Final Project for BIS 315

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYQH4ztzTCU

For my final project in BIS 315 I did research into how the accounting industry uses social media. I focused my research on the Big 4 accounting firms: KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. I have followed these firms for a while now via LinkedIn and Facebook, but I never really paid attention to the stories and articles they would post. This project really made me pay more attention to these articles and it gave me a whole new view of how they use social media.

Look Back at BIS 315

This class was an interesting one for sure. My sole purpose of taking it was because I needed an elective that was a 300 level or higher and the course description made this class sound interesting. This class was a lot more hands on than what I was expecting it to be. I think the best learning experience was the semester long project with the client. This really gave me the experience of being able to conduct research and stand up in front of upper management to present it in a professional manner. I always knew that social media was a great tool to promote my personal brand, but I didn't realize it was this powerful. My LinkedIn profile has gone from just having one at the beginning of the semester to having a fully functional and filled out profile by the end. I truly believe that LinkedIn will help me in my future life as I search for a career, especially since it has already led to a few interviews for me.

Accounting and Social Media

I've used social media for years now. Ever since I have created my LinkedIn account, I have decided to use it as a tool that may benefit my future. I've been following a number of accounting firms for a while now. I would always see their posts, but I would never really pay attention to them. After completing this final project, I have a whole new view on how these firms are actually using social media. It was really quite interesting to see what their true intentions were. It was even more interesting to see all of the social media sites they use. I would have never guessed that pinterest was a key one for accounting firms, but they post a lot of valuable info-graphics on there. The whole project really made me open my eyes and start to pay a little bit more attention to each of those posts.

24 Hours Without Social Media

On Thursday I went almost 24 hours without using any source of social media. I allowed some necessities such as checking my e-mail for school purposes or taking phone calls in case it was important. It turns out that it wasn't as hard to stay away from social media as I thought it would be, but it was a lot harder to stay away from my phone than I originally thought. I don't tend to check my Facebook that often unless I believe that something will be waiting for me upon logging in. The only other social media I really use on a consistent basis is LinkedIn which I will only check every few days anyway. Putting my phone down and leaving it was a lot trickier than I imagined it to be. Knowing that somebody might be trying to talk to me and not being able to respond to them was a weird feeling. It really made me feel like I was a kid again before I had a cell phone. The only time I would talk to my friends then was when they called me. Now it is just so much easier to text and get almost instant feedback from that person. Only accepting calls though was a bit of a nice feeling. It made me use actual face to face communication more which was wonderful. I think I may start to slowly ween myself off of texting so much and either make more personal phone calls or talk face to face if possible.

Tracking Non-Face-to-Face Communication

On Tuesday I decided to keep track of how often I use would use a source of communication that was not face-to-face. I included using my phone, checking e-mail, or using social media in this tally. Keeping track of my phone usage was a bit tricky because I use it for a variety of activities so I broke that into three different categories: checking my phone, communication, and other uses. In checking my phone I marked down any time I would randomly check my phone whether it be to see the time or to see if I had missed any texts or anything like that. Communication consisted of any time I was aware that I had just received a text, call, or e-mail. The other use category was any time that I would use my phone for something else, such as Googling something or using any of my apps. I only checked my e-mail/social media accounts a total of eight times throughout the day. This did not surprise me because the only social media sites I really use are Facebook and LinkedIn and I do not often check them without knowing that I'll have a notification waiting for me. The thing that really surprised me was how often I would randomly check my phone. I checked it 15 times throughout the day. I figured that I was awake 16 hours, but six of those hours were spent either at work or in class where I could not use my phone. This works out to me checking my phone every 40 minutes. I think this is way to often to be worried about people that could be talking to me rather than actually going outside and talking to real people versus a screen.

Sherry Turkle Interview

I loved the video that the interview began with. It would be a great challenge to find a group of people in public in which one of them was not on their phone for some reason. The story from her class in which the students told her that they were basically addicted to their phones was pretty interesting. I know people that I would say are addicted to their phones, but I would only mean that in a joking fashion, not that they literally craved the thought of who might be reaching out to them. The varying magazine covers really hit how the times have changed. Families would spend their time together at gatherings and now even though they are still together at these gatherings, they are truly spending it with the people in their phones rather than those surrounding them. The Facebook advertisement really stuck out to me also. The girl was getting excited about seeing what her friends were doing on her Facebook feed. I personally don't go through my feed very often. Honestly, I don't really care who's going shopping or who just caught up on all of the Walking Dead episodes. It would be nice to have an old-fashioned conversation with somebody every now and then.

The Bombing of Social Media

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/woman-s-boston-marathon-bombing-costume--what-it-says-about-everyone-205502002.html

This story has been flying around the internet lately. The young lady in the article dressed as a survivor from the Boston Marathon Bombings that happened earlier this year and is receiving havoc for it. Yes, she was dumb. Yes, she was classless. However, she did not deserve what she received. I would be willing to say that she acted without thinking at all. I'm sure that if she would have sat and thought about it she would not have posted that picture on Twitter or would not have even dressed up like that at all. This isn't even the whole story. The part that really disgusts me is all of the hatred that she received. Death threats to both her and her parents were a huge part of this along with sending racy photos around the internet. The people that did this did think about what they were doing and still decided that it was a good idea. They clearly had to do their homework to find these pictures of her, her telephone number and address to send her the threats, and her parents contact information as well. In what world is it acceptable to send death threats for an occurrence like this let alone any occurrence at all? Not one that I want to live in.