Online Reputation

I would like to introduce today my new friend Jared Carlson and tell you a little bit about him. The first thing you should know is that Jared probably has no idea that I exist. All of the information that I know about my new pal is what I have learned from the internet. Okay, okay before you get to creeped out by me you should know that Jared does know that someone in our class will be researching and writing about him, but he doesn’t know that that someone is me.

It is mind blowing to me to think that there is so much information about each of us that is easily accessible on the internet. All that aside, I am going to tell you about Jared Carlson by describing three trends that I found for his life.

Profile Picture Posted by Jared Carlson

Jared is from Cache Valley and attended Skyview High School. After graduation he attended BYU-I before making the obviously correct decision to transfer to Utah State University. It appeared to me that he is studying Neuroscience and working on his bachelor’s degree. He currently works as a CNA for Autumn Care Assisted Living in Hyde Park, Utah. Jared has made is whole work and education profile available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-carlson-1a563b107. It was obvious to me that Jared is a hard worker and that his education is very important to him. He has worked in many different positions at various companies, but has always continued his education. His work ethic is commendable.

Jared has worked several jobs of all kinds, but he does also make time for fun. He is married to his beautiful wife Michelle who is from New York. She also studied and graduated from Utah State University. They have been together for several years now.  Jared is a very talented soccer player and for the 2013 season he played for the USU men’s soccer team. To find out a little more about this team checkout https://www.facebook.com/UtahStateMensSoccer/. Below I have included a picture of him playing in a game for Utah State. He and his wife also enjoy traveling and mountain biking.

  Photo posted on Facebook by USU men’s soccer

I was very impressed by the support Jared shows for his church group. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. His Facebook profile was filled with church related pages and music, and I was also able to find record of him as a member of a specific group at https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/elders-quorum/deck/7437304. It was obvious that his religion means a lot to him and that he takes an active role in living it.

I really enjoyed learning so much about Jared Carlson, although at times I was kind of freaked out about how much information I could really find on him. Jared had nothing on any of his profiles, or other links that he should be concerned about. He seems to be a hard working determined individual whom I am excited to get to know better, but maybe in person this time.

Legal, Policies, and Ethics

Do you read privacy policies? I know I sure don’t. There are way too many small printed words that I don’t think I have time to read. I now am starting to think that maybe, privacy policies are something that I should be making time for. I have heard over and over again that Snapchat has released a new “scary” privacy policy or threats that those pictures or snaps I am sending on a daily basis are not actually deleted after 10 seconds. I have finally heard enough and decided to check it out for myself.
As of October 28, 2015 in order to continue to use or sign up for Snapchat, users are required to agree to the terms and conditions of their new privacy policy. The full policy can be found at https://www.snapchat.com/privacy


This policy claims that there are 3 ways that Snapchat will collect information from its users. These include:
Information you choose to give us.
Information we get automatically when you use our services.
Information we get from third parties.


The policy then goes on to explain exactly what is meant by these three areas. I don’t want to pick apart the entire policy, because let’s be honest, that would be boring. Although I would like to make people aware of a few things that startled me. According to http://www.marketwatch.com/story/snapchats-new-scary-privacy-policy-has-left-users-outraged-2015-10-29, the terms of service state, “You grant Snapchat a world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods.” This means that after you agree to these terms, you give Snapchat the right to use your information, pictures and videos however they see fit. This can include selling this type of information to third party advertisers. The link I have sited also states that Snapchat gives more details as to what exactly is meant by this statement, but it isn’t obvious and requires some effort to find.

http://www.techinsider.io/snapchat-privacy-policy-update-explained-2015-10 claims, “Data gathering on users is a common practice for social networks — Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all have similar condition for what you publicly share on their networks. “ It was really eye opening to me to read this statement and do some investigating for myself. As for me personally, I am going to continue to use these social media sites. I understand the sacrifices I am making by agreeing to their terms and conditions, but I feel that it is important for each user to explore and make the decision for themselves. Just like anything on the internet, once something is posted it is gone forever. So be aware of what you are posting and the ramifications that it could have in the future.

