Hi5 is a No 5

We were asked to join another social media network outside of those that we use everyday. I joined Hi5. For those of you who think that Hi5 is just a gesture, I thought I would give a brief description of what the website is really about. According to Wikipedia,  Hi5 is a social networking website. It is currently the twenty-fifth most popular website according to Alexa, a website-usage information website. In Hi5, users create an online profile in order to show information such as interests, age and hometown and upload user pictures where users can post comments. Hi5 also allows the user to create personal photo albums and set up a music player in the profile. Users can also send friend requests via e-mail to other users. When a person receives a friend request, he or she may accept or decline it, or block the user altogether. If the user accepts another user as a friend, the two will be connected directly or in the 1st degree. The user will then appear on the person's friend list and vice-versa. 

After poking around for a bit, this is my analysis:

-There is a lot of advertising on Hi5, every other time you click or move from profile to profile, some sort of pop up advertisement comes up. This gets very irritating. I've never encountered something like this on a social media website. 

-The search option is hard to use. I tried to find some friends that were using Hi5 after i completed my profile, and it was very difficult to determine who people were. Plus the results that returned were not really related to what I had tried to search. 

-Hi5 similar to facebook. It has many of the same features and options. However, since I've been on facebook since high school, I don't see the benefit in switching sites. Plus, not many online users even know what Hi5 is, thus I would be that loser who doesn't have a lot of friends. 

Overall, I think that Hi5 is not a very user friendly site. I think it has some potential, however, I don't see people using it instead of facebook. 

I've been twittered

After taking this social media class, in which I have actively been participating in various social media channels, and after some careful consideration and participation, twitter is my new social media habit. I've actually noticed that I've lost interest in facebook- an addiction that began to take up a large portion of my time. Twitter is definitely something that you must get used to and somewhat practice, but after some time, it can become a regular part of your daily routine. 

So, the following is a reflection of twitter.....

Since taking on the brand and persona of @christineLg I've made some interesting discoveries.....

Since March 1st to the present I have tweeted about 150 times

What did @christinLg tweet about?

• I usually tweeted about events in Chicago, more specifically articles I've found in the Chicago Tribune about the Cubs, the Olympics, or other interesting facts. 
• I would also tweet about interesting human interest stories I found on AdAge or other social media websites like Mashable,  or @Build_A_Tribe. 
• Lastly, I would tweet about the Milwaukee Art Museum and upcoming events. From time to time I would tweet to classmates, or my teacher Gee (@FrythingPR). I would try to include links in most of my tweets.

I probably retweeted about 10 times. I didn't really understand the importance of retweeting until later on. Now that I have caught on, I think it's an excellent way to share information with your followers!

• I tended to retweet tweets from my teacher (@FrythingPR) and my classmates including SenoraBeeps and gldneaglegrl. I also shared tweets from @SocialMedia411 and @Build_A_Tribe. 
• I often retweeted social media topics. The people that I retweeted often found interesting articles about social media that were worth retweeting. 
• I would retweet these tweets because I wanted other tweeters to read them too! It's important to share information with others. Knowledge is power!

I only had45 @replies.

• I would reply to my social media teacher @FrythingPR, and other social media students like @GoldenEaglesFan, @CNA303, @senorabeeps, @karidunham, @gldneaglegrl, @astageman, and @TMImburgia. I also replied to @sghel and @spreenkler, two social media mentors who assisted our class on grasping the whole twitter thing.
• I would respond to their tweets because I had an opinion on what they were tweeting about or I had an idea that would compliment what they had previously tweeted about.

My @christineLg brand has 78 followers and I am currently following 76 people. 

Twitter has been a very positive experience for me! It has allowed me to access individuals that I more then likely be unable to contact. I also love how quickly information is processed and sent. I have definitely come across various blogs and articles that I would not have found on my own. It was also a great way to contact my social media teacher quickly without the hassle of email. I can only sing twitters praises! 

The only negative experience I have had with twitter is the overcoming the learning curve. I do think that twitter needs to be taught and explained in order to fully appreciate its beauty. Twitter takes practice, and with practice you get better and really understand how to use it properly.

