READ ALL ABOUT IT (in 140 Characters or Less)

Twitter can be used for marketing in a number of ways. An organization or company can reach out to potential or current customers using Twitter as a platform. A company can use Twitter to highlight new releases and additions. An organization can use Twitter to broadcast what they are doing in the organization. Potential customers can see this and if the image is broadcasted correctly, agree with organization and company and buy into the product or ideal. Twitter can be used as a tactic to portray an image of a company through social media.

Twitter can also be used as a political tool. Just look at the current president, Donald Trump’s twitter page (@realDonaldTrump.) As ridiculous as it is, President Trump uses his twitter page as an uncensored platform to supposedly get his point across. His tweets certainly gain a lot of attention from the media due to how absolutely crazy they sound. President Trump tweets have also had a positive and negative affect on his campaign. Trump supporters look up to his tweets saying he is being honest and “speaking the truth.” Trump supporters believe that since the President cannot censer his tweets he is a more reliable president. On the other hand people who are not a fan of Trump believe he needs to control his twitter profile and learn how to tweet professionally. The president has made many contradictory tweets in the past that have negatively affected his campaign. Journalist can use twitter as a way to microblog. Journalists can quickly and effectively deliver news through the 140 character limit of a tweet. Journalists can gain a massive twitter following just by having one tweet become popular or being affiliated with a news outlet. Twitter is a fast and effective way to deliver news.

Events are communicated through twitter because it is the fastest way to communicate information. Hashtags are used to get information out there and organize where tweets can be found. Someone can click on a certain hashtag and find all the tweets that have been tweeted with the hashtag in the tweet. Examples of popular hashtags that have been used in the past twelve months are #PrayforEgypt, #SaveDinaAli, and #WomensMarch. #PrayforEgypt was a hashtag created after the terrorist bombing in an Egyptian church on Palm Sunday. The bombing killed at least thirteen people and injured many more. As soon as the news hit twitter the hashtag was created and dozens of tweets started rolling through. Since the attack was getting limited coverage on traditional news outlets journalists and civilians took it upon themselves to tweet updates using the hashtag #PrayforEgypt. This hashtag was widely used by people all over the world no matter race, color, or religion. This is just one of the examples of people being brought together through Twitter due to a tragedy. 

#SaveDinaAli is a less popular twitter hashtag that was formed to try to save a women that was held up in the Philippine airport. Dina Ali had been abused by family and government in Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal for a woman to travel without the permission of a male guardian. She planned on fleeing Saudi Arabia and seeking refuge in Australia. Her family quickly caught up with her plans and kidnapped her in the Philippine airport to take her back home against her will. This event happened two weeks ago and it is still unknown where Dina Ali is now. The hashtag was created to raise awareness to what happens to Saudi women if they try to leave the abusive lifestyle. Women all around the world were trying to get the media to notice what happened to Dina Ali so they can report on it. To this day no big media outlets have reported on Dina Ali.

The #WomensMarch hashtag was created to highlight the marches that were happening across the world to protest women’s right to freedom, equal wage, and healthcare. This march happened in Washington D.C. just a few days after the election. Women’s rights were threatened because of the new president and thus women marched. On twitter, you could find the location of marches all around the world just by searching the hashtag. You could find pictures and videos of what was happening and who was there. This is an example of twitter being effective on getting the message across that women deserve equal rights as men.

Twitter is a platform where a person can follow accounts that they are passionate about. Users can follow a page that represent their beliefs, hobbies, and interests. An example of that can be a makeup artist that is passionate about animal rights issues. The twitter accounts they can follow are Tarte Cosmetics (@tartecosmetics) since they are a cruelty free brand. Also they can follow accounts they do not agree with such as, Mac Cosmetics (@maccosmetics) who are not cruelty free. The reason for following the two brands is because of their differing beliefs. Since Tarte Cosmetics is cruelty free you can show support for the brand through twitter. You can learn more information about the brands beliefs. You can find out when new products are releasing and gain inspiration for new looks through their page. You can find out when they are having flash sales and learn new tips and tricks through the brands page. You can also ask questions about how and why the brand is cruelty free. On the other hand with Mac Cosmetics is not cruelty free and that is something that is not supported. Mac Cosmetics is one of the biggest makeup companies in the world and it is disheartening that they test on animals. Through twitter you can tweet at their account to raise awareness about their cruelty towards animals. You can also tag their account in tweets so followers can see exactly who you are tweeting about.  It’s also important to follow different accounts on twitter that you normally would not follow. An example of that is the Buffalo Bills (@buffalobills.) Even though you may not exactly be interested in the football team, the account still might tweet useful information. They may be tweeting out a giveaway where you can win free tickets or gear. You can get sports worthy information through that account to make you more knowledge on the topic.

