15. Life Updates

What's up everyone? Just thought I'd give a quick update because it's been a while since my last post. I spent the summer becoming Microsoft Certified and attained a Master Certification status in Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, and Powerpoint 2007. I explored graduate school options for a while but have decided it's better to wait until after I work for a little because I am unsure if I want a masters in IT or Marketing or an MBA. I am currently exploring job opportunities, traveling, and enjoying life. Until the next time.

Peace.

14. The Outro: Return on Investment

What's good y'all? This week's post is my final post of the semester for ITEC 335: Social Media & Business but don't get too sad because I plan on blogging from time to time on a variety of topics. Anyways, this week I read about how to measure social media ROI in articles by Aaron Uhrmacher and Jeremiah Owyang.

Social media ROI is something that no one seems to agree on how to measure. Uhrmacher believes that in order to measure ROI you must have a specific metric or set of metrics in mind before you begin such as corporate reputation or customer relationships. Once you have chosen your metric you must benchmark with yourself. If you want to measure how successful your SEO is then you can use tools such as Omniture or Google Analytics. This type of measure is far more quantitative. Owyang agrees with Uhrmachers guidelines and adds that we must also keep in mind "new" vs "old" media along with measuring new attributes that come along with this "new" media.

Social media is something that is constantly evolving and because of this there will never be a formula for how to measure social ROI. I do think that the guidelines by Uhrmacher and Owyang are a good start. Each company must decide what they are trying to measure and why because without a definite reason/goal for measurement then all of the analytics websites in the world won't help you improve your business.

I want to end this post by saying that it's been a pleasure to blog this semester and that this is something I never thought I would get interested but now I can see why so many people blog and its value to the business world.

Signing off for now but don't forget to check out my future posts!

PEACE.

13. The Future of Social Media

What's good y'all? I had a very fun and exciting weekend and I hope you did also. For this week's post I decided to Google: "future social media trends". I quickly found two articles which made predictions about future trends.

The first article I read is by Jim Tobin and he believes that social media is in its infancy period right now, which I agree with. He made one very interesting prediction that caught my eye, he believes that social networks will become open. What he means by that is that there will be a utility tool which will connect all social media sites together and allow you to travel easily among them. This would be a very cool feature but I am not sure how close we are to something like that.

The second article is by David Armano about trends for 2010. He predicts that social media will become more popular and more mobile but less social as well with niche social networking sites gaining popularity and more exclusivity. Another prediction he brought up is something that will effect most of us: the company you work for will soon have a social media policy regarding things you post and what is allowed.

Both articles I would recommend checking out. Also check out this great marketing tool: http://snipr.com/v6ecv. Anyways, the Bosssss is done for this week...time for bed. 1 HUNDO.

12. Search Engine Optimization

What's going y'all? This weeks topic is Search Engine Optimization. Last summer while interning at Sonesta Collection: Hotels, Resorts, and Cruises I compiled and analyzed metrics using Omniture and Google Analytics. I also made SEO strategy sheets for each hotel with a focus on Organic Strategy (title tags, keyword phrases, meta description) and Pay Per Click strategy (keywords, ad copy). This post will try to help you get a better understanding of SEO and how to improve your site's visibility.

First, I want to give a definition for people who don't know what SEO is. This is the definition from Clickz.com: The process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for the appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases.

Here are some basic steps on how to improve your SEO (if you want even more detail about this check out this clickz article). I would start off by defining your goals so that you can see if your SEO has been successful or not using an analytics tool. Next, I would research your competition's websites and see what websites they use. This is huge because if your goal is to take traffic that your competition would get for the same word and have that traffic redirected to your website. However, you need to be aware of the keywords that the competition has paid for because if you start using those keywords then you can yourself into some legal trouble. Another important aspect of SEO is making sure your title tags on every page on your site are unique and include the keywords that you want to target because this one of the most important ways to get your Google rank up thus creating more page views. After you have done these steps, I recommend you review your analytics tool to see how you are doing compared to your goals and then make adjustments accordingly.

In the end, proper SEO is the most important way for your website to increase its visibility and gain a prominent position in various searches.

Hope you enjoyed this week's post...The Bossssss is out. Happy Easter everyone!

11. Should Kogod encourage Social Resumes?

This week The Boss is going to discuss a term he had never heard of until today: social resumes. Brazen Careerist has recently added a social resume tool to their website which allows users to highlight ideas, blog posts, tweets, network conversations, and content you have created elsewhere. Users are still able to list and post standard resumes to the site but the whole idea of the tool is to help give employers a snapshot of your professional self based on things you do while online. I must say I think this is a very interesting idea. My only concern is how will employers respond to this because since the content is controlled by the user it doesn't give the full picture of the applicant so how seriously will social resumes be considered and are they even worth being created? If there become enough users making social resumes then this may become a great recruiting tool but until then I think that most students should be encouraged to find jobs through more traditional tools. To learn more about social resumes read this article Brazen Careerist Launches Social Resumes.

On another note, I recently came across an New York times article which discusses a new software, Social Sentry, that will automatically monitor employees activity on various social networking sites. Employees of companies as well as people searching for jobs need to become even more aware and protective of the things they post on social networking sites because if you are posting things deemed inappropriate your job search will be even harder and things like social resumes will do you no good.

That's all for this week y'all. Time for the Bosssss to get some well needed rest, until next time...

10. Online Collaboration

What's good y'all? I'm just gonna jump right into it this week. Online collaboration is a very valuable tool that even 1st graders in NJ are taking advantage of. Technology is really changing the way we learn, its kinda crazy. I don't even think that I had access to the internet in the 1st grade. The only thing schools' need to remember to do is block off certain sites which are not appropriate for all the little ones. By utilizing the internet at such a young age it is going to prepare young children for high school/college/real world far more than previous generations because online collaboration is one of the most helpful aspects that can used to complete homeworks, write papers, and work on group projects. If you want even more information about online collaboration in schools then check out the article I read.

The second article I read discussed how corporate culture drives online collaboration and not technology. I couldn't agree more with this article. If the corporate culture that you work in takes part in online collaboration and encourages/requires you to use it then you will but if not it is very easy to ignore online collaboration. The technology is there and will always be there but if the corporation doesn't make it apart of their culture then its something, besides IT people, that will not be utilized.

I suggest you guys to check out both articles. The Bosssssss is peacing out y'all...CHURCH.

9. Virtual Teamwork

The Boss is back from his spring break festivities in Seattle, not quite ready for school but ready to blog. This week I read "How to Pick your Million Dollar Crew" along with "6 Ways to Build Trust with your Virtual Team". I believe that virtual meetings between teams can add value to face to face interactions but virtual teams by themselves face many obstacles for success.

Being a senior in Kogod, I have been apart of many teams, however, none of them have been purely virtually based. In order to be most effective, I think that teams must have some kind of face to face interaction before they are able to create the trust necessary in order to be successful virtually. There is a lack of trust in virtual groups that makes it far more difficult to be efficient and successful.

I have been apart of groups where you choose your group and ones where your professor chooses them for you. I think it would be much easier to work virtually with a group that you choose verses one that is chosen for you.

The best groups I have been apart of are ones that set up times to meet up and then divide work up to be completely separately with communication continuing through gmail/gchat/google docs.

To conclude, I think that virtual teamwork is a very important aspect of successful groups but that it needs to be complemented with some kind of face to face interaction.

bosssssssssss OUT.

8. I feel bad for people who use Second Life

Today, I read about Second Life and virtual education. To be honest, I think that Second Life is used by people that have no real lives. I personally do not know anyone who has tried Second Life but once saw a True Life episode on MTV about it and every person who used it let it completely take over their lives (I know this isn't true of everyone). It kind of reminds of World of Warcraft.

Both articles I read talked about how it can add educational value. The problem is that I don't think that Second Life does that...it cannot replace the classroom and blackboard is a way better tool to have a virtual classroom on. It does not enhance the classroom because you must be familiar with Second Life for that too be true and most students are not. I don't think it is a good recruiting tool either. How many seniors in high school are going to research their college in Second Life as opposed to actually visiting the school or going to the school website.

So what do you guys think: Can Second Life be a valuable tool to help further education?

If anyone is interested in learning further about Second Life and virtual education here are the two articles I read Learning in Second Life: Virtual Education and Virtual World, Real Money in Second Life. Both articles propose advantages of Second Life and education so you may want to give them and look and then decide if you with me or not.

Been Bosssssssssssssin' since 88'.

7. Talking LinkedIn Along with a Funny Side Note Because It's My Birthday

What's good y'all? Today is the Bossssssssss' birthday (I'm 22) and I am currently in the library but I guess I can't complain because Mardi Gras was the best weekend/decision of my life.

I wanna talk about LinkedIn and how you can use it to get a job because it's tough these days. I just read an article by Brian Wallace titled "How to Get the Most out of LinkedIn" and it made me realize that I need to start using LinkedIn more since I am graduating soon and haven't made much of an attempt at finding a job. I created a LinkedIn account for one of my Kogod classes a while ago but have yet to really take advantage of what it has to offer.

