alexiswelch

[alexiswelch]

Week 8

After watching the video on implementation, I believe that my client might have challenges with creating other ways to pull viewers in. My client is the United Way of Gratiot and Isabella County and they’re really great about spreading the word of their organization. They post pictures, videos and give updates on current events on all their social media. However, I think if they could do polls and surveys on how certain things it could help with getting the community involved. They also need to focus on seeing what their audience is interested in and the recommendation on how you do that on each social media site could help counterattack that. 

This non-profit organization has been around for a long time, I wanted to help find solutions that could help get their name out there and keep the community involved. To avoid challenges, I suggested they use polls and hash-tags in all social media accounts rather than just one. 

[alexiswelch]

Week 7 Blog

Effective content is developed based on your social media strategy as a business. Content should always be organized and kept up with. For great content, keeping up with the latest trends and doing the research regarding your business will help with catching your audience’s eye. For businesses, looking at the audience insights to see what the viewers are into it might help with adding to develop proper content. Keeping each social media for the business separate and looking at them differently might pull in different kinds of viewers. Watch over the content performance and the competitors will be an effective way to find the new objectives. When sharing content having a good header and visuals will help gain readers’ attention. Polls and videos pull the audience in to interact with organizations and people that are interested in it. Sharing at different times to see what time has the most viewers will help with deciding when to post. 

A social organization must have effective principles on developing and sharing content to have a structure on their social media pages. Social means interacting with others but as a business, you want to involve the community and gain followers. Social organizations being able to research and analyze what their viewers are enjoying and avoiding will help them establish goals. Sharing proper content that has an attention grabber that pulls people in. Without proper effective content, a social organization wouldn’t be able to last long because they would struggle to keep viewers.

[alexiswelch]

Week 6 Blog

After reading the two chapters from the book “The Social Organization,” I found that basing your business on culture is important because it will make a difference with where and how your operations work. I like the “The Six F” model principle would be effective for business as well because the first one Folly focuses on how businesses should emphasize business benefits and realize the challenges and goals the business has. For fear, it’s good for business to have, it makes them want to be careful of what to post for their business and it means that don’t want to make a bad name for themselves with their customers. These principles are about gaining and staying true to business ethics and standards, to keep customers coming back. For online businesses, they want the community to be involved and want them to stay tuned for any news about what their company is doing. In chapter 4, they focus on how to build that community and how mass collaboration is more suitable. Even other organizations have been using social media to understand emerging communities and trends that could impact their business.

After doing the Hootsuite assignment, I learned about growing the online community that hashtags helps a lot with getting the business name out there. I found out that you can look at what your viewers are looking at and what demographic is acknowledging your business more. You can look at how other organizations are doing and how building there doing with their business. You can create surveys and polls to get the community involved on your page. Getting the community involved and showing them how you’re doing as an organization is important. With my client project, I’m working with the United Way organization and they always keep the community updated on their latest projects like fundraisers. They always make sure when they’re using social media is family-friendly and focuses on their cause. 

[alexiswelch]

Week 5, Blog 1

When watching the “The Legal Side of Big Data,” I believe businesses should make sure the big data is secure and to watch out for hackers. Consumers should know that anything can be hacked including personal or private information. So they need to make sure they create powerful passwords that won’t be easy to crack; ones that include uppercase and lowercase, symbols, and numbers within them. Consumers also have to watch out from leaks within their company by employees. By creating certain agreements and contracts can help with securing some data. 

After reading “The Internet’s Original Sin” and watching Maciej Ceglowski’s video I feel that business models help influence data gathering on the internet because of advertising. For example, before on Facebook, it was an app to stay in touch with family or friends and to post your interests. Now businesses make posts for their business to help sell their goods and services.

[alexiswelch]

Hi Symantha,

I think algorithms are very interesting, just like in you mentioned they collect data from what we search on the web. I remember watching commercials for both parties as well, both were bashing each and saying they could do it better. I think that if you want to know about certain things like politics, you should find reliable resources. I like how you mentioned that people should be more aware of algorithms.

Week 4: Blog Post #2

The article “Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media” from the Oxford Internet Institute gives many explanations as to why social media users are seeing junk news all over their feeds. Starting with algorithms, they use them to collect data and find things that are trending or target people specifically from their google searches or how long they spend looking at certain posts. I see this technique used very often. If I open one article on any topic, all of a sudden I am seeing tons of posts and more articles about that specific topic. Next they talked about advertisements, which I think is the most common technique I see used. It takes me back to the movie “The Social Dilemma” when they said “if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.” An example I think everyone noticed was how it was used with the previous election. Doesn’t matter what party you stand with, they used advertising “to target voters with strategic, manipulative messages.” This is very dangerous and sad to see especially with uneducated voters that only get their information for these social media platforms. Lasty, they talked about exposure. I think the main take away from this technique is that it allows for no diversity on people’s feeds. They are seeing things on their feed that for along with their beliefs/values because  they are “more likely to share information with their social networks that conforms to their pre-existing beliefs, deepening ideological differences between individuals and groups.” I think this technique could also be seen with the previous election. Data is collected on each individual and can figure out which political party you stand with and only show you positive things about them and negative about the other party which creates uneducated people and more conflict. 

I think businesses and individuals can educate themselves and realize the issues with these techniques that are being used on social media users. I know many family and friends that laugh when they see something they were just talking about pop up on their feed, but don’t realize how serious the issue is and how much control these platforms have. In response to these issues, I think people shouldn’t rely on social media to give them accurate truthful information and when dealing with important decisions (like elections) get educated elsewhere.

[alexiswelch]

Hi Tala,

I think it helps a lot when you are able to show a creative side to being a consultant. Also, I agree every situation that consultant might work with won't be the same. The only time I post is when it's someone's birthday, but I too comment.....sometimes. I like your ideas on how to build your social media presence, it's very insightfu! Setting goals always helps with accomplishing dreams, as long as you have the ambition to get you there.

Week 4: Social media consultant

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

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

[alexiswelch]

Week 4, blog 2

After reading the article “Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media,” I can see how powerful algorithms can be. I didn’t notice this until after I got engaged. I posted that I was engaged and then all I saw was wedding ads for dresses and venues. It sees your screen time and your posts that you’ve viewed. They would become a problem if your account link to a business account and your peers could see it as well.  

With advertising, I think that it’s good for selling products, services, and awareness of what’s going on now. However, the bad side of advertising is click bait. Clickbait is bad because it gives misleading information and provokes emotional responses. Businesses should be aware of this because it could lead to a lot of bad publicity. Clickbait can lead to a downward spiral with the screen time on our device. We can go on our phone for one reason and then fall into clickbait to where we forget why we were there in the first place. Example of clickbait is the picture below.

Exposure to social media sites can lead to people thinking everyone is on the same page of the same book. That everyone has the same opinion. In a business standpoint, exposure is horrible because if they get a lot of negative feedback then it could mean game over. Exposure creates biased opinions. 

[alexiswelch]

Week 4, Blog 1

When discussing some good qualities for a social media consultant, a good one to start with is having the ability to adapt to your environment. Every client is different and especially with the way they run their businesses. Also, being a good problem-solver would be helpful because clients come to their consultants with a problem that they don't know how to fix. Social media consultants need to create a positive image for their clients, so they can bring in contributors, customers, and help their company grow. Another great quality would be communication, being able to communicate with your client to find out what they want you to for their company. Consultants should use communication to avoid conflict with their clients and keep them updated. A consultant should show that they’re motivated and have the ambition to get the job done at a fast-paced if needed. If I was acting as a social media consultant, I would want my client to not have to worry about anything on my part. I’m there to help them with a problem they can't fix on their own. 

If I had a business, I would try to get up to date on new trends and somehow incorporate them with my projects. I need to find out who is my audience and how to grab their attention. I also have to figure out what the budget is for my business. As a company, I want to expand and be able to make a profit. As a social media consultant, I need to post professional and positive posts that show my cause or to give my audiences updates.

[alexiswelch]

The Social Dilemma

After watching The Social Dilemma, I feel violated and manipulated. When we get our phones we expect to have certain privacy regulations to protect our personal information. Then I find out that they’re data and algorithms aren’t being used correctly. The way I viewed social media apps before watching documentaries was that I used to stay connected with my friends and family. How are we still connected though? Then I realize it’s like the film said,I’m just liking or using emojis to react to posts. I see how technology can be addicting with getting are attention by the ring of notification. On a professional level, I see companies use social media to help expand their businesses which is great. Personally, I think I don’t need to be on social media as much because I see how consuming it is and how I could be doing more productive things.

