Bicoastalblonde

LA x NYC

[taylorswift]

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Taylor Swifts Cats cuddling. I happen to have cats (I ALSO LOVE DOGS) and this photo is just so cute. 

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Celebs, Social Media, TAYLOR SWIFT

Celebrities and social media mean lots of possibilities. By possibilities I menthe ability to reach millions of fans and people. Things can spread faster than ever before thanks to social media and as a result people are famous because of social media. Today there are youtube stars, Instafamous stars, vine stars and various other platforms. One of my favorite celebrities on social media is Taylor Swift. She comes off very real and human not just a famous celebrity. Her music is amazing and so is she. She also loves to interact with her fans leaving nice comments and liking posts, even making peoples dreams come true by meeting them, especially those who are sick or dying :(.Such a good human being showing her fans love and respect. In the article http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/taylor-swift-queen-of-celebrity-social-media.html it discusses how funny Taylor can be. She says she is “taylurking” when she is creeping or stalking on peoples profiles. She treats her fans like friends and this is what makes her so great on social media. The article even says she's better than Beyonce at it #boldstatement.

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Paris attacks and social media

This past weekend has been horrific for our world, with the attacks onParis specifically. Everyone I know has seem to take notice and this is all because of social media. Facebook has even added a feature so people in Paris could make themselves as safe. There were trending hashtags on Twitter letting people know their doors were open. Social media is very powerful and during hard times it brings the world together. As much as I love the quickness and awareness it also can be abused. I begin to question people's authenticity and intentions for a post. On Instagram this weekend everyone I knew that has ever been to Paris posted a photo of when they last went to Paris with a pray for Paris or something similar offering their condolences. Crazy how thousands of people used this opportunity to show off the last time they were there all while offering there condolences. It began to trend. Celebrities even were doing it. As much as I love the awareness and spread I sometimes question the intentions of their post. Is it for the victims or is it show off their post? Lots of other bad things happened over the weekend such as an earthquake in Japan yet I didn't see one post related to anything other than Paris.

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Social Media abroad

In my social Media class last week we discussed social media platforms abroad. It really reminds me how thankful and blessed I am to live in America with freedom. I am able to go on Facebook, Twitter, tumblr and other platforms freely. In other counties such as China this is not the case. In fact they use other Chinese platforms similar to ours. An example is wechat the popular Chinese chat app that is similar to one American apps such as snapchat, kik and whatsapp. There is another one called weibo that is similar to Facebook. There are many other social media platforms in China that act and behave very similar to our apps. It is interesting to see how hey have almost copied the idea because they want to be online and apart of the same things as we are apart of online.

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When I last signed a petition

The last time I signed a petition was in union square for a planned parent hood. I am not sure exactly what it was for but I was with two girl friends and we were walking through when we we're approached. At first we hesitated and felt a little awkward. This is New York and people try to talk and stop you all the time so it becomes easy to ignore them. For some reason this time was different. My friend and I looked at each other and we ended up signing. Then after that we forgot about it and didn't think much as to what are signature did. Looking back months later I realise now that my signature made some sort of impact even if it was just small.

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Social media and change

I never thought too much about the way a persons actions impact a cultural change, specifically choosing or not choosing to signing a petition that someone ask you to sign for their cause or supporting the cause via social media. This can be liking a post or resharing it. Sometimes I do these things and sometimes I don't but either way I never thought to much about what my small contribution means. The two important things I learned were hashtag activism and hashtag slacktivism. When I sign a petition or like a post that is a form of hashtag slacktivism. I am supporting the cause but not putting a lot of effort into it. But I am an important part of the overall goal. An enthusiast or someone who does hashtag slacktivism does a lot for their cause and are considered drivers of conversations and are considered connectors to the activists. Activists are the ones who truly support offline, online and many more aspects. So even when I think my signature or social media like doesn't matter it does more than I think. Without my little support or hashtag slacktivism there wouldn't be as many building blocks to help the activists reach a larger audience and awareness.

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Snapchat of my kitty. Sunday mood.

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Audience awareness and growth

In class last week we had a really interesting speaker come in from the New York Times and speak about what he does. He is a growth strategy editor and talked about some really cool things. He gave spend great advice on how to use social media and establish an identity for yourself. Also to be aware of the way I present myself online. I really enjoyed his presentation and learned a lot.

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Why didn't I get more likes?

This is something I wonder sometimes when I think I post a really cool and good photo. No one can for sure know the answer to why some things go viral and why some things are more popular. This is why choosing the best way to spend advertising money can be very challenging. The number of likes usually means it's the number of people who interacted with the post not the number of people who actually viewed it. I wish it said the number of people who viewed because it would be a more accurate number of people reached. A lot of times I go on Instagram and Facebook, see something but don't like it. Usually if I do interact I will like or tag a friend on it. A lot of the times I view something and do nothing. I know there are tricks to make sure you get more likes but I think it's more authentic when someone views and generally likes your photo. Sometimes I find myself liking my friends photos just because I'm there friend though. Overall everyone appreciates likes and it does make a difference in advertising.

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Social Advertising

In the article Measuring Social Networking Success: More Than Just Likes the main point is that the value of costumer experience can be more valuable then buying ad space. A lot of companies use a paid reach to get more likes and comments on their social media. By focusing more on the value of the costumer interaction it becomes more meaningful than a paid reach and it makes the company overall grow. This is something that I think a lot of companies are unaware of when it comes to social media. Is it better to buy and reach lots of people quickly, or concentrate on your costumers and provide quality feedback? I think that there should be a focus on costumer feedback and service.This would of course mean the right recipe of where to spend your social media money and focus on the value of costumer experience.

