Online Dating- Scanning for Sexual Assault Offenders

Online dating is one of the ways to using social media to meet a significant other.  This has been around for several years now and it is growing rapidly throughout the recent years. I know a few people that have used an online dating site to meet someone and now have exceptional marriages. Online dating is not for everyone, but it sure makes everyone think about how much is really the truth and what the user is holding back.  I found this article on mashable.com talking about this very topic.

 

The article talks about how this this subject came about.  A woman met a man using match.com and had a few good dates, but on the second date the man followed her home and raped her.  She later found out this man had 6 convictions of sexual battery.

Should sites like match.com or eharmony scan their users for sexual assault history?

In my opinion I think this is a definite YES!  Scanning for assault history will help in several ways.  For one it will prevent past offenders from joining the site because they know they will be scanned and prevented from using the site.  Secondly this will prevent future attacks because their will be no connection within the individuals that have a history. 

What do you all think about the new scanning process for online dating sites?  Do you think it will have a positive impact?

http://mashable.com/2011/04/19/match-com-screening-sexual-offenses/

How much should someone Tweet???

After scrolling through my twitter feed today I became annoyed by a few celebrities that I follow. 

Anyone want to guess??? 

The Kardashians…(Kim and Khloe mostly) I will admit I am a devoted fan of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” and “Kim and Kourtney Take New York”, but when it comes to following the adored Kardashians on Twitter it gets a little out of hand. 

So that leads to my next question.  How many tweets are too many on a daily basis?  I am sure everyone has a different answer, but I found an article that gives a pretty good explanation of how often a person should tweet.  

Tom Fronczak states that people can tweet however much they want, but focus on quality versus quantity.  Throughout the article he gives a few pointers that I will call Twitter Etiquette.

Twitter Etiquette:

1.Do not post more than 2 times per hour

2. Preferable only 1 time every 2 hours

3. Only 4-8 tweets per day

I have only been a Twitter user for about a month now, but I know when too much is too much.  If I had to estimate how many times Khloe and Kim Kardashian tweet a day it would probably be between 30-40 tweets each.  That is definitely breaking all 3 of the etiquette rules. 

Who do you follow on Twitter that over do the Tweets?

April Fools

A few days ago on April 1^st we all experienced April Fools day.  Where family and friends try to trick each other or play a prank for a couple of good laughs.  This year along with past years Google played an April Fools joke on the world.  

They created an advertisement for their “new” product “Gmail Motion”.  This product was said to be a new technology that does not require obsolete technology such as a mouse and keyboard to write, compose, or reply to emails: you can do all of those simply by moving your body.   

After watching the video and reading a little more about the product it interested consumers enough to push “Try Gmail Motion” and an April Fools scree would pop up. 

This was a great prank for Google!  After reading about Google pranks, I found that Google allows almost all of their employees to create an April Fools prank.  I could not find any data saying how many people actually fell for the joke, but I am sure quite a few did.  This is a great way to keep employees interested and share a few laughs with the world.   

Charlie Sheen’s Internship

We all have heard about the latest drama with Charlie Sheen.  Ranging from being fired from Warner Brothers, losing his job on Two and a Half Men and his outrageous interview on 60 minutes, he has had a lot going on.  A few weeks ago he posted an internship opportunity on internships.com for a social media intern to become a part of Team Sheen.  The position’s qualifications were a “Winning intern with TigerBlood”.  A total of 74,040 applicants applied for Sheens internship. 

One of Sheen’s goals for the internship was “to build on the success Charlie Sheen has attained in setting the Guinness World Record for fasted time to reach one million followers on Twitter”.  Sounds like a fun internship opportunity huh???  74,000 other applicants thought so as well. 

Charlie Sheen has definitely made a name for himself via social media.  Know with a summer intern he will expand his social media presence and keep his “fans” interested.  Who knows what Charlie will do next… I guess we will just have to wait and see!!!

In a Relationship With…

Has anyone ever noticed how painful it is changing your relationship status on Facebook? 

