As many of your know the Mega Million jackpot was at $640million. Someone did win it. The ticket was bought in Maryland. Let us set up a scenario: If someone won this(maybe you) and donated a decent portion lets say $100,000,000 where would you donate it to? Would it matter where the donation went if it was a guaranteed thing that possibly an ailment would be cured forever and nearly instant?
The funding of the donation is a selfless act and beneficial to whomever receives it.
What a fascinating article. Forbes published an interactive map of the country that shows what each state likes to read and how much of it. Opening the map, you then have the ability to click on the state or news source to see what is most popular.
It makes for an interesting discussion about how we are going to get people to read what we do and how we try other venues to get the word out.
The Media Map
(Please note, the school's IE browser gave me issues but Mozilla brought it up. Chrome on my home PC though had certain states completely disappear when I clicked on Fox News or NPR. Very cool stuff).
Using Chrome, while it shows as a state that we link a lot to the Onion, if you click on NPR, we are also strong there.
The article also explains how it collected the data. This data collection tool, and how that data is then used to market other things to individuals is incredible. The amount of data mining that could be done based upon how that is explained is incredible.
The bottom line is that as long as companies require log-in information and if that log-in is fascilitated in a manner that makes it easier for the user (ie: Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) the amount of data companies will be able to gather will only grow.
As a kid growing up in a liberal household in the 70's, I had more than my fair share of boycotts and social actions against businesses and industries. I recall not eating lettuce in support of Cesar Chavez and his UFW labor organization, and went far too many years not eating California table grapes because of unfair and inhumane treatment of field workers. I really didn't like that one since I absolutely loved grapes. (I must not have gotten the memo that the grape boycott ended because I maintained my stance for several years longer than necessary.) We also couldn't eat at Carl's Jr. because Carl Karcher was a dirty John Bircher and because of their opposition to gays and reproductive rights. Years later, my girlfriend and I stumbled upon a book that catalogued socially-relevant details of most of the major companies and retailers in the country, such as what causes they supported and whether women or minorities served on their boards. It sure made it easy for us to "vote" with our dollars, but I eventually realized that while I can shape my patronage it's a silent act; major businesses and corporations don't even notice I'm not giving them my money unless there's a concerted effort that lets them know they're being punished for a particular reason. However, not buying consciously isn't a viable option, as far as I see it. Like Chavez said in 1988, during one of his several fasts to draw attention to the cause of the farm workers and to the common man,
The evil is far greater than even I had thought it to be, it threatens to choke out the life of our people and also the life system that supports us all. This solution to this deadly crisis will not be found in the arrogance of the powerful, but in solidarity with the weak and helpless. I pray to God that this fast will be a preparation for a multitude of simple deeds for justice. Carried out by men and women whose hearts are focused on the suffering of the poor and who yearn, with us, for a better world. Together, all things are possible.
Fasting, however, is a bit beyond my level of commitment. But like I said, we have an obligation to do something, to act against that insidious threat of selfish corporate mentality.
And that's where the beauty of buycotts comes into play. Boycotts and civil action against corporations have to get loud and messy to really be effective, such as staging huge protests, civil disobedience, ad-buys, and creating media campaigns. Even then, if it's not something totally heinous (like a massive oil spill), it's bound to generate a backlash from supporters of the opposition, so it's a wash. By implementing a BUYCOTT instead, we can encourage businesses to rethink their agenda because we're promising support--which they understand and desperately want. Just like the Carrotmob liquor store buycott, with a large scale operation it's possible a group could influence the decisions of major corporations. The bottom line is that it's a matter of simple psychology: Positive Reinforcement vs. Negative Punishment. From what I can recall from basic psych 20 years ago, PR is much more effective.
I'll still conduct silent votes with my patronage choices but I now have another weapon in my social change utility belt, and I'm looking forward to a chance to use it. As a fellow consumer, you're now empowered to push corporations and businesses to respect your wishes, too. Your voice and choice matter; make them be heard.
So I have to admit some of the speakers at this event have been pretty interesting. One of the big trends and recommended direction is that businesses need to integrate their websites with social media even more. For instance, those that log-in to a site using a Facebook account or something similar, research has found that those users tend to linger 52% longer then those that log-in traditionally.
In addition, if you are a merchandiser, the analytic analysis that can be done on your profile is amazing. This speaker, Patrick Salyer of Gigya, believes that companies using that information should be able to customize e-mail's and such based upon the information you have in your profile.
