Tim Dougherty

I think that my company SMA Technologies will do very well with the information and recommendations I gave to them. They told me that they wanted to expand themselves on social media for a long time and I helped push them to finally do it. 

I think that as long as SMA makes all the pages I recommended including a Facebook and Linked-In they will expand their company and get new clients. They will also be able to make new relationships with businesses that they can work with on projects. That is not all they have to do though, they must keep with it and make sure they post something twice a week on each page. They need to do this so that they stay relevant with their followers and so that their name is in their followers minds. I am excited to keep in contact with SMA Technologies and see how they are doing. It was really good working with them. 

Developing and Sharing Content is a very important part of the social media side of business. Businesses need to create content that is interesting and connects to their consumers. They also need to know the best and most effective way to get that content to the consumers once its created. 

Developing

When businesses need to make a post they want to make one that is interesting and that will get someones attention. To do this they will make sure that they choose and interesting topic, something that relates to their consumers, and visually intriguing. Nike does this very well, they post interesting ads on TV, twitter, Instagram, and much more. Every time I see a Nike ad it makes me want to buy new clothes and shoes. This is because they know how to develop and share their content very well. They also do a good job on creating content and relating it to worldly topics. 

Sharing

When companies are done developing their content they need to find an effective way to share it. When sharing they need to think from the consumers point of view. They want something that will catch the consumers eye, to do this they want a picture that is interesting, and a good title. This will likely get the consumer to look at it and potentially get them to read, like, or buy the content they company is sharing.  

The Social Organization, by Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald show that there are effective ways to build a community online. This is good because it can be difficult to do that on an online format. This book helps find ways to reach out to people and businesses in an effective manner. In Chapter 4 and 5 the book gives in depth details of how to achieve this. 

In Chapter 4 talks about community collaboration. Community collaboration is when people come together on a project to make a new and better think. People with different talents come together and use their specific talents. This is good because everyone can bring something to the table. Different companies can also come together to form something as well. For example, a company could be good at clothing and the other company good be good at cars. They can come together and make something brand new. 

Chapter 5 talks about the No, go, grow approach. This is an approach that links to community collaboration. These are milestones that are reached when collaborating to make something new. No, is when the collaborator find out if what there doing is worth while. Go, is when the collaboration is done and they are ready to put it to use, they have completed everything and have checked it over. Grow, is when the collaborators put their product into the market and grow it. They want to see if it will make the company money or not. 

What I learned about growing an online community is that it is not about how many followers you have, but the quality of the followers. It is also important to have a page that is active, this is important because it will make your business look better and give your followers a better feeling about you and your company. Another important thing for growing an online community is to make sure that your followers have an interest in your product. Apple.com does a good job with this. They are constantly knowing what there customers want. They do this by surveys and testing new stuff. They know when their customers linked the new technology or didn’t. 

What Should Businesses Be Aware of?

Businesses should be aware of a couple things when using big data. They should be aware of that there is a big threat to their business information and their consumers information. This is a big problem today, many companies have been hacked and have had their data stolen. This is bad because it gives everyone personal information to who know who. Companies should put a plan together in order to better protect information, such as investing in better cyber security. 

What Should Consumers Be Aware of?

Consumers should be aware of the same things. Consumers should know that giving their information to a company has risk, and that risk is possibly getting your information stolen. They should also be aware of the company they are dealing with, and how that company defends against the risk of hackers. 

Balancing The Opportunities and Threats

Junk news is a very big part of our lives now. They are on almost every web page and social media platform we visit. They fill our pages with things we have looked at online, things we say, and linked to the friends we follow.

Algorithms sort information and get that information out to us. This sounds like a good thing and it can be, it can help us find information quickly. However they can also be a bad thing. Algorithms tend to find the most criticized information and push it out towards us online. This information tends to be more biased and not have views from both sides of the discussion. 

Advertising is how social media platforms and businesses get their content out to us. This is done be collecting our information form its users and using it to promote things. This has let to junk bait because it advertises things that make us interested or mad, which in turn will make us click in it and gets us talking about it. For example on Twitter, there will be advertisements criticizing things or people on it that can cause uproars, making people fight over what was said.  

Exposure is also a problem when it comes to social media. Lots of people only get exposed to things that they believe in and don’t get much of the other side of opinions. This is because people can sometimes decide what they are going to see, if they don’t they don’t like something online sometimes they can click the don’t see again button. People follow people with their same views too, so when it comes to politics a lot of people see only one side of the political spectrum. 

Businesses should be aware that all of these things happen. This can negatively affect the too. What businesses can do is promote more transparent news. Meaning they should promote spreading news that doesn’t really criticize or attack people or ideas. They should post non-bias information and advertise non-bias things. 

Social Media consulting is a very important part of the business world. Hiring the right business consultant can make or break your company for the social media side of your business. With the right consultant you can get your business booming and get your company and product out to more people. 

