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3 Tips To Adapt PR Tactics On Social Media

Image source - Pixabay

Public relations practice in the 21st century has adapted to using social media applications for research, writing and delivering messages to communicate with stakeholders and target public's online. Almost every aspect of this profession relies heavily upon the use of the internet to achieve outcomes. CEO's can communicate directly with employees through messenger apps; feedback from customers can be accessed in real time; a company's annual report can be published on their website; and blogging, photo sharing, newsletters and press releases can all be posted through websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The digital era of using these communication tactics has become so mainstream and effective they have been used successfully in political campaigning to win elections. Activists, corporations, government departments and not-for-profit organisations have used applications such as Facebook and Twitter to organise rallies, sign up thousands of members to support a cause, raise thousands of dollars for advertising campaigns and to express their opinions and views to influence audiences.

So how can you adapt and use PR tactics to grow your audience, generate awareness and grow your brand? Here are three simple tips to implement into your social media strategy.

1.Understand Your Audience

This one gets thrown around a lot, ‘know who your audience is’. But do people understand how to do this effectively? It requires digging a little deeper than, ‘business owner who wants more leads and sales’. If you look up your country’s public records of statistics and search for data that reveals the number of internet subscribers in the last 5 years, how many household and businesses have internet access, are they using the internet for ‘personal, private, business or educational’ purposes, what age groups use the net and social media and for what purpose? All of this data is important for planning a public relations campaign that uses social media. The demographic details will help determine which social media and internet applications are suitable for different audiences. Because no matter how often you are posting on social media, not everyone is your potential target public's and the way they use Twitter is different to the way they use Facebook. Understanding your audience in more detail lets you know why you are using social media accounts. Is it to generate dialogue? Is it to alert people about a new product and direct to your main site? Is it to sell something? When you answer these questions after researching your audience, you will have a deeper understanding of why these applications are necessary, who is using them and why.

2.Cross Promotion

Social media changed the dynamics of how people find and receive information through the evolving features they provide to communicate messages. If you have a product offer you want to promote on your website, you can use multiple channels across social media and the web to cross promote to different target markets. The key to successfully cross promoting a product is to ensure each social media application is being used appropriately to inform, influence and educate people according to its specific features. Each message, post, video, image you use to promote the same product has to be altered in some way to maximise its effectiveness. Simply copying and pasting the same message across all platforms would be a waste of time and resources because you are not implementing a different message delivery strategy within the context and suitability of each application.

Image source - Pixabay

3.Treat Social Media as a Professional Practise

Remember to use your social media posts as a professional media outlet by posting quality content on a consistent basis with a strategy of achieving goals and objectives in your business. It needs to be used as a more serious undertaking than just using it to share with your family and friends. If you have product or service you are selling, you can post about the results and success stories your clients are getting; create brand awareness about you and your programs; and network with potential partners and influencers. Utilize social media as a tactic within the context of a public relations practice to deliver on an ‘interpersonal’ communication strategy which will enhance your results. For example, having a website is a tactic that is then linked to an objective and a message strategy. Use social media in the same way.

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5 Marketing Secrets I Learned From Millionaire Underdog JT Foxx

'Marketing is the engine of your business while branding is the fuel' - JT Foxx World's #1 Wealth & Business Coach.

Image courtesy from - https://www.globalwoman.co/2016/07/17/jt-foxx-women-make-far-better-entrepreneurs-men/

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak describes JT Foxx as 'the closest thing to Steve Jobs that he has ever met'.

JT Foxx is a Serial Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Platform Speaker, Real Estate Investor, Author and World's #1 Wealth & Business Coach. He moved to America from Canada in his Ford truck with $900 in his pocket and $35 000 in debt. He became a millionaire by age 24 and now owns over 50 brands and businesses. JT Foxx travels the world teaching entrepreneurs and business owners all about the power of marketing and branding to start, grow and explode any business.

Here are five marketing secrets JT shares with his clients that have helped him generate millions of dollars and anyone can apply to their business -

1.Test, Test, Test, Test, Re-Test

A secret to a successful marketing campaign is to always test one thing at a time. This allows you to see what is effectively generating a good response and what is not. Most people think that marketing costs you money but when you do this with your campaigns, marketing will make you money instead. JT's philosophy is if he spends $1 on marketing then it needs to make him a minimum of $3 back.

2. Marketing Is About Values

Marketing is about communicating your values in a way that gets people to remember us amongst all the crowded noise. When your marketing captures people's attention, it needs to very clearly communicate how you want customers to remember you. Mega brands such as Samsung, Amazon and Nike still care about investing in marketing their values to consumers to retain relevancy and remind us of who they are.

3. Create Better Stories Using Images Instead of Words

Image courtesy of https://twitter.com/jtfoxx

In the this digital era, we respond way more to visual images than reading heaps of words. The secret is to keep your advertising simple and effective by using a cool picture of you, your brand logo or service accompanied with one line of text that grabs the readers attention. We want everything now and are flooded with so many marketing messages on social media and online it becomes overwhelming. Look at Apple as an example. Their logo and slogan "Think Differently" is a marketing message at it's simplest and most effective form. It is consistent with Steve Jobs famous philosophy, "Those that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are usually the ones who do".

4. Keep Some Mystery And Anticipation

Look at Apple's example of how they keep the world guessing all year long about what the next iPhone will look like and any new features or upgrades it will have. The media feeds on this type of speculation which gives the product hype and momentum leading up to the big reveal. Millions of people engage in the  moment when the latest Apple phone drops and people are lining up in stores and online ready to buy.

Whether you have an event, product or new business in the pipeline, create an air of mystery and anticipation by dropping hints and teasing the audience with suspense for weeks to months leading up to the big launch.

