As I’m preparing my family to fly on Thursday, I already stumble upon some problems with my airline. Maybe not real problems, more like informational problems and the access to it.
Since this is our first time flying with a baby while also being pregnant there are a lot of thinks to keep in mind such as:
What is the max amount kg luggage that Sera (our baby) can take with her?
What is allowed as hand luggage, and what is allowed as cabin luggage?
What kind of baby food do they have on the plane?
Is there an option for Sera to sleep comfortably?
How do we take our car-seat with us: does it need special kind of wrapping?

To answer my questions I first looked on the website of our airline. Most of the information was actually on there, but this information was contradicting with what it said on our tickets.
So in the end we still had to call with  customer services. Getting again different answers, and also answers that were in fact not stated on their website.
The customer service person told us there’s a possibility for Sera to have a special seat on the plane, he even made a note in our reservation. Well now I sincerely doubt this is true. But the only way to find this out is Thursday night when we’re actually going to fly (so fingers crossed).

One way for the airline (Turkish Airlines) to be more interactive with their customers is maybe through a mobile app where you can select your personal situation such as: student, senior, family with children, etc. By selecting your personal situation you should get all the information you need and maybe the ability to directly chat or email someone from this app.
Airlines should not just use social media  for promotional options, but also for real information and interaction on a more personal level, connecting to the personal situation.

Of course all of this preparing made me think about our coordination presentation on Friday.  Hopefully I won’t forget to put my laptop in my suitcase, because this mommy is not in the mood for dealing with Turkish customer services for a year!!

-Kelly-

Social media can be a huge influence in our lives. It’s used for entertainment, distraction or even for business or job perspectives. But does social media also have influence on our everyday lives: the way we think, do things, our emotions, or even our weight gain?

Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard professor, examined the way our private social networks (so not our social media networks) affect our everyday lives. One of his studies is even solely focused on ‘The spread of obesity in social networks’.
Christakis is also a speaker for TED, where he has made some speeches about the obesity subject, but also how social networks can predict epidemics. But more interesting is his speech about the hidden influence of social networks:
http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks.html

This phenomenon made me think about an old clip about a social psychological experiment which was about peer pressure. In this short clip it’s shown how people are influenced by other persons in an elevator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKipwt9YnOM). These  people are not even part of their social network. So if these random people are already influenced by each other, what does this mean for the influence from people around us?

Hey I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s my number
So call me maybe

No this is not an invitation to call me nor is it a flirtatious line to all of you…
If I’m correct you all immediately know what I’m talking about or even hear the melody to Carly Rae Jepsen’s song ‘Call me maybe’ in your head right now. A catchy song which you couldn’t ignore this summer. Jepsen was number 1 for 9 weeks on U.S. Billboard charts as well as number 1 in many other international charts (http://www.billboard.com/#/song/carly-rae-jepsen/call-me-maybe/28146456).
But before she even became big on the radio, Carly Rae was already a phenomenon on social media, especially YouTube (Sisario, 2012).

The importance of social media for companies is of course well known by now for everyone. Social media can help your ROI (social and/or financial), your reputation etc.
But equally as important or even more so are social media for artists such as musicians and actors. Many Musicians have become famous only through the possibility of social media such as YouTube (Cayari, 2011). Once you can reach people and establish a fan base or even just create a hype, you can be pretty sure you’ll be famous (either on long-term or short-term).
In the top 500 sites of the web YouTube is number 3 in the Alexa ranking (http://www.alexa.com/topsites). No wonder that it can be an influential medium that can help an artist to become a cultural phenomenon in an instant. This however doesn’t mean that this cultural phenomenon will last, it only shows that YouTube can create a help among millions of viewers all over the world (Muir, 2009: 41-43).

With Carly Rae Jepsen the same thing happened. YouTube played a critical role in her fast-growing fame. Not only did her original video get over 286 million views on the channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic). The many covers, lip-syncs, collaborations and live performances also got millions of views, with some of the most famous videos being of Justin Bieber &friends, Katy Perry, the Cookie Monster and even Barack Obama.
Other artists, in this case mainly Justin Bieber  ‘played a role in popularizing the song, which reflects the importance of both social media and old-fashioned celebrity promotion’ (Sisario, 2012). Now Carly Rae has a record deal, an album coming out and she’s opening up for Bieber on his tour.

The effects of social media and the possible fame which it can create should not be underestimated, but as Muir said the viral fame shouldn’t be seen as a guarantee to long lasting fame or a long lasting career.

Videos:
Justin Bieber and Friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsBsBU3vn6M
Katy Perry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luR4BnfM9vw
Cookie Monster’s ‘Share it maybe’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8
Barack Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX1YVzdnpEc

-Sisario, B. 2012. New York Times. The New Rise of a Summer Hit: Tweet It Maybe. Published: August 21, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/business/media/how-call-me-maybe-and-social-media-are-upending-music.html
-Muir, A. 2009. A NEW STAGE FOR MUSIC: YOUTUBE AND THE AMATEUR MUSICIAN. SFU Canada.
-Cayari, C. 2011. International Journal of Education & the Arts. A NEW STAGE FOR MUSIC: YOUTUBE AND THE AMATEUR MUSICIAN. Vol. 12:6. http://www.ijea.org/v12n6/v12n6.pdf.

–Kelly–

Of course as a mom I think about my daughter all the time. And with all this talk about social media in class I really wonder how social media will affect her when she’s older. Although she’s only (almost) 9 months she already loves the Ipad and the laptop. With these early likings in technology it will only be ‘normal’ that new technologies as well as social media will be a big part of her life.

As a parent it’s my responsibility to keep my eye on her (digital) activities. But will my eye protect her from cyberbullying, nasty comments from her peers or peer pressure online? Maybe it depends where she will be online?

I found out about some Kid’s social network sites which (should) have better privacy and control options for parents. Parents are pretty much able to control the settings and the page. But knowing your parents can control your page it could be less fun, so kids might try to stay away from these sites. And also you can’t control what their friends say on such sites.

So what do you think about these ‘safe social network sites for kids’?

Have a nice weekend!
Kelly

http://socialtimes.com/top-5-safe-social-networks-for-kids-only-well-sort-of_b43625#disqus_thread

Kelly Toria

Immediately after starting reading the required readings I was actually shocked from all the new information I got. I never heard of social online shopping. For me this is not too weird, I am not a fashionista nor do I make a hobby out of shopping. You would think that online shopping would be convenient for me, the practical shopper. But no, I’m the kind of shopper that needs to go into a store, pick something out, try it on and go to the register and leave. So wow, collaborative online shopping! A growing social commerce innovation where navigation as well as communication support technologies are used among multiple participants who together share one shopping experience on a website.
Not only did the Zhu and Jiang (2010) article elaborated on the criteria for good communication (collaborative work, common ground and medium availability), they also made use of empirical research to actually see whether or not  the two support systems have an impact on the coordination performance and to find out what perception the consumers have of social presence.

Social commerce is not only an important, cheap, new way for businesses to market their products or services, it is also fun for the actual consumers. Marsden explained in his 2010 Social commerce: Monetizing social media article the business’ and user’s perspective on social commerce.  Social commerce has only just started but will have a long path ahead of them with exploring and trying out new techniques. The consumers in the end will make or break a company or product, so it’s up to the company to try to satisfy the needs of their consumers with innovative ideas.

As for retail shopping: in the Rigby (2011) The future of shopping article an omnichannel experienced is foreseen for the future, or recommended anyways. In this omnichannel experience multiple ‘channels’ physical as well as digital media are used together with new technologies into one experience. Not only does Rigby talk about technologies combined with social media, the technologies also have to be innovative and must enhance the shopping experience to a new level. For example with a 360 degrees video mirror in the dressing room. All these new technologies cost lots of money, and even though I think this omnichannel experience is a great idea, I just wonder how many people will stick with what they know. And who exactly will be investing in these new technologies? The product maker? The store, the social media? Or as most of the times, us the consumers?

Choosing the two examples Iens2.0 and Smulweb was not too difficult, but instead rather surprising. I was thinking about all the well-known social media but I couldn’t think of any social commerce company. So I went on my mobile phone and was surprised by all the social commerce apps that were actually on it (which I hardly ever use). So I chose two mobile apps from my own phone which I thought had greater potential, but were also very handy. I also took a look on their websites, which were full of handy social commerce tools such as community recommendations.

I’m talking about www.iens.nl, the Iens 2.0 Android app and www.smulweb.nl, the Smulweb Android app. Both apps are in need of improvement if you compare it to their websites. Integration of the news and deals feeds can be integrated in the apps. But the Smulweb app is however a bit more advanced than the Iens2.0 app, looking at the lay-out and interaction abilities.

Zhu, L., Benbasat, I., and Jiang, Z. 2010. Let’s shop online together: An Empirical investigation of collaborative online shopping support. Information Systems Research 21(4) 872-891.
Marsden, P. 2010. Social commerce: Monetizing social media. Syzygy Group. White Paper. http://socialcommercetoday.com/documents/Syzygy_2010.pdf
Rigby, D. 2011. The future of shopping. Harvard Business Review 89(12) 64-75

Both images were from a screenshot from the IENS 2.0  (on the left) Smulweb app from my own phone after searching for a Dutch restaurant in Rotterdam