LA Lakers - Facebook Winners

Wow - my sixteenth blog post, it feels good to say that. Anyways, as you may or may not be able to tell by the title of my post. The Los Angeles Lakers are the first North American sports team to reach 11 million fans on Facebook.

If I would have had to guess, I would have probably not picked the Lakers to lead the category, I probably would have went with either the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Yankees. But according to this article on NBA.com, they are in fourth place worldwide, trailing only FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United, who are all European soccer clubs.

Apparently it has only taken the Lakers only three years to reach this status. They created both a Facebook and Twitter accounts during the 2008-2009 season. According to Tim Harris, Lakers CMO/Senior Vice President of Business Operations, “When we created our Facebook page three years ago, we did so with the intention of using the platform as a way to personally connect with our fans not only in America, but all over the world.” It has clearly been working. When I last checked the actually have 11,020,104 viewers, so the number continues to rise.

We know that they have the most, but according to this article, the Charlotte Bobcats have the fewest with only 85,000. That is a huge difference between first and last place.

I am not surprised that the Lakers are tops in the NBA, they are in a huge city and have a storied franchise. It sounds like they use Facebook the right away, by giving their fans a personal look at the team. A chance to hear from the coaches, the Laker Girls and they are even offered merchandise specials.

We have talked all semester long about how important social media is and Facebook is King (at least right now.) If you want to reach millions of people, there is no better way than adding a few pictures/videos and quick blurbs to your Facebook account.  To quote a different sport movie, “If you build it, they will come”, and that is just the case with Facebook, and well I guess the Los Angeles Lakers.

Social Media Marketing a Must!

We have talked so much about social media this semester that I feel as if I could help any business promote their product online. Whether it is a non-profit or Valley City State University, just about anyone can use social media to promote themselves or a business.

I found an article on Forbes website that goes into detail about what a Chief Marketing Officer should be doing to make sure they are using social media to its fullest.  I talked about last week how companies all over are hiring people to do just this. The article I found this week talks about what those people should be doing to make sure they stay on top of it.

One of the most interesting things the article talks about is that these officers along with their employees need to sit down and learn what each tool does. Something we have broken down a lot this semester. It even suggest that if you don’t know to ask your children. Lets face it, kids these days seem to have a knack for understanding and using all these tools.  Another suggestion that this author makes is that the CMO’s need to not only delegate what their employees do, but make sure that they are up to par with everything as well. I would imagine that most CMO’s have been doing their jobs for a very long time and never imagined that they would be using something called Twitter to promote a business.

The article also talks about some statistics about Facebook that I found extremely interesting and would like to share them. Every hour on Facebook, users share three million links, make six million new friends, share eight million photos and make 30 million comments. Those numbers are absolutely staggering and to think that this was hardly around five years ago.  One other statistic they make is that for every eight minutes someone spends on the internet, they spend one of those on Facebook. Wow!

The last paragraph talks about how its no longer an option to have a presence on social media, it’s a must! Something we have talked about all this semester and I couldn’t agree more!

Getting Paid to Play... I mean Work!

We have spent a lot of time this semester talking about all the social media sites available to everyone and how they can be used. One thing I haven’t thought about is that there are people who get paid to play… I mean work on these sites all day.  Things are constantly being updated on many corporations social media platforms so someone has to be adding this content, it is just something that had never really crossed my mind.

According to this article found on mediabistro.com NBC News has just hired on two more employees to beef up their Digital Media Department.They just hired John Keegan as the NBC Director of Technology for Digital Media. Keegan comes from Fox News and will primarily work on two of NBC’s websites, the Grio.com and msnbc.com. The other new hire comes from the Huffington Post. In two weeks Craig Kanalley is joining NBC as their new Social Media Editor, where he will oversee the use of social media as a reporting platform.

These announcements come from a memo that Vivian Schiller posted on November 21^st. In the memo she always mentions that Ryan Osborn, who ran all thesocial media sites the last two years has now been promoted to Senior Director of Digital Media. Finally it discusses that Bonnie Optekman is now the Vice President of Emerging Technologies.

These are a lot of fancy titles for jobs that really didn’t exist probably ten years ago, but thanks to the spike in social media across all the new platforms its easy to understand why they are needed.

I know that with the increase in social media, there will be an increase in demand for specialists in the area. Can you imagine getting paid to play on Twitter or Facebook? I use Facebook every once in awhile at my job, but its only to promote our show the students create. I don’t really know enough about it to do much more than that.

Would you want to play… I mean work with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter all day? Let me know your thoughts and post a comment below.

