My Social Profile

This semester I have learned so much in the social media class. I have learned how to use different types of medias and learned to love them. This is my blog and I have enjoyed learning how to blog and now enjoy blogging everyday.
I started learning how to twitter last semester, but never really got into until now. I always thought that twitter was just a place that people only updated their status; however, twitter is so much more. It is a place to communicate with so many different people all at once. You can talk about a specific topic such as a TV show or connect over a specific topic.
I have always been a huge fan of facebook and I still do love it. It is a great way to share information and connect with friends.
I have not been on linkedin and did not really know what it was all about. I have learned that it is a great way to network with others. This is a great place for you to really showcase yourself and your talents. Future employers can look up your linkedin profile and see what you are capable of.
I have also created a flickr account. Flickr is a great way to share photos and be able to own the copyrights to the pictures you take.
There are also so many other things that I have learned how to use. I learned how to make a podcast which you can view on this blog in the google buzz podcast blog. I have learned how to learn foursquare. I really loved learning about foursquare and I feel like I must get a smart phone now to be able to use it more accurately.
This was a great class and I have learned so much about different social media networks. I am sad that the class is ending, but I know that I will take what I learned from this class and use it the way that is best for me.

Bobcat PRSSA: Social Media Profile

For my social media client I decided to take over the Bobcat PRSSA's media appearance. I think the best place to start would be the website. On the website I have also included the blog so they are both easy to find and in the same place. With the blog I have encouraged members to send me there experiences in our PRSSA chapter to post on the blog.

Here is the blog and website.

The website also has ways to be able to connect to the other media outlets:

e-mail account (bobcatprssa@gmail.com)

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Flickr

We already have a facebook group page. The group page is a good idea for PRSSA because we want people in the group who are in the organization only. This is a way for us to communicate besides just with our e-mail. It has also become a way for us to share pictures and event experiences. I hope that that will change through the blog, however.

Next we have our Twitter account. Our twitter is a way for any one to follow us and to see what we are up to. It is also a way for members to get updates quickly.

I have created a Linkedin group as well. The linkedin group is a way be able to show that you were involved in a PR chapter with your university. This is a great thing to put on your resume and for future employers to see.

I also have decided to create a flickr account. I created this account because it is an easy way to share our pictures with each other of different events we have attended, what we have accomplished, and what we have done.

Google Buzz Podcast

24 Hours in 1985

For a class project we went 24 hours without certain technology. We decided that we could not use any technology that we did not have in 1985. That meant no cell phones, no dvds, no cds, no Internet (well the stuff that we use anyways, such as this blog), and no iPods. I thought that this would not be a problem for me. 2 summers ago I went to Israel for 2 weeks and did not have access to a cellphone or the Internet. I did not miss it and it was relaxing not having it with me. However, this time it was different. For those 2 weeks it was not just me that did not have access it was the majority of the group. It was easier not to care about it when I was not around it.

These past 24 hours, however, have been hard. Technology has become a convenience in my life and without it was difficult. I have become reliant on my cellphone, even so much as that I use it as a clock instead of a watch. I had people calling me and texting me and it was a hassle to have to be at home or to go home to use a house phone with a cord in order to call people back. I thought that not being on a computer for a day would also be easy, however, it wasn't. I did not mind not being on facebook, twitter, or a blog or a day; however, I relie on my computer to look everything up. My sister and I wanted to go and see a movie yesterday, but I could not get on the computer to look up the times. I wanted to know what the weather was going to be like, I could not get on weather.com and look at the forecast. I wanted to look up things that I found interesting in a commercial, but I couldn't. I did not realize how much I actually do on a computer on a daily basis.

The hardest part of this assignment was that even though I was not using these things does not mean that I can stop others from using theirs. My sister has an iPhone and was on it all day. Driving in the car with my dad, he uses his GPS in order to go anywhere. Whenever, I come home my mom likes to take pictures using her digital camera and always wants me to upload the pictures to her computer. My dad does not listen to the radio, but always listens to XM in his car. I did not break the rules, but I could not stop my mom from wanting to take a picture of me and my sister, I could not make my dad not use his GPS, and I could not make him listen to the regular radio in the car. At my house we have a home phone (with cords), but no one uses it anymore. My grandmother calls the phone occasionally, but for the most part the people who call it are usually trying to sell us something or wanting us to take some sort of survey.
This assignment was difficult. I really missed being able to just talk to someone on the phone when I was driving of away from a land line phone. I missed being able to look anything up with just a touch of a button online. This was a hard assignment and I have learned that I don't know what I would do without my cellphone or wireless laptop.