I think that wraps up my twitter experience. I really have to thank my social media teacher Dr. Gee Ekachai for forcing me to tweet so much. I owe most of my twitter career to her! I will continue to tweet and explore the twitterverse.

J & J uses social media to reach clients

Johnson and Johnson will be using social media to support its baby and body care lines. So far, they're using myspace and youtube. The company is launching a "Big Bubblin' Stars" contest on YouTube behind its recently launched bubble-bath product. They are offering a grand prize of $10,000 and a chance for the winner to become host of a channel launched in 2005. To enter the contest, moms upload three-minute videos of their kids. Johnson's Body Care is using myspace to get women to raise money for the charities of their choice. They raise the money by hosting "cause parties." Johnson's will supply lotions and body washes for guests that attend. The YouTube contest aims to provide new opportunities for moms to use social media to supplement their income. The MySpace program allows women who may be out of work remain active by volunteering for causes important to them and enable working women to help out charities whose funding have been depleted by the recession. The campaign is about engagement, not reach. They think that myspace is the best way to reach the beauty crowd. They choose myspace over facebook to reach this group. I don't think this is the best medium to reach their age demographic. Companies and advertisers needs to realize that younger generations rarely use myspace, they use facebook. I don't think I even remember my log-in information for myspaece. It will be interesting to see how well this campaign goes over. I think it's a good idea, however, I'm not sure they are using the correct social media sites to reach their audience.

Twitter- a money maker

I just read an article about how to make money on twitter. Me being a poor college student, I began to wonder if there was a way for me to use twitter to get some extra money. I was able to complete step one, setting up a twitter, but I'm still establishing a following. I did not realize that you could start to sell ad space on twitter- which is step three. I also thought I can starting posting my blog more often on my twitter account, which is step four. So after reading this I began to think, is this really the way to make money off of twitter? I can understand how having advertising on your twitter page can get you some revenue. But I think selling ad space on your twitter account is not the way to go about getting money from twitter. I feel that selling ad space on twitter kind of ruins the personality of your twitter page. I like that there is no ad space on the sides of twitter pages. It's annoying how there are ads constantly rolling down the side of facebook....so it's nice that there are no ads on twitter.

John McCain's Twitterview

George Stephanopolous, from ABC will interview senator John McCain using twitter on Tuesday. I think this is so interesting! Like the article said,politicians are known for being long-winded, thus it will be interesting to see how the interviewer and interviewee use this word limit and how good he interview will actually be. I also thought this was interesting because so many criticized John McCain for not being more techno-savvy and using social media to his advantage. Clearly, Obama's facebook, twitter, and other social media accounts were just an added benefit to his campaign. McCain conducted a pretty basic campaign, so it will be very interesting since he will be the first to be interviewed via twitter. I wonder if this will become a new trend? However, how will viewers find enjoyment in this interview? Thats part of broadcast journalism- actually watching the interview being conducted. I will be interested to see how it all goes!

Positives of Internships

Youintern.com just tweeted an interesting article about internships. I thought I would take a look at it since I'm currently writing a few resumes and cover letters. Sometimes it's so frustrating to apply for all of these, send out millions of resumes and you're lucky if you get at least one phone call back. However, after reading this article, I got reenergized and ready to write a few more. I think that internships are a great way to break into the industry, I just needed a little reminding of that.

Tweetdeck

I just installed tweet deck on my computer, and now I think I'm even more addicted to twitter. I love that it keeps you updated and keeps all your tweets organized. I hated that you had to refresh all the time. Tweetdeck keeps managing twitter easy. I also like that it's an app on my computer, so I don't actually have to have safari or firefox open to keep checking twitter. I suggest everyone should get tweetdeck or find some way to manage their twitter accounts.

Social Media is Catching on

I was doing google alerts at the museum today, and in the past week, several people have blogged about the museum, and today, which I thought was cool, they are even posting on flickr about MAM. I just thought it was cool because I love how people are getting so creative with social media and figuring out new ways to use it to their advantage. This one user asked where they should take pictures in Milwaukee, and several people said to come here. I feel like with all my new resources I can become a little social media butterfly.