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Can one plagiarize a tweet?

When you tweet does that belong to you? When you post an amazing picture on Instagram do you own that picture? What happens if some famous person retweets you and they get a lot of notice for what you wrote, do you get to tell them it’s actually yours? These questions about ownership are becoming increasingly prominent in the social media space. 

One example of this is #TheFatJewish. He posts jokes, memes and a bunch of other really funny stuff. It turns out that he doesn’t really have any ideas himself. He is an aggregator. He is stealing from people all the time. He has a couple million followers, he is famous, but in reality he is stealing from people who are actually funny who have far fewer followers. Is this plagiarism? 

In my mind whatever you post is your property. If your post goes to someone else’s account and they get money from it that money belongs to you. There has to be a way for people to enforce the rights to their intellectual property on social media. BTW, this post belongs to me. 

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The End of Writing?

Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, argues that technology has and will even more in the future completely transform writing. In the past technological skills were required to copy books. And to publish a book a person had to go through editors and publishers, so many layers until they could get their book to the public. Today everyone can instantly publish. And they can also fix what they wrote before. Shirk sees this as a good development. Everyone is a writer today because they can write a blog like this one. And moreover the fact that everyone can write and publish on public forums means that there is much more collaboration today than their used to be. Shirky points to Wikipedia where he values the extreme openness and decentralization that happens when everyone can contribute to an article. 

The ability to redraft and publish instantly is a good thing but there also could be serious drawbacks. IT’s good because people can always enhance and share their thoughts with the world. Original publications that wouldn’t get to see the light of day before can now be seen by everyone. But who is the author anymore? There is so much collaboration ands words and ideas are taken up by everyone that what the author originally thought is so twisted by collaboration that it’s not so clear that the result is actually the product of the author. In getting rid of professional authors we may have gotten rid of the author himself. 

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First Family Of Instagram

Is an interesting article in the NY Times about the Phillips family on Instagram and how it has had a personal and media impact.  The article describes the family’s many rules and daily lifestyle. A pre-meal photograph would be “don’t touch your food until the photo is taken” and two photos a day are all apart of their these. Their family revolves around a social media app. The impact Instagram has had on this family is amazing to think of. They must be constantly aware of their life so that their feed to thousands and thousands of people around the world. Creating a certain brand for themselves and their accounts. If the lighting isn't right out to dinner at a table then their mom will make them move tables for better lighting. The family has even fought over their Instagram business. Reading this article today with my own Instagram it is crazy how Instagram has changed since I even first got it back in 2012. I didn’t even think about usernames and now I look back like wow a Instagram handle has a lot of power. To see how this whole families every aspect revolves around Instagram seems a little absurd at the same time.

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Selfies with my cat!!

Even though my last post didn’t fully support selfies I do find them funny. This is my cat Tyga, like the rapper. Why I named him Tyga I am not sure, I think it is because my boyfriend had an influence over it. Anyways he’s a year old bengal and he loves me! (I forced him to take this photo for homework, lol). Selfies can actually be hilarious most of the time. They provide funny expressions and usually they are silly. My cat Tyga lives with me in New York City. He’s super fun and even people who don't like cats like him. Meow.

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Selfie World

In the article “Meaning of the Selfie” the by James Franco states that he was turned off by an Instagram feed if there is no selfie. According to him the selfie captures a whole moment of emotion. It is a way for people to express themselves and they way they are feeling in that particular time. It is a way for celebrities to give pseudo private moments. He also says “Attention is power” and everyone wants it. Personally I am not a huge fan of selfies. I rarely post one and if I do I tend to think about it a lot. I think they could be embarrassing and exude a lot of confidence. Not to say I don't have confidence but I don't always want to post my face up all the time. Whenever I see people taking selfies, which is ALL. THE. TIME. I think they are pretty lame. Take the selfie stick for example, it is long, big and annoying. The other day on the street a person trying to take a selfie while walking and bumped into me. RUDE. It makes people really selfish and into themselves, Kim Kardashian made a whole book about herself dedicated to how much she loves her self and selfies. People need to start caring about other people and be aware what is going around them, no one cares how many likes you get, except for advertisers. 

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Third week of school has begun!

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Social Media today and way long ago

In an article we were assigned to read for my professional social media class titled "Why social media isn't doing for us what London's coffee house did for us in the 17th century" made me realise a few things about social media today. There are several similarities between 17th century coffee houses and today, first when we complain of wasting time on networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Tumblr, 17th century coffee house goers had similar complaints. But even though we seem to complain about how much time spent online it is actually proven to beneficial. Mixing people and ideas through social media creates the spread of ideas and knowledge. As we use these new platforms and connections we also learn from the past. The biggest concern with our use of social media is how the use of them can be controlled or shut down. Unlike in the 17th century, if a Facebook policy or Twitter policy changed our original posted content could be taken down or gone creating a sort of filter of content available. In the 17th century they didn't have this, there wasn't one owner of all the coffee houses and coffee makers that could constrain the use and price of the market. It was a free space, they could pay there penny or small fare and use the coffee space all day as there own office space. Overall with new business explosions and scientific theories emerging it is only rational to think of how these larger companies could somehow put a type of control over the possibilities to come.