New Technologies

Remember the good ole days when you were the coolest kid on the block if you had a Tamagotchi or the new Pokemon Gameboy game? In the last decade technology has rapidly changed into something completely different than the norm a couple years ago. 

Every – single – day something new and improved is produced and we as consumers have to do our best to keep up. I remember the first cell phone I got 9 years ago, it was a measly little flip phone that took the most pixilated pictures that are probably unrecognizable today. But for me it was everything. Today I look around at all the new technologies the world has to offer and it is quite overwhelming.

This new technology is affecting every facet of our lives, including our use of Social Media. As I was researching and jumping around from blog to blog I was able to find some exciting information about up and coming new technologies and how they will be affecting our world and the way we do social media. Here are a few things I discovered:

Do you ever have those days at the end of the month when you’ve got the text you’re your phone provider that you have used 99.99997% of your data for the month – but you’ve still got 4 days left in the month. If you’re anything like me, you about want to shout hallelujah when you see the “free wifi” sign at your local McDonalds. Soon internet will be available EVERYWHERE! 

Check out this blog to read more

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/08/14-technology-predictions-2020/

 "We are on the verge of the “internet of everywhere”. It will be far more democratic: accessible to everyone, rich and poor. The excitement of the internet of things will be a small footnote in history as the internet of everywhere becomes our reality. Do you remember the old movie, Minority Report, with Tom Cruise? Ultra cheap, internet-enabled solar-powered screens that display in HDTV resolution will be on bus stops, in shopping centers, at tables in restaurants – all operating on a centralized advertising model. Gone are the days of the static acetate poster on the wall of a shopping mall. And finally, since these HD monitors have beacons, they will dynamically change content as your phone passes by, telling the monitor all your preferences. Yobie Benjamin, COO of Avegant"

According to this blog – soon we could be “sharing” our phones, and just about everything else. http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/15/what-technology-will-look-like-in-five-years/

"Revised Notions Of Ownership: Think of the things you use every day: your smart phone, your computer, your desk and so on. You own most — if not all — of those things. However, in the future, you’ll probably share most of them. We’ve recently seen a huge rise in the sharing economy; not only can you stay in someone else’s house via Airbnb, but you can sail in someone else’s boat through Sailo, fly in someone else’s private plane via OpenAirplane and go snowboarding with someone’s else’s board via Spinlister. This is only the first wave. Major players like Google, Apple and Uber are developing car technology so that, in five years, rather than driving to the office in a car you own, you’ll drive to work in a car you ordered on your cell phone that morning. If you wanted, you could drive a different make and model every day."

I found this awesome BLOG POST on Network World, which discussed 10 new technologies that will be surfacing in the next ten years. While each one of these inventions is diverse, I think that they each will play a role in the world of social media. Some of the technologies this blog discusses are a “zettaflood of data” available to users, an increased amount of data will live or pass through the cloud – up to 1/3, it discussed how smaller the world is getting because of our ability to talk with anyone anywhere around the world, as well as the discussion of “human or borg”. It’s a crazy world we are living in and so much is going on around us. New technologies are being developed every day – these technologies are ever changing the way we live, communication and socialize on the web.

Be prepared – a lot is coming!

Stand-alone Mobile Apps versus Internet Browser Apps

No matter what you want to do, there is more than likely an app for that! As I look around me in class or on the bus I am surrounded with smart phone users. If you just so happen to see a flip phone, you almost have a sense to tell them they should appear on The Antic Roadshow with that thing. With so many smart phone users, more and more of us are using apps and downloading new ones daily. I don’t think I go a single week without hearing about some cool new app I need to download and try!

App creators are so creative and thinking up apps to fix or help with every facet of our lives.

I found this awesome blog written by Jerin Mathew last year that got into the nitty gritty details of just how many apps are being created currently. In his posted he stated:

• “Developers are currently submitting more than 1,000 apps to Apple's App Store per day, according to data compiled by Pocketgamer.biz.

• There are a total of 1.9 million apps seen in the US App Store, out of which 1.7 million are currently available for download.

• About 73% of the apps and games are free. The paid apps have an average price of $1.27, while paid games are priced at an average of $0.63.”

Check out his blog to read more about these statics! CHECK OUT THE BLOG HERE!

