Communication Major Searching for Job in the Social Media Field

Contact Information:

Shane Montoya
St. Edward's University
Communication Major
Email: smontoy@stedwards.edu
Blog: http://shanesprblog.blogspot.com

Communication Major Searching for Job in the Social Media Field

I am seeking a full-time job focusing on Social Media in Public Relations or Advertising in Austin, Texas upon graduating.

December 1, 2007

• In May of 2008 I will be graduating from St. Edward’s University with a bachelor’s degree in Communication focusing on Public Relations, Advertising, and Marketing. Upon graduating I hope to get a job with a company that deals with social media.


• Some of the related course work that I feel will benefit me in a job dealing with social media is: Public Relations, Advertising, Organizational Communication, Media Communication, Journalism, Social Media & Internet PR, and Advertising Creative Strategies.


• Since June of 2007, I have had the opportunity to work at Clear Channel Radio’s 96.7 Kiss FM for the number one rated morning show in Austin. Through this internship I have learned how to put things on the web and how to work with many different forms of sound editing software.


• Since August of 2006, I have also had the opportunity to work at St. Edward’s University for the School of Humanities. Throughout this job I have become skilled at using InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop. I have also had the opportunity to book hotels, order food, and make reservations for events online.


• Through attending St. Edward’s University I feel that I have had many opportunities to learn about the web and about how technology is taking the world by storm. In my Social Media & Internet PR class I have had the opportunity to blog regularly, create podcasts and web videos, learn about the many different forms of social networking sites, and how to use all the tools that keep everyone connected throughout the web.


• By having the opportunity to take Advertising Creative Strategies I have been given the advantage of learning how to create television, radio, newspaper, and magazine layouts.


• Throughout my experience at St. Edward’s University some great things have happened to me. They include: being a part of the Communication Society, being given many Student at Work Awards (SAW) for my well done job with the Humanities office, volunteering for Meals on Wheels, and making the Dean’s List.

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

Download Podcast on Social Media	Download "Outrage for Injustice"

QUOTES

These Quotes Came From Co-Workers

"Shane is one of the most reliable people I know. He is really easy to get along with and always makes the day more enjoyable." -Shelly

"Shane has taught me a lot about good work ethic. He knows when it is time to be serious and I have learned a lot from him. I would call him the leader of the group." -Erik

"Shane defines what it means to be all around talented. Every task that has been put in front of him he has mastered." -Chelsea

About Shane:

Shane Montoya arrived in Austin, TX after deciding to attend St. Edward's University in 2004. He is in his fourth year there and intends to graduate in May of 2008. His hometown is only an hour and a half away in Waco where he lived for 18 years of his life. There he attended Reicher Catholic High School. He is a dedicated individual who has worked hard to get where he is today. He is easy to get along with and enjoys life. When he is not busy (which is rare) he enjoys outdoor activities and traveling.

Technorati Tags:
Social Media Public Relations Advertising Marketing Shane Montoya Technology Internet Job

Should You Blog?

Chapter 11 of The New Influencers titled Next Steps posed the question of who should be blogging? The book tailored this question towards business owners. It stated that blogging is a great way for business owners to get their word out there. Whether their word may be promotion for a new product or rebuttal to an angry customers complaints the important thing is that through blogging they have a wide range to reach people.

One of the other things that the chapter talks about is how rankings fall for professional bloggers when they take a break. The book stated "prominent blogger Stowe Boyd said that if he takes just a week off from blogging, his Technorati ranking drops from 2,100 to 2,300," (pg 203). Fans of bloggers are serious. I don't know how many times I have stopped reading blogs because there is no new information put up for days. Blogging can be done just for fun, but if you really want a following you better be willing to dedicate a lot of time to it!

In my personal opinion I think that blogging is an excellent thing to do, especially if you have time. Blogging really does take up some time but I am glad that I started doing it this semester. Before this class I really didn't see any benefits that could come from it, but after doing it for almost five months I will never stop blogging. I have learned more about the web and new technology in these past months than I have in my entire life. There are so many great things that the web has to offer and blogging is one of them. Everyone really should take advantage of it, especially those that have a small business. Blogging would be a great way for them to get their name out there and maybe even gain some loyal customers. One day I hope to open up my own business and I will definitely be blogging about it. Blogging to me allows you to in a way act like your own PR consultant. You are the one in charge of the face that you are giving the company and the one who is in charge of your companies reputation. Blogging is one way to shape your company into whatever you want it be. Just make sure that you are being truthful. Go ahead and give blogging a try!

Amazon Kindle

According to an article that I just recently read titled, Is the Amazon Kindle Really the Ipod of Books, it seems that a new invention is making its way onto the market. The Kindle is a new electronic device where a person can download entire books, magazines, newspapers, and even their favorite blogs. Some people are even comparing this new device to be the Ipod of books.

In the article it stated that with this device you get free wireless Internet to browse for over 90,000 books. Also, the downloading is really fast. This to me looks like it is a really cool device especially for those that like to keep up with the latest technology and for those that like to read a lot. In a sense it really does seem like it could be the Ipod of books. Ipod has Itunes which has a never ending list of songs, and it seems that this new reading device has a source that is similar that has a never ending list of books.

I had never heard or seen anything like this device before. I was really shocked when I stumbled on this article because this is something that I am sure that a lot of people would want to get there hands on. The article said that to purchase a book using this device it usually would cost somewhere around $9.99 and to buy the new kindle it would cost a person $399.

While this device seems like it can cause no harm I can only help but wonder is this going to cause the same problem for the book industries that the Ipod has for music industries. All that I hear about now is how music industries are in panic because of the new wave of digital downloading. More and more people are turning to digital downloading because it is more convenient and usually cheaper. Although I don't think that this product will ever be as popular as the Ipod I do think that it will cause a stir between book industries. If the kindle ever takes off PR teams are going to have to ready to provide there cases because I am sure that a lot of book industries are going to be complaining when they lose a lot of their business.

Cluetrain Manifesto

In class on Thursday we began talking about the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto. A trend is starting to head in the way of online markets. The manifesto tries to help point out the flaws of corporate companies and how online markets are faster and better.

I really agreed with some of the theses that the manifesto mentioned. First, I really liked these two. 21). Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor. 22). Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view. I agree with these two theses completely because I do not know how many times companies are so overly professional that it just makes you mad at them. We are all real people and all of us to a certain extent have to speak in a conversation to where we know that the company feels bad for the problem/problems its consumers are experiencing. Sometimes when they are overly professional in tone it tends to make consumers feel like they are worthless. Like these two theses stated getting a sense of humor does NOT mean posting jokes on the companies web site, just be a little more humble.

I also really liked theses 52). Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies. I think that conversation is the number one thing that keeps a company going. Let's remember back to a lot of PR cases that we have talked about in the past. First, there was the Exxon Valdez case. The CEO waited for an entire week to make a response on the huge oil spill and without this conversation to the public the company took a tremendous hit and loss. Just think of how different things would have been if they would have responded and took action quicker. Let's also look at the Ipod battery case. A man's Ipod starting dying after just a few minutes when he had only had his Ipod for a year. He called Apple and they told him that it would be more to replace the battery than it would be to buy a whole new Ipod. The man was outraged and a backlash went out against Apple. Through this form of conversation Apple dramatically dropped the price of getting a new battery. If Apple would not have responded quickly to this problem it could have changed the outcome of the company today.

One theses that I did NOT like was 26). Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets. I personally think that public relations has a lot to do with the public. Look at all these cases that I have talked about in this blog. If PR did not relate to the public all these companies would have had some serious problems. People that are in charge of PR are the ones that have to continue to tend to the public. If there is a problem they are the ones who have to make it better, and they have to get people to understand the point that the company is trying to make. I think that all that PR does is relate to the public. This relationship may not be like most but it is some form of bond.

I really liked this list of 95 theses. Once again this is something else to show how powerful the Internet is becoming. I think that online markets are unique and are going to change a lot about how business is conducted. It will be interesting to see these changes over the years.

What Is Facebook Thinking?

In Tuesday's class we learned about the newest application that Facebook is going to be adding to it's ever growing list of functions. The latest addition is going to be a part of "Facebook Beacon" which promotes ads on users actual news feeds. This new function is basically going to allow everyone who is a friend with you, be allowed to see exactly what you buy. (By putting a cookie on your computer that keeps track of what you bought with your credit card. If you are logged onto Facebook the same time you are buying products, than it will be added to your news feed).

At first I was like this is pretty cool. It would really help to keep people updated on what is new out there and what people are interested in, but as the class got further into discussion I remember thinking that this is a total invasion of privacy. We shared stories about how something as special as asking someone to marry them was ruined thanks to this new application. (After a person bought a ring the purchase showed up on his news feed and everyone from his girlfriend to his friends saw it, as well as the price!) This new application takes it just one step to far. This to me, just seems like Facebook is ready to start making some serious money. Think of all the companies that are going to pay them to advertise for them, when really they are doing no work at all. It seems like a win-win situation for Facebook. So many people are on Facebook and I am sure that when a new recently purchased item pops up on people's news feeds that people are going to go and check it out. They may not buy it but they will probably remember the website and use it to look for other products someday.

But this could cause a serious problem. What if people buy something that they do not want to share with the world? Facebooks PR team should get ready for a lot of complaints, and get ready to write a lot of new releases to explain why and how this could possibly be a good idea. I really do like Facebook (especially when it was more simple back in the day) but I don't like this new application. I hope that they don't end up messing up what I thought was a good social networking site.

Outrage for Injustice

Here is the video that my group and I made in our social media and PR class. The theme was to show people the realistic truth about what happens to animals in slaughter houses and why people should go vegetarian.



Click Here to Watch the Video!

Fantasy Sports

This is a little different form of social media but to me it can be classified as a type of social networking for sports fans. What I am talking about is fantasy sports. Fantasy sports is people getting together (from anywhere) online and building a team in sports that they think will be the best. These teams are created by real people and compete in real competition every week.

I play both fantasy football and fantasy basketball so those are the two that I am most familiar with. These leagues can consist of families, friends, or random people. They can be found on a lot of different sites, but the two main ones being ESPN and Yahoo. This could be a great way for people to test their sports knowledge and be competitive. This is not just a game, it is taken seriously by most people. Some people even host draft parties to pick the players that they want on their team. The players even offer trades between each other, and pick up players from waivers throughout the season. If a player gets hurt in real life than they are hurt on your team as well, and they need to be replaced in order to continue getting points. Even the top teams go to the playoffs seeing who will become the champion. Lastly, players can communicate with each during game times through something that is very similar to instant messaging.

Fantasy sports are very unique because it is just another form of social networking, but in a competitive sense. It can be linked with social media and pr because fantasy rankings are talked about every week before games on sports shows, even press releases are written about the ever changing ranking of players. Also, these rankings can be found a lot of different places online. Here is an example of the top ranked quarterbacks in fantasy football this week. If your a sports fan and want to compete you should join a fantasy league.

Publishing Viral Video & Youtube

This post is in response to the assignment that the class had to read that focused on viral video and Youtube. We have been working on a video in class for the past week and a half now. When starting this project I simply thought that it was just going to be for extra credit, but after seeing my groups completed project I thought that it was really fun. It was amazing to see that so many different things (pictures, clips, etc.) could be combined to make an interesting video, and something that people have never seen before.

The article talked about how there are a lot of different videos that can go viral. These videos can be made by someone like me and you or a company itself. We have looked at a lot of different videos that have gone viral in this class. Some of the videos have even been popular enough to be turned into commercials. The two that come to mind are the Mcdonald's commercial and the Apple Itouch commercial. Both of these were made by regular people and after being posted to Youtube, they were recognized. With so many people using the web, Youtube has been a great way for people to get something out there.

Look at the video's that we made in class. We had an array of topics that dealt with certain issues. Even if our videos may not go viral they are going to get viewed by some people. This is one of the reasons why the web is so great. Youtube can also be great for pr. Not only is it a way to do cheap and easy promotion, a lot of companies are going to be in need of some good pr and crisis management after some videos are posted. Take the Comcast viral video for example. The worker slept for over an hour. After people saw this they were probably outraged. I am sure that Comcast hired some good publicist to right there wrong. I really liked this article and in case some of you did not read it I put the six ways that the article mentioned about how to maximize viral videos potential.

1. Keep your video clips short, preferable under 5 minutes. Most people browse through a number of videos when visiting sites like YouTube and Google Video, and may be unwilling to give any one video too much of their time.

2. Ensure that your video has interesting, entertaining or provocative content. If it doesn't "wow" people, they will have little incentive to share it with other people they know, or across their social networks.

3. Be cautious about including commercial or promotional content. The most powerful short videos are those which are purely entertaining. It's when people click through to your site that the time is right to add your sales message.

4. Don't plan on creating just one video. It is hard, if not impossible, to accurately predict which videos will enjoy wide, viral distribution. Our own testing demonstrated that some videos were shared more than ten times as much as others. So plan on creating a series of clips, and learn from the one which performs the best.

5. Optimize your video clips to maximize distribution across social network sites, use tags and bookmarking links to help people find, save and share your videos.

6. Create videos that multiple people (possibly some of your customers) appear in. The best team of viral marketers you can hire are people who appear in your video and pass the video to their friends and family.

Stupid Filter!

How many of you out there are tired of getting ridiculous comments on your blogs, myspace, facebook, whatever? It seems that this problem may be able to be alleviated in the future. I was reading an article titled, "StupidFilter Blocks Comments Online" and it states that this stupid filter will be able to block dumb comments from appearing on people's pages.

What this new creation will basically do is keep those unwanted messages off of your page by separating the good messages from the bad. If it senses that a person's comment is no good it will not allow them to post a message, until they reword it to make sense and be relevant.

I don't know how many times I have gotten really dumb comments and have had to erase them. It is both annoying and time consuming. But, at the same time sometimes I like those comments that only make sense to me. What if me and my friends have something that only we get, is this stupid filter going to block those things just because it doesn't understand them? Also sometimes I don't make the most sense when I write. I think that I will get a lot of messages that say I have to reword the things that I am writing to make more sense.

In the long run I think that this will end up being more annoying than anything.I would rather take the time to go and clean out my unwanted comments. Not to mention that this filtering could cause a big uproar. This product is going to need some PR help after a large group of people are angered for being called stupid. What exactly defines a stupid comment anyway and why should a tool online get to decide that? Shouldn't the person who has the comment left on their page get to decide that? I don't think that this filtering will last for very long... What do y'all think?

