Archive for Research

New Year’s Resolution – Get Unstuck. There’s an App for That

12/28/11 Bill Handy Comments (0)

Unstuck, is a free iPad app available in the iTunes app store and fits into my favorite category - designed to solve a problem. Specifically, as the name implies, the app helps users get unstuck.

The app is easy to use. Users begin the process with the nice introductory cartoonish page at which time the app digs into your stuckness. You will answer a variety of questions & rank the elements of any problem. I’ve tried several times to confound the app and have yet to do so. The app does have limitations – 11 tools and more than fifty targeted tips to help users… yep, get unstuck. That being said I’ve yet to hit a wall and doubt most users will.  Users can save up to five stuck moments all of which are kept private even if you share the iPad with others. Stuck moments can be deleted to make room for new ones.

A quick note about the privacy of the app. It seems they can track users but in accordance with iTunes/Apple they do so anonymously. The benefit is for both Unstuck and the user. A recent blog post provides some insight into how others are stuck. I personally hope this is something they will continue to share. It’s nice knowing how you stack up against the rest of the world.

Everyone gets stuck and there’s no shame in it. There are thousands of self help (biz and personal) books designed to walk us through any challenge. Unfortunately there is no feedback look so they are limited in their ability to truly help us get unstuck. This is where the app beats a book.

What I like most about Unstuck is the personal nature it seems to offer, asking the same question more than once to get to the root of your stuckness. Considering your thoughts, emotions and behaviors as you work through your stuck moment. There is also a a  feel of relaxedness so as not to add more stress to your stuck moment.

I’ve launched several stuck moments just to work through a process. In every case the end result is what you would expect – a solution to my stuckness. Of course it is still up to the user to take action/move forward but the clarity of the solution makes even that easy – at least at that moment (ask me about my dogs and how they factored into a stuck moment. It seems I will forever be stuck on that one).

Call it a coach, mentor or an app – it works. Compared to hiring a coach it might just be cheaper – iPad included.

 

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Categories : Crap!, Education, iPad, proactive, Random, Research, tips, Uncategorized
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Branded LinkedIn Links

12/01/11 Bill Handy Comments (33)

Which looks better this or a branded link (below)

I love LinkedIn and honestly find more value on this one social media platform than just about any other. Especially in a world of business to business, it can be critical for success. Even if someone doesn’t connect with you they might still visit your page (you can tell, but more on that later) to get a sense of what you are about. That single visit can be the make or break for any effort you are involved in.

One of the easiest tricks to polish your page is to brand your links. LinkedIn provides generic terms for the different places you can be found. Company or personal website, portfolio, etc. Most simply choose one of these options and plug in the information. This give their page the same generic look as any other. But there is a way to provide a bit more personal brand to the look and feel of this section. It’s as easy as choosing “other”.

I’ve created a short video tutorial on how to accomplish this and posted it below. Feel free to post your questions, comments and own personal tips below.

 


linkedin Links from BillHandy on Vimeo.
Creating branded Linkedin Links is easy… really easy.

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Categories : "public relations", Education, Public Relations, Research, Social Media, tips, Uncategorized
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Who do you trust? It’s not social media.

02/16/11 Bill Handy Comments (3)

There have been a lot of studies which pertain to trust, the most famous probably the Edelman Trust Barometer.  If you haven’t read that stop reading this now and spend your morning being truly enlightened. If you have, then please read on.

A few weeks ago during what seemed to be a crescendo of online banter about Quora and how awesome it was to answer all your questions I became frustrated for two reasons:

What was once a great question site was quickly becoming spamish and narcissistic or dumbed down with ridiculous questions to which the answer could only be, ” it depends”, “yes”, or “no”.

For whatever anomalous reason several tweets and online comments crossed my desk with a common theme that everything you could ever need to know could be found on twitter.  I can only imagine the person was simply sitting back and letting 140 characters at a time pass by absorbing the all-knowing information. My snarkier side  wondered what these people would think about a surgeon with the same philosophy, “trust me everything I know about heart surgery I learned on twitter.”

I was curious about who would people trust to answer a very specific question of importance. So I put  together a very nonscientific survey  which simply asked the question, “If your job depended on getting the correct answer to a question which would you trust more?” The options, in no particular order, were twitter, blog, Prof. (with PhD), textbook, Wikipedia, Quora  or a friend.

RESULTS
By a landslide  textbooks were the winner. A Professor and Wikipedia tied for second and Twitter, blogs and friends barely made a mark.Quora, by the way, didn’t get a single vote.

Before you blast  the results let me say again this was not a scientific study and most professors (one did) would challenge the question as not being valid. I agree and would add my sample was likely biased (most likely PR folks), etc. but it does give an interesting snapshot.

The uptake to all this, if you truly believe in the crowd, don’t trust them when your job is on the line and go buy a textbook.

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Categories : Education, Public Relations, Research, Social Media, twitter

14 predictions about everyone’s top 10 predictions about social media

12/08/10 Bill Handy Comments (6)

Apocalypse prediction - 04

About this time we see a flurry of top ten predictions about social media. Some are legit but most are simply predictions made by those who are experts on social media – both kinds, Twitter and Facebook.* I have lots of predictions about social media and 2011 and I might share some of them later but right now I want to share my top forteen predictions about most top ten predictions about social media in 2011. To add credibility to my top ten list I am adding percentages…

87% of predictions will be made by “social media gurus” and by gurus I mean someone who had or has a career in a field not related to strategic communications but has a computer and an ounce of technical ability to create a twitter account, Facebook page and blog.

98.37% Won’t review their predictions from 2009 (Please note, I carried my prediction percentage to the second decimal which gives it more credibility) for a variety of reasons but most of all because of their ridiculousness.

74% of PR/Marcom/Adv firms, etc. prediction blog posts will be written by someone other than the person who wrote their 2010 predictions because that person is no longer there.

100% of PR/Marcom/Adv firms who made predictions last year but don’t make predictions this year won’t do so because the person who wrote their predictions last year is no longer there and they didn’t hire a replacement.

98.2 % of all top ten social media predictions blog posts will get less than 100 unique visits per site.

100% of those who got 100 unique visits will consider that a successful blog post.

96% will include some overused social media term about people

97% will include the term revolutionary. Please note, this is a 3% decrease from last year since word is getting around that all these platforms and tools are truly revolutionary.

89% will talk about social media the same way a football player dances in the end zone after scoring a touchdown… for the first time.

57% will predict that Facebook is the new Google, 57% will predict that Google’s new social effort will dominate Facebook and 14% will somehow predict both.

142.3% of social media predications will illustrate by example that the person making the predictions fundamentally doesn’t understand mathematics in general and percentages in particular

87% will make a prediction with worldwide implications based on a random sampling of 1 (themselves)  or something they read on twitter.

0% of the social media predictions will reference Subservient Chicken, Skittles, or that stupid Spy Twitter game… whatever it was called. 23% will reference the Old Spice Guy and whatever Old Spice product he was promoting.

92% of predictions won’t really be predictions at all but simply the observation that evolution is alive and well in the field of communications as predicted by true experts in the communications industry back in the 1940′s and earlier in some cases.

There you have it and if you have a prediction about the 2011 social media predictions please post them below.  I will mark my calendar for December, 2011 to see how we did.

*I stole that line from @mattgalloway who also contributed to this post – mainly the stuff you didn’t like. Everything else is mine.

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Categories : "public relations", Advertising, Awkward, Blogs, Crap!, facebook, Fun, Random, Research, Social Media, tips, twitter

Oklahoma State University to launch Apple iPad student pilot initiative

06/18/10 Bill Handy Comments (14)

Oklahoma State University president Burns Hargis announced this morning the University will pilot an Apple iPad initiative during the Fall 2010 semester with select courses in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business at both the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses.

“This pilot initiative will provide valuable insight into the research benefits of the Apple iPad in the classroom,” said Hargis.  “The iPad has had an amazing impact since it was introduced last April and we are excited to be able to put this powerful and creative tool in the hands of students and faculty and see what happens.”

The Pilot will be led by myself and Tracy Suter, associate professor of marketing in the Spears School of Business.   Each of us will integrate the iPad differently but will focus on specific measurable outcomes.

The iPad pilot will be launched this fall with approximately 125 students in five different courses and will be focused on fields of study where we believe we can best determine the higher education value of the iPad.  We will evaluate the academic enhancement to the courses, how the iPad and its specific apps and web-based tools can be integrated in this capacity, and perhaps most importantly, how the integration of these mobile tools can expand the tactical abilities of students as they enter the workforce.

The iPad and other mobile tools are already integrated into daily business use.  In both schools, the iPad will be used for academic purposes and to explore innovative uses and tactical uses specific to each school’s industry needs.

Professor Suter offers this perspectives, “In addition to mobility, the iPad will allow us to work in real-time. For example, data collection and analysis in a research context can be a multi-day to multi-week process.  By using the iPad, we can replace paper-and-pencil research with the immediate process of data collection, review and summary over a Web interface.

I certainly have ideas of how I would like to use an iPad. But collectively we will discover new uses a single individual might not have conceived independently.  Putting the newest technology in the hands of students allows them to stretch the limits of how it can be used.”

Cost savings for students will also be evaluated.  In one case, students using the iPad in a single course will save more than $100 on a single textbook, which can be downloaded in an ePub format.

OSU is leading the way in the integration of technology in the classroom. It is already using a variety of tools such as iTunesU and YouTube, along with other collaborative tools. OSU is also exploring the development of mobile applications to integrate current publications into an online and app platform, offering expense savings and enhanced distribution.

Members of the media interested in more information can contact me or Carrie Hulsey-Greene | 405.744.9081 | Carrie.hulsey_greene@okstate.edu

I would be remiss if I didn’t add, “Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines to better prepare students for a new world. Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach. OSU has more than 32,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 19,000 on its Stillwater campus, with students from all 50 states and about 110 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 200,000 students who have made a lasting impact on Oklahoma and the world.” That and GO POKES!!!

CREATE – INNOVATE – EDUCATE – GO STATE!

Stay tunes, more to come…

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Future of the Internet – An Interview with Dr. David Weinberger

05/14/10 Bill Handy Comments (0)

I posted part of this taped interview a while back and the folks at Oklahoma State University were gracious enough to give me the entire taped interview with Dr. Weinberger, outtakes and all. There is lots here so I hope you will take a second (2,119 to be exact) to watch, learn and debate below. Later I will share my thoughts on this interview and several others I participated in as both the interviewer and interviewee during the last few months. All has further shaped my opinion and philosophy about how we can use the internet to its fullest potential, how to bring value to your online communication and marketing efforts and how, in my opinion, influence is shifting. More to come…

Future of the Internet – Interview with Dr. David Weinberger from billhandy on Vimeo.

p.s. I am in the midst of updating the look, feel and, most important, purpose of this site. Stay tuned and please pardon the mess while I experiment.

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Categories : jb4520, PR Communication Methods, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized
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An interview with a social media guru and Harvard Professor

02/07/10 Bill Handy Comments (4)

Update – the interview has been posted in its entirety on the KOSU website (The State’s NPR Station). Disregard the interviewer, a total amature to say the least but Dr. Weinberger’s responses are awesome. If you listen, please leave a comment in their comments section to show your support for their hard work and appreciation for covering a story such as this.

———————-

I was given the opportunity to interview David Weinberger for KOSU, the State’s NPR station and I jumped at the chance. The kind folks at KOSU asked simply because they thought I might have some good questions. Little did they know Dr. Weinberger has had a direct influence on my engagement of online communications.

