Week 14: MKTG 345: AI Humor

AI intelligence has taken massive strides in the past year. It is now possible for face and object recognition, understand different voices, and many more complex variables.

One thing that AI can't seem to master, is humor. Since different people find things funny, it is impossible for AI to predict humor. Some psychologist think that all good jokes share the same qualities, so AI may be possible.

In this article, Radev took 300,000 captions written for 50 New Yorker cartoons since 2005. He linked different captions and gave them rating based on the topic used. He then tried to figure out what topics linked to most liked captions.

He found out that the funniest captions were based on negative sentiment, human-centerdness, and lexical centrality.

Radev tried to imagine an AI system that could select the funniest captions based on these findings. He concluded that it would be virtually impossible to create an effective machine to pick out humor.

In today's day humor is not something AI can distinguish, but in five years, it might be a different story.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539291/an-algorithmic-sense-of-humor-not-yet/

Week 13: MKTG 345: April Fools+AI Intelligence

https://www.newscientist.com/article/13-13-absurdly-comic-ai-april-fools-pranks-youll-want-to-try/

AI intelligence can be used for many things, even for April fools day pranks! Janelle Shane collected a list of April fools pranks found online, and put them into an online list. She then asked used AI to make a whole new list.

1. Below is what the processor came up with:
2. Place a pair of pants and shoes in your ice dispenser.
3. Put marbles in the hand soap dispenser.
4. Putting google eyes on someone's computer mouse so that it won't work.
5. Place a pair of pants and shoes in Easter egg foils.
6. Hide all of the entrance to your office building if it only had one entrance.
7. Put food coloring in the mailbox.
8. Glue all the eggs in the hubcaps of someone's computer.
9. A meat and mashed potato sundae makes or quite the hand soap dispenser.
10. Put a glow stick in a toilet paper into the toe of your kid's shoes.
11. Take the door know off your kid's shoes.
12. Rearrange someobody while pretending to pee.
13. If you rip up a toilet paper roll, then leave them a ransom note.
14. Hide an alarm clock in someone's keyboard who isn't a very good typist.

As you can see, AI still has a ways to go because some of these pranks make no sense at all. Next I think that this article should post a video of a robot performing all of these tasks!

Week 12: MKTG 345- Five Basic Interview Questions You Need to Pay Attention to

When on a job search there is a lot of preparing that comes with getting ready for an interview. You must make sure you are prepared for any question that they are going to ask you. While they will ask you many questions, here are five that you need to pay attention to:

1. "Why are you here?" The company wants to know why you are looking to work for them and not a different company. They want to see that you have a reason for being here besides just needing a job.

2. "What can you do for us?" This is a company trying to figure out how you can help them grow as a business. They want someone who can help them face challenges and become a better company. They want to know what your special skills are that will set you apart from the competitors.

3. "What kind of person are you?" They want to know if you have the personality that will fit in with the atmosphere they are trying to create. Companies want to hire individuals who are easy to work with and who share common values with their fellow employees.

4. "What exactly distinguishes you from the nineteen or nine hundred other people who are applying for this job?" They want to know if you have a strong work ethic, good work habits, work fast, maintain high standards, and anything else that will set you apart from other employees.

5. "Can I afford you?" They want to know if you are willing to take the salary they have available for you.

These are the things that employers really want to know. These questions can either help you stand out or set you back from your competitors. Being able to answer these questions with ease and confidence will give you an edge over other applicants.
(page 60-61)

Week 11: MKTG 345- Conversation Tip #9

Even if you come prepared to a job interview, there are still things that can go wrong. Some of these things might seem very small, but interviewers tend to pick up on them. In order to iron out these issues, you must be aware of what they are. Here are 5 things that employers do notice about a potential employer:

1. Your appearance and personal habits. If you are fresh bathed, have freshly laundered clothes, and a fresh haircut you will give off a much better impression than someone who is not. Employers who want people who can represent their business well, so displaying these characteristics helps give interviewers confidence in you.

2. Nervous mannerisms. Some of these include avoiding eye contact, a limp handshake, and slouching in your chair.  Employers want people who are confident and can handle high-pressure situations.

3. Lack of self-confidence. These include speaking softly, giving answers in a hesitant fashion, interrupting the employer, giving one-word answers, or downplaying your achievements. These characteristics show that you are not confident in yourself. If someone can not be confident in themselves how can they be confident about your company?

4. The consideration you show to other people.Some major turnoffs to an employer are if you show a lack of courtesy, you display extreme criticalness toward previous employers, you drink alcohol during the interview process, and forget to thank the interviewer when leaving. Employers want people who are courteous and know how to treat others well. If they cannot treat a future employer well, who knows how they will treat customers.

