Category Archives: strategy

Survey Results

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I collected the survey results to see how potential users view our potential service. This provided us with information that informed the development of our site. The results are  summarised below. So far our total response is 94 though only 32 people have completed the survey. You can find the survey here.

Question 1.1 : Age Group

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Ages vary between 16 to over 30 though, more opinions of teenagers would have given a better balance to the survey. This survey may reflect the opinions of adults.

 

Question 1.2 : Gender

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The balance between men and women is ideal. the survey may reflect unbiased opinions at least from view point of gender. This is useful information as we would like to provide information on the gender mix at events which is useful to party producers but also to users who attend the event, as this sometimes affects the decision to attend, especially for young people. Think Ladies Free Night!

Question 1.3 : What is your country of origin?

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The survey consists of 10 countries. Although those variety will give us international viewpoints, there is no English origin. Although the web site will be implemented in UK, this survey may not reflect the opinions of domestic users, but reflect international views of users living in UK.

 

Question 1.4 : How often do you attend concerts/parties?

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The average times those surveyed attended concerts/parties is 6 or less. The potential users of the site will be those attending parties at least “1 or more times per month”, which is 9 out of 32. although it is assumable almost everyone will listen to some music, attending music events are different from just listening to music.

Question 1.5 : How do you access music? Select all that apply.

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This is a multiple choice question and people could tick boxes more than once. As expected YouTube is used by 1/3 of people. Highlighting the importance of not just music but video. 40% of people use some kind of downloading service which is a mainstream way of accessing to music today. The ability for people to add their YouTube Videos to the site will be useful as well as the ability for them to upload videos directly from their mobile. Though ensuring copyright is adhered too will be problematic.

Question 1.6 : Do you find these services satisfactory?

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It looks like almost all have no problem with the way they access music, there are only two opinions about previous tools. “it doesn’t help me to discover good songs. It only features and advertises popular songs not the music of my taste.” and “can’t download music and always my favourite videos are erased.” Those are also complaints on the inability to customising music by their own taste.  By giving freedom of selection of music taste on miXXerS, we may attract many potential users.

 

Question 1.7 : How do you discover new music? Select all that apply.

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Here we enjoy variety of answers as it is also multiple choices. Finding new music from social media gained 20%, which is comparatively a rather large share of replies. There is enough potential to enlarge this share by creating a useful site. We also can add people answering “By going to concerts operas.” if we succeed to take them to our site by providing enough concert information. Other reply “Blogs” could potentially be included into our site.

Question 1.8 : Do you find these services satisfactory?

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Written answers are “discovering new music is always difficult unless you have friends who knows a lot about the music.” “Because I still find it hard to find out about good new/ unknown artists” and “It would be nice to have a forum that could make new and innovative music more accessible instead of being lost in the clutter”. This sounds like finding new music is not easy since existing media may provide unfiltered information of new songs only. People need to have customized information which our site may provide. It seems that users are also constantly searching for new artists and new music, so being able to more easily have access to this via the miXXers site would be important. Connecting the dots between music and musical events will be an important component for this and so we believe miXXerS is on the right track.

Question 1.9 : Would you consider using a service that combines the following:

Being able to listen to new and existing music online,

Connecting with musicians and DJs and,

Provision of information about their upcoming events,

Connecting with friends and people with similar music/event taste?

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It is nice that almost 80% people agreed to use the service such that our site will provide.

 

 

 

 

Question 1.10 : What features would you suggest for such an online service?

The following are replies.

  1. Real-time
  2. Music-oriented social media, like Instagram as being the picture/photo-oriented one.
  3. Less public social connections but more private social connection
    if my favourite musician will come to my area, I d like to know that asap to get a ticket. Maybe they should send me an email of notification for events in a particular area.
  4. An online community or forum which show the different genres and artistes for ease of searching. The community would give people a stronger reason to stay connected.
  5. Try before you buy
  6. The tracks, live chat with artistes and dJs as well other fans.
  7. Short impression of the atmosphere, artist and their music. In a short film or so, that can experience right away, and get in the mood. And then book with one clic.
  8. music, gossip, promotion
  9. better sound quality, longer duration of watching/listening youtube.
  10. Spotify, Facebook
  11. Unsure. But an ability to pay and receive music instantly or to trial listening before buying would be good.
  12. Isn’t this similar to Soundcloud and Spotify? It does not seem like a new service.
  13. Suggested bands/artists based on your own tastes
  14. User friendly interface, compatibility with other social networking sites.
  15. Suggesting similar artists according to the music gender
  16. Come out with lyrics
  17. Advertise on YouTube, Facebook and in the MV.
  18. The music sound is clear and high quality
  19. Posts on the inspiration behind musical pieces; feature song or artist of the day
  20. Geared towards getting to know the individual behind the music
  21. Music being played on and on with different music generation.
  22. Ability to download

By examining those 22 answers to 6 categories, it is said that there are two major categories people may concern; “social media function” and “music quality”. As for social media function, people needs other factors to their music site such as “more private”. they prefer a friendly site even it is for music. Another aspect, “music quality”  is also important. they concern quality of music when they listen/download. The third popular category “customized music taste” includes “Suggesting similar artists,” “posts on the inspiration behind musical piece” that are not officially provided. Those answers will will influence the future development of our site. The music and social site required now should cover those three factors.

