Social Media Blog

Archive for March, 2011

I chose Coca-Cola as the big name brand company because I love Coke products.  I checked their corporate website and looked all over and could not find any links to twitter or facebook.  However, when I typed Coca-Cola into the facebook search I found a ton of fan pages for Coca-Cola.  They have their official page on facebook, but they have fan pages for their specific brands of soda and they have a ton of unofficial fan pages as well.  I would say that Coke has an official presence on Facebook, but I feel like they don’t need the facebook presence.  They are such a well known multinational company that a facebook presence is a minimal expense they can afford to really not any money on.  I would say if anything, people on facebook are advertising for facebook already and giving them a social media presence. If i was in charge of Coke’s social media presence, I would honestly tell you that my work does not offer much to the company.  Like I said, Coca-Cola is known worldwide and even without a social media presence it will continue to be successful company through word of mouth and national advertisements.

A smaller company I really like I decided to check for was Breakaway Bikes.  This place has a presence on campus right across the street from the Library.  They come on certain days to take care of any bike problems for a small fee of course and everytime I have had to interact with them, they have been nothing, but helpful and kind.  After I purchased by fixed gear bike, I went to the their Center City store to get my bike tuned-up and get some parts replaced.  They had it finished on that day within less than an hour and I was out of that store riding my bike again.  Ive been to their site multiple times and I can tell you that they have a facebook page and twitter account.  They also have an official facebook page with about 3000+ friends and I have even seen some fan sites on their as well.  I think they do a really good job of using facebook and twitter to their advantage by offering discounts and keeping people updating about whats happening with the store and with general bike news.  They seem to mainly use their presence on the web like facebook to just continue to find ways to reach out to the local people who live around the city and attend schools like Temple.  They want to educate you on bikes and give you discounts when they become available at their stores. Overall, I think they do a great job at presenting themselves through the use of facebook and twitter.

If I was in charge of Facebook for a company, I would measure the success by how many friends the pages had and by the many “Likes” that people are able to vote on.  I think the more Likes and friend requests my company page had, would show me how strong my product is and well liked by the consumers.  Twitter on the other hand would have to be measured by the amount of re-tweets and as well as who are re-tweeting our tweets.  If we have mass amount of tweets that great, but if we are being tweeted by professional cyclers or those who have importance to the industry that would be great.  Overall, I think social media presence can be great for a company especially smaller local companys trying to get their names out there.  However, for the larger companies like Coca-Cola, it is really not that necessary.  They already have a large following and do not need the social media presence to continue to be successful.

I added 5 new widgets to my blog today. I went to Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets > moved widgets I wanted into the sidebar

1.Recent Posts

2. Blogroll (links)

3. Search

4. Recent Comments

5. Whos Online?

I chose these 5 because they seemed to be the most useful to myself and other people that may be looking at my site.  Recent posts I actually did that because I was following a guide I saw during the beginning of the year and thought it would be a great idea to see where I was on my blogs. I put up the links mainly for some quest points, but I thought I’d share some sites that I like to visit.  I am a avid soccer fan and I think if others are interested in soccer, these sites would be good places to keep yourself updated on. The search function I thought was a cool idea.  If people wanted to maybe look up a certain subject I might of written about or if someone from class wants to see my blog on a question that was asked in class, they could just type in the title.  I actually used it just now before writing this so I could put my intro blog post on my front page to make it a bit more personal.  The comments widget i put up, but unfortunately I don’t have any comments to begin with.  I am gonna have to find a way to change that, maybe I’ll share this blog with some friends.  Finally, I put the who’s online one with cause you never know when you might have a question about something from class and if you recognize someone, you could ask them.  It would be much better than sending out one of those mass emails to the class that can get really annoying.

Drawing from the definitions in the book, describe in what ways the organization represents a decentralized organization and it what ways it is centralized. If you had to pick one term to define it, would you call it mostly decentralized, a hybrid, or centralized? If the organization has any national or international structure, be sure to consider both the local chapter as well as any larger organizational levels

I am a part of Gamma Iota Sigma which is the Risk Management club here at Temple University.  I would say that Gamma Iota Sigma is very decentralized in the fact that they are controlled mainly by the students in the different schools where they are present.  It is a student organization that is run heavily by students for the students.  It is a club to network with professionals in the Insurance and Risk Management industry and also for students to broaden their scope of education.  The reasons I say it is decentralized is because they are run by students in each school differently.  The kind of activities that they have can be completely different from one school to another.  It is also evident in the fact that some are better than others by the yearly Gamma meetings that are held at a different school each year. They give out awards for clubs that are doing an excellent job in categories like networking, charity activities, social activities, etc.

I would say this organization is also centralized in the aspect that there are heads of this organization in that they have a President and such of the entire organization. They also have rules of conduct and such that chapters have to abide by and dues are due as well from each individual organization I believe.  Also this organization is on a national level and these chapters that we have do need to follow the certain rules of conduct that are outlined in the handbooks.

In my opinion I would say this organization is very decentralized.  They operate by themselves in almost complete autonomy and the only time the national organization would really intervene is if a chapter was doing something against the code of conduct and rules that are outlined in the handbooks.

I think that ideology and and fellow believers are somewhat similar.  They are both communities that are built around the idea of being a part of something and being a believer of the same things.  They are usually passionate in their beliefs and look to find others to find themselves to associate with that believe in the same things that the organization was founded on.  These two ideas are very similar overall in my opinion.

Out of the 3 S’s I think support makes the most sense to me.  You should be out there supporting those that are a part of your community. Also if you are an expert on the topic, it would be nice to go out there in social media and spread the word.  That way people that don’t know about the community can maybe stumble on it from an interesting post you put up and  decide to join the community thus increasing the size and potential media power of your community.

I like the article and the emphasis that building a community is not about selling it to people.  Id rather have a small group of members that are loyal and have the same beliefs and that is why they joined.  I would not necessarily mind people who we have changed their mind into joining the community, but people who have that same belief in the ideas of the community would be much better.  The 3 S’s are very interesting and make a lot of sense to me.  You should be out there Sharing the information, you should search for like minded individuals and support those that have the same belief and ideology of you.

I think its very viable to launch a facebook only news portal because there are so many users on facebook who spend hours upon hours of time on facebook.  Facebook is now not just young teens and college students who use it, but im starting to see more and more adults who are in their 30′s – 50′s using it now.

I think a major advantage to facebook is the growing amount of users on it and how its available in so many different countries and how it spans cultural and language barriers.  A major disadvantage would have to be that it is not known for legitimate news.  It may take some time for people to start to see facebook as a legitimate news portal and for others to take it seriously.  Also, it is not something that everyone uses either.  I know some people who refuse to use things like twitter and facebook and you could potentially be missing out on millions of people who prefer a hard copy.

If I were to create a new organization it would have to be heavily media based, but I would also offer hard copies.  I would do it kind of how the Wall Street Journal does it.  I would give you the option to get both access to a hard copy and a digital copy.  If you want the hard copy however, you would have to pay a small premium because there are the extra costs of printing and delivering the the material.