What Digital Media is

The word digital media is interesting. By definition the word means to characterize by computerized
 technology. The word dig is in digital media. This is interesting to me because, one definition for dig is to work hard. Also it can mean to understand, appreciate or admire. I feel these sentiments express how I now feel.
 There are many fields and areas which digital media applies. These areas cover news and advertisement as well as anything that we use  electronic devices for. I find myself critiquing web designs as well as commercials on the television. I even find myself explaining to my wife and kids how the spacing on certain products can effect the products overall success. To say the least this class has made me very aware of my surroundings.
 Like for instance an interactive kiosk. These kiosk can be some what robotic but they still dispense very important information. Understanding digital media is almost like entering another dimension because its always moving and growing. Another area of understanding digital media is that their are so many ways to tackle any given project. In short there is not a science to it because its always adapting.
My appreciation has grown in ways I didn't think existed. Its an sobering thought to think how digital media effects the entire world. Even  elections for public office are majorly influenced by digital media. I recently purchase a phone and the interface played a part in me buying it, because it would make social media easier.
I really admire digital media and have an immense respect for it. I'm in awe of the whole field. This no doubt will make it difficult to pick a field to focus in on.- Russell Johnson

  

Digital Media Flooding Entrepreneurial Marketplace

The internet has made it easier than ever for entrepreneurs to create and promote a new business. Many prospective business owners have used digital media in order to make their business dreams a reality.  One big problem though..... Anyone can do it!  There are so many different businesses out there now that entrepreneurs almost always have some sort of competition. 

It is extremely hard to compete in today's marketplace when it comes to opening a new business.  Even if you come up with a great concept that has never been seen before, it can easily be copied or duplicated. There is a steady movement of spin-off companies chasing the coast tails of already successful businesses.  Everyone is attracted to the dollar signs produced by emerging business plans that have shown success.

The ability to quickly/easily open a new business with the use of digital media has caused many great failures. Just because something is easy to start up, doesn't mean that it'll be a breeze to maintain or strengthen.  A lot of planning needs to go into the start of a new endeavor.  The more knowledge and preparation you have under your belt, the better off you will be and the more likely your business choices will pan out.  Sadly, many entrepreneurs do not plan for the common obstacles of running your own business.

Technology is an ever-changing thing.  Everyone has access to it and in order to be the best, you'll have to stay current.  There are so many success stories out there involving making money with the use of digital media. Never forget that there are even more failures.  Prepare yourself before jumping in head first.  Make sure you're ready for the challenges ahead.  I'd encourage anyone to chase their dreams.... Just make sure you'll be ready once you've reached your pinnacle.

Chris Ouimette
Digital Media 2000
Fall 2014

Not Every Drum Kit Sounds The Same

  If you are like me you love music and as a drummer I live to play music. Most people don't take into consideration that the type of instrument has a huge impact on what the song is going to sound like. For example, an entry level drum kit isn't going to sound like a DW kit. This doesn't just apply to drum kits, it goes for guitars, basses, pianos, etc. But in this blog we are just going to talk about drums and what different variables effect the sound of the kit.

    So like I said not every instrument sounds the same and this definitely applies to drum kits. Some popular drum brands are DW, Gretsch, Ludwig, PDP, and Pearl. Now that's just a select few of different types of drum kits. In my opinion they all sound great, I myself own a PDP drum kit.

    Some main variables that impact the way the drums sound would be the type of wood that is being used, how thick the wood is, the size of the drum, and the types of drum heads that you can choose from.
Lets start out with the types of wood, there are three main types of wood that most drum kits use and they are Maple, Birch, and Mahogany.

Maple- Slightly boosted lows with smooth mid and high frequencies for all around purpose.
Birch- Boosted high frequencies, slightly reduced mids, and a good low end punch.
Mahogany- Extremely rich low end frequencies, with sweet smooth mids and a slight roll-off in the higher  frequencies.

     Now lets talk about the thickness of the drum. Basically, the thicker the shell, the higher it will sound. The thinner the shell, the lower it will sound. The thickness is measured in plies, which is just a layering of sheets of wood. For example a drum that was labeled 6ply would have 6 layers of wood. There are thin, medium, and thick shells.

Thin- (4 ply, 5mm) enable relatively easy energy transfer from the heads to the shells causing the shells to vibrate. This vibration causes a very rich "wood" tone to the overall sound. .
Medium- (6 ply, 7.5mm) stiff and resist energy transference from the heads. Has less shell vibration then the thin shells. Drums made to this thickness are ideal for general-purpose applications.
Thick- (8 ply, 10mm and 10 ply, 12.5mm) designed to allow most of the player's energy to be focused to an audience. These drums are ideal for stadium venues and other events requiring high sound pressure levels.

     The bigger the diameter of a drum, the deeper it will sound. For example: a 16 inch floor tom will sound much lower than a 12 inch tom. The depth of the shell also effects the tone. The deeper the shell, the lower the sound and vice versa. A deeper drum will also be louder and therefore project more. A shallow drum won't project as well, but it will have better resonance and a create a more pure tone.

     So there you have it, a basic guide on what effects the sound of the your drum kit. Keep in mind these are just a few variables to take into consideration before you buy a drum kit. 

-Rhys Chartier GCSC Digital Media

Film Vs Digital

        In my last blog, I talked about how certain people prefer listening to vinyl records over digital music. I started to think the same would be true in photography, in the use of film versus digital photos. Apparently so have numerous other people, evident by the number of articles and blogs already covering the topic. So what it comes down to for me is a matter of preference; and this time I tend to prefer digital photographs for several reasons:

The first reason is longevity; this could be the same reason why some people prefer film as well. A digital photograph will look the same in 10 years as the day you took it. Film, on the other hand, will succumb to the elements and show signs of age over time, possibly even completely deteriorating. However; the grainy aging of film is a characteristic that some photographers seem to desire. Again, this effect is something that could be easily duplicated on a digital photo too.

This brings me to the second reason, of why I prefer digital photographs over film. Editing, there are far too many programs and apps out there that allow you to easily edit a digital image. The possibilities are endless when it comes to fixing a photo or manipulating it to an extreme. These programs can be seen as methods that detract from the “realness” of the image. This is a point I do agree with, mainly because of the extremes people have gone to improve their images. In some ways the skill has changed from an ability to capture a priceless image to the ability to create a priceless image, through software, from a standard image. I still believe these programs are still invaluable enhancement tools, when used for the right reasons.

The last reason I personally prefer digital photos over film is: Time. The time it takes to capture a moment and be able to share that moment with whomever I want to, makes digital images that much more valuable. Photos are instantly available, without even having to shake anything in the air.

-Chris Moses, GCSC Student

A Digital Society

  Imagine the world around us 10-15 years ago. Cell phones were just phones with no internet connection, computers were home and office based technologies only, if one were to have one at all, and people were social butterflies going out into the world for face to face interactions. Now, cell phones are mini computers, laptops can be taken anywhere and everyone of us
owns some kind of digital technology, which, has led to and is leading more into a world of virtual hermit crabs. People no longer have to step outside their house unless they want to. We can shop at home, go to school at home, go to work at home, and even socialize at home. Although, we are able to connect to people all over the world in a matter of one finger click; sitting alone in front of a computer is isolating us. We are becoming less physically active and are losing more and more face time with other people. I can imagine the world 10-15 years from now where no one steps foot outside. It's a ghost town all over the universe while everyone is inside their homes on a computer.

This is what more and more families are starting to do instead of sitting at the dinner table talking about their days.

 

 

  I am a victim of this. My family and I get home, eat dinner on the couch and all get on our phones interacting with the entire world except ourselves. We are all losing touch with one another. We cannot, of course, get rid of technology or its advancements, but as a society we can put forth the effort in actually calling someone instead of sending an email or text. We can go out to lunch, have coffee or drinks instead of staying in to play video games on the computer. We, as a society, have to put forth the effort to not allow technology to isolate us.

 Social isolation refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with people and society. There's a real disorder for this and it's called social anxiety. Social anxiety affects 36% of society in America alone. Imagine how this percentage is growing higher and higher as people start to isolate themselves.

 Many don't think anything of technology and its effects because it's convenient and right there in our hands, but there is a very real problem arising with growing technology nowadays and I don't look forward to seeing how it will look in the future.

~Megan Burleson

Computer Based Training vs. Instructor Based Training in the Workplace - by: Ann Wester

I work for a large state facility that employs over 1600 people and among the many jobs that I have held at this facility over the last 25 years, being an instructor was the most curious.  On average, 15-20 new employees come to work here every two weeks.  As an instructor, it was our job to orient and teach new employees about the facility and the various responsibilities that they would be responsible for as well as the policies, procedures and laws for which they would need to abide, as well as provide continuous and updated training and instruction for all other employees.  Unfortunately, there are merely four instructors assigned to this large facility, so we relied heavily on computer based training for new and existing employees.  The advantages of computer based trainings are clear; you can access a larger number of employees at one time, it’s self-paced, and the information given is consistent across the facility.   I found that most employees, especially those that have been with the facility for a few years, preferred computer based training.  When asked why they preferred this training style compared to instructor based the answers were the same across the board:  ‘I can complete it on my own time, in intervals if I want, and I finish quicker because I’m not waiting on someone who asks a lot of questions’.  Great, right?  Or so it seemed, a questionnaire given to current employees (who have been with the facility 2 years or more and receive training yearly) touching on priority job responsibilities found that nearly 45% of employees were unable to answer a majority of the questions correctly.

The same survey given to new employees (who have been with the facility 6 months to a year and at this point only have had one training period) touching on the same priority job responsibilities had 15% rating of those unable to answer the majority of the questions correctly.  So what is the difference?  New employees receive more face to face training with instructors than the current employees.   New employees stated that they connected the material to real situations given by instructors, had the opportunity to ask questions if they were unsure and knew that they had someone to go to face to face and ask for assistance.  With the advancement of technology we can become more efficient and provide endless information to large populations of people, but at what cost?  Learning doesn’t end when we enter the workforce, it is constant throughout our lives.  Shouldn’t we have the best possible teaching practices in order to provide the best possible services to our customers?  I believe there is a greater learning possibility with a mixture of instructor based and computer based training when it comes to our workforce. 

www.eadulteducation.org

www.brighthub.com

Ann Wester - dig2000

 

Can I see your watch?

As technology advances, these companies invent new ways for us to use our technology. The new tech around is wearable technology. What does this mean? Well, the most recent form of wearable tech are watches, not just any old watch, but a watch that connects to our mobile devices and helps us do our everyday duties with touch or a flick. There are a bunch of tech watches out there like: Moto 360, LG G Watch, Sony SmartWatch, Samsung Gear, Pebble, and many others. There is something that is very peculiar about the list of wearable tech/Smart Watches, the list is missing an Apple product. Apple has always been on the ball when it comes to innovative technology but why is there not a Apple product on that list. Well, the simple answer to that question is that, Apple was not ready for it yet.

 

The Apple Event that happened a few months back saw the announcement of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus but they also announced near the end of the event the Apple Watch, the Smart Watch that will compete with the rest in the name of Apple. Apple showed off some of the features that the Apple Watch will be capable of performing.

 

The first thing I would like to talk about is the customization options for the Apple Watch. Apple stressed the fact that you can make the Apple Watch your own personal watch that no one else can have. The customization starts with the size of the screen at 38mm or 42mm. This then leads into the type of alloy that you can get it in, the alloy goes from stainless steel to 18-karat gold. Next is the type of band that goes around the wrist, you can have a more professional looking band or a sports band for whatever you need from the watch. And last is the face of the watch itself, it can be customized to your liking.

 

Other features include: feeling the notifications like messages and being able to respond from the watch itself, you can check e-mails on the watch, you can make calls from the watch, track anything fitness related, you can pay using Apple Pay using your watch, and you can use a vast array of other apps on the watch.

 

The Apple Watch is stated to be released in the early part of 2015 for different prices depending on the version of the watch you decided to purchase. Will this be the best Smart Watch on the market or just a bust waiting to happen?

http://www.apple.com/watch/
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/best-smart-watches-what-s-the-best-wearable-tech-for-you--1154074#articleContent

- Angelo Walker
  Digital Media 2000
  Fall    

Cutting Edge

 

With the news and the release of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, other phone companies are getting overshadowed and their phones are getting little to no recognition. Out of all of the other phone manufacturing companies, the only company that can compete with Apple is Samsung. Earlier this year Samsung released their next sequel to the Galaxy Note family, the Galaxy Note 4. Along with the announcement of the Note 4, Samsung announced another phone that will share the Note family tree. This phone is called the Galaxy Note Edge. This phone has gotten little buzz since its announcement because, essentially, the Note Edge is very similar to the Note 4. They have the same amount of features with the Note Edge having a bit more features. The differences between both phones are the small dimension changes, Note Edge is slimmer for an obvious reason that I will talk about later. Other differences are features like: battery life, screen size, and processor options.

 

The "edge" that the Note Edge has to the Note 4 is the biggest feature difference between both phones. The Note Edge has a curved edge on the right side of the phone that can be used in different ways and can be customized to one's particular liking. The biggest use of the toolbar on the phone are the notifications that appear on it. The toolbar makes it hard for users to not know if they got a new notification from any resource they get notifications from. Since the notifications have been moved to the new toolbar, called the Edge screen, users can focus on the main screen without random interruptions from notifications. Other uses for the Edge screen are: clock/timer application, ruler, light, recorder, and fitness information. As stated above, one can customize this Edge screen to fit them as a person.

 

If users want to get their hands on the Note Edge then they are going to have to wait since the phone has not been released yet and is yet to have a release date. The Note 4 on the other hand is available now. What is your preference, Note Edge or Note 4?

    http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynoteedge/noteedge_design.html

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote4/note4_design.html

- Angelo Walker
  Digital Media 2000
  Fall

The Good, The Bad and The MP3

Long gone are the days of waiting at your favorite Specs or Peaches for the newest record, tape and CD releases. In current times, acquiring your favorite music can be easily done through ITunes, Amazon or illegally through a file sharing site; like bit torrents. The evolution of digital music has made it much more easily accessible for listeners; at the same time making it easier for musicians and non-musicians to create and distribute their work.

The impact this accessibility has had on the quality of music produced is arguable. True audiophiles say the best music is played via vinyl, on a classic turntable, through speakers that utilize glass TWTs, etc. These types of systems allow for a more pure listening experience, to artists that played real instruments. It is my opinion- the knowledge that these artists had of what a listener could and want to hear, required a different level of talent than what is used in the production of music today.

However, as times change so does public opinion and perception of what kind of music is enjoyable to them. New talents have emerged, some good-some bad, that have mastered the capability and advantage of digitally manipulating music. Some of today’s most popular recording artists use beats and loops that were completely created through digital means. These ease at which someone can edit and remix tracks prove most advantageous to their final product. There are also down sides, for example auto-tune, giving non-artists the capability of digitally manipulating music.

Music’s digital convergence to MP3 and WAV has provided that both; many good and many bad artists are given a means to be heard. Unfortunately, the digital evolution has blurred the perceptual line of what is good and bad. Just turn on the radio and listen, you can hear a song and go “alright!” or hear a song and go “WTH is that?”; point being-both are still getting played.

-Chris Moses, DIG2000, Fall

Digital Media Fueling Entrepreneurial Drive

Digital Media Fueling Entrepreneurial Drive

Digital media has become a big part of everyday life for many people.  Some of the people most affected by the growth of digital media are entrepreneurs.  Never before was it so easy to get your name out there or produce digital medium as it is today.  The best part is, the avenues to promote a business or idea keep growing... almost on a daily basis.

  

In the old days, businesses relied on word of mouth.  If you offered a quality product, consumers would in turn tell others about their dealings with your company.  This was great for businesses that have been around forever and already established a name for themselves.  It was a different story for new/emerging companies that offered new products people had never seen.  Getting street cred was a daunting task that many entrepreneurs could not overcome.


Today, it is simple as sitting down at a computer to promote, market and create a new company. Almost 150,000 new businesses open there doors in the United States each year and a lot of the credit for this belongs to digital media.  There are so many different ways it benefits the realization of people's ideas and supports entrepreneurship.

The video below depicts a young boy using different digital media mediums in order to help find his missing iguana.  It showcases just a few ways to get peoples attention in a digital format.  Imagine the boy being the entrepreneur, the people being their customers and the recovered iguana to represent the sale of their product.  It's a cool way of seeing how easy it is to reach out to people in order to serve a purpose. 

People are always looking for the newest things on the market and digital media has provided a path for entrepreneurs to get their products out there in the consumer's grasp. Many of us don't realize how much digital media has an impact on businesses.  Being successful is all about chasing your dreams and it's never been so easy to make them a reality as it is now.  That being said, it's not all fun and games when it comes to opening up a new/cutting edge business.  We will touch on that topic in my next blog post.  




Chris Ouimette
Digital Media 2000
Fall 2014

Should digital video replace traditional photo chemical film? By Devan Meeder

Avatar was Filmed With Digital Camera 

For most of the 20th Century,  movies were filmed using photo chemical film, but digital film arrived n the early 2000's and which became the more popular choice, and it’s now tipped to completely take over from traditional film. So should photo chemical film be discontinued? Well lets go over some of the pros why digital is superior over film. Digital allows anybody to be a filmmaker. Using traditional Photo chemical you have to change rolls or canisters of film every 8 minutes, which can add big costs. With digital you can film for hours with a memory card. Since its takes 8 minutes replace a film it also causes an inconvenience for actors since they would have to wait, With digital you film as long as you want. Digital Cameras can also be made in shapes and sizes allowing for more film possibility's and easier to take complected shots, photo chemical film cameras have big, bulky sizes which is will limit how they shoot a movie. Also Digital Film is always improving technology with 8k coming out in the future, Photochemical film can no longer be improved upon.

Christoper Nolan's Interstellar was filmed using Photo Chemical

However, even with all this pros that digital has over photo chemical, I still think photo chemical should still be around for the foreseeable future. Photo chemical film still has very unique look, that digital film cannot yet capture, Film director Christoper Nolan says film looks like a paint brush painting while digital film looks like a crayon painting. Its also more reliable way to archive a film, Since digital would be stored on a hard drive, hard drives could eventually fail. However having a film on Photo chemical can last forever with proper archival techniques.

Overall I think Digital and Photo chemical film can co-exist. While they both have pros and cons, they are both equally important for the movie industry.

If you want to know more information on Digtal Film and Photo Chemical Film, I recommend the movie side by side here is trailer to the movie. 

A Passion Overlooked by V. Nguyen

If you get to know me, you’ll realize that I’m very imaginative and creative.  My mind is always traversing worlds you couldn’t even fathom.  Yet, I was stuck in a mundane, mediocre reality.  Like many I’ve given up on my dreams one too many times.  The voice of self doubt is a force so great that it takes fortunate people years to overcome while most never do.  The ones that ignore their calling and take no action continue on with a stagnant life void of realizing their true potential.  To me, that’s a life of despair.

This new journey that I’m on is one I’ve dreamt of for many years.  Constantly beckoning me to take action, this “thing” in the back of my mind simply wouldn’t let me be content.  The voice that comes from it is one that continuously reverberate these words, “fulfill your destiny” in my mind even as I sleep.   Now, you may think I’m crazy, but I assure you, wait, who exactly is perfectly sane? 

Throughout life, many signs pointed me towards Digital Media as the keeper of the key to a brilliant future; one of creative freedom and personal success.  But, I was confused as to where to start.  Fortunately, after a series of events, I decided to pursue Web Design.  My first course in Web Design introduced me to a new culture, new ways of thinking, and a mystic language.

As I take you along on this voyage, you'll meet characters in this story of life that have made an impact in reality far greater than you've imagined.  The photo of the man below is that of a person that's nothing short of incredible.  The people of this world should be thankful for his contribution and generosity; as a matter of fact, I think we should have a universal holiday in his name, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web.  

Not only did he invent the internet, but he made it available for all people.  Did you know that the internet was originally created to be used by institutions such as universities and the military to transfer data?

Can you imagine a world without the internet, and the only people that can use it are those that work for select institutions?  I wonder how different our world would be had the internet not been made available to all people.  Speaking of all people, did you know when creating a website, a designer must ensure that the site is accessible.  It means that a site is usable even by people with disabilities.

A lot goes into the creation of a website just as much thought goes into the development of a building.  Once you’ve laid the foundation and built your structure (HTML), you have to make it look nice to attract people to come “pay a visit.”  That’s where Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) comes in.  They’re like the interior decorators that make homes beautiful. 

Most people know about HTML, but more than likely have never heard of CSS.  The majority of your time in Web Design I is spent learning about CSS because it makes creating websites more efficient and effective.  But, to use CSS properly you have to learn a bit about color and design theory.  Isn’t it fascinating how everything relates to art?  Now, imagine a world without art.  It’s impossible to do.

Here's a site that I created for my extra credit project.  The instructions were rather simple, but knowing me I had to complicate myself.  But, I like the challenge.  I wasn't quite sure how to create a three column site, and had told the instructor that I'd learn how to do it by next semester.  It bothered me to no end as I just had to know how to design a three column page.  The end result?  This.

http://aziaelion.byethost8.com/

All that was required of that project was two pictures one of the lead actor and one of the lead actress, a picture of a favorite scene, a synopsis, and contrasting colors for two areas of the page.  Quite simple, right?  Simple isn't really in my vocabulary, haha!  By the way, it took half a day to code that one page.  Another goal in creating it was to design a page different from any of my other projects.

If you're into Web Design, don't think, just do!

Twitter: @aziaelion

video games are awesome! By: Devan B.

There is so many reasons why video games are awesome in todays world. The technology we posses is making gaming all the more greater. The reasons people love games though is its stress relieving, fun with friends, and a nice way to be competitive with other people.
The reason why games are so stress relieving is simply cause it allows the person under stress to be alone and have quality time to themselves and are able to for example go around and live a fantasy in a rpg. This is also fun with friends, I have many experiences of just relaxing and playing halo with some of my best bros over the internet. This allows use to compete and have fun from the comforts of our own homes and at the same time have a fun time together! Then there's those days where you want to feel like your on top of the world, the alpha dog. So you go online and compete against other players to see who's the best skilled gamer on the internet! There's so many reasons why gaming is fun and stress relieving but these are simple basics to why gaming is the ultimate fun with technology.
By

POSTED BY:  Dr. Dunnivant
Given the lag I'll post the topic for Blocks 1&2:  So here's our first little topic I'm going to ask you to reply to:

Wearable technology is rapidly developing into a lucrative market.  But, some say this will be a very temporary window given the advancements in embedded bio-devices.  See the article below, and project what you think will be the year that the majority of citizens in developed conuntries will choose to "host" such devices in their bodies.  Comment on your own feelings, and the impact on the digital media profession.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/tech/forget-wearable-tech-embeddable-implants/

Hey Class!

Just checking things out and making sure I dot my i's and cross my t's ;)

~Megan Burleson

 Shark In LAKE ONTARIO!!!  Viral marketing video causes a stir.

     A video of the Lake Ontario "shark" was posted July 10, 2014 on YouTube and had gone viral with more than 500,000 views three days later. The one thing that wasn't expected was how quickly the video went viral in Canada. The hoax video that caused real-world consternation the second week of July, demonstrates the attention-grabbing risks marketers are taking in an increasingly media-fractured universe. Six days after the Youtube video surfaced that frightened some lake users and sparked safety concerns on the lake, ultimately reached the Ontario legislature — that Discovery Canada admitted the finned creature was a life-like model.
      Discovery Canada President said the idea was to create some buzz for an upcoming TV show on Discovery called Shark Week. There was no intent to cause terror or from having people not enter the lake. Once the team realized the panic had set in, Discovery wanted to to come clean on the marketing effort they had setup with Nissan and calm everyone's fear. The shark in the video was an actual model and not a real live shark.
     What’s clear, experts say, is that Discovery’s shark campaign did reach part of advertising’s holy grail: awareness spread via social-media sharing and water-cooler chat — in this case about the possibility or improbability of sharks in the lake. So in this case the marketing grouped engineered a viral video, that ended up provoking anger and upset people, which was not the intent of the marketing group.Which led them to come clean about the video, before any more harm was done or the negativity came back and hurt the Discovery brand. Marketers and advertisers will keep pushing the limits to try to make people sit up and take notice, but in this case it took a wrong turn and Discovery had to step in.

Press Release by Bell Media out of Canada confirms video is a Hoax. Promo for Nissan and Discovery Channel Shark Week coming in August. (Press Release)

~Brandon S.

There is an app for that..

 Let us continue on with Facebook as medium for advertising, creating leads and building a business via a social networking site. You will see some people posting on their personal time line about their business.

This can be a double edged sword in terms of the outcome; some people might feel like you are spamming them and unfriend or block your posts. A more creative and less in your face way would be to post things that are helpful to the person as it pertains to your profession.

 Example if you were a computer repair business you could give a daily tip on how they could keep their computer from being slowed down by malware etc.

 Posting funny and positive quotes, captions and pictures is also a good way to build goodwill with your FB friends. Three to five posts a day is good as long as they are spread throughout the day.

Best times for posting would be in the morning when people will be getting online to check email and FB before starting their day, lunchtime again for those who do not have access during work time and again in the evening. Latest demo graphs are showing that many posts are being done and seen between 9-11pm.

This may seem like a lot of work or time consumption to post this often to be seen as often as needed to be remembered for your expertise. Well my dear fellow digital media experts have no fear as there is an app for that, several actually.

Post planner, Hoote Suite and Buffer are some of the more popular apps for this task. These apps let choose what day and time you want a post to go out. You simply load up your content and the app will automatically post it for you. You can still make other post throughout the day if you wish.

This method of creating leads should be about 20% business posts with the 80% being the other humorous, positive quotes and content.

Marty Kreslin

#cgs20269

 I have a short discussion on SoundCloud,  about why I started back into college,  and my idea of my brand called "Got Ride?" https://soundcloud.com/jason-a-kennedy/got-ride-sound-blog

 

 

 

FaceBook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Got-Ride/318296094908318?ref_type=bookmark

 

 

 

Author: Jason Kennedy

facebook for business

Undoubtedly Facebook has change the way advertising and lead generations being done today.

FB has very easy to use interface for creating ads. They have several different pathways for solutions to get you targeted customers for your demographic.

Your first decision will to be to decide what you want face book to for you. You must start by choosing if you want page post engagement, page likes, clicks to website, website conversions, app installs, app engagement, event responses, offer claims or video views. Most people want to drive traffic to a website.

 FB gives you the option of loading up six different pictures for split testing which picture converts into clicks. Your headline can be up to 25 characters long and the text can be no longer than 90 characters. Advanced options include news feed link and that can be up to 200 characters.

You are given a choice of different call to action buttons for the click through. Now this is where you can really dial in your customers. The audience section allows you to choose location by, country, state,/province, city or zip. You could just target Lynn Haven FL by using 32444.

You can choose your age group starting at 13 on up, gender can be male, female or both.  You have the option to choose which language your ads are in. Dialing down even deeper you can choose from education in terms of level, fields of study, schools undergrad years.

 In terms of jobs you can select from job titles such as Digital Media Professor, industries, office type. Financial allows you choose from income and net worth.  There are more categories you can select to refine your search such as home, ethnic affinity, generation, parents, and politics along with life events. This is just scratching the surface of how specific you can get with your audience search.

 As you build out your audience search FB has a cool widget that that shows you how defined your audience is and the number of people in that reach you have.

Next time we will be exploring more of successful Facebook advertising in the next post as we delve deeper in demographics and time parting.

 

Marty Kreslin

#cgs2069

I learned about Likeable Media (a social media marketing company) when I read and reviewed “Likeable Social Media” for class. Dave Kerpen, the author of the book, is also the co-founder (with his wife Caroline) of the company. Likeable Media is a social media and word-of-mouth marketing firm with triple digit profits for four straight years. Likeable Media was named in a list of fastest growing private companies in the United States. The company employs about sixty people and in 2013, Likeable Media was named one of the best places to work in New York City.

Their mission is to use the tools in social media and word-of-mouth to create more likeable organizations. The company’s strategy is to listen to consumers to determine where a brand stands and how to make it better. They have tried and true techniques that help engage a client’s audience and use advertising to build that audience up. They monitor consumers through social media to control potential crisis before it happens and use data driven analysis to improve presence in the digital world.

They’ve received several awards for their work over the last few years. They were named one of Facebook's top 90 preferred developer consultants, and Likeable Media is also the only company to win three awards from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Their work has been featured on CNBC's "On the Money," ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, BBC World News, and the New York Times.

 --Scott Ingle

GPS Tagged Great White Shark Appears in Northern Gulf Of Mexico Katherine tagged off Cape Cod and being released back into Atlantic Ocean. Photo courtesy of Ocearch.org.            A 14-foot, nearly 2,500 lbs, great white shark has made an appearance in the northern Gulf of Mexico, 100 miles south of Panama City, Florida and has gone viral on social media. The Great White Shark Katharine, who was tagged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was named by Cat Products fans in honor of Katharine Lee Bates, a Cape Cod native and songwriter - best known for her poem and song "America The Beautiful". She was tagged and released last fall by a group of researchers working with Ocearch.      OCEARCH is a non-profit organization with a global reach for unprecedented research on great white sharks and other large apex predators. In a collaborative environment established by Founding Chairman and Expedition Leader Chris Fischer, OCEARCH enables leading researchers and institutions to generate previously unattainable data on the movement, biology and health of sharks to protect their future while enhancing public safety and education. The advancement of technology has allowed scientists to place long term GPS tracking devices on the dorsal fins of the sharks. Not only do the sharks get tracked, but scientist gather blood samples, check tissue and the health of the shark in the 15 minutes while the shark is out of the water. Extreme care and safety it taken when the shark is bought up out of the water onto a ramp alongside of large vessel so not to harm or kill the shark.         After being tagged in Cape Cod on August 19, 2013, the young Katharine slowly made her way south down the Eastern seaboard coming as close as 12 miles off the Northeast Florida shoreline in about 4-6 months. News reports indicated she had her eyes set on Texas, but Ocearch’s founder told ABC News he doesn't think that’s going to happen. Ocearch’s founder says that if she doesn’t return to Cape Cod this summer, it might mean she’s pregnant. It's appear from Katharine's track, she's feeding on game and reef fish around the Florida Keys and likely just off of Port St. Joe, where she's been circling for a few a days, roughly 100 miles southwest of Port St. Joe.       Chris Fischer of Ocearch has taken the shark tracking to social media, and its been a huge hit. The last week of June, the web site Ocearch.org took roughly 5 million hits a day and on Facebook, nearly 40 million in one week. Katharine is on Twitter (of course). Her handle is Shark_Katharine. On Twitter, one person noted her notoriety, saying Katharine is like the underwater Kim Kardashian.       What I found great about the twitter is the interaction between the people. The hash tag #ReplaceFearwithfacts has been a huge success and for two days around the beginning of July, was a leading item on twitter. Not sure who actually runs the twitter pages, but they are affiliated with the research group and give some clever response to people who tweet to that shark, in this case Katharine. I encourage you to head over to twitter and ask a question and see what kind of reply you can get.           Track Katharine at Ocearch.org with near real time updates on her location. Become her Facebook fan at Facebook.com/OCEARCH. Twitter interaction can be found at @Shark_Katharine (Katharine The Shark). She also has a blog, They Call Me Kat - Misunderstood girl just tryin' to get some fish.  Brandon S.

5 Tips For Improving Your Blog Traffic

Are you envious of those blogs that seem to have thousands of readers and subscribers and who are getting the attention of major sponsors? Set aside your envy and pay careful attention.

Here’s what the big blogs do to grow their blog and how you can too:

Guest blog.  Guest blogging is a great way to build awareness of you and your blog and it generates incoming links to your blog. This in turn generates traffic.  

Post consistently and post often.  The biggest blogs post every single day.  Why is this such a great strategy?  Their readers create a habit of visiting their blog every day. This is huge.  Imagine your traffic if every single new person who visited your blog came back every single day?  Even having them visit once a week would be a dramatic increase.  Not to mention the fact that you’re climbing the search engine results with every blog post.  A wealth of content means value to your readers. 

Give your readers what they want.  Do you receive the most comments and visits for your controversial posts?  What about lists?  Reviews?  What posts are the most popular?  Analyze the engagement from your readers, your traffic stats and even do a poll.  Find out, pay attention and give your readers what they want. 

Make it easy for readers to follow you.  Make sure you make it easy for others to share you on social media but don't forget about social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. 

Establish your credibility and authority. This is done by writing and providing valuable, benefit driven, and informative content.  There is no other way.  Once you become a go to expert, your blogging audience will grow both by word of mouth and by recognition. 

Keep your blogging efforts consistent and you will see an increase in your traffic. 

Adam Siler

Selling Other People's Stuff - The Basics of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is simply selling other people's stuff online for a commission.  The "stuff" could be digital such as an e-book or a training course or it could be physical products like lawn mowers and televisions. 

Becoming an affiliate marketer is often a great way to earn a little (or a lot) of money.  You can sprinkle it in to what you are already doing online or if you aren't doing something online already,  it is a simple way to get started.  If you are currently selling products or services online, you will want to consider adding your own affiliate program as a form marketing.  

Your tasks as an affiliate marketer will be to drum up traffic to your affiliate links.  When your specially coded affiliate link is clicked and in turn a customer buys--you get a commission.  It is that simple.

There are many things you can promote as an affiliate. On Amazon.com or ShareASale.com, for instance, you can promote anything tangible (and a few digital download to boot).  If you want to be in the paintball niche, you can sell specific paintball guns, paintballs, and clothing.

You can go to sites like e-junkie.com or ClickBank.com and get a unique affiliate ID to promote an endless supply of information products (digital download). They house everything from scrapbooking to lifting weights.

You can even become an affiliate promoting actions.  There are many Internet marketers who focus their business on getting a steady stream of traffic to take an action, such as filling out a survey online.

Another form of action affiliate marketing is getting paid per click for someone to click a banner advertisement on the site.  The commissions are lower but you get paid for them clicking for more information rather than having to close a sale.  Popular pay per click providers are Google Adsense and Chitka.

            How much can an affiliate marketer earn? There are no limits.

You can market multiple niches and work as much or as little as you want to generate targeted traffic through your links.  Super affiliates earn six figures or more, but even a beginner affiliate can earn enough to pay the bills each month – with some change to spare!  Not bad for just sharing special links to other people's stuff or allowing others to sell your stuff for a commission.

Oh....and yes!   The links in this blog post are affiliate links!

Adam Siler

PS - Here are 15 Surefire Ways to Help Your Affiliate Income in an Affiliate Training Guide just for you.   Click here to get you complimentary guide today. 

SMM Metrics

       

         Social Media is forever evolving and continues to attract more and more users daily. Fully aware of this growth, companies have taken advantage of this medium as an opportunity to reach consumers and market their product. Some companies have boasted great success, while others have suffered obvious failures. The problem with both reports, success and failure, is how these companies make the determination that their effort achieved those results.

          The ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to increase profit through making consumers aware of their product. In SMM there are several metrics used to gauge whether a consumer is aware of your brand; but, do these same metrics gauge whether or not these same consumers are buying your product (ROI). For example, is an extremely high click through rate really increasing profit margins by a relative percentage? Most companies do not release their marketing spending amounts; this makes it difficult for third parties to challenge the true effectiveness of SMM campaigns.

                         (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-metrics-ceos-cares-about)

           Overall profits are important when claiming success through SMM; sure, 1 million shared posts or your product is great achievement; but, doesn’t amount to much if you didn’t make a substantial gain. Tracking comments is a better way of receiving and measuring consumer feedback, but a company must take into consideration the number of people who are “closet commenters”. Those are the people who comment from the shield of the internet but who would never publicly say the same thing or buy the same product. Both of these metrics can also be inflated and difficult to truly measure; using paid visitors or ‘bots’ to increase your likes can through off your own figures.

         SMM metrics are forever evolving and marketers will continue to create new metrics to find success in any part of their campaign. This factor can also lead to inaccuracy when attempting to validate success through real numbers. A suggested simple metric would be to make a direct factual relationship of your Social Media presence to your profit; you have 1,000 site visits, you sold 1,000 products.

 –Chris Moses ,25 Jun 2014

Small Business Success Stories

                Social media marketing is a battleground. In this grand arena, the playing field is fairly leveled. A small business is able to create a Twitter account and a Facebook page just as easily as a monolithic corporation. Even the paid advertising services of both media outlets are a fraction of the cost of a televised or print ad. There are many success stories of small business using social media to explode their business, but what is it makes them successful?

               Emerson Salon out of Seattle was created in 2008 by some savvy entrepreneurs that decided to use the internet as part of their business model By 2010, 75% of their business could be attributed to Facebook, Twitter, and a public blog. According to co-owner Matt Buchan, “it's rare for even a walk-in customer to come in and not have read our blog or seen our tweets.” Their website promotes their Facebook and Twitter pages, and upon successfully booking an appointment(emersonsalon.com), a user can share the details of said appointment on their own Facebook page. According to Mashable.com, “Since introducing social media into the mix, traffic to their (Emerson Salon) website has more than tripled.” Their Facebook page is a bit defunct now, but looking at their previous posts, they were involved in the community and posted good content.

                The organic dessert company Coconut Bliss is another example of using Twitter to engage fans.  This Eugene, Oregon business has about 14k followers (up from 7,200 in 2012 when the article I was reading was written), and they provide a ton of content on Twitter. They also hold a lot of contests, and partner up with other companies. According to the socialmediaexaminer.com, the 3 key steps that Coconut Bliss did that made them successful were:

           “1. Invest in a decent camera and learn how to take captivating pictures.

            2. Integrate photos across all of your social platforms.

            3. Make strategic use of contests and partnerships to grow your fan base.”

They also provide unique content for each social media platform. I checked out the Facebook (19k likes) and Twitter pages and I'm not surprised customers flock to them. They use great photos, and interact with the public very well.
There are many companies with fascinating success stories. It's inspiring, it makes me want to create a business just to see how I could market it using social media.



Josh Eldridge 6/23/2014
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-small-business-social-media-success-stories/

http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/small-business-social-media-success-stories/

Likeable Social Media | Book Review

The author is the co-founder, along with his wife Carrie, of Likeable Media. Likeable Media is a social media marketing firm based in New York City. The book is an easy read. 256 pages broken down in 18 chapters. Each chapter title quickly states instructions of how to create likeable social media and further reading teaches how to produce successful social media strategies. This book also gives examples different companies took and the success and failures they experienced in social media.

Basically, the general theme of this book is to listen your fan base and customers, to get an idea of what their interests are and what they are looking for, and basically doing the things that will make you likable.

So far I’ve enjoyed reading this book. I’ve found it does a good job providing the basics that has helped me get a better understanding of social media. I also enjoy how the author talks about how to deal with negative comments. There is a whole section on handling negative comments instead of ignoring or deleting them as some other company’s do. The author does a good job allowing the reader to view social media through the eye of the consumer.

-- Scott Ingle