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Week 8 Blog Post

There are four main reasons for social media failure, these include:

1. Social media initiatives fail most frequently because organizations focus on the technologies when they should focus instead on achieving purpose through the collective behaviors that those technologies make possible. New behaviors aimed at purpose – not technology – provide business value.

2. They fail because the organization lacks knowledge of the fundamental principles of mass collaboration.

3. They fail because not all challenges are well-suited to mass collaboration.

4. They fail because the organizations executives and managers lack the confidence to assign compelling purposes to communities and then allow the communities to find a way to fulfill their purposes.

Of the four there are two that I believe my client may face when implementing my recommendations. These two include numbers one and four. I can see my client focusing more on the technology itself instead of the achieving purpose through the collective behaviors that the technologies make possible. My client did not have a big social media presence when I started working with them, and they still don’t. They’re efforts were there but you could tell they weren’t very accustomed to being on social media, because of this I believe they might drift more towards learning the technology itself better and not focusing on the value of the content they are creating as much. In addition to that, I can see number four as an issue because my client’s business isn’t very large. With that, there aren’t very many executives and managers to fulfill certain tasks that the business needs filled. This may lead them to sharing a great quantity of content, but the quality may not necessarily be there. As a result of this, the community may assign a purpose for themselves before the business can.

caitlynfranz

Week 7 Blog Post

After finishing modules 3 & 4 on Hootsuite, we learned about different content strategies along with content creation. Our question one for this week is “discuss how effective content is developed and shared.” Creating and sharing content can be the most important thing for your marketing and advertising side of business. Your business will not thrive properly like it should unless you use social media to your advantage and share content about your product/business. I think that is something we can all agree on. If you lack in that area, you wont get as much business as your business plan had hoped. Putting a lot of time and effort into this area will allow you to be where you want to. As we read, creating the right content at the right time can help with making sure all of your audience sees and understands the purpose of your post. It’s good to do this frequently so you’re still advertised for and not something that people forget about. Effective content is content that is thought out and has a purpose and is posted at the right time. Whether it’s a weekly announcement or something that may be important to your business/product. For example, my non-profit organization that I did my project on is with a woman named Jeanette, you lost her daughter to Cystic Fibrosis. She opened up the non-profit in remembrance of Chelsea. An example of good timed posting could be for her to post on Chelsea’s birthday, and share stories. This would make it personable and allow her audience/followers to connect with her on a more personal level.

Our question for the second part of this post reads, “What does becoming a social organization have to do with the principles of effective content development and sharing?” In order to become a successful social organization and hit your projected goals, you must have good outcomes and responses when it comes to sharing effective content. For a business, you need to realize what posts help your business, and what posts are not helping your business and essentially are a waste of time. A business needs to be good at developing effective content that they share and allow that to reach all of their target market groups along with any outside audience. Knowing the principles of effective content development and sharing and executing them is the key way to achieving and becoming a social organization.

I hope you all have a good week!

laryssa-f

Hello Caitlyn,

I agree with the point you made about your business not being able to thrive properly without using social media to their advantage. These days I believe this is the aspect of the business that should receive the most time and effort because there is the most potential for the growth of a business in this area. I like how you gave a personal example in your post this week, it definitely gives the reader a better understanding of the point you were making. Overall great post this week!

noahbtatumlogic

Week 7: Blog One Post

Hello Everyone,

After completing the Hootsuite/Podium modules 3 & 4, I have been able to expand my knowledge on many concepts related to content is displayed. The modules focused on the importance of how effective content is developed and shared. Effective content is developed through different strategies and shared through different social media channels. Each social media channel has specific ways to reach out to certain audiences. Content plays a crucial role in achieving business and social media objectives such as brand recognition, thought leadership, audience engagement, and lead generation.

My biggest takeaway from both modules on Hootsuite is the four key components of a social content strategy. The first two components are research and analysis of current content reception and strategy and your target audience identified by platform. Both of these components are super important when it comes to having a social content strategy. The next two components are a list of content-specific goals and objectives and lastly, plans for the distribution of your content. Both of these components allow organizations to stay organized and have a clear understanding of their goals, how they will meet them, and a timeline for these goals.

Becoming a social organization means you involve your community in the conversation in a meaningful way. Once a business or organization has a clear understanding of how to post effective content then this will eventually lead to them having a larger audience. Developing and sharing content is a form of communication that can be used to speak with individuals. Social media is a great way for businesses to reach out to consumers who are Gen Z and Millennials. Having Effective content will help the organization build long-term relationships with its audience, ultimately leading to an increase in revenue for your organization.

Thank you,

Noah Tatum

laryssa-f

Hello Noah,

I like how you mentioned that each social media channel has specific ways to reach out to certain audiences. I found it interesting that every social media channel has different ways to share content effectively. That seems like a lot to keep track of and navigate in order to make their content effective. I also mentioned how effective content leads to building long-term relationships with its audience as well as an increase in revenue for the organization! I think that is a very important concept because building relationships and increasing revenue are major reasons for why organizations join social media in the first place. Great post this week!

Week 7 Blog Post

Effective content is developed and shared using a content calendar for most social media professionals. Using a content calendar, individuals can keep their weekly content consistent, balanced, strategic, and relevant. The use of a content calendar also helps social media professionals support their goals and objectives. An example of what a social media calendar would look like is shown below:

Developing a content strategy is a key tool for social organizations to achieve their marketing goals as well. With an effective strategy in place organizations are able to maintain an effective flow and balance to their posting schedule.

In terms of the content that is being posted itself it should be developed using a few different characteristics to be as effective as it can be. These characteristics include things like a strong headline to grab the readers attention, adding visual content, keeping variation in your content to keep the audience interested, figuring out optimal posting times for your audience on each platform, and to make sure most of the content being shared is valuable to your audience.

In addition to this it is also important for social organizations to keep their schedules on a platform such as Hootsuite so that everyone on their team has access to it and can add things and make edits. An example of how a content planner on Hootsuite would look is shown below:

Becoming a social organization has a lot to do with the principles of effective content development and sharing. This is because content plays a critical part in executing business and social media objectives such as brand recognition and audience engagement. It enables you to cement your position as a go-to destination for your customers, whether it be for entertainment, education, or inspiration. Effective content will help you to build long term relationships with your audience, eventually leading to an increase in revenue for your organization.

melaniesartore

Week 6

After reading chapters 3 and 4 I learned about more in depth practices of social media content strategies. The importance in chapter 3 highlights a lot on creating and distributing content to build an online community. Some of the tools they highlighted really stuck out to me, such as taking polls, lives, and chat/direct messaging. This brings in an interactive part of social media that utilizes social media features to connect more with the audience, not just allowing them to see content but interact with it. In my own experience I love when companies I follow do this or that polls and you get to choose what you prefer. It does not even have to do with the brand, but the act causes more engagement and could even help give more of an insight into the audience.

Another affective online principle that I recommended in my client project was the concept of a calendar. Planning out when and what you want to post is as important as posting. Though social media trends and information is ever changing having a schedule mapped out helps the consistency given to your audience, so you are staying in their minds. I researched some tools for managing social media and there are a lot of platforms that will help you do this, as well as let you plan the application to send outposts when you want to in the future. An example is a social media management support Buffer, allows you to connect all your social media accounts and allows you to schedule posts to be sent out up to multiple times a day.

Keep reading

laryssa-f

Hello Melanie,

I like how you made a point to draw attention to the fact that the strategies recommended were interactive features and not just what the audience sees. I also enjoy when companies do this! I agree that using a calendar would be a great advantage. This strategy helps me out even just in my day-to-day life so I could see it being just as effective in terms of a content planner for a business. I agree that polls have a lot of impact and encourage users to engage. These allow the business to gain a better understanding of their audience which will allow them to tailor future content to their preferences. Great post this week!

thehuntervining

Week 6 Blog Post

After reading chapters 4 and 5 in The Social Organization, I was able to develop a better understanding of the importance of a vision statement, the benefits of community collaboration to businesses, and tips for developing an approach to community collaboration that is suitable for your business. Chapter 4 discusses developing a vision statement and how that vision is important for your social media collaboration. The first step is deciding if community collaboration is appropriate for your organization; on page 42, there is a chart that is helpful for deciding if it is the right thing for you.

The chapter then goes on to discuss the benefits and value that collaboration can bring to your business. It’s important to understand your company’s goals and culture, and consider the question of “What’s in it for them?” when developing a vision for your company’s community collaboration. Chapter 5 delves even deeper into developing a strategy by touching on the importance of your firm’s purpose; a good purpose answers questions regarding the target participants, the nature and focus, the benefits for participants, and the value that the organization will realize. A model called “No, Go, Grow” helps a company find a way to gather, assess, and make decisions about which purposes to pursue. Overall, chapter 5 provides specific questions, advice, and tips to consider when developing a strategy for mass collaboration.

