Apps

Social Media Applications can function in two ways, ensuring anonymity or forcing an association to your real identity. Both of these functions are necessary for the establishment of an open dialogue. Facebook is the prime example of forcing users to operate from a actual identity. This is in part out of a belief that individuals will be more civil if they are held accountable by people they know. People used to attempt to have different personalities or identities depending on who they were around, Facebook essentially tried to end this. However what has actually happened is a proliferation of individuals are increasingly competitive in their desire to do more than their friends. This belief about individuals behaving civilly if they are coupled with their name has not been proven empirically. Any user of Facebook can testify that individuals, or trolls, are constantly seeking to start an argument.

Some social media apps have been bucking the current norm of not betting against Facebook, and have allowed users to interact anonymity. Apps such as Yik-Yak, Whisper and Secret all allow users to not couple their comments with a name and identity. This has had mixed results. Some individuals have a tendency to seek conflict and to destroy the emotional stability of others. However this is not always the case. There are stories of people rallying behind those who voice thinking of suicide, of showing up to be blood tested for someone’s mother with leukemia, and simply giving shout outs to others  almost always positive. Anonymous social media apps are increasingly used as individuals seek to voice sincere concerns and questions. Although responses are not always positive, it is suprising how often they are.  These examples speak to something more important than which social media app is used, they speak to the character of the individuals that are on them.

The Ring of Gyges is a object from Plato’s Republic which grants the wearer invisibility. Socrates then asks the question of whether an individual’s behavior would change. He was optimistic that because we feel good when we do good, eventually people would start to behave in way beneficial to society. The truth of this belief is something with mixed anecdotal evidence. Anonymous social media does have individuals that seek conflict, but that is not always the case. And maybe the cause isn’t the anonymous social media apps but rather is our character. Blaming social media apps for people’s actions is inappropriate.   

http://blog.hootsuite.com/can-anonymity-good-social-web/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/07/anonymous-social-media-apps-encourage-overshare

Viral Videos

Viral Videos

Here is something that I am pretty positive everyone is curious to know about: viral videos. I have always wanted to know what makes a video go “viral,” the money that can be gained from it and many other things.  First, let us figure what a viral video is. According to Techopedia, my first article, a viral video is defined as any clip of animation or film that is spread rapidly through online sharing. Reading what a viral video is defined I learned I was completely wrong in what these are. I thought there had to be a certain number of times the video is viewed in a given time span. As it turns out most videos that go viral fall into one of three categories: unintentional, humorous, and promotional.

Something that is very common now-a-days is the rate at which viral videos pop up. Now that most mobile devices include a video camera, and a vast amount of people have video sharing capabilities a viral video is created pretty much daily. It is crazy to think that not even ten years ago if a video went viral it was pretty much a one way ticket to stardom.  During that time viral videos were a rare sight to watch and I feel often times it was the media that catapulted videos to the next level. One of the most well-known videos and most viewed on YouTube is Gangnam Style. I bet you are wondering how did a video that, 1: not American made, and 2: not even spoken in English, become the most watched video in the world? I was curious to find out so I went and did some research on how to create a viral video. What I found were some guidelines to follow:                                                        

1.       No need to have expensive equipment

2.       Make your videos for fun, not money

3.       Keep your videos short

4.       Keep your expectations in check

I think one of the reasons why Gangnam Style song was such a big hit with the world is it followed step two in the guideline. A person could tell that the artist was purely having fun with music making.  The guideline I find fascinating is the first one in that you don’t need fancy equipment to make a viral hit. To me it seems like common sense, yet people still go and spend thousands on special equipment to help them achieve their stardom. Now, if you will excuse me I have to go off and create my own viral video using my cell phone!

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2013/06/20/how-to-make-a-viral-video--and-make-money?page=2

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/26863/viral-video

Fastest Way To Topple Governments

Social Media Case Reflection #2: Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in early 2011. The use of social media platforms played a pivotal role in the organization of many protests across the Arab Nations. This post will focus on the uses of social media in how it made much of the protest possible.

It is amazing how only a few decades ago if people wanted to get to get together to protest it would take months of planning. There would be numerous phone calls made, people having to write newspaper ads etc. I think we all know that can take forever to achieve your goal especially when it involves other countries coming together for a common goal. That is where social media comes in. Social media bridged the gap in time. Before I continue I want to use a quote from an Egyptian Activist named Wael Ghonim.  This quote will set up everything I talk about. He said “If you want to liberate a people, give them the Internet.” I think that quote speaks volumes into the protests for numerous reasons. One being, having the internet allows for quick assembly and in the case of Arab Springs the governments could not control the content that was being exposed.

In one of the articles I read, it was discussed the extent to which people would go to show their defiance against the regime. This is also where I think the use of social media might have gone too far. The one that caught my eye was of a citizen of Sidi Bouzid by the name of Mohammed Bouaziz set himself on fire, and then his desperate act of defiance was posted on Facebook and YouTube. The problem with such heinous act posted on to social media platforms is anyone and everyone has the ability to watch it, including children. This is can also be thought of as a con of the protests because there might have been followers who were against violent acts. Personally, if I was part of a protest that was supposed to be non-violent I would lose my interest when I saw someone setting themselves on fire. To display the power social media has, president Hosni Mubarak was forced out of his office because of 5.5% of his population, were able to connect through social media. The 5.5% may seem like a small number to overthrow a president, but that percentage translates into about 6 million people! There is no way that many people would have been able to band together without the aid of social media. In this particular case Facebook was the platform of choice.

There were some big ethical issues that were taking place during this time. Some governments tried to control local and foreign information and support for the protestors by creating Internet blackouts. To fight this Google and Twitter offered a service they called “Speak-2-Tweet.” This is where I feel some rules of ethics were broken. I think it was unethical for Twitter and Google to bypass a country’s control on something so that others could know what is going on. I look at it this way; if there were a problem within my family that was going on, I would want to keep it within my family as to keep others from trying to put their two cents in on the matter.  I kind of feel that is what happened in this country. There was a clear issue and the government wanted to keep the problem within its country and not have outsiders attempting to fight a battle that is not theirs.

You all have probably heard the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Well I would like to introduce you to the new type of pen and its name is Social Media. It is scary how powerful social media can be when used properly. It blows my mind to think that such platforms have the ability to overthrow dictatorships and topple governments. There are definite downsides to using social media as a weapon of information, and at the same time it is a good thing to have when trying to bring massive groups of people together.

http://www.academia.edu/2370755/Explaining_the_role_and_impact_of_social_media_in_the_Arab_Spring_

http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/Definition-Of-The-Arab-Spring.htm

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/what-the-arab-spring-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media-in-revolutionary-movements

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Up until the point I looked up what this phrase was, roughly five minutes ago, I had no idea what Search Engine Optimization entailed. I now know that it is defined as the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that site appears high on the list results returned by a search engine. Knowing this, it comes as no surprise why being towards the top the results is an integral part of a company. Based on the article “Tips for SEO” from the Business Insider, if a company wants to find itself on the top of the results list there are a few things that need to happen. One of the biggest things is to have relevant and original content. I can see how this would be important attribute. The more original your content is the easier it is for others to find you. Another tip is to have good description and keywords.  Using keywords that describe what your companies do in as few words as possible can help the consumer to find you more easily. Think; less is more.

http://www.businessinsider.com/seo-tips-for-search-engine-optimization-2011-7

As I was doing my research on the topic of SEOs I decided to see how social media has an impact on them. I found some what I think are some interesting ways. The first way is the creation of link potential. If a reporter decides to write about a feature within the company and they link it back to the brand’s website, it becomes more accessible since others will have seen the link too; thus bringing us to the next way social media effects SEOs. It can increase the volume of traffic going to your website. This ties back into the linking potential.  The more times an item is looked at or shared on a social media platform the higher up it will start to appear in the results of search engines.

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2342211/7-legitimate-ways-that-social-media-impacts-seo

In a face-paced social world, people do not have, nor care, to have to dig to find what they are looking for online; thus Search Engine Optimization appear to be an important aspect of being able to get a company noticed. From my personal experience I would have to say the links listed on the top ten of a search engine is about as far down I will look.

Aggregators

With so much technology and social media platforms in the world, how does one go about managing all of their accounts? Are they kind of like me and decide when they want to check another account or post the same thing on a different platform they have to first log out then log in to the other platform to say what they want to say? I can tell you from personal experience that having to log in and out of different accounts is complete overkill. By the time I have logged out of one and in to another I have all but forgot what I was wanting to post. This is where aggregators come in to play, but first let’s define what it means for all of you non-social lights out there. According to Google an aggregator is a website or program that collects related items of content and displays them or links to them. More simply put an aggregator takes out the hassle of needing to log in and out of platforms to get the same message across. Honestly, I did not know what an aggregator truly was until I looked up the definition. Although I have few social media platforms I am active on, it turns out I have been it to link out all of my messages.

In one of the articles I read I found something that I thought was interesting. As a business, it may be stretched across numerous platforms. On one platform the user may want to target one audience and target a different audience using another platform. What makes an aggregator an effective tool is the business can choose what platforms the message gets linked to. With that being said there doesn’t exist an aggregation tool that can seamlessly manage all of your platforms. An issue developers are running into is what exactly an aggregator should do because social sites are used in different ways by various groups of people.

http://smallbizlink.monster.com/benefits/articles/254-drowning-in-your-social-media-aggregators-to-the-rescue

Through my findings I have learned there exists many aggregating apps and websites with many of them targeting specific platform areas. An example of this is the tool called Tweetdeck. This tool was designed mainly for people who considered themselves to be tweeters. Since its creation, it has evolved into a comprehensive platform which services Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/7-social-media-aggregation-tools-simplify-your-streams

Aggregators are a huge milestone achievement in social media. It has given people to ability to link out what they are saying across platforms; thus saving finger cramps from repetitive typing among other benefits.

Organizational Uses

With technology becoming more and more of the mainstream in society, the presence of social media within any business or company is becoming more vital. This is becoming more prevalent with small and medium size businesses (SMBs). Combined the roughly 1.3 million SMBs generate more than 5.5 trillion dollars of annual revenue and social media has become a vital axis on which they turn.

In the first article I read it discussed how small businesses are using social media to stay in the mix with bigger named businesses. There were some pretty interesting findings. The one I liked the most is a study that was conducted found ninety-four percent of SMBs use social media as a marketing tool and forty-nine percent use it for educational purposes. What makes this intriguing is ten years ago the thought of a business using social media for learning probably would have got someone fired. Companies trained their employees in classrooms through the use of instructors. Now it has become more frequent for a company to have its employees use social media to educate. This probably cuts down greatly on costs to have outside trainers come in train employees. This new take on social media has shifted the budgets of many businesses to put more into social markets.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231515

One has to think there are many benefits for a business in using social media. One of top benefits I think exists is being able to get instant feedback from customers. No longer are the days of being put on hold for numerous hours to get your complaint out in the open. Social media has made it possible for a person to state an issue within a company and anyone has the capability of seeing the statement forcing companies to respond rather quickly as to avoid a potential issue. Another is social media has opened the door for companies to established meaningful relationships with their clients. I know I would feel good inside if I saw a business said my name on of their social platforms. It would make me think the company actually cares about me.

http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

Companies are shifting over to social media as its main use in the public sphere and it is a great thing. With technology continuously changing at an increasing rate being able to keep an edge on competition will come down to social media.

Class Cloud Assignment

The class cloud assignment was a great way to witness how and why people react to various tweets. I feel that I learned a lot about what drives a person to create tweets. I will use myself for my first example. At some point in the class a comment was made regarding Jennifer Lawerence in which I responded to the person by saying “you got that right.” We proceeded to high-five each other and the class thought it was funny. Then he said I should put it on Twitter. Once it was on Twitter though, the tweet received very few likes. This showed me even though a group of people found something to be funny it doesn’t necessarily means the others are going to be able to understand what the context of the tweet is, which is probably why there were not more likes and retweets. Something I found interesting is how often does get the chance to be in the same location as someone who is tweeting about the same topic? Probably not too often, so it was cool to be able to watch an individual say something in the class then ten seconds later it be up on the Twitter feed. One of the best moments of the class was when the professor showed a video from YouTube of his daughter’s one year birthday party. By the time the video was over and he refreshed the Twitter page, the same video had already been linked out. As funny as his reaction was to seeing it on Twitter it definitely brought to light some disturbing facts. For example, the speed at which the video was linked out was less than a minute. That just shows how quickly a person can post an image or video. I think it is kind of scary to know that someone can post something that I am in and there is a chance I would not know about it. Chances are a person never expects to get a tweet back from a celebrity and or a big name company. I have never seen it occur until the class. One of the students tweeted to Jet Blue and the company tweeted back to her. I looked them up and they have over 1 million followers. For them to be able to take the time to send a tweet to a specific person tells me there are companies  that care greatly about what their customers have to say. As for myself I sent a tweet to Facebook asking why they chose to make the process of uploading videos go through a “middle man”. I did not receive a response. At the same time I wasn't expecting to get one. This assignment was great exercise. It definitely opened my eyes.

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572895675689521152

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572888711991455744

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572668168872714240