So Today...

So today… As you all know twitter has opened the professional, college, and even high school athlete to his community and fans. While this is great for fans that love to give their number one players support through their seasons, there is also a downside to it.

We can all agree that there is no holding back for some online users in terms of their vulgar language on twitter, Facebook, and especially YouTube. So when a player doesn’t perform as he was “supposed” to, there is no doubt that the criticism from crazed fans is going to explode on the social networking sites.

But how do you let an athlete know the fastest way that you disapprove with his play? Twitter. Like it really matters to me what you have to say about how I performed, that’s why there is a difference between real fans and bandwagon fans. In this article I found, Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson deleted his Twitter account after receiving a massive amount of “abusive messages… within just two hours of setting up his account.”

The way I see it, if you are a professional athlete and you understand what hard work is, what your abilities are, and that your teammates need you, there is absolutely no reason to worry about what any outside fan says about you on twitter. If you are a well-known athlete, you will have a lot of followers. 

While some of them may want to mention how bad you are, there are others that will show you support. Worse case scenario for Gibson was to take his twitter down, now if he were ever to consider getting back on again it might get even worse. My only take on this whole twitter debacle, is that if you want something like a twitter account for reaching out to your fans, expect criticism. Some of the best athletes get it every day, but all it ends up doing is giving you more drive to proving all those doubters wrong. 

So today… I really wanted to discuss a topic that has been ever so daunting to actually write about since I hate bit***** about things, but I came across this article that kind of puts things in to perspective and leaves me to believe that there other people out there who feel exactly like me. There is this “Narcissistic” culture that is slowly growing on social networking sites that is quite frankly ruining the whole point behind the experience. While we all use our Facebook and Twitter for different reasons, I am so freaking tired of hearing about what is happening in your life 20 times a day on my newsfeed.

e.g.

“OMG, You guys lOOk soooo cute ToGeThER!!! 

 “People of South Padre… Be ready for the craziest group of girls you’ve ever seen this spring break!!” 

 “I’ve like had the worst day EVERRRRR! First my garage door wouldn’t open, and then my car wouldn’t turn on! Then my freaking teacher gave us a Pop Quiz… Like what is she thinking?? “

First of all, you guys are probably not the craziest group to ever go to South Padre. They have about 18,000 college kids there every day during spring break and you would have to be pretty ridiculous to accomplish that. I realize that you think your friend and her new boyfriend look cute together, but are the 3 exclamation points and every other capitalized letter really necessary? Who even writes like that? It took me 5 seconds longer just write that out. Then of course the complaining about your day so far… Please stop. Nobody, and I mean nobody cares.

Tom Dunlap’s article in PC World title “Social Media Overload: Help!” claims that we are getting away from what social networks are good for and abusing those things. “The role that social networks now play in our lives is so important that they can’t be ignored indefinitely. They help us keep pace with our peers, network for jobs, and even remain socially active offline… Recently the Facebook and Twitter culture has pushed these people to post what they’re doing or thinking or photographing 10 times a day. It’s as though they’re in some kind of competition of the absurd.” 

This ‘all about me’ culture is really ruining the experience we used to have. I like using Facebook to maintain my friendship with my college friends here and back home. I like tweeting every now then and following people and things I am interested in. A while back ago you could get on your newsfeed and check out what’s going on in your network, now it’s cluttered up by people sharing their tweets in their Facebook status (Why did you get a twitter then?)

Tom does talk about having imposed rules for our social networking sites, which I don’t agree with. A communist Facebook just doesn’t sound appealing. But please people, next time you comment or share a status with us, make sure it would be worthwhile for someone to read it. Oh and SpeLLinG ThINgs liKE ThIs… doesn’t really do you any good. You will need a job one day.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City 

So today… I started questioning priorities. Most people do have different priorities when it comes things that matter in their life, especially when we look at all the things that we like online. I am not the guy that will tell you what to follow or like with your social media accounts, you guys can make your own choice with that. I simply want to explain my reasoning on things that actually make a difference in people’s lives.

While we all see things every day pop up on our newsfeed talking about this and that fundraiser, some of us do tend to ignore them. Find something that is important to you and help out. Why do I bring this up? I personally believe that it is way more fun to ‘like’ non-profits on Facebook or follow what they do on twitter rather than a celebrity.

Think about it, when you follow a celebrity you don’t really have a connection to their purpose or cause. A non-profit organization gives you instant gratification. We are really helping them out because non-profits are the ones that can gain the most momentum with the use of social media. With more and more people exchanging information via status updates and tweets about the great things that are taking place in less fortunate people’s lives, it really does something to you.

Everyone wants to stay connected with someone or something that is changing the world for the better and making a difference in a community. ‘Like’ something that moves you, it will change your life… I promise.

So today… we run in to another encounter with the NCAA and their regulations. So the NCAA is saying that if you are a college student, you can not friend request a high school player and try to sway him to come play for your school through social media? Like really? There is absolutely no way they will be able to stop this.

First of all, High school athletes love getting more popular through twitter and Facebook. Why wouldn’t they? If you are getting recruited by a number of colleges, you are more than likely the stud at your high school. Opening up your network of friends and followers to the thousands is going to be an intriguing process for any 17 year old that has aspirations to make it big in college sports and beyond. 

“Rivers may be the most visible high school athlete in the nation with more than 18,000 Facebook fans, more than 23,000 Twitter followers and YouTube highlight clips that have been viewed nearly a million times. He has committed to the Blue Devils.”

The NCAA is so naïve to believe that a couple of college football or basketball fanatics can alter the decision making of an athlete from their dorm room desktop. This is just another one of those things where the NCAA tries to regulate something completely pointless. Especially by trying to put restrictions on harmless social media buzz that they will never be able to oversee let alone control. While I do agree that it could be a useful tool for coaches to contact players, going out and making sure it doesn’t happen is nearly impossible.

At the end of the day high school athletes are going to get contacted by numerous fans regardless of their presence in different social media outlets. Let’s be honest. If you are being contacted by fans from all over the country because of your athletic achievements while you are still in high school, you will probably not have a problem with that. If you do, then… you got another thing coming if you ever become great at what you do after high school. If you’re widely respected, and highly recruited, people will find a way to get in contact with you no matter what restrictions exist.

In social media today, companies, individuals, and celebrities are looking for options to help them succeed with this new form of communication. Turning to third party marketing firms is become more and more common. As companies transition their online presence to a third party, how do they control the message? As an individual grants access to another person to help with their tweets, how do they maintain personality? If a celebrity has a friend write a message for them, does the message really have merit? These are questions companies, individuals, and celebrities alike must ask themselves before employing a third party firm to help with social media. Companies are an entity, with a brand personality all on their own. If a business is to have an outside firm manage their social media presence, it is important to make sure their personality is not lost in the wings. The company should make sure the third party solution is made well aware of company protocol and methods before handing over the reigns. 

For an individual- it is common to let others contribute to a social media voice, but rarely should an individual give full control to another entity. The value of following an individual stems from the ability to hear their particular opinion on a matter, or get keen insight. When an individual outsources their voice, who are followers really learning from? For celebrities, it is essential to maintain control over their social media space. It is a dangerous situation to have others sharing messages on behalf of a celebrity, as it can be devastating for a fan to find out they are being ‘duped’ by the athlete’s social media pages. A third party should assist in consulting celebs on the content or pattern of their messages, but to remain authentic, the celeb should have their voice in each and every message. If there is a situation where a third party has full control of a social media presence, the first step is to understand the goals of the company, individual, or celebrity. They must get to know the voice, the audience, the strategy behind the client’s social media pages. Authenticity is key in building a large following. Be confident a third party social media company can truly represent the firm before outsourcing.

The business world is changing. Technology has allowed us to connect with so many different industries with a few clicks on the web. While many companies have used social media as a tool for opening up their marketing strategy, smaller businesses have had the most to gains. Small businesses these days have to constantly keep up with the big corporation competitors and the best way to do that is by knowing your content and understanding your industry. On twitter, hashtags have given smaller ventures the power to always stay on top of the latest news and announcements. When someone follows a certain hashtag, they get to learn about the industry news that they want to know about while being able to look at small, medium-sized and big businesses. Small companies don’t have to follow everyone to find out about the latest releases of products or updates in their industries, they can simply follow a hashtag. Using hashtags in their tweets also allows other companies to see that they are knowledgeable. It gives them the power to become thought leaders in the online community and eventually the real world. By properly using hashtags a company can open up their business to potential clients, new customers, and get more followers. A great example is the #ECM hashtag, which stands for Electronic Content Management. Smaller document management companies use this hashtag to talk about anything new that will further their business. As technology gets savvier, so does the document management industry. It is constantly changing with releases of new products that provide faster and smarter solutions. Hashtags are perfect to pool this industry in to a community on twitter. Start following some of your own hashtags and see where they can take you. 

So today I really want to spend some time talking about an industry that does not get covered that much. Classical performing artists play some of the most amazing music out there. Every now and then I like to listen to it when I am studying, it’s beautiful music to my ears and there is no obnoxious lyrics that make me lose my focus. While mainstream media and the music industry overshadow everything, this is what I would call real music. Classical artists don’t mix and match sound and go back in the studio to change things to attract consumer attention, they just play music and let their talents speak volumes. Lately there has been an emergence of musical artists incorporating social media to branch out more. I think this is a perfect idea. While social media has helped many musical artists in general rise in following, classical artists are taking advantage of the cheapest way to expand their fan circle nationwide and world wide. Twitter and Facebook are great pages to keep their fans updated on upcoming tour dates, events, and song releases. It is also a really quick way for our less-attention-span web surfers to fall in love with songs and artists they like. Classical artists have also used social media tools to help them network with others, opening up potential for new fans, new shows, and new revenue. Yana Reznik is one classical artist that is doing exactly that. If you go to her Facebook page you are opened up to her world, allowing for an interactive experience with a great classical artist. Check out her music and what she has been doing, I think you will really like it. 

Yana Reznik -  http://www.facebook.com/YanaReznik

So today i found a very interesting article that talks about a couple of advertisers jumping on the Charlie Sheen wagon and using it to promote some of their products. Ad.ly a company based out of L.A. works with a lot of different celebrities and brands to advertise via twitter. While some of their clients include Toyota and Microsoft, Ad.ly believes that the true marketability comes from celebrities that have a high following on twitter. “…celebrities are currently the ideal brand endorsers in terms of social media because of the influence they have, their fan loyalty and, as he put it, “their ability to move the needle.” While most people are quite critical of twitter being used as an advertising tool, Ad.ly has found great success bringing active famous twitter users and their fans together while being able to push out products that the celebrities like and actually use. What I really like about Ad.ly is that they do not tweet for their clients, they try to stay away from that because it does not give them the originality. Plus I don’t want to hear from them, I want to hear from the person who’s twitter account it is. “…advertisers are good at writing sales copy. They’re not good at writing organic tweets in different celebrity’s voices.” Often the tweets come as casual messages from the celebrity: “Check this out” or “‘I think this is cool.” While celebrities are growing in this area of the industry, I don’t know how many brands actually want to associate themselves with Charlie Sheen. The guy is funny and all, but obviously he has some deep issues that he needs to resolve first. I don’t know if I would want my Ad for “Denny’s Family Restaurant” associated with Tiger blood and Strippers.