The Hootsuite modules for this week provided a lot of information regarding different social media platforms, including advantages and specific features for each platform. By understanding the best practices for sharing content across different platforms, I will be able to apply this knowledge toward my client project with Listening Ear Crisis Center. I’ve learned techniques for sharing content on twitter, including using hashtags, developing short and clear headlines, and retweeting specific content. For Instagram, I’ve learned that posts should be only about 20% promotional, with the rest focused on portraying the company’s story and voice. Using hashtags, stories, and polls are also a good thing to keep in mind for Instagram. Overall, I’m glad to be able to learn these things so that I have more knowledge to apply to my client project.

laryssa-f

Hey Hunter,

I also made a point to talk about the “what’s in it for them” idea and the importance of defining a purpose. While reading about these ideas it made so much sense to me, however before reading it I can’t say that I would have implemented these objectives into a business of my own. Presenting the benefit to your audience right away can be a huge advantage and very intriguing to them which results in a benefit to your business which is the ultimate goal here. I also found it interesting how there are specific techniques that should be used on each social media platform for the best results. Overall great post this week!

Week 6 Blog Post

After reading Chapters 4 and 5 in The Social Organization, I found a lot of effective principles in relation to online community building with social media. Four main points were given in chapter 4. These points included understanding when community collaboration is important, know where community collaboration is more likely to deliver value, apply an understanding of your organization’s goals and culture, and craft and distribute an organizational vision for community collaboration. (pg. 41) In addition to that these chapters also explain how creating links between community collaboration and organizational goals will help to transform social media from inconvenient to an important tool in terms of business success. Lastly, a major topic that was brought up multiple times throughout these chapters was purpose. Purpose is everything in terms of online community building with social media if you can define “what’s in it for them” you can create a successful community.

After completing module 4 on Hootsuite, I learned a lot about growing an online community. One of the main things stressed was the importance of the ad options across the different social media platforms. These ads allow businesses and companies to target audiences that best fit/ relate to them. This is a very powerful tool in terms of building an online community because it gives companies the potential to reach hundreds to thousands of people that they otherwise would not have had the chance to promote themselves to. These principles apply to the client I am working with on the client project because social advertising could be of a great advantage to them. They already create great and engaging content, but they have trouble reaching the right audience. With that being said if they incorporated the steps explained in the Hootsuite modules and got their business in front of interested people it could help them grow dramatically which is what they need.

thehuntervining

Week 5 Blog Post

After watching “The Legal Side of Big Data” by Doug LaLone, I’ve become informed on a lot of issues I did not know about. Although many people might have heard, I did not know about all the exposure and hacks involving big companies like Target and Home Depot. While I knew about the risks and security issues involved with big data, this lecture really opened my eyes to the potential problems involved with big data. Even the government has been hacked and exploited! It’s apparent that there are certain things businesses and consumers should be aware of when considering big data. For consumers, it’s important for them to be aware of what information different businesses are collecting. Consumers should also be aware of the different kinds of problems involving big data that can directly affect them; some of those problems include card hacks, confidential information being released, and other types of data exposure. Another thing to think about is where does this information go if the business goes bankrupt, or is sold to another company. Will your

For businesses, there are a lot of things to be informed about when it comes to big data. First off, businesses need to make sure they have the proper security measures in place; big data requires a lot of storage, maintenance, and security, which can require a lot of time and money. Risk assessment is a number one concern for businesses so that the risk of security breaches is mitigated. It’s also important to consider how the company will respond if there is a security breach, so that they are prepared and proper measures will be taken. There are potential legal issues that can arise for businesses as the information they are collecting is valuable, personal, and confidential. In order to balance opportunities and threats posed from the development of big data, it’s important for businesses to protect trade secrets, assure proper contracts are in place, and maintain confidentiality agreements with vendors and employees. There should be constant monitoring and policing of this information. Ensuring storage security, creating strong privacy policies that will be honored, and clarifying vendor agreements are all ways to balance the opportunities and threats involving big data.

Regarding the article “The Internet’s Original Sin” by Ethan Zuckerman and Maciej Ceglowski’s talk “The Internet With a Human Face,” I’ve learned a lot about the way the Internet is modeled, and how that model affects data surveillance. In short, the Internet mostly involves around advertising. Advertising is the number one way to appeal to investors and get businesses funded. To be effective in advertising, data surveillance is key; in order to target advertisements, information about a person’s demographics, psychographics, intent and interests are very valuable. To appeal to investors, advertising proposals emphasize targeting and data gathering in order to effectively aim advertisements at certain people. At this point, most people accept that advertising is all over the internet and that somebody out there is tracking their movements. Because of the wide-range acceptance and inability to do anything about it, there has been little urge to reform and make a change. It’s been accepted by people that advertising and data surveillance is always going to be a part of the Internet.

laryssa-f

Hello Hunter,

I have also just become informed on a lot of these issues, so you’re not alone in just finding out. I agree that consumers should be aware of the potential card hacks, confidential information being released, and other types of data exposure. Something that stood out to me during the video was when he brought up people’s health records getting hacked/ sold he questioned the audience about what they thought would happen with those records and my mind went in a million different places. I also see that you mentioned something about the widespread acceptance by individuals of people tracking their every move. This was a real eye opener because I’m pretty sure every last person taking this course is one of those people. It definitely made me think deeper about the situation. Great post!

karastrukel

Week 5 Blog

After watching “The Legal Side of Big Data,” I’ve learned about some issues I was unaware of. Businesses specifically need to be aware of how likely it is for their “big data” to be hacked, or compromised. Of course it is important for businesses to try to ensure that they won’t be hacked, however, it happens more often than we think and it happens to companies we wouldn’t expect, such as Target and Home Depot. Following this, it is especially important for businesses to have a plan for what to do if they were to get hacked. Businesses have to address a poor risk assessment, and determine things such as how likely is the hack to happen, what would it cost, how would it hurt your company and consumers, and how that would affect your company on a competitive aspect. It is important for companies to be ahead of the problem, and spend money to prepare in case of a hack.

As consumers, it’s important to know that there is nothing we can really do to prevent this from happening. It was insane to me to read and hear about big data being sieged within big companies, such as Target, Neiman Marcus and Home Depot. The Target example shocked me, that there were 740 million data records exposed in 2013, because I shop at Target almost weekly. It is also important for consumers to know that there is a possibility that companies are not being reliable with what they are using their data for.

The best way to balance the opportunities and threats presented by the development of big data is to get ahead of the problem. It is possible to spend more money to ensure that your data is as safe as it can be, and it is stored correctly. If a hack were to occur, it would probably cost just as much money to fix as it would to ensure safety before the problem arises.

After reading “The Internet’s Original Sin,” and watching Maciej Ceglowski’s talk, I can confirm that the Internet business model wasn’t “supposed” to be used to influence and normalize surveillance. I really liked Ceglowski’s example about cars. He was discussing how cars were a great idea, however, now the entire country’s landscaping is built around the idea of cars. He said, “Now that everyone has a car, everyone needs a car.” which is true about the Internet too. The Internet used to be a source of freedom, and now, everyone’s on it. This can relate to the article, when it states, “The model that we acquired was analyzing user’s personal homepages so we could better target ads to them. Along the way, we ended up creating one of the most hated tools in the advertiser’s toolkit: the pop-up ad.” (The Internet’s Original Sin). The quote continues by stating, “I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I’m sorry. Our intentions were good.” (The Internet’s Original Sin). What I got from both the talk and the article, is that this surveillance and data gathering and hacking was not expected, and was not supposed to be what came from the Internet. The creators of the Internet had good intentions, likewise the inventors of the car had great intentions. Both came with negative outcomes (accidentally). Now that we are here though with advertisements generating so much money for companies, there really is no going back to an Internet without surveillance. The article mentions that “the primary benefit of online advertising is the ability to see who’s looking at an ad. Simply paying for online advertising requires surveillance, if only to eliminate click fraud.” (The Internet’s Original Sin). When companies know who is looking at an advertisement, it is put into the algorithms and the people who looked at the ad longest will receive more ads based on that ad, and those who immediately clicked away from it will keep receiving different advertisements until there is one they look at for a long time. This is how companies can determine our likes and dislikes, and work us into the algorithms.

References

Ceglowski, M. (2021, November 23). Maciej Ceglowski – the internet with a human face – beyond tellerrand düsseldorf 2014. Vimeo. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://vimeo.com/102717446.

Zuckerman, E. (2018, June 20). The internet’s original sin. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/.

laryssa-f

Hi Kara,

I was also surprised to see that big companies like Target and Home Depot were hacked! I also shop at Target weekly, and I had no idea that this ever even happened. You made a good point when saying that customers should be aware that there is a possibility that companies are not being reliable with what they are using their data for. That is extremely true and starts to make me wonder about a lot of things. You gave a very good breakdown of the way that algorithms worked, and it helped me gain a better understanding of them as well, so thank you for that. Great post this week!

Week 5 Blog Post

After watching “The Legal Side of Big Data” I think it is important for businesses to be aware of first, how likely they are to be hacked. In addition to that they should also consider what it would do to their business if they were hacked? What would it cost them? How will this affect your customers? It is also important for businesses to ensure that they own their data, because if they don’t then it is very likely it might get sold to a competitor. So, assure that contracts are in place that confirm confidentiality.

Consumers should be aware of the fact that we as citizens can’t do anything about these data records being hacked so we should be very mindful of the fact that it can happen and it does happen, more often than we think. Consumers should also be aware that it is possible they are being lied to about what their data is being used for by different companies.

The best way to balance the opportunities and threats presented by the development of big data is to first get ahead of the problem and spend the money to be preventative. Although big data does allow for making faster advances in many areas and in improving the profitability and success of many businesses through allowing a better analysis of the large volumes of data that have been made available. This amplifies the need for these businesses to clarify what is going to happen to your data in the event of bankruptcy. In addition to that there should be very strong security where the data is being housed.

After reading “The internet’s Original Sin” and watching Maciej Ceglowski’s talk, I think internet business models influence surveillance and data gathering on the internet because these models dig deep into the world of surveillance by tracking us on our mobile devices everywhere we go and creating more in-depth user profiles for each of us through trading our information between different data brokers. In addition to this advertising is very invasive and targeted, users can be targeted by gender, age, race, location, etc. Many websites also promise their users personalization of content to their interests this means that these platforms are gathering information on our interests.

anielaormanian

Week 4 Blog post 1

There are so many things a social media consultant should take into consideration for their job. They should have communication skills, creativeness, and organization strategies. Social media marketing is important, because it gives the business ways to market their brand, or service. The communication skills help when building an audience, and the creativeness will draw in customers because of your uniqueness. Social media marketers have to be on top of everything all the time in order to attract more people as well. If I was a social media consultant, I would be consistent with my posts, and make sure they stand out over my competitors. To improve my professional presence on social media, I would try to post more educational things instead of just photos of myself alone. I think it is also important for me to also be realistic with what I am putting out into the world. I think if I show that I stay mindful of my audience I could gain more audience as well.

laryssa-f

Hello Aniela,

I also mentioned creativeness, organization, and communication in my blog post this week! I think those three qualities are vital for a social media consultant to have, but I like how you went further and gave examples of how/why each of those qualities are important. I noticed you mentioned posting more educational content on social media to improve your professional presence! This is so important, typically people won’t want to follow you unless they are gaining something from you or benefitting from following you somehow and educational content is key! Great post!

katlyncnuddesblog

Blog Post 1 Week 4

I believe that a social media consultant should possesses a few important qualities. These qualities include being knowledgeable about social media and all the different aspect of it. Along with being a good listener and a good problem solver. The client will be coming to you with a problem or issue with their social media and the expectation is that you will be able to find a solution. I also believe that a social media consultant should be friendly and approachable. You have to be good with talking to people and comfortable asking questions in order to get the information needed to understand the clients’ thoughts.

If I were to be a social media consultant to myself for my professional social media presence, I would start with setting a schedule of when to update things and when to make posts. I need to be more involved on LinkedIn, but I just tend to forget about it. All I really done is create a LinkedIn account and have put the bare minimum of information on there.

For the most part, I mainly use social media to help boost my Etsy shop. I mainly use Instagram to post photos of my items, and recently I have been posting a lot of reels on Instagram. After I started posting reels I noticed a significant increase in traffic to my Instagram page, and even noticed more traffic to my Etsy shop directly. More people were favoriting my items on Etsy, primarily within the few days after I posted a reel. Although I am not very consistent with posting. I believe if I was to post more frequently and consistently, I could turn more of this traffic coming to my shop into actual sales. One thing I want to become better at is creating a social media schedule and having posts in my drafts that were created ahead of time, so I don’t have to create a new post each time. This will probably help motivate me to post more often if I have everything thought out and pre-planned.

laryssa-f

Hey Katlyn,

I like how you mentioned being a good listener as a quality for a social media consultant. I think this goes hand in hand with communication which is also very important quality for a social media consultant to have. I also mentioned creating a schedule for my social media! I think these days it is very important to stay consistent and always engaging with your audience. I see that you want to implement this into your Instagram page for your Etsy account. I recommend using Hootsuite! You can schedule out posts ahead of time on there and they will automatically post at the date and time that you want them to so you don’t even have to worry about forgetting or having the time to do it during the day. Great Post!

Week 4 Blog 2

Reason 1: Algorithms

My opinion of algorithms are they are not very beneficial in the ways that matter most. As stated in the article “instead of promoting the free flow and exchange of ideas that is necessary for a healthy democracy, the personalization of content has created filter bubbles that limit information flows and perpetuate bias.” I think it is important for businesses and more importantly people to be aware of the fact that algorithms and how they are formed are not a result of human activity, instead they are created by machine learning models. These models improve and get better at reading us every day. Instead of humans selecting information and news that they deem important for the public to know and giving it to us, complex algorithms take on the role of that job and dictates what we see and what we don’t. I would say we can respond to these conditions by realizing that not everything we see is true and not to take everything we see online serious unless we have other sources of proof as well.

Reason 2: Advertising

This section reminded me a lot of the Social Dilemma video that we watched last week. As crazy as this sounds, I have never even thought about why social media is free before watching that video. I don’t agree with how social media platforms are built. As stated in the article we are “paying with our personal information”. This allows for fake news to go viral and turn into a bunch of clickbait. Individuals and businesses should be aware that these social sites are built around collecting their personal information and it is being strategically used to target users with manipulative messages. We should respond to this in the same way as we respond to algorithms. Don’t believe everything you see online.

