UCLA Anderson 2013 Orientation: My life the past 0.5 week and for the next 2 weeks…

Sorry I’ve been a bit tied up and not updating the blog as often as I had planned and like to. First I moved internships from Viddy (a really cool startup with a hot mobile app for video that I worked at going into the summer) to Demand Media (a fast-growing new media and tech company). I will still be working part-time for Demand Media during the school year, but am taking a 2.5 week break to help with UCLA Anderson’s orientation for the class of 2013.

We’re now into Day 3 of orientation and I must say the experience has been rewarding. I remember how much I learned about b-school, shaping your career, and a new life for the next 2 year, as well as how much fun it was to meet my fellow Andersonians. I decided to participate as Orientation Section Leader this year to do what I can to ensure the incoming class has the best experience possible. 

Another cool thing about being with my section (go, Section B!) is getting a refresher on career stuff. I sat in on a session today about resume writing and networking. For anyone who is in the process of updating their resume, be sure it’s in the SAR format: Situation-Action-Result. This means your bullets under your job title discuss not only what you did (in context - keep the context short and use it to help portray the large challenges you overcome) but also what impact you made (emphasize on the impact - put in numbers or percentages if possible). An example from my resume (which I had changed last year, but should be helpful to illustrate the difference) is:

PRIOR VERSION

• Held position as point of contact for media inquiries of HP [business unit name 1] and [business unit name 2]

UPDATED VERSION

• Served as the main liaison for media inquiries of two HP PR accounts worth $1 million combined annually

This updated bullet might not be the best ever, but you can see how adding numbers really shows the significance of the accounts I worked on. 

In regards to networking, the session also covered something I hadn’t thought about in a while, 30-second pitches. A 30-second pitch, aka an elevator pitch, is how you relay to potential employers what you’re about. It’s the opportunity to tell your story and how you can help (and fit with) the company. Remember you need to deliver the pitch succinctly and it should be tailored to your audience. It really helps to practice - say it out loud and have a friend (both someone in your industry and someone not in your industry) give feedback.

I’m sure I’ll have more fun stuff to share about Orientation and so forth. 

Until then…

Have a good one!

Nora

Scarves, Meet Internet

One of my favorite things about being in business school is having entrepreneur friends. Not only is it interesting to discuss the business idea and growth plan but also the guts to go out and take the risk is so commendable. Case in point, check out my fellow Andersonian, Steve Kiesling. He has been working on an online boutique called StyleRev.com where the idea behind the site is to bring scarves to the fashion forefront.

So, why scarves? According to Steve, it’s because they are a great way to change a look without breaking the bank. Before the internet, scarves were an interesting fashion accessory that had a limited presence in retail stores. Style Rev is changing that by offering a huge selection of fashionable scarves, most of which are under $20. The lineup includes silk scarves, pashminas, animal prints, infinity scarves, and more. If that wasn’t enough, shipping is also free. You should definitely check out the scarves! 

Go Steve!

Nora

Carmageddon!!

To many people the name “Carmageddon” probably rings a bell as a video game involving graphically violent vehicular combat. But to us Los Angeles-ers it refers to the huge traffic limitations and headache we’ll be dealing with starting tonight. (The BBC even covered this and apparently the article was it’s No. 1 most read piece of the day.)

I must say…whomever started using this name for the shut-down of the 405 freeway, a major vessel of LA’s traffic flow, is a genius! Way to play on the the name of ‘Armageddon’ to make it easy to understand the severity of the situation, but adding the ‘Car’ to it also makes it somewhat funny and light-hearted. The catchy name has been used by all news articles, celebrities and us common folk, ensuring everyone is aware of the upcoming traffic stall. 

This viral YouTube video, Hitler’s Rant about Carmageddon, is a good example of how the word has been getting spread in a creative way. Watch it — it’s quite smart and really hilarious!!

Hang in there all LA-ers! 

Nora

Google+ Pages

Wow, the competition between social media powerhouses, newbie Google+ and long-time leader Facebook, just keeps going. Similar to Facebook Pages for brands or for celebrities to interact with consumers, Google will soon release Google+ Pages. According to this article on Ad Age, here are some cool things about Goolge’s upcoming service:

Google is attempting to distance itself from Facebook by mainly creating “circles” that allow you to divide the people you know into groups and share individually targeted content. This might seem like a small difference, but in the social world, a slight change in delivery can completely affect the nature of the interaction. For example, Facebook requires that you accept every friend, but Twitter makes it a bit easier for people out of your network to follow your newsfeed — creating a more “open” environment.

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All of our clients at FanGager, including global organizations like American Express and Microsoft, are looking for methods to target specific audiences on social networks — like posting wall messages for women only. My assumption is that Google will attempt to capitalize on this void, and apply the notion of building individual audiences to its version of pages. This will allow page owners to communicate with different groups through one main page.

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So, according to this logic, the products page will only look similar to personal profiles when logging in. Perhaps in addition to asking what circle they want to join, surfers will also be asked if they wish to join circles based on a specific category — such as those looking for discounts, for brand fans or for fans of the brand’s spokesperson. This way, they can choose the value they get personally when visiting the page.

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The next stage will be combining all of Google’s unique abilities into a section of the product pages, such as its map services and the business services basket. This may include the unique features of Google Analytics, which could feature not only the page’s results, but more importantly, the movement from the Google+ page to the website; linking the visitor’s social engagement with sales and other ROI goals.

To add more fuel to the fire (actually stay competitive), Facebook is now launching video-calling to compete with the hangouts on Google+.

Can’t wait to see for whom the market will tip towards over the long-term. Either way, marketers should keep a close eye on both companies and think of ways to participate.

Happy Monday!
Nora

Scarcity and Google - How Do The Two Words Go Together?

Just a few days after my blog posting about Google, they have to come out with big news on their social platform, Google+! Though its nickname (esp. among the Google peeps) is +1, don’t mistake it for the Google +1 Button, which is your stamp of approval just like Facebook’s Likes. Google stated that +1 is a natural extension of its ubiquitous Google search engine. Looking at the features like Circles for groups of friends and Hangouts for group chats, it’s pretty easy for anyone to see that Google+ attempts to challenge social rulers Facebook and Twitter. 

I tried to get my hands on a Google+ account but Google is deploying the “scarcity” psychology tactic! (To be fair, they have always used this. Remember how you had to know someone to get Gmail?) As you can see, Google+ has become all the rage in the news right now. Let’s see how long the buzz lasts. Pun intended. ;-) 

- Nora

Timing Your Social Networks

I was recently forwarded a really great infographic that I thought would be great to share with everyone. Kissmetrics, a marketing blog, posted a really great piece: The Science of Social Timing Part 1: Social Networks.

In summary, the posting’s great findings/key lessons related to Twitter and Facebook are:

• Nearly 50% of the U.S. population is in the Eastern Time Zone; The Eastern and Central Time Zones combined represent almost 80% of the U.S. population 
• The best time to tweet is 5 p.m. (that’s when the most retweets happen)
• To achieve maximum CTR (click through rate) of your tweets, tweet 1 - 4 times/hour and during midweek or weekends
• The best day of the week to share on Facebook is on Saturday
• The best time of the day to share on Facebook is around noon
• To achieve the most Likes on Facebook, share 1 post every 2 days

I think looking at data for behavior and trends (just like they do in the blog posting) is always interesting but do keep in mind that you also need to make sure you’re constantly keeping up-to-date on the data to make sure you notice changes.

Now get your social timing on!

Nora

What Is Google Not Doing?

Latest news from Google is that it has decided to pull the plug on Google Health, its initiative to keep tabs on all things about your health online. According to TechCrunch, the reason for this is because the service was “not social”; consumers wanted friends/family to know their health status and be their support system. Google also announced that it will be shutting down PowerMeter which helps people keep up with their home energy usage. According to Mashable, adoption of the service didn’t hit a high enough adoption threshold. 

From Buzz (Google’s dab into social media), Art Project (which allows you to explore museums around the world), Google Checkout (similar to Amazon’s 1-Click), to Flu Trends (which gives you latest info of flu activity in the U.S. and Mexico), it seems that Google has/is trying pretty much everything possible. One of the most interesting projects to me was Project Oxygen, a study on managerial behavior at Google itself. It’s very cool that Google dug into its own operations and shared the good and bad with the world — you can read a nice summary of the 8 Good Manager Behaviors and 3 Pitfalls here. (For anyone who’s interested in the most up-to-date list of Google’s experiments, check out Google Labs.) 

I admire Google for all of these endeavors. Constant innovation is necessary to grow business, but as we learned in class, even though you have an amazing idea there is a time to stop and consider whether it is hitting the projected results. If it isn’t, you’re incurring opportunity costs and you might as well cut your losses.

The most interesting part I find from all this is analyzing and determining what the cut-off point for a product should be. Because you have to use numbers and also your gut feeling, figuring it out is both a science and an art. Payback period or ROI (return on investment) might work in some instances while the network effect (size of user base) is more important in other cases. In the end, which method is best really depends on the product/service and the market conditions. Reading and exchanging know-how really helps to see how different businesses and industries think about this. :-)

- Nora