Accolades and Parting Wishes

Kudos to our students who have succeeded in gaining the attention of their project clients, and for those who are using the course concepts to advance in social media marketing. A special congratulations to Gitanjali for helping The Body Shop by providing them with consulting tips related to findings from her social media monitoring project. Additional accolades to Gabe Gerzon for his recent feature on the blog of a very prominent Boston tech company this week. Congratulations to each and every student on their learning gains in the course. You were a wonderful learning community to teach. Best of luck to you all in your future pursuits. As ever, Professor Frechette

Social Media as Revolutionary Tools for Entertainment, News and Advocacy

All semester, we've learned that social media are the means to bringing entertainment, news and advocacy to public light.  In an article on March 19th, 2012, The New York Times writes that "must-see fever" for new films, such as "The Hunger Games," involve a yearlong digital campaign centered around the preferred media of today's youth, namely Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Tumblr, iPhone games and Yahoo streaming. Rather than use traditional modes of advertising and marketing, movie studios are turning to social media chief officers to get the word out using the tools of Web 2.0.

Likewise, "freemium" is the new business strategy for novice game developers to cull profits. For instance, the NYT describes how a husband-and-wife team of game makers from North Carolina decided to give away their "Temple Run" iPhone game for free during "Free App Day" as a means to gain popularity and increase profits through additional game-related purchases.

Finally, having reached over 84 million hits in just a few weeks, the video Kony 2012 demonstrates the revolution in alternative video makers' ability to advocate for social justice by using social media to distribute its message.  Using a model of media literacy, I'll be presenting in class how the creation, publishing and distribution of news has been altered as a result of digital media.

Energizing the Groundswell through "Pinterest"

On March 12, 2012, The New York Times analyzed "Pinterest" and its unique ability to bring together  unique subscribers to amalgamate their own "online pin boards." The site has over 16.1 million unique users in January in the U.S. alone, and continues to grow.  How does it work?  The site energizes the groundswell by encouraging users to post photos of content from other online sites with personalized comments and ratings, thereby increasing traffic and exposure to commercial and social sites.  As authors Li and Bernoff explain, this technology draws from three basic principles, namely to "tap into customers' enthusiasm with ratings and reviews, create community, and participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts."  I know some of you have written about Pinterest, but are any of you avid users?  Share your experiences with us!

Jobs in Social Media

In the spirit of creating a shared learning community that values student "groundswell", this week's post comes to you courtesy of Dan Howard, who has kindly sent the updated social media jobs salary guide.  Keep striving forward--your job depends on the skills you learn today.

Those Millions on Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit

 

Every time you press the "like" button on a site linked up with Facebook, you're monetizing its 'daily users' number, according to the New York Times article Feb 7, 2012.  This finding pertains to Li and Bernoff's discussion of best practices for associating groundswell with appropriate measures for social networking.   Tune in for more discussion in class!

Great New York Times article (2/1/12) on Facebook users's personal data as it can attract advertisers to reach out to more than 800 million users. 

Article Excerpt:  
"Facebook, the vast online social network, is poised to file for a public stock offering on Wednesday that will ultimately value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, cashing in on the fuel that powers the engine of Internet commerce: personal data.

The company has been busily collecting that data for seven years, compiling the information that its more than 800 million users freely share about themselves and their desires. Facebook’s value will be determined by whether it can leverage this commodity to attract advertisers, and how deftly the company can handle privacy concerns raised by its users and government regulators worldwide.

As the biggest offering of a social networking company, the sale is the clearest evidence yet that investors believe there is a lot of money to be made from the social Web. Facebook’s dominance in this field has left Google, a Web king from an earlier era — less than a decade ago — racing to catch up.

Facebook is considered so valuable because it is more than the sum of its users. More than the world’s largest social network, it is a fast-churning data machine that captures and processes every click and interaction on its platform."

Welcome!

 

Hello Everyone:
It's exciting to embark upon our class's course blog.  This spring term, we will be learning the art of blogging as it allows us to discuss social media.  The first step will be to have all students enroll as users to the site.  We will begin this on the first day of class.