When talking about discovering technologies in class, we talked about foursquare and Groupon. I personally have never used foursquare. I understand getting the deals that come along with it, but I don't want people to know where I am all the time. I have many friends that used it when it first came out, and now they use the Facebook version. If I am on vacation I might use it, but who cares if I am at Target in Brentwood. On the other hand, I love Groupon!! I go on Groupon everyday and look at the deals. I usually just use the restaurant and spa deals, but it features many other products. Most of the deals you get about 50% off, I don't understand why people wouldn't be using Groupon. I like to save money and try new places; Groupon allows me to do both!!
When talking about Groupon in class, I learned about Groupon's Grassroots program. This allows people to donate money to local charities through Groupon. This is such a good idea and it allows people to give back to their communities. This is set-up exactly like a Groupon, it shows how much people have donated, how much time is left on it, and how much money the charity needs to raise. The Grassroots program is unique to Groupon. This will help them when more discovering technologies come about, things like this will set them apart from the competition.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Discussing
In class we talked about discussing technologies. Discussing technologies are all about communicating with peers about a certain topic. Forums are the main discussing technology that we talked about in class. Forums are usually about certain topic of interest. The people on the forums ask and answer questions and talk about a certain product. Most forums are started by customers and not the actual company. In class we talked about how companies have forums, but most customers use customer made forums. We talked about the TiVo community forum in class, and this is a forum run by customers. I would have never thought that so many people would be on a forum, but people posted on this one all the time.
When looking for a forum, I wanted to think of something that I used personally. I decided to use this Netflix forum. I use Netflix all the time, and when I have problems with it I just re-start it or don't use for a while. This forum will be really helpful for me, and I never even thought about using a forum. This forum is not the companies, it is a customer made forum. It is very easy to use, because everything in separated into categories. It even breaks down what kind a device you use Netflix on. There are not people that are posting daily, but maybe that means their questions are already answered on the forum. Forums are meant for customers to discuss the project, and this one allows people a easy way to do this.
When looking for a forum, I wanted to think of something that I used personally. I decided to use this Netflix forum. I use Netflix all the time, and when I have problems with it I just re-start it or don't use for a while. This forum will be really helpful for me, and I never even thought about using a forum. This forum is not the companies, it is a customer made forum. It is very easy to use, because everything in separated into categories. It even breaks down what kind a device you use Netflix on. There are not people that are posting daily, but maybe that means their questions are already answered on the forum. Forums are meant for customers to discuss the project, and this one allows people a easy way to do this.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monitoring
Monitoring technologies can be extremely helpful for companies. These technologies allow you to see what is being said about your company, and figure out what is important to your customers. Monitoring technologies allow companies to monitor everything that is being said about them via social media. I am not on Twitter, but I think TweetDeck is my favorite. I just love they way the dashboard is set-up, and it seems very user friendly. I couldn't get to far into it, because I don't have a Twitter account.
I checked out Google Alerts, and found that to be pretty interesting. I set-up a couple different alerts, and am interested to see what it comes up with. For our class project, my group is deciding between Red Bull and Vera Bradley. I set-up Google alerts for both of those brands, and I hope I can get some good information from it. I had a hard time trying to find examples of these technologies. I am sure that every company uses them in some way. I found a website that offered tips on how to use Google alerts. I thought this would be helpful for everyone in class, because we are starting to do research for our group projects.
I checked out Google Alerts, and found that to be pretty interesting. I set-up a couple different alerts, and am interested to see what it comes up with. For our class project, my group is deciding between Red Bull and Vera Bradley. I set-up Google alerts for both of those brands, and I hope I can get some good information from it. I had a hard time trying to find examples of these technologies. I am sure that every company uses them in some way. I found a website that offered tips on how to use Google alerts. I thought this would be helpful for everyone in class, because we are starting to do research for our group projects.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Networking
In class we talked about networking technologies. The two we talked about in class were Facebook and LinkedIn. I think that most people in our generation, are pretty familiar with Facebook. I was not very familiar with LinkedIn, but I am glad we learned more about it in class. I am a senior and will be graduating in May. I am going to start looking for jobs soon, and want to get on LinkedIn. Whenever I talk about looking for a job, everyone says get on LinkedIn. I never really knew how to use it, or how to even get started. It is nice to have some basics on how to started, and I plan on starting a LinkedIn profile really soon.