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  • Customized music taste
  • Faster flow of
  • information on musicians
  • Better music quality
  • Social media function
  • Better usability

 

 

 

Based on the results of the survey we will have to continually improve on privacy to ensure the reputation of the site maintains in tack. We will also have to be innovative and explore new ways to integrate the musical experience both online and offline at events, in a genuinely social and integrated and mobile way. We would also like to undertake further research to help us continually improve the service and successfully evolve.

miXXerS Website Development Theory

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The miXXerS Web Application is about the sharing of anything that is related to Music. A registration/login system is implemented so that only registered users are able to post/edit/delete/rate/comment on recipes. Moreover, music can be organised by categories, users can view any music update that under a specific category.

Cookies: Our website uses “cookie” technology. A cookie is a small data file that is placed on the hard drive of your device such as laptop or mobile browsers when you a website. A “session cookie” expires immediately when you end your session (i.e., close your browser). The cookie allows us to recognize you or/and your device when you return to our website. You can disable cookies at any time by using your browser options; however, if you do not register with us, we will not able to recognize you as our miXXerS member.

Technology and Techniques to develop the miXXerS Website:

Technology and Technique

Mobile Apps

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You get a ton done when you’re at your computer, speeding away on the day’s social media strategy.  In the last year alone, mobile payments apps has generated a total $235.4billion worldwide.

Mobile apps and tools can make it easier for a marketer’s entire day as it is filled with easier ways to tap opportunities to connect, engage and share. You can get more done while waiting, lounging, and at anytime when you’re not tethered to a desktop or laptop. The palm size, weightlessness and wireless technology that comes with mobile makes it convenient and primary for miXXerS users on the go,

It necessary for miXXerS’ future development that in addition to being a mobile first site we  create mobile apps that enable users to log-on their account just by clicking a miXXerS app icon on the mobile screen. This allows all users  to stay on top of the latest news or music posts, share music and all the service that we offers are now able to access from mobile apps.

In summary, you can enjoy complete page management controls like you can with the Facebook app, making life super easy for admins who need to make changes on the fly, while you’re on the go.

The following picture is the sample of the front page when you click on our future miXXerS app on your mobile.

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Figure 1: miXXerS Future Mobile App

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Figure 2: miXXerS Welcome Page After Click the miXXerS App Icon 

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Figure 3: miXXerS Log-In Page (Only for the first time Log-in)

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Figure 4: One of the miXXerS App Functions

Favourite Music

Figure 5: The User Profile and the user able to view their favourite music that they  save

 

Location Tracking

Figure 6: The user allows to share their piece of music with optional related details such as description of the songs, Location or event. 

Notes: Figure 6 content such as location of events and songs will be provided based on users approval

 

Scenarios & Personas for miXXerS

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I looked at a few other types of users that may use the site through creating personas.

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Scenario – Ed: Party producer

Background

Ed 30 is an event producer for a venue in London. He holds a bachelors degree in marketing. He is very active on social media. Though he loves music he does not produce it. His events are held bimonthly for difference genres including electronic music, hip hop and pop. While they are successful he wants to expand and reach out to new up and coming musicians and DJs on certain nights.

Story

Ed has premium membership because he will like to be able to use all the features of the site. He would login to his account via the home page and personalise his page by clicking what font, colors etc he would like to use on the page and how he would like to order it so that it best suits his audience. He will click on the advertise his events on the site by clicking the button advertise and then and add the name, of his event, the type of genre, location and where tickets can be bought. Given he has information about the audience via the graph that he can access and can gain anonymised information about what type of users are attending as they indicate they will attend and purchase tickets. He can then use that information to tailor the event as he arranges it and make more informed plans for future events

 

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Scenario: Su: Party Goer (Competition Winner)

Background

Su is 23 and is an avid music lover. She is from Granada in Spain and is a student at the University of Granada. She loves going to live events and goes out all the time in Granada but rarely goes as much as she would like to larger events because they are held in larger cities. Since has a part time job in a bar so she can earn some extra money while she studies. She likes to dance and is everyone tends to love her.