In regards to Stand Alone Mobile apps verse Internet Browser Apps I generally always use the Stand Alone Mobile Apps. They are generally faster and better equipped to do the kind of things that I want to do on these social media platforms. Using the Internet Browser can often make the platforms look chunky and messy and it is not fun or easy to manage my way through them.

I found a blog written by Priya Viswanathan a Mobile Devices Expert where she discussed the Pros and Cons of Native Apps and Mobile Web Apps

In this article she brings a lot of really important information forward that is important to consider when trying to decide what you like and what you are going to use.

She said some things to consider:

 "In order to decide if you want to develop a native app of Web app, you need to consider the following points:

·  How important speed and performance would be, to you
·  If you would like your app to include any device-specific features
·  If you want your app to be Internet-enabled
·  If you want your app to support multiple mobile platforms and devices and if yes, how many
·  Your budget, vs. the estimated cost of developing your app
·  If you would like to monetize your app in the future"
Check out her awesome blog to read more on the pros and cons!!


Sources Used:
 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/apple-app-store-growing-by-over-1000-apps-per-day-1504801
 http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/additionalresources/qt/The-Pros-And-Cons-Of-Native-Apps-And-Mobile-Web-Apps.htm

Viral Videos

Every time I get together with my friends we end up passing around our phones for a good half an hour just sharing and showing each other our favorite viral videos we’re currently obsessed with. Whether on my Facebook or Twitter feed, it is evident that videos are a large part of social media posting nowadays. Many one hit wonders, and slightly “famous” people have come about because of these videos, some even end up on the Ellen Degeneres show where they get more publicity than they could have ever imagined.

Video sharing platforms like YouTube and Vine make it so easy to share videos. With one little click of the button, we can share a video and open up it’s possible views tremendously so that more and more people can see it. Platforms are making it easier and easier to share, comment or like videos, which eventually cause them to go viral and cause more and more interactions. Just as a I scroll down my Facebook feed, it continually shows me how often my friends share a common video.

This BLOG blog had some tips for anyone interested in getting their videos public and viral. Go check it out to see their awesome ideas and tips.
1. Create short, high-quality videos.
2. Place keywords in your video's title and description

3. Become you own salesperson.

4. Make it easy for others to do the work.

(Check out the link to find out more details on each tip!)

This other article I read was a little more upfront and raw about the fact that getting your video to go viral is “often a crapshoot”, meaning there isn’t much science behind. Because of “dumb algorithms”, as he calls them- getting a viral video is more up to luck than anything. However at the end of his tangent, he also did leave his readers with some tips on how to improve the reach of your videos. 

Check out this ARTICLE to see what he has to say:
1. When the YouTube video launches, there should be a lot of activity that occurs as soon as it goes live.
2. Get your friends to share it on Facebook and blog about it (the other social networks really don't matter, as far as I can tell at this point in time).
3. Get the press / blogs to write and link or embed the video
4. Get as many people as you can, through whatever means necessary, to watch the video and leave a comment.

No matter what you’re sharing, it can go a long way if you get your friends and networking involved to share and build it up! Whether it’s Vlogs, Funny Family Videos or anything thing else share share share – and maybe one day, you’ll go viral!



 http://www.talentzoo.com/beneath-the-brand/blog_news.php?articleID=11836

 https://www.quora.com/Clever-ways-to-make-your-YouTube-video-go-viral

Search Engine Optimization

GEOTAGGING: to geotag or not to geotag.

Okay first off.. what is it? I found a great definition on this site : GEO-TAG

 It said: "As its name implies, geotagging involves "tagging" a geographical location to something like a status update, a tweet, a photo or something else you post online. It's particularly useful because a lot of people now share content on their favorite social networks via their smart phones or tablet computers while on the go, so they're not always in one specific location all the time like we used to be back in the day when we could only access the web from a desktop computer"

This post was very useful in giving it’s readers very specific directions as to how to best “geotag” your posts across several social media platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and Snapchat. It would appear more and more platforms are giving it’s users opportunities to tag their location because—well.. they want to. It is becoming ever more popular to let your viewers see where you are at, whether it is the hole in the wall restaurant you and your boyfriend love, your local hockey game or checking in at Grandma’s. We as social media users like to know where other people are at, and we like when other people know where we are.

