Week 5

Week 5

Hello! This is my review of week 4 of Communicate Electronically. 

This week we focused on Social Media and how business can profit through the use of the various options available. It seems impossible to open an email account nowadays without at least half of it being some kind of link to a business or organisation trying to get your attention. Attention getting itself is not unusual in the business world but the electronic platform of the internet and its growing facilities which link humans to others in a social way has become invaluable. 

Business is all about our connections with those around us, word of mouth and sharing things which interest us. Social media can easily be described that way so the two mesh very well. Perhaps this growing urge to reach out and interact with others is an outcome of our change into relying on electronic entertainment and pass times. Humans NEED other humans; this is a basic biological and emotional   requirement to survive. Our change into the electronic world of the internet has cut off a lot of that connection, so what do we do? Could we possibly step away from the computer? Nah, let’s make ways to connect without the hassle of standing up!! 

There is no doubt that the business world has benefited many times over by the internet and Social Media. It is unlikely to stop tomorrow and go back to life thirty years ago, that’s progress I guess. We need to find a balance, everything in life needs it; so why not include this new part of the human world? 

We watched some YouTube videos this week. One was called ‘Social Media Revolution’ which was primarily a visual presentation showing the impact Social Media has had on our world and the changes that have occurred from it – which let’s face it are happening so fast by the time I hear about them they are old news!!

Next was a video about twitter. It did open my eyes to what the idea was all about which I appreciated, but I just find it dehumanising and plain dangerous. If you set it to only share with your friends I guess it could be fun, but the amount of times you hear about things going wrong – the break ins because someone twittered that they were on holidays, or the prevalence of stalking because your telling people where you are, it just seems like madness. For example, think of the original Terminator movie (yes, not all of you may know it, but trust me it is a classic!) How much easier would it have been for the terminator if Sarah Connor had twitted ‘oh boy, so glad I found this groovy club to hide out in – I’m sure to be safe here. “Technoir” rocks!’ 

We then looked at the Qantas Follow Us Social Media page. This contained a list of 12 Social Media sites that Qantas uses to spread their organisations information. These included Red e-Mail, Instagram, LinkedIn, You Tube, Facebook, twitter, Travel Insider, igoogle, Google chrome, Flickr, RSS Feeds and Qantas Toolbar. Our assignment this week is to view these sites and write about them. I have been quite dubious about most Social Media but I must admit to having my eyes opened somewhat with studying these options. 

Qantas certainly spreads itself well and uses these social Media options very well.

That’s it for me this week!

Thank you

Regards

Susannah