taladean - Tumblr blog

[taladean]

Week 8 blog post

My client will face many challenges when implementing my social media recommendations. One challenge that will most likely arise will be that the organization will focus on the technologies rather than focusing on achieving a purpose/goal. My client has a few social media platforms that are created but have barely been used. I think they did this only thinking about the creation of those accounts and the new technology that they can use rather than learning how to utilize the account to obtain their social media goals. A big goal for my client is to expand their target audience and reach more people, but with this being one of their goals it can be easy to only focus on the technologies of these new platforms rather than the purpose that it can bring to the organization if used properly.

Another challenge that my client might come across is that they might not know what the fundamental principles of mass collaboration are. Mass collaboration is when everyone in the organization including their customers/advocates (people joining their community) is all working towards the same goals and understands what their purpose is in their community. It's easier said than done to have everyone on the same page in an organization. My client lacks interaction on their social media platforms with their community and so this makes mass collaboration even harder to obtain. This can lead to a loss of purpose for the community and in turn, can cause the community to lose sight of the organization’s goals and purpose. My client has fans in their community and if fans do not feel like they have a purpose then their interest can be lost.

All in all, in the end, it’s my client’s decision to either adopt or not adopt my recommendations into their social media strategy. It’s important that I show them how social media can help them reach their organization's goals but it’s up to the organization itself to actually implement them or not. In order for organizations to optimize their social media platforms, they will need to adapt their organization and gradually become a social organization. Again, for some organizations adapting is something that they are willing to do for others it is not.

[taladean]

Week 7 blog post

After completing module 5 of Hootsuite Podium, I learned how effective content is developed and shared. Effective content is something that a business plans out. The content that a business puts out for their target audience needs to stand out and be specific for that audience. The relatively and effectiveness of a business's content is very important. Effective content allows a business to build long-term relationships with their customers and this can lead to an increase in revenue and ultimately help businesses reach their goals. The content that a business posts to their social media platforms is very important, the content that you post on social media is what potential future customers see first. If your content fails to attract and peak the interests of your customers, then customers will stop interacting with the business social media pages. Through your social media content, a business can form personal relationships with its customers. Social media content for businesses should also be unique and represent the brand effectively and uniquely. The company should do research and analyze their social media platforms to see if their content is eliciting interactions with their customers, this is where a social media audit would be useful. One way to see what your audience is interested in is by creating polls, surveys, and questions to see what kind of content your audience is looking for. Through the use of interactive content, followers will be encouraged to engage and awareness can be brought to the company’s brand. I think Starbucks posts effective content for their brand, especially on both Instagram and Twitter there seems to be a high amount of interactions with their customers. I am a frequent Starbucks customer and I enjoy their posts on both Instagram and Twitter. On Twitter, I noticed that they ask their customers questions that are very relevant to their customers. Starbucks social media platforms are good examples of what effective social media content should look like. Instagram example; https://www.instagram.com/starbucks/?hl=en and Twitter example; https://twitter.com/Starbucks?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor                

To become a successful social organization, you will need to develop an effective content strategy. A content strategy is used to keep your social media posts organized and well though-out. A content strategy will help social organizations develop effective and relative posts and ultimately strengthen the organizations' social media content. With an effective content strategy organization’s will be able to know when and what to posts on their social media platforms. Implementing this strategy allows businesses to know their goals and who their target audience is. All in all, with this strategy in place organization’s content, will stay effective.

[taladean]

Week 6: blog post

In Chapters 4 and 5 in the Social Organization, there were many effective principles discussed for online community building with social media. An important principle would include having a great community collaboration strategy. Everyone in the organization needs to understand their community collaboration strategy in order to know when this collaboration is appropriate and when implementation of community collaboration would be of most value. Developing an overall purpose for community collaboration is another important principle. To get people to join your organization's community customers need to feel that their contribution is meaningful and has a purpose. This will draw in more customers and grow your community. An example of this would be when a company offers you deals when you join their reward programs and use their online website or app. Domino’s pizza (https://www.dominos.com/en/pages/rewards/#!/rewards/) offers exclusive deals if you join their rewards program and use their app or website to make orders. Starbucks (https://www.starbucks.com/rewards ) is another company that demonstrates a strong community collaboration. When people sign up for their rewards programs, they also get exclusive deals just by joining and using the app to order. In these examples, the customer gets something of value by making these contributions and it becomes a meaningful experience for the user. Organizations use these community collaboration strategies to accomplish the company’s goals and to use social media to generate success for their organization.  