Most companies these days have a Facebook page, but that doesn't mean that they are active on Facebook. I started looking through company Facebook pages, and wanted to find a company that was active on Facebook. When I came across Converse's Facebook page, I was really impressed. They make post at least twice a day, and their post are about current events. SXSW is a music festival that just happened in Austin, and they followed bands and fans throughout the festival who were wearing converse. They have also done a few Facebook campaigns, the most recent one being 'Show me Yours'. This campaign asked converse customers, to take photos of where and how they wear their converse. The campaign featured thousands of photos of people doing all kinds of things in their converse.
Most companies these days have a Facebook page, but that doesn't mean that they are active on Facebook. I started looking through company Facebook pages, and wanted to find a company that was active on Facebook. When I came across Converse's Facebook page, I was really impressed. They make post at least twice a day, and their post are about current events. SXSW is a music festival that just happened in Austin, and they followed bands and fans throughout the festival who were wearing converse. They have also done a few Facebook campaigns, the most recent one being 'Show me Yours'. This campaign asked converse customers, to take photos of where and how they wear their converse. The campaign featured thousands of photos of people doing all kinds of things in their converse.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Sharing
The next technology we talked about in class, was all about sharing. This includes YouTube, Flickr and Instagram. All three of these technologies allow you to share content with others, through videos and photographs. I personally have never used Flickr, but I am really into Instagram. I post photos on there often, and like to get on there just to look at what other people are posting. I use YouTube pretty often, I will watch music videos more than anything. I usually get on YouTube, when a friend tells me that there is a funny video that I need to watch.
I started looking through different Instagram accounts and Red Bull caught my eye. I am not a Red Bull drinker, but its Instagram page really hits its target audience. Red Bull's slogan is, "It gives you Wings" and the photographs that are posted show that lifestyle. The page features photographs of people doing extreme sports, all over the world. The photos are set-up from most recent to oldest. They allow people to like the photos and make comments on them. This Instagram account has about 600,000 followers and they follow a good amount of people as well. I like almost everything about this Instagram account, except for one thing. Currently they have 785 photos posted, but I would think that there would be a lot more. It would be cool if they would post more fan photos on their Instagram.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I really enjoyed having a guest speaker in class talking about Twitter. She really knew what she was talking about, and her job is all about using Twitter at Panera Bread. I feel that I understand how Twitter works a lot more now, then I did before the class. I don't have a Twitter account, its just not something I have been interested in getting. I think I might set one up now. It seems like I great way to stay connected to friends. I love that fact that you can only type 140 characters, because it drives me crazy when people write long messages on Facebook.
The Twitter that I really like is Starbucks. I wanted to talk about this one, because I love Starbucks. I go there about 4 times a week. They have millions of followers, and they also follow about 80,000 people. I like that they post deals and coupons on there. They also post photos of different products, so you can see what they look like. It looks like they don't really tweet that often, unless I am reading that homepage wrong. I think they should be tweeting daily.
The Twitter that I really like is Starbucks. I wanted to talk about this one, because I love Starbucks. I go there about 4 times a week. They have millions of followers, and they also follow about 80,000 people. I like that they post deals and coupons on there. They also post photos of different products, so you can see what they look like. It looks like they don't really tweet that often, unless I am reading that homepage wrong. I think they should be tweeting daily.
Blogs
In class we started talking about different types of social media, the first being blogs. I personally didn't know a lot about blogs and how they worked, because I had never used one before this class. I also have never really been interested in reading other peoples blogs. I never really thought that people read blogs, but you showed us several examples that proved otherwise. The example I remember you showing is the SuddenLink blog. There are people who made comments on the post, and a lot more people that were reading it. I liked that the blog included pictures, surveys and video clips. Those kinds of things keep people interested in reading more.
The example that I found was the Whole Foods Market blog. The blog is very visually pleasing. It includes a lot of pictures and video clips. The blog posts are about recipes, craft projects, sales and many other things. In the side bar you can search posts by category, you can look at blog archives and there is a section of links. The one thing that I don't like about this blog, is that they read every comment before its posted. I understand why company's have to do this, but then they can just post the good things and leave out the bad. That is not how social media works.
The example that I found was the Whole Foods Market blog. The blog is very visually pleasing. It includes a lot of pictures and video clips. The blog posts are about recipes, craft projects, sales and many other things. In the side bar you can search posts by category, you can look at blog archives and there is a section of links. The one thing that I don't like about this blog, is that they read every comment before its posted. I understand why company's have to do this, but then they can just post the good things and leave out the bad. That is not how social media works.
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