Story

While trying to find out where her favorite band ‘Limitless’ is playing she finds out that there is the chance to win tickets to their concert in Madrid and Skype with the band on the miXXerS site.  Though not the most popular band she really likes their music. She thinks it is very cool that you can get to actually more intimately engage with the band on miXXerS. She decides to take her chances and registers and apply. To her surprise she wins the prize and is featured on the site (with her permission) She tells everyone she knows about how cool she thinks miXXers is and encourages others in the Granada music scene with which she is familiar to use the site too. Her birthday is also coming up and she was planning to host a party and was looking for a DJ to play. She clicks on the link find DJ and read the reviews for those in her area that are into electronic music and salsa and pop music and books them for her birthday party.

 

Ethical Ways to Attract Visitors To Our Site

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For a social website, especially  a new website, it is important to know how to attract more visitors.  We have thought about this and found some useful and also ethical suggestions from Forbes where this information is sourced.

  1. Focus on content creation. Good content markets itself. When you put the effort into building and promoting great pieces of content, the natural result is more traffic to your website via shares and referrals.
  2. Add social sharing buttons to your website. Don’t assume that your readers will take the initiative to share your content on their own. Instead, make it easy for your site to accrue more visitors from social networking sites by adding social sharing buttons to your company’s blog posts.
  3. Answer questions on social networking sites. When you see people asking questions online, provide whatever helpful information you can. Doing so will earn you both website traffic and customers for life.
  4. Distribute press releases for actual achievements. While you shouldn’t abuse press release distribution websites to promote insignificant accomplishments, take advantage of this traffic stream whenever you have something noteworthy to share.
  5. Use SEO responsibly. Don’t over-optimize your website, but do make use of current SEO best practices (which put the emphasis on looking “natural”) to let the search engines know where they should list your site in the natural search results. High rankings will result in plenty of new visitors to your website.
  6. Invest in your website’s blog. By publishing high-value posts consistently, you’ll build your relationship with your readers, resulting in visitors who check back frequently to view your latest posts.
  7. Share slide decks and other presentations. Posting informative materials to sites like Slideshare will help you to increase both brand awareness and website traffic through exposure to new markets and new potential customers.
  8. Build a killer email newsletter. When readers find valuable email newsletters, they tend to share them with others. If your current email followup sequence is lackluster, making improvements here could result in significantly more referral traffic.
  9. Publish a helpful podcast. Similarly, producing a regular, high-quality podcast will increase referred website visitors, while reaching new visitors through podcast directories.
  10. Deploy infographics. Infographics get shared more often than most other types of content. This makes them ideal candidates for traffic generation campaigns that make use of content marketing.
  11. Run a YouTube channel. YouTube is one of the web’s largest search engines, making it a great way to expose new audiences to your brand.
  12. Ask visitors to share your site with others. Simply asking your visitors to forward your articles to others or share them on their social networking profiles is a great way to quickly boost page views.
  13. Write guest posts for top industry sites. Ask other websites in your industry if you can pen guest posts for their blogs. Having your content featured there isn’t just great for traffic – it’s a good way to build your perceived authority as well.
  14. Connect with influencers in your niche. Having an authority figure in your industry share just one of your blog articles can result in a tremendous amount of new traffic, subscribers and buyers, so make relationship building a key part of your company’s marketing strategy.
  15. Pay attention to up-and-coming social networks. Newer social networks likeTumbler and Pinterest are sprouting up all the time. Because there can be a significant “first adopter” advantage to the people that establish a presence on these sites early on, keep an eye out for these future opportunities.
  16. Eliminate website errors. If the search engines aren’t able to index your website properly (which can occur due to a number of different errors), you may not be receiving all the search traffic you should be.
  17. Add pillar content to your website. Every website should have at least a few pieces of “pillar” content — in-depth, well-written content that will always be of interest to readers — to help drive traffic via person-to-person sharing.
  18. Over-deliver on your company’s products or services. From a word-of-mouth traffic standpoint, over-delivering can’t be beat. When you go above and beyond in your industry, customers will recommend you to others – leading to more traffic and a higher marketing ROI.
  19. Interview experts within your industry. People love hearing from experts, so if you can snag an interview and publish it on your site, you’re in for a big surge of traffic from the authority’s existing audience.
  20. Comment on other websites. Leaving valuable comments on other websites’ blogs can be a great way to build traffic back to your own site. Just be sure to say more in your comment than, “Great post!” or “Thanks for sharing!”

Reference: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/08/31/20-easy-ethical-ways-to-attract-more-website-visitors/

Case Study: Scenarios and Personas

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I created some persons based on the functionality of the site.

Scenario: Jonathan- semi pro musician and weekend DJ

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Background:

Jonathan, 34, is a sales manager of an franchise company weekdays but he also works as a DJ if he has chances. He is contracted to Juno Record and though he has produced 1 CD he still strugges to success as a DJ. He needs to develop fun base, but how?