After completing the Hootsuite Module 4, it was clear that interacting with your customers and encouraging customer engagement on your company’s social media platforms is crucial for your company. Conversing with your customers forges a solid and more personalized relationship. Businesses could create polls or questionnaires for their customers to get customer feedback and recommendation. This allows for businesses to improve customer experience. Also, customer questions should be answered quickly, efficiently, and with honesty. The organization that I am working with for the client project needs to utilize these principles to obtain their long-term goals. My clients seek to expand their social media presence and grow their collaborative online community. One thing I noticed about my client’s organization is that they lack online engagement with their followers and in turn for some time now, all their social media platforms have failed to grow and reach more of their target audiences.    

[taladean]

Week 5: blog post

Big data is something that companies and consumers should be aware of and understand what risks are associated with it. Some things that businesses should be aware of is that protection of consumers' data is very important, and a proper effort should be taken in order to protect that information. If a company designs and manufactures products as a result lots of data is recorded, however, the risk here is that these records can be hacked. It is crucial for a company to use trade secrets to secure its information. Businesses should take advantage of copyrights and security software to protect patents. If there was a situation where a business runs into legal issues, then customers' data will be made public. This could cause an amplitude of lawsuits and this is why protecting consumer data is very crucial.

Consumers should be aware of the fact that their data records can be viewed, made public, or hacked. A consumer’s health records can be exposed or even used. There have been many cases of credit cards being compromised. Consumers need to be well educated on business policies and agreements. Background checks and fingerprints can be hacked and exposed. One thing that shocked me was that when companies go bankrupt consumers' data are for sale. Consumers should know that almost anything private can be leaked and viewed by companies.

The best way to balance opportunities and threats presented by the development of big data is for a company to take serious precautions when keeping their data and information protected. They should protect their data as if it is a trade secret. Companies should fully understand the risks that come along with big data and by being aware of the threats Big data can be a useful tool for companies.  

Modern internet business models greatly influence surveillance and internet data collecting through advertising. Transactional events are even tracked through online services such as subscriptions or simply online payments. Companies even collect data from your google searches, this is why users receive ads on their social media platforms that are very relevant and pertain to their interests. They do this to get the user to view and click on more advertisements. Services also track behavioral data that is stored for a long period of time, and users most of the time can’t delete or erase their data. Companies who use big data can know who is seeing their ads, and overall are aiding their advertising tactics. Maciej Ceglowski talks about investor storytime. Investor storytime was described as “when someone pays you to tell them how rich they’ll get when you finally put ads on your site”.  What this means is that investor storytime is when someone tells the website owner that they will get rich if they place their advertisements on their website. This is a major driving force for advertisement and data collection. Targeted advertising is profitable because it is specific to that user’s interest and influences the user to interact with the ad and click it. When services or companies use big data, their targeted ads are much more effective. Users need to understand that whatever they share on the internet can be used against them and that the internet never forgets their information. 

[taladean]

Week 4: Junk News

The three main reasons that junk news spreads so quickly across social media is due to algorithms, advertisements, and exposure. Algorithms prioritize information that will keep the user on the social media applications the longest. Everyone’s algorithm is personalized and different. What happens is that the algorithm prioritizes specific content for a user. This is dangerous because the content that is shown to the user is very bias and fails to show a wide variety of information on that topic. This causes the user to be biased towards a specific subject. An example of this could be people who do not believe in masks and think COVID-19 is a hoax vs. people who believe in masks and know that COVID-19 is real. This happens because algorithms are not run by people and therefore cannot be fact-checked before being exposed to people. People should look into sources that do not propose a bias and educate themselves with a broader range of opposing sources that go against their beliefs.

