hannahharrisbg-blog - Tumblr blog

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Tumblr

I have used Tumblr to blog throughout MIS 4910. Here are my final thoughts. I like like Tumblr and will continue to use it afterwards. I do have another Tumblr but I have not used it in about a year. This will like be the account that I will use.The UI is not extremely complicated and I find it easy to use. I enjoyed that I could put my interest in when making my acount. From my experience with another account, a person interests influence content of the dashboard. This account has more professional content in the dashboard. There were post about tech news, business news and professional tips. I also appreciate that posts can easily be scheduled to be shared at specifc times. Compared to other blogging websites, I think Tumblr does not have as much of an ability to customize a profile. There is some ability to customize. Users can have a header pictures and profile picture. Also, there name of a user and blog can change. I could not find a way to customize the background of my blog. Additionally, there was not a way to change the font. I could make my font bold or italic but this was only when I was on a desktop. Through I like Tumblr, I am not sure how much value it would add to a business. The broad opinion I have heard is that Tumblr is for fandoms. This would offer value to TV shows, since there would be an abundance of people to follow. A TV show would find it easy to understand the opinions of others. My experience with two accounts has shown me otherwise. There are business blogs to follow but not too many. One way Tumblr could offer value to a business is with advertising. Like other free forms of social media, Tumblr does have advertising. A business could pay to have ads on the site. Also similar to other social media platforms, Tumblr has a trending topics feature. This is on the tab were one can search for things. Trending topic offer businesses and people a way to discover what is people are talking about.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is like most forms of social media. The purpose is to connect with people. There are many similarities between LinkedIn and other social media platforms. On LinkedIn in one can share stories, write posts, comment, like and search for people. Additionally, there is the ability to look at specifc regions. For example, someone could search for people in New York. However, LinkedIn is more targeted to professionals. A person can add skills and work experience. Connections can endorse skills. There is also a place for companies to post job openings. I think that LinkedIn has a lot a value to business. As stated before companies can post job openings. This is a good feature for business to find potential new hires. Beyond post jobs, business can also look at the profile of those who applied for a job. Some applications online will have a place to link to your profile. Because many businesses are already on LinkedIn, I believe it would be very easy to start a page for a business. There are business from numerous industries. So, it would be easy to find example to base a plan for LinkedIn off of. This also creates a problem. With so many businesses on LinkedIn, it is more challenging to stand out from others. I do have a LinkedIn. One of my college professors made the class get profiles. Before this I have never heard of LinkedIn. This was when I just started college. In the start I did not use LinkedIn that much. All I would do is connected with people. Recently, I have began to use LinkedIn more. I update my profile and post. I also will go an like the page of place I'm interested in working for.

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Reddit

The purpose of Reddit is to share opinions. People will share news, videos, pictures and much more. There are karma points, which are obtained through up-votes and like on posts. Like many other forms of social media, Reddit offers a way to people to get connected and have discussions.

One way a business could benefit is buying ad space. From what I have seen, Reddit has a lot of advertisements. It would be profitable to have potentially millions of people see your company. Certain Reddit users may not have seen an ad on others forms of social. It is always valuable to get a companies name out to more people.

Like other forms of social media, Reddit offers companies a way to have a conversion with people. From what I have seen post on Reddit have more in depth discussion that other forms of social media. Similar to companies and celebrities doing a Q&A on Twitter, Reddit has AMA. This stands for ask me anything. I think that a business would get value out this. One way is any concerns Reddit users had could be addressed by the company.

I have never used Reddit before, but I have been on the site. I always thought is was like any other forum online. From this class, I can see that it is far more than that. Reddit is a whole culture that has its own language. One example of Reddit language is TD:LR, which stands for “to long didn’t read”. Through I like the site, I do not think I will use it after this class. At this point my life, Reddit does not add that much to it.

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Snapchat

The main purpose of Snapchat is to share videos and pictures of your life, much in the way that Instagram does. The largest difference between Instagram and Snapchat is the longevity of posts. Post on Snapchat only are up for a few moments then are gone. Snapchat is a way to send pictures, videos and messages privately to one or a few people. A cool feature is the filters. These filters have some that change periodically.

