Did you just say 107 TRILLION E-mails ?

This week Prof Boone assigned us an article titled Communicative Informatics: An Active and Creative Audience Framework of Social Media written by Professor Boone herself and Professor Gallant from Emerson. The topic of this weeks class discussion was the role of social media in PR. We compared the new rules of PR to the old rules of PR.
It is most important to note that Social Media gives PR professionals the ability to directly communicate with their audience. So long are the days where PR agents must rely on the media to get the attention of their potential clients and current stakeholders. It is vital to practice a two way form of communication, where  not only do you give out information, but you also take some in. You listen to your customer and pay attention to any feedback they are offering.
While Social Media is paving a new path for those practicing Public Relations it is also opening the door for us to access more information than we could ever conceive. One line in the article listed above, Professor Boone specifically pointed out to us states; " Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003... pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this."
Do you have any idea how much information that is ??? Lets have a look at some of the numbers posted by pindom blog

in 2010:
107 Trillion - emails were sent on the Internet
255 Million - number of websites as of December 2010
1.97 Billion - internet users worldwide ( this is a 14% growth since last year)
152 Million - number of blogs on the Internet
25 Billion - number of tweets sent in 2010
600 Million - number of people on facebook at the end of 2010
30 Billion - pieces of content ( links,  notes, photos etc) shared just on Facebook along per month in 2010
2 Billion - the number of videos watched per day on YouTube
35 - hours of video uploaded to YouTube every hour.
5 Billion - photos hosted by Flickr

Those are amazing, astonishing and scary numbers !
Now what is important is to find a way to differentiate your information and your story from the trillions of other posts added to the web each day. How will you make sure your company does not get lost in the shuffle ? You must get creative. One proposition listed in the Communicative Informatics article is that the Audience is Creative.
Each day new photos, videos, releases and articles are being published on line. We live in a creative world with the most imaginative, inventive and inspirational people.

The Internet has truly revolutionized our way of life and social media is right there as well. Social media has provided us with ways to reconnect, ways to  tell our story and share our ideas. It has introduced us to a new form of communication and with this ability to freely communicate you have endless opportunities at your finger tips.... now we just have figure out how to best apply these opportunities.

Websites that are indefinitely Under Construction

There are millions and millions of websites on the Internet, many we will never cross and some we visit everyday. However they are not all designed as well as they could be. Some websites are just plain awful. Poor design, difficult to read, unusable links, etc.
For a list of the worst top 15 websites from 2010, check out this link and just browse around a bit, Worst Web Sites of 2010, it will make you shake your head. Of check out the front runners for 2011. it, Worse Web Sites of 2010, it will make you shake your head. Or check out the front runners for 2011
I have chosen two websites in particular to showcase in this blog.

The first is the website of the band Manu Chao who is a French Singer. The link to his site is http://www.manuchao.net/

Manu Chao came to the House of Blues which was the reason why i originally went to his website. I had people asking me who he was, what sort of music he sang, what demographic of fans would he bring to the venue. When i first approached the page I was quite flustered. There is ALOT happening on the page.
* There are many colors on the page
* Small print
* Moving automated photos that are not fluent with one another
* Navigation system is very difficult to follow
* It is in a different language but the "busyness" of the site takes away from any information he is trying to get   across
* It is impossible to read the tour schedule that is posted on the home page.

All in all, the website is too busy. A bit too colorful ( in my opinion) and is quite ineffective of conveying information to his fans.

The Second Website that could use alot of work is the official site for recording artist MIA, which is located at http://www.miauk.com/

When you go to an artists site you are most likely looking for a blog, tour dates, merchandise, or photos. When you click on MIA's site you are brought to her 8 minute and 49 second video for Born Free. Born Free is a very graphic, disturbing music video she has recently released. 

There is no option to opt out of the video. The only information on the site is the actual video and the counter at the bottom of the page. Once the video is done, it just replays itself. You are not redirected to any other site. 

This is MIA's official site but you do not learn anything from the page. You do not take away any information other than siting through this awfully long violent music video. If she would like to promote this video she should at least give an option to opt out, a way to redirect yourself to a site that actually contain information on the artist. 

Having a website in this day and age is necessary to be successful, to connect with your fans, clients or consumers. If you are going to have a website, you must make sure you maintain it. Its a real turn off when you waste your time researching something to find a website that is carelessly put together.

So please excuse us, while some of these websites are still under construction!

I have chosen two websites in particular to showcase in this blog.

The first website belongs to the band Manu Chao who is a French Singer. The link to his site is

http://www.manuchao.net/

Manu Chao came to the House of Blues which was the reason why I originally went to his website. I had people asking me who he was, what sort of music he sand, what demographic of fans would he bring to the venue. When I first approached the page I was quite flustered. There is ALOT happening on the page.
* There are many colors on the page.
* Small print.
* Moving automated photos that are not fluent with one another.
* Navigation system is very difficult to follow.
* It is in a different language but the "busyness" on the site takes away from any information he is trying to get
   across.
* It is impossible to read the tour schedule that is posted on the home page.

All in all, the website is too busy. A bit too colorful ( in my opinion) and is quite ineffective of conveying information to his fans.

The second website that could use alot of work is the official site for recording artists MIA, which is located at http://miauk.com/.

When you go to an artist site you are most likely looking for a blog, tour dates, merchandise or photos. When you click on MIA's site you are brought to her 8 minute and 49 second video for Born Free. Born Free is a very graphic, disturbing music video she has recently released. There is no option to opt out of the video. The only information on the site is the actual video and the guest counter at the bottom of the page. Once the video is done, it just replays itself. You are not redirected to any other site or even given the option. This is MIA's official site but you do not learn anything from the page. You do not take away any information other than sitting through this awfully long violent music video. If she would like to promote this video she should at least give an option to opt out, a way to redirect yourself to a site that actually contains information about the artists.
Having a website in this day and age is necessary to be successful, to connect with your fans, clients of consumers. If you are going to have a website, you must make sure you maintain it. Its a real turn off when you waste your time researching something to find a website that is carelessly put together.
So please excuse us, while some of these websites are still under construction!

When Music Met The Internet

Many technologies have been modernized by being diffused with the Internet. We can now listen to the radio online, watch a movie, upload pictures, have a live conversation using Skype, go shopping, book a trip and the list goes on and on and on.

Remember growing up when you had piles and piles of cassette tapes lying around, or your huge collection of records? How about your walk-man or the newest cd ?
Music has officially gone digital. No more bulky collection to lug around. We now have i-pods and mp3's.

In 1987 the first MP3 was produced by Karlheinz Brandenburg who chose the song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega. The first portable mp3 devise would not come along until 11 years later, but with the combination of the two- music has never been the same.

First people were "burning" cd and sharing songs by copying their cd's on line. I cant tell you the amount of home made cds i have from high school when we would compile our favorite songs onto a blank cd. From there, Napster appeared onto the scene and caused quite a stir. Today we have Apple and the mammoth iTunes program.

Unfortunately this revolution of music has destroyed many record stores including Tower Records, Virgin Megstore, Sam Goody's and HMV. It has caused issues for record companies from Capital Records to Jive Records. Having access to digital music not only makes it easier to get ahold of new music, it makes it easier for musicians to produce their music much cheaper.

iTunes was introduced to the world by Apple in 2001. It is an online site used to purchase and play digital songs. You can now purchase "single songs" rather than a whole album. The iTunes system helps you organize and easily manage your catalog of songs. In February of 2010 iTunes sold their 10 billionth digital song ! That is an enormous number for something being sold online.

No longer are the days we carry crates of vinyl records around. Music has diffused with the Internet and has changed the whole course of the music industry.