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Implementation Lecture

After watching the lecture on implementation, I had many takeaways that also reflected lessons from the client project. I enjoyed the segment about organization fails when it comes to transitioning into a social organization. The fail example that stood out the most to me was “failing to focus on what you want to achieve from the technology and focusing too much on how to use the tech”. I thought this was a very key idea to think about because it’s easy to get lost in the many options we have for sharing content and benefitting our organization, but if we don’t have goals set in place that we want to achieve it’s harder to make a positive outcome. 

I also thought the part in the lesson about using a social media platform as a tool was helpful. The point about gimmicks not being a smart idea to attract followers to your organization was very insightful. Many businesses might think shortcuts like making a promotional sales deal very quickly or something similar will result in a major change for the organization when in reality it only lasts short term. Instead, focusing on things that would help long term like building a strong community is a wiser path to take. 

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Client Project Step 6

For step 6 of the client project, I had to advise my client’s organization on what actions they should take in terms of advertising. I presented them with the recommendation that while paid advertising is a smart move for other businesses, I didn’t see it as a choice that would be beneficial for them at the moment. The organization runs on a small budget from the players of the team and donations raised. These funds are being applied towards other necessary things they need like uniforms, travel fees, etc. 

Due to this specific situation, I instead advised my client to start posting content on their social media more frequently. The information they’re creating has a very specific audience that can be targeted by having them follow the Instagram page. Plus, I pointed out that making a presence on CMU’s campus and explaining the goals of the organization to peers would be free and still achieve the same benefits of paid ads. This face-to-face idea would also give them the chance to distribute the team’s Instagram handles and increase the follower count. 

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Client Project Step 5

I found this week’s client project step to be very fun and informative. I think creative content is easily one of the most important aspects of having a successful social media presence. If a profile is posting the same type of content repeatedly, it becomes very static and boring. I know this from personal experience on social media and unfollowing business accounts that don’t interest me anymore because of the same content being released. That’s why I was very excited to explain to my client the different ways they can grab their followers attention. Since they only have an Instagram profile set up I listed out the different options for posts that’s available to them. On top of that, I also recommended they create goals to start tracking and come up with a content calendar to organize posts for the future. I think these steps are just as important in making creative content since it will save time and allow for the posts to have more work put into them, instead of being done in 5 minutes and posted at the last second.

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Learnings from The Social Organization

Chapters 3-5 of The Social Organization contains a lot of important information for businesses and individuals to consider for their future business purposes. This includes moving from the business image to building a social organization as well as planning and growing a community to surround the social organization.

I was surprised when the book pointed out how new the idea of becoming a social organization still is to these new companies. It made me feel like I’m not very behind in this industry and can quickly learn and offer my knowledge on social media to help successfully grow businesses in the future, like I’m currently doing with my client. In the next chapters, the book heavily focused on planning how to build a community and actually growing it. Having goals set in place and understanding what your organization is setting it to do is extremely important, much like what I learned from Hootsuite. By putting a lot of time into the planning aspect of this and knowing what you want to get out of collaborating with your community will save a lot of time and help you focus on what specifically needs to be done to help.

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Client Project Step 4

Step 4 to the client project has provided even more to learn and takeaway from by giving me the chance to apply the information from Hootsuite module 4. Hootsuite taught me multiple ways in engaging with followers and building a community. One of the most vital pieces of information Hootsuite provided me with was using multiple functions on each social media site. I especially focused on the benefits of the Instagram Stories function and thought it would especially be useful for my client’s situations. 

I feel this step has forced me to locate the best tips in accordance to my client’s current standing. Instead of just reading all the information Hootsuite has, I’m able to put it to action by having to apply these tips to very specific situations. I also learned about the importance of building the brand. Having a consistent brand voice is very crucial which was another recommendation I made for my client. I feel like information like this seems very straightforward until putting it into action. Building a brand voice sounds simple in hindsight, but building a brand voice can be way different for someone starting a car rental business from my client who is running a school sports team organization.

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The Legal Side of Big Data

I feel that there are many components of big data that companies fail to recognize. Instead of viewing big data as innocent citizens entire identities and personal information, they see it as a way to grow their business and better understand their consumer base. This negligence is the reason it leads to unfortunate situations, such as people having their records leaked and obtained by hackers. Companies need to understand that things like people’s credit card numbers are vital to them and need to be better protected. It not only hurts the companies validity, but also endangers the lives of citizens.

Alternatively, consumers need to understand what they’re giving away when they agree to these terms and conditions. I feel that the average consumer isn’t aware that these companies are gaining access to private material like mental illnesses or previous convictions. Consumers need to research and better understand all the dangers posed to them when giving up this information and realize just because it’s going to one corporation, doesn’t mean only their eyes see it. Their information is distributed around to others that see it as valuable content or stolen by hackers.

In conclusion, I believe it’s important for corporations to take more responsibility when handling these records and better protect them. On top of this, I think it would be a good idea to have information wiped after a set amount of time so it isn’t constantly piling on itself and sitting around until someone who isn’t supposed to gains access. 

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Client Project Step 3

When performing step 3 of the client project, I found myself becoming much more involved with the organization I’m working with than any of the steps so far. The other steps have split up the responsibility of analyzing the business and sharing advice for them to follow. This was also by far the most beneficial for my client. I especially thought the goals for the business to follow as well as the consistent voice were important. I had to learn to recognize and apply what I’ve learned from Hootsuite to this situation by analyzing my client’s organization and recommending how they should compose themselves in the future. Overall, I enjoyed completing this assignment and look forward to the next step.

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Social Media’s Power

It may seem like an obvious statement to point out social media holds a large amount of power, but I feel we don’t truly understand the influence it has. Social media has become such a vital use of everyday life that we overlook the impressive accomplishments its made over the years. For example, the fact that anything can blow up on social media and become huge is such a crazy feature it holds. We’ve seen people become celebrities for a moment just from taking a video of their friend and saying “damnnn daniel”. More recently, the breakout of the show, Squid Game, has dominated every social media platform it feels like. I can’t go anywhere without seeing an article about why its become such a must watch show and building the viewership of the program. 

Going beyond social media’s ability to boost the fame of people or other media, its also responsible for getting involved in the legal system. There have been multiple instances of Reddit users collaborating and even solving cold cases. For instance, the shooting of Walter Scott was solved by Redditors. After a cop gunned down the unarmed black man, a bystander released a video they captured. The footage quality was too poor to determine if the police officer was within his rights. Until, Reddit user, Daniel Voshart, was able to improve the video quality and prove Walter Scott was unjustly murdered.

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The Accessibility of Stalking

The activity done in class displayed how all the information that gets stockpiled on the internet makes it uncomfortably easy to collect tons of personal information about someone. After finding out someone’s first and last name, plus their hometown, Google was able to pull up information like all their social media profiles, past jobs, even pictures. 

Looking myself up, I noticed it’s hard to find much information on me since my social medias are private. This activity taught me the importance of protecting anything you post online that has your name attached to it. Anybody with access to Google can learn more about you than you think in only minutes. Beyond just simple safety reasons, it’s also important to keep your profiles private to avoid losing job opportunities from information that employers might not approve of. 

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My Social Media in the Future

After increasing my knowledge on what it takes to upkeep a professional presence on my social media profiles, I’m eager to apply these lessons in my future. One thing I’ve learned is to plan out my posting and think about what content I’m about to create for others to see. Typically I would give little thought to what I posted, but this simple lesson can be very effective at keeping silly mistakes like typos out of your posts. Also, I’ve learned about how important it is to target the platforms most essential to your success. For instance, I never thought about how important it is to choose which platforms you spend your time on. Wasting time to create content for platforms that won’t yield enough attention and visits for your business are better off left alone.

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Qualities of a Media Consultant

Being successful in the role of a media consultant requires several characteristics. For one, you must be an effective listener and communicator. Without conversing to your client requesting your help, you won’t know exactly how to give advice or land on a solution for their specific problems.

Next, a media consultant obviously calls for some tech savviness. Being uncomfortable with devices, like computers/phones, will greatly hold you back since this is where the job takes place. Knowing how to explain and teach clients the ways to utilize technology in a way to increase their business’s reach is very important. 

Lastly, I’d say a good media consultant takes the skill of problem solving. You can be good at talking and working your way around the internet, but if you can’t creatively come up with solutions to the clients problems surrounding their business, you’ll never be able to help anyone. Thinking outside of the box is very crucial here since anyone can say “go on more social media platforms” or “post more often”. You must think of any possible way to assist your client and reduce their worries about the threats to their business.

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The Internet’s Influence on Data Gathering

The internet’s key reason for even existing since the start has been to make everything easier. One of it’s specifications in insuring this would happen for it’s users is the fact that it learns about you so it can work how you want it to and result in performing differently for individuals. Unfortunately, this has led us to a big mistake that we must suffer through now. 

The intelligence technology possesses now gives companies the power to learn about us, without our knowledge of giving anything away. Ads can morph themselves to be whatever preference the user may have. These ads are valued by the CEOs and people trying to get consumer money. Their support for understanding the population and trying to shove content down our throat is one of the main influences on why they’re so successful. The internet business model focuses around “competing for our attention”, as said in The Internet’s Original Sin. Websites are filled with a battleground of ads trying to get you to click, accidentally or purposefully, on them as opposed to competitors. This results in strangers constantly attempting to better understand us than their rivals.

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Data Brokers and Information Privacy

Information privacy is something that basically every individual values. No one wants their personal information being sold and shared between strangers for the sole purpose of knowing how to make more money off your likes, dislikes, and more. Unfortunately, this is exactly what’s happening behind the scenes as we speak. 

