Creativity and New Media

New media has introduced new tools into the market that businesses around the world can utilize. These tools are meant to not only increase sales for businesses, but also increase convenience for customers. As a small business owner, I personally know how helpful an e-commerce website can be. The purpose of this tool is to provide small businesses the ability to expand their outreach to people around the world, while also providing important analytical information about individuals interacting with the website. My website https://nycsneaks.com/, has allowed me to expand my clientele to include people outside of just my general area. One thing that I personally find really helpful about having an online business is the fact that I am able to keep track of my inventory on a regular basis. Before transitioning my business online, I had to manually take note of every item I had sold alongside the selling price, and regularly update this excel file. Now, my inventory automatically updates as soon as one of my sneakers get purchased and this information is all recorded on the analytics page of my website.

           

            One way that running an online business has fostered creativity for me is by figuring out how to properly market myself. Having a logo to represent your business is essential in differentiating yourself against competition, this why I had spent time with a digital designer to create the logo that I currently have. I wanted something that best represented the sneaker community as that is what my business is revolves around which is why I had decided to use an outline of an Nike Air Jordan 1.This classical sneaker is something almost every sneaker-head knows of, and I felt it best represented my business. When it came to choose the name for my online business, I also wanted something that was both easy to read and understand. Being from New York City and selling sneakers, I felt that NYCSneaks was a name people could remember. I also have created a twitter and Instagram handle that I plan on utilizing in the near future to help promote my website. Utilizing social media is important and a good way to further advertise things which will increase user traffic.

Website : https://nycsneaks.com/

Logo : 

HW Creativity

Creativity is something that everyone has, but not everyone fully utilizes. With the introduction of the internet and digitization, there is no limitations to how creative one can be. Even though it may seem impossible to be original, people are continuing to create unique content and paving the way for other creators to build off of their ideas. One example of this would be mashups of rap parodies that were created back in the late 2000’s. According to a NYTimes article, “The postings (called mash-ups), are made by editing together snippets of animated movies and TV shows. The finished products look like music videos in which the cartoon characters do the singing.” Digitization has enabled creators to utilize content that already exists and be able to create a unique and enjoyable style of content. Creativity plays a big role in this because everyone has their own interpretation of what they find enjoyable. This is why people have created their own versions of these mashups with movies and tv shows that they find enjoyable.

            New media has also provided many businesses the tools to be creative as well. Since social media allow millions of people to be able to connect with each other, business owners are able to use it to their advantage when it comes to digital marketing. According to the article How user-generated content can improve your social media marketing strategy, “You're no doubt familiar with the power of "real-person" ads: according to research from Stackla, 90% of consumers say authentic info regarding brands and products is important to them”. Having real and authentic reviews about a company’s products and services can drastically improve their profits, which is why these business owners have to be creative in figuring out ways to interact with their clientele. Some ways they can do this is by asking for user-created videos, shout-outs on social media promoting their company, and by offering incentives. If done successfully, the user-generated posts will yield a positive outlook for the company and further strengthen the business and consumer relationship.

Citations

How User-generated Content Can Improve Your Social Media Marketing Strategy. Lisa Mulcahy 2/26/2020  https://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/how-user-generated-content-can-improve-your-social-media-marketing-st/marketing

The New Math of Mashups from The New Yorker Magazine 2005. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/10/050110crmu_music 

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are something that I would say are still relatively new. They are able to bring a sense of realism into an online atmosphere and allow people to interact. According to a CNN article called Going to the virtual office in Second Life, “more than 1,400 organizations -- including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military -- use Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently.” This virtual collaboration allows clients to interact with one another without anyone having to physically travel to a location. This level of convenience is unparalleled, as it not only will save individuals money, but time as well from having to travel to places for meetings. Although there are many positives when it comes to companies using virtual worlds to interact, there are also downsides to using them. One downside that a professor in Binghamton stated was “virtual teams may not share national and organizational cultures, and that virtual workers should make a conscious effort to see things from their colleagues' point of view”. The lack of emotional and physical connection with your fellow colleagues will definitely play a role in the work environment that is being created. Another downside is the lack of “water cooler” conversations that employees will be able to engage in. This is generally a good way for employees to build relationships in the workplace, giving them a brief period of time to interact with their fellow colleagues. In virtual worlds, this can be difficult feat to implement, but companies like Second Life have been trying their best to recreate this interaction.

