Management Platforms and Tools

At this point, everyone is involved with multiple social media platforms. Everyone checks their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at least once a day to check out the News Feed. But for a business, it is extremely difficult to manage all that social media requires. You have to check to make sure if your consumers are posting comments about your business, tagging your company in something, messaging you about a problem, etc. Businesses who manage each social media channel individually are wasting time going through each. Compukol gives a solution to this problem: use HootSuite. HootSuite is an effective online tool that can help you keep your social media platforms organized and allows you to do a relatively painless amount of work in order to keep everything running smoothly. By the push of a single button, all of your updates, messages, news, etc. will go to all of your social media accounts at the same time. Additionally, YOU CAN VIEW ALL OF YOUR CHANNELS AT ONCE! Cool, right?

A popular business blog called iag.me swears that the use of HootSuite is critical for businesses who are managing multiple social media accounts. In a recent blog post, seven reasons of why everyone should use HootSuite were in the article. However, I am only going to talk about the first three because I believe that they are by far the most important. 1) The ability to monitor multiple streams in one place. As previously discussed, this is the most appealing reason to use a management tool. 2) You have a team managing your social empire. HootSuite has a team management facility which allows you to delegate responses to different team members. 3) Better able to manage customer service. Well yeah, when you have a business that operates on multiple social media channels, you have to make sure that you are paying attention to the needs of your customers.

Sources:

http://www.compukol.com/the-effectiveness-of-hootsuite-to-manage-your-social-media/

http://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-why-you-should-use-hootsuite/

Organizational Uses

I find it extremely interesting how well organizations can use social media platforms to connect to their audience. What I find particularly intriguing is how an unexpected organization, religion, has been using social media. For example, if you live in Utah, I’m sure you have noticed that every time there is a General Conference held for the LDS church, the hashtag #ldsconf circulates like wildfire. According to a KSL article, the hashtag on social media allows members (or those watching) to connect and discuss the conference with people from around the world. The stream moves extremely quick because of the popularity of the hashtag, but many people actually look into the LDS church because of it.

World Religion News actually listed 5 ways social media connects religion to younger generations. 1) Prayer Apps. Uhm, what?! I had no idea that prayer apps existed but it definitely makes sense. Apps like praywithme.com and instapray.com give people an opportunity to share in each other’s prayer needs. 2) Capture Miracles in Real Time. Social media gives people an outlet to share uplifting stories, or miracles, IMMEDIATELY after they have occurred. 3) The Big Three (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). These big social media platforms enable users to find and build online relationships with like-minded individuals. It also makes it easier for users to express themselves spiritually in religiously diverse communities (which hopefully doesn’t create a dramatic backlash). 4) The YouTube Effect. YouTube, or any other outlet where you can share videos, makes it easier for choirs, church pastors, and young performers to share their faith with a large-scale audience. Users can now find their favorite hymn, church talk, etc. on basically any platform. 5) Digital Communication. Smartphones, and other digital devices, create an avenue for users to download different religious apps (such as the Bible, Book of Mormon, etc.). This helps religious organizations to connect with the younger generation on their terms.  

Although hardly anyone immediately relates religion with social media, religious organizations actually use it pretty well to connect with their audience. This goes to show that any organization can use social media to their advantage, as long as they actually know how to properly execute it.

Sources:

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=31790061&nid=1016

http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/5-ways-social-media-connects-religion-to-younger-generations  

Class Cloud

A couple weeks ago, in my social media class, we spent the last half of class on the “cloud” where we only talked via Twitter. I honestly don’t think I’ve experienced this much fun while sitting in class. Everyone was super into talking to each other, as well as giving opinions on certain topics.

 What I found the most interesting was which topics got the most response from the class. For example, the two posts that got the most feedback that I was involved in had something to do with famous people. The first was when Adrian Bustamante posted about Donald Trump. It was actually the first post that I wanted to participate in because it’s such a hot topic right now among all media outlets. The second was when Michelle Booth posted a funny comment and picture about famous actress Amanda Bynes. I felt like I HAD to respond to this post because I wanted to be a part of the hilarious conversation.

This experience really taught me a lesson about what I post on social media. Although it was a very fun and awesome assignment in class, I can now definitely understand how things can get out of hand on a social media platform. With all of the platforms that we have today, and everyday more are being created, it’s very easy to get carried away with what we post. The internet is unforgiving, once you post something it will never go away. I honestly wish that every person with a social media account could do this assignment so that they could see how fast posting, responding, and sharing actually happens.

When you make a post on social media, it almost feels like it isn’t real because you don’t actually see how people respond to it. As I sat in class while we were posting on Twitter, I was able to see the emotional responses that people had to all of the posts. Now in this case, everyone was pretty much laughing at everything that was being posted because we were all in a classroom together so no one wanted to post anything that was a really sensitive or controversial subject. If every social media user had to sit in a classroom full of people watching what they post, all of the awful stuff that gets posted on platforms would never happen. Especially when it comes to cyberbullying; people only bully on the internet because they can’t see the emotional reactions that they cause. I think that this assignment would do a lot of good in middle school and high schools to prove a point to social media users that there is always someone looking at their post on the other end. 

Social Media Case Reflection 2

In today’s society, we have come to highly dislike police officers. Stories that have been released in the media lately about cops haven’t exactly painted them in a positive light. Citizens across the United States have even been protesting the police in their respective cities. Riots against the police broke out in Ferguson when a teenager was shot by a police officer (don’t worry, I’m not going to argue who was right or wrong in that situation). The point is, it’s been a while since a lot of us have seen anything positive about policemen in the news, because cops doing good things isn’t prevalent in the media.

FINALLY, there is an awesome story about a policeman making a difference in his community: the story of Officer Bobby White. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, I’ll give a short explanation of what happened. A couple months ago, in January, Officer White received a dispatch telling him that in a certain neighborhood, kids were out in the street playing basketball too loudly. When the officer arrived to find the kids playing a game, just as kids do, instead of scolding the boys, he shot a few hoops with them. After a little while, he told them he had to get back on duty, but he would come back in a few days with “backup” to play some more basketball. A few days later, he came back to play with the kids with a few officers, as well as NBA fame Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq, along with the officers, played with the kids as well as gave them some life advice. As a special treat, Shaq even gave them $100 each.

Through doing more research, I’ve discovered that there’s even more to this incredible story. After everything happened with Shaq, Officer Bobby White did even more for those kids. According to NBC 4, he asked the mother of one of the kids for permission to build a basketball court in her backyard. He then began fundraising and was able to receive enough donations from the community to build the group a permanent commercial sized hoop and court.

So, what does a story like this tell us? Well, first of all, it’s awesome seeing a man like Officer White do so many great things for the youth in his community. I’m so happy to finally see a video that has gone viral that is actually uplifting and doesn’t have any negative connotations. Second, to me, it proves that people need to stop stereotyping cops as being dirty and terrible people. Let’s be honest with ourselves, the amount of good cops FAR out way the bad. FAR. In a Rolling Stone article, it said “it’s too bad there isn’t an Officer White patrolling every neighborhood in America.” You’re kidding me, right? That sentence actually ruined the rest of the entire article for me. There actually are a lot of cops that are truly amazing people; do we not remember all of the policemen that ran into the burning buildings during 9/11? Not anymore, because the problem is that all of America doesn’t see good deeds being done by cops because there usually aren’t videos about it that go viral like the negative videos do.

Something that I find wrong about today’s society is how positive news stories are often overshadowed by negative news. Quite honestly, I had actually never heard of Officer White and his incredible story before getting assigned to read it in my social media class. Why? Well probably because my newsfeed is way too busy being flooded with terrible things that have happened. Based on research done by PR News, negative superlatives work 30 percent better at getting our attention than positive ones. That’s sick (and I don’t mean that in the cool way). Media companies base their content on the preferences of the audience. If there was a majority of people that actually hated negative news content, then the media would be completely different.