This post covered a lot of the Perks of Geotagging:

Geotagging is a great way keep your social media use and pictures organized by location. It is becoming ever more popular to “share your location” or “check in” so everyone can see what you are up to. It’s a great way to let your followers see your fun night out on the town or out vacationing.

While it is fun to see how many “likes” you can give on your post of you checking in on your week long vacation in Mexico, statistics show and many articles I came across that doing this is a very bad idea. Social Media stalkers and thieves are known for getting tips from social medias. So be careful what you post, because you never know who may see

Be Cautious Geotagging
When you geotag a picture, viewers can find out your current location, your location history and where your picture was taken. That is a lot of info that you are often letting strangers see, without even knowing it. If this kind of freaks you out, consider turning off location services on some location sharing apps. Find the location sharing settings on your smart phone and turn off the ones that you think might pose a personal safety risk. You can always turn them back on later if you want to. Most smart phones will let you turn off location sharing for individual apps as an alternative to turning them off globally.

Links Used:
 http://webtrends.about.com/od/glossary/a/what-geotagging.htm

  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/geotagging-photos-start-right-now/

 http://netsecurity.about.com/od/securityadvisorie1/a/Why-Stalkers-Love-Your-Geotags.htm

Topic: Management Platforms and Tools

Pro’s and Cons of Using Aggregators

So much to post, so little time to post it all, so why not use an aggregator? An aggregator is a website or program that collects related items of content and displays them or links to them. (Do we truly live in a world with so much social media capabilities that we need to invent managing sites to help us manage our social media use?)  A company runs the risk of truly be “invisible” if it is not up and available on social media platforms. Because many business owners grew up before the age of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they can tend to feel overwhelmed when it comes to taking their business to the web of Social Media. So programmers and webpage designers are trying to make it easier for these business owners to have a social media presence, using aggregators. Aggregators are a tool for these individuals to be trained on how to use and to be able to use it to greatly benefit their company.

As I started researching it was very obvious that there are very many opinions on aggregators – and how beneficial or destructive they can be. Clearly it all dependent on it’s use. I just wanted to cover some opinions discussed on other posts on my blog today.

This BLOG discussed different pros and cons to the use of aggregators, one comment made by Myles Kleeger really caught my attention.

"Google Now promises to help brands get their content in front of more people through aggregation and a personalized, relevant experience. When using an aggregator, one could argue that brands will be less likely to focus on building direct relationships with consumers through their own apps because people will increasingly access the content/functionality they want/need through intelligent app based aggregation tools as opposed to visiting the brand's app directly. With these services gaining traction and offering better experiences to consumers, brands have to determine how they will divide their efforts between optimizing content functionality for aggregators and engaging customers with their own native apps. For some apps and brands, this path may make great sense," said Myles Kleeger, CRO, Appboy.

It is very evident that there are two sides to aggregators and we have to be aware of both sides so that we do not blindly get ourselves in trouble but that we can use these tools to our benefit. This POST talks about the two sides of using an aggregator:

"We must be “have to be willing to take the good with the bad, because “social media can be a cruel mistress. Bad publicity reaches your audience just as quickly as the good stuff, and once it’s out there it hangs around,” he said. Not even the largest corporations or the best spin doctors on the planet can control it. Cyberspace is littered with hundreds of these examples.”

 Now that we’ve covered some of the pros and cons, there is still the debate of if we are going to use an aggregator, then which one will we use? There are many to choose from and the number is continually growing. I found many different articles loving on specific aggregators and hating on others. When it comes down to it, I think it depends on what you are specifically looking for your aggregator to do and how much you are willing to pay for it to do it. This article specifically discusses 7 reasons to not specifically use “Sprout Social” for your aggregator needs. He discusses very valid reasons why this site is just not working for him. 

I also happened across a great post which debated which was better, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. This site had mulitple ratings for varying service the sites offered. This article and many others that I read about made me realize that if you do decide to use an aggregator then you need to do your research. You need to find one that will fit your needs and then you need to know how to properly use it to make it an effective tool for your business.

Organizational Uses

Organization Uses

It seems like more and more organizations are using social media in many different facets. When used properly, Social Media can be so beneficial within these organizations because man people can see and be aware about what is going on within organizations. As more platforms are being created, it just creates more avenues for organizations to use and benefit from.

