Khrys Dent:
http://iamkhrys91.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/pinterest-is-it-your-type-of-social-media-site/#comments

This blog is going to be a narration and exploration of Pinterest. I am probably going to discover new ideas and potentials for the site throughout the course of writing this blog, so if you get lost, it is ok. This is an exclusive look into my thinking process.

Since I am not a member of the site I am having a difficult time understanding how it can be so powerful. I know if you find an image you like, you share/post it on your board and it links back to the original content. That is useful if you have a board that many people frequent. I guess this site is encouraging sites to have creative content up so that more people will share it on their boards? If so, this is a positive for the internet as a whole. As we saw with the growth of Facebook, it changed the way some websites functioned. It made the internet much more communicative and open than it ever was. If Pinterest has the same impact, we could see an internet that is much more visually creative than ever before. So I guess the goal is to become the most eye-catching thing on the internet first?

I can imagine the importance a site like this would have on the artistic community, you create a visually stunning piece, you now have a visual way to show and it watch it spread. However, I am having issues with seeing the value behind it in terms of a corporate facilitator. Unless it is also used to share products and product images. So then I could see the uses. I wonder how the corporate culture is going to respond to such an artistic shift in presentation. Will we see products that are designed more elegantly? Packaged more creatively? Websites that are explosions of color and art? Who knows? I would love to see another revolution of the web jump started by a social media site. So the goal of Pinterest, to me now, seems to create something that could go visually viral that people will want to have displayed on their boards so that it will link back to the originator of the content. If you are not an artist, or make very pretty products, then I wonder what the use of a site that is built off of visually appealing things is to you/your company.

For example, lets take any local arcade and/or bowling ally. I wonder what their use would be in a site like Pinterest. Unless you can take pictures of individuals having insane amounts of fun, WITH A SIDE OF FUN, and link that back to the business page(s). Then I could see more use in it for a business like that. But what about a company that makes…something that is not the most attractive looking…GOT IT! What about companies that makes bolts? There is no real way to make a bolt attractive…that I can think of…I’m sure there is a way…eh ok, maybe you can make virtually any product look good.

If I am in any way correct in my assumptions about the site, I could see huge PR potential in the site. You could get HUGE amounts of community involvement to make things that link back to your site(s). You can see what other people are creating and perhaps even be inspired by some of the artwork that other people are creating and potentially use it in the company’s creative design. This would inspire more people to be involved on your page(s) if they see fellow community members work being displayed through the company.

I wonder how company pages work on Pinterest. This is something I need to investigate.

Keep in mind, that as of now, I do NOT have a Pinterest account. Anything mentioned above is based purely on observations and other non-official forms of Pinterest communication. The post above is essentially a rambling of my mind trying to deduce the usefulness of Pinterest. As I mentioned, this was an exclusive look into the workings of my brain. If you are confused or get lost while reading, I am sorry. Just imagine what it is like having that inside your head every day!

That being said, I do not know if I would recommend it to a friend, as I am not a user myself. I think if I had a friend who is an aspiring artist I would without a doubt, if my understanding of the site is in any way representative of the actual operations of the site.

I have been contemplating creating an account. The only problem is, it would just be ANOTHER social site to manage and maintain. I am not sure if I want that now. It is difficult to say if it will be a fad or not. I guess it depends on what you consider a fad. As with all things, it will peak and decline. Everything does. To some people it will be a fad. To others it wont be. Why else are there so many social media sites? The question is not whether Pinterest will be the fad, but will the IDEA be the fad. That is what is important. Only time can answer that question.

Something the Pinterest team will have to deal with if they wish to expand is this:

Some comments on my Facebook page regarding Pinterest

Rob Roberts:
http://robertaroberts12.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/the-holiday-of-love-or-loneliness/#comment-59

Now allow me to get off my soapbox and blog about the topic at hand…gifts and such.

Whenever I receive a gift, I appreciate it. I don’t care what it is, I appreciate the fact that this person went out of their way and spent their money and time in getting me a gift they think I will enjoy. It can be the most random thing (believe me, I have received some pretty strange gifts) and I will appreciate it all the same. If it is something that I absolutely do not like, I would never let that person know. Again, they took the time to get it, I will make sure it shows that I appreciate it. Of course if that person is no longer a “special person” anymore, any gift they have ever given becomes rubbish and tossed aside (that is not always the case, but that is the stereotype). I take each holiday gift for what it is and I enjoy all of them.

