Journal - Week 4

Dr Schembri was right in describing this intership course as a rollercoaster. I find I go through short bursts of "oh my god there's so many things I need to do and I have no time!!!" Which isn't helped by the fact I do uni full time plus work a 40hr+ week. But when I do get the opportunity to work on my project I get so excited by all the new things I am learning that it gets so many ideas flowing in my mind. I try and tell friends about this trend and that, about 'blews' (blog news) and Tweets, microblogging, mashups and scrap feeds. I usually get a look in return that reads "Lorien, I think you're turning into a geek coz I have no idea what your talking about and why you find it exciting!". But I tell myself that I am working on a project that is new and relevant. I am glad I am not doing your traditional marketing plan but rather creating knowledge about emerging marketing channels which have so much more to offer for the tourism industry than what is being utilised in the current market.

This reflective journal gives me the opportunity to write my own thoughts or ideas. I feel as though in university studies everything has to be referenced, or the opinion/theory of anyone else but your own! (coz what would we know right!). This journal, and the online social media space in general, allows me to say what I reckon about whatever I want, even if my ideas are ridiculous or "so 5 minutes ago".

So heres what I reckon: When researching statistics on Facebook, Orkut and bebo users on Monday at GCT, I started to notice a trend. Although the largest percentage of current users of online social networks are 18-24yr olds, the older age groups social network user numbers are growing at a much faster rate! I then compared in my mind this emergence to the marketing textbook lifecycle model. The younger generations are the innovators/early adopters....now its the older babyboomers catching on, who aren't quite as quick off the mark with these new technology trends (which may be largely due to the fact that they didn't grow up with the internet etc). It shows that maybe older age groups will become the dominant users as the lifecycle of online social media progresses, as it allows them to stay in touch with family and share photos and memories, which if retired they have more time to do. I think i will try and find some solid statistics to support this theory/thought of mine. If you can predict who the future dominant users will be first then marketing efforts can target them first.

Besides these random thoughts I still have so much to investigate. I have been trying to think of relevant questions to ask in an interview with an industry professional because hopefully that opportunity will arise in the next few weeks. I feel I don't want to conduct an interview until the second half of this course so my questions are deeper. I feel I need to start shifting my focus away from just social media and its crazy popularity, to its uses in online destination marketing, as this is the data that will be most useful for my organisation.