Today I want to focus on two main kinds of organizations, Politics and Religion. These two are very applicable to me because I regularly am involved with these kind of organization’s social media platforms and find them very important.

Specifically with politics, I want to talk about something that I am currently heavily involved with. I am an intern for Senator Mike Lee, it is an exciting time of year to be involved with politics. As most of you are probably aware, yesterday was Neighborhood Caucus, a very important night for politics not only nationally but also local here within Utah.

I have been working on Senator Lee’s campaign team for seven months now and it has been exciting and very much immersed within social media and it has proved to be very beneficial within our campaign. We do so much on social media. We use it to spread awareness of Senator Lee’s platforms and the things he stands for. We use it a lot to spread awareness and invite others to come to events hosted by Senator Lee. Just this last weekend, we had a political rally in which Ted Cruz, Glen Beck and Carly Fiorina. We had this rally planned weeks in advance, but just shortly before we learned that we would have these guests there in support of Senator Lee. With a very short amount of time we did all we could to let this news spread, and it did like wildfire. People were very excited to have these individuals here in Utah and were excited for the opportunity to hear them speak. The event continued to build momentum as we posted it all over the web, mainly focusing on our Facebook event. Our event got shared so much, that we had so many people say they were “attending”, that we had to change the location of our venue so that we could have more room.  

Senator Mike Lee Campaign Kick Off Facebook Event 

It seems this election campaign, that more and more candidates are using social media to build awareness and to support their campaigns. It seems like I can’t even log onto Facebook without being overwhelmed with all the sponsored adds from different candidates. Those adds plus all of my friends political posts has been a little overwhelming, to say the least. Mike Lee is very active on his official Facebook page as well as his Instagram account, he uses as a great tool to reach out to his supporters and build awareness. It is very evident that Social Media has and will continue to play a large role in this years policical race. 

This blog talked a lot about that.

I also wanted to stake time to focus on Religious organizations:

I love how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses social media to raise awareness and to share their beliefs in a non-threatening way. I think it is so cool how the church is adapting and using this tool to get themselves out there. For instance, I love the holiday videos that the church has been producing; they seem to spread like wild fire across my social media platforms. It is great to see something so uplifting on my news feed when I am often surrounded with negative political views or terrorist attacks. It allows us to spread goodness instead of negativity and hate. 

Hallelujah video 

Class Cloud

The Class Cloud activity was very fun to be involved in. I have had a twitter account for many years but took a little hiatus from it while I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a year and a half. After I got home I feel like I lost my desire to use Twitter and couldn’t seem to find what the hype about this app was anymore. It wasn’t until this day in class and our time “On The Cloud” that I realized just how fast information can spread and the asset this app can be in my social media use.

#SocMedDisscuss was what connected all our tweets. Some of the class stayed on topic in regards to tweeting about Social Media, while others went a little off-base discussing cats vs. dogs. Regardless of the topics being discussed, we could all see each other’s tweets and the threads they created. It was really cool to see how one simple text could result in so many retweets, and replies and that it could spread so far!

It was crazy how fast our discussion spread and how wide the spectrum of discussion covered. Just after a couple minutes, there was so many tweets repping the class hastag #SocMedDiscuss. Each time I would refresh the page I was shocked at how many new tweets and replies there were. My notifications kept going off as someone would “like”, “retweet” or “reply” to something I had said.

It was also cool to see other individuals join in on our activity. Unfortunately we never got Kanye involved in our discussion. I thought it was pretty cool that the person I decided to tweet to was Al Fox Carraway, a famous Mormon blogger and YouTuber. I asked her, “What inspired you to share your beliefs online?” Amazingly enough, she tweeted back to me and even got a little involved in our discussion. She quickly replied that she went to social media because that is where everyone is and that is where she knew most people would see. She loves her faith so much she wants everyone to see it and Social Media was the avenue she could accomplish that.  That is the first time I have ever had someone even remotely famous tweet back to me, and it was all because of #SocMedDiscuss. A lot of other classmates tweeted back to her in hopes to keep her in the discussion longer, but sadly we never got any more responses from her, just a few “likes”.

Truth of the matter is, information can and does spread very quickly, especially when you are engaged with other users who are anxiously engaged and very conscious of what is currently being shared. It was very cool to spend this time “On the Cloud” and to be so engaged in what my peers were sharing.