cheyevers-blog

[cheyevers-blog]

Implementing Challenges

Throughout this semester I worked with a client, Jackie’s Flowers by Ashley, to develop her social media to gain followers and business. Within this business, Ashely struggles with posting consistently. I believe this will be one major struggle for her when she starts to implement her social media strategy. I believe it will take a month or so for my client to get in the routine of posting Monday through Friday to develop that community involvement. After working with Ashley I have been able to obtain a better understanding of Ashley and her business as a whole. I realized that each client will have different backgrounds and different goals specialized for their business. Ashley's main goal is to be relevant within her online community and for more people to know what she and her business do. I provided her with many recommendations and ideas as well as platforms to achieve her goals. I have also talked to her and will be following up with her in a few months to see how she did putting her own twist on the ideas I provided her. As previously said her downfall will be the lack of posting consistently however, the content I gave her to post about should make posting a lot easier. In conclusion, working with Ashley and her business was an amazing experience I learned a lot of great aspects of running a small business and working with someone in the community. I also believe this project allowed a small business owner to understand the importance of social media and how it can affect the business and the community involved. 

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Effectively Sharing Content

Social media is an amazing tool to use for personal use and also for your business as well. Using social media for business is a great way for companies to get free advertisement and show off what kinds of products they are selling. Within this blog post, I will be showing ways businesses can better connect with their followers. 

One way a business can effectively share their content is to be consistent. Being consistent means to share more frequently and allow their followers to participate in their posts. One way that you can effectively do this is by creating a content calendar. A content calendar allows for a business to come up with a detailed schedule to show when they will post and what they will post. I found some examples from HootSuite’s website about content calendars that go more in-depth on why they are important and how to more effectively use them, https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-templates/. Hootsuite is an online course for tips and tricks on how to use social media for businesses. 

While on Hootsuite they also talk about the differences between created content and curated content. Created content is the content that you or your business create themselves. While curated content is sourced from trusted websites or articles. As you may know, your business should have a mix of both however, it would be more beneficial to have more curated content they created. 

The more businesses participate in sharing content the more business they gain. This is one very good incentive for effectively sharing content. Social organizations can also help with your business on social media as well. For example, if a business sells health and wellness products such as vitamins and protein shakes they would want to become more participating in the active lifestyle community online. This will allow more people to react and see your business postings and create a more effective content sharing business.

[cheyevers-blog]

Ethical Issues with Social Media

With social media being such a popular platform among all age ranges it becomes more dangerous. What I mean by dangerous is it can manipulate us into thinking or feeling differently than we normally would. The most effective way that social media manipulates us is in the form of advertising. This false or fake advertising can make it hard for the average reader to tell what is fake and what is not fake. Especially when it comes to political topics. These political posts can make people believe something that is not true or a misconception.

The biggest social media platform for these false ads is Facebook. Facebook has many ads, and they make a big profit off these ads, even if they are misconceptions. Facebook uses this misconception by allowing the advertising companies to post “Paid By”. This creates confusion and credibility because it looks like Facebook supports their ads that they are posting. This gives the reader a sense of truth even though it might not even be true at all. 

In The United Kingdom, they have a regulatory system that oversees their internet legislation. This system is called GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR gives citizens more control over their personal data, and what can be obtained by the government. This was a regulatory system was put in effect in 2018. It is somewhat new, but the internet is a very new thing and it needs to have regulations especially on what information they are taking from the public. 

As a social media user, I would like to see the same type of regulations put into effect here in America. I would like some control over what businesses can obtain about me. I would also like Facebook to figure out a way to control or make it known that they do not affiliate with the ads being posted.  

