Nominees: Most Effective Users of Social Media

Who is your nominee for most effective user of social media? Who wields the blogosphere -- or Facebook -- or Twitter -- with the greatest effectiveness? How does this person/organization reach a wide audience and energize their followers? How are they able to create a "brand" identity? How would you describe that identity? How are they able to increase their audience and effectively engage a wide range of people? What makes them a success? How broad is that success -- and what can we learn from them?

Facebook vs. Twitter

Vs.

A few years ago, someone had came out with the new social networking called Myspace. That was the big thing to be a part of and everyone was on myspace, at the time. Then someone made up the social networking for college students only, called Facebook and eventually grew to be available to EVERYONE. You needed a college email college to create a facebook. And finally, now someone came out with the newest version of social networking, called twitter. I used to say to myself that I was never going to create a twitter, because it is the exact same thing as facebook, and I already have a facebook. Until last week, when I finally joined twitter.

There are many differences between facebook and twitter. Twitter is basically ONLY telling the world what you are doing at the specific time. Facebook is really an entirely different type of networking. What do you think the positives and negatives are about Twitter? What are the positives and negatives about Facebook? How do the two differenciate? And do you think that in the future someone will combine them both?

Tweeting Effectively

Twitter is based on a person tweeting about what they are doing. A persons twitter page is only successful if their tweets are good.What makes twitter so popular to people? What determines if a twitter page is good or interesting? What are you favorite twitter pages and why? If you have a twitter page, what do you tweet about that you know people will be interested in? If you don't have a twitter page, what would you tweet about?

Twitter

What can you say in 140 characters or less?

This is the concept behind Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging site formed in 2007. Users are given 140 characters, the space available in a text message, to share their thoughts with the world, or at least their followers. Twitter is a free service, in which members send messages, known as Tweets, to followers or the community as a whole. These Tweets can be customized with the @ and # tags. One can send a message to another Twitter user by using the @ tag and the # tag groups Tweets of similar subject matter.

The subject of Tweets varies widely, as they are user generated. Anyone can Tweet anything. Tweets can be funny or serious, pointless or informative. One can subscribe to Ashton Kutcher's feed and learn about his latest plane ride. One can also subscribe to Barack Obama's feed and keep up to date on the President's agenda.

So may be your average Tweeter won't get paid for their tweets, but on the bright side, they won't have youtube videos made about their tweets either...

But when does Twitter stop being fun and pithy statements, and start getting a little awkward? Take for instance the Twitter account of the late Billy Mays, which has been kept online and is now operated by his son, Billy Mays Jr. Is it really necessary to see the final Tweets of Billy Mays? Is it an honor, or a little morbid?

So, are you a tweeter? Do you follow certain peoples Twitter accounts? What makes a good tweet, or one that is just too much information?#tmi

Oh, and do you think apologizing via Twitter is a good option?

Creating A Website

In class, we are learning to make websites. In order to make a website, you must come up with a central theme and then have your website appeal to a certain market, when creating it. Creating a website includes time commitment, so the more time you have to invest, the more inclusive all of your information can be. Two other large parts of making a website, are the title and domain name because these are two important aspects that will attract the market of people and make it more easily accessible. You must also make sure your website is easy to use and the layout is clean and effortless to read and scroll through. You must keep your readers interested so they will stay on the site and also come back to visit. You may want to link other pages to your website that pertain to your information or will help your reader get back to your website if they forget the link. Simple titles and relevant pictures will keep people interested in your site and will keep the site easy for you to maintain. If you were to make a website, what would it be about? What would you link to your website? What kinds of pictures would you put up to relate to your information? What website(s) would you look at to get an idea to create you own? What websites do you think work best in relaying information to their market? What is their market that they are trying to spread their information to? Do they have any links connected to their page?