The main use for business, in my opinion, attracting younger people. For many young adults and teenagers, Snapchat is the go to social media platform. Sour Patch Kids did exactly this. Snaps that were share were designed to appeal to younger people who were on the platform. A business could also use Snapchat to humanize a company. The plaform could be used to show the people behind the company. This would put faces to what would have just been a name or product. Lastly, I can see the discover feature being helpful to a business. A company has the ability to find out what is trending currently. 

I have heard of Snapchat before this class. However, I have never been tempted to make an account. Personally, I do not get it. I do not see why someone would want to take time taking a picture then go through filter just to have it be gone in a few moments. Broadly, I think that Snapchat promotes vanity. The main reason I never made an account is because I do not take that many pictures of myself. After making an account for this class, I can see that Snapchat goes beyond this. However, I am not sure if I will use it in my personal life.

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Prezi

The purpose of Prezi is similar to that of Google Drive. The main difference is that it is solely focused on presentations. From the presentations I have been in that used Prezi, it offers a unique way to present a topic. It is far more interesting that the traditional PowerPoint slide show. I was not sure why Prezi would be considered social media. After looking through the site, I would say that Prezi is a form of social media, but only on a basic level. People can also look at other presentations people have made. This is all that I could find, there is not a way to comment on other presentations.

I can see Prezi being somewhat useful in a business context. A company is going to make numerous presentations every year. It could be very helpful in making one big presentation stick out from the others. If a team was presenting about a new innovation, Prezi could help make a well planned presentation. Having videos embedded in the presentation would be valueable. This would streamline the presentation and put everything in one place.

One issue I can see a business having is resistance from people. Most people are familar with Microsoft PowerPoint. If a company were to make presentations only on Prezi alone, I can see some people not wanting to make the switch. People like doing what is familiar to them, this includes software.

Personally, I never have used Prezi before this class. I have sat through a few Prezi presentations before. These presentations always stuck out because they had a more interesting way to present information. Making a presentation was fairly easy. In my opinion, it is very similar to using PowerPoint. There are a one key difference, the visual approach to making a presentation. 

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Pinterest

The purpose of Pinterest is to to share ideas. The site has many post about DIY (Do It Yourself) projects and decoration ideas. The site has many pictures of different things, like outfit ideas and wedding inspiration. The old saying is that a picture is wroth a thousand words. This is certainly true in the case of most social media. In my opinion, Pinterest is a very popular social media site that has many people visit it everyday.

Pinterest could be very useful to a business. If they were having trouble coming up with ideas, Pinterest could be used to gain inspiration. I can see how it could be helpful to get ideas from people not in the specific company. Sometimes it is very helpful to have a fresh look at a problem. Pinterest could offer a company new ways to solve a problem that were not previously thought of. Pinterest would also be helpful in discovering what is popular at the moment, visually speaking. If a large number of pins has pastel colors, a business could use this when designing a advertisement. Overall, I do believe that Pinterest has use for businesses.

I never have uses Pinterest prior to this class. No one in my group of friends really has either. There are a few people I know that have used it for specific purposes. One friend of mine used it to get ideas for her wedding and other friend used Pinterest to get ideas for set design in a play. I do like Pinterest, it is very easy to negative. I can see how others would enjoy using it. However, I do not see myself using Pinterest past this class. I think that there are too many post of the same content for it to be useful to me. 

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Google Drive

The purpose of Google Drive is to share and edit files. At first, I was not sure why this would qualify as social media. After thinking about this for a while, I can see why. It is use for editing word and PowerPoint presentions between individuals. In order to edit a file it needs to be shared with you first, this sharing would make it a form of social media. I have mostly used Google Drive for school projects. It is very convenient because the only thing that is need is an internet connection. This allows people to edit pretty much anywhere. Also, sometimes my groups are not able to meet in person. Google Drive allows people to chat with others edit the file and leave comments on things that need to be addressed. The only issue I have seen with Google Drive is getting files off of it. The format typically gets messed up when downloading it to Microsoft Office. When this happens, you need to spend time editing the file once it is in Microsoft Office. This can cause a problem if there is a time concern. Additionally, when printing from Google Drive the printed pages can come out differently than expected. This also cause more work to be done. For business purposes, I see the ability to share and edit file as being the most valuable. Many companies have many different locations. This means that working on a document can be hard. Google Drive offers a level of collaboration. I do not think that Google Drive has the most collaboration. I think that having video would be useful in meetings. With Google Drive people across the world can work on the same file. So, I could be working in the U.S. and someone else could be working in Europe. My main concern with using Google Drive for business is security. From what I have seen there is no way to know where Google locates there servers. This is a problem because different place have different security requirements. Similarly, I would be concerned with who can view a file. Most businesses have document that are top secret and they do not want them share with anyone. I think that Google Drive should be considered for business use. Depending one the needs it could be the most useful to a Business compared to similar file sharing, like Microsoft OneDrive. It has made working on projects easier for me. I can see how it could do the same for a business.

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Facebook

Personally, Facebook is the form of social media that I use the most. It is the best way for me to stay in contact with people I know. Like many other forms of social media the purpose is to share your life. Over my near 10 years of using Facebook, I have not had any major issues. Posting is always very easy. It was made easier when an app was created. The only problem I have with Facebook is that the messages on the app is in a seperate Facebook messager app. This is not really a problem but more of an annoyance. I think that it would be simpler to just have everything in one app. I have seen may business, both large and small, use Facebook. From what I have seen, many businesses use it to promote themselves. This is accomplished by posting information about the business, like pictures of products with a description. I think that a useful feature is linking to the company website. Sometimes finding the correct website can be difficult if there are many businesses with similar names. Also, Facebook can show the address and from there directions can be calculated using the current location. From a customer perspective, I think that the Facebook reviews of business would be very helpful. I like to look at the experiences of others when making purchase decisions. Having this feature is useful because people can see the average rating for a business. This would hold the most weight if someone saw the review of a friend they ttusted since that opinion would mean more than someone they did not know. Overall, I think that Facebook is a very useful form of social media. There are millions of people on it, including interbationally. With this in mind, business can use Facebook to expand there reach. I do not reminder which discussion post but a graph showed Facebook as one of the most important for business people.

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Instagram

I have used Instagram for a while. The purpose is to share pictures, videos and now stories about what you are doing. It is a way to share your live, like many other social media platforms. Overall, I have had a very positive experience with using Instagram. Setting up an account was super easy and required the normal email and password. With Instagram being owned by Facebook, people can likely just link to a Facebook account to create an account on Instagram. This would make account setup even easier. The only negative experience I have had is with trying to use it on a desktop. I could not post photos or view any post. This is not a big deal since I mainly use the app. For business use, I can see Instagram being helpful. A business could show the day in a life of an employee. Similar to how BGSU College of Business has a student take over the account for the day. Putting face to a company would be a potential way to build a relationship with customers. Additionally, a business could use Instagram to promote the company. They could show deals products and services. Also, offer special discounts to follows. An example of this would be something like "use code Insta100 at checkout". A business could also give seek previews of new products by showing parts to the development, like a meeting.

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Wikis

I chose to go to Wikipedia and make an account.

First Thoughts

It seems weird to me that an email address is optional before creating an account. Having an email address required seems like a way to insure that there are not as many fake accounts. 

Creating the account was very easy. All I needed to do was create a username and password. Then I had to confirm my password. The last step was a captcha. As I said earlier an email address is optional because of this I did not enter one.

Once I was logged into my account, there was a notice section. As I had just created an account, the only notice was one welcoming me to the site. There also is a link that leads to contributions. This would be very helpful if I was to be doing a lot of editing on Wikipedia, it would allow me to go back and recheck my older edits.

