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.

Trip to Morbark

This was a very interesting trip. It was the first time I had taken a tour of a factory and I had no idea that there was a factory this large this close to Mount Pleasant. We started it off with a quick presentation followed by the tour. It was very interesting seeing all of the different machines that they manufacture. One of the aspects that I found particularly interesting was the way they communicated that they needed to make orders because supplies were low. They basically had a board on which to hang a slip that was matched up with all of their major raw materials. The example we saw only had about 5-10 different materials, but I wonder how that system would work with a higher quantity. During the presentation they showed how a more efficient procurement process helped them cut a lot of costs. I think this could be a big area for social media to come in. Not only could it be a smoother way to communicate with their suppliers, but also for the entire CMMA as a whole to share these little tips and tricks with each other.

The New Digital Age Chapters 2 and 3

Chapter 2 of The New Digital Age claims that there are more people online than there are in the world. How can this be? It is because that the majority of us have multiple profiles online. Not only do we have multiple profiles, but we also have multiple personalities. I for one have talked with a lot of individuals who live a different life than  what Facebook shows they live. I feel it is safe to say that basically every person represents their life on Facebook differently. Not only does this happen, but I also know people who act differently across the different social media websites. For example: one individual I know is very active on Twitter, but not so much on Facebook. The posts he makes are also more vulgar on Twitter. This is because he is a counselor for a summer camp and he is friends with most of the kids that attend that camp on Facebook. He doesn't want to have these kids see how he actually talks in other places.

Chapter 3 goes on to talk about the control of the internet worldwide. As we have seen, attempting to sensor what individuals do on the internet does not go over smoothly. People have had the freedom to do as they pleased and they don't want to give any of it up. How well will relationships evolve as we can become connected with more and more people? We have already seen how Facebook affected the revolutions in Egypt just a few years ago. There is a lot more potential for this to happen in the future.

Social Media in Business

Last Friday I had an interview. The first question I was asked was "What do you know about our company?". I let them know that I had a very short talk with an employee before and most of the information I had obtained was from the website. When hearing this answer, the interviewer rolled her eyes and said "Ugh. I don't like our website. It isn't the best. It is crazy how social media has changed the way people find information." I started to laugh a little and asked what social media sites that they utilized. She said LinkedIn was the major one and that they were working on creating a Facebook page, but she was not sure how well that would fare for the company. I let her know that I am currently enrolled in a class that is focused on using social media in the business setting and that we have a client that we are assisting with what social media to use and the basics of setting it up. It was very interesting having this talk with a potential employer and immediately being able to offer suggestions on what they should do.

Who Owns the Future Chapter 3

Jaron Lanier  discussed the invention of money. Yes, it is great that we have a universal way to value objects and we no longer have to worry about bartering or as Lanier expresses having to worry about losing  a wandering sheep. He also talked about that with the technology of money changing, we don't stop to think about the history of the bills we have sitting in our wallets right now. What was bought with these before? Was it used to take cocaine? Would we really want to keep these bills if we actually knew what they were used for? He also brings up the point that a lot of our major purchases (houses, cars, etc.) are paid with imaginary money. Few people have the money to be able to buy a house with cash. This is when mortgages come into play. Yes, the house is bought, but it is with the money that the person is promising to earn and pay in the future. With the changing technology and money becoming more technology based how are things going to change in the future? Everything is done by computers now. How easy is it for an individual to hack into a computer and change anything about another's bank account something along those lines. It is a scary thought to have.

Social Organization Chapters 9 & 10

Chapter 9 of the Social Organization starts off by talking about successfully switching the purpose of communities. The example of Obama for America was given. In this, the original purpose was to get Obama elected for President. After he was successfully elected, the community switched to Organizing for America which was supposed to bring about everything that Obama wanted to implement and then later to focus on electing Democrats to Congress. These changes worked very well because the community all had the shared trait of being Democrats and in favor of Obama. The changes of the purposes did not stray from the original purpose by very much. The March of Dimes was also given as an example. President Franklin Roosevelt created it as a way to raise money to find a cure for polio. Once this cure was found, donations fell drastically. Rather than eliminating this group that was successful, the purpose was switched from polio to eliminating birth defects. Chapter 10 goes on to talk about making the community a place that individuals would like to participate in. This can be done by having management in all different areas of a business (HR, Accounting, etc.) participating and making it feel like an area that is open to productive discussion.