Some of the most important traits for a social media consultant to have in my opinion would be, a personable person, socially up to date, and someone who isn't afraid to tell someone they are doing something wrong. You want a consultant that is personable because you want them to interact with your business employees in a way that makes them want to listen to them. A consultant that is socially up to date is important too, because they know what the clients want and will know better how to show your products threw socially media. The most important in my opinion would be a consultant that isn't afraid to tell your company that they are wrong. The reason why you hire a consultant is to help your company better do social media, so if you are doing it wrong you would want your consultant to tell you that so you can fix it. 

If I were being social media consultant for myself I would want a plan. My plan would be to update all my social media platforms to make them look more professional. Then I would follow as many people as I can with the same mindset and attitude as me. Finally, I would be daily posts and update of what it going on, so that people have something to look forward to everyday when I post. I haven’t personally done anything so far to promote myself on social media nor do I plan to. What I could do in the future is make follow more people of the same mindset as me, and make it more professional looking. 

Big Data is a topic that not a lot of people know about. Big data is a collection of people’s information that companies use and sell to other companies so that they can know more about their customers. This information may include many things, such as what people buy, their sex and religion, their illnesses, and so on. 

I think this shows that there is not much information privacy. People may not even know that these companies are taking this information form them. One company mentioned in the video, was going into peoples phones and getting their contact information with out people even knowing it was happening.I think that this is a problem because people may not want their personal information our their, such as religion, illnesses, and sexual preferences. 

Big data is such a powerful tool because companies may know anything about their clients. This means they know what adds to push at them and what they may want to buy. The dangers of this are this abuse are that people don’t know that their privacy is being bought and sold by companies. Also if this information gets in the wrong hands, who knows what bad things could happen. 

I think that too limit the harm that big data can cause would be to warn customers that they are likely going to be tracked by big data on each website. Also I think that the companies doing big data research should be legal companies with rules to follow. These companies should also be tracked by the government so that they follow laws. On a personal level I think that we should spread the word on big data through social media to let people know its affects. 

Internet business models influence surveillance and gathering data because they want to collect information to make better targeting ads towards customers. In the article we read, it mentions that companies want as much information from people as possible so that they can created better ads. They do this by collecting big data, so that they can sell their product better. 

For my social media experiment I decided to not use social media for four six hour periods. This was not that hard for me because I don’t really care for social media that much anyways. The only time I use it is when I’m bored and want to see what my friends have posted. 

It felt really good to not be on my phone because I was outside more in the sun and fishing. I also got to play with my dog more, which he really liked. Me not having to look at my phone all the time made me feel more free. I could do what I wanted and not get distracted. 

When I did look at my phone after six hours it was actually kind of annoying to do so. This was because there were so many built up posts that I didn’t even bother looking at them all. That also showed me that many people are more worried about showing everybody what there up too, rather than enjoying the moment. 

I think that social media in daily life has a major influence. People use it to link with friends, find new friends, share their lives, and for news. In Max Stossel’s video and Emma Rathbone’s article, they show many points about the negative effects that social media can have, such as bullying and addiction. It is easy for me to see both the good and bad of it. 

Social Media’s Influence In My Life

In my life, social media does not play a very big role. I have most of the social media platforms, but I do not pay much attention to them. I check it to see what my friends are up too, as well as checking for important news in the world. I would much rather be outside doing something than on my phone looking at social media. A lot of times when I go on social media, I leave it feeling sad for our world. This is because there is a lot of negative stuff being posted on there which is why I prefer to not pay so much attention to it. 

 Availability

I think that having the internet readily available is mainly good. I say this because there are many times where I will have question about something that pops into my head, and I can immediately find the answer on the internet. I believe that it is a really good learning tool. The bad side of it is that people tend to get too drawn into it and become obsessed. They will stay on it all day and not go outside or meet people. This leads to people becoming socially awkward and form depression and loneliness. 

No Internet

I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to a retreat in high school, and there was no electronics or clocks aloud. I was there for 3 days, and we all focused more on our lives and God. I left there feeling more relaxed and happy. I felt this way because I didn't have worry about the outside world and got to learn more things about my classmates lives. I also went to a camp in the wilderness a few times where there were no phones, and I left their feeling the same way. It felt nice not having to worry about a schedule or others posts. 

Intentional Use

I think I already do a good job keeping off social media. I think that what I can work on is that I should not get so upset about things I see on there that I do not agree with. To do this, I could unfollow certain accounts on my social media sites, or make my settings so that things don’t pop up on my feed. I think that if everyone works together and treats people with kindness that social media would not get such a bad rep.

Hi, my name is Tim Dougherty, and I’m a senior at CMU. My major is in entrepreneurship with a minor in management. My career goals are either to manage/own a business or some form of law enforcement. I hope to to learn how to better promote my future business through blogs and social media. 

I believe that Chick-fil-a ( @ChickfilA ) uses social media very well. They promote there business on twitter posting news about their company, as well as posting stuff about their competitors such as Popeyes. Chick-fil-a also does a good job promoting causes, such as Christianity as well as donating to black-owned non profit companies.