 

Story:

Jonathan’s first CD sales is not as good as he wanted. His friends advised him to build a fan base using social network. He wrote information about his CD and music event on his Facebook but basically only his friends saw that. Then he starts using miXXerS after visiting the site to check out some musical events in his area as he learnt about the site from his friends via Facebook.

He went to top page-function 6 registration (DJ/Band/event) and registered his information. Two days after he got an email from miXXerS admin saying he was approved. Jonathan went to the site, top page-1.attend events, select “DJ” from pull down, then found his name and select it to jump to his page. There were no stars, events, nor comments. He then decides to register as a DJ and Musician. He finds out that he can only advertise events if he takes the premium offer and so he decides to sign up for the month free trial. He is then able to customise his profile page and advertise his event and his music. A few days later, Jonathan did a gig that he advertised on miXXerS. He found that slightly more people than usual came to his gig. After the gig he checked his page to find some stars and comments. He now notices that he is starting build a larger fan base.

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Scenario 2: Miki-Asian college student/music lover

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Background:

Miki is 23 years old Japanese international student studying in the University of Southampton, music major. Although she prefers dance/music/DJ activities it is not easy to find music event in the city, since she doesn’t have many friends here and she has some challenge in English.  But she definitely needs to have some fun.

 

 

Story:

Miki has trouble finding music events she likes in Southampton. Since she is an international student new to this country and city, getting sub culture information is not easy for her. Then she started using miXXerS.

She went to the top page, click 7.Register(user), and registered herself as a member. In her profile photo, she felt it’s safe not to use her real photo, so she used an icon for now. After a day she got an email from miXXerS admin saying her registration was approved. Then she went to top page, 1. Attend event. She selected  “Location”, then narrow down her choice by selecting “South East”, “Hampshire”, and “Southampton” to check if there are some events in the city. There is an event which she liked, so she asked her friend to go there. Her friend agreed, so she clicked “ticket” button to buy two tickets and was taken to the ticket site being used by the event producer. They also decide they want to take the opportunity to meet new people in Southampton and click to find other people who are looking for people to attend the event with. She and her friend check the profile of one user who would like to go to the event but not alone and arrange to meet with her. She attended to the event with her friend and meets the new person who they both like. They all love the party and decide to write review! Miki went to miXXerS top page, 1. Attend event, then reached the DJ who had a gig on her event. She added 5 stars to his page, recommended him and wrote a comment.

SWOT Analysis

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This is a SWOT Analysis for our site

Strengths:

  • It can be accessible from anywhere around the world
  • Potential for Discounted Tickets to concerts
  • Potential to meet/chat with artists
  • Secure Way of Purchasing tickets
  • Help new Talents gain Fan Base
  • Records Label can scout talent easily

Weakness:

  • Investing Personal saving
  • As it is a new business people not trust it when launched
  • Difficult to monitor if illegal content is uploaded

Opportunities:

  • Global expansion, record label across the global would like to stop talent
  • New DJ and musicians are always in making
  • Their is room for new innovative services in the music industry that are still to be explored.

Threats:

  • Record label might not want to become part of new business
  • It is a web based business, so it is easier for competitors to program similar functionality on their webpage

Porters Five

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Porter Five analysis

Threat of new Entrance: Threat of new entrance is really high as at the end of the day as it is only a piece of program, so anyone can hire a programmer or a web developer in order to produce a web service which can easily compete with miXXerS. In order to avoid that happening and maintain our customer base miXXerS will carry on updating new features and exclusive offers to the website and try get as many users, musicians DJs and party producers as possible to become part of such a multi cultural platform so it will be harder for our competitors.

Threat of Substitute: Threat of substitute is low to medium as we do not actually have direct competitor. There are webpage floating on internet which provide similar service such as MeeMix, Last.FM, Pandora and Worldsings but they do not integrate events as part of the site. Fans will also be able to buy tickets to concerts online with as well by using Paypal which means their confidential information is also secure.

Bargaining Power of Fans: It is low, as the fans will be able to buy ticket to go visit their favourite DJ at lower prices on this platform.

Bargaining Power of DJs/Musicians: It might high if there is a new entrance because they might have different business examples providing all the services at cheaper rates but for the moment It is also very low, as this is the platform which they require in order to boost their experience and fan base.

Rival vary Among Existing competitors: it is also low as mentioned earlier on their aren’t any direct competitors who are offering exact same service at us, so it will be easier of the brand to create its awareness and gain a fanbase.

From Ticketing to Social Networks – The Case of Eventbrite

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I came across this article titled EVENTBRITE ISN’T JUST SELLING TICKETS, IT’S BUILDING A NEW KIND OF SOCIAL PLATFORM. I thought this was interesting because it speaks about how it events (a physical network) is brought to life through online apps. Though it caters for all events, ithe way it works may have some bearing on miXXerS especially as they opened up their API. They provide the option to keep in touch with others that attended similar events to you. You can read more here