…back on my soapbox…

One of the main reasons why I really dislike this alleged holiday is because of the lack any real initiative on behalf of most of the men and women involved in this nonsense. For example, I went to Wal-Mart the day of Valentines Day to do some grocery shopping (I was done Valentine shopping earlier in the week) and EVERY SINGLE GUY AND GIRL HAD THE EXACT SAME THING!!!! They had chocolate, stuffed animal, and flowers. That’s it. Granted, this was mostly the men rather than the women, but the women who were carrying Valentines stuff, had the products mentioned above. I remember I even tweeted about this. Sad thing is, it was busier on that day inside Wal-Mart than it was ANY OTHER DAY of the year, including the holiday shopping season. It’s pathetic. Everyone, with the same stuff, from the same store. I can reasonably assume that each one of those girls (and/or guys) were probably pretty happy with their gift, when in actuality, they shouldn’t be. That series of gits is a scapegoat. It says, “hey, I really don’t want to get you anything else, but because society forces me to get you something I got you this.” If anyone has gotten these gifts, with nothing supplement them, you should mark these down as the worst gifts. At least the other “bad” gifts are creative and thoughtful in some way.

…off my soapbox…

In the event that I worked for a greeting card company, florist, or any other company that profits off such a fake holiday, then I would try really hard to make my products extra special. Do something to give them an extra sentimental  feel rather than a generic commercial look. For example, if I worked for a greeting card company, I would offer a service for people to create their own card, right down to the type and shape of the paper it was printed on. They could act like a greeting card designer and make any card they want complete with pictures, engraved text, etc just to give it that extra personal feel that everyone wants. If I worked for a company that made stuffed animals, I would do the same thing. It would be like a Build-a-Creature shop online and more customizable. Obviously this sort of customization would take time, so requests would have to start going in as soon as the new year started.

Overall, I just hate how commercial this “holiday” has become. Everyone knows that is exactly what it is. Why we allow it to continue with such popularity is beyond me.

This is probably my shortest blog yet. I just do not have much to write about on this subject.

I hope you enjoy it.

Rob Roberts (in response to Khrys Dent’s comment):
http://robertaroberts12.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/social-media-a-revolutionary-change-in-the-pr-world/#comment-52

Social media allows people to share and spread their ideas to millions instantly. This can be good if a company is doing everything right, makes everyone happy, and does no wrong. However, the moment that company slips up and does something wrong, it will spread like a wildfire. The company cannot stop it and cannot contain it. Everything with social media is up to the users. This is where the PR professional comes in. The PR person must be able to calm and convince audiences at any given moment that the company is good. Then the company must hope that their message sticks with the people and that they will spread it. This is something that businessmen of the last generation are having a hard time understanding. You cannot simply put out a commercial, news release, or PSA and expect the world to listen and agree anymore. If someone, somewhere in the world, has a bad experience with the company, the entire world can hear about it and that message can spread. That one bad experience is what a company can be remembered for. Businesses that use social media effectively are discovering for themselves what their customers want. The customer can engage in conversation directly with a company and get feedback instantly. This makes customers more loyal to a business because they feel like this business cares more for their customers than the other companies that do not effectively use these outlets. People will spread the good deeds of a company almost as quickly as they spread the bad if they feel like they have been treated with care.

Social media is a new and developing form of media. It is changing constantly and there are millions of different ways to communicate on these networks. There are tons of self-proclaimed “experts” in social media, when the fact is that since  the field is still developing, there are no real “experts” in social media. There are simply different styles of managing networks. There is NO universal way of managing a social network. There is not a formula that states “this is how you will get the best results.” There are only educated guesses. This is where people clash heads. The business man wants to use social media as an advertising outlet and sell things to customers, whereas the PR person wants to build relationships with the members of a social network. Putting an advertising agency in charge of customer communications is not always the best solution when a business is trying to build a social network of loyal customers.

Customers relate the communications they see on a social as the tone, or voice, of the company. If a company is being nice, friendly, communicative, and engaging, the customers will relate those positive experiences back to the company as a whole. If a company is hammering out sales pitches, slogans, and being unresponsive in its communications, a customer can build up negative feelings about a company. People do not always want to be sold to. If that is all they see your company doing, they can get the feeling that they are nothing more than a dollar sign to the company. If the trend continues, followers will begin to ignore your page, or even block it. This does nothing for the business other than generate bad feelings around the social sites.

Social media is a VERY powerful tool in customer communications. In my experiences, the real problem lies with convincing a business owner the importance and impact it can have. I was told by business man once that I was the guy who “just played around on Facebook and Twitter and stuff.” He then went on to tell me that social media was such a small part of his business that it was something he did not want to have to worry about. He simply did not understand what I was doing nor the impact it was having. What he saw as time better spent selling something, I saw as building relationships. I do not fault him for his views, he is from a completely different mindset than I am. From what I hear, this problem is pretty common with businesses that are “out of touch” with the times. If we, as communicators, can prove that we actually know what we are doing to the business owner/communications director/ad agency then we can begin to help the business. There also seems to be this growing idea that I have noticed lately. There are those that seem to think that because it is free, then that means anyone can communicate for a business. This leads to some of the most awkward communications from companies you can imagine. This is why it is necessary that someone with a communications background get involved in a company’s social media plan.

One important thing that everyone must keep in mind when using social media for a business, is that you cannot force your ideas on the consumer. If they do not like your message, they will let you know, but they will not stop there, they will tell everyone who is on your social network. It is not always intentional. It could start as a simple comment on your page or a tweet to your company that says something along the lines of, “Hey company, I really didn’t like that thing you said yesterday about this situation.” That’s it. That’s all it takes. Everyone now has the potential to see that message. A few minutes pass after the original post, and some one else sees it and agrees with them. You now have two people who just communicated on your page that they did not like what the company did. Each time this happens, everyone in their personal network is notified and everyone else can just come to the page and see it. Almost immediately after the second post is made, someone else agrees. You now have the beginnings of a crisis. This is where the traditional businessman gets confused. This is also where major damage can be dealt to the company. A smart practitioner would respond promptly with a message saying “We are sorry for the action, we are working on it now. In the meantime, how can we make it up to you?” (or something, I’m really just making this up as I go). However, that is not what always happens. The traditional businessman sees these comments and thinks nothing of them, so he decides to hide them. This does nothing to help the situation, and really incites more backlash on the page. All the while this is happening, the messages are being sent to everyone in the individual’s networks and the company’s network. Now there really is a crisis.

Not everyone can effectively manage a social network. It takes a very unique and evolving discipline. Each market is different, and it is up to the communicator to make sure that they are communicating the right messages to the right public.

What is the moral of this post? Always have PRofessional communicators on your social media team that work for your company! Why? Because they know what they are doing!

Robert A. Roberts:
http://robertaroberts12.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/does-the-silver-screen-tarnish-a-good-story/#comment-47

Movie adaptations of book can strip the life out of a series. Movies have a very limited time to entertain an audience as well as build character biographies and etc. As a result of this, movie producers sometimes completely change critical events in books in order to make them fit the film media. In some cases they will even add in new events, in place of other events, in an effort to condense the story. It is not uncommon for films to completely ignore sub plot lines, and other events the producer just does not know how to handle. I know everyone likes to refer to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series or Rowling’s Harry Potter series for examples. While these series are very good and popular examples of how all of the mentioned edits and cuts can effect a story, I am not going to focus on them.

I am going to focus on a series that is very dear to me.

It is a widely known fact that the Eragon movie was a flop by all accounts. The effects were laughable, the acting was sub-par, and story portrayed in the movie was filled with nonsense, plot holes, and lacked real structure. Audiences who had never read the book thought the movie was a joke and told all of their friends the same thing. While people who had read the book demanded that 20th Century Fox pay the author, Christopher Paulini, some type of compensation for the backlash the movie produced. I loved this book. The story was incredible, the characters were very well-developed, and the world he created was compelling and intricate. I hated what the movie did to this series. People who had never heard of the book were turned off immediately after the reviews of the movie were out.

Not only did the film turn a perfectly good book into a joke, but it also created its own scenes that never existed. Why? I have no idea. There is one scene that sticks out in my mind more than the others. Those that have seen the movie will know what I am talking about. Towards the end of the movie, just before the big battle scene is happening, Eragon jumps on his Dragon’s back, gives an inspiring speech, and ends with the dragon shooting flame in the air. That scene did not happen in the book. Throughout the entire fight, the Dragon (Saphira) is flying around and shooting fire at everything. That did not happen either. Lastly, while the fight is happening Durza, the evil Shade creature, summons some super giant daemon thing to the fight. That DID NOT HAPPEN! It was atrocious. The story explains why Saphira could not breathe fire until she was older and only after her rider was in dire danger and would not survive any other way. Even then, she could only do it very sparingly (trust me, there is more detail, this is just the quick and easy explanation). The fact that she was just flying around breathing fire at will is something of a slap in the face to the fiction. Also, throughout the movie, it randomly flashes to the King telling his servants to do stuff. In the book, you never see the king. They mention his name, but you never see him or hear is perspective. I was with a group of friends, who also read the book, and they were screaming at the nightmare movie that was being shown to us. Sure, the book had some faults (what book doesn’t?), but considering the Paulini got the book published while he was still in high school, those faults were forgiven. You could actually see Paulini grow as a writer throughout the course of the book and by the end of the novel, you would think you were reading something by Tolkien or Rowling. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that will be the last movie done for the Paulini’s Inheritance series.

It is just a sad truth that you cannot get the same quality of story telling from a movie that you can from a book. Movies have set budgets, time lengths, and a million other things that must be up kept while filming. You must also think about how long you can keep an audience seated at a given interval. Whereas with a book, if you want to take a break, put in a book mark and come back later. It’s that simple. You cannot do that with a movie, at least in a theater.

My experience with Eragon changed the way I did movies and books. If I want to see a movie, I want to enjoy it. I do not want to get furious about it because I know what they did and did not do. I remember I was reading one of the Harry Potter books at the time and I was anxiously awaiting the next movie. After Eragon, I stopped reading the book. From then on out, I decided that if I knew a book was being turned into a movie, I would watch the movie firs, then I would read the book. If I saw a book I read turned into a movie, I would listen to the reviews then determine whether or not I wanted to chance going to the theaters to see it.

My favorite book to movie adaptation would be:

This is because they did the right thing. They did not rush out a movie that had tons of content to be cut. They took their time and released to separate movies. Some could argue that they did this because they wanted to maximize profits on a series that was ending. I would say those arguments are correct. But they delivered a D**N good experience in the process. If you want to get the most money out of an audience, deliver a good product, better yet, lets take it a step further, and deliver TWO great products. This is not to say that these films left stuff out, or altered certain details, every film does, but these films included almost everything a true fan could want. Also, they producers of these films had to deal with the fiction from the six films that came before them, which had different producers, directors, and etc. The fact that they were able to pull these final two films off so well made me happy.

I enjoy all forms of entertainment. It is very hard to say which one I prefer more, because I expect different things out of each one. If I am looking to take a study break, then I prefer a movie. If I have a day where I have not really been doing much of anything, then I prefer a video game or book. While it is sad to see good novels get tossed aside and replaced by bad movies, I understand that each generation sets its own standards for entertainment. I know I am guilty of putting off reading a good book so I can play a video game, but that is just the way things are. Novels will never completely go away, we just have to hope that people from future generations will continue to respect novels as a worthwhile form of entertainment and art.

I hope you enjoy reading this! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!

Image sources: http://www.canmag.com/news/4/3/3997 & http://popculturebrain.com/post/750210250/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-teaser-poster

Drew Cheshire:
http://dchesh.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/my-bucket-list/#comment-3

Without further adieu, I present to you my Bucket List: Round 2

I have had a few near death experiences in my life. Some because of Diabetes (pre-diagnosis), others because of reasons I would rather not go into. The point is, I have had more than one opportunity to think about my life, and the things I would like to do with it. In fact, I have thought about it so much that I have made myself scared senseless of death and what may or may not come after it. I have grown to the point to where I would rather not think about it at all because the moment I do, I lose all control over my mind and I start an endless argument with myself about whether or not an afterlife really exists. Anyway, the point is; I hate thinking about this, I like to think that I am going to live forever, but now that I must think about things I would want to do before this life ends, there are somethings I would like to do.

• For some reason I have always wanted to go to Tokyo, Japan. I don’t know why, it could be because it is the technological capital of the world, or there could be other reasons that are in my subconscious, but ever since I was a kid I have had a fascination with the country/city. I feel as if they are the perfect society. They don’t have the crazy political masterminds that spend their entire lives trying to manipulate everyone, or the crazy religious zealots that try to force their beliefs down your throat. Everyone lives the way they want to and they are very open with things over there that we would deem inappropriate here (yet their kids still turn out ok, GASP!). Overall it just seems to be the place for me.
• I would love to live to see a cure for diabetes. As much hate and disgust I poured into this diseased condition, I would love to see it wither and die. It has held me back and shortened my life so much that just being able to destroy it would give me such joy you cannot possibly understand. I don’t care if I’m 80 years old when it happens, just as long as I get to see and receive it.
• I want to go to E3. I posted a blog about E3 earlier in the semester, if you are interested you should read it. It is every gamers dream to go to E3. I’m hoping that if I am able to work for a major publisher (such as EA or BioWare) I will be able to go and help build a floor show. I know it is lame, but it’s a dream, and it’s mine.

Essentially, I just want to live to be happy. That’s it. If none of these things happen, I’m ok as long as I am happy.