Social Gaming

It is my understanding that Zynga is one of the most popular social gaming providers. They have over 70 million daily active users. They provide facebook with the applications like Farmville, Mafia Wars, poker and others. They have a team of investors who invest millions of dollars, the biggest one yet being $29 million.

Social gaming is about connecting with others through games. Its about competing with your friends, even if they are not physically with you and it is casual. It is not "hardcore" gaming, but I have seen many people become addictive to these games, especially farmville for some reason.

It was announced that the iPhones are now going to have social gaming platforms. To me this means that social gaming is a force to be reckoned with if Apple is investing in it.

People are even spending money on social gaming, gift certificates for farmville can be bought at 7-Elevens, and these social gaming sites are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. An interesting note is that some of the most popular social gaming games, are those that you have to pay in order to really advance, and the crazy thing is, is that people ARE!

I used to play farmville, but than got absolutely bored of it, and I can't even fathom why someone would actually spend money in. Maybe its the little kids who they are targeting for those gift cards?

A study was done by mashable.com and they determined that average social gamer is a 43 year old woman. Facebook seems to be the platform of choice for social gamers, and it is expected that the social gaming industry will make $1 BILLION in revenues this year, with over 100 million people social games.

After learning about the social gaming industry I was actually shocked that the majority players were middle aged women. Maybe thats why some social games are able to charge customers, because this age group usually has a larger amount of disposable income?

Gone are the $,$$$,$$$ Superbowl Ads???

According to Gary Vaynerchuk businesses need to recognize the ROI of Social Media. The connections that are formed because of Social Media far surpass traditional modes of advertisement, and they are WAY cheaper.

This automatically made me think of the millions of dollars companies spend on Superbowl commercials, because they reach such a vast audience. There are people who watch the Superbowl just for the commercials. With the expansion of Social Media is it possible that Superbowl commercials may longer no cost an extravagant amount of money?

I want your opinion

Your facebook status, tweets and whatever other statuses are great ways to get opinions and questions answered by the public. I witnessed on a family members facebook status a few days ago a huge heated debate over healthcare. It was pretty interesting to read what people thought and how passionate they were about the subject. Joe Kraus views social networking as heading this way more and more. People can easily answer questions that their friends have in seconds without ever even talking with them.

Social networks are ever expanding, and they are changing how we use the internet. Blogs are becoming increasingly popular avenues to access information. The internet is a changing landscape just like the world, and it will become more and more public the longer it is around.

So someone Stumbled Upon Your Page? So What?

Small companies need to figure out ways to properly use programs such as google analytics to make sure that the time and money they put into their companies is worth it. Who is looking at your site, what are they getting from it? Are they browsing for awhile or leaving right away?

Companies need to know why people are visiting their websites, and what the value is. If the company just has a website to have one, why?

Getting Started With Online Marketing – Web Analytics – Part I | Whatever it Takes | Fast Company

The Death of the Pageview - ReadWriteStart

The New Resume

The traditional resume is boring. Its boring to write, its boring to read its just plain boring. That is why people are finding new ways to show what they are capable of to potential employers. Social networking has had a HUGE affect on how people network and who they know and have connections to. I believe that in the next couple of years the traditional resume is going to be out the door, and instead there will be some new tech savy resume. If the business world is changing, way wouldn't the way you get a job be changing too?

Traces of Inspiration » The Blog is the New Resume

Brazen Careerist Launches Social Resumes – WebWorkerDaily

Field Trips on Second Life

I can see the benefits of a virtual classroom, such as during the snowpocalypse or events that prevent a University from operating, but I would not chose to take a class completely in a virtual classroom. The major benefit of Second Life to me is the availability to take 'field trips' and showcase experiments that would not otherwise be safe or able to be perform in a class.

I really like the thought of being able to see the places that we all learn about, through something besides pictures. I feel like if we were able to experience 'seeing' a country or experiment, the outcome would be so much more educational and leave a more lasting impact on the students. I am really looking forward to checking Second Life out on Wednesday, now that I understand what it is about!

Learning in Second Life: Virtual Education

Virtual world, real money in 'Second Life'

Today's Resume

People used to apply to jobs by going to an interview for a company and bringing them their resumes. That is still mainly the case, but there is a twist, and that is personal branding. You can post your resume on multiple sites online and firms will contact you if they conduct a search and your resume meets their criteria.

We do personal branding without even knowing it sometimes. It's in who you are friends with on facebook and LinkedIn. What interests you list, and how you interact with people online is apart of your brand.


You can connect with others based on how you brand yourself. You can even brand yourself on the relationship sites like eharmony. The internet has allowed people to show people they have never met who they are. Are you proud of the brand you have created for yourself? Are you aware of how people of viewing you by viewing your social media accounts??

