LSC 440: Contemporary Communications Scholars

Class 13: Finishing Strong Work Days

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:36:03 -0600

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and is ready to finish the semester strong! Based on our recent meetings with the different groups in class, we’re VERY excited to see how your final project turn out.

On that note, I want to remind you that today’s class (11/29) and next week’s class (12/6) are work sessions. Nan and I are going to be available to meet with each group to make sure you are on track to have outstanding final projects. Also, next week we’ll be sharing the process for how you will be presenting your final projects.

On the topic of today, do any groups want to schedule time slots to meet with Nan and me? Also, does anyone/group need any technical help on their projects? If so please let us know what you need assistance with.

Here’s to finishing super strong!!!!!

Class 12: Twas the class before Thanksgiving

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:04:23 -0600

Nan is out today so I will be doing meetings with groups that are in attendance. I will be starting with #SMShopping group first and the Health and Wellness Group second. I’m open though after that!

Class 11: A Rocking Work Session!

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:51:29 -0600

Here is the schedule for today:

3:30 - 3:40 Brief Updates

3:40 - 4:00 Food Marketing Crew

4:00 - 4:20 Environmental Group

4:20 - 4:40

4:40 - 5:00 Environmental Group

5:00 - 5:25

Class 10 Notes from Food Group

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:53:40 -0600

We had Colleen Wainwright guest lecture via Skype

-She raised about $130,00 for WriteGirl in Los Angeles using a video she created and posted on Indigogo

-She felt selfish and started thinking about what she’s going to leave behind and what she could do to make a difference. She decided to use Write Girl because she had been a big supporter for a long time.

- She used to be a professional actor. She got to be in Wheaties ads with Michael Jordan.

-She started blogging in 2004. She liked how with social media you can put something out there and get feedback immediately.

- Before she started her blog she had been reading other peoples for a few years. She was also on twitter pretty early.

- Over the years she built relationships with people and gained their trust because she asked for money, then those people told their friends and she got bigger. She had the “big” people tell others and spread the word.

-“The more specific you can get about the help people can offer the better your campaign will be.” She had her friends write a bunch of tweets because it wasn’t much of her thing. She made it very clear why she was doing the campaign to make it very easy for people. Along the way she learned the power of focus.

-She doesn’t really like videos, but it was the middle of the campaign and nothing was moving, so she made videos which got a lot of views and it helped her become more popular.

- People started approaching her about what they could do to help, some of her friends even started donations in their stores. She had promotions that you could win prizes for donating money, but some people got a little greedy.

-She only follows around 100 people even though she has 6,000 to 7,000 followers. Her use of twitter is to be a “Wisenheimer,” so she doesn’t follow too many people. She changed things around a lot, and would do things like have a quote of the day. She wanted to make things interesting.

-She knew she wanted to do a video straight from the heart, so she looked up ways to grab attention and she found people want to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. She wanted to do something that people wouldn’t stop watching after 10 seconds, so she made it fun and interesting, and she made it so that there were surprises in it.

-Number 1 assumption people make is that they think, o everyone is going to love it, but not necessarily. It’s easier if you can come up with a compelling story, you have to do ground work and make it easy for people to get involved at any level.

-Be careful to think of people on the other end. She wanted anyone who got involved with the campaign to feel fantastic. She says sometimes non profits don’t treat the people who support them as well as they should.

AHAS

The “aha” tips that I thought were most important were that 1) part of the way she gained such a big audience was through trust and 2)she learned that in a video, people want to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. These are key things to remember because your audience is the most important part of any project. You have to reach them in order to succeed, and by remembering these tools you will have a better sense of how to reach them.

APPLYING WHAT YOU LEARNED TO YOUR PROJECT

Our project is connecting with the CSA coalition in Madison and helping them gain a crowd by teaching them about social media. They don’t have a twitter and barely use Facebook so we want to teach them how to utilize their resources, although they do have an eye- catching website. Talking to Colleen helped us realize that we need to gain the trust of the CSA coalition before we get anywhere. We also learned that we have to be specific on what we want the CSA to accomplish and then teach them how to be specific with what they want from their audience. Last, we learned that we have to create a creative, attention grabbing video that will keep the audience entertained throughout the entire video.

Class Meeting Times for Nov 15

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:17:00 -0600

Really enjoyed our meetings with Social Night Life and Social Shopping Groups. Great discussions and ideas.

For next Tuesday, Nan and I will be have these time slots available and fill them as

3:30 - 3:40 Brief Updates

3:40 - 4:00 Food Marketing Crew

4:00 - 4:20 Environmental Group

4:20 - 4:40

4:40 - 5:00 Environmental Group

5:00 - 5:25

Jam Session #10 Already?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:27:02 -0600

Can’t believe it’s already week 10!!!! Wow time flies when you are have a super awesome time ;-)

Today, we have Colleen Wainwright, producer of the super cool $50K for 50 campaign guest lecturing from warm and sunny Los Angeles. She raised $75K in only 50 days for her favorite non-profit and she’s going to clue us in on how she did this!

Also, she has a very cool background in writing ad copy for TV, writing an Emmy nominated TV show, acting and getting to write a Wheaties commercial for Michael Jordan himself!

After we meet with Colleen, Nan and I will begin working one-on-one with each group. During class time today, we’ll be meeting with

Social Night Life Group: from 4:40 - 5:00 and
Social Media Shopping Group from 5:00 - 5:20ish.

Next week, we will be meeting with the rest of the groups in 20 minute chunks to help you plan your final projects.

We will also be available for 30-60 minute meetings outside of class for those groups who would like to participate. We can conduct these meeting in person or via Google Hangouts.

Times available are for in-person meetings next week are:

Nov. 14(Mon) 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Nov. 15(Tue.)  9:30am - 10:30am + Class Time
Nov. 17(Thu.) 9:30am - 10:30am

Class 9 Notes from Environmental Group

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:05:44 -0600

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL CHANGE:

Carey Fuller- runs a social media campaign, using social media (SM) for issues surrounding homelessness. Carey is a blogger for change.org.
Today, we will discuss how they are using twitter and SM to do some sort of social change.

@invisiblepeopletv
@careyfuller
@hardlynormal

Background about Carey and how she got involved with Mark (Founder of invisible people) and SM for her issue:
-Single mom, raising 2 kids in Seattle. Story started before economy tanked, bought an RV with income tax return. Realized that homelessness is becoming a big problem in our company. Working 2 jobs and tried to prevent situation. Met Mark by blogging with change.org. Blogged about what it was like being a homeless mother

When did you start using social tools?
Change.org and blog was getting many hits. Many people don’t know about homelessness and who IS homeless (facts about this). Mark showed invisible people and had Carey get involved in twitter. SM is a platform to get word out. Saw how SM could reach a much broader audience. Twitter can be used for MORE than just advertising.

How are you using Twitter. Background on invisible people?
Invisible people - videos, puts human face behind story, and shows that homelessness is very real and growing problem. Accomplished it by putting a human face to homelessness and tried to give as much exposure as possible. Homeless people are real people and not much different from you. This is more TV and letting people tell their story and situation.

We are visible- helping people get connecting. Community based site. How people can get connected. More active with community. See the difference when visit each of these sites.

What have you seen that SM has done for you?
Carey Fuller was writing, and people were reading what she was happening and her story. Emails start coming in, saw this coming in change.org. Biggest change= EXPOSURE! #1 thing, blog site, twitter, put in contact with local folks trying to make a difference and those starting up local charities or community involvement à reaching out to people that you have never met!

How are you using SM specifically to do this outreach?
Reach more people. More people you reach, the larger impact you make. Great feedback and don’t know who your story is reaching. Main reason: to get word out to as many people as possible AND you don’t know who is out there and don’t know who is going to read the tweet (it’s in real time and not in days later like other media forms)

Are tools being used to educate or connect with homeless community?
A young man kept secret from peers that he was homeless; he put a video out on YouTube, and received so many offers on help. Friend offered help and gave him a place to stay (find housing with a friend he hasn’t seen in years). This is ALL based on twitter and one YouTube video. Connected him with people he hadn’t heard from or thought he would never see again. Twitter is MORE than just ONE response.
Main stream- wait for news
SM- user puts the news out when it is happening

Who are your followers on Twitter? Mostly homeless? News media?
More of the homeless and homeless services provider. News media when a story is picking up momentum. How many people create a website for homeless people run by homeless people? Not what you’re doing to see on main stream media.

