Week 14: Social Media

The final week of ISM we we're faced with the challenge of completing an online Social Media project. Although the project is meant to teach people the all important lesson of working with a group it did little for my education. The group was designed to help us understand social media of a company in more detail .
Our group picked American Express. The nice thing about group projects is that the work load is divided into smaller, more managable parts. 
Our group, for the most part, work well together. One or two people were able to be the directors of the group and guide the rest of us that were not sure what to do. About an hour ago one member of our group logged on said he was unable to be in contact with the group and then copy and pasted my work and two other peoples work under that post. I don't know if that was by accident or not but it seemed a little odd...
I believe I remember this being the first semester of a group project of this kind.
I have taken MANY classes online and each one has had some type of group work on it. This baffels me. A big reason why people take online classes is because they have weird schedules or like the benefit of not having a meeting and do the class at their pass. Group projects, however, totally ignore those facts and force people to conform to certian times and leave the people with the regular schedules waiting on the people with the weird schedules.
Also, I got NOTHING from this project. I feel that this would have been more benefical as a singular project. My group told me to look on two different websites and give them feed back. I was never able to see the finished product and I do not understand the point of this lesson.
This class has been amazing.. up until this point. I'm still a fan of the class but I would say the group project thing needs some work.

***** I DO HAVE THE URL!!!!!
http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/American+Express

Week 13:Clear

This week we discussed Social Media, which is any content that users create and share across many platforms on the internet. Last we touched on the topic, in a discussion post, about Google+ surpassing Facebook. I posted that I believed google had a very long way to go before it passed Facebook.
The biggest reason I highlighted, which was highlighted in this week's lesson, is switching costs. I stated that people have invested a lot of time and effort into Facebook. Switching to Google could mean the loss of contacts, photos and/or videos that they have uploaded. For people like me, they have countless photos they have upload or have been tagged in. Many of my friends have not made the transfer to Google, so Im staying put 'til my network is moved.
Facebook also has the network effects on its side. The exchange, it is so easy to exchange information and share things with friends. from 45 to 4,500, people might not be willing to leave those networks. This would be staying power. And finally, complementary benefits. Facebook has taken this aspect and used it to its every advantage. Companies use their facebook pages to connect with audiences by offering discounts or inside information for liking their pages. Facebook just bought Instagram, a popular camera app, which now allows users to directly upload their pictures.
Since Instagram was not available on android til recently I have not experience the seemingly addictive nature of this app, but many of my friends find it amazing!
This is my picture of a painting that I did. We all love facebook. Google+ would have to offset the huge switching costs by providing users with an awesome reason for leaving facebook.
Facebook has become so well known that just a simple F will tell people two things; We have a facebook and we want you to be on it!
And, Im here to tell Facebook. I'm logged on and I'm staying put! =]

 Picture and paintng by: Ellen Farly