The Importance of Being Social

It's clear social media is a huge part of day to day life and it not only impact you but everyone involved. Companies are hoping on to the social media train and really starting to dedicate some time and effort into their campaigns. We live in a day and age where if your social media channels aren't succeeding neither will your business. Some companies have taken this one step further by providing online social media classes where companies can learn the basic, as well as more platform specific techniques on how to improve their social media game. The social media rockstar bundle includes; the ultimate Youtube diva course: get paid to make videos, learn the secrets of Facebook marketing pros, you A-Z guide to making cash on social media, the complete Twitter and Instagram marketing bootcamp, how to use Snapchat for marketing, and the guide to Pinterest marketing. This is great for older companies who may not be as up to date on technology, and newer start up companies to make sure they are using their resources efficiently. It's extremely important to understand how the platforms differer and to be able to understand what content you should post on which channels. With these courses broken down by each platform it gives someone the opportunity to really grasp what each channel is all about.

This is a package that all companies my want to consider purchasing to help better their company. While most companies feel they can just hire someone who already focuses on this type of thing, it really is something everyone in marketing should have a core understand of at this point. By putting everyone back on the same page it will help the unity across different levels of the company and help create less confusion in the long run. Overall I just find it crazy that our world has come to the point where this stuff is so woven into pretty much all aspects of marketing. Social media is the new foundation for having a profitable company and I'm excited to see where this new generation of creative individuals continue to take it to new levels. It's also crazy that we have all this information just at our fingertips and all we really have to do if go out there and find it. Before if you wanted to learn something you often had to go to school and pay high prices to acquire someone else's knowledge, now if you want to learn how to do something it is pretty easy to be able to self teach yourself. More and more skills can be acquired at a much lower cost. The power is in your hands and it's up to you if you want to do something about it or not. 

Fighting Hunger with Fingers

On October 16th, World Food Day took place. While this event mostly took place on social media, to help spread awareness about global hunger and how to help end it, Google Play took it one step further. Google Play joined forces with the World Food Programme, the food assistance branch of the United Nations, to use their apps to help raise money for the program. They did this by releasing certain app's for which 100% of in app purchases would go to the funding of the World Food Program. This "charity collection" is set to run until Sunday, October 21st and currently includes 12 featured apps. Some of these apps include; Jurassic World: The Game, Dragon City, Cooking Fever, and WFP's own app, ShareTheMeal.

Now what makes this whole concept even more amazing is the fact that these in-app purchases are integrated in a way that they all have some relevance to fighting world hunger. Most of the purchases have to do with food, so not only is it donating money, but it is helping spread the word in a non-pushy type of platform. The head of the WFP's ShareTheMeal concept, Massimiliano Costa, said "Innovation is the heart of creating a world with zero hunger", when asked about the collaboration with Google Play. To me this is what really makes the story so cool. Donations and charity work from companies is nothing new, but getting consumers integrated into the story is what makes these apps such a fresh campaign.
Living in a first world, privileged country like the United States, its often easy to forget about those in much worse situations than ourself. Being that everyone here already has a smartphone in our pockets, using apps to connect with them is really such a smart choice. People may even be humbled by the concept and stop to think the next time they make a purchase, weather or not it is a truly necessary purchase. While hunger has been declining over the past several years, it's starting to make a return yet again. This is a perfect time to push the platform, in light of the several global disasters we have had over the past several months. What I also like about this campaign in particular is it helps being attention to the World Food Program in general, and their mission of zero hunger. Not only is this mission helping millions of people in need, but is also is making the world a better place as a whole. It is always refreshing, to see big companies or just people in general using technology for the bettering on the world. Not only is this in-app purchase donation a great marketing tools for future companies to take advantage of, but it also shows how technology is not done advancing. Their is always room to come up with the next cool, and immersive technique.

The Dark Side of Social Media

So as many people already know on the evening of October 1st, the biggest mass shooting of all time was unfortunately recorded. With an astounding 59 people being killed and nearly 500 more injured during the shooting. The shooting took place during the Route 91 Harvest Festival just outside of Las Vegas. While social media has been a great tool to get out information about those involved as well how to help the victims of this disaster, it sickness me to read some people took the event as an opportunity to spread false information and hoaxes about the tragedy. The advances in technology over the past few years have been tremendous. We have seen how they have really improved our lives and been able to truly make the world a better place. By being able to process the news also instantaneously when a big tragedy strikes, we can then send help to those in need and catch the person responsible a lot quicker. However, being that word can break almost seconds after it has happened it begins the beg the questions of is all the information that is getting out even correct, and even worse to think, are we making the problem worse?

It feels like just the other day, the then largest shooting took place down in Orlando at a popular night club called Pulse. From which 49 were killed and 58 were injured. Being that this attack only took place a few short moths ago it really makes you wonder if this sort of huge media coverage is what this shooters are really going after. By putting their names and faces into the media we are therefore giving them the attention they ultimately are seeking. The more and more media attention we give the larger and larger the shootings seem to become. There are so many things wrong with these shootings, beginning with how these people are even getting their hands on these assault riffles, but at the end of the day the people that should be recognized are the victims and families that have been attacked. Stop covering those who have wronged the world and focus your attention and relief efforts on the families who have had loved ones ripped from their lives. It is a sad world we live in when someone can go out and mass murder other humans and then receive attention for doing it. My heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims of this yet again senseless attack on man kind. Below is a list of the some of the victims so we can remember who was taken from us rather than the man who took them...

Victims of Las Vegas Shooting

There are several ways you can help these families of those fallen. Here are some of the suggested ways given by the staff over at People...

• Friends and family are asked to report missing people believed to be connected to the shooting using the hotline 1-800-536-9488.
• Anyone with photo or video evidence of the shooting is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
• The city of Las Vegas has established a Family Reunification Center to help connect relatives with the more than 500 people who were injured.
• In addition, city officials urged those locally who wish to donate blood to visit one of two donation centers operated by United Blood Services, either at 6930 W. Charleston in Las Vegas or at 601 Whitney Ranch Drive in Henderson, Nevada.
• A victims’ fund has been started on GoFundMe by Steve Sisolak the Clark County, Nevada, commission chair. Other groups providing relief include the local chapter of the American Red Cross and the National Compassion Fund.