5. Your values. If you show a sign of arrogance, laziness, constant complaining, irresponsibility, or lack of enthusiasm employers will not want to hire you. They want to make sure you have good morals and you will fit in with the values that their company is trying to instill in their employees.

While all of these things may seem small, they are things that employers notice. The good thing is that all of these things are changeable. Once you are aware that you are doing them, you can work towards changing them. If you fix these 5 mistakes, it will help elevate your job search.

Week 10: MKTG 345- 11 Approaches to Looking for a Job

When searching for a job there are many ways to find them. There is more than just making a resume and hoping someone stumbles upon it. Here are some pointers on other ways to get your name out there when looking for a job.

1. Look for employers' job postings on the Internet. While this is an option, it may not be the best one for you. Only 4% of people find a job this way so only use this technique if you are running out of options.

2. Posting or mailing out your resume to employers. Like the first option, this one is not as successful as the other techniques. While it works 7% of the time you should try other options before you rely on this one.

3. Answering local newspaper ads. If you're looking for a high salary you may want to skip this option. It works for only about 5% of people when you are trying to pull in lots of money. If your salary is of less importance it can work for up to 24% of people.

4. Going to private employment agencies or search firms for help. This method works anywhere between 5% and 28%. Agencies are four times more effective than just depending on your resume.

5. Answering ads in professional or trade journals, appropriate to your field. It only works 7% of the time, though.

6. "Job Clubs." These are job hunting groups that have a success rate of around 84%. These groups are highly suggested because not only do they help you find a job, but they offer you support on your job hunt.

7. Going to the state or federal employment office. It works 14% of the time and is worth a shot when trying to find a job.

8. Going to places where employers pick up workers. If you're a union worker you are able to go to a union hiring all. This method works up to 22% of the time.

9. Asking for job leads. With this method, you ask friends, family, and people you know in the community if they know of any place that would be a good job for you. Asking for job leads works about 33% of the time.

10. Knocking on the door of any employer, office, or manufacturing plant. It works best with small employers with it working 47% of the time.

11. Using the Yellow Pages. It involves going through Yellow Pages of your local phone book to identify subjects or fields that interest you. This is a great option and it works 65% of the time.

Week 10: MKTG 345- The Ten Commandments for Job-Interviewing

With these tips, your chances of finding a job are greatly increased

I. Go after a small organization with 25 or fewer employees. If you cannot find a job like this try and look for organizations with 50 or fewer employees. The smaller the organization the better.

II. Hunt for places to interview using eighty friends and acquaintances. Make sure you know what your looking for so you can tell them exactly what your looking for

III. Once you have found a place you are interested in, you need to find out who has the power to hire you. Then you need to find people who know you and know the person hiring so you can get an introduction.

IV. Do lots of research on an organization before you go there.

V. Prepare for the interview with your own agenda. Have your own questions and curiosities about whether the job fits you.

VI. If you initiate the appointment, ask for nineteen minutes of their time; and keep to your word strictly.

VII. Only talk for 20 seconds to 2 minutes when answering their questions.

IX. At the end of the interview, ask for the job.

X. Always write a thank-you, not the same evening as the interview.

Week 9: MKTG 345- Google Analytics Academy

If you're still looking for a little bit more practice before you get certified, I suggest using Google Analytics Academy. They will help you learn how to navigate Google Analytics interface and reports, and set up dashboards and shortcuts. It will also help you analyze basic Audience, Acquisition, and Behavior reports, and set up goals and campaign tracking.

Below are the four units they offer, as well as all of the lessons that are broken up in each unit.

• 
  
• Unit 1: Introducing Google Analytics
• Lesson 1: Why digital analytics?

• Lesson 2: How Google Analytics works

• Lesson 3: Google Analytics setup

• Lesson 4: How to set up views with filters

• 
  
• Unit 2: The Google Analytics layout
• Lesson 1: Navigating Google Analytics

• Lesson 2: Understanding overview reports

• Lesson 3: Understanding full reports

• Lesson 4: How to share reports

• Lesson 5: How to set up dashboards and shortcuts

• 
  
• Unit 3: Basic Reporting
• Lesson 1: Audience reports

• Lesson 2: Acquisition reports

• Lesson 3: Behavior reports

• 
  
• Unit 4: Basic Campaign and Conversion Tracking
• Lesson 1: Measuring Custom Campaigns

• Lesson 2: Tracking campaigns with the URL Builder

• Lesson 3: Using Goals to measure business objectives

• Lesson 4: Measuring AdWords campaigns

• Lesson 5: Course review and next steps
• 
  

• 
  

Week 9: MKTG 345- Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 8

Throughout "Introduction to Google Analytics," we have spent a lot of time talking about Google Analytics, now it is time to start earning certifications! Certifications are very beneficial, you can add them on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Two great tests you can take are Google Analytics Individual Qualification, and Google Adwords Search Advertising Certification. Google qualifications and certifications are pretty much the same thing, so they are both good options.