David is a fellow at Harvard University’s prestigious Berkman Center and is considered one of the nation’s foremost interpreters of technology’s impact on business and society – although when I mentioned that during the interview he kind of chuckled. I would argue he is also very modest.

I should point out all this came about because h0e will also be at Oklahoma State University for our annual Research Week where he will be a guest lecturer.

His latest book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, discusses how the new rules for organizing ideas and information are transforming our culture and business. Its not just a rehash of Technology Determinism Theory but a full blown evaluation of how we try to create order in a digital world using tactile world techniques. This book, by the way, greatly impacted my outlook of organizational communications and really cemented my philosophy regarding a centralized vs. decentralized web presence – something I have been trying to wrap my arms around and apply in practice not just theory. More on that later.

I should also mention Dr. Weinberger co-authored The Cluetrain Manifesto. If you haven’t read it I would strongly suggest you do so. It is still timely even though it was written eleven years ago. And, as I shared with Dr. Weinberger, it really shaped my perceptions and approach toward digital communications, pushing me down a path which led me to where I am today. Today many might not consider it groundbreaking but we sure did way back then.

The point of this post
I thought I would share my questions for Dr. Weinberger. I can’t provide you the answers, at least not yet. I will as soon as the story airs but I am sharing them here in the hopes you will ask yourself the same questions – and answer them. I know I did a million times over and each time I worked through a bit more where technology is leading us.

If you wish, post your answers below or start a conversation on your own site and post a link below. Even better, if after giving it some thought you have a question of your own for Dr. Weinberger, post it! I will have another opportunity to interview him while he is here.

I look forward to your thoughts.

———————————-

You are considered to be an Internet and marketing guru especially with regard to social media. Most would assume your background is in technology yet you received your PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. How much of your philosophy background plays into your current work?

In Cluetrain Manifesto you wrote, “A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.” Here we are in 2010. In your opinion, are businesses getting it? Are they taking delivery of the cluetrain?

In 2007 you wrote Everything is Miscellaneous in which you talk about there being no universally acceptable way of classifying information and that no matter how hard we try to organize the internet it all gets filed in a miscellaneous category. Tell us more about this premise? (for more insight feel free to visit his blog)

I talk to my student about social media being three parts culture and one part technology. Is the culture shift really more of our acceptance to embrace a messy world?

Let’s talk for a minute and really define our conversation as being one of not the internet in general but specifically social media – a two-way symmetrical communication model where everyone has equal power. First of all, does everyone have equal power?

The world might stop spinning if I don’t mention twitter during an interview with a social media guru. Almost three years ago you commented, regarding twitter, you weren’t sure how long you could keep up with it, “interrupting your day to post a message that no one cares about.” I know you still use Twitter, do you still feel that same way about it?

You also commented you weren’t sure where the value was or what it would become a platform for. Has twitter become a platform for anything?

A few other quotes I would like for you to elaborate on:
“Transparency is the new objectivity” What do you mean by this?

“Mastering a topic is in trouble and authority is in jeopardy.” So who has more value, the scholar or the individual who has the ability to use the tools – to search google.

Is the online conversation becoming more or less intelligent?

The title of your presentation at OSU is, “Is the web Moral”. Is it?

I wonder if we might play a sort of word association game, I say a word and you share your thoughts:
  • Net neutrality
  • Facts – specifically are they negotiable?
  • Copyright
  • Decentralized net presence
  • Education

Okay gang, those are the questions. Tell me your answers, post your own, take the conversation elsewhere (be sure to link to it) and I will be sure to keep you posted when his answers are available to listen to.

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Categories : Fun, jb4520, PR 101, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized
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gapingvoid 2.0: Why I'll no longer be blogging new cartoons.

01/19/10 Bill Handy Comments (0)

From his email newsletter Hugh MacLeod will no longer be blogging his artwork. Why? After reading his letter it is my opinion his community simply got too big which reinforces that in social media communities size matters – inversely. (thank you @mattgalloway or Matt Galloway in the real world for forwarding his letter)

gapingvoid 2.0: Why I’ll no longer be blogging new cartoons.

