Lights, Camera, Action.

Ben Self | Mass Communication Student at Georgia College

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Vlogger: Peter McKinnon

Peter is another filmmaker that I follow on YouTube. He has a different story that I find fascinating. He started in commercial filmmaking and then after a few years, he moved to YouTube. He has amassed a massive following his YouTube debut back in 2016. He now has 2.2 million subscribers, and each video has about 4 million views.

He usually produces education videos on filmmaking. He shows his perspective on how he would approach a certain challenge or obstacle. His take on filmmaking is a different one; many times, he shows us the best way to get the best shots with only what we have. Other times, he shows us what the power of friendships and money can get you. He often collaborates with other filmmakers to create films, or he works with sponsors.

His personality is very interesting to me too. He is a very outgoing and a loving person. Many times, when he is walking through a town or city he is visiting, he will say hello to strangers, or he will strike up conversations with anyone. He loves coffee almost more than he loves his family. He is reluctant to show his family on his vlogs. He likes to keep work and personal separate. I have a lot of respect for him because of that. I do not like to combine work and personal life.

One of my favorite videos was when Peter met up with another YouTuber I follow, MKBHD. They collaborated, answered questions and showed off their gear. It was a fun video and one that I have watched a few times. Peter has such a strong camera presence, and he is a force to be reckoned within the industry.

Here are some of my favorite videos from his YouTube channel. Check them out.

The bowel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HetzwxXCO4E

How I make a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blzp1mJffEU

Getting schooled my MKBHD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VZ2_kBu1Zg

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Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Our team chose the book “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger. I was pretty interested to read this book because of the title. It caught my attention because I was curious why things catch on the way they do. After starting to read the introduction, I knew that there would be topics described that I have never heard of. This made me more curious. The topics described in this book are social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, and stories. By reading the chapter names, I had no clue what some of them were going to talk about. I have heard of some but I didn’t know how some could relate to why things catch on. While reading the chapters, I liked how the author used examples to help illustrate the concepts he was describing. It really helped me put the word to the action.

In chapter one, he described social currency. I had heard of this but I didn’t know much about this topic. The examples he used to help understand this were very beneficial. My favorite example was making people feel like they are insiders. If a business makes their customers feel “exclusive”, they feel very special and high-class. The example he used was a man had a discount store that sold clothing and accessories. The business was not doing the best, so he opened a new store that was invite only. You had to be a member to shop there. Both sold about the same products, but one was more exclusive, so members felt high-class. This business succeeded far more than the other store. I thought this was a great, relatable example.

Overall, this book was very informative on how things catch on the way they do. The author didn’t just write about the obvious topics that people already knew, but he dug deeper into some areas that are also a factor. I would recommend this book to anyone who is as curious as I was to find out the factors.

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Twitter Reflection

Twitter was just another app I signed up for to scroll through the feed of people I follow. I followed the news, sports, film topics, and friends. I never paid too much attention to Twitter because I thought it was kind of annoying at times. This class has changed my perspective about the app because Twitter can do so much more than I ever knew. I never paid attention to it nor did I understand what Twitter was capable of. I have realized that it can be used to reach so many people and also different kinds of people. It is an app that has only grown in popularity since its launch. And I feel it will only continue to grow with our society.

Twitter is the app of choice for many people and celebrities. The use of hashtags and the mention tools are powerful features that have become a part of society and everyday life. Any user can use the “@” symbol then type in a user’s name to tag them in a post. This is especially useful when trying to make sure that a company sees a comment that you have made whether it be good or bad. This is how businesses on Twitter communicate with their customers when they are mentioned. The hashtags are also great to use so many other people can see posts with the same hashtag. If a user is interested in a certain topic, celebrity, company, or event, they can search the hashtag to see what is happening around.

Throughout this 4-week semester, I have learned the power and strength of Twitter. We learned how Twitter has helped grow businesses and shaped elections. Twitter is a part of society and daily life for many people. Often, it is the best way to communicate with other people and also find new people. After this class, I will definitely start using Twitter for my small business so I can continue to grow more.

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Data Privacy Series 4: Internet Privacy

The ability for individuals to interact online without sacrificing their personal privacy is a vital part of the Internet’s value and is closely related to its trustworthiness.

Internet privacy is the privacy and security level of personal data published via the Internet. It is a broad term that refers to a variety of factors, techniques, and technologies used to protect sensitive and private data, communications, and preferences. Privacy is very important and here is why. 

Online identity theft is a vast and growing problem mainly because scammers are getting better at tricking people into giving over their information. With phishing scams, thieves use fake emails and websites to impersonate legitimate organizations.