Using the Analytics Academy is a great option, it offers free training and study materials. Below is a link to Analytics Academy, as well as two great courses to take.

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/

The best way to prepare for the test is to actually go on Google Analytics and set up your own account. Once you believe you have mastered Google Analytics, go ahead and take the test. Good luck, time to get certified!!!

Week 8: MKTG 345 Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 7

Just like the past two chapters, chapter 7 provides another way to learn about analytics in a live setting. The last two chapters talked about Shopify and AdWords, while this chapter will talk about Gumroad. Gumroad can be easily linked to Google Analytics, and it has its own built-in analytics.

Conversion analytics is very important to learn because they help you to optimize a campaign. It helps make campaigns more effective, and more efficient. In the process, generating more revenue and using the existing budget more wisely. Knowing a conversion rate helps you measure the effectiveness of your efforts to improve things, over time.

Let's get started with Gumroad! Go to: https://gumroad.com/ click "Start Selling:" then create an account. Next, name your store and enter a description. You will want to add a username, which will appear in the link. Once your account is all set up, you want to connect with Google Analytics.

Go to: https://www.google.com/analytics/ click "Access Google Analytics," click "Property," add your Gumroad website in, and copy the Tracking ID it gives you.

Now, you'll want to go back into Gumroad, and select "Settings." In the "Advanced" section paste in the Tracking ID, you just obtained from Google Analytics. Update the account details, then add a product into Gumroad. Once you have a product added in, share it on Facebook to generate some traffic. Once you have some traffic you can go to Analytics in Gumroad and see how your conversion rate is doing.

Google Analytics will allow you to dig a little deeper into the statistics than Gumroad will. You can use both websites to track your website, and make improvements to increase your revenue even more!

Week 8: MKTG 345- Surfing the Tsunami Ch 8

Chapter 8 is the last chapter in Surfing the Tsunami and it discusses what to do next. Now that you understand AI, the causes, and the effects, it's time to discuss what to do after you implement the three A's (adapt, adopt, and adept) into your life.

As a reminder, a couple great books to read about AI include Rise of the Robots, Master Algorithm, and 2nd Machine Age.

Once you've read these three books try Machine Learning and Deep Learning to help you become more adept in AI.

Books can only take you so far though, once you have read all these books front to back, your next step is to take courses in AI to further your understanding. These courses can be done at a local community college, online/book refreshers such as Khan Academy, or Coursera. Coursera offers free courses as well as courses for payment. Through Coursera you can receive actual certificates that will look great on a resume! They also offer online Master's Degree programs in Computer Science.

Another great option besides Coursera is Udacity. You can get their "Learn to Code" nanodegree. It starts with HTML and moves to python. They also carry an online Master's Degree in Computer Science.

All of these books and websites are great sources to help you stay up to date with AI. While Artificial Intelligence does not seem to be affecting you, it affects everyone in some way, shape, or form. It is very important to address AI and understand the effects it has on everyday life.

Week 7: MKTG 345 Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 6

Last week we talked about Shopify and how it provides a foundation for e-commerce. This week we will move on and talk about how AdWords provides a way to advertise a site and track conversion.

To start off lets create an acount, go to http://www.google.com/adwords. Once your account is created go to tools and then to conversions. The goal is to set up a connection between AdWords and your e-commerce site. You can then code it with Shopify and it will allow AdWords to track your site. It will allow you to track how much money you spend on ads to the revenue you will make on your your e-commerce site.

Click the conversion button and ad Shopify in the box. Add the conversion channel as Purchase/Sale, the markup language to HTML, and last click "I make changes to the code." Click done and you are set. Take the code Google gives you, log onto your Shopify, click checkout, and paste the link into the additional content and scripts area.

Congrats, you have successfully linked your Shopify and AdWords, now you will have a better understanding when you are tracking your site!

Week 7: MKTG 345- Surfing the Tsunami Ch 7

Chapter 7 of Surfing the Tsunami focuses on diving into the AI field and learning a little bit about some of the industry leaders.

The first individual highlighted is Andrew Ng, he was based out of Stanford, and helped to launch the "MOOC" revolution, through co-founding Coursera. He offers courses at Stanford on machine learning that are very popular. He used to work in China at Baidu as the chief scientist,but he recently came back to the United States. Below is one of his recent videos where he discusses AI.