Reflecting on Henry Jenkins

We had the honor today to skype with Henry Jenkins. We were able to have a an hour in a half Q&A session. I am going to go over some of the things that I learned and found very interesting.

Henry Jenkins said that he is wanting society to realize that media can be a resource for the public. Technology has grown so much and there has been so many changes, but how do we use it properly.

Twitter has recently become a way for people to communicate and brand themselves. In Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins talks a lot about how fans influence transmedia and twitter is becoming a huge part of it. By using twitter's buzz factor we are not able to tell if a movie will succeed or fail within the first week before the film comes out. Some people believe that fans are powerless, but Dr. Jenkins proves them wrong in the chapter about Harry Potter. At first executives did not know what to do with fan bases, but now they have started to embrace them and realize that it is free, good publicity.

Within fan bases people are beginning to role play series such as Mad Men in their offices. This was not what the executives predicted what would happen within the fan bases, but they needed to figure something out. Executives are also uses fan bases to recruit new ideas and talents and fans are now becoming the new professionals.

The idea of social media tools has grown extremely in the past few years. We have facebook, twitter, myspace, and more. These social networks can be a great opportunity. These days we can keep the friends we know forever and never really stay out of touch because we are connected through a form of social networking. People of an older generation use to not be able to keep connected with friends who went to different colleges, moved to different states, etc.; however, today they are able to reconnect through these different networks.

Today, more and more children and staying indoors playing video games, connecting online through second life and more. Children do not play outside like they use to and some say that their social skills might not be as strong. However, Dr. Jenkins says that these are just new influences and teaching tools. You could even say that the children who play and connect through second life are socially interacting and having play date just different then the play dates I had when I was younger. By using social networks you can become socially isolated or create strong social connections. You just need to learn how to use it in a way that's right for you.

The advice that he gave us is to build our networks now. Be friends or follow people who are doing what you would want to do one day.

This was such an amazing experience being able to meet and talk with Henry Jenkins. I learned so much more and if you are wanting to learn more about him feel free to check out his blog.

Skyping with Henry Jenkins

Tomorrow in class we have been given the opportunity to have a skpye conference with Henry Jenkins the author of our textbook, Convergence Culture.
We have been relating his ideas on transmedia to our social media class and what it means to us. If you would like to see more on Henry Jenkins you can visit his blog.
In his book he talks about how fans use different medias to support what they love. In the chapter about Harry Potter he discusses how a 13 year old girl, after reading the first book, started her own newspaper, named after the paper in the book, The Daily Prophet. Other children write articles and she edits them. However, there can also be anti-fans, people who do not support the cause, but fight against it. Some people were outraged with the Harry Potter books and said that its ideals were those of the devils. However, they could not get the bigger picture and see how children were reading and enjoying it, they were also writing and improving their writing style and creativity.
I would like to ask Henry Jenkins about this topic. In the future, what role does he see fan-bases playing and how will it influence the medias?

Bobcat PRSSA

For my class we have to choose a client for our final project. We are going to revamp their social media and get them interested in wanting to more online.

I am the president of GC&SU's PRSSA chapter, Bobcat PRSSA, and we need a social media makeover. They are going to be my client.

We already have a facebook group and a twitter page. I am going to keep us as a group and not a fan page because we want it to be a place for the members to be able to go to and see what is going on.

Our twitter is in good shape, however, we do need to start twitting more. I have already uploaded our twitter to our facebook group so we can have more followers and we can then follow our members in return.

Next step would be to start a blog. A blog would be a good resource to have. I think that it would be good to post weekly. PRSSA and PRSA send out e-mails constantly. I can put on there important information for fellow PRSSA members of my chapter to look at and read. Also, I can blog about my expierence at the National Leadership conference in June for PRSSA. Others in the chapter could also post expierences that they have had in PRSSA or any PR experiences that they have had.

Lastly, I would like to start a website. We do not have a website. I think that it would be good for us to have one because we can then upload in onto our school's website for others to look at if they think that they are interested in PRSSA.

