Online Reputation

          This week I had the opportunity to search for a person across all internet platforms to see what kind of online reputation they have. The first thing I did was a basic google search of her name, Emily Briones and instantly found information about her. It took me to the USU Athletics webpage where I learned that Emily is a gymnast for Utah State. 

This page also provided a short bio for Emily which told me that she is from San Antonio, Texas her parents are Robert and Caroline Briones and that she has one brother and one sister. From this page alone I can assume that Emily is an excellent gymnast to be competing at the collegiate level and that she is a hard-worker. In the same vein I was able to find several newspaper articles that spoke of Emily’s gymnastic performances throughout her career. As well as a YouTube channel with videos of gymnastics she did in high school. It does appear that the channel hasn’t been active for 3 years but it was still easy found.

              From a quick search on twitter, I found that Emily’s birthday is on September 12, surprisingly this was not information posted by Emily herself but by the USU Gymnastics twitter account. 

The tweet also contained an image of Emily. I wasn’t able to find a personal twitter account for Emily and found it interesting that even without her own account she still had a presences on Twitter. I wasn’t able to find a LinkedIn account for Emily either.

              Emily does have an active and accessible Facebook page where she posst pictures with her friends and family.

I learned that Emily is very close with her family and loves her hometown of San Antonio from links to articles she posted and pictures she shared. I was able to see that Emily has an Instagram account but it is private. I wasn’t able to find Emily on Pinterest.

              Emily’s online reputation is definitely positive. I didn’t find anything negative while I was searching. Some trends that I recognized throughout all of Emily’s social media platforms was a love and passion for gymnastics, a sense of adventure, and a strong bond with family and friends. One thing that I would suggest to Emily if she were trying to build up her online strength for future employers would be to get a LinkedIn account where she can list past work experiences and qualities that employers are looking for. Right now most all of the information I could find on her had to do with gymnastics, which is great but I think that future employers will be looking for a more well-rounded online presence. I did see that many of her pictures and videos were for the purpose of college recruiting and it looks like that worked out well for her, so I see no reason why social media couldn’t aid in furthering her gymnastics career after college or in getting a job she wanted. 

Laws, Policies, and Ethics

           When researching the ethics and social media I was expecting to find information on what you should or shouldn’t post on social media and while those articles are plentiful the ones I found the most interesting centered on the ethics of using social media for journalism. I am not a journalist but I found that the information about this topic in an ethics handbook posted by NPR.org to be good guidelines when using social media for information whether you are doing it for journalistic purposes or not.

              We have discussed fake new before and since most reputable news sources attempt to put out real, fact-checked news they have had to form guidelines on how to avoid publishing fake news as it is unethical. They ask their reporters to ‘be careful, be skeptical,” when passing along information. They require transparency from their journalist, requiring them to let viewers know if information from social media has been confirmed. They suggest following up with leads and sources offline when possible. It is easy to make fake social media profiles, and they say that it isn’t always easy to understand a person’s tone over online communication.

              I think that every single one of those ethic guidelines for journalist could just as easily be applied to me as a social media user. Is it important and ethical for me to be careful and skeptical when I am on social media? Absolutely. If I am passing on information I find it is be of extreme import that the information has been confirmed and is from a reputable source. If not for ethics sake but for the sake of my own reputation. I feel like the guideline of following up offline is an important one for the everyday social-media user. How often have you had an online conversation with someone and come away thinking that they were upset with you to only find out later that there were no hard feelings? It can be so difficult to convey emotion and tone through online mediums that actual in-person conversation are a perfect way to avoid that pitfall.

              The last point in big bold type that NPR makes is HONESTY. If you aren’t telling the truth or are in anyway avoiding the truth you should not post it. Evaluate what you are about to put online whether it be on Facebook, on a blog post, or in a tweet and ask yourself 1. Am I being honest and transparent and 2. Am I okay with what I am about to post being public property?  Because once it goes onto any of those three mentioned platforms and many more it becomes publicly available. Even conversations that were meant to be just for family and friends can be circulated widely beyond personal circles. I think NPR sums it up best when they tell their reporters, “In other words, don’t behave any differently online than you would in any other public setting.”

Collaborative and Interactive Social Media Platforms

            Social Media is a great resource for businesses, from small home-based businesses top huge corporations. Social media platforms are a tool that when utilized correctly can take a business to the next level by giving them a new and important way to connect with potential customers. In fact social media has become so important for businesses that a whole new career has been born, Social Media Specialist is not a job title at most large companies.  According to Brian Hughes, CEO of Integrity Marketing and consulting, “Great social content shapes how prospective customers perceive your business’s brand and starts building loyalty long before these folks ever make a purchase.” The newest tools available on social media are interactive tools such as, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Periscope. Though these are fun and exciting for personal use they are incredibly useful from a business perspective.

            A point by postplanner.com, “Live streaming is all about connecting and interacting with your audience in real time. It breaks down barriers and creates a connection that transcends traditional marketing limitations.” They go on to say ask the question to consumers about what we remember more, reading an interesting article or a video where you have the chance to contribute to the conversation, they say that research says the video wins every time.

            As a small business co-founder this makes me consider ways that our business could use live-streaming to connect with our audience. Not only is it helpful to do live-stream videos but content is also important. The content needs to be interesting, informative and something that will keep your audience involved. In thinking about use for it within my business I thought how it might be interesting to live-stream some of our production process. I run a small bee-keeping and honey business with a partner and people are always fascinated with the process but never get to see it up close and personal. I think it would be a great way for our company to stay interesting by utilizing live-streaming to teach about bees and the honey extracting process. I feel like this would not only be interesting for our followers but I think it would also provide a space where potential customers would come for information about our product.

            Like was pointed out earlier interactive social media platforms are allowing businesses the opportunity to create brand-loyalty long before a purchase is ever made. I like to think that if we did some of these videos and people watched them the next time they needed honey they would remember our live-streams and look to us for their purchase. There is the chance that they wouldn’t, that they only watched for the entertainment value but the great thing about social media is that we can market our product on a very low budget and live-streaming is just one more tool we can use to our advantage.

Location-Based Social Media

              I am an anomaly in my generation. Until a few weeks ago I had no major social media accounts. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc and one of main reason why is because of location-based data.  My wife has social media platforms and a while ago I started to notice that on Instagram posts it would say locations, as well as on Facebook posts. Not only that, we once went into a restaurant and it asked her if she wanted to check-in on Facebook and share her location. Sure check in and let the world know 1. Where we are and 2. That no one is at our home.

              The Government Accountability Office employs watchdogs who spend their days checking up on these social networks and whether they are doing enough to protect their users. When location-sharing became the new great addition to these apps the GOA had their hands full. They said “We have concerns that location data can be used to track where consumers are, which can in turn be used to steal their identity, stalk them, or monitor them without their knowledge. In addition, location data can be used to infer other sensitive information about individuals such as their religious affiliation or political activities.”  They have a list of the primary threats to consumers from location-based data which includes disclosure, tracking behavior, identity theft, personal security, and surveillance.

              One of those factors alone is scary but take all of them and why would anyone want to use location based social media. Most of the positives to the use of location-data apps is for businesses, it makes it easier for them to target their optimal customer. But if you are looking for positives to using these for the consumer, there are few and I am not sure the pro are worth the cons. One positive is they can be fun. There are many gaming apps like Pokémon Go, which use GPS location to make the game interactive and exciting. There are also GPS based apps like Family Locator that can be used to find family members, which is useful. Lastly they can be helpful in finding places to eat or visit when you visit an unfamiliar place.

              I have concluded that you can be smart about location-based apps and make them useful to yourself. If you have strict privacy settings on your social media profiles and only allow those you feel comfortable with to be your friends then you shouldn’t have to worry too much about them knowing you are away from home. You are running a risk when you have no privacy settings and any one has access to your location at any time. As with any social media the responsibility rests on the users to use a little common sense and be smart. 

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-location-aware-apps,review-2405.html