Big data is crucial because of how much information is able to be stored. Imagine a library that contains files and files on the personal information of millions of people. This is extremely valuable to any company or business looking for an edge on how to up sales and easily find the consumers most likely to give you service. It’s intelligence seems to have no limits. Tracking locations, knowing what you buy, seeing who you spend time with, there is virtually nothing these companies are unable to learn about individuals. The scariest part may be the fact that people have no idea who is imposing on this information, what information is even being viewed or stolen, and how they can go about their daily lives without having information taken.

I wish I was able to come up with advice on how to prevent these immoral practices, but perhaps the only one is not engaging in social media or online activities at all. The reach and resources these companies provide seem to be so efficient at stealing this information that even simple Google searches could result in leaking private material about yourself. Aside from this I would hope our government could limit the freedom of these businesses since that seems like the only chance at putting an end to the data brokers trading.

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Louis C.K. and Sherry Turkle Response

When listening to Louis C.K. and Sherry Turkle’s thoughts on cellphone use, it felt like they were pulling thoughts and feelings straight from my head. Although I’ve never sat and thought about why I constantly check my phone or the reason it’s hard to go without it, they were able to voice my feelings perfectly. The feeling of being alone or not knowing what message is waiting for me eats away until I finally cave and open my phone to respond to whatever message or check the notification. I’ve thought a lot about how thankful I am to have been one of the last generations that didn’t grow up with an iPhone or anything until I was much older. I see my siblings or friends siblings that have grown up with these devices since they were too young to talk basically and the difference it creates in personality is very visible. When C.K. talked about children becoming mean because of putting negative messages online and not facing the consequence of feeling bad for saying something I thought that was a brilliant observation. So many people’s social interactions or formed through the internet today instead of being 100% organic and face-to-face conversations. Moving onto Turkle’s point of how cellphones aren’t entirely negative at all also caught my attention. It’s very easy for us to blame the technology and say that it’s the sole reason our society has changed in negative ways, but that isn’t true at all. There are many amazing uses smartphones have provided us with. The real problem lies within us and our self control. When we start doing things like ignoring our family and friends in person to continue engaging in online communication, there is no way to spin it that it’s the phone’s fault. At the point it becomes a human error because we are unable to draw the line at when to put down our electronics and communicate like how we were meant to. 

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Social Media Experiment

After logging my time spent on screens, whether it was through TV or social media, I noticed a couple things about my media habits. For starters, it was way lower than I was expecting. It wasn’t small by any means, but it definitely made me realize maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to cut social media out of my life. Another thing I noticed was that nearly 3 quarters of my screen time was spent on using streaming services and watching TV. As I prepared for the next step of this experiment I was even more surprised.

I assumed I’d have no issue going from a normal day of media consumption to as little as possible. As I endured a 24 hour period of trying not to watch TV or spend time on social media platforms, I found myself becoming very fidgety and constantly checking my phone. There were several times I loaded up Instagram or Snapchat out of habit and had to catch myself. This shocked me since I really didn’t log a lot of time on these sites. However, it seems like my social media usage typically consists of many visits to these sites, but in short durations throughout the day. 

Finally, my biggest problem of all was leaving Netflix and Hulu alone for the whole day. I normally will spend hours binging a new show I started, looking for new stuff to watch, or just keeping it on in the background as I go to bed or do other activities. Unfortunately I did cave at a point and turn on Hell’s Kitchen while I worked on homework. I consistently keep TV on while I work, that it actually felt hard to sit down and put some time into my assignments without the usual comfort of the TV going on. This experiment has taught me that maybe I could try doing this more often. Although it was difficult and I didn’t completely stay screen free for the 24 hours, maybe I could start trying to go a whole day without TV or social media and see if I can boost my productivity. While it was hard to do, it definitely felt rewarding to not waste so much of my day on these devices. 

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Clay Shirky Ted Talk

This presentation highlighted very impressive ways the internet has proven itself to be one of the biggest revolutionary creations ever made. It's amazing that a simple social media platform that everyday users take for granted and use to share silly things like memes was capable of breaking through the censorship a government put in place. Even an entire news network who is responsible for spreading information, such as the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that took place, was beaten to the punch by groups of average citizens with nothing but a cellphone in their hand. I feel that a large amount of social media users forget the power that these platforms give to us, myself included. A business owner can generate a huge amount of attention to their start-up, Chinese citizens can expose the injustice that led to school buildings collapsing, and so much more.

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Introduction

Hi, my name is Niko Lucio and welcome to my Tumblr. I'm currently a junior at CMU and am majoring in broadcasting and cinematic arts. My dream is to someday work on a film set and hopefully be able to create my own films at some point. I hope to become more accustomed to Tumblr through these posts and learn how to use it to spread the word about future projects I may work on in the future or advertise my own filming company.