5. Don't Be Afraid To Spend Money

Having a great product or service is not enough if people don't know about it. The only way to solve this problem is by spending money on marketing effectively. A big fear for many business owners is that marketing costs them money rather than makes them money. The key is to know your numbers and following the 3X formula (spend $1, get $3 back). JT recommends that your marketing spend should at least be 14% of your total company expenses. It's okay to make mistakes with your marketing in the beginning as long as you don't repeat them and you are tracking your efforts using data, facts and statistics.

Always review your marketing campaigns to see how you can make it better and get more bang for your buck.

This blog was based on the teachings in JT’s book Millionaire Underdog. For more business, marketing and branding secrets from JT Foxx, get a copy of his book at http://millionaireunderdog.com/.  

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THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT OF JT FOXX

‘Theoretically speaking, every single thing you do and every little choice you make greatly affects your life. Even the smallest stone, once thrown on water can cause large ripples’- Arvin Cruz. 

I wanted to elaborate on the ripple effect of JT Foxx the World’s Number 1 Wealth Coach has had on my life and the people around me. And it’s not a major success story but it’s actually the little things that add up to be the most rewarding. Some people may not celebrate their success but I have always been an advocate for acknowledging one’s achievements no matter how small by looking at three things; where you have come from, where you are now and where you are heading. There are two parts to this story. The first one relates to my recent record high score of my academic studies which is a direct result of what I learned from JT Foxx signature program. I study a Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations) online and for the first time in three and a half years, I achieved a High Distinction for both ‘Event Management’ & ‘Public Relations Writing’ units. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it means a lot to me.

 I know for a fact that listening to JT’s teachings of his signature program (up to 4 times each) helped me deepen my understanding of marketing, branding, business, strategic thinking and events more than the theory of my university teaching materials alone. And the reason I know this directly correlates with JT’s cds is because I wrote my assignments in a way that used his relevant teachings to what the assessment details was asking me to do and by looking at the specific HD criteria they use to mark me on. I achieved six out of eight high distinctions in all my assignments from both units which resulted in my highest academic achievements to date. I truly believe this is no coincidence that in 3.5 years of study, I just happen to get the best results after learning from JT Foxx. Especially when I can honestly say it has been difficult to manage online study and be a mum to three kids as well as trying to balance my cleaning business work on top of that. 

My recent academic results highlighted and my past results.

The second part to this story relates to what I am teaching my two girls (aged 13 & 10) about what I have learned from JT Foxx (they have had to listen to his cds in the car at times). Just recently, my ten year old and her friend came up with an idea to start their own slime business (it’s the latest craze since fidget spinners) and have been obsessed with making slime and watching slime videos. So I hopped on their slime-business-idea-band-wagon just to see what they came up with and to practise doing business as JT Foxx teaches his students. The first thing I said to them was, ‘my coach says you need to have speed of implementation, not just an idea’. So they immediately starting looking on Instagram for a name to create an account with, created one, took pictures and starting posting, ordered a fan sign, created a business email all on their own, starting building relational capital with other slime creators online and convinced me to go out and buy them more supplies and packaging to start their first batch of products to sell. They were so passionate and excited about it that I was very enthused to support their idea and have fun mentoring them. As we got to the shops, I told them something very important that JT Foxx teaches about starting a business. And that is how to make it profitable from day one. I wasn’t expecting them to actually pull this part off but I wanted to teach them this principle. After getting their supplies, they made a whole bunch of slime and put them into containers. I got the shock of my life when they came rushing inside to tell me that they just made two sales worth $10 to the kids next door! I couldn’t believe that this went from an idea at 11am in the morning, to two sales by 4:30pm the same afternoon! Not only did they learn so much about business in less than a day, I actually got to see how quickly things can change when you decide to take action and listen to your coach.  They already have 23 followers on Instagram in less than 48 hours and if you want to check out their profile here https://www.instagram.com/supermodelslime/?hl=en. Again, it may not seem like a massive result but it means something to me to invest in the future generation.

The work the kids achieved on their new business.

This brings me back to the butterfly effect of JT Foxx. To see how much he has created a ripple effect for not just me and my small family in Brisbane, Australia, but to people from all over the world and from many different backgrounds proving the Chaos Theory concept: "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world." I read the blogs that his students have written about how he has changed their life and I am in awe and utter admiration for how one person can make such a big difference just by being himself and the very best version of himself. The ripple effects of his time and investment in learning from top coaches in business such as George Ross, Hugh Hilton and Dr. Nido Cubein have helped create success not only in JT’s life and career but in every single person he coaches.

JT Foxx World’s #1 Wealth Coach & Millionaire Underdog

JT Foxx with his coach and former right hand man to Mr Trump, George Ross. 

JT Foxx on stage with his coach Dr. Nido Qubein, President of High point University

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HOW A SINGLE MUM OF THREE TRIPLED HER INCOME AFTER ATTENDING A JT FOXX EVENT

When I first met JT Foxx in August 2016 at his free event in Brisbane, I didn’t know a lot about him; apart from a video I watched of him rapping with Vanilla Ice on stage and I thought he seemed pretty cool.

I arrived early to the event and did some networking before entering the room. I enjoyed listening to the speakers before JT came on, Reggie Batts and Coach Brent. They did a great job of inspiring the audience to be their best and energize the room before introducing JT Foxx. In all honesty, my first impression of JT was I thought he seemed a little arrogant and ‘typically American.’ But when he said he was from Canada and told us about his journey of being a nobody who was broke with a stutter to where he is today, I quickly changed my mind. I realised JT was not afraid to tell it like it is which I found very refreshing and I respected him for it. As the presentation went on, I really admired this man and his team for what they were sharing and how friendly, funny, engaging and professional they all were.  After leaving, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I can see why he is number one at what he does.’ I didn’t purchase any of his programs at the time because I had invested in other things and money was tight.

I went home and connected with him as a friend on Facebook.  I could see from his posts that he was doing a great job of helping people through his organisation and the amount of people who achieved results from being his students.  One of his posts was asking friends to change their cover photo to a “Triple Your Income in 2017” banner promoting his Family Reunion event. It featured pictures of famous celebrities such as Calvin Klein, John Travolta and 50 Cent. I liked the picture and at that time I was using Facebook to network with other entrepreneurs.  I figured it was a good way to help JT out and for me to position and brand myself online. I was even surprised that JT ‘liked’ my post of my picture with him from the event and I could see he was very loyal to his friends and followers on Facebook which really impressed me. He stood out to me for the way he engaged with his audience as I didn’t expect someone as successful as him to be that loyal to everyone and it inspired me to do the same with my audience. I remember thinking the next time he comes to Brisbane again I will attend his event and purchase one of his programs.

At this time, I had been running a cleaning business for 6 months on my own while studying a Bachelor degree online and raising three kids as a single parent with no help from their father. It was now March 2017 and I was doing the daily grind when I saw a Facebook ad from JT Foxx organisation promoting his event in Brisbane.  I knew I wanted to attend so I registered straight away. When I entered the room Coach Dana was speaking. He was great to listen to and I felt at ease as soon as I took my seat. I was looking forward to seeing JT Foxx speak again and he didn’t disappoint. This time around when it came time to sign up to be one of his students I did not hesitate to get up and put my name down. I was the first person to sign up for his Top 1% coaching experience and even though money was still tight I wasn’t going to let that be an excuse. I had just heard from two students in front of the room tell us about how JT Foxx helped them and the results they achieved after signing up to do his programs. One was a man who had a dollar to his name at the time he signed up and the other was from a woman who was a mother of two and had spent money on other coaching programs in the past with little to no results.  I could relate to both of their stories.

After having an interview with Coach Dana and signing on the dotted line, I received the signature program of JT Foxx. I sat down and listened to Francie Baldwin and took pages of notes from listening to her and the other speakers. I found the whole day to be full of value and thought, ‘wow if this is what they share at their free events, then I can only imagine what the paid stuff has to offer.’

I started listening to JT’s CDs in my car at 4am each morning on my way to work. I was blown away by his content and listened to every cd up to 4 times each. I knew that listening to these CDs was going to help me pay for his program if I implemented it. I must be honest here and admit that there were a few moments that I doubted myself and even expressed this to JT Foxx and his team. He encouraged me to not let fear or my excuses get in the way of investing in myself and I trusted his advice. By implementing one of his strategies of increasing the number of clients I serve, I have been able to add thousands of dollars to my income and easily make the repayments with change to throw! I used to struggle financially before I met JT Foxx and now its June 2017 and after looking at the numbers, I realised I have actually tripled my income in 2017 and made more money than I ever have working in a job. I never thought I could afford to invest in myself at this level. One thing JT teaches that really resonated with me is ‘how you change is how you succeed’. That phrase alone has impacted me in a huge way and this is how JT Foxx has changed my life and caused a ripple effect on the people around me. I look forward to my continued success with him and using my cleaning business as a stepping stone and foundation for my future endeavours.

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Love this so much!

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10 posts! Celebrating my milestone of posting 10 blog entries on my Tumblr account. Thanks to my university assessment of 8 blog entries, I am well on my way to having more achievements like this one and sharing content with my followers and fellow bloggers alike! 

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Social Gaming

‘Youtube’, [image], viewed 17th February 2107, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkoeAj2_Nw>.

Digital communities on social media has allowed for the world of social gaming to leverage the massive user-base on sites such as Facebook, profiting large amounts of revenue from the online gaming communities  (one of the reasons Facebook grew so rapidly to its current 1.25 billion level). The term 'social games' comes from the distribution platform they run on; specifically social networks (James, D 2010). It is not however, related to the social aspect within the game itself, although gamer communities have formed around the experience and activities of playing games online through a range of networked platforms, such as Gamer Vision.  

Gamer Vision is a social network for like-minded gamers featuring game reviews, blogs, previews and forums. Ugame is another social network for gamers that let you keep up with friends, upload photos, share videos and manage your online gaming (Zafra, A 2008).

‘EVE Online - EVE Online Battleships’, [image], Cheezburger Network 2007-2017, viewed 18th February 2107, <http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/490239-eve-online>.

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have created massive communities where millions of people can play together via the internet, hosted by servers capable of supporting thousands of players concurrently and allows the game to run continually, even when players are logged out. Game of War, World of Warcraft and EVE Online are some examples of these types of games (Webber, N 2013).

‘World of Warcraft Gameplay’, viewed 18th February 2107, <https://youtu.be/IkXRVvrQU0c>.  

The past five years have seen a massive growth in online games and the industry has generated an annual turnover of approximately $25 billion dollars. Millions of players voluntarily spend hours of their time playing MMOGs with the weekly average amount of gameplay being anywhere from12 to 21 hours, with almost 30% of players spending their time communicating with their ‘beyond-game friends’. Players are often multi-tasking, processing large amounts of online information related to the game (inventory, gaming status, communicating), interacting, creating and manipulating virtual content Kirriemuir, J (2005).

‘Arcade Fever’, [image], viewed 18th February 2107, <http://www.arcadefever.fr/maintenance-mise-a-jour.php>.

These gaming worlds create rules and codes of practise that are unique to each game. For example, I used to play Game of War for a period of almost 12 months where I was part of a large alliance within the game and within that alliance is a leader who would govern the other ranking members. If a member was to break the rules, there would be a punishment or result in ‘being kicked out of the alliance’.  The same would apply if a member was being inappropriate or abusive to any other members, they would get booted from the alliance and the leader would allow for other players to attack their empire.

According to Nick Webber (2013, p. 45), these gaming communities are as large as a small nation, with people playing from all different countries all over the world, and argues that ‘games are inherently legal spaces’ and there would be tremendous value in having direct engagement from the legal community to regulate these entertainment spaces. He proposes that there is an opportunity to exchange knowledge between legal scholars, MMOG developers and publishers, as well as the gaming community to develop innovations that would enhance the governing of these online communities.

 REFERENCES

James, D 2010, ‘What is the definition of a "social game" or "social gaming"?’, viewed 17th February 2017, <https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-definition-of-a-social-game-or-social-gaming>.

Zafra, A 2008, ‘24 Social Networking Site for Gamers’, viewed 18th February 2017, <http://www.adweek.com/digital/24-social-networking-site-for-gamers/>.

Kirriemuir, J 2005, ‘Parallel Worlds Online Games and Digital Information Services’, viewed 18th February 2017, <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december05/kirriemuir/12kirriemuir.html>.

Webber, N 2013, ‘Law, culture and massively multiplayer online games’, viewed 18th February 2017, <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=658056ce-cedb-4ce9-86fe-9f2d14614f6c%40sessionmgr102&vid=1&hid=118>.

IMAGES

‘EVE Online - EVE Online Battleships’, [image], Cheezburger Network 2007-2017, viewed 18th February 2017, <http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/490239-eve-online>.

‘Youtube’, [image], viewed 17th February 2107, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkoeAj2_Nw>.

‘Arcade Fever’, [image], viewed 18th February 2107, <http://www.arcadefever.fr/maintenance-mise-a-jour.php>.

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Visual communities and social imaging

‘B2B Beat: Marketers See the Online Video Opportunity’, [image], Callaghan, S 2015, viewed 17th February 2017,  <https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/b/b2b-beat-marketers-see-the-online-video-opportunity>.

In the last decade of the digital era, social media has evolved into a heavily visual and video sharing tool of personal expression, interpersonal communication and online visual communities on platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Flickr and Vines to name a few. Gone are the days of personal and family photo albums that we experienced around those who were close to us which represented social cohesion and togetherness.

The evolution of smartphone mobile technology means that we no longer need a traditional camera to capture quality pictures and record videos like we used to. This convergence of media has made it even more convenient to communicate visually and upload personal images online.

‘A Minimalist Guide to the Evolution of The Camera’, [image], opticscentral, 2013, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://visual.ly/minimalist-guide-evolution-camera>.

This digital storytelling movement has revealed how these moments of technological transition has produced changes in the practises and politics of self-representation (Vivienne & Burgess, 2013, p. 280).

Selfies are a powerful form of self-expression for users to allow intimate self-portraits to showcase openly to their followers online. 'Selfie' can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was first used in an Australian online forum. It gained momentum throughout the world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzz word, to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph (Oxford Dictionaries 2013). The amount of selfies has increased by 900 times from 2012 to 2014 (Souza et al. 2015).

‘The iPhone 6s Plus Is the Best Phone for Taking Selfies’, Low, C 2016, viewed 17th February 2017,  <http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-selfie-smartphone,review-3322.html>.

A selfie says not only “see this, here, now,” but also “see me showing you me" and it's the performance of a communicative action rather than to an object (Frosh 2015, p. 1609).

"The selfie is revolutionalising how we gather autobiographical information about ourselves and our friends", says Dr Marianne Hardey, a lecturer in marketing, who specialises in digital social networks (Day 2013).

The implications of such convergence of personal content being made public is the privacy concerns around images we post on Facebook and other photo-sharing platforms, as well as the loss of control in the distribution of personal photos, given  the rise of proprietary third-party content-sharing platforms. Although we are curators of personal exhibition of our images which are shared with a familiar audience in mind, we are also vulnerable to the increased manipulations of unauthorized distribution and re-framing of an image to suit a third party individual’s needs (Vivienne & Burgess, 2013, p. 282).    

‘These selfies ALMOST make me forget it’s Monday (51 Photos)’,  [image], viewed 17th February 2017, <http://thechive.com/2016/04/18/these-selfies-almost-make-me-forget-its-monday-51-photos-3/#slide-1>.

REFERENCES 

Day, E 2013, How selfies became a global phenomenon, viewed 16th December 2016, <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/14/how-selfies-became-a-global-phenomenon>.

Frosh, P 2015, The Gestural Image: The Selfie, Photography Theory, and Kinesthetic Sociability, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/3146/1388>.

Oxford Dictionaries 2013, The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013, viewed 16th December 2016, <http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2013/>.

Souza, F, Casas, D, Flores, V, Youn, S, Cha, M, Quercia, D, Almeida, V, Dawn of the Selfie Era: The Whos, Wheres, and Hows of Selfies on Instagram, viewed 10th January 2017, <https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.05700>.

Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 279-98, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/1359183513492080>.

 IMAGES

‘A Minimalist Guide to the Evolution of The Camera’, [image], opticscentral, 2013, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://visual.ly/minimalist-guide-evolution-camera>.

‘B2B Beat: Marketers See the Online Video Opportunity’, [image], Callaghan, S 2015, viewed 17th February 2017, <https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/b/b2b-beat-marketers-see-the-online-video-opportunity>.

‘The iPhone 6s Plus Is the Best Phone for Taking Selfies’, Low, C 2016, viewed 17th February 2017,  <http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-selfie-smartphone,review-3322.html>.

‘These selfies ALMOST make me forget it’s Monday (51 Photos)’, [image], viewed 17th February 2017, <http://thechive.com/2016/04/18/these-selfies-almost-make-me-forget-its-monday-51-photos-3/#slide-1>.

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Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

‘Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilising Social Media For Urban Resilience’, [image], Tierney, T 2014, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/4911/>.

Social media in times of crisis has played a critical role in leveraging information from users of Twitter, Facebook & YouTube to generate community crisis maps and implement an interagency map that allows organisations to share key information and execute shared missions. An interagency map acts as an intermediary between the public and relief organisations. Social media crowdsourcing allows requests to be collected and then shared with organisations to coordinate with each other and take actions to aid when disaster strikes (Gao; Barbier & Goolsey, 2011).  

Crowdsourcing is defined as ‘the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers’ (Merriam Webster, 2017).

For example, when Hurricane Sandy hit NYC and completely destroyed parts of the neighbourhoods, while sparing other parts, as news spread of the destruction – particularly when people saw images of it on their social media accounts – New Yorkers who were still with power and water rallied to volunteer by the thousands to help those in need (Huffington Post, 2012).

‘Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilising Social Media For Urban Resilience’, [image], Tierney, T 2014, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/4911/>.

Citizen journalists ventured into waist high water to document the damage using snapshots from their mobile phones and uploading it to Instagram (an image-sharing social network), serving as visual windows allowing a glimpse into the destruction Sandy caused.  “Instagram bonded users together in a participatory, networked public,” blogged urban theorist Kazy Varnelis from New York (11/4/2012).

YouTube <https://youtu.be/9ZRX4hQjh1I>.

I myself have witnessed this type of crowdsourcing in use on my social media when my town experienced flooding a few years ago and I was also able to participate in sharing information and images as a citizen journalist. Social media gives power back to the people when times of disaster or crisis hits and can be more informative and relevant than many mainstream news media outlets. The developments of crowdsourcing communication from social media platforms allows information to flow through an increasing number of channels – especially when communication systems go down – and is vital not only emergency services but also mainstream news media who are increasingly innovating its use to gather information in real time and brings communities together to devise tools and actions to support help and relief to the areas and people affected, such as the Japanese tsunami, QLD floods and the Victorian bushfires.

‘2011 QUEENSLAND FLOODS: THE BIG WET’, [image], Masey 2011, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://masey.co/2011/01/2011-queensland-floods-big-wet/>.

REFERENCES

H. Gao, G. Barbier and R. Goolsby, "Harnessing the Crowdsourcing Power of Social Media for Disaster Relief," in IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 10-14, May-June 2011, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/document/5898447/authors>.

Huffington Post, 2012, Humans Of New York And Tumblr Sandy Fundraiser: Brandon Stanton’s Photos Inspire Viral Campaign (PHOTOS), <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/humans-of-new-york_n_2161537.html>.

Tierney, T 2014, ‘Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilising Social Media For Urban Resilience’, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/4911/>.

IMAGES

‘2011 QUEENSLAND FLOODS: THE BIG WET’, [image], Masey 2011, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://masey.co/2011/01/2011-queensland-floods-big-wet/>.

‘Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilising Social Media For Urban Resilience’, [image], Tierney, T 2014, viewed 17th February 2017, <http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/4911/>.

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Trolling & Social Media Conflict

‘Troll Media’, [image], n.d., viewed 16th February 2017, <http://www.suggest-keywords.com/dHJvbGwgbWVkaWE/>.

As digital citizens in the online world, we not only participate in social media as a way of connecting with others through self-expression, but are also receivers of such expressions that come in the form of trolling, bullying, conflict, misunderstandings and opposing views. This type of behaviour is being questioned by governments, organisations and schools as to how misuses of social media can be regulated and reprimanded to protect its users from online bullying.

McCosker (2013, p. 202) describes agonistic pluralism as democratic sociality that is constantly being contested, ‘where conflict is ineradicable but may be accommodated by the social institutions and platforms that allow space for the flow of passion and contested interaction among adversaries’. An example of misuse in social media practises to examine is setting up fake accounts to humiliate, embarrass, harass, stalk and abuse other users online for the sake of mere amusement or satisfaction of provocation.

Funny Marketing Cartoons, [image], Pinterest, n.d., viewed 15th February 2017,  <https://au.pinterest.com/exclusiveconcep/funny-marketing-cartoons/>.

According to Swedish psychologist Dan Olweus, there are three components that are considered central to define bullying in particular; aggression, repetition and imbalance of power (Boyd, 2013, p. 131).   The Pew Research Centre reported in May 2011 that 71% of adult Internet users in the US view videos on YouTube or Vimeo, a 5% increase from 2010 and a 38% increase from 2006, capturing the largest share of Internet video production and consumption, positioning YouTube as mainstream status (McCosker 2013, p. 203).  YouTube enables the capacity for user comments and interaction, with the accessibility of the site contributing to the increase of video viewing online, creating opportunities for online bullying and trolling to occur.

‘Obesity Awareness’, Help Feed The Troll, n.d., viewed 16th February 2017, <http://www.helpfeedthetroll.com/category/youtube-trolls/page/5/>.

Just as it is in ‘the real world’, the internet has given us access to  being a digital citizens in an online society and applies to people of all ages, race, cultural background, gender, beliefs who has access to the it. We all have a part to play in the way we behave and interact with others online. I believe that creating boundaries for our kids in school around what they are being exposed to in the form of comments made about them is valid, however it begs the question of how can start to govern this type of use on social media? Danah Boyd emphasises that social media and technology is not the blame for the bullying and conflict we see online, but that it has made these dynamics more visible to more people recognizing why teens engage in acts of meanness and cruelty is the key to implementing interventions that work (Boyd 2014, p. 152).

REFERENCES

Boyd, D 2014, 'Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?', in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, pp. 128-52.

McCosker, A 2014, YouTrolling as provocation: Tube's agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-217.

IMAGES Funny Marketing Cartoons, [image], Pinterest, n.d., viewed 15th February 2017,  <https://au.pinterest.com/exclusiveconcep/funny-marketing-cartoons/>.

‘Obesity Awareness’, Help Feed The Troll, n.d., viewed 16th February 2017, <http://www.helpfeedthetroll.com/category/youtube-trolls/page/5/>.

‘Troll Media’, [image], n.d., viewed 16th February 2017, <http://www.suggest-keywords.com/dHJvbGwgbWVkaWE/>.

[shellmc]

Activism & Protest On Social Media Platforms

‘What is Digital Activism?’, Joyce, M 2011, [image], viewed 14th February 2017, <http://www.slideshare.net/MaryCJoyce/introduction-to-digital-activism-9712145>.

