1. SocialMedia in Marketing Assignment 3 Anna Brunner 1101817 September 2011

2. … IS … > an internet platform / search engine > which gives answers to ??? > that are formulated as a whole sentence > about actually ALL different kinds of subjects you> could probably think of -no matter if its personal, professional, easy, difficult, silly or serious- > based on information both from the web and from real >people

3. stepbystep Think aboutwhatage-group youbelongto: „ask.com“ or „askkids.com“ Enteroneofthesewebsitesorusetheavailable i-phoneapp Decidewhetheryouwanttogetmore personal answersbychosing „askpeople“ ormoregeneralhitsbyclicking on „Search the web“ Choose a categoryor just placeyourquestion in wholesentences Type in yourquestion Eithergettheanswersyouwerelookingfor OR not, thenyoucandecideifyouwanttoformulateyourquestionandaddittothewebsite so thatotherscanreplytoit

4. … INCLUDES … askingandansweringquestions bothusefulinformationandentertainment „Questionoftheday“ FacebookandTwitterpage different searchtools: images, news, video, reference, advancedsearch ask- „behindthescenes“ blog

5. … IF … You have questions You know You want to know You want to find out You wonder You are bored Youareinterested athome /university/ school/ workforresearch, studyingandfun.

6. … USED BY … on average: women - around 35 years old – US citizen – no college degree – on a regular basis (In 2007 “ask.com” tried to target a different, younger group by changing e.g. the layout of the website, but did not really work as they still have quite the same average users as back in 2006 and before.)

7. … in Social Media Marketing! Answers in termsofrecommendationscouldbegivenby a companyitselftoproduct/ preference/ quality/ suggestion -questions > actuallyworks, becauseusersrely on otheruser´sopinionsandexperienceswhichtheyshare on webpageslike „ask.com“ (Togive an example: The marketingteamof a hotellocated in Helsinki could type in „Whatisthebesthotel in Helsinki?“ andthengiveunder a fake-accounttheanswerwhichpromotestheirownhotel. People rely on that „real life“ experience.) In myopinionthatcanbe a threat.

8. References http://www.ask.com/ http://www.askkids.com/ http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ask.com# http://www.netmagazine.com/features/askcom-how-we-built http://www.aqaba-sem.com/search_ed.htm http://www.quantcast.com/ask.com http://insights.chitika.com/2011/ask-com-users-are-the-most-verbose-internet-searchers/

9. Mythoughtsto „ask.com“… Itisimportantformeto also statemy personal opinionabout ask.com: So firstof all, I actuallyneverheardofitbefore. Atfirstsightthesitelookedquiteinterestingandreasonabletomeso that´swhyI havechosenitasmytopic. After discoveringthesiteanddealingwithitmorecloselymyenthusiasmaboutitfadedfromclicktoclick: I triedit out andtyped in somequestions I was curiousabout but was not very happy withtheoutcome (answers I got). I still prefer Google as a searching engine which simply shows me all matches without filtering them automatically so that I can decide myself what is relevant for me and what is not. On contrary – if you are not searching for serious and reliable information – using ask.com can be a lot of fun! If you just type in any weird question that comes to your mind, I am quite sure, that you will find answers that really make you smile in the “ask-people” section. My conclusion: The right search engine for having some entertainment if you are bored. The wrong website for receiving useful information though.