Technology and Social Media

Social media and technology go hand in hand. Without our advanced technology of today, I’m sure that social media wouldn’t have rapidly grown the way that it has. Technology is constantly evolving; it changes and advances every single day. At this point it is hard to imagine that new technology could come about because it feels like all innovative and new ideas have been imagined. However, technology has infinite possibilities so even though it is extremely advanced right now, there is still a lot of room for innovation.

I found a very interesting technological concept that would affect the future of social media: optical pattern recognition. According to Wikipedia, pattern recognition is a branch of machine learning that focuses on the recognition of patterns and regularities in data. Police and security services already use this in order to help identify known criminals. Collaboration blog claims that right now, social media has already started using this technology to help with tagging pictures. If you notice when you upload a picture on Facebook, the site suggests who the people in the picture are for you to tag based on facial recognition.

What is really cool is what I read about this technology in a Mashable article. In order to explain it well, I’m going to provide the example that the article gave:

Imagine you're on your way to a conference and you have a couple of hours to kill so you park yourself in the corner of a local bar to catch up on Mashable. You've barely begun reading when an attractive girl or guy catches your eye. You're transfixed, your heart starts to race — you're in love. But being the shy type you can't just go over and introduce yourself, so instead you do a quick scan of the room with your cell phone to pick up any latent metadata. Unfortunately, a social network profile pops up informing you that the object of your affection is in a relationship. Your initial excitement rapidly dissipates and you get on with your reading.

So pretty much in the future, we could possibly be able to bring up people’s social media sites by “scanning” the area with our phone. I know that this is super crazy and a little bit far-fetched, but I find it extremely interesting.

A potential problem with this technology is privacy issues. There are already a lot of issues with social media stalking and I’m pretty sure this tech would make it a lot worse. If I were just at a grocery store and I saw someone using this technology to try to find me on social media I would be really creeped out. Although people can already find information about me on the internet just by knowing my name, I don’t want strangers to be able to find information about me just from seeing me in a public place.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2009/06/01/social-media-future-tech/#YdDyqV5orGq3

https://collabocom.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/new-tech-social-media-of-the-future/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition  

Stand-alone Mobile Apps vs. Internet Browser Apps

When I say the word “apps” what do you think of? I bet you’re thinking of the downloadable applications that go on mobile devices. But apps are so much more than that! According to Google, it is “a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfill a particular purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device.” So seriously, anyone who is tech-savvy whatsoever uses apps. Most people use numerous apps every single day, especially when it comes to those on our mobile devices.

Most people think the desktop apps and mobile apps are pretty similar in how they operated, but on the Paradox Labs blog I was able to find a few key differences between the two:

1.      Smaller screens. Okay so this one is painfully obvious. Obviously on mobile phones, the screen and the image pixels are much smaller than that of a computer screen.

2.      Slower processors. Although they are catching up, in general, mobile devices have much less processing power than desktops.

3.      Touch input. One important aspect of many mobile devices is the touch-based input. For a lot of apps, touch input actually makes usability a lot simpler.

So, most of us use apps every single day, but why would they be some important to businesses? Small Business Trends gives two excellent reasons:

1.      Web or online apps can be a faster, cheaper, more efficient way of deploying software in your business. Instead of buying an actual software license, having to install it on all of the company’s servers, keeping up with updates, etc., you can pretty much just go online and sign up for an account.

2.      Mobile apps extend the reach and productivity of your business. A mobile app usually helps you to do something specific, like accessing your bank account in the case of a banking app or run payroll with a payroll mobile app.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20is%20an%20app

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/03/what-is-an-app.html

http://blog.paradoxlabs.com/mobile-vs-desktop-10-key-differences 

Viral Videos

The topic that I will be covering today is probably my favorite social media topic: viral videos. I would hope that most of you know what a viral video is, but just in case I found a really great definition. According to Techopedia, a viral video is any clip of animation or film that is spread rapidly through online sharing. Viral videos can receive millions of views as they are shared on social media sites, reposted to blogs, sent in emails, and so on. What I found interesting was Techopedia’s assertion that most viral videos have humor and fall into three categories:

1.      Unintentional viral videos: videos that the creators never intended to go viral.

2.      Humorous viral videos: videos that have been created specifically to entertain people.

3.      Promotional viral videos: videos that are designed to go viral with a marketing message to raise brand awareness.

Viral videos are all fun and games until it actually hurts the person in the video. The part that freaked me out was the category of “unintentional” viral videos. So, pretty much if someone posts a video of you do something stupid and embarrassing, there is definitely a possibility of it going viral. Even if you ask the social media site to take it down, it’s still out there. Someone could have downloaded it or screenshotted it before you were able to take it down. AND THEN THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! So, please be careful with videos of yourself that you don’t want anyone else to see. My advice is just to delete it immediately.

When people think of viral videos they usually think of hilarious videos like Gangnam Style or the Harlem Shake videos. But, viral videos can actually very beneficial for your business. Forbes claims that highly sharable content can give your business a lift, leading new people back to your site and increasing your conversions. I have one thing to add to that sentence, it makes your brand awareness skyrocket. Forbes then gives suggestions for how businesses can create a viral video: 1) Be short and sweet. This is an obvious piece of advice because NO ONE likes long videos. 2) Be upbeat. Being upbeat evokes an emotional response from the audience. 3) Be timely. It certainly helps if you can link your video to an existing popular topic. 4) Be involved by engaging with your audience. 5) Be informative. Everyone wants to learn something they don’t already know. 6) Be inspiring.

So after all this talk of viral videos, I have attached my favorite viral video below. Enjoy!

Sources:

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/26863/viral-video

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/08/07/6-qualities-to-make-your-videos-go-viral/#4e1ad1e8aea4

Search Engine Optimization

Social media is a great way to connect with people that we know. It offers a lot of benefits for those who are trying to maintain relationships. One of the features that continues to grow in popularity is geotagging. Digital Trends defines geotagging as “the process of attaching location information to content such as a photograph or video (for example, when you shoot and upload a photo to Facebook with the location of your whereabouts).” It’s a really cool feature that gives us the opportunity to be even more social with our friends, but what about those who aren’t our friends that can see our locations?

In the same Digital Trends article, they raise an important question: while you are letting friends and family know where you are with your posts, is it worth the risk of being a victim of a crime? Burglars and stalkers can easily track you through geotagging. If you post a picture with your whole family with a geotag saying you’re in Hawaii, if the burglar knows your address, he/she can rob your house. And for obvious reasons, a stalker can easily find you through geotagging.

I am absolutely not trying to scare anyone into not doing what they want, but I do think that it’s smart to always be aware of what you are doing when it comes to social media. As I researched geotagging, I came across a great article produced by AVG Now that not only says what to be aware of, but it also lists a few ways that you can protect yourself.

So first, a few things that you need to know about geotagging:

1.      Photos can contain location information stored in metadata (EXIF data) within the image itself.

2.      Location data can be automatically applied to your GPS enabled smartphone photos.

3.      The location data usually includes the precise GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken, as well as the time and date it was captured.

Most importantly, here are a few ways to protect your privacy:

1.      Disable location services on your mobile devices.

2.      Remove EXIF data from images before uploading to social media networks or file sharing sites.

3.      Be aware of location options in apps or online services and social media.

Social media is such an awesome tool, but please remember to be aware of all of the possible consequences whenever you post. Be safe out there!

Sources:

http://now.avg.com/the-dangers-of-geotagging-via-photos-social-media/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/could-you-fall-victim-to-crime-simply-by-geotagging-location-info-to-your-photos/