            In order to recreate a place, or even create a new place, it requires people to be creative and be able to stretch their imagination as far as they can. One example of something that does this is Minecraft. As stated in a Forbes article, “…  Minecraft is a virtual world. It’s digital LEGOs if you will, but it’s a space for kids to exercise their imagination and to connect with others to also want to build and create things.” It allows for people to be able to recreate anything they can think of as they are provided with all the tools imaginable inside their virtual world. Alongside being something that fosters creativity, creating virtual worlds is also useful for people like Morie, who is a Senior Scientist and Project Director for the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. She was able to use virtual worlds to create a virtual healing space for returning soldiers. Morie achieved this by recreating similar areas to those that soldiers may have visited, and introduced artificial intelligence characters inside the world as well. Since she has the ability to reprogram these AI characters however she wants, she made it so the soldiers are able to in way relive their experiences when in places like Iraq. This provided something known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

            I believe there are still many improvements that can be done to virtual worlds going into the future. Since it is still a new technology that is being worked, it has a lot of potential going forward. Virtual worlds like Second Life may be able to take realism to the next level by trying to mimic details the best that they can. If the creators are able to introduce this, it would help people like Morie who use virtual worlds to provide a healing space for soldiers. Another potential feature in the future could be full recreation of a person including their looks, traits, and personality. This would allow for a more “real” interaction between individuals, which would solve the issues that some clients have with the program.

Citations

After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/ or Below.

Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, CNN.com: Nov 5, 2009http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html 

Blog about Twitter

      Twitter is an amazing platform for users to interact, repost things they may enjoy, and receive updates on the latest news that is happening globally. It is very unique in terms of the content it provides, and the user experience it offers. When comparing it against something like a Blackboard discussion, they share a few differences. A blackboard discussion would allow for multiple individuals to interact without having any limitations on the number of characters they would be able to use. For Twitter, users are only provided 280 characters per tweet. This would mean if someone wanted to fully engage in a conversation, it would have to be through multiple tweets instead of one. Both platforms do allow users to interact with each other through the use of replies, which helps keep user engagement in conversations.
     
      When looking at both Twitter and in-class discussions, they can both be seen as similar in a way also. In-class discussions are usually initiated with a person saying something, or students responding to a question posed by the professor. Twitter does this in a similar manner where people would respond to one tweet which would start the beginning of the discussion. People are then able to interact under that discussion similarly as they would in an in-class discussion. Again, the only limitation of Twitter is the restriction on how much someone can post in a single tweet, but this can be solved by individuals replying multiple times to the same post.

Blog: Social networking sites

      Social networking sites have provided society with a way to interact with each other, as well as provide vital updates to what is happening around the world. Some of these social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Although they all share some similarities, they were all created for different purposes and provide people with different content. Generally an individual will have a preference over which social networking website they use the most because they prefer the quality of the content that is offered and better enjoy the user experience.

      Facebook is a platform that I personally do not use anymore. When it was created, it was a very popular site that had overtaken MySpace which was the reason I had created an account. In my opinion, it offers the most complex user interface out of the four websites I have chosen. It breaks down various groups on the left side of the page with subheadings which include shortcuts, the explore pages, and groups you may be in. Facebook also is the only platform that offers a marketplace out of the four social networking websites, which allows users to sell a variety of items. Facebook would probably have to be my least favorite as I do not find the user experience to be optimal for me.

      Twitter would probably be my favorite social networking platform. The reason for this is because the quality of the content provided is something I enjoy. I am not only able to receive the latest updates on current events, but also provides tons of humorous content which I personally enjoy. The user interface is also very simple which I think enhances the experience. People are able to freely interact and repost things that they enjoy. The only downside I believe is the lack of an edit button. This is inconvenient sometimes as users are not able to edit previous messages, causing them to either delete the tweet or repost an entirely new one.

