Social Media Release- UNILAB

I had no choice.

I used to tell my sweet brother “Bago mo sabihing ayaw mo, tikman mo muna” whenever he is being picky with foods. I can always tell him that because I’m the brave one at trying out new food.

If there’s one situation where my brother could say that line to me, that would be blogging let alone writing. But not anymore. Because of OC152 I was able to blog. I had no choice!

Now what can I say about this requirement? I still don’t like blogging. Thanks to our professor for forcing us to blog but, no thanks. I don’t think I can continue writing entries after this. Because of the requirement I proved to myself that I’m not born to write and I don’t have even a tiny bit of passion for it.

In one of my latest posts, I just realized that I express my idea in a wrong way. I wrote a different phrase. It just proves why I don’t do this stuff. I don’t even want me to read my entries! Haha. But seriously let’s not forget the lesson: proofread. Plus don’t cram, especially when you don’t have the writing talent.

But on a brighter side, I was able to apply what Sir Chong was saying in his class—what to put in your paper. What people want to see and how they read. Especially when you are talking about something geeky, how do you discuss that? How do keep them reading your entry. Stuff like those.

Second, I think that I need to catch up on a lot about the new social media. My knowledge is not enough for me to be in a social media type of position in the near future. I think my oldest aunt knows better than me. Whoo.

Changes in the new social media are as fast as it operates. Dealing with it takes more effort. So for organizations, they need to make that effort or else they’ll die eventually. They have no choice! Those are my last few words.

Anyway, I want to thank the people who read my blogs—for taking part in knowing if I have some potential in this area. Nyahaha. I guess this would be really my last article online. Talking to someone is so much better for me than sharing it to the rest of the world. That’s enough for me and I prefer to keep it that way. :> Bye!

Street Tweetin’

Did you know that in San Francisco one street food vendor uses Twitter to keep his business going? His name is Curtis Kimball and he sells crème brulee. I’m amazed by this person because he does his business so well.

In a span of one year, he was able to gain 12,000 followers—the Twitter way and literally. He uses Twitter to update his customers everyday about where he plans to go. Aside from that, he tweets the flavour of the day so that customers won’t waste time visiting him if it’s not their favourite one. He also asks suggestions on how to improve his product from them to keep his customers coming.

As you can see he knows how to use the new social media for business but he doesn’t plan on using Facebook. He has an account but I think it is more of a personal account. He knows that these new platforms are important nowadays, but recognizes that not all will work for a business. For him Twitter is the one and only site that can really help his business.

You don’t really have to go with the majority to improve your business. That might just mean great effort in maintaining and reaching out to your customers resulting to nothing if it’s not compatible with your type of business. You can just choose one and maximize its features.

Now this is a smart move for a former construction worker. Not that I’m belittling him or his professions but you won’t see that here in the Philippines. That’s because we are a poor country. Street food vendors here can’t do what Curtis did because they don’t have internet access. They would rather buy water or sandwich than rent a computer. Plus they have a lot of competitors in the street so there’s really no need to tell customers where they are.

Filipinos are smart, innovative—they have what it takes to grow and earn a lot in their selected careers or businesses. If only this country’s situation were better, setting up a business wouldn’t be that expensive. You wouldn’t need big money, big space, and a big name but a simple cart and product would be enough to earn a lot, like in San Francisco.

I want garden asian salad!

I’m inside my bedroom. I’m surfing the net. I’m hungry. I feel like eating salad. BBQ rods and garden salad. We don’t have a landline. I only spend load through texting. Tita is not here. I don’t want to walk to KFC. I’m willing to pay PhP40 to someone who will satisfy my cravings.

Am I the only customer of KFC who has these characteristics? Am I the only garden salad fan who experiences this situation?

I can’t believe that up until now, KFC has not maximized the features of new social media. The web is used to inform people but this is so last summer. If you visit KFC’s website, the best thing that they can offer to their customers are store locations.

They should now that nowadays, a lot of people don’t have landlines anymore. Going out of your house just to order or buy some food is too tiresome already.

Moreover, I think the trend of condo living is increasing. These people like me, us, seldom cook. I can say this is true from the people I see in the elevators of our building. Obviously what they do most of the time is eat in restaurants or order in fast foods. Yes this lifestyle’s not healthy, but this isn’t the concern of KFC. Ha-ha.

My point is they have a lot of potential customers and they should use social media to extend their services. Here’s more.

I searched the internet for surveys here in the Philippines seeking to know which fast food restaurant people prefer more—KFC or Mcdonald’s. There are a few surveys and none really well implemented but from what I saw, more points for KFC. Take note the surveys were done online. A lot of KFC fans online, yes?

Also I actually think they should really give effort in this service, if ever, because some of Mcdo’s online delivery is not effective (according to a source).

So why not create a website for online ordering? Are they thinking that imitating Mcdo’s strategy is a bad idea? Who cares, when they are hungry? Like me!

I Miss Holga

Are you a fan of Lomography in Facebook? You saw the word “Facebook”. Don’t worry this one’s not about that site again. Anyway, if you do not know what Lomography is—which I doubt—just visit this.

Although it’s expensive (here in the Philippines Lomo cameras cost about PhP 5,000, films with 12 shots Php 200, film processing Php 150) I still tried it. I have an orange Holga and here’s one of my favourite shots:

I got so interested with the pictures taken from Lomo cams. I liked it because it seems so natural unlike digicams. You can do a lot of things on it too; double exposure is one. Plus I loved the feeling of suspense since you couldn’t view your shots right then and there. It would take a week for LBC to deliver it to you.

But ever since I got busy and my money went scarce, I wasn’t able to continue using my Holga anymore. Too bad.  Good thing Lomo started to join Facebook. From time to time, I look at the shots taken by different lomographers in the world. It keeps my passion for photography burning.

If you love something (or someone) and you can’t have it, world wide web makes it come to you. And as my thoughts went on, I realized even if this new social media is driving us faster to the future it also ties us up with our past. Old pictures and memories remind us of the good old days.

It’s so easy now.

Have you seen the latest commercial of KFC? I was not able to watch it fully. All I saw were the super fans of Venus Raj who became some kind of Youtube sensations. They are the four boys (sisters) in their pajamas watching the Ms Universe beauty pageant on their bed. Their video became a hit because of their reactions when Ms Raj got into the semi finals.

So before I get lost in thought,  I saw the four boys jumping in bed (again) this time holding KFC’s hotshots, I think.

I thought, that was a nice one. They were lucky in the first place that the mood and message they are trying to communicate (which is a fun, happy one) are in line with the personality of the four Kuyas—or ates. If these stars were all about singing, maybe they wouldn’t have a commercial right now. Or maybe it would be a different commercial. One with more effort.

There are other plus points for the commercial. Obviously it’s because they didn’t have to get someone famous and pay big money—surely—for this ad, unlike Chowking.  Celebrities are expensive, as we all know. So it’s good because I think they saved a lot of money.

Another thing: they were able to communicate with their target market. A lot if not all who might react to this ad are those who know about the Youtube video, therefore those who are able to afford internet access.

Again, this is one of the big benefits of social media for companies; less effort in searching for talents, spending money, with same or even better results. Almost everything you need is on the internet for you.

Is Facebook missing a target?

Have you ever experienced being treated like you do not exist? It hurts! And irritating sometimes. I experienced this in one restaurant.

Anyway, I will not talk about organizations’ poor training of their employees here. I would be talking about Facebook again. Hehe. I saw this report about the social networking site not seeing that a growing number of population in Facebook is the seniors (65 year old and above). You can read the whole report here http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/204380/facebook_marketing_misses_the_mark.html.

So what’s up with this? The report says that the advertising feature of Facebook only targets 64-year olds and below.

But as I have said earlier the number of seniors in Facebook is growing according to Pew Internet and American Life Project survey. It means from number 45, it became the number 3 most visited site by seniors. Moreover, they are using Facebook and Twitter more frequently, from a rate of 9% log in on a normal day in 2009 to 13% this year. That is already a significant increase.

So they are like missing the opportunity of advertising to a large number of possible targets. Considering the facts that these elders have more money to waste and more patience looking at advertisements, they really should extend the age bracket right?

But looking at the advertisements in Facebook, you could see that most of them are “trash.” The numbers of ads these kinds overshadow the “decent” and more reputable products. It seems that it’s useless for already known companies to use Facebook as a media tool. Maybe that’s the reason why Facebook maintained the settings that way. Since seniors prefer the trusted brands and well-established companies, there’s really no need for these companies to show themselves, more so through Facebook.

What do you think? Should Facebook even have to give a sh*t about this or could they just let it be?

The Brainbox has some things inside.

All living beings on Earth now evolved to adapt to the changing climate so they survived. Some wasn’t able to do this that’s why we don’t live with them anymore. It’s not just the living beings. The life of everything in this world depends on its environment. Bags, chairs, name it—its life span will all boil down to what environment it is in.

An organization is another example. We have discussed in 152 class that a lot has changed already—the environment, technology, and communication channels.

Though we can already feel that a lot of companies are acknowledging the importance of the new social media, we can still easily encounter or know of companies that are not yet adapting to the changes. Brainbox Company Inc. is one. I had my on-the-job training there and thought that some improvements can be made in this company.

The owner of the said company is an OrCom graduate. And yes, most of the people working inside the organization have OrCom hats. Although this is the case, they have a lot of catching up to do.

They do not have a website. They should maintain one. I searched them in Google for my internship and all I found was a website for the list of companies in the Philippines. I think it would be better if they have their brainboxcoinc.com.ph so that students can learn about them faster. It wouldn’t only benefit the students but also the company itself because they always lack people for projects. Plus, potential clients that are looking for companies as such would see them. They need to make the company more visible.

OK, they got JC Cuadrado looking for possible clients and he’s good at winning them, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if some clients come looking for you?