Editing Pages

I was surprised that there was not some kind of test that would ask me what I had interests in. Similarly, with an account any page could be edited for the most part. There are pages that are locked to editing, like the US President. But many of the page are able to be edited without any form of validation of the editor’s credentials. This was surprising to me but not to a full extent. Learning this mainly backed up what many instructors have told me about Wikipedia not being a creditable source.

I chose to edit  the page on the hash function. This is not something that I am very familiar with. From a class on IT security, I know a little bit about hashing. Specifically, I edited the section on the hash table. When doing so, it seemed weird that I could just remove all of the information in this section if I wanted to. I made a few minor changes, like misspelling words or capitalizing random letters. I also changed a few words to synonyms. Before I saved the changes I removed part of the last paragraph.  What I removed said, “it tells where one should start looking for it.

As a way for information to be checked, the page stated that “ Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.” This is an important thing, because I was not familiar with the page I edited. I am also aware that some people edit pages for fun. A recent example of this was with a Burger King ad about the whopper. When people on the internet found out that the ad with the statement “Okay, google” was pulling information from a Wikipedia page, some people started to change the information in the page for fun.

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Blog on Blogging

Apology

I realized that my first blog for MIS 4910 was supposed to be about blogging. My first blog post was about using Twitter for business purposes. I apologize that I made this over sight.

Blogging

The main difference that I can see between blogging for personal use and blogging for a business is the content. A personal blog can go from many different topics in between posts. One post could be on the author’s experience going grocery shopping and the next could be a review of a product. For a business blog, not staying focused would be different. It would seem odd if a blog about marketing switched topics and started to talk about accounting.

Additionally, content would need to be more professional. I understand that there is certainly a use for less professional business blogs; It would be a way for a business to attract younger audiences. In general, business blogs have content that is more professional. An example of this could be images. If a business were to promote a product through a blog, the image would likely have a more professional appearance than a personal blog doing the same. Also, word and images used are more respectful.

In any form of social media, the end goal is to gain followers. Gaining followers is a way to make money.  This is applies to blogging, whether for personal or business use. With business blogging, gaining followers would allow the company to create more awareness about the business. This would lead to more income for the business.

Thoughts on Tumblr

In general, I like Tumblr. The site was very easy to set up. I did many common things when creating my account, such as choosing my blog’s name and entering an e-mail address. I really liked that there was a section where I got to chose what topics interested me. This is nice because whenever I go to Tumblr’s dashboard, I see posts about these topics.

Using the website to make a post is also very easy. I did not involve that much effort. I just need to chose to make a text post. There are also other options, like making a post with a picture. I have used the app before and I do like it. I just have not used it to make make a post from becasue of my personal preference. When writing a longer post, I prefer to use a regular keyboard instead of my phone.

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Twitter for Business

I have used Twitter for a few years but the account is not dedicated to being professional. In the past 3 weeks, I have been using a different Twitter account in a more professional fashion. I have a few thoughts on the differences between using Twitter for business and personal use.

First of all, it is more difficult to create a professional Twitter. There are certain things that you have to keep in mind when doing this. One is your audience, on a professional twitter the audience will be other business professionals and businesses. This means that the content posted has to be different from a personal Twitter. An example would be posting political things. I am not saying that this is not okay, it certainly is. However, on social media for business purposes it may not be the best idea. 

Second, the content is different. There is a higher level of consideration that is needed for using Twitter for businesses. This goes back to knowing who the audience is. Content is different for because the audience for business Twitter accounts is going to be customers and other businesses. The content needs to be clear and purposeful for business accounts. Also, on a personal twitter account someone can complain about things. A professional Twitter account does not have this same ability.

Last, the importance of who you follow. On my personal Twitter, I follow a lot a musicians, YouTubers and authors. However, on my Twitter for MIS 4910 I chose not to follow the same people and instead follow business professionals and companies. Who an account follows can determine who sees the account. Besides other students in the class, many of the followers are other small business and business professionals. I do not think that my other Twitter would attract the same followers.