stevennguyen

[stevennguyen]

Week 14: Effective Content

This week I had the opportunity to watch the HootSuite Module training 5: Social Content Marketing. In this module, I got to learn a lot about developing and establishing effective content. It was interesting to watch and learn some of the strategies that were displayed.

Effective Content To develop effective content, there must be an established plan. A content calendar is recommended because it is a great tool to map out short-term and long-term goals. The next step is to find out who the audience is and what are they interested in. This is important because this is what the content is going to be revolved around. A great example of this is the content creators of videos from YouTube and TikTok. There are so many popular and famous content creators because they realize who their audience is and what they like. They then use this information to make content around it which translates into more views.

Social Organization Principles When becoming a social organization, the principles of developing and sharing effective content still apply. Without following these principles, the content will lack creativity and effectiveness. This will deter the organization from succeeding. So, for social organizations to thrive, they should still follow these principles.

Source: https://education.hootsuite.com/courses/take/social-marketing-education/downloads/8835521-welcome

[stevennguyen]

Week 11: the Social Organization

Online community building is a huge part when it comes to social media. For this week’s blog post, I will talk about chapters 4 and 5 of The Social Organization. Both these chapters outline some models and principles that are effective in online community building. Chapter 4 talks about forming a vision for community collaboration and chapter 5 talks about developing a strategic approach to community collaboration.

Forming a Vision for Community Collaboration This chapter is all about figuring whether community collaboration is the right direction. It's important to point out that not all collaboration is appropriate for the masses. Any misuse of social media could lead to failure. There has to be a situation where community collaboration is appropriate. For example, a great situation for community collaboration is when there is a large group of individuals who are working independently towards one goal that could lead to success. This produces great and innovative ideas to a common result. An example where community collaboration would not be suitable for a situation that requires a deep analysis or when the information needed is too sensitive and sharing with the masses wouldn’t be appropriate.

Another important topic I discovered was the Six F model of attitudes toward social media. This model is a spectrum of six basic organizational attitudes that consists of folly, fearful, flippant, formulation, forging, and fusing. Each attitude reflects what a company’s or organization’s social media is like. Applying this to my client project, I can see PSE in the formulating attitude stage. I think the recognition of both the value of community collaboration and the need to be more strategic is there, but they could work being more developed to be at the next step which is forging.

Developing a Strategic Approach to Community Collaboration An important topic I got from this chapter was how to empower community collaboration with the No, Go, Grow model.  This model is a way of systematically determining if and how a community collaboration effort should move forward. There are three stages of this model. The first stage is the no stage. The no stage is about finding a purpose for community collaboration. The next stage is the go stage. The go stage is about seeing if the purpose and community collaboration will be able to succeed with very minimal support. The last and final stage is the grow stage, which is the stage where it is decided if the community collaboration will move forward as a project. Looking back at my client project, I feel that PSE is in the go stage. The business fraternity has found its purpose of community collaboration but is still in the stage of developing the purpose and seeing if it can succeed with minimal support.

Overall, these two topics are great indicators of online community building. It’s nice to apply them to my client project and seeing where PSE is. If they are following the steps that the Social Organization is outlining, I’m sure that PSE we succeed in online community building.

Source: The Social Organization: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of your Customers and Employees by Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald

[stevennguyen]

Week 9: The Legal Side of Big Data

For this week, we had the opportunity to watch “The Legal Side of Big Data.” In this video, patent attorney, Doug LaLone, talks about the many topics that revolve around the term big data. Before this video and the Social Dilemma documentary, I didn’t know too much about big data. It was interesting to see how important and impactful big data can be.

Big Data and Companies

Because big data is so important and impactful, everyone should be aware of when using it. This includes companies. There is so much at risk when using big data. Companies can be hacked, and they can suffer from it. Doug LaLone mentioned that Target had 740 million of their data exposed in 2013, Neiman Marcus had 1.1 million cards hacked in 2014, Home Depot had 56 million credit cards hacked in 2015, and Anthem had 78.8 million of health records hacked. If we look at the date of each of these incidents, they are close to each other. It just goes to show how easy it is for hackers to hack companies. And these companies need to be cautious and aware of that. Companies need to make sure they should follow the rules and act morally because they never know when their records and data can be exposed.

