As a public university of over  50,000 students, the University of Texas is a massive academic institution with seemingly endless resources. The primary issue that we want to tackle with this project is to get these students involved with the university and use the resources that are offered. An example of a failed attempt of UT trying to engage its students is the weekly event emails that are sent out detailing every single activity that goes on throughout a given academic week. With so many student organizations and departments at UT, the emails are basically clutter, and the majority of students delete them before even skimming through. Essence Link will be discussing engagement efforts such as these and offer solutions that will effectively get students involved with the university.

Generally, our presentation on Thursday will be about our plan to “anchor” the students to the University of Texas. We want their time at this university to not just be a stepping stone for a future career, but a fulling experience that will keep them tied to UT from graduation and beyond. Hopefully our extensive research and detailed strategies will grab the Dean’s attention and be considered for implementation in the coming years. Working with the Essence Link team has been such a good time and I feel confident that the our clients and the class will enjoy our presentation.

Just recently, Southwest unveiled its newest “salute jet”, Florida One. The aircraft is among 14 specialty jets that uniquely show how Southwest cares about its customers. When in a dull economy where the airline industry is struggling to gain profits, most airlines would laugh at the idea of spending $60 million on a new jet with the Florida flag painted on the side. But as a result of Southwest’s continued successes, the airline gives a nod to the people who helped make it happen by doing gestures such as these. Although all people want in an airline is a cheap fare and an on-time flight, it will nevertheless turn heads when people see this jet rolling down the tarmac.

After taking down the hilarious parodies viewed by millions, YouTube responded on its blog,  giving advice to its users how to bypass the take down and repost their creative videos. Simply put, users can dispute their takedown videos by checking a box that says, “This video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder.” As a result, the video is immediately restored and the owner of the copyrighted material can then decide if it wants to implement a formal takedown through the DMCA’s process.

This issue represents a great example of effective engagement efforts by YouTube to keep in touch with its constituents and to make sure their needs are met. YouTube could’ve simply just take down the Hitler parodies at the request of Constantin Films and let that be the end of it. But it went the extra step and posted on its blog how YouTube users could take measures into their own hands and put their creative works back on site, even though the original material belongs to a separate entity. Interacting with the people that make YouTube successful is in YouTube’s best interest to build brand loyalty and keep users coming back for more.

Web sites will soon be customizable according to a Facebook user’s list of friends, movie choices, gender, favorite bands, and other aspects. All the user will need to do is just sign on to Facebook, and the Web will begin to make connections based on the identity of the user. By making the internet more personable than ever, Facebook could make incredible gains by being able to sell more advertising which could ultimately challenge Google.

Do I think the move is a little extreme? Maybe. Will it ultimately take affect? Absolutely. With Facebook grabbing the attention of over 400 million people worldwide, it would only make sense for Zuckerberg to take the social networking site a step further and capitalize off the information these people share.

My only concern for Zuckerberg is the further he takes Facebook away from its original purpose of connecting friends and family to bombarding users with a massive conglomerate of advertisers , the more potential he  has of losing accounts. I don’t see Facebook  going anywhere anytime soon, but like any business, if you keep changing a successful business model, you risk the possibility of decline.

The second rule passed by the NCAA involves players that  taunt on their way to the end-zone to score touchdowns. If the official sees a player high-stepping or taunting players behind them as they score a touch-down, the points will be taken off and the ball placed at the spot of the foul. A little harsh? Not if you’re the NCAA. The NCAA wants to preserve the high reputation of good sportsmanship during college football games by reminding the student-athletes that they are still student-athletes and not professionals receiving million dollar checks after each game. I was at first undecided about how I feel about this penalty due to its subjectivity, but if enforced correctly, the rule can be effective.

In any case, the NCAA has a strong reputation of enforcing good public relations so these rule changes come as no surprise. Let’s just hope they don’t call it against the Longhorns.

