Experimenting with New Media

Click on the map to enlarge it.

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Undoubtedly, the Tunisians in Tunisia or abroad have invested social networks on the Internet with messages calling for the dismissal of former president, denouncing the regime and calls for revolution. A virtual movement that has strengthened with the acceleration of events (riots, arrests, death of a rioter) in every  regions of this republic of North Africa.

With Facebook and Twitter, information flowed freely, and ease the mobilization was more effective. Different opinions were meeting to review the gathered end of the tyranny of the dictator who has oppressed so many Internet users, bloggers and all those who speak freely on the net.

Testimonials, videos and information that appeared prior to the taboo of silence imposed on the press, internet censorship and oppression of the police on cyber cafes.

A contribution was vital and that these social networks have become spaces of struggle without affiliating to any political party or to any national organization.

In a country where one third of inhabitants are connected to the internet, with two million members on Facebook, the overthrow
of the dictatorship of Ben Ali allowed to demonstrate the political power of social networks

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Facebook, Viadeo, LinkedIn ... These social networks have become a must for prospective hires. Now, recruiters do not hesitate to look at a little better the profile of applicants. Used wisely, these networks can help you to find a job.
 

- Find the right network:

In recent years, social networks have proliferated on the Net: Facebook, LinkedIn, Viadeo ... the candidate is spoiled for choice. Know that Viadeo and LinkedIn are only meant to build a professional network on the Web while Facebook, more informal, is primarily intended for personal use.

-Treat your profile:

Briefly describe your term, describing some of your past experiences. Put hypertext links to your accomplishments (website, blog ...). Be direct and say you want a job. Be careful if you're still employed: Your current employers may fall on your profile! Please understand that you can restrict access, for example, prevent your contacts see your pictures or parts of your profile. For this, use the privacy options that are available. Also, do not give unnecessary details in your presentation. On Facebook, for example, the user is encouraged to indicate their religion or sexual orientation. Avoid also join groups that you will not really value.

- Select contacts:

First look for your former colleagues, former clients ... but also members of your family and friends. These initial contacts will be a first network. To expand, you can join groups related to your business. Introduce yourself and feel free to speak on the forums, so you know. A good way to get in touch with other members and expand its network.
 

To contact a potential recruiter, the best way is to make you recommend for one of your common contacts. Otherwise, you can send them directly to a brief introductory message to encourage them to visit your profile. Also see if the company from which you are applying has a profile or a group you could join. Finally, applications such as "work with me" on Facebook to allow employees to share their network members to the vacancies in their business. A good reason to seek to expand its list of contacts ...

MySpace is a social networking website based in the United States, which makes available to its registered users a personalized web space, to provide various personal information and to make a blog. It is known to host many web pages for bands and DJs who will store and display their musical compositions.

It permits to amateur bands to promote themselves (purpose music, video clip, calendar with the day of live concert, to show your relatonship...)  alone and without any cost.Very famous singers have been spotted thanks to myspace (Lily Alen, Arctic monkeys...)

I have to friend that are known now thanks to this website:

http://www.myspace.com/mcwabitem

http://www.myspace.com/theetsofficial/music

The second band, The E.t's, have been noticed with their clip "Madame Météo" available on Youtube. Thanks to this exposure, their clib has finished in the 20 most viewed videos on Youtube France.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-IB5iRmklI

Now, for artists, to get known and then to manage their carreer, mysace represents a good opportuity.

1st Mistake: To Write on the wall of another to promote themselves

Writing on the wall of someone just to put a link to his site or his Facebook page is the most common mistake.  I'm not saying do not make contacts with strangers, but you need to be courteous.


2nd Mistake: inappropriate picture for your Facebook profile

Here is another mistake to not commit: post a picture of itself that does not reflect the activity you are promoting. Your photo will be quickly associated with the identity of your business. So be sure to put a picture of good quality, with good framing, good resolution and a professional appearance. More simply, you can put your company logo in the image of the profile.


3rd Mistake: Publish all the message of the day just in few minutes

Some, for convenience, decided to publish all their messages on their Facebook page in the same 5 minutes. It gives the impression that you are shipping this task quickly, as a chore, and you then do not bother most of the activity on your Facebook page all day. So if your schedule allows, it will be preferable to publish longer intervals throughout the day.


4th Mistake: to express your frustrations, problems and disappointments on your Facebook page

The objective of your Facebook page is being read by many people as possible. And we must make them want. Customers come to your page if there is quality content on a specific theme. Your Facebook page can not be the place to deal with your different customers, partners or competitors and others to share your problems in public.


5th Mistake: send an invitation to become "Friends" without introduction message

You can use your personal Facebook profile for professional purposes. In this case, your "friends" are not really friends, but to potential business contacts. When you send a message asking to accept devrnir "friends", take the time to say who you are, to accept the invitation knowing. Add just a little message to the invitation. This option is always given.

6th Mistake: present content as your own (though it is not).

That is a mistake I will not (and I quote the source of the original article in English at the end of this post). What must be avoided at all costs is not to cite your sources. The authors vexeront and will risk trying to harm your reputation. And if you cite the source, the person will always be grateful, even flattered, and will be inclined to promote a bill that the city. It is to his credit. So, never fail to cite a source and put a link to the source.

Facebook has now more than 500 million members, equivalent to the population of the European Union. It has also become the most visited website, surpassing the search engine Google. Being on Facebook has become a virtual necessity for brands and companies.

