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Implementation

After viewing the video lecture on implementation, what challenges do you think your client may face when implementing your recommendations?

Throughout the semester I have been writing about my own organization which is the Rho Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha here at Central Michigan University. Challenges I believe my chapter will face are that what I’ve learned in this course was mostly geared toward businesses who have consumers. While Rho Delta is ran like a business, it’s not entirely reflected that way on social media. This is a possible area of change for Rho Delta moving forward. Another challenge to face is that Rho Delta does not have many members to carry out all of these tasks that I’ve learned and it would be quite strenuous to put the development of all our social media on just one or two people. While that is possible, I don’t believe that it would be efficient. Nonetheless I’ve brought what I’ve learned to my chapter and discussed it with them and we are excited to implement some of the things I’ve learned as we believe it will help our organization in the long run.

What personal reflections do you have on what you have learned from the course and the client project?

First of all, I was unaware of all these different ways to use social media. I never looked twice at advanced searches on twitter or thought about the fact that there is a business version of an Instagram profile. I was surprised to see algorithms and math and equations and things of that sort all go in to effectively optimizing social media for business. I will definitely take something from this class. Through the client project, as mentioned above, I used my own organization and I’ve already discussed with them ways we can have a better presence on social media from the things I’ve learned during this course. It was a wonderful eye opening experience to say the least. 

P.s. Whats also funny is that before this class, I never used or even thought about Tumblr or contributing this much into it. I have an only Tumblr profile, I may just start it back up and actually use it this time. 

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Social Media Effective Content

After completing the Hootsuite/Podium module 5, discuss how effective content is developed and shared.

What makes content effective is the value that is put behind it. Content becomes effective when a target audience is reached as well as when engagements result from this content. The content/posts put out by businesses should always have some sort of goal/objective in mind. A post without a purpose behind it, is just a waste of time and resources. The content a company chooses to post must appeal to the audience they intend to reach and correlate with the platform used to publicize this content. Most business post with the intent to strengthen sales and build from their.

One example I always like to use is Nike. A while back in 2017, Nike released a commercial starring many athletes such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Serena WIlliams, Michael B Jordan, Alicia Keys, and other big name celebrities. This video was posted on all of Nike’s social media platforms. The purpose and focus of this commercial was equality of all colors and races. I interpreted this commercial too represent and highlight minorities while speaking to humans of all races to accept each other. I believe this is an example of effective content because it has a clear purpose and I think it was a great way to connect deeper with their audience. Here is the commercial below:

https://youtu.be/AFBnNyg4qfU

What does becoming a social organization have to do with the principles of effective content development and sharing?

The principles of effective content have everything to do with becoming a social organization. When becoming a social organization it is important to appeal to your followers and audience. Being a social organization is about the connection made between the company and the consumers. In order to be the best social organization possible, that organization must post effective content. The organization must post with purpose and with a goal in mind of what they want to gain from each post. The success of any social organization depends on the principles of effective content.

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Online Communities

After reading chapters 4 and 5 in the Social Organization, discuss effective principles on online community building with social media. Provide examples and links to illustrate.

Chapters 4 and 5 of the Social Organization book discuss the importance of effectively forming a vision for an organization’s community collaboration as well as well developing a strategic approach toward this goal. As for any company or organization with goals in mind to reach, a vision statement is essential. The vision statement is the first step to controlling community collaboration. As said in the book, “a vision tells people community collaboration is valued and will be actively pursued.” After building this vision, one can move on to strategy to figure out the best way to achieve the vision that you’ve created. Strategy begins with purpose and there is nothing more important to success than your purpose. The purpose drives all strategy considerations.

One company I always look too as an example is Nike. Nike uses their social media influence on their online community. Their online community definitely provides value for them. Nike’s twitter, for example, exudes messages of positivity and hard work through individual tweets as well as tweets that directly engage with the public. Here’s an example:

After completing the Hootsuite/Podium module 4, discuss what you learned about growing an online community. How do these principles apply to the client you are working with on the client project?

A couple things that stuck out for me during the module were the two advocacy programs. The Brand Advocacy Program and the Employee Advocacy Program. The Brand Advocacy Program is about using outside persons as advocates to better an online community through the advocates reach and influence. In step four of the client project, I wrote about how the Rho Delta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha can use brand advocates to promote future events and happenings. The Employee Advocacy Program is very similar but as the name suggest, companies use their own employees as advocates to broaden and strengthen their online community growth/strength. My client, the Rho Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, does not have employees because it is a fraternity. But for the sake of relation, the members of the fraternity can be looked at as the employees of the chapter. The members of the chapter can work as individual member advocates in order to help the chapter itself grow its online community.

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The Legal Side of Big Data

When using big data, what should businesses be aware of? I think that the main thing business should be aware of is that they are bringing in massive amounts of data about their consumers when pulling in big data. this type of information in such a massive quantity extremely difficult if not impossible to keep private and protected from malicious people (hackers) to get a hold of. A lot of the information that is gather is very private and is not for the eyes of some, especially those with plans of harming others with this information for their own personal gain. This risk leaves the possibility of damaging relationships between businesses and their consumers. There was a slide in the “Legal Side of Big Data” lecture that stated several companies including Target and Home Depot, to name a few, had hundreds of millions of credit card accounts hacked in prior years. This proves that consumers’ personal information is almost impossible to take care of. 

With that being said, what should consumers be aware of? Its exactly the same as above except flipped. No consumer wants there most personal information to fall into the wrong hands. In a world full of hackers, fraud, “swipers”, etc., one becomes cautious of who if anyone to trust with the information most vital to them. To elaborate on what a “swiper” is for those who don’t know; a swiper is someone who takes the credit/debit card information of someone whether through hacking, deceiving, or through physically stealing the card and duplicating it to make purchases or steal funds. Consumers need to be much more aware of where they put there personal information and who they trust to take good care of it. 

 What is the best way to balance the opportunities and threats presented by the development of big data? I believe that the best and simplest way to achieve a balance would be for consumers to be aware of what they put out and cut back on the personal information they put out. Consumers must be extremely careful about who they choose to trust with their information. Maybe it would help if consumers familiarized themselves with what big data actually is. 

https://chipcast.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4fe95594-73e5-4b1a-8a3c-83896b88b6d9

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A Successful Social Media Strategy

There are a couple companies I’ve noticed that in my opinion have implemented social media strategies that are very effective, interactive, and overall interesting to see. There are lots of different companies doing lots of different things on social media to make themselves stand out. A couple companies that I’ve took notice would be Dominoes and my favorite overall brand, Nike.

Dominoes has a fantastic social media platform. It’s also very innovative in some of the strategies implemented and also the features that they plan to implement in the future. Its funny that I’m writing about Dominoes at all because a short time ago I hated their pizza. The Dominoes in my city used to be terrible. It wasn’t until Dominoes nationally changed everything that they were doing and actually made better pizza, that I decided to try it again. Dominoes publicly took responsibility for their bad product and made changes and that’s commendable. Some social media strategies they have implemented recently would be their “tweet-to-order” system as well as there “recently introduced ‘DOM The Pizza Bot’. DOM lets customers use the messenger to order their favorite under almost instantly through a just a “couple of clicks.”

Nike has always been my favorite brand. I’ve spent countless dollars on Nike shoes, apparel, sports products, etc. I’ve followed Nike on every social media I’ve ever had. An example of what Nike does well in is using their various celebrities that they endorse in expanding their brand through social media. Fro example Nike uses the various athletes they sponsor when there is a sporting event such as something as large as the Olympics, Super Bowl, or even the NBA finals

https://econsultancy.com/blog/68167-30-brands-with-excellent-social-media-strategies

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If I Were Your Social Media Consultant

I believe I could potentially be a skillful consultant when it comes to social media. This is because of few reasons like my age, my demographic, as well my own presence on social media. Those reasons among many others are why I think I would do good as a social media consultant. So what are some of the most important qualities for a social media consultant to have?

A few qualities that I believe would be important in being an effective social media consultant would be things such as being up to date, for one. In order to appeal to crowds you must stay current no matter what audience you plan to reach out to. Trends come and go in social media. Topics switch up every day so you can’t get caught referencing yesterday’s high point today because it becomes old very quickly and people won’t give it a second thought. Another quality would be knowing which sites to use in order to reach which audience. I would say if you’re looking to reach the younger crowd (18-25) one should put more resources in to twitter but if one seeks to reach an older more mature audience then you exhaust more resources in to Facebook maybe. That’s just a quick example off the top of my head. Also a social media consultant should be versatile in their approach. Utilizing all social media aspects at their disposal.

If I were a social media consultant to myself I would basically implement everything I’ve stated above. Something I’ve done to build my following is posting meaningful things that people are interested; things that people can relate too or like to see. Something I would like to do in the future would be to add my own website to my bio or some way to contact me if someone were to find interest in me such as an explicit email address for that purpose. I will continue to develop strategies to build my own brand as I go. 

