Final Exam Reflective Post

Over the course of the last 16 weeks, BIS 315 has been a really unique experience. I really enjoyed working with the CMMA group as we created a social media guide and recommendatinos for this professional organization. It was a great experience to be able to perform this work first hand on an active group's social media strategy. I think that it was a great reality check for student our age to be able to speak with people in different generations about their views and knowledge, or lack their of, of the social media. I plan on following up from a far to see if they make any active changes to their social media streategy within the next couple of months based on the recommendations we have. I also think that they truly understand now how complicated it is to fully implement an activie social media structure.

Going forward, I will be entering the world of student affairs very soon. While my position will not directly involve managing the social media strategy for a university or college, I will directly be working with college students. I do think that it is important to have an understanding of how social media is constantly changing the way young adults communicate, behave, and collaborate. Both professionally in the classroom and socially in the living environment, interactions are changing as a result of the presence of social media. I believe that my experience in BIS 315 has given me a better understanding of how we can utilzie social media as a productive member of the community instead of to cut down others or degrade communication skills.

Social Media in Higher Education

This podcast provides a brief introduction to social media in higher education and student affairs. It is based around case study taken from Central Michigan University, but can be applied to social media strategy across the country. There are many trends within the social media atmosphere that college students ages 17-24 are most likely to follow. This increasing presences is both positively and negatively affecting the collegiate educational and social environment. For more information, consult with your universities communication department. Many universities have already created documents outlining social media strategy.

Social Media Final Presentation

With the end of the semester upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on my idea for the final presentation that we are doing on our own. First of all, I really like the idea of being able to do a voice over presentation. I believe that there is a good amount of emphasis placed on presenting in person in the CBA. Almost every class requires it to some degree, whether its a big or small subject. However, in business, many presentations are given remotely or using video software. As globalization continues, companies have partners all across the globe and this means the increasingly there is the need to present to these oversees partners. I believe the voice-over Prezi is a great way for us to experience a way in which we might work with distant clients. This is something that we don't get a lot of practice in doing during any other class and I believe it will be extremely beneficial.

The Value of LinkedIn

As we continue to work on the CMMA project, my piece of which focuses on their use of LinkedIn, I continue to wonder more things about the value of LinkedIn. As a college student, I was introduced to LinkedIn during my time in the CBA. However, I have yet to see it used. Only a few places have I been online where you can actually apply to a job with you LinkedIn profile. And, of those few places, most of them are high-tech companies that are more innovative. So, I wonder what this translates to. Does this mean that other companies will follow suit, as technology companies are often leaders in the market? Or are alternatives such as HRIS systems valid for 'automating' the hiring process? Who knows. However, where I think the value lies is connecting and advertising. Companies may not want to go through the trouble of integrating LinkedIn into their HRIS, but they could easily utilize it to contact possible employees. This is the direction we are looking to recommend for the CMMA.

Real Life Examples: Social Media Let Down

Today, while at my job as an IT Tech, I was researching some new technologies for software update implementation across various platforms of OS X, the Apple operating system. In doing so, I stumbled across a video that was put on by Greg Nealge, the Sr. Systems Administrator for Disney Animation. This video was of a presentation that he put on at a MacSysAdmin conference talking about software installation and updating automatically. However, that isn't what I wanted to highlight about it. At the beginning he talks about ways to stay informed about these updates to a company's software. Jokingly, he suggests using Twitter. When Greg brings up the twitter accounts of three commonly used softwares, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Adobe Flash Player, there is no mention of updates on or around the dates of there most recently released updates. You would think that this would be a critical thing that they would share with their consumers. This is an obvious failure of the collaborative community effort at these companies. Most likely their twitter account is run by their marketing department and is not being updated to reflect communication from their product development team.

24 Hrs Idea

I have not yet decided how or when I am going to remove technology from my life for a day. Both of my jobs thrive on my ability to use technology and use it well. I am employed for campus IT. So, in considering this assignment, I think I will have to try an approach where I am only utilizing a computer for work-related purposes. It will be more difficult to be on a computer AND stay off of social media than it will to cut a computer out of my day all together. With all of the internet enabled devices that us millenials are carrying around, this challenge is one that can be very difficult.

Alone Together

How do some people do it? They leave their phones alone when people are trying to get ahold of them. Sherry Turkle is describing that exact sensation. She talks about the idea that people cannot actually resist the sensation that people get from knowing that people are trying to get ahold of them. She discusses the behaviors that surround the intrinsic attraction to the phone as being a more stimulating device. It allows us to keep ourselves connected in small times of relaxation. Our minds have the thought that we can always go back to our phone, Twitter, Facebook, game, etc on our phone. This isn't something we just see in the younger generation. Business people are expected to reply to contact more quickly and to always be available.