People can use social media in a destructive ways by creating fake news, cyber terrorism, and in a way making people feel insecure about themselves. When watching the film I wasn’t expecting to see the girl react about not having her phone until after dinner in such a hostile manner. Then seeing the teenage girl hide her ears after someone made a rude comment on her selfie, this shows how social media can create a negative atmosphere. After hearing the suicide rates increased every year and that most were caused by social media I was surprised and depressed. I think some people use social media as a gateway to be accepted by society and if they get negative feedback then they feel like they need to change. Which people that post negative and hurtful comments, just suffer low-self esteem and think hurting people will make them feel better aka cyber-bullying. They also mentioned that people end up having plastic surgery done, so they can look as good as their filter on snapchat. On a professional level, I see companies use social media to help expand their businesses which is great. Personally, I think I don’t need to be on social media as much because I see how consuming it is and how I could be doing more productive things. We need to not be as involved in social media and make ethical decisions while using technology.

[alexiswelch]

Hi Megan,

With your experiment, I liked how you found alternatives for your phone. I like that you can find art as a replacement for technology as well. I also find it easier to do school work when my phone is not right next to me, so I don’t get distracted. The main reason I like my phone is that I can get in contact with my family and friends to make plans to see each other and hangout. Overall, I really liked your experiment and how you used your hobbies as a replacement for your phone.

Social Media Reflection

Yesterday, I tried my best to go 24 hours without social media. Naturally, I do not use social media in my sleep, so there is 8 hours right there. Something I did do that I normally do not is not use social media at work. Typically, during my break periods, I mess around on Instagram or Reddit. This time, I brought my sketchbook and worked on some art ideas to unwind during my break. I honestly preferred my time being spent that way. Tomorrow, I work a 10 hour shift and I plan on leaving my iPad at home, and bring embroidery to do on my breaks. 

While I did not use social media, I did use technology. This meant that I was able to focus better on schoolwork rather than looking at Instagram every 5 seconds. When I came home from work, I did not pick up my technology right away either. I spent my time unwinding from work by working on some jewelry for myself. The main aspect I missed about my lack of social media usage was not connecting with my best friends. These are people that I have known in person for a long time, but have sadly moved out of state. Our way of communication is through social media, so going 24 hours without talking to them felt unnatural and I missed them.  

[alexiswelch]

Social Media Assignment

After doing the Social Media Log Assignment, I noticed that I’m on my phone way too much...4 hours to be precise. The apps that I’m on the most are YouTube, Facebook, Tik Tok, and yes Candy Crush. I don’t see me being on my phone this long as a positive thing. For daily pickups, I had 22 and I want to believe most of these are just checking the time. During this project, I wanted to text my friends, play games, and listen to music. However, I feel now I will try to cut my screen time in half. 

For this project, I decided not to get on my phone right when I get home from work. I don’t really get on my phone morning because I focus on getting around work and something to eat. I work a full-time job and only sometimes I will get on my phone during a break. However, when I get home that’s where the challenge begins. When I get home from work, I usually change my clothes, sit down in my comfy chair and play candy crush. Then after I lose all my lives in candy crush, I would get on Tik Tok and be on there until it’s time to make dinner. With this experiment though, I was put to the test and tried to keep myself busy with cleaning. I usually play music when I clean, but it was quiet and I actually finished faster. Before bed, was really hard because that’s when I check all social media and set my alarm for the next day. 

Overall, I really liked this project and will continue to try not to be on my phone as much. I find that I’m able to complete tasks faster when I’m not constantly checking to see if anything has changed from the last five minutes on my phone. I think my next challenge will be seeing if I could only set my alarm before bed and not all social media apps. However, I think it will be easier to get off the phone when the weather gets nicer and I can be outdoors more.

[alexiswelch]

Hello Ryan,

I also don’t post often but go to social media for news and entertainment. The Internet has made information easier to look up, but many possible ways of finding false facts. Before you would have to go to a library and try to find an answer in a book. I also wonder what they would do about urgent messages being delivered in a proper time. I like how you compare social media to fast food when explaining Max’s video. It’s sad that social media can be so consuming that it could possible waste someone’s whole day.

Social Media’s Influence on Life

For me personally, social media does not have a huge influence on my everyday life. I do not care to consistently post or update others on my life or about my daily activities. However, I do use social media platforms each day for news and entertainment. Generally, I will check up on the trending news around the world each day and check on many different sports clips and highlights. Having the internet constantly available in my life has been critical to I can only imagine. I try to fathom living without it sometimes. Always being able to find the answer to almost any question being asked is huge.  I found the ‘Before the Internet’ article by Emma Rathbone to be very interesting at the least. The article obviously focuses on what many would do before the internet came around, however I grew up with the internet as did many of my peers. Reading the article, I did not relate to it much but rather learned from it. There is a line in the article that mentions something along the lines of “if you wanted to see an old friend again you’d send a letter and hope they get it”. To this day it still baffles me that communication was once like this. What happened with urgent messages to ensure that they were delivered and received properly and timely?  The video of Max Stossel speaking caught my attention in a few different ways. While it was interesting to hear about how social media can be distracting and addicting, I think of it much like fast food in that the consumer has just as much responsibility as the creator. If you uncontrollably eat fast food, you will gain much weight. If you let social media consume your day, social media will consume your life and thoughts. To go more in depth on this, within the video Max mentioned a quote that Kyrie Irving had received a lot of criticism for. Being a sports fan, I was interested in what Max had to say about this quote given by Irving, but instead he focused more on how people received Irving’s message and their response to it. Irving had claimed that the world is in fact flat, and Max focused on the response that the supporters of the flat world idea gave. They mentioned that the internet had allowed the “round earthers” to crack Irving. To me, Irving did this to himself in that he let the comments of social media users around the world get to his head. This is a key reason why I do not care for social media. 

[alexiswelch]

Week 2, Blog 1

After watching Max Stossel’s video, I started thinking about how I was always on my phone, my iPad, and yes watching tv. Whenever I don’t have anything to do I look towards social media to keep me busy. I’ll sit down in my comfy chair for a couple of hours when I say only five minutes and switch through all my apps to see what’s new from a couple of hours earlier. How do I think social media influenced my daily life? I think before I got a phone I was more active and had more conversations with people. The internet can make it easier to look up things. However, people mostly look towards the social media apps when they’re bored. 

Then after reading Emma Rathbone’s article, I can tell that she was more focused on what we used to do before technology and what we are missing out on. I found her article very comical with the examples she used, like staring at magnets on the fridge. When I’m at work or when the power goes out and I can’t use my phone it’s not like the world ends. We have board games we can get out and play, we go outdoors, or I super clean the house. I realize we shouldn’t rely on the Internet every time we get bored. I’ve had those days where I don’t feel good and I sit on my phone all day but it doesn’t make me feel better, just distracted. My eyes feel dried up and I feel more exhausted from when I first sat down. 

With technology in the future , I would hope to lean away from being on it for most of my day. There are so many things and hobbies people can pick up on if we weren’t on our phones all day. Especially during the summer, there’s no reason to be on our phones indoors all day. We can be getting exercise and hopefully having cookouts at the beach.

[alexiswelch]

Hi Sara, 

 I’m Alexis! I’m also a transfer student and a part of the global campus program. I’m very impressed with all the roles you were a part of, like the family therapy and the management role with the army. I love listening to live music and traveling as well. I really like your goal to help others who suffer from addiction with yoga. 

 I have never heard of the Sand Cloud, but I like how some of their profit goes to help cleaning our oceans. When describing why you like following this brand, it gives me an idea on why advertisement is important for getting messages across. I liked how you showed Sand Cloud using mass collaboration by working with different foundations.

Hello!

Hi, my name is Sara Rossi and I am a transfer student at CMU. I am part of the global campus program and this is my second semester. I decided to return to school after six years away. I graduated in 2014 with a degree in Mental Health/ Social Work from Oakland Community College in Auburn Hills, MI. I’ve worked in various roles as a substance abuse counselor, family therapy, group therapy, and held a management role within Salvation Army, USA. I left that role to focus on school full time. One of my goals this year is to be accepted into the accelerated masters program for Business Administration. A few things I enjoy is live music, festivals, traveling, and staying active (physically and mentally). I currently help run a yoga studio in Metro-Detroit part time. I’ve been practicing yoga for five+ years and highly recommend it to everyone. One of my long-term goals is to own my yoga studio with a focus on trauma for victims of abuse, suicide survivors, and those suffering addictions and in recovery.

