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This article refers to the the number of online sales that occured during days after Thanksgiving dubbed "Black Friday." In past years, the sales were limited to only the Friday after Thanksgiving, the success has created it to be a week long event. The rise of what is known as "Cyber Monday" has led to cheap online shopping. This article is claiming that online shopping during this time is at an all time high and growing every year. In my opinion, this rise in online sales is a precursor to a bigger shift in consumer behavior. With the accessiblity of the internet compared to traditional shopping, the consumer can find more and better deals all while avoiding the insanity that we call "Black Friday."

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This article outlines the relationship between the Chinese Government and the accessibility of Google. The Chinese are about to appoint a new leader, which is the first time in a long time, so the government decided to block access to Google and other services provided by Google. This article is another example of government censorship to avoid the spreading of democracy. China fears that by allowing unrestricted internet access, the Chinese people will revolt. Google is beginning to get angered by the government censoring its content, thus it should be interesting to see the future between China and Google.

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PepsiCo and Social Media

While social media sites have been present since the turn of the millennium, many companies are just now beginning to initiate marketing campaigns on them, which utilize these sites to their full capabilities. General Electric, Old Spice, and Chipotle are among the corporations that are effectively using social media site to their advantage. Today, I am going to look into the PepsiCo Inc., a company that’s marketing team is gaining great results through their use of Twitter and YouTube to promote the product of Doritos.

The first social media site that is used by PepsiCo to market Doritos is Twitter. On PepsiCo’s website, it has a tool that features all the times that a PepsiCo product is mentioned on Twitter. PepsiCo utilizes twitter to its utmost value by tweeting and re-tweeting numerous times. On its Twitter page, the company boasts more than 800 tweets. These tweets range from offering giveaways, to exciting people about upcoming events that Doritos is sponsoring. The key tool Doritos is using to increase public and company communications is the use of re-tweeting. This gives people the chance to process their enthusiasm for the brand they love. Also, it allows other people throughout the “twitterverse” to see posts about Doritos and potentially buy their product. According to a 2009 article by guardian.co.uk, the average twitter user has a following of around 123 people, thus Doritos’ strategy is working in creating buzz and followers. More than 20,000 people following @DoritosUSA on Twitter. While Doritos is doing great things on twitter, there is still room for improvement. The company should attempt to build on social conversations with their followers. They could pose questions to their followers that would give the company things to work on in the future. This would also give the company a chance to branch out to other people and find out why they choose not to eat Doritos. Ultimately, PepsiCo is utilizing the twitter account for Doritos very well.

The second site that PepsiCo utilizes very well in respect to social media is YouTube. According to Doritos YouTube channel, the product has had its own channel since November 2006. This means that the company was very early in using this social video site. Today, the Doritos YouTube channel has been immensely popular. The Doritos channel has 22,036 subscribers along with 73,930,054 million views on the videos that the company has posted. Much of this popularity is due to the companies Crash the Superbowl campaign, which is an excellent source of customer interaction with Doritos. PepsiCo decided to give people the chance to create their own Superbowl commercial by submitting homemade Dorito ads to their website. This allows people to connect and promote PepsiCo Inc. FOR the company. While this media campaign is a hit, the company needs to post more videos on their YouTube channel. Without activity or interesting videos, the PepsiCo Inc. could lose all the progresses that they helped build over the years. The best thing the company could do would be to repost fan videos applauding the company. This would showcase a buyer’s opinion of the company, instead of the typical persuasion on part by the company.

While PepsiCo seems to have many of the social media sites covered for the Doritos marketing campaign, there are many new sites that PepsiCo should consider joining. The first social media site that Doritos should use is Pinterest. Pinterest is a social media site in which users post photos of things that the users find interesting. The interaction between users lies in “re-pinning” photos to your profile or liking other user’s photos. Also, the majority of users that have Pinterest accounts are women, which could open up more marketing opportunities. Doritos would be a prime candidate to have a positive influence on Pinterest because of the ease of creating photo campaigns. Doritos could urge followers to post pictures of themselves with Doritos to increase the interaction between PepsiCo and the social media community. The second social media site that PepsiCo should consider using is Instagram. Instagram is also a photo sharing media site that would help the PepsiCo brand as a whole. The ease of taking pictures with Doritos and the creativity of people that are producing interesting pictures could help spread brand awareness. In addition to this, Instagram is accessible via mobile device. All these factors combined would allow Doritos and PepsiCo to create an even more successful marketing campaign. Instagram and Pinterest are two companies that would be great opportunities for PepsiCo and subsequently Doritos.

In conclusion, the use of social media sites like Twitter and YouTube has led to great dividends for PepsiCo and ultimately Doritos. While companies’ using social media is a newer trend in marketing, failure by companies to join this new marketing medium could lead to a disastrous future.

"Average Twitter user has 126 followers, and only 20% of users go via website." Arthur, Charles. 29 June 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/29/twitter-users-average-api-traffic.

Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doritos

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This article pertains to the possibility that Syria might shutdown the Internet access to the whole country. This is because of the ongoing Civil war that is occurring in the country now. This article shows the power of the Internet. The current regime is scared about the rebels having the power of communication. The Internet is a tool to organize and revolt and the oppression regimes across the word are realizing it.

This article talks about the emergence of a new website called "Little Bird." This website, targeted toward companies, is designed to find and show people who loyally follow a company. This site searches through Twitter and Facebook to find these people, using technology similar to what Google has. I think that this site will be a huge tool for Marketing departments within companies. This is the first website that has truely attempted to develope market research using social media. I think this will have a very positive impact on business as a whole

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our video

Reflection 1

Throughout the history of my schooling, I have written about three or four papers research papers covering topics such as the life of a notable figure and philosophes present in the novel Catch-22. All these papers I have written were around 10 pages and required a minimum amount of citable sources from credible and peer-reviewed sources. Like most research papers, I needed to include a bibliography of sources that were cited in MLA format.

One thing that I struggle with in research papers is writing up to the required length, or writing over the maximum length. I tend to struggle writing research papers that pertain to topics that do not interest me. I find that this is a typical problem among teenagers and even older students. While may struggle with some aspects of research papers, I possess many strengths in writing research papers as well. One strength that I possess is my technical writing skills. Throughout high school, my teachers stressed the importance of technical writing. They spent many classes developing my technical writing skills, which allow me to write with ease on informational essays like research papers. Another strength I have is my ability to write concisely and stay on topic. Through many years of writing expository pieces, many papers that I wrote fell off topic in some spots, but these failures were important to learning the correct and best ways to write papers that are concise and on topic.

One thing that I fear about papers in college is the length of many papers that students are required to write. My sister informed me that I should be prepared to write papers that are near 20-30 pages long. I am fearful of this because I have never written a paper that is near 20 pages long. Also, to fail a paper that is 20-30 pages long could be very detrimental to getting a good grade in the class at the end of the semester. This year, I have written some papers for classes, but they were by no means the length that my sister warned me about. To go along with this fear, I am fearful that the very long papers are over topics that I know seldom about. Writing a paper that is detailed enough to cover 20-30 pages is difficult enough, yet if you do not understand the topic you are writing about, the task of writing this paper could be exponentially more difficult. Luckily, there is one very big resource that Miami University gives the students to aid in the writing of papers, the Howe Center for Writing Excellence. This center will help anyone write a paper by talking them through the process and giving them insight into how to write college worthy papers. In addition to this, the center helps you develop editing and writing skills that can benefit your future writings.

Like anything, when I write a research paper, I follow a process. First, I analyze the topic and research the key elements that will go into my paper. This is an important step because a research paper is driven by a thesis and evidence to back up that thesis. It is important that the sources come from credible and respected sources, instead of Google or Wikipedia. Peer-reviewed articles and statistics are the most reliable sources that can be used because of the fact that their validity has been proven. When the research has been complete, I must formulate my thesis and evidence in Introduction-Body-Conclusion form. Depending on the magnitude of the paper, there will be a varying number of body paragraphs. One important idea that a teacher once told me was that “the evidence drives the thesis.” This means that the evidence you choose must pertain and back up the thesis. This also helps the paper stay topical and organized. The introduction and conclusion are very important in the process as well. The introduction must grab the attention of the audience as well as stating featuring the thesis statement. In the conclusion, it is important to summarize the arguments and mention the importance of the paper as a whole. Correct citation and embedding of statistics and quotes is important to the validity of a paper. Failure to cite a source can be considered academic dishonesty and is a very serious offensive at college. The two main styles that I use are APA and MLA formatting. I typically check with the teacher before I decide to cite with one over the other. The citations are offended put on a separate sheet of paper entitled “Works Cited.” There are certain formatting rules for this page depending on the kind of citation the teacher wants. After the writing has been complete, you must edit the paper many times. When you edit a research paper, check for awkward wording, incorrect words, and sentence fluency issues. These are problems that programs like word cannot pick up. After the editing is complete, it would be wise to have it peer-reviewed by someone. This allows them an opportunity to find errors that you may have missed. This is the process that I use whenever I have to write a research paper.

In every research paper that I write, I am afraid of being accused of plagiarism and subsequently academic dishonesty. In today’s society, there are more and more reported cases of plagiarism happening at all levels of schooling. This problem is increased by all the accessible data at our fingertips. On the internet, one can find hundreds of papers over the same topic as the assigned topic, and this creates a temptation to plagiarism. I fear plagiarisms because the statistics and quotes that are featured in a research paper are other peoples work, therefore incorrect citation could lead the paper to being labeled as plagiarized work. Another big problem that I fear is that someone will plagiarize my work. This is a common act that occurs when one student lends a paper to another student. Many people lend papers to other students to help that student understand the structure or formatting of the paper, but can lead to the borrower copying the work. To avoid this, I never lend a paper to anyone. This is the only way to ensure that no one can steal my work. (picture from http://www.sellers.co.uk/casehistories.htm)

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This article pertains to the idea that people must be constantly training for their current job, or they might fall behind and face the threat of unemployment. In the article, it lists many people that have started online tutorial websites that allow people to learn about many new devices and programs that can help them advance in the workplace. I find that this article is interesting because it shows how much jobs and the workplace are changing. Someone cannot rely on only a few skills to succeed, but the employee must have many skills if they hope to progress to the top of their industry or job.

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As violence spreads over a viral video that mocked the religeon of Islam, Google decided to block the video on any of their video sites in Libya and Egypt to prevent furthur violence. This video caused an al-Qaeda supported terrorist group to assassinate the United States ambassador in Libya and three others. This is an example of when censorship could be the rational choice to prevent future violence and deaths.

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The following article, from CNN, outlines a trend in social media, where people are posting illegal activities on their Facebook pages and facing punishment. Cops are using Facebook to get information on suspects that may lead to their incrimination. I think this article is a fine example of how privacy is important on social media sites. It is also an example of new of social media people are finding exist.

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By far, this is one of the best promotional videos I have seen

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This video....Well, just watch it...

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