collaborative and distance communication tools

I am getting married in may, and my husband to be has accepted a job out in NYC. As a PR major, I figured the big city would be a perfect start to my career as well! As I started searching for jobs, I found the one that I KNEW I wanted. Ever since I started in my field of study, numerous people have asked me “so what do you want to do with PR” and the answer is always the same--something with the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. There it was, an internship ad for my dream job. In New York. for the church. starting in september. Could this opportunity be any better?

As I looked farther into the internship, the more excited I got. However, as I read the final details something caught my eye. “This is a distance branch public affairs office of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints” A distance branch? what does that mean? As I researched a little more heavily, I realized. The main source of communication to and from church headquarters is done through video conferencing and phone calls, allowing the NYC office to only house about 10 employees total. “

Is this as good as working in the REAL office? “ I asked myself. As I did some more research about video conferencing and distance branches, I learned how important this internship would be not only to my career as a PR professional, but in my awareness of the up and coming ways to communicate from a distance. From an article I found online at http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/00/19/14/PDF/reffay_chanier.pdf It states how collaborative and distance communication tools are an area that present employees sometimes still have problems with. People want to hold to their traditional ways of communication, However, how much more effective of an employee would this make me by having such interaction with different ways other than traditional communication? Also, an article found on http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=62267 states how some teachers already feel threatened by how much of life you can live online, including your education! This is a serious wave of the next decade, that we should all become more familiar with!

Viral Videos.

Websters difinition of Viral--quickly and widely spread or popularized especially by person-to-person electronic communication. You all know what I am talking about. Anything from charlie bit my finger, Justin Beibers "baby",bed intruder, kittens featuring kittens--we've seen them. However, viral videos are not only appealing to bored teenagers, but when it comes to advertising, they are a dream.Have you ever wondered WHY certain videos get to be so popular though? How can advertisers make their videos appeal to so many people to make their videos go viral? Is it luck? a science? a skill? Let's see what some have to say about the issue.

A research study conducted by searchenginejournal.com came up with these factors on how to make a video more likely to go viral.

• Use humor to its fullest extent. Almost 50% of viral videos feature humor and 70% of internet users who share content with others say they do so because the videos they share are amusing.
• Don’t make your video long. Internet audiences have notoriously short attention spans. It’s best to clock your video in under two minutes in duration – the average video in Forrester Research’s study was 1:42 minutes in length. Over a third of the videos were less than a minute.
• You don’t need celebrities. Celebrities cost you more but don’t necessarily pay off. Only about a third of really successful viral videos featured a celebrity.
• Sexy content isn’t necessarily best. Only 16% of successful viral videos in the study featured sexy content.
• Don’t try to mimic UGC. You might think that if you imitate the style of UGC videos are made in you’ll fare better but you’d be wrong. Users can recognize the difference. Don’t pretend to have a low budget when you really have a high one. 85% of successful viral videos by brands featured full production values.
• TV ads can go viral online. Even if your ad has already been played on television, it can still go viral on the internet. TV ads account for over half of viral marketing videos online.

Also, after doing some research THE most likely factor for a video to go viral is it's amount of humor. Take a look at this chart from an SEJ research study.

I guess Humor is the answer. Be funny. Be creative. Be original. Get Viral.

Yelp! Location based programs are taking over!

Is anyone concerned with this generations sense of direction? I know I am. With new location based programs such as yelp, facebook, google maps, foursquare and gowalla--soon no one will be able to find their way around without their smart phone or computer. For the purpose of this discussion, I want to focus on the smart phone app--Yelp.

Yelp was actually founded in 2004, but available through your mobile phone in 2010 when the ratings of monthly visitors exceeded 54 million. Yelp, is an app that take where your current location is (using the built in GPS in your phone) and then allows you to search for different things in the surrounding area you are in. Whether that be certain restaurants, churches, hospitals, entertainment centers, movie theaters, etc. Then, it links to google maps and gives you turn by turn directions as to how to get to your selected destination. I won't lie, yelp was a very convenient tool that I used on a cross country trip I went on last summer. However, throw out your maps! there's no need to learn a sense of direction anymore!

It is a very brilliant thing to invent a location-based program because it is so personal to the individual using it. They can search their preferences based on where they are. It is convenient, affordable, and easy to use. It's no wonder GPS and location based programs have started to keep all maps piling up with dust on those shelves.

Traditional Media

In an article found online at http://technology.inquirer.net/7499/technology-seen-as-shifting-power-of-traditional-media-to-people/, the author argues that traditional media, will soon become completely overtaken by social media. Where, it used to be that people would be hired to work for the media because of their writing, communication, or technical skills, it will soon be that people are either hired because of their social media skills, or simply not hired at all because of the convenience of social media as a form of publicity, companies will no longer see the need for traditional media advertising or communicating. It is a scary thing, how our world continues to be put online. Soon, there will be no need to go to school, the doctors, or music lessons--nearly EVERYTHING will be available online. It already is. Is the next generation going to spend their lives communicating, socializing, and networking solely through social media? Or will there still be a need for traditional media? It's scary to think what could happen to peoples talents if all efforts were out towards online media, rather than traditional. As more and more social media sites become popular the more traditional media is put on the back burner.

What makes someone want to be a "blogger"?

Have you ever wondered why some people just absolutely LOVE to blog? It's as if every event of their life needs to be documented, photoed, and posted for it to even be considered a real event. Social media is becoming more and more involved in personal lives, I sometimes wonder what's next. Don't get me wrong, I love to blog--obviously. However, I often wonder why social media plays such a role in our lives these days. So much so, that we often find ourselves thinking in Facebook statues, calling dibs on profile pictures right after they are taken, thinking about possible names of photo albums, and thinking how we are going to blog about whatever significant event just happened in our lives--whether that be the start to a new diet, the problems with split ends, or furniture arrangements in the living room (all very significant events of course).

Now, though I am being a little sarcastic I really do find it funny sometimes what people choose to blog about.However, when it comes down to it, blogs really are a great way to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues as well as a great marketing and networking tool. The http://www.thedaybookblog.com/ started as just a normal blog, but has actually become very popular and has been the stepping stool to many job opportunities for the Author --Sydney Poulton. Not only that, but there have been blogs that many have followed not just for interesting stories, but for humor-- http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/was very popular in the LDS culture because of how it mocked LDS mothers blogs and blogging topics. However, in recent months the author of that blog has stopped posting.

Blogs can range from anything from an online photo journal, an advertising tool, or simply an online journal for others to come and read. Blogs are one of the most popular forms of social media these days and can be a very useful tool for providing the foundation to many careers and writing opportunities.

Organizational Uses

One of the most talked about issues in news media as of recently ia how different oganizations use social media to promote their businesses. In this article the author clearly talks about whether or not social media is right for your organization. http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7935.cfm The article goes through a check list of ways to determine this. Such questions are asked like whether the audiences that your companay wants to target are frequent users of social media, or how much time are you willing to put in to getting social media up and running, and continuing with updates frequently. What is unique about social media is that because it's so previlent, it needs to be constantly undated and changed in order to be recognized and reliable. This article was real helpful in how to go about making the decsion if social media is right for your organization. It also, gives a brief overview about the advantages and disadvantages of social media.
This article, http://www.sminorgs.net/home.html talked about the statistics of how many organizations use social media. They provided a very interesting youtube video in relation to how big social media is these days. Statistics such as if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest. The video is posted below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3SuNx0UrnEo


All in all, I think that the articles and statistics state the truth when they talk about how much more successfull companies can become when they put a lot of effort into their social media. I think one day soon, it will be almost impossible to continue a successful company or organization without social media.

The Big 7

The Big Seven

There are many different kinds of social media these days. Social media serves as one of the most important ways in letting customers know of a company’s services or products. A New York Times article on Facebook states that “Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 800 million active users around the world, and roughly 200 million in the United States, or two-thirds of the population, as of December 2011. “

It’s no wonder why Facebook serves as one of the best social media sites when it comes to awareness. However, there are many different opinions when it comes to Facebook. Some think Facebook can be harmful to its users due to the fact that its privacy settings aren’t very strict and it has often been referred to as being “addictive”. In this article http://www.christianpost.com/news/is-facebook-harmful-for-your-teens-social-disorder-concerns-53655/ the author talks about the dangers of Facebook if it isn’t used properly. Even though the article is directed more towards children and teens, I think a lot of the argument holds true that if Facebook isn’t used with the proper intent, people, and companies can be harmed.

Also, in this article http://www.bitrebels.com/social/twitter-vs-facebook-a-social-media-revenue-comparison/ the author compares Facebook to one of the other “Big 7” --- Twitter. The author gives pros and cons on the two sites as social networking sites but concludes that Facebook will reach a larger audience, given how popular it is throughout the world.

It’s interesting to read about the pros and cons of Facebook and the other “big 7” as means to social media, however I have concluded that as long as Facebook, twitter and all the other social media sites are used properly and with the correct intent, it can really help a company in its success.