For instance, if you get e-mail's from REI and your profile has you liking kayaking, your e-mails should immediately highlight that info versus showing you rock climbing, biking, and everything else.
He also believes that businesses need to recognize influencers. In essence, users that use the web more should get more. Identify those that come to your site repeatedly and reward them. This could be everything from discounts, special web content, to actual recognition on the site. Yelp does a great job with this when they do their weekly highlight.
This event will be coming to the States in November 2012, in NYC. I'm doing the free track and highly recommend it. http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/
This is an interesting discussion about the Kony 2012 video.
The view presented by the host is that Kony 2012 is simply propaganda. That it is outdated and misleading, and therefore, pointless.
My perspecitve is that the host sees this video only from his own perspective, not a global perspective.
By seeing and labeling Kony 2012 as misleading and a way of manipulating America into intervening, I feel this proves he is stuck in his "West-centered" way of thinking.
His question/comment of "...making business out of bracelets.. does that solve problems in Africa?" was disturbing. It seemed to come from a point of view similar to:
"We are all completely powerless"
"That's a dumb idea"
"You're wrong"
(Generally referred to in some cirlces as an isolated and selfish "No, but" way of thinking and being, not an open and cooperative "Yes, and" way of thinking an being.)
Again, this shows how his view is that this is a government or individual county's issue. We all need to be aware of the injustices we face, within ourselves, within our neighborhoods, and around the world. It is called awareness. Awareness is a global issue.
None of the speakers mentioned how ground-breaking this video was in regards to how fast it went viral and what the implications of that could be.
If we back up and view this from a global perspective, we can see how individuals across the planet can come together to make a difference. Videos like Kony 2012 can be utilized to bring global attention to human rights violations around the world. This may also inspire young filmmakers around the globe who live in oppressive societies to construct their own movie about the injustices they live under.
My perspective is, they missed the point. And, it's not their fault. We can only understand another perspective if we are first open to another perspecitve, and then actually 'see' that perspective.
Ties back into: We all need each other. For how else would we learn?
This discussion could have been much more productive and insightful if the host had a wider perspective, seeing this as a human rights issue, and not as a manipulation of information or an issue between countries.
I was on Facebook today for a few minutes, and I found this link associated with Gillette Children's Hospital. http://www.stopcmv.org/en/about/ This link discusses Cytomegalovirus, or CMV and its link to birth onset disabilities such as cerebral palsy, deafness, and blindness. I have never heard of these conditions being brought on by what appears to be a run-of-the-mill virus, which the CDC claims, one can easily eliminate via vigilant handwashing. I hope there is some truth to this, and not just a scare tactic to make sure I wash my hands. Please check out the link and judge for yourself.
I have found a story about a 15-year-old girl named Venus Angelic. She is very interesting. She use social media such as Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to present her goals. She has her subscribers about 20,223 and video viewers about 5,805,101.
Palermo is actually Austrian, Swiss and Hungarian but she's been studying Japanese along with several other languages. Her videos on YouTube are very popular.
However, there are some writers wrote about her age. It is too young to present herself like these.
When I read and watch her videos. I understand her age that may too young to connect a large group of people, but if we understand the digital natives. She was born after 1980 and will grow up taking for granted smartphones, the Internet, WiFi, and a whole world of integrated technology that is more advanced than some of our sci-fi movies from the 80s. This is very normal to see kids use social media to connect friends or people in this world.
I was reading BBC news on their site. I came up across some information that was very interesting. Prohibition on a national level ended in 1933. Some counties still experience Prohibition across the US, by having extremely strict laws in respect to sales of alcohol.
Though, Minnesota, is entirely "not dry". There are still good reasons why alcohol should not be abused. There are horror stories of college students that binge drink, and die from alcohol poisoning. Though another good point in the article is that the sales of alcohol does help the economy, because of jobs, taxes, and so on. This is the article.
I don't know if you've heard of this follow up to the 'This American Life' story about Mr. Daisy goes to the Apple factory. Well, they have retracted the story after discovering that some of the facts in the story were not facts but embellishments. Ira Glass has an NPR correspondent (Rob Schmitz) for Marketplace and a veteran of covering stories in China track down the interpreter that Mike Daisy used and talks about in the original piece. This is where the story starts to fall apart. I saw this in the NY Times and am listening to the piece aired on 'This American Life'. What I find both compelling and interesting is that the story self-corrected, but also what Mike Daisy stands by (in the NY Times) in his story while acknowledging his embellishments. Clearly he was successful in getting the kind of attention to the issue that he was after, maybe more successful than he expected. They interview Mike Daisy and it sounds to me as if he is a zealot who may be holding himself to a higher judge than the ethics of journalism (of which he is not a member). The moment that was most revealing to me came later in the show when interviewing Charles Duhigg (NY Times reporter) about Apples' manufacturing practices in China. Ira Glass' comments about still feeling guilty about all the Apple products he owns and loves. Duhigg says that we came to a point in this nation where we regulated the working conditions in manufacturing specifically to end the harsh conditions, unsafe environments etc... In the many years that followed we have exported those conditions to other nations so that we and our favorite brands can enjoy cheaper stuff and make money. I don't like being lied to, but Thanks Mike Daisy
There was a very interesting article that I read in The New York Times, Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer. Really, the title of the article says it all but, South by Southwest, is a huge technology conference, happening in Austin, Texas right now. Usually all of the tech savvy guests, booths and activities tend to overload the mobile networks in the area. Well this year, BBH Labs marketing firm decided to hire local homeless people for $20 a day to walk around with cellular devices with wireless access. Absolutely nothing about this sounds like a good idea to me.
Saneel Radia, who oversaw the project was quoted as saying “We saw it as a means to raise awareness by giving homeless people a way to engage with mainstream society and talk to people, the hot spot is a way for them to tell their story”. I do not believe this for one second, I don’t see how them walking around with cell phones around their necks is giving them an opportunity to tell their story. It seems extremely exploitative, and insensitive. However, one man who was involved in the program and interviewed for the article, seemed grateful of the opportunity, so perhaps it’s all a matter of perspective.
I would really love to hear everyone’s opinions on this topic.
Is a marketing campaign's success going to attain it's goals or be met with opposition? I think it depends greatly on the campaign's goals and how people see the campaign being run. With much popularity you adversely gain a scrutinizing and watchful eye over your actions. So, from the base of everything, you really need to run a transparent and straightforward campaign. Kony 2012 is a fantastic example of what I'm talking about.
Kony 2012 alone is an example for us all to appreciate. It reflects the very thing we're in class learning about. Using social media to our advantage to raise awareness on topics that we are passionate about. What an amazing success it has become. It was nearly overnight that the world went from knowing nothing about Joseph Kony to understanding that he is a murderous criminal and a threat to humanity.
If for some reason you were under a rock when the global PSA for Kony 2012 went out, here's a link to the half-hour video that everyone and their future unborn children have seen. The video is engaging and shocking. It's personable and appeals to a very wide audience. I'm honestly a little amazed that they made a video that people are willing to watch for a half hour when you consider just how "ADD" our society can be. After watching it, you feel pumped up to spread the word. It's easy, post a link on facebook. Tell friends. Order a $30 package if you're really proactive.
Alright, quick do a google search and look into this organization. You start to find out an alarming amount of people discrediting Invisible Children.
"Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services."
(Oh boy, now I have to look into how credible this source is...)
"I think what needs to be stated is that a lot of what their actual operations are, are doing awareness and fundraising in the United States which involved road shows, going around to show their films on university campuses and things like that. And they're really good at it. And you can see their success with the social marketing. They are really, really good at generating awareness."
This is a source I trust. I was considering just how much it costed for a viral video of this quality would cost. It involves some well known celebrities even.
Alright, enough about their funding (which is obviously in some way prolific to me). What will Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign accomplish? If Kony is caught, then what? Invisible Children doesn't address these problems and the reality is that the Ugandan militia itself is just as corrupted as the rebel LRA.
"Incredibly, there is no mention in the film or the campaign that northern Ugandans are currently enjoying the longest period of peace since the conflict began in 1986. Virtually every single northern Ugandan I spoke to during my own field research believes that there is peace in the region. While sporadic violence continues, particularly as a result of bitter land disputes, there have been no LRA attacks in years. In the mid 2000s, the ‘LRA problem’ was exported out of Uganda. The LRA is currently residing in the DRC, CAR, and perhaps parts of South Sudan and even Darfur. Today, land issues and the recent Walk to Work crisis are higher on the agenda than the LRA in northern Uganda."
Great, so Invisible Children is stirring up a place that has been settled for quite a few years? What about all the mayhem I've been hearing about in the news lately over Syria? The govt there is bombarding its own people. I'm constantly hearing about debates over whether or not the United States should get involved with a place like that. Will it cause us further turmoil in the future to stick our military there? What should we do about that?
So there you have it, people. What will it take to move people into action? Will it take a million dollar campaign, heart strings pulled, and an overall popularity contest to move people into action? Hell, there's a completely separate set of rants we can go forth into discussing whether clicking "like" on facebook by enough people will cause any action in the first place.
I watched CNN news on March 7, 2012 at midnight that reports 37 dead in waved of storms across Midwest and South. About 17 million from Texas to Indiana to North Carolina were affected by the massive tornado outbreak that began Friday, and continued into the weekend. I suddenly clicked www.american.redcross.organd made my donation to victims.
However, I still surf the Internet for other social media sites to find out which one helps tornadoes victims . I have found several sites, and they are very helpful. For example,
Ten Doves Charity (disasterfunding.org) is one of organization to announce donors about Hurricane funding, Tornado relief, Flooding relief, and Japan funding .
www.theindychannel.comThis website also involves to tornadoes relief. It gives information to RTV6 viewers and social media users. They can participate in Tornado Relief. click here
The last site that I have found is very interesting. It is a company that helps people to do when they need help.
Ayoudo
Ayoudo provides the headline "Using Social Media for Tornado Relief in the Midwest. There are several tools that help people plan to get helps. click here
As we study a text book "We First", we can find the title in Chapter 6 about Why the World needs a Responsible Private Sector.Simon Mainwaring describes, "WE FIRST thinking posits that we as a society need to construct a new paradigm of cooperation among government, philanthropies, and corporations to achieve the scale of meaningful social transformations required to build a better world against a ticking clock." "We cannot build a better world without their collaboration," adds Mainwaring.
These are good news for us that I have found the sites to help tornado relief. We are connecting the world through Internet.
We just click a mouse to go online. Then, we can help each other on Social Media sites.
Matthew beat me to it, but I am still sharing.
Everything he said and more...
Artfully constructed.
Masterfully told.
Message delivered powerfully.
...and ACTIONS we can take.
Social media utilized for the utmost good.
Perfection.
I just watched this YouTube 'movie' that is a brilliant example of the very thing we are discussing and working on in class. It covers just about every theme we've discussed, except the use of corporate entities. Rather they are targeting as you'll see in the video, 'culture makers' ie, celebrities and policy makers. Not sure what relationships may or may not exist between them and any corporations or business interests. But its an ingenious appeal to a new paradigm of people looking out for people without regard for borders or positions. I'm inspired http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&sns=fb
And I've given up trying to insert the link or imbed the link......AAAH!
"This has unsurprisingly been a move condemned by privacy campaigners and it certainly does raise a few questions, however I will say this, once a tweet is published, that content is in the public domain and up for grabs, this is simply the nature of the internet."
So my question is, if you are a privacy campaigner, why would you even tweet? Do you think this change by Twitter is another example of a companies technology that has surpassed the ability of legislation to keep up or is Twitter a giant editorial column and as such, one shouldn't have to worry about the change?
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
I have read this book, and I think It is very interesting. Carr describes what the Internet is doing to our brains. As we know, Internet has become the Universal source of information for millions of people, at home, at school, and at work.
There are three key points that I have found in Chapter of The Juggler’s Brain. click here
The first key point is that the internet control our minds. We actually are on the internet and technology at large, not only for our news and celebrity gossip, but more importantly for the ability to work, communicate and connect with people personally and professionally. The challenge is controlling our feelings. It changes our feelings and our attitudes. Our minds now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes them.
Another point is that Internet changes our daily lives. We need to remember life before the Internet .Our lives were simple. However,today's kids and young people have never known.Our everyday livesare changingas theInternet grows. There are many new tools for users. We interact with one another and the worldaround us. Whatever we are looking for, we will find it. We have to accept that the Net is a part of our daily lives.
The last key point is thatInternet changes our brains. The online world is changing the way our brains work. The Internet is a vast and complex network of interconnected computers. We can describe internet as knowledge work. The rapid growth of the huge data, images, and documents from the web has been a major factor to alter our brains. When we search information from online, there are too many links to other links. We surf the Net with a lot of drag and drop functions.The Internet may be getting too big. Information overload? More a situation where digital technology is changing the very way we think. We gain new skills and perspectives but lose old ones.
Carr states, “You would probably end up designing something that looks and works a lot like the Internet. It is not just that we tend to use the Net regularly, even obsessively. It is that the Net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli—repetitive, intensive, interactive, addictive—that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions." This passage I think they are very useful for users. There is a big influence of technique on our daily life.We control the technology or whether we allow it to control us. We have to adjust ourselves and add more self-control to use it. Internet addiction disturbs the brain and damages. It likes drugs. There are some teenagers or other users who sufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time online to the extent that it impairs their quality of life.
