Adidas Uses Creativity to Find Social Media Chief

As our semester winds down, you may be interested in learning about job opportunities and strategies for gaining a professional foothold using your social media skills.  Take Adidas, for instance, which is launching their "Wear in the World" competition for a new social media chief finalist.  You may also want to check out a collection of job postings on the site "Jobs in Social Media," which displays a variety of positions from social media marketing coordinator to social and digital account executive.  On the site, you'll find sample resumes, job prospects, tips and perspectives from a variety of bloggers and community members.  Other great sites include "Social Media Jobs," which lists current positions, "Simply Hired," which offers a national job board with positions for social media marketing consultants, directors, managers and interns, "Indeed" and "Mashable."  Time to update your digital resume and blog as you embark upon your search!

Hello All:  I just attending the 2011 National Conference on Media Reform where social media was discussed as useful for countering corporate media.  However, policies affecting net neutrality are currently being reviewed by the Senate and deserve public support.  Have your voice heard!  Below is a summary worth reviewing. 

National Conference for Media Reform Wraps in Boston  

BOSTON -- Sunday marked the end of the 2011 National Conference for Media Reform in Boston -- an energetic and inspiring gathering that brought together more than 2,500 grassroots activists, policymakers, journalists and scholars from across the country, as well as thousands more online.

Participants explored more than 80 sessions on topics ranging from how to fix the Federal Communications Commission to Wikileaks, online organizing and disaster response to the new face of media consolidation, public and community media to feminism and immigration....Net Neutrality was one of the hottest topics of conversation after the House of Representatives passed a bill Friday attempting to rescind the FCC's Net Neutrality rules. On Friday at the conference, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi condemned the vote. "No one should be guarding the gate on the Internet," Pelosi said.  Read more here!

Social Media = Sharing Links

Hello Everyone:

Celina has shared a link on 100 of the Best Social Media Blog Posts So Far in 2011 with us and Trista has forwarded a Slideshare link on Transforming your Marketing.  A heartfelt thanks to all of you who have contributed to building our materials for the class by sharing your content.   I look forward to hearing your final presentations.

Creating a Successful Online Portfolio

Hello Class:
In accordance with today's presentation, here is a related article on building a successful online portfolio.

Social Media Marketing and Environmental Sustainability

Here's an article that examines the impact of social media on environmental sustainability.  Social media can help mobilize groups of people for a variety of advocacy causes as we've seen with the political ferment in the Middle East. 

NYT: Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites like Twitter

Blogs are no longer the choice for those who want to express themselves online according to new findings.  See why this medium is being passed over in favor of other social media by reading this NYT article.

Media Shift Article

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. Facebook's growing base of 600 million users will soon be double the population of the United States. (Photo credit: Thomas van de Weerd).

On Facebook and Online, Privacy Is Only an Illusion

by Mya Frazier, February 11, 2011

Study: Facebook changing the way people communicate, hear about news

Jan 14, 2011

Read more: http://www.futureofmediaevents.com/2011/01/14/study-facebook-changing-the-way-people-communicate-hear-about-news/#ixzz1CBB3cY7M

Media Literacy for the Digital Age

 excerpts

This is a media-savvy era. Americans have been trained to notice product placement in the movies, bloggers pick apart the accuracy and objectivity of mainstream media reports, and high schools offer classes in “media literacy.”

Why is it so much easier for a hoax to defeat our defenses online? “People are so used to getting their news and everything from the Internet, and the audience doesn't screen things,” said Leslie Savan, the author of "The Sponsored Life: Ads, TV, and American Culture.” “They don't have the same standard they would for old media. We've lost some of that ability and skepticism.”

“When we see ads on TV, we know they're there to sell to us; we know they have a persuasive goal,” said Matt McAllister, a media studies professor at Penn State University.

“But when we see viral videos and messages on the Internet, we don't know if there's an ulterior motive, so we don't have defenses that we would have with an ad.

“That's exactly what marketers are trying to circumvent, those defense mechanisms. Marketers are looking at social media with their mouths salivating. They're going to just keep getting more and more clever.” 

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100823/FEATURES/308230024/In+web+hoaxes++even+experts+get+bitten+by+rumor+bug

WELCOME!

Hello Everyone:
It's exciting to embark upon our class's course blog.  This spring term, we will be learning the art of blogging as it allows us to discuss social media.  The first step will be to have all students enroll as users to the site.  We will begin this on the first day of class.