Open Culture

Open Culture is an online community that brings together hundreds of different high-quality cultural and educational media resources. It basically consolidates and organizes any kind of educational content out there and designates it to a course, e.g., Spanish, Physics, Literature, etc. They've been featured in the New York Times along with other online learning communities, including Busuu.com and Fluenz. Dan Colman started Open Culture in 2006. He's an extremely educated guy who, in his creation of Open Culture, has been following his passion by "bringing relevant, perspective-changing information to large audiences..." (All of us in APOC can understand from our Monday night guest speakers the importance of creating a community about something you're passionate about).

Last week I emailed Open Culture to inquire about a possible internship opportunity. Later that day, I received a direct email from Dan himself wanting to talk over the phone next week about a potential internship and some ideas that I may have in improving Open Culture's site. I couldn't be more excited to discuss with someone who has already established an online learning community! After perusing through Open Culture's site for some weeks now, I'm mostly disappointed in the inability for users to be able to make comments on the site's resources and material for a specific course, video, or podcast. Especially as a Spanish teacher, I want to be able to view immediately what resource works and doesn't work and why. And I want to know about it from a user's genuine perspective. Have a look yourselves: Open Culture. Please feel free to share with me (and Dan) about what you think!

Haiku

I was invited to attend a district meeting last week with a handful of teachers who teach high school courses online. At first I was excited to see teachers who have taken on the task of online learning as novices, but it disappointed me that more teachers haven't taken advantage of the new online network to help improve their teaching experience. The meeting mostly discussed how to use the district's newly acquired online learning management system, Haiku. Similar to Blackboard, Haiku is catered to the needs of a K-12 education. It's easy to use for both students and teachers in that information about a teacher's classes can be accessed from one platform. Teachers can embed lectures, Power Point presentations, videos with options for students to literally voice their comments (VoiceThread), photos, and post discussions and Google docs. They can embed the web, including lectures from AcademicEarth.org, videos from SchoolTube.com, and photos from flickr. Teachers have access to a plethora of options on Haiku, but how can it kick off if not enough teachers know how to use it? Haiku needs to be implemented consistently throughout the school's staff so that all students can go to one platform to access information for all their classes instead of having to flip-flop from individual teacher web sites to student portals. But how do you get them tuned in on the wave of online learning, especially tenure teachers who are too stuck in their ways? It seems as though the district has initiated the first step in transitioning teachers to online learning, but they've failed in executing the plan so that all teachers can become users. There needs to be more teachers who are willing to understand and implement Internet and technology to improve their curriculums. Teachers need to get on board, have no fear and learn to use evolving online learning systems and tools before it's too late.

Facebook or Google?

I think everyone can acknowledge that social media has changed the way PR and marketing now handle their products. In our talk last week with new media specialist Alex Cohen, corporations and brands are listening and tracking EVERYTHING. The music and entertainment industries are especially relying on brand cults to create buzz. Once a company has monitored and engaged their customers, the next step is monetizing their brand. Solution: social media marketing.

My biggest question for social media marketers is how does a company know when it needs to promote their website through paid placement or SEM? Will users actually take action and "click" on an ad? How do companies know if they should pay for Internet marketing on Google or a social networking site like Facebook? For instance, if an advertiser decides to use Facebook, the process to launch those ads is similar to Google's AdWords, except for the target. Facebook targeting is based on demographic, including gender, birthday, age, etc., whereas GoogleAd's targeting is by content, or the keyword a user searches for. Considering this, would a niche community that caters to a specific group be more successful using Facebook ads than Google's AdWords? Ultimately, you want whatever it is that you're promoting - a product, a service, a brand, etc. - to reach the right people with the right message. In deciding what social media marketing tools to use, it comes down to knowing your product and its objective.

The Corporate Website of the Future

Social media has helped to filter the good corporations from the bad. Corporations who have set up a web site, for both customers and employees to engage in conversation appear to be the most honest, loyal, and invested in their brand. POM Wonderful represents the ideal corporation website of the future. Customers can easily navigate the web site to join the POM community and write and read about it. By doing so, they've created an open, trusted, and genuine relationship with their customers. It seems obvious that all companies would want to take advantage of social media platforms to build loyalty. But why haven't more corporations jumped on the conversation train by now?

If, in the future, all corporate websites are not consisted of fake marketing and one-sided views and evolve into credible sources of fact and opinion, what will happen to the other conversation platforms? Will people still use Twitter and Facebook to criticize once corporate websites are equated with community resources? If everything becomes integrated, why would customers engage in conversation on other social sites when they can share their opinions directly with the corporation?

On another note, online communities across all companies, niche networks, and online projects epitomize human relations and acts of love. "Our social tools," according to writer Clay Shirkey, "is turning love into a renewable building material." Corporations need to embrace this love, have no fear, and prepare for negative criticism too--because the voice behind those written words is a real person who will forgive! Just as in human relations, if we show a real interest in listening and responding we'll absolve those mistakes and move forward. Loyalty to your brand might even grow!

Follow Your Heart

In Seth Godin's new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? he encourages us to "Take [our] gift, whatever it is, and use it to change the world." This sounds like the words of a prophet. So let's listen, and ask ourselves, "What's our gift? What are we APOC students passionate about that we can use to fuel the creation of an organic online community?" Though it may seem obvious, if we follow our hearts, we will become linchpins; we will be indispensable.

In today's business world, we're finally beginning to praise those who are talented and creative (maybe not as much at first--take Apple and every time they release a new product). According to Seth Godin, we have been taught to follow our "lizard brains," or remain safe instead of stepping outside of our comfort zones. I believe our nation's educational system contributes to this resistance of wanting to fit in with the rest of society. Does today's educational system (and parents) praise students' talents and gifts? Or de we label children with unique attributes, such as hyperactive or compulsive behavior, as "children with chronic conditions"? In a Ted Talk a few years ago, Sir Ken Robinson argues that schools squander children's talents. He also observes that children are not intimidated to take chances. Last November a 10-year-old boy by the name of Will Philips refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance because he believed there isn't justice for all, especially for gays and lesbians. Children like Will take chances because they're not afraid of being wrong.

Some of us are the product of this educational training machine which promotes fitting in and compliancy. Our schools frown upon giving the wrong answer or making mistakes. But if we don't mistakes, how do we improve? If we're not prepared to be wrong, how do we come up with something original? How will children learn to trust their creativity? My answer: their teachers. Although I know that it's impossible to have each one of my students become indispensable individuals, the least I can do is just be a Spanish teacher. I can promise my students that I will maximize every opportunity to reach their greatest potentials. Ultimately, though, it's the student's choice (just as it is ours) to follow our hearts and to become invaluable human beings.

Embrace the Change! Or else...

I think we can agree that users across all platforms (bloggers, podcasters, twitterers...) have officially raised the bar for advertisers, businesses and brands. Social media expert Clay Shirkey also considers this increase in power of both individuals and groups and its impact on companies in delivering constant satisfaction to their customers. "Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration," he says, "and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be." What companies rely most on dispersing information to survive as a business? To name a few, The L.A. Times, New York Magazine, and Cable T.V. Now more than ever, companies across all industries are affected by this social media revolution. Some words of wisdom: you have to embrace the change and go with it, or else you become roadkill.

How has social media already affected companies? Take the recent Prius recall and Toyota's handling of the situation. Unexpectedly, Toyota did a poor job at utilizing major social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their Prius customers about their faulty floormats and accelerator pads. But how can an international company like Toyota that has to work with different cultures and languages in dispersing information implement a successful communication management plan?

Though Toyota may be the exception, here's the lesson: If companies are going to engage with social media, they need to have a crisis management plan. They need to prepare for negative online chatter and execute a plan for when it happens.

Social Super Bowl

Social media activity will be a part of Super Bowl more than ever. For the first time we’ll be listening and interacting with the worlds’ thoughts in real time about one hot event: Super Bowl 44. Ladies and gentleman, we’re all in it together in this massive force of online chatter. What does this mean for advertisers? How fast will an advertisement go from hit to bust (if it hasn't already)? How empowering is social media for us, its users? One word: Liberating.

1. Advertisers are using social media to generate buzz about their commercials: Anheuser-Busch is using Facebook to get fans to vote for the commercial they most want to see on Super Bowl Sunday. Has their technique proven effective? Indeed. According to Alterian SM2, Budweiser has the highest positive sentiment score amongst its fans.

2. Pepsi has completely opted out of having a Super Bowl commercial. Instead they’ve decided to go full throttle and spend their ad dollars on a social media campaign: The Pepsi Refresh Project. Shout out to our friend Mark Sanchez! Vote for him and his support for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation! So far so good--its generating a bunch of buzz and fans are digging it.

3. The NFL is jumping on the Social Media Wagon big time. They’ve created an interactive user interface that aggregates all tagged Twitter and Flickr content. I took a peek--there’s so much content but it’s not exactly organized. Perusing through the scattered content, the Flickr photos do a better job than the the tweets at catching your eye. Have a look: The Super Bowl #SB44

Suffice to say, there is a plethora of options for advertisers to make a presence via social media. Everyone’s a part of it, including the athletes, the celebs, and the fans. Don’t miss out--get on it!