Digital Cookbook

Are you looking for a Christmas present for that person who is hard to buy for? Do you like to cook and have run out of new recipes to try? Well no worries, I have the perfect solution to both of these problems with one simple solution - a digital cookbook. You read right, a digital cookbook. The Bismarck State College United Way committee has been collecting recipes from the staff at BSC and will be putting together a cookbook on a cd. They are selling the cd for the low price of just $10, with all the proceeds benefiting the Missouri Slope Area United Way. They didn’t really have a marketing plan, so I volunteered my services to help spread the word.

I put together a video for this cookbook as part of my social media project. You can find the video here. I decided to use YouTube to host the video, because it’s free and it allows you to upload high definition videos that look really good. I have also been promoting my video through all the other social media channels, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Actually I don’t have a Twitter account but I asked the president of Bismarck State College to help spread the message and he gladly helped. Here is the post from his blog, it’s at the bottom of the post. It wasn’t the longest post, but everything helps, he also posted it on his Twitter account and his Facebook page.

The BSC United Way committee’s goal is to raise $10,000 this year and they are well on their way. For their cookbook they are looking to collect at least 200 recipes and to sell at least 100 discs. Hopefully with the help of all the publicity we can get at et least 250 recipes and sell 150 discs. All the recipes submitted must be a employee of Bismarck State College, but the disc is for sale to anyone. Each recipe on the disc will be a pdf and some of the recipe’s will have pictures along with them.

Feel free to pre-order your cd by emailing Kayla Seifert at kaylaseifert@bismarckstate.edu.

Ten Social Media Sites That Will Be Around In the Next Decade

We have talked a lot this semester about how Social Media and the tools used change so much. Its hard to keep up with Twitter and Facebook. Have you ever heard of RenRen or Sina Weibo? While researching a topic about what to write about this week, I stumbled upon a top ten list. Ten Social Media Brands That Will Still Matter In 10 Years.

I found the list on Business Insider website,  it seems as though they have a nice tech portion on their website. How are they to know what sites will be around it ten years? They don’t. I believe the author just decided he would do some research and come up with 10 social media brands that he thinks will make it through the next decade.

Here is his list.

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Google

Yelp

Spotify

Apple GameCenter

RenRen

Sina Weibo

I haven’t even heard of some of these, how do they think they will be around in ten years? The author explains his reasoning  why he believes each site will make it.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and I guess even LinkedIn are obvious choices what about the others? Instagram – it’s a iPhone app that allows you to share photos that you take on your iPhone and share them on other sites like Twitter and Facebook. I can see how this might make it. iPhones are the world’s number one selling cell phone and they won’t be going away anytime soon.

Yelp is a site that allows you to review just about everything in any city, at least the larger cities right now. People can log on share their reviews about a certain restaurant or hotel and others can log on and look. Seems simple enough and I think it will stick around.

Spotify, this one I have heard of and I really like the idea. Find music on their server, play it and you have instant access to millions of songs for free. You can share these songs on your other Social Media sites and recommend to your friends some good music.  I think I might sign up for this one.

Apple GameCenter. It seems as though Apple would really have to be struggling to screw something up. GameCenter is an app that can be downloaded on any mobile iProduct that Apple sells and gives you access to hundreds of games. The unique thing about this app, it allows you to play your friends anytime you want.

RenRen and Sina Weibo are both based in China. RenRen is Chna;’s version of Facebook and Sina Weibo is their version of Twitter. China has a huge population and seem like they are just as tech hungry as we are, so I can see why these two made the list.

What are your thoughts? Do you think these to 10 sites will be around in ten years? 

Day of the Deployed

If you haven't heard by now, October 26 is now the National Day of the Deployed. This is actually the sixth year that North Dakota has celebrated this day and was the first to do so. Forty other states soon followed and now in 2011 it has become a National day of recognition to honor those who have been deployed, are about to deployed and who are serving all over the world.

At Bismarck State College this past Wednesday, the 26th of October, we held a ceremony to honor these brave men and women and to give thanks to the people that made this day happen. Senator John Hoeven, who sponsored the bill along with several other senators, including Kent Conrad was there for the celebration.

I had the opportunity to stream the event live on the military page on Bismarck State College's website. We streamed it so that people all over the country could view it and feel part of it. That is what makes streaming video so cool, it is usually free and if its done right, its like you are there. We were hoping for better streaming numbers, but did end up with 104 viewers from six different states.

One of the many things the ceremony included, was a Skype conversation between a deployed soldier and his family. His six-year-old son was there and surprised his dad with a poster he had made. I wasn't in the room at the time, as I was in a room across the hall directing the show. I could imagine that when the little boy told his dad that he loved him and that he was proud of him, that some people got a bit teary eyed. I got pretty choked up and had a hard time telling the camera operator what kind of shot I needed.

I think social media can play an extremely important role in keeping friends and family contacted as they go through tough times like being deployed and serving our country. Whether it is a simple status update on Facebook, a Tweet or maybe even a Skype conversation, I think any of them make life easier for both the soldier and the loved ones. This is definitely a benefit of Social Media and the World Wide Web.

New Books on Social Media

Are you a business owner? Have you thought about starting your own business? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you better familiar yourself with social media. Its not going to go away anytime soon and there isn't a better way to get your name and goods out there than to utilize the tools with social media. Its free and if its used right, it can be extremely beneficial to the success of a company.

Recently I ran across an article on the New York Times website that talks about four new books about the social media tools; Facebook, Twitter, Google and LinkedIn. They are being printed and sold at Office Depots around the country for the small price of $7.95. A lucky five million people will be receiving an e-mail from Office Depot and will be getting a digital format of the magazines for free. The magazines are called: fb & business, Tweeting & Business LI & Business and The Big G & Business. They are also setting up a website called socialmediamags.com, which should be open this coming Monday.

Eric Yaverbaum, associate publisher of the magazines is not concerned with the all the information already available online. "Small-business owners and entrepreneurs are all trying to figure out social media out," Mr. Yaverbaum said. "Print magazines help make the information accessible to them. There will be great success stories and useful information."

He also noted that they are going to be printing a total of 250,000 copies of the magazine to start with.

I really like the idea of the magazines. Almost everyone uses social media, but that doesn't mean they know how to use it, and how to use it right for marketing and promotion of a business. I don't know too much about Linked, and for less than $8, it sounds like I can end up with a great magazine that will show me tips and tricks on what it all about.

Getting a business up and running is a hard enough job in itself, these magazines can be great benefit to anyone looking to jump into the digital world of social media to promote themselves or to watch their company grow.

Pause Before You Post

I am glad that I didn't grow up with Facebook or Twitter. I think it would make it even harder than it already is.
The only good that may have come out of using social sites like this would be to talk to people that you maybe wouldn't of in school and possibly make some new friends. But the negatives, for me anyways outweigh the positives.
October is National Pause Before You Post month. Its a month where educators and students makes pledges to pause before they post anything online that may harm someone else. I first found out about this from an article on a local television station's website. One of the local high schools is partaking in the event. According to the article, the teachers have talked about the issue of cyber-bullying before, but this month they are talking about more in class and encouraging students to think about things before they post them online. They are suppose to ask themselves, who will see it, will anyone be embarrased or hurt by it, am I proud of it, and how would I feel if someone posted it about me.
The main webpage behind all this, has a promotional video using upcoming teen celebrities asking teens to please Pause Before You Post. There is also links for students, parents and educators to follow, where they can find more information about this campaign.
We now live in a society where almost everyone uses social media to display their feelings and thoughts. I  know as an adult, I would never post anything harmful about someone on one of these websites. But for children and teens, its probably more of a challenge. So and so always started it, but this is a good way for maybe some students to end the negative posts and to realize how foolish of a thing this really is.

Facebook Updates

To be honest, I am not real big on checking my Facebook. I probably only check it a few times a week. The only reason I got an account is because my wife thought it would be a good idea to keep up with family that we don't see everyday.

Anyways, I found an article on New York Times website talking about some of the recent changes to Facebook. They changed Facebook? According to this article, they did. The article didn't go into great details about the changes, but rather asks whether or not you like the changes. So I just logged on to my Facebook account to see what all they hype is about.

When I first logged in, I didn't really notice too many changes, just some more confusing stuff on the right hand side. I guess it doesn't bother me, before there was just a lot of white space on my computer over there. I guess that depends on your screen resolution. I was logged on for about 10 minutes checking out whats happening in peoples lives and responded to an email and noticed that the new ticker kept changing every time one of my friends did something. I guess I know how much certain friends are on Facebook.

Back to the article, it also referenced that Facebook made some more changes to their privacy settings. Which is always a good thing, I still don't feel really excited about sharing a whole of information of Facebook and don't really like sharing pictures and videos, because I don't know who will be accessing them. So any more secure settings is a good thing.

The last thing the article referred to was you can subscribe to someone's page that you aren't friends with. I can see why this might be a good thing. There are some of my friends that I am not really friends with but maybe would just like to keep tabs about what they have going on in their life. But at the same time, someone can subscribe to my page, even though we are not friends.

Sounds like their are a lot of people who do not like the new changes, what do you think of the changes? Am I missing something? I probably am, as I consider myself a Facebook beginner.