My own experiences with the second point that is exactly true. Internet changes my behavior. I know that my life is not the same. My life is totally connected to the world. However, it is better than in the past.
There are two steps in my life when I use Internet.
First, the new technology used me in last two years. I didn’t know how to stop to use it. I found myself wasting a lot of time to unwanted information.
Second, I adjust myself. I can control Internet with my mind, I am ready to use it.
My main goal at this time, is to use my skills in social media to gain my knowledge.
So the above lyrics are from the song Poor Little Rich written by the rapper known as 50 Cent. These lyrics and more are something that most of us would seem to expect from this individual whose reputation seems to emulate those same lyrics and more.
So when we see the following statement "All companies should create a social model at inception,"most individuals would find it hard to believe that those same words could also be attributed to 50 Cent, but remarkably, that is the case.
Based on what we read this week from Mainwaring, this article was the last person I expected to see expound about the benefits of We First. In an interview with Forbes, a side of 50 Cent is revealed that one won't see on TMZ or in the trashy tabloids at the supermarket.
His inspiration? Tom's Shoes. The company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair you buy. 50 Cent's reasoning? More kids are hungry then need shoes and now between Street King, his energy drink company and his new audio headset company SMS Audio, it is estimated that he has already donated around 4.5 million meals. That's right. 4.5 million.
While he will forever be known as the street rapping gangsta who works with Eminem and Dr. Dre, the legacy he wants to leave is that his companies continue to feed the world.
This topic has come up quite a few times in our classroom discussions and I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a link to the transcript and audio broadcast from This American Life.
I had a customer walk in to my place of work with an iPhone 4s a couple days ago and took the opportunity to test out Siri. I asked Siri where it was manufactured. "That is classified information, is there anything else I can help you with?" was Siri's response. Which is understandable when you find out a little bit more about Foxconn and how these things are built. But why didn't Siri just say China? The back side of the phone says it. It's almost like Siri is begging someone to go and poke around.
I've been sitting on this bit of information as well as the one I posted earlier; they're starting to back up, so I'll feed them to you slowly in hope they don't become overwhelming or boring.
I ran across some more info porn regarding twitter posts--tweets. Although I've had a twitter account for some time, I hardly ever use it since I can't figure out what I feel is tweet-able. According to a recent study that was posted on the Society Pages, my hesitation is well founded. Kurt Luther, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. candidate, compiled thousands of ratings of tweets and suggests that the mundane, "guess what I just ate" tweets aren't worth reading, while we crave meaningful questions and brief comments with little mark-up.
His findings don't seem too surprising to me, but I seem to notice most of the tweets from my subscription list fill the former category. Is this just like us not being able to sit with an uncomfortable silence and instead choose to fill the air with navel gazing and pointless blather? (Oh, believe me, I know I'm guilty.) I think what we're really starting to dig into in our class is creating content that shifts thoughts, behavior, culture. This I like; this is something that I know I can share with my friends and subscribers easily and will probably lead them to repost or rethink and share with their friends.
Oh yeah: if you're really interested in his study, there is a link to the full paper he published with his colleagues.
A friend of mine told me about a recently released study regarding the effectiveness of Facebook posts; I searched and easily found the study in several articles (look here), and while the results are interesting they're probably not shocking: your actively shared links and posts only reach 16% of your friends. So all that posting of your status and what you just ate and your ire over some retail transaction and even that really brilliant insight you just had usually falls on deaf ears. Sorry...
I have not been to work the last couple of days because I have had a miserable flu-like virus. Even though my illness warranted me staying home from work, I still had a feeling of regret and dare I say shame when calling in sick to work. Yesterday morning on my way to the local CVS to pick up my Gatorade and anti-flu medicine, there was a report on the radio that Minnesotans are rated in the top five for loyalty in the workplace. The reporter mentioned that Minnesotans were up to six times less likely to call in sick to work. Even though I felt like complete hell, I laughed at the little coincidence that I was hearing.
I have lived outside Minnesota for roughly four years while I was in the Army. During this time I have noticed that people from different parts of the country are quite different in everyday social norms than Minnesotans are. Through our class discussions, I know that several of my classmates have also lived outside Minnesota. I'm interested in hearing about similar comparisons and the outsider's look on Minnesotans weird mannerisms.