[cheyevers-blog]

Building an Online Community

When building an online community it is essential to know your audience. Community collaboration is more important when dealing with larger groups of people. Within these large groups, they should act independently to contribute and be open to sharing information that paints a bigger picture. For example, if your audience is a small group of people who are not active on social media this is not going to work for you. as well as, it is going to work for a huge company with my active participants who share and comment on social media every day. Pure community collaboration is more free-form. It will not have any strict guidelines and will be open to everyone's opinions being very diverse. In our book of The Social Organization, it talks about the “Six F” Model. The Six F model is different attitudes towards social media and the business world. Folly is the first of this model. Folly is the meaning where managers think social media is just for entertainment and serve no business purposes. The next step is Fearful. Fearful is the where managers think that social media is a threat to productivity and intellectual capital. The third step is Flippant, this means that people truly do not take social media seriously within the workplace. Formulating the fourth step is, is where the organizational leaders view this as a collaboration tool but it needs to be strategic in its use. Forging is the fifth step and this where managers start to integrate social media into community collaboration into the daily work lives. Lastly, is the Fusing step. This step is where organizations treat community collaboration into their everyday lives and that's truly how they behave and think. I believe more so now many big corporations are at step six or the Fusing step and many smaller companies are stuck on the Formulating step. In the world we live in today social media is becoming more, and more important in the lives of our consumers. So, establishing a community online is just as important maybe even more than an in-person community relationship. 

Establishing an approach to an online community collaboration is very important to a business. Establishing this will strengthen your business's reputation not only in your community but to your followers, followers. You can build your online community on any platform. Hootsuite recommends finding influencers. These influencers can be employees, friends, famous people, and people who are involved in the same industry as you. These people you can establish a relationship with and get your name out their, which will benefit both of you. You can throw events and have certain deals and promotions that you an have your influencers post about and try these products. This will get your name, events and new products that you are trying to promote to the attention of your audience. 

The client I am working with currently can benefit from these strategic benefits. My client has a niece that can post and advocate for her on her posts and obtain more business for her business. Her niece has over 300 followers and reaching those 300 followers is more followers that my client can reach for her business too. 

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Legal Issues With Big Data

Big data is a huge topic. Big data is a serious issue in today's world, not only with individuals but with businesses as well. According to the courts, big data doesn't have a definition legally. This term big data is a loosely used term. 

How can businesses beware of big data is a very loaded question. Big data contains a lot of information all at once. It has information about the consumer, the customer, the employee, and even the owner of the business or company. Big data is accessed through the internet or some form of online interaction. Meaning, big data is accessed from any website, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and so on. This information is accessed by brokers and sold online to other companies or advertisement companies. This information is potentially dangerous. Such as a breach of security at a big company potentially can leak and expose your personal information. Even businesses are not safe by these hackers who can comprise your information and your customer's information. This can harm your companies perception, and cost your business money. The business can be aware of this big data by helping to insure your employee's passwords are safe, and all coding systems are up to date. A policy and mandatory password change should be in effect every year or every 6 months to insure your information is safe from these online hackers. 

On the flip side, how can we as individuals be aware of this? individuals and data brokers have more access to you because they want you to buy something from them. There is not a lot you can do to keep your information from getting out their other than not saving it. Meaning not having passwords on your phone, or personal information stored there such as credit cards, and bank information. It may seem hard to do because as for me my phone is my life. It is hard to not have my personal information stored on my personal phone or similar device such as a laptop. Especially for both sides of the spectrum businesses and individuals, we are truly not safe and everything is stored forever. If I send a text to a friend and delete that same text right after sending it, its deleted from my phone but is still stored in the cloud. The cloud is a virtual data storage “bucket” sort of speak and stores everyone's information there. 

There are a lot of positive aspects that big data does, such as keeping us connected and in tune with our friends, family, and businesses. However, the threats out way all the opportunities in my opinion. Big data is everything nowadays as a taxing paying citizen you cannot escape this big data epidemic. As previously stated there is not a way to escape big data but we can limit the data they get from us. Such as keeping important information protected, again changing passwords, not sending or receiving personal information through texts or emails. I believe from personal experience this can help balance the negative effects of big data in a personal and business manner. 

[cheyevers-blog]

Trapped Inside Our Own Social Media

Today in the world of social media we are shadowed by the our own content, and fake news. Social media is a useful and personalized tool we use to keep track of our friends and the latest trends. However, is it actually sheltering us from the other views around us. 

An algorithm is a tool that has been used since the dawn of the internet. Algorithms are used to determine how an individual or business gets there information through Facebook, Google search, and Twitter trends. These algorithms are complex and used are monitored by the site's computers to filter out the keywords and or key topics. This might seem helpful however, it can also be used to portray policial ideas and bias opinions. These algorithms also show what is trending or viral to everyone whether or not the information is true or bias. This poses a problem in society. 

Advertisements also pose the threat of fake news as well. These social media sites are free to use for the public however, this contributes to the problem. Advertisements also reward viral videos which give the viewers a sense of some kind of emotion. One of these ways is called clickbait. Clickbait is where it portrays a sense of emotion to trick the viewer into clicking on the video or article to gain popularity, in a positive or negative way. The second way is to use an advertisement with celebrities to push their opinion on others. These people who are viewing these posts are more likely to report them to their friends diplaying the same views they do, inturn only showing people bias opinions. 

Exposure is another way to spread bias opinions and fake news. There's a study called the partisanship explanation that explains that people are more likely to post what they already believe in on to their followers. Like previously stated this leads to bias views sheltering people from the other side of things especially political parties. However, this may be true there is not a lot of research on this topic. 

In my opinion, I believe businesses and individuals can stay away from these bias opinions and fake news by following an array of people who believe in different views. This can limit bias and fake news because it will be exposing them to all sorts of different people's opinions. As well as doing research on the topics that seem too one-sided. 

[cheyevers-blog]

Social Media Advisor

Social media is all fun and games when it comes to using it for personal use. However, in the business world, we want to use if for professional use and that is a different spectrum. Using social media in a professional manner such as for a business or even a personal professional side. Many smaller businesses struggle with the professionality of their social media pages. That is why we have Social Media Advisors. Social Media Advisors help businesses formulate their posts and coordinate them for their intended audience. The most important qualities that social media consultants should have is creativity, adaptation, and the ability to do some damage control. 

Creativity is a very important skill a Social Media Advisor should have. They should focus on the aesthetic of their client's page to effectivity showcase what the client is selling or offering. This should happen in a unique way, as no one person is alike well neither should a social media page be. The page should be eye-catching and attention-drawing in all the right ways. Such as pops of color, pictures relating to what they are selling, and possibly customers that loved the product or service.

Adaptation is another important quality of a Social Media Advisor. Trends come and go in the social media world, almost in a blink of the eye. Staying on top of these trends shows that the company is involved in the community and as well as, promoting its product to the public. A Social Media Advisor should be able to adapt quickly to these trends all while making the company or client look good.

Damage control is definitely one of the most important qualities that a Social Media Advisor can have. A lot of the time, especially with bigger companies accidents, go wrong, and you cannot make everyone happy. It is the Social Media Advisors' job to respond to incidents in a timely manner and set things right. The Advisor must have a calm demeanor and a way to make the customer less angry such as giving them to customer support or directly to the owner of the business. 

If I was a Social Media Advisor to myself I would recommend me posting more professional pictures of me in the place of work. In my case, I do not own a business but I am still selling my self to these future employers. I would post more pictures of the work I have done. I would also list more of my credentials to make it obvious to employers that I am the perfect candidate. I would also advise myself to be more creative in my postings to let these companies know I have individuality. However, I still have work to do on my professional social media accounts but I am complacent with what I have right now.  

[cheyevers-blog]

Privacy is a thing of the past

Big data is data collected by brokers from everyday people like me and you. This data includes all of our personal information, such as where we go, who we interact with virtually, what we buy, and so on. Nowadays Big Data is something we cannot escape. Every app we download every page we like, every comment we make is stored. What happens to this data? Well, the people and companies that collect this information are called Data Brokers. Data Brokers collect this information and sell it to advertisement companies, app makers, and other 3 party groups. This knowledge of the Big Data being collected was recently brought to the public’s attention which is scary. Some apps such as Path social, which was designed for people to share photos. Path was going through people's phone and obtaining the user's contacts, and Facebook information without the user knowing. Path collected many people's information and sold it to these 3 party Data Brokers. This is incredibly frightening espcailly for an avid social media user like myself. Imagine if this information falls into the wrong hands. This data potential data abuse can lead to an exposure of your personal information. I believe the only way to limit harm is to give consent to what you allow companies to gather from you. However, that does impose a threat because some companies now do that like Snapchat and I will agree to those terms to continue to use their app. I feel as if we need to reconstruct these companies and our laws to allow people to continue to use these apps and consent to what information of ours is to be accessed. 

The internet is a very useful tool but the price we pay for useful is invasive. Businesses are very influential on this data compromise. Businesses are the central objection of all data gathered for example Google. Google owns a browser, a search engine, they make phones, the Google Home (which is an electronic “assitant”). They have received so much information from us on a daily basis. Google contracts this information from all their products, of course, they have a huge influence on this data sharing. From Google's website, they have third party “watchers” and watchers, watch your every move while on these sites. They contract your information and then sell them. They make money off your information. I am a full believer that these businesses have an influence on topics like this. People are not going to want to pay for the use of the internet and in turn, they and I myself allow these companies to contact our information.  

[cheyevers-blog]

Unplugged

I had to do a social media cleanse. This was very difficult for me to do. I broke it up with for 8 hours every day starting Friday up until Sunday. 

At first, I struggled I found myself still browsing through social media unconsciously. Then the second day I found myself being more productive and actually distracting myself from the social media tendencies. I noticed I engage more in conversations especially with my roommates and friends. I also found myself in more “awkward” situations because I simply could not just pick up my phone like I would normally do. 

However, the first day I truly felt like I was missing out on the action. I felt as if I was going to miss the important events and peoples Tweets. When in realtiy I found out that nothing changed. It was still the same out people tweeting the same things. I also found out it was more relaxing, and less of a need to check in with my friends virtually then my friends in real life.

I noticed the time I spent on social media was taking away from the time I spend with my friends. It was very therapeutic to engage more than to just sit on my phone scrolling mindlessly through Twitter or Facebook. I truly noticed that I couldn't set my 8 hours a day (I did it in 2-hour intervals) at night or in the morning because that's when I use my phone the most. 

Friday night was a big testing moment me and my friends decided to have a girls night and play games instead of me just sitting around on my phone all night. That was really an eye-opening moment to how much social media hinders my social interaction. 

In conclusion, this was a GREAT experience and even though I did not enjoy it at first, it helped me to find out what I was truly missing out on. That was making memories with the friends I have instead of wasting hours on Twitter isolated in my room. 

[cheyevers-blog]

Social Media Take Over

I was born in 1998, and just like the rest of the tail end 90s babies, we experienced the best of both worlds. Technology was just starting to come out during our adolescence age. I believe I had my first phone in the 6th grade or 7th grade. With that being said I did play outside when I was younger, I did draw, and use my imagination without any of the interruptions or being constantly stimulated through a screen or a text. 

However, that did change when I got my first phone. I am very connected, always have been and always will be. I am on social media every chance I get. I am what you called addicted. I will never not have my phone on me, and god forbid will my phone ever die around me (yes, I carry a backup charger). The social media I use impacts my life greatly like in the video it said it is a part of my universe. I check my phone hundreds of times a day, I am in constant contact with everyone, no matter the time of day. I guess you can say my phone and I are attached at the hip, literally its always in my pocket. 

