In 2016 one of the biggest trends that continues to grow are videos. They have been dominating the web over the past years and continue to do so. Many studies show that content with videos are engaged more than content with just plain text. People love to watch videos, whether it be on youtube or just on any site. I feel the reason for this is because they get a better understanding if they actually see what is happening instead of reading what is happening even if it is the same information. Videos are vital to a website so it isn't plain and boring. Videos interest people and can bring more traffic to your website and overall attract more people. Although videos do help, it is important to make these videos entertaining, you can't just have a video that is as boring as plain text. I believe that interesting and engaging videos are very helpful to a website. When I think about the websites I visit and what makes me stay such as espn.com I think of all the videos I watch on there and then I realize that there are always advertisements before but I still watch them in order to watch the video. Overall videos are a must in order to keep a website alive and going.

Foursquare is a social media platform that has gone under my radar for a long time. I really didn't know what Foursquare was until today. I learned that it is a social network to connect people using their locations. With this application you can check in to places such as restaurants, bars, shops and cities so your friends can see where and what you are doing. This is a great tool for businesses big and small because it gives them exposure so they can get more customers. With Foursquare you can even search for top picks, trending, food, coffee, nightlife and entertainment depending on what city you're in. A great way to make sure your business gets publicity is being on foursquare so people can check in when they are there. You can even add it yourself if it is not there and add descriptions, pictures, categories and even a profile. Foursquare allows the owners or managers of places to send out promotions or deals and their customers will get a notification. This is a great way to bring in customers and if foursquare didn't have this available they would lose out on potential customers. One of the best things foursquare allows their customers to do is get deals based on checking in such as the first 10 customers to check in get a certain thing free or if you check in you will get a free dessert. Even though the customer gets something free out of it, it benefits the company more because they end up getting more customers to come to their restaurant or business. Overall Foursquare is a great platform to market your business because what it offers and the potential clients you can gain just from being on this social media site. There are many cool tools and little extra things on foursquare to keep people entertained and try new places, so in the end it is a win-win for everybody.

Today I want to talk about my favorite brand, Nike. Nike is one of the most well-known companies around the world as well as one of the most liked. Nike is established and is the biggest sports brand today over companies like Under Armour, Adidas and many others. Although they have the name recognition, it doesn't stop there. They have to continue to market their company as much as they could so they could stay on top of the sports world and with social media platforms that is exactly what they do. I follow Nike on snapchat, twitter and instagram so I know exactly when all the new lines are coming out and what is new from them. They do a great job of keeping their fans updates on news about their company and the direction they are headed. I believe this is why Nike is at the top, because they do such a great job of keeping their customers happy not just with their products but their appreciation and customer satisfaction job. On snapchat Nike gives you a detailed look into their new products and events that are going on. With instagram, Nike gives you more of a look into when their products come out and what stores they come out in while twitter does a little of both. One of my favorite things about Nike and how they use all these platforms is that they use their endorsed athletes to share their products and even talk about them. To me this is what sells me on their products.

Twitter is arguably the most popular social media application today. So why wouldn't it be a good tool to use to market? That is exactly what many companies use Twitter for, to get their product or service out there to the public. Almost all my friends, co-workers and classmates have a Twitter, so we all know what is trending at every moment. I feel like Twitter is a great platform to market because first of all so many people have it, as well as all those people can share it with their friends. On Twitter you can even add pictures so whatever it is that is being put out their can be endorsed pretty easily and done well. Just because Twitter is a great platform to market doesn't mean that whatever you put up it will become popular and you will be successful, it is just a gateway to start and get your product/service more known. There is still a whole market planning and strategy that needs to be done in order to make sure what is being put out is presented well and make sure it is successful. Overall, I believe with the right tools Twitter is a great platform for social media marketing.

I never thought the day would come where I would use the app "Yelp!". Well today, I want to talk about how I use it almost every day of my life. Yelp comes in handy in my everyday life whether it is to look for a good place to eat, look up reviews, check in to restaurants, look up hours of operation or even find a new barbershop. For the longest time I refused to download the application and thought it was dumb and wasn't useful. My sister would always use it to find places around us and look up reviews. One day she finally convinced me to download it but I still didn't use it. Not until a couple months later I decided to look up a place to eat because I was in San Diego with friends and we didn't know the place that well. I ended up finding a barbeque place to eat called Phil's, which is amazing by the way. To this day I still go to the same barbeque spot and the reason I found it was because of Yelp. So from that day on I constantly use Yelp in order to help me find out whatever it is I am looking for and it never lets me down. Yelp is a great way for businesses to promote themselves and offer deals to customers as well, so all in all it is a win-win for everybody.

Today I want to talk about Groupon. The reason I want to talk about this is because the place I had dinner with my family today, was because my mom had a coupon, or rather a groupon. My mom is all about groupon, who has now used it for about a year ever since my sister introduced her to it. I personally don't care for it, but I do think there are some good deals and also a good way for businesses to bring in more business. Ever since my mom has been using it, she actually spends more money instead of saving money on discounts because of the fact that she buys groupons for places that we would never go to in the first place. There are places and businesses that are very well known that do offer discounts on groupon however, and you can occasionally get some really good deals from groupon. I believe groupon is a great way to market your business and a good deal for both the consumer and the producer because the people get discounts but the business also brings in more clients. This is a great idea for businesses because it is a win win situation, because their business gets promoted and they also bring in people that would usually not go if they had seen them on Groupon. I have tried restaurants in nearby neighborhoods that I have seen before but would have never stopped in and then have gone back to have again because I liked it the first time I was introduced to it by Groupon. Overall Groupon is a great app and even better social media marketing tool.