I truly hope that stories like what happened with Officer White start becoming more popular in the news. I’m sure that if we were being told positive stories every day, it would restore our faith in humanity. As of right now, everyone is just way too focused on negative things that occur. And to all those out there that don’t respect policemen anymore, I promise you that there are a lot out there that care for our safety and rights. Please stop letting the FEW negative stories impact how you feel about ALL cops.

Sources:

https://www.facebook.com/GainesvillePolice/videos/10153223739347015/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/us/florida-shaq-police-officers-game/

http://nbc4i.com/2016/02/24/officer-helps-build-basketball-court-after-video-of-him-playing-with-kids-goes-viral/

http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/cool-cop-responds-to-hoops-noise-complaint-with-savage-dunk-20160122

http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/bad-news-negative-headlines-get-much-more-attention/86916

Online Reputation

The prevalence of social media has made it much simpler to find out extreme amounts of information about an individual—in other words, stalking has become so easy. This can be a problem if there is something online that you don’t want other people to find. When you type your name into Google, what pops up? Does something come up that maybe makes you feel a little uneasy? Or do you not really care about the information about you that is out there? In order to demonstrate how easily information about someone is able to be attained, I was assigned to “stalk” someone in my Social Media class; the person I have been assigned is Karlie Major.

When I searched Karlie’s full name on Google, there were several different social media accounts that came up—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. Karlie is married to Colton Arave and now goes by the name Karlie Major Arave. She is a student at Utah State University, where she is studying Communications and Public Relations.

The very first trend that I easily noticed about Karlie is that she is extremely involved in the community. Being a native of Logan, Karlie was crowned Miss Cache Valley, and later crowned Miss Utah on June 21, 2014. For a year after she was crowned, she travelled around Utah promoting her platform—Get Real: Embracing a Positive Body Image Through Media Smarts. During this time, she was also an ambassador for the Miss America Organization’s national platform, the Children’s Miracle Network.  

Karlie is immensely caring of the youth in her community. On her Facebook page, she describes herself as a “Public speaker motivating youth to embrace who they are and set goals to achieve their dreams.” Via LinkedIn, under Volunteer Experience, for over two years she aided with fundraising events for the Child and Family Support Center. Also on LinkedIn, as part of her Experience section, she is the spokesperson and founder of Get Real Utah which focuses on promoting media literacy in the effort to educate youth on the impact digital manipulation has on body image.

It was extremely obvious that Karlie is very passionate about dancing. In the Miss Utah competition, during the talent portion, she did a Character Jazz Dance routine. Near the end of 2014, Karlie was in the Miss America pageant where dancing was again her talent. Not only does she love to dance, but she can also teach it. According to her LinkedIn, she has over five years of experience of being a dance instructor; she was a dance instructor for Dance Illusion from 2009 to 2014 and Universal Dance Association from 2012 to 2013.

This assignment really opened my eyes to how much information there is about someone on the internet. Knowing that anyone can see this information at any time makes me want to urge people to be careful of what you are putting online. If it is a post or picture that you don’t want the entire world to see, then DO NOT POST IT at all, even if your social media account is set to private.  

Sources: 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765655557/Miss-Cache-Valley-Karlie-Major-crowned-Miss-Utah-2014-Saturday-night.html?pg=all

https://www.facebook.com/karlie.major.54

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlie-major-arave-4a873189

http://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/cache-valley-s-karlie-major-wins-miss-utah-crown/article_b8505880-faed-11e3-a2c2-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.momseveryday.com/westerncolorado/local/headlines/Miss-Utah-274210011.html

http://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/miss-utah-reigns-karlie-s-major-experience/article_422833a0-45af-11e4-8db3-c7e7ba0db09b.html