Working Out for Social Media

While going to check on my Fantasy Football teams, I found this story on Yahoo: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/hot-mom-defends-herself-against-facebook-haters-192149769.html. It is about an in-shape mother who posted a picture of herself in workout clothes with her children around her. Each of the three kids have their age posted close to them and at the top of the picture it says 'What's Your Excuse?'. She meant this to be a motivational tool for individuals that are not constant gym goers by showing that she can still do it even though she has three kids. A lot of people did comment saying how well she looked and that her picture truly did show them that anybody can find the time to get healthier. However, she may have had even more negative remarks from people saying that she is a horrible mother and only adding to the American image that skinny is beautiful. She has been forced into defending herself with all of the backlash. I for one don't think there is anything wrong with what she has done. The only thing that is wrong here is how people will use social media to turn any positive into a negative.

Technology Within the CMMA.

One of the big things I took out of our meeting with the CMMA was that they were worried of what the social media would do to their employees. One of the board members said that any personal technology is not allowed on the floor because it becomes a distraction to the employees which then can become a safety hazard. I think that they thought that once the association began to use social media, then employees would start using their phones more often so that they could update their statuses or check on what their friends and family were up to. I don't think they realized that they would be able to utilize social media as both getting their name out and a way to streamline their internal communication while still having that rule apply. They could have computers set up in a break room or only have a manager use the computer in their office for internal communication needs such as asking about maintenance on  machines. Then the external use could be done by only a board member or by a rotation of the board members. By doing this they would be able to utilize the power of social media while still maintaining a safe work environment.

Meeting with the CMMA

Our meeting with the CMMA went over very well. We basically went over the what different types of social media can do for a business. It seemed like the board members knew how they wanted to utilize it, but they were not totally sure of the power of social media. They were also a bit unsure of how they wanted to implement it also. It was interesting to see their view of manufacturing compared to how others view it. I do think that they are correct when they said that the majority of people think of 'working the line' and 'oil and grease' when they think of manufacturing. We don't really look at the behind the scenes aspects that are vital to any business such as accounting, management, or engineering. These are the careers that they want to bring in a younger generation to rejuvenate. Their take on how to do this was also quite interesting. Instead of focusing on college kids that they might be able to entice into joining a manufacturing career in their degree rather than going to a more natural ending spot for them (ie. an accounting degree going to work for an accounting firm), they are trying to target a much younger generation: middle schoolers. This is so interesting because middle schoolers don't tend to use social media to search for what they want to be when they grow up. The only way that they would be able to really target this group is through their schools or parents. The entire meeting was an interesting one and it really made our group have to put a bit of a twist on how we thought we were going to do this project.

The New Digital Age Chapter 3

Schmidt and Cohen begin the chapter by asking 'How will they use the Internet?'. This is referring to the billions of people that continue to join the group of internet users. I have never really considered this topic before, but it does bring up an interesting area of thought. The entire globe is becoming more easily connected, however, every area has a different language, alphabet, and culture. Diving more deeply to each individual person, everybody has different likes and dislikes. Well it is true that this could be a great tool to connect with an individual on the other side of the planet and become great friends with them, it is just as likely that people can make enemies. People being able to hide behind a computer screen act in a totally different manner than people communicating face-to-face. With the way the internet is going and how everything can be pinpointed back to the source it came from could cause a dangerous scenario. Just imagine...a young man in Mount Pleasant is on Chatroulette and finds another young man that lives just outside Boston. One of them calls the other a profane name and they get into a bit of a heated argument. It is simple enough to next the individual and not have to worry about him anymore.  Feelings may be hurt, but no harm, no foul. Soon enough the young man from Boston will be able to get the IP address and be able to send the other young man a virus. This takes a whole new twist on the aspect. Now imagine this on an international scale. And even worse, a bigger playing field that would affect a larger number of people such as governments. This is a really scary thought to think about.