Social media has come a long way in the sharing of information and awareness to any given person, subject, movement, company and particularly in this discussion, activism and protests. This is a term referred to as ‘digital activism’ in whereby smartphones and the internet have revolutionized the way  political events, protests and movements are organised to a diverse range of causes (Karatzogianni, 2016). Gerbaudo (2012, p. 2) states that 2011 was labelled ‘year of the protester’ due to the manifestation of activist’s use of social media bringing appeal to the people using self-managed activist internet services as the media of choice via Facebook and Twitter. Activists have taken advantage of ‘group of Internet-based applications ... that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content’ (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010: 60). The use of social media among activists is often used as a means of representation, a tool of ‘citizen journalism’ employed to elicit ‘external attention’ (Aday et al., 2010).

Digital Activism, [image], Garcia, M 2015, viewed 15th February 2017, <http://www.slideshare.net/MaxGarcia22/digital-activism-49297617>.

This has played an important role in the overthrow of the governments of Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions in which social media has contributed to the collective action by; creating information successfully passed on to others that boosted protester’s likelihood of success; enabling unaffected citizens to act publicly in coordination; increasing publicity by diffusing information to regional and global publics; and by raising costs of repression by the ruling regimes (Youmans & York 2012, p. 317).

Four examples of digital activism: using art and digital to fight a cause, [image], viewed 14th February 2107, <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63220-four-examples-of-digital-activism-using-art-and-digital-to-fight-a-cause/>.

Australia’s first charity, The Benevolent Society (whose aim is to help people change the lives of children through support and education), used an effective campaign to get their message across using tag #hopeforchange via Twitter. It was named the ‘Tunnel of Hope’, which went on to become a thought-provoking medium celebrating Australian history and people’s vision of the future. For every ‘hope messages’ tweeted, the greater the installation’s lighting effects became. It provided the chance to not only share, but display their hopes through an integrated installation combining tweets and the power of light (Piekut 2013).

Four examples of digital activism: using art and digital to fight a cause, [image], viewed 14th February 2107, <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63220-four-examples-of-digital-activism-using-art-and-digital-to-fight-a-cause/>.

“Culture jamming” is a prankster type of practise that takes advantage of mass media and marketing resources (such as billboards) to form a strategic form of commercial rhetoric through media activism (Harold, 2007).

Notes on Culture Jamming, [image], Cox, D 2000, viewed 15th February 2017, <http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/articles/3378/Notes-on-Culture-Jamming;jsessionid=4CF4DAC0CA909A88B302DCEF152A6D0D>.

REFERENCES

Aday, S., Farrell, H., Lynch, M., Sides, J., Kelly, J., and Zuckerman, E. (2010). Blogs and Bullets: New Media in Contentious Politics. Washington, DC: Institute of Peace.

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets And The Streets : Social Media And Contemporary Activism, London: Pluto Press, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 14 February 2017. 

Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53:1, 59–68.

Karatzogianni, A 2016, Beyond hashtags: how a new wave of digital activists is changing society, viewed 14th February 2016, <http://theconversation.com/beyond-hashtags-how-a-new-wave-of-digital-activists-is-changing-society-57502>. 

Piekut, A 2013, Four examples of digital activism: using art and digital to fight a cause, viewed 14th February 2107, <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63220-four-examples-of-digital-activism-using-art-and-digital-to-fight-a-cause/>. 

Youmans, W, & York, J 2012, 'Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements', Journal Of Communication, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 317. 

IMAGES

Digital Activism, [image], Garcia, M 2015, viewed 15th February 2017, <http://www.slideshare.net/MaxGarcia22/digital-activism-49297617>. 

Four examples of digital activism: using art and digital to fight a cause, [image], viewed 14th February 2107, <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63220-four-examples-of-digital-activism-using-art-and-digital-to-fight-a-cause/>. 

Notes on Culture Jamming, [image], Cox, D 2000, viewed 15th February 2017, <http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/articles/3378/Notes-on-Culture-Jamming;jsessionid=4CF4DAC0CA909A88B302DCEF152A6D0D>. 

‘What is Digital Activism?’, Joyce, M 2011, [image], viewed 14th February 2017, <http://www.slideshare.net/MaryCJoyce/introduction-to-digital-activism-9712145>.

[shellmc]

Wow. What a great read!! Your insights are really eye opening Alisha and I enjoy reading your blogs :) 

The social media of China

Many Westerners think that because the Chinese government have put strong censorship on their internet access that they aren’t social people. It is reported, however, that Chinese people with 513 million internet users are more active on social media than any other nation (Chiu 2012). How is that so when they don’t have access to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc…?

Known as the copycat nation, China have taken all the good things ‘Western’ social platforms have to offer, copied it into their own version and used their innovation skills to make it even better (Linkfluence 2016). Take for example WeChat is the Chinese version of WhatsApp but with added features. WhatsApp allows users send and received individual and group messages as well as send files. WeChat does this plus send videos and image, play games, shop and make electronic payments (Keating 2016).

These copycat social media platforms have enabled the Chinese to connect to each other and as one of the largest nations in the world have quickly built up large social networks. Internal Chinese companies like TenCent own a number social media platforms and make enormous profits even though they are unknown to the Western world. In fact it is estimated that local business made upward of 900 billion Euros in 2012 from social media sources business (DLDconference 2013).

Interestingly, Chinese youth tend to use social media for more than just communicating with each, they use it to help explore and identify who they are as a person. With Chinese history showing us that many people in China lived a certain way as dictated to them, it’s easy to see how this new way of living would help them with their identity issues. They’re evolving so much that they have worked out ways to avoid some of the censorship controls placed by their government and move on so quickly that the government doesn’t have time to control the situation (Wines 2009). Check out the article below about the case of the Llama named ‘grass-mud horse’ which went viral in China where the Chinese interpretation of the word means to F*%k your mother, because they could avoid the censorship around offensive behaviour by posting an image of the grass-mud horse, it went viral and now provides a unique case study into the Chinese authoritarian system and how something elude the Governments censorship.

Image:  APC 2017, The Greatwall of China.

There are however many cases where the government has either deleted posts or event accounts for publicising political views to Westerners and giving people a bad view of China, otherwise known as the Great Firewall of China. In fact they have employed approximately 50,000 staff just to monitor and do this job alone! (The Great Firewall of China 2013).

Check out this article about accounts being deleted in WeChat for sharing their political views.

If you’re interested to find out more about the different Chinese Social platforms available, have a look at the top 10 for 2016 here.

References

Chiu, C 2012, Understanding social media in China, McKinsey & Company, viewed 20 January 2017, <http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/understanding-social-media-in-china>.

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

Keating, L 2016, Whats App vs WeChat vs. Line: The best messaging app to download, Tech Times, viewed 20 January 2017, <http://www.techtimes.com/articles/154614/20160429/whatsapp-vs-wechat-line-best-messaging-app-download.htm>.

Linkfluence 2016, Made in China: The world’s largest social media landscape, viewed 20 January 2016, <http://linkfluence.com/en/2016/02/12/made-in-china-the-worlds-largest-social-media-landscape/>.

The Great Firewall of China 2013, Open Democracy viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china>.

Wines, M 2009, A dirty pun tweaks China’s online censors, The New York Times, viewed 20 January 2017, <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html?_r=0>.

Image

APC 2017, The Greatwall of China, viewed 20 January 2017, <https://www.apc.org/en/node/14821>.

[shellmc]

Blog Post #2 – Politics and civil cultures

With social media at the helm of such topics as politics, campaigns and candidates, we all have a responsibility as digital citizens, to filter through the masses of information, opinions and content of not only your next door neighbours, but the whole world. On top of that, there are countless news stations, journalists and politicians themselves playing a vital role in influencing the opinions and decisions of their thousands of followers who hear, see or read about them somewhere (most likely on social media).

 Even celebrities are having their say and using their fame for important issues such as who the next President of the United States of America will be. Social media has given rise to having a voice not only offline, but online, as well as on multiple platforms that can be reached by millions of people around the world.  Hilary Clinton flaunted her social accounts with a string of high profile supporters  to help try and win her votes by being seen with celebrities such as Katy Perry, Madonna, Beyonce and Jay Z (amNY.com 2016).

amNy.com 2016, Hillary Clinton: Celebrities and politicians endorsing her Democratic bid for president, [image], viewed 11th December 2016, <http://www.amny.com/news/elections/hillary-clinton-celebrities-and-politicians-endorsing-her-democratic-bid-for-president-1.11741315>.

Politicians are using social media platforms as channels of mass communication and marketing that can shape the outcomes of campaigns by setting agendas and influencing opinions and perceptions of themselves to the publics (Gale Opposing Viewpoints, 2010). It’s no surprise that in the last few years, politicians have integrated Twitter into their campaigns; 577 politicians have opened Twitter accounts, three quarters of them in 2009 (Anonymous, 2010). By using social media as a tool to increase engagement with the public, politicians can easily connect to their voters and vice versa (International: Sweet to Tweet, 2010). 

news.groupspeak, n.d., ‘A woman just stood up to Trump’s latest outburst on Twitter – and America is cheering her on’, viewed 11th December 2016, <http://news.groopspeak.com/a-woman-just-stood-up-to-trumps-latest-outburst-on-twitter-and-america-is-cheering-her-on/>.

Twitter for example, has given politicians the ability to write short posts, to engage in a relationship with followers, which Twitter enables those users to share any updates with their friends, colleagues and other potential voters too, creating a constant ‘buzz’ and trend around the topic of politics. This keeps candidates in a constant ‘loop’ of being seen and heard; not only their target audience, but by younger voters too thanks to YouTube (Week 5: Digital citizenship 1 - Politics and civic cultures, Blackboard learning materials, Swinburne Online 2016). It gives power to the politicians to enhance or influence their image regarding what other people are saying about them. Take Donald Trump for example. He took to twitter to defend his reputation after ‘he tried watching a Saturday Night Live gig’ where American actor Alec Baldwin does an impersonation of him.

It is certainly evident that the internet was a monumental factor in serving some form of a political purpose to gather news and information from. The Pew Research Center found that 74% of American internet users went online during the 2008 election to take part in or read about the campaign. That’s 55% of the adult population (Young 2010, p. 205). I think President Obama’s response to a student asking him what he could do to become the next President one day best sums up the advice we should all take; he told him, ‘I want everybody here to be careful about what they post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up later somewhere in your life. That is number one,’ (Jericho 2012, p. 255).

REFERENCES – amNy.com 2016, Hillary Clinton: Celebrities and politicians endorsing her Democratic bid for president, viewed 11th December 2016, <http://www.amny.com/news/elections/hillary-clinton-celebrities-and-politicians-endorsing-her-democratic-bid-for-president-1.11741315>.

CAPLAN, J. 2013, ‘Social Media and Politics: Twitter Use in the Second Congressional District of Virginia’, Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications [Online], vol. 4 no. 1, <http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=786>.

Jericho, G 2012, 'How many votes are there on Twitter?', in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

news.groupspeak, n.d., ‘A woman just stood up to Trump’s latest outburst on Twitter – and America is cheering her on’, viewed 11th December 2016, <http://news.groopspeak.com/a-woman-just-stood-up-to-trumps-latest-outburst-on-twitter-and-america-is-cheering-her-on/>.

Week 5: Digital citizenship 1 - Politics and civic cultures, Learning material on Blackboard, Swinburne Online, viewed 10th December 2016.

Young, S 2010, 'News, political reporting and the internet', in How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press, Victoria, Australia.

