Politics of the Future: Digital and Social Media

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jennifer Sibert

What if President Obama held press conferences not in the White House, but on Google Hangout? What if he answered questions asked by the American people, rather than the news correspondents? Earlier this month India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram did just that. The minister participated in a live video conference that lasted hour, but the conference sparked conversations that lasted quite longer (e.g. #askthefm).

“People have been calling this era of computers, the Internet, and telecommunications the ‘information age’ … What we’re really in now is the empowerment age…This power is shifting…to a new paradigm of power that is democratically distributed and shared by all of us.” - Joe Trippi, author of Revolution Will Not be Televised

President Obama’s current Facebook banner.

Today everyone and everything is going social. Barack Obama and Fançois Hollande are on Facebook, and even The White House, the WTO, and the United Nations tweet.Digital media has become a new form of infrastructure. The United Kingdom offers virtual tours of Parliament buildings. The EU website has an Audiovisual Newsroom. Online presence is a public expectation.

The virtual world has a very real influence.The last two years proved digital and social media’s power to mobilize entire nations (i.e. revolutions in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria). Minister Chidambaram’s conference is further evidence of a growing desire to not only pay attention to the man (or woman) behind the curtain, but to eliminate the curtain altogether.

Why You Should Become a Blogger

Posted on March 6, 2013 by KrysiaHepatica

So, you want to break into the field of digital media? It can take time, but a great way to gain experience while still in school or working in another field is to start blogging. Choose a specific topic to write about, but try to not keep it too narrow. Maybe you will write about a hobby or passion you have, or maybe it will be a blog about trends in social media, anything that excites you. Once you decide on a category, the next step is to chose a platform.

Photo Credit: CollegeDegrees360

There are many free platforms you can choose like WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr. WordPress and Blogger are more traditional styles while Tumblr is more visually oriented. If your hobby is an outdoor hobby that can be accompanied my many photos, you may to use Tumblr. If your topic is more professionally orientated, Blogger or WordPress may be a better choice.

After that it is time to build up a community on Twitter. If you are not already on Twitter, set up an account. If you are, start following similar users and start reading their blogs, commenting, and retweeting and replying to their tweets. Think of similar bloggers as your allies, not your competition they may be your only audience for a while. Many seasoned Twitter experts advocate for using your own name and having your profile picture be of yourself. It makes it more personal that way, people will be more likely to engage with a person, rather than an icon image.

Getting an audience takes patience and time, but does pay off. The trick is to publish often and regularly. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Once you are established, guest posts are a great way to get more exposure. I was lucky enough to land a guest post on a popular blog with a large readership and my post was re-syndicated on the PR Daily. This would have never happened if I published the same piece on my own blog.

So go ahead, let the world hear your voice speak with authority on a topic you know about. You may enjoy it even more than you though, and it might even land you a job.

The Best of Both Worlds

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Caroline

Pinstagram, a free service that displays your Instagram photos in the Pinterest waterfall format. Since Instagram did not have a web or iPad application, this is the perfect pair. Pinstagram combines two of the hottest social networks into one easy to use application available on the web or iPad.

Personally, I love this new application, it makes it a thousand times easier to view your Instagram pictures. Once you sign in with your current Instagram account, your pictures are automatically displayed in the waterfall format that every Pinterest user in a costume too. This layout allows users to view more pictures at once.

Pinstagram also offers additional views of pages. For example there is your home page, most popular page, your profile page, and a page which displays the photos you have liked. Additionally Pinstagram allows users the ability to search for a specific tag.

If you have been waiting for Instagram on your Ipad, this new application offers the best of both worlds. I love that the digital world is always trying to think of the next best thing, and I think the creators of Pinstagram have found it. Everyone loves Instagram and Pinterest, so why wouldn’t you love them as one, I know I love it!

Is Pinterest getting political?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Adrienne

Politicians on Pinterest. An alliteration I never thought I’d hear in a million years. But it’s happening. Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich and Ann Romney (GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s wife) all have Pinterest accounts. At first, I thought it was odd. Then I went on Barack Obama’s page and saw the Pet Lover’s for Obama board and my opinion softened.

While these pages are cute and entertaining for a quick second, it’s hard to imagine that there’s any real value to a Pinterest page in terms of campaign strategy. But, an article in the PR Daily changed my perception. Pinterest has 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors to it’s site and they’re mostly women. It’s a critical demographic that politicians often struggle to reach.

But what separates Pinterest for any other social media account? The fact is, Pinterest is about personality. In a few seconds, visitors have the ability to see what candidates like, their passions and their unique interests. It humanizes them, something that a debate or public statement can’t exactly do.

Pinterest isn’t political in the least. Most people don’t spend their daily lives debating politics or reading the Washington Post from front to back. So for your average person, Pinterest is able to connect politicians to them in a way that is natural. Seeing Ann Romney’s patriotic cooking ideas or viewing a photo of the Obama’s at a family dinner give politicians a human element that is often absent.

It’s such a lighthearted and fun social media platform that politicians may seemingly have no place on Pinterest. But at the end of the day, we want politicians to understand the problems that we face as average citizens. And for that reason, it’s a smart and strategic move for politicians to have Pinterest accounts. Although I may never make that complicated red, white and blue cake that Ann Romney found on Pinterest, I can still appreciate that we both wish we were amazing cooks.

Chirpify to Expand Twitter

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Brandt

As Twitter quickly grows everyday, more and more opportunities slowly arise for Twitter to expand its domain. That is exactly what the latest startup, Chirpify, is doing by teaming up with PayPal. Chirpify will allow users to purchase anything from companies that also use Chirpify from their Twitter-enabled smartphones. In addition to shopping, users can transfer money to other users in a peer-to-peer transaction as long as both are using Chirpify. Beyond what is already done, Chirpify and future applications will only expand and demand more from social media marketing agencies as a necessity, not just an afterthought.

There are high hopes for Chirpify given the combination of a majority of cell phone sales being smartphones and people becoming more comfortable shopping through the internet. If Chirpify takes off, it would become the first major add-on to Twitter to expand it’s reaches as a social networking tool. With social networking sites quickly trying to expand their reaches by diversifying, it’s plausible they will eventually morph into near-identical entities. Seeing as how for example Facebook has its marketplace, which seems on par with Chirpify. If that were to happen, what would happen to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook? Would they possibly merge into one giant site? All we can do is wait and see.

Google and Facebook the Better, Faster, Stronger

Posted on September 27, 2011 by SarahRoberts

In the digital world, companies challenge each other to be the better, faster, stronger. The competition is escalating and Google and Facebook are advancing. How do they maintain this success? Because they cater to the public by constantly improving their applications and making them even more simple and user-friendly.

Just in time for the school year, Google updated some of its major applications like Google Docs, Calendar, and Sites by improving accessibility, for example the addition of short cut keys. Also in Google Docs there used to be only one way to share a document and people could edit right on the page. Well now there is a comment only access to Docs, so now you can have friends look at your document without ever having to worry about them editing your original.

How many times have you gone on your Facebook account and you are dazed by the new design and format of the social networking site. Facebook is incessantly changing and the newest latest and greatest is the introduction of Timeline, it is a new type of profile that highlights the greatest moments of you that has been recorded on Facebook. You have full control on what is on your Timeline profile and even old friends can easily catch up on your life. Stay tuned this application is available in a few weeks from now, possibly the same time as the release of the iPhone 5!