Or they could have a Facebook account to announce upcoming events through their Brainbox networks. One of the problems that we encountered in one of our events was the promotion. During the event only few came.

This next “recommendation” is simple. They need to get feedback from the people they get during projects. Especially OrCom interns. As part of the whole on-the-job training, I think it would be better if they require interns to submit a proposal– “As an OrCom student, what can you do best to gain more inputs for the company sort?” of thing.

It would already add to the contents of the students’ practicum folder, plus the company can get good insights from the latest students of Orcom. In that way, they have better chances of adapting well to the changing environment.

It’s already the end of this entry but I would just like to remind all of us that we should not be too comfortable with the good standing of our company, in the future. Kelangan lagi tayong nakikichismis para masaya. Para may buhay.

How hard?

Do you remember your parents saying that life during their time was simpler, easier? When I was still in high school I remember mine wondering why I’m so busy with school. I arrive home at 9pm, sleep at 12am and wake up 5:30am. My mom said “Nung panahon namin nakakagala pa kami sa Harrison tapos paguwi nakakatulong pa sa bahay.”

Yes. Life was easier back then. Time right now seems to get shorter and shorter. Although computers were created to make life easier, it seems to have caused the opposite. Time became shorter because, I believe, computer resulted in the tardiness of people. We became too comfortable with the thought that computers can do almost everything for us in such a short span of time. So we spend most of our days doing nothing… Or okay, at least not the things that we should be doing first.

Then came the internet. Another distraction from our priorities! Yeah yeah yeah we all know that the internet, especially Facebook, is trying to ruin our lives. What’s new? Well I won’t be talking about that because I already mentioned that in my previous post.

Let’s rearrange the variables here. Life online is harder than the real life. I’ve got two instances.

First would be my constant experience with a chat mate. We never had a conversation online where we didn’t have any misunderstanding and because of that I easily get irritated every time it happens again. Sure we experience this face to face, but it’s really more frustrating when it happens online. I don’t know why. Lessons:

Don’t type the words as if you’re actually saying it. The reader won’t hear your voice while he or she is reading it.

Write sentences with periods or what symbols have you. In other words, write REAL sentences. A lot of times your run-on sentences causes double meaning and confusion.

Don’t get too comfortable. Sure you are close but it’s different when it comes to talking online. Sometimes you have to treat your friend like a stranger to make sure that he or she gets what you really mean.

We fought several times because of this. And it’s stupid. Haha.

My second argument would be this BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-11376350. For those who are too lazy to check it out. It’s about a 15 year old who had to cancel her birthday party because about 21,000 people on Facebook RSVPed. She forgot to change the privacy settings. That was all.

You see, a very simple mistake was made. She only forgot to do one thing but it created a huge effect to the point of having to cancel her most awaited birthday party. Let’s not forget how hard it is to monitor your online reputation. Finding websites and articles that has your name on it is far easier than looking for a book inside a library, but it’s difficult too. It takes some patience and skills.

If you find something negative about you, it would take time before you are able to hide it deep, deep down the Google pages.

So there. I guess life on the web isn’t as easy as we think.

I read my love life on Facebook.

These past few days were different. Since I dug into someone’s Facebook wall on Tuesday, nothing seemed to get into my nerves. I’m too happy to have the bad vibes.

It was a Tuesday night and I was supposed to maximize my time doing my thesis. However, I spent about 20 minutes clicking someone’s “older posts” until I reached the August 2009 posts. After reading all of it I suddenly felt the world was giving us clues as to what will happen. I mean, it’s like seeing the world or Facebook taking control of our destiny, our present, with those daily horoscopes and messages from God. It’s like Facebook was really talking to us—answering us based on our status messages. (What the hell am I saying?)  Anyway, it’s just amazing to see how even Facebook itself seemed to take part in what has happened in the past few months. It makes me wonder if those Facebook applications really operate randomly because it’s almost always accurate.

But it does control us. It’s not only Facebook– a lot of websites have this power of getting our attention once we are online. Personally, I don’t have any addictions online. Hehe. However, I see a lot of products here that I really wanna buy– wrist watch, shoes, etc.

For us OrCom people, I think we should not let the internet control us this way. We have knowledge on how to use different media effectively. We also know what different kinds of people want to see and hear. Let’s use this knowledge. Take advantage of it. I know you know how to do that. But here are a few reminders:

1)      Don’t believe everything you see on the screen.  We all have experiences of disappointment after getting our orders from online.

2)      Think before you add it to your cart. Do you really need it? Is this the best deal you have?

3)      Time is gold. Is this really worth your time? I think this is important for OrCom people. We are used to having our home works done an hour before the deadline. We have to improve our attitude regarding this. I’m sure a lot of us are panicking for the 7, 8, 9, 10 backlogs that we still have. And Facebook is one of the culprits!

Define few. Hehe!  I believe you know what to do anyway. Again, we all know the strengths of the new social media and we are aware of human beings’ weaknesses. We should use it as our advantage and not be victims of these. As a person with an OrCom hat, we should not let the internet control us.