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Week 3: Internet Privacy

This week i listened to my instructor’s lecture on information privacy, a Data borkers video from “60 Minutes’”, Maciej Ceglowski’s “The Internet With a Human Face”, and read an article titled “The Internet’s Original Sin.” All of these were about information privacy and its abuse. Here is what I learned.

Big data as defined in the instructor’s lecture is “the storage and analysis of large and or complex data sets.” Big data relates to information privacy because through the internet, that “big data” is made up of our own personal information. Almost every move we make on the internet is recorded somewhere by someone to generate this big data. This is why I think “information privacy” is a funny term because there is no information privacy, especially if the internet is involved. Big data is such a powerful tool especially for businesses. Through big data, businesses can collect information on what consumers are interested in, what sites they use to find what products they’re interested in, among many other things. Also this is such a powerful tool because it’s literally access to massive amounts of personal information on any individual through various social media sites, search engines, and online shopping. Big data is dangerous for that same reason. Entities use all this personal information for any purpose and it’s very possible for this information to get into the wrong hands. Entities are pulling this information with little to no knowledge provided to the consumers inadvertently providing the information. 

Some ways that harm can be limited is by adding regulations. In the “Data Brokers”, one of the interviewees stated that he was against putting regulations on how data is collected through these means. I disagree because I feel that regulations are imperative when it comes to people’s personal information. One way to keep people from mindlessly giving their personal lives to anonymous hands would be to explicitly state that their information has the possibility of being sold/shared before they proceed with such an action. 

Now I want to talk about the “The Internet’s Original Sin” article and “The Internet With a Human Face” video. These two touched on pretty much the same topic. They touched on how companies collect big data. How do internet business models influence surveillance and data gathering on the internet? Well most business models on the internet, of course, are centered around advertising and marketing their products. Naturally, whether ethical or not, surveillance is the easiest and most effective/efficient way to learn what consumers are looking at so that you can know which consumers to target and which sites to pair your advertising with. This surveillance requires data gathering. Its astounding the amount of information stored from internet users that moves from place to place.  

https://chipcast.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d59b80cb-70ca-44ee-a3c1-1a4ab67d6f18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAT_ina93NY

https://vimeo.com/102717446

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/

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Social Media Limits

As was mentioned in earlier blog posts, I took down a log on my social media use throughout a day. I also conducted an experiment where I took an extended amount of time away from social media. From doing that I learned some things. I learned while it is hard to stay separated from social media for long periods of time there are still ways in which one can limit how much social media influences everyday life. I have already employed methods of my own to reduce how often I use social media. 

One way I’ve limited social media in my day is while I’m in class. When I’m in class I cut my phone off completely so i can’t access any social media at all. This way I can pay better attention to whats going on in class without the distractions of social media. Another part of life I’ve eliminated social media from is when I’m eating, especially when I’m eating with company. This way I can engage in real live conversation because I feel its somewhat disrespectful to pull my phone out every 30 seconds while I’m talking to someone. These are some areas in my life that are social media free. 

I think this will better my quality of life because as mentioned in the above paragraph my attention can be directed towards real life. I can better learn in class, engage in conversation, etc. Social media while great in many ways is not necessary in every area of life. 

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The Impact of the Internet

I read an article called “Before the Internet” as well as viewed and interview of Sherry Turkle about her book titled “Alone Together.” These were two very different approaches addressing virtually the same topic. The topic being what life is like with such a connection to the world at all times.  connection of course being the internet. Having the world in the palm of our hands is extremely beneficial but it is also problematic in some areas of life.

In Sherry Turkle’s interview she used the term “Alone Together” which of course is also the title of her book. From my understanding this term “Alone Together” means that even when someone is alone, they’re really not because because they have all the connections and the company need in their phones. I agree with that concept completely because in all honesty I feel that I experience it. Having the internet in the palm of my hands constantly is great but I do feel that it gets in the way of my real life experiences at times. That statement also applies to social media. I can see myself now having a conversation with someone, and for the sake of the scenario, let’s say its someone that I’ve just been introduced too for the first time. In that exchange I can make conversation until the encounter comes to a silent or “awkward stop” and then as a get away I pull out my phone and check any social media or surf the internet for anything interesting so that it doesn’t seem so awkward. 

In the article “Before the Internet,” written by Emma Rathbone, the bulk of the article is about what life was like before we had any access to the internet at all. She highlighted all the random things people would do without the ability to use the internet. A lot of the things mentioned seemed pretty boring to be honest. Other situations mentioned would put things in perspective for me like when Rathbone stated that you would go to an arts center and debate with your friend about what type of gems were in the showcase but neither you or your friend could instantly look it up to confirm which one of you were right. Instead you would have to ask if there was a booklet, you would look around and say “Is there a booklet on this shit?” That was a funny exchange to me. And it put it in perspective because I actually can debate and look up things instantly and I do that quite often because I love a good argument. 

There haven’t been many times where I’ve gone without the internet completely. Only times I can think of is when both my wifi and service is turned off on my phone. Those instances are very rare but what I can remember from them is feeling really disconnected and bored and i was constantly wondering what I might be missing, who might be trying to contact me, etc. I was looking for some sort of entertainment and it was nowhere to be found. 

In conclusion, the internet and social media does play a large part in my life. The concept of being “Alone Together” makes sense to me because no matter how alone you are as long as you have your phone, it’s very easy to make many types of connections. Also imagining life before the internet seems quite boring and experiencing life without the internet is exactly that and I always wonder what I could be missing. 

http://billmoyers.com/segment/sherry-turkle-on-being-alone-together/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/before-the-internet

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Social Media Experiment

Hello, I’m back with another blog post. Yesterday, January 18th, I did an experiment for my BIS 315 class where I had to record a period of time where basically I took extended amounts of time throughout the day where I purposefully took time completely disconnected from social media. The way I shaped this experiment is that throughout the day I did 8 hours with social media to start and then 8 hours completely without social media then back to 8 hours with social. I learned some interesting things about myself as well as those I interact with through social media.

I based this experiment of a regular 24-hour day for me so as you can imagine, the first 8 hours was pretty simple because I was sleep for most of it but it was normal in the early morning being on social media like I normally am. Then I went to sleep and I woke up at about 7:30 and when I wake up I always check what I might have missed during the early morning and I had my half-hour to do so but at 8 am was the hard cut off and actually deleted all social media apps off of my phone do I wouldn’t be tempted to browse or inadvertently compromise the experiment. 

So at 8 am sharp, I cut ties with social media. I immediately thought about how hard it was going to to be to go 8 whole hours without using any social media. It started off simple enough because after that 8 o’clock shut off I started getting ready for class, I walked my dog, brushed my teeth, put my clothes together and drove to class where I cut off my phone anyways so I won’t use my phone during class but around 11 o’clock when I got out of class was when it really started to affect me. I still had 5 hours before I was to download my social media back. I went about my day normally doing homework but I would find myself about every half-hour or so picking up my phone to check Snapchat to scroll down any timeline just to be reminded that the apps aren’t even downloaded on my phone at them moment. Around 2 o’clock I got a couple messages saying things like “ hey, did you get my snap?” or a link to a funny video on twitter they wanted to show me in a group message but I couldn’t go look. Of course this lead to even more temptation to go and see what I’ve been missing. 

Finally 4 o’clock came around and I was finally able to go back on social media. Whats funny is that I actually re-downloaded the apps ahead of time so when 4 o’clock came around I wouldn’t have to wait. As you can imagine I had ALOT of missed notifications and all of it was flooding in. Everything from follow requests and liked pictures on Instagram, direct messages, mentions, retweets, and likes on twitter, and of course all types of missed snaps on Snapchat as well as the Snapchat stories that I get so much entertainment out of. Some of my friends were even mad at me because of how absent I was on social media even though it was only a third of the day. 

In conclusion, it was just interesting to realize how hard it was to completely remove myself from my social media platforms. It was also eye-opening to see how much of my day really consists of social media. As mentioned before I would find myself doing something completely unrelated and suddenly my phone would be in my hand looking to open up any type of social media. I was always wondering what was going on but I couldn’t go and see it. I think maybe I should make a more conscious effort to not look for social media so often to see what other things I may be able to get accomplished. 

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Introductory Post

Hello, my name is Khalil Neal, I am an Accounting major at Central Michigan University. I hope to learn more about the avenues of social media as well as more emerging technology in business. The Rho Delta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha (my chapter) has shown successful social media skills. I guess one area my chapter has shown success in is persistence. We strategically place and remove what we want our audience to see as we understand how long certain posts should persist to where we effectively promote or acknowledge several different things at any time.