LinkedIn is a great tool to expand your business network in the same way that Facebook is a great way to expand your social network. I think soon it will be standard for business majors to include that they have a LinkedIn profile as apart of their resumes. It is also an excellent tool to use for research: information before business meetings, information on interviewers for jobs, and background checks. It can also be used to gain knowledge in your industry by checking out questions that have been posted by other members.

Another reason why I plan on utilizing LinkedIn more is that I think it is here to stay because the fact is that they have 60 million users worldwide. I also believe they will come up with some innovative apps which will help make LinkedIn even more attractive and useful.

On another note, I was checking out an ESPN article earlier tonight about an Oregon WR who just got kicked off the football team by the head coach for making inappropriate posts and status updates, here is an example: "I wish I could block whites as friends as and have blacks LOL, cause apparently I'm misunderstood." I just found this too funny and had to post it...some people are just so dumb.

This is just another example of how you must about what you post in any social network because what you post/how you represent yourself can get you in a lot of trouble. How miserable would it be to be fired for you posted on facebook!

6. Mobile Media to Mardi Gras...GPS, the future?

The Boss had his flight to NO cancelled earlier today but will not let the snow stop him from getting to Mardi Gras. I am currently driving in Georgia right now with 3 other brave souls. I figured it was very appropiate to write my blog post for the week on mobile social networking by writing this via my blackberry(it might get a little choppy).

While on the 18 hour drive to NO I decided to read The Mobile Social: Not ready for Prime Time? By Caroline McCarthy and A Wireless Street Fight by Anita Hamilton. Both articles were about what's supposed to be the next big thing in mobile media: GPS like location based services. These devices are capable of locating who/what is near and around you via your mobile phone and are expected to push mobile social networking.

I, however, do not think that devices such as Yahoo's "proximity alerts" and Hello's Buddy Beacon will be the next big thing in mobile social networking.

Currently, I think there are too many technological, distribution, and most importantly privacy issues facing this relatively new mobile technology. I don't think that most consumers will be comfortable with disclosing their exact location even to most of their friends. I think that knowing the exact location of someone without them directly telling you is a little creepy.

Another concern I have for the success of this new product is that I'm not sure if there is a market for this mobile technology? This is a pretty expensive product and can be substituted by mapquest for the most part minus the proximity alerts. You can only use these location based services if your friends have it too which is another reason this technology will have troubling entering the prime time.

In the end, I think location based services will be another fad and not a revolutionary mobile media tool but I guess only time will tell.

Alrite, its snowing in Alabama right now...not cool. Bosssssssssss OUT.

5. Marketers Need to Catch Up

Just finished watching the super bowl and I couldn't be more satisfied with result (Colts/Manning lose and everyone at Mardi Gras will be going even crazier when I arrive in NO later this week). This week I read 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging along with Conversational Marketing: Word of Mouse.

I think that corporate blogging and advertising on social media sites are very much the same with corporate blogs being less visible. However, they both encounter the similar problems. With that being said marketers need to adapt. I feel as though most corporate blogs/Facebook fan pages treat their sites purely as press releases and are missing the point completely. They are just following the crowd and making these pages because everyone else is too but with no real direction as to why they are doing so.

In order to connect with consumers in a social setting, marketers need to realize that people need to feel engaged and as though they are communicating/making a connection with a human being and not just become another number apart of the corporation's blog circle/fan page.

I believe that facebook, myspace, and twitter have and will continue to change advertising but I do not believe corporate blogging will have the same effect. I think that creating a following via social media sites is much more feasible than creating a corporate blog because it is easier to get your voice out. I understand you can post links to your blog from these social media sites but lets be serious...no one is going to click on these links.

In the end, marketers and corporations should focus more time and effort into developing their presence on social media sites as opposed to corporate blogs because they present more opportunities to connect with users.

No school tomorrow...think it's time to start another snowball fight! Hope everyone enjoys the day off as much as the Bosssssssssss. Until next time y'all.

4. Ignorance is Bliss

Hope everyone had a great weekend (I'm still depressed about Kobe's game winner vs the Celtics today but ill save that for another time).

This week the Boss will discuss articles by Duncan Riley and Andrew Keen where each author takes an opposing view of the internet and web 2.0.

