Social Media project - Walmart - Group 8

As part of the social media project in ISM3004, we were assigned to research a company's Internet and social media presence. Our group chose Walmart as our social media project company. Our group's research included analyzing Walmart's presence on the following Internet websites; YouTube, FaceBook, Google, Bing, Twitter, Twitrratr, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, and Walmart.com. I researched Walmart’s YouTube page, Wikipedia page, and their social media guidelines.  I learned that it is important for a company to have a social media presence, but more importantly a structured and customer-caring existence. It is good to see a company setting and sharing guidelines on social media use. It sets the bar in regards to what to expect from Walmart's social media presence and what is allowed to be posted on the Internet. My employer, Harland Financial Solutions, has an online presence on Twitter and YouTube, but I am unable to find the social media guidelines or policy. There are articles about social media, but no policy was found.

Our group was able to collaborate and bring together all needed content. Hawiane Tidwell was our group leader and assigned tasks to each group member to do with a deadline set for all research. I believe all group members participated in their assigned tasks. Hawiane did a great job at combing all of our research into the group Wiki page. We worked together well and our leader produced a well written report on Walmart's social media and online presence.

It is important for a company to have a social network presence to keep up with the multiple generations of buyers. With the combination of smartphones and social networking, the consumer is closer to the brand and company than ever before. Not only is it important and critical for companies to use social media avenues, but they must also have guidelines to follow. Without guidelines, the reputation of the company is at stake with everything anyone says about your company online.

Our group’s Walmart Wikispace: http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Wal-Mart

Week 13: Clear - Power of Social Media

Businesses, large and small, can leverage social media channels in many ways.  Although, it is crucial to have a strategy for your business to approach your business's social media channels.  A company must know what their end goal is to effectively select the best social media outlet.  Businesses must leverage social media to focus on engaging with customers, both current and prospective.  Now with social media, businesses are talking with customers, not just at customers.

An example of real-world use of Facebook for a small business is Adrienne Frankenfield Photography.  This business is owned by a high-school friend of mine and is used to share and promote her photography work.  Within the company's posts, the owner/photographer posts tutorials, special prizes, samples of recent photo sessions, and interaction with fans and customers. With Facebook's huge user base, there are endless possibilities of customer reach through their large network.

Reference URL: https://www.facebook.com/AdrienneFrankenfieldPhotography.

Week 12: Clear - Living in a Networked Society

Never did I foresee that my grade-school classmates would be just a click away.   With the power of social networking and the internet, networked computers have allowed the world to connect to each other  and share photos, videos, updates and more with each other.  We are able to connect with family, friends, and acquaintances, close and distant.  When  I graduated from high-school in 1998, I expected that most of my classmates were going to be distant and possibly unreachable.  Facebook and other social networking sites have allowed me to connect to distant relatives and friends throughout my life.  My wife has even connected with teachers, early classmates, and  friends from Puerto Rico.  Thankfully, distance is no longer a reason to be disconnected to the ones that you know and love.

With so much social networking  and net openness, comes an increased need for safety and security.  So much of our lives are now publicly accessible on the internet.  Even though social networking  sites and such promote  and offer safety and security, by default your social profiles and information is public.  Information aggregators, such as www.Spokeo.com, gather information from multiple publicly accessible websites, even public records such as county records and home purchases. As users and inhabitants of social networking, we must always keep security in  mind when using not only the internet, but more importantly any Web 2.0 technologies.    

URL Reference: SPOKEO.COM

Picture taken from http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6521973071_ab919eb642_m.jpg (Creative Commons)

Week 11: Clear - Data Challenge for IT and Security

Data and information is critical to any business to function and be profitable.  Data is raw facts and figures without context.  Information is data that is put into context to answer questions and support decisions.  Essentially, you cannot have one without the other.  Having data and information at your businesses fingertips brings many responsibilities and challenges.  From an Information Technology perspective, data has to be stored somewhere and be accessible to be of any value.  Unfortunately, data and information continues to grow at rapid rates and are relied upon more and more.  The storage space of data has to grow with the increased amount of data being accumulated.  In addition, business is reliant on the data and information being stored to the point that it has to be readily accessible at all times.  If businesses cannot accept any more data or the data is inaccessible, the business loses money by the minute.   There are a few headaches that come along with  

On top of the storage and accessibility of data and information, businesses now have to adhere to strict regulatory and compliance legislation of the data.  This is true in many industries including; healthcare, financial, education, manufacturing, and retail.  Even if an organization does not process financial data or healthcare data, they have a responsibility to protect the personal records of its employees.  These compliance regulations include PCI-DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLBA, and FISMA, to name a few.  Complying with such regulations can be costly, but now it is the "cost of doing business."  Not complying with such government standards and regulations will ultimately cost a company its business through fines, lawsuits, and lost reputation.  When scoping and researching information technology hardware and software, adherence to compliance must be thought of from the very beginning instead of the end or after implementation.  This has caused an increase in the cost of doing business, but at the same time has allowed for many job opportunities in the Security Compliance career field.