Twitter is different than blogging or other social media because of the character limit. Twitter only allows you 140 characters per tweet, which means you have to be selective of your words to get your message across. This character limit is what makes Twitter so addicting. You can get a lot of content with very few words, which makes information flow much faster. Facebook is mostly a visual where people are posting videos, pictures, and linking articles. Twitter only allows you up to a minute of video and four pictures at a time. This makes it much faster to get the information you need and move along to the next tweet.

Turn on the Camera & Record!!!

A group can face struggles while shooting, editing, and posting a video on social media. Struggles while shooting can consist of not having enough time to shoot because of a busy schedule, not having sufficient lighting to shoot the video, or not having sufficient camera in order to shoot. College students are very busy due to school work, jobs, and personal life. It is hard to find time to shoot a video due to a busy schedule. It should not be too difficult to find time to shoot three minutes’ worth of video. A way you can find time to shoot the video is to film part of your routine. The video should be an extension of your life that shows who you are. This can be done by filming your routine, that way you are not spending extra time filming the video. 
When filming, make sure you have good lighting throughout the video or else it will not look professional and put together. Lighting is one of the most important factors to film production and can be the deciding factor on whether or not a video looks professional or amateur. Natural lighting is the best and cheapest lighting there is. Find time to film your video during the day outside or with the curtains open in front of a window. A camera is obviously an essential when shooting a video. Every college student should be able to operate a HD camera, especially if they are majoring in communications. You can find a pretty inexpensive camera at stores like Best Buy, Target, and even online stores like Amazon. If you do not have the funds to buy a new camera, you can rent equipment from your university’s media department.

There also may be some difficulties while editing a video. This is when working with other group members may become challenging. A group member may have different ideas than another group member and that can cause conflict. It is important to have a distinct idea and a plan before you start shooting and editing. Being unclear with your vision can cause delays in your project. Have a clear idea on how you want your video to be edited and share your idea with group members during the beginning of the process. Editing can really make or break a video. It is important to take your time while editing a video. This means you may have to watch and re-watch your video over and over to make sure the content you are creating shows your vision. Remember to make sure you are following certain guidelines like adding filters and transitions. These filters must be strategically placed and be tie in with your story line. Transitions are extremely important in a video. Make sure your transitions are fluid and pleasing to watch. If you feel like you are finally done with editing have another person outside of the group and ask for constructive criticism. Another person may catch something you may have missed. Again, editing will make or break your video so make sure to take your time and do this step thoroughly.

Posting a video on social media takes serious guts and confidence. This video that you have spent so much time on is now on the internet for everyone to see and criticize! Be confident in the content you have created before posting. If you feel something is missing maybe it is time to go back to the editing stage. When posting to YouTube be prepared that it may take some time for your video to upload. It may take between 15 minutes to an hour for a video to be uploaded on to YouTube. After uploading, pour yourself a big glass of wine because you are finally finished.

The public nature of this could affect the subject matter because since this video could offend certain people. This video could offend Buffalo State Police since the video is about the parking tickets Buffalo State Police hand out. Other people this video could offend are people who are sensitive to swearing and curse words. In this video the song “That’s When You Know” by Nico & Vinz is used. In that song they use the word “fucked” multiple times. In this video the actors also mouth curse words when they are being handed tickets. This could offend people that are not comfortable with swearing. More conservative people may not appreciate the constant swearing, but it works well in the video because it is expressing the rage of getting a parking ticket.

Video is a better communication tool than writing or photography. You can tell a story more fluidly with a video than with a photograph. A photograph is a frozen piece of time that shows one clip at a time. A video can be a continuation of a photograph that can go more in detail with a story. Videos are a visual while writing makes you use more imagination. The difference can be compared to a movie being made after a book. The book makes a person use their imagination, while you are reading you are looking at words and in your head you are coming up with a picture of how the story is unfolding. A movie physically shows you the story so you don’t have to use your imagination to see what is happening. This can make a video a better communication tool because it is directly communicating the picture the creator wants to viewer to see.

The self-portrait experience of a video should be the easiest part of the project. A self-portrait is a video done by the videographer filming themselves. There should not be many difficulties when making the self-portrait. It is important to hold your phone horizontally instead of vertically so it fits according to IMovie guidelines. Another important part of the self-portrait is finding where to place the camera so you do not have to hold it like a selfie for the entire video. This makes it more professional and aesthetically pleasing. The self-portrait should be a fun portion of the video that is a reflection of yourself.

How to wikiHow

There are plenty of ways to communicate information through a wiki. WikiHow’s are used to show someone how to do something. There are an endless amount of topics on wikiHow teaching people how to do something. The topics range from recipes, to learning languages, to how to travel on a budget. If a person were to search up any random topic its probable they would find a related tutorial, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched the idea was.

The easiest article to publish on wiki is how to make a recipe. This is because recipes have a certain format that a person could follow. A recipe will always include the prep time, cooking, time and total time. They include ingredients and tools a person need to use. They need steps to follow, as well as tips and warnings that a person can also use. Recipes are typically successful, because if you follow the steps in the recipe and use the correct ingredients you will have the same outcome.

Pictures are extremely important when it comes to recipes. That is because the person following the tutorial can compare what their product looks like compared to the one posted on the wikiHow. It is important to post as many well-lit, clear pictures as possible so the person following your recipe is not confused on what something should look like. If a wikiHow recipe did not have any pictures the reader will be guessing what their dish should actually look like. Prevent this from happening by taking pictures of steps as you are doing them.

When creating a wikiHow a person can use resources within the wikiHow environment as well as resources outside of it. Since wikiHow has information about so many topics a person can use other wikiHow articles to find out more information on their own topic. For example, if someone had a recipe that included mozzarella cheese and the person trying to follow that recipe does not have mozzarella cheese on hand, they can find a tutorial on how to make their own mozzarella cheese in wikiHow. The creator of the article could add a link of the mozzarella cheese article in their own using a hyperlink. Hyperlinks allow a person to add links to an article without having to post a long website link. They can simply hide the link within the words of the article.  If a person wanted more information about a certain topic they could also find it outside of wikiHow but still possibly be on a wiki platform. For example, if someone wanted to know where the dish kanafeh originated, they could look up kanafeh on Wikipedia. There they will find an exceeding amount of information all about kanafeh. They can add that information in their introduction to give the reader of their article a background of the dish.

 Even though references can be used while creating a wiki, it is important to know personal information about the topic. Since every topic on wikiHow is different there won’t be a lot of information on the topic you are creating an article about. A person has to know what they are writing about in order for the tutorial to be successful. For example, if you are a dancer and that is all you know you probably should not be writing an article about singing. You should be writing the article about a sub-topic of dance. A wikiHow article should be about a niche you are interested in. That is what makes each wikiHow article unique. Someone actually sat down and thought “This is important to me, and no one else but me currently knows about it. Why not make a tutorial about it so people other than me will know how to do this?” Making your article unique to yourself is one of the most important factors of a wikiHow. That way there will be no doubt that your topic is not over used and boring.

This is why, if you are stuck on an idea, a recipe will always work out. No one recipe is exactly the same. A recipe is usually passed down from generation to generation, mother to daughter, etc. During the passing down it is usually modified or fixed to the persons liking. Every version is different and that’s what makes a recipe unique. Since food is a shared down tradition, it holds sentimental value to a person. A person becomes attached to a recipe because it reminds them of a beloved family member or friend. Food is also a cultural experience. A person can celebrate their culture by making a popular dish. For example, kanafeh is a popular Middle Eastern dessert that has different variations for each country, but is celebrated overall. Most Middle Eastern people are very proud of their heritage and will find any excuse to celebrate where they are from. A person who is proud of their heritage will be motivated to try to teach someone else all about it.

For a wikiHow to look polished and professional there must be coding involved. In order to do this you must go on an already published wikiHow page and click on the edit button. From there you can take coding from a previous blog and add it to your own. In the wikiHow universe the hashtag (#) represents a new step while the asterisk (*) represents a bullet point. You use hashtags for steps and you can use the asterisk for your tips and warnings. This coding will make your wikiHow look more presentable and organized.

Once you have all of these concepts down the wikiHow article is ready to be published. The wikiHow page will be used all over the world. WikiHow’s are extremely popular and can be used as tutorials for anyone that wants to learn a new craft or recipe. It is important to add pictures, use references, and add personal experience to a wikiHow article. Remember to add important information that will add detail to a wikiHow to make sure it is memorable. Use coding to make the article look sleek and professional. With all these resources and techniques your wikiHow should look perfect and will be sure to benefit a user of the World Wide Web.

Web 3.0, Are You Scared Yet?

Web 1.0 was the early stage of the Internet. Websites were one dimensional. Businesses used these websites to inform people of hours of occupation, promotions, and other information. They are often compared as digital business cards. That means people could see information but they could not react digitally. At this stage you could not leave a comment on a website, or as a viewer, add any information of your own. If a person wanted to come in contact with a company they could look up their information and see business hours or a phone number, just like a business card. A person could browse through a store's catalog or merchandise but they were not able to purchase something through the site, it would have to be through a phone call. Later on there would be hyperlinks which would allow a person to click on a picture that would lead you to another website where a person could possibly email a company. That is when Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 start to muddle and boundaries began to be pushed.
Web 2.0 was the first whisper of the social media era. Web 2.0 was the beginning of blogger, instant messenger, Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube. Users were beginning to interact with each other and the phenomenon of social media was in the early stages. The average person could start an internet platform throughout Myspace without having to code a whole website on their own. People could start blogs and share their thoughts to the world by pressing one button on Tumblr. According to Webopedia this is when technology wasn’t the main idea, it was the communication with other people; they wanted an easy to use website that results in social interaction.

It is claimed that Web 3.0 does not exist quite yet and were still in Web 2.0. This is sort of the case because Web 2.0 continues to expand, but Web 3.0 is in a different category. Web 3.0 makes searches easier. It analyzes responses, searches answers and organizes results with one click of a button. Web 3.0 uses cookies to track what a person is searching on the internet to filter and organize results to tailor them to a user’s preferences and needs. Web 3.0 stores all of your information as well as your current location Web 3.0 is also known as “The Semantic Web.” The Semantic Web “enables data to be linked from a source to any other source and to be understood by computers so they can perform increasingly sophisticated tasks on our behalf.” Semantic web deals with the meaning of data instead of the structure of data

Web 2.0 is the emergence of social media and the beginning of a whole new era. I was just a kid when Web 2.0 emerged and I did not quite know how to use it yet, nor was I allowed. I can’t compare it to Web 1.0 personally but from what I have learned it has lived up to the hype. Web 2.0 is all about social interaction through the Internet. You could now talk to another person half way across the world with a click of a button and gain connections with people without actually meeting. When you really think about it this phenomenon is crazy, if Web 2.0 was never created peoples social reach could not extend past their actual physical friends. Now it is common for someone to have friends across the world because they like the same band and talked about it on the internet. I actually have a friend whom I met on the internet, embarrassingly enough, because of the boyband One Direction. We met through Twitter because we both were constantly tweeting about them. She was from a small town outside of New York City and was touring SUNY colleges. She actually ended up picking University at Buffalo and we got to meet in person! Now were very close friends and it was all because of Web 2.0 and One Direction. So according to me the hype of 2.0 is all worth it because of the connections the Internet can give you.

When I think of Web 3.0 I think of Yelp, Amazon, and even the Maps application on my iPhone. Web 3.0 is a continuation of Web 2.0 with an added tracker, basically. Web 3.0 tracks all of your searches and runs them through databases so it can tailor responses best for the user. It takes information like your location, what you have previously searched, and what websites you use all of the time. Yelp uses your current location to filter restaurants that are close to you which is using data from your phone that is telling Yelp where you are and how far the restaurant is. Amazon tracks what I have previously ordered and filters my searches depending on what I have purchased in the past. It puts venders and products I have purchased before and puts them at the top of the result page. That can make it easier for me to purchase something I know I will like, but more difficult if I want to try something new. Also since I am a frequent Amazon Prime user I notice a lot of Amazon ads pop up when I am scrolling on my social media. It seems that Amazon is always advertising something I searched but did not purchase *insert thinking face emoji*.  My favorite though, is the Maps application on my iPhone. I recently purchased the newest iPhone and I noticed that it has a very interesting feature. Whenever I leave my house and get into my car, I get a notification from the Maps app that gives me the closest route to wherever I am going. The interesting part is I already know what the closest route is and I am not using the Maps. The app tracks my daily schedule and location to guess where I am going every day. It is not just when I am leaving my house, it does the same thing when I am leaving work or school and going home. That means my phone even knows where I work and go to school *insert 1 billion thinking face emojis*.

Web 2.0 is amazing and innovative but there is a huge negative that I am guilty for myself: it is addicting. I love social media and will continue to use it every day, which makes me wonder if I am an addict to the Internet. My first interaction with Web 2.0 was through Myspace. I loved sitting there and personalizing my page, and making it my own. I was able to find new music genres and new personalities that I would not be able to if there was no Myspace. That being said, I think I spent too much time on there talking to my friends through a screen than playing outside with them. My teens were spent in the Myspace, Facebook, and texting era. It was nice to be able to interact with my friends all the time but I wish I spent more time with them in person. The Internet is a magical wonderful place where someone can find their niche outside of the real world. We just need to be careful that we do not let it over control our lives, so we don’t end up as a real life Black Mirror episode.  

Social Media- Friend or Foe?

People of all demographics ranging from race, age, social status, economic status, and gender use social media either to reach out to friends or express themselves. The level of intrusiveness of a social media profile depends on the decisions of the person who is using it. From what I have noticed Facebook is used to connect with long lost family or friends. Twitter is used to vent in a 140 character limit. And Instagram is used to post a picture of a meal, or a picture of you and your friends at a party. All of that being said, I believe social media can only be intrusive if a person is sharing too much. What I mean by this is, since social media is being used by so many people you cannot just state it is intrusive across the board. A person’s social media page is being controlled by no one but themselves. If a person decides to post that they are currently on the toilet then yes, I would consider that intrusive. If a person is posting a selfie of themselves after a new haircut then no, totally not intrusive!
 
Speaking of decisions… there should always be a responsibility to using social media. The person has to decide whether or not their post will impact them in a positive or negative way. Should you make that picture of you funneling beers at a Bills tailgate your profile picture on Facebook, which links to your LinkedIn account? Probably not. Should you make the picture of you holding an award at a ceremony your profile picture? Great idea! My feeling towards responsibility of social media has definitely changed from when I first started using social media. I never cared what I posted and who was seeing it. Now I am more aware of the audience I have on social media and how I’m portraying myself.

I have an Instagram account that is dedicated to makeup, where I post pictures of different looks on myself as well as other people. This Instagram helped me start my freelance makeup business, "Makeup by Sama," and even got me hired at a popular local salon. They found me through this account and contacted me to start working for them. Previously I used to post makeup pictures on my private personal account until I decided to make a separate page for just makeup posts. That was probably the best decision I have ever made. This page allows me to express myself in a more creative way than my personal account.

I see social media gaining even more influence in the future. Personally, I plan to use Instagram and YouTube to further a career in in the beauty industry. I would like to work in public relations for a beauty company like Sephora or Ulta Beauty. I plan to use social media as a platform to show future employers that I am passionate about makeup and am knowledgeable about all sorts of products and brands.



Screenshot of my makeup page!