CDES 219 Blog Post +10

Reflections

Social media influences the day to day lives of every person who has a social media account. With it you can connect to all sorts of people and for various reasons. Whether it is a site like Linkedin, for professional connections, Facebook to keep connected and updated with friends, or Twitter to post random stuff for anyone to follow. They can effect everything from what you eat today, (maybe someone posted about pizza and now you want pizza, or see a picture of what someone had at a restaurant) to what you watch on TV. 

I think social media has made us less social, and has inflated people's egos, or gives others a false sense of our lives. I think things like "thumbs up," "favorite" and "retweet" stand in the way of people having actual conversations. However social media makes it much easier to organize events, with times, directions, invites and such that are much easier and faster to update than emails or phonecalls/texts.

The most promising aspect I see in social media, is getting only advertisements for products you want from things/companies you like. No more seeing commercials for Venus razors if you are a guy just trying to watch the game. 

CDES 219 Blog Post #9

The Future: Predictions

The future of social media holds many promises. And individual can share his or her ideas, news can be updated in a second, companies can crowd source input on a new product, stores can advertise... and all to a target audience for almost no cost. My focus was on the use of social media by companies for advertising and selling products. Although these companies cannot rely entirely on social media sites for their function, as they still need at least a website for consumers to by their product at, social media gives them a powerful form of advertising.

This advertising is not only cheap, but generally efficient, as individuals who are interested in the company's product will receive the updates. These followers, will likely share this information to others they know who would have interest in the products. Companies have feeds like Twitter and Instagram where they invite their customers to share pictures of themselves using their product. The users can tag and link the company in the post with its name or a specific hashtag. This offers a huge advertising resource, because each of those individuals is likely to have followers or friends view their pictures, see the product, and look into it themselves. Not only can these companies share their their product, but can receive feedback on their products and input on future products. Most of the companies that I've been following offer special offers and discounts specifically on their social media feeds.

I believe that companies in general, not just companies that offer a product, will begin to use social media more frequently. In an age where cable TV is slowly declining and shows and movies are watched over the web, social media will be used more as an advertising medium. With it, you no longer have to purchase air time, or a specific slot to run your add. No longer do you have to compete with others for the time or channel with the most exposure. If you think you aren't getting through because someone's news feed is clogged up with other posts? Promote your post and have it at the top of the feed for very little cost.

In an age of wanting things faster and faster with little delay, I foresee companies directly linking purchases through links in social media posts. An example would be an company is having a sale on a certain item, all you have to do is click/tap on the post and it will instantly take you to the company's site, in the check out with the item in your cart. This could possibly be taken even further by linking a credit card to social media sites, so that when you click on an offer it already has your information put in for the order. All you would have to do is click purchase and wait for it to be mailed.

My advice to others, make a profile on a large social media site, and like/follow all the companies that you buy things frequently from. You will get special offers, deals and information on those products, as well as possibly find a community you share an interest with. For me, the fitness and gym-going community generally revolves around the same sorts of sites with people of the same mind set as me.

CDES 219 Blog Post #7

Social Media & Learning: How has social media changed learning?

I believe social media has allowed for the ease of sharing material with students, either from a teacher or peer to peer. Having something like a Facebook group for a class discussion section could be very beneficial. Social media's core design is the streamline and ease of sharing content among a large amount of people. With a platform of that design, there is a simplicity of sharing everything from articles to YouTube videos. With a teacher as an admin or group administrator, the group could be carefully monitored so that students don't post unrelated content or get off topic. Social media has the potential to replace traditional practices such as after school study groups. Students no longer would need to all be available at the same time to give input on a project, and the teacher also has the capacity to answer questions or clarify a piece of information in a group setting. This also helps to reduce the confusion of tons of emails to a teacher, all trying to keep track of each individual thread, in which they could all be related to a similar question or topic.
It also allows students to pool ideas and resources.

It is my personal opinion, however, that social media only be used as a tool at the teacher's disposal, to be used at their discretion. Much like a calculator or pencils, social media should simply be available as a tool and not a core component of traditional classroom teaching. This may not hold as true to all online classes/online schools.

CDES 219 Blog Post #6

Social Media and Business: Business

Businesses have a much wider spread of influence due to social media. A cheap and effective way to reach millions of people with their products or services, social media allows for businesses to market on a global scale, without the global budget. For this post I will use Infinite Labs, a fitness nutrition company whom I follow and who's products I use, as my example. The first image, img1, is Infinite Labs' website, where you can view, compare, and purchase all of their products. This ranges everything from their nutrition supplements offered to apparel with their logo on it, such as shirts, bags and tank tops. On the left hand side of their page, Infinite Labs has a set of icons that are now a staple for any business: links to their Twitter, Facebook, Pintrist, etc. In img2, a screenshot of their Twitter page, they display their Logo as well as their iconic Juggernaut decal. Here, people can give shout outs to the company, ask them questions or give them feedback on their products. They also use their social media to advertise deals on their products as well as give updates on any contests they are holding. All of these examples can be seen in img3. Infinite Labs also retweets any of the post of their sponsored athletes, as well as pictures people send in of their progress using their products. On their Facebook page, they advertise the same contests and deals that they do on Twitter, except that on Facebook people can comment on these posts, giving Infinite Labs an opportunity to collect valuable feedback on their activity. Before social media, this was much more difficult, and before the internet even harder, mostly relying on focus group responses on a small scale, which were also expensive and usually a privilege for larger companies with the budget for it. Now all this is easily accessible for any company or individual with the will to advertise, market and get their name out there.

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CDES 219 Blog Post #5

Politics and Social Media: Influence in Social Medial

Politics, like many other things, has found successful ... in social media. Many interest groups, political parties and candidates have successfully connected with a large portion of their constituents and are able to update them on their policies, information regarding various movements, and even upcoming bills or legislation. Not only are they able to do this cheaply and efficiently, but also frequently; able to reach out to their followers on a daily basis. They can also include things like media or pictures. If a post or information content is too long a link will often be included directing to the source of the information, original article, or to the respective group's website.

*Disclaimer*

I do not support or am intentionally advertising these specific politically affiliated groups, they were simply the first that came to mind that could be used to visually represent my blog post

CDES Blog Update #3 - Social Media and Relationships

Where do you see social media influencing relationships? Is it a good thing?

I see social media influencing most relationship aspects, from personal, friendship, and work/school related. Facebook in particular, where you can update your relationship status and it even includes a link to the other person's profile. Facebook originally had "Single" and "In a Relationship" as options, but it has since spread to include many other options. There is the option to include who your family members are on Facebook, and quite a few people (including myself) have included very close friends as family member such as "Brother" or "Sister". Social media allows you to keep up with your friends and possibly family as well. Is it a good thing? Yes and no. It can be good to help keep in touch with someone a long distance away, or who is very busy. It can help if you lose people's phone numbers or help you to reconnect with friends from a time before the use of social media.
It can also break down relationships as well. You may see a bunch of pictures posted from all of your friends at an event you weren't invited to, or someone you don't know may tag your significant other in a post about "Having a great time at dinner." You may receive pressure from a boyfriend/girlfriend to share your password so they have access to your account, or maybe to them you aren't tagging them or posting pictures of them enough, etc.

Social media, I believe, can be used effectively to build relationships as well. You can start an event on a social media site and invite people to it, or send out group invitations. You can join groups with other people who share like minded ideas or hobbies with you. Some social media sites can separate your friends into groups such as "High School Friends" so that you can more easily keep in contact or share certain information with a certain group of people. It can help to hold together long distance relationships, such as sharing pictures or videos with friends or loved ones in a different state, or even outside the country.

Participation in social media can help strengthen relationships in a chosen field or profession as well. Your company may have it's own social media sites. You could upload pictures you took at the company picnic to their site for other employees to share and view. With so many different groups on Facebook and Twitter, you could receive all sorts of updates and information regarding your profession. This gives companies providing a product almost free advertising, and directly to their target audience as well. I follow a company called Infinite Labs, who sells workout and fitness supplements as well as clothing and other fitness related items. With the use of social media, a company can strengthen the ties with its customer base, using it to announce a new product, use comments and posts on their page as feedback on a product, promote giveaways and discounts in a fashion that is easy to stay updated upon for an individual who does not visit the company's website on a frequent basis. Most social media sites have mobile apps as well, and these mobile apps most often have alerts you can set when a chosen person or page posts something. This provides an almost immediate update to a target audience, something impossible to do with tv, radio and print adds, and for almost no cost.

CDES 219

Expanding the Market

I know I'm not the only person who has "liked" a favorite company on Facebook or "follows" them on Twitter. Companies have ingeniously incorporated social media into their marketing and sales, reaching much larger audiences than they ever could ten years ago, and practically for free as well. Most of these companies use social media to advertise sales, give away free products or discounts and even have contests. Social media gives companies, both small and large, a huge potential to their sales and marketplaces that was never previously possible.