Virtual World Blog Posting

This week we played with a virtual world that put you in scenarios with natural disasters. Your goal was to save as many people as possible.  The virtual world was not like the popular second life or world of warcraft but it did give you the control of a virtual villages fate. I thought the scenarios were interesting. Scenarios that were in the game included flooding, hurricaines, tsunamis, and a wild fire. My favorite scenario was the wild fire because I kept the whole town alive! It was cool that you had to use your brain to think of the best way to protect the people. I would say the graphics and maps were kinda lame. They could have given you better graphics and options to save people. I had a few top scores and did play the game at home, but only to finish the scenarios I did not finish in class.

Marketers could use marketing basically everywhere through out virtual worlds. They can set up real life business's in the worlds such as Macys, Mcdonalds, and Best Buy. Buying pretend virtual products in these stores will get you to think about these business's and possibly influence you to go visit the store and make a purchase. It is a good way to target a younger audience that is easily influenced by games and what they see in them. If the buckle is in my favorite video game, then it must be a good place to buy clothes. If a teen see's a Pepsi machine in a game, it may drive them to go get one to drink. Billboards could be displayed through out a game in appropriate places. For example, Placing a auto insurance ad in a virtual car lot.

At first I thought marketing in virtual worlds is silly, but its no different then product placement in movies and television. It can be useful and influence many. People who are easily influenced by things they enjoy are the key factor for marketers. It can be supported by other social media by being allowed to share your virtual world with your social media sites. If it is shared, other people see the information and what is being marketed in the virtual world. The more people who see it, the better.

Review site "Yelp"

 

Yelp connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across the US and many other countries. Yelp had a monthly average of 86 million unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2012. By the end of fourth quarter 2012, Yelpers had written more than 36 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. People looking for the best places to go utilize yelp when making decisions. 

  Some of these Pro's include:

• You can find basic information including the hours of a business, their contact information and their website using the site.
• You can search for types of businesses in your area that you might not easily find on other local search sites
• You can read the opinions of other people who have gone to the place of business which can give you an impression of what it would be like to go there and whether or not you would like the place.
• You can initiate discussions through the "talk" section of Yelp which lets you ask for specific or more detailed information about the business.
• You can add your own opinions to improve the site and to support the local businesses that you really like.

 Some of the con's include:

• People get paid to write reviews on Yelp. They aren't supposed to but businesses have been known to pay writers to write positive reviews on sites like Yelp in order to increase business. This means that you may be reading something that you think is honest when really it was only made up.
• The opinions on Yelp are just opinions. Many people take the information and advice on Yelp as though it is factual. It is important to remember that everyone's standards for "quick service" or "clean rooms" differs and that you can't assume a place is good or bad because one person says so. 
• Many places only have one rating, making their grade appear excellent or terrible.
• There is often misinformation on Yelp. Sites like Yelp and Wikipedia let anyone put information on them. For the most part, the group moderates each other to make sure that information is correct. However, incorrect information does appear on sites like Yelp.

I chose Yelp because it was my go-to guide when I moved to South Florida. It influenced my decisions on restaurants and take out when I did not feel like heading over to Winn-Dixie or Publix.

I chose to do my review on Clearwater Chiropractic and post it onto Yelp's website. I have been wanting to do a review for this business because I truly feel they are awesome people. The office ladies and the Chiropractor are all very friendly and professional above and beyond average service, in my opinion. Having never been to a chiropractor before recently, they have set the standards high. The review was easy because I feel positive and strong about it. I feel it is credible because it adds on to the other positive reviews this business already has!

 http://www.yelp.com/eau-claire-wi-us