The Social Organization Chapter 8

Chapter 8 begins with a story from EA. They had set up internal communities to connect the entire company globally. The problem with this is that they opened to many communities. None of the employees participated that much because everything was so spread out. They then go on to explain how the managers at EA did not handle the situation in the best way. Many people think that the managers are not going to do anything and that they are going to only watch over the community and try to stop anything bad from happening. The real issue is that managers are key to the success of communities. They have to be able to find the perfect balance in which they help to lead the discussion, but then allow the community to grow and flourish by itself. When employees see that the community is then being 'run' by peers, they feel more comfortable to join in and participate. When the communities take this turn, the managers just have to sit back and focus on any conflicts that may arise. This again makes the employees feel safe and wish to participate in the community. In the end, EA was able to figure things out and use the communities to promote internal communication and spread ideas around the globe. Even though EA ended up being successful, that scenario shows how easy it is to create a tool that you think would help only to have it do more damage.

Social Organization Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of the Social Organization opens with Paul Price, Executive Vice President Marketing Services at Acosta, discussing how social media has changed the way that sales and marketing work now. He gave the example of his daughter taking pictures of herself in any clothing she is interested in buying. However, instead of buying it right away, she posts these pictures on Facebook and gets all of her friends opinions on the outfit. I agree with Price. The use of social media has led to consumers being able to find a lot more information about any product than they used to be able to. The research can either make or break the product. Even if one friend of an individual posts a bad review on anything, that could kill any chance that that person would make the purchase. The rest of the chapter discusses how an organization should choose the proper social media that they are going to use and how to find the community that will follow. This is vital to the success of the social media implementation because if it does not arouse any interest out of people, then there is no point in even having social media.

Who Owns the Future Chapter 2

Lanier starts off the chapter by discussing how technology is putting people out of work. Or is it? He gives the example of Google translation. When an individual searches a phrase to translate, instead of having one person sitting in Google headquarters with an Spanish to English dictionary, Google just searches the internet for translations that have already been provided by people online. These translations always aren't perfect, but they get the job done. The individual who searched the phrase doesn't think of all the effort the people who made the translations did. That is why Lanier proposes that every individual that shares something of importance and knowledge be compensated for their contribution. The more valuable the information provided, the more compensation shall be received.

I think that this is a very interesting concept. My initial thoughts are that it is a great idea. But thinking about it in more depth, how would we be able to measure exactly how 'valuable' the information is. How can we say that the information that one person posts that is already readily available to us is better than roughly the same thing another person posts. How would these individuals be compensated? Would every single person have to set up a PayPal account that could have money be instantly deposited as soon as the post was official? What about every author that has original work? Would they get compensated every time their work got posted someplace else? Or every time a person used and cited their work? Even though the idea sounds great , I believe that there are to many roadblocks standing in the way of this thought becoming a reality.

Social Organization Chapters 5 and 6

I enjoy how Bradley and McDonald begin chapter five by showing how companies try to get individuals to interact both internally and externally by using the same boring and bland statements. They then go on to show how a potentially good way to use social media to perk the interest of individuals may look. This is a very accurate statement because most people will just overlook a chance to participate because of a poorly and non-exciting post, but once something of interest that can help them out is brought to attention then it is a whole different story. This is where they present the No, Go, Grow decision tree which can be used by any company. The 'No' aspect is basically just asking if there is a purpose to whatever is being done. Once it is decided that there is one, it goes on to the 'Go' stage where it is asked if a grassroots campaign will work within the community and how hard it would be to create anything needed and further peek interest. Finally, the 'Grow' stage is when it is believed that the grassroots campaign won't work and it is projected out to a larger community to  bring even more attention.

Chapter six goes on to talk about building roadmaps to help guide the organization on where to go. They talk about BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and how they were able to create and implement theirs. The event that caught my interest was when they turned their attention to FICO. FICO created the myFICO forums and were able to grow tremendously. The forums took off and FICO realized that myFICO participants were willing to spend more money and that sales growth was a direct effect of the forum. In that year, FICO was able to increase their return on investment by an astounding 300 percent.

