Individual Poject

My area of study is General Management. For the individual project, I would like to show how using social media in firms marketing campaigns can have an extreme effect on the bottom line of an organization. As a manager, we care about running a profitable and efficient company. We need to utilize social media into our plans because the world is becoming more and more dependent on it for the most up to date news, updates, prices, and hottest topics in business. I am actually doing a Marketing communications plan right now for Dog Central in my Marketing 310 class. We suggested that they utilize QR(Quick Response) codes so students can see a flyer, scan it with their phone and see what deal they have that day. It is a unique marketing strategy that utilizes social media and it could link up with their Twitter, Facebook, or website. I have done a lot of research about this topic and I think doing a prezi about it would be beneficial. I think I still have a lot to learn about the topic but I can't wait to dig deeper on how this effects a company like Dog Central.

24 Hour Ban

Recently I did the 24 hour ban from using social media. I found it to be very hard because I constantly wanted to check my twitter and facebook to see what was happening that day. I found it incredibly difficult because all of this technology is always just at the tip of our fingers. Without my phone I almost felt guilty because I thought that people were trying to talk to me or something important was happening. I definitely see the purpose of having us do this assignment because it really made us think about how we live our lives. If you go to a restaurant look around, and probably half of the people are on their phones instead of actually listening to whoever they are with talk. We have allowed social media and technology to control us and actually change the way we communicate. It is almost like we would rather communicate with whoever is not there, instead of who it is you are sitting with. I will probably try harder to go a few hours each day without using my phone because I need to try to stop being so dependent on checking it. A good way to do this is just leave it in my room while I am at home or to leave it in my car during class.

Louis CK on Conan

I enjoyed the video clip we watched in class featuring Louis CK, the comedian, on Conan's television show. He brought up really valid points about how dependent everyone has become on technology, and why he doesn't want his kids to be like everyone else. He even mentioned that he pulled off of the road and let out a good cry, because by using his phone 24/7 he lost that feeling of personal emotion and never gets to really let it out. He wants his kids to be able to express themselves and not have to depend on their phones so much which is where this world is coming to. It is scary how fast our interpersonal communication with each other has dwindled down and there is no reason for that.
 Part of me wishes this golden age never happened so we would be able to work on our people skills again. Maybe we need to use the technique of Louis CK and teach our kids that not using technology all the time to accomplish everything is ok. We have lost our ability to problem solve somewhere along the way as well because we are so infatuated with our phones all the time.

My Opinion on the 24 Hour Technology Strike

I have not completed this yet, but I wanted to share how I think this will work before hand. I think it will be absolute chaos. Unfortunately, people can not go more than an hour (even in class) without checking their phones. If we are to boycott social media and our phones for an entire day, people will go berserk. I am not saying that I am not a part of this problem, because I am. I am sort of afraid to do this because I play a lot of games on my phone, as well as use it for email, etc. We need to come up with a way to live without technology if we need to, and actually re-learn our communication skills. We have suffered in our interpersonal communication with the emergence of these new technological advances, and gives us more of a reason to not react to peoples faces, but hide behind our $500 smartphones. This assignment will be very interesting, I can't wait to read how it goes for the class. I personally am not looking forward to it, but it is very intriguing to see if I can do it.

Reflection on CMMA

Our project working with the CMMA is coming along very smoothly. We have gathered a cornucopia of information and are now progressing through our project deliverable. Recently, the group got to visit Morbark, a company within the CMMA, sadly I could not attend. I am sure they learned even more valuable information on how we could incorporate their business with technology. Moving forward, we still need to set a final plan they could use to get their companies names and career opportunities out there. More and more people are going to college, and missing out on these jobs that may not require a 4 year degree, rather a license or some sort of certificate or trade schooling. I look forward to sharing with them what we have learned through the past couple of months. We can use this information in the future when we give our final presentation.

I was also excited to learn after talking with Dr. Nancy Hicks that I will be working with the CMMA in the spring semester, during BIS 470. I am excited to move forward and help the association as they transition into A New Digital Age. I like how all of these things are tied together.