At the beginning of this blog I discussed what social media I was a part of, not including Google +. But, today I read an interesting article explaining why it is becoming necessary to be a part of this network along with the perks of being a member. I'm not going to join just because of this article, and I don't want to quite yet, but I thought the points they come up with were very interesting and beneficial to any business or person that is hoping to expand their social media footprint.
On Social Media Today there was an article, "7 Reasons You Need to be Using Google Plus Now", that talks about how important Google Plus can be for a business or people and how it is better than Facebook and Twitter. Really? But don't we consider those the epitome of what social media sites are supposed to be? Don't we as college students consider those the CORE sites for social networking?
Anyways, the author goes on to give us 7 points on why we should use Google Plus and how Google is the biggest thing on the internet. In my opinion a lot of these reasons make tons of sense and people using Google Plus are doing it right. However, as a college senior I feel very fulfilled in my social media and do not have the time to spend on another website every night.
The Reasons:
1. Google Integration- we all use Google search, Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, YouTube, G-chat, and Calendar which are all owned by Google. So, having Google Plus integrates your dominating Google internet even more.
2. Google Plus Hangout- It's cool: you can have up to 9 people video chatting at once where you can share content
3. Google Circle makes managing your friends fun and easy- You are required to place your friends in a circle when added so it's easy and you aren't backed up doing all your friends or never doing it like on Facebook
4. Privacy- Google does a great job of keeping your privacy private. On Google Plus you can click a few buttons and erase all of your personal data
5. Higher Rank in Google Search- if you have a Google Plus account and you are a business you have a higher rank in the search engine. Others can find you easier.
6. Sparks- Sparks doesn't make you open a new tab or page when viewing something so you can search external sites within Google Plus and share easier.
7. Google Plus is Facebook and Twitter combined- You have instant updates like Twitter trending on the Explore but can still form a detailed profile and share with others.
These 7 reasons make perfect sense on why Google Plus is a cool social media site to be on. Anything dealing with Google and the internet obviously go hand and hand and it was only a matter of time before Google made their move to come out on top again. With Google Plus, Google is allowing people to use all of their Google owned internet sites and the new craze of social media. My favorite is the sparks. I feel like I am constantly opening new tabs to search stuff I see on social media and it's nice to know someone made it possible to search while staying on the site you really wanted to be on. Also, I think that the Google Search ranking for businesses is huge. Just by having a Google Plus you get better rankings in searches- that's awesome. And super easy and lucky. Especially when most people use the Google Search engine to find things anyways.
I think that this article makes great points about what Google Plus has to offer and how they are competitive with the big boys. I'd love to hear more about how people like me use Google Plus besides just chatting with their friends at the same time. I feel like it is more beneficial for businesses and people who need to host conference calls through videos than people like me.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Spread
If I have learned one thing on my social media sites it's that anything you post on there can spread like wildfire and people you don't think will see it- will. Maybe this leads to the conclusion that I need to delete half of my followers and friends because A- I don't know them B- they are random people I have accumulated over the years from people I am friends with C- they are friends of my parents D- people from my high school I haven't seen in 4 years. Anyways one thing is for sure: your newsfeed does creepy things to you.
From this weeks personal lesson- liking photos.
On Friday night I had a date night and we had to wear camo. I was decked out in my overalls along with my friends and our dates. Of course photos were tagged on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter of me and my fellow camo-ed out friends and by Saturday afternoon I had accumulated many likes from various sources. I mean don't get me wrong, everyone enjoys seeing their numerical number of likes increase, but I had to step back a minute and remember who half of the people were. Creepy. Lesson learned- some people don't mind liking things on Facebook of people they aren't really close with. Personally, I do not do this unless it gets me a free coffee at Starbucks or a free top at a local store here in Athens. I always stick to my friends when it comes to spreading news and sending any type of notification to the other person's home page.
However, here is the other side of the story that I have realized this week. People need those random friends on sites to get their message to spread. It's an interest sparking way of spreading communication and instant. Here's the story:
One of my closest friends was telling me about a friend of her's from home who is using social media to make her dream job come true. She loves Ellen Degeneres and wants to work with her. Also, side note is that she has been trying to get tickets to her show for years and finally got some for this month. So, in honor of her dream of meeting and working for Ellen becoming closer to a reality she has started the Ellen Needs Erica campaign. Look it up- #ellenneedserica And, she has been posting a video everyday leading up to the day of the show on YouTube and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't hurt that she is hilarious and probably could be Ellen's best friend. But, the point is, she is reaching so many people and getting so much attention from people she has never met before. I mean I have never met her but I watch the videos. I am pretty sure her college (University of Arizona) newspaper even did a story about her. I mean, this is serious advertising. Everyone who has heard about this is rooting her on and sharing her videos. So far, there have been 25 videos adding up to a total of 56334 views. I think that's a lot for a girl to get on her own by just doing funny things like Ellen would do. She has people retweet #ellenneedserica all the time and has set up a Facebook so that she can share the videos and her thoughts leading up to Feb 21st, the day of the show.
I think that this type of sharing and liking is totally okay and worth it. Erica is totally cool with people liking her pictures and videos to get her the attention of Ellen. Plus, she needs those random mutual friends and people she doesn't know to spread her videos and goal. It's what has really made a difference and could even be the reason Ellen potentially hires her for. It's a really neat thing to watch and I can't wait to see what happens on the 21st.
So, there's my conclusion. Some people like me prefer to not have their personal lives spread via social networks and get a little spooked when things happen showing people see your every move. But on the other hand, some people NEED those friends because they have a purpose. They are able to share and like and send and voice opinions to form groups that can gain attention. For Erica's purpose, she doesn't care who sees her singing in her car as long as in the end it gets shown to Ellen. That's why social media is so great. It provides opportunities for people to communicate to people you don't even know. Without Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter Erica would probably have a much harder time reaching Ellen and could possibly never live out her dream.
GO ERICA!
From this weeks personal lesson- liking photos.
On Friday night I had a date night and we had to wear camo. I was decked out in my overalls along with my friends and our dates. Of course photos were tagged on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter of me and my fellow camo-ed out friends and by Saturday afternoon I had accumulated many likes from various sources. I mean don't get me wrong, everyone enjoys seeing their numerical number of likes increase, but I had to step back a minute and remember who half of the people were. Creepy. Lesson learned- some people don't mind liking things on Facebook of people they aren't really close with. Personally, I do not do this unless it gets me a free coffee at Starbucks or a free top at a local store here in Athens. I always stick to my friends when it comes to spreading news and sending any type of notification to the other person's home page.
However, here is the other side of the story that I have realized this week. People need those random friends on sites to get their message to spread. It's an interest sparking way of spreading communication and instant. Here's the story:
One of my closest friends was telling me about a friend of her's from home who is using social media to make her dream job come true. She loves Ellen Degeneres and wants to work with her. Also, side note is that she has been trying to get tickets to her show for years and finally got some for this month. So, in honor of her dream of meeting and working for Ellen becoming closer to a reality she has started the Ellen Needs Erica campaign. Look it up- #ellenneedserica And, she has been posting a video everyday leading up to the day of the show on YouTube and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't hurt that she is hilarious and probably could be Ellen's best friend. But, the point is, she is reaching so many people and getting so much attention from people she has never met before. I mean I have never met her but I watch the videos. I am pretty sure her college (University of Arizona) newspaper even did a story about her. I mean, this is serious advertising. Everyone who has heard about this is rooting her on and sharing her videos. So far, there have been 25 videos adding up to a total of 56334 views. I think that's a lot for a girl to get on her own by just doing funny things like Ellen would do. She has people retweet #ellenneedserica all the time and has set up a Facebook so that she can share the videos and her thoughts leading up to Feb 21st, the day of the show.
I think that this type of sharing and liking is totally okay and worth it. Erica is totally cool with people liking her pictures and videos to get her the attention of Ellen. Plus, she needs those random mutual friends and people she doesn't know to spread her videos and goal. It's what has really made a difference and could even be the reason Ellen potentially hires her for. It's a really neat thing to watch and I can't wait to see what happens on the 21st.
So, there's my conclusion. Some people like me prefer to not have their personal lives spread via social networks and get a little spooked when things happen showing people see your every move. But on the other hand, some people NEED those friends because they have a purpose. They are able to share and like and send and voice opinions to form groups that can gain attention. For Erica's purpose, she doesn't care who sees her singing in her car as long as in the end it gets shown to Ellen. That's why social media is so great. It provides opportunities for people to communicate to people you don't even know. Without Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter Erica would probably have a much harder time reaching Ellen and could possibly never live out her dream.
GO ERICA!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Super Bowl Sunday
In honor of the big game going on right now I figured that I needed to base this blog on advertising and how social media sites go viral over the companies paying millions of dollars to have their commercial be 30 seconds or a minute long during the Super Bowl.
Also, I think that Beyonce has been mentioned more that any NFL player actually playing in the Super Bowl (besides possibly Ray Lewis) along with people saying her performance caused the power outage (wouldn't be too surprising). Let's be real, Beyonce was the star of the show tonight. She came out looking so great and didn't even break a sweat. However, as much as I'd like to talk about Beyonce, how I know every word to Bootylicious, or the fact I LOVE Destiny's Child, another big part of the Super Bowl are the commercials. Mainly, that's why I watched tonight. Ever since high school in my Marketing classes I've always discussed the advertisements the next day in class. This year here were my favorites:
In no specific order:
1.Tide
2. Budweiser
3. NFL
These were GREAT commercials. Tide and NFL (Leon Sandcastle) sparking the humorous cord while Budweiser making everyone tear up with the horse recognized his trainer from years ago. NFL did a series of different commercials, but the impersonation of Deon was by far my favorite.
Not only did these three commercials spark conversation topics on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, people were blogging about them, writing articles about them, and being critiqued as soon as their aired. The formulation of groups were made so fast on who liked what commercials and who believed the Go Daddy make out session was way too gross to watch (YUCK) that it became a thread of conversation back and forth between people all over the US that didn't even know each other. At one point on my Twitter #Tide was trending. Also, from just my friends I could tell you who had what opinion about the tear jerking Budweiser commercial and who thought the RAM commercial was so great that they wanted to buy a truck (being from Small Town, USA- EVERYONE).
Anyways, here is my point: that we all talk about how we can't believe companies spend that much on commercials for the Super Bowl yet that is the ONLY time people actually want to watch commercials. It makes perfect since. In society now we think that the Super Bowl commercials are better than the regular day to day commercials and that we HAVE to watch them in order to know what all the hype is about. We want to know what's going on and what people will be talking about in class or at the office the next day. However, we may think that the companies are crazy- but they have it right. Think about it, they spend millions of dollar for little air time but it hits tons of viewers who are looking forward to seeing their ads for the only time of the year and then bam a million things get posted on the internet about that commercial. This magnifies the awareness by so much and now with social media it can be instant. It sparks a relation between people, forms groups, forms opinions, and ignites something inside of those people to express their own best and worst lists. All of that money spent gets paid off really quick to me. Their commercial hits YouTube by the time the game is over and by tomorrow almost everyone who is linked to football, the internet, social media, or any time of communication outlet will probably know what everyone is talking about.
And you can't deny it, even you want to look up the worst commercials just so you know what they were and can participate in all of the hype.
So that's what I've gotten from watching this game. Beyonce is fabulous and made the power go out, and the Super Bowl commercials may be worth millions but every penny gets paid off thanks to their on air time and now social media making them continue to go viral after the game.
Also, I think that Beyonce has been mentioned more that any NFL player actually playing in the Super Bowl (besides possibly Ray Lewis) along with people saying her performance caused the power outage (wouldn't be too surprising). Let's be real, Beyonce was the star of the show tonight. She came out looking so great and didn't even break a sweat. However, as much as I'd like to talk about Beyonce, how I know every word to Bootylicious, or the fact I LOVE Destiny's Child, another big part of the Super Bowl are the commercials. Mainly, that's why I watched tonight. Ever since high school in my Marketing classes I've always discussed the advertisements the next day in class. This year here were my favorites:
In no specific order:
1.Tide
2. Budweiser
3. NFL
These were GREAT commercials. Tide and NFL (Leon Sandcastle) sparking the humorous cord while Budweiser making everyone tear up with the horse recognized his trainer from years ago. NFL did a series of different commercials, but the impersonation of Deon was by far my favorite.
Not only did these three commercials spark conversation topics on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, people were blogging about them, writing articles about them, and being critiqued as soon as their aired. The formulation of groups were made so fast on who liked what commercials and who believed the Go Daddy make out session was way too gross to watch (YUCK) that it became a thread of conversation back and forth between people all over the US that didn't even know each other. At one point on my Twitter #Tide was trending. Also, from just my friends I could tell you who had what opinion about the tear jerking Budweiser commercial and who thought the RAM commercial was so great that they wanted to buy a truck (being from Small Town, USA- EVERYONE).
Anyways, here is my point: that we all talk about how we can't believe companies spend that much on commercials for the Super Bowl yet that is the ONLY time people actually want to watch commercials. It makes perfect since. In society now we think that the Super Bowl commercials are better than the regular day to day commercials and that we HAVE to watch them in order to know what all the hype is about. We want to know what's going on and what people will be talking about in class or at the office the next day. However, we may think that the companies are crazy- but they have it right. Think about it, they spend millions of dollar for little air time but it hits tons of viewers who are looking forward to seeing their ads for the only time of the year and then bam a million things get posted on the internet about that commercial. This magnifies the awareness by so much and now with social media it can be instant. It sparks a relation between people, forms groups, forms opinions, and ignites something inside of those people to express their own best and worst lists. All of that money spent gets paid off really quick to me. Their commercial hits YouTube by the time the game is over and by tomorrow almost everyone who is linked to football, the internet, social media, or any time of communication outlet will probably know what everyone is talking about.
And you can't deny it, even you want to look up the worst commercials just so you know what they were and can participate in all of the hype.
So that's what I've gotten from watching this game. Beyonce is fabulous and made the power go out, and the Super Bowl commercials may be worth millions but every penny gets paid off thanks to their on air time and now social media making them continue to go viral after the game.
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