jonasc's blog

When I think of social media, I think of three things: Facebook, Twitter, and Mashable.com.  What Mashable does, is provide those interested in social technolog, apps and hardware alike, a place to learn about what is new in the industry, as well as what social media is up to in society.

Written as a collection of blogs by their staff, Mashable is a blog by users of techonolgy, and you even have to have a Twitter or Facebook just to be a commenter.  It truly is a social media society, and focuses in on different technologies and Facebook and Twitter buzz, creating great organization for the site’s users.

Mashable provides current news through what is going on in the world involving social media: events, new technologies, controversial tweets, and they even cover into the topics that are trending.  For example, when Lucas Films was bought by Disney this past month, it was a topic trending on social media, and Mashable dug more into the sale, providing media users with the details of the happening in a place where “techies” go for their other technology updates.

Speaking of updates, in the tabs for the different top social media, they cover the latest updates to social network apps and the sites themselves.  When Facebook updated their site to have a Pinterest like feature, Mashable was there to inform those who would be intersted with what was happening.  These are highly useful because these are the creators informing other creators with how their “world” is changing.

The bloggers and writers of this site are informed actually the users of this technology that they right about, and therefore make the site more user friendly because a) the writers are just like the users, preventing a divide and b) the interaction between the writers and the comments are more like conversations than replies.  If you aren’t following Mashable or visiting their site, and are intersted in communication technology, you are truly missing information than could help you communicate with the world.

Over this past week, the topic of the ING New York City Marathon on Twitter went from tweets about race preparation, to rating the decision of the officials and NYC Mayor Micahel Bloomberg to cancel or continue the event.

If you look at the timeline of tweets on Twitter mentioning the ING/ NYC Marathon, you can see the change in attitude about the event, as you could see the change in weather conditions as Hurricane Sandy engulfed the east coast of the United States.  Like a storm coming, the tweets evolved from discussion of Lance Armstrong’s potential ban from the event’s results,to speculation about whether or not the weather would have an affect on the largest marathon (in terms of participants) in the nation.

Then the storm hit, devastating the area and raising the question of whether the race would still take place or not.  On October 30, 5 days before the race would start, Mayor Bloomberg and the officials of the race decided to continue with the event.

This announcement became a topic of opinion sharing on Twitter, under the topic “New York Marathon.”  ESPN 2’s “Outside the Lines” program even held a discussion Thursday, asking viewers and followers to tweet to them their opinions, using the hashtag #marathondecision, on if the race should continue, and was met with rather mixed reactions.  While some said that the race would be a good opportunity for the city to raise money, the majority seems to feel that the utilization of resources for the race rather than putting all of them to aiding hurricane victims is just awful.

Due to such criticism, the Mayor was influenced by the public to reverse his decision.  Late Friday night, it was breaking news that the New York City ING marathon was cancelled, and was met with praise by many on the social networking site.

The latest ING NYC Marathon discussions on Twitter, are now that the officials waited too long in cancelling the race, and that runners that were registered to race tomorrow are taking this opportunity to volunteer their resources and their endurance to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Of course some disgruntled runners were to be expected, but it is nice to see a positive end to all of this.

Was the right decision made or not?  Feel free to leave your comments below.

Heading to class, two things that many students don’t leave without are their “smart” phone/ “smart” music
player, and their laptop.  Now, tablets are becoming an “in” thing, but with internet connectivity and Facebook updates available literally everywhere you go, is a tablet a must-have, or just another
piece of technology to increase our independence on electrical outlets and
broadband connections?

As the owner of a laptop and a smart-phone (that has 4G connectivity), I – as a student – asked myself the same question recently, and took advantage of our library’s iPad rental service tofind the answer.  Going into it, I madethe decision to use the tablet at every possible moment in order to observe its
full abilities, in an attempt to justify purchasing such a device.  My conclusion: a tablet is an excellent supplement to the phone/ computer combination.

Here are my 3 reasons to purchase a tablet in addition to the other devices:

1)     Battery Life – The battery life of a tabletallows you greater distance from an electrical outlet than the other two devices, making it a great complement. While I played with an iPad, most other tablets out there boast battery longevity with lifetimes near 10 hours. The reason for this is simple. Cell phones are always connected to the mobile network, which in itself drains the battery, especially when texting and making phone calls.  With laptops, the software and the higher power operating system.  In the run-around life of a student, freedom from the power chord is a necessity.  Just be sure to close applications you aren’t using.

2)     Response Time – Just as important as battery life is a fast response time.  Tablets, have impressive turn-on speeds and response times for the same reasons that they hold longer battery charges – simpler operating systems, less software, and the fact that they aren’t on for communication constantly.  When you turn on a tablet, you are up and running in nearly 30 seconds, as compared to a minute or two for a cell phone
or laptop.  The best way to keep a tablet fast is to keep your apps at reasonable amount, determined by the amount of memory your device has.

3)     Comfort – Possibly the most important feature of the tablet from a consumer standpoint is the comfort afforded by them.  They are light and fit in the hand like a book, and have a larger screen than a cell phone, yet the compactness lacked by laptops.  To describe the tablet in one word – natural.

