Our Projects and WillToLead

I was reflecting on our project today and started thinking about what kind of impact they will have on the WillToLead campaign. One of the main obstacles facing these projects is that if the social media network is not in place to begin with, these projects will not be of much use. Despite the fact that there is valuable information in them, many upper level businessmen are not in touch with social media so the information presented on them may be of no use right away. Time will ultimately what kind of splash they will have in promoting the Clemson WillToLead.

Is Social Media the Future?

We've been discussing throughout the whole semester the power of social media and as the semester comes to an end I've been reflecting on this topic. I've been asking myself the question: Is social media the future. Now, this is a very open question but it is a question that needs to be asked. The future of what? Well, pretty much everything. Marketing, communication, news, etc.

There is no doubt that social media has caught on throughout the world and is producing a snowball effect as it seems like it is only getting more popular with time. Companies are using social media to extend their marketing to potential customers. News is traveling faster than it did before due to social media. People are connecting with other individuals over social media and the list goes on.

The question that needs to be addressed is if we have reached the climax of social media or is it just the beginning. It does seem logical that social media would follow a traditional business cycle and eventually decline in popularity, but social media is something that the world has never seen before. Suddenly, with the help of Facebook and Twitter to name a couple, the playing field has been leveled. Now actors, athletes, and musicians have a way to communicate with their fans individually. Now businesses can get direct feedback from customers. These things have never been done before.

So, is social media the future? I think it is too early to tell if social media is the future of how the world opperates. But one thing is certain, it has had a profound impact on shaping it over the past several years.

Password and Internet Security

This past Wednesday, we had a lecture about password protection and how to protect our personal information on the internet. What was eye-opening about the lecture for me was the fact that eventhough we oftne think that our password is strong and secure, there are several techniques that can be used to break the password.

In connection to this lecture I started to think about what new possible advances would be in internet security. Several technologies such as fingerprint scanning and voice recognition have been used to some extent in business settings but their use on personal and home computers has been minimal. It would seem logical that there would eventually be a program written to easily break all types of codes, rendering passwords virtually useless.

So what is next? Several corporations have fallen victim to information stealing due to their password being hacked and have had their information leaked out into the public. But new measures of internet and password security need to be taken in order to prevent attacks like these again. Of course, only time will tell what measures these are but it only seems logical that actual physical security measures unique to individuals, such as the ones mentioned earlier, will become the norm for internet and password security.

Is the World Really Flat?

In class on Monday, we watched a lecture by Thomas Friedman at MIT about his book The World is Flat 3.0 and discussed the ideas behind the book itself and the argument that it is putting forward claiming that the world is indeed flat. But after pondering this question for a while, I began to question if the claim that the world is becoming flatter is actually true.

From an economic point of view, the world is not flat as there are many countries in the world that are not near the same level as economic growth as countries like China are. But what about from another viewpoint? Say technology? With the advent of the internet, the laptop and Web 2.0, one could easily agree with the statement that Friedman is saying n that the world is flat. For the first time in history individuals are on the same playing field when it comes to sharing ideas and information. A person in Russia can send a report to a client in Canada  which can then be sent back to Russia in less than a second. This growth in technology is what gave rise to Friedman's idea. But are all aspects of the world flattening?

The answer to this would obviously be no. Agriculture, manufacturing, and food production have stayed the same relatively due to geographic and political situations in countries. But things such as education and business have been flattened from a technological standpoint. For example, we mentioned in class that Stanford University allowed 30,000 people to take a class on-line for free. It is examples like this that prove that the world is flattening in some regards. Business is now being done at lightening speed and ideaa are being shared among individuals who previously had no way of presening information to others.

All in all, the world is flattening to an extent. Is it completely flat? No. Is it flattening in ways that were thought to be impossible years ago? Yes. Will it be completely fat in the years to come? Only time will tell that.

