Engaging in Conversation

Last semester, I took an Entertainment Journalism class that focused on how social media is influencing the way news is transferring. The majority of us probably acquire our news from some sort of electronic medium. The idea of print journalism sounds almost foreign (well, not to me, but many others - personally I prefer reading off paper). Today, news can be obtained through online newspapers, magazines, eBooks, and many other print forms gone technological. However, many of us rely on social media outlets to provide us with day-to-day headlines. If it wasn't for Twitter, I would be clueless on a lot of current events. Social media is completely changing the way we consume news, and how we use it. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and even the unpopular Delicious, help us find news from different sources we would normally not be exposed to. 

Now, that I have completely diverged from my original thought, let me get back to the Entertainment Journalism class. In the syllabus, it said, "speak once, read twice." In addition, it said that listening was an integral part of the course. At the time, this really did not matter to me, but after reading the first chapter of Brian Solis' Engaged, it suddenly dawned on me how important listening can be. 


In class, we talked about how to get more followers on Twitters and how interacting with your followers can help boost your image. Solis talks about how social media is a "conversation." I believe this is a very integral part to the marketing side of social media. An idea I am very fond of, in relation to music, is the "connect with fans" theory. How many of us would love to get a reply from Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, or any other celebrity of your choice? Making your fans, or people in general, feel wanted and part of a conversation is likely to better your image. 

Marketers and customer service representatives tend to interact with consumers in a, how to do I put this, awful manner. Consumers are people too and don't need to be spoken "at." In order to effectively sell yourself or product, you should engage in conversation with your followers or fans. Social Media allows users to get to know their fans/followers personally. You have the ability to tap into specific markets. How you choose to use that information is at your own discretion. 


Overall, I think listening is something everyone needs to remember to do. Sometimes I find myself talking way too much and have to remember just to pipe down and listen. It's amazing how people are changing communication. If you open up your ears you'll learn something you never knew. 

It’s Almost As Sweet as Candy: Del.icio.us

Delicious. When I first heard that this was the name of a webiste, I was expecting to see cupcakes, candy, and sugar galore. Much to my dismay, it was a social book marking website (not that theres anything wrong with this, but I fancy candy products a little bit more!)

In class we learned about the social booking marking site Del.icio.us. Five years ago, the company was bought out by Yahoo!, and recently, has been scheduled to shut down. Millions of deliciousers, as I like to call them, were upset about the sudden closing of their favorite social book marking website. Before I go on anymore, I think it is important to explain what exactly “social book making” means.

Most of us probably spend a good number of hours perusing the internet and finding funny, random websites that we enjoy. We send these websites to our friends, family, and anyone else that might find them funny. After a while, it is easy to lose track of all these websites and forget about them. For anyone else who spends as much time as me online, have no fear, delicious is here!

Delicious is a social book marking website that allows users to not only save and store websites (like an RSS reader,) but, to socially exchange them with other members of Delicious. What’s the point of this? I found myself wondering the same exact thing at first, but after a brief demonstration, I was hooked.

Any communication major loves finding out about news. Delicious is a great way to witness how fast news can spread over the Internet.