The mission of The Go Blue Crew is to examine New Media and its effects on modern day society. Through a close–knit relationship between us first–time bloggers, we are looking to make our mark in the blogosphere by providing innovative and interactive posts about the topic of New Media.
Leading up to my final blog post for The Go Blue Crew, I figured I needed to go out with a bang. Luckily, I came across the perfect topic at just the right time! It is no secret that our social lives, shopping sprees, academics and just about every other aspect of our lives today take place online. Throughout our internet explorations we leave behind an infinite amount of personal information: names, pictures, friends, hobbies, addresses, phone numbers, credit card information… You name it, and it’s most likely out there on the web. Collectively, society is becoming much more aware of the fact that universities and employers have access to all of this information about us. But it seems that people are forgetting all the other people that have access to this information. Thieves and stalkers are piecing together puzzles of who we are. We often worry about the negative portrayal we may be receiving from our online identities, but maybe the more dangerous portrayal is the accurate one.
When Delia first told us we could receive extra credit for watching DJ Spooky perform and blogging about it, I thought this was perfect. Watching a DJ perform? Sounds like my Saturday night! However, upon watching DJ Spooky take the stage, I realized I was in for something quite different than what I was used to. What makes DJ Spooky so unique is his ability to combine different types of music; different genres, different generations, different instruments, you name it. He even went as far as to bring a string quartet on stage. As the string quartet played classical music, DJ Spooky began to remix the instruments with modern techno pre-recorded music.
Something that DJ Spooky said really stood out in my mind. “The stone age didn’t end for lack of stone.” In terms of music, the evolution doesn’t come from lack of what is current, it comes from the need that people feel to progress and go further than anyone has before. He went on to say that “ideas are our most scarce resource.” He really got me thinking about the evolution of music in a more academic manner. Yes, I realized that rap was not always prevalent; but how and why did these evolutions occur?
Being a DJ in today’s society, one would assume that DJ Spooky would have a great appreciation for the internet and technology. All of these new technologies that are available to us today just help to further evolve music and the music industry. With pre-recorded music and the ability to combine various sounds, tones and tunes there is no limit to what kind of music can be produced.
Furthermore, DJ Spooky spoke a lot about civil rights and how music has affected politics and civil rights. The last remix that DJ Spooky played was a remix to the civil rights movement. He went on to explain how a remix like this has led to the first African American president. I don’t think it was really until this point in the lecture that I understood what exactly an academic DJ, as DJ Spooky described himself, was. There is much to be learned about the power of combining music and technology with societal issues. In fact, DJ Spooky got his name from the fact that he would walk off stage while music was still playing, which at the time when this technology was not as widely known seemed ghostly. It's amazing to see how far music has come since then, and I'm sure it will continue to evolve from here on.
Who knew blogging could be so much fun? Actually before I answer that question, who knew blogging was so popular? Before this class I knew about one or two fashion blogs and that was basically it. I had no idea that there were all sorts of blogs written by all sorts of people. Whether informal and friendly or professional and informative, there are all sorts of academic and non - academic blogs, enough to even create their own atmosphere. This blogosphere, which I was unaware of before entering this class, really informed me about another type of writing that I never would have experienced. In general, I thought blogging was for a specific kind of people. In other words, I did not realize that anyone at anytime could just create a blog and begin writing. It is a really cool concept isn't it? The ability to just be able to write your own opinions about any event you please? Unlike an essay that is planned out step by step with an outline, a rough draft and a finish product, blogging is in the moment which is what I find to be the most entertaining. In my opinion, each blogger's personality is shown through their posts. It creates an environment where the writers can just be themselves. Now going back to my first question about why I think blogging is so much fun...it is easy, quick, entertaining, and informative. It also contains a wide range of interactive elements for instance, most blogs have pictures, hyperlinks, videos etc.
Signing up for a “new media” class, you’d think I would’ve known what I was getting myself into. When I first found out that we would be creating our own blogs, and blogging several times a week, I wondered how on earth I was going to survive this class. I had never read a blog in my life, aside from the occasional peak at Perez Hilton to keep up on all the celebrity gossip (we all have our guilty pleasures!) But since that first day of class, my views on blogging have changed completely. I now realize what a great outlet blogging can be for people who may not have the resources to write in a newspaper or publish a novel. These people, including myself, have something to say as well. Finally, there is a platform dedicated to just that.
