Top 10 Best Social Media Practices

Its a sad day boys and girls... This is the last post for media management class :(  Ive had a great time in this class, very low stress, and just kinda learned about social media in a different way.  With that said Im going to give you the 411 on how to properly use social networking.

So here they are, the Top 10 Best Social Media Practices:

10.  Behave -  This one is really self explanatory but extremely important...don't write or post anything that you wouldn't want your mother to see.  This could land you in a lot of trouble and no one likes trouble unless its the game.

9.  Separate yourself from the rest -  dull profile = no one is interested.  Why even have one in the first place, this is an opportunity to market yourself and shed as much positive light on your character.


8.  Collaborate - This programs, apps, websites are all out there so you can communicate with other people.  I cant tell you how many times Ive had group projects and used Facebook groups to communicate. 

7.  Grammar - This may be a small one but again, it goes a long way.  Misspelling things, abbreviating everything, all are bad habits that you need to kick.  People whether they admit it or not, see grammar as a way of judging intelligence.  C U There 2 Nite....  Umm no you probably wont bud.

6.  Pictures are important -  Again, it is within human nature to judge things, its a natural thing.  Just know when you post a picture people are judging you good or bad.  This ties in with behaving, don't post anything you wouldn't want you mother to see!!!!

5.  Tell us something about yourself...not a million things - no one wants to hear about how you just left one room of your house and entered another.  Same with profiles, keep them clear and concise, people don't want to read through a biography, you can tell them that in person.

4.  Use these devices to learn -  stay updated with world events, join groups that tell you about news. Be an active participant in this societies culture.  A lot of information is spread just through social media, stay on top of it. 


3.  Be Yourself -  Show the world who you are, not who you think people want you to be.  Fake people are the worst, don't try to act a certain way, just show people who you are.

2.  Log out - This one is so simple but perhaps the most important, when you are done using any type of social media, you know the ones that have a ton of personal information, LOG OUT!!!! For your own safety please!

1.  Do not overuse - its so easy to get wrapped up in all these different social media sites. Jimmy just posted a picture, beth is in a relationship, Lebron scored the game winner.  This is all great but it must be done in moderation.  Remember there is real life outside of your computer, cellphone, ipad, or whatever you are using.  Get out and live, great you have 300 online friends, go out and talk to them!!  Social media has evolved our society in so many ways, it really has a big effect but sometimes its time to put the cellphone down and simply... live.

Thanks for a great quarter!!

iFunny

The app I chose to analyze today is exclusive to the iPhone, its call iFunny

This app is somewhat of a social app, it allows people to take funny pictures, find ones on the internet, etc... and upload them.  Then people can comment on these photos or rate them thumbs up or down.  There are some really funny pictures but there are also the fair share of uninteresting ones.  This mix is what I thought was most interesting, there are so many different options for viewing so I never really have gotten bored with it yet.  Here's some examples:


pics on Sodahead

Overall this app has some really funny qualities to it.  I dont know if it will ever completely take of but judging by some of the featured pictures that have over 300,000 likes on it which must mean people like the app.

This app gets a 3 out of 5

Virtual Reality

The idea behind virtual reality is somewhat confusing.  To me it seems kind of funny also, I don't really see it ever progressing farther then just a smaller following.  How could millions of people join in on this when they are already dealing with their real life.  I understand the concept of having a second life, being able to do things you normally couldn't do but it my mind that could have some unhealthy attributes.

Here are some positives to a virtual reality tho:

Transparency- this is perhaps the most important concept we discussed dealing with media management.  The ability for a business to reveal itself, interact like no other way with its customers.  This is where virtual reality comes into play, that wall that was always there for so long has been broken down.  People can now directly interact with their business, giving instant feedback as well as giving a "face" to the business itself.  If anything social media and virtual reality has helped expose more business who would have never normally had a chance.  In the most simple terms it levels the playing field.

Open Sourcing- virtual reality has opened the gates on open sourcing.  People can create essentially anything they want, the sky is the limit.  This collaborative process in my mind is a beautiful thing.  Hundreds of people who would never normally interact have the ability to thru this type of virtual interaction. 

Social Ideation- again going with groups being able to interact, social ideation follows these rules directly.  Groups that aren't able to interact now have the ability and freedom to do all of that.  Coming together to create bigger and better things, this ability to communicate has transformed the landscape of the internet.

While I don't think second-life will necessarily ever get really big, the idea behind it might transform into something bigger to the point where we might literally be interacting with someone in a room who is actual hundreds of thousands of miles away.  Holograms...?

Lets Talk About Fests

This has been something that has been on my mind for quite a while now.  FEST SEASON.

We all know fest season has come to a close with one final adventure when OU takes over Hilton Head, and to be honest it has been a great season.  Overall, this spring has been a lot of fun, not just drinking wise, or partying, but the weather, hanging out with friends, and school has been very easy this term.  But enough about the quarter lets talk about fests again.  Fest are a lot of fun, the entire school comes together to have fun but do they shed negative light on our community?  First off, being considered the number one "party school" in america is a stupid award.  You can drink and party at any college in country we have just been labelled for being the "best" at it.  I personally don't mind that we are number one, it doesn't reflect our community but it does put us in a negative light.  That being said, if you dont think your going to be asked that in your next job interview...your dead wrong.  Being an Ohio University grad, you are immediately cast into that boat so get used to it.  Fests have a lot of positive to them I believe, its an entire college community getting together, meeting new people, and having fun.

Now here comes the bad side.  Palmer Fest...

