Social Media and Business

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Implementation

I can see several issues when it comes to my client’s implementation of my social media recommendations. I am not sure if my client has the confidence to assign compelling purposes to online communities to allow the communities to provide value. I am also worried about buy-in. My client does not have unlimited time to spend on social media initiatives and with the current global climate, may choose to spend their time on other tasks. I would not blame them for this since it seems like the world is changing every day and it has been difficult to adapt. 

The final and possibly biggest reason a new social media strategy would fail for my client is a lack of a singular vision and frequent turnover of leadership. My client is a registered student organization at Central Michigan University, and I believe this is an issue any RSO would have when it comes to a social media strategy. Every year and at times each semester, there is a change of leadership and the new student leaders are going to want to do things their way. It will be a difficult task to implement a new social media strategy that can stand the test of time for a student organization. While it may be difficult, I believe the clear, concise recommendations that I have provided, if implemented quickly, can create a social media community that can last the student organization for years.

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Effective Social Media Content

When you are looking to develop effective content on social media, it is important to understand your audience. Knowing what your audience responds to goes a long way in creating engaging content. I believe that the best content is fun and includes attention grabbing photos. It is important to make sure your photo look professional and are edited well.

Social Organizations 

Organizations must follow the principles of effective content development and sharing if they want to become a social organization. Once you have captured people’s attention with your content, you can begin to grow a community that helps you reach your organization’s social media goals.

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Online Communities

Community Building

It is important to first understand what purpose an online community should have. There are some things were they can be effective and others where they will be ineffective. The types of problems that online communtities can solve include problems with diverse and inovative answers. An online community should also share the same goals and culture as your organization. Once you have an online community started, it is important to empower them if you want the community to grow.

Growing a Community

I am currently working on a project with CMU’s SHRM chapter to help grow its’ online community. We are working on determining ways to help reach the right types of people on social media. We want people that are either looking to join the RSO, are already in the RSO, alumni of the RSO, and employers that could potentially hire our members in the future. We could just try to get as many people as possible to follow us but that does us no good in the long term. We are also developing a hashtag to use on our social posts to make it easier for people to find us and partner with other University accounts that share a common goal with us. I believe that a small dedicated social following is better than a large following that does not engage with you. I have included two examples of hashtag campaigns that have helped to build brad awarenesses.

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The Legal Side of Data

Businesses and Big Data

The collection of data can be very valuable to businesses. Knowing your customers and having data to optimize your business processes can make your business very profitable. Since the data that businesses collect is so valuable, there are many outside forces that access to that data. Competitors, foreign governments, and even local governments may attempt to steal or gain access to a business’ data that can in turn cause harm to the reputation and financial success of the company. Ways to prevent this and keep data safe will be discussed later in the blog.

Consumers and Big Data

Consumers must be aware that when they conduct business with a company, they normally agree to give them some sort of data. Examples of this data include; name, address, email, credit card information, and more. In theory this data is supposed to improve the relationship between consumer and business. The business is supposed to protect your data and use it to better serve the consumer. However, not all businesses are good at protecting data and even companies that are good at protecting data are still at risk of talented hackers. Consumers who make a lot of purchases online should look into credit monitoring services to prepare for information breaches.

Opportunities and Threats

Businesses need to collect data in order to stay competitive in the current market; because of this, they also need to take steps to protect their data. Businesses need strong privacy policies and vendor agreements to ensure that they legally own their data and it can be enforced by the courts. They also need to make sure they are prioritizing the security of the data and where the data is being held in order to keep it out of the hands of hackers. It is very important to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to data protections, money needs to be spent on protection and it is normally cheaper to spend it protecting it than it is to clean up the mess after data is stolen. If businesses can take these steps to ensure they own their data and it is secure, then they will be in a great position to reap the benefits of the data they collect.

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Junk News

I will take a look at how junk news like conspiracy theories, tabloids, and propaganda spread on social media based on the reasons given by the Oxford Internet Insititute. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/three-reasons-junk-news-spreads-so-quickly-across-social-media/

Algorithms 

The algorithms that social media sites use create a huge problem of confirmation bias. If you are constantly interacting with articles or posts presenting a particular viewpoint, the algorithms are going to show you even more articles that perpetuate that viewpoint. The algorithms do not care if the information provided is accurate or not, just that you will spend more time on their site because you like those articles. For example, if I google Do masks work, I get this article from MIT as the first choice https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/07/do-cloth-masks-work. Someone who spends time reading viewpoints that masks aren’t effective, would probably see articles like https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/cloth-masks-are-useless-against-covid-19 when searching if masks work. The algorithms are designed to be custom to you and the sites you read.

Advertising 

Advertising on social media works in a similar way to the algorithms. Since they are customized to your habits, they do not necessarily care if they are providing you factual information. Clickbait titles are pretty common tactics for advertisers on social media. They use titles that make you want to click on them and then the actual story has no substantive content. This link provides some good examples of clickbait ads on Facebook https://adespresso.com/blog/clickbait-facebook-advertising-examples/.

Exposure

The information people choose to expose themselves is probably the biggest factor in the spreading of junk news. People tend to create a bubble of like minded people on their social media accounts. They do not like to see Information that goes against what they already believe. Confirmation bias is a huge issue in todays political climate. Instead of a free open exchange of information, social media provides an environment where you can curate an experience that provides you with only information that confers with your beliefs.

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Social Media Consultant

The job of a social media consultant is to help a business improve their social media presence. One of the most difficult aspects of being a social media consultant is that every business has different problems with their social media presence and there is no one way to solve those problems. Social media consultants need to be able to comprehend the issues of the business and have good problem solving skills. Consultants have to have great interpersonal skills to succeed, just because they are great with social media, does not mean that they can teach others how to improve their social media.

My Social Media Presence 

If I were to be a social media consultant for myself, I would instruct myself to take a more aggressive approach to social media. Currently, I am very passive on social media, I do not post or interact with others very much. In order to use social media to grow my professional network, I need to reach out to those that can help me get to where I want to be. 

Currently, I make sure to not post things that can be taken negatively and I at times go through old posts and delete things that maybe I should not have posted. My profiles appear to be professional but I do not really do anything to go beyond that. As I get closer to graduation, I need to make sure that I am making connections with the right people and build my professional network.

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Big Data vs. Privacy

Data Brokers

The collection of big data eliminates almost all of you Information privacy on the internet. Everything that you do online is being recorded and sold to someone and there is not much you can do about it. You can turn off location services on apps and be careful not to download apps that look suspicious but with each additional action you take online, the chances your data is being recorded increases. This is great if you are a business, you can purchase data on the market and create more accurate, targeted advertisements. As an individual, we just close our eyes and just pretend it’s not happening. After watching the 60 Minutes special, “The Data Brokers” it is obvious that these companies that are collecting our data, do not have our best interests at heart. They also spend a lot of money in Washington to make sure they are not being regulated. In my opinion, the only way to protect our data is through the regulatory process. I believe that some data collection is okay, but we need regulations that will keep important personal information private.

Internet Business Models

After reading the article “The Internet’s Original Sin, and watching Maciej Ceglowski’s lecture “The Internet With a Human Face”, it shows how the intention of the internet has led to this world of big data collection. Since the internet is meant to be free, and business are built to make money, websites need to collect and sell data to make money. If websites charged a subscription fee to protect or to not collect user data, then data brokers would not exist. Personally, I would pay for the websites and apps that I want if I knew my data was safe. However, most website would lose users and competition would increase and for these reasons, this business model will not be enacted by the large internet businesses that exist today. I think that the internet is broken and everyone just wants to ignore it, if anyone has any answers, I would love to hear them.

Links to Videos and Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAT_ina93NY

https://vimeo.com/102717446

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/

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Social Media Experiment

After tracking my social media habits, I decided to spend a day unplugged from my phone. The experiment was pretty simple, 24 hours with my phone off. To make sure nobody thought I went missing, I made sure to let people know of my plan and that in case of emergency, I could be reached on my girlfriend’s phone.

Morning

On a normal day, the first thing I will do is grab my phone and check Twitter to read everything I missed from the night before. I found myself lost in the morning not knowing what to do. I experienced some serious FOMO but then got my day started. Without my phone, I was able to start accomplishing tasks earlier than normal and cleaned my apartment. After a rough start, the experiment was going well.

Afternoon

The afternoon was the roughest part of my day. Without anything to do, I was really missing my phone. I went for a walk outside but it was so hot that it did not last very long. My girlfriend and I then drove to her Dad’s house and we talked the whole drive without the distraction of my phone.

