“What I learned in NTFM class”

 

“What I learned in NTFM class”

Its been an interesting and thought provoking experience to say the least. Digital Marketing is growing and growing at a exponential rate and this module is perfect for those looking to improve their knowledge and use of social media and new media platforms.

As an regular user of Facebook, Twitter, and other sites i thought i knew the ins and outs of pages, promotional tools, and creating content. I did not. Practical style lectures were ideal for this module and it definitely got me thinking.

One suggestion i would make is to maybe run a project where groups must run a digital marketing campaign for 4 weeks using the various social media’s. It could be judge on the reach they have gotten, likes, followers etc.

I’d like to say again i thoroughly enjoyed this module and stay tuned for my video blog next week to wrap up the semester

Rob

#Addicted to Twitter

 

Hi my name is Rob and i’m a TweetAholic…..

I began using twitter over a year ago and i have to say i find it far more enjoyable and engaging than Facebook. The number of characters eliminates any waffle and gets straight to the point. It also allows great interactivity with celebs, sports stars, people or companies we have any interest in. Many companies love this one on one contact and can answer direct questions with users and avoid any negative publicity.

So when did my moment of clarity happen? When did i admit to myself, ‘i’m addicted to social media and twitter’. I came across on a article ’10 signs you’re addicted to social media’. I answer yes to all of them. But why? How did my addiction get this bad, i thought i had it under control. Then it dawned on me, i was in search of the holy grail, that hashtag that would trend or some piece of content i created would go viral and for a brief few minutes i’d be known throughout the twitter-sphere. 

Every company hopes for one, they spend hours creating a suitable hashtag that they can track. Here is a few tips you might find useful for finding the Perfect Hashtag. The hope is that this hashtag is retweeted or used in tweets by other Tweeps and allows the company to extend its reach and see how it is viewed perhaps.

Actually Barack Obama’s victory tweet was the most retweeted tweet ever with more than 800K retweets. Another sign that twitter is addictive and spreading is  Lady Gaga – the most followed Twitterer, with almost 37 million followers – gains followers faster than Twitter adds new accounts. I’m not alone, there are more tweetaholics out there.

My addiction to twitter and the love companies and marketers show it and embrace it, is because 64% of consumers have made a purchase decision based on social content. 91% of 18-34 year olds using social media are talking about brands. 60% of U.S. smartphone owners now visit their favorite social networking sites on a daily basis, up from 54% in 2011.

People search twitter daily in hope for free product, enter in competitions and tweet there favourite celebs. It reminds me of a bookmakers, but no money is placed on bets. People enter this competitions or tweet there idols in the hope of a win or response. If they get a response, a favourite, or a retweet the addiction begins and like all addictions you want more and more.

#Tilnexttimebloggers

“Surfing the web in a Filter Bubble”

According to wikipedia “A filter bubble is a result state in which a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user (such as location, past click behaviour and search history) and, as a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles “

Examples are Google‘s personalised search results and Facebook‘s personalised news stream. My basic understanding of filter bubbles is that the more i click on links, search for information on topics that these are saved and when i go searching again, selected topics, companies and advertising finds its way onto my news feed or on the top searches in my search engine.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? if i like a certain culture for example, relevant links and topics to it will ultimately interest me and more than likely i’ll already be looking for them. Even if there was no such thing as filter bubbles, we as a society would still search in the same way on the web.

What interest me more is the Deepweb (also called the Deepnet, the Invisible Web, the Undernet or the hidden Web) is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines. It should not be confused with the dark Internet, the computers that can no longer be reached via Internet, or with the distributed filesharing network Darknet, which could be classified as a smaller part of the Deep Web.

Mike Bergman, founder of BrightPlanet and credited with coining the phrase,^[1] said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed. So is the filter bubble as strong as we think? or can it be easily burst with searching out side your usual topics?

Our browsers already filter advertising, and cookies are common place on most sites, so there is no hiding from the filter bubble while surfing the web. So grab your (key)Board and surf’s up!

 

Eli Pariser: Beware online filter bubbles

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a “filter bubble” and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy