My Le Bui's Social Media Adventure

Archive for February, 2011

How:

[1] Go to your dashboard

[2] At the left sidebar, click on pluggins

[3] There will be a list of 25 pluggins, you go down the list and “activate” whichever you want

[4] If you go all the way to the top of the pluggins page, it will let you know how many pluggins you have active and how many are inactive.

Why:

[1] Google Calendar: I want to mainly use this calendar to update various events that are happening within Philly that students may find of interest. It can be anything from social events to networking events.

[2] SlideShare: Since there are some tasks within this quest that will require me to create slide show of some sort. I feel this will be better use for the reader’s viewing experience, rather than click to a link to get to the slide show. It would be better to have the slide show embed within the blog post.

[3] Viper’s Video Quicktags: This is also for the same reason as SlideShare. At this very moment, I am experience with the process of putting a video together. From the conception to the post production, I am self teaching myself. Hopefully, I can have something up by the end of this semester, if time allow. By going back and re-reading some of my post, I realized that I have pictures in too many of them. Sometimes, I would like to diversify ways in responding to weekly discussion.

Social media, like other information outlets, can undoubtedly influence public opinion. What ethical considerations do you think governments and corporations should have when attempting to influence others? Does a creating fake online persona go too far? Does it matter if the government or a corporate does it? Does it matter if the target is US citizens or “foreign foes”?

It’s not a big surprise that the governments and corporations want to use social media to their benefit. Social media is an enormous information network to spread false propaganda through fake online identities. Although the government declares it doesn’t favor online censorship, when their secrets come out to the lime light, it appears to be fine with approving devious tactics. While the government can talk a decent talk, what it does and what it says often doesn’t seem to blend. It’s unethical for government to use fake accounts in order to deceive the general public about policies or ideas. However, if it’s a military strategy to win in warfare then they can get away with it. National securities will be top priority on the agenda.

As for corporation, I know they do hire people to have phony online accounts to give inaccurate rating for their product or service in order to enhance their image. Credibility is critical, without it, no one cares what you have to say. For both government and corporation, once trust is broken – it will be tough to recuperate. It doesn’t matter who you target, whether if they’re US citizens or foreigner because using social media (or any medium for that matter) to deceive the public is unethical.

This reminds me of recent speech Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered called, “Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices and Challenges in a Networked World.”  The Sectary said:

“The internet has become the public space of the 21st century — the world’s town square, classroom, marketplace, coffeehouse, and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there, all 2 billion of us and counting. And that presents a challenge. To maintain an internet that delivers the greatest possible benefits to the world, we need to have a serious conversation about the principles that will guide us, what rules exist and should not exist and why, what behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how.”

Yet, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported, “For every strong statement about preserving liberty, freedom of expression, and privacy on the global Internet, there exists a countervailing example of the United States attempting to undermine those same values.”

image courtesy of romanlogic.com

I have decided to register for TopCoder after the in class presentation.  I have learned quite a bit about TopCoder, it is the largest competitive software development community with approximately 200,000 developers representing various countries.  By using a world-wide participant base and large library of software components, TopCoder pursues to decrease the cost of software development meanwhile also increasing the speed of applications creation and the quality of the final product. Since, I am on the path to acquire all I can about information technology; this was the perfect opportunity to sign up for something that was offer for free.

The first thing that captures my interest after signing up at their web site was their design competition.  Their website provides plenty of resources for you to utilize if you want to enter a competition.  Ideas are where the development all begins. Perhaps you have an idea you’re dying to try or maybe you need some inspiration to get to that ultimate realization. Either way, you can emerge into a community that are going to think about ideas, add to it, take away from it, and so much more. Eventually, if you decide to continue they’ll tell you how it can be constructed.

By joining the TopCoder community, I hope it will open up enormous resources. From the initiative idea to the final creation, it’s an educational process. I will definitely try to explore thoroughly through their website and make my membership worth it.

www.whatsoniphone.com

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Click here to view my photoslide.

I find animoto.com through www.go2web20.net, it’s a directory fill with web applications. I find it extremely useful for this class. Check it out for yourself.

I make this photoslide through animoto.com, which is a company that was founded “to help people better share their stories and express themselves through online media by innovating technologies in the field of video production. Using the latest in entertainment post-production technologies, Animoto is designed to bridge the gap between the high production value of film and television, and the more “amateur” feeling of most user-created videos and photo albums.”

Vietnamese culture may still be mysterious to most people outside the country. The people of Vietnam have a unique and charming culture that has been shaped by thousands of years of history. Their culture has been influenced by many other civilizations. From all these outside influences, and centuries of war, domination, and adversity, they have molded, and maintained their culture. They are well versed in the arts, and have made numerous contributions to the world of literature. This is just a visual representation of the Vietnamese culture in 30 seconds! (since I am not willing to pay for the advance features)

Click Link —> my photography slide – slideshow with music

Image Courtesy of toons.optimum7.com

What role do you think social media should play in emergency response? If you were in a natural disaster or some other type of emergency situation, in what ways would you turn to social media?