One of my friends recently had to go through this torturous process.  Within just a few clicks of a mouse the whole Facebook world knows your “picture perfect” relationship is OVER.  Changing your relationship status it like “rubbing salt on a bad wound”.  It gives everyone a chance to comment good or bad on the past relationship.  For the person being broken up with it is especially hard!  Once you see that your past boyfriend/girlfriend is now “single” in black in white on your screen, it makes the healing process even harder. It also gives people the chance to stalk their ex’s every move, which can make getting over an individual especially difficult. Facebook is also often used as a tool to create jealously for the other party. All it takes is one “Hey…I had fun last night” post from an unknown friend to drive the breaker-upper or the breaker-uppee go insane.

In my opinion the mourning process has to have been a lot easier in the past before Facebook relationship statuses.  Everyone has experienced this painful breakup process over Facebook.  Or has probably used Facebook to make the other person jealous in some way.  What do you fellow stalkers think???

Social Media Experts???

 I know most of you fellow bloggers are soon to be graduates from WKU in May.  A lot of you, as well as myself have already started the job search process, which we know is very stressful.  It is even more aggravating when I see a job ad for a marketing or communication position that says, social media EXPERT 3-5 year’s experience. 

During class today, Professor Phillips mentioned businesses looking for social media experts to boost their online social media.  But, as we all know, social media is only about a decade old. 

That gets down to my questions… Who really is a social media expert? 

We all are up-to-date with Facebook and Twitter and probably a few other social media sites, but does that necessarily make us a social media expert?  In my opinion I do not think so.  We all know how to use social media to connect with friends, family and update posts, but will that help us in the working world? 

I think after taking this social media marketing class we will not necessarily be able to call ourselves EXPERTS, but I definitely think we will be ADVANCED in social media. Professor Phillips mentioned today, social media is so new and changing so quickly, I think experts in this field are scarce.  Keeping up with social media is a daily procedure especially since there are new social media outlets being invented all the time.  This course is definitely giving us, as soon to be graduates, an advantage in the working world.  We will be up to date on a lot of new media outlets, experienced in blogging and professional networking sites.

 Good luck Job Searching! 

How Young is Too Young?

I was researching social networking for this weeks post and come upon this article about age restrictions for social media sites. 

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-02/tech/kids.social.networks_1_social-networking-sites-social-networking-facebook?_s=PM:TECH

 The articles talks about the age restrictions on sites like Facebook and Myspace.  The age limit is 13 years old for both Facebook and Myspace.  But, these sites do not have any way of checking the ages of the children to see if they really are of the “legal age” for the sites.

Now knowing that kids can have a social media account at who knows what age makes it kind of scary.  The Internet is a great device, but it is also filled with horrible websites and awful people.  I found several articles discussing cyber-bullying, which is harassment and directly attacking the person online.  One in five kids are bullied while online and teen suicide can be a direct result of the bullying.

My advice is to keep our younger brothers and sisters safe from dangerous sites online.  Be attentive of the social media they are involved in and what is being said on these sites.  Social media sites such as Facebook and Myspace are not always bad for kids, but they need to be using it properly.  Keep privacy settings updated, be their “friend” and know their passwords are little pieces of advice these websites were giving to keep parents and older siblings up to date.

Lastly, I saw a TV show the other day about a 14 or 15-year-old girl who killed herself because a “boy” she liked started bullying her on Myspace.  Come to find out the “boy” was a grown women whose daughter was being bullied by the young girl who killed herself.  The women made herself seem like a “cute boy” so she could get back at the girl for being mean to her daughter.  After seeing this show I was in complete shock.  I could not believe a grown woman would do such a thing. This example gives even more reason for parents to be aware of their child’s use of social media. 

Mariah's 1818 Social Media Campaign

I am currently employed as a server at Mariah’s 1818 restaurant in downtown Bowling Green.  My general manager Jodi Fleming has been on a social media kick for the past several months.  Her ultimate goal is to get 5,000 followers of Mariah’s on Facebook.  Currently she is at about 3,500, so her goal is not that far off. 

The purpose of this blog is not to promote Mariah’s and to get my fellow bloggers to follow Mariah’s on Facebook.  The purpose is to evaluate from my own personal experience if this has been a successful Marketing campaign for Mariah’s restaurant.

I want to start of by talking about how Jodi is using Facebook and Twitter to bring in customers.  She is posting coupons and specials on a daily basis for customers to see.  If you print off the coupon or show that you are a follower on Facebook/Twitter you automatically get 10% off for example, depending on the day. 

I have worked at Mariah’s for two years now.  November and December are usually the busiest months for the restaurant because of the holidays.  Last year, around this time the restaurant was not doing very well and weekends were even slow.  Since Jodi has been posting on Facebook/Twitter I have noticed an increase in business for even the slower months.  In my opinion Mariah’s social media campaign is definitely successful.  

"Building Brand Loyalty via Online Social Networking"

The first example of a successful social media marketing campaign that jumps out to me is the Nike+ iPod agreement.  This was established in May of 2006, which compacted a measuring device with Nike running shoes and Apple iPod’s.  This device measures how fast and how long you are running and update your iPod application so you can keep record of your workouts. 

As of 2008 there is not a sensory device needed as long as the gym equipment as a USB cord that can be attached to the iPod it will automatically update your application for each workout.  Our own school Western Kentucky University jumped on the bandwagon because all of our new gym equipment is equipped with the USB cords that are needed for the Nike+ iPod.

This has been a successful marketing campaigned because Nike teamed up with Apple/iPod and built an iPod/iPhone application for the devices.  In 2008 alone Nike grosses $56 million from the Nike+ products.  If Nike would have taken a different direction, I don’t know if it would have been as successful.  IPods and iPhones are the most popular music player and phones in the world. 

The link posted below is a business week article from 2008:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_46/b4108074443945.htm

SportsOneSource, a Princeton (N.J.) market research firm, says “Nike accounted for 48% of all running-shoe sales in the U.S in 2006. Today, its share is 61% (2008).”

After reading through the business week article it proved to me that Nike+ WAS and still Is a successful social media marketing campaign.  

Does social media help or hurt the job search process?

After reading the three articles that were assigned this week they all gave glory to social media with the job search process. 

Yes, I agree that social media sites such as Linkden can help employers find prospects and evaluate them even before an interview. This is because Linkden's main purpose is to connect job seekers with future employers.  

On the downfall, I think there are a lot of negative aspects that come along with social media sites and the job search process. 

Personal sites such as Facebook and Twitter could have an adverse effect on your reputation and the way employers view the job seeker.  Most people especially college students use Facebook and Twitter for personal reasons and catching up with friends and family.  They do not think about future employers looking at their pages.  College students do not filter their pictures and information as much as they should because they do not think about the future employers when updating personal sites.  This is how social media becomes a damaging aspect of the job search process for the future employee. 

My personal and business life are completely different and I do not want prospect employers judging me on what I did my freshman year of college.  That is why I took the advice from several different professionals to clean up my Facebook account. I updated my privacy settings and deleted past pictures that may not perceive me in the best light.

Overall, I do believe Linkden is a great social media site and a great way to connect with future employers.  I do not think personal sites such as Facebook and Twitter should be judged as harshly as some employers do, because they are used mostly for personal reasons. 

Social Media- Will it stay or will it go?

Is social media marketing a fad or is it here to stay? After watching the videos we were assigned the first week of class and reading the chapters in our books I definitely think social media marketing is here to STAY.  

Social media marketing is the easiest and cheapest way to market anything.  I was doing a little bit of research and found a website called mediapost.com.  There was an article about “social media moms”.  They polled 2,000 moms that were actively engaged in some sort of social media such as, Facebook, twitter or blogging.  Here are some results :

·      ONE in FOUR moms said they have purchased a children's product as a result of a recommendation from a social networking site or blog.

·      43% of active social media moms who use these sites ON A DAILY BASIS have purchased a children's product as the result of a recommendation from these sites.

·      40% of these moms made a purchase because of a Facebook recommendation

Link to website:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=143637

Like I said earlier, I do NOT think social media marketing is a fad, but I do believe some social media sites will come on strong then die out fast just like Myspace, when something better comes along (for example Facebook).  I think most of "us" being college students would have to agree.  Most of us probably had a Myspace when we were teenagers, then fell into the Facebook trap because it was the more popular site for older teenagers and adults.