One of the brands I love following is  www.sandcloud.com. This business sells beach towels, home accessories, clothing, and jewelry. 10% of all proceeds go to marine conservation and cleaning up the oceans. Their motto is #savethefishies. I enjoy following this brand because their posts are always professional, colorful, and easy to follow and engage with. Their team is very responsive and they are always coming up with new products, and promoting sales. Sand cloud works with many non-profits such as the Surf-rider Foundation, Marine Conservation Institute, Pacific Marine Mammal Center, The Hawaii Wildlife Fund, and many more. They work with these non-profits as a way to give back to the community and come up with sustainable materials and packaging. Working with all these foundations is a good representation of mass collaboration.

I am looking forward to learning the ins and outs, and the do’s and don’ts of social media during these next eight weeks!

[alexiswelch]

Hi Maddy,

 I like how your very involved with college activities. I also played basketball, but only in high school. I have worked with the Meijer company for a couple of years, so I hope you will enjoy and learn a lot from your internship there!

 I would also like to network and build connections with fellow classmates. I like how you picked the Pop-Tart company and explain how they value customer feedback. I see the commercials and ads for them all time on social media. Your post gave me a lot of information on how social media can help companies sell their products.

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Madeline Watters and most people call me Maddy. I am in my fourth and final year at Central Michigan University majoring in logistics management and marketing with a minor in information systems. During my time at Central Michigan University, I have been a member of a handful of organizations including the Central Michigan Women’s Basketball Team, Supply Chain Management Association, Logistics Management Council, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I grew up not too far away from campus in Rockford, Michigan, and plan to move back that way to complete a summer internship at the Meijer headquarters this summer. Upon completion of my internship, I hope to pursue a job in a larger corporation’s supply chain and work my way up the ranks as I grow older and wiser.   

As for this class, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the social media platforms that I am already familiar with and become more familiar with platforms that I have less experience with. I also desire to network and build connections with classmates, gain knowledge of how to professionally utilize social media, and obtain a competitive advantage for future employment. One company that I believe is exemplary with regard to its use of social media is Pop-Tarts, owned by Kellogg’s. First off, Pop-Tarts excels with their social media because they collaborate with their customers firsthand. The Social Organization by Bradley McDonald explains the importance of a collaborative community when it comes to social media. By simply looking at Pop-Tarts’ Twitter page, one example of this is easily noticed as constant engagement with their customers is evident. On top of this, Pop-Tart’s target market is easily connected with by their choice of posted content. Pop-Tarts does a great job engaging with youth, a large section of their target market, by comedic posts, color choices, and interactions. Those who are in charge of Pop-Tarts’ social media understand their culture and portray that through the ambiance of their social media pages. Pop-Tarts does an excellent job utilizing social media for many reasons including using it as an extension of their company culture and driving value through customer feedback and engagement. 

[alexiswelch]

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Alexis Welch and I am a junior at Central Michigan University. I grew up in Alma, Michigan my whole life and was a basketball player all through high school. I’m a very family orientated person and wanted to keep close to them when I went to college. I have transferred from Mid Michigan Community College to finish my degree in Business Administration. At my current job Meijer, I'm in the team leader program learning about different areas of our store. With this program, I have learned the strengths and weaknesses of each department. When I’m all done with the training, I will get to be in charge of a certain area and be responsible for maintaining it properly. 

While still in college, I plan to stay at Meijer and become a manager until I graduate so I’ll have some management experience. After college, I want to work at a charity organization to help others. With learning to blog, I can help companies and organizations get their vision out in the world. With blogging on social media you can get a lot of feedback and not all it can be positive. Blogging could help me in the future with interacting with possible employers of companies. 

A company I think that uses social media well would have to be Starbucks. Starbucks right now is very trendy, it has filters on snapchat, ads on Facebook and Instagram. Even on TikTok you have people buying their drinks and making comical noises of enjoyment. 

https://www.starbucks.com/