COM0015 POST 4-OUT OF THE BOX

Social media is widely known as an ever evolving network that only does good for humanity, but as we have learned in the past, that is hardly ever the truth. Sure social media is more beneficial than not, and provides easy ways to keep in touch, is good for advertising purposes and many other things but it also bring along some bad information. One problem that is being caused by social media which most people would not realize is that statistics show that robbers are using social media more and more to see if people are at home, among other things. I have seen this happening on television shows such as Criminal Minds but was interested to see if there is actually any proof that it is happening in real life, and the results are alarming. I found a report that ran an interview of 50 ex-burglars in England and an amazing 80% of the were using either Facebook, Twitter, Google Street View or Foursquare. People are making it easy for them to become a target by posting status updates regarding their vacations such as “Cuba for 2 weeks, leaving tomorrow!”. So for a robber it is easy to see that this house will be empty for two weeks, as they can easily go through other updates and get a feel for whether there are roommates or an other people that might still be in the house.

While this was a relatively small survey, it is easy to see why robbers can target people based on these type of status updates and pictures on different social media websites. So the next time you are going on vacation, you may want to think twice about uploading a picture of yourself on the beach with a margarita in your hand because life may not be so perfect when you return home. The article I read also includes other helpful tips on what to do, or what not to do, to ensure you don’t become the next victim. Here is the link!

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/science-scope/infographic-80-of-robbers-check-twitter-facebook-google-street-view/

COM0015-Blog post 3 Networking

 

I don’t believe there is any argument to it, Networking is extremely important in every aspect of business. You can almost always earn a leg up or an easier path by knowing someone and the best way to do that is to network yourself so you can meet as many people as possible that relate to you and your business. When you successfully network yourself people will remember you, and that means you may pop into their head when they are looking for someone or something to assist their business.

It is easy to just make an advertisement or commercial but nothing beats the personal touch. You are more likely to remember a person if you meet them in real life, rather than just seeing them on a commercial so its important to do this any opportunity you have! Face to face interaction will always be important, no matter how integral the online world becomes. You must remember that it is nearly impossible to be successful in the business world on your own, you will need help In many different situations such as starting your business or learning to sustain success and if you do not properly network yourself then help will be hard to find!

So get out there and spread your name and brand! The business world is tough and you’re going to want to do yourself a favour and make it a little easier wherever possible, and they key to that is NETWORKING!

COM0015-Strong & Weak Organizations

I have recently been spending a lot of time researching different electronic companies for school projects and noticed something very surprising…Apple does not have an official twitter page!!!( and no i’m not talking about the fruit!). This is very surprising as Apple is known to be extremely popular with the younger audience that would spend a lot of time on social media websites like Twitter. You could argue that Apple is doing extremely well and does not need social media, and while I could not argue that they are very successful, I also believe that social media could still help them. Apple could benefit from Twitter even if they just use it for announcements on new products or their software updates that now seem to happen weekly. There is a twitter page with the name “AppleNews” but it is not an official Apple source so i’m not sure who it even is that is sending out these tweets, although the information does seem legit. Social media will not change the future of Apple but it could make it much easier for them to communicate with a large crowd.

Enough of the bad, lets focus on the good. Let me just start off by saying that Sony has 1.5 million followers…..1.5million!  There are 10’s of thousands of discussion each day that mention Sony and they use this to create better services and products as it is an easy way to see what the customer wants. If you have a question for Sony, or if you just want to check out a new product they have, all you have to do is like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter or even watch a video on their YouTube channel.

Another company that is taking advantage of the new world of social media just the way that Sony is, would be Samsung. Samsung even has more than one Twitter , one for Canada and one for their mobile devices. Samsung’ phones are becoming more and more popular and that is easy to see as they have over 6 million followers on the SamsungMobile page. Samsung and Sony have very similar aspirations and they are using social media as much as they can to achieve their goals, and boy is it ever working!  Pay close attention Apple!

Post 1- Tools & Sources

Social media has taken the world by storm, but so far I have not been taken under its wing. I rarely use any social media programs in my personal life, but I find Facebook and Twitter to be the most intriguing by far. Twitter is unlike any other as all you need to do is login and see what’s trending, its right there in front of you! Twitter will teach you all you need to know about up and coming products, websites, or anything else you need to know about, including news and weather. Every bit of information you could possibly need is bunched together on one easy to use site, which is perfect for businesses as they can see what competitors are up to, as well as their target customers. Twitter leaves nothing to the imagination as all the answers are a simple click away…no more guessing!

Facebook is a close second in social media as many facebook status updates are similar to tweets. All you have to do is type in a business or product and there you will see all the latest information on that company or product. Something that is very handy to businesses would be the feedback from customers that is viewable to anyone accessing that page. If there is a new product out that has some sort of defect, someone will catch it and comment about it. A competitor can simply monitor what people are saying about the product and easily improve on it thanks to social media! Social media is extremely dynamic in the average persons personal life, and even more so in the ultra competitive business world.

Andrew Berube