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POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Communicating online in digital communities has become the new ‘social norm’. Social media has started to dominate our conversations and daily activities with mobile phone technology opening up the doors to 24/7 digital access to the world of social communities and conversations, videos, pics, articles, books, news and TV shows to name just a few. To begin to try and understand the changes and shifts in sociality in new media, let’s look at what impacts social media has on our lives and why we feel the need to ‘connect digitally’. According to German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, a shift took place through industrialization from village life (community) to city life (society), (Week 2 Blackboard Learning Materials 2016).  I believe that there is a shift now taking place in the 21st century as digital communities form and grow online.  Similar shifts are now taking place as society has started to form social identities digitally on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites have enabled particular trending topics, videos and news articles to be shared, liked and commented on; bringing topics and people together in a ‘digital society-like fashion’. Social media can bring people together in whereby groups are formed online; such as people with similar interests and hobbies, fan and business pages, buy, swap and sell groups, sporting communities, private and paid groups.

Lightner, R 2011, How to follow Facebook pages anonymously, [image], viewed 10th December 2016, <https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-follow-facebook-pages-anonymously/>.

‘Societies, argues Tonnies, can only exist because people want to associate with others’ (, E, Siapera 2012, p.192). There is a natural will (natural, organic, and instinctive) to associate with other people as an end in themselves; it is out of our own choice and is self-fulfilling, friendships, neighbourhood groups, families. A rational will is more formed on the basis which is purposive and goal-orientated (Siapera 2011, p. 193). This is a positive effect that social media has played and plays a vital role in bringing communities together to form a digital society online. This same positive effect can also be seen as a negative one. We now look to the digital world to ‘connect’ with other members of society which is a ‘disconnect’ from our surrounding environment.

Duffy, A 2015, ‘Look Up! 4 Reasons to put your phone down’, [image], viewed 10th December 2016, <http://www.hercampus.com/school/notre-dame/look-4-reasons-put-your-phone-down>.

Like any social situation, there are positive and negatives to consider in an online context. Some positive attributes of social media connections are the ability to reach a person, business or even celebrity with just a quick search; finding like-minded groups and persons to share and connect with worldwide; a platform to freely express yourself; connections to family and friends; ability to reach millions of people; easy to find a product or service. Some negative sides to this can include privacy issues; receiving negative comments from people; trolling; addiction; inappropriate content and misinformation. Social media has certainly changed the way we communicate and interact socially and it certainly looks to be a trend that will follow well on into the future.

#mda20009  

REFERENCES – Editors, 2002, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft SOCIAL THEORY, viewed 7th December 2016, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gemeinschaft-and-Gesellschaft>. Duffy, A 2015, ‘Look Up! 4 Reasons to put your phone down’, [image], viewed 10th December 2016, <http://www.hercampus.com/school/notre-dame/look-4-reasons-put-your-phone-down>. Lightner, R 2011, How to follow Facebook pages anonymously, [image], viewed 10th December 2016, <https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-follow-facebook-pages-anonymously/>. Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Introduction to New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208. Week 2: Social theory and social media, Learning material on Blackboard, Swinburne Online, viewed 10th December 2016.

[shellmc]

Great blogging :)

What in the politics does this have to do with social?

It has been noted that Obama once gave the following advice to a group of students, “I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life. That’s number one.” (Jericho 2012). This quote by Obama highlights the importance of thinking about what you post and the ramifications/opportunities it can have on your life. This goes without saying, that for politics it can help you engage with your followers or it can reflect poorly on your past decisions.

“Success in politics is now highly influenced by the online activities of political institutions” ( Pătruţ 2014). Social Media provides an opportunity for politicians to engage with their follows and drive conversations and debates with a higher level of involvement then traditional forms of communications (Pătruţ 2014). Looking at the recent American Presidential Elections, social media played a massive part of Donald Trump’s campaign and in a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Trump said he really believes that with the number of followers he amassed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is the reason he won the election and the power of social media outweighed the cost of traditional forms of media (ABNN 2016).

Trump reached the ever growing millennial population through social media by directing content to them and discussing issues and policies that they could relate to. To reach the same number of people through traditional media, Trump would have needed to spend upwards of US$380 Million (Dealey Media International 2016). Whilst not all supporters actively engaged and displayed their support for Trump, it is believed that his efforts to campaign on social media helped to create ghost supporters who came out on Election Day to vote for him (Perez 2016).

Social analysis showed trends of the Presidential Election Campaign online was heavily swayed towards Trump months before the Election took place but was over shadowed by analysts predicting the polls based on the traditional forms of media that had voters swayed towards Clinton (Perez 2016).

<Source: 4CInsights.com, Election Trends>

The problem Clinton had with using traditional forms of media was that she was discussing reforms and policies about ‘ordinary people’ to people who were far from ‘ordinary’. Social Media has given a voice to ‘ordinary people’ in a way that other forms of media have never been able to accomplish, allowing them to have their weigh in on topics such as politics, culture and academics. If the 2008 Presidential Elections were anything to go by, where 74% of Americans went online to get news, information and join discussions, then it’s clear to see that Trumps efforts paid off by not only relating to his followers but by inundating social media feeds with his campaign efforts reaching a larger number of ‘ordinary people’ (Young 2010).

References

ABNN 2016, Donald Trump on 60 Minutes: Social Media Helped Me WIN. #PEOTUS, YouTube, viewed 4 December 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m_ew4dr28I>.

Pătruţ, B 2014, Social Media in Politics Case Studies on the Political Powers of Social Media, Springer International Publishing, p- foreword vii-3.

Dealey Media International 2016, Four ways social media influenced the 2016 Presidential Election, viewed 4 December 2016, <http://www.dealeymediainternational.com/social-media/four-ways-social-media-influenced-the-2016-presidential-election/>.

Jericho, G 2012, ‘How many votes are there on Twitter?’, in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

Perez, S 2016, Analysis of social media did a better job at predicting Trump’s win than the poll, Tech Crunch, viewed 4 December 2016, <https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/social-media-did-a-better-job-at-predicting-trumps-win-than-the-polls/>.

[shellmc]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0)