September 24, 2012 Assignment

Remuneration, as defined on page 7 of Design to Thrive- "Its simplest formulation basically says that people need to believe that they will obtain some positive return on the investment of their time and energy in order to be attracted to participation in a community. Individuals will not become members of a social network unless there is a clear benefit for doing so."

In chapter four of Design to Thrive, Howard discusses the topic of 'remunerating users through adverstisments' and uses the example from Digg. I found this project to be really interesting and a challenge for marketers. Digg employees were working to make the website a more inviting and welcoming atmosphere for people who are interested in whatever Digg has to offer. Through challenging the marketers of the advertisements, Digg opened up a new look to the online community that they created. Also, I think through the change in advertisements, Digg encouraged social experience, like talked about on page 51.

I found the blue text box- The Roots of "Community"-on page 55 really interesting. The word 'community' and 'remuneration' work hand it hand and both play off of the same idea. In community, people are called to act in togetherness and usually towards one goal. A community has "an obligation to repay a duty." Remuneration also has an almost identical meaning attached to it. So through successful social media, a community should be created, which automatically incorporates remuneration because the two work together to create the whole.

September 17, 2012 Assignment

The Howard reading assignment had me sort of hooked when I started reading the section: Using RIBS to understand the dynamics of a community. The story about the Iranian protest via Twitter was so interesting and I thought it was so cool that Americans got involved and helped the Iranians stand up against the government. Before Twitter, Americans probably would not have known about this protest because the American new casts were not even running the story. Through searching hashtags, the protest was found and Westerns were able to join the movement- through hashtagging, changing the tint of their picture and time zone, and making their profiles resemble Iranians' accounts. With using social media, people can now become plugged in with places all around the world and this will help shift their perspective from a egocentric view to a worldwide view. It will increase tolerance and open new relationships.

I also found it interesting that the chapter talked about how technology is always changing. People are always trying to catch up with the newest and most wanted items- phones, apps, music devices, etc. I thought it was ironic that this chapter was our reading assignment right around the time that the iPhone 5 came out. Apple has out all of the iPhones out within just a few years, and sometimes, months of each other. They are constantly creating new, faster, and improved ways to communication with one another. The technology is becoming smarter and making us more reliant on it, which in turn, makes us less intelligent then we are. We do not rely on brain skills, yet we plug things in to our phones (calculators, Google app, etc). My parents always criticize the way I study and do homework because I always have my phone and computer with me. Technology has evolved so much that they didn't have anything like those things growing up. Soon the upcoming generations will not know a different life before cell phones, iPads/tablets, iPods/MP3, etc.

I remember a time when not everyone had a phone and all phones were still bulky and flip phones. It's so strange to see how much the phones have changed and condensed in size. The kids I babysit, at the time, were one and three-years-old. Clearly I knew how to use an iPad, but the little girl (3) insisted on teaching me how to use the iPad- access and open the apps, how to download new ones, how to play each game, etc. That is mind blowing to me. What happened to hard back books and playing outside? We had a television when I was growing up, but I didn't care to watch it because I was so fascinated with being outside. It's sad to watch how quickly technology is advancing and how much impact it has on generations after mine.

To be honest, I wish the growth of technology would slow down or stop for a while. Just let us relax and catch up on the simple things in life.

September 10, 2012 assignment

In Squirrel Inc., I am not comfortable with its formatting quite yet. To me, it is a little odd to be reading a story about a character who is teaching another character how to tell a story, but I do think the formatting will grow on me because it is a creative and ironic way to learn. With this formatting, it is more hidden that the reader is actually learning something versus just reading something.

The tip that says "Link the story to the change idea with phrases such as "Think..." and "What if..." and "Just imagine..." seems sort of like a cheesy lead-in in a bad middle school-written paper. When I was younger that is how I usually started stories or made a transition between paragraphs. In my opinion, it's an easy out and has no depth or thought put into it.

In chapter two, I liked that fact that said "In performing the story, the storyteller relieves the story and makes it fresh." For me, when listening to someone tell a story who has actually lived the story, I find myself more intrigued then if the person was just telling about a story they heard. Also, I know when I tell a story, I am a much better storyteller if I am telling about my own, personal experience.

In Made to Stick, Heath and Heath discussed the "SUCCES" principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, stories. These six principles all bring up questions that need to be considered before telling a story to a big audience. When considering these principles, all need to be included to create or tell a compelling story. With one or more of the principles left out, the audience may become distracted or uninterested in the storyteller. For me, I think I struggle most with choosing details to include and not include. I want everyone to know exactly what happened, what I witnessed, and want them to be able to walk through the memory step by step with me, but I tend to get lost in details versus keeping it simple.

September 3, 2012 assignment

In chapter three of Design to Thrive, by Tharon Howard, different reasons as to why companies should build social networks and communities are discussed.  I found this section to be interesting because when I was reading the list on reasons I noticed that I recognize those characteristics from sites that I visit. For example, “providing a higher quality interaction with your organization” and “identifying customer needs and new product opportunities” are both things that I am aware of. 

Considering the reason “providing a higher quality interaction with your organization,” to me, this means that through a social network or community a company, who is ‘higher’ than the public, can come down to their level and better understand and communicate with them to get to know their hopes and wants for the community. Through interacting on a social network, the company seems more personable and less authoritative. When reading the point “identifying customer needs and new product opportunities,” I think of times when I am online and there are places you can write your opinions about a companies product and they will ‘reward’ you with something or if you ‘like’ their Facebook page, when the company post new products and you share them, the company gives you opportunities to win things, which makes their new product spread faster.

In Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Gillin discusses in the first few paragraphs a day in the life of Greg Peverill-Conti, a public relation professional, and briefly compares that to a life of someone who worked in public relations a few years ago.  This was a really interesting part to me because though I know that there has been an extremely dramatic change in media over the years, it is actually interesting to sit down and think about it.  Routinely, public relations professionals get paid to scan and rescan social media sites for new news because it, most often, hits those sites before other sites. I found it interesting that there are websites and search engines that are devoted to only sorting through blogs or Twitter. I thought the fact that was listed on page 42 about Google was incredible. It indexes so much when I think about it, but in reality, the fact says it only documents 20%.