Social Media coming to an end....or is it?

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Over the last semester I have learned a lot about the world of "Social Media."  When I first got to the class I thought we were just going to talk about Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.  You know the three main websites that everyone thinks define "Social Media."  Throughout the semester I learned how to make my own Facebook and Twitter pages effective enough, to the point where it is presentable to possible job opportunities.  

I also learned how to make a Facebook fan page effective.  With the knowledge I gained from hearing and seeing a useful fan page, I think that I am more enlightened about how to make and maintain a successful page if I ever have to make one.

Aside from just learning about social media tools, I now have a much better grasp on how to use them wisely in order to reach the most people.  Monitoring Klout scores helps assess the usefulness of a Twitter account.  Although my personal score is around 30, it has grown tremendously from where it was a month ago.

I don’t really like LinkedIn or find it to be extremely useful to me, but I do see how it can be useful as a professional networking site.  I don’t really check my account very often, unless someone sends me a add request or a question that they ask me.  Besides that, I now have the skills to keep a LinkedIn profile and now know the potential it has.

I think one of the most valuable things I learned through Social Media was how to use Twitter. I had no idea what to do when I first started, but now I see what an important tool it truly is. I foresee it gaining popularity and becoming even more influential than it is today.

My advice to my fellow journalism colleagues is that they should definitely take the Social Media class if they can, you will learn a lot about pretty much anything that you will ever want to know about “Social Media,” it is important to have knowledge above and beyond what you thought your knowledge could have ever been.  My favorite hashtag would have to be #jmcawesome because it pretty much sums everything that the Creighton University Journalism Department stands for.

Is your page effective?

(Image via LogoPond.com)

The Invisible Children is a non-profit organization which through hundreds of volunteers and students, aid is brought to Northern Uganda in hopes of ending the longest running war in Africa. Invisible Children fights to end a genocide of people, while also trying to create a better world.

It seems that Invisible Children does use their Facebook page effectively. In the information section, the page has the founded, about, company overview, mission and websites sections filled out and it seems that they did it effectively. There are a lot of pictures on the organization's Facebook page, many of them are the logo but there are also pictures of people around the world who are doing something to support the organization. The wall posts consist of people commenting about how the Invisible Children organization came to their school's to talk about the organization.

To make this page better, I think that the organization should add events to the page. Maybe try showing where they are going to travel to to talk about what they are all about and what they are doing for the world.  I think that people spend time on this page because they want to learn more about the organization as well as looking through photos and watching videos to see what people around the world have done with this organization.  There are about 340,00 likes on this organization's Facebook page, the wall is updated every couple hours or so.

The College(Web)Life



http://www.facebook-stunt.com/

Throughout the United States the majority of college students spend their time on one website. Not their school website, not youtube, not myspace, but Facebook. Facebook is keeping students from writing papers, doing homework and reading textbooks. This social network has replaced every other social network out there and is still growing. People think that they need facebook, because "everyone else is doing it."
College students are becoming addicted to facebook, it is the new drug that is taking over the lives of everyone around me. It destroys your real social life. Why not go outside and hang out with your friends rather than feeding your pet in pet society or taking care of your restaurant in restaurant city? Seriously. It's pointless to play those games, it will just make you wierd and anti-social. Facebook will waste your time and I really do mean WASTE it. Nothing good will happen to you even if you get the highest scores in the games or posted the most posts, why is that important in college students lives? None of your real friends care if you get the highest scores, what people cares about is having the best time of their lives in their real physical life, by that I mean hanging out wityh your friends, spending time with your family and helping others.  You'd even be wasting your parents money with facebook with the electricity bills so why not do your parents a favor and do also yourself a favor by going out or at least read a book, come on now.

According to the Why Facebook is Bad for Your Health "person" on Facebook:

1. When you sit at a computer on Facebook for any length of time, you kill vital brain cells.

2. It is unhealthy to stalk both yourself and others.
3. Stop looking at your own photos- you are so vain!
4. Facebook makes you worry about what other people think- why do you think they like to comment?
5. You do not have 1000 friends-stop kidding yourself.
6. It makes you wonder why nobody is talking to you on facebook chat- they’re only looking at their own profiles, just like you!
7. “Why has no one left me a notification in the last three minutes!?!?!?!?”- Get a life!
8. He’s not going to fall in love with you because you have facebook stalked every photo and comment left by all his friends!!
9. Facebook makes you chuckle with glee at others misfortunes, Yes that slut from school is working in McDonalds!
10. No one needs to know every aspect of your life through your status- if they want to know that you’re tired at 11pm they will ASK!
11. Facebook hating of pretty friends wont make you happier OR prettier.
12. Just because facebook suggests that there are people you may know, it doesn’t mean you know them!
13. Invite your friends to join Facebook? Why would you want to invite your friends into a stalking routine? They will only stalk you back!
14. Stalking wall to walls is not cool. Although it is their own fault for publicly publishing their conversations.
15. Parents have become Facebook savvy- is this cool? Or just Stalkerish?
16. In reference to no. 15, will you do this to your children??
17. Facebook can make you lonelier.
18. No-one sensors their photo uploads. – do we want to see you on the bog?
19. Everyone including your manager, mother and mangy haired stalker can see EVERYTHING you do on their “News Feed.”
20. We cant publish this list anonymously on Facebook!
21. Facebook- its free and anyone can join!

