A Drummer's Thoughts

Self Marketing

kmiholics — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:19:45 +0000

I think I would use a lot of the old school method for marketing myself. I would still have to send out resumes to apply for jobs at the radio stations. I would be more creative with my resume, though. Instead of a piece of paper, I would create a CD or DVD with all the information about myself that would be on a typical resume. Plus, it would have demo work to show what I am capable of doing – voice-overs, air checks, technical mixings, etc.

I have always been involved in community service projects in my county, and I would continue to be involved. By staying involved in my community, it would be another way of marketing myself in a positive way. Besides, I think it’s very important for radio stations and their personalities to get involved in their community.

Eventually I would create a website that is all about me and shows all of the work that I’ve done. Basically it would have all of the information that my CD/DVD resume would have on it. It would also have more of a bio about me. It would tell about who I am, my studies, my accomplishments, etc. (It would also have a link to my chinchilla breeding/rescue business.)

The most important element of marketing yourself is how you present yourself. For example, having an extremely well written cover letter and an impressive resume. Also, your attitude towards your work should always be positive. Are you willing to really work at your job? These are the considerations that you need to take when marketing yourself.

Advertising

kmiholics — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:27:34 +0000

The webpage is the current way to go for advertising. I would advertise the college on myspace and facebook type sites (to target the soon-to-be-college students) or even on newspaper sites (to target the parents). So I would use 35% of the money to run ads on websites. Many high school students would be listening to the radio – stations like WPST, WMMR, WMGK and WYSP. I would use 30% of the money to run ads on the radio. Another medium to advertise the college would be local newspapers. High school students looking through the newspaper to find jobs or to find information about current event news for school project would come across an ad for the college. Also, many adults read the newspaper, so parents would be a newspaper target audience. I would use 20% of the money on newspaper advertisement. I would use 10% of the money for advertising on basic cable — this will not only be seen by the students, but by the parents as well. Lastly, I would use 5% of the money on printed promotional material for high school college fairs. High school students would be able to learn about the college of their choice in the cafeteria or common area of their own high school from representatives of the college that travel to the high schools.

The Digital Divide

kmiholics — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:11:16 +0000

There is already a divide in our society, without adding the digital divide. There is a divide between the rich and the poor, the majority and the minorities, and the urban and the rural. Now if you add the digital divide into that, then you create even more of a division in our society. Would this be dangerous? I’m not sure that dangerous is the right word to use. However, the digital divide is definitely bad for our society. The digital divide separates people without technology from people who have technology. The people with the more advanced technology and access to the internet have all the resources that they need right at their fingertips. Without access to the same technology, other people are left way behind. This creates a very big gap and imbalance in our society.

With capitalism, companies in the digital world are competing with each other to make the best product. For example, the HD versus Blue Ray DVDs. HD was the way to go, but not any more. Blue Ray won that battle. Privately owned companies are always going to be competing with each other for the consumer’s wants, needs and money. New advanced technology is always the hot item being sold to these consumers. People with technology always want more and if they can afford it they’ll buy it. There are people in our society who don’t even have the simplest technology so how can they afford the latest technology? Capitalism is causing the digital divide to grow larger.

The Paradigm Has Shifted!

kmiholics — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:59:17 +0000

Well…with advanced technology, people go to their computers to find products that they want. Consumers used to go out shopping to department stores and malls when they were looking for particular items. Now, they sit at their computers and shop (and save gas). They use search engines to find the businesses with the best prices and lowest shipping fees. And, through the internet, they can find just about anything they are looking for with the click of the mouse on the “go” button. That means that businesses need to compete by having websites and keeping their prices low in order to attract people to their site or business.

Colleges need to sell themselves by having a good online, easy to navigate site. They should have pictures and video tours of the campus. They should have photos and bios of the professors and staff of each department. This would create a welcome feeling to the visitors on the website. The school store should offer discounts to the enrolled students. (If there is a textbook that they sell, but the price is too high, then the student would log on to amzon.com and would find that book for a cheaper price. If the school offered a discount, then the student would probably just buy the book there.) The website should have links to all the different activity clubs on the campus. This would show the student body’s involvement at the school. The website has to be very attractive and be kept up to date.

I don’t really know anything about clothing designers, but I would assume that they would want to sell their designs to either stores or to individual customers. The web would make it easy for them to sell to individuals, but they would probably have to go to the stores to sell them their designs. I think designers would be better off selling their clothing through stores because then people could try on the clothes to make sure they fit rather than buying it and finding out that it doesn’t fit and returning it.

