Thursday, December 1, 2011

Ubroadcast

Ubroadcast.com is a site where you can have your own talk or music show. It is set up for you to either broadcast live or on demand. There is a free trial period but then after that there is a monthly charge depending on what package you choose. Once you sign up you’ll be asked to download an application. The application will allow you to create high quality broadcasts. You may recruit sponsors for your channel to help you with the monthly fee. The other great thing about this site is that it allows you to easily share it with other social media sites, blogs, etc. There is a way that you should present yourself on this site. There are terms and conditions that apply and if you violate the terms your video or channel will be flagged. I think the way you present yourself in the broadcasts also plays a part on how credible you seem to the viewers watching your video/channel. If you are on there talking about politics, I would hope you would have some experience in that area in order to give facts, statements, or even opinions.

Ellison, N., Heino, R., & Gibbs, J. (2006). Managing impressions online: Self-presentation processes in the online dating environment. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), article 2.http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/ellison.html

http://ubroadcast.com/info/faq/

Monday, November 14, 2011

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a Twitter tool. But it’s not just for Twitter. You can link Hootsuite with Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites as well. It allows you to pre-schedule your Tweets or updates hours, days, or months ahead of time. There is a team collaboration aspect of Hootsuite; it allows multiple people to use the Dashboard without sharing user names and passwords of all the different sites. Don’t forget your mobile devices! Hootsuite is also available in mobile applications and schedule updates from anywhere. You can create reports in over 30 different formats for clients using Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. Hootsuite is also linked with Ow.ly. Ow.ly allows for shortened links to be displayed that track click-thrus. Hootsuite is RSS capable as well. Hootsuite is also very customizable and provides a very secure profile so companies can feel safe using it.

When I interned at a radio station over the summer they used Hootsuite every day. It was useful because the Facebook and Twitter accounts can still be updated even if the person on the air doesn’t have time to do it or doesn’t really know how. Even as we were on location airing live the Facebook account was kept up. Daily Tweets or updates could be done in advanced and you could monitor people who mention you in their Tweets and you can also see what the people you follow Tweet. It is all your social media sites on one site and saves you from bouncing from site to site.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Internet safety and your digital footprint

Whether you know it, want it, or like it people are searching for you via the web. People try to track down family heritages or people looking for old classmates may be looking for you. If you "Google" yourself and track your digital footprint you may be surprised of the information that is out there about you. What can you do about it? Well you can use false and/or different identities. Use privacy restrictions that websites have to offer. Limit what you put out there, sometimes if you know someone is watching you (like your boss) you may be more conscience of what you post. Create a "public personae" that you feel comfortable sharing with the world. If you think someone is sharing your information you can "un-friend" or block them from seeing your profile. When you search yourself you may find that some information you didn't post or control. Some personal information can also be available for purchase from certain sites. What can you do about that? Well, you can request that the site take down the information. The more you track your digital footprint the more you can control it.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Skype Experiences



We want YOU to use Skype!! Look for our finished project...coming soon!

Community

What is community? A community, to me, is a place where people with something in common can come relate and interact with each other. Each community is different in that the culture and the members of the community are different. Facebook is a great example of community. Not only is Facebook as a whole a community, but there are interest groups and organization page's you can "like" and be a part of. The social capital you get from Facebook is huge! There is an endless supply of connections you can make. Facebook is every where! You can connect through so many different modes on the internet through your Facebook account. You can link YouTube, Skype, Twitter, and you can even "like" your favorite websites. You can hardly go to a website now and not see a Facebook button on the page somewhere. They may even show you who (people you may or may not know) have "liked" the site via Facebook. The sense of community through Facebook is really, simply amazing.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Hipcast.com

Hipcast.com is a video and audio podcasting site. The thing that is really unique about hipcast is that the information is managed from the cloud. By having all your files stored on the cloud you can access and post information from anywhere, even your phone. Your multimedia is automatically backed up so you never have to worry about losing any information. You can also control your subscriber experience. That means that there will never be advertisements on your blog and you have total control over what your subscribers see. There is no delay between when you post and when your subscribers can listen to your podcast. Hipcast also connects to iTunes. Hipcast prides itself on staying up to date on technology so you have every advantage to be as creative as you want with your blog. There is a 7 day free trial to see if you like it, if you don’t you can cancel your account at any time.

The problem with Hipcast is when you go to their home page it is very over whelming. There are a lot of boxes with different categories with smaller boxes that link to another page that explain even more about that specific topic. This site is not very persuasive. They don’t seem to have a lot of things trying to get you to join. The site seems over whelming and for browsers you may get a lot of information. As a browser I was looking for an example or a tutorial on how it worked. The site didn’t make it too easy for browsers to become transactors. The one incentive was the 7 day free trial of the site.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting: Conduct on-the-fly or scheduled presentations with a prospective customer, perform live demonstrations in real time, collaborate on documents with your colleagues and provide training to customers and employees.” This site I have actually used personally before. This site has three features, Go to Meeting, Go to Webinar, and Go to Training. This site has a 30 day free trial for each feature and after that you can buy it. Each feature has different capabilities it allows. What makes this site interesting is for the training feature you can see all of what the instructor is doing. You see step by step on your computer screen. Go to Meeting is a great tool where you can have a meeting with someone on the other side of the country or anywhere in the world. This cuts cost on travel expenses. The webinar is sort of the same. You may have a something to teach and might not have the demand for it in your area so if you open it up to the country or the world you open it up to a wider population who may be interested in it. This also cuts down on travel costs. http://www.gotomeeting.com/fec/

GoToMeeting is intended for worldwide business use. Its purpose is to make travel not a requirement so you can have meetings, trainings, and webinars available all over the world. There can be a high level of interactivity. Presenters can use visuals and audio in their presentations. The level of knowledge to use this technology depends whether or not you are the presenter or the audience. Audience needs a low level of knowledge and the presenter may need a higher level in order to create the webinar or training. The feedback is immediate especially if it’s a meeting; you can see and hear the other side’s opinion. These meetings, trainings, and webinars take place in real time so the presenter is giving the presentation the same time the audience is witnessing it.

This form of communication is two way. Its purpose is to transfer a message to a large group of people. The control is with the company to customize the information to be tailored to their particular needs in that situation. The good thing is that this tool is multimedia capable. There is not anonymity everyone is aware of who is online. The visuals and audio can be webcam conference or watching the presenter demonstrate a new software or whatever the training may be about.

This tool would be good to use to broadcast to college students and technologically advanced businesses. Any client can see a meeting or interact with a training as long as they have a computer and internet access. The company itself may need some training in order to create the webinar or training. You can get the word out via email, newsletters, or on a company website; depending on which feature you are using. The one bad thing with GoToMeeting is that you are reliant on the technology and there can be some glitches and some clients/audience members may not have access to the internet.