THANK YOU

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Heather

Hello to all of those who have been following my blog the past few weeks.

This has been an interesting experience which started out really well.

I posted my very first post soon after the first week of semester.

However, due to my brilliant time management skills, I fell behind and ended up rushing them in the end.

It is something that I try to work on and believe it or not, it is getting better.

My first post was actually on the history of social media, then two day ago I thought I should of added in a welcome blog.

So too avoid the strange layout of my blogs, I deleted what I had done and rearranged it.

Thank you to all that has been following me and sorry they were not done in a timely fashion

This will be my last blog and to all those how are doing Assignment One of 157.240, good luck and heres hoping we pass.

Electric Ninja Blog

S.O.C.I.A.L and More

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Heather

Cisco’s S.O.C.I.A.L Approach

Cisco is a multinational networking hardware manufacturer that has developed its own ‘Social Media Playbook’ that it publicises for free to help other businesses utilise social media. They simply uses the acronym S.O.C.I.A.L to describe how social media can operate in

Scalable —- Open —- Consistent —- Intuitive —- Active —- Limitless

Scalable

Train and empower your employees and SMEs to scale your social efforts globally. Doing so can improve brand awareness which in turn can improve profitability in the long run.

Open

Lead from the top. Encourage your executives to participate in an open and transparent way. This can improve productivity as employees gain more trust in the businesses executive.

Consistent

Adopt an “always on” mindset to show commitment to ongoing conversations with your audience. This can improve customer loyalty as they gain more trust in the company.

Intuitive

Make it easy to connect with your brand and SMEs by providing easy to navigate web and social experiences. This can also improve productivity as employees gain more trust in the businesses executive.

Active

Create and share informative and interesting content to trigger and sustain conversations.This can also improve productivity as employees gain more trust in the businesses executive.

Limitless

Be flexible and tailor your plan based on executive comfort level and target market considerations.

Engagement: The 5 W’s

Why – Objectives: Breaks long-term business goals into short-term milestones. Then decides which aspect(s) of the customer journey they want to address.
Who – People: The Cisco Social Ambassador program identifies, activates, nurtures and celebrates employees for their participation.
What – Content and conversations: Great stories make people want to comment, share, retell or take the next step in their journey. Enable and encourage conversations within the community. Members of communities feel inspired to tell their own story and one another’s stories. This helps foster relationships, build loyalty and encourage advocacy.
When – Frequency and time: Always. Social media gives us a way to engage in “always on”communication. When we limit social media to individual programs, we create transactional conversations that may prevent us from creating true relationships for the brand.
Where – The best way to determine the day(s) or time(s) to post is to experiment, monitor and analyze the results. There are many things that will influence when people read our messages.

Stay tuned for more

Electric Ninja Blog

The Four C’s. What Are They?

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Heather

The 4 C’s Approach

Communication —- Cooperation —- Collaboration —- Connection

These are the essence of social media. They help businesses decide where to focus their resources to get the best outcome. They can also be used to support organisational change. The four C’s were created by Niall Cook in 2008, and describe the elements that make up social media. In this blog I will describe each of them individually, however they can overlap in concepts.

Communication

Communication is a prime characteristic of social media. Communication can happen in a number of ways: emails, blogs, instant messaging and virtual worlds, just to name a few. There are three motivations behind informal communication: the need for people to share, people need to feel like they belong together in a group; people need to share hopes, ambitions, achievement, affiliation and power; and people need to express emotion. Niall Cook notes that informal communication is the most relevant to the application of social media. However, informal communication is not generally a good application in organisations. For example a large corporation with a clear hierarchy is a place where informal communication is not suitable. Cook then identifies three main roles that internal blogs can support: Knowledge Management – an effective personal management tool; Business Intelligence – patterns in information and knowledge; and Project Management – an effective way of noting information relating to a project.

Cooperation

Cooperative social media can enable interaction in informal structures, helping individuals work towards a project where the knowledge they gain is not the goal of the task. There are a number of features that distinguishes cooperation. The project is divided among participants, each being responsible for a portion of the work. Coordination is only required when participants must assemble results. Cooperation is only short term. Once the task is completed, cooperation is no longer needed. There is no shared goals. Each person works solely by themselves and retain authority over their project. However, information is shared as needed.

Collaboration

Unlike cooperation, collaboration involves the coordination of all participant to complete a project. The cognitive processes are divided into intertwined layers. Everyone involved in the project shares the same commitment and goals. Risks and rewards are also shared among participants. The collaborative structure determines authority and is a long term commitment. Collaborative social media supports the engagement of everyone involved in a coordinated effort to complete the project. Unlike cooperation, collaboration focuses on the knowledge gained from the process of completing a project. It is a process that brings people and information together to accomplish a common goal.

Connection

At the most simplest description, connection connects employees with content and each other. It is said that organisations with internal apps of social networking that mix both personal and professional are more likely to succeed. Connection is different from cooperation and collaboration media as they depend on direct interaction between people. Cook says that connection tools rely as much on connecting employees with content and each other.

Stay tuned for more

Electric Ninja Blog

Social Media for All Kinds of Business

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Heather

Small, Medium, Large or even Not-For-Profit

Since the release of the first recognisable social media website in 1997, social media has become a part of our everyday lives. Whether we want to admit it or not, we cannot live without it. Businesses are starting to come to this realisation and are jumping on the bandwagon. Businesses use social media for a number of different reasons. At the most basic level, (other than checking out the competition) businesses use social media as a cost efficient marketing tool. They are able to promote their company on an international scale. Posting products and services on social media allows for sharing, commenting and liking by customers and potential customers providing a wide spread product awareness.

Businesses can also use social media as an internal communication tool through the use of wikis, forums and blogs. This can increase productivity. Wikis can be used as tool for knowledge management. They can create a “library” of knowledge from current and previous staff to train new employees. Forums can be used as a way of collaboration in projects. This is particularly important if you project team lives in different locations around the world. Internal blogs can be useful for a number of reasons. It can broadcast employee knowledge and expertise making it available to other employees. It promotes open discussion and connects employees across all departments. Most importantly internal blogs keep staff up-to-date on important information.

Social media is a great way for businesses to connect and communicate with consumers and vice versa. It provides a chance for business to create and maintain strong ties with their customers. Social media gives customers direct contact with businesses to voice their inquires and issues. However companies give up control over the security and the final say in what will be posted onto the Internet.

Social media provides a way for businesses to recruit new employees. With sites such as LinkedIn, employers can find qualified staff and then using sites like Facebook, can profile them to find out their personality to see if they are right for the job.

This is all good and well, but it’s not as simple as signing up to social media and posting some pictures. Like all things in business, you must plan first. How will social media improve your business? Which social media site(s) are you going to use? Who is your target audience? Will your chosen site match your audience? Recent study found that Facebook is becoming predominantly female while Twitter is predominantly male. This is also the time where you need to watch and learn how your customers, and even your potential customers, use social media, so you are able to create goals. Then you have to decide how you’re going to manage your site. Managing a social media site takes time. You need to regularly check on the conversations happening about your product or service, paying particular attention to negative comments. Issues need to be dealt with ASAP to avoid damage on your businesses reputation.

Stay tuned for more

Electric Ninja Blog

Into the Future. Web 1.0, 2.0 & Beyond

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Heather

What do they mean by Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and so on?

These terms have been described as the different phases of the development of website technology. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Thinking on the grand scheme of things, it has not taken long to get to where we are today as far as web technology goes. fig01

Web 1.0, the very first version of the Internet. Web 1.0 was a leap forward in communication. However, it was very limited in the features it possessed. It was a one way communication channel that was rarely updated. People could create static or read-only websites where they would type up a single page of information and post it on the internet, where people could read it (but could not comment on it) where ever they had an internet connection (usually plugged into a phone line at home or work).