10 good reasons to be on Facebook

1. Create visibility. Facebook is the ideal platform to start his online presence and occupy the land. It's a way to connect on launching a new product or service, an event, to make targeted advertising.

2. Improve the ranking. By being active on Facebook and regularly, your page can go in search results.

3. Improve sales. Facebook allows us to reach an audience previously unattainable, to find new customers, make sales online.

4. "Watch". By probing conversations and groups, it is possible to know what is being said about your brand, your competitors.

5. Improve communication. Create groups about your products, your organization...

6. Refine its strategy. Facebook is a simple way to make surveys.

 7. Improve customer relations. Facebook can be tuned with clients who back problems. Accept criticism gives an open and transparent company. Improve the product or service gives a reactive result.

8. Involve employees. They are already likely to use Facebook at work. Involve and liaise with clients allows them to account and to value them. They will find some extra motivation in their work.

9. You can still find other professional uses such as recruiting staff, find partners ...

10. Impose your expertise. Intervene in Facebook groups related to your activity can help to demonstrate your expertise.


The 10 brands (company or product) with the most facebook members:

1- Starbucks (12 363 040 members)                                        

2- Coca Cola (10 290 712)

3- Oreo (8 393 178)

4- Skittles (8 281 341)

5- Red Bull (7 629 235)

6- Converse All Star (4 654 656)

7- Pringles (4 493 502)

8- Zara (4 179 619)

9- Nutella (4 090 519)

10- Ipod (3 856 882)

On the network "Twitter", informations spread very quickly and for a brand is the opportunity to know what's happening in the industry but also to deliver messages to those who care about you and especially to engage discussions with customers. Here you can find a non-exhaustive list of really big companies which use Twitter:


- Adidas - twitter.com/Adidas
- Audi - twitter.com/audi
- BBC - twitter.com/bbcbreaking
- Burger King - twitter.com/burger_king
- Chicago Tribune - twitter.com/chicagotribune
- Chevrolet - twitter.com/chevrolet
- CNN - twitter.com/cnn
- Coca Cola - twitter.com/cocacola
- Dell - twitter.com/Direct2Dell
- Evian - twitter.com/Evian
- Harley Davidson – twitter.com/harleydavidson
- IBM - twitter.com/smartsoa
- Levi's - twitter.com/Levis
- Mastercard - twitter.com/Mastercard
- McDonalds - twitter.com/Mc_Donalds
- Mitsubishi - twitter.com/Mitsubishi
- Nike - twitter.com/Nike
- Nikon - twitter.com/Nikon
- Nivea - twitter.com/Nivea
- Nokia - twitter.com/nokia
- Pepsi - twitter.com/pepsi
- Reebok - twitter.com/Reebok
- SAP - twitter.com/sapnetwork
- Sony - twitter.com/Sony
- Toyota - twitter.com/toyota
- Tropicana - - twitter.com/Tropicana
- Virgin - twitter.com/virgindotcom
- Wall Street Journal - twitter.com/wsj

Companies from different sectors (Clothing, food, restaurants, cars, software, retail, press, cosmetics...)  try to take advantage of Twitter. You can check their Twitter accounts to notice how they use it to be attractive.

Twitter can be used in differents ways to improve efficiency of a company:

- Direct use: the company uses Twitter as a channel for marketing and public relations.
- Indirect use: employees are using Twitter to enhance their personal reputation, valuing in the same time the vision of the company.
- Internal use: employees are using Twitter as a tool for disseminating information in relation to their projects and ideas they wish to share.
- "Watch": The flow of conversations on Twitter provides a rich source of information on what consumers think of you, but also what they think of your competitors.

But, to take advantage of these opportunities, it is necessary to have someone who can effectively use this tool. Not easy to involve a senior officer of a large company in this kind of action, as  writing on a blog or discussing in a forum. Further, the deepest change that involve the use of Twitter, is the absence of advertising on the service, making it great strength, and also generates attraction: Companies must communicate differently.

François Gautier

Last time, In New Media class, we played a very original and atypical game. The game was The Target developed by the company La Mosca and the principle is a hunt for robbers.

This game runs in the streets of Vlissingen and we were equipped with smart phone with GPS. The principle is simple and surprising: one team of robber has to commit “crimes” in different place of the map. To commit them, robbers must find adapted tools. These crimes constitute different sum of money. To win the game, robbers must earn 1millions euros.

Three teams of policemen work together to arrest the team of robbers. Each three minutes, they receive an extract of the map with the location of each team. It permits to locate the team of robber to encircle them or to trap them. To arrest the robber, policemen must be at less than 30 meters from them and then, use the gun. If they shoot robbers, policemen win. If the robbers shoot policemen before, the team of policemen must come back to their headquarters to play again.

First time, I played a role of robber. We collected a lot of tools to commit profitable crimes but after 12 minutes, we were shot by a team of policemen which was hidden behind a car.

Second time, I played a role of policeman but I didn’t arrest the robber. Our goal was to occupy the north of the map but robbers were in the south of the map. They put a mine to trap one of the policemen team but at least, after 15 minutes, robbers were arrested.

It’s very rewarding experience. It’s a good way to develop and improve skills in team work, and to make strategic and thoughtful choices.

François Gautier

Hello, I'm François from nantes, western France, where I study Marketing and Management. This year, I live in Vlissingen, Netherlands, and I want to introduce you the game The Target. Enjoy my experience!