Reason 3: Exposure

The third reason given as to why junk news spreads so quickly is due to exposure. What individuals are exposed to on the internet on a daily basis often is in line with their personal preferences. As stated in the article “As a result, voters do not get a representative, balanced, or accurate selection of news and information during an election, nor is the distribution of important information randomly distributed across a voting population.” As a result businesses and individuals should make notice to the fact that during times when there are things like elections individuals are only being shown advertisements/ posts that are in line with their pre-existing beliefs. Individuals should respond to this by voluntarily looking for new information that doesn’t necessarily agree with their current perspectives and preferences in order to be informed about more than just what they prefer to see.

Overall, algorithms, advertisements, and exposure should be regulated by humans as well and not just machine operated. They have affected individuals and society as a whole more than any of us even realize. Individuals should be aware of the power that these three tactics have in determining what they see on social media on a daily basis. They should respond by not being so close minded when it comes to their beliefs and what they see on social media. Instead they should look beyond their current perspectives and preferences and expose themselves to information that is new and challenges their current beliefs.

Resources

Howard, P. (2018, March 26). Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media. Oxford Internet Institute. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/three-reasons-junk-news-spreads-so-quickly-across-social-media/.

Orlowski, Jeff, director. The Social Dilemma, Netflix, 26 Jan. 2020.

Week 4 Blog 1

In my view the most important qualities for a social media consultant to are, first and most importantly, a passion for what they do. If I have someone working for me, I don’t want them to be miserable, I want them to enjoy what they are doing. In addition to that I think an overall understanding and knowledge on how social media marketing and just social media in general works. Those are the most important things to me personally however, being creative, understanding the industry, being organized, analytical, having good communication skills, and being efficient are all good qualities to have as well.

If I was acting as a social media consultant for myself, some plans, and strategies I would advise in order to improve my professional social media presence include first getting to know my audience as well as I can. After doing that I would take note of where I am in terms of my social media presence now and then I would find new strategies, more tailored to my audience, to grow my platform(s) even more. I would make sure to set reasonable goals for myself and try my hardest to achieve them. I would also make sure to have a calendar/ agenda specifically for social media. Consistency is vital to growth these days so staying on top of daily posts and making sure they are all good quality should be a top priority when getting started and throughout the entire process.

noahbtatumlogic

Week 3: Blog 1 Post

Hello Everyone,

While watching the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma I was able to expand my knowledge on many concepts regarding social media companies. The Social Dilemma focuses on how big social media companies manipulate users by using different algorithms that encourage addiction to their platforms. The different platforms of social media that we have access to in our life have a significant negative impact on our lives. My biggest takeaway from the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is that there are people who are tracking our engagement times on each post we come across. In the simplest way, this doesn’t sit well with me and I find this to be super scary to think about. People are sitting behind their screens keeping track of every single thing we do while we use our social media.

Big data is the collection and use of information from multiple sources to help companies make better decisions & projections. Big Data is such a powerful tool because it helps different companies generate valuable insights about their consumers. Algorithms are such a powerful tool when it comes to technology because they generate content that we enjoy the most. The different things that go into big data consist of our engagement times, which influencers we watch the most, how many friends we talk to on certain apps, etc. For example, on TikTok, if you’re obsessed with cooking videos there is a huge chance that you’re ‘for you page’ will have tons of cooking videos. The different algorithms that are behind the scenes of these social media companies are accurate and precise with what the consumers like and want.

The dangers of big data consist of companies having all of this information about our private lives and being able to use it any way they want. They have access to anything we post and lookup for a certain amount of time. With this being said, companies can use our information to manipulate our decisions and this is something that should be taken very seriously. Lastly, all of this information that is being stored about their consumers have the potential to be hacked and have a detrimental security breach. The dangers of algorithms are insanely frightening to think about because all of the actions that we take online are being analyzed heavily. The different dangers with algorithms are so exact that they can exploit weaknesses in human psychology.

These problems can be dealt with on a personal level by ensuring you’re aware of what is truly happening behind the scenes of these social media companies. Once you’re aware of what they have access to then I promise you will try to limit yourself from social media as much. One thing that people can do to deal with these problems is to be aware of what you’re posting on your social media accounts as well as others. This is super important to be aware of because a lot of these social media companies keep what we send on file for a certain period. People can deal with these problems on a professional level by ethically using our private information in the correct manner. Different professionals should only have access to certain data that will help them have better projects about their business, the rest should be deleted and thrown away. Lastly, these problems can be dealt with on a societal level because these social media companies can help sometimes prevent a major crime or terrorist attack that is going to take place. Furthermore, moving forward in life I am going to try and limit my social media usage so I never have to worry about any of the things that were discussed in my blog post.