Web 2.0, the second version of the Internet and is the most widely used. Web 2.0 was a very big leap forward in communication compared with Web 1.0. It possessed more features by allowing Internet users to interact with websites and with the author of the site. It became a two way communication tool. Users could watch and share videos, comment on them and on anything else that was posted on the web. YouTube for example, is a Web 2.0 website where you can upload videos. Watchers could then share, comment and/or like them. Web 2.0 allowed for social networking sites, user created websites, self-publishing websites, tagging and social bookmarking.

Web 3.0, the third version of the Internet. Is this the future or is it blueorganizer already here? Web 3.0 has been described as the ability of the Internet to use and understand user created information in an intelligent way. In a way it is a version of the Internet that concentrates on becoming more personal to the user, basically, the web is learning what you want through your previous behaviour. Web 3.0 provides the ability for information to be shared with any devices that can connect to the internet. For example, Web 3.0 allows you to turn on your heat pump at home via your smart phone or tablet while sitting at work (brilliant for winter when you want to come home to a nice cozy house). Web 3.0 uses the idea of connecting things to thing and people.

Web 4.0 and 5.0, the future of the Internet. Just image for a second what this would be like. Technology has already come so far, so what other possibilities are out there. Tim Berners-Lee believes that Web 4.0 or 5.0 will include technology that will allow emotional interaction between people and computers. Maybe even facial recognition or voice analysis. He describes Web 5.0 as “open, linked and intelligent web, a transition from “a web of things to a web of thoughts.” Will this kind of technology be helpful in our daily lives, or will it take over and become more about the technology than the human?

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more

Electric Ninja Blog

Blogs? What are blogs?

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Heather

Blogs are the earliest form of social media. Justin Hall, a Swarthmore student, was the first to create a blog, Links.net in 1994. In 1997, Jorn Barger created the term web log which was later shortened by Peter Merholz to blog, which is the most common name. This is all good and well, but what is a blog? Wikipedia describes blogs as “a discussion or informational site published on the world-wide web and consisting of discrete entries (“post”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order.” Jue et al. (2010) define blogs as “an individuals journal that he makes public for all to see, inviting responsive comments from his readers”.

Blogs are usually managed by one person, though interaction is possible through the comments feature. Next to Facebook, more minutes are spent on Blogger.com than on any other site. Blogger.com was first launched in 1999 by Pyra Labs, then in 2003 it was bought by Google. WordPress.com (another blogging website, in case you didn’t realize lol) was released in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg. It has been downloaded over 65 million times since its release, and powers approximately 15% of the top million websites worldwide.

Blogs are a form of self-expression. Anyone from anywhere (as long as you have an internet connection of course), can create their very own blog. On Tumblr in February, 2014, there were around 172 million blogs, having only 77 million in October 2012. That is a very large increase in just two years, showing just how fast the popularity of blogs are growing. Emphasizing this, over 409 million people view more than 13.1 billion pages each month on WordPress alone. That is incredible.

Blogs have many features that can make your ideas and beliefs stand out. You can:

add all kinds of media such as, videos, pictures, audio, e.t.c, to make you post more appealing
change the style of you blog to match your personality
choose the frequency of your post, such as daily, weekly or just on events
add features like widgets, links, share buttons, tags, just to name a few

A blog can be used for a number of things. Other than being a personal journal that you can share your opinions and thoughts with the world, businesses also use the benefits blogs bring. Blogging is the perfect marketing tool. Since millions of people read blogs each day, it the easiest way for businesses to get their messages across. Businesses can use blogs within their organisation as part of their communications or outside of their business as a tool to communicate with consumers. Many companies are already using blogs to update employees, customers and shareholders on developments they consider to be important. However, if customers become dissatisfied with or disappointed by the business for one reason or another, they can decide to engage in virtual complaints in the form of protest blogs, potentially damaging your businesses reputation. Employees could also take to protest blogs giving away confidential information about the business they work for.

Be careful of the power blogs can have on your personal life and on your business.

Stay tuned for more on social media

Electric Ninja Blog

The Growth of Social Media

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Heather

What is social media? Is it just a fad that will be replaced in the near future? Is social media any use to business and our everyday lives? Before I can answer these questions, we need to know where social media came from. Social media has been growing since 1989 when the first PC hit the market. Social media can be described as electronic tools that enable people to connect, communicate and collaborate with others all over the world. After the launch of the very first browser, Netscape, in 1994, the phenomenon of the Internet exploded with advances in web technologies.

The first instant messaging service became available to the world in 1996 by ICQ. Over the next few years more services blossomed. For example, Yahoo in 1998 and msn messenger in 1999. Also in 1999 Blogger is launched as the first blog website. The first online encyclopedia launched in 2001, currently known as Wikipedia. This enabled people to communicate and contribute their knowledge to a vast number of people all over the world. There are currently well over 15 million articles on Wikipedia already. In 2002, Web 1.0 became deceased and Web 2.0 was born. From here there was nothing standing in social media’s way to become what it is today. MySpace launched as a social networking website in 2003 changing the face of social media. In 2004, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and Flickr all follow. 2005 YouTube is launched as a video sharing website, and in 2006 twitter emerges reinventing online communication and starts the 24/7 conversation. After the launch of twitter, social media became a part of everyone’s lives. Facebook added more than 200 million users in less than one year. Today, if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest populated country in the world. There are well over 200,000,000 blogs on the web and 60 million Facebook statuses happen daily. These numbers are still growing.

Already we can see that social media is not just a fad that will be replaced by something new. Social media will continue to grow and mature until we cannot live without it. There are three main types of social media, blogs (which I will cover in more depth in a later post), wikis and social networking sites. A blog is a journal for individuals to make public and invite others to comment on their posts. Examples include Blogger and WordPress. A wiki is a website where multiple people can contribute their knowledge in all different areas. An example is Wikipedia. Social networking sites are a place where people can share information about themselves to the public and search for others in the hope of receiving information. These include Facebook and LinkedIn. Other types of social media include discussion forums, microblog, podcast, web conferencing and virtual worlds. Businesses have taken advantage of the growing success of social media. They can now communicate face-to-face and share files to business partners all over the world through the ease and least amount of cost of social media. Businesses also use social media to recruit employees as 80% of companies world-wide use it to do so, 95% of which use LinkedIn. Not only is social media a great marketing tool, it allows for a better understanding of consumers in general and consumers of specific companies. Customers can provide good and bad feedback allowing businesses the opportunity to provide better services.

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WELCOME!!

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Heather

Hello and welcome to my blog.

First of all, I would like to introduce myself to the world of blogging.

I am Heather and I have created this blog for Assignment One of the paper, 157.240 Social Media Networks for Business at Massey University in New Zealand.

I am a full-time student at Massey and am doing this paper for my Bachelor of Business Degree, majoring in Entrepreneurship and Small Business and a double minor in Marketing and Business Information Systems

My dream is to one day open a holiday park like no other here in New Zealand. I believe this paper will help me succeed in business as social media is the way of the future.

I look forward to trying this new experience (for me at least) with you and I hope you enjoy my posts on social media. Please feel free to like, share and/or comment on any of my posts as I highly appreciate praise and criticism.

electricninjablog

The phenomenon of Social Media

THANK YOU

S.O.C.I.A.L and More

The Four C’s. What Are They?

Social Media for All Kinds of Business

Small, Medium, Large or even Not-For-Profit

Into the Future. Web 1.0, 2.0 & Beyond

What do they mean by Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and so on?

Blogs? What are blogs?

The Growth of Social Media

WELCOME!!