When I first started blogging, I was a little hesitant to say the least. When everyone else started blogging they always came up with the wittiest titles for their posts. Needless to say, I’m not very skillful when it comes to the creative witty one-liners. This made me pretty nervous. I wondered how everyone seemed to already know what they were doing, while I was still trying to find my footing. It was hard for me to realize that I could discuss topics in a laid back fashion, while still coming off academic. Throughout the semester I’ve really begun to develop my own voice in the blogosphere. In doing so, I’ve realized that I don’t need to be as witty as my fellow bloggers, I can bring something different to the table. Overall, I think blogging has made me more confident as a writer. I know longer worry about what other people might think when they read my papers.
I have to say that one of my favorite aspects of blogging is not just the fact that you can create your own tone, but all of the other forms of media that you can bring in to support your claims. Only on an online source like this can you provide simple links, videos and pictures for your readers to reference easily and immediately. As I grew as a blogger I began to use more and more outside resources to my advantage and I feel that these different sources helped me to convey my point more efficiently, while still appealing to the reader on a grand scale.
I conclude that blogging is the perfect prescription for a nervous writer or even any writer just trying to get their opinions heard. There is no better platform for this than the blogosphere!
So we all know we can do almost anything that we can do in the "real world" at the comfort of our home, desk, even bed, as all we need is internet access and the world becomes our oyster. Shopping for clothes, reading books, reading the newspaper or daily news, scratching music to make new beats, shopping for music, and so much more can be done with just a few clicks of a mouse and keyboard. Well, while were at it, why don't we cross grocery shopping off a mother's list of chores? The quintessential mother has 3 main jobs, other than her own career (if she has one)- to take care of children, take care of the household (buy groceries, clean, buy furniture, etc), and to cook. To make life easier, Fresh Direct is making things easier for mothers all around New York City. They sell everything from cookies and milk to fruits and veggies. They even have prepared meals that can be sent straight to your door! Kosher? Vegetarian? no problem! Fresh Direct has solutions for everyone. And as if things couldn't get any easier, after placing an order once, Fresh Direct saves "your favorites" and remembers them for each consecutive time you order to make things go by quickly and smoothly. I have ordered from this website before, and surprisingly, the fruit is always fresh and drinks are always cold. I don't have any complaints about this website- except for the fact that if it gets too big, what will become of grocery stores and the people working in them? Will they go extinct and out of jobs?
Can anyone guess the movie reference in the title? Anyone? Well its Mean Girls. Now down to business. College is a time when people find out who they truly are, and for anyone posted on CollegeACB.com, college is a time when students can get bashed not only behind their back, but on a forum so the entire University can see. Its actually a great concept, creating a place where students can talk, but has taken a tail dive with recent forums titled "what aepi boys are cute? (obviously they all are)", "HOT MALE Athletes" and "Hottest Girl at Michigan". But regardless of the topic, the one constant is bashing, mental abuse, and of course, rumors. Back in the 90s rumors were spread the old fashioned way; word of mouth. But now rumors are sent online, as if they weren't bad already, but now they can literally be seen by anyone. In terms of New Media this is the rumor quadrant, simply being put that anyone can make fun of anyone. Well the one thing for certain about collegeacb is simple, that anyone can be bashed if someone wants to take the time to write a paragraph.
I'll start off by saying the semester really did fly by. I clearly remember working on creating The Go Blue Crew page, but now it's filled with tons of great blog posts by our five authors. Before I started blogging, I thought that the only people who blogged were weirdos who sat in their basement because they didn't have anything important to do with their lives. Now that I have been exposed to many different kinds of blogs, I realize that many brilliant and educated people blog. Also, not all blogs are just for fun, some are very academic and are only open to people who the authors deem fit to contribute to the conversation. I also realize that blogging is a process. You can't try to plan out your blog post or think too much, blogging is spontaneous, and that's what makes it so great. The best bloggers are people who are able to sit down and write about whatever is on their mind while hitting the backspace button as few times as possible. I find that the best blog posts I wrote, were the ones that I was most interested in writing and were edited the least. The one thing I did have to be mindful of, was not letting my blogging style of writing carry over into my academic writing. There were more than a few occasions where I was writing a paper for another course and I had to remind myself that this wasn't going up on Blogger.
In terms of how I feel about myself as a blogger, I think I have come a very long way since the beginning of the semester. Originally, I was a bit technology shy, and was afraid to insert images, hyperlinks and videos, partly because I was unsure how to do it. Now, I have many of those things embedded in all of my posts and I think it makes them far more interesting to read. I also realize that as I started to blog more frequently, I began to develop my own voice in my posts. It's becoming more clear to me what kind of blogger I am, and with each post I make, I am gaining more confidence as a contributor. In the future, I would very much welcome an opportunity to contribute to a blog, whether it be in a course at Michigan or for something else. One of the reasons that I have become confident in my blogging ability, is that in this class we blogged about topics ranging from Facebook and Google to the earthquake in Japan. This has helped shape me into a versatile blogger and an overall better writer than I was before this semester started.
When I sat down to write my last blog post of the semester, I wanted to write about something important. After 15 or so seconds of thinking, I decided to write about good ol' Facebook, and ironically, the last seven days have been huge for Mark Zuckerberg. Over the weekend, Facebook finally started its new messaging service (it was finished last November) and announced that it would be providing all of its 500 million users with their own @facebook.com e-mail address as part of their new messaging system. This new technology is simply amazing, in that it can combine all Facebook message and chats with e-mail addresses from all types of systems (gmail, AOL, Yahoo etc.) An even scarier part of this technology, is that it can sync with your cell phone number, so when you get a text message it appears in your Facebook inbox. Not only is this technology going to keep all of your chatting and emailing in one place, but it will be done in a very organized way, because all of your e-mails or texts from say your mom, will be in its own folder. This new interface, also allows users to send e-mails, and is capable of sending file attachments and sharing documents. It also supports many instant messaging programs such as Jabber.
On another note, this was also a big day for Facebook, because it won a legal battle worth tens of millions of dollars. For those of you who saw The Social Network, which tells the story of how Facebook was founded by Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm room, you also know about the Winklevoss twins. The twins, along with their friend Divya Narendra sued Facebook, claiming that Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook, when the trio first asked him to help design HarvardConnection, which would was going to be a networking site, but only for Harvard students. After originally signing a settlement for $65 million in 2008, the trio decided to sue again in 2009, saying that the Facebook stock they were awarded as part of the deal, was actually worth less than the $35.90 they were told it was valued at. Ultimately, Judge Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the deal, which was originally signed in 2008 was valid and must be upheld. This was a major victory for Mark Zuckerberg, who could have been forced to hand over millions of dollars to Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (a.k.a. "the Winklevil") and their friend Divya Narendra.
After having spent a full semester blogging, my views on this type of new media writing has substantially changed. At first, I thought, "this is going to take forever to do this so often", "blogs are just for people who want to babble about their life", "I would rather write a few formal papers than write a few blog posts a week", and so on. However, things have now turned into "blogging is my favorite type of writing, it is quick, easy, and less stressful than writing a formal paper" and "I enjoy finding weekly topics to write about on my blog because I know it's a safe place where I can write about my opinions freely". See the difference?
I am so happy I had the opportunity to blog in this class, because otherwise I would have never given it a chance. Who knew that blogs could be academic, rather than just a place to just go on and on about nonsense? I know I didn't. Well, not before this experience at least.
Additionally, I know that my writing has significantly improved in the blogosphere from my first post to my more recent ones. Besides the fact that the first one took me about 3 hours to write versus the 20-30 minutes it takes me now, I also didn't use any of the resources available to me on the web. In contrast, if you look at my last few posts, you will see the addition of new media all over the place: pictures, links, jump breaks, videos, and more. Ultimately, the blogosphere is a great place for freedom of expression and has many opportunities to make a post your own. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to learn about blogging and I am sure I will continue to write the occasional blog post for years to come.
