leaving blogging to the social media generation.

I completely agree with the 10 harsh truths about corporate blogging.

As graduation is creeping up faster than ever, I am frantically trying to find open positions to apply too. I have found myself looking up many company blogs and twitter pages to find out inside information about the company. However, if I start reading a company blog and find it just another marketing scheme I become so irritated.

When I think of a company blog, I hope to find a personalized tone that really makes a connection between me as a reader and the company. I do find that many companies misuse the purpose of a blog.

With social media mania, it seems natural that every company should have a facebook page, twitter, and a blog. Of the three, the blog should be the most personal. People read blogs for a quick/relaxed read--usually to either agree or disagree with what the blog is saying--or atleast I do. I read blogs for other peoples opinion and find myself either agreeing or disagreeing on non-academic topics.

When blogs are a regurgitation of press releases and paragraphs off of the companies website it says a lot about the company. Especially if you are a company of consumer products--lots of times fans of your products come to read more about the company and get reviews from other users. If your consumers can take the time to be interested in your products then you should be interested enough to use your blog as another outlet to reach out to your consumers.

Like the article--blogs really don't get traffic just because they are a blog--I am sure lot's of bloggers have failed miserably. Personally, I enjoy blogs that push the envelope a little bit. With almost everyone having a personal computer at work and at home, having access to reading your blog is very easy so why not take advantage of it.

I would love to find a job after bschool to be responsible for a companies blog--I have recently become more and more addicted to social media and hope more jobs pop up in the social media field. Maybe they are not putting the right people in charge of blogs--I mean no offense, but when people say market research I like cringe...Im like, market research--you mean facebook? Isn't that all the market research you need these days--If you arent being followed on twitter you are doing something wrong because people will tell you what product they like and what they don't. Old school market research is for the birds ;-) move out with the surveys and move in with the blogs--just let new business school graduates be in charge of the job :-)

Should business schools take a lesson from the myth of crowdsourcing?

This may sound ridiculous that I am a second year business student and have not heard of crowdsourcing until I read the articles posted for this weeks class. I am writing this as I am embarrassed to admit it--well maybe I knew what crowdsourcing was, I just did not know they gave it the term "crowdsourcing" if that makes sense.

This posting is going to refer to the forbes article, "The Myth of Crowdsourcing". I have to agree with the author of the article. For some odd reason we like to think that "teams" or as the article says "crowds" are better than individuals--I guess the whole elementary saying, "two heads are better than one". We have this idea embedded into our heads--especially today, that any great idea has been thought up by a team.

I understand that a lot of business today, with whatever industry you go into you are usually placed in a team--a marketing team, a consulting team, etc etc, but I would like to say that I think teams are usually 4 or 5 individuals who think individually, but just call themselves a team.

Many of you people may disagree--but I got my fair share of teamwork after the first year of business school. I found that it was not the team that came up with ideas or worked productively, but more so each individual did their own thing and then at the end we combined all the work and turned it in--like it was done as a team. I am sure everyone can say at some point in their life that they have been on an terrible team--whether professionally, academically, or in sports.

I found this article interesting because with something like wikipedia, people have this idea that an entire "crowd" is constantly checking for incorrect facts on the website and this isn't the case as stated in the article. Usually it is individuals that are driven by some force that makes them do something--like correct a wikipedia page.

So this leaves me to think when did this idea that crowds or teams are better/more productive than individuals? When you hire an MBA student for a job after school, you are not hiring the entire team they worked with for econ, strategy or accounting...so why the necessity of teamwork all the time? Shouldn't we be focusing on make the individual the "ultimate working machine"? Don't get me wrong, some teams are fantastic and produce great work, but I feel lately, like the article, the focus has moved from the individual to the crowd, when really it is still the individual who is doing all of the innovation.

thats enough rant and raving for now---and since a lot of my teammates are in this class and going to be reading this blog--you know I love all of you and if it wasnt for you, I wouldnt have made it through the first year :-)

Thoughts on facebook...

This posting is going to focus mostly on my thoughts in response to the article by Mark Zuckerberg on the facebook blog.

I know that facebook is referred to as a social networking tool but after reading this article I like to think of it in more simple terms...a consumer product. I think its interesting how facebook has evolved since I first joined in 2004. However, I must say I have often been disappointed initially to the changes and updates facebook has made to my user profile. After the initial reaction of "what is going on with facebook and how do I use all of these new options" I can't imagine having these new "options" taken away. I honestly feel and must admit that facebook is probably one of my favorite forms of entertainment. My eyes open in the morning and I'm like FACEBOOK! Most people probably are the same way and just won't admit it, but seriously if you have a facebook I'm sure you are with me on this :-).

Though apprehensive at first about having all sorts of information available to the web, I have now found myself addicted to information and not just information about old friends---everything. I think that facebook has changed the way people search for information. Its kind of like a mini social google, but instead of scrolling through a million links, a few options pop up because guaranteed there is a group or fan base to just about anything.

This article is titled "Improving you ability to share and connect" however, I feel that people use facebook to mostly share. This social networking phenomenon has allowed us to share information and get feedback to a large range of people--I click on the "like" button to about 20 "Im ready for this day to be over" statuses everyday. This leads me to wonder if social networks have made the social atmosphere in the work place decrease. You read all of these articles about how email and text messaging has ruined this generations ability to interact with people face to face. I wonder if social networking cites such as facebook has drastically changed the social dynamic in the work place. Instead of asking a colleague how they are doing today or what they are doing this weekend, simply go to their facebook page and you can see what they did or how they are feeling without being bothered.

Anyways, in regards to the article I am interested to see how facebook is going to continue to evolve and what new options it will bring in the future. I am a huge advocate of facebook and can't wait to see if I use social networking differently in business than I do personally.

I think this is enough for now. Peace and love.

introduction to my blog

I am currently an MBA student at American University blogging for a Social Networking class. Welcome to my blog! I am excited to get started and hope you enjoy some of the "methods to my madness".


“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”

Till next time with love,
Britt