Thank you,

Noah Tatum

laryssa-f

Hello,

Great post this week! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your viewpoint on the documentary and it definitely resonated with my thoughts a lot as well. I also stated that the problems can be dealt with on a personal level by informing people in my post this week. I agree that just the fact of knowing what is actually going on behind the scenes of these social media companies will encourage a lot of people to alter their habits when it comes to them. I like how you said “People can deal with these problems on a professional level by ethically using our private information in the correct manner.” I couldn't agree with that more. I think it is very unethical for these people to be going to work everyday to work on and find new ways to manipulate us through algorithms every day.

karastrukel

Week 3 Post

Big data is such a powerful tool because everything you do online is monitored. What images you look at, for how long you’re engaged with an image, your current moods, your browsing history, your personality traits, gps coordinates, etc. There is an immense amount of information that can be tracked and recorded by the internet. Using this big data, social media platforms are able to predict what you will be doing therefore, they can personalize links and “recommended for you” links to see what will keep you hooked on social media. Something really weird about that has actually happened to me is when I plug my phone in to carplay, it immediately maps me to some place I was previously talking about. It’s scary to think that even though these social media platforms are free to sign up for, you are the product. Your attention is being sold to different advertisers who are competing for your time. We are all lab rats being used in experiment after experiment to try and determine what will be the most optimal for overall engagement. Social media experts purposely try to manipulate your psychological behavior as fast as possible by implementing different experiments to see which method of advertisement or which types of posts/videos will generate the most engagement on their specific platform.

There are three technology goals according to The Social Dilemma. The first goal is engagement, which hopes to drive up usage. The second goal is growth, which will keep you coming back, inviting your friends and getting friends to engage with the platform. Lastly, is the advertising goal, which essentially is the goal of generating as much profit as possible. Each of these goals are powered by different algorithms, whose jobs are to figure out what to show you on each platform to ensure you will remain on the app for as long as possible, and to keep you coming back for more. This is extremely important to the social media world because algorithms are driven by big data. The data that is collected by “monitoring” your social media usage is exported into a computer that can create an algorithm based on what was humanly written.

The danger of the use/abuse of big data, algorithms and social media can vary on multiple different aspects. It scared me a little when I was made aware of how technologists can be compared to magicians, who were among the first to understand a different aspect of people’s minds. The documentary mentioned that magic illusions work because magicians are able to tap into a part of an individual’s mind that they don’t know exists. Having this perspective described to me really showed me how dangerous social media really is. Technology has to deal with a larger aspect of psychology than I can even comprehend. They also compared phones to slot machines in Vegas because whenever you have your phone laying on your desk or your bed, you just check it to see if there is a notification there. This unconscious behavior is a design technique, just like it is with the slot machines in Vegas to see what you’ll get if you pull the lever one more time.

The discussion about photo tagging was extremely intriguing to me also, and can also be a danger/abuse of algorithms. Social media platforms purposely notify you when you have been tagged in a photo, but don’t include the photo in the notification. Having the photo on the notification pop-up would make it much easier and faster to quickly see what photo it is, however, they purposely don’t include it to make you go on the app to see what photo you were tagged in. This will increase their engagement goal, especially when it is a photo of yourself. This also has to do with the growth goal because tagging in photos allows friends of tagged people to see the post, and engage with it using the comments and/or likes feature. This is known as growth hacking.

Another danger that really hooked me was the discussion about tools-based technology. The example provided was bicycles are a tool, just sitting there waiting until you need it. Social media on the other hand, is not a tool. It’s demanding things from you and is manipulating you. We’ve moved away from having a tools-based technology to an addictive and manipulative technology because of social media’s idea of using your psychology against you to generate engagement and growth.

Additionally, another danger has to deal with self-worth and identity. It matters to everyone what people in our “tribe” think of us. But we were not supposed to be built to experience what thousands of people think of us. This “fake popularity” on social media with like counts and comment counts forces individuals to think of what is next so they can gain that sense of popularity and that spike in dopamine again. This has increased depression and anxiety amongst teenagers. There was a conducted study of U.S. Hospital admissions for non-fatal self harm per 100,000 girls which concluded to have increased 62% since 2009 in girls ages 15-19, and increased 189% since 2009 in girls ages 10-14. This can be blamed on social media algorithms keeping them addicted to their phones and social media platforms.