As a Cowboys fan, I found the video hilarious knowing what kind of character Jerry Jones is. But the talking media heads nevertheless took the internet posted video and blew it up the size of Texas. I turned on SportsCenter last night and I hear a 4 minute segment of journalists talking about the aftereffects of this 30 second amateur video of Jerry Jones spitting one liners after a few rounds of fine scotch. I go on Dallasnews.com this morning and see an article about the whole deal, questioning whether Jones is going to issue a formal public apology.

The moral of the story is that no-one is safe anymore. The  year is 2010 and everyone is watching and waiting with their iPhones in hand and Twitter accounts pulled up ready to report the slightest newsworthy event. Oldtimers like Jerry Jones have to realize that if they are out in a public setting, anything goes. I’ll bet he’s a little more careful next time he’s out on the town and liquored up.

According to Sernovitz, who runs a marketing firm in Chicago, “Austin has the lifestyle, the talent base and the entrepreneurial spirit to become one of the focal points for social media”. This has become apparent in the social media strategies that have given Dell such a good name within the online community and blogosphere with its IdeaStorm Web site.

It’s good to know that the vast amount of technology-based talent here in Austin is attracting such national attention. Austin was featured in a recent issue of Newsweek for its increasing job growths in areas such a technology and high-risk high-reward entrepreneurial businesses. With cities in the Midwest and Northeast struggling to create jobs, Austin is starting to set the bar in job growth and job creation in the technological sector.

It’s comforting to know that I’m currently living in a high job-growth city as I’m finishing college.

A few months before the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament began, Coke Zero challenged college basketball fans to come up with ways of improving the NCAA fan experience. For a chance to win $10,000 and a trip to the 2011 NCAA Final Four, fans submitted their ideas to Coke Zero’s Department of Fannovation and on Selection Sunday, the top 64 ideas were placed in the “Brain Bracket”.The ideas were then voted on at the Brain Bracket Web site by fans and the winners advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and ultimately a championship round.

I was impressed at how creative some of the top ideas were in this competition. For instance, one fan proposed a one-on-one mascot showdown at halftime to see which team has the better mascot. Another introduced the idea of “In-stadium spray booths” for hardcore fans who can paint up at the stadium instead of running the risk of being late to the game. “SMS Facial Reactions on the Jumbotron” and the “Concession Delivery App” were some others.

The idea that barely won the competition by a 52% vote over “Ref the Ref” was the “Free Throw Fluster”, seats that are reserved only for die-hard fans dedicated to distracting the free-throw shooter.

The Brain Bracket competition by Coke Zero was an interactive effort to get fans engaged with the brand while promoting the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at the same time. With this promotion strategy along and the  hilarious TV spot ads during the Final Four, Coke Zero wins the 2010 NCAA March Madness brand championship award. In my mind at least.

Whenever you and your buds, you and your social organization, you and your philanthropy, or you and your business, plan an event of any type, the easiest way to start is to create a Facebook event. And that is what everyone is doing. On average, I personally receive around three to four Facebook event invitations every day of the week ranging from Shelby’s raging 21st birthday party to the Red Cross clothing drive week . After sifting through all these events, I eventually start ignoring the invitations before reading their descriptions. With the majority of my Facebook friends in college, I’m bombarded with school survey events, group fundraisers, birthday parties, going away parties, and everything in between. In addition to these event invitations, the administrators of these events repeatedly send out messages reminding people to attend their events and cluttering everyone’s inboxes.

This Facebook event overload negatively impacts the feature. After noticing the event invitation icon, I now glance at the title of the event and most likely ignore it and even if I confirm my attendance, I probably won’t attend the event unless I’ve personally talked to people who will be going. Although it is generally known that Facebook events are not the most reliable source of tracking guests, I believe with  people over using this application it is slowly becoming obsolete.

With increasing demand and rising costs of the Austin real estate market, a Web site like Naked Apartments would go over extremely well. As a UT student, it can be a very frustrating process to look for the right place to live when you’re new to leasing apartments/houses and vulnerable to be taken advantage of by the many real estate and property management agencies. Having a central Web site where you can create and update your profile to match you with the ideal property would save both time and money; two resources that college students don’t have much of. An online match-making service for Austin real-estate would also benefit property management companies and apartment owners as it would help fill these properties without little costs incurred.