Weekly Task 6

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

The line of business that our company deals with is selling used cars in the Mikkeli and surrounding areas. We will have our business setup in Mikkeli, however. We decided search engine optimization is a key tool to our marketing strategy on the internet. The 3 main keywords that we chose are: Mikkeli, Used Cars (käytetyt autot), Sell (myydään). There are many other keywords that could be used to increase our SEO, but these three are the main ones that we feel will help us out the most.

When using Google, the sponsored links referring to our keywords includes: www.tori.fi, www.kayttoauto.fi, www.autosompa.fi/vaihtoautot. On the first page the top sites include: www.mikkelinautokalusto.com, www.autotalli.com, www.ooyyo.com, www.netcar.fi, www.autokaupat.net. These are all competing for the same keywords as us, however not all are the top companies in this market.

The top companies we must compete with are Etelä-Savon Auto, Rinta-Joupin Autoliike OY, and Karikon Autotalo OY. None of these 3 however show up when you choose our top 3 chosen key words. The strengths that are shared are that they have unique names for their companies, making it easy for differentiation from others in the business. Also when you search by their unique names, a lot of pages come up linking and giving information to the company, such as www.fonecta.fi or www.autotalli.com for example. 

Using www.alexa.com, Etelä-Savon Auto, for example, uses keywords (etelä-savon auto, etelä-savon auto, auto, etelä-savon auto, autokeskus). They do not mention used cars at all. Rinta-Juopin uses (rintajouppi, chevrolet, bmw x6, lmc, skoda, rintajouppi, ford ranger, vaihtoautot, auto, seinäjoki). 

None of the top competitions, it seems, take SEO in as a key marketing tool. If we use SEO and good keywords, achieving high ranks would not be to hard. All that is required is choosing good keywords that people are most likely to search when trying to find information about companies in your line of business.

Weekly Task 5

The Social Media is more popular over the world. Millions of people and companies use these sites daily. Such as, the Chinese Renren network was already with more than 22 million active users and an estimated 40 million users who have registered their real names just for two years, and the as of July 2010 Facebook has more than 500 million active users, which is about one person for every fourteen in the world.

According to the statics of examples, to our group mind, for the business, the company will use more social media in their business strategic planning.

Company: F-Secure

F-Secure Corporation (formerly Data Fellows) is an anti-virus and computer security software company based in Helsinki, Finland. As famous known computer security Software Company, if it can be use in the some big social media, the company will be more famous.

Plan:

1.Set officially link to the social media, and also frequently update news and information. The link is better to set kinds of links, separately setting for employee link, for user link, for technology communication, etc.

2.The F-Secure can support officially free anti-virus protect to the social media, such as to protect website security, to protect user’s privacy, and so on. For this step can become effective advertisement. We think that may be is better than normal media advertisement.

3.Nowadays, some media was open not only for personal user, but also it was open for company user so that the company can set message board for feedback. Then the product user can give feedback from internet directly. And also the company can directly reply message to the users like service.

4.To create on profile in the Social is totally different with official website, because almost people use social media for fun in their free time that how to create good link is very important. The link should be have own features, such as color layout, etc.

5.For the business, in my plan, first other users can buy anti-virus software in the social with discount from social media and support some special offers to user.

6.The social media have to consider three key points, Internationalization, Localization, and Globalization. The different country has different culture and background. So when the company use social media have to according these three points.

The risks of my plan:

1.To my plan, it will cost a number of money to social media. It almost likes business investment.

2.Managed company profile also need human source, especially for update information, and reply feedback.

3.Different country has different internet legal and each social media has own principle so that we don’t know the e-shopping way is suitable, or not.

4.Which social media to use that also is problem. For example, in large China marketing, the user cannot log in most popular social media Facebook in mainland. And the like Renren social media, or other country social medias almost only support own language.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renren

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Secure

Weekly Task 4

OVI.com by Nokia

1.       The concept of Nokia’s OVI, seems like a great idea. Photo sharing, video sharing, file sharing are all possible to do with friends and family, and even anyone on the internet who cares. This brings out a ‘Social Networking’ aspect to the concept as well. Also there is no space limitation which is great as well.

Ovi Maps is a great tool as well. Points of interest, business name search, advanced address search, and favorites are all great aspects of the GPS system. You can save points of interest to your favorites so you don’t have to type it in every time, and then even send them to friends. The GPS system also has a good display, and looks very clean.