1. In May, 2001, I blogged my first cartoon on gapingvoid.com. This is my TENTH year doing it.

Back then, it was like the dawn of a new era. The idea that I could doodle at night, and have the entire world see the work the next morning, was amazing and liberating to me. Cheap, Easy, Global Media.

Blogging changed my life. It also allowed me to share my work with people who understood and valued it. For the longest time, I felt as if gapingvoid was almost a “club” of like-minded, passionate, smart people. And wherever I traveled, blogging allowed me to meet lovely, smart, fun people who shared the same worldview. The blogosphere felt like a group who were going to change the world. And you know what? In our own way, we did.

2. But like a lot of the folk who have been blogging for a long time, I’ve started to feel that over the last few years, that the blogosphere has just gotten too big, noisy and anonymous. I’ve started longing for the days when things were ‘smaller’, ‘clubbier’, intimate and, well, human. When the people I met were truly like-minded. This was one of the reasons why I originally started the “CDF” newsletter last year. I wanted that feeling back.

Though I’ve not emailed you guys consistently, we consistently get new sign-ups and I get emails daily that reinforce the idea that we are into the same stuff, whether we’re “artists” or not. We understand that what is gibberish to most people, is actually cool, powerful stuff to us- and somehow fits into the weird, existential angst of work, AND relationships, AND 21st Century life.

3. So, I’ve decided that I really only want to share my new work (cartoons) with ‘us’ i.e. Y’all. The folks that really dig and support what I do. Call it “Getting back to my roots” or whatever. But starting immediately, my new cartoons will be going out first to this email list, which will really be “Hugh’s Daily Cartoon”- a new cartoon emailed first thing out every day, so y’all can start with a bit of a chuckle when you open your Inbox. Simple. Easy.

Also, by making the cartoons available by sign-up, I hope that we can build this group and maybe do more together- Tweetups, conferences, geek dinners, drunken nights out, whatever.

4. These are still early days- there’s still a lot to figure out. But “Phase Two” of gapingvoid is now beginning, and it’s all very, very exciting stuff!

5. Feel free to blog, tweet, forward along these new e-mail cartoons at your leisure, make a friend smile etc…. and yeah, if you find something that inspires you enough to want it hanging on your wall, you can buy the print (Yes, every cartoon will come with a link to the gapingvoid gallery, where you can buy the print version if you wish). Regardless, the same Creative Commons terms still apply.

6. Feel free to opt out and unsubscribe at any time. I think it would be cool if one day there were 100,00 like-minded people who get the cartoons every morning. So again, feel free to share etc.

Wish me luck with gapingvoid 2.0,

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In Social Media Communities Size Matters – Inversely

10/14/09 Bill Handy Comments (14)
Community

Courtesy of

When I work with groups on their strategic use of social media I assure them, “size doesn’t matter” and they look at me funny. We have been told our whole lives that bigger is better.  As it turns out, when it comes to building a community via social media and specifically when you amass a vague community with no clear definition i.e. followers/friends that isn’t always the case. I blogged about this a while back but a few recent studies I came across  and a short conversation on twitter led me back to the research.

At this point I would like to remind everyone of a very technical term I use quite often when talking about what strategies to use regarding  Social Media engagement, “it depends”.  It depends on your goals and objectives and for as much as we might want to create a cookie cutter process for the strategic and tactical use of social media, what I find to be the case with every organization I work with is, their efforts don’t come close to mirroring any other organization’s use. (note to self, need to blog about the reasons why I think they are so different)

This leads me back to size. Too many folks focus on and talk about the size of their twitter followers. It’s for obvious reasons:

  • It’s an easy metric to measure
  • We start out on Twitter for the sole purpose of finding people to follow in the hopes they will find us
  • Every added follower is… something, not sure what but we get warm fuzzies when we get that update email
  • Even “Twitter graders” give us kudos for the number of followers.  Twitter “elite” strive to hit the one million mark.

But I go back to the question of goals and objectives. Specifically how does the size of your community support them? Are you selling a book, just released a movie – maybe size does matter but I would argue these folks are most likely using twitter as an rss feed for one-way or at best two-way asymmetrical communication. Sure, they might “engage their followers” but what about their community which we all talk about being so valuable in social media.

If we look at our community as a true community, one of engagement and collaboration and created for a purpose (go way back to the days of the Mayberry analogy) then we find smaller might actually be better. But, again, it depends on so many variables. How are you defined in this community? How are others defined in this community? Are you the leader (hint, you might think you are but…) is it a hierarchical community? And so on. All critical questions which need to be asked as you set the stage for your tactical use of any community based social media tactic.

Still shaking your head and thinking to yourself, “strong words Bill but prove it.”  Here ya go -

Research (link provided to original source)
Effects of spatial distribution and information transmission over cooperation dynamics – “Our results show that spatial structures affect the cooperation dynamics under horizontal information transmission and in some structures, particularly Small World Networks, cooperation is more sensible to information transmission.”

Social Networks and Collective Action – “The analysis finds that some metrics for networks’ influence—size, the prevalence of weak ties, the presence of elites—have a more complex interaction with network structure and individual motivations than has been previously acknowledged. For example, in some contexts additional network ties decrease participation. This presents the potential for selection bias in empirical studies. The model offers a fuller characterization of the role of network structure and predicts expected levels of participation across network types and distributions of motivations as a function of network size, weak and strong ties, and elite influence.”

Learning to Cooperate: Learning Networks and The Problem of Altruism – “Learning networks determine the spread of successful strategies; a larger,more connected population with more overlapping clusters of relationships averages72% mutual cooperation in our simulation, a 12 percentage point gain over the 60% averaged by the smallest, least connected, least clustered population. Larger populations and more contacts both increase the chance of learning from successful retaliatory strategies and hence increase the growth of retaliatory strategies whenever selection favors cooperation. Thus larger populations with more developed learning relationships should on average exhibit higher levels of cooperation. This would suggest that cooperation across longstanding cleavages would develop more rapidly in larger interactive legislatures, larger more established policy arenas, and larger integrated immigrant communities—in the latter case, however, analytic results for finite populations suggest that at some point larger populations may impede the  evolution of cooperation unless interactions are restricted into structured game networks.”

A few points:
To clarify some of the research above, there are cases when the size of the community is beneficial but very specific variables need to be considered and implemented.  I also find it interesting but self explanatory that most studies which involve or can be related to social media are geared toward Biology, Political Science, Anthropology, Mathematics, Psychology, etc.  What I find interesting about this is, in a social media world (PR/Mass Comm/marketing)  where we preach collaboration, seldom do we venture outside our comfort zone regarding research. Finally, there is one other study I am tying again to find. It is recent, within the last two months and from Europe and spoke specifically to mass communication and communities. It was dead and if I can find it I will add it to this post.

So what now?
No reason to start over but do ask yourself a few questions:

  • Why am I tweeting? What larger goal or objective does it support?
  • If I build a community, what kind of responsibility do I have to this community?
  • When you visualize your community what does it look like?
  • Now look at your followers and those you follow – what do you see?
  • Insert a few dozen other questions which should be asked when building a community.

I can tell you what I am doing. For experimental reasons I am starting over from square one. Following no one and no one following me. I am taking into consideration so much more than when I first started tweeting. You won’t likely find me, especially if you are looking for folks who are also focused on a very small niche. I will continue to use Bill Handy for a number of reasons but I am also changing how I use this tool. If I want a community then I need to truly build it so, based on the research above, it can be successful.

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Morgan Stanley doesn't know bupkis about teen (JB4520 Alumni) Tweeters

07/14/09 Bill Handy Comments (7)

The recent Morgan Stanley Report regarding teen usage of social media has generated a lot of discussion. What caught my eye was twitter and the statement, “Teens don’t use Twitter because no one is reading their tweets. Twitter is totally different when you have thousands of people following you versus only a handful of your co-workers.”

This, in turn, got me thinking (never a good idea) -  I spent a semester talking to students about social media (JB 4520) and Twitter was a big part of the discussion. In fact, as part of an assignment they were, “required” to use Twitter.  If teens don’t like twitter, are any of these students still tweeting?

So I sent the class an email and asked them if they still used twitter. While I had their attention I tossed in a few other questions – a virtual, non-scientific focus group of sorts. The questions and answers, when applicable, are below (email went to 43 students, eleven responded. Additional responses will be added as they arrive):

You used twitter during your involvement with the social media class. Do you still use it?
Overwhelmingly the answer to this question was yes, at least to some degree. Of all the respondents only one wasn’t using twitter at all. Without giving anything away, this person dropped the class after the first few weeks. Perhaps the continual usage is the result of being taught how to use twitter to their benefit. Here are some of their comments:

  • Sometimes use it..i more use it for my internship at a tv station then i do personal use.
  • Yes. I use Twitter occasionally, but I recently used Twitter a lot when I went to Bonnaroo. (A music festival in Tennessee) I continually updated friends about the bands I saw and who put on the best concerts. I also used the Bonnaroo hash tag to find out what others where doing.
  • Yes, every day
  • Not on a regular basis
  • I use Twitter still, but in a different way. I used Twitter more to tell what I’m doing and to vent my frustration about summer school classes! When I was in the class I would use it more to communicate with the PR world (I’m trying to get back to doing that..)
  • Yes, but less often

What do/did you like about twitter?

  • Short and to the point messages. Moderate to high interaction with others around the world. Feeling like I have a voice where companies: corporations, nonprofits, etc. can listen and respond. A great source for searching and quick updated information in one place.
  • I like being able to see what everyone is doing and especially following celebs. I read my news now on Twitter, if I find an article interesting I just click the link.
  • nothing
  • Good PR advice, connects me with important people
  • I have found Twitter to be the fastest and easiest means of gathering news
  • I like can go to one place for me info. I also like how easy it is to communicate with a large group.
  • I like getting information that I feel I would be left out of the loop on. Pretty much all of the articles and studies that people link to.
  • easy way to keep ppl updated like esp with news stuff and columns its fun and interesting
  • Yes. I love it.
  • It allows individuals to spread snippets of information very quickly to a lot of people.
  • Reading everyone else’s thoughts, following the links they posted
  • Easy, cuts information down to vital facts, fun, get information/news/gossip very very fast, simple way to get yours or someone else’s message out
  • Quick, brief & effective. Learn a lot from others throughout world & others are willing to help you with any questions you have.
  • Somewhat…I’ve been busy this summer and it hasn’t been a huge priority. I still try to update and look around a couple times a week.

What do/did you dislike about it about twitter?

  • That its down all the time, and the spam
  • When people’s status updates aren’t entertaining or important- especially when I can’t think of any that are.
  • I haven’t found anything that I like about Twitter, sometimes I accept the wrong people to follow and his/her tweets can get annoying, but then i’ll just unfollow them.
  • It seems to still have some kinks…i.e. It says “Twitter is over capacity” frequently, and can be slow at times
  • I hate most of the celebrities. I don’t follow Ashton, Shaq, or John Mayer
  • it’s toooo traffic like…full of junk
  • i dislike people that follow me that are from trashy web sites. i also dislike people that use twitter only for their own gain. i don’t see it often but i know it’s out there.
  • compared to facebook there is no way of knowing if the person really is who they say they are. Usually happens in the case of celebrities. Oh and I don’t like that I have to remember people’s user names when I want to send a DM or reply. It’s almost too much of a hassle to look it up.
  • Almost everything. What once had potential to be something great has turned into a collection of billboards to feed their collective egos. It needs to separate the users into categories: Serious posts and questions, and the random people that feel the need to let everyone know they hate cleaning cat boxes but love green bananas.
  • If you don’t have Internet on your phone, you can’t keep up with the conversation
  • It’s becoming too jumbled with people’s random updates and seems to be less about networking, more about # of followers you can get.
  • I like the networking aspect of it. I had a job offer in OKC as a media relations inter from a follower, but wasn’t able to accept because of summer classes
  • Tired of being followed by companies who I have no real connection with. Examples: weddings, mattresses, calculators, etc.

Do you use facebook?
The majority still use facebook but a few commented they don’t or for only certain reasons.

  • sometimes not as much as i use to
  • No, I canceled my account when they started changing it to look more like twitter. I may reopen my account someday.
  • Yes, but I only use it for pictures and chat

Do you use texting?
Overwhelmingly the students use text with only one not using it because of phone limitations (the horror).

  • all the time…my main use of communication
  • Yes, I work for AT&T and have seen a dramatic increase in texting, while at the same time a lot of people are decreasing their talk time. I have a customer who has four daughters, his 15 year old sent 26,000 + texts in may.
  • No. Phone doesn’t receive text.
  • 5,000+ a month

Do you have a smart phone?
About 70% have a smart phone and the kind used, when provided, was mixed among a variety of styles. Blackberry and Iphone were at the top of the list.

  • No, but i NEED one! If only my internship was paid!
  • Yes, the Blackberry Bold. Motorola just introduced a non-smart phone that is being touted as a social networking phone. It is called the Karma. It has Myspace, Facebook and Twitter pre-loaded.

Which do you use more, facebook, twiter or texting? (if there is another service/tool you use please include it here)
Texting wins hands down on this. What I found interesting was, for those who provided it, the criteria for which each was used.

  • texting
  • It depends on who I’m talking to. I text my close friends, tweet business and local folk, and use facebook for my more distant (emotionally and physically) friends.
  • For direct contact, texting. For interaction, Twitter. For catching up or getting to know someone, Facebook. I guess I use texting the most but that’s with a select group of people where as I use Twitter often but in conversation with people I don’t know and Facebook I use sporadically with good acquaintances and friends.
  • i think texting. then twitter. then facebook.
  • Texting and Myspace
  • Texting, but if I had a smart phone I would tweet more
  • Twitter/texting
  • I use texting most regularly
  • Probably texting
  • Facebook then Twitter.
  • Facebook and texting.
  • Texting, but facebook is used a lot, too.
  • I use texting the most to connect with close friends instantly, but I use the many services that facebook offers to connect with my extended group of friends.

Are you actively engaged in any other social media tools/tactics (i.e. blogging, friendfeed, linkedin, etc.)
For the most part they aren’t. Blogging, by the way, was part of another assignment for the course.

  • yes and no if i am its more work related then personal
  • no
  • Not anymore
  • i did have a blog for class. i havent updated in a long time but i want to start again.
  • I blog sporadically, am listed on LinkedIn, but I’m not very active. I also create Ning sites for different organizations for fun.
  • Every now and then I engage in linkedin, but not nearly as much as Twitter
  • No, not actively engaged. I have accounts on other services but rarely update them.
  • Faintly involved with myspace to keep up with my camp kids. Sporadic blogger
  • no
  • I blog for work, not much on my personal blog, but I would like that to change. I’m on linkedin, and I have friendfeed but I rarely use it.
  • I haven’t blogged since social media class was over, but I’m planning on using it once school starts again.
  • I have a blog but I read others’ blogs more than I update my own.
  • no

So, there you have it, from the mouth of teens. The one thing I took from it was this – they are engaged in all kinds of (social) media, including twitter, but how they use it probably has more to do with their knowledge of the tool than anything else. If they find value (which if you review their comments on why they like twitter you will notice almost all surround some kind of value to the user) they will continue to use it.No surprise there, just an affirmation of what we already know about human nature.

Tell me your thoughts.

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