Social Organization Chapters 3 and 4

Chapters three and four of the Social Organization talk about setting up and and utilizing communities in social media. they discuss how many businesses create a social media account based solely on the idea that it will immediately have a positive effect on them. However, this is not true at all. Many companies have created a social media account and have just let it sit. This is not going to create any positive buzz for the company. The only positive effects will come from the social media being used correctly. The company is going to have to make sure it is focused on the exact market that they are targeting and even get them involved.
They also talked about the six 'Fs': folly, fearful, flippant, formulating, forging, and fusing. These all describe how a company views social media. These range from not wanting to have anything to do with it in folly to pretty much making every major decision through communities using social media. More companies are at the folly end of the spectrum than the latter, but with the ever changing world that number is dwindling as more and more companies are becoming more adventurous with social media.

Mass Collaboration

Mass Collaboration is the act of a large number of people that may have little connection with each other come together to create something of value. The Social Organization says there are three key components that are involved with mass collaboration: social media, community, and purpose. The Student Accounting Society can demonstrate this on a small scale. The community consists of accounting or prospective accounting students. The purpose is for them to learn more about the accounting field and make connections to professionals. The only area that SAS really lacks on is social media. The only social media that they use is orgsync. Orgsync does do what it is meant to in keeping the members updated, but I believe that having another social media website paired with this would be more efficient. This would allow the people that do not use orgsync as often as they should the opportunity to be updated on all aspects. It would also allow them the opportunity to make suggestions.

Lanier vs. Schmidt and Cohen

Jaron Lanier has a very interesting take on how the advances in technology are going to impact the human race. He thinks that the advancement of technology is going to hurt us. In the beginning of You Are Not a Gadget Lanier tells a story about a speech he gave in which he dared the audience to put their phones down and not post anything he says on a social media website until after he is done with his lecture. This is because he believes that people are so quick to the draw in letting their emotions fly where it is available to the rest of the world. He suggests that eventually humans will just input all of their knowledge and personality into computers and basically just live through them. He brings up the point of when we are communicating to an individual online we are not sure if it is man or machine. He also brings up the even more horrifying thought of Singularity. This is basically the idea that one day robots will be able to recreate themselves. Not only will they be able to recreate themselves, but they will be able to generate a smarter version of themselves. After a few regenerations of these robots, they will be so intelligent that they will be able to take over.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen take a different perspective of the advancement of technology. They view it as being a beneficial way for people to connect, communicate, and learn. They believe that tools such as suggestive searching, voice recognition, robotics, and artificial intelligence will help to both save time and change how we think. They view the advancement as a way to create a level playing field for all countries across the world. They say that people in developed countries will then be able to see the ideas and geniuses of undeveloped countries that we would previously have no knowledge of.

I tend to agree with Lanier more, but I think his views go way to far into the extremes of possibility. Technology can be our greatest asset if it is used properly. However, people are becoming more interested in just stalking people they used to know or even people that they would like to know rather than using it to progress the human race. Schmidt and Cohen definitely have a optimistic view. If the human race does change how they want to use technology, then it will be our greatest ally, but until then it will just be a giant waste of opportunity.

Social Organization

The organization I am going to be writing about is the Student Accounting Society. SAS doesn't use a a whole bunch of social media. The only source of social media they use is orgsync in order to stay connected with the members inside of the organization. The challenges with this is that not every member or prospective member signs up for orgsync. This means that they do not always get the updates on events happening or meeting times. They also have an ever constant changing roster of members and the leadership positions are also constantly changing. The organizations in the book had the problem of keeping communications high among the many employees around the world. Cemex used social media to help converge businesses that they had purchased to help ease the mergers. A Facebook page might be a successful approach for SAS. They could create an e-mail that the leadership positions would be made responsible for. This would be a bigger convenience for the members as well as the majority of them would already have a Facebook. Status updates and messages would be an easy way to update meeting times and who was going to be speaking at them.