T-shirt contest

29

October

2012

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When I was reading the literature about crowd sourcing and prosuming I thought that these were very innovative ways of involving the audience into the process of serving a product or service . As a board member of a faculty association I have the opportunity to organize events and turn ideas into practice. For our short trip we want to make sweaters for the persons that participate. Unfortunately, we do not have a design, yet. My idea was, in imitation of the concept of Threadless, to make a contest out of it. Members can create their own design and upload it on to our Facebook page. The design with the most votes will be printed on the sweaters and the designer will get name recognition. The goal of the contest is of course engaging our members to be part of the faculty association and that their opinion is valuable to us, because without them we would not even exist.

So taking this idea into practice it takes some preparation. How big can the design be, where will it exactly be placed? Do we give the members some guide lines or do we want to give them artistic freedom? Will the entire idea strike the audience or not at all?

This is something I have to work on with the other board members before we can take the contest online. Luckily I have the appropriate literature and a lot of websites to take advantage of.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytkZCJTfYvI

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Project X – Will it ever stop?

14

October

2012

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Yesterday evening there has been a revolt in Amstelveen around a potential Project X party revival. There was another call-up on Facebook where over 650 people mentioned they were attending. The event should be held in the area Middenhoven, but at the last moment the municipality broadcasted an emergency command. The police had extra units deployed to the location in order to intercept the potential rioters, who arrived in small groups. The municipality had posted on Twitter not to come to Amstelveen and tried to keep it under the radar. Fortunately, the police could keep everything under control and all the individuals were send home so a bigger group could not be formed.

This time nothing happened, but we all know what can be the consequences when it does go wrong. Remarkable is that the municipality is trying to reach the individuals in the same way the event got started, through social media. The municipality is aware of the fact that this is the way to reach the persons and not through conventional media. But the question remains: How can the government and society solve and deal with this sort of results of using social media? Is social media in fact a dangerous weapon? I hope there will be a solution in the present, because this social media abuse should be restrained as soon as possible, while its key value is to connect friends, not to create chaos.

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Social networks, peer production and The Voice of Holland

7

October

2012

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This week we have talked about social networking sites and had the poster presentations about peer production. Dominique had the example of The Voice of Holland. The Voice of Holland is a talent show that is all about finding the new music voice of the Netherlands. The program looks for a person with its own sound, has lasting impact and someone who can contribute to the Dutch music industry. The talents will be coached by experienced top artists of Dutch origin. The key success of the program is that the potential talents are merely assessed on their music qualities in the first place. The coaches cannot see the participants at their first audition which keeps the coaches of any potential prejudices.

Next to that, the fact that the audience can participate with the program through downloading The Voice of Holland app engages the audience even more to watch the program. Their opinion is valued and can help the talents get further throughout the show. The Voice also makes avid use of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Hyves. This results in an online community which completely revolves around the program, the coaches and the talents.

The high-risk point with these kind of programs is that its success lies in the hands of the audience. The audience can make or break the entire program, but also influence the future of the participants. A remarkable moment of a talent can mean a bright future within the music scene. We have seen this with Sandra van Nieuwland during the blind auditions. She transformed the song of Usher called More to an unique new one. The audience as well as the coaches were astounded and Sandra became within seconds the new ‘thing’. Sandra’s version of More is now in the Dutch top 40 for over four weeks with a third position! Thus, social networking sites and peer production are a great combination for the show to engage the audience, but also for a few lucky persons.

The link refers to the video, due to copyright I can not put attach it in this blog post.

http://www.thevoiceofholland.com/video/sandra-van-nieuwland-more/

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Homework Assignment – Online Social Networks

4

October

2012

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Why business networks create value to fulfill the demand of the market.

This week we talk about how social networks work. How individual nodes can influence an entire network and how business can use networks in order to produce what the market desires. On the basis of the following literature I discuss this process.

Boyd & Ellison (2007) merely give a definition of social network sites and how they developed over the years. Social network sites differentiate from each other at the level of access, visibility and the amount of features integrated into the website. Important is that individuals can connect and share information with their network. The visibility of these networks gives people the opportunity to expand their own network, maintain contacts and even get to know new people. These social networks are a good source of date to research individual and group behavior in relation to the network.

Borgatti, Mehra, Brass and Labianca (2009) define the concept of a social network by analyzing this with a physical and social perspective. They make use of simplistic examples to explain the difference between a centralized and a decentralized network where single nodes can have a powerful bargaining position. When it comes to more extensive networks we have to look to additional literature, while Borgatti et al. set the boundaries to only explain the base concept.

At last, Kauffman, Li and van Heck (2010) apply the concept of social network within the business sector. How multiple businesses can form a business network together in order to produce the services and products, which the market demands. These products and services could only be made through the combination of forces of the different companies.  This form of producing can be alluring for companies whereas it gives them the opportunity to fulfill the wants and needs of the consumer, reach their target group and be cost effective. Companies have to keep the firm and consumer informedness in mind. After all, knowledge is power.

The two examples I have chosen are YCEEYA and Groupon. YCEEYA is an exclusive business and entrepreneurial platform that focuses on the small business firms and how they can gain growth. The social network helps businesses to connect with similar minded companies to share knowledge and create more visibility. YCEEYA is still very small because of its two-year existence. YCEEYA has to gain more awareness under businesses and create more reach to be influential on an international level (www.influencers.smallbiztrends.com, 2012 & www.meetup.com, 2012).

The second example I address here is Groupon.  This market enterprise represents a various amount of businesses that can gain visibility through its popularity and reach.  Businesses are able to gratify the demand of the market by spreading promotion advertisements. Without the business network Groupon the companies would not be able to reach their target group or gain more visibility. A downside of Groupon is its bad reputation by broadcasting a provocative promotion during the Super Bowl and deals that were sold but not finished correctly. Groupon has to better its reputation and keep the relationships with the advertising companies tight in order to keep on top of the market and ensure its future (www.meetup.com, 2012 & www.wikipedia.org, 2012).

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Literature list

Borgatti, S.P., Mehra, A., Bras, D.J. & Labianca, G. 2009. Network Analysis in the Social Sciences. Science 323(5916) 892-895.

Boyd, D.M. & Ellison, N.B. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1) 210-230.

Kauffman R.J., Li, T. & Heck, E. 2010. Business network-based value creation in electronic commerce. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 15(1) 111-142.

 http://www.groupon.nl/faq

http://influencers.smallbiztrends.com/small-business-vendors-2012/yceeya-network/

 http://www.meetup.com/Yceeya/

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupon

Megan van der Staak

344104

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Burberry´s: Art of the Trench

16

September

2012

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As a young woman studying Cultural Sciences it isn´t that unpredictable that I also love fashion. So when I read the literature about social commerce my eye fell on the integration of it within the company of Burberry. Burberry has launched a user-generated ‘art of the trench’ gallery (Marsden, 2010). When I saw this I had to find out more of course. So going to the Burberry site I got a direct link to www.artofthetrench.com where the social platform is established. It freaked me out at first, because there is a music play list integrated into the website to set a sphere and predictably my volume was turned on (www.artofthetrench.com, 2012).

The website is platform where customers can share their iconic Burberry trench coat with others. You can see how they wear it, where they wear it and how they combine it with other items through personal photographs. Clicking on a photo gives you access to a set of options. You can share the particular photo with others by sending it to your e-mail, Facebook, Delicious or Twitter account. It is also possible to ‘like’ the picture and leave a comment. Further on, it is possible to buy a Burberry trench coat on the website (www.artofthetrench.com, 2012).

Burberry has created its own social network for its customers. The customers use this social platform and thereby voluntarily promote the brand. The social presence of Burberry is very high, because the company allows customers to show how the product is used in real life and that it is suitable for all different kinds of people. This is a bit of a risky project, because the company gives the control to the customer in the first place, but obviously the company will make sure the social presentation will not be affected negatively. Burberry will always have the desire to control its impression. Burberry implicates through the art of the trench that the company stands open for suggestions and wants to know what its clientele’s preferences are (Marsden, 2010; www.artofthetrench.com, 2012).

Burberry is a perfect example of social commerce. It has its own social platform where customers can share their information in relation to Burberry with other same minded people. This phenomenon connects them and makes them want to be part of the group who is wearing this iconic product. The purchase of a Burberry trench coat has become more accessible through the platform and that is the key point of social commerce (Marsden, 2010; www.artofthetrench.com, 2012).

Literature list:

Marsden, P. 2010. Social commerce: Monetizing social media. Syzygy Group. White Paper.

http://socialcommercetoday.com/documents/Syzygy_2010.pdf

http://artofthetrench.com/#

Megan van der Staak

344104

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