Big Data and Consumers

Not only do companies have to be cautious but so do consumers. Like companies, consumers need to be aware of hackers. If a hacker can hack a multi-billion-dollar corporation, they can certainly hack consumers. These days, hackers are very tricky and sly with their hacking, so consumers and everyone else will have to be aware of any suspicious activities.

Balanced use of Big Data

I believe the best way to balance the opportunities and threats is to do so cautiously. As I mentioned before big data is important and it can’t just be erased from use. The best way to go about it is to maximize security and protect themselves. Big data hacking is not something to take lightly and therefore companies and consumers need to focus on privacy and security the best they can.

The legal side of big data link: https://chipcast.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4fe95594-73e5-4b1a-8a3c-83896b88b6d9

[stevennguyen]

Week 8 Blog Post: Junk News

For this week’s blog post, we had the opportunity to read about how junk news spreads by Phillip Howard and Samantha Bradshaw. In this article, the authors outlined three major reasons how junk news are spreading. The three reasons are algorithm, advertising, and exposure. 

Algorithm

The first major reason that was outlined is algorithm. Algorithm is supposed to be a useful tool that brings in all sorts of data to help users stay engage and entertained on social media platforms. However, the way this tool has been handled isn’t really helpful. Instead of giving out fresh and different news, it is giving out limited and bias information. Most of the information turns out to be false as well. This to me is terrible because it eliminates conversation. I believe conversation is extremely important and helps build our character. In my case and with the election coming up, many of the things I see are politics related. It gets annoying at times to see some false statements out there from both sides of the spectrum.  Advertising

The next reason of how junk news are spreading is through advertising. Advertising brings in revenue to social media platforms through the advertising model which consists of viral content and clickbait. By taking your information and data you may have entered, advertisements pull you in. The reason why many social media platforms are free to use is because they cover it in advertising. The social media platforms take information based on the user and then puts out an advertisement that caters to you. I am a huge sports fan, so many of my advertisements are sports related. They almost always pull me in no matter how the quality is or how dependable it is. 

Exposure

Finally there is exposure. Everything I do is connected someway. No matter what social media platform I use, very similar information will pop up in another platform. I’d be watching something on youtube, and when I scroll through Instagram, that same topic would show up. Again, I think this bad because some of the catered news are just bias and limits truth.  Overall, these three reasons are why junk news are spread so easily now. I think many media and social media outlets are just trying to get the information out the users in the quickest way possible. There is no drafting or re-reading of what gets put out. I remember a video of Denzel Washington saying how if you don’t read/watch the news, you’re uninformed. If you do read/watch it, you’re misinformed. I feel like businesses and individuals need to be aware of these reasons and how they build on misinformation

Article link: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/three-reasons-junk-news-spreads-so-quickly-across-social-media/

Denzel video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwnNrr9RO2Y

[stevennguyen]

Week 7: Social Media Consulting

Important Qualities of a Social Media Consultant

One of the most important qualities I think a social media consultant should have is being able to understand social media marketing. Many different social media platforms offer different services and different services come with different benefits and/or problems. It is up to the social media consultant to understand which social media platform can help the client reach their goal and which could deter it or have no effect. Another quality that I think a social media consultant should have is the ability to get great results. It is important to figure out how to gain traction from social media for the client. Without great results, there is no point in social media use. Finally, I think the ability to adapt quickly is an important quality of a social media consultant. It is an important quality because social media is all about trends and changes. A consultant must be prepared for these changes and adapt to them. I think these three qualities are important for a social media consultant.

Seeing Myself as a Social Media Consultant

If I were in the shoes of a social media consultant, I would first work on the content that is being posted on social media. I think content is important because it is ultimately what the audience will see. It is what will bring in the audience for the client. I would tell the client to make sure to post meaningful posts that give an exciting feel to it. Another thing I would advise if I was a social media consultant is to check on the frequency of posts. If there isn’t any consistency and lack of posting, this could pose a problem to the audience. I feel like the audience will get bored and tired without any new posts. It is important to keep the audience in the loop by frequently posting. So far in my project, I helped my client post more meaningful content to their social media. I advised them to give more color for excitement. Something that I could still improve on is working on coming up with more post ideas for my client to increase the frequency of posting.

