Location: Facebook, Menlo Park CA

Living just a short forty minute drive from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, I thought I knew what Facebook was all about. It was the first social media platform that I had ever created a profile on, and to this day still use it to keep in contact with some of the older people in my life like my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles…you get the idea.

But millenials have slowly but surely backed away from Facebook and have begun to use other platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter to stay connected to one another. With the rise of these social media channels, attention has been drawn away from Facebook, and because the general population that uses Facebook regularly starts around the age of 50, less and less younger social media users feel the need to create a profile on what seems to be an out of date platform.

Zuckerberg claims that the survival of any social media outlet relies on the growth of new users, but if this is true how has Facebook not gone out of style like capri shorts? The answer is 2.2 billion. Facebook, since its creation has gained well over 2.2 billion users that log their information into their profiles for just about anyone to see.

Having a third of our population on one website is something we never thought we’d see happen in society, and proven time and time again to be incredibly dangerous.

Having our information be this accessible allows for companies to advertise their target audiences with extreme precision. Facebook’s ability to give your personal information away to the highest bidder is what has kept this social media platform alive and well for so long. Micro-targeting has become the most used and most successful from of advertising that our society has ever seen. If you are online at any moment searching for something specific, companies who dominant the internet- Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook- are able to sell your information- name, age, location, background- away to advertisers in order to get their product in front of you right that moment. It’s become THAT simple.

But with these advancements has come controversy. Beginning with the 2016 election, campaigners for Presidential candidates used Facebook to spread “mis-information” in order to get society to turn on itself. People thought they had the right information, when in fact they didn’t. Politics became polarized and the future of our nation had become a little less clear.

Supports of current President Donald Trump paid Facebook to micro-target users who had proven to be susceptible to what we call “fake news”, in the past. And how did they know this? Because they, whoever they are, are always watching your internet adventures.

President Trump has utilized platforms such as Twitter and Facebook like no other candidates have. He has gotten inside our homes and told us what to believe. It has made people think, including myself, if we will ever be able to believe what the media has to say?

So switch up your searches, look up something you normally wouldn’t to throw propagandists off their game, because while you may think you’re just sharing information with your close network of family and friends, someone is always watching.

Primary usage of social media platforms in 2018.

Scavenger Hunt Shenanigans

You know the saying you learn something new every day? This week we found out how true this really is; no matter how well you think you know a person or place, there is always something that will surprise you. The scavenger hunt we participated in made us explore things like student life and research that goes on Seton Hall’s campus, but also made us investigate people and things we might not think about regularly.

For example we asked Professor Friere of our Spanish department what she thought of social media in this day and age, and we learned that despite the hardships that her family has gone through, social media has managed to bring them together even when they are miles apart.

We learned that there are people beyond Seton Hall that have opinions and thoughts they’d like to share, and that there are places right around the corner we may never have known existed, but now do.

We believe we exceeded expectations with this activity, but tweets from our classmates Liam, Kassidy, and Mary also caught our eye. Liam highlighted places off campus such as The True Salvage Cafe, which we are now dying to try, and people such as Shaunak Rajurkar for his very distinct passions in both business and music. Mary posted graphics that we thought really drew readers in and got them to read what she was saying. Our favorite was her tweet about New York City rooftops; it really showcases just how beautiful the city is.

One tweet we believed was extremely intriguing was Mary’s tweet about Seton Hall when it was older. She had mentioned that Seton Hall used to be a male-only school, and that each one of them had to wear the same hat every day! That was a tweet we responded to, “Wow this is so interesting. I hope it’s true… that would be quite a sight to see: the same hat on every single person every day. #twinning #Boll3422.”

Lastly, we agreed that Kassidy had an interesting tweet when she pictured an alum and how he used the tools that the business school in Jubilee has. Our response to that was, “This is so cool that an alum reflected back on his time here at Seton Hall and how he utilized the technology that the business school has! #smartie #Boll3422.”

One of the best parts of the project was all the different prompts we could use to formulate our tweets. We picked the ones that really let us get creative with our responses and the people we talked to.

School spirit was a fun one to do since our team is currently ranked 10^th in the country!! “Fight fight fight for the blue and white! The Pirates took a 73-64 win over Providence this last Wednesday and are looking to take yet another W against DePaul next Wednesday, the 29th, to add to their 7-0 conference record. 🏀 Will you be there? #BleedBlue #Boll3422.”

We decided to branch out and figure out what our younger crowd here around campus like to hang out. “Ten-year-old Sadie of Maplewood, NJ says her favorite place to eat in South Orange is Tito’s Burritos. Her go to order is the nachos WITH guacamole🥑…and it has never looked so good! #titosburritos #Boll3422.”

After talking to the younger generation, we wanted to talk to a professor to find more out about them as well during this experiment. “Bringing her family closer even across international borders Professor Claudia Freire of our Spanish department said, “’My grandfather was kidnapped in El Salvador & the only way we knew he was still alive was because we got a call over FaceTime.’ #whysocialmedia #Boll3422.”

We found it interesting how students typically get their news. “’I get most of my news from Twitter! If it’s on at home I’ll watch it with my parents, or at the diner by my house!’ Kali Fino, 20, Psychology major #extraextra #boll342.”

There are endless amounts of beautiful views in South Orange to witness, “’My favorite view on campus is the top floor of the dorm Xavier. Being able to wake up and see the sun rise every day was something truly special.’ Alexa Vanderlinden, junior at Seton Hall #goodmorning #Boll3422.”

Finding out information about our campus may have been the most interesting parts of this experiment. “’Did you know it is a popular rumor on our campus that there are in fact underground tunnels that connect different buildings? It is claimed that when it snows, the paths where it melts on the green the fastest are where they are located!’ Caileigh Finnegan, junior at Seton Hall.”

“’Greek life if one of my favorite organizations to be a part of on campus, it brings so many men and women together raising money for great causes.’- Tempest Morrissey (pictures right), a junior communication major and sister of Alpha Gamma Delta #sisterhood #Boll3422.”

“Only 10.6 miles from our campus, Newark Liberty International Airport is at the disposal of SHU students’ fingertips. Whether it’s to set out on your next adventure or to get to home sweet home, EWR lets you jet away with the snap of your fingers! #travel #student #Boll3422.”

While completing this, we feel as though we discovered the power of social media. Twitter alone has allowed us to share the words of others and spread what they have to say about our little nook of the world here in South Orange. It was a challenge to get some people to participate or take their picture. For example, for the student on the street post, multiple students had to be asked before one agreed to get their picture taken and cooperate.

Tweets by nicmlangford

Keeping It Transparent

To say the least, the invention and integration of social media into our society has changed our world in ways we could have never imagined. Our ability to obtain constant feedback, handle crisis management, and communicate directly to the public are strategic ways the journalism and public relations fields have evolved for both the worse and the better.

The concept of transparency is one that should always be present in journalism and public relations. In reality, crisis situations are created when industries and individuals attempt to hide specific, not so glamorous details from the public. But in a day and age where social media has grown to reach not just millions, but billions and billions of people, the truth is bound to come out. That is why the call for an open forum that allows for transparent communication between reporters and the public to take place is one that has been called and answered, and that answer is social media.

Think about how often scandalous stories pop up on your timeline…now think about how much you read into the constant updates about the scandal. Cumulatively, you’ve probably spent more time than you realize reading up on these juicy tell-all stories that use tactics such as crowdsourcing and open-sourcing to keep you invested in what happens next.

In fact, without realizing it you probably spend up at least two hours scrolling through different feeds per day. And that isn’t even the worst of it; In your lifetime, the average person spends up to six and a half years engaging on social media. Think about all the time you could spend traveling to Italy if you had never even logged onto MySpace in middle school.

And the time just, tick tick ticks away as you scroll.
https://www.rakacreative.com/blog/social-media-marketing/how-much-time-should-you-spend-on-social-media-for-business/

Social Media, Not Just to Show Off Your #OOTD

The first thing you learn about PR is that it’s an ever evolving field, the clock never stops ticking, and there is alway something to do. But the way we strategically plan out the tactical moves we make has changed drastically since the invention of social media.

Robert Wynne calls the PR field a three pronged fork, seeing as it has evolved over time; These three different areas he talks about are traditional PR, advocacy PR and social media. While I agree that traditional PR and advocacy PR are extremely vital in researching, pitching, generating publicity, and so much more, I believe the research field of social media in public relations is one that cannot be ignored at this point in time. Several fortune 500 companies have even justified cutting their funding towards larger news media companies such as CNBC and Forbes as Wynne points out, because of the new alternative- social media.

Social media is virtually free publicity for any and all companies due to the fact that billions and billions of people log onto platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat every day. Not only this, but the age range between 18 and 29, the most active on social media, fit into the target demographic a lot of companies are attempting to reach.

Being within this demographic and having my own accounts on almost all of these platforms, I can tell that the products and companies that I get the most advertisements for have been specifically targeted to me because of the way that I get my media. Guilty as charged, I get most of my news from social media, but what can I say! I’m a millennial!

According to Digital Information World, as of 2019 these are the popularity of all social media platforms available to the world’s population.
https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/most-popular-global-social-networks-apps-infographic.html

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