Social Media Project

For our groups social media project we chose to research Netflix. Below is the link to our results.  

http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Netflix

In analyzing the various social media outlets of Netflix I learned what tactics the company uses to reach its consumers. A primary source that Netflix uses is Facebook and a source that Netflix has little to no presence on is YouTube.

The Netflix Facebook page has over 3 million likes and has over 45,000 mentions. On their Facebook page there are links to other social media outlets, advertisements for recently added television shows and movies and much more. Facebook's growing popularity among older generations helps Netflix to utilize one site for multiple target markets. 

Another social media outlet that is used by Netflix is Twitter. They have an official Twitter page with about 161,268 followers. Netflix "tweets" about 1 to 4 times a day. With their tweets they advertise movies and television shows that viewers can watch instantly, information on events hosted by the company, movie facts, and questions to encourage consumer interaction. Twitter is a successful use of social media for Netflix. The company is able to get their name out to a variety of consumers in a subtle and informative way. 

Some things that Netflix does not have are a presence on YouTube or a social media policy. Although there has been talk of YouTube being a potential competitor, Netflix should at least have an official account to post promotional videos and such. YouTube can only further put there brand out there.  Netflix also doesn't have an official social media policy, they state objectives with social media but no true policy. Social media policies are essential to companies using the social media outlets for business and is something they should seriously consider. 

Netflix is a very interesting and successful company. They use social media to their advantage and it is something that is very effective.

Week 12: Telecommunication (Clear Blog)

One for the lessons we learned about this week from Dr. Means was telecommunication. Specifically the way that information travels through the internet. She did a great way in explaining the information in  a clear and descriptive way.

According to Dr. Means lecture, Business Telecommunication can be defined as electronic communication, the science and technology of transmitting information electronically by wires or radio signals with integrated encoding and decoding equipment and information transmission over communications lines.

Information travels to get from one location to the other.

Transmission control protocol or TCP used on the start and end of the information. It takes the info and slices it int data grams to send out, IP routes the packets and TCP and reassembles the packets into the complete format to display on users computer.

UDP is used when its important for packets to arrive quickly for things such as Skype. It may glitch, but its sacrificed for the speedy arrival of data.

Last mile, final leg in the connection. Internet speeds are ranked low in the US because we are so spread throughout the country and not in one specific area.

Broadband high speed last mile technology. Wireless uses mobile networks are good but get bogged down at times such as game days.

All of this information is something that I, and a lot of people, take for granted. I just trust that the internet is going to be fast and get from my computer to another in a timely manor, which now-a-days is milliseconds. It was cool to learn about the process and some of the steps necessary in the process.

The most interesting piece of information from this lecture was that WiFi is just a brand name and doesn't stand for anything. I had no idea that its a common misconception that it stands for "wireless fidelity."

Extra Credit: VoIP and Video Capture

For this extra credit assignment I downloaded the the Jing Project software and Skype to record a conversation and video of my friend and I. I had never used VoIP before, so I was excited to see what it was all about.

At first, I thought it was kind of awkward to record my conversation but I started to think of the practical uses that it can serve. The program is really easy to use, it took less than 15 minutes to download and is very user friendly.

I explained our class and why I needed to record her. We talked about how this program could be used for online interviews, for the employer to record the interview and be able to go back to see how the candidate answered questions. It could potentially be used for a teaching tool. For example if a professor interviewed an individual and wanted to show his class the interview later.

There are several things that the program can do as well as many benefits for users.

This was an interesting extra credit assignment that showed me another free and useful resource on the internet!

My Jing experience below:

C:\Users\Mariah\Desktop\Jing_Trial-ISM3004-MCurry.swf

Are you Smarterer? Extra Credit

This extra credit assignment was really interesting. I enjoyed taking quizzes and seeing just how much I know about platforms I use every day.

I took three quizzes, one on Facebook, one on Google and one on romantic comedies. The one I found most interesting was the quiz on Google. I found out so many interesting things that Google does and offers for their users, as well as fun things written into the code. It is so cool that wen you type "do a barrel roll" the Google home screen  does a 360 degree spin. Or when you type Google in backwards "elgooG" you get a mirror image of the Google logo. 

The Facebook quiz was the one I did the best at, scoring 85% proficiency. I knew the most about Facebook, but there were still things I didn't know. Mostly things like regarding Facebook Market Place and the logistics of Facebook Pages.

I also took a romantic comedy quiz. I took this quiz for fun because I love romantic comedies and I pride myself in my vast knowledge of them. Well this quiz showed me otherwise. I need to brush up on my rom-com knowledge this summer.

This was a creative and fun extra credit assignment but has taught me that I need to learn more about the websites that I use on a daily basis.

Facebook: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/facebook

Google: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/google_search

Romantic Comedy: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/romantic_comedy_trivia

Extra Credit: Google+

For this extra credit assignment I had to make a Google+ profile. This was interesting to me because when Google+ first came out I was hesitant to see what it was all about. Making the account was super simple. I didn't have to add any personal information and I could choose who I wanted to follow and things I wanted to follow. I like the concept of circles, because that is one thing about Facebook I'm not too fond of, is having everyone lumped together.

I found the article, comparing Facebook to Google+, very interesting. I was surprised to see the number of people who said that they were going to ditch Facebook for Google+. So far I have not seen that with my friends. When Google+ first opened last summer, there was little to no buzz about it from any of my friends. Out of the 888 friends I have on Facebook, I found less than 20 that are actually on Google+.

I do agree that Facebook privacy was an issue when Google+ first came out. However, as result Facebook has made major changes in the privacy department.

Facebook also made other changes when Google+ came out. When trying the Google+ "Hang out" option, I found it was very similar to the video chat option on Facebook. The only difference is that the "Hang out" option allows more people to chat at once, which I think is more useful. You can "Hang out" with individual people or whole circles. That would be perfect for chatting with family members who are far apart of with groups for projects!

Google+ was a good idea in theory, however I haven't seen it take off the way that Facebook did. Granted the platform is still relatively new, however I don't think at this point it is good enough to compete with the empire that is Facebook and I don't see myself switching over anytime soon.

Database Project

I found the Database Project very complicated and complex. However, I did learn when done right, this program is very useful. It helps the user to weed out unnecessary information and compile what the user desires in an organized table. This project showed me step by step how to create layouts and finds in the FileMaker Pro program.

When doing this project I found the tools quite difficult to find. On FileMaker Pro there are only 5 buttons in the tool bar. This makes the user have to search through to find the command they want to do next. It would enhance the program tremendously if the command buttons were easier to find and separate.

Blog 10: Microsoft Access

Before this lesson I didn't know much about Microsoft Access, other than it was in the menu of Microsoft programs that were on my computer and something I would likely never use.

However, in doing the lesson for this week it opened my eyes to what Access is and what it can be used for. Access is an amazing program. It is very detailed oriented and in the beginning a little overwhelming to learn.

As the scavenger hunt continued I was able to pick up the different commands that Dr. Olson was teaching and I saw how useful this program actually is. 

Microsoft Access has a whole realm of things that it can be used for. Sorting data such as student grades,  age, ID numbers and much for. We learned how to create new tables, input data into tables, sort data, make certain data show and much more. 

While watching the lectures this week I stated to think about ways that Access could be useful in my own life. 

I am looking forward to doing the project and using the skills that I learned this past week. I think the project is going to be challenging, but once complete I will definitely have a sense of pride for completing a project on a program so new and foreign to me.