Also you can save your contacts to the OVI, and not to the SIM card, so you can transfer them easily in case your phone breaks, or you buy a new one. The calendar is accessible through both PC and Mobile device, and syncs easily, which means you can easily edit it and view from both.

It sounds all nifty and dandy, but is it all that great. Compared to the iPhone, or blackberry, I think that that the OVI suite is pretty basic. It will be successful for Nokia until they come out with something new, but other suites for other brand phones are defiantly better. And who wants Nokia anymore, iPhone 4, Blackberries, and HTC’s are HOT now. Unfortunately I still have my Nokia, and honestly I didn’t like the OVI suite, at all.

2.       It is a great platform to win some money in actually. The ‘Calling All Innovators’ contest for example is a contest for creating Apps on Maps. iPhone is defiantly more successful in the third party development, which is one of the aspects for its great success, compared to Nokia. However there is one huge, huge downside: NO MAC SUPPORT! Good luck for Mac users and developers.

3.       Nokia’s new strategy puts it in competition with the best on the market names, such as iPhone, HTC, Blackberry, etc. It is defiantly a well needed change if it still wants to compete and keep its name in the market. Smart phones currently being developed and innovated at a great rate, and Nokia needs something new to compete.

4.       Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq is a strive for gaining control of the navigation market. Nokia has been trying to evolve into a web service company, optimized for mobility. This move could make it into a navigation service powerhouse. It also gives leverage over Google, Yahoo, and MSN for example, since they all use Navteq for mapping information.

Anssi Vanjoki quotes:

“We want to make using your mobile for navigation as familiar as using it to send a text or take a picture. We believe that making the best maps with voice guided navigation available for free will be the catalyst to do this. Why have multiple devices that only work in one country or region? Put it all together, make it free, make it global and you have something that is truly useful and can help you get round almost any city in the world whether you’re on foot or driving.”

This is a great marketing strategy and hopefully will help out Nokia in the long run.

Weekly Task 3

ADWORDS

Adwords are a great way to get advertisement on the internet. Google Adwords offers the company a way to get their name across the internet and have many people view what they are offering, and eventually leading to clicking on the adword and getting interested in the company.

Company : USA LOAN NETWORK (http://www.800usaloan.com/companyInfo.asp)

The target market for this company would be in the USA, aimed at the people who have financial issues. Mortgage loans, Refinancing, Home equity, Home purchases are all offered to the customer. Currently this would be a great company to implement and adword, due to the millions of people who are having these problems as we speak.

Ad text would look something like this:

‘Mortgage Loans NOW

Having trouble with the economic downturn currently in place? USA Loan network is a direct mortgage lender which provides highest quality products delivered with superior customer service. We have capital, resources and experience needed to meet your highest ethical and professional standards. No charges in using our service, and no obligation to use our lenders.’

Keywords would include: Mortgage loans, direct mortgage, high quality, customer service, high standards, no charges, no obligation.

The budget would start at 20 USD / day, and then would see what kind of clicks per day we get the first week. Depending on results after one week, can increase to 40 USD / day.

The reason for choosing this market is simple, there are so many people with need of loans in the USA. And as trends have shown in the previous 10 years, people do take loans, regardless of if they have money to pay it back, which in turn led to this economic downturn in the USA. There is a great demand for good loan services, for which USA Loan Network provides a very viable option.

The message may be a little lengthy, but it appeals and gets the message across. Key words such as no charges and no obligation appeal to people who are taking loans, whereas some companies have fees for consultation.

The budget is not too high to begin with, compared to other adwords posted, but after a week or so and depending on how well it works, the budget can be increased.

Success will be analyzed by the amount of clicks we get per week, and the amount of customers that choose USA Loan Network for their financial troubles. A survey by the company after taking the loan asking for example: ‘Where did you hear about our Loan company’, and people can choose from news article, friend, or adword (and we could coordinate to get this information).

Weekly Task 2

The SUS scores of each member of our group:

Wen Ting Long:  35 points

Jesse Lento:  38 points

In our opinion, how to evaluate a personal net-Bank is good or bad. First of all, is that system can let customer using frequently, or not. To my mind, the osuusspankki eBank system was easy to use. The advantage of that eBank system is that there was not too much inconsistency in that system. And I cannot found the system unnecessarily complex. It does not like some bank system that was so complicatedly.  Although that system is simply, it also included the various functions in that system was well integrated and is can called complete system. Because the eBank system is used by everyone, so it should think about any kinds of people, for example, some old persons cannot  complicated system, how to make them would learn to that system very quickly, also it is very important point. That system is already thought about it. And so I think how to less needed to learned a lot of things before the users get going to that system, is also needed the bank think about it. Also the osuusspankki eBank system did it.

