Consulting Proposal

The organization that I wrote my social media proposal to is the Cleveland Shade Tree Board. I have previously worked with the Shade Tree Board last semester with getting an advertising campaign together for them to use. This included coming up with a logo, motto, and other ways to advertise. 

I felt that I knew this organization best and decided to use them since they are just getting started with spreading the word for their organization and cause. 

I feel that the first major step any organization can take in social media is through a blog. My stance for the Cleveland Shade Tree Board to take was that it provides a one stop place for any interested persons. It also gives information, updates and planting/preserving tips for trees or planting. It also is optional to starting a dialogue or getting questions answered. 

The second step I felt the Shade Tree Board should take is setting up a Facebook page, if not atleast a Facebook fan page. This way it spreads the word about the Shade Tree Board, gives instant feedback, provides any information to a diverse group of people viewing and status updates with any pertinent information to be known as soon as possible. I feel that Facebook can spread the word quickly and gather a following they normally would not reach any other way.

I started off with a blog and Facebook because as of right now it is the easiest to keep up to date and manage. I feel that if the Cleveland Shade Tree Board begins to utilize these mediums they will see an effective interest growth in the organization and begin to see results that they have been looking for with starting to spread their organizations awareness.

My Proposal

Look what I found! It’s called “Things you should not twitter.”

***WARNING: This site has some explicit content on it, so beware!***

This is a post that the admin of the tumblr blog page wrote yesterday:

One thing we have discussed amidst our ongoing social media conversation is the idea that social media affects our identity and how people perceive us.

Many people go online, whether to Facebook or Google, to find out information about friends, employees, students, etc. The surge in online technology has allowed people to gather personal information much easier. Therefore, it is more important than ever for people to be careful about what they put on the Internet.

To help with efforts to control your online identity, Google has a new creation called Google Me. This product allows people to manage their online identities by keeping up with their own profile, editing content, and posting links to their own social media pages, such as Twitter or Flickr.

Google Me was essentially designed to allow some control over what comes up when people type in your name in Google.

A product like this can really help you monitor what people have access to online, regarding what is know about you. This could be potentially helpful, especially when it comes to finding a job or impressing an employer. Influencing what people see about you online can also be a good form of security to keep others from getting a hold of too much personal information.

I found this article, once again, from a section of the social media minute (April 23, 2009) on cmswire.com called “Have Say Of What Google Says About You.” Check it out!

In class this week we presented our media-sharing project. This, for both groups, took the form of a video posted to YouTube. After taking the time to watch each video, and get our fair share of the world of MermPo (as I like to call it), we began to analyze what it really means to make something “viral.”

We have all encountered viral videos; the funny ones, serious ones, and just flat out weird ones. But what really makes them viral?

Essentially, we define viral videos as ones that spread quickly, receiving numerous views in a short amount of time. This brings me to reflect on my own experience with viral media.

Most viral videos I have come in contact with have been through word-of-mouth. Someone tells me to check it out, I do and then pass on the word. But, I can’t help but notice that by the time I’m told about them, they always have like a million views already. So I wonder how they become so well known. Can a million people really spread information about a video overnight?

We discussed in class that a helpful way to spread this form of social media is to use other forms of social media. Posting a link to a video on Facebook or Twitter can definitely assist in the “viral” process.

However, I wonder if there is even more to this. I have always wondered if the successfully spread videos, to some extent, just fall into the right hands. Someone gets a hold of them, someone with a ton of connections and outlets, and puts them on the map (or the Internet as it would be in this case).  Though I’m not sure how much truth there is in this observation, I think it is definitely something to consider.

While we tossed around a few ideas in class about making viral videos, I wonder if anyone has other thoughts they would like to add. I would be very interested to hear them.

So, how about it? What is the best way for something to truly become viral??

I think I’ve hit the point of social media overload.. I mean, if that exists. As much as I love blogging and twittering and facebooking and social referencing.. I feel there is not enough hours in the day.

At some point the dishes have to be done, I have to have clean clothes, I have to make money, I have to shower and I have to do homework.

See, this might be the little bit of the problem I’ve been facing with this class the blogging. I don’t feel like it is a legit homework assignment, therefore I feel like I am “wasting” valuable time when I could be reading instead.

In the spirit to force me to do the “I-like-this-but-it-doesn’t-really-feel-like-homework,-homework,” I’ve realized I’ve learned so much more from this social experiment of sorts.

This blogging experience has taught me how to formulate thoughts that might be more appealing and put-together, it has taught me how I consume and follow news the most, it has taught me how to articulate my words and pick the best to describe what I am feeling.

As a jouranlism major I have have probelms writing for other mediums, because of the nature of the field and the style of the writing. I recently learned that in English (or Political Science, in this example) papers I automatically make my paragraphs short, in order to make the writing easier to read for the reader, purely a jouranlism tactic.

But one thing I have learned about blogging and tied into the field of jouranlism… It’s like creative writing, in jouranlism form.

Now, only if I could find the time. And convince the other professors that “real” schoolwork isn’t necessary.

Today was the presentation of the classes viral videos. What I took away from the process and the classroom is to just get the video out there. Also, while my video pertains to a more niche audience, I do not see why others wouldn’t find it amusing or worthwhile to pass on. 

