Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the lecture today and is
having a wonderful Thursday.
Today, 01/24/2013, was a very interesting class. The lecture
really helped me put in to perspective not only what social media are by
definition, but how large and relevant they have become in today’s society.
I was especially impressed by the “Power of Social Media”
part of the lecture. It is very interesting to me that several social media
outlets (some of which who were competitors with each other) were able to not
only come together for a common cause, but achieve such a high level of public
interest that they achieved their goal of stopping P.I.P.A. and S.O.P.A. in
four months. I did a little digging on sopastrike.com and found out that over
75,000 websites participated in the strike, over 1 billion people saw the
strike page that was posted on January 18, 2012, there were 10 million petition
signers, 3 million emails sent and over 100,000 calls made to congress. With so
much resolve, it is no wonder why social media are taking the world by storm.
My only question is “Where was I when this was going on?”. The link to the
website I credit for the information and where you can find much more
information on the blackout is provided below.
Another topic that seemed to be very important was the usage
of social media to engage conversation and the benefits that can come from said
conversation. In class we discussed some of the benefits that can come from a
company using social media outlets to progress their business like a way to get
feedback from the public, a way to react to and address criticisms, a forum to
generate ideas and a way to build positive relationships with current or
potential customers. I understand that there are downsides, but with most of
these social media outlets being free to sign up, as a business owner I wouldn’t
hesitate!
This is a link to an article from an online publication of
Forward View, which is a magazine for mid-sized business. The article, Social
Media Changes the Landscape for Mid- Sized Businesses, touches on several
principles that we covered in class on 01/24/2013. The article emphasizes that
“the opportunity to connect with customers on a personal level may be a large
opportunity”. The article also puts emphasis on the importance of conversation through
the Internet. Though the article is presented with mid-sized businesses, I
believe it is applicable to small and large businesses as well. The link is
provided below.
Additionally, the above-mentioned article referenced a
Forbes article that I found interesting and relevant. The article was titled
“Social Media Rules: For Jittery Execs” and it mentions several topics we
discussed in class like how social media can translate to even the most
straight-laced business fields like law and pharmaceuticals and the importance
of conversation. It also provides an interesting guideline for how a “Jittery
Exec” may want to delve into the world of social media. The link is provided
below.
Thank you for looking at my blog! See everyone in class on
Tuesday! Have a great weekend!
– Meredith Rolen