For the disadvantage of that eBank system, we have some suggestions to the system. The first, the user account will be display in the screen after user typed it when we log in our personal net-bank. It is not safety in our user mind. The second, actually this is not serious problem with system. Because the eBank opening is make customer easier to manage their bank account and more convenience in their life. The bank will think about more customer service.  I have one suggestion that is if the system interface can be more beautiful so that makes user eyes convenience.  And also if it supports online service, such as online chatting with customer service, or adding online feedback. It should be much better so that if customer has any problem in their payment process, it can be solved immediately. Finally, the eBank security is also our worried about it, so if that system can display more payment details before we confirm to pay. It can more sets users heart at rest. For example, if we put wrong account with correct payee name, it can be remind you automatically by system.

Compare SUS and ASQ methods:

For the SUS (System Usability Scale), it is investigated system by after using people to check the system good or bad. Three questions to display it, which kinds of environment the user using it, who is using the system, what are they using it for. Simply, it means the SUS more focus on the details of system to measure the system’s usability. It means the SUS more attention to user feedback. For example, the SUS questionnaire scoring from 1 to 5, the “1” means strongly disagree, the “5” means strongly agree. On the contrary, there are 7-point scales in the ASQ. The “1” means strongly agree, the”7”means strongly disagree. The ASQ is more attention to system feedback. For example, ask more about user’s degree of satisfaction, or not. Through user comprehensive evaluate system, and then it will fix, or change. Like Cisco Network Company use ASQ to evaluate by user.

4. Do you think that illegal downloading will disappear over time?

The “illegal downloading” is still and endless debate and a heated dispute now.  It perhaps will be ever topic. In our group also have two sides’ answers for illegal downing.

Wen Ting Long:

 For free downloading software, almost we can download software from internet that actually is software piracy. In the software piracy hand, simply said that is governments play an important role in fight software piracy. First of all, the government should have the power to battle software piracy. Government also has responsibility to manage the order of copyright and strengthening the legal system, improving the related law. Besides this, government should make the criminals fear to copy software by supervising marketing more frequently. I think this point is directly related with illegal downloading will disappear over time, or not. Fighting with software piracy is necessary and first. After that for illegal downloading, we can manage that. In my conclusion, the illegal downloading will disappear, or not that should depend on before a series of actions.

Jesse Lento:

He totally agreed with my point. But he definitely thinks one day the illegal downloading will not disappear, or maybe we will more use illegal downloading. For example, in the movie field, we almost watched downloaded movie now. If we excited the quality of movie, we can download DVD-9, even blu-ray movie. Someone will say “if we want to watch 3D movie, how we can we do”, for example THE AVATAR. It’s that true in that time, before 6 months, we did not know we have 3D TV, now the 3D TV already is accepted by every family gradually. Increase with technology developing, for our mind, “Nothing is Impossible”. Also we are both agreed sometimes we need go to cinema watching, like dating. We just want to say “illegal downloading will not disappear”.

3. Is the record/movie industry justified in attempting to shut file sharing networks down? Why or Why not?

To our mind, the record/movie industry should not shut file sharing networks down. On the contrary, the file sharing networks will be more popular in the internet world at least in the recent five years. The Youtube is a very good example that was created in February 2005. Only in the short 5 years, how popular in Youtube and how value in Youtube now. Nowadays the Youtube not only uploaded old, or past video, but also we can watch some live broadcasts, such as Apple Iphone 4 collection and so on which we are so excited live broadcasts.

Unfortunately, in CHINA, we cannot visit YouTube. As a Chinese, I totally disagreed with my government blocked Youtube behavior. Anyway, I respected different countries, different “rules”, laws, and politics. In here, I want to say that in china also have similar file sharing networks record/movie industry, such as YouKu, 56, Tudou, etc. It can prove the file sharing networks important. Face to widely business market, I don’t think any kinds of record/movie industry will shut their file sharing networks area down.

In the IT field, I think that the peer-to-peer technology also will continue fast developing in my mind. Especially, for entertainment areas, more movie clips, TV clips, and music videos will upload by P2P. For record/movie industry, this is a big market.