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Content Creation

One quality that all content creators should focus on is inclusivity. In order to grow your following as large as possible, you need to ensure that you aren't unintentionally excluding groups of people with your posts. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are all qualities of effective content creation. This becomes increasingly important when you aren't just represented yourself, but an entire business or organization.

Social organizations recognize the importance of engaging their audience. Similarly, effective content development involves creating material that resonates with and captivates the target audience. Social media platforms provide a space for organizations to share their content directly with their audience, fostering two-way communication and engagement. It's imperative that followers feel the communication truly goes both ways and that they can rely on a response from the company. Many organizations fall short in this regard.

Social organizations focus on building communities around shared values. Effective content development aims to build a sense of community by creating content that encourages discussion and interaction among the audience. Social media platforms facilitate community building through features like comments, likes and shares, enabling the audience to connect with each other around the shared content. It's key that companies invest the proper resources in technology to track these interactions, as it will be key to modifications in a content creation plan. Companies such as Hootsuite offer performance trackers such as this, but every company requires a different level of quality and intensity.

Finally, social organizations often need to be adaptable and responsive to changes in their environment. Effective content development involves staying current with trends, adapting to audience preferences and responding promptly to feedback. They can gather this information from their target audience, or just the population in general. In either case, it's important to have crisis management plans for these scenarios. Often times, the only place for consumers to look for this type of information is on social media websites. It's vital to ensure social media accounts are giving the best representation of the company's morals and values.

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Online Communities

The first step for building any form of online community is to define your purpose. A well formed purpose addresses a recognized problem and is specific enough to motivate an identifiable target audience. There are 4 basic questions an effective purpose answers, as reference from "The Social Organization" by Anthony J. Bradley:

Who are the target participants?

What is the nature or focus of their collaboration?

What's in it for participants?

What value will the organization realize?

If your purpose can answer each of your questions, then you know it is good enough to put into action. The most effective growth model for an online community is the "No, Go, Grow" model. The no stage serves as a measuring tool to determine the effectiveness of a particular strategy. Once a decision is made on this strategy, you enter the go phase. Strategies in the "go" phase rely on minimal support from the organization, succeeding on its own grassroots efforts. If the company deems a strategy in the "go" phase has more potential, it can be shifted into the growth phase. The company then invests more resources into the project in an effort to expand the community. I've attached Bradley's model below, to get a better understanding.

For my client, Oakland Yard, I believe they should start by making a grassroots effort into TikTok. I believe there is a large audience not being taken advantage of, while also being a very low cost option. Following the "No, Go, Grow" decision model, we can decide if TikTok is truly a platform worth investing some of our resources.

As we expand our presence on social media, it is vital to keep accurate data on our accounts. Data such as clicks, time spent on site, and follower/like counts. We must track these regularly and compare accounts to give us the most informed decision on which platforms have the most potential for growth. We can then decide which accounts should remain with grassroots effort and which need to be moved into the growth phase.

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The Truth About the Internet as a Business

After reading Ethan Zuckerman's article, "The Internet's Original Sin," I have a better understanding of how the advertising business has evolved on the internet and where it stands today. At its origin, the internet was growing so quickly that it was impossible for it to be centralized in any way. As time has gone on, we have seen companies dominate sectors of the internet. We now have 1 or 2 dominant social media websites, search engines, encyclopedias, etc. This occurred through the monetization of the internet, specifically user clicks. User clicks and time spent on websites is the monetary value that advertising companies are seeking through the internet.

The idea for this form of revenue generation is harmless at first glance, but has evolved into a scary dilemma that we face now and in our futures. The only way for companies to accurately display their users clicks and time spent to advertising companies is through the use of surveillance on our devices. The reason this has became scary is because now advertisers want to target their ads specifically to the audience that is most likely to purchase their products. To deliver these ads, companies track users' activities such as search queries and social media interactions. The common person has no knowledge of how extensive these tracking mechanisms can be, which usually are used without explicit consent from the user.

The early pioneers of the internet had no intention of the business becoming reliant on pervasive surveillance and data collection programs. Once the first few advertising companies succeeded with this type of business model, it took off as the cheapest and most effective form of advertising. Today, most of the services offered on the internet are free because they generate their revenue through this business model. We've reached a point where almost all of the apps we use on our electronic devices are built like this. We've yet to see the repercussions of this information being put into the wrong hands. Most Americans have a false sense of security when it comes to their online privacy, which is why it's important to have these discussions now before we reach a privacy crisis.

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The Spread of Junk News

According to the University of Oxford's article, "Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media" by Philip Howard and Samantha Bradshaw, the spread of junks news can be broken down to three main factors: algorithms, advertising, and exposure. In this post, I will be sharing my own personal experiences and opinions on each of these factors.

The first aspect discussed was algorithms, used by search engines and social media companies. As the article describes it, "what we see on our social media feeds and in our Google search results is the product of calculations made by powerful algorithms and machine learning models." Without our knowledge, these algorithm systems are making decisions for us while we scroll. They choose what types of information to display, based on our recent activity and what's most popular at the time. I believe that we have been misled into believing that we choose what we want to see on our social media websites and search engines. It is based on our input, but it is not up to us at the end of the day. I notice this all the time on my social media apps, whenever I see posts that say "suggested." After a few minutes of scrolling, these are the only posts that will show. Without even realizing, I am absorbing information I never had any intention of seeking out.

The next aspect discussed is advertising, which I believe the most in-genuine form of displaying content to users. As the article details, "Social media platforms are built on collecting user data and selling it to companies to enable them to better understand populations of users." In my opinion, this feels like an invasion of privacy. I know that this type of data collection is usually disclosed in the terms of service, but I feel that this type of data should be totally illegal for companies to use. I know that these systems can be important for law enforcement, but I don't feel they should be used for monetary purposes. It is basically a form of selling our identities as users, which I don't believe is the right way to treat a customer. With the large amount of money being pumped into these programs, I don't see them going away anytime soon.

The final aspect discussed is totally reliant on the user, unlike the other two which are controlled by the companies providing us these services. It boils down to human nature, that people seek out the information that they want to hear. People are looking to confirm their pre-existing beliefs rather than refute them. Because social media platforms make it so easy to find the content that reinforces our beliefs, it creates further separation on highly debated issues. People consume information that only supports their side of the argument and villainies those that oppose it. I see this all the time on my social media accounts, specifically when relating to politics. Political propaganda has never been easier to spread with the addition of social media. This is something I am going to keep in mind as I use these apps in the future.

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Social Media Consultation

From my estimation, social media consulting (or any form of consulting) relies on complex problem-solving. There won't usually be specific goals laid out for you that will determine your success, like a lot of other jobs consist of. Instead, you will have to make these goals for yourself, based on the client you are handling. You have to assess the situation for yourself and create your own strategies, while also tending to the client's desires for their social media presence. Because of the lack of specificity involved in the job, it is hard to measure success in the industry. You will only know you are doing your job correctly if your client is happy, which can be hard to judge at times. I think it's important to note that the work of a social media consultant is never finished, as it is a constantly evolving process.

If I were consulting myself, I would probably start by wiping my social media accounts completely. If I am trying to promote the best version of myself, I need to give a professional impression. At their current state, my social media accounts would only hurt my professional appearance, rather than add to it. I would also narrow the number of active accounts I have to 1 per social media app. I have multiple accounts on a few different platforms, which can confuse people trying to reach me or delay my response time.

So far, I haven't done much to improve my social media presence, other than a self-evaluation of my screen time. I believe the first step in this process would be to go through all of my accounts and delete any posts from over three years ago. Because of my young age, I want to give an accurate representation of my appearance today. I could then work on giving my accounts a professional impression, by utilizing profile pictures and biography features. After cleaning up my accounts, I could then narrow it down to the best account on each social media platform to keep. This will make it much easier to track my progression as I work through this course. The goal of all this is to allow my social media accounts to promote a professional appearance to companies that I have interest in for my future career.

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The Social Dilemma

After watching the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, my eyes have been opened to the business giant that social media has become. This can be mainly attributed to the use of algorithm tools that have allowed monetization across social media platforms. These algorithm tools have become so powerful because companies can use them to easily predict what people's decisions will look like in the future. In turn, companies use these predictions to influence their users into engaging with their apps in the ways that the social media sites choose. Companies have began to abuse the power these tools have given them, a sort of betrayal to the same users who built these social media giants.

Because our generation has grown up most of our lives with social media having a presence, it's transformed our viewpoints and divided us. I believe social media has given people an easy way to align their opinions with others, rather than create their own. People are either trying to fit in with a group or condemn others for disagreeing with them. What was originally intended as a useful tool for mass communication has become a divisive weapon in our society.

I plan on applying the knowledge I gained from the documentary into my own use of social media. Now that I know what these companies are looking for when I'm using their apps, I can use this for my own benefit in the future. At some point, I'm going to be looking to gain attention from my own potential customers. I assume these social media sites will only continue to grow in the future, as more of the world gains access to them.