Collaborative and Distance Communication Platforms

I am just going to be honest, the fact that we can communicate with other people that aren’t anywhere around us with the use of a little device is amazing to me. That may seem so trivial and like duh, of course we can do that, but to me it’s incredible. I really don’t understand exactly how it all works, but I am really glad that it does. In this post I want to focus on one form of distance education that I think takes it to a whole new level, Skype.

Skype is owned by Microsoft and I figured what better way to define it than through its own personal site:

http://www.skype.com/en/about/

Skype is communication app that allows people to have practically face to face communication over video chat. Text messages and audio I files can also be sent over Skype, but it is most popular for video chat. Now not only can we communicate back and forth from any corner of the world, we can actually see each other while we are doing it.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/skype/1

This site brings up another great feature of Skype, which is that it is free. It is one of very few sites that people can talk to each other from across the world for free. Long distance calls, or even the old school way of letters and packages can be very time consuming. These ways are more expensive and you also don’t have the privilege of actually looking at the person you want to communicate with. My friends and I have always joked that if one of our friends can’t make it to something we would just “Skype them in”. We were always referring to dances or parties, and we were always joking around, but it is pretty incredible that we actually could if we wanted to or actually need to. Skype is awesome for keeping in contact with friends and family, but can it be used for serious things?

http://blogs.skype.com/2012/05/24/5-real-benefits-of-using-skype/

This blog discusses the benefits of using Skype for business. Some of the benefits include spending less money on international conference calls and saving money on business trips that you won't actually have to go on. Skype is really just another incredible app that makes our world a little smaller.

Location Based Platforms

I work in marketing for a company out of Providence, Utah. We sell hair removal products from our website, and are in the process of expanding onto other great shopping sites such as Amazon and Zulily. Almost all of our website traction is based off of Ad campaigns we are running through Facebook, and we have had huge success with this, but as I am learning and exploring more and more into the world of social media and internet marketing, I have quickly learned something: Google owns it ALL. In order to be successful it appears to me that Google in some way or another must be involved, because it’s everyone’s go too. Today I want to talk about an important aspect of social media marketing associated with Google in Google Reviews. In a blog article posted on http://bit.ly/1Ns6Tzs three benefits of Google Reviews was listed. They included:


1. INCREASED BRAND TRUST THROUGH GOOGLE REVIEWS

2. INCREASE ONLINE EXPOSURE AND LOCAL SEO THROUGH GOOGLE REVIEWS

3. FEEDBACK LOOP AND CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE THROUGH GOOGLE REVIEWS


All three of these benefits could push a small business, like the one I work for, to a whole new level. As the first benefit states it also provides consumers, whether purchasing from a small startup or a large corporations such as Nike, to be more aware of the company and feel more confident in them. Google Reviews can be left by anyone who wants to share their opinions on a specific product or service. Specific instructions for writing and posting a Google Review can be found by checking out https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6230175?rd=1.


I have found that the older I get, the less I like to shop. Let me rephrase that, the older I get the less I like to actually go to stores to shop. It is much simpler for me to hop online, Google whatever I am looking for and have it shipped to my house in 3-5 days. As for me, I read the reviews. Most websites have some sort or review section located on their site. These include personal stories or even just star ratings 1-5. Google has taken this concept and simplified it for us all. I have been on both sides of these types of reviews, the producer and the consumer. Google Reviews are powerful, because they are from real people just like me and you. They are actual people sharing actual experiences with products or services. We received our first Facebook review on our products this last week; this is very similar to a Google review, just specific to Facebook. It was a positive comment with a high rating and this made a huge difference for us. Now when people have questions or concerns we can tell them to check out our recent review and see what an actual customer has to say about us. Our goal as a company is to help our customers and provide them with the best product and service possible. It makes all the difference when a happy customer takes a minute to express this through a Google Review for investigators to see.

Most Used Platforms

Is it mind blowing to anybody else, how many social media platforms there are floating around in the ominous World Wide Web? Maybe ominous isn’t the right word to use, because social media truly can be an incredible thing, but then again it is so vast. For me it is like the ocean with deep dark unknowns that I probably will never know anything about. Today I have decided to discuss two social media platforms. One I use daily and the other I hardly know anything about, but have always wanted to explore.