When Social Media Goes Bad

On Monday, we covered a lecture regarding the social media situation that the food giant Nestle got into with Greenpeace, a activist group. The conflict revolved around the issue of Nestle using palm oil in its products which indirectly was destroying rainforests in Indonesia. Greenpeace got into a bitter fight with Nestle on their Facebook wall after tehy were told there comments regrading the issue would be taken down when posted on Nestles wall. Greenpeace fought back by launching a graphic viral video showing how eating a KitKat bar essentially was hurting the orangutan population due to the destruction of the rainforest. The information of this video traveled quickly and eventually was taken down from Youtube, ultimately creating more buzz about the video. This conflict took place over the spam of just 4 days and some would argue destroyed much of Nestles image and credibilty regarding the issue as well as their products. In the end, Nestle took a great hit from the situation but it wasn't without the help of social media. Had all the information not been posted on Facebook, who knows if Nestle even would have been targeted for what was going on? Perhaps the information would not have traveled quickly enough to make a significant impact.

The Power of Social Media

Over the last several weeks, the class has been working on a project comprised of several different types of social media platforms with the objective of trying to generate as much internet traffic around a certain topic: Clemson's Will to Lead. Though we are not yet finished with the project, I can already tell that it is going to generate a lot of traffic regarding this subject. This is mainly due to the various platforms we are using such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube but was is equally as important is the value that each of these platforms can bring to one another. For example, posting videos on a Youtube channel and then having these videos re-posted on a Facebook page and then having that page hashtagged on Twitter. As you can see, this information spreads quickly and reaches a large audience in a short amount. This project is just a glimpse into the power of social media as it is something that is changing, evolving and growing everyday. This growth will no doubt lead to new advances in social media that will in not help individuals but businesses as well whether it would be through advertising or networking. New opportunities on constantly on the horizon.

Pinterest and money

To all the users who have used Pinterest recently, have you thought about how the social media website makes money? It doesn't cost anything to sign up and it does not have an established marketing platform like Facebook and Myspace does. The company says that it gets money from investors and venture capitalists to make it grow. This is normal for any starting business but the more important thing to notice is Pinterest needs to be able to find a way to get money flowing in for the future. Pinterest stated that they were not sure how they would generate money but they would get to it. To be completely honest, I would be a little nervous not knowing how I would generate revenue in the future. My guess would be they are hoping to go into partnerships with multiple companies in the future and be used as a marketing and advertising tool. If the companies they would be advertising for had products and services that were centered towards female customers, Pinterest would be a valuable asset and tool to use. But since Pinterest is geared more towards women, this may not be an option as of now. In order for the company to stay afloat, Pinterest needs to find a reliable and valuable way to generate revenue for the long run.

Pinterest: Is it just for girls?

I just finished up working on a social media project using Pinterest and was faced with a question: is Pinterest really just for girls? The answer to this question is that for the most part, Pinterest is for girls. Now the main reason for this is because of the format of the network and who it caters to. Faced with a business situation, Pinterest could be a very valuable tool for women and a good marketing tool for businesses aiming at the female population. The other question to this is if Pinterest can have any other use besides just as a social media tool for women. Could it be used as a business tool for men? The short answer would be no. There simply are not enough men using Pinterest for it to be a valuable tool for marketing, networking or collect data from. Now this does not mean it wont be in the future as Pinterest is a growing social media platform and more men are signing up for it. With this being said it is possible that in the next few years it could be a valuable tool for both men and women in the future. Another downfall from Pinterest from a marketing standpoint is that the format of the website does not provide for a whole lot of information to be shared. People post pictures and a few words about it and each user is allowed to put up a short biography about themselves and that is pretty much it. Other social media platforms such as Facebook and Myspace allow users to put up much more information about themselves so it would be easier to collect data as well as market to users. Now, is Pinterest a bad social media platform? No. Is it a growing social media platform? Yes. Does it have a lot of potential? Yes. Pinterest has the potential to be a useful marketing tool and a good way to generate value for its users but it is still young and developing. It would not surprise me if Pinterest somehow bridges the gap sometime in the future between men and women and becomes a valuable business tool in the future.

Pinterest

This past week, each person in our class created a Pnterest account as a way to generate traffic on a specific topic about Clemson University. After creating the account, I can say that though Pinterst is a good social media tool, I'm not sure if it is the best way to bring about attention to a specific subject. This is due to several reasons, one being that most Pinterest users are girls. If your topic is about sports, cars, or certain types of music it would most likely be harder to get followers on Pinterest. My topic is about Clemson football which, outside of the realm of Clemson University, is probably going to be a hard topic to market to a lot of people. On the other hand, there are several topics that Pinterst would be a good tool to use for. Topics such as cooking, art, and places to travel would be good topics that would be a hit on Pinterest. There would be a potentially large market for these topics beacause they are easy to talk about about as well they are not specific to a certain demographic, such as Clemson football. Overall, I felt Pinterst was a good social media site to use, but it must be noted that it is not right for all topics. In addition to this it is not as personable as Facebook or Myspace is as you can not directly interact with other users in such ways as chat rooms or wall postings.

The Power of Prezi

This week, we had the privilege of being introduced to and using the presentation tool Prezi. We used it to create a presentation about what we would change about the iPhone 4 and I found it to be a very easy and useful tool when trying to convey my ideas. As it compares to the traditional mediums such as powerpoint, I can say that I feel Prezi is better for presenting to an audience as it keeps their attention by essentially telling a story. The format does not focus on switching between slides, but rather switching between key ideas and details all in a smooth transition. I realize that this is important because this allows the viewers of the presentation to stay more focused and remember details of the presentation. Overall, I was satisfied with my Prezi experience and I look forward to using it in the future and I also recommend it to others who are looking for a way to make their project more memorable and enjoyable both for themselves and their audience.

What's on the Horizon?

This week, we continued our discussion on the history of the internet and the continual evolution that it has gone through. We also discussed about different start-up dotcom companies that were created during the internet bubble of the late 2000's and early 1990's. What really amazed me about this discussion was the fact that many changes in the internet were not efforts by major corporations or branches of the government to increase efficiency, but rather by an individual or small group of people who had an idea and implemented it. We discussed how Tim Berners-Lee essentially created the basic framework for the internet by himself and how this one idea drastically changed the way in which the internet was displayed and worked. It all started with an of how he could make the internet run better and be more efficient. The same thing happened with Larry Page and Sergey Brin who created Google. They had an idea to make a engine that could search the world wide web for information. Their idea proved to be one of the most influential creations in the internets history. With all this being said, it makes you wonder what new ideas people will come up with and consequently what kind of evolution the internet and the computing technology industry in general will go through in the next 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. With the advent of the tablet, many people have forecasted that the laptop will phase out and not be used anymore. Who knows, but it does provide food for thought on what kind of possibilities are ahead for the internet and the computing world.

Startup.com

Yesterday we finished watching the documentary Startup.com which follows the daily lives of Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, co-founders of the website govWorks.com that was launched during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990's and early 2000's. Unfortunately, the company failed due to the bubble bursting and the company was forced to declare bankruptcy.

What really stood out to me from the film was the relationship between Tuzman and Herman and I believe that this was one of the biggest factors that contributed to the failure of the govWorks.com. It was obvious that both them wanted the company to succeed but Tuzman was willing to give up his friendship with Herman to achieve this goal. Towards the end of the film when Tuzman and Herman had their falling out, Tuzman mentioned how he has been friends with Herman since they were 15 years old yet Tuzman was worried so much about Herman getting too much money in a severance package that he was willing to cut off ties with him in order to save some money for the company. Aside from this example, there were several other examples of them both fighting over things that ended up not being important in the long run for the company rather than trying to do what was important: trying to keep the company from tanking. Now I'm not trying to say that if Tuzman and Herman got along that govWorks.com would have lasted through the dot-com bubble or that it would have been profitable, but I do believe it was a major factor in the failure of govWorks.com.

What's Next?

This is my first blog post for MGT 455 and I wanted to reflect on a few things that were mentioned in class on Wednesday. Dr. Thatcher discussed the topic of the "Victorian Internet" and the history of information technology and it was very insightful for me to hear about this. It made me start to think about what kind of improvements and innovations will happen to information technology in the future.

We discussed how primitive forms of information technology can be traced back to early human civilizations that used things such as smoke signals, signal towers in the 18th century, and eventually Morse Code and telegraphs to communicate to each other. The advent of these technologies was revolutionary for their time and played a vital role in how countries and civilizations operated. What was amazing to me was to see how something like a signal tower that could eventually send a message across a country evolved into the information highway known today as the modern internet, where information can be received in a matter of seconds. This made me think that if such a drastic change could happen in the timespan of 250 years, what kind of advances will the next 250 years bring to the IT industry?