It's that time of the semester

It's that time of the semester...not that I've analyzed a Facebook page before. When I was looking at my insights I noticed that there was a large increase in views at the end of October. I went back to my page and did some investigating. There were more posts during that month than any other month this semester. There were two school dances: the Homecoming dance as well as the Howl. There were a few stories posted as well! People love pictures, pictures draw people to your page. People LOVE to see themselves, they see pictures posted from a dance and their friends are in them and they will look through the pictures and they can tag themselves. That was the winning ticket to have a lot of views. I also noticed that people view the page from all over the world! I find it so amazing that so many other countries look at this page. There are some plans I have for the future to make this better, I plan to post things more often, more pictures and tag people that I know (friends with on Facebook) and that can increases views and likes as well. The work doesn't stop here.

Facebook Insights Data Export - Dixie Sun - 2011-12-06

Self Evaluation

When thinking about this assignment I kind of chuckled. I've never been one to say I'm good at something or did a great job. I may have said oh I think I did good but then I take it back almost immediately because I didn't or don't reach that level of greatness or perfection. I've just been told I'm too hard on myself, but hey if it gets me by and makes me just want to get better then so be it.

I started out on a different level than 90% or so in the class when it came to creating a facebook page because I chose to use one that had already been created. I had to do a lot of convincing with a certain editor in order to become an admin and became one after making this person realize I wasn't trying to take over their job. My main thing with this page is I posted our multimedia elements, I tried to post at least one video a week. I didn't want to overdue it with those who "like" the page. Another reason being it's not just my page to use, it's to share articles and photos as well which I wish would get updated more often than at least once a week. In my opinion I think viewership would increase but it's not my place to do post something when it's someone else's job.

Over the course of the semester I invited all my friends to like the page. I never sent out a mass invite. About once a week or so I would invite a chunk of friends and make my way down the list and until just recently I ran out of people to invite.

When I first became an admin there were 655 "likes" and now there are 765. I can't take credit for every single one of those likes. Yes, I may have invited all my friends to like the page and posted something every week but when photos are posted and friends are tagged in them their friends may look at them. You get the idea. It's like a chain reaction. I also told my friends to have their friends like the page as well so that helps.

Something I wish I had done different is posted other multimedia things or just shared things that had been posted on the Dixie Sun page on my page so it's like two in one. I think that would have made a difference. I may have mentioned on my status a couple times to "like" the Dixie Sun page but that wasn't enough. As I continue as the multimedia editor I will continue to keep the Facebook page updated (in accordance to my section).

I can say I look at the Dixie Sun page at least once a day but that doesn't mean I update it everyday but I plan to be better in the future.

The impact

I am a people watcher. I love to study people when I go to places. The airport is one of my most favorite observation locations. Just about every time I fly somewhere I take a good look at those around me.

I'm not here to post about how I just love to watch people but to make a point of how social media makes an impact on those when we/ they don't even know it.

I usually "check in" is what they call it on Facebook when I go to the airport. I might have an hour or two or even more before my flight so I find things to distract me from the last moments that seem so long before my departure.

As I currently sit at the airport waiting to fly home I am in another one of those situations. I called home and talked to my family for a while to kill time. I play around on Facebook, twitter and instagtam and my email and I can't help (usually) but share with at least one person what I see around me.

Until this class I didn't really think about how someone near or far from me could be talking about me through some form of social media. I do it all the time, last time I flew I sent a text to my friend saying how entertained I am by those who scramble to get on the plane right at boarding time. He agreed with me.

In my opinion people watching is a form of entertainment as basically stated above. I mean how many other people are posting about us on their apps or sharing with their friends what is going on via some electronic device.

I also look around and at least 75% of the people waiting to board the same plane as I am are on some electronic device and you can usually tell what someone is doing even from several feet away. Some are just texting, emailing watching some video or what not or maybe in rare situations they ate being productive.

Social media affects us, and those around us. People who travel together sometimes use their devices to communicate when they are just sitting right next to each other. People arent interacting with one another.

I'm not saying everyone has to make friends wherever they go but hey interact with those you know on a first person in front of you like basis.

What would people do without their electronic devices in places like buses, restaurants, airports!? I don't remember what I did for entertainment outside of when I was a child and had coloring books. Did people really communicate with each other to their faces!?

I appreciate the fact that we have several social media options and that they also can be used to share information on today's issues. Things like the elections coming up, occupy wall street and so on. I like the fact that my friends post things when I don't take the time to look up info on my own when I can read an article or video they have posted which can be made viral.

I may miss the way we used to always communicate, person to person more than just the device to device type thing we deal with but I also appreciate what I have.

I recently read an article having to do with the tweeting world and how one tweet can make a huge difference especially in "followership" is what I call it. An 18 year old girl posted a tweet about something she said to the Governor of the state of Penn., in the end she said she didn't really give the governor a piece of her mind she just shared her thoughts via twitter. His office complained not knowing that she had such a small readership but after this her number of followers increased to about 15,000. At the time that she sent this tweet she had 60 followers. One tweet about a state governor can increase the number of followers. ONE TWEET. When the mother of this daughter was questioned she said that she raised her kids to be independent...that they can tweet whatever opinion they want. A mother attended one of the local school board meetings and mentioned that they can't stifle their kids free speech and that this is how they communicate.

https://apps.facebook.com/wpsocialreader/me/channels/trending/content/k0mok?fb_action_ids=2571754367633&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=recent_activity

From the example above we can see again that social media can spread little things like wildfire and like the mother said this is how teenagers communicate. Today's times have definitely changed from just years ago.

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Facebook Plan

My facebook plan includes using the Dixie Sun. I have already posted my personas on the class facebook page under my post. I plan to reach more student aged people involved in school(or just students on campus) and all across the world because I know it's possible. As the Dixie Sun has breaking news stories or pictures I will do my best to make sure that it is posted. In 30 days I would like to have increased the "Likes" on my page by 10% I think the best way to do this is to suggest the page to all my friends and use my twitter account to spread it as well.