Thoughts On New Media
I was recently interviewed about my thoughts on new media…a topic of interest, one could say. Here are my musings:
“How does social media influence your international education job?”
As the New Media & Research Assoc. at API, social media plays an active role in my position. As many of us use social media as a main source of communication, research, etc., a significant portion of my time is dedicated to creating, managing and monitoring our online presences.
“How did you get into social media?”
In 1992, I created my first e-mail address, began blogging in 2001, created a Facebook profile in 2005 and signed up for Twitter in 2007. I studied advertising with a focus in new media, creative research and strategy. During this time, I spent a year researching social media infrastructures and developed a new social media model to support our converging online/offline communication behaviors. I’ve held various internships and jobs in the field and was one of the contributing authors to The Project 100 (a collaborative book on marketing in the era of social media). I suppose you classify me as a digital native, but the truth is, I’ve always been interested in the relationship between and convergence of humans and technology!
“What is one social media tool you cannot live without now?”
As there are so many social media tools with such different purposes, it really just depends on the end result I’m looking to achieve. With that said, one tool I’ve really found useful is Google Analytics. I’ve learned quite a bit about online behavior via analytics tools.
“What is one thing you wish you knew about social media that would have made getting involved with it easier?”
There are a handful of insights I’ve picked up over the years.
Authenticity: Be yourself, be genuine, be transparent, be interesting, be entertaining and if you do make a mistake, acknowledge it…we’re all human!
Collaborate/Connect: How can you collaborate with people in a meaningful way? How can you make it easier for people to communicate with one another?
Details: Don’t be hasty! Though the message may be brief, take time to think through what you are saying. Before publishing, take a breather. Read. Re-read. Then click send.
Measure: There is so much to learn by monitoring analytics. Quantitative results are important but don’t forget about qualitative results!
Research: Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Digg, Skype, Blogspot, MySpace, WordPress, Flickr, Slideshare, Ning, Flickr, Delicious. Whew! Just because it’s available doesn’t mean it should be used! Make sure to research before diving in – watching, reading, listening, collecting, and conversing. What are people saying? What are people looking for?
Strategy: Of course it’s necessary to understand the functions of new media, but it’s just as important to understand people’s motives for using these platforms. New media will come and go, but human behaviors and patterns will always be around.
What do you think is social media’s biggest impact has been on international education?
The web was originally created to display static documents – more of a monologue model. However, the web has evolved into a dialog model, where social elements have been incorporated. Now, people are not just looking to “experts” for answers, but crowd sourcing their respective social networks for information.
It’s important to remember that social networks are not new. We’ve formed social circles for thousands of years. Social media merely adds an online element to our offline worlds.
With this said, I believe incorporating sociability into communication strategies has been the biggest impact social media has had on international education.
Why do you continue to use social media?
As long as the relationship between technology and people continues to evolve and my curiosity remains, I’ll continue to use social media. (:
Kim Karalekas is the New Media & Research Coordinator at Academic Programs International (API), specializing in online user experience, research, brand strategy, new media & web development. Away from work, she enjoys salsa dancing, playing the violin/piano, and geocaching. To connect with Kim: @API_KimK I http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimkaralekas Ikim.karalekas@apistudyabroad.com
Change
As you might or might not have noticed, as of about a year ago, I switched up the topics I was posting on my blog…alot less about the ad/planning/strategy industry and more random thoughts, ideas, daily ventures, yadda yadda.
I was just getting sick of reading blogs that regurgitated the same stuff and found blogs that were actual personal to be far more interesting. And genuine. Plus, it’s pretty amazing how much you can learn about a person, understand how they think, etc. by reading their blog if you just dig a little deeper and read between the lines.
Wasn’t sure how my new blogging approach was going to fare (after all, maybe I am just a narcissist and actually just want more opps. to project about myself?). Then I read a similar post from Paul Isakson, a planner for whom I have mucho respect.
At this point, I’m feeling good.
Market Research Fail
So, I recently went to the grocery store – on my receipt was a solicitation to take a survey. As a planner / strategist, I was interested to see how this company’s marketing department structured the survey, so when I got home, I plugged in the URL to check it out.
I want to focus on one portion of the survey that totally blew my mind. It began with this question:
Notice how I selected “N/A – I did not shop this department”?
Though I indicated I had not shopped in the meat depart, I was required to provide answers about my experience in the meat department for the next 8 questions.
A: I should have received any further meat department questions after indicating I had not been there.
B: If for whatever crazy reason, they wanted me to go through these questions, at the least, there should have been a “N/A” option.
Basically, all the answers I provided are not only not helpful, but also will be skewing the results.
Yikes. There are red flags left & right screaming “bad survey design! your “findings” are going to be totally irreverent! abort! abort!”. Leading questions, survey length (WAY too long), order or questions, oy. It gives me a bit of anxiety just thinking about it.
Intel Visual Life
I really can’t think of anything more profound to say, other than, I love this video.
Close your other windows/tabs, shut down your Tweet Deck, put your phone on silent, turn on your Facebook notifications…if nothing else, just for six minutes (I promise you won’t regret it, you will survive AND be inspired – what a deal!).
…then, enjoy: