The HiLo Lens — A Kickstarter Project
Hello all! Sorry I haven’t updated my blog in awhile, but life has unfortunately been a bit hectic for me lately. I hope to be back to blogging regularly very soon 
Anyways, the reason for this quick post today is to spread the word about a new startup that I discovered on Kickstarter. For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it is a funding platform for creative products. For more information, check out the Kickstarter FAQ page. Basically, people with creative ideas create a profile and post a short video about their idea in hopes of getting people to fund their projects. Often those who back projects will receive a free gift in return for their support.
Anyways, I thought I would share this particular Kickstarter project with all of you because it is perfect for anyone who has an iPhone or an iPad and loves photography (like me). It is called the Hilo Lens and basically it is a right-angled lens for your iOS device.
I encourage all of you to not only check out the HiLo Lens, but also to back this project! Do it now before time runs out!
HiLO Lens Intro Video from Mark Hampton on Vimeo.
Ready…set…PLEDGE!
Case Study Assignment - Cupcakes of Westdale Village
For our final case study project, we decided to focus on the local business Cupcakes of Westdale Village. Our group consists of four members, Lindsey Glazier, Gillian Wasser, Jihad Farran, and myself Nahren Shamoka.
In previous posts located here, here and here, you will be able to nibble on some background information about Cupcakes of Westdale Village before checking out this final project.
“I am so smart! S-M-R-T…”
After many weeks and a whole lot of readings, lectures, discussions, and assignments, Social Media Research & Techniques has come to an end. While I learned a lot of valuable information, tools and techniques to help me purse a career in the field of public relations, here are three of the most important lessons I learned:
1. Social media is a tool, not an objective.
This lesson taught me that we must utilize social media to achieve objectives, rather than social media being the overall objective. This is especially important in the world of public relations because many organizations jump on the social media bandwagon without setting an objective beforehand. People and organizations must understand that the reason behind joining social media should be to achieve a particular objective, i.e. raising awareness about a product or service, and not because everyone else is. This is an important lesson because it taught me that you must first set an objective before anything else. Without an objective, you are wasting your time.
2. Quality over quantity.
This lesson explains that the quantity of content you have is meaningless without quality. For example, a high quality 500 word blog post is more likely to have higher circulation than a poorly written 1000 word post. Even if you have multiple blog posts a day, no one is going to read those posts unless they are of high quality. This is an important lesson because it taught me to think before I post because unless it is intriguing, no one will show any interest.
3. Be yourself.
While some may think this is easy to do, it isn’t. In the era of social media, everything you do and say online is public and broadcasted for the world to see. This is especially hard when it comes to different platforms. Before social media, people’s personal and professional lives tended to be separate (at least for the most part). Now with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the two lives are intertwined. People must portray themselves on all platforms in a professional, yet truthful manner. This is an important lesson because it taught me that I shouldn’t hide my true self online, but rather do so in a way on all platforms that won’t damage my professional career.
Whats next for me?
While I learned a lot this term, I still have a lot more to learn on my own. Particularly in terms of engagement. I still have yet to really master the ability to engage with people I meet over social media. To help me do this, I have set a personal objective, that of which social media can help me to achieve. The objective I have set is to become an active member in the photography community. Although I have always enjoyed photography I just got my first DSLR camera and I am really looking forward to getting more involved in the world of photography. Due to my limited knowledge of DSLR photography, I have a lot to learn, and to help me do so, I plan on using social media to connect and share with other photographers, in hopes of learning from them. Some of the key platforms I plan on using include 500px, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. In addition to this, I will continue to update my blog and connect with industry leaders to learn more. Since social media is constantly changing, there is always more to learn.
Thanks for reading!
Sources Used:
http://www.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/social-media-success.jpg
http://thecreativejunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nikon-d90.jpg
ENGAGE! A Few Communication Objectives For Dakota Mae
While a lot of company’s have jumped on the social media bandwagon, many of them have no clue to how properly engage their publics. This is true for Dakota Mae – Boutique & Beauty Bar. For the third and final post of this series, I outline three communication objectives for Dakota Mae to help improve their social media strategy:
(1) Learn how to properly communicate with publics
This is crucial to building up publics using social media. Since Dakota Mae’s social media doesn’t understand the lingo, two-way communication is very limited. By learning the basics of each platform, such as hashtags, mentions, likes, polls, etc., Dakota Mae will be able to communicate in a much more effective manner. In addition to this, Dakota Mae needs consistency throughout the different platforms. For instance, they use the following user-handles: @dachode, @Dakotamaeshop, @dakotamae, and @dakotamaeboutique. I recommend that they create a simple and universal handle to be used on all platforms for easy discovery.