Gotten a lot of main stream media? What outlets covered you?
CNN, PBS, local news station.

Have you seen using social tools (getting story out) is changing perceptions or stereotypes?
Definitely! When Mark started doing invisible people- it opened eyes because people didn’t know how bad things were getting. A lot of folks didn’t know homeless population were children—changed stereotypes. New homeless- people who lost house or jobsà what is growing rapidly now. Small percentage—stereotype, mentally disabled or addiction. Majority of homeless is children.

What the average of a homeless person in Madison?
Average age: 9 years old. 50% of those homeless in Madison are families.

Twitter = educational on homeless.
People automatically presume stereotypes on homelessness. This tells Carey there is an education problem! Demographics of population are changing rapidly for homelessness.

Carey has 2 daughter (16 and 8 year olds)à one child comes close to demographics. They go to school and didn’t miss any school when Carey worked 2 jobs. Do well in school. Nothing has changed even though they have a house now.

Social tools—how do you use twitter in terms of our capacity? Check it all the time? Interact with people looking for help? Post Facts?
Tweet about what Carey is doing in city she is in, things the city isn’t doing. Carey makes videos of young people with their experience with the city and homeless and how to make it better. Carey tweets as she is going and talking bout people, things she is observing à this has the biggest impact! Real life, day to day. Twitter is still human; it is just a platform, tweet about life which reaches out to people much better than advertising deals.

Using youtube for videos on careyfuller.com

How are you using Facebook?
Interactive site= last week put we invisible challenge. Shelter systems and what they don’t tell you. Todays challenge: Call local resource about emergency housing- the system is out there (tax payer dollars) is NOT what you think it is. The only way to find out is to experience it. To engage people= put out challenge o Facebook. Try this and see what it’s like for those who have to go through this. This is the type of we-are-visible.

How often do you post a challenge?
Cary tries to do it once a week. Also try to have special guests to do one-hour Q and A sessions. Groups like National Coalition for Homelessness, try to have a guest 1 or 2 times a month, so people can talk to them. A lot of questions, great for service providers and general public to see the truth is what is going on. It’s not people who are lazy or causing their own situation—> you didn’t ask for cancer or job loss, working 2 jobs and still can’t afford housing.
It’s a one on one community talking to one anotherà we-are-visible
Invisible peopleà watching videos. Traveling globally to do it.

Guest interviews- where do you do it?
Facebook on the we-are-visible page. Usually on Fridays at 1 PM, more responses at this time.

What is the process for your interviews?
Having a discussion, many questions out there. Asking general questions that most people have thought of and other people can join in and ask. How do they get an advocacy started or help community. Live chat at times.

How do you get the word out that you’re doing this?
Putting on twitter and we-are-visible site. Have these sites linked. Tweet the week, the day of and hour before.

Interaction—who are coming to these discussions and getting involved?
How many views- 2,000-3,000 views, actually people interacting varies.

What gets you through the day?
Same as everybody else, Carey has things to do. Not depressed and sitting around. It’s not your situation; it’s where your mind is at! The mindset is before homelessness and what it is after. Not all homeless people are depressed. Type of personality and what you have in your head before you are homeless, a healthy outlook.

Do you find being on twitter and Facebook helps people struggling?
Main reason for writing blog. Saw many people who were stuck in shock phase, they didn’t have anyone to talk to who has been homeless. You have certain expectations of what your life is going to be like—out side of this, they go into a shock phase and hang on to fear. Fear can be crippling if can’t get through it.

Does the school where Carey’s kids go to help out?
The school knows, Carey is very vocal. There is no reason to be ashamed. One school is getting involved and proactive about homeless students. Higher number of homeless kids in Seattle would have a better attitude but had to fight with them. The school had a different attitude with homeless kids. Individual teachers have stepped forward to help out (where to go, what to do, clothing resource etc.)

Are there any joint efforts with mentally illness and homelessness? There is extreme misunderstanding, any way to educate people about this?
Had someone come on to we-are-visible with a mental illness, don’t deserve that kind of stigma put on. Advocacy: trying to bring a program for this, try to divert jail time, have something CIT- crisis intervention team. If officer comes in contact with someone who is mentally ill, ahs to call CIT member before they can arrest. That person makes a determination of what to do (get them the help they need versus going straight to jail). Having someone advocate this (Sam S?), someone is out on the streets and can’t live like the rest of us, why are we letting them be homeless?

Any interaction on SM with law enforcement?
A man from Toronto and goes around to police departments and tells them there is a better way to deal with this. Scott Neals uses SM, send out tweets, working with we-are-visible. Putting tweets with picture attached. Graffitibmxcop àtwitter handle. Public profile on Facebook as well.

Are people using Twitter to reach out and find relief?
Yes, you don’t know how is out there watching those tweets. You have to be careful because there are scammers. Most people, who are on there asking for help, really do need it. A woman had nowhere to go and in serious trouble, a desperate tweet for help and folks were there to help her, this made national news! Shows how twitter can help for those in need that can help directly.

Are politics involving in tweets with we-are-visible? Do you have to go after politicians?
Politicians know what is going on. Politicians know it’s a problem, their concern is: homeless people don’t contribute to campaign. Want campaign dollars. What they forget: homeless population is growing and they can still vote. Once you get homeless people unite and act as own group and involved in local communities—will have a bigger voice than many of the politicians.

Because visible with tweeting, blogging and facebooking? Any job offers for SM work for other companies?
No, counter intuitive. You think because someone is visible, they would do that. No job offers with SM. Carey Fuller has been active with SM since last July.

Stereotype of a homeless person is an adult but it’s children. Are their services for adults?
With economy, local and state funds being slashed. With current economy, the services are being slashed. These programs are the first to go (shelters, emergency areas and programs to help the homeless). Big cities don’t have as much shelters as you’d think. The shelters were never meant to handle the growing number people. Waiting lists are large.

As Carey builds more awareness of homelessness, what are her immediate goals? Create programs or awareness?
Biggest goal: putting a human face onto this issue, as most people didn’t understand. Grow the we-are-visible community. The numbers are going to grow by 40% in 2012. Going to see this impact whether or not you want to. Motivate people to become more involved with those experiencing homelessness. There is a lack of family support when it comes to homeless—it’s your own fault.

Number of people using we-are-visible site: Depends, getting a lot of new people. Facebook, it’s over 2,000 people per day. Numbers are increasing, they are not going down.

What can active community members do to help and get involved?
1. Check Human Resource department. Call city hall and ask them what programs are there for the homeless. Town might not have a homeless shelter. Nothing at city level then go to community groups or churches, they do this with their own money. Do a search in your town.

Why are you not using Twitter to identify negative things? Only have 140 characters. Uses twitter to link blog.

Class 9: Guest Lecturer Carey Fuller

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:35:46 -0600

We are lucky to have Carey Fuller of Invisible People and We Are Visible joining us in class today. Amongst other things she does, she has her own blog, blogs for the Huffington Post and works with Mark Horvath.

Carey is on the front-lines of using social media to create social change. She will tell us her story and help us understand how social tools can help start created social change.

Homework from Class 8

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:21:14 -0600

Here is what you need to be working on for the week leading up to class on Nov 1

•Reading: Chapter 2 Grab attention. Tweet your aha’s •Group Project: Continue working on project doc. Bring printed versions to share in class next week •Guest Lecturer: Tweet ?s for @CareyFuller from wearevisible.com and invisiblepeople.tv who will be guest lecturing next week
Any questions, please let me know!

Jam Session 8: More Dragonfly Effect, @WisIdea and Your Projects

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:21:55 -0600

Hopefully everyone survived the mid-term exam! Yeah, it’s behind you.

