Week Five: E-Learning on the Internet - The end of the Analog Era?

It has been five weeks already since the start of this module, and I'm really starting to feel the jadedness sink in. Honestly speaking but I'm still finding this topic interesting, its probably just the overall drag of having to drag(literally) myself to school from Bedok.

Well then, on to the lesson proper! E-Learning

E-learning! What is it actually? The definition states that E-Learning is "learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content". Interaction is limited to online interaction between learner and teacher/peers. Types of E-Learning platforms include(but not limited to):

1. Virtual Classrom
2. Audio/Visual/Graphics Animation
3. Rapid eLearning
4. Simulation-based
5. Game-based
6. Mobile Learning
7. Learning management system

However, the one topic I want to focus on is Game-based e-learning. Having been an avid gamer since my early ages(i put it at 6-7 years of age) when the internet was just in its infancy stage, there was literally no access to online teaching material. I however, had the opportunity to play one of the few most enriching games of my childhood time.

Memories. ahh

In this game, if I recall correctly, it involves this purple car pictured above and his pet dog, Pep. You go around solving series of puzzles and mathematical problems while going on some sort of adventure and I LOVED IT. I believe it was one of the earliest forms of interactive learning for kids in an electronic form.

Soon after, other more advanced games came into play. Today's gaming industry is only growing, and there are no signs of slowing down:


1. 911: First Responders. A game about para rescue teams and firefighting rescue units. Players are put into the shoes of your everyday civil worker like a paramedic or firefighter, and are given scenarios to respond to. It teaches one about the things our civil defense workers face.

2. Driving School Simulator. The title is pretty much self-explanatory. If you are starting to learn how to drive, or really suck at driving and need to pass your much dreaded driving test after repeated attempts, I would recommend you take a look at this.

Driving for dummies. Literally.

3. Rocksmith: 2014
Now THIS is one of my favorite titles. Apart from being an awesome game where you can jam to your favorite tunes, this game also doubles as a learning application for aspiring rock stars or just anyone who plain wants to take up guitar as a hobby. It is truly the first authentic guitar playing simulator. Guitar Hero? Oh please.

Eric Clapton eat your heart out.

These are just a few of the many learning and simulation games that developers are coming up with to enrich and entertain the minds of kids AND adults worldwide. Its no longer a stigma that gaming is associated with restlessness and lower grades. Instead, studies have proven that games like first person shooters and RPG's help increase a player's reflexes and improve their problem-solving abilities.

Killing Zombies: Good for health

I hope more and more games like these will gain exposure and popularity not only as an entertainment platform, but also as a learning tool. Lets not see games as something only to be enjoyed, rather lets look at it as a new form of e-learning.

Week Four: E-Commerce!

Its the third week of COM125, been a hectic and tiring week due to upcoming tests and quizzes, but I'll still try to make this work for all of us! Lets gooo~

This week covers the topic of E-commerce, or more simply the task of doing business electronically, or online. No doubt starting a traditional business model is already hard enough, think about doing it via online means, where you have less control over the market you are breaking into.

Time to study? Welp goodnight

Perhaps starting an E-commerce business seems like an attractive venture on the outside, but the reality is that it is EXTREMELY risky. Following last weeks AIDA model(Attention,Interest,Desire,Action) it is no easy task to attract and retain your customers attention and action to complete the sale. The sad(BUT true) fact is that over 97% of business fail to succeed online, with only a mere fraction(3%) managing to break even or flourish in the market. However a piece of good news for aspiring e-businessmen(I think I just coined that), of the 3%, nearly all of them make double or triple the profits by reaching customers in parts of the world not normally attainable through traditional means. Huzzah! 

Key to success: Have a catchy accent

As such, the one question that lies on every entrepreneur's mind is: WHAT IS THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING ONLINE? Herein we will explore ten reasons why so many business fail to take off online, and some tips to rectify these problems for all you wannabe billionaires out there. Pay heed.

AND here we go:

1. Lack of Planning/Forecasting

 Every business needs to have a proper plan or forecast to predict what could go wrong and to keep focused on your goal for the long-term. As an e-commerce, there are some points you need to factor into your planning process:

• Is there a demand for your products online?
• Are your intended products selling online? If yes, what are the sales statistics(number of sales per day etc.)
• How much are you intending to peg your product price at, and how much are your competitors pricing their products?
• Will your e-commerce website be profitable?

2. Lack of a Unique Selling Proposition
In the AIDA model, one of the strategies advocated is to have a unique and novel selling point that would allow customers to be attracted to your particular product. However, in the online world, 99% of e-commerce businesses do not follow this advise and ultimately end up failing, sometimes terribly. Such businesses make the common mistake of following the market leaders and imitating the competition. A piece of advice to take note here: DON'T launch a business just because every one is doing it. Yes you blogshop hopefuls I'm talking about you.

 

 The tip to take away from this is: Make your business unique and special, so much that other competitors start copying you. Now you can sit back and watch them crumble. Our recommendation for your business idea is to set up a differentiator first and then prepare for a launch. 

3. Trying to sell everything, to everyone

Once you have done planning and coming up with a new idea for your e-commerce business plan, its time to decide on the number of products you want to pitch to others on your website to begin with. Do NOT try to sell too many products initially. You're not Amazon. Stop. Please.

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An important factor to take into account is the time required to acquire, stock, sell, ship, and support your product(s). Be upfront and honest with yourself: Can you actually afford to spend the time required for the above processes? Also, one more useful tip would be to offer some sort of 'value for money' to your customers in your business transactions, perhaps in the form of an e-voucher for a certain amount of products purchased. Distinguish yourself from your customers; you are a businessman, not their friend. A businessman who provides exceptional value-for-money services. 

There IS a difference.

4. Poor User Interface Design
An important but often overlooked aspect of an e-commerce business is aesthetic appeal. A design of an e-commerce website is one of the first, if not THE first visual element customers notice when first patronizing your site. The rule of thumb is to be able to grab their attention within the first five to seven seconds, thus:

• Ensure site design is of a neat, aesthetically appealing nature that attracts online traffic
• Hire professional graphic or web designers to work on site. Make it a good investment. 
• Make sure your website loads as quickly as possible. 'Aesthetically pleasing' doesn't mean you fill the whole page chock-full of animations. Keep it simple, stupid. 
• Check that your business website is responsive and renders properly on both tablets and smartphone devices. Apple and Android both, preferably. 

Of a low temperature, thou art not.

 

5. Lack of Quality Content
On a website, having poor content quality including but not limited to, headlines and product descriptions can and most likely WILL reduce overall sales. Your e-commerce site needs to educate and create a desire in your customers to want to take action and purchase whatever you are selling. Make good use of emotional triggers like promoting your products strengths; focusing on its benefits, experiences and results it will help your prospects achieve. User generated content and reviews should be allowed on-site as it helps gain the trust of future and current customers.

6. Lousy E-Commerce Backbone/Software
Making use of a low-quality e-commerce backbone will ultimately affect web usability for you as the business owner, and also for your visiting customer. Some of the major problems encompass:

• Poorly laid-out products
• Lack of discounting feature
• Non PCI-Compliant code
• Lack of search engine optimization features

7. No testing of product

It's hard for most entrepreneurs to admit, but sometimes your product is just not that great. Don't wait until you have put months into an e-commerce site to find out whether there is a demand for your product--start with friends and friends of friends. The old idea of "starting a business out of your garage" worked because it showed proof of concept and demand before any time or effort was put into the business. Conduct surveys or try selling samples of your product before spending blood, sweat, and tears to launch a company online. Even if your product has legs, you should always test and refine first.

8. Difficulty in finding E-Commerce Website

You may laugh, but this is one of the most common misconceptions about running an e-commerce site. Too many entrepreneurs think, "We'll just launch it and make millions!"

No one will end up on your site accidentally--the Web is just too big. Every person who visits your new site searched, saw an ad, or was somehow told to visit your site. You need to have a plan to get traffic to your site in a very direct way, so enlist the help of a PR or advertising firm to assist with SEO efforts and getting back links to your site.

 

9. Failure to set budget for market testing

Free marketing is awesome but usually not scalable. You need to get your e-commerce site to a scale that makes it worth the time you put into it. Sometimes this will require testing different marketing channels and strategies to find what works best for your business. Remember: This is going to cost money! Make sure you have a budget set aside just for testing. It needs to be enough to test several channels, but not so much that it will cripple your business if you don't see ROI. Create a separate budget to pour into the channels that are successful. The best e-commerce brands test and retest every aspect of their funnel on a continuous basis--from layout to colors to flow to channels. All of these can affect your conversion in a big way.

10. Failure to PESEVERE

While realism is important, Seth Godin said it best: "It takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success."

 

There are those that get lucky, sure. But 99.9 percent of success stories worked day and night to get there. It's important to know that it won't be easy and it won't come quickly. But if signs show you have a great product or concept, it's worth giving it a real shot. Pursuing your passion and success should be the only option.

 

So that's it young ones. Hope that's enough to get you started on your first ever E-commerce project. and remember,

 

NEVER GIVE UP!!

Week Three: Social Media Marketing!

Good morrow, faithful readers! I apologize for the inconsistent frequency of these updates, I am trying, believe me. Its hard writing up a post whilst YouTube music is blasting in the background. (Oh I know, how dare me.)

And as a wrap-up to the previous week, we are going to explore social media as a marketing medium! Amazing, yes I know. What else can you go with social media? The possibilities, as said before, are endless!

What sorcery is this!

First of all, lets take a look at a simple and generic marketing model, known as the AIDA model, which stands for ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION. Here is a model for your kind consideration:

Check out this model yo.

 
 1.Attention:
Lets say you want to capture your target audience's awareness. You need that ability to attract your customers attention. Probably using something novel or exciting that could most likely interest someone within five seconds or less.

2. Interest:
The "I" stands for interest, and it refers to the ability to gain and retain customer's interests by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).

3. Desire:
Next is Desire, meaning that you need to convince your customers, potential or otherwise, that your particular product/service is important to them, and that they NEED or desire it, as it would satisfy their needs.

4. Action:
Last on the list is Action. Your advertisement or marketing strategy should prompt customers to MAKE a conscious effort to take action by purchasing your product or service. By doing so you ensure a successful business model for yourself.

The system is used to guide marketers to target a market effectively. Naturally, as organizations move through each step of the AIDA model, a percentage of initial prospects are lost throughout the sales cycle. 

World Domination Raccoon approves

If you didn't know, in order to market a product or service effectively, you need a marketing strategy. yes. I'm talking to the guy with his mouth open. That's you dummy. In order for even the most basic marketing strategy to succeed, proper planning must be done beforehand. Using social media as a marketing tool is no different, a proper plan and strategy is needed for your business to take off, if not prepare to see it fall down around your tiny failed ears. You may not notice it, because of its sublime nature, but already many companies have formulated ingenious business models and strategies to take down the social media market. Let us take a look at three companies who actually managed to not only succeed, but prosper in a world where so many others have bombed or had it work towards their disadvantage. The platform we will be explorin'? Facebook.

1. Oreo(YES, the cookie company!)
During the Super Bowl XLVII in the United States, there was a blackout during the third quarter of the game at the Superdome, suspending all play for 34 minutes. During the now infamous blackout, Oreo tweeted a picture from their official twitter account:

That's what she said.

Pretty cool, right? You could say Oreo saw this coming, for something like this to be made and then blasted through the Twittersphere all within 34 mins really takes some genius designers, or they really saw this coming. Needless to say they hit the jackpot on this one. It captured the audiences attention and interest, and the post went viral in minutes. In actual fact, the company had staffed a 15-man team on hand to take advantage and capture the attention of the Super Bowl audience. Their Facebook page? 32 MILLION likes. Now THAT'S one fortune cookie.

2. Nike (how did we NOT see this coming. -.-)
The world's biggest sports company also used a similar strategy akin to Oreo's, using a major sporting event to surround their new social media campaign. Now, being a huge sporting logo among today's sportsmen, you would think they would make use of  high-profile athletes like lets say Usain Bolt, or Michael Phelps. Well they kind of went in the other direction, choosing instead to feature your average Olympic athlete. Perhaps someone who you might not even have known! Their strategy was quite clever, in fact. By doing so they showed that Nike didn't just support big names in sports, they also helped out the everyday average sportsman aiming to clinch that title. By doing so, Nike gained 166,718 Facebook fans during the London Olympics. Current Facebook likes on their page stands at 12.6 million likes. Damn son. 

There's no such thing as bad publicity...right?

3. Heinz Foods Co. 
Last on the list is not something you'll expect to even BE on social media, much less concocting a special strategy to corner its target market. Heinz, in particular uses Facebook as a platform for it to launch new products to attract their customers. However in order to get them ON Facebook they need to spread the word of mouth that they are actually ON Facebook. After promoting their Facebook page, Heinz launched a campaign which basically acted as a type of personality test. You had to answer a series of questions on their application and the results would match your 'personality' to a certain type of bean. Personalised beans would then be sent to winners every five hours. If you were able to share the application with ten other people, you would receive discount coupons and in some cases goodie bags. The campaign took off and was a hit with Heinz's customer base. The result? Increase in sales and also with their Facebook page hitting 1.1 million plus likes and follows. Not bad for a company that makes sauces huh?

Humans are just so full of complications.

Three companies who made it in the social media marketing industry. Three successes in an environment where it is so easy to bomb and washout as easily as your started your campaign. How did they achieve such overwhelming(OK maybe I'm exaggerating here) results? The answer lies with the AIDA model. All three companies were able to capture the attention of their target audience with new and interesting, sometimes downright ingenious ideas. They managed to interest their customers and incite some form of desire within them, thus making them take action either by supporting their social media campaign or by buying said products and services. I strongly advocate this model to any aspiring entrepreneur who is looking to break into the market using social media as a marketing tool.