Even if you have your personal biases toward (or against) particular companies, the rest of the technology
industry is now catching up with Apple.  Google, Samsung, and later this month Microsoft all have tablet
computers out there to claim their share of the tablet market along with Amazon.  Just remember, a tablet is to
supplement your computer and cell phone, not replace either or both.  In my experience with the tablet, I greatly
enjoyed using it to read school documents, surf the web, and keep up with my friends on Twitter on a nine inch screen that fits in my hand.  The tablet may just become your new favorite toy.

Twitter users “kill” celebrities off all the time, from Justin Beiber to the more recent Morgan Freeman, but those are just people messing around.  What happens when it is a news powerhouse that generates the false information first?

On September 9, 2011, CBS learned just how fast word really travels on Twitter, when followers of @WhatsTrending were wrongly informed that Steve Jobs had died. The followers did not hesitate to share their disappointment in the news provider for their inaccuracies and lack of professionalism.

The tweet lived in the Twitter-sphere for mere minutes, but that is a lifetime in the constant world of social media.

The results of the mess up – for which both hackers and an intern had received blame for – were the removal of the tweet, the firing of What’s Trending host Shira Lazar, the removal of the program and all related content from CBS, and immediate apology tweets from the news sources and the former host.  CBS also released a statement acknowledging What’s Trending as an unattached, outside news source who operated on their own.

In a bad situation, CBS responded in a most timely and professional manner, and should be looked to as an example for how to react to a blunder.  Remove, Apologize, and React.Though they handled the mistake properly, the whole thing could have been avoided had @WhatsTrending simply sat on the story until a death had been confirmed through evidence.

In a society that is constantly updating its status globally, it is important for news organizations to be the first to release a story, since they now “compete” with millions of citizen journalists.  While understanding this unfortuate position, due to their accountability as professionals, accuracy is better than speed.

A month later, CBS was among one of the first to report on the official passing of Steve Jobs, and today remains a top news source.

http://www.eonline.com/news/262939/cbs-news-apologizes-for-killing-off-steve-jobs-via-twitter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-news-ends-relationship-source-233725

Representing your business online is just like representing your business at a conference, you don’t leave it to the new hire who doesn’t know your ins and outs.

Online presence doesn’t have to be flashy, just clever and accurate, and the best person for the job isn’t an intern, it’s a polished veteran from HR.  For example, I work with FalconRadio.org, one of the radio stations here on campus.  Although I hold numerous positions within the station, I was asked to take on the task of representing the station online, because I have been with the organization for four years and know the branding and image that we have, as well as the ability to troubleshoot issues.  I could not even imagine leaving that responsibility on a new member, no matter how much I talked with them about the station, or looked over their shoulder.

As a student graduating in the spring, social media intern sounds like a very appealing position, and I have even pondered contacting businesses in search of the opportunity to help their online presence.  This came to me as an idea, since many adults I talk to have questions on social media usage, and my generation tends to be among the most active on such sites.  Due to this, I feel that I could do well with a position like that.

Being on both sides of the situation, I feel that I have a unique perspective on the situation and can definitely agree that social media manager is not the job for an intern or new hire. Instead, the youth in the company could be great as a social media IT department.  They can provide great insight on how to appeal to younger clients/ customers, and can help troubleshoot.  Well, at least some can.

Employers should not look into the social media lives of their current or potential employees, and definitely
should not be allowed to ask current/potential employees for their passwords to the accounts.
 

The biggest question I have in regards to this issue is, why would an employer want to?  Employers may cite that this ability allows them to perform a more thorough background check intothe actual person, and make sure the employees carry themselves professionally outside the workplace; after all, the employer is listed on the employee’sFacebook page, essentially making them a diplomat of the office at all times.  While this argument is highly valid, other issues may arise from an employer looking into the pages of their workforce, including: you can’t un-see what you’ve seen, it may mean losingyour best worker, and not to mention that it changes the meaning of “off theclock”.

Believe it or not, the boss does not need to know everything about their employees’ lives.  The fact that you can’t un-see what you’ve already seen could have a negative effect on the work place.  Say you are an employer that decides to look
at an employee’s Facebook page, and they have an awkward photo on theirpage.  From that moment that employee, in
the work place, will remind you of that photo and could have a negative impacton how you see them and interact with them.
Looking at such content online about your employees can also revealthings, major or minor, that the company may deem unsuitable and force a boss to fire, or even not hire, a great employee/ prospect because of what they do
in their social life.  This leads intothe issue of the employer’s “over your shoulder” while the employee is off the
clock, which is exactly what this ability to access social media pages of employees is.  It would mean that the
employee never has the opportunity to free themselves of the scrutiny of their boss, thus making “off the clock” time “company time”, which doesn’t allow the employee to truly leave work, and especially without extra pay.

Step into the role of an employer; would you hire an average prospect that doesn’t have a Facebook page because they
don’t have information out there over a highly qualified prospect who shares their real life with friends and
family?  Maybe the person without the page is the one who truly has something to hide, and I don’t mean drunken
photos from the summer.

The real issue at hand here is that employers are attempting to invade the “off the clock” everyday lives of people, believing that they are doing a “good thing” for the business.  For me, my real life has absolutely nothing
to do with my work life except for what I decide to share.  If my employer wants to pay me every minute of every day, I will gladly keep my pages to their standards, but until that happens, I will continue to share what I want to share with the world, my family, and my friends.  To conclude my feelings on this issue, I am of the belief that problems arise when you go looking for problems, which is what I feel employers are doing by looking into people’s online lives.