Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Social Media: Organizational Uses




Skype is the type of social media tool that I chose to focus on for this blog entry. Skype is a social media tool that is being utilized by all types of organizations. I read an article that focused on classrooms, organizations job interviews and how Skype was benefitting both of them. The invention of Skype has opened new doors to many opportunities for our society.

Skype Community Comes To The Classroom

By David Nagel

Skype was foreign to me until a month ago, so I am going to assume it may be a new concept for those reading my blog as well.  To simplify it Skype is a live video chat which allows users to converse with one and other free of charge. This is very appealing considering the cost to text or call internationally. Besides the attractive price video chat is a much more personal way of communicating with someone compared to texting or calling. With live video chat you are able to see the others persons face, emotions and setting.

Teachers are taking advantage of Skype and using it to broaden their students’ knowledge of the world. It doesn’t stop just there either! According to this article, many teachers are using Skype to share lesson plans, compare classroom success and develop new ideas.“Skype in the classroom is an amazing resource to find teachers to collaborate with and to bring people into your classroom that you would never have been able to.” Teacher, Kara Cornejo

Several teachers are allowing students to use Skype as well. Kids in all grades are encouraged to learn how to use Skype to speak with other classmates. Some teachers have taken it as far as to have “Skype dates” with other classrooms in other parts of the world to give students the opportunity to have discussions back and forth about their different cultures.

 It is a crazy concept to think my little cousins will be seeing Kids face to face in other places of the world, when at their age I was seeing pictures in a textbook. However, I think it is a great idea. I believe by doing so students will be more eager and interested to learn about different parts of the world if they are able to see it with their own eyes.

How Skype Is Changing The Interview Process

By Stephen Winzenburg

Can you think of anything more nerve-racking than an interview? What about an interview in front of a camera? I cannot think of anything more stressful.  In fact this adds a whole new level of stress. Not only do you have the normal stress of what to wear now you have to think how to sit and what kind of background would be best.  Skype has now taken long distant interviews, which used to be conducted via telephone, cyber. Most long distance interviews will now be conducted over Skype through a live video chat.

This article shared a story of a professor who had to do three separate interviews over his computers web-cam. Like I would be, he was initially worried about that fact that the interviewers would all be staring at him on a wide screen.( I didn’t think guys worried about stuff like this???) Come to find out he actually felt it was more relaxing than he had originally predicted. He felt comforted when they smiled at his answers and made notes when he spoke which was promising.

The concept of eliminating unnecessary traveling expenses that come from traveling to interviews is great. Skype has saved countless organizations a great deal of money in airfare and long distance phone calls.

I have come to find that the benefits of Skype are endless and it is an amazing and helpful social media tool for a very broad audience.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Blogging business

In an article published in 2005 Bloomberg Businessweek , Stephen Baker and Heather Green address a new  social media outlet that was quickly taking over the internet: Blogging. This article addressed the potential that blogs could have when it came to the opportunity for a consumer to write about what they thought about you, the product you are selling, your business, your brand, and anything else they would like. In 2005 when "Facebook was still an Ivy League sensation" and Twittering was an “activity dominated by small birds”, this article addressed a topic that had yet to be put on the social media map, blogging. This was, of course, back in the day before everyone and their mom blogged about every aspect of their life. (Hard to believe, I know.)   The writers quickly realized that this communication outlet was a foreshadow of great things to come. With over 40,000 new blogs being published daily adding to the already 9 billion blogs out there Blogs continue to be a force to recon with.   Business week used an online article to target white collar Americans that blogs and online forums are  something to utilized and appreciated, and not ignored. (Whew, glad white collar Americans got the memo. I lost sleep over it.) The article addresses the gossip-y, scandal train stigma that came along blogging and online messaging. The overwhelming majority of the information the world spews out every day is digital—photos from camera phones, PowerPoint presentations, government filings, billions and billions of e-mails, even digital phone messages. With a couple of clicks, every one of these items can be broadcast into the blogosphere by anyone with an Internet hookup—or even a cell phone. If it's scandalous, a poisonous e-mail from a CEO, for example, or torture pictures from a prison camp, others link to it in a flash. And here's the killer: Blog posts linger on the Web forever. HOWEVER…. Ideas circulate as fast as scandal. Potential customers are out there, sniffing around for deals and partners. While you may be putting it off, you can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to. Something unexpected happened in 2005 that pertained tot his article. Bloggers had linked this article which then created traffic from business men to blogs and vice versa. It then became somewhat of a middle ground between the tech and blog savvy and the “white collar” CEO’s. Read the UPDATED article at http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080219_908252.htm

Thursday, January 19, 2012


The Big 7

One-hundred and forty characters and a user base of 200 million can make you famous, this website goes by the name of Twitter . Nearly every business has taken to twitter as its means of communicating with their public. The days of privacy and silence have come and gone and the user-friendly welcome wagon bearing tweets and information as well as freebies has strolled in.

Twitter has proven itself to be a force to reckon with. TechCrunch recently reported that there are now 200 million tweets a day,  65 million this day year ago. What does this mean? Companies as well as individuals are expected to communicate through twitter relentlessly just to keep up.

13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics by Kipp Bodnar gives scary  statistics on just how quickly social media is becoming mainstream communication.


To be completely honest the majority of information being sent into cyber- everywhere is noise and useless information. Sorry freshmen girl, who randomly is following me, but I could care less how many times your crush said “Hi” to you.  

 Maybe I Should Shut Up: How to be Heard on Twitter by Andi Putra at http://www.webmarketerdepot.com/maybe-i-should-shut-up-how-to-be-heard-in-twitter/

This article states the basic Twitter etiquette  one should follow to obtain loyal followers and less unfollowings. Unfollowing typically happens due to rubbish being thrown from your account, that no one cares about. Here are some tips-Be kind, recycle, have something of importance to say. (They call those tips? )

What did I learn that’s most valuable? To truly make it in social media today, you need something to say as well as something that you audience would want to actually hear.

Twitter has given us the opportunity to build a relationship with one and other while allowing us to share our common interests. Through using twitter as a networking tool we can build our reputations and provide chances for success. However negative relationships can burn bridges and take awau opportunities.

Tweet Wisely : )

Tara

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Skype

Skype Glitches


Recent research that was conducted by the Polytechnic Institute of New York University have found some major glitches in Skypes privacy settings. What does that exactly mean? Is means that these glitches could expose half-billion Skypers location and movements  world wide. Scary Huh?

By making partial calls (to any Skype user) hackers are able to steal IP address where they are able to gain access to all personal files, downloads, movements and physical address.

The concern with this particular glitch is more dangerous than most computer hackings, because ANY person can gain access to any Skype user. The hacker does not have to be in full contact with the victim considering they can gain all the information they need through partial calls. Many users never know the call was ever received. It makes me wonder if any of my friends have been hacked and they don’t know it!

A researcher by the name of Keith Ross points out the potential risks of terrorist groups using this glitch to their advantage to gain knowledge about government officials, or employees of target organizations.

Karen A. Frenkel a well known blogger quotes Skype’s Chief Information Security Officer, saying: "We value the privacy of our users and are committed to making our products as secure as possible. Just as with typical internet communications software, Skype users who are connected may be able to determine each other’s IP address. Through research and development, we will continue to make advances in this area and improvements to our software."

His statement makes me very confident using Skype…  NOT.