Twitter predicts the future? Box office future, that is

A Prediction: Twitter to Predict the Future

The idea of Twitter being able to predict box office hits doesn’t seem too strange to me. After learning about monitoring activity online, it only seems appropriate that twitter would be a go-to source for information on things such as entertainment, politics, etc.

“Aside from foretelling performance, Apple, or any brand really, can monitor the same activity to unearth opportunities for new features, prioritize fixes, and also assess experiences to ideate future products, applications, and iterations. Brands now also have the ability, if properly aligned with the prowess and empowerment, to detect potential problems before they swell and become official social tsunamis. In the case of the iPad, for instance, conflicts, crashes, hardware issues, etc., are identifiable in real-time and if the infrastructure of the company is designed for rapid response, it can then initiate the development and distribution of fixes, communication, and solutions.”

Among all of the technological advancements and benefits bought to us by social media, this one is definitely beneficial to companies. Thanks to social media monitoring, companies now have another way to measure their success (or lack of).

Increased productivity or increased distraction?

It’s an endless argument we as communication students are probably used to listening to. Does social media increase productivity, or distractions? This article, touches on the subject and provides evidence to support both statements. It pointed out all the other forms of technological advancements we’ve encountered over the past couples years and states that “the reality is that distraction is nothing new in the workplace.” Although I agree, I think that this new wave of social media might be a little different. But whether you think of it as a distraction or an increase to productivity, you cannot deny that it has seeped into most aspects of our lives.

This interesting study showed how people really view the impact social media has in their lives. Although there was a few more people who thought social media was helped their productivity, the number of those who thought otherwise wasn’t far behind. so, i'd like to ask you all the same question.


At the end of the article was this quote, which I found to be quite inspiring for all those suffering from social media addiction!


"Of course, as individuals, we are in control of our experiences and progress. Our production is defined, among many things, by our ambition, motivation and overall satisfaction. The decisions we make when engaging in social networks are striking, not simply because they affect our efficiency, but because they test our determination. The live web is developing and while it is enticing, it is not beyond our means to manage. "

The NEW Rules of PR

For the entire semester my communication classes have been informing us of new ways technology, mainly social media, is shaping our lives. This week in Social Media class, we learned the specific ways that social media is changing Public Relations in particular.We have all seen examples of how social media and the internet in general is now allowing for organizations to communicate directly with its consumers. Whether or not you think this is a good thing is up to you, but no one can deny that this is happening and will probably only increase in time. Just like my other post for this week, the new rules for PR bring to mind the use of viral or word of mouth marketing. Because we are able to comment on pretty much anything online, people are relying more on word of mouth advertising. To quote Tuesday’s lecture, “people want authenticity, not spin.” Well, what better way to guarantee authenticity than to read the comments of users who have already purchased the product/have done business with the company you are unsure about? Although our lecture featured various other ways in which social media is influencing PR, I think the most interesting and relevant to me is the use of viral marketing. It’s everywhere!


Another interesting note- i wasnt aware that there was a Word of Mouth Marketing Assosciation. check it out here.

YouTube is down!

YouTube, the popular video sharing site we all know and love, was apparently not working yesterday. I wasn’t aware of when this happened, or how long it went on, but everyone seems to know that it is back up. Now, how do so many people know the approximate time YouTube started running again? Social media, of course! The mashable article “We Interrupt Our Regular Programming: YouTube Is Down [UPDATE: It's Back]” includes these three updates:

Update: Interestingly enough, the videos on YouTube seem to work, only the front page seems to be affected.

*Update #2: We’ve received the following short message from Google: “YouTube is temporarily unavailable. Our engineers are currently working to restore the site.”

*Update #3: It’s back. The downtime lasted approximately one hour.

I think this shows a great example of how social media offers a fast and efficient way of connecting people around the world. Whether or not you think YouTube is significant is up to you, but you cannot deny the fact that tweets definitely help spread the word.

I’d also like to point out that even the article itself included various posts within the hour offering updates regarding the status of YouTube.

Non-Profit Challenges You to Ditch the iPhone for a Day

Yes, that’s right. The non profot organization Reboot is challenging you to turn off your iphone for a FULL 24 hours. An entire day without it!

“The National Day of Unplugging” has been criticized for disapproving of their own point by advertising on twitter and facebook. But we all know that these technologies help promote human interaction and when you want a piece of information shared quickly and efficiently, a facebook status update or tweet will probably do the trick. The article also states that this idea is spreading, and that other people and companies want to have their own kind of “unplugging” events. I think this type of idea has been a long time coming, but I don’t think its purpose is to void our lives of all social media. Rather, I think it is merely to raise awareness of the fact that some aspects of our face to face lives are being more and more replaced by interface. For the people that disagree, going a day without their iphone for a day would definitely test this.

I personally think that social media is a great source for communication. However, it can have negative effects for those who use hide behind technology. Young people who have grown up with social media might also be too accustomed to the technological driven society and not be as involved in face to face communication. But I don’t think we as a society are anywhere near getting completely rid of face to face communication just yet. This event though, does seem like a really good idea to raise awareness of this issue.

So, what do you think. Could you go a day without your iphone? )or whatever your phone of choice may be)

Okay, so obviously social media plays an increasingly important role in our lives today. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t currently be enrolled in this Social Media for PR class. So it should come as no surprise that people are looking to social media outlets for their news. The article Social Media Plays a Major Part in How We Get News includes interesting statistics like this one:

“ Based on a sample of 2,259 adults, the study reveals that three fourths of the people (75%) who find news online get it either forwarded through e-mail or posts on social networking sites, and half of them (52%) forward the news through those means.”

I cant say that this news is shocking to me though. I personally prefer the old fashion way of a tangible news source. You know, a newspaper, Time magazine, or something of that sort. But I also don’t always find the time (yes, that’s my excuse and im sticking to it) to watch the news or read a newspaper. But because we all always have time to check our facebook and twitter pages, it should come as no shock that this is where we look for our news. Also, In our defense, facebook and twitter mobile make it incredibly convenient. The article also refers to the pew study’s statistics that state that only 7% of people are getting their information from a single media platform or news source. This supports what I recently read in my Public Relations class, about people not being “loyal” to one specific news source anymore because of the increasing array of various news platforms. While this may not necessarily be a good thing for news channels or newspapers, I think the fact that we can now even get our news from social media sources is a good thing that shows how connected we all really are.

Social Media: Responsible for users actions?

Google Case in Italy Has Serious Implications for the Web

This article explains the case in which Google executives are being held responsible for a video posted on GoogleVideo that depicted a group of kids bullying an autistic child

Should these executives be held accountable for postings made on their site? Should Mark Zuckerberg creator of facebook, be held accountable for any facebook stalking that may lead to real like stalking? No! Blaming a company or its executives for the actions of other people that they have had no previous contact with, seems absolutely absurd. Punishing owners for someone else’s content does not make the situation right, nor does it do anything to fix the situation. The article states that the four Google executives “ did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed." If this is the case, then how could they possibly be at fault? Obviously, social media sites cannot control everything posted on their sites. And even though some of them use filters and have certain restrictions, it would be absolutely impossible to review every facebook status, and every video uploaded.

On one hand of this issue, users are fully responsible for their own actions, but on the other hand, site owners should monitor whatever information is uploaded or placed on their sites. But obviously, like I stated before, it would be impossible to monitor each and every post. Just as with any large website that embraces social networking tactics, there is no way to stop the movement or check on it. So executives (especially high ranking ones whose job description does not include filtering content) should not be held responsible.

So, what do you think,
Should Social Media Be Held Accountable for User Actions?

Unveiling the New Influencers

The beginning of Unveiling the New Influencers exerted pretty much the opposite opinion of the other article I just posted. It states that in the past, companies were able to control the content that was available to the public in order to get their advertisements or overall messages out to us. But now, in this new social media era, that’s pretty much over. This new revolution is putting “the customer back in the spotlight” and giving us the upperhand, so to speak. Being able to communicate through social networks about products gives us an authority that was unknown to the general public a couple of years ago. Companies must now be weary of the messages they send, because any of us could tweet, blog, or post an unsettling status about them.

Social Media- Worst Practices

Interestingly, this article negates everything we’ve been taught lately in a lot of our communication classes. Lately, everyone has agreed to the face that social media marketing is the new outlet for most companies. But this article states that the just because facebook announced that their number of worldwide users had reached 200 million in 2009, doesn’t mean we should all jump on the social media bandwagon just yet. It also suggests that you’d have to hire someone manage all of these sites, and that it would be too much of a hassle and not worth the time or money. Considering that a lot of companies DO have someone managing their sites and all the progress they’ve seen because of it, I cant see why this article is so against it. Most companies don’t hire someone primarily to keep their social networking sites going, but rather they let PR assistants or another qualified person handle it. The article goes onto make a couple more points as to why social media marketing is not the way to go, but I found these two to be the most interesting and contradicting of what seems to be happening in the world right now.

Wanted: social networks manager for Obama!

For quite some time now, I’ve known that social media is a growing trend whose invasion seems limitless, so the fact that the president is in need of a “Social Networks Manager” doesn’t seem very extreme. Maybe a couple years ago, this wouldn’t seem like such a necessity, but in times like these, even the democratic party is apparently in need of social network managing. Although the qualifications don’t seem too elite, I’m sure candidates will be put through some sort of real tests to see if they have what it takes to manage the networks of something as important as the democratic party and Organizing for America.