#ericims201

This is the infographic that I was planning on presenting in class until we ran out of time, so I decided to use this as a great post topic.  Music Festivals and Concerts have become a living and breathing entity amongst my generation.  Each one has its own personality and its own community that coincides with it.  From the fans to the musicians concerts create a very specific and unique environment that seem to be overwhelmingly attractive to people.  Fans not only flock to the event themselves but they also come together on social networking sites to both discuss feelings prior to the event and to also re-live the event after it has ended.  Being someone who goes to multiple shows a year (most specifically during the summer time) I thought that looking at the best ways to find tickets and what were the most popular shows of this past summer was very interesting to me.  Its cool to see how much the music business and online activity amongst ticket distributing websites gain during the summer months.  

My hometown of Rye, New York was battered by super-storm Sandy which occurred this past week.  My hometown had been seriously damaged and it crippled the entire town for an entire week.  My house was luckily left relatively un-affected, but a few of my friends houses were partially destroyed as a result of the storm.  Some were more un-lucky then others, but it is clear that overall Rye, along with countless other towns were irreversibly changed as a result of Sandy.   Sandy took out the power to my house for more than week.  Rye schools had been shut down and flooded for the entire week following the arrival of Sandy.  Sandy had left its mark by causing millions of dollars in damages in Rye and billions of dollars in damages throughout the entire NorthEast.  

Since there was no specific topic for this weeks post I decided to talk about one of the lawsuit claims that I found when we were researching about Facebook in class.

This article came off as kind of ridiculous to me, because it really shows how people will truly do anything they can to try to get a piece of something as big as Facebook.  This guy, Paul Ceglia went as far as to say that he was promised as much as a 50% share of Facebook, yes I said 50%.  This just shows how some people are either truly desperate or just completely incompetent.  Either way its an interesting article about how far some people will go to make their lie come true.

This article goes into detail about how much weight a 'like', reblogging, or tweeting actually has on the current tight presidential race.  This article asks the question of wither or not our personalities on social media really help change or re-enforce someone's ideals.  

In order to really get a feel for how social media has affected this election, it takes a look at the last presidential race between Obama and McCain.  This article credits Obama's social media campaign has part of the reason for his victory in the 2008 win against McCain.  Stating that "...one could be lead to believe that the candidate who harnesses social media the most effectively will win.", which is exactly what Obama did. Obama went against McCain who had a very strong media campaign himself, but McCain failed to attract the younger generations because of his lack of social media awareness.  

Being able to get consumers to talk to their friends about a product is the most authentic and trustworthy form of connection that a brand can have.  People enjoy hearing what their friends are interested in.  Friend to Friend interaction is the simplest and the quickest form of getting a consumer attracted to a product.  ‘Hey you gotta check this out’, is all you have to say to a buddy and they are hooked.  Why people may ask?  It’s simply because it’s coming from a dependable and relatable source.  Consumers know what their friend likes/wants and vice versa.

Trust is Key

Millennials are looking for the next big thing amongst their friends.  Millennials do not want to hear from some Joe Schmo about product X; we want a source who we know is interested in the same products as I am.  I am not listening on the corner to what strangers are saying about new products, I am being engaged in a group of friends whose opinion that I trust and actually want to hear.  Listening to a personal testimony from a “real person (not paid actor)” I might as well be a Charlie Brown character trying to listen to his teacher.  Opinions like that go in one ear and out the other; they don’t resonate with Millennials at all.  Why should I trust some random guy?  How does he know what I like or what I want?

A "How To" guide to successfully self-promote your music within the realm of social media.  This article covers the many different ways in which both new and established musicians are taking the multiple social media outlets and using them to help accomplish their dreams and aspirations.  Websites such as Kickstarter have really started to gain popularity and have become an extremely viable source for new musicians to get funding for their many expensive ventures.  

CD sales are dropping, no problem Social Media is on the rise.  Free outlets with a limitless reach, how much more could you ask for?  A look at how the music industry is a perfect fit for social media.

Since in class today we discussed how Apple is coming up with the next big thing in personalized streaming music I thought that this would be an appropriate article to look at and understand how social media moves at an incredible rate.