The video has a story (an on-going one, at that), is short and won’t take up too much of one’s time and even has some destruction, hopefully enough to capture the viewers and either instill shock, or atleast some form of amusement.

To view the video: Mermaid Police – viral video

Information: Mermaid Police is a local Cleveland, TN band. In order to expand an audience, short, guerrilla style marketing has been started to raise awareness to the band in the most subtlest ways.

FoxNews Tweeted a headline about a man who killed his wife, three young children, and himself earlier this week in Maryland. The article went on to explain that the wife’s blog was being used as evidence as to why the man may have done such a horrific thing. The blog is quoted several times in the article and shows that the wife felt that her husband was under too much stress at work and that it was becoming evident in his personal life.

The story is truly tragic, but the topic is incredibly intriguing. Never before have we been able to basically keep online diaries for ourselves and publically publish our thoughts and concerns like in blogging. With these technologies becoming more and more common, one has to wonder what the future holds for these kinds of social media. Will they one day be regulated for showing signs of “distress” in the author? This raises the ethical question of who has authority in these cases… as well as how much should these things be monitored. If a young girl claimed to be considering suicide in her blog, whose job would it be to step in and “save” her from herself? Or is that completely illogical and wrong to intercede on someone’s behalf like that based on a blog post? Here is the link to the article on Fox…

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517114,00.html

I recently went on a blind date. It was originally set up as an experiment for the school newspaper and was documented thoroughly before, during, and after the date by videographers and reporters for the paper. It was a lot of fun, mostly because my date was pretty awesome, but also because half of the restaurant was suspicious that my date and I were on some reality TV show with the cameras and such. It was quite exhilerating.

The funny part about the whole situation was that I knew who he was, but he didn’t even know my name. We have never met each other, so it was still, so to speak, a blind date. However, because I knew his name, I was able to gather some information about him before the date, sort of as a gauge for what kind of person he is and such. Naturally, I turned to Facebook. I kind of Facebook-stalked him and found out his interests, hobbies, and group of friends. I found out that he had recently been on a trip to New York, I found out his major, and all the mutual friends we share. I looked at dozens of pictures of him, and even went back over his recent activity on Facebook to find out when he had last updated his information.

I’m going to be honest. I was being a little creepy.

This whole social media use got me thinking. Social media has completely changed blind dating. Prior to these social media technologies, there was no way for me to gain any of this information on someone except by asking questions of other people who knew the that person well. Now, I’m able to go into a date having a significant amount of knowledge about the person I’m hanging out with prior to ever even meeting them.

So… question: is this good/ bad? beneficial/ rude? scary/ safer? Is social media taking the fun out of blind dating? Thoughts??

While I was getting my weekly dose of social media articles, I came across a spoof ad that pokes fun at Twitter and our social media crazed society.

I found the ad while reading the Social Media Minute from April 9th on cmswire.com.

The fake ad interviews employees associated with the creation of Flutter, a nanoblogging site. They claim that it is much too time-consuming to keep up with 140 character Tweets. Instead they allow only 26 characters, so as not to force people to spend so much time following updates.

Flutter, also allows people to condense posts made on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

According to the ad, Flutter is only the beginning. They are also coming up with applications for Iphones and glasses that include a live stream of updates along the bottom rim of the frames; the goal being that people are allowed to stay updated as quickly and as much as possible.

I have found Twitter to be a very useful tool and would potentially recommend it to many organizations looking for new ways to connect with their publics. However, I cant help but laugh at this ad which emphasizes people’s needs to stay in touch with people all the time, but only at their own convenience. We want to stay connected, but that is increasingly done in quick, impersonal ways.

Today’s class discussion, as well as Mr. Brown’s post, got me thinking a lot about social media and the way it should be taught. Be forewarned that this post will consist mainly of questions and thoughts for discussion, as opposed to any sory of profound insight on my part. Nonetheless, I think it is important to consider the implications of social media in a classroom.

First of all, I wonder if social media could ever be taught in a traditional way. Textbooks, reports, exams?? I definitely don’t think so. While these tactics may be much easier to evaluate and perhaps take less creative thinking to impliment, I don’t think they would be very effective.

Social media is one subject that requires hands-on experience. Students need to see how different forms of social media are being used, the positive and negative sides of social media, and how social media tactics can be used professionally to expand their skillsets. This is not possible by simply administering a multiple choice exam.

I think it would do absolutely no good to be able to define types of social media without understanding why and how they are used. Once in the “real world,” employers arent going to want to know what a blog is, but whether or not it would be beneficial for their companies.

One of the other issues that was brought up in our class discussion was how our time could be used more effectively, given the broad nature of social media. Social media has so many outlets and is expanding so rapidly that I believe it impossible to cover everything in one class. Regardless whether a 50 minute class or a 3 hour class, there is too much material to discuss in one semester.

I think it is important, therefore, to capture the main highlights. Though this is the first time this class has been taught at Lee, I think we have actually done a pretty good job of covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. Much like Kevin commented, I think this class has served its purpose in that I have gotten a broad overview of how important social media is. This class has definitely served as a way of acquiring a good bit of information about social media that I can use in the future and take into my professional life.