Order A Drink By Texting

I just read an article titled, Text Message Your Drink Orders At British Pub. This article brought forth to my attention (even more) how far technology has come. How many of you have been at a bar before and have stood there forever waiting to get a drink? (that is if you are 21 of course) It seems that the British have made it very easy to eliminate this problem. If people at British pubs are tired of the lines all that they have to do is text message the order to the bartender and there beer will be right out.

I am not quite sure how this works but from my understanding it seems that one can get on the Internet from their phone, and connect to the pub's homepage to find the menu there. From that point all they have to do is find the drink they want, and then send it to the bar's computer. This seems easy enough, but I can't help but wonder if the process is really that simple?

I do not know about Britain but let's take the United States for example. I know for a fact that a lot of places are very strict on serving to underage people. It would be a big waste of time if underage people were playing jokes on these bars. (How exactly would they be able to check people's Id's if they are ordering through text message?) This could be a really big loss of profit for them, not to mention a big legal issue if they served to minors. Also, the article stated that if drinks are ordered through a text message 10% is added to the cost of the drink, not including the tip, or the Internet fees from the person's cell phone provider! At this rate one drink could end up being very expensive. (too expensive for this to even be worth it)

This new service will probably be in need of some serious PR over time. This type of issue is one that a lot of people could find to be unethical, or like I said earlier a lot of issues could rise from this (underage drinking, problems with the system, people feeling cheated in to paying so much). This could also use some PR to help promote the new service. Why I think that most new things happening in technology are very cool, I have to admit that this one is dumb. It really does seem like it is more work than it is worth.

Facebook Watchers!

Since I just wrote my last blog about Facebook making its way on to Blackberry cellphones I thought that it was only appropriate to talk about a new article that I found titled, Facebook Employees Know Whose Profiles You Look At. After reading this article I was shocked to find out that employees can sit around the computer at times keeping track of whose profiles people are looking at on Facebook.

I know that it is appropriate to be able to find out what people are doing, (for security purposes), but to allow just basic employees this same privilege? The article states, "if your friend works at Facebook and you're crushing on him/her, then maybe you should consider NOT camping out on his or profile as a way of satisfying your creepy longing, e-stalker," (Terrence O' Brien).

Although I was shocked when I read this article I am really not upset that employees can view everyone's profile. I never really took the time to think about it until reading about this and after really thinking about it, I said to myself why shouldn't employees be allowed to look at people's profiles. The only thing that concerns me is I hope that people are actually doing their job, not just looking at people's profiles (and the profiles that those people have been looking at) for entertainment. It is Facebook employees jobs to keep the website in order. I would assume that they would need to be able to track member's courses in order to do so. As long as they are just looking and not sending random messages to the most visited profiles by Facebook members it seems ok to me. What do y'all think?

Facebook on Blackberry's

I guess in an attempt to diversify and reach an older crowd, Facebook will now be a presetting on new Blackberry cellphones. According to the article Facebook Comes to the Blackberry this feature is still going to allow people to do all the same things that can be done on a regular computer, but it is not going to look as cluttered.

I think that this is going to really help Facebook grow. While some younger people have Blackberry's they are mostly used by an older and more business crowd. If I had a Blackberry with this feature I would definitely use it. Technology is coming right to the palm of people's hands. It does not surprise me that Facebook decided to take this step.

One thing that I wonder about though is that Facebook has really gotten away from their original audience as of late. The site started as a college social networking site and has branched out allowing everyone to use it. Is this just because it is growing? Is this because they are trying to compete with myspace? And will this branching out hurt or help the site?

I think that this is a really good idea. What do you think?

Going Viral

It seems that going viral can be a really good way to promote something. Going viral was the main focus of chapter 10 in The New Influencers text. I really never understood what going viral meant before reading this chapter but it is awesome. It is basically a way (if done right) to have web users do promotion for something. "Viral marketing taps an existing vein of Web users and relies on them to spread the word about a site, contest or video by e-mail and blog," (pg 180).

The book does mention some driving forces behind going viral. They are declining response rates, technology developments, demographic shifts, customer preference, and low cost. (pgs 183 & 184) With these things happening it makes sense to go viral. The web has become such a great part of our everyday lives, why not use the power of it.

But not just anyone can accomplish a successful viral campaign. The book also mentions some facts that one must complete in order to possibly have a successful viral campaign. The product had better be good, the campaign must be innovative and fun, don't push it, reward people for coming, let go, and use the medium. Like almost everything in this world it takes work to be successful. Going viral can be very successful but people using it have to be willing to put effort in.

Going viral to me is really interesting for the simple fact that it is a great way for advertising and promotion. And like the chapter also mentions it can be really cheap which is always a good thing. Going viral has been around for a while and it has had some great successes. The book mentions that the documentary The Blair Witch Project actually went viral for promotion of its movie. It grossed about $140 million at the box office because of its viral campaigning. Going viral seems that it can really change the world that we live in. It kind of in a way gives us the voice. We no longer have to hear what other people want us to hear, we can be the ones in charge of spreading the word. I think that going viral is going to continue to be very popular in the future.