Evening

We spent the evening at my girlfriend’s dad’s house which made staying off my phone easy. We played corn hole and had a barbecue. I honestly was not even thinking about my phone the entire time. I really enjoyed spending quality time with actual people instead of being distracted by my phone.

Bedtime

Bedtime is the area I want to eliminate my phone from the most. On normal nights, I constantly check my phone because I get bad anxiety and cannot sleep. The only thing that seems to work in calming my mind is to mindlessly go on my phone until I cannot stay awake any longer. During the experiment, I had a hard time falling asleep. Once I was able to fall asleep, I felt like I slept better than normal and did not wake up as much throughout the night. This is a habit I would like to continue beyond the experiment.

Thoughts

I enjoyed going unplugged for the day. I think there were a lot of things I can carry over beyond the experiment. The three things I would like to continue are:

Not checking my phone in the morning until I have started my day

Having meaningful conversations with people without the distraction of my phone 

Keeping my phone out of the bedroom at night in order to have better sleep

I think that I will repeat this experiment in the future when I feel that I am too attached to my phone and not living my life to the fullest.

I would love to hear how anyone else tries to have a healthier relationship with social media and their cell phone!

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The Influence of Social Media

Social media plays a role in my life every day. The first thing I do most mornings is check my phone and see check what I missed while I was sleeping. I believe that I have a little bit of a different relationship with social media than most people my age. Instead of seeing what my friends or strangers have posted, I use social media almost exclusively for news and sports. Without checking Twitter, I would be detached from the information that matters most to me. The last time I tweeted was in January of 2019 and it has been longer on my other forms of social media. For me social media is the way I get news presented from all views points.

Up North

After reading Emma Rathbone’s article Before the Internet (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/before-the-internet), it made me think about a time when I did not have access to the internet. Last Thanksgiving on a trip “up north” for a family vacation, internet access was very limited. It allowed to ignore the outside world for awhile and spend meaningful time with family. It is easier to have conversations when you aren't thinking about checking your phone every five seconds. It would be nice to be able to purposely detach yourself every once in awhile to connect with the people that are most important. This is a Photo that I took on the trip after a snow storm, if I had access to social media I probably would have just stayed on my phone, but instead I was able to really enjoy the beauty of fresh snow and nature.

Put Away Your Phone!!!

Being intentional about my social media usage is something that I try to work on but often fail. After watching Max Stossel’s lecture on how app developers and advertisers intentions are to grab your attention and keep it for as long they can, I understand why I often fail at my attempts to have a more healthy relationship with social media. The number one thing I would to change about my social media usage would be to not use it before bed. I think I could develop better sleep habits and in turn have a better start to my days. However, I always worry that I something important is going to happen and it causes me to check my phone until I fall asleep.

I really enjoyed watching Stossel’s lecture and there was a lot of interesting information that he shared. If you are interested in watching this is the link to the video: https://vimeo.com/370135963

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Introductory Blog

Hello Everyone! My name is Adam Culler, I am from Bay City, Michigan and I am a Senior at Central Michigan University. I am a Human Resources Management major with a minor in Information Systems. I currently serve as the President of the CMU Chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management. I love the training and development aspect of HR and hope to find a role after graduation that allows to me to help people reach all of their career goals!

I plan on using this blog to share information on how social media and technology can have a positive impact on businesses. I will also look at how different companies utilize social media to gain a competitive advantage over the competition.

Wendy’s has become the gold standard of corporate Twitter accounts. Wendy’s goes beyond just promoting their product, they engage with their customers in a unique way that works for them. They constantly roast customers and competitors which has lead to high engagement on their social media accounts. Users will often even ask to be roasted by Wendy’s. Last December, Wendy’s partnered with Chance the Rapper to bring back spicy chicken nuggets, a popular item that Wendy’s had removed from the menu. After Chance tweeted asking Wendy’s to bring back the spicy nuggets, Wendy’s replied saying that if Chance got 2 million likes they would bring them back. Wendy’s knows how to listen to what their customers want and their social media presence makes it easy to engage with them. Without social media, it would be difficult for Wendy’s to know what their customers want. If you are interested in seeing some of Wendy’s twitter roasts, you can see them for yourself at https://twitter.com/Wendys?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor  and for more information on their partnership with Chance the Rapper https://www.prdaily.com/wendys-responds-to-chance-the-rapper-with-social-media-gold/