I think that the biggest danger also correlates with why algorithms are so important. It is the fact that not very many people working at these social media companies even understand them. Algorithms are opinions written in code written with the goal of their definition of success, which at most times, is profit. Everyday, these computers installed with the written algorithms are getting better and better at picking the next post, or the next video, or the next tweet to keep you on the platform for longer. The scary part about this is that the machine is doing all the work, which means the algorithm is controlling us more than we are controlling it. This can be proven because multiple of the interviewees who have previously worked for a social media platform can also say that even though they see and understand the behind the scenes work of addiction, they too, are addicted to their phones.

As for how these problems can be dealt with on a personal, professional and societal level, it seems humanly impossible. For a personal aspect, you have to stop giving into social media, which I have experience with saying that it is easier said than done. Social media experts have done an incredible job with keeping the public entertained and addicted to it. It is nice to have the ‘do not disturb’ setting, and the ‘sleep’ setting on our phones because it makes sure those pesky notifications don’t pop up while those settings are turned on. Taking advantage of those settings can be a way to deal with the social dilemma on a personal level. As for professional settings, ‘office hours’ are a great way to keep individuals off of their phones (texting/emailing), and gives them the opportunity to meet face-to-face. This is something that can be a benefit in an educational setting, and a business setting. Another way to deal with the social dilemma in the professional world is to keep business settings professional and traditional. Host meetings face-to-face, and have as much in person interaction as possible. As for a societal resolution, we have to find a way to agree to disagree. As we are all aware of, social media does a great job of splitting up people. This was evident during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Democrats were only shown democratic opinions online, and vice versa for republicans. This was an example provided in the documentary. Again, this is harder than it sounds, but individuals need to agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, and we all need to learn to agree to disagree. Throughout history, the documentary mentioned that everytime something improves or changes, it’s because of critics. Without critics, we would never see room for improvement, or realize what’s wrong with our companies. Without someone calling it into question, nothing will happen. As an overall resolution, we must speak out for things that we believe are unethical.

laryssa-f

Hello Kara,

I was really shocked when I read that when you plugged your phone into the car play it mapped you to somewhere you were previously talking about. My mom used to have a google phone and she told me that sometimes the ‘siri’ of her phone would come on and start replying to some of the things she said while she was at work. I love how you said “Your attention is being sold to different advertisers who are competing for your time.” because it was straight to the point and very accurate. It just seems very unethical to me that that's what all of these people are working towards at their jobs every day. Good post this week!

WEEK 3 - Blog Post

After watching the instructors lecture and the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma I was in a lot of shock. Big data and algorithms are such powerful tools because they are constantly evolving and getting bigger and smarter. Everything from what image you stop to look at on your news feed to how long you look at the image is tracked. Then, the data that they keep from tracking our every move is used to build models of each of us in order to predict our next actions. This is possible because all of the is given to these systems that have no human supervision and can make better and better and better predictions about who we are, what we are going to do next, where we are going to go, etc. They have enough information about us to be able to dictate when people are lonely, or depressed, or whether they are an introvert or an extrovert. That is extremely powerful on a scary level. They have more information about each of us as individuals than what has ever been imagined in history.

These things become dangerous because of how they can psychologically control you without you even realizing it. The goal of these individuals behind the software are to understand how to use the psychology of what persuades people and then build that into the technology. They’re using our psychology against us. These tactics are programmed into us at such a deep level that we don’t even realize what’s happening. With the evolving algorithms and big data, the world has shifted from using technology as a tool and instead technology is now addictive and used as a manipulation tool. They understand a part of our minds that even we don’t. These big technology companies have been able to prove that they can affect real world behavior without any of us even realizing it. In the video they made a comparison between the use of social media and slot machines in Vegas. That says it all to me.

Something that really caught my eye in The Social Dilemma documentary was a quote that came up on the screen. It said, “There are only two industries that call their customers users: illegal drugs and software.” That is when my mind shifted and started to think on a way deeper level throughout the rest of the documentary. That quote spoke volumes to me. The business models of these companies are centered around how to keep their users engaged for the longest time possible. They’re goal is not in the users’ best interest; it is in the interest of the company itself.

My views on how these problems can be dealt with on a personal, professional, and societal level are just to inform people. I think if even 30% of those who are on their phones all day were even halfway aware of the things talked about in this documentary there would be some type of change. I had no idea about a lot of the information talked about in this documentary and after learning I am definitely going to change some of my habits and think deeper about a lot of things in terms of the media. I think that if the world was more aware and there was an effective way to inform everyone of what is going on, it could help in unimaginable ways. In addition to that the people behind the making of these algorithms and big data should strive to make a change as well. To start, they should change their top three goals from engagement, growth, and advertising to something else. In addition to that, they should stop trying to manipulate us psychologically because that just seems unethical to me. Overall, I am very happy I watched this documentary because I learned a lot.

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