Reflection on Bert DuMars Visit to GC&SU

Mr. Bert DuMars came to our social media class on Friday to talk to us about the different aspects of social media.
One of the first things we talked about was twitter. He said that your twitter and twitter stream is a great way to promote yourself and your skills. That in the "about me" section explain who you are and do not leave it blank. Do not give out personal information on twitter and keep your location broad. If you don't have a career yet, like my classmates and I, use it to show your talent and what you can do.
No one is a social media expert, but a social media explorer or practicioner.
He showed us how it was like to go through recalls and how to deal with them. Bert DuMars works for Newell-Rubbermaid and a while ago one of there products for Graco was recalled (a baby stroller). Consumers crashed the website and the blog with over 2 million hits. The company had to do something. It was interesting to know that loyal consumers to the Graco products actually started blogs and were answering questions, they were helping to promote the good nature of Graco baby products. Social media helped to stop the craziness that other parents were creating about the fear of their child getting injured.
The next thing we learned about was how to use blogs for a company. Do not use your blog to promote to products, if they want to know about the product have a spot where they can go to the products website. Use the blog to showcase your customers and show them that you care. Make sure that you have someone to monitor the blogs and to answer posts.
We learned how Coca Cola is using their social media. They have started a happiness campign that will start to be aired on American Idol. Coca Cola has also started Expedition 206, where select people were choosen to go around the world where Coke products exist.
We also learned how to use facebook to promot products. You can start a fan page on facebook to promote your products and also see what they have to say. However, you must use the page and respond. Mr. DuMars said there are 3 things that you must do: 1. Listen 2. Respond to consumers and let them know you hear them 3. Act. The bigger your network gets on Facebook the more value it has.

Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Yesterday in class we discussed chapters 2 and 3 of Henry Jenkins book, Convergence Culture. Chapter 2 is called "Buying into American Idol" and Chapter 3 is called "Searching for the Origami Unicorn".

For chapter 2 I agree with everything that we talked about. In this new day in age we do not always watch commercials anymore (people fast forward through them [DVR] or they "zap" through other channels) so advertisers must think of different ways to get their product out there. Advertisers use the consumers emotional attachment to, for example, with American Idol, they drank out of coke bottles and sat in a red room. Coke knew that loyal watchers had a connection with the people on the show and used the contestants and judges to advertise their product. Also, I agree that gossip creates convergence. Just as the family in the chapter discussed the show and then sent in their vote together. Social media makes it even easier for gossip created convergence. We now have the option of not only talking to people in person around the "water cooler," but we now have a "cyber water cooler" to gossip with. A "cyber water cooler" would be chat rooms, blogs, twitter, facebook, e-mails, etc. that is a way to spread conversation with. This chapter also says how American Idol changed texting. When the show started, out of the people viewing 1/3 of them had never sent a text before, but were now texting in for their favorite performers.

In chapter 3, "Searching for the Origami Unicorn," which is about The Matrix, we mentioned some key terms that deal with that we will discuss on these blog posts:

1. Storytelling



2. World Creating



3. Collaborative Authorship



4. Co-creating



5. Origami Unicorn



6. Cult Films Phenomenon



7. TRANSMEDIA



8. Encyclopedia Capacity



9. Additive Comprehension



10. Collective Intelligence

Storytelling, transmedia, collaborative authorship, and co-creating are all similar. They all deal with how The Matrix was not just the film. The Matrix was not just a film. To co-create the differnt medias, the creators of the film got together with animation artists and video game creators to make the expierence even greater. By just watching the movie you would not get the whole effect, you understood more by seeing the animated shorts and by playing the game, this is what it is meant by storytelling. We are using differnt medias to tell one story which is what transmedia means. The collaborative authorship deals with how a part of the story could be told in the video game, but then the story continues in the movie. World creating deals with the idea of designing a whole new world such as the one Neo enters in The Matrix. Consumers get involved and attached to The Matrix's many worlds (film, gaming, and television) and want to be apart of it. The idea of the origami unicorn and additive comprehension go together. The origami unicorn refers to a "director's cut of Blade Runner, where adding a small segment showing Deckard discovering an origami unicorn invited viewers to question whether Deckard might be a replicant". This is an example of additive comprehension, where this one addition of this sence causes you to change your whole "preception of the fill". The cult film phenomenon refers to movies such as The Matrix where information comes from other movies. "For example, Neo's apartment number is 101, which is the room number of the torture chamber in George Orwell's 1984" there are even more references throughout all three of The Matrix films for the number 101. Encyclopedica compacity refers to the cult film phenomenon. For a work to be encyclopedic it must contain "a rich array of information that can be drilled, practiced, and mastered by devoted consumers. Loyal consumers would look and know what Neo's apartment number meant. However, encyclopdic compacity deals with the high number of hidden messages in the film that maybe no one will really ever know how many their really are but the creators. The idea of collective intellengence is where together you can know more that just by yourself. The loyal fans put their minds together to try to understand The Matrix through all three medias. They helped each other find clues and answered questions. This is similar to the knowledge community that formed for Survivor.