[stevennguyen]

Week 6: Surveillance

For this week, we had to watch Maciej Ceglowski’s presentation on data and advertising and we had to read an article by Ethan Zuckerman. Both had content about how the internet business model affects surveillance and data gathering.  The Internet with a Human Face

This presentation by Maciej Ceglowski was very interesting. He lists some pretty frightening facts about the internet and data. He states that everything we typed or clicked, it doesn’t go away even if we do delete it. All these information that were created are stored in a centralized place and is available to access by anyone. I liked his analogy he made about this. The information movement is like a spiderweb and eventually it goes to the middle of the web. Eventually a spider will reach that middle and metaphorically get that information. Other than bad people and government having assess to this information, Ceglowski also mentions that advertisement could also reach this information and lure in people. I just think its crazy that advertisements can just track our information and use it on us. I now understand how much influence the internet business model affects surveillance and data gathering.

The Internet’s Original Sin

This article by Ethan Zuckerman had a lot of the same points as Maciej Ceglowski’s presentation. In fact, Zuckerman actually mentions the presentation in this article. Zuckerman states that we are under the advertisement business model today. He says its extremely hard and virtually impossible to find a way to make money without conceding to advertisements. He gives his own example back when he was with tripod. He says that he tried to find multiple ways to make money but ended up finding that advertisements were the best and only way to do that. But in order for advertisements to be extremely helpful, they have to surveillance and gather data without the people knowing. This to me, is just a breach of privacy and is wrong. Zuckerman says we should ditch the ad-based business model and work on to build a better web.

Sources

Maciej Ceglowski’s presentation: https://vimeo.com/102717446

Ethan Zuckerman’s article: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/

[stevennguyen]

Week 5: Big Data

Reaction to Big Data

I have never heard of the term “Big Data” before but, I was always curious about how my activity on social media was somehow connected to each and everything I do. After watching the Social Dilemma documentary, I understand more about how my own social media is based on me. Big data is what major social media platforms use to lure you into doing what they want you to do. And what these social media platforms want you to do is to keep using their product. How big data works is that there is a business model where it tracks everything you’ve searched, watched, or interacted with, and it uses that information to bring up little things to entice us to use social media. To me, that is a breach of our information privacy. Because of what we click and search, we are essential for giving up data about ourselves to them. I just think that is crazy.

Big Data is a Powerful Tool

Big data is a powerful tool because, as I mentioned before, it tracks our information based on what we do from our phones/screens. Because of this information tracking, they are getting in our heads and are essentially forcing us to do what they want us to do. In the Social Dilemma documentary, they gave a perfect example where the representation of big data, forced that kid to continue watching videos on his phone, forcing him to skip soccer practice, and even getting himself detained. Big data is extremely powerful and the biggest threat is that it messes with our brains. I like the documentary’s example with Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving was known for thinking the Earth was flat and he later said it was because of social media and how it leads him down a rabbit hole. Another example they gave was about pizzagate. A kid went to a pizzeria with a gun to go save people in the basement (The pizzeria didn’t even have a basement.) It’s just crazy how big data can easily manipulate someone’s mind.

My Views to Limit Harm

I think we as a society need to spread awareness of this problem. Many people, myself included, overlooked the dangers of social media. Many are afraid to enter personal details online, but with big data, they don’t even need us to enter anything to know who we are and what do we like. This documentary was very eye-opening to me, it puts into perspective how often I use my phone, and it something that I want to and will work on using it less.

[stevennguyen]

Week 4 Blog: Social Media Experiment

My Usual Amount of Social Media Access

The amount of times I use social media on a regular day in my life is large. Generally, I’d say in a day I spend about 3-4 hours just on the main social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I got this information from the social media log assignment we did earlier in the week. Every single morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone/social media. Then throughout the day, I would check my phone every chance I get. This usually happens a lot when I’m doing homework. Finally, I am on my phone again just before I go to bed. I feel like a large part of me using social media is because of sports. I like to read posts about sports and once I’m looking at any type of social media, my mind begins to bounce. This is why I spend hours on social media in a day.