Once Upon a...I mean StumbleUpon a...

A website that I have found very important in my procrastination is StumbleUpon, it is a website that has you pick things that are interesting to you and then generates random websites that match up with the things that are of interest to you.  I really enjoy this website; I have been able to fnd a lot of cool things while procrastinating my homework and writing papers.  I have found some pretty cool games while stumbling, along with really good quotes and things that I could also blog about. 

There is a Thumbs Up bottom that you can click on if you like the page that you are on.  It is true, I think, that the traffic that comes from most social media sites is basically all or nothing.  The popular pages may receive thousands of visitors.  There’s really no middle ground in the number of visitors that a page receives. Even if only a few people give the page a thumbs up and maybe a review or something, it will cause a significant amount of traffic for that page.

I think that StumbleUpon is a great site for networking, it builds on social media sites.  It is easy to add friends and keep them, join and be active in groups and even send email to other people directly from StumbleUpon.  Even though i don't used the StumbleUpon message system to communicate with people I am friends with, I hear that it is a good way to keep in touch with the friends that you make on StumbleUpon.  The networking that I’ve been able to do on StumbleUpon has been very valuable, it has helped me meet some very interesting people and understand what they are trying to do with themselves.  StumbleUpon is a close second behind Facebook for networking, but that is more because I am in college and the majority of the people I know and try to keep in touch with are on there.

Media in My World

Throughout my life media has always been a big part, but I think that Internet media has become a big part of the media world.  It started off with Myspace, connecting people from all around the world together to be "friends" so you can talk, look at pictures and make new friends.  There were millions of people all around the world that were and still are on Myspace, people were following the social norm for that time period.
Then, YouTube came about, it skyrocketed video sharing throughout the world.  It is free to sign up and you can put up any video you want as long as it does not show too much skin.  There are probably over a billion videos on YouTube right now, think about it, there are probably more videos online than there are people in the world.  That is kind of crazy.
As Myspace seemed to fall from the top spot in the United States Facebook popped up to be the new Internet media sensation and take the spotlight from Myspace.  Facebook is the sensation that does what Myspace did but goes above and beyond what Myspace couldn't do.  Facebook allows people to keep in touch on a more personal level, and pretty much "creep" on what their friends are doing throughout the day and in their lives.  It is pretty much like talking to someone who is a friend or an acquaintance and figure out pretty much anything you every wanted to know about them.  It is also a good way to meet and connect with people in the real world and the job world.  Another thing that popped up and made talking with friedns so much easier is Texting.  It has made it easier to get ahold of someone if you don't have enough time to call them.  It is quick and a lot easier than calling someone and everything else.  Texting has made a huge impact on people in the world especially on those who are in junior high, high school and college.  Kids these days find it a better way to get a hold of their friends especially when they are in class and supposed to be doing homework haha.  But seriously, texting is another thing that has changed the media world.     
At the same time Flickr, Twitter and Blogs started showing up.  Flickr is photo sharing, hundreds of thousands of people put up their pictures that can be accessed by anyone online.  I don't use Flickr, so I don't really understand it all that much but I hear it is a good thing to be a part of if you want to get travel photos out on the internet.  I think that blogs are a pretty legitimate, they let people speak their mind on pretty much any issue that is at hand or really anything that you can think of (like what I am doing right now).  Twitter is something that allows people to "follow" their friends, family members, celebrities, even local newspapers and news stations.  You get to put up a "status" of how you are feeling or what you are doing, you can also add links to websites and also pictures.  I just recently joined Twitter and I like it so far, I like to see all the stuff that people have to say and what pictures they put up.  It's a lot of fun.
The best thing about all of these programs are that you can sign up for FREE.  Making all of these free was a really good idea, it gives people the opportunity to do what that want to, not having to pay anything for it.  As of right now there are a lot of things that have to do with media but I think that as the media world evolves there will be more and more things that come up and make the media better than it is right now.