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Social Media Experiment

Over the past few days, I have been conducting an experiment regarding my social media use. I started this process by monitoring my phone usage, specifically social media apps, for a 24-hour period. After analyzing the results and reflecting on my predictions, I spent the next 24 hours on a social media hiatus.

Before I began recording my phone usage, I predicted I would see around 3-4 hours of time spent on my phone. This was pretty accurate, as I recorded 4 hours and 2 minutes using Apple's "screen time" feature. This was the only aspect in this experiment that went as I expected. I thought that I would only spend around an hour or 2 on social media apps, but I ended up recording 2 hours and 46 minutes of use. I thought this was very interesting considering I only opened a social media app 23 times during this period. This means I spent an abnormally long amount of time on the apps that I did use. Other important stats to note are that I sent 53 posts or texts and Instagram is my most used app (9 times).

As I transitioned into the next 24-hour stretch, I knew I was going to be in for a struggle. I knew that my daily phone usage was relatively high, but seeing the numbers made me realize it was going to be much more difficult than I had imagined. Admittedly, I slipped up once and opened Snapchat, but I immediately closed the app once I realized my mistake. This occurred about 2 hours after I woke up, but I didn't have any problems the night before. I was scheduled to work from 2-10 P.M. and I knew that was going to be the true test at whether or not I can handle refraining from social media use.

At around 5 P.M., I started to notice myself craving a scroll through Instagram. I was on one of my breaks, and I didn't know what to do otherwise. This had become a routine for me that I wasn't even aware of. Instead, I downloaded a game and played that for the rest of my break to keep me occupied. I realized that the only times I felt a craving for social media was in isolated social situations. I felt the need to connect with people in these situations, but I was able to achieve this through text messaging instead of social media. Once I found this solution, the rest of the night was pretty easy.

What I've concluded from this experiment is that I've developed a need for social media and the way it makes me feel connected to my community. I also realize that I don't need to spend nearly as much time as I do on these apps to achieve this need. I waste a lot of time mindlessly scrolling and it is something that I can consciously improve on moving forward. I don't take for granted the benefits that technology has provided us with our cell phones. Like anything, we just have to find the best way to utilize them.

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Week 2

In today's world, we are all affected by social media whether we choose to be or not. Even people that don't have a single social media account are affected by media's impact on the business world and companies as a whole. For me personally, I'd say I use social media at least once every hour of the day. This makes me feel constantly attached to the happenings in my community and around the world. I never truly feel isolated.

As Max Stossel discusses in his presentation, companies have created ways to keep users constantly engaged with their apps. The use of symbols is one of the main methods they use. Users know what to expect from each icon, and get satisfaction when they receive the result they want. For instance, Instagram will send notifications featuring a heart symbol when someone likes your post. Users can rely on these platforms to provide this satisfaction daily.

Emma Rathbone's article, "Before the Internet" made me think back to the time when I wasn't on any social media, and it wasn't the large presence it is in today's world. The first half of my life was spent without using a single social media platform, and I was perfectly content with my social life. However, as I was introduced to these sites, expectations in my social life began to change. I realized this when I took a trip to my cottage that has no internet connection. I remember feeling very detached, verging on depressed without it. This is when I realized how much of an addiction I had developed.

After some reflection, I've tried to stop myself from scrolling mindlessly through my social media platforms. I must admit, I still find myself in that position quite frequently. Nonetheless, I've still noticed a decrease in my use of these apps. I was reaffirmed this when I started receiving notifications that my screen time was going down every week. I feel like this can be partly attributed to how busy I've become in college. Most of the time, I find myself on social media during downtime. I don't often go on any social media app with a specific purpose in mind. These type of statistics are very helpful when reflecting on social media use.

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Introductory

I would like to start this blog by first introducing myself. I am currently a 4th year student at Central Michigan University, pursuing a Business Administration degree with a Sports Management minor. I've spent my entire professional career at two companies, McDonald's and Target. Both of these very large corporations have shaped mostly how I think about the business world. I've played sports my entire life and I bring that same mentality to work everyday. I believe that a majority of aspirations in life can be achieved by putting in the necessary work.

When I think about companies that excel using social media platforms, the first brand that comes to mind is Starbucks. They have created a large presence on Instagram which they use to interact with customers and inform of new specialty drinks. They are able to use language that connects with their target audience, which you will notice right away in their bio. I believe they do a good job of making their customers feel included and ensure them that their opinions matter. Not only do they have 18 Million followers, but they also have 2,980 posts currently up. It's key to post frequently like they do, to keep the audience engaged with their products. This way their customers never feel like they are out of the loop. Without social media, I don't think Starbucks would have the same success it is enjoying today.

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"Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal" - Mike Ditka