My Blogging Experience

For the social media project, I chose to set up a Blog Spot using www.blogger.com. My Blog Spot address is http://thejriesbergzone.blogspot.com/. I found it to be very useful, where I posted different activities and subjects that we had covered in our E-Commerce marketing class over the previous months. Creating and using the Blog Spot seemed to be more personalized than Facebook, and it would be good for posting information and pictures about myself and would be good for people to follow me like family members, friends or co-workers. My sister has a very nice Blog Spot that she uses to update people on things her and the family have been up to, along with many pictures of the baby girls as they continue to get older. The Blog Spot is also useful if you are searching for a post or picture from a certain time period, documenting blog posts by month and year on the right side of the page. I also like the feature of being able to monitor and see who is following your Blog and linking to other followers Blogs. I will continue to use my Blog Spot page, changing the information from the E-Commerce subject to a more personalized page with info about myself and pictures. This project was beneficial in helping me learn more about Blogging and how I can use it to publish information about myself or whatever subject matter I want people to see.

Jenn and Jess SMproject!

http://its-about-time.typepad.com/its-about-time/2010/11/this-is-it-the-last-post-fall-2010.html

This is it the last post fall 2010

In starting a blog on TypePad, we learned that there are so many details and so much more to think about than just writing something down. We didn't think that it would be so difficult to think of what to talk about and make it interesting enough to make others want to read it. Since our blog was about other social networking sites, it was very beneficial to join these others sites and learn more about them. My particular favorite was Soup.io, I had a lot of fun adding a mixture of things to my Soup page. The biggest thing we were surprised to learn on our quest, was that there are fewer social networking sites out there that are suitable for companies than we previously thought. The biggest benefit we got from this project was learning about many of the different social networking sites out there and it will really benefit both of us in our careers as marketing has become more social.

After signing up for Flickr, YouTube, digg, twitter and using blogger for our class project, we quickly learned that there are many tools out there for communicating but with these tools come great risk. As I apply for internships and jobs I have to watch what its said on each, even Facebook. It can be very detrimental if what you blog about is negative about anything really.

I found Flickr to be a lot like Facebook without the silly games just post pictures for family and friends! Digg and blogger are just for personal journals, experiences one wants to write about and if they write it right then people want to read it. Its more like for writers who have opinions or great imagination that just need a venue to get their ideas out there.

Now YouTube is one of the most popular and for a reason. You can YouTube anything and learn from it. You can post videos that can work like commercials without payments, increase traffic to websites with YouTube viral that get shared on social networking sights. Though it’s a little odd and you have to play around with it a bit. I used it for the class project and you couldn’t hear what I was saying but when I played it back it sounded fine at home.

So after this semesters project Jess and I have definitely learned more ways to advertise, network, and communicate but also as we both graduate and go on to find jobs we have learned that we have to watch what we say because it can be seen by every one!

Second Life Drew Collins

For the social media project I decided to do the second life option where you create an avatar and customize that person and everything that they do. I really liked how easy and interactive the game was. I made a total of 14 friends during my time in second life but I found that people did not just friend you because you asked them, people wanted you to chat with them. This really was a second life and people did take this very seriously. I enjoyed visiting all of the different towns. In some places I met people that would be playing concerts or doing stand up comedy certain nights of the week. I also saw people that actually bought land in the game and put their logo on the house. Other than that i really didnt see second life as being somewhere that you would strive to promote your business. I think that this is a great way to meet new people and get your name out their or be nvolved in a more interactive source of social media

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Lab that was first launched in the summer of 2003. Second Life uses entities that represent users called Avatars. Avatars can range from people to animals to even plants. It is free to register however to really get involved in the game can cost some money.

My experience with Second Life started with the registration process. Registration requires downloading software and creating a profile. Not everyone can have optimal performance when using second life because it does operate as a pc game which does require minimal operating graphics and computer speed. Once I created my profile and had my Avatar I was free to roam the Second Life world. Second Life feels much like a video game although there is no real objective other than to perhaps communicate with other Avatars through local chat or instant messeging. Other actions include building a house, seeing a concert, or just walking around building you Second Life network.

Second Life has grown to be a media forum that different industries can use. For example, Second Life is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities. Second Life residents can express themselves creatively through virtual world adaptations of art exhibits, live music, and live theatre. Secone Life also gives companies the option to create virtual workplaces to allow employees to virtually meet, hold events, practice any kind of corporate communications, and conducting training sessions.

In addition to these industry applications I also had a first hand experience to how businesses are using Second Life for advertismenst. While walking this virtual world I came accross different advertisments for well known comopanies such as Sony, Nissan, and Coca Cola. They had billboards and flyers set up around the Second Life community.

My overall experience with Second Life was interesting but I dont think it is a big enough media forum for smaller companies to want to invest in advertising. Second LIfe also has some major drawbacks such as having a minimum system setting to work properly.

LinkedIn Project Summary

We have spent the past month or so familiarizing ourselves with LinkedIn. We had much success creating an account and figuring out how to use LinkedIn, however we were unable to find people we know on LinkedIn to follow us. We did join a bunch of marketing groups and received a lot of notifications updating us with marketing events and news. We did not have much luck networking due to the limited time but we were able to learn the ropes of LinkedIn. It is something that we both plan to use on our own and create personal accounts so we can start to network. We also created a blog that follows our progress on LinkedIn. Again, we did not have many followers on LinkedIn so there was nobody to check out our blog. Everybody should check out our blog though to get some feedback on LinkedIn. We definitely recommend using LinkedIn especially if you are looking to professionally network. They just partnered with PwC and released Career Explorer which helps graduating students find careers! So check it out, and check out our blog for more info at http://socialmedialinkedin.blogspot.com

Julie S. and Sarah K.

Have you heard of Gowalla?

Sarah Radke and I had initially chosen to try to understand the world of Second Life to get an insight into the innovative form of social networking. As soon as we registered as new users, we found several immediate problems. In order to become a part of Second Life, the program needed to be downloaded to our laptop hard drives. Neither of us had enough space on our computers to support the program so we had to alter our initial curiosity.

I had first learned about Gowalla in another marketing class and suggested it to Sarah. Not a lot of people have heard of this site so we decided to investigate further. We began registering as new users and started using the services.

For those of you who haven't heard of this site before, Gowalla is a social networking site linked to your smart phone. You "check-in" to different locations to rack up points and badges. If you have the most amount of check-ins in a particular spot, you become the major of that place. It's a great way to share the places you've been with your friends. Gowalla serves as Foursquare's primary competitor. (Foursquare is another social network in which you can "check-in") Foursquare has more popularity than Gowalla but I don't think it's as interesting.

We suggest that you all create accounts and add us as friends! It's a great way to stay in touch!