20 August 2009

Here’s why the research stats you constantly pull out are flawed.

Chatting yesterday, myself and two mates realised that the three of us had all signed up to participate on a number of market research websites. This included online surveys, attending focus groups, taste tests and being sent free products. Remuneration has taken place in the way of money, vouchers and of course free stuff.

It doesn’t matter that all three of us are studying marketing which is something you’re meant to declare at the start of every survey. It also doesn’t matter that I’m now at a point where I know how to manipulate a survey to ensure I fit the criteria and am therefore selected. It also doesn’t matter that once passed being selected, I know how to answer the questions to make the survey end as fast as possible and receive payment.

My other two mates were the same, and I imagine we’re not the only three people doing it. In fact as we sat there, they were fabricating a story to report back in order to be sent another free bottle of alcohol.

I’m a poor uni student, that’s my excuse anyway. Now I haven’t written this post for you to lecture me on how I shouldn’t be doing blah blah immoral blah blah ethics, but rather so you realise your expensive research is probably not that accurate. Thanks for the free shit though.

Posted by Zac Martin

18 August 2009

I received an anonymous series of comments the other day on my post questioning the mainstream media’s portrayal of Twitter, part of which included, “I followed you thinking your Twitter account was an offshoot of this blog”, which they then stated was not at all the case.

I never really considered Twitter an extension of this blog. Although the main topic of conversation I tweet about is marketing and social media, it’s definitely far more personal and at times completely random. Some people say I tweet too much, especially about completely irrelevant stuff. And I say, well, you’re welcome to unfollow me.

That’s the kind of stuff I love about Twitter. Some of my favourite peeps on Twitter are a bunch of girls who talk about how stoned their house mate is or informing the world about what ever random adventure they’re on instead of writing their thesis. Far more interesting and comedic than mine or any other marketing wanker’s ramblings.

So to those of you who are expecting insightful and stimulating content from my Twitter account… too bad. But what about you guys, are your blog and Twitter account on the same page? And do you think this is it a problem if they’re not?

Posted by Zac Martin

16 August 2009

For those of you unfamiliar with SlideShare, people can upload their slides from PowerPoint they used in a presentation. And I don’t get it.

I have a fetish for good presentations. Likewise for good PowerPoint slide design. And I believe you shouldn’t have to rely on your slides to communicate a message in a presentation. Ever.

Therefore to put up your slides without any context is pointless. And any meaning people take away from them would be a misinterpretation.

Posted by Zac Martin

14 August 2009

It’s about this time each year that Year 12 students start attending open days across the country to determine which university they’ll attend next year. Of course the course they get offered plays a big part in this, but I know that the student life on campus is something many consider. It’s the reason I chose Caulfield over Clayton for those of you playing at home.

Year 12’s attend open day, but all the universities look good at open day. They ask their older enrolled friends, but probably get mixed results. And the websites are all the same with way too much generic information. So where does today’s Year 12 student turn to? I know if I was about to graduate high school one of the things I’d do is check out the university’s Fan Page on Facebook.

Here’s some of the more popular universities’ Fan Pages…

+ University of Sydney – 5,403 fans
+ La Trobe University – 4,345 fans
+ RMIT University – 4,070 fans
+ University of Melbourne – 1,554 fans
+ Griffith University – 1,321 fans
+ Monash University – 1,022 fans
+ Queensland University of Technology – 1,022 fans
+ Swinburne University – 916 fans
+ Deakin University – 112 fans

Not suggesting it’s definitive, but maybe it’s worth some of these universities pushing their Fan Pages a little more. I realise social media is not all about numbers, but I wonder what objectives each of these universities have set for their Fan Page or if they just jumped on the bandwagon.

Posted by Zac Martin

12 August 2009

I love a good Twitter trend, and #rabpday is no exception. Recycle A Blog Post Day is just that and as such I’ve spent the last few hours going through some of my older posts.

I’m surprised at how ignorant, arrogant and down right stupid I’ve been (although many would argue I still am) with some of my posts. But I’m also surprised at how insightful, humorous and engaging I was with others. I’m not actually going to recycle a post or pointpoint out anything in particular, but you can find them all on the right hand side of this page. It’s certainly interesting to see how much things have changed over the years I’ve been blogging, gotta love a good session of reflection.

Also, I’ve finally come to my senses and will no longer be posting pointlessly linking to articles hosted externally. Or at least the regularly appearing ones anyway, especially if I’m not adding value here. ;]

Posted by Zac Martin

10 August 2009

For a gay old time check out Jacqui Bunting’s article on how Twitter is only for morons. Yet another commentary from the mainstream media bagging this shit out of Twitter. How many times have you read something similar? Or heard similar comments on shows like Good News Week?

Blah blah blah, why don’t you mention something about someone updating their status with what they ate for lunch again. We’ve heard it. Unfortunately you don’t seem to realise Twitter actually has far more uses than that. Of course you’re far too naive to print otherwise. Maybe because concepts like Twitter will see the end of you lot.

Either way, whatever John Smith had for lunch is lot more interesting than The Age’s very own use of Twitter.

And for fuck’s sake, the thing you post is called a tweet, not a twitter.

Posted by Zac Martin

06 August 2009

I love this video…

I think I’m gonna try and repeat this experiment. Kind of reminds me of the 3 Wolves 1 Moon tee story. These kind of examples are by far my favourite aspect of social media. I suppose one would call it good story telling.
Posted by Zac Martin

01 August 2009

Here’s a list of undergradute bloggers who write about something marketing related. Some are active, others not so much, but there’s definitely some insight in each of them.

Canadian University Marketing – Morgan Coudray
Gruen Transfer – Michael Lanyon
How Good You Want To Be – Katherine Liew
I Hate Ads – Rick Clarke
Liquid Caper – Josh O’Halloran
Pigs Don’t Fly – Zac Martin
Simon Says – Simon Oboler
The Forrest Through The Trees – Marek Wolski

Should you or anyone else be on this list? Drop me a comment.

Posted by Zac Martin

29 July 2009

Under this theory, perhaps the Six Degrees of Separation theory is no longer relevant. The adoption of social networking has made the world a far smaller place.

And an interesting side note, to get it down to Four Degrees of Separation, the average number of friends would need to be 289.

Posted by Zac Martin

26 July 2009

Being young and being a Gen Y (or an iGen for that matter) are not the same thing. The two are correlated, not dependant. Don’t confuse a mistake of youth as a Gen Y characteristic.

Every generation makes mistakes when they’re young. Don’t stereotype on something that applies to everyone. Even you.

Posted by Zac Martin