I believe having the internet constantly available isn't always a bad thing. Having the internet at my fingertips has helped out a lot since I have been using it. For instance, I drive A LOT and knowing I have a personal GPS to get me to where ever I am going is a blessing. However, there is also a downfall to that, such as I never have to use a physical map, and probably wouldn’t even know how to navigate with it, especially going long distances. So, as you see the internet helps out a lot, but in turn, it makes me dumber. I don't even need to use my mental math skills, why would I when I have a calculator on my phone. These are the little unconscious choices I make and have been making since I had a phone. 

There really is no time where I haven’t had access to the internet. Back in May, I went on a study abroad trip to the U.K. with Jerry Dimaria. I was so worried I was not going to have any type of connection to the outside world (the internet). However, I noticed even when I did not have service, there was free WiFi that was available almost everywhere. If there was not, I was only without a phone for a few hours, and I could still text my friends. I was truly not disconnected. However, even the few hours I could not connect to the internet panic started to set in. I kept checking my apps and trying to recheck for WiFi. I was a mess. Looking back now, and even realizing it for myself currently this is a major problem. I know for a fact I am not the only one who feels this way and it is completely sad. I never grew up with technology so how did this dependance grow into an addiction. 

I noticed in the video Sherry stated that the teens couldn't put their phone down because they were afraid they were going to miss out on something. I have never related to something so much in my life. I would never get rid of my social media. Social media is not just something I scroll through when I am bored or right before I go to bed. But its something to keep me updated on even with people I barely know and barely like. I like to stay updated with the funny videos that everyone is talking about or the drama that happens, all the little things. I never knew until this class how much social media takes over my life.  

[cheyevers-blog]

Hello everyone. 

I am Cheyenne Evers. I am currently a student here at Central Michigan University. I graduate in May 2020, so I am currently a senior. I am originally from Port Huron, Michigan. I currently live in Mount Pleasant and have been living here for the last year. Since being a student here at Central Michigan I have grown into a person that I never dreamed of becoming. Central allowed me to experience the world in ways I still find hard to believe. Saying who I am is a very loaded question. I am 21 years old and I am still trying to figure out who I am not just personally but professionally as well. 

With the experience, I have the gain form being here I have many career goals I would like to achieve.  I currently am on track to graduate with my Bachelors in General Business with Applied Communication. I am currently working for State Farm as a Multi-line representative. However, I am thinking about taking a different direction away from sales. I am good at sales but I truly do not enjoy the sales side. However, I would still love to work for State Farm but at one of their corporate offices. The two offices I want to work in would be in either Chicago, Illinois or Phoenix, Arizona. I love love to travel for State Farm as well. I am still looking into my options with the full support of my current boss and coworkers now. 

I would love to see this blog help me accomplish a way to direct my thoughts and figure out my life direction. To me this blog I would enjoy to see my thoughts laid out in front of me to help me realize my true passions and purpose. I would also love to accomplish from this blog a way to be able to use social media in a business professional way.

One company that uses social media particularly well is Arby’s. Arby’s sales were falling and they knew they needed a revamping. Arby’s knew the only way to capture the attention of the millennials was to steer away from the corporate social media views to a little more humor-filled side. In 2014 Arby's decided to try this feature out by tweeting a Pharrel Williams who appeared at the Grammy’s wearing an obnoxious “Arby’s” style hat. Arby’s use of humor when they tweeted “Hey Pharrel can we have our hat back” started the whole humor sensation. Arby’s now does many humorous tweets and promotions especially through the Twitter platform. Arby’s uses these tactics to bring in the younger generation while also keeping a light-hearted and fun environment. With this humorous environment, it leads to mass participation allowing the customers and fans to tweet and subtweet evening creating their own hashtags following this movement. Thus, not only did Arby’s create the platform for their customers to participate in just the fun, but they also showed through humor they are transparent. The participation leads the consumers to know they have a sense of humor and that they are just not some corporation tweeting nonsense. Since 2014 they have continued to tweet light-hearted humor and jokes. If you guys want to follow Arby’s on twitter, here is a link to their twitter page. https://twitter.com/Arbys