Palmerfest has been notoriously in the headlines for a while now.  To be honest, ive had enough.  I dont even like the fest sooo cancel it... we can have all the other fests... but cancel that one.  It has been shrouded in negativity ever since 2000.  Its that simple in my mind.  If you have a bad apple are you going to keep eating it?  The Roger McDavis wrote a response to the parents.  This was also a very frustrating response to a fest that for the entire day was extremely tame.  The entire fest is annoying and should be gone.  With that said theres plenty of good from the fest.

Its a chance to hang out with your friends, unwind from a long year, and relax and experience college.

So heres a look at what fests really mean to me...

HAPPY FESTING!!!!!!

The Power of the Brain

• What do you think of this latest development in communication technology with respect to human connection? Does it help it? Hinder it? 

         In my opinion this is without a doubt one of the most brilliant innovations I have seen since ive been alive.  The world has come out with hundreds of things that really push the envelope as to whats possible but seeing something such as mind control is very interesting to me.  The other important thing was that they created something the was affordable and therefore eventually adaptable into real world functions.  In terms of human connection this is just taping the surface.  Imagine what people could do with this type of technology unlocking powers from the brain that most of the time are not being used.  This certainly continues to push the envelope forward.

• What are some of the advantages of technology like this? What about disadvantages?

     The immediate advantages as far as I can see would be something like unlocking the strength of the mind.  helping better improve memory, ones cognitive capacity, and an overall increase in one's brain control.  Imagine being able to control your surroundings simply by envisioning it.  Some disadvantages, its not out yet... The overall functionality of this technology is definitely still in its primitive stages but with the work of some people it could really be the next catalyst for future communication technology. 

• Explain whether you think it will help us connect MORE and participate MORE or if it’s just another “isolating” feature of our technical world.

     In terms of "isolating" I dont foresee this technology having that disconnect.  I think people will surround something like this and figure out a way for it to be used as some sort of communication device.  Who knows, maybe some day you will be able to share your thoughts with another person via this technology.  This is something for people to build off of and rally around.  The powerful technology that we have created so far has proven to draw human civilizations closer in terms of communication.  It will be interesting to see what effect this technology will have in the future.

The Open Source Movement

Hey guys, sorry I took so long to write this post, This weekend we had our lacrosse playoffs, unfortunately we lost in the first round so we came back early.  ANYWAYS....

Watch this first, then we'll talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html.


The Open Source movement is a very intriguing argument.  At first I really did not know much about the idea of open sourcing but after discovering that some of my favorite programs use open source I began questioning how important it was to me. 

What do I think about the open source movement?
Its incredible, simple as that.  Being able to collaborate with hundreds of other people to attempt to create something great is something I simply could never shoot down.  Think about all the possibilities a group of people could create compared to just singular individuals.  Yes of course there are some talented individuals but as a whole, more eyes is better than one.

The odds...
In my mind, very high.  This isn't something that's just going to disappear, people will always open source.  Eventually I believe open sourcing my become better than programs.

What about Proprietary Programs...
Here's the slippery slope about open sourcing.  While I think it has the potential to become more powerful then some of the existing programs out there, it wont ever take them over.  Some existing programs are set in stone, they will always be there, they have been working for companies for years and with a little improvement they will stay for a long time.  Sometimes open sourcing is illogical, something like a bank would most likely operate on proprietary software simply because it will function better without any crashes.

In the end...
Would I buy into it?  That's a weird question because part of the reason why I think open sourcing is so awesome is because anyone can do it, there's no money involved really.   That's speaking in a literal sense, would I buy into the concept, absolutely.  Open Sourcing is here to stay, its a simple an effective way to collaborate on some really great things.

Whats on my mind

So for this entry we are supposed to speak about whats on our mind...

I have one simple answer...  Girls

The most confusing, perfect, awkward, funny, annoying, cute, etc... species on the planet.

I'll start by letting everyone know my girlfriend-ish thing (don't really know what to call it because we were never facebook official) broke up about a month and a half ago.  This is not going to be a post about how I hate her or girls in general, I actually am still very good friends with her.  Anyways, so I've been plunged into the world of being single.  What a chaotic mess!  Who would have thought speaking to the opposite sex would be so hard... but it is!!!  There are so many rules yet none of them are ever clearly defined.  You shouldn't say that, doing this is unattractive, how do I look... millions of things are running through my head daily.

At first I was terribly lost, I felt so uncomfortable just going up and talking to a girl.  After all this is what adults do, you have conversations, yet for some reason I constantly felt like I was going to screw up and I haven't even said a word yet.  That's phase one...phase two, when I finally had enough confidence to have a conversation, you have to figure out what you are going to talk about!!  I like to think I have a good personality but how do I show it just by speaking.  There are some guys out there that are just naturally gifted at speaking to girls... I am not.

The third thing you have to ask yourself is what are you looking for?  What qualities are you interested in?  You must learn from past relationships because if you don't your just going to be like an ipod stuck on repeat.  What worked, what didn't work?  Once you figure out what your looking for its time to search for those qualities in someone else.  And let me just say its never the first one.  Everyone thinks they are sooooo in love.  You haven't really even met the person yet.

So I finally got some courage and ended up meeting some really nice girls.  However, the most important trait that everyone woman is looking for is confidence.  You'll have your low points where you feel like you cant do anything right but that's when you need to take a step back.  You are who you are for a reason, don't let anything change that.  In the end I still may never fully understand girls, I'm slowly getting somewhere but I still have trouble.

Work in progress...

Finally I will leave you with a song that has been stuck in my head all day... love it...