I know that the effect of Google.com on society and it's size have already been covered, but when I was stumbling on Stumbleupon.com earlier today, I came across some information that I feel has to be posted about on this blog. Click here to see some statistics that will blow your mind. Well, they blew mine at least. Although I knew how Google has conquered the internet, as it is everyone's go-to website and that one website alone gives access to everything available on the world wide web, whether it be articles, pictures, videos, maps, mail, or anything else you can think of- but after looking at these statistics, my jaw dropped and eyes widened anyway. I mean, did you know that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have an annual salary of 1 billion dollars each? I sure didn't. How about the fact that Google's operating income is equal to the GDP of the Cayman Islands, Greenland, Dominica, Maldives, Mongolia, and Barbados combined? That a lot of money- over 8 billion dollars! If that doesn't surprise you, does the fact that if you wanted to display all of Google's indexed sites on one monitor, the screen would have to be 6 million miles from corner to corner- roughly 241 times the length of the equator? Anyway, the reason for posting this, besides the fact that this is all intriguing, is to show just how much Google has on it's servers. Just how much it does. Just how much people use it. Just how much it has impacted our society. Just look at the website (and where you get all the pictures you ever search for from) and the statistics if you don't believe it!
Perhaps the hype has died down a little, but it is easy to say that the majority of days we spent in the classroom involved some sort of talk of Facebook. Specifically, the kind of identity that one makes for themselves on Facebook can be very important in terms of their professional career. Mark Zuckerberg, creator and founder of Facebook, believes that people should only have one online identity, but how realistic is this? Even when we are not online or on social networking sites, we all have many different identities. For example, I am a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a student, a sorority sister, a friend, a future business woman... I could continue this list with every single relationship I have and hope to have in the future. If this is the case in real life, then why would we be expected to disown any of these identities on our online profiles? Now that I have presented my case, I'd like to introduce you all to Mark Zuckerberg's worst nightmare: Socioclean.com.
When I first heard that we would have to blog in SWC 200, I instantly thought to all of the people who regard it as a disgraceful and useless form of writing. After the entire semester of typing away on "The Go Blue Crew" I have a very different mindset then I originally thought. I love blogging. It is the literal one place where I can say what I want, whatever I want, and have no worries of a teacher marking it as wrong or fear that people won't like what I say. I don't have to care what others think on my blog, it is where I can be me, write like me, and feel like me. In all honesty I may consider to keep a blog after this class is over, simply because I love what a blog allows me to do. Blogging is the New Media version of a journal, and to any 13 year old girl (or myself) it is the best thing since sliced bread. Composing a blog is not nearly as strenuous or painful as writing anything academic. I wouldn't go as far to say that blogging has changed how I feel about writing, as by no means do I now enjoy research papers, but I would say blogging is a much less painful way to get your ideas across. For example, I'm in the UGLi right now doing this post before I start my "real work". In addition I love how one can add visuals to any post, making even the most boring of posts somewhat entertaining. I perceive myself as a humorous blogger, but that could easily be just my ego. I think I have the potential to bring a voice that is different, yet at the same time is common sensical and understands what is going on. I am very flexible and can handle both a serious issue like the chaos in Japan as well as something humorous like Dave Chappelle's Comedy Tour. In the future I plan on blogging a little more, who knows maybe I ditch blogging and just focus on my twitter (@bci2892), but one thing for certain is that there are many more New Media Writing adventures out there for me to conquer.
Since, DJ Spooky was so interesting I decided to go to his website to learn more about who he was. What caught my attention right away was the list of social media platforms that were on the left hand side. It says, "Join DJ Spooky on...." and then you have the option to click Facebook, twitter, myspace, youtube, buy DJ Spooky on itunes, and Join the email list. Just to see where one of these links would lead me I clicked on the twitter option and it led me to DJ Spooky's very own twitter account. As I scrolled down I saw tweets about all the places that he would be performing and then I saw some philanthropy tweets as well such as his photo shoot with Love Saves Japan and there was even a picture to follow! He then follows up this tweet by tweeting about Japan's release of radioactive water into the ocean. Showing his concern for Japan and his knowledge about current events, is an extremely important quality because it shows people what kind of person he is. This use of Twitter and this connection to current events adds to the fact that technology is apart of everyday life. Whether I am reading his tweets, or watching his mixes on youtube, everything is interactive and informative which is what these social media platforms are all about. What I find interesting is that his tweets seem to resemble who he is in real life. For instance, he spoke about the film fest and other events during his performance and he tweeted about them as well. He was also a pretty funny and down to earth guy which could be seen through the tone of voice he uses throughout his tweets Do you think that his tweets help to show an understanding of who he really is? In general do you think a person's twitter can define their character? What I also thought was interesting was how DJ Spooky can promote himself through twitter. Tweets like "@morethan88Yo! Jason, I'm finally gearing up for the whole Twitter world. Been mad busy! Check me @djspooky" and "I'm blogging with Tribeca FIlm Fest starting in a couple of days. Check it! Tribeca is fun + I live there too - vibes!!http://t.co/Z" help him get his name out there. Do you guys think that tweets such as these can help an upcoming artist become popular? I definitely do but I want to hear your feedback as well.
First let me start off by saying, What a performance! Dj Spooky is definitely well educated about technology and the many different uses for multi - media platforms. For him though, it is not just about the music and Djing, it is about something deeper than that. Upon entering the room I thought, like Brandon's blog before me, that Dj Spooky was just going to DJ and I would have to sit there and listen to an array of beats. However, I was completely wrong. Dj Spooky spoke about his love for McLuhan because of his use of the cut - up technique. He referred to this ability to edit as a "rhythm science." He also spoke about his love for his new upcoming project with apple. He mentioned how all of the technology on the table before him would be combined into one single app on the iphone. This shows that there is no limit to how far technology can go in the future. What do you guys think will be next?
Dj Spooky also explained how dj techniques could be applied to storytelling, and sample editing into videoclips as seen on youtube. This whole process of mixing, collage, layering, and sampling are all examples of digital literacy. I already mentioned how DJing is a science but it is an art form as well. Here is where the visuals come into play.
What is it about technology, the internet specifically, that is so addicting? Is it that it is so much fun that people don't want to stop surfing the web or is it like a bottle of coke, where once you've had a taste you just have to keep drinking? I'm talking about Puppywar.com here. The basic gist of Puppy War is a place where people post the cutest picture of their dog, then the site matches up two pictures of different dogs, and everyone who visits the site clicks on which they think is the "cuter" dog, and every time they pick, the site tells them the percentage of wins and losses each dog has gotten, then it takes them to a new matchup. Pretty simple, isn't it? So then why is it so hard to stop voting? The other day, I showed my friend the website. He doesn't even like dogs, but the next day he claimed that he was on it for an hour. Is this just that good of a website or is there something else to it? In my opinion, I think that it is pretty fun to look at all the cute puppies, but shouldn't that not be the case for somebody who doesn't even like animals? I think the answer to this is yes, but the reason that the continuous voting cycle is so hard to break is because every time a new matchup appears, the viewer just says to him/herself "just one more" and those words, "just one more", continue until an hour or more has passed, much like the case with my friend. What do you guys think, are the dogs just too cute or is there some other reason for the difficulty to exit the site?
In the olden days, people used to have to actually go to lectures. If they missed a class, they couldn't just go on the internet and download the handouts or lecture slides or anything of the sort. They had to be there and take notes to get the information. There was no other way. Nowadays, things are different. What's the point of going to lecture when you can sit in the comfort of your bed and re-read everything that was just taught? Is there a point? I mean, it's true, there are some teachers who don't write everything out on their slides, they say things that students cannot find online to give incentive for students to attend their class. But is that really incentive enough to wake up early and go to a class where you can learn 95% of the stuff taught on your own time? Could this be a problem for future generations? Has technology made things so easy and convenient for us that we'll start getting lazy and learn from non-dimentional writing instead of each other?
Ok, by now we get that Facebook.com is taking over the web. We know that it is not just a "social media" website where people can keep in touch with friends and family, whether a few blocks away or halfway across the world. Now, Facebook has become a producer's number one marketing tool. This has already been touched on in our blog, I know, but what I didn't know is that there are actual strategies and books being written about how to market your company using a Facebook page. I mean, wasn't the whole deal just to make a page, put some pictures of your stuff on it, and call it a day? According to Tom Shapiro, CEO of Digital Marketing NOW, there is a lot more to marketing on Facebook than just that. In his article "15 Steps for Crazy Good Facebook Marketing", Tom lays out a strategy he considers to be perfect for marketing a company on Facebook. Some of his suggestions include creating Custom Tabs, with different pages to make it like something of a mini-website, and posting pictures and upcoming news very often. A lot of what Shapiro says is very compelling, but is it a hoax or does it make sense? I mean, isn't it going a little far- that there is a foolproof strategy to good Facebook marketing? I feel like Tom is just exploiting the fact that many people don't know how to use Facebook since it is such a new technology, so he knows people will buy what he is selling because they are desperate for help. Any other thoughts?
Prior to listening to DJ Spooky, I really didn't understand what made this guy such a special DJ. Did he have unique beats? Were his transitions really good?....it could have been anything. But after listening to his him talk and DJ for an hour or so it became really clear what makes his music so great. He finds ways to combine music from different generations, even centuries and which makes for such unique beats. Listening to a combination of Bach or Mozart, coupled with 21st century techno is pretty mind blowing.
He also spoke about the internet and technology, and how we can use them as tools to make even more unique, never before heard music. He called this new era we are in the technology and date movement and made a very interesting point, when he said youtube and gmail have only been around for 5-7 years, but nearly everyone uses it. If we give these things a few more years to become more advanced, yet easier to use even more people will be join the movement. Something Spooky also said, is that because technology allows us to capture any moment or any place, he has begun creating remixes to history.
At the end of the lecture, he showed us a remix that he created to the civil rights movement, and how it has resulted in the first black president. The way he was able to couple inspirational music as well as mellow music to describe our nation's history made ordinary pictures and clips so much more powerful. Spooky is also working on creating a remixes to different places in the world, such as Antarctica's icecaps. One of the last things Spooky said, that I thought was really interesting was that if he just recorded his lecture and played it on the big screen he would not have even needed to come to Ann Arbor in the first place. This really made me realize how powerful technology is, but don't you think actually watching him do these things first hand is better than watching it on a projector screen?
I had no idea what to expect from "DJ Spooky" before going to see him today at the michigan theater. I thought, ok so he's a DJ, so I'm going to listen to some music for an hour. I was wrong. He actually had a lot to say, and much of it I found very interesting, not to mention true. He began by discussing an author he liked, McLuhan, and how some of the things he wrote about in the 1960's are now facts of life. The internet and all this new technology- it's real.
He continued with a few quotes I'd like to mention. First, he said "in this day in age, with software as our primary tool, ideas are scarce". Honestly, I didn't really understand what he meant by this. Did he mean that technology inhibits the way people think? Or could it have been that technology now makes decisions for us and takes away from creativity? Or am I missing the point here?
He also said that "technology allows us to capture every moment of expression". I liked this quote because I sometimes forget how privileged society today is, as if we wanted, we could capture any point in life. I grew up with the internet, cameras, and voice recorders, so I sometimes forget that all this technology is new. People used to have no memory of the past except for what was in their heads and writing, but now, technology enables us to capture everything, whether it be through voice recordings, pictures, or videos. It's really amazing to think about. Especially now that technology has advanced so much that people like DJ Spooky can use this cut up technique to play with language, as he does with all his DJ equipment on his computer and Ipad.
On a final note, DJ Spooky pointed said something that really took this whole idea of how technology is changing the world to a whole new level. He said- it used to be that people giving lectures or performing music had to stand here and do it live. Nowadays, I can just stand up here, push play, and leave the stage. This hit it home for me. It is so true. He didn't even need to be there. He could have just recorded the whole lecture. But is this a good thing? Doesn't this make things so impersonal? I think it does, which is why I think it was great how even though he could have just left the stage, he spoke and DJed live.
Photo from: http://www.djspooky.com/img/trojanrecords_large.jpg
When I first decided to look into Charlie Sheen's Twitter account (@charliesheen) that he created in the midst of his media bliss, I was interested in the amount of followers he was gaining so rapidly. Sheen has previously set the Guinness Book World Record for the "Highest Paid TV Actor Per Episode" at $1.25 million per episode on Two and a Half Men. His newest Guinness record is slightly less desirable... "Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers."Charlie Sheen started his Twitter account on March 1, 2011. On March 2, just 25 hours and 17 minutes after creating his account, Sheen reached this milestone of 1 million followers. Sheen immediately began tweeting nonsense, and registering hashtags such as #winning and #tigerblood, while he continued to gain followers rapidly. People began asking questions about Sheen's sudden Twitter fame. For example, how did his account get "verified" so quickly? Many celebrities, athletes (etc.) must wait weeks in order to get their accounts verified by Twitter, yet Sheen was verified immediately and gaining followers before even tweeting.
So you probably looked at the title of my post and thought, what is Epsilon? Well, if you have a bank account with Chase, invest money with Capital One or ever owned a TiVo, you might be in big trouble. Epsilon, is a securities company, that stores customer names and email information for over 2,500 companies. The company is responsible for sending out over 40 billion mass emails to the customers of these various businesses. At first glance, someone might not realize what this job entails, because it isn't like Epsilon has social security or credit card numbers in its database. However, what security experts are worrying about is the possibility of phishing. Phishing, refers to fake e-mailing done by hackers, who try to pose as real companies that you have previously done business with. What I mean is, since the hacker is able to see what email chains you have signed up they are able to create very realistic, but fraudulent emails. For example, if you recently signed up for Chase's emailing list, a hacker might see that and create a replica email saying if you provide us with your bank account numbers or social security numbers we will lower your interest rates. Since you have recently signed up to be on their email list you are far less likely to be suspicious, and may possibly give up this information. Also, because the hackers have access to names and addresses, they are able to create far more personal messages that may make a customer more likely to believe it is real. For anyone who subscribes to emails from any of the companies listed on this link, be careful who you provide your personal information to, because you may be talking to a hacker, not your Capital One advisor.
While reading the newest seventeen magazine, there was an add for Biore Skincare. The slogan read "Biore is making a buzz. Join the conversation today." The add shows that there is a Facebook page which reads, "In honor of getting our strip (pore strip!) on tonight, fill in the blank: I think Biore Pore Strips are _________." People have responded by saying things like addictive, or amazing. They also have contests and interactive polls on the Facebook page to keep people even more informed about the benefits of using this pore strip. Right away, after seeing that add I knew I had to blog about it. This is the perfect example of a company taking full advantage of an interactive website in order to sell their product. I proceeded to going to Biore's official website and they have the option of clicking the buzz. This link sends you to a list of twitter feeds all talking about using Biore and how much people enjoy using the product. There are pictures sent through Flickr of people smiling with a pore strip on their nose and this also increases the popularity of the product. Do you guys agree that this add, Facebook page, and twitter can help the company sell more of the product?
Rebecca Black. Sound familiar? Thanks to the accessibility of youtube.com, it should sound familiar to over 80 million viewers. Yes, 80 million viewers. More than Lady Gaga's new single "Born This Way." So what's the deal? How can something so ridiculous become that popular in such a short amount of time? Well, that's the beauty of the internet. One, anyone can access it. Two, it's quick and easy. According to Holly Richmand's Blog, however, Rebecca Black's success is all about the marketing. How else would can something get so viral that the only way it's possible to not have seen it is if "you've been sticking marsh mellows in your eye sockets"? Richmand states that there are three keys to Black's marketing success. First, Branding is essential. She states that Ark Music Factory, the producer of the video, has its name all over Black's video, so it can be accessed through their youtube channel. Next, it has been integrated into all social sites, including Facebook and Twitter, so that the video literally cannot be escaped. This way, if one person sees it, it is likely they will show it to all their friends, and the cycle will continue. Lastly, Richmand discusses the importance of new apps, such as Qik, which helps stream and share videos through mobile phones. Everyone has a mobile phone- this is the best way for videos to go viral. So what do you guys think- "Friday" by Rebecca Black- fluke or marketing genius?