Advertising spreads information quickly and unfortunately, this information includes junk news. Social media is free however it does come with a price. The price we pay is that we give up personal information and this information is sold to companies to give them the ability to craft messages that are specific to their target market.  Advertising companies cause their content to go viral by creating “clickbait” content. I have been click baited many times, there have been times where I would click on an advertisement to see the product out of curiosity. It is important to check the references before redistributing or sharing content from a webpage/advertisement. Politicians, content creators like YouTubers and buzzfeed articles (https://www.buzzfeed.com/) advertise things that stimulate curiosity or anger, encouraging people to click on their webpage. Famous actors or celebrities have also helped advertisement spread junk news, by encouraging people to buy a product or vote for someone. They do this without any regard to who is sponsoring the advertisement and simply do it for the money and to get attention. 

Youtube clickbait example:     

Exposure is one of the core reasons why junk news spreads. Social media users are only exposed to content that aligns with their beliefs. This creates a strong bias since people are not exposed to the other side of the argument. This narrows people’s views and it’s very hard for them to believe things that are different since all they see on social media is their own pre-existing beliefs being confirmed. A good example of this is the 2020 Presidential campaign. There was one candidate that I supported more than the other and on my social media pages, there was only positive news being said about them. For the candidate that I did not support there was only negative news on my social media. This most definitely happened to the people who supported the other candidate. I think this is one of the main reasons why both parties were so divided and against each other. This is why it is crucial for people to have an open mind and be willing to look at things that they do not agree with.  

Businesses and individuals should be aware that junk news is dangerous and can cause a social divide. What they should do in order to respond to these conditions is to understand that social media will have junk news for everyone. The best way to not fall for junk news is to check multiple sources that oppose your views, understanding that the information given to you is very bias and also talking to others who oppose your views. By doing this people can hear both sides and make an educated decision that is not influenced by junk news.          

[taladean]

Week 4: Social media consultant

One of the most important qualities for a social media consultant is to be creative. Unlike in most jobs, the problem is not laid out for you and a social media consultant will have to solve problems in an unorthodox fashion. They will also need to be knowledgeable and be able to adapt to any kind of situation because there is not a one size fits all solution in this line of work. Another important skill I think consultants should have is great communication skills. It is important to communicate well with your client to be in accordance with one another. If there are misunderstandings between the client and the consultant then it can be hard for the consultant to create a successful social media strategy.  

In recent times my social media presence has been very low. I do communicate with others on social media, but I have posted very little content on social media in the past year. However, in the past, I would not consider my social media presence professional. That being said I would most definitely advise a few plans and strategies to improve my professional social media presence. So far, I have not done anything to improve my professional social media presence, it was not until I took this class that I thought about improving my professional social media presence. In the future, I would like to create a LinkedIn account. I would like to have a professional headshot taken and use that picture as my profile picture. I would also set a profile that showcases my skillsets and qualifications. Before I post I will check for grammar errors and any topics that I post about I will make sure to do my research beforehand. I will try to post frequently and stay active on the account and post relevant content. I will implement visuals and trending hashtags to reach more people. I can also set up daily or weekly tasks to be complete on my accounts. I will also follow people that are a part of the job field that I am interested in, that way I can professionally connect with them.

[taladean]

The Social Dilemma- Week 3

After watching The Social dilemma and the lecture video the way that I view social media and online platforms were greatly impacted. I think that the data and algorithms tools are very powerful because it allows companies to gather up all personal information on just about anyone. The huge amount of data that is packaged up is analyzed and allows companies and organizations to predict what our interests are, where we want to travel, what we want to buy, pretty much they can know any about us. Companies use this information as a tactic to make money. For example, a person can do some online shopping for shoes, and for the next couple of days, that person will get advertisements that will encourage them to buy or visit a website that sells shoes. Companies use our information without us knowing it and I think it’s valid that people say that these companies view us as the product rather than people/customers. This is dangerous and is a form of abuse because we (the "users”) do not know what information they are storing and packaging. People might not even know that their privacy is being violated and that everything that you search/ put on the internet is being gathered up and analyzed. Essentially people’s private information is being bought and sold without consent. Many people considered these strategies/tactics as a form of manipulation and as a violation of their privacy. Another dangerous fact about these tools is that tech companies have the power to influence a person’s thought process and can easily influence their views. For example, depending on your location, when you search things on google different sources will be available to you. Also, for most websites, fact-checking is not required. For example, if someone looked up if the earth is flat, there will be articles and resources showing you how the earth is indeed flat. This is how people get roped into believing such absurd conspiracy theories. Your search algorithm will then be programmed to provide articles supporting flat earth believers. Ultimately this data is sold and used by companies. These companies will provide more articles that reinforce the conspiracy theory. This is dangerous because it can greatly alter people’s beliefs and cause a division between groups of people.  