Snapchat

Snapchat has become part of my everyday life, unfortunately even my hourly life. I find myself checking it way more often than I would like to admit. Snapchat is defined on

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/what-is-snapchat/281551/

as being, “a photo-sharing service with one key distinguishing feature: the photos you send disappear.” It then goes on to discuss the feature of a screenshot and how you can capture a picture if you are the receiver, but the sender is automatically informed. The main focus of snapchat that I want to focus on is the limited time allotted to capture something, and that it then disappears from the recipient’s device. I will later contrast this with the second platform I will be discussing, Vine. Snapchat allows its user to take pictures or video clips that can last anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. This ingenious service, to me just brings texting to life. I find that I “snap” my close friends and family far more than I text them anymore. For me this is because I can actually see the person I am talking to and I feel that I really am engaging in a conversation with them. The article goes on to call snapchat a form of “ephemeral communication” or just a brief communication. They use this term because of the short time the image or video can be seen, but are the effects of such communication really just brief? Or do we feel a deeper connection to those we are communicating with, because we can actually see them? This by no means even compares to face to face contact, but it’s just a little food for thought.

Vine

According to

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

as of January 2016 Vine ranks as the 10^th most popular social media platform with 42,000,000 monthly visitors. I was actually really surprised by this statistic, especially since Snapchat didn’t even end up in the top 15. I know that from my experience, Vine was a huge thing when I was in high school. I don’t hear too much about it anymore, but I don’t know if that’s just because we all grew up and moved on, or because it’s becoming outdated. As I said before, I know what vine is, but I have never been a big user myself.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/vine

is a site designated to inform parents about what social media sites their children may be using and what exactly they are using. Vine is a platform where six second videos can be posted to an individual’s profile for anyone to see. This differs from snapchat in time and the number of people who can see it. This is also dependent on profile privacy settings, but are those settings actually legitimate anyway? Vine is similar to Snapchat in the fact that the post is at the publisher’s discretion and unfortunately nearly anything can be posted. In my personal opinion I do believe that vine has more overall mature content, whereas Snapchat is really just dependent on the sender and receiver.

Although these tools can be used for communications and creative expression, there are risks that can come from any social media site. So always be cautious with what you are sending, receiving and looking into. Let’s make the World Wide Web a little less creepy and a little more creative. 

Blogging

I find this post to be a little ironic as I am actually blogging about blogging. Although maybe it isn’t really that ironic, as blogging has become such a force in our world today. According to Dictionary.com, blogging has only been a “thing” since 1995 and is now used as a noun as to own your own blog, and a verb as the action of blogging. The question that filled my mind this week as I have thought a lot about blogging is, why do people blog? What’s the point? As you can probably tell, I am new to the world of blogging, and I don’t ask these questions to try and ridicule this whole new world of the web. I simply feel that I could become a better blogger if I knew why and how these passionate blog authors felt. Here’s where my thoughts lead me:

http://learninglab.wbur.org/2016/01/19/a-teacher-a-committee-member-and-a-parent-walk-into-a-blog/

This article was written about a high school history teacher named, Michael Milton. He states early on in the article, “It was just like I had all these things stored up that I wanted to say. I hope that putting myself out there, that’s kind of like showing ‘Here’s the mind of a teacher, here’s what teachers do.'”  Milton as a teacher feels that he never has the opportunity of interacting with other adults. The article recognizes that this thought process isn’t exactly true, but it helped me to realize that I am sure there are many teachers who feel this way. As well as I am sure that there are people all over the world that feel that not only do they not have the option to talk to adults, but maybe they feel that they don’t have anyone at all to speak with. Blogging provides a place for strangers from every corner of the world to come together and chat about what they are interested in. With the push of the button, all of your ideas and thoughts can be expressed to an audience innumerable. Later on in this article the idea of blogging as a space for parents to express the way they feel about their student’s education is discussed. For many people blogging, isn’t about making personal relationships but just getting things off their chest. In an article on a well-known site The Boot,

 http://theboot.com/rory-feek-blog-therapy/

helped me to grasp this concept a little further. This article refers to a blog that is written by Rory Feek from the singing duo Joey and Rory. Rory as the author of this blog writes about his wife, Joey’s, terminal cancer. He began the blog many years ago before she was diagnosed with this devastating disease. Joey is quoted saying that blogging for him has become “therapeutic” and a way to “capture memories” of his sweetheart. As I reflected on these two articles I now understand why people blog, and I believe that the best bloggers are those that are fiercely passionate about what they write about. Blogging gives anyone and everyone the opportunity to be an author of their favorite stories. Blogging allows these stories to be shared on a very personal level, that I believe can truly move people. I am excited to be joining what seems to be an immense family of bloggers, and begin to tell my own life stories  

Social Media Case Reflection 1

“…you’ve got to be careful what you post online. It can come back and bite you.” Chris Burton made this statement while being interviewed by the IndyStar. As I read through the article that they recently posted about a dialogue between a disgruntled customer and the restaurant manager on Facebook (if you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend giving it a try at http://www.indystar.com/story/life/food/2016/01/04/kilroys-goes-viral-after-response-angry-customer/78252026/. It is pretty mind blowing.) I couldn’t agree more. We have all been told throughout our lives to be careful what we post on the internet, you never know who will see it. This is just another example of this. I was shocked to read that the customer who made the initial comment deleted the post and her Facebook account, as if this would keep people from seeing it.

Facebook claims that their users have on average 338 friends. In an article posted at

http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/29/facebook-post-reach-16-friends/

it states that only about 12% of your friends actually see the things you are posting. So let’s say that we take 12% of that average 338 friends. That equals just about 41 of your friends that see any one of your given posts. That may seem like only a few people, but imagine if a few of your friends share what you have posted, so that 41 of their friends see it. Then a few of their friends share it, and their friends share it. Within a matter of moments your post can go from being seen by just those 41 people to thousand or even millions of people. I am sure this women was very upset about her evening spent at this restaurant, and had no idea that her post and the manager’s comment could go viral in a matter of moments. Unfortunately, once a post is public there is no way of fully getting it back. Sure, it can be deleted from your page or even your account can be shut down, but once it’s public, it is out of your hands.

Another situation of public scrutiny is displayed at

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/dallas-county/2015/07/21/dallas-fire-rescue-worker-under-investigation-after-social-media-post/30489991/

This summer there was an intensive investigation after a firefighter made what appeared to be some racial comments on Facebook. The firefighter also deleted the post and comment from his page, but once again it was too late. The first article that I mentioned and this second article both discuss the fact the employers are often involved in these situations. So not only does this effect the person in a social, and emotional way, but can effect whether or not they are still employed. Social media is incredible and beneficial for the fact that it allows us to express thing we are feeling and keep in contact with people across the world. This can also be very harmful. As human beings we are often easily upset and quick to react. I am sure that neither of these individual had any idea of the ramifications that would follow their posts. They clearly felt very strongly about what they posted, but everyone that saw their posts, is free to have their own opinion.

Although these “nasty” Facebook messages have gone viral, there has been some good from this foul situation. According to

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/social/indiana-bar-customer-posts-insensitive-facebook-rant-about-heart-attack-victim-bars-manager

the daughter of the woman who suffered the heart attack on New Year’s Eve has started a GoFundMe account where people have donated over $14,000 to help pay for the woman’s medical bills. It is very interesting to me that not only are people so willing to critique and publicly humiliate someone, they are also quick to aid. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the simple fund account would have gone viral on its own. Without the negative attention that Holly Jones has received, I believe there would only have been a fraction of the funds raised. The changes of social media through sites such as Facebook, give us the opportunity to truly analyze people and the way we tick. Are people donating money to this fund because they truly care about the woman or is it to scrutinize Holly Jones even more? Is this a symbol of love or of “we will show you”? There is no way of tracking conversions about people’s intentions like we can “likes” and “shares.” It is very evident that a situation such as this would not have existed even fifteen years ago. Social Media has completely changed the way we communicate with one another, and truly made the world a smaller place, but is that always a good thing?