To Spot Identity Theft:

Closely monitor your bank accounts, credit reports and any other financial accounts you may have.

Pay attention to your regular utility bills and bank statements.

Suddenly receiving credit cards in the mail that you did not apply for.

Receiving calls from debt collectors for goods and services you did not sign up for.

Being unable to log into a website using your normal password.

Email is not the only internet content with privacy concerns. In an age where increasing amounts of information are going online, social networking sites need additional privacy challenges. People may be tagged in photos or have valuable information exposed about themselves either by choice or unexpectedly by others. Caution should be exercised with what information is being posted, as social networks vary in what they allow users to make private and what remains publicly accessible. Without strong security settings in place and careful attention to what remains public, a person can be profiled by searching for and collecting dissimilar pieces of information, worst case leading to cases of reputational damage.

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Data Privacy Series 3: Mobile Protection and Secure Passwords

There are as many threats on the mobile landscape as there are with computers. With the popularity of smartphones and tablets on the rise, they are becoming more of a target to cybercriminals. Since we are starting to use our smaller devices as we would a desktop or laptop computer, more of our personal data is stored on these devices and thieves are taking notice.

2 steps to take to secure your information on your cell phone:

Set strong passwords- use complex passwords

Use security features like “Find My iPhone” to locate your phone if missing to erase the data

Tips for a strong password: 

Never give out your password to anyone.

Don’t just use one password.

Make the password at least 12 characters long.

Include numbers, capital letters, and symbols.

For the full list, click here.

People need to be aware of mobile scams like social media scams, SMS phishing, and vishing.

Common types of social media scams:

"Friends" urgently requesting money

Requests to click on links supposedly containing something related to you

Quizzes asking for your name and phone number that end up charging you monthly

Requests to click on shortened URLs that install malware on your device

Chain letters

Voice phishing, or vishing, has a human element, and it takes many forms. A scammer might call pretending to be your bank, ask for your security details and pin number, and inform you that your card has been compromised. The same is true of the IRS. Anyone calling you and saying they are an IRS agent and you must pay taxes is a scam. The agency will always send you a letter regarding audits, tax issues, or any problems.

Using passwords is very beneficial to protect your personal data, but it needs to be complex so people cannot guess it easily. You never want to use your name or birthday.

More tips for protecting yourself:

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Look for poor grammar and misspellings in messages.

Avoid monetary promises for little to no effort.

Call your financial institutions about supposed account suspensions and closings.

Keep up with privacy settings on all social media accounts.

Refrain from using social media sites on public WiFi networks.

Change passwords regularly.

Delete links on social media walls you do not recognize.

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Data Privacy Series 2:  Big Data and Government Surveillance

While the term “big data” is relatively new, gathering and storing large amounts of information for eventual analysis is pretty old. Businesses collect data from a variety of sources such as Twitter and Facebook. In the past, storing it would have been a problem, but new technologies have reduced the weight. Data streams in at an extraordinary speed and must be dealt with in a timely manner.

Data comes in all types of formats from structured to numeric data to unstructured text documents like email, video, and audio.

In addition to the increasing varieties of data, data flows can be highly inconsistent. Something trending on social media? Daily, seasonal, and event-triggered peak data loads can be challenging to manage, even more so with unstructured data.

Today's data comes from multiple sources. That makes it difficult to link, match, cleanse and transform data across systems; however, it’s necessary to connect relationships or your data can quickly go out of control.

When you combine big data with high-powered analytics, you can accomplish business-related tasks such as:

Determining root causes of failures, issues, and defects in near-real time.

Generating coupons at the point of sale based on the customer’s buying habits.

Recalculating entire risk portfolios in minutes.

Detecting fraudulent behavior before it affects your organization.

Government surveillance... “Call it the newest era of Big Brother, but nearly 8 out of 10 young adults say the U.S. government is likely "tracking their communications," according to the Pew Research Center.

Are we being watched? Many people think they are being watched at all hours of the day. Some people have different opinions, but if we are being watched all seconds of the day, then how much is too much?

The fear spikes in young Americans under the age of 30. Nearly 8 in 10 young people acknowledge a likelihood of government surveillance, where only 6 in 10 adults over 50 years old share the same concern.

News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications. Those news reports, combined with a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of American's telephone and other communications records. All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the US Constitution.

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Data Privacy Series 1: Malware and Cybersecurity

There are so many terms that are prevalent on the Internet like malware, spyware, ransomware, but it may seem impossible to know what all these terms mean, and how they affect your devices and personal information.

A virus is classified as a self-replicating piece of malicious code that travels by inserting itself into files or programs. The cyber landscape has changed to more than just viruses and can cause much more damage. All the threats on the Internet landscape are types of malicious software, and therefore now fall under the “malware.” Malware is another term used to identify any form of malicious software on the Internet landscape from annoying adware to devastating ransomware.

Malware can cause extremely annoying behaviors such as generating an overabundance of pop up advertisements or causing your computer to run slowly. This type of malware is not classified as a virus; however, it can still negatively affect a computer and can even introduce other security risks. Some that can cause annoying behaviors are adware or spyware. Malware that is malicious aims to steal data from your machine or can cause data corruption. Some examples are ransomware or a Trojan horse.

Getting malware to protect your devices and personal information can be done in many ways. You can download programs to your device, file share, or use scareware.

Cybersecurity is the body of technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access. Cyberspace is exceptionally difficult to secure due to a couple of factors: the linkages between cyberspace and physical systems and the difficulty of reducing vulnerabilities and consequences in complex cyber networks.

As information technology becomes increasingly combined with physical infrastructure operations, there is an enlarged risk for wide-scale events that could cause harm upon which our economy and the daily lives of millions of Americans depend. Considering the risk and potential consequences of cyber events, strengthening the security and resilience of cyberspace has become an important homeland security mission.

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Data Privacy Series: The Introduction

In this blog series, I am going to expand on the important topics of data privacy. Privacy is about retaining the ability to disclose data consensually, and with expectations about the context and scope of sharing. Since the laws and regulations related to data privacy are constantly changing, it is important to keep aware of any changes in the law. Also, to continually reassess compliance with data privacy and security regulations.

You cannot ensure data privacy unless the personal data is protected by technology. If someone can steal personal data, its privacy is not guaranteed, which puts you at risk for identity theft and other personal security breaches. Technology is still implicated in data privacy because the authorized users of technology have a responsibility to the privacy law. The code of ethics of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) calls on security specialists to "maintain appropriate confidentiality of proprietary or otherwise sensitive information encountered in the course of professional activities."

The challenge of data privacy is to utilize data while protecting an individual's privacy preferences and their personally identifiable information. Data privacy laws prohibit the disclosure or misuse of information about individuals.

What is the difference between data protection and data privacy? Data protection is about securing data against unauthorized access. Data privacy is about authorized access, who has it and who defines it. Another way to look at it is data protection is essentially a technical issue, whereas data privacy is a legal one. These distinctions matter because they are woven deeply into the overarching issues of privacy and cybersecurity, both of which appear large in businesses, politics, and culture. For industries subject to compliance standards, there are crucial legal consequences associated with privacy laws.

This blog series will have information about malware, cybersecurity, big data, government surveillance, internet privacy, mobile protection, and secure passwords.

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ITE: Snapchat

Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app used globally, created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. One of the principal concepts of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are only available for a short time before they become inaccessible. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring "Stories" of 24-hour chronological content, along with "Discover" to let brands show ad-supported short-form entertainment. Snapchat has become notable for representing a new, mobile-first direction for social media. According to Snapchat, the redesign in late 2017 “separates the social from the media” so you can access the two different types of content.

There are several features of Snapchat. For the full list, click here.

Snap: A snap is a picture or video you send through the app to one or more friends. After a snap is opened by the recipient, the photo or video is gone. If it is on a story, then it will disappear after 24 hours.

Stories: The stories section showcases photos and videos that you’d like to share with all your Snapchat friends.

Snapchat lens: Lenses allow you to add animated effects to your photos or videos. You use them will you are taking the snap.

Geofilter: These are filters unique to your current location. You need to enable your location settings in Snapchat to use them. You can create your own for a fee.

Discover page: Swipe left from the camera to find this page, which displays stories from publishers and other creators, including those you have subscribed to and those you might be interested in based on the algorithm.

Snapmap: It shows your location and the locations of all your friends so you can see what’s happening right now, right where you are. You just pinch the screen to see your friend’s locations. You can put yourself on ghost made if you don’t want others to see you.

Bitmoji: It is a cartoon icon that represents you. Since Snapchat bought the Bitmoji app, it has been implemented into the network.

Since Snapchat has over 173 million daily users, it is a great opportunity for brands and marketers. If an industry or a company has a social media advertising budget, Snapchat has impressive audience targeting capabilities and a variety of ad formats to choose from. Snapchat ads are effective too. To learn more on how to create an ad, click here.

They offer several different paid marketing options to meet the specific goals of your business. You can create a clever Snap Ad, build a fun sponsored Geofilter, or give your potential customers an opportunity to interact with a sponsored lens. Geofilters have proven to be a highly effective method of bringing in new business. Sponsored lenses offer users the opportunity to play with the interactive ad you’ve created. As Snapchat explains on their website, “To activate lenses, snapchatters simply press and hold on their faces. Some lenses include prompts like ‘raise your eyebrows’ to trigger an animation, adding a fun twist to the experience. And when your finished playing, it’s easy to send lenses to a friend or post one to your story. On average, snapchatters play with a sponsored lens for 20 seconds.”

Thank you for reading. Check back later for more posts on the blog. For the time being, check out my Twitter, @benself8296.

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Social Media Influencers

After reading Socialnomics, the idea of social media influences stuck with me. Influencers are people whose job it is to run businesses social media account. They collaborate with businesses to create campaigns that increase brand awareness and drive sales by promoting a brand or product to their social presence. If you want to learn more about what influencers do, click here to see a very informative infographic.

I thought that they were a great way for companies to stay relevant on social media. With all the different types of algorithms on Facebook and Instagram, it is hard to figure out who sees what on your page. I have personal experience with my small business and social media. It is very hard to post consistently every day to keep my clients engaged. I still haven’t figured out the algorithms, so I don’t know if I am targeting to the correct clients. I wanted to share some tips on how businesses could build a strategy for their social media influencers.

Below are some tips:

Identify your goals before reaching out. Thinking a campaign through from the types of influencers who your customers want to hear from to the assets you’re going to equip them with is crucial.

Break through the clutter. We are all bombarded with advertising that marketers need to be extra creative in the way they team up with influencers. Give them something interesting to talk about.

Focus on an experience. Instead of a simple product review, create an experience for your influencers to share with their network. This allows them to create more interesting content which leads to more engagement for your brand.

Always think visually driven. Equip your influencers with high-resolution images for their content. How can you help them create something amazing for Instagram?

Think outside of the box and experiment with different verticals of influencer topics. Track and monitor the engagement so you can scale the segments that work best.

Consider more content quality and niche topics as a priority. Numerical contenders like traffic and social data should only be considered once an influencer is assessed for a contextual fit.

Create a message that people actually want to hear and share. Whether it’s in the form of research, infographics, surveys, fun facts, etc. make sure your message is something unique and interesting.

Approach influencer marketing in a “network building” approach. Create a strategy that identifies the bloggers that lift your brand the most.

Thank you for reading. Check back later for more posts on the blog. For the time being, check out my Twitter, @benself8296.

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Groundswell Reaction

The Oxford Dictionary defines groundswell as “an increase in a particular opinion among a large section of the population”. This definition is close to what the book describes it as. In the book, it states that groundswell is “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations”.

After knowing what the groundswell means, I can now explain my thoughts about the chapters.

First, I liked how the authors structured the book into three sections. The first section tells us what the groundswell is and lays out the basic tools you need to understand it. The second section explains what to do about it. And the third helps you use it to succeed within your company. The book starts off by showing how the groundswell can threaten institutions like companies and brands as customers draw strength from each other. It lays out our basic premise that you can turn the groundswell to your advantage. I thought the analysis of how to evaluate new technologies as they come along was interesting to read.

A few chapters in, I found the POST process for creating strategies thought-provoking, and I understood why to not start with technologies. Learning about the five primary objectives for groundswell strategy – listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing – was noteworthy because I did not know anything about groundswell before reading this book. The next section that I liked was the explanation of how to use the groundswell for research purposes. There are tools like private communities and brand monitoring that you can use for your research.

It was also interesting to learn that you can use groundswell with blogging. Since we created a blog for this class, reading about the different case studies like HP’s blog was very informative. Energizing the groundswell illustrated the key strategy, which is to charge up your best customers and enable them to recruit their friends. When creating a community, the most important step is “don’t start unless you can stick around for the long haul”. There needs to be a lot of commitment to keep the community growing. If you are not in it for the long haul, then the community could fall apart in the end.

“Reach out to your most active customers” is very important to help the groundswell support itself.  By taking the initiative to reach out to your customers, shows them that you are willing to provide the best service you can. This leads to having great reviews and reputation. Word to mouth is very critical nowadays, so having positive things floating around about your company is a helpful resource. Keeping happy customers is key to growing your company. The last point that I want to make is that Twitter is a powerful force for connecting the groundswell for any of the five objectives as stated above.

Thank you for reading. Check back later for more posts on the blog. For the time being, check out my Twitter, @benself8296.

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Socialnomics 2

When this class started and I found out we had books assigned, I was not excited to read a book over the summer. I am not a guy who uses social media daily, but I know about different aspects of it. But after reading this book, I am glad I did. I learned so many things about social media, technology, people, and businesses. It was interesting to learn about how social media and businesses work because I did not realize there were so many connections. Qualman is a very good writer, and I enjoyed his writing style. Reading books like these are sometimes hard because they can become old-fashion easily with our growing society.

Next, I will mention some of my favorite points of Socialnomics.

1. Spending time on social media makes you more productive.

2. Effective companies and people embrace critical feedback.

3. By engaging votes, social media has had a positive impact on voter turnout.

4. Marketers jobs have changed from creating and pushing to one that requires listening and engaging.

5. It’s better to live a social media life making mistakes than living a social media life doing nothing.

6. The younger generation's interpersonal communication skills are starting to suffer as a result of overdependence on nonverbal and non-face-to-face interactions. Read this article to learn more.

7. There are so many social media experts that you can continually learn from.

8. Culture, not content, is often king when it comes to your overall social success.

9. ‘Influencers’ are people whose job it is to run their businesses social media account.

10. It is six or seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.

11. Commitment, consistency, audience, momentum marketing, finable, shareable, searchable, mobile, and contributors are key to a successful blogger.

12. Blogs need to have content to keep followers interested and engaged.

13. There are so many social media tools out there for people to utilize.

14. Making a viral video is not a sound strategy- making a video that provides value to the viewer is.

This book was very informative, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially if they want to learn cool things with social media.

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My favorite Vlogger...

As a fellow creative and filmmaker, I am constantly on social media platforms, but Youtube is my preferred platform of choice. Casey Neistat has a massive following on Youtube with just over 9.6 million subscribers. He was one of the first true vlogs that I started watching. One day, a video of his popped up on the recommended videos to watch, so the next thing I did was clicked on one. From there, I had watched thirteen videos of his in one day.

Casey lives a carefree lifestyle that is different than most. He started his own company when he started vlogging in 2015. His company developed an app, Beme. Beme was an app that was on the Google Play store and ios app store. The app was similar to Snapchat, but it could only record when the camera was placed on the user's chest. It would immediately upload, so there was no chance to edit. This showed real life rather than the edited lives we see on social media like Facebook and Instagram. He then sold the company to CNN for a huge profit... I’m talking like over $20,000,000. After that, he spent his time with family. In 2018, he started another company and is currently hiring people to work for him in NYC. 

Casey has a work ethic that is like no other; he is always methodically planning a video or an idea. He lives life to the fullest by working hard and playing hard. He makes time for his family and friends. He has time to take care of his health by running 10 miles EVERYDAY. He spends lots of time with his business making it the best it can be. Each day no matter what, he makes time for each thing that he loves. He travels the world working with major companies such as Samsung and Boosted Boards. He vlogs about technology reviews, charity foundations, updates on his business and his family. He also speaks at conferences telling his incredible story hoping to inspire the next generation of creatives. 

I have many favorite vlogs by Casey, but one that I really enjoy is “HUMAN FLYING DRONE”. The reason I like this one is because he was the first person to hang from a flying drone.. (that I know of). He was snowboarding from the drone, which is awesome! Who wouldn’t want to do that? I just think this video is pretty fascinating to watch.

If you want to check out more of his videos, click   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtinbF-Q-fVthA0qrFQTgXQ. 

Thank you for reading. Check back later for more posts on the blog. For the time being, check out my Twitter, @benself8296.

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Socialnomics 1

After reading the first few chapters, I wasn't really sure what the best definition of social media was. I like the more broad definitions and social media is a very broad topic.

To me, social media is the most efficient way for someone to share, communicate and consume news and information, relying solely on the internet. Some examples of social media platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.

I agree with a lot of what the book is saying with social media and how it influences society. It points out how social media can impact, change a brand and help its visibility. It mentions a lot about influences in politics too. Social media also helps businesses with their efficiency and productivity.

The second chapter was another favorite. It talks about preventative behavior and how social media can influence certain behaviors in young adults. It was also interesting the way the book said that families could become closer by enabling parents to follow their children on various platforms and see what they are posting. 

Chapter 4 was one of the most interesting chapters to me. Social media can influence politics and help change the outcomes of elections. This shows how powerful it can be and what it is capable of. It has become an important tool in reaching people that have never been reached before. 

Overall, I have enjoyed the reading, Socialnomis, so far. This book has presented topics that I would not normally talk about or discuss with others. 

Thank you for reading. Check back later for more posts on the blog. For the time being, check out my Twitter, @benself8296.