Social Media in the Classroom : Cons

We looked at Pros earlier….lets look at Cons now

Social Media can be a Distraction A common complaint among educators is that social media is distracting in the classroom. These instructors maintain that tools like Facebook and Twitter divert students’ attention away from what’s happening in class and are ultimately disruptive to the learning process. With the possibility that the use of social media tools can be an invitation for students to goof off, instructors should make sure they won’t be abused.

Cyberbullying While social networking sites provide a way for students and teachers to connect, they can be a weapon of malicious behavior–even on college campuses.

Discouraging Face-to-Face Communication Some educators are concerned that while real-time digital stream may create a safe harbor for students who are uncomfortable expressing themselves, students are missing valuable lessons in real-life social skills. Students may find themselves at a disadvantage during college admission or job interviews when they need to command attention and deliver a coherent message. At social gatherings and in personal relationships, they need to be able to effectively express themselves and connect with others.

Ultimately, while the debate continues over what role social media should play in the classroom, no one can argue the influence that social networking has on today’s students. This tech-savvy generation conducts much of their life through social media channels. Not surprisingly, they’re already using YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as tools for learning and collaboration. They expect that their campuses will follow suit. With this in mind, it seems prudent for today’s institutions to get on the social media train and find ways to successfully integrate these tools into the classroom.

In conclusion…this infographic pretty much sums up how social media should be used in class

UCB Extension – Social Media Marketing Course

I signed up for this class wanting to learn more about the use of social media , from a business perspective. That’s exactly what I got. Prior to this, I’ve used Facebook mostly for personal purposes, and barely created a Facebook business page and Instagram account. I’ve been thinking about using other social media networks for a while, but with all the options that are out there, didn’t know which ones to use. Even if I did use them, how would I be able to promote my makeup artistry in both a professional and personable way? What should I post? How often? How do I manage all of these accounts?

Thankfully, our instructor, Michael Brito, was able to break this down. Conceptually, he explained the importance of each network and the way the content should be organized. From the hub and spoke model to best practices, he went over the basics necessary to understand if you want to be successful in this area of marketing. He also gave us real time examples to solidify our understanding of the material, pulling from his personal accounts and other well-crafted sites. He shared various platform options and other resources we can use to help organize our accounts. I had no idea that there existed such a valuable tool such as Hootsuite.com that consolidates all of your social media accounts so its easier to manage, or how to optimize content on a blog so increase the chances of it showing up during a search, or knew the importance of having each social media network linked to the others. He made it all make sense.

Although I haven’t had the chance to delve much into this aside from class assignments, I now feel well equip to get started on marketing myself and my freelance work. Those accounts I set up months and months ago will now be put to valuable use. Thanks, Michael, for planting the seeds and sharing your wealth of knowledge with us. I can’t wait to get started and see what results from applying these new sets of skills to my personal projects!

Tweet Archives

Twitter recently launched its ability to download all tweets, starting  from the inception of the account to the present. The CEO of Twitter had promised that this would be available by the end of the year. However, it is currently only accessible by a select few, as they are still in the testing phase.

I assume that for business purposes, this feature can be very useful monitoring tool. Not only will they be able to better track frequency, but also get a quick overview on which tweets gained more audience engagement, recruited the most followers, and produced the most retweets. This can also serve as examples of best practices for those creating policies and procedures around social media marketing for their companies. For those who use the account for customer service questions and trouble-shooting, maybe this tweet archive can later be available to the public in an FAQ format.

Many people are excited about this feature, although this excitement was expressed via complaints since it is not yet available to everyone.

 

The Solution For Fake Online Reviews

Social media has given us a great and easy way to do research on whatever we want to buy, eat and do. Thanks to the tremendous amount of online reviews we can make a smart choice.

But even when you do a thorough amount of research, disappointments are inevitable. It might happen that you have a different opinion on what good quality is or that the waiter who served you just didn’t have his or her day. But these are exceptions, especially if you know how to read and filter the reviews.

But there’s another risk hiding in this online research: fake reviews. According to a research conducted by Gartner, by 2014 10-15% of the social media reviews will be paid for by companies, and therefore fake.

Recently there have been several fake review incidents that got media attention. Only two weeks ago a San Francisco restaurant closed its doors as a result of fake Yelp reviews. According to the restaurant owners people wrote vicious reviews about food they never served. Another reviewer rated the restaurant with one star because he hated the color of the t-shirts worn by the staff….

Furthermore there’s the story of a successful author that decided to give faith a helping hand; he created pen names to promote his own books. Under these accounts he would go onto forums and have a discussion with his different characters about his books. By doing so he created a (fake) fan base and buzz about his work, which ranked his books higher in search results and boosted sales.

For now, if you look at it on a broader scale, these seem to be incidents. But things are changing quickly and review sites are hardly taking any action against fake reviews. This will only change when it starts to effect their sales. So where can you get reliable reviews in the future? The best solution is consulting your own community, because in general, these are the people we trust. And trust is key when it comes reviews.

Status updates on Facebook with requests for recommendations on a trip to London or tips for the purchase of a new road bike will further increase.  Because you’d rather trust your uncle or colleague instead of ‘Jolly4u’ or ‘Rave Dave’ when it comes to important decisions. Or actually, probably any decision.

Wechat: the fastest growing SNS in the world?

This article is not from me. In Linkedin, i found it, wrote by a famous person in China. And i think it could help us to understand WeChat better. So i want to share it with you all.

Here is the link if you want to know more:

 http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121024141330-416648-wechat-the-fastest-growing-sns-in-the-world?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

(Part of Chinese innovation series, to feature innovative people and products in China)

In less than two years, Tencent Wechat has over 200 million users.  This not only makes Wechat one of the fastest growing new software in the history of the Internet, it also gives Tencent an enviable position.

Wechat was created by Zhang Xiaolong (Allen Zhang), a low-profile veteran of the Chinese Internet.  Allen independently developed an email client Foxmail in 1996.  He has developed many products since, and also grew from a super developer into a super product manager.  He is now regarded as one of the finest product managers and innovators in China — much like Jack Dorsey or Marissa Mayer in the US.

Allen’s core product philosophy is: use extreme simplicity and fun to move the user.  He said “Internet products need to go beyond satisfying user need; they need to satisfy user desire.” He also said: “Form over function, when form is fun.”  Thus, while Wechat has some similarities with products like Whatsapp and Kik, it has many unique simple+fun functions: push-to-talk, shake-a-friend, floating bottle, group chat, etc.  Using these simple, easy-to-use, and fun features, Wechat has grown its user base at an unbelievable speed, and has become the defacto social graph of the Chinese mobile internet.

Is Wechat innovative?  It’s hard to call any of its features innovative.  But when integrated, it definitely offers an innovative and novel experience.  I walk around my company and see people talking to their phones pressed to their lips but not near their ears.  This is because they’re in the push-to-talk mode.  Wechat is changing the way people communicate in China.

Allen is also a practitioner of the “lean start-up”.  He has tried many innovative experiments: Can Wechat become an open platform?  Can Wechat connect with offline stores, realizing the O2O (Online2Offline)?  Can Wechat become the first Chinese product to become a hit outside China?  These experiments are showing promising results.  More and more developers are using the Wechat platform.  More and more offline stores and restaurants are connecting to Wechat.  And Wechat has risen on the top charts of Egypt, UAR, Vietnam, and many other countries.

One global entrepreneur told me that maybe Whatsapp (from US), Line (from Japan), and Wechat (from China) are headed for the first Internet global battle.  If that happens, my money is on Wechat.

 

Social Media in the Classroom: Pros

There’s an ongoing debate about the role social media should play in education. Advocates point out the benefits that social media provides for today’s digital learners while critics call for regulation and for removing social media from classrooms. Finding a middle ground has become a challenge.

As an educational tool, social media enriches the learning experience by allowing students and teachers to connect and interact in new, exciting ways. Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a platform where users can dialog, exchange ideas, and find answers to questions. These sites are designed to foster collaboration and discussion.

Despite these benefits, people argue that there are serious risks to using social media in the classroom. What are these risks—and do they outweigh the potential for opportunity?

Lets start with Pros…

PROS 

Educational Tool Today’s students arrive on campus, fluent in Web and social networking technologies. Educators can leverage this knowledge to enrich the learning experience. With social media, instructors can foster collaboration and discussion, create meaningful dialogue, exchange ideas, and boost student interaction.

Enhance Student Engagement Social media is an effective way to increase student engagement and build better communication skills. Students who rarely raise a hand in class may feel more comfortable expressing themselves on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Social networking platforms enable teachers to establish “back channels” that foster discussion and surface ideas that students are too shy or intimidated to voice out loud.

Improve Communication Among Students and Teachers Facebook and Twitter can enhance communication among students and teachers. Educators can answer students’ questions via a Facebook page or Twitter feed, post homework assignments and lesson plans, send messages and updates, schedule or announce upcoming events, and share interesting Web sites and multimedia content. Students can use Twitter to get help from instructors or other students. A great way for instructors to give participation points in addition to in class participation is by having students tweet about something that was discussed in class.

Preparing Students for Successful Employment Students entering the workforce can use social networking sites to network and find employment. With LinkedIn, students can establish a professional web presence, post a resume, research a target company or school, and connect with other job seekers and employers. College career centers and alumni associations are using Twitter to broadcast job openings and internships. Students should follow businesses or professional organizations on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on new opportunities and important developments in their field

So we have covered the Pros of social media in classroom…stay tuned for Cons.