On a personal level, I think this problem can be dealt with if individuals were aware of big data and algorithm tools that companies are using. People might then realize that they should not believe everything they see on the internet. Personally, I think people should go offline and access credible books on their subject of interest. However, I know most people will not be willing to do so. Therefore, at the very least, I would suggest for people to look into multiple sources on that subject and come to an educated conclusion. Professionally, companies should think critically and act from the standpoints of law and ethics. Companies would need to better regulate the way they deliver and release information. Hopefully, companies will realize that eventually people are going to catch on to what they are doing and deem their company as untrustworthy which will encourage the user to disassociate from the company. In the end, it is the users that make or break a company. At a societal level, I think just being aware of this problem is crucial. To fix this problem people, need to know that our information (essentially us the users) is being sold and used. As a society, I think we should realize that we should perhaps adjust the amount of time we spend on social media and realize the dangers that come with the use of social media.

[taladean]

Social Media Experiment

My social media log showed that in 24 hours I spent on average 28 minutes a day (Friday) on a social media app. Meaning that on Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, VSCO, and Spotify I spend on average about 28 minutes a day on each app. My daily screen time average on my phone is 4hr and 45 minutes. This includes all my social media apps, Facetime, Texting, and pretty much whenever I unlock my phone. On that Friday I picked up my phone about 49 times. Meaning that I interacted with my phone 49 times, this could be the number of times I picked up my phone, unlocked it, used Siri...etc.  I also recorded the number of posts I posted that day. I posted at least 3 Snapchat stories, but I did not count the snaps I sent to people individually. On that day I sent around 30 texts, I did not count the texts that I received, and I did not post on any other social media accounts that day.

During my social media log day, I realized that I spent most of my time on social media apps right before bed and also right when I wake up in the morning. The mornings and the evenings are when my screen time goes up immensely. Based on this information I decided that I would create an experiment that would alter my social media use significantly during the mornings and evenings. The experiment that I conducted was over a 24-hour period. Before I went to sleep the night before my experiment, I turned off all my notifications for all of my social media apps. I also set up time limits for app use. I set a time limit of 14 minutes for each social media app; this is half the time that I spent on average for each social media app on Friday (social media log day). During this experiment I allowed myself to only respond to people that needed a response immediately. If it was not an urgent message I waited until the next day to respond.

The results of my experiment:

·       The total amount of time I spent on my social media apps on that day was: 2 hours and 6 minutes.

·       My total screen time: 3 hours and 5 minutes.

·       Total pickups: 30

·       Total posts: I did not post anything on social media that day and only sent 5 texts.

Instead of going on my phone in the morning I did some yoga and completed homework for my classes. During the day I was pretty busy and so I really didn’t have a chance to be tempted by my phone. The most difficult time of the day was in the evening from 5 -9 pm. However, instead of giving in to the temptation, I hung out with my roommate and we played board games. Because I put a limit on my social media use my screen time, total posts and total pickups went down significantly. At the end of the day, I realized that I was much more productive, and I was able to go to sleep earlier rather than staying up late and catching up on classwork. This experiment taught me that social media decreases my productivity and if I limited my use of social media then I would have more time to do things that I enjoyed. I plan on limiting my app use at least once a week from here on out. I was very pleased with the results and I think in the long run it will benefit me.  