Public Relations

After reading chapter 7 of The New Influencers titled, Putting "Public" Back Into Public Relations I was fascinated with how much social media affects PR. "PR professionals see social media as both an opportunity and as a threat. The opportunity is to raise the professions visibility, and the threat is that no one really knows how to deal with these new influencers," (pg 125).

More and more each day my mind inches closer into wanting to go into the field of PR. This chapter really helped me to understand what is going on in that profession right now. It seems that PR has hit a spot in time were it must find a way to reinvent itself. Since the web has taken off so fast and has reached so many people, old ways will simply not work anymore. "The press release is not dead, but it is slowly being replaced. What is replacing it is useful information delivered to influencers in any form that suits their needs," (pg 128). This quote sums up exactly what is happening right now.

People want information fast and they want it to be reliable. What is hard about this is that because of the web, there are now so many different ways to give that information, and everybody seems to want something different. It is also getting harder to know what is important. PR professionals do realize the change that is ahead and are starting to find new innovative ways to do things. They are evolving along with the web, and are increasing their popularity in the world. They are doing so through blogs, podcasts, making shifts in their firms, and by simply changing the approach they use to reach their clients. Whatever the case may be PR seems that it is here to stay.

Social Media PR podcast

Here is our groups podcast! The group consisted of Ben, Amparo, and me (Shane). We talked about web 2.0 and other aspects of social media.

How To Find Things On The Web

Chapter 9 of The New Influencers titled "Tools of The Trade" was all about the different kinds of search engines there are to help find things on the web. Knowing how to find information on the web is extremely important, especially, if you are a corporation. "As a business marketer, you don't necessarily need to be a player in social media, but you should be aware of what's being said about you," (163). It is very important to keep up with this information because if you are a company you are going to have to respond to your customers/media/etc in some way. If you are not aware of what is going on then you are never going to be able to give that response, potentially hurting your company.

This chapter focused on some certain things that people usually need to look up or keep track of and don't know how too. It mentioned some important tools and search engines needed to help find different things and research.

Basic Information:
To help keep up with information on a certain topic there is the already well known search engines like google, yahoo, and the book mentions that ask.com and amazon.com are also always good sources to use to keep up with information. Search engines like these help companies keep up with themselves, allows people to keep up with a certain/specific topic, and allows people to see what is being talked about in the world.

Blogs:
Since this entire class already has a blog we already know of some of the ways to keep up with them. In this class we use RSS. This helps us to be informed when other people in the class have written blogs so that we in turn can read them, and comment on them if we choose. The book also mentions a couple of other tools that can be used to help keep track of blogs. These are Technorati, Blogpulse, and IceRocket. "These provide experimental tools to help you track conversations," (165). Lastly, there is trackbacks. We have learned about these as well. This is how the authors of the two books that we are using in this class found us. They were informed when there books were being linked too and they were then able to find our class blogs and find out where we were from.

Podcasts:
Lastly the chapter talks about podcasts. It mentions two search engines named podscope.com and podzinger.com. These two are the main search engines that can be used in helping to find a podcast or topic that a podcast focuses on.

The web is full of all different kinds of information. But with helpful tools like the ones mentioned above it allows it to keep generating even more information. As long as we have these tools and they continue to grow and get better as the web grows, we will be able to keep up with everything as well as be able to find everything easily on the web. Luckily because of these tools the web will be around for a long time.

Measuring the Influence

Chapter 4 of The New Influencers titled "Measures of Influence" talked about how influence in social media is measured. Mainly this chapter focused on how influential blogs are. There are types of blogs out there that people classify as being "A" list. These blogs are the ones that are recorded as being the most viewed/influential by people. In other words they are really popular.

Although bigger is usually better this chapter also shed light on how important the small can be. This chapter stated that a lot of big bloggers sometimes rely on the smaller bloggers to give/send them information. This not only helps the big blogger a lot because information can be found easier whenever there are a larger number of people looking for it, but it could help to gain benefit for the small blogger as well.

This chapter's main focus was on how important linking can be. This is the main way to measure how important something is. Links help to see how many times a website has been used for information, or how important a person's blog/web page is. This is were the benefit comes in for those small bloggers that help out the "A" Lister's. Since they are helping to find information there page could get linked back too by the "A" Listers, maybe helping them to gain more readership and an audience. Through links a sites popularity and influence is able to be measured. Although this measurement is not completely accurate it helps to give people a generic idea of how important different topics are on the web.

The Internet can be really beneficial. It helps us to gain information quickly and give our own opinions of different things fast. The Internet does a great job of tying everyone together in some way. But, if an idea is taken from another person it is important to link back to them. It is only right that everyone gives credit to were they found the information that they use.

Could the Iphone Finally Have Some Competition

Who out there hasn't heard about the Iphone yet. It is the latest thing that offers just about everything from internet access, to ipod capabilities, to being an actual cellphone all built into one. The Iphone has been out for about three months now and pretty much has been the only phone on the market that has a touch screen, good look, and likability, plus acting like a mini computer that fits right into your pocket.

But now Sprint is introducing a new phone called the Touch according to an MSNBC article titled, "Sprint Introduces Touch Screen Phone." This phone is going to have everything that the Iphone does and be even cheaper. The new Touch is going to be part of Sprint network's. While it is not as unique looking as the Iphone it is still not bad. I think that a lot of people will catch on to this phone just to be different. Not everyone wants to be the same as everyone else and carry around an Iphone just because of the name.

This will especially come in handy for those people that have sprint and do not want to switch over to AT&T/Cingular just to get a touch screen phone. While I do not think that it will make as many sells as the Iphone I think it will do good. Plus it is always good to have a little competition. Would any of you buy it?

Making Call's on the Web

It seems that even phone calls are going to be made easy to do on the web. In case you haven't heard what skype is it is a service that allows people to make phone calls straight from their computer. It is really a simple process. All that you have to do is download the software and begin. I know of a lot of people that have really seen the benefits of this when there family or girlfriend/boyfriend is in another country. It is a convenient way to be able to talk to each other.

Skype has not been widely know in the past but that may be changing now that it has joined with myspace. I just read an article titled "Myspace and Skype Join Forces," that stated that making these phone calls on Skype is going to be even easier to do now that it is being made more convenient through myspace. Now whomever has myspace is going to be able to make calls to anyone. It does cost to use this service, but the article stated that people who have skype already can call each other for free. This is really cool when you think about it. This will probably even get skype mentioned a lot more than it is now. It is hard to imagine that something like this that is offered on one of the biggest social networking sites there is not being mentioned. I am sure that skype will catch on even it is only for a while.

While this does offer a lot of benefits it is a little scary once again to imagine where technology is taking us. Pretty much everything is going to be able to be accomplished on the internet. People read the news on the internet, buy music, shop, now make calls! But when I think about it, I guess why not?

New Influencers: The Talkers

Chapter 8 of The New Influencers titled The Talkers has really helped to shed some light on what podcasting is. Until this year podcasting was a new thing to me. I had heard of it before but never knew the benefits of it, or what exactly could be done with it. I just learned in this class this semester that it could be used to help teach class. We have to listen to podcasts for homework and now we even have to create our own podcast. This is going to be a great assignment because other people will be able to here our thoughts.

I have to admit during this past Thursday's class I was overwhelmed with how much work it took to edit the sample podcast. I sat there for forty-five minutes working on it and still did not finish. But, even though it took me a while I have witnessed the great benefits that can come from podcasting.

First take Paige Heninger and Gretchen Vogelzang, from chapter 8 of The New Influencers, they were two normal women who made it big by podcasting. Also, look at all the companies that have gotten word out about themselves through podcasting. Technology continues to keep being an amazing thing. It just keeps increasing and getting more and more interesting everyday. It is hard to imagine what technology is going to bring to us next. I'm sure podcasting will continue to grow and someday everyone will know how to do it. When/If this happens everyone would be able to get their word out!

China banning RSS Feeds?

I just read an interesting article that stated that Chinese government is thinking about blocking all RSS feeds in China. In this class we all know what a great benefit RSS is. It has allowed us to keep up with each other's blogs, as well as keep up with other important news and informative sites that we may like.

The article I read stated that China is really strict with what goes through their internet system and they like to keep a close eye on what people are doing. RSS in the past has allowed citizens to get around this. RSS usually allows the Chinese to view whatever sites they want, even if they are blocked by the Chinese government through regular browsing. This is the main reason why the Chinese government is looking to get rid of RSS.

I'm sure that all of you out there know that China is a huge country with a lot of internet users. Is it really fair to take away all these people's RSS Feeds? Like I stated earlier the blogging system in this class would not be what it is now or run as smoothly as it does if we did not have RSS. I do not think that it is fair what the Chinese government is doing because RSS is a great benefit.

Corporate Conversations

Chapter five of The New Influencers titled Corporate Conversations was about corporate blogging. The main thing that this chapter focuses on is that blogging is not for all corporations, but it does offer a lot of oppurtunities and benefits. Blogging really gets the word out. These words may not be taken in the same way by everyone, but sometimes getting bad responses from people can be just as beneficial to a company as getting good ones.

The chapter states that blogging should only be done if someone wants to do it. Some of the benefits that come from it are: customer responses, product information, release dates, and responses to scrutiny. Take the GM/New York Times debate for example. A New York Times columnist bad-mouthed GM saying that they are not as great of a corporation as they claim to be. Although GM was having problems writing a defense in a newspaper they did have their blog. They typed responses about the New York Times article and defended themselves. So many people took interest in this that it got picked up by national shows/news stations. That was a great way for GM to get publicity and show how great of a company they are. There fans really seemed to stick up for them as well.

While national coverage does not always come from blogging, in my eyes it can be a lot more beneficial than harmful to a company. If a company really has good products and something good to offer to customers why not write about it? Even well known companies can benefit from blogs. They can gain praise from their loyal customers, or suggestions on how to make their products even better. If enough effort is put into corporate blogging a company can really gain great benefits from it.

Citizen Marketers: The Power of One

As we all know Jackie Huba, the co-author of the class text, Citizen Marketers:When People Are the Message came and talked to the class this past Thursday. She was very interesting and fun to listen to. As she was talking about the experiences she encountered during writing the book, one story really caught my attention. The story was about Brian Finklestein and his troubles with Comcast. This story was mentioned in chapter 6 of the book, titled, The Power of One. First off, I thought the video he designed was very well put together. I think that he did the right thing. I would have been angry if someone came to my house and took an hour and a half long nap, and on top of that the company still had him on hold.

Throughout this chapter I learned how much power a single person can have. It only took Brain to ignite a fire of angry customers and the bad experiences they had in the past with Comcast. The same thing went for the Apple story that happened in the past. It is funny because I had that same thing happen to my Ipod. After owning it for about fourteen months my battery went dead after about thirty minutes/even when it was fully charged. But, with the speed of technology/the fast pace that new products come out and the laziness to deal with customer service, I decided to update and buy a new one. But, if I would have known then what I know now about the hassle Apple was giving customers about Ipod batteries, I probably would have dug further into the situation. If I would have been given a really hard time by Apple representatives, like Casey Neistat was I might have even jumped on the bandwagon the Neistat brothers campaign.

By reading this chapter I have learned that blogging can be very powerful, both hurting a company and/or helping it out. The chapter gives an example of blogging actually helping out a company. A women loved target so much that she decided to blog about it. Her blog got popular and more people begin to shop at Target. Everyday I continue to be amazed at the power that the internet has, and the power that blogging has. I do not know how in the past I was so blinded. Who would have ever thought that a simple blog could ignite so much controversy. I surely didn't.

Facebook... Helping to Solve Crimes?

As I was looking for something to write about this week I came across a very interesting article on CNN's website. The title of the article was Victim Uses Facebook to Finger Suspect. This article talked about a crime that happened between students of Georgetown University. A student from the University was attacked by another student near campus one day. After the crime was committed, the victim decided to take matters into his own hands, and set out to try and find his attacker. He knew that a lot of students had facebook, which is a social networking site, and decided to look on the website to see if his attacker was a member. It turned out that his attacker was indeed a member. When he realized this he turned the information he found into this police, which helped them to catch the student who attacked him.

A police officer in this article stated that he had never heard of facebook being used to help solve crimes in his life.

I really did think that this article was very interesting. I thought it was amazing how this student had the brilliant idea to use facebook to look up his attacker. If I was ever attacked I do not think that I would have ever thought of using any social networking site to look up my attacker. Although this social media outlet was very beneficial in this case, it is a little scary to realize that all this personal information is out there on the web for pretty much anyone to see. When I thought about it, I realized that these sites do have a lot of information about people: from photos, to birthdays, to comments written to them, and even what there relationship status is. Not many people live without some type of social media outlet in today's society. I do think more times than not these types of websites offer a lot more benefits than harm, if used properly. They can be helpful in helping people keep in touch with one another, and they are a great way to connect multiple people together all at once. But, I cannot help to wonder what direction our world is headed in. Who would have ever thought, facebook, would help to solve a crime?

Technololgy Is Not Just For The Young

It seems that everyone is trying to learn a thing or two about technology. I Just read an article titled, Scholarship Gives Cash to Teens Who Help Seniors. In this article it stated that high school seniors are actually being given an opportunity to get a scholarship by simply putting together a plan to help senior citizens learn more about technology.

The program is called Seniors Helping Seniors Scholarship Program. Technology is an important thing and really is a must know in today's society. I know adults who are not that old that don't even know how to text message, let alone use a computer that well. These are simple tasks, and people need to learn how to do this. Technology can teach us a lot. Take this class for example, it would be non existent if technology would not have come as far as it has today.

The internet and technology is one of the greatest and most useful resources that we have. I don't know where the world would be without it. I think that this scholarship is a great way to not only teach the senior citizens of this world a thing or two about technology, but I think that it will also allow the younger generation to see how important technology really is.

Technology is going to continue to play a great role in this world. It is only going to continue to get more advanced and have more features. Everyone really should learn at least a thing or two about it.

Ikea's New Campaign

Ikea has a new theme that states, "Home is the most important place in the world." I think that this was really smart of the company to use this theme, because a person's home is one of the most important things to them. They are using this campaign worldwide, which allows for them to be able to concentrate on better ads, since they can send it out all at once. Even the website looks very similar between countries. The American version of the website is almost identical to the British version. But, although they have the same concept they take two different approaches. Americans have a nationwide photo project going on where photographers have to capture the nature of home. It is called America at Home 7 Days. The British on the other hand are taking the route of making your own home feel special to you, and make it the best place that you like to be. Their campaign is called Not Going Anywhere. I think that this helps strengthen their argument that home is the most important place in the world, because although they are using different campaigns they have a common idea and goal.

Brain Solis who is a blogger, wrote a blog titled, Conversational Marketing Versus Market Conversations which relates to the new Ikea campaign ad. Ikea has taken a different approach than they used to have. They use to be fun and exciting, only trying to get the idea across that if people bought there products that they would be fun and exciting. Now they have taken a more personal approach. Like Solis said they are starting to think in "Conversations." They are reaching people's inner feelings, which in turn makes there consumers have a better bond with the company.

Ikea is using a unique approach in there new campaign. They really capture web 2.0 and use it to there benefit. From a pr standpoint there website is designed nicely and does a good job of showing everything that you can get from the store. Also, with there commercials and other websites that they have put up they have really made it easier for their fans and buyers to keep up with them. They really do have a great marketing stategy and a good concept of the importance of making sure their consumers really do feel at home.

Citizen Marketers

Chapter one of "Citizen Marketers" titled Filters, Fanatics, Facilitators, and Firecrackers really dug into the lives of web 2.0 users, and helped to explain all the different forms of online uses there are in this world.

I was most intrigued by how the chapter started off. I was amazed with how much power one person can generate. When Dave Muscato started his website, it created a revolt against Sony to release Fiona Apple's album. This eventually led Sony to re-record the album which they did not want to, and even release the record, that without Dave's help, might not have ever seen the light of day.

After reading this story in chapter one I googled Dave Muscato and his website freefiona.com was the first site to pop up. It was interesting to see how a simple website could generate so much hype and followers, and to witness how much power the Internet has.

The main thing that the chapter focused on was the "Four F's"

-Filters: These were basically just sites created by people who found a product interesting and who gathered all the information that they could find on this certain product. It was interesting that the people who chose to create a website about a certain product could actually make a living from doing this. It would great to be able to sit at home and do something that I love.

-Fanatics: These people wanted to see something get done. Basically, fanatics are people who believe in something and want to stand up and fight for it. If I had something that I was really passionate about I could do this. I bet it takes a lot of time to gather all the information and facts to start a petition.

-Facilitators: The book described facilitators as being "the mayors of online towns" (pg 17). These people seem to be the ones who are the best benefit to a company, partially, because they work closer with the company more times than any of the other three F's.

-Firecrackers: This group was my favorite because this is something that I would actually do. They are described as, "The one hit wonders of citizen marketers" (pg 19). It seems that these people are the ones who just do something for fun or create something that they think would be interesting. Sometimes the creations they come up with just spread and takes off, maybe even being seen by millions, even though this may never have been their original intention.

This chapter was full of useful tips and opened my eyes to a lot of different things. I never really had any interest in this kind of stuff before, but after learning more I am starting to think that some of this could actually be really fun, and I may even try to pursue it.

Everyone Is Social Networking

I want to start this blog off by saying that I am not advocating joining this site, or supporting the company that I am going to talk about in this blog; I just stumbled upon an article on MSNBC and thought it was interesting to see all the different kind of people who are turning to social networking, as a way to help promote themselves.

The article that I stumbled upon was titled "Playboy Looks to Court College Students." This article talked about how the Playboy company is going to start a new website that is directed towards college students. The article stated, that the website was going to be similar to the already popular social networking sites Facebook and Myspace. Since magazine sales have been declining over the years, they had to try and come out with a way to gain some more fans. The website is going to be called "Playboy U." This site is only going to be strictly for college students, and they are going to have to prove that they are.

I thought that this article was very interesting because I never realized how widespread social networking is becoming. Playboy is a huge name, and they too are even using social networking to further promote themselves. This proves that social networking is becoming increasingly popular for promotional use, and that it will be around for many years to come.

Reaction: The New Influencers

After reading chapter 2 of "The New Influencers" I had a new insight on blogging. I personally have never blogged before this, partially, because I have never realized the great benefits that can come from it. In chapter 2, I was intrigued with how much new information can open up a person to new learning. Blogging, along with many other forms of social networking, makes it easy for people to get connected, but like the book states, it still allows everyone to be his or her own individual.

Each of us is allowed to write whatever we want in a blog, just like I am doing now, and other people will do in this class. Blogging also allows us to help each other out and build a network of knowledge. Hopefully, in this class people will add comments to my blog that inform me about information that I left out, or that strengthens what I am saying so that I can learn more. I will have the oppurtunity to inform people about things that I know as well. Because like the book stated, "commenting is a core part of blogging protocol."