If I Was Running The Show…

kmiholics — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:14:41 +0000

How would I run a newspaper? First of all, I would still keep the printed version. The older generation, like my grandparents, would want to still receive the version of the newspaper that they are use to, since they don’t really like the change in media or even have a computer to go to news websites. However, keeping up with the technology today, I would offer newspaper versions (different sections like entertainment, breaking news, sports, etc.) that would be sent to peoples phones, for whoever subscribed to it. I would also expand or make adjustments to my online version of the newspaper. I would have on the website pictures that were taken, but never made it to the printed paper. There people would be able to purchase those pictures (that are worth a thousand words). I would also have on the website video versions of stories, just like the Courier News, my local paper (see: http://www.c-n.com), offers. This is how I would run a newspaper company.

Now on the other hand, as far as running a local radio station, I would focus on maintaing and expanding the radio station’s website. First of all, I would have minimal advertising on the website. Just have just a few advertisers that are in our local area — unlike the WPST website (see: http://www.wpst.com) where they went overboard. I would focus more on our on-air personalities and also the station’s promotions/contests. I would also have a page for podcasting where people can download, for free, clips of their favorite shows. Lastly, I would have a link to a streaming video of inside the studio, so listeners could watch the show while they listen to it. I think that would make a successful radio station website.

Mashup site

kmiholics — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:42:07 +0000

I think that a useful Web 2.0 mashup site would be a site that simplifies the planning and driving of long road trips. I would have on this mashup site mapquest.com, to help the person find a simple map and directions to use when driving. I would also have traffic.com on this site, to help the driver understand which roads and highways have backups, accidents, roadwork on them. Google.com would be the next on this site. The family going on the trip can look up the states that they are driving through – they can look up the history, points of interest, lodging, and local restaurants. I would finally have youtube on this mashup site, so that the family can look up travel videos about their destination and what they can do there.

Web 2.0

kmiholics — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:40:46 +0000

I believe that Web 2.0 sites will make money, however, not directly from the users. The Web 2.0 sites would be making their money from the advertisers that are advertising on their sites – when people link to the advertiser’s website they get a commission. I would not pay a subscription fee (at this time anyway) to use facebook or youtube because I am more into my music and my iPod rather than these sites. I think that a subscription fee would discourage use of these sites, and the percentage of users would drop. Lastly, if these sites would not make any money in five years, either from advertisers or users, then I think you could kiss these sites goodbye. The reason being, they would not have enough money to support themselves, and nobody would maintain these sites for free. No money, no website.

“We the Media”

kmiholics — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:39:27 +0000

I think that, looking at the concept of “We the Media”, the fact that anyone can post anything has turned people into media hunters. Just an average person can get involved in another persons life. They don’t know when to stop and when to leave people alone. One good example of this is the paparazzi. They are out looking for the best and most embarrassing photo to take of celebrities. And the way they handle it is with extreme measures — even sometimes breaking the law. They invade the privacy of the celebrities and by doing that they endanger the lives of themselves, the celebrities, and even innocent bystanders. I think that, because of them not knowing when to stop, they make situations dangerous. There is also the consideration of moral decency.

In the latest edition of the magazine, The Week, there were two articles which I was reading that were about this exact topic. One of the articles was about paparazzi and the other talked about “Should the media back off?” (back off Britney Spears, that is). In the article, one quote from Miranda Devine of The Sydney Morning Herald was very interesting and true:

Thanks to camera phones and the internet, the professional media doesn’t have the power it once had to decide what should or shouldn’t be covered. The tabloids could call off their hounds tomorrow, and Spears would still be pursued by packs of photographers – albeit with less-expensive cameras – for the delectation of the tens of millions of online voyeurs who have developed a “taste for Britney’s distress.”

“We the Media” has to learn that sometimes it is necessary to just leave people alone. It’s the decent thing to do.

The Change of Education Utlizing Technology

kmiholics — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:38:23 +0000

I wouldn’t try to change the basic curriculum for the different subjects. I would make some changes to the atmosphere of the “traditional classroom”. Instead of having students rush to the physical classroom, they would be able to log on to an internet classroom to listen to lectures and get their assignments. I’m talking about college students, not K-12. I do think that it’s important that students, before college level, go to classrooms and learn how to work together and get along while they are learning everything else. (They should be able to interact with each other instead of being socially independent. They need face to face contact, not just all text messaging and IM contact.) Actually, college students need some face to face contact, too – not all their work should be through the computer. I took one of the MCCC online courses this past summer. It was a bit weird not ever meeting my fellow classmates – I knew their names and read what they wrote, but there were no faces to go with their names. I guess I am basically saying that I like how this class that we are taking right now works, and I would want to produce more classes that would run this way.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct98/compute.html

The Change in Education

kmiholics — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:17:35 +0000

Basically, education has not changed much over the past 50 years. The curriculums for the basic classes (English, science, history, and math) are pretty much the same as they were – grammar is grammar, biology is biology, algebra is algebra, and history is history. (Although with history, it changes pretty much every day.) However, the tools used in education have changed dramatically. Pens, papers, books, and even trips to the library are competing with the computer and the internet. Teachers and students are using much more advanced technology for study, research, learning, and communicating back and forth with each other.