Tech Skills Students Need

The article Gee sent about tech skills students need to know was a great checklist to go through. I went down the line checking off what I know how to do and what I didn't; and then for the ones I did know, I questioned whether or not I was proficient in them. For the most part, I would say that I knew how to do them pretty well. I think that a lot of these skills will look great on my resume. I like to feel like I'm ahead of the curve for students my age because I'm in this social media class. I think I'm learning several different tools that will make me a marketable candidate to employers. Everyone is starting to jump on the social media craze and I like to think that I'll be a pro when everyone else is still learning. I have to thank Gee for most of this knowledge I have learned. The reports we did on the different types of social media have definitely been a big help! 

Using Social Media for Businesses

I just read one of Catharine P. Taylors posts about her most commented on blogs. Gee sent it out in an email. I read the one relating to socialmedia and businesses. I found this intriguing because Steve Glynn came in earlier and was talking about how he has been discussing the importance of social media with businesses and how some get it and some don't. I was trying to figure why that is? Are some CEOs and execs just more forward thinking, or is social media just to hard of a concept for some to grasp? I'll admit that when I first started participating in social media, I thought it was kind of frustrating. I felt like it was moving to fast and I couldn't keep up. I also didn't think I had anything interesting to say. After some practice I think I finally have the hang of it.  It was also comforting to see that others had written to Taylor expressing their frustration with social media. Now I know there are other social media inept people out there in the internet world. Gee also sent another email along about how a company should properly use twitter. I thought this article was interesting because there is a proper way to establish companies on twitter. Some of these companies that think they can do it by themselves without help from a social media expert might be in trouble. I definitely think that social media is something that needs to be practiced. 

Using Twitter to Water Your Plants

I was reading an interesting article in the newspaper about twitter the other day. So everyone that uses twitter just uses to stay in the know about the most current events, blogs, and websites on the web. Well now, twitter can remind you when to water your house plant. Yes, that's right, Twitter will tweet you when your plant needs water and attention. How you may ask? some students at NYU developed this nifty little gadget. There a device called the Botanicalls, which has sensors in the plant's soil. The sensors detect how much moisture is in the plant. Readings are sent to a micro-controller built into the Botanicalls device that translates the data into info that can be sent over the internet through embedded ethernet connection. The info is sent to a twitter account, and sends the plant's information via a text message to your phone. I think it's interesting how people are becoming more inventive and creative with twitter. It's becoming so integrated into our society that even plants are using it. I was curious what other innovative ways twitter will be used in our society. That's definitely something to ponder.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090206/SUMMITUP/902069989/1078&ParentProfile=1055&title=Summit%20up

This blog was kind of funny. It kind of gives an outsiders point of view about Wisconsin and I thought you guys might like it.

Mad Men-prehistoric social media

Ok, I don't know if anyone else has hear about the series on AMC called MADMEN. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a T.V. show about ad executives on who work on Madison Avenue in New York during the early 1960s. It's fascinating to watch because things have changed so much in the advertising business since then. However, the strategy is still the same, sell products. This got me to thinking about how much social media has influenced advertising since that time period. One of the major things that has changed since then is the strategy, and how advertisers get consumers to buy products. Back then all you needed was a catchy jingle or slogan and then people were hooked. Now, you need a catchy song and tag-line, but you also have to have a twitter and facebook account to keep up with the trends of the modern day consumer. The power of purchasing is being driven nowadays by social media. People search blogs and websites to find out other people's opinions on products and services. As consumers, we need reassurance that what we are buying is a quality product, and we look to others who have tried the products to reassure us in our decision. Back in the 60s, advertisers had to put on a show and make their product sound interesting, they would go to any length to sell a product. Now, there are so many ways to check up on the quality and creditability of a product via social media. 

Social Media Data

I played with the Groundswell data tool for awhile, trying out different groups and characteristics. I first examined what a female who is age 18-24, so basically me, would be characterized according to the chart. Just as I had suspected, most were joiners. I hate to be stereotypical but I know from personal experience that girls love stuff like this, all the social media, etc. We love finding ways to keep in touch and trying the latest fad out. I was also not surprised that girls who were spectators came in close second. I know, or so I've heard, that stalking is a favorite past time of many young women. It can be interesting to see what everyone is doing without actually having to check in with the person. Social media is becoming so mainstream now, and it is fascinating to watch how it is shaping our culture.