Social Media Project

While working on the Social Media Project, we came across many obstacles. First, the company we chose was already taken, then we chose to do another company, after working diligently on the project, it came to pass that our company was already chosen again. So, mid-week we chose our third company an began working on it. We finally got our company, Gatorade. We all chose what sections we wanted to work on and began.

I initially just chose Wikipedia and Google Alerts and found sufficient information on both sites! As the week went on, it appeared that there were only a few members working on the project I began to get stressed out a bit. Finally it started to come together and members began to start posting or at least contacted me about working on the project.There was two members that I didn't hear anything from, and decided to fill in and get those sections done myself.

The project helped me to understand how companies use different ways to promote their products and how they use social media to connect with potential customers. It appears that some companies are more involved than others' and I think it just depends on the prestige of the company, whether or not they need to allocate additional resources to social media to improve their marketing.



Screenshot from http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Gatorade

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Week 13 Mostly Muddy-Social Media

This was a pretty tough week. I am not sure if it was the information actually, or trying to play catch up from last week (Easter) to get everything dine on time and just not feally focusing on the information. Nonetheless, it just didn't stick this week.

We read and watched a lot of lectures this week and a lot of information stuck, such as Network Effects, which is, the number of devices that are networked together that increases the value. We also learned about the three primary sources for Network Effects:

1. Exchange-the ability of users in a network to exchange information.
2. Staying Power-the long-term viability of a product or service.
3. Complementary Benefits-products or services that add value to a product.

Another term we learned is Metcalf's Law, which states: the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users (or # of connections that can be made).

Image Created by: Marco Paköeningrat http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopako/2391747442/

Image Created by: Tiago Custódiohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tiago_custodio/3329194516/

Image Created by: ipodfan1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/29158929@N03/2767975617/

I really do feel that Social Media is here to stay, at least in its current form, for at least a few more years. There is no doubt that it will still continue to evolve into something much more real soon. If you look at recent trends in technology, you don't need a crystal ball to predict that something big is on the way, and I feel it will really revolutionize and integrate social media and business into everybody's daily lives'.

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Week 12 Muddy-Telecommunications and Internet

This week we discussed Telecommunications and Internet.

There was so much information in this ek that it started getting actually kind of muddy, but I tried to keep focused. There were a lot of technical terms such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber To The Home (FTTH), and many many more that they all started to run together. The best thing that I read though, was about Amdahl's Law which stated: A system's speed is always determined by the slowest component. This of course is pretty much common sense, but I think  that it is easily forgotten especially when people are out shopping for the latest and the greatest thing. Think about it. What good is a smartphone that is labeled with the speed of 4G LTE, when the service is not even offered in the area? None at all according to Amdahl's Law, as your performance will be based not on the phone's capabailities, but the capabilities of the service that you have.



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Another cool term which I learned was cybersquatting, which means to acquire a domain name that refers to a firm, individual, product, or trademark, with the goal of exploiting it for financial gain. The practice of doing that is illegal in many countries, and ICANN even has a dispute resolution mechanism in place for such events.

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There was so much information in the readings this week that my eyes started crossing at every term or acronym that I came across, I will definately need to re-read much of this material in order to get a better grasp on what it all means. Even though the material is not above me, it is just so much at one time that it starts to get confusing. I hope to forecast a clear blog next week!!

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Week 11 Clear-Data Asset

This week I read about and watched lectures on data, basically just data. Well, and information, and how information is basically just organized/structured data. I had a pretty clear understanding on this week's material, as much of it seems to be information we already discussed, but in more detail. I also learned how data can be organized and brought together in order to make business decisions and not just hunches and how data leverage in the market lies at the center of competitive advantage.

I also read about databases and learned what they focus on, e.g. sales, product returns, inventory, payroll, geographical data and business units. There was a little bit of information that is still somewhat muddy after this week, such as Database Management Systems (DBMS), I mean, I can read about what they do, but actually seeing them in action is a whole other thing.

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I also learned about data and security, and how that "Big Data" is often targeted by hackers and other aggregators looking to steal data to either use it for profitable gain or to sell to others.

This week's information was jam-packed full of so much information that to explain everything would take many KB of data!

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Just know that I read and learned about canned reports, Ad-hoc reporting tools, Dashboards, and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). I have also linked these terms with websites that can offer a good explanation and offer more meaning than my words could ever offer!

Database Project-Microsoft Access

The Database Project was a nice little project, I used Microsoft Access to do my project since I use a PC and not a Mac. I learned so much from the project being that I have never used Microsoft Access before the project. It was real intersting to see how you could import data from an Excel file and turn it to a nice readable table. The project gave me a sense of understanding on how to create a simple report or query, it also showed me how easy it can be to organize data once the database is created for the purpose desired. The only part that I think I will have some trouble with is remembering formulas and such to make validation rules and such.

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 Thinking of ways to enhance the functionality of this database, I thought that we could then export the information back to Excel to create charts and graphs to see trends. These trends could range from Profit, length of membership, what part of year are people joining or cancelling. Another thing is that we could run the report, and those that cancelled, send surveys and offer promotions to return. The survey would give the company an idea on what is going right/wrong and we could adjust accordingly. It would also offer a sense to see if we would need to hire more employees for a certain time of the year or not.

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Week 10 Clear-Skills Track

This week we started to work in Microsoft Access. This is a database software that is great for gathering and understanding a lot of information, whether it be phone numbers, inventory, guests lists, oe even patient data. It provides a clean way to sort the information, create queries, and reports. Access is very new to me, it does share some similar qualities with Excel, but is still very different. While watching the lectures and going through the scavenger hunt, I was a little worried that this is was going to be very difficult, but like most new software it just takes some getting used to and some familiarity.

"Images created by Christopher Ondrako, 2012. Permission granted to reuse with attribution."

Microsoft Access has so many options that it is unbelievable, and in some ways is easier to use than Excel. Before this class I had seen Microsoft Access and opened it to play around, but didn't know exactly what I was supposed to do with it. Knowing what I know now, I know there is a time and place for Excel and a time and place for Access.

In closing, I give this week, Week 10, a Clear view as I have learned so much from the lectures and am ready to begin my project.

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Excel Project

In my ISM3004 class at the University of Florida, I was required to complete an Excel project which included formatting a worksheet by creating formulae and Pivot Tables. The project was pretty easy for the most part. I had to use "Freeze Panes" to lock rows to be displayed at all times while scrolling up and down the page. I also had to create formulas for Maximum Heart Rates, Target Heart Rates, Highest Heart Rate Achieved, and to find whether or not the target was achieved. Most of this was pretty basic and nothing new to me except when I had to use the "IF" function, it was a new formula which I had never used and wanted to learn how to use. This function is real useful when checking whether a condition is met or not and is real useful.


The second step of the project was totally new to me. It involved creating Pivot Tables based on the Raw Data that we had. This manipulation is still somewhat Muddy to me, but with practice I am sure I will become more familiar with it and use it more often. The process of creating the Pivot Tables took a lot of trial and error and reviewing of lecture videos to get right. But having the ability to have data summarized and sorted in such a manner is very useful and convenient especially when dealing with a large amount of data. This project was extremely useful and informative, I can't wait to use this information in the Business World!

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