My Inner Geek Speaks!



What I learned at school...



This week's course assignment was to use a number of social media apps. I tried using StumbleUpon, Wikitude and Foursquare.

So, I tried using StumbledUpon and I'm not a fan even though it's the top ranking social media traffic generator out there. What interested me is the idea of how information is suggested to you by your interests. It's like information is being brought to you rather than you having to go out there to find it. It's different for me as I like to search Google. I didn't find the site very intuitive and in fact had to find a tutorial on youtube on how to use it. Before learning more about it thanks to youtube, I was trying navigate my way around the site and for some reason I was looking for a "Next" button to "page" through all the different pages/sites. I didn't know till I watched the youtube tutorial that you had to keep clicking the Stumble button, lol. I didn't find exploring any of the interest areas intuitive either. Maybe this isn't for me. However I did like that you can immediately create an account whereas with Pinterest you have to request an invite to start pinning.

  

I downloaded Wikitude for my BlackBerry smartphone and was immediately amazed by the number of different things you can do! Wikitude is an AR app that allows you to:

· Find people near you that you can chat with

· See your friends on a map

· Find coffee shops, events, tweets, or restaurants.

This in my opinion is the power app of AR, note that I am a beginner! After installing and looking at the home page I didn't know where to start. I was a bit overwhelmed with the number of things you can do with this app. It took me a while to look through all the different sections but I am truly amazed at how powerful this app is!

I also just downloaded Foursquare and for a while I was actually a little annoyed with some of my BlackBerry Messenger contacts who kept checking in everywhere they go. I actually got so annoyed that I stopped checking for status updates but now that the dust has settled I have returned to my habit of checking for updates. I look forward to checking as I can still find out what's going on with my contacts based on their status updates. Anyhow back to my experience with using Foursquare, I remember this as a game that I used to play during recess in elementary school and not sure if the name has anything to do with the app. So with my first time using it and I get why people use it and glad that as part of this week's assignment I get to finally learn what it is and how to use it. I like that you can integrate Foursquare with Facebook and Twitter. I always wondered how my friends did that and it's so simple!

Effective PR examples of these platforms

QR Codes vs Near Field Communications (NFC)

Found this article comparing the two platforms. The concept of QR codes is that you take a picture of a QR code with your smartphone to get more information about a product, business, or whatever else the code’s embedded info is promoting. With NFC, a new and dynamic technology up on the rise, this could save users from having to snap QR codes and instead just tap their phone.

As an example, last year RIM announced a partnership with Telefonica Digital to pilot a wallet program using NFC  that allows users to tap their smartphones to make payments for purchases.

Foursquare and BART

In 2009, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) partnered with Foursquare to encourage transit ridership. This is a neat example where riders were encouraged to check out different stations and neighborhoods, and show people who aren't already BART riders some of the great things to do that are easy to get to on transit. BART also awarded monthly $25 promotional tickets for 3 months to riders chosen at random who have logged Foursquare check-ins at various BART stations. The goal of the promotion was to embrace Foursquare use on BART already and to further encourage use of public transit

Buzzfeed + Schick = Razorbombing

A social media campaign that allowed Schick to influence culture and invited users to shave something using a Schick Xtreme3 razor.

I downloaded the case study here. "Once users became hooked on Razorbombing, BuzzFeed introduced the “Shave The World” contest – a chance to win $10,000 for the most creative and shared Razorboming photo. To win the contest, the user’s photo had to top the BuzzFeed Viral Leaderboard, gaining the most viral views."

Phew! Apologies for the long post and thanks for reading to the end! Got any tips for a novice user still trying to figure out how to use these apps?