Could a simple tweet help save a life? Perhaps. Although many people come to know social media as a place fill with regular carefree tweets and status updates. It’s gradually growing as a routine use in emergencies. One thing is for sure, the public’s use of social media in time of crises is rising. I strongly believe in the transformative power of the Internet, and how it could be used in catastrophe situations.

Years since the Hurricane Katrina occurred, social media has exploded, and its potential for use in crises was clear after the Haiti earthquake. Until recently, the political revolution in Egypt further demonstrates the usage of online communication. These online platforms is educating the public and letting them know how they can help out.

Social Media can be used as an information hub, where interested parties needed updates on critical condition. The involvement of social media in the response to emergencies is supportive, and there is no doubt that today’s modern approach to communication is a significant component in effective emergency attentiveness. This technology is evolving, and as a community we should be conscious of the opportunities that this dynamic new set of tools offers.

If I was in a natural disaster, my first reaction is to call for help. Communicating with people through mobile would increase my chance of reaching someone for rescue immediately. However, using social media when I’m stuck somewhere during a disaster would most likely come second. It’s all a matter of timing. A simple phone call will get immediate response while tweeting or status updates may not reach my intended audience in time.

Image Coutesy www.perfectcirclepr.co.uk

I completely agree with Craig Donato’s post about the importance of building meaningful relationship in online communities with a conversational tone which will require “marketer to act human.”

Businesses cannot aim to build their company in the old way of marketing to consumers anymore. Now, the power is in the consumer’s hand.  Facebook fan pages that promote too much will turn off followers. It must have a balance in order to retain these followers.  By engaging through conversations, a facebook fan pages will have a strong base of loyal fans. Marketer’s goal should be to build an emotional connection with customers to their brand.

The majorities of my “like” for facebook fan pages are usually pages that are consistently updated, create interesting discussion, have interesting photo albums, links and various others. Advertising that tried to sell to us doesn’t influence us the way it used to. If I want to purchase something such as a car, computer, or mp3 player, I would normally read the reviews online or ask my family and friend for recommendation.  I would take into consideration of people’s opinions that have used a particular product or service before and have positive feedback. It would increase my chance of buying that product or using that service.

Image Courtesy of interactyx.com

Facebook banned from the workplace!

Do you agree or disagree that “Facebook should be banned in the workplace”? Would you work for a company that banned the use of Facebook?

Whether it be facebook, twitter, youtube, tumblr, reddit or any other social media outlets of your preference, it is a fact that most of the tools, sites, and channels are time-consuming nature. Normally, if you are to waste your own private time working around those communities, sharing information, watching video clips, meeting new people, then it would be acceptable. However, it’s when your usage of these social media gets out of your home and steps into your working hours that may stir up some troubles.

From personal experience, how I see it is that unless your job description include you utilizing facebook for public relations, marketing, promotion, online communities, customer engagement and interaction, if not it will cause serve damage to the quality of your work. For professional in the industry, it’s their job. They don’t go on facebook to view their friend’s profile or to chat. These workers’ job is to analyze the facebook’s communities for their company. It’s part of the job.

The majority of the problem lies in people abusing the system and using it for personal enjoyment. It can get quite addictive. A mere ten minutes can easily become one hour if not more.  Which lead to an unproductive work and a decrease in the quality of work you will provided. When people take mini break to log into facebook it’s acceptable. The line is cross when it goes beyond that to more than a hour. If it’s necessary, then facebook should be banned from the workplace.

Since my interest is online communities and marketing, I want to work for a companies that allow facebook access.

5 Widgets I selected

In order to properly install the widgets into my class blog, I have did a little exploring and getting use to the Fox MIS community site. Although, I have a bit of experience in term of using the blog, I am still fairly new to its functionalities. After a few clicks here and there, I finally figure out how to install widgets into my blog! Well, what is widget anyway? It’s basically movable and sharable mini-applications. Each blogger will have reason for using the widget they selected. In the end, it’s to enhance the experience and traffic on your site.Widgets are easy and simple way to add flare to your blog. Whether you like to display the number of currently online visitors or show a list of your favorite links, you can do it with widgets.

Here are the steps

(1) Go to your dashboard

(2) To the left of the dashboard menu will be a list of options, click on “appearance”

(3) Then click on “widgets” and start adding the one you like

(4) To add the widgets to your page, you can drag the widget you want to the right sidebar

Widgets I pick and why

(1) blogroll – This is to simply showcase some of the few favorite websites of mine. Besides all of my blog posts, these links on the side will definitely attract visitors to click on. It will also give you a taste of what I like.

(2) search – The search bar is to easily find topic that are of interest to you that I may write about. (tag may help) It’s allow visitors to search for specific content within the confines of my blog. I also purposely put it first on the list of widget.

(3) archives – A collection of blog that is categorized by the month and how many post within that month. I just want to look back on the post later. And maybe, readers would want to go back, too – that if they like what I have currently.

(4) tag – In my opinion, one of the more powerful and underutilized blogging tools is the ability to tag your posts. By using tags I can provide a more granular way to break down the content on the blog. This break down can provide alternate navigation paths to the content for both humans and search engines. I figure it would be useful.

(5) google’s analytic – I am just curious.