Online Reputation

I can’t even tell you how many times I've been talking with my mom or best friend and told them some piece of news from one of our mutual friends, to which they respond “Oh, really? How did you find out?”, and every single time the answer is Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. Every single time. And this happens on a very regular basis- at least weekly. Social media is how information is spread these days, and our social media profiles can say a lot about who we are and what we believe as an individual. Our social media profiles build an online reputation for us, and sometimes we don’t even realize what that reputation is. For this assignment each member of my class was given another member of the class to research online and discover their online reputation. We were told to find all the information that we could about that person, discover trends, and notice patterns. I have been assigned to research Derek Misener, and have been discovering his online reputation over the past few days. 

One of the first things that I noticed about Derek is that he loves his family. The first place I checked was his Facebook profile, which I was limited in what I was able to see because we aren’t friends, but I was able to see some of his pictures, almost all of which included his wife and/or daughter.  Derek also has his relationship status updated to reflect that he is married. Twitter was another platform that I searched for Derek on and also found evidence of his love for his family. Below is a picture of his Twitter bio:

Derek obviously cares about his family a lot, by putting that he is a “husband” and “proud father” he is publicly saying what matters most to him and wants everyone else to know that he loves his wife and daughter. 

Another trend that I noticed was Derek’s love for USU sports. This was mostly prevalent on his Twitter account, where he tweeted his support of USU’s athletic events, and pictures of him and his wife and daughter getting ready to go to various events. Here are some examples:

Derek shows a genuine interest in USU sports, and doesn't seem like a bandwagon fan that just gets interested when the team is doing well. He encourages other students to support the sports teams as well, and has his whole family involved in supporting the University. 

A final thing that I found is that Derek is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS or Mormon church. One specific post that I found was an article that he had shared on his Facebook profile which reflected the Mormon church’s views and attitudes towards homosexuality. Homosexuality and gay marriage are very controversial topics that many people avoid talking about, especially when religion is brought into the conversation. Derek posting this article shows that he really believes his religion and supports their stance on the matter of homosexuality. 

Social media and the internet can tell a lot about a person, whether we like it or not. Once something has been posted to the internet it is very difficult, if not impossible, to erase it. Because of this we need to be aware of the things we are posting and the reputation we are building. 

Ethics

Social media is a relatively new, yet increasingly prevalent, part of our world. As a result of social media being a newer part of the world there are often issues that arise with it in terms of what exactly is legal and ethical. There are many little things that people aren’t aware of that are technically illegal and unethical. In recent years legal matters involving social media have become more regulated by things like businesses creating specific policies involving social media. These policies dictate what employees are and aren’t allowed to post on social media platforms in regards to their employer and protect companies from confidentiality breeches and other similar issues. Policies of this nature can be difficult to write because it is hard to know where to draw the line; are you being too controlling or not specific enough? One recommendation I found was to keep it simple by merely asking your employees to be professional and trusting that they will use their discretion to post appropriately. In my opinion this is the best route to follow; it is understandable why social media policies are necessary, but making them too restrictive could be frustrating to employees. if you hired an employee then you obviously think highly enough and trust them enough to work for your business, display that trust by creating a simple yet effective policy. 

Forbes created a list that they titled the “5 deadly Sins of Social Media”, which included ethical issues such as unreported endorsements, improper anonymity, compromising customer privacy, overly enthusiastic employees, and using the online community to get free work. These aren’t the only issues to arise within businesses involving social media, but they are certainly some of the most common.  

Many of these issues are specifically geared toward businesses and how they can stay safe from legal and ethical issues, but there are similar issues among individuals too. It is difficult to always know what is legal and ethical, but educating yourself and being skeptical can help. Before reposting or sharing information ensure that it is accurate, and inform others when you know that the information that they have shared on various social media platforms is incorrect. Once we put something on the Internet there is really no way of permanently deleting it; be cautious with what you post.

Sources:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2011/11/03/ethics-and-the-5-deadly-sins-of-social-media/

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/ethics-and-social-media-where-should-you-draw-the-line/

Skype

Skype is a calling platform that allows people to communicate via wifi from essentially anywhere. I have personally had a lot of success using skype; I have family that lives in Hong Kong and Skype is a platform that allows for us to easily communicate, regardless of the type of device we choose to use. For example, I will call my aunt using my HP laptop and she can answer using her iPad. There are many types of video calling platforms available now, so what are the pros and cons of using Skype?

Pros:

Skype is a free platform because it operates over WiFi and, like I mentioned earlier, you can use to to communicate with people regardless of their location. There is also the option to video call or simply voice call, offering a level of versatility. Skype allows for you to screen share with the person you are communicating with, which can be highly beneficial for collaborative projects. If you’re having a business meeting with people from across the globe, screen sharing can be used to present a power point presentation or other visual aid.

Cons:

Skype is entirely reliant on internet connection, which is beneficial in the way that it allows it to be a free platform, but if the connection is poor it makes using Skype rather frustrating and annoying. Skype lacks any form of language translation and many other tools that would be beneficial for small businesses. Beyond screen sharing there aren’t any tools to help in business collaboration, while many other platforms of this variety offer finance and accounting tools. The sound quality of calls is not always the best, and decreases even more when a video camera is in use.

Skype obviously has it’s drawbacks, but from my experience it works well for personal communication. Most of the problems people run into are in regards to business usage, but overall Skype is a platform that I have enjoyed using.

Sources:

http://www.techjaws.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-skype/

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-Skype

Location Based

Location based social media isn't something that I think about very often, but I actually use it a lot more than I realized. There are services like yelp or Google places that provide reviews of different businesses and are usually one of the first links to pop up when you do a Google search of a business. Suffice it to say, location based social media is extremely useful and relevant in our world. Two of the most popular platforms within this realm are Yelp and Foursquare; the following links will help us compare and contrast the two:

http://marketingland.com/yelp-versus-foursquare-got-78227

http://readwrite.com/2013/04/22/5-reasons-foursquare-lost-the-social-local-mobile-revolution

The first link points out the pros and cons for each platform. Yelp has over 53 million reviews posted on their page, thus offering a large variety of opinions for people to look over. Yelp reviews also appear on the first page of a Google search, which increases the traffic to their site and the amount of reviews/opinions people are offering. On the flip side though, Yelp is also known for pressuring businesses into using their services. The reviews left for businesses also require a longer form, while Foursquare encourages short, sentence long reviews. Another great thing about Foursquare is that it encourages users to connect with each other, though it is harder to find a Foursquare review through an organic search. 

The second link points out that Yelp makes it much easier to find what they are looking for and filter to meet their needs than Foursquare does. While Foursquare is useful it's business intent isn't always clear. Another difference between the two is that Foursquare will inform you that people you know and our friends with recommend the place, while Yelp informs you about anyone who's posted. Neither are necessarily better, just different. 

Both of these platforms are incredibly useful, I have definitely benefited from them and think that they are an very important part of social media.