Blackout & Conversation, Conversation, Conversation!

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.

S.O.P.A. Strike Website

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.

Social Media Changes the Landscape for Mid- Sized Businesses

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.

Social Media Rules: For Jittery Execs

           

Thank you for looking at my blog! See everyone in class on Tuesday! Have a great weekend!

 – Meredith Rolen