I want to start off by saying I completely agree with Duncan Riley. I believe he is a little harsh towards Doris Lessing, but feel as though he wanted to make his position clear. I believe that Doris Lessing is just one of those old people that is stuck in their ways and is ignorant to the power of the internet. She probably thinks the internet is only social media and meaningless blogs (which to an extent it is) but what Doris is forgetting about or ignorant to are the numerous benefits that the internet gives us. The internet provides users with infinite amount of knowledge at their disposal along with the ability to share ideas and compare views. There are so many people in the world who know about certain things that they would have never known about if not for the internet.

In regards to Andrew Keen, I see him as an author who is taking a bold stand against a popular tool (the internet/web 2.0) in order to make himself relevant and maybe even make a couple bucks with his new book. For example, he starts his article off with a bragpost about how he was on The Colbert Report and implies that Colbert is a web 2.0 elitist as well while giving no evidence that this is so. He seems to really relish in his elitist views.

Keen argues that the internet provides less accurate and reliable portrait of the news than professionally edited newspapers, encyclopedias, or books which is something I completely disagree on. Most news stories on the internet have been cross referenced so many times by numerous sources that they are just as legitimate as information in print.

Keen appears to want to transform the internet into a closed gated community where people won't be google-ing for answers but they will search on Mahalo.com and DoneRight.com (professional search engines). He tries to forecast that expertise on the internet is going to be the next big thing which I applaud him for but he should really check out my blog post last week about crowdsourcing (I know, bragpost) and how the wave is only getting bigger.

***We must also keep in mind that Lessing and Keen are both authors so it makes sense that they would have negative views of the internet because the internet allows people access to so much stuff that odds are less people are going read their books, which probably annoys them to some degree.

In the end, I believe we should embrace the evolution and the power of the internet because it can be used as a great tool giving users limitless opportunities to make a positive impact on the world.

The Boss is done for now, time to cry myself to sleep over that Celtic's loss. We da best.

3. Riding the Wave of Crowdsourcing

The boss is back after a tiresome but very fun weekend. This week I want to discuss a controversial term which is creating a lot of buzz: crowdsourcing.

I read Dan's Wood's article The Myth of Crowdsourcing along with Jeff Howe's Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In. I found both articles to be very interesting.

I must say that I disagree with Dan Wood's opinion on crowdsourcing. I agree that individuals come up with ideas/concepts but crowdsourcing can be a very valuable tool. It allows for a large number of people to collaborate and contribute to improving an idea. The more people that are able to think about an idea the better the solution will be to almost any problem. Crowdsourcing also allows for easy access to feedback on ideas.

I do not think that crowdsourcing is evil. I understand why graphic designers are angry about crowdsourcing websites and that it makes their jobs more difficult but businesses are always looking to lower costs and this is just another way to cut costs.

I'm still not sure if crowdsourcing is just a fad or if it's here to stay but it's an intriguing concept that I'm sure will keep stirring up controversy.

Bossssssssssssssssssssss. OUT.

2. Social Capital, Six Degrees, and SNA

What's good y'all? Hope everyone is enjoying their extended weekend thanks to the great Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, I read two very interesting articles related to evolution in social networking and how to adapt and manage this change in the workplace. The articles are listed below with links:

Improving Your Ability to Share and Connect (Mark Zuckerberg on the Facebook Blog)

I understand that Facebook will continue to evolve over time and the amount of information available to users will increase as well. These are things that Facebook must do in order to stay ahead of the competition but here is a question that I want to pose:

At what point in this evolution will there be TOO MUCH information available to users? Are we at this point now with the Live News Feed?

I can log on to Facebook right now and know what most people did last night just from the live news feed which is a little creepy. I understand that people don't need to update their status' with what they did or plan to do but the live news feed makes everything a little too easily accessible...can you imagine the next updated and improved live news feed?

In the end, users will have to adapt or decide if they want to continue with social networking. My guess is that they will choose to adapt.

Clive Thompson on Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends'

Reality mining is an intriguing science that is so precise due to the massive amounts of information available. It is able to predict actions in daily life based on the frequency and date of an event.

When will businesses start taking full advantage of reality mining? Does this violate the rights of employees? I know that I wouldn't want my boss to know everything I did every single day. I think it would create anxiety in the work place thus creating a negative environment.

I have no problem, however, with reality mining being used to help predict the spread of disease outbreaks, social trends, and other hidden phenomena.

Alright thats enough from the Bosssssssss for this week. Peace.

1. The Intro

Welcome everyone!

My name is Drew and I am a senior from American University. I am writing this blog for my ITEC Social Media class and it will be updated weekly. Academic Integrity : "On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own"

Hope you enjoy!