      LinkedIn is a social networking platform that mainly emphasizes on "professionalism". It is where individuals are able to showcase their skills, work experiences, and anything else that may help them market themselves to employers. I use LinkedIn whenever I am looking for internships and jobs, and its a relatively easy website to navigate. They showcase step by step how to setup a profile, and seem to always want feedback on the experience that they are offering. I believe that this would probably be the platform where most individuals are constantly updating their profiles as they want to include new skills and works experiences to further separate their profiles from others.

      Instagram would probably be my second favorite social networking platform. It provides unique content relative to the other platforms and similar to Twitter, I enjoy how personalized that content is. It is also a very easy user interface to navigate and very easy to learn. I believe that mixed with the content provided and the usability on a daily basis, it is a platform that I visit for entertainment. Instagram also is very useful when trying to figure how things may look. For example, if you wanted to eat a popular dish in a new city, chances are that someone may have visited there already and posted a picture. This gives people an insight on how certain food may look from a restaurant, or even how a destination they may be visiting may look as well.

Blog Social Networking

            When it comes to social networking, it is something that plays a big role in our daily lives. It is what has provided us the ability to reconnect with old friends alongside meeting new friends who live across the globe. With all the good things that social networking has to offer, there are also the bad things. One issue in particular that has always been brought up in debates is whether it’s worth sacrificing things such as privacy to be able to freely interact with everyone. Social networking websites such as LinkedIn have allowed individuals to choose how much information they would like their profiles to show to others, but their privacy will always be intruded to some degree.

            Social networking does have many benefits, both for personal use and corporate use. According to the article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, “Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting -- ever.” The reason for this is because websites like LinkedIn enable recruiters to easily differentiate candidates based on unique keywords that they enter. This will separate all the potential candidates from anyone else who may be searching for a similar position and only provide a high-quality candidate that the recruiters may be looking for. From there, all they have to do is send a message to the potential candidates and wait for a response. Comparing this to traditional recruiting methods, the article also mentioned “With my Rolodex, I had to call any one of these thousand people…”. Instead of having to ask other people and rely on worth of mouth for someone who may be interested in a position, social networking removed all the hassle and eased this process for recruiters.

            Being on the internet puts social networking to be in a position that enables it to also have a “dark side” as well. Scams quite often happen on platforms such as Facebook, as individuals could easily mask their identity when creating a profile. With minimal effort, you are able to create a brand new Facebook account and pretend to be someone you may not be. According to an article by NBC about Facebook scams, it stated “While you're searching for deals in a neighborhood garage sale group, you might think you're talking with neighbors, but you could be talking with crooks.” People are able to engage in full conversations with a complete stranger and not be able to fully know their intentions. This is the case when it comes to one scam that requires people to send their email address, which eventually leads to the criminal sending fake invoices tricking the user into thinking they have bought something on eBay when they have not. It was stated in the article, “A spokesperson for eBay said that over the last three years, the agency had received nearly 27,000 complaints related to fraudulent online car sales, costing victims more than $54 million.” This showcases how social networking platforms can be used negatively against certain

            These technologies have a long way to go in terms of evolving before they are something that can be considered as secure platforms. Everyday people are creating accounts on these social networking platforms in hopes of engaging with other people, but this leaves them susceptible to things such as scams as well. I personally feel that once these technologies have fully secured themselves from outside threats by doing things such as verification of profiles and introducing various levels of privacy options, that they will be able to provide the optimal experience for users. Until then, people will just have to continue enjoying both the benefits and drawbacks of using social networking.

Works Cited 

NBC2 Investigators: Multi-million dollar scam being used on Facebook. April 27,2018. http://www.nbc-2.com/story/38062070/nbc2-investigators-multi-million-dollar-scam-being-used-on-facebook

Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf