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Please enjoy my first attempt at making a web video!
The creative idea behind this video is just a peek at what great pets you can adopt from the humane society as opposed to supporting pet shops which are known to use horrible puppy mills. These animals really need homes and the love and care of a good owner and home. This video hopes to motivate people who are looking for a new pet to adopt from their local humane society and change the life of an animal for the better.
I used Jumpcut to make this video. Also I shot some of the photos of the animals at the Houston Humane Society and the others were obtained online. The song used in this video is Paramore's cover of "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
SMO!
I just came across this great presentation on maximizing your blog's exposure.
I found it interesting as to how SMO (Social Media Optimization) is now coined as a legitimate term in the industry. The term was invented by Rohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy PR Worldwide. His 5 rules for SMO are:
1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content travel
5. Encourage the mashup
6. Get communities connected
"This presentation, originally given at the SixApart Business Blogging Seminar in November, 2006 offers ideas for using the emerging concept of SMO to market and promote your blog."
I found it interesting as to how SMO (Social Media Optimization) is now coined as a legitimate term in the industry. The term was invented by Rohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy PR Worldwide. His 5 rules for SMO are:
1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content travel
5. Encourage the mashup
6. Get communities connected
Post Election Facebook Status Updates
This past Tuesday marked a historical moment in all of American history. Senator Barack Obama won the race for the 2008 President Elect position. Chances are if you took a peek at your Facebook friends' status updates post election you may have encountered some surprising responses. I know in my news feed I saw a number of anti-Obama comments like "oh no, the socialist won - time to move to Canada or Europe" and that's no where near the worst of it.
We've been discussing the campaigns, the candidates, and the election in every one of our classes to the point that many of us are tired of hearing about it but people are still going to have things to say. Facebook is a place where people know they can sound off. I do feel as though everyone should have the right to voice their opinions whether it be via their Facebook or elsewhere. I found this editorial on Jezebel which brings up some interesting points on the aftermath of post election facebook status updates.
Status updates, the Facebook method of broadcasting one's thoughts or mood out to the world, became filled with hateful rhetoric, putting some Facebook users in an incredibly awkward position: "Do I de-friend this person?" "Do I engage this person?" And perhaps the most puzzling question of all, "How did I become friends with this person in the first place?"So what's a Facebook friend to do? If you really feel so inclined to de-friend someone because their political views may not match up to yours, then do so. But if not, just realize that all social media is an open forum for people of all different ways of thinking to interact and join in on the conversation, especially of such important issues as our next President.- hortense of Jezebel
Friday, November 7, 2008
Xbox to Blame for Boy's Death
In one of my latest blog entries, I talked about social media addictions amongst young people. This entry will be a continuation of that general topic.
It was just released that a young boy was found dead in Canada as a result of not being able to play his Xbox. This is yet another example of how social media is becoming so addicting to the young people of generation z/c that very negative things are happening.
15 year old boy, Brandon Crisp, ran away from home on October 14th because his dad took away his XBox. He had been addicted to and obsessed with playing the online game Call of Duty 4. What's really interesting is that once Microsoft, Xbox creators, heard of Crisp missing; they offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who could find him. Sadly, his body was found Wednesday by hunters.
In an interview with the media, Brandon's dad admitted that he had no idea how important this game console was and that he would react in such a way.
It was just released that a young boy was found dead in Canada as a result of not being able to play his Xbox. This is yet another example of how social media is becoming so addicting to the young people of generation z/c that very negative things are happening.
15 year old boy, Brandon Crisp, ran away from home on October 14th because his dad took away his XBox. He had been addicted to and obsessed with playing the online game Call of Duty 4. What's really interesting is that once Microsoft, Xbox creators, heard of Crisp missing; they offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who could find him. Sadly, his body was found Wednesday by hunters.
In an interview with the media, Brandon's dad admitted that he had no idea how important this game console was and that he would react in such a way.
"This had become his identity, and I didn't realize how in-depth this was until I took his Xbox away," Mr Crisp told the Globe and Mail. "That's like cutting his legs off."
"This is such an issue that hits every parent out there, with video games that are starting to control our kids' lives," he said.
"I just took away his identity, so I can understand why he got so mad and took off. Before, I couldn't understand why he was taking off for taking his game away."
I was doing a little MySpace snooping while researching this story and I found this MySpace page entitled "RIP - Brandon Crisp". It's disturbing because it is mimicking the child's death. It was found that Crisp likely froze to death and the MySpace page is decorated with a layout that has falling snowflakes and its latest mood is set to "cold". The "about me" section reads: Brandon Crisp was a xbox player who loved to play "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," and when his parents decided to take his Xbox , Brandon was just following his dad's orders when he was told to "go chill out."
It is VERY disturbing that this MySpace page was just created today, November 7th. I speculate that it was made by one of Crisp's peers and fellow Xbox players. The page also has an active chatroom embedded into it which has many young users participating. After observing the chat for awhile I saw comments like "I played with Brandon. He didn't deserve to die like that," as well as other general discussions about parents taking away xbox consoles and playing Call of Duty. The MySpace page also has disturbing photos like the one posted below of Brandon being photoshopped.
I think this page should be taken down immediately by MySpace. It's horrible that someone is out there making a total mockery of this poor kid's death. This page is so inappropriate and so disrespectful to the boy and his family. It's really unfortunate that parents are not paying sufficient attention to how obsessed their children are becoming with such social media as online gaming. Like Autumn Eadows, Brandon Crisp formed an identity online. He had somewhere to go and feel as though he belonged and when that was taken away from him he decided to take matters into his own hands. These type of addictions are becoming more prevelent amongst young people. It's important that parents begin to closely monitor their children's usage and not let them become out of touch with reality.
11-8-08 Update: http://www.myspace.com/ripbrandoncrisp has since been deleted by MySpace.
"In the east of Canada, born and raised, On the Xbox was where I spent most of my days. Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' with the door locked, All shootin' some Iraqis in CoD4.
When a couple of parents who were up to no good, Started making trouble up in ma hood. We got in one little fight and my mom got scared, She said, "We're movin' your Xbox 360 downstairs!"
I begged and pleaded with her for a day, But she packed up the console and sent me on my way. With no Iraqis to kill and no clan wars ma' guild, I left the house and said, "Imma' die irl."
I looked for my bike and when I came near, The tire was flat and it was missing a gear. If anything I could say that this bike was rare, But I thought, "Nah forget it" - "Yo homes get out of there!"
I pulled up to the road over 9000 or 8, And I yelled to my 'rents, "Yo hommes, smell ya later!" I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there... To die in the field, as the Prince of CoD4."
It is VERY disturbing that this MySpace page was just created today, November 7th. I speculate that it was made by one of Crisp's peers and fellow Xbox players. The page also has an active chatroom embedded into it which has many young users participating. After observing the chat for awhile I saw comments like "I played with Brandon. He didn't deserve to die like that," as well as other general discussions about parents taking away xbox consoles and playing Call of Duty. The MySpace page also has disturbing photos like the one posted below of Brandon being photoshopped.
I think this page should be taken down immediately by MySpace. It's horrible that someone is out there making a total mockery of this poor kid's death. This page is so inappropriate and so disrespectful to the boy and his family. It's really unfortunate that parents are not paying sufficient attention to how obsessed their children are becoming with such social media as online gaming. Like Autumn Eadows, Brandon Crisp formed an identity online. He had somewhere to go and feel as though he belonged and when that was taken away from him he decided to take matters into his own hands. These type of addictions are becoming more prevelent amongst young people. It's important that parents begin to closely monitor their children's usage and not let them become out of touch with reality.
11-8-08 Update: http://www.myspace.com/ripbrandoncrisp has since been deleted by MySpace.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Hulu Hits High Numbers
The free video sharing website, Hulu, has prooved to be a big social media success. Hulu was launched just over a year ago, in August 2007. Neilson Online has reported that the website had over 142 streams in the month of September, it's highest numbers yet.
Hulu not only lets you watch free movies and tv shows, but also has kept up with Election 08' footage. Obama's acceptance speech and McCain's concession speech were posted immediately after the live delivery, courtesy of MSNBC. Hulu also provided much of the debates and other commentary in their coverage.
Hulu is supported by advertisements which media buyers are definitely paying attention to. Web TV Wire reports that currently 93% of Hulu users are content with the amount of advertising they see while using the website. This is good news for Hulu now, but the number of ads will surely continue to increase. I surely hope it's not a matter of time before ads take over this website, too.
Websites like Hulu are changing the way we watch entertainment. Along with other media devices such as digital video recorders, which allow us to record programs on television and watch them later, as well as give us the ability to fast forward through advertisements, social media is changing everything. You don't even need to own a television set to "watch tv" anymore. If you have a computer, a high speed Internet connection, and a good screen and speakers.. you are good to go.
I have to say that I absolutely love Hulu. It's great to be able to watch entire seasons of shows and movies that I haven't seen yet at no cost to me. The advertisements don't bother me at this point, but like I said earlier, I hope they don't increase too badly as the website begins to become more and more popular.
Do you think a website like Hulu can ever hit YouTube status?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Social Media Addictions
It was just released this morning that an 18 year old, Terry Gene Starnes, from Hayden, Idaho, was arrested last week for stabbing his own mother. The cause for this stabbing? She would not let her son get on MySpace!
Terry's MySpace page headline reads: "School work sleep!!!!! that's it!!!!".. and MySpace, of course.
Social media addictions amongst young people, Generation Z, are continuing to become more and more apparent. Ask any 13 - 18 year old to live without Internet access or texting for a week and see what would happen. Chances are they would not be happy about it and would not be able to fulfill the challenge. It is somewhat disturbing to think that kids are growing up more and more online instead of being outside with their friends playing, interacting with one another, and enjoying real life.
So what are your thoughts on this story? Do you feel that social media has the potential to turn into a big social problem amongst young people? Would you be able to live a week without Internet access? Without Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter? Without SMS (texting)?
Terry's MySpace page headline reads: "School work sleep!!!!! that's it!!!!".. and MySpace, of course.
Social media addictions amongst young people, Generation Z, are continuing to become more and more apparent. Ask any 13 - 18 year old to live without Internet access or texting for a week and see what would happen. Chances are they would not be happy about it and would not be able to fulfill the challenge. It is somewhat disturbing to think that kids are growing up more and more online instead of being outside with their friends playing, interacting with one another, and enjoying real life.
So what are your thoughts on this story? Do you feel that social media has the potential to turn into a big social problem amongst young people? Would you be able to live a week without Internet access? Without Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter? Without SMS (texting)?
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Social Media On The Rise
Thanks to Google reader, one of my favorite social media tools; I was just informed of a new post by social media connoisseur, Marta Kagan, on her blog (The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius). In one of her latest blog entries, she discusses some interesting stats:
- 3/4 of US online adults now use social tools to connect with each other (compared with just 56% in 2007). On average, they spend one hour per week using these tools; however, 19% [and growing] are averaging 7 HOURS PER WEEK. [source: Forrester Research, October 2008]
- 75% of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes in the next year. [source: Gartner, October 2008]
- Marta Kagan
Social media usage is going up and it doesn't look like it will be stopping anytime soon. It is pretty clear that social media is the future. 7 hours per week may not seem like much to you and I but the increase of usage from 56% in 2007 to where it is now (just in the span of a year) is pretty darn impressive. People of all demographics are beginning to understand social media tools and how helpful they can be.
What are your thoughts on this increase in numbers?
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