Class Reflection

This class showed me the other uses for social media besides just personal use. Social media is a useful tool for businesses to utilize to promote themselves in the digital world. I think that everything is going online and inorder to stay competitive companies need to put themselves out there on social networking sites. My goal is to stay current with social netoworking and stay involved with at least one social media site. After the readings from class I am nervous of what the future holds for us, we can't lose who we are to the internet. People still need to be able to function and hold conversations without feeling the need to look at their devices.

Individual Presentation

My individual presentation is now up at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTnz-qHhFdA&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Information Systems and Social Media

Social media-based systems is an emerging field in information systems. Social media-based systems can be used to observe and collect information about users and then using the information to create advertising recommendations. Two ways the system can obtain recommendations is through a Content based method which measures the similarity of the recommended items to the ones the target user has previously viewed, liked or disliked. The other method is Collaborative filtering, the system makes recommendations to the target user based on the opinions of users/friends who share similarities to the target. Social media is a growing industry making the information about the users for marketing purposes highly valuable.

A Time and a Place

Social media is a usefully tool for sharing thoughts, staying in touch with friends, or just knowing what others are doing. Since the smart phone revolution we can use Facebook, twitter, etc essentially wherever we want. The mobility and convince of having this whole other world tucked in our pocket has gotten out of hand. Movies theaters need to remind the patrons not to use their phones during the movie so they don't distract others. There's just certain times that everyone needs to learn isn't acceptable or polite to be spending time on their phones. Times that I personally feel that people should stay off their phones is during family dinner or out to dinner with friends, during movies, during class, when someone is talking to you, even when you're hanging out with some friends. Why keep checking what others are doing online when you're physically with people. I violate these too but I try to avoid it. Technology is becoming too depended upon and we don't know how to socialize or function without that little phone in our hand.

Twitter's Use For Businesses

This blog was inspired by Nick's post from a week ago. I think that many people instantly think of Facebook when they think of companies using social media, but twitter has been growing as a platform for businesses to advertise. My favorite company account on twitter is Taco Bell's. They use humor to promote themselves in their tweets.

I think that Taco Bell's sarcastic humor makes people pay more attention to their tweets and definitely increases the number of followers that they have. Not all companies can follow Taco Bell's style of tweeting because it could not be appropriate depending on the goods or service they provide. But I think that if other restaurants became more parody like they would see a huge increase in followers and activity on twitter.  

Klout Score

Professor Melton mentioned this thing called a "klout score" multiple times and I had no idea what it meant. I logged into klout with my twitter and have "a steady score of 32". After researching what my klout score means I learned that it is ranked from 1-100 and is based on your online influence. 32/100 isn't very influential, but it really doesn't matter because I'm not trying to run for an office or promote a company.

CMMA Presentation

We recently gave our final presentation to members of the CMMA board. I felt that it went very well and that the board members can use suggestions that we gave them to hopefully help them reach the crowd that they are hoping to. The one thing I'm not sure about is if they realize that utilizing our plan is a lengthy process. They won't gain the following their hoping for right after creating their Facebook or linkedin.

Morbark Field Trip

Driving out to the factory not knowing much about Morbark I remember us joking about what the facility would be like thinking it would be some small dirty place. So pulling into the parking lot we were all impressed at the size of the building followed by the impressive lobby area. As we toured the upstairs offices then the factory floor I couldn't help but be impressed by the elaborate bar code system they had implemented to cut down on time spent looking for parts. After awhile of walking the floor it did start to feel a bit excessive but I was still impressed by the shear size of the place. Morbark seems to really have everything together as well when it comes to their website management. It's very organized and well laid out for customers visiting the site. Overall I think that the trip to Morbark was a valuable experience, it showed me all the different pieces and jobs that have to come together to make what they do possible.    

Everyday Changes

Social and digital media effects our daily lives more than we may realize. If you look at the different sites that college use on a daily basis: Facebook, twitter, instagram. You'll see that people post with the desire to show off or feel recognized by receiving likes, favorites, etc. How much effort goes into these pictures or posts that could be put to better use if this digital environment didn't exist? I've recently been watching That 70's Show on netflix and personally I think I would prefer growing up in a time where everyone didn't know what you were doing and everyone wasn't mindlessly staring at their lit up screens. I think that social media can have its benefits, but I feel like it is being over used for stupid nonsense that wont matter 1 day from then.  

Checking out of the book

I haven't been able to completely lock myself out of social media or technology, however I have been off Facebook for about a year now and haven't felt a need to sign back in. When deleting Facebook you are prompted with a list of questions for the reason you're leaving followed by pictures of you're "friends" saying they'll miss you. I find that deleting my Facebook eliminated stress from my life; I no longer mindlessly scrolled through my timeline looking at everything people I haven't talked to in years were doing. Not having a Facebook does have it downfalls though, certain iphone/ipad games and apps ask you to sign in with Facebook and reward you for doing so, for example signing in on candy crush can get you extra lives from other Facebook friends also playing candy crush. I am happy with my decision to get away from Facebook, I do have a twitter and I think that its easier to control the content you view on twitter compared to Facebook. Eventually a new social media site will come out that will trump Facebook and twitter but until then I'll be waiting my 20 minutes for my life on candy crush.