes for a campaign bound to be a success. 

Facebook: The New Infomercial

Remember those 20 minute long commercials that came on TV when you were watching for way longer than you should’ve been?  They were mostly advertising little so-called “gadgets” that make life a bit more convenient for approximately $19.99 plus shipping and handling.  While these infomercials still do exist, they are hard to come by.   As I’ve been scrolling through my Facebook news feed lately, I think I may have figured out why. 

Facebook videos have completely taken over Facebook as of late, and I’ve been noticing a recent trend of fairly short videos that show new innovations and “gadgets” to make life more convenient or exciting.  While a lot of these new technologies aren’t in stores yet, they give me great hope for the future.  These videos range from products you’d be likely to see in an infomercial, like a non-slip serving tray, to things I’d never imagine, like a suitcase that doubles as an electric scooter to ride through airports. With the auto-play feature on, it is hard to resist just scrolling past these futuristic videos.  Sometimes, I even find myself doing more research on the product and how to buy it.  In my opinion, it is a great way to get customers engaged on their own without making them feel like they are forced into watching it.  Goodbye infomercials, hello Facebook videos.