Social Networking

A class on something no doubt everyone in the class if familiar with, Facebook and its other social networking counter parts is a huge presence on many people's lives when it comes to interaction with friends and planning. Having a party? Use Facebook. Going out with someone? Isn't official until your Facebook profile says it is. It's become a strange extension of social etiquette and life.

But what about businesses?

I already have some experience using this service for business as I try to promote my comic on Facebook using links, pictures, reviews and interaction on its official page. The "tail end" being the most important stuck out most in the lecture as it put a name to exactly what I try to do on a daily basis - get the word out of my comic to people who aren't my friends. The people who don't know me personally are the ones who will genuinely become interested and leading to word of mouth advertising of our comic. Most of my friends don't even like comic books but will still support the page out of supporting me.

What I perhaps need to do is dabble more in the apps available on Facebook to further promote the comic, perhaps with interaction using polls etc. I also post on Twitter and Tumblr to keep getting the word out there, with varying degrees of success. perhaps the best untap feature of facebook is the ability to put up pay per click ads and you can define your target audience. But then paying for that would maybe negate the point of using social networking as a free awesome publicity tool?

Also found it strange to see social networking high on the formality scale for the 4 C's. It is within a structure, but there are some people on my friend list who would test that theory...

Time to crank on with the group project, what's great is researching the pros and cons of Facebook and Twitter will be helping me too! Muhahaha.

Last Class... Software Services....

I think the most pivotal point for me is the fact that I'm attempting a small business with my comic book production. Granted what we aim to do is get published and let them do the hard work, but just know we still must use marketing, PR, a website and everything to promote us.

I knew of RSS feeds, and one on our site just now is pointless, news updates aren't that often, and convincing people to subscribe to unknown creators is a hard task. I never thought much of RSS until the class and the advice that it could be used for the dissertation. Such a fantastic idea! I'm weirdly a person who likes to see updates actually on the site, even videos posted on Facebook I have to open the link to youtube and not simply watch the embedded video on the feed. Weird.

I think I know a lot about computers and software and using it for business purposes. I didn't realise service software was a thing and it's such a good idea. Software packages can be so expensive (looking at you Adobe) and the idea of online renting is really appealing.

I had actually used it before without realising, my cousin and I edited a script using google docs. It was good seeing it done in real time, which was much better than the annoyance of Wiki's. Waiting for updates, saving, not seeing actual dual editing being done live.

The idea of mashups was rather cool, but seemed to toot its own horn a bit. okay the employee can do this and that and help out IT, but really they're just taking widgets and packing them together on the one page. Didn't seem that amazingly revolutionary to me.

Maybe IT should stop being so lazy. Take that!

Timetable Fun...

Great start to the third week of BWI, by completely missing it!

So Jess and I show up to Caledonian University ready to go, and decide to have a gander at the timetable to see which room we're in (I have a really bad memory). At this moment we forgot to realise our timetables were printed wrong at the start, and we had an old class listed for Monday, instead of the new class which we were trying to attend on THURSDAY. Bloody brilliant work from 3rd students.

Currently looking over the powerpoint just now on Blackboard.
It's pretty interesting, Wiki this and that is everywhere, it's became such a major part of internet life that I never actually sat down and thought "what the hell is a wiki!?"
- nor did I realise it was of such important use to business. My only real encounter with wiki's is of course Wikipedia and fan databases set up for fictional creations (Lost, Buffy, Spider-Man etc.)

I got to give good credit to the youtube video provided, the camping analogy makes it extremely easy to understand and is a bit of fun in the process.

Going to move on to the extended reading material provided in Blackboard to get fully caught up, hate the feeling of being behind...

On that note I guess I better get in touch with my two group mates and sort out our next  E Activity!
Who will be the nucleus?

WEEK 2, TASK 1 : Business Blogs

Been searching around the business blogs as required, varying in quality from each one.

I came across 4 Blogs that were notable for comparison and had features I both enjoyed and disliked.

Google Blog


http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-01-26T10:17:00-08:00&max-results=10


Google's Blog was interesting as it gave information on more obscure aspects of the company (Holocaust Memorial, Art Gallery stuff) aswell as the usual promoting use a blog can give to customers. I first noticed the use of direct speech to the reader (using "you") which gave the blog a personal and one on one feel to it, making it very much a personal blog rather than just a news stream on the site.

It also provided pictures and video content to keep it interesting and had answers to questions in order to keep consumers informed on certain issues. The most notable post was a comparison with Microsoft's Bing as the blog flat out accused them of stealing Google's search results. This gave some interesting behind-the-scenes likeness to it and could only be read on a blog.

Blockbuster


http://blog.blockbuster.co.uk/page/2/


A blog close to my heart, and by heart, I mean my wallet. I was disappointed to see that Blockbuster's blog was very by the book and perhaps expected of a big business. promoting deals and giving information on new releases with little personality from the blogger. There was the odd "top 10" lists and "year in movies" but no real in depth look at the industry. It had pictures and videos that only gave the illusion of interest. These were mostly trailers and advertisements.

The overall look of the blog was unimpressive and rather dull. I wouldn't return to the blog as it's so impersonal and more like an advertising robot. The information it provides I could get better elsewhere, or just be searching new releases on Blockbuster's site.

Marvel


http://fans.marvel.com/go/universe/help


Their blog appeared to be great in concept. A whole section dedicated to writers, artists and staff's personal blogs? Count me in! Does it work? Sadly no.

The page for the blogs only displays recent posts and has no search function, no list of bloggers, nothing. It's very unintuitive and limiting in what you can look at.

From the recent ones I clicked for a blog post from the online editor of Marvel.
The style is extremely personal and a good read, as it isn't just promoting product. It provides insight to the industry, and can be very witty, great for fans of Marvel.
 I imagine the rest of them would be like this, especially from writers and artists, but as I have to search through backlogs of recent posts, I couldn't be bothered trying! This of course is a very bad sign.


Overall, I'd say my least favourite was Marvel, purely on the principle that I can't find my favourite artist and writer's blog and have to rummage through random posts from hundreds of blog posts. It provides the best insight, has comment boxes and promotes interaction and a treat for fans, but when you can't find anything, it's a real pain. But oddly it has the potential to be the most innovative, promoting a huge spectrum of blogging from numerous sources and opinions, if only they fixed the user interface.

Blockbuster's is technically the worst due to it's no real personification and it being just a vehicle of obvious promotion, but Marvel is the biggest disappointment.