The VC Star needs some help

1. Based on the data for Santa Barbara City and Ventura County there is a large potential audience between the ages of 15 to 34. This is a younger demographic than their traditional site mainly caters to, and there is a large number of the population for these areas that fall into this age category.
2. The branding for this microsite is going to be a big part of developing a reader base. The brand has to be some that sets it apart from the traditional VC Star or even "News" as it is traditionally thought of for an older demographic. Youth in this society gravitate towards something edgy and cool. Kids around here flock to terms like 'underground' and other ideas that make them feel like they are onto something that not everyone knows about, or even something a little taboo or not approved of by parents etc. Some like vcrockstar.com or the VC Underground will have a lot more appeal as a brand to this younger demographic.
3. Being relevant to this target market is going to rely heavily on entertainment related news and information. The site needs to have news on the local music and art scene as well as information on entertainment like movie times, things to do, places to go, events etc. Most of the ideas we have mentioned in class would be great to include on the site. Widgets for things like the weather or surf reports as well as local sporting events would be attractive to this demographic.
4. The microsite needs to be simple, sleek, modern and edgy in appearance. The word clutter should never come to mind when looking at the site. Having highly organized and intuitive tabs is a must for keeping the large amount of information that should be available to this users from seeming overwhelming. I think websites like myspace are a great example of how to do this. Myspace has a plethora of features and information, but it is all easy to find and never overwhelming. Band Websites too are a good example of how to keep things thorough but organized at the same time. Thealchemyindex.com and foofighters.com are just a couple examples of this.
5. I think having exclusive information on local business, discounts, entertainment as well as everything mentioned above can all attract the youth market as long as its branded and marketed correctly. I think a big attractor for the youth in terms of news and information is the ability to comment on these things, give their opinions, submit their stories, blogs, pictures, videos ect. The biggest reason sites like myspace and facebook are successful is the community aspect. A news site is a news site, but a news site that involves its users is something that actually stands out. It takes the site from web 1.0 to web 2.0 and gives this younger demographic the feeling of being important and relevant to the site, as well as a reason to come back over and over.
6. As i said in class, Myspace and Facebook should be middlemen, rather than final destinations. VC Star's presence on these sites needs to serve the purpose of getting the word out, generating buzz, and updating readers on things happening on the microsite. Profiles created on these websites need to 'add' or attract as many friends/users as possible to their pages in order to direct traffic to the microsite. These profiles should be very concise, eyecatching, and constantly updated. You don't want users to spend their entire time looking at the VCStar myspace page cause sites like Myspace create a very low attention span and users are very likely to be diverted to a new friends page or band page etc. within seconds. You want people to come to the SNS page and click on the link to the microsite within a minute or two. Then once they are on the microsite hopefully it has enough information to keep them interested enough not to click back to myspace or facebook right away.
7. There are two main ways that this VC microsite can become the "to go" site for news, weather etc. First off, it must be mainly locally relevant. It would be almost impossible for a site like this to become a huge attractor for national news and events, nor should it be. People need local news and i think a lot of times it is hard to find, so this is a niche that is just waiting to be scratched.
The second way it can accomplish this goal is to be comprehensive. Be a one stop shop for all these needs. Users don't want to have to go to CNN.com and then weather.com, and then mapquest and then surfline. They want their information in one easy fluid location. If the microsite can accomplish this feel, again without being complicated or cluttered, than it will have a big advantage over these other sites.
8. The advertising potential on a site like this is huge. Local businesses would eat this opportunity up, especially if their are relevant to the target demographic. Skate and Surf shops, local clubs and concert venues, local restaurants, movie theaters and so on, all would be right at home advertising on a site that provides information directly relevant to both their business and target markets.