Social Media Project

For this social media project, we were tasked with working as a group to analyze and recommend improvements to the social media sites of a company. We chose ESPN. Sounds simple enough, right? Let's just say that this project was a lot more stressful than I was expecting. That being said, I wasn't expecting to take on the leadership role before the project began. A week after the project was posted, there was nothing in the discussion board for my group. I thought, "Hey, I'll try to get things rolling by posting first!" People slowly started responding and by a few days before the project was due, everybody had responded and I had slipped into the organizing/leadership role. I didn't think it would be that bad, but communication is simply not the forte of some people. Our final report can be seen here: ESPN Report wiki page

Screenshot of part of the Youtube section in our Report

By the end of the project, most people had done their work. The work in itself was not that difficult, but it gave me a lot of insight into the social media operations of a large business. I was assigned to do two different tasks, but I ended up researching the rest of the social media operation of ESPN because I was interested. I learned a lot about what it takes to have a successful social media program. It actually takes quite a lot of commitment. But then again, when a company is as successful as ESPN, you can hire plenty of staff to keep twitter, youtube, and facebook running at 100%. ESPN often has more than 20 posts per day on both youtube and twitter. It takes a lot of time to keep up with those tasks.

During all this research, I learned that integration of social media sites across all platforms is key. You want facebook, youtube, and twitter connected to the company's official website. Youtube videos are posted on both facebook and twitter to enhance news stories and sports highlights. ESPN even incorporates fans into on air shows by including questions and comments from their social media sites. Sportscenter (one of ESPN's main programs) often enlists twitter to suggest the day's top plays by tweeting #SCtop10. It is a nice way to keep fans involved by reading their tweets on air. Everything runs seamlessly together except for the fact that ESPN didn't link to social media sites on their web page.

This project could have been much worse. I had a wonderful group for the most part. Half of them were actively updating me on their progress while the other half got their work done in a timely fashion. Only one person did little to contribute (in this case I learned to have contingency plans ready in a leadership role in case somebody fails to do their work). Overall, I learned a great deal about social media and how it is applied by large companies. ESPN was a great example of how to use social media to it's potential. There were very few ways for them to improve, and all our suggestions were relatively minor changes.

Week 13: Clear

I wouldn't yet go as far to say that social media is vital to the success of a business. Yes, it is a powerful tool. Yes, it can lead to an increase in customers and higher levels of customer loyalty. Businesses could survive without social media, but why bypass this tool?

In the last decade, social media has gone from almost non-existent to a vital part of business operations. How did this happen? Here are a few stats to show why:

• Facebook- Took 4 years to amass 100 million users. Since then, has grown to over 800 million users. https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=28111272130 and http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-800-million-users/
• Twitter- In the last 6 years, twitter has gained 140 million active users. A year ago, there were 140 million tweets a day. This year, that number has more than doubled to 340 million tweets per day. http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/21/six-year-old-twitter-now-has-140m-active-users-sending-340m-tweets-per-day/
• Youtube- In 2005 (when the site was launched), there were over 8 million video views per day. Now, there are over 4 billion video views per day along with 800 million unique visitors every month. http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/05/17/youtube-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/ and http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics

If it's not already clear why social media is a vital part to businesses today, it's because hundreds of millions (and more likely billions) of people use social media on a regular basis. This is less important for advertising than it is for interacting with consumers. In my personal experience, companies that respond to customers on twitter and facebook and post original content on youtube are making an impression on consumers. Home depot is a great example of a company using social media to it's potential. They answer questions and help with home projects regularly on twitter. They respond to feedback on facebook. Above all, they encourage do it yourself projects and regularly post tutorial videos on youtube to inspire creativity in home improvement. Although not all are the most exciting of videos, they are fantastic references for a wide variety of home improvement projects. Here is part three of how to build a deck:

Home Depot is doing social media right, but it can also hinder companies. While I don't believe a social media presence is necessary to running a successful business, it can help a great deal. It can be a boost for small startup businesses or a way to connect large corporations to the customer base. No matter the size of your company, social media is a step in the right direction.   

Avatar Creation

Today, I got the opportunity to create an avatar. The first thing that came to mind when thinking about avatars is a bizarre little youtube music video by Felicia Day. I'll make sure to link to that at the bottom. Now, when looking through possible sites to create a digital me, I remembered that I had not yet created an avatar for my Xbox live profile! So, I went on over to the Xbox website and got to work.

There were a great deal of options in creating this little guy. There were actually more options here than with any of the other avatar creation tools I looked into online. I could pick my hair style, eye shape, ear shape, mouth shape, chin shape, etc. I could pick from a wide variety of different clothes styles and colors. There were watches, armbands, hats, and face painting possibilities. I ended up going with a pair of jeans, a white shirt with an orange and blue tie, and an orange armband just to represent the gator nation. I tried to make my hair style and color along with eye color as close to reality. When I was all finished up, this is what my avatar looked like: 

He has green eyes, brownish hair (which happened to be parted while I was creating him), and an overall casual gator football fan look about him. Creating him was very easy. The tools on the website were clearly labeled and everything was very organized. I never had an trouble trying to figure something out and there was more than adequate customization capabilities. Most importantly, I now have somebody to represent me on my xbox live profile!

Now, here is a little extra avatar fun. This video is awkward, hilarious with the right mindset, and actually catchy all at the same time. It is a project by the cast of "The Guild", which is an web series by Felicia Day. Enjoy! 

Google+

When I first started using google+, I didn't know anybody else that had it. It felt like I was the only person in the world using it, but that quickly changed. Now, I have about thirty friends who are also using the site along with some family that lives out of state. That might not seem like a very large number of people, but they are all people I interact with on a regular basis.

Image created by Matthew Baranyk, 2012

I created four different circles for various groups of people. There is some overlap, so circles are not mutually exclusive. If a person is in one circle, they may very well be in another. The strong majority of my time spent using google+ (90% or more) is in hangouts. I believe that this is the best option for doing video chat with a group of people. A typical hangout summary is shown to the left. Scrolling down my profile, I see I have only made one post, commented on three posts, and been involved in 38 hangouts. That paints a pretty clear picture as to how I use google+. I really like the Hang Out option. It is a great way to keep in touch with people you meet that live far away. I generally "hang out" with people I met in California one summer who live in California, DC, Oregon, New York, Canada, England, United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Brazil among other places. It's nice to be able to see all these people at once and keep in touch despite the distance.

As far as this article is concerned (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389102,00.asp), I don't think the results of the poll are an accurate indicator of people leaving facebook for google+. The poll indicates a mass exodus from facebook, but that is incredibly unlikely at the moment. Google+ needs to attract more people and really find an identity. I personally choose to use both. Facebook is better for sending messages back and forth and interacting with people in an organized manner while google+ is better for video chatting with groups of people. Facebook has a big advantage over google+ right now, but if google+ can make some changes, it might be a threat. I will continue using both for different purposes in the foreseeable future.

Week 12: Clear

The day has finally come where I get to make a post regarding a controversial (as far as video games are concerned) topic: whether video games are harmful to the youth of the United States. Some of you may believe that video games are the root of all evil. I on the other hand, believe they are about 95% healthy for kids. That's even more healthy than Honey Nut Cheerios! Now, I'm going to address why games are not to blame for violence and childhood obesity and lay out a few benefits as well.

Online Games NOT to Blame

For some reason, a lot of people have a problem with online gaming and gaming in general. Apparently, it is to blame for violence in kids and childhood obesity among other things. I can only assume it is due to a general ignorance among non gamers in regards to gaming culture. As a 20 year old gamer myself, I may be biased. But, based on statistics and the fact that I interact with gamers on a regular basis, I believe the causation of the aforementioned problems should not be attributed to gaming.

Violence

The first issue is whether games cause an increase in violent behavior. I don't like to limit this argument to kids because kids shouldn't be playing overly violent games in the first place. Due to game ratings, violent games (most of which are rated M for mature) cannot be bought by children. Adults should not let kids play these games. On to the statistics... Violent crimes peaked in the US in 1994. According to the US Department of Justice, since then, violent crime has been on a steady decline. Violent games have only been increasing in popularity since then. Obviously, there are other factors involved, but this should at least be an indicator that violent games are not the cause of violence. Violent games can be an outlet to release pent up aggression. They can also attract violent people, but they certainly do not make people more violent than they already are. This article elaborates on how violent games promote cooperation instead of encouraging aggression: http://www.geekosystem.com/video-game-violence-link-questioned/  

This next video is fairly long (about 9 minutes), but it gives a good explanation on the amount that video games affect violence. He states that there is a small connection between violent video games and violence, and only with kids that are predisposed to violent behavior.  

Obesity

The next point is that online games promote obesity. I personally do not think this is the case at all. If you pay close attention to the eating patterns of Americans, you can see that they eat fast food... a lot. Schools are also cutting physical education programs in many areas. These are the main problems. If you look at a selection of professional gamers, most of them are not obese. Seriously, go to www.majorleaguegaming.com and look through some pictures. These are the best gamers in the world, the ones that spend the most time playing online games, and I would bet that a smaller percentage of these gamers are overweight than the general population.

Gamers are also very competitive people. They want to outplay their opponent in every scenario. This translates well to sports. Gamers have that mindset of wanting to win and overcoming challenges. That's what sports are all about, so it is my belief that gamers are naturally inclined to play sports as well. Video games cultivate an active mind and body. 

Conclusion

Overall, I think that gaming is a positive experience. If you aren't an obsessive individual, gaming is healthy. They are mentally stimulating (Portal 2, Starcraft, Sid Meier's Civilization), they can be physically healthy (Wii Fit, Xbox Kinect, Just Dance), and they improve dexterity (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and all other games played with a controller). Even the most violent of games require and cultivate critical thinking in order to be successful. They can be stress relievers and I guarantee they make a lot of people happy. What's wrong with that?