Leaving Social Media Behind Experiment

Originally my plan for this experiment was to completely shut out social media for the entire day. But about 4 hours in, I caved. So from that point, I decided to do intervals of 4 hours of social media-free time. In this experiment, I decided to only account for the times I used on the main social media platforms. I didn’t count for calls, texts, etc. because I feel like they don’t qualify as social media. Overall, it was really hard to accomplish but it turned out well for me. 

I start my day at 8:00 A.M. in the and spent about 15 minutes to check my social media. I wouldn’t touch my phone for social media for the next 4 hours. I got a lot of work done in those 4 hours. By noon, I felt the urge to check any new notifications, so I went on social media for about 30 minutes. After my little social media break, I would go on for another 4 hours without social media. I used the time for homework. Once it was around 4:00 PM, I went on another short social media break. After about 15 minutes, another 4 hours without it, and then it was about 8:00 PM. This was going to be my last time using social media for the night, so I was on it for about 45 minutes. I was in bed by 10:00 PM.

Results and Conclusion

Overall this was a cool experience and I found it to be very beneficial to me. During my 4 hours without social media, I was more productive. I got a lot of work done since I wasn’t getting distracted every 30 minutes or so. Another benefactor was sleep. Sometimes social media can consume my nights and I wouldn’t go to bed till about like 2:00 AM. But with this experiment, I slept pretty well and was energized when I woke up the next day. Overall, I think my lifestyle just improved with this experiment and I actually might adopt it in my daily routine.

[stevennguyen]

Week 3 Blog Post: The Influence of Social Media and the Internet

Influence of Social Media

Social media has an immense influence on my daily life. Almost every day since I made accounts on each of the main social media outlets, I find myself checking on them multiple times. In the video with Max Stossel, he explains that the main reason why people are getting attached to social media is because of the idea of variable reward. A variable reward is when the brain is addicted to the possibility of getting what we want. In the case of social media, the variable reward is the notifications and the posts that we wait for. I definitely see this in myself, I am always checking every notification I get, and I love scrolling through posts until I find an interesting one. Social media is also a nice mental break from the real world.

Pros and Cons of the Accessibility of the Internet

Having the internet available in my life has its positives and negatives effects. I use the internet all the time. I use it to check scores of my favorite sports teams, to examine what the weather will be like, to determine the directions of my desired location, and for many other reasons. The internet makes getting all of the information I need and want so much more accessible. Although the internet allows me to satisfy my needs, it also creates a distraction in my life. Often times when I do homework, I sometimes found myself getting off track to surf the internet. I also find myself missing some old routines because I get lost on the internet. This is just like Emma Rathbone’s article on the stuff she did before the internet. Although there are these negative effects, the world has become so technologically advanced that the internet is inevitable. The only thing we can do is limit ourselves to avoid any major problems and take advantage of the perks it gives.

My Time off Social Media and Internet

For me personally, I like to take some time off of the internet and social media. An example for me is that I go on nature breaks. Most of the time out in nature, my phone has no service so there aren’t any distractions to get in my way. The activities out in nature can also be very occupying. Just the other day, I went kayaking and spent most of the day not even touching my phone. Another example of having no access to the internet is my occasional family outings. For these outings, my family and I would turn off our phones and use them to the time to get some bonding and face-to-face interactions. Having no access to the internet is refreshing and nice.

Max Stossel video link

https://vimeo.com/370135963

Emma Rathbone article link

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

[stevennguyen]

Hey Alexis! I lived in the midwest my entire life and I love the snow. I feel like if the weather is always the same, it’d be boring. I can definitely see why you left Florida for Michigan. I also think it’s cool that you want to combine sports and finance as a career. I’m a huge sports fan myself and I can see myself in the same industry. I also saw that you wrote about Wendy’s social media and I agree with you that they do an exemplary job. They’re one of the most engaging companies to their community. Thanks for sharing!

Week 2 Blog Post

Hey friends!

My name is Alexis (I go by Lexi) and I am a senior here at Central Michigan University. After changing my major a few times, I am set to graduate in May 2021 with a degree in Finance and a minor in Information Systems. I came to Michigan from Naples, Florida where I attended Florida Gulf Coast University. My most frequently asked question is why I left Florida to live in the snow. Having no season changes or college football had a lot to do with my decision. I am passionate about health, fitness, and my future career. One day I hope to work in the Finance department for a professional sports team or fashion company. Just because numbers can be boring, it does not mean your work environment has to be. With this blog, I hope to learn more about Tumblr and other students’ perspectives on business. 

