Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Carrie Oyloe & Andre Hanschmann: Using Social Media Networks to promote our "Big Project" idea

Like Randi and Jordan, Carrie and I will be using the Social Media Project as a transition to our Big Project idea. For the main project (as Randi already mentioned) we decided to develop a website for rating universities (UReviewTheU.com). The idea is to use the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs as a pilot project, where the site makes it possible for students to rate various factors that contribute in the decision making process of choosing a university. With the social media project we intend to use social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to get our idea across to the students as well as the faculty of UCCS. Facebook provides marketers with a segmentation of specific target groups. Many UCCS students have Facebook accounts which makes it more accessible to specifically communicate with those students in order to get the idea across and even start a two-way communications process that helps us to identify wants and needs of our selected target group. This can be done through creating a brand page for our website and invite people into our group. Beyond that one is able to integrate YouTube videos as a visual effect into our Facebook project. Twitter is our final social media platform that is able to provide us with an interactive communication device to get followers, inform our target group, and indulge them in a process of finding potential ideas for the “big” project.

Randi Kinn & Jordan Ervin

We are incorporating our social media project and our big class group project together. For our big group project we are making a website where students can blog and review UCCS and hopefully, eventually other campuses nationwide we purchased the domain name UreviewtheU.com
For our actual social media project Jordan and I are going to the first to start the blogging about UCCS on our website.
Well will keep you all updated once the site gets launched!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Gary White and Regina Hartmann Are Using Facebook for Their Social Media Project

Facebook has become a social phenomenon in today's society. In our social media project we seek to understand how Facebook helps people and groups interact and share information. Gary and I will be forming a UCCS Markting470 group on Facebook in which we will post our thoughts and ideas on the class topic for that week. It is our hope to have fellow students join and share their ideas about the topics as well. We will be sending out invites, and we hope to see you all there.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Pam Keller and Alex DiPasquale are doing LinkedIn as our social media project

One of our classmates called LinkedIn an 'old peoples' website – ironically I looked in the mirror and found that I AM an old people; so this is a good fit. I have had a LinkedIn account for a year or two but never used it. People would send me requests to link in and I’d move them over to the ‘to do’ list where I would respond right before I responded to the African prince who needs to wire me $19,000,000USD. I have wanted to learn to use LinkedIn for the past few months but procrastinated because then I’d have to update my resume, then I’d have to remember my password, then I’d have to [you can fill in the blank]. It turns out that a class project/academic grade is the motivator that got me LinkedIn and now I want to share my story with you. I spent a few hours last Saturday getting my password, updating my resume, and feeling my way around LinkedIn. My goal is to become proficient in LinkedIn, join two groups, find discussions to which I can post, make business connections, mentor others in Linked In, and have fun! Oh…and find a way to monetize LinkedIn, other than when looking for a job. I will post some of my experiences and the final summation throughout this blog.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Social Media by: Laura & Justin

For the social media project, Justin and I have chosen to create an account on Second Life. By getting involved with this booming industry, we will explore the world as an avatar while gaining knowledge of this unique profitable market.
Justin and I have both recently created an avatar character and explored the world of avatar island. This island is one of many places one can explore in the virtual Second Life world.
Our adventure started with creating a name for our avatar along with basic information about ourselves. Creating our account took no more than three minutes. Once we entered avatar island we were able to change the appearance of our character, from the clothes to the hair of our avatar, even the size of your booty or bust. In other words, customizing your character is very easy and could be changed for any ones preference.
Next, we were exploring avatar island along with numerous other avatar characters. A few individuals we spoke to gave us tips as to how this world works. Justin and I were speaking directly, through our built in microphones in our computers, to individuals form New York and Australia.
Furthermore, additional research is needed to fully understand Second Life. As of right now, my partner and I feel the purpose of Second Life is to find a niche or special skill that you can offer Second Life, build a business on Second Life, and start making money.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Twitter v. Facebook

Twitter v. Facebook
By, Emily Howard

Twitter v. Facebook- As a social outlet for connecting with people, I have found that Facebook v. Twitter might be a pressing question in the minds of many people. Isn’t using one, or even both, telling the world what you might be thinking, doing, eating or experiencing a little, dare I say, self indulgent? Well, humankind does have a need to connect to one another, and now we are in more ways than we can count. As a facebook user first, I was quite reluctant to jump in the world of Twitterdom. It seemed pointless, and a little clumsy compared to the ease of Facebook, and the reality of whom I was talking to. With Twitter, people are following me. Facebook we are friends, and usually, we really are. Twitter you have advertising and agendas, Facebook, you do, but they are easily ignored as you check status updates of your top 5 friends. Twitter is continuous and you can never read every single Tweet as they call them, unless that is all you did. The more people you follow the more Twitter is a mess of thoughts, unorganized Tweets of meaningless facts about perhaps meaningful people. I have found Facebook is more personable. It is real, true relationships, unless you friend people you don’t know. I have used Twitter to follow people I do not know personally, but enjoy their work, blogs, or companies. I then get updates and even can have conversations with them. I got a hiking tip from The Colorado Guy, who although I feel like I know him, is just another personality on the Web. It is interesting to Navigate, and although Twitter does not have me in it’s grip quite yet, I understand why people are doing it, but much prefer the personable attention Facebook has to offer instead. Round 1 goes to Facebook.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Home for Fall 2009 Social Media Class Project

This blog serves as the gathering point for the social media class project for the MKTG 470 e-commerce course at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs for Fall 2009. Students are required to use this blog to share the learnings of their social media project and to publicize their project within this project to the class.

If you stumble upon this blog and you are not a member of the class, I hope you learn something from it. Keep in mind that all 42 registered students of the class are contributors to this blog, so while I (the course instructor) read and monitor the postings and comments, I don't control the creation of the content. Feel free to leave a comment if you would like.