Final Farewell

Doing this blog has been admittedly difficult for me. The main difficulty for me was that I had a lot of trouble writing more and more stuff always keeping it fresh. I am not a very deep person and I tend to like to stay on the surface so giving an in depth talk about things that don’t completely interest me was somewhat of a challenge. But I found that blogging was actually a little more fun that I had thought it to be originally. Not only did the blog just help me out get a handle on how to blog or how the whole bloggerverse works, but also made me dive a little deeper into social media. I would have never even to have given tumblr a second thought because I am not interested in the least. On the positive side blogging is a great way to just speak freely and not really have a way to write or like a strict format to pay attention to so that is probably my favorite thing about this blogging project. So farewell bloggerverse it’s been a trip but I’m out for now.

Does Tumblr have a Chance?

As I have been writing this blog I have been paying a little closer attention to the different types of social media out there that people actually use. One that caught me by surprise was a site called tumblr. I honestly had no idea and still to this day don’t have a full grasp of what it is. I turned to my sister who I know she uses this one more than Facebook or Twitter and she seems to love it. So I started asking her to tell me a little more about it and she described it as a way for users to use their artistic and creative talents to blog and journal. So what I took from it is that its just a super artsy way to blog about things and follow other peoples blogs. I asked her what she didn't like about it and she said that it was very different to understand at first because there is no guidelines like field names or whatever when setting up a tumblr like Facebook with its information fields when setting up a profile. On the positive side, it is like Myspace in that a user is able to customize someone’s blog. I don’t think I will ever use or even get a tumblr. I am all about social media but there comes a point where everyone has their breaking point. Does anyone think that tumblr will ever get as big as Twitter or Facebook? Due to the artistic nature of tumblr, would it be smart or wise for employers to use tumblr as a form of background check as they do Facebook? Just some ideas for the pending future.  

Final Thoughts...

Seeing as this is the last required week for this blog project, I thought I would do a quick "final" post regarding some reflections and what I learned over the semester.

Before this e-marketing class, I had no idea how easy it was to start a blog.  Simply by making a Gmail account gives you access to blogger.  Once you are able to sign into blogger it is quite simple to start setting up the layout of your blog and start posting.  The difficulty with blogger doesn't lay within the set-up; it is the presentation and content.  This project, at its core is about marketing, so our blog had to reflect that in some way.  It would have been much easier blogging about whatever we wanted to, but wouldn't really be a worthwhile assignment.

Some challenges I faced was simply finding something social media-related to talk about every week.  I really dropped the ball in April because I started running out of ideas.  The sheer number of social media sites out there is astounding.  Just from the brief lectures we had in class I must have been exposed to around at least 20 I have never heard of before, probably more.  There is literally a social media site out there for every need out there.  There's social media sites for checking in at places to social media sites for dogs to private social media sites for businesses.  The possibilities were essentially endless.  Finding something I could get my head around and understand enough to blog about to others was difficult.

I am excited to see the results from this "contest" and see how our blog did in comparison to others in the class.  Our class presentations and blog reviews from our teacher as well as other "expert" bloggers will give us insights of what we did well, and what we did not.  It will provide us with areas for improvement, should we choose to blog in the future.

Overall this project was a sort of chore for me, but the competition aspect really makes it more enjoyable for me.  All I can say is I hope we did well; and I thank everyone for reading, clicking and supporting this blog for the last 2 months or so.

Signing out...

Chris...

Create your own personal “Online Policy”

We have all heard the speech about “no drunken pictures on facebook if you want a serious job”. But where do we draw the line when it comes to what is ok to put online, what is appropriate, and what are you not allowed do share in social media? What is expected and acceptable social media behavior? Most businesses today have rules regarding what employs are allowed to share. As an employee of the company, they often expect that you don’t do anything that might harm the company’s reputation. How much can the job expect from you? What is common sense? And what about the freedom of speech in all of this?

The questions are many, and the answers are both different and vague.

However, in public relations they often use the “Potter Box” to evaluate a situation. I believe this would be a great tool to at least better understand your personal behavior online, and to create a “personal policy” on how you want to appear online. This way you are less likely to regret actions that are more or less impossible to erase.

1.       Definition of the situation. First you look at the facts of a given situation. For example; who is posting, where is it posted, what is it about, ….?

2.       Values. What values do you want to stand for, and what values are important to you personally and professionally. Try to list them based on importance.

3.       Principles. Are there rules you need to follow because of your job? What principles are related to your profession? Any other rules or principles you should think about?

4.       Loyalties. Who should you think about when you are sharing online? Examples might be; yourself, employers, the stakeholders of your employer, friends and family, the public, …? It would be a good idea to think about who you believe is most important.   

As an employee or a student it is in your best interest to be aware of the expectations regarding your social media activity. Even if there are no explicit expectations you are obliged to follow, it would most likely be in your own best interest as a professional to be aware of the bigger picture when it comes to your actions online.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

-          Lise :)

Let's Talk About Google Plus

I'm sure we have all heard about Google+, but what is it exactly?  I know that if I was to ask a handful of people what Google+ was and what you could do with it, the majority of them probably wouldn't have a clue.  I do not have a Google+ account, and am a little out of my area here, so I apologize in advance if I don't have the most clear idea of what Google+ is.

Google+ is Google's attempt at a social network.  That's the black and white definition people associate with Google+.  In truth, it was not Google's attempt at a "Facebook killer." (although knowing Google I'm sure they wouldn't mind stealing some of Facebook's share of users).  When it was first released, it was incomplete, which led to a slow start and some negative reactions.  People think of Google+ as a product similar to that of blogger or Gmail, but in reality it was meant as a project.  It was meant to be integrated within Google (which is has with great success).  Almost every blog, news article, video has a +1 tab among the other social media handles.  Since Google dominates the search market, Google+ accounts have risen up to #2 second only to Facebook in active users.

Ok, back to the meat and potatoes of this post.  The goal of Google+ is to cultivate data, connections  and people.  Having a Google+ account essentially enables Google to keep even more tabs on you (as if they don't already) in order to provide you with a more personalized web experience.  Some people might think this is a great idea; others not so much.  If it was me, I wouldn't want Google tracking everything I do online. For the most part they probably do that already to an extent.  Google+ focuses more about personal connections ie your social group within Google's social realm.

Google+ is so broad it seems like different articles I read focus on completely different aspects than the last.  Google+ definitely has a business relation.  It seems Google+ is very versatile for both professionals and everyday people.  Having a Google+, in a way, is like having a LinkedIn profile and Facebook profile in one (or at least it could be used in that way).

I apologize in advance if this post seems a little messy.  I am not familiar with Google+ so in no way do I know about all its features.  I encourage anyone to comment if they are more familiar with Google+ than I am.  I don't mind getting a little knowledge dropped on me.

Until next time...

Chris...

Too Paranoid or Paranoid Enough?

Living in this viral world, we depend on Internet in so many aspects of our life. It is easy to just expect it to be safe and ok – I know I usually do. My general attitude is “when everybody does it, it must be safe”. The government will take action if somebody is endangering my privacy. As long as you don’t click on those “obviously dodgy pop up ads”, and don’t share all your private information with the public, your fine.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine shared an paper article from a pretty reliable Norwegian newspaper with me (Dagens Næringsliv). Despite the credible newspaper that obviously had a reliable source, I had a really hard time believing it. Just because these facts where so shocking! I feel the need to share it with you guys because if this is the reality, I believe everybody should be aware of it.  

The article was based on an interview with a former employee of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). William Binney was part of building the nations communication surveillance, and in the five page long article he explained how he quit because of what he believed to be unethical practice and extreme surveillance violating people’s privacy. Maybe you already have heard of this. I have however translated some of the facts that I found most sticking. 

-          The storage capacity of NSA's planned infrastructure matches purely mathematical to store ALL electronic communication. It will be measured in yottabytes, a byte with 24 zeros after it! With current capacity they will be able to store at least 100 years of communication.

-          They do not need a reason or a permission to record your phone conversation, read your texts or go through your emails.

-          Binney can inform us that they already have the keys to everything. They already have all algorithms figured out. He says that nothing you do online is safe. Everything from facebook to emails, what you buy on Amazon, what you search for on google, how much money you have in your banking account and what you spend the money on, absolutely everything…

This is absolutely scary, but the terrifying part is how much power the person in charge of this information has. Because what does KGB, Stasi and Gestapo and any other dictators have in common? They figure out what their public is up to, and basically get rid of any resistance. When you have access to every little detail in almost every people’s lives all over the planet, your power is unlimited according to William Binney. This is an extremely powerful political weapon, and can for example be used to affect the public opinion by leaking certain information to the press about any opponent. 

I have to apologies for the loooooong and pretty heavy post, but this is such a complex and a huge field of information, so I encourage you to do some further research on your one, from several sources. This might not be something we can protect ourselves from; at least I don’t have any good suggestions other than perhaps moving out to an abandon cabin in the woods without cellphones, Internet or electricity perhaps. (Yeah, not going to happen) But regardless of what’s true and not, I believe it might be our own responsibility to keep ourselves informed, and maybe this is a good reminder that we shouldn’t always assume that the government have every single person’s best interest in mind, and that they are not always there to protect our privacy.

Hope you all have an amazing spring week, almost May! :)

- Lise 

How Linked In are you?

Getting through my last semester of college I have been more and more concentrated on getting an actual job instead of just working at the university's mail room for the rest of my life. As I have been looking for a job and asking people if they know any good companies to work for they always ask me the same question. "Do you have a LinkedIn profile?" Admittedly I do have a LinkedIn profile but I never really use it for what is meant to be used for. I have been thinking more and trying to figure out how many people my age actually use this social media site. I have been asking around some of my friend group and it seems that most of them have a profile but never really use it or barely look at it. I decided to look up more facts about LinkedIn and I was actually shocked what I found. One of the craziest facts I found was that on average 2 new users sign up for a LinkedIn profile every second. That was completely unexpected. What I found more shocking was that according to LinkedIn around 64% of users are based outside the United States. So I decided to keep my ears open around the school of business and see how often this site actually comes up in conversation. I wasn't as surprised what I noticed. Though many people have a profile, no one really talks about this site and it isn't "all the rave' like twitter or Facebook  Since this is a professional site, what would happen if people started treating LinkedIn as the next Facebook? Would employers stop using it to look for credentials? Would it have a negative impact on the job market? These are all questions that would probably come up if this site went down that road.