How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

The Brand Called You

Everyone is a Critic

I realized I read the wrong articles last week, so this post is actually in response to last weeks articles.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on everything today, and with the internet it has become way easier to share those opinions. If a customer has a poor experience it is much easier for them to post on some forum to get their opinion and experience out there, than writing to corporate headquarters. Not only will others actually hear about it, but the business will most likely have some type of response if the forum generates enough debate.

This age of social media is allowing consumers to have more of an opinion on what they are purchasing, and making companies more responsible for the products they are supplying!

How Many Reviewers Should Be in the Kitchen?

Why Conversational Marketing Requires Fundamental Business Change

Stalkers Paradise Beware

So this new phone is kind of creeping me out. I don't understand why you would want an application on your phone that basically stalks where your friends are. If you really want to hang out with someone you will call and make plans. Not look up their location on your phone, and just show up, that's creepy in my opinion.

I get the whole GPS angle and finding restaurants that are close by that is pretty cool, especially if you travel a lot and find yourself in unfamiliar places. But the GPS that is used to basically stalk your friends, family and potentially anyone is just strange. We are getting to the point where people really will have no privacy. Last week we were freaking out because of what people can see of us online because of facebook. Are we really willing to accept a technology that completely exposes you. I am all for developing new technologies, but I think this one is unnecessary and potentially a violation of people's privacy, even if you are allowed to disconnect from it. What if you forget?

For more information on the phone and technology I am talking about visit these links!

Students' new best friend: 'MoSoSo'

A Wireless Street Fight (TIME Magazine)

The Internet is Ruining Culture?

I get that many people post information on the web that might not be credible. Most people who are experienced at researching on the web realize that, but I don't view the massive amount of information on the web as a downfall in our society.

I believe that it allows for challenges to be made, against societal beliefs and views. Blogging has become a cultural phenomenon in my view. There was a movie made from a girl who blogged about cooking, did you ever hear about Julie & Julia? Blogging also has made it so that people are aware of situations that the news may not be reporting on, it is those grassroots movements that expose situations to the world. It is my personal belief that Web 2.0 may be changing the world of reporting and research, but only for the better!

Nobel Laureate Says The Internet Makes Us Dumb, We Say: Meh

The Digital Emperor Has No Clothes

Many companies today are doing whatever they can to save money, in order to make sure that their businesses are as profitable as possible. Companies are known for outsourcing jobs to other countries where labor is cheaper. I actually know someone who had to go to India to train her replacement, crazy right. The question is has crowdsourcing, become a new area of outsourcing?

It sounds like if you are in the field of graphic design and or photography, you have a lot of cheap competition. They may not offer the quality that you do, but it comes close and doesn’t cost nearly as much. What baffles my mind is that there are people who are out their “freelancing” and charging so little for their talents. Is it out of desperation to just earn some cash, or possibly a hobby that people have discovered can make them money?

Whatever your opinion is on crowdsourcing it seems to me that individuals in the “arts” industry need to reevaluate their current situation.

References:

"Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In | Epicenter | Wired.com"

"YouTube - Jeff Howe - Crowdsourcing"

The Social Graph

Society today has become so engulfed in the internet and posting information online for everyone to view, it has become like a huge bank of knowledge that people can just tap into whenever they want.

Because of this wealth of information you can research anything and then use that information to create new information. All it takes is the willingness to find the answers to your questions. Since knowledge can now be so easily gained I believe that people can become more educated on a variety of topics. It is possible now to use data posted by someone else online to delve even further into a topic and expand upon it, possibly in a direction never thought of by the initial person who exposed the information to the web.

As a society we want our news and we want it know and fast. Forums like Ignite can provide us with that. It is incredible to think that people all over the world can view that video and be able to learn the same information at the same time. It goes to show that networks are everywhere, and we are a society that thrives on sharing knowledge to our networks and others out there who are interested in the same information.

Facebook is another aspect that deals with sharing a wealth of information and keeping people updated on what is going on it the world. All facebook users have seen or posted news that they want their peers and others to view. Facebook updates sometimes even deal with responding to tragedy and together people raise awareness quickly about an important event. The internet and Web 2.0 is rapidly changing how many people receive their news and the speed at which is comes.

"Improving your ability to Share and Connect (Mark Zuckerburg on the Facebook Blog)"

"YouTube - Visualizing the U.S. Senate by Social Graph - Andrew Odewahn"

My First Blog Post

I am a student at American University studying Information Technology and Entrepreneurship. This blog was created to be a learning environment to communicate with my peers, for educational purposes. It is being used for a class called Social Networking, Social Media and Web 2.0.

"On my honor, all posts on this Blog are my own."