Now that we are at the half-way point of the semester, what will we be doing from here on out?

1. We will begin spending more and more time learning the methods Andy Smith and Jennifer Aaker promote in the Dragonfly Effect. We’ll be reviewing Wing 1: Focus and Wing 2: Grab Attention this week.

As we review the wings, I want you to think about what parts of the Dragonfly Effect you can use for your client projects. As you read the book, always be asking yourself “Can I apply this concept to our project and if so what’s the best, most impactful way to apply it?”

During the first part of class today, we’ll be talking about Wing 1 and Wing 2 and discussing what we can apply to the @WisIdea project. We’ll talk about what the WisIdea account can be doing to focus their goals (macro and micro) and we’ll talk about how they can grab attention both online and offline, with their Twitter account and with other outlets, etc.

During the next part of class, you will have time to work in your groups. Nan and I will be coming around and discussing your client projects, your progress and ways to incorporate the DF Effect into what you are doing.

See you all soon!

Jam Session 7: The DragonFly Effect, @WisIdea and Midterm

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:03:00 -0600

We will do the following today:

discuss the Dragonfly Effect and consider the focus for our projects and the focus for the @wisidea account
handout the mid-term exam (please note the mid-term will be due at the beginning of class next Tuesday)
talk about google hangouts, Twitter and sharing documents.
Handout the midterm

Class 6: Notes from Social Night Life

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:10:00 -0600

Class Notes: Social Nightlife

Guest Speaker: Travis Balinas, Inbound Marketing Manager for Zenoss, LSC Badger Grad

Outbound Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing: Companies will beg, buy, or bug their way into social circles to spread their message. This is the more traditional marketing methods that most businesses use. Ex) Mass email listing, outsourced telemarketing, traditional advertisements.

Inbound Marketing: Businesses earn their way into social circles by direct engagement, building credible reputation, and maintaining good rapport by assisting and providing relative content. Companies may use social media, a more contemporary and increasingly effective marketing strategy.

Using Inbound Marketing

Four factors in inbound marketing: Engagement, Influence, Popularity, Trust —-> E.I.P.T

E- Interact with followers on Twitter (tweet, retweet, mention, and respond), friends on facebook, and users of other social media accounts.

I- You must be influential. Provide information that is important/relevant to your target audience in a creative and pivotal manner.

P- Build a reputation and persona that will gain interest, followers, friends, and create an active audience.

T- You want to build a reputation that will make your audience trust that your content and your purposes are interesting and beneficial to them.

Tools that measure E.I.P.T:

Klout.com- Compares your twitter, facebook, or linkedin account to competitors and show how well you use social media.

Timely.is- calculates times of most engagement on twitter and allows your to schedule tweets for publishing at peek times.

Ways to get starting using inbound marketing:

One of the most difficult things to overcome using inbound marking its building a personal reputation

1. Find your Niche topic- You’ve got to be creative, find your passion for what you’re promoting.

2. Create your own voice- Be creative, original, witty, and let your own personality shine through.

3. Turn Into a “geek”- Continue to learn. Keep up with the what with is coming next daily. Research competitors, follow up with influencers, search for people who are talking about your subject area and target them.

4. Be consistent- Actively utilize social media accounts every day. Never give up on your message (even when it seems as though all hope is lost). You must be dedicated. Don’t be afraid to re-share past tweets, posts, and Ideas.

5. Make mistakes faster- The learning process is continual. It is much easier to dive in make a mistake and ask for forgiveness.

Twitter Tidbits and Social Media Tips

Twitter is a 9 month learning process:

Month 1: Initial excitement.

Month 2-3: Lagging or stop use.

Month 4 or 5: Edge back in cautiously.

Month 9: Get into it and use regularly

-The lifespan of a tweet is only 3 hours.That is way is it important to tweet at peeks times of impact.

-Twitter 12:1 ratio: Tweet and retweet about others 12 times more than you tweet about yourself.

-Social media tools constantly evolve. No one knows how long Facebook and Twitter will be around. It is best to base to launch new content is in blog format. Spread content via other social media accounts. Be careful to re-promote messages creatively and appropriately for each separate account.

More Class 6 Notes

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:59:23 -0600

I’ve posted the slide deck from yesterday.

Here are some additional notes I didn’t share in class but want you to review for next class.

http://bit.ly/hghYEs point is to watch the first part and see how AJBombers got attention on ESPN. They had a goal, a plan and executed that plan

Awesome New Twitter Search Feature Helps You Become Much More Popular http://blog.bufferapp.com/awesome-new-twitter-search-feature-helps-you-become-much-more-popular

The part of this article to pay attention to is the Why can’t I see my tweets (and my followers tweets) from months ago, not just days ago? Why can’t I search my DMs?

What they should be doing? Understanding how these tools can expand impacts and engagement. We will watch @JoeSorge on the link above to see and begin pulling in the Dragonfly Effect

What is it?
1) Focus: What is it we recommend they focus on? If you focus on too many things at once, you’ll get lost and overwhelmed. Don’t be a lab (squirrel, shiny object image). Base this on outcomes and orgs. Joe Sorge wanted to get on live TV and connect with ESPN game day and used Twitter to make it happen!

2) Attention: who’s attention is critical to have that you need to connect or connect with in more powerful ways. How to do this? Think @AJBombers and some of the case studies from the book. Identify the POWER 10. Let’s do this on the WIsconsin Idea project.
LINKS FOR TODAY

Class 6: My Notes and Homework

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:47:00 -0600

I’ll be posting the slides from class today, but here is the homework due October 18th.

1. @WisIdea Project: Find and then tweet “best in breed” organizations for the @WisIdea to follow. Remember the examples of @ajbombers and @LARABAR and @wrong_again accounts. Give the name of the account and why we should pay attention to them!
Read 1-48 in Dragonfly Effect. Tweet your “aha” (should have many to share!)
Work on the focus section of your client document (you can tweet with your group and/or meet in person). PRINT OUT copies of your focus section for both Nan and I so we can review them. Remember to tweet with your groups.

Lecture 5 Notes: From Sports Group

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:12:00 -0600

Kennedy Communications

October 4, 2011 Lecture Notes

Provided by the Sports Group

Mr. Bill Kennedy

Mr. Pete Raisch

Ms. Maggie Seidenstricker

Goals of Kennedy Communications:

Communications, Convergence, Connectivity, Creativity

Integration of traditional media with social media

The Cliches of Business

Fish where the fish are

Social media movement cannot be ignored
There is money to be made, not from the warm and the fuzzies
Defined where you’re not, not where you are
Based on analysis; media with the metric wins
No longer about the likes

Know your role

Take control
Force multiplier; gives advantage over others (like James Bond)
We get surveyed through social media
Paid, owned, and earned

Content is king, creativity is queen

Everyone needs to be creative to get message across
People don’t like leaving Facebook
Need good writers to make content interesting and keep good bounce rate

The more things change, the more things stay the same

Conversations are powerful
Social is the new search engine

Aha Moments

Facebook has surpassed Google?
Conversations lead to search, which causes Google to fear Facebook
“Drink, tweet, repeat” – Culligan’s marketing idea
Social media as a global survey
“A website with a blog helps keep your search engine optimization by almost fifty percent”
Conversations are what keep social media going
Social currency = add goodwill (like retweeting)
Tag clouds: tracks number of times words or phrases are used

LECTURE 5: Kennedy Communications Rockin the House

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:50:00 -0600

Today we will have Bill Kennedy, LSC grad and owner of Kennedy Communications along with Peter Raisch and Maggie Seidenstricker. They will be talking about the effects of social media on other media channels and how it can be applied to businesses and their marketing strategies.

FOR OUR DISCUSSION SECTION

We will continue working on our project definition plan and competitive audit. But we will be adding a new twist for the next couple of weeks. To make this work more real, we will be doing a project AS A CLASS to give context and provide a trail for your individual groups.

How will this work?

We will do this by working with Heidi Zoerb of the Vice Chancellor’s Office for University Relations. They have contacted us and asked for help with the @WisIdea account.

We will be working with the @WisIdea account and doing some research and offering advice to help the reach their goals. We will discuss these goals during class tomorrow.

SO HOW SHOULD WE BEGIN?

WHAT ARE THE STEPS WE NEED TO TAKE?

HOW DO WE OUTLINE OUR ACTIONS?

We can use search.twitter.com and some other examples for finding what people are talking about, what trending such as Digg, Technorati. Reddit, StumbleUpon

Understand the importance of research and listening as a key part of engagement.
What are the key topics in your industry (think of governor race and the rail system).
Research/data mining takes time!!!! It’s simple, but not easy.
Learn to limit the amount of data you get input, it can be overwhelming
Figure out how to collaborate with each other (google doc is recommended!)

LECTURE 4 Notes: Guest Lecturer Marivic Valencia

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:05:00 -0600

What really is private online? Is information secure? What do these things even mean? Marivic Valencia (@techpr) became aware of these questions while working for the governor fifteen years ago as a legal assistant. The catalyst to start pursuing privacy and security issues was when the governor’s chief legal council told her that they could see all of the emails she was sending and she was unaware they were able to.

Facebook as an Example

Facebook and other free social networks are training us to undervalue privacy. We are addicted to getting approval from friends and peers online. What a lot of us were not aware of and one of the “Aha” tips of the day was the fact that Facebook is tracking our online history. Even after users log out, they still have access to what other sites they are using via cookies.This helps them gain more information about the demographic they are trying to reach in order to appeal to the right audience. They sell this information to advertisers to help them as well.

“A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user’s browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site.The state information can be used for authentication, identification of a user session, user’s preferences, shopping cart contents, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing text data.”—Wikipedia

Marivic suggested to be more secure you should delete cookies after logging out, and use Facebook in its own browser so they cannot track your web history.

Data-mining

What’s the value you put on privacy? How much would you pay to keep information private and not subject to advertisers and application developers?

One can visit the following sites to see what information is out there about themselves:
- SpyFu
- Spokeo
- Google Social Connections
- PeopleBrowsr

“Aha” Tips, Ideas, etc.

3 Bubbles: Privacy, Security, Anonymity
- There can be overlap between the bubbles.
“Even if you don’t blog we are all publishers.”
“Medium is changing the message” - the length, purpose, topics, function and structure of all communication.
- For example, telephone is non-tangible without character restrictions, and the telegraph was a tangible medium. Tweets are 140 characters max. Etc.
“Persona”= profile of target market
80% of criminals today use social networking sites to target people. and plan crimes
“Any to many”: Anything you say online can be read and shared by many.
“We are the commodity; we are what’s being sold.”

Tips to be more secure

Delete your cookies every time you log out.
Have a separate browser for your Facebook page.
Update security settings on social networks often.
Change website passwords on a regular basis.

Don Stanley’s Message ;-) (@lscthedon)

We do business with people we know, like, and trust.

Relevance to Project - Social Media Shopping (#smshopping)

Our Project: Our group is focusing on Internet retailing, specifically Amazon.com. Currently, Amazon has no social media integration on their website and no strong external social media presence. Amazon should utilize Facebook integration with Open Graph protocol, and their Twitter is cluttered with cross-promotion with no direct customer service (@amazon). Amazon customer product reviews are not personal, and do not have the significance of the review from a friend. By implementing various social media tools, you would be able to see and solicit friend reviews.
Applicable information:
- Earned Endorsements
  - The trust value of a product review from a friend is much higher than a product advertisement.
    - For example, the advertising value equivalent of a personal write-up in Time magazine where you cannot pay them to say good things about your product or service compared to a paid advertisement.
- Customer service and engagement through social media, especially Twitter.

Closing Questions to Think About

What does privacy mean to you? Would you pay more for easier to use and understandable privacy settings? Is what you’re doing secure?

Are you ready to rumble!!!!! Class 4 is about to begin

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:24:00 -0600

Today, we have Maravic Valencia @techpr of ValenciaPR coming in to discuss (not present, but discuss) privacy vs anonymity online. So while many of the contemporary tools we are talking about add a lot of positive possibilities, we need to be aware of some of the challenges and downsides related to them.

These include personal accounts being hacked, terrorist groups using the tools, bloggers and other SMers being murdered and criminals targeting victims for burglaries. And it’s also important to note what we give up by using these “free” tools.

I’d recommend looking into the ideas of data mining and the filter bubble. And since FB is the most popular contemporary technology, it’s important to keep up-to-date on what’s happening with it. Here’s an article from mashable I’d recommend checking out.

Facebook’s New Features Might Not Be as Private as You Think [UPDATED]

DISCUSSION: Nan and I will review your progress on your PROJECT DEFINITION DOCUMENT homework from last week. We’ll also review these steps for conducting a competitive audit

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Understand the importance of research and listening as a key part of engagement.
Identify the key topics in your industry (think of governor walker and the rail system).
Research/data mining takes time!!!! It’s simple, but not easy.
Learn to limit the amount of data you get input, it can be overwhelming
Figure out how to collaborate with each other (google doc is recommended!)
Update us on your comfort with Twitter for class

FOR COMPETITIVE AUDIT

Here are some action steps to take

The first step is creating your competitive list.

Start by identifying 3 to 5 core competitors for your research. You can create a longer list to use in the Competitors app—but for your core list, try to limit it to your direct competitors. Specifically the competitors that will be within your personas’ consideration set.
Add to this list one business that you consider a “best in breed” example of an online presence. This one doesn’t necessarily need to be a direct competitor, but the more relevant it is to you and your industry, the more it will help you. This will be your benchmark example of who you think is doing a good job of positioning themselves.
Last, add one business, not necessarily a competitor—but in your industry, that you think is not doing a great job at positioning themselves online. This will help you see what not to do with your content.
To help build-out a larger list, you can use Google to search for your keywords or core products and see who else comes up. Doing this research can also help you see who else is out there and what they are saying

FOR HOMEWORK: Continue adding to your PROJECT DEFINITION DOCUMENT.

Class 3: About to being!!!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:48:01 -0600

Today we will have John Lucas (@jplucas55) and Megan Costello (@HigherEdMeggo) from UW Communications (@UWMadison). They will be sharing stories about how they have used social/contemporary tools for #UWSocial efforts. Remember, tweeting is encouraged!

AFTERWARD we’ll do the following:

We’ll discuss key points from their presentation.
We’ll then break into our groups and make the “official” We’ll assign treat duty and blog post duty
Then in our small groups, we’ll finalize the group we’ll be helping/topic. We’ll begin creating a project definition document. This document will have a basic structure of GROUP NAME, DEMOGRAPHICS ON THE GROUP CURRENT ONLINE EFFORTS BY THE GROUP (TOOLS UTILIZED BY THE GROUP such as Twitter, FB, YouTube, Blog, Mobile tools, etc.) OPPORTUNITIES TO BE EXPLORED, POTENTIAL PARTNERS, etc. This will be an evolving document so I suggest using google docs or some other tool for collaboration.
Next week Tuesday, you will share this doc with myself and Nan so have a rough outline printed out.

Participation grades

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:55:16 -0600

Dear all,

During the past two weeks, we have a very interactive and engaging communication on Twitter. Nice job! Just a slight reminder for those who may not get used to this little gadget: Don’t be hesitate to tweet a) your answers to homework, b) interesting finds that you wanna share to classmates, c) sparkle thoughts on lecture, and d) messages to your peer colleges w/ your group hashtags whenever you like. Also, add #lsc440 to your tweet and let everyone see your insights!

NOTE: HOMEWORK IS DUE ON 3:30PM EVERY FRIDAY BEFORE NEXT WEEK CLASS.

*Since we are just starting this innovative way of grading homework, I’ll notify you if I didn’t see any responses, which may harm your grade to some extent. And we will do a cumulative calculation of everyone’s tweets as part of your participation grades by the mid-term.

LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS W/ USING TWITTER, OR FEEL NOT COMFORTABLE OF USING THIS TOOL. WE CAN FIGURE OUT ALTERNATIVES TOGETHER!

Keep warm and all my best,

Nan