Bert DuMars

Tomorrow in our social media class we are so pleased to announce that Bert DuMars will be a guest speaker. To find out information about Mr. DuMars you can read our teacher's (Dr. Ginger Carter-Miller) blog.

I am very excited to meet him and learn his expertise on social media and how to use it.

There are three questions that I would like to ask Mr. DuMars in class tomorrow:

1. I understand the need for websites and over the years, many people have used websites to find new information, buy new products, and more. However, do you believe that the blogs help and how do you get them out there where people will interact with it?


2. Did you have any problems trying to get older executives to understand the need for social media in their businesses?


3. How do you feel the best way to influence others to start using all the social media tools we have out there?

Teri Hatcher

A knowledge community is one where people come together with knowledge on a certain subject. Like my last post about the "Spoiling Survivor", the Spoilers were a knowledge community. They were all interested in the show Survivor and enjoyed trying to beat the game for instance and tried to find out information before the show started.
There are many types of knowledge communities. For my knowledge community and I am going to look at the show Desperate Housewives and one of the main housewives Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer.
Learn basic information about the show

Learn basic information on Teri Hatcher

Hatcher's website for women

Hatcher played Lois in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" from 1993 - 1997

Hatcher in Kenya and part of Team Africa

Charity Work

"Spoiling Survivor"

The first chapter in Convergence Culture, by Henry Jenkins, is called "Spoiling Survivor". In this chapter it talks about how people will try to find out all the information about the Survivor show and post it online before it aires on TV. There was a lot of controversy about one of the spoilers named ChillOne who leaked information about the 6th season. Spoilers were convinced that it was either a person who participated in the 6th season of Survivor or that it was a producer for CBS.

Spoilers to me seem like gatekeepers. A gatekeeper is someone who controls what gets put out there. There are a group of spoilers known as the "brain trust". This was a group of about 20 people who would find out all the information on the contestants as possible, even extremely private information. They were the ones that decided what information to release about the contestants and what information not to release.

Another form of gatekeeping is through the producer Mark Burnett. He knew that the spoilers would try to find out anything that they could about the show before it aired, especially the final 4 and who would win the show. He would put misleading information in the intro to the show and if he truly was ChillOne like others suspected he would have been gatekeeping what information got out and what did not.

As for me, I do not like the idea of spoilers. I like to find out what happens every week like all the other people watching. I do not like it when people ruin the ending of something for me, I like to figure it out while I am watching.

Social Media

Social media is used to describe a type of social communication used through the media. This means that any method of interaction between people online and any communication through digital means would be considered social media. Me, typing this blog post, and sending it out in the web is a form of social media. Others read my blogs and they could end up in other forms. Media is not just me typing and sending something into the web it is much more. Media is any form of typing, texting, pictures and sounds, etc. that is shared through the Internet or through any digital means. Social media is not something that is easily defined because social media changes everyday, there is always something new that comes out. Just in the past few months I have learned to use a blog and twitter and who knows what more I will be able to learn and what new forms of social media will come later.

Danny Brown, who helps others explore and use social media, has termed a theory for social media called the Continuum Theory of Social Media. In this theory he states that social media is not just one thing but more of a continuum with social on the far left and media on the far right.

The social side is about communication and the media side is the way in which one communicated their message.

The social side includes areas such as facebook and twitter. There are millions of conversations that happen daily on each form of social Internet. These sites are great to use for networking and to help build you, your company, and much more.

The media side deals with how to actually sell your product. The product could be you, it could be a message, or it could be an actual product.

This is an example of how and why social media is always changing. People are constantly communicating and people are constantly selling different things. Media is something that changes daily and there is always something new to learn.

To read more about Danny Brown just click on the Title of this post: Social Media.