Social Media & Decision Making

When you think about buying something usually your purchase has been influenced by something. It might be that what your looking at is on SALE or it might be that you saw it being advertised in a commercial, or it might be something you read about that got great ratings, or perhaps a friend told you about it and said it was a “must have”, but somehow you are usually influenced to purchase something because of an outside factor.

Let’s consider when that outside factor is Social Media and how sometimes that forum helps make decisions for us.  Specifically let’s focus on Twitter. Twitter is a medium that a lot of companies and their clients are using to get information about what people think about their brands and products. Twitter is a place to go sometimes to get the help you need in making a decision and not just a purchasing decision but maybe even a hiring decision.  Agencies are using it to find talented people and people are using it to get the dream jobs they have always wanted.  Companies are getting their influence to hire someone from the world of social media and vice versa people are making decisions of where they want to work based on a companies creative approach on Twitter.

Twitter is a medium that gets used in many different ways and some Ad Agencies use it as a forum to send information out about themselves. So the Ad Agency is “Advertising” itself.  Sometimes they do it to find talented people to come work for them, sometimes they do it to “be different” and original, but in reality what they are really doing is using it to inadvertently help people make decisions.

Why would a company want to pick you to work for them when there are tons of other people out there vying for the same job? Well to be honest they are not going to look at you if you don’t show them why YOU are the one that’s special and why they should be picking YOU. Just like a product or a brand we as people & companies need to stand out we need to “Advertise” why we are the “right choice”. 

Let’s go back to the basics for a moment and go over the reasons we buy something:

1.              We need it

2.              We want it

Now let’s break that down even more:

·               Why do we need it?

·               Why do we want it?

Well when we talk about needing something there are many ways to talk about this.  Do we need the item because we can’t live without it, like food, clothing, and shelter. Or do we need the item because it serves a more in depth purpose

In the end it all comes down to making decisions, whether it’s a purchasing decision or a hiring decision, we are all affected by outside factors and those factors help make up our mind for us and help us make decisions. 

Remember that the next time you decide to get that blue blazer your friend was wearing. 

I know I will!

The Joy Of Creativity

This is my first attempt at a blog. But I have lots of thoughts and sometimes you just need to write to get them out of your head.

First let me just tell you a little bit about myself. I have a BS degree in Human & Consumer Sciences from Ohio U. I was a Retail Merchandising major because Fashion is a passion of mine.  I took a class my freshman year in Advertising from Professor R Watson and I fell in love with the industry.  I have spent the last 8 years working within the Advertising and Marketing communities both client side and agency side.  I have a very organized personality and almost a few OCD tendencies, which play in to my career choice of “Traffic Management”.

To be in Traffic you have to have a few key personality traits:

1.              You have to be extremely organized

2.              You have to be able to be a problem solver

3.              You have to be able to handle all different types of personalities

4.              You have to have a thick skin.

Although when I first started my career in Advertising when I graduated from OU in 2002, I had number 1 and was working on number 2, I had still a lot to work at for number 3 and number 4.  But now 8 years later I feel I have mastered all 4 of those qualifications.

One of the things I love most about being in this industry is the chance to be around truly outstanding creative minds, and I don’t just mean the people in the creative department.  I love being around the creative process as a whole, including the strategy development and problem solving that goes in to a Communications Campaign or Plan.  Throughout my career I have been privileged to work with some of the TOP Creative minds in the Advertising & Marketing Industries and I have learned a great deal!

In addition to working within “Traffic” I have been extremely involved in a part of the industry called “Art Buying”.  When I was a junior in college I didn’t even know what Art Buying was. And then I had the opportunity to do part of my internship in that department within one of the top agencies in the country that had a very large DC office. I learned from a woman who was truly passionate about her job and it made learning about it so interesting.  Ever since then I have loved everything about Art Buying. I love working with the Creative staff members to find the right image for a project, or the right photographer to shoot a campaign, and I even enjoy working with the Rep’s for those photographers and artists to negotiate the licensing agreements.

My creativity extends beyond this industry. Since I was in 8^th grade I have been making and selling beaded jewelry.  My grandfather was a jeweler and when I was a child I loved to sit and play with the loose stones at his store.  About 2 ½ years ago I had the great pleasure of working with 2 fantastic photographers in Atlanta, GA to work on a series of photo shoots to create a library of photographs for my Jewelry website.  Please check it out, www.designsbylisafox.com my site needs some updating but I am very happy with it. I primarily sell through word of mouth or at craft fairs or home trunk shows, but I also do custom orders.

I am always trying to expand my mind, learn, and do more to become a well-rounded individual and today I decided to start this blog to add to my repertoire of things I have accomplished in this lifetime. You certainly never want to have regrets, so folks here goes nothing………enjoy!