This summer I had the opportunity to work full-time as an accounting assistant and payroll coordinator for two different companies. Since both companies are small, local organizations, I was able to gain real-life, tangible experience. I am grateful they have both given me the opportunity to continue my work with them part-time during my senior year. 

In my opinion, the company that does an exemplary job with their social media and marketing is Wendy’s. Not only are their social media posts funny and engaging, but they are completely transparent. According to the six principles of mass collaboration, transparency allows consumers to honestly see what a business is contributing to the community. In this case, Wendy’s is known for telling their customer base exactly how they feel. For example, Wendy’s often burns other fast food restaurants on Twitter in order to shine a spotlight on themselves. As a company, Wendy’s has an honest approach to business which makes them an attractive contender when picking a fast food joint. 

Link to Wendy’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendys/

[stevennguyen]

Hey Ryan! I enjoyed reading your blog and after I finished reading it, I couldn’t help but noticed that we have a pretty similar story. We both grew up with an interest in numbers and are now pursuing a degree in finance. I hope you get to achieve your goal of becoming a CFO. 

I also think that Wendy’s has great social media presence. I always see them post and comment funny things in a way that makes them feel like they care about their community.

Great post!

About Me

Hi everyone!

My name is Ryan McCamant and I am a senior at CMU majoring in finance with a minor in information systems. I am majoring in finance because since I was a kid, numbers in general have always been a huge interest to me. My career goal is to start working in a bank after college and then go back to school to get my masters degree in finance. After getting my masters, I hope to become a CFO at a company. 

What I hope to gain from this blog is learning how to become better with social media. With most of my social media, say twitter for example, I just talk about sports. Rarely do I ever tweet about what is going on in the world, or even my personal life. I hope that this blog and class will help me just become better with social media overall. 

One company that sticks out to me as having a good social media presence would be  Wendy’s. The reason I believe they have a good social media presence is because they are always interacting with customers and they love to make jokes about really anything. Two of the principles about mass collaboration that Wendy’s does really well are transparency and participation. Wendy’s is always responding to its community and their community is always talking to them. Wendy’s social media will really say anything, that isn’t wrong, and it lets them be transparent. Their bio alone on twitter generally shows their thoughts on their social media. Overall, I believe Wendy’s is one of the best companies at using social media. 

https://twitter.com/Wendys

[stevennguyen]

Week 2 Blog Post - About Me

Hey everyone!

My name is Steven Nguyen and I am a senior at CMU. I am set to graduate this May with a major in Finance and a minor in Information Systems. I’ve been president of Phi Chi Theta, which is a professional co-ed business fraternity here at CMU. Growing up, I’ve always been interested in working with numbers and data, and just overall, I’ve taken a liking of the world of business. My career goal is to be a financial analyst for a sports organization because it could get a little boring at times just looking at numbers but if I got to combine it with my passion for sports, it’d be something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life.

I am from Morton Grove, IL. It is a small town that is about 35 minutes from Chicago. I usually just tell people from Michigan that I’m from Chicago because it's just easier. I get asked all the time why I chose to leave Illinois and come to Mt. Pleasant. As much as I love my hometown, I wanted to use my time at college to explore and experience a different place. Also, CMU was a great choice as it wasn’t too far nor too close from home. Over the past three years, I’ve learned and experienced a lot and I don’t regret my decision coming to CMU at all.

Social media is everywhere now. It has grown so much over the past few years and it has become a regular term that everyone is associated with. That is the main reason why I decided to take this class. I want to familiarize myself with social media. I think it’s a very interesting concept and I hope I can get a lot of information about it in this class.

A great social media presence of a company that sticks out to me is Chipotle. Chipotle has its brand name across many different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok. All of their posts are funny and engaging. Their social media has a common theme of transparency which is one of the principles of mass collaboration. Chipotle is very open and likable to their customers. They come up with very personalized and conversational posts/comments to their customers. What this does is create a nice relationship and connection between the customers and Chipotle. This is why I believe Chipotle has such a strong social media presence.

https://brower-group.com/chipotles-lighthearted-social-media-strategy/