(2) Become an active member of the community
As explained in my previous post, Dakota Mae is more of an “observer” rather than an active member of their communities. This communications objective requires them to start engaging people, rather than just broadcasting messages to them. This means having conversations with people on social media. By being an active member within the community, people will start interacting with Dakota Mae in a way that helps achieve the organizational goals explained in my first post.
Since Dakota Mae needs to participate in the Hamilton community, I suggest that they should connect with Chris Farias, a fellow Hamiltonian and local businessman. As his Twitter bio reads:
Imaginitarian + Creative Director at kitestring.ca. I tweet about branding, design, my community and clients. Thanks for following along!
From just his bio you can tell a lot about his personality and his goals. Dakota Mae needs to do the same. They already have the personality, all they need to do is show it!
(3) Measure and evaluate communications
Finally, Dakota Mae needs to measure and evaluate all of their communications. While this is the final objective, it is one of the most important ones (Note: this should be done frequently to evaluate the effectiveness of their social media practices). By measuring and evaluating their communications using various tools and techniques, Dakota Mae will be able to see what works and what doesn’t work.
IMPORTANT: Counting ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ is not an effective way of measuring success. An article by John Simpson explains why you need to focus more on the quality of social media relationships, rather than just the quantity.
Having 20,000 followers who aren’t truly invested in the information you’re posting means you’re wasting both your resources and your time. Doing something just for the sake of doing it is always a poor plan. Only when you actively interact with your subscribers will you turn Twitter followers into an engaged community. – John Simpson
As this points out, Dakota Mae needs to communicate themselves and their content in a way that is appealing to their community. Perhaps if they connect with and observe how The Coveteur uses social media to engage people in the fashion community, they will get a few ideas for themselves.
What’s next?
Assuming all of these objectives are met, the company will most likely move from an “observer” to a “socializer”. Social media is powerful because it allows two-way communications. Once Dakota Mae understands this, engaging their publics should come naturally.
Please note this particular post is for an assignment I submitted for my social media class at McMaster. Please note that I did not consult with the company ahead of time and therefore all information within this post is public information. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns about this post.
Sources:
http://www.govdelivery.com/blog/2012/02/social-media-is-more-than-just-followers/
http://www.slideshare.net/amover/klout-styles
http://twitter.com/Dakotamaeshop
http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/user/28032824/
http://pinterest.com/dakotamae/
http://www.radian6.com/blog/2012/05/measure-social-media-awareness-attention-and-reach/
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/180017_183216035046988_8043391_n.jpg
Dakota Mae + Social Media = Humanizing, Yet Ineffective
Welcome to part 2 of 3 of the company social media profile posts! In this post I will be reporting on how Dakota Mae – Boutique & Beauty Bar currently uses social media.
Platforms Used
There is a vast range of different types of platforms that Dakota Mae – Boutique & Beauty Bar utilizes, but very few are effective at reaching their organizational goals. The known platforms that currently exist include the following:
Despite not being a registered Klout user, they have a score of 11 (Note that this calculated score is based on only their Twitter account). According to Klout style, Dakota Mae is categorized as an “observer” in social media. As an observer (as explained by Klout):
You don’t share very much, but you follow the social web more than you let on. You may just enjoy observing more than sharing or you’re checking this stuff out before jumping in full-force.
After evaluating each of the social media platforms that they use, this is a pretty accurate categorization of their influence.
Scale, Style & Quality
The quantity and frequency of posts differs from platform to platform. Their most effective platform is their Facebook page because of the amount of stuff they post and the frequency of postings. After reviewing all of the platforms they use, it is clear that Facebook is a more “familiar” platform to them in comparison to others, which makes it so easy to keep that page active. Since each platform has its own rules, it can be both daunting and confusing for someone who is not social savvy.
Although the quality of the posts are good, they lack the social savvy styles necessary to achieve social media goals. For example, Dakota Mae wants to connect with the local Hamilton community as well as fellow fashionistas, yet does not use the hashtags #HamOnt or #fashion. It is clear by their limited tag usage that they aren’t familiar with the “lingo”, thus not achieving their goals. The lingo is key in order to engage your publics and engagement is KEY!
Reactions
Since they have low levels of engagement on most of their social platforms (except for Facebook, which has a medium level of engagement), they receive little feedback from their community. While the community is there, Dakota Mae isn’t an active member. Once an active member of the community, the boutique can receive and react to feedback from community members.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats & Opportunities
Although it may appear that their weaknesses outweigh their strengths, this is not the case. Their major strength is their personality, which many organizations strive for. All they need really is the proper tools and training. If they do not change their practices and continue to observe, rather than engage, they will fall behind their competition. Although, if they do change their practices, the opportunities available to them are endless.
When it all comes down to it, Dakota Mae is off to a good start but needs to re-evaluate their social media strategy to meet their organizational goals.
Please note this particular post is for an assignment I submitted for my social media class at McMaster. Please note that I did not consult with the company ahead of time and therefore all information within this post is public information. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns about this post.
Sources:
http://pinterest.com/dakotamae/
http://dakotamae.com/blogs/news
http://twitter.com/#!/Dakotamaeshop
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dakota-Mae/175448509157074
http://www.youtube.com/user/dakotamaeboutique
http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/user/28032824/
Dakota Mae: A One-Of-A-Kind Business
As part of the social media course I am taking, I was assigned the task of profiling a local company’s social media presence and objectives. As Jared (my instructor for the course) explained, each person in the class had to choose a local business and write three different blog posts about them. The first one introduces the organization (which is in this post), the second will discuss how they use social medium, and the third will discuss their communication objectives. After much thought, I decided to go with Dakota Mae: Boutique & Beauty Bar located in the heart of Westdale. The reason for choosing them is because of their one-of-a-kind way of doing business.
What is it?
It is exactly what the name says it is…a boutique and beauty bar! What you probably didn’t know is that Dakota Mae is the name of the owner and operator of the store. As mentioned in the “About Us” section of their website, Dakota Mae opened up the boutique with her mother in April 2007. All of the clothing and accessories (as well as their beauty services) are targeted towards women of all ages. The majority of their products and services cater to women attending formal events, such as a prom or a wedding. To see what kinds of clothes they carry, check out their online store.
What sets them apart from their competitors?
Dakota Mae Boutique & Beauty Bar claims that to them “age is nothin’ but a number”, which is what sets this boutique apart from others. Unlike other boutiques which cater to a particular individual, Dakota Mae carry clothes that are very versatile in style. An example of this is “The Ultimate Wrap Dress“, which is suitable for everyone (I recently bought one from there and it is AMAZING).
The key quality that sets them apart from their competitors is that they are members of the local community and not just a business within the local community. This is the key to their success online and offline. This is not only evident in the real world, but also in the world of social media (which you will read all about in my second post).
I love being in Hamilton and I love my clients. I wanted a way to continue to have a close relationship with them as well as expanding and finding new people to share my love of fashion with. What better way to do that then with an online version of the shop! – Dakota Mae
Dakota cares about building relationships with her customers, rather than just making money. This is especially useful when it comes to engaging publics using social media. Being a previous customer, I can honestly say that these are just some of the things that make them such a unique and successful business.
What are their goals?
1) To have a close relationship with their clients.
2) To become a valuable member within the local Hamilton community.
3) To find new people to share their love of fashion with.
4) To build relationships with those who share their love of fashion.
5) To ensure that their customers love what they’ve got.
These goals are key and I will be referring to them A LOT in my next two posts. Check back tomorrow for part two! Thanks for reading!
Please note this particular post is for an assignment I submitted for my social media class at McMaster. Please note that I did not consult with the company ahead of time and therefore all information within this post is public information. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns about this post.
Sources:
http://dakotamae.com
http://dakotamae.com/pages/about-us
http://dakotamae.com/collections
http://dakotamae.com/blogs/videos/4625932-the-ultimate-wrap-dress
Tim Horton’s Doughnuts: Yummy in My Tummy
Please note that this blog post is for my social media class at McMaster and I am NOT crazy.
Hello all! I know this may sound weird, but I just received a wonderful doughnut from my amazing social media instructor. It may just be because I am hungry, but it looks (and smells) delicious. This particular doughnut is from Tim Horton’s, whom promote the freshness of their products. I must admit, they follow through with their promise. That being said, not all Tim Horton’s locations produce top-quality products, but the one located at 80 John Street South in Hamilton, ON sure did this time! If you have not been there yet, GO NOW! For more information about this Tim Horton’s location, visit this website.
iOS Facebook integration (coming soon)
According to TechCrunch, Facebook will soon be integrated into iOS devices (perhaps in iOS 6). For iOS 5, Apple integrated Twitter into the platform (and it will also be integrated into the next Mac OS, Mountain Lion). As Tim Cook mentioned at the D10 conference earlier this week, Apple needs to be social (rather than creating a social network). I agree.
Since social media is becoming more integrated into our everyday lives, social media platforms need to become more integrated into our everyday devices. As someone using social media on a daily basis, I personally would like to see more integration of social media. As one of the most popular social networks, Facebook integration will definitely help out Apple (although Facebook will probably benefit the most since it is now a public company). I don’t know about all of you, but as a user of everything Apple, I would definitely use Facebook a lot more if it was integrated into my devices (currently I use Twitter the most because it is MUCH easier to use on my iPhone, whereas the Facebook app is poorly designed and slow).
What are all of your thoughts on this? Would you use Facebook and/or other social media platforms more if they were better integrated into your devices?
Television in the Age of Social Media (part 3)
Is social media impacting the television industry?
The answer is YES. According to this article, due to the progressive growth of social media over the past couple of years, you are no longer restricted to watching television with just the people in your living room.
How has social media affected the television industry?
Overall social media has benefited the television industry. In an age of PVR’s and illegal video streaming, social media has begun to help those working in the industry communicate with viewers. Social media allows them to engage with viewers, promote new shows, as well as better measure how successful a show is (as well as understand how to improve a show). Just like it has changed the public relations and marketing industries, social media has fostered two-way communication.
Threats & Opportunities
As with the introduction of all new technologies, there are both opportunities and threats that social media brings to the television industry. One opportunity is that social media has started to turn television into an interactive form of entertainment. I explained in my first post that TV shows have increasingly created Twitter accounts for TV characters. In this way, viewers are becoming more active by engaging with these characters. Although, as mentioned in my last post, since not everyone uses social media, TV still remains mainly a passive form of entertainment.
One threat to the television industry is that social media can result in bad publicity for shows. Just like it can drive tune-in, it can also prevent it. For example, if someone writes a negative review for a show and publishes it using social media, it may deter viewers from tuning in and judging the show for themselves. According to Brian Solis, social media has spawned a new genre of critics.
In the age of social media, viewers have become participants in real-time experiences. And many, are also becoming critics simply what they say and share online. Social network activity certainly influences behaviour, but to what extent requires greater study.
The public aspect of social media can be seen as both a threat and an opportunity. On one hand, social media creates the opportunity for the TV industry in that it allows people to easily share and discover new shows from almost anyone online. On the other hand, since social media is such a public space, some may be embarrassed to broadcast what they are watching. For example, a straight guy may not want to share that he enjoys watching America’s Next Top Model in fear of people thinking he is gay. In this way, social media cannot accurately measure the success of a show due to the public and voluntary nature of the platform.
While there is no question that social media has impacted the television industry, it is still unknown how much it impacts it. It will be very interesting to see how it will further change in the coming years. Thanks for reading!
Sources Used: http://www.brandingpersonality.com/social-media-has-changed-the-way-we-watch-television/GetGlue: Television in the Age of Social Media (part 2)
Hello all! As promised, I write again about the ways in which social media has impacted the television industry. One of the most significant things impacting television are social networks. While Facebook and Twitter are important to the television industry, a social network called GetGlue is dedicated to entertainment.
Although GetGlue is not the only social network for entertainment, it is the most popular TV social app. According to Jefferson Graham:
With more than 2 million users, it encourages fans to “check in” and let friends know what they’re watching, and provides a forum to discuss the shows.
In his article he explains that for TV networks, social is hugely important. He points out that networks like CW attract the younger viewers and aren’t doing well according to Nielsen rankings. While ratings are poor, there is a large percentage of social-media interaction which prove Nielsen rankings to be an inaccurate form of measurement of the success of these shows.
Graham also notes that social media has the potential to improve ratings because of its promotional element. When viewers are tweeting and commenting while watching their favourite shows, it has the possibility to attract new viewers. While social media has the potential to promote shows, only a small percentage of viewers actually use social media while they watch, therefore it tends to still be a “passive” form of entertainment, rather than interactive one.
Check back again tomorrow for the third and final post about how social media has impacted the television industry. Thanks for reading!
Sources used: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/talkingtech/story/2012-05-02/social-media-tv/54705524/1
