Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used for multiple tasks in marketing. AI is being used for data analysis, media buying, and even content generation. While there are a lot of marketing jobs that are beginning to use AI there are some aspects of marketing that will never be automated. Human connection and relationship management will always be done by a human.

Forming a relationship and connection with your audience is a key aspect of marketing. Having authentic responses to a customer’s question or a concern they may have needs to be authentic. AI doesn’t give an authentic feeling when responding to comments by real customers. I will often scroll through comments on a brands post and read what customers are saying. I have seen comments where a customer has had a real problem or concern with the products. When the brand replies it is the generic automated response of “We are sorry to hear that! Please call this number to express your concerns with a representative”. There is no authenticity in this response, no compassion for the customer who is actually having an issue and expressing it directly to the brand. Having automated responses to comments on social media is not doing a brand or its customers any justice. I personally love it when a brand will respond to a tweet I tagged it in. I recently mentioned King Arthur Flour in a Tweet and I got a response that felt genuine.

Human connection and relationship management is such an important aspect of marketing and it should never be replaced with AI. By using real people to respond to customers on social media, brands can form relationships and help build brand loyalty. There is no compassion in automated responses and it could potentially cause customers to get upset and not purchase or consider the brand again.

Guinea pigs may seem like simple pets but there is a lot that goes into the proper care of guinea pigs. Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work! Being a guinea pig owner is very rewarding, but you may not know where to start. This will be a short but simple guinea to beginner guinea pig owners. You may have questions like “How big does a guinea pig cage need to be?” “What can guinea pigs eat?” or “What kind of toys can guinea pigs play with?”. I will cover all of the basic guinea pig care topics!

How big does a guinea pig cage need to be?

It is recommended that one guinea pig has the minimum cage size of 7.5 square feet, a 30″ x 36″ is the best size for one guinea pig. If you own two guinea pigs the best option is a 30″ x 50″ sized cage. three guinea pigs need 30″ x 62″ as the minimum. And if you own four guinea pigs 30″ x 76″ is a good option.

Guinea Pig Cages Store has a lot of great C&C (cubes and coroplast) cage options that will do great for any amount of guinea pigs!

Why do guinea pigs need so much cage space?

Guinea pigs need a lot of living space. It is best to have a larger cage for several reasons. Guinea pigs need their exercise, a larger cage will give them room to run and popcorn and have a lot of fun! Guinea pigs also get bored very easily, the larger the cage the more enrichment can go in, thus giving your guinea pig stimulation and will prevent them from boredom. If you have two or more guinea pigs in a cage, it is always a great idea to have the biggest cage possible. Guinea pigs can get very territorial and will need their own space.

Can guinea pigs eat…

Guinea pigs should have a well-rounded diet of hay, guinea pig pellets, and fruit and vegetables. Your guinea pig should have a constant supply of fresh hay, pellets, and water. Small Pet Select has a wonder variety of hay that will suit any guinea pig (mine eats 1st cut timothy hay.) There are options for baby guinea pigs, which would be alfalfa, which is also good for mother guinea pigs. Oat hay and orchard has are a nice treat to give a little enrichment to your regular hay. There are also good options for pellets, pet store bought pellets are usually full of fillers and other food guinea pigs should not eat. If you plan on switching our guinea pigs pellets do so gradually, so you don’t upset their stomachs.

Now, on to fruit and veggies. There are a lot of fruits and vegetables that guinea pigs can eat but there are also a lot that they should not eat. Here is a list of commonly asked questions.

Apples: Can feed occasionally, they are high in sugar so not too often!

Baby Corn: Can feed a couple times a week.

Bananas: Also has a lot of sugar so should only eat occasionally.

Blueberries: Should only be given occasionally due to high sugar (My guinea pig could eat her weight in blueberries if I let her)

Broccoli: Can give occasionally, broccoli is high in oxalates and can cause bladder issues if given too frequently.

Cabbage: Can be given occasionally if your guinea pig likes it

Carrots: A staple vegetable for my guinea pig, can be given a few times a week.

Celery: can be given a few times a week

Cilantro: My guinea pigs favorite, my least favorite. Can be given a few times a week.

Cucumber: Can be given a few times a week, good for extra water consumption

Kale: Can be given a few times a week, my guinea pig won’t touch kale.

Lettuce: A staple veggie, red leaf and romaine are one of my guinea pigs favorites. Can be given a few times a week.

Watermelon: Can be good for extra water consumption but very high in sugar. Feed occasionally.

Peppers: Sweet peppers a few times a week. Never give your guinea pig a hot pepper!

Spinach: My guinea pig loves spinach but only give occasionally! Spinach can cause some stomach problems so be careful on how much you feed your guinea pig!

Tomatoes: Can be given a couple times a week but can be a little acidic for guinea pigs so be careful on how much you give them.

What kind of toys do guinea pigs like?

Guinea pigs love to play! They can get bored very easily and enrichment will prevent boredom Some staple guinea pigs toys are igloos (or pigloos), card bored tubes for them to run through and chew on. One of my guinea pigs favorites are corn balls, which are dried corn husks formed into a ball, she rolls it around and chews on it until it is gone. Anything they can chew on is great, their teeth are constantly growing so chew toys will prevent overgrowth of their teeth. Prevent from getting the toys where you can put treats inside, often guinea pigs can get their heads stuck inside these types of toys. I have found that bird toys are fun to hook to the side of your guinea pigs cage. Even small cardboard boxes and paper towel tubes are fun for guinea pigs to play with. Get creative and your guinea pig will have loads of fun!

Still unsure if you want a guinea pig as a pet? They can be so much fun and rewarding if you can give them the time and take care of them properly. I hope this helped any basic guinea pig owner questions!

Influencer marketing is a form of online marketing that revolves around online influencers. These online influencers can be celebrities but can also be someone who is popular in an online format. For example, popular YouTubers, Twitch Streamers, or Instagram influencers. Brands will collaborate with influencers to promote a product or service. When mentioning poor influencer marketing the first influencers that come to my mind are Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner. The disastrous Pepsi commercial faced a lot of backlash and is a prime example of poor influencer marketing. There are a lot more examples of poor influencer marketing, Terrie McEvoy for example.

Terrie McEvoy was an Irish blogger who had over 100,000 followers on Instagram. Terrie partnered with Tower Jewellers to promote the brand and a sponsored contest. The prizes for the contest were two bracelets from Tower Jewellers. Terrie rigged the contest and picked her brother’s girlfriend and a close friend of hers to pick the contest. Both Tower Jewellers and Terrie faced a lot of backlash from contest participants. This campaign to promote Tower Jewellers did not work because of the deceitfulness of the influencers.

Terrie McEvoy later deleted her social media accounts. Although later her followers forgave her after Terrie sent out an apology, the damage had already been done to Terrie and Tower Jewellers reputation. After the incident with Terrie McEvoy customers may see Tower Jewellers as a company who isn’t truthful. Even though Tower Jewellers was not involved in picking the contest winners, there is damage to its reputation and could cause issues with loyal customers as well as potential customers. From my point of view, if I saw a rigged contest from a brand I would wonder what other potential lies there could be from the company. This influencer marketing did not work for Tower Jewellers because of the lack of transparency and honesty from the influencer. Because of this poor influencer marketing decisions there has been reputation damage done to the influencer and the brand.

Last Tuesday night I had a great lecture from Micheal Curia from the agency Bake More Pies. Mike is the vice president of Bake More pies and has a lot of experience in digital marketing, e-commerce and how a business functions, he was very enthusiastic during his lecture and really stressed how important it is for marketers to help gross businesses. Mike had a lot of great advice for senior advertising students that are about to join the advertising and marketing industry. He gave great tips on the different departments within an advertising agency, how to fit in, and how to get the job. Filestage has a lot of great pros and cons about advertising agencies, one I specifically remember Mike mentioning is that the dress code can be very lenient. Mike mentioned that when getting an interview with an agency, do some research and see what the dress code is like. Dress according to what the agencies dress code is during your interview. You don’t want to be over dressed or under dressed, doing either of those may disqualify your from the start. Mike also had a lot of good tips for resumes and the interviewing process. Brining in a paper copy of your resume could really boost your chances of getting another interview, don’t include you GPA on your resume unless it is over a 3.5. Mike mentioned the importance of internships as well. He said it is best to have 2 or 3 internships throughout your college career but if you aren’t able to get any internships than do some free work for a local business or for someone you know. I think he really stressed the importance of our willingness and excitement to learn, for someone like me who has not been able to get an internship because of having to work full-time I was worried about not having any internship experience. But after Mike’s lecture I felt a little better because I am very eager to learn new things, any part of the industry to get me started. I also have started helping with a friends jewelry and paper craft business. Mike had a lot of great insights on ad agencies and tips for college students starting their careers.

As advertisers it is important for us to stay up to date on the latest digital media channels. Digital media channels that have been around for a few years are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Other digital channels that are still used today by advertisers are email marketing and mobile marketing. These channels have millions of users that can give advertisers huge amounts of data on how to send interesting and engaging content and messages. Fourth Souce states that “Social media allows businesses to connect with their customers almost immediately”, people are responsive to individual and specialized messages on social media channels. It is important for advertisers to know which of these channels has their target audiences on and what the trends are. For example, if you wanted to target 16-25 year olds, one of the newest digital channels that is gaining popularity, Tik Tok would be the channel that advertisers may want to use. By using digital channels advertisers can get into the mindset of the consumer. Verint Connect discusses the rising importance of digital channels and states “Today’s consumer is better educated than ever—with information readily available on our phones. All of this rich data originates from digital channels: Twitter, online communities, ratings and reviews all continue to feed the wealth of product knowledge immediately available at your fingertips”. Digital media channels are useful for more than just customer engagement, these channels also offer advertisers the opportunity to continually analyize data, content, and their strategy. Result come in fast from these channels and decisions can be made in real time. Overall it is important for advertisers to stay up to-date on the latest digital media channels because there is the possibility of reaching new targets, knowing new trends and what is becoming popular, and how you can better understand the needs of your target audience.

User Experience (UX) is a term that has various definitions. UX encompasses a users emotions and attitudes on a websites design and features, branding messages, design, function, and so many other characteristics brands have. UserTesting 15 UX leaders and designers what the definition of UX is and there were 15 different answers given. One answer that was given is “User experience is a commitment to developing products and services with purpose, compassion, and integrity”. UX doesn’t just focus on the design of a website or one single aspect of a product. The goal is to take how users feel about a brand or product and use it to an advantage by making the users experiences better. Some of my personal favorite UX involves virtual tours. I will look at house when I am bored (not that I can afford a house, but it is still fun to look) I really like it when websites give a 3D virtual tour rather than just oddly angled pictures of the house. Museums will also do virtual tours of exhibits where users can “walk” through and see all the art, I especially like this because it is difficult to go to physical because of Covid.

UX is not only important from a website or product point of view but it is also very important for advertisers. “. UX research focuses on identifying the target users’ wants and needs – which in turn can help in the measurement and improvement of UX”. Both UX and advertising focuses on what consumers want and how to send it to them. UX can be used to create interesting and engaging advertisements, UX is an evolving form of digital advertising that can out-compete traditional forms of advertising. UX is important to advertising because it can help create meaningful and engaging messages to an audience.

Social media listening collects data from brand mentions and conversations on social media platforms. This data allows you to gain insight on what consumers are saying about your brand and make decisions that will impact your brand and customers. Social media listening involves monitoring brand mentions, competitors and any keywords that are related to your brand. This may sound similar to social media monitoring, but with monitoring you only look at mentions or hashtags and respond to customers. After gathering and analyzing this data, social media listening gives you insight on how to create actions that make a positive impact on customers.

About a year ago I mentioned Coca-Cola in a tweet, I asked why the orange vanilla coke tasted better out of a soda machine than it did in a bottle. Coke replied to my tweet and apologized for the difference in the flavor. This interaction between Coke and my tweet is an example of social media monitoring. If enough people commented on the taste difference between the orange vanilla coke in a bottle and out of a soda machine, Coke may be inclined to change the taste of the bottled orange vanilla coke and let customers know it listened to us. This would be an example of social media listening. Listening to comments and concerns that customers have and actually taking action to improve customer experience is what social media listening is.

Social media listening not only looks at what is being mentioned but how it is being mentioned. When customers are comparing your brand to a competitor, social media listening will look into what exactly is being said about your brand and the competitor, if the customers prefer the competitor over your brand actions can be made by learning from the competitor. By analyzing data overtime and forming a strategy, social media listening allows brands to engage more with audiences and make better decisions that impact customers.

Paid search ads are a form of digital marketing where advertisements show on the search engine results page. Paid search ads show at the top of a search engine results page and will indicate that it is an ad. “Every second, tens of thousands of people are searching on Google for products, services and solutions. Advertisers can use paid search ads as an opportunity because consumers are already actively looking for a product or service and by using paid search ads consumers are exposed and engaged with these ads. Paid search ads are not interrupting consumers like traditional advertising and banner ads. When consumers search for products or services on Google advertisers know that these consumers are already started the consumer journey and had an intent to buy. Paid search ads are a great channel for all phases of the consumer journey; awareness, consideration, and purchase. Marketing Land mentions that using paid search ads you have the opportunity to understand audiences and how to reach them in any phase of the consumer journey. By understanding the audience and which phase they are in advertisers can send the right kind of message through paid search ads. Search engines allow advertisers to have access to huge amounts of data. Using data to create paid search ads helps to make the right message for the right people. By knowing what consumers are searching, keywords can be used in the search ads to engage with consumers. Paid search ads can use keywords to match what people are searching for. From personal experience if I search something and the first results are exactly what I am looking for I am more than likely going to click on the first or second result on Google. Keywords differ depending on the different phases of the consumer journey and using specific keywords in paid search ads can pose an opportunity for advertisers.