 

The Power of Celebrities on Social Media

Celebrities have always been influential; people tend to listen to their political views, follow the exact trends celebs are wearing and will buy the music they’re listening to.

Thanks to social media it has become even easier for celebrities to reach their audience. Many have an own Twitter and Facebook account where they share thoughts and pictures just like any other human being. Except that celebrities are probably the biggest influencers when it comes to social media; in general they have significant social capital.

There’re many examples of ‘social celebs’ in the US. However, I’d like to share with you an example I experienced 2 years ago in my home country, the Netherlands.

One of the most famous comedians in the Netherlands, Youp van ‘t Hek, had issues with his son’s Iphone and he tried to solve that by calling the T-mobile customer service. After several very unsatisfying  attempts, he tweeted his frustration. He complained about the horrible customer service and the ‘Soviet-practices’ by T-mobile. By that time he had 45.000 followers (this might not seem a lot, but imagine this is 2 years ago and in a country with half of the inhabitants of California) and many re-tweeted his message. The news traveled very fast: the number of tweets where T-mobile was mentioned rose with 300% and the negative sentiment regarding T-mobile went from 44% to 64%.

According to Youp his goal was not to break T-mobile, but it was meant as a call to action. The effect of his tweets however, was devastating for T-mobile. According to a research company the estimated reputational damage was somewhere between 200.000 and 300.000euro (app 250.000-400.000usd).

The example above shows how celebrities on social media are very influential. In this case messages had negative consequences for the specific brand, but you can imagine that there’re many examples of positive communication by celebrities which can benefit a brand. Either way, celebrities should be conscience of their status; of course they can use it, but there comes a point where it becomes misuse of power. The problem is, that there’s only a fine line between these two.

Social Media and the Beauty World

Being a freelance makeup artist while holding down and full-time job (in a completely different industry), taking a business class and attempting to maintain a social life can be quite difficult. Not that I’m complaining, but until I can transform my passion for makeup artistry into a full-time gig, I constantly have to think about ways to promote myself. In trying to consider which social media avenues to use, I thought about what I used for reference when I was first starting out…even just to learn more about makeup for fun. Aside from going into MAC watching the artist’s application techniques, YouTube was my visual makeup bible! If I wanted to learn a certain technique, I could just search for it and watch the step-by-step execution of that technique. I would refer to the same ‘makeup

gurus’ over and over again if I liked their work. I trusted their opinions and feedback on makeup products, enough to try them myself. Some artists have a built a name for themselves through this. Very popular ones are starting to get sponsored by makeup companies, and even hired for gigs.

Instagram is another popular arena for makeup ideas and tips. Ranging from looks created by/for an established makeup company to ones by the girl/guy next door, there’s enough on there to satiate your creative hunger…AND its to the point! Sometimes a description or list of products are noted underneath the image. This is a quick and easy way to get what you are looking for. The limited amount of space available for posts benefits  both viewer and the creator; the viewer can get exactly what they want – an image of a makeup look, while the creator can reference their audience to their other social media accounts for more detail.

Blogs, Facebook and Twitter are big players in the makeup world, each with a different focus. All of these help to build a relationship with the viewer, which in turn builds a reputation and possible business opportunities for the artist. As there are a good number of avenues to consider, I really need to sit down a figure out which ones to use and which will realistically work with my schedule. I’m in the process of creating a social media calendar to help organize my ideas with this project. I’ve got a lot of work to do!

Challenges of WeChat

Nowadays, there are many stores connected with WeChat. Customers only need to take out their smartphone from pocket and scan the QR code. They might get prize, become membership or some discount from that. In last four months, thousands of brands have joined WeChat membership system. More and more customers are involved in this. They follow some brand account for getting a discount, but how many of them are continuing focused on the news those accounts pushed and built a good relationship with them? That’s a problem.

It can’t balance the numbers of followed accounts and information absorption:

News in Wechat are delivered point to point mode. Users will only notice the news if they open WeChat. But if they follow more than 10 accounts, they might get lost of what should they read. If they follow only few accounts, it will be easier for people who receive but it does block users from getting more information, which is not that good to business.

Special notifications make users impatient:

Notifications of unread news are marked as 1, 2, 3…This could cause an anxiety. In this condition, users might just open news removing numbers without reading them. Actually, I did that a lot. Some others accumulate those subscriptions and ignore them. On facebook or twitter, people usually consume fragmented time without pressure. They happen to notice some branding information and events in their timeline. That is a more acceptable environment to them.

One way communication, interactive model is not normal between fans and business:

In most case, businesses send news to their followers which are only one way. Public WeChat accounts can reply automatically after you set about key words. When followers really give some complaints or feedbacks, those accounts are not suitable as customer service.

Can business really get returns through this?

Businesses in twitter give users discounts and get word-spreading. WeChat is one to one, which means limited influence. If the influence is limited, point to point promotion might not be very effective. Not mention some users just unfollow accounts immediately once they get benefits. So we have to doubt the returns of businesses.

Social Media Marketing

Are you looking for some creative social media marketing ideas from businesses?

Look no further.

This article highlights five mini case studies of businesses that have stood out by implementing innovative social media marketing practices.

You’ll find inspiration for your social media marketing efforts here.

So let’s dive in!

#1: Sharpie

Sharpie is the permanent marker company. Through social media and other marketing efforts, this company has taken an ordinary product and turned it into a common noun.

Sharpie excels on Twitter, but they also make good use of their blog and Instagram and have even formed their own community. Here are some things to learn:

• Sharpie incorporates various background images to keep the look fresh and attractive.

 

• Sharpie sheds spotlight on customers  artwork.

 

• Sharpie showcases how different customers use their product in unique way. This also gives customer a free advertisement

Readers are also often looking for inspiration on how to use certain products

 

• Sharpie invites their community to engage through art challenges where users vote for the best submissions

An invitation to be creative is all it takes for some people to invest hours with your brand.

#2: HubSpot

HubSpot is a leading B2B company that provides inbound marketing tools for small businesses. A key to their explosive growth comes through a strategic content creation plan.

Notice three different references to free resources just in this snapshot.

• HubSpot knows what their audience wants. They write about hot topics (like the post on Pinterest pictured below), they tag their articles based on experience level (see “Introductory” in the illustration above) and they provide a way to listen to their posts through a service called Vocalyze.

• Recommendations are an important selling point to site visitors. Notice the prominence given here.
• HubSpot also does a great job providing easy access to a variety of social sharing buttons. We can how prominently those display next to both of the above images.
• HubSpot excels at making their brand personal. On their Facebook page, they do this by featuring their employees.

Letting customers see the personal side of your staff makes them more likely to stay engaged with you.

#3: Weapons Plus Martial Arts Supplies

Weapons Plus Martial Arts Supplies is an early adopter of Google+ and has found many creative ways to take advantage of Google’s power.

• One of their most compelling elements comes through their use of animated profile graphics.

These three images cycle to create an animated effect on the Weapons Plus Google+ page.

• Weapons Plus understands that their audience likes to read reviews of martial arts movies and get how-to instruction on making and using martial arts weapons. They also want to show their love.

Here, Weapons Plus shows a fan sporting a haircut that advertises one of their customers. Now that’s showing some love!

• Another ninja method used by Weapons Plus is to take full advantage of the “About” page to get lots of Google juice. The Recommendations links are a perfect way to tie your Google+ page to your other online properties.

Be sure to make full use of the About tab on Google+.

#4: Evian

Evian is the bottled-water company. They have developed a highly sophisticated YouTube page that is worth studying.

• One of the smart things they’ve done is create a pervasive campaign with the “Live Young” motif. All of their images and products reinforce this through the idea of fueling the Evian baby inside (which, of course, needs to drink Evian water).

Evian has connected their various platforms on YouTube—all while reinforcing their core message.

• Another excellent idea implemented on Evian’s YouTube channel is a user-generated video. The goal is to create the world’s longest user-generated video. They do this by allowing users to create short video clips that tie into the theme. The technology required to accommodate this can’t be cheap, but all businesses can look for ways to get fans to create content on their behalf.

#5: Openview Partners

Openview Partners is a B2B venture capital firm that helps emerging growth technology companies with startup funding. They have added 10,000 new subscribers through their social media strategies on their blog.

• The authors of Openview’s blog understand that good content draws new readers. That’s why they make it really easy and compelling to sign up for their newsletter.
• In addition to the sign-up sheet found next to every blog post, the site provides a pop-up invitation to new site visitors who haven’t signed up before.

This pop-up ad uses strong social proof to compel readers to sign up.

• Openview employs another smart tactic by making their posts readily available for mobile readers. They do this through a service called Google Currents.

Make sure to service your mobile audience.

• Openview strikes a nice balance between professionalism and fun by allowing staff to show a  “Meet the Authors” page.

When you hover over an author’s picture, his or her bio and a fun picture display.

Key Takeaways

These five businesses are using social media in different ways, yet each one is seeing demonstrable growth through smart social media marketing.

Here are a few lessons we can all learn:

• Social media is highly visual—take advantage of photos and videos.
• Showcase your customers—this greatly increases engagement.
• Enable social sharing on all of your content.
• Google+ will impact search results—are you realizing these benefits?
• YouTube is far more advanced than you may realize—check out the recent changes and consider making this a social destination for your business.
• Don’t overlook mobile users—optimize your content for mobile readers.

Happy Social Marketing 🙂