[taladean]

Week 2: Blog post 1

I found the Max Stossel talk very interesting and shocking. Right off the bat, he gave us a fact about how “50% of teens are addicted to their mobile phones”. I thought about this fact and it makes sense. As Max said, the people who run these social media apps want to take time away from you. The tactics that these social media companies use work really well. Once Max explained the variable reward, I realized that I fall for this trap. In high school, I remember posting Instagram pictures and I would look at least every 30 seconds to see if my picture would get any new likes. I would find myself continuously refreshing the page to see how many more likes I have. Near the end of high school, I realized that this behavior is really not healthy and luckily, I was able to pull myself out of this habit. However, I still use the app now, but I realized that I would rather spend my time doing other things than waiting to see how many likes I get on Instagram. I looked at my screen time after watching this video and the number that I saw was higher than I thought it was. One of the tips that Max gave was to turn off all notifications except from people. I’ve decided that I am going to do this, to see if I lower my screen time and to see if I do more activities that I enjoy. After reading Emma Rathbone’s article I realize that our phones have become something that many of us cannot go without. I think most of us immediately go to our phones when we are bored or when we are in a situation where we do not want to talk. When Emma described these situations about what people would do before they had phones, a lot of these people used their imaginations. Their thoughts and actions for the most part were not manipulated. It’s like Emma said, they made their own fun. I think that people before having cell phones were able to truly know themselves and know what they like. While in today’s world I feel like most people just go with the latest trend and follow what others do.

As of now, I think social media influences me in my daily life. If I see a new style trend on Instagram or TikTok, I almost always go online shopping looking for similar styles. If I see someone very popular on social media do something, I automatically think about doing it myself. I hope to change these habits of mine soon but as of now social media has a huge impact on my daily life. Having the internet constantly available to me affects my life in positive and negative ways. The positive side of it is that I get to connect to friends and family even when I am very far away from them. When I am at school, I am very far away from home and so being able to contact them through social media is very important to me. The negative side of this is that during my free time I often spend my time on social media even if I do not want to. Honestly, I scroll through social media because it’s just there and available. Whenever I go camping with my family I usually have no access to the internet. About two summers ago me and my family went camping and I can honestly say that I made some of my favorite memories on that trip. During the trip, I was forced to talk with my family more, and to stay occupied we did family activities together. I felt like I was living more in the moment and I was much more relaxed. I think just being present and, in the moment, has made me realize that my phone has distracted me and steered me away from things that I really like doing.  I do not think social media is all bad, but I think that the majority of us overuse it. I think turning off all notifications except from people will help me become more intentional about my use of technology. Because most of the time when I go on my phone there is no purpose behind it, I just go on it to pass time.  However, now especially with school being online, I would like to set a time limit for how long I can scroll through social media in a single day. With this time limit, I feel like I will be more intentional with my use of technology. I will probably go on apps that make me happy and apps that are interesting and helpful to me.  

[taladean]

Introduction

Hi! My name is Tala Dean, I am a senior at CMU, and I will be graduating this semester. I am Canadian and, I grew up in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I also play for the CMU softball team and my final season is just around the corner. My major is Cellular and Molecular Biology, and I am minoring in business Entrepreneurship.

My career goal is to become a Veterinarian and to one day own a practice. During my freshman year, I took an entrepreneurship class and quickly became interested in the subject. I was also told that owning a veterinary practice is pretty much the same as owning your own business. As I took more Entrepreneurship classes I realized how the information taught in these business classes could one day help me succeed with my own business. I hope these blogs help me develop a professional online/social media skillset. Now a day’s social media is used and relied on in many career fields and in my case learning how to promote or use social media professionally can be very beneficial. Most veterinary practices have a social media presence and if that presence is used correctly then that can really benefit the practice.

A company that I believe is exemplary with regard to its use of social media is Chipotle. A friend of mine follows them on Twitter and Tiktok and what I noticed is that Chipotle engages with their customers and because of this they seem to know what their customers really like and want. One principle covered in the reading assignment that this company demonstrates really well is participation, meaning that they allow their followers to participate and contribute to their online posts (The Social Organization p.13). On Tiktok they post videos mostly of their followers. Yes, these videos promote Chipotle but it also gives the followers the chance to interact with other Chipotle fans. Both on Twitter and Tiktok I also noticed that Chipotle themselves respond and talk to people in the comment sections. They also collaborate directly with some fans and celebrities. For example, they sponsor David Dobrik, a famous YouTuber, and worked with David Dobrik to let people enter a contest to win free Chipotle burritos for a year. Many Tiktok’s that are posted get millions of views and their tweets would often get thousands of likes and comments. Chipotle does a good job of staying up to date with the new trends and because of this, they get a lot of engagement with their followers on their social media platforms.

Link to Chipotle Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chipotle?lang=en  

Link to Chipotle Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChipotleTweets