Social Media predictions

Is it possible to make a final conclusion about social media? In the beginning of 2010 many blogs were about predictions of marketing and social media. Questions such as ‘will Foursquare be bought and integrated on Facebook?’ and ‘when is the gossip about social media done?’ were famous the last year. Perhaps, we should stop thinking about the social media hype, because social media defeats the hype itself. Twitter is not a surprise anymore, while this invention was a huge hype in 2009. If we look at Twitter, Facebook or Hyves now, it became as normal as SMS or e-mail. It is a way of communication which some groups like to make use of. All these social websites are becoming a mainstream.
For marketers, the disappearing of the Social media hype means that it finally becomes a standard part of the total marketing mix. It will become important for companies to take a budget into account for social media. Another objective will be attracting visitors via the social web communities Twitter, Facebook or Hyves.
An important lesson of this course is that we, as a generation that grew up with the invention of social media, have to make use of this knowledge during our career. One can see that promoting a product with the aid of social media has a relevant impact on the consumer.

Voting and Social Media

Saxion Hogescholen in Eschede and Deventer are doing research in the usage of social media during the election time in the Netherlands. Researchers and students want to know how politicians make use of network sites in their campaigns. Therefore, they also want to know which influences these websites have on the votes. The Saxion school has started this research in March and will continue the investigation for the new elections. Results will be shown in July.

Actually this is a great opportunity to find out in what part of social media plays a role during the election time. It is possible that a social website such as Hyves plays a more important role than, for instance, a social active website such as Twitter. Moreover, doing this research will also indicate which political party is most popular to these social media target group.
Furthermore, I think that when the politicians will become the results of this research they will certainly promote in a better or worse way on the internet. For more information, keep up to date with this website: http://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/

My new love, Blackberry

Finally! I was able to pick up my new blackberry bold in the hi-shop yesterday! I was tired of keep in touch separately with my agenda, e-mail, Hyves profile and SMS. Now I have the possibility to do or see all these aspects in just one glance!
Due the fact that the social media are growing, I thought it should be time to keep myself also up to date. Moreover my study, business communication and digital media, convinced me that media actually are important issues in our daily lives. With a device like Blackberry Smartphone the communication will be improved and accelerated. More people surrender themselves to mobile phones that have more and more applications. Every message, regardless the intention, has to reach the receiver as soon as possible. Sometimes the sender is the receiver at the same time. When someone makes use of the agenda application, the certain person will communicate with himself because he needs a self-recall for an appointment. Furthermore, the Blackberry also contains online internet. Applications such as Facebook and MSN messenger are all on the Blackberry to facilitate the communication over the whole world. There are so many applications for the Blackberry and Iphone that each day new ones are invented.
Until now, I’m happy with this invention. But I still have to find out which applications are useful for my lifestyle.

London's social media

Two weeks ago I visit London to meet my best friend who is staying there for work. With two other friends I flew from Eindhoven to London. I’ve been in London twice before, but I would like to see my friend and the big city again. We would stay there for four days and the first two days we went to museums and other attractions. The plan for the third day was to go shopping in Westfield, a very large shopping mall. When we came out of the underground, we would not believe our eyes: Westfield was the most modern shopping centre of whole Europe! As soon as the doors opened for our feet, there was a ‘table-top’ waiting for us. On this table all visitors were able to search for their wanted shop. In other words, this table was a kind of a guide that led people through the mall. My friend want to find herself a Starbucks and typed in ‘Starbucks’ so that the table could start searching. The next thing that happened was that all Starbucks appeared on the screen. We were able to select one Starbucks and see the route through the mall.
Another remarkable thing we noticed when we went out that night was a personalizer. At every entrance of a club, we had to identify ourselves and a woman scanned our fingerprint. When we asked what the fingerprint was for, she replied that it was for our own safety when there was a fight or something happened with us. Well, are these kind of social media normal these days?!

Melmac weekend & mobile applications

About a month ago I went with my korfball club on a weekend. This year was expected to be very spectacular, because the weekend took place in Osdorp, a neighborhood of Amsterdam. All the way from Tilburg, we arrived on a Friday at 7 PM. The people who organized the weekend, were already at the apartment where we all would stay during the weekend. They told us to drop our belongings and relax. After eating a nice soup, one member of the organization explained that we were about to be dropped somewhere only they knew. We had to give all our telephones and money to the organization, so that we had no navigation or opportunity to go home by bus or train. I had no good feelings by hearing this, because of an earlier youth trauma on a certain camp ;-). Anyhow, I put myself together without telling anyone and added myself to the rest of the group. Anyway, one group resisted of 4 or 5 people. Our group was dropped as last group, about 1AM. We were thrown blindfold in a small bus, but nevertheless we kept on laughing and singing. After half an hour we were dropped at a small village which, we found out later, was called Zwanenburg. Luckyly, nobody knew that a member of our group carried an Blackberry with him! We were saved with this GSP application on the Blackberry, I thought.. Unfortunately I spoke to soon, because we had to walk two and a half hour! Weird enough, all groups, who carried nothing such as a mobile phone with them, were already at the apartment when we arrived. Something stank there, we noticed ;-). Nobody mentioned anything and two weeks further it appears that the other two groups went home by bus because there were still driving busses. And we thought we were smart.. So there you have it, an information system such as a GSP is not always that useful!

New job

Last February I was desperately searching for a job, knowing that I wanted to expand my curriculum vitae. At the same time my sister's birthday was right away and therefore, she went shopping with my parents to find herself a birthday present. When they visited jeweller Rijnders for a chain, my sister saw a vacancy at the balustrade of the jeweller. She immediately called me to say that I had to apply at this jeweller. Forthwith I wrote an application letter to this jeweller located in Valkenswaard. One week after I posted my letter, a woman called me to say that I was invited for a short conversation. Finally, my conversation with the owner went well and she invited me for a first workday. She gave me the job! As happy as I was, I went to my first workday, not aware of all the difficulties that were waiting for me that day. We had to replace batteries and switch caps of watches by ourselves. Besides, I had to keep all brands, new collections, gift boxes, keys of showcases and colors of watches in mind. Nevertheless, it was absolutely a challenge for me, but to be honest I underestimated the job a lot.

However, all these aspects that I had to deal with were just fun to keep in mind. But there was actually a larger snare: the computer system. Every single acquisition was stored in the computer system, because then the warranty could always be checked. In this way, we have evidence when some customers claim that they have bought something at our jeweller. If the system crashes, however, all data are lost. Therefore, there is a backup computer that is connected to the normal network.

Still after three workdays, I do not know all the ins and outs of the computer system, but I hope time will be my best friend...

Information Technology in Istanbul

With Easter, we went to Istanbul on a study trip. We can hardly imagine how different the daily life is over there. Istanbul itself is trying very hard to become more European, but the information technology has actually an arrears. Much information is communicated face to face: many cabs are driving all over the streets hoping that someone holds them on. Therefore, calling for a cab with the aid of a phone is not necessary. There also is less advertising on the streets: Turkish people just talk to tourists and indigenous people instead of promoting a product they offer by advertising with posters.
Nevertheless, we also visited a university which was very modern. They used Mac books for communication during classes. We see that there actually are places in Istanbul were the information technology is quite modern. The city works really hard for it, but still one has to notice that also stores are small and the information technology is not well developed. Moreover, Istanbul is getting more modern and the information technology will hopefully become more modern over the next few years.