The second individual is Geoffrey Hinton, a British cognitive psychologist and computer scientist. He was one of the first researchers who demonstrated the use of generalized back propagation algorithm for training multi-layer neural nets. Blow is an interview Geoffrey recently had with New York Times.

Pedro Domingos was also sited as having a strong influence in the AI field. He wrote the book Master Algorithm, and teaches at University of Washington. His youtube videos for his online machine learning class, as well as several TEDx talks show just how knowledgeable on AI he is.

These are just three of the top individuals in the AI field. They are great sources to help further grasp your understanding of AI. Check out these videos, as well as other videos and books written by these influential individuals!

Week 6: MKTG 345 Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 5

Tracking ROI is a very important skill because it helps businesses make huge profits. This week we will be talking about Shopify, which is one of the easiest ways to set up an e-commerce system to learn about tracking ROI with analytics. Shopify costs $29.95/month and is the best and easiest way to track ROI. Conversion tracking is important because it helps ensure that you are actually making a profit, and if you can confidently increase or decrease your budget to help grow sales.

Lets get started by going to shopify.com and click get started. There is a free 14-day trial available so make a login and hit "create your store now." Pick your name, click the online store checkbox and proceed by click next. Enter in your current address, answer the questions displayed on the next page, and last enter your product. You can add images to make your product pop even more.

The next step is to customize your navigation. Go to the menu on the side of the screen and click navigation, you can now edit your page. Another feature that is important is adding your product to the front page. Go to Collections, then click front page collection, select the product you added, and then hit save. After you have added your product to the front page go to your dashboard. You can add your business address and bank information, remember Shopify is not free. Click through the different tabs and you can discover dozens of ways you can customize your page. The more time you spend customizing it, the better it will look!

Week 6: MKTG 345 Surfing the Tsunami Ch 6

Last week we talked about the second step in responding to AI, adopt. This week we will be discussing the last, and best step, adept. Adept means getting directly involved with developing AI, by learning coding and how to work with related data. While you may not think getting involved in AI is easy, it will get easier with the use of assistive tools that make the technology more accessible. Theses assistive skills are ways to help you, not a way to replace learning the core skills. The more knowledge you can gain the better.

DataRobot is an advanced automated machine learning platform that can be used to help you learn about AI and machine learning. Machine learning is a core part of AI. It is not the only form of artificial intelligence, but it is the one that is having a huge impact now.

AI and machine learning relate very closely to data science. Coursera, DataCamp, and Khan Academy are all great tools to help learn about machine learning. Some books offered are Machine Learning for Dummies and Data Science for Dummies. These are all great sources to help you move from adopting AI to becoming adept. Hopefully you are starting to take AI More and more seriously and will look into these resources provided above!

Week 5: MKTG 345- Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 4

This week we will be talking about some of the ways you can track the performance of a website or campaign, as well as some related terms, and the idea of ongoing reporting. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/. and click on the overview tab. This tab will show you recent data, based on sessions (technical term for a visit). There will also be a part of the page which lists sessions, users, page views, and a couple other sections. If there are more page views than sessions that is because people often view multiple pages while in a session. You are also able to see the average time a viewer spends on your page. The bounce rate represents the number of visitors who enter the site and then leave rather than continuing to view other pages on the same site.

Another fun thing to look at is the location of people who are viewing your site. If you click on Geo, then location a map will pop up with a break down of session with the area it was in.

Another fun thing to look at is trends. It helps you look at how well your website has done over time. To do this in Google Analytics simply go to Acquisition and then click All Traficc. You can look at the percentage of traffic from computers or mobile devices. Doing this can help you tell if you need to make your site more mobile friendly. One thing to be aware of when viewing your traffic is automated bots that appear like regular users.

Week 5: MKTG 345 Surfing the Tsunami Ch 5

Chapter 5 of Surfing the Tsunami is dedicated to the second step of excepting AI. Last week we talked about the first step, Adapt, but this week we are moving on to Adopt! As a review adapt means to learn to pay attention to AI, and to be aware of where things are headed. Adopt means to adopt AI-related tools and platforms, so you can be involved in managing AI. AI is already starting to be used in eCommerce, in most of the major social media platforms people use, in devices, digital assistants, and even more. Trying to resist AI is not going to help you, instead it is best to adopt the principles even if you do not like it.

The first place to look for AI is in routine work that is redundant and boring. Tools and platforms can be used to make this work done faster and easier. In order to fully accept AI you should advocate for it so your company takes it seriously. If you take AI seriously but your company does not, that will not help you. AI is not just automation, it can do a lot of complex things as well.

AI has impacted Google in a big way. Think of AdWords, it helps companies track results of advertising. There are platforms that help simplify working with AdWords, such as Marin and Kenshoo, where companies with enough to spend can automate the process of working with many keywords and bids. Optmyzr is an example of an AdWords tool that already has automization in it. It allows developers to connect to Google and make us of machine learning.

Step one and two of AI include adapt and adopt. Next week we will move on to the third and final step of becoming adept. Adept means to get directly involved with developing AI, by learning coding and how to work with related data.

Week 4: MKTG 345 Surfing the Tsunami Ch 4

The next couple chapters of Surfing the Tsunami talk about the three suggested options for responding to AI. Chapter 4 will specifically talk about Adapt. This principle is a good start to responding to AI, but it is the most basic and hopefully will lead you to move onto the next two steps. Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world and it this Chapter is to help you go from being passive to more pro-active about AI.

The first step in educating yourself about AI is reading articles. You do not need to dedicate hours upon hours to this, just a couple articles after work everyday is enough to get you thinking. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Wired, MIT, Technology Review, and TechEmergence are all great sources.

The second step is to read books. Rise of the Robots, Master Algorithm, and 2nd Machine Age are all great books that will help spark your curiosity on AI and help you to adapt. Once you have read articles and books you will start to fully understand AI and the importance of adapting to it. Once you start to adapt it is important to keep moving forward and head to the second phase, Adopt. In next weeks blog post I will be discussing the importance of the word adopt.

Week 4: MKTG 345- Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 3

By now all of you should have created your own blog. It could be about cooking, traveling, your favorite sports team, or even digital marketing. This blog post is to help you learn how to gain more traffic for your blog. The most simple way to gain traffic is through your social media platforms. This includes Facebook, twitter, Instagram, or another social media you use. All you have to do is post a link and your friends and family will view your blog. The best way to draw in viewers is to post a text blur with your link. Don't just post a link, include a general overview of your blog post with something to grab your readers attention.

If you want to do more than just posting your blog on social media, you can try making a Facebook ad campaign. Go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/create and click on the Clicks to Website option. Copy your blog link into the field and upload an image relevant to your campaign. Once this is all done you will type in a header as well as text for the ad. The next step is to select an audience, add interests that you think people who would enjoy your blog have. Select your budget, place your order and your campaign is good to go!

Week 3: MKTG 345- Surfing the Tsunami Chapter 3

Whether you are an optimist or a pessimist on artificial intelligence (AI) you still need to take it seriously. Chapter 3 talks about why you need to take AI so seriously. One article that does a good job of explaining AI and its effects on jobs is:

https://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/21-jobs-of-the-future

It states that while jobs will be changing due to AI, jobs are always changing. Think about jobs from fifty years ago. Very few people work as telegraphists, switchboard operators, and lamplighters. Instead the people who used to have found new jobs, they did not just stay un-employed. Another positive of artificial intelligence is it could take away the jobs that people hate and replace them with new ones. This includes jobs that are dull, dirty, or dangerous. Even if jobs are being replaced with machines, humans are required to help the machine. This includes cleaning, creating, marketing, selling, delivering, and even feeding it. Technology will cause all of society to improve; education, health care, and gun violence are all things that could be improved and machines will not be able to fix. While technology solves some problems, it will create others, humans will be needed to fix the mistakes these machines make.

This article proposes that in the next ten years 21 jobs will be introduced into the work world. These could include data detectives, to cyber city analysts, and to augmented reality journey builders. Not all these jobs are highly technical, there will be low skill jobs created as well. While some people believe that AI will take away jobs from people, it will also help create brand new jobs that were not needed before.

Week 3: MKTG 345- Introduction to Google Analytics Chapter 2

Last week we set up your Google Account and Blogger Account. Now that both accounts are set up it is time to connect Google Analytics to Blogger. Go to your blog and click settings, under settings click other, find the section that says Google Analytics, paste the tracking code you just copied in the box, and  click save settings. It could take up to 24 hours for anything to happen but it is important to test it out to see if it worked. To test it out you need a few clicks on your blog.

Post on your blog and share it on your Facebook wall. Next, go to http://www.google.com/analytics. Sign in and click on home.Click on your website or "property." Google Analytics wants to show you your websites performance. It will show you how many people visit, and their behavior on your sight. You have now successfully linked your Google Analytics to Blogger!

This is a very simple version of Google Analytics. Most of the time Google Analytics is used to track revenue or goals. Once you have been tracking your blog for a while you can set a data range. This helps you to follow trends that your blog is taking. Google Analytics is an easy and free tool that really helps you make your website as best as it can be!