The following are blog posts I contributed to Emerson College's Social Media Blog. Check it out at http://www.emersonsocialmedia.com. 

November 9, 2012

 

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17

 

At Emerson, we are required to change our password every 120 days. They must include capital and lowercase letters, symbols, numbers, and a range of 8 to 30 characters. While having these set rules may sound tedious, they allow students to set up the most secure password possible. A lot of people complain about having to change it so often, but this might be the only platform that people are making such intricate passwords.

 

Most people use the same password across all of their social media platforms so they can remember it easily. However, in a recently article posted in the New York Times, that can lead to a hacker’s paradise. Hackers can use that to get into emails, bank accounts, or anywhere personal data is stored. 

 

Take advantage of these tips so that you’re not the next hacker victim:

 

1. If your password is a word that can be found the dictionary, you should definitely change it. 

2. Long passwords are the way to go. Use movie quotes, song lyrics, lines of a poem or any quote and then only use a couple letters from each word to compose your password.

3. Type a bunch of random keys, aka “jam on your keyboard”, and then copy and paste the outcome on a text document. To be extra secure, you could save that password document in a password protected USB drive.

4. Never store passwords on your desktop.

5. Ignore security questions. Hackers can use that to decode your password.

6. Use “throw away” email addresses. You can create an email address that can be instantly destructed. A popular website is http://10minutemail.com.  

 

Hacking can happen to anyone, so we all need to be cautious about what we set as our passwords and email addresses. Do feel secure about your passwords? 

October 31, 2012

           

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17

 

American Apparel received a lot of negative backlash on Twitter due to a promotional email blast they sent on Monday night. The promotion read, “In case you’re bored during the storm. 20% Off Everything for the next 36 Hours. Enter SANDYSALE at checkout.” This discount only applied to those who live in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.

 

Nice attempt, American Apparel, but not your best marketing. What did they expect? A lot of people were extremely offended, and they were not afraid to tweet their concerns. Multiple posts requested that American Apparel hires a new marketing director, and that nobody cares about the sale. While some states were not as affected by the storm as New York, New Jersey and Virginia was, as a company, American Apparel needs to respect what is going on at a larger level. There are people losing their homes, and possibly everything they own; most do not have Internet access anyway because of the thousands of power outages. 

 

There are a lot of other strategies American Apparel could have used to put a positive spin on this promotion in a smart way. First of all, they could have created a discount, and then said that the proceeds from this sale could go toward the victims of the storm. Or, they could have simple not mentioned a word about the offer being related to Hurricane Sandy.

 

Overall, I think that this was the worst timing and social media marketing move a company could have done. What do you think? 

October 17, 2012

 

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17 

 

Social media platforms allow us to share our stories with friends and family through multiple forms of media. Often times, people to receive a friend request from someone they don’t know, and accept anyway because they have mutual friends, or maybe they went to high school together. The number of friends one can have on Facebook is hypothetically around 5,000 friends.  I understand that a lot of people are an open book, but when one is posting a status on Facebook or Twitter, are they really thinking about how it’s going to affect all of their friends?

 

Designed as a mobile app for your smart phone, Path is a social media site allowing a trusted connection between a user’s closest friends and family. The network limits the user to 50 friends, and according to their blog, their use of contact data is in theory mistranslated to hackers. They deleted the entirety of uploaded contact information from their servers. Also, Path ensures users that last names, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter handles and Facebook IDs are completely anonymous.

 

Taking privacy seriously for a social media network as a brand is the smartest aspect to focus on. Promoting the trust factor is vital for a social media site because, let’s face it, who isn’t skeptical of how private is truly private? Path wants to be a representation of personal relationships, and an outlet for people to only share information with people they trust and respect. When Path developed the “Add Friends” section of their application, they received multiple complaints. They sent out an apologetic blog post on their website, and explained that there would be more transparency between the app developers and the users.

 

More social media sites should think about making their user-to-user interaction more personal, especially when going mobile. Facebook and Twitter are great outlets for someone to spread the word to a mass of people, but what about those pictures one would want to share with just a couple friends? That way, Path can look at a niche group more specifically to understand the way they think and share.

 

Would you use Path? Are their privacy claims believable? 

October 9, 2012

 

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17

 

Over the past year or so, social media storytelling has transferred from sharing texts, blog posts and statuses to high quality photography and mobile photo sharing. Instagram has grown tremendously over the past year. According to Forbes.com, Instagram had 15 million users at the start of 2012, and it increased to 80 million this summer. Now, visual storytelling is becoming more popular because it’s quick, and appealing to the eye. Brands are taking advantage of this, so that they can create content that will resonate with their audience quickly and easily.

 

Tiffany & Co. is a leader in branding themselves through visual narratives. Currently, their Instagram is flourishing. Their photography is high quality, and includes close ups of the luxurious jewelry with the classic “Tiffany blue” background. But, Tiffany & Co takes their Instagram profile to the next level. They provide pictures that cohesively tie in together to create a romantic narrative. Photos of chic, city couples eating dinner, kissing, and holding hands in the park encompass the Tiffany brand perfectly, and tasteful pictures of city architecture tie into the narrative, providing a classy setting. Vintage photography is also used, with pictures of couples at weddings.

 

Luxury brands are taking advantage of the Instagram and Pinterest trend, because women are using the platforms the most. The images provide more inspiration, and products and promotions aren’t forced upon customers. Pictures connect with users on a deeper, and more emotional level so that a brand is integrated as a part of their lifestyle, rather than a necessity.  A person can follow Burberry or Gucci, other leaders in the Instagram content market, and feel inspired to shop around the city, wear high-fashion styled clothing, or at least pretend to.

October 3, 2012

 

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17    

 

Teenagers and twenty-something-year-old girls are always striving to be thin and fit because of the standards presented by celebrities and the media. Within the past year or so, blog sites such as Tumblr and WordPress provide the outlet for these girls to promote their own lifestyles. These blogs are trending, and spreading like wildfire, fostering communities of young girls inspiring each other to eat right, lose weight, and exercise.

 

Sounds positive, and inspirational right?

 

Potentially. There are two types of blogs these girls are generally producing and managing on their own time, known as “fitspo” and“thinspo” blogs. Fitspo, short for the new term, “fitspiration,” includes visual motivation of other girls who are strength training, eating right, and living a wholesome lifestyle. These blogs have a lot of great tips and tricks, and some girls take pictures of themselves to show their progress every month or so. The content released by these Fitspo bloggers have been connecting with Pinterest under the Health & Fitness category, so it’s easy for girls to browse through the visuals for quick and easy health tips.

 

The real underlying issues stem from the Thinspo blogs. While a lot of bloggers post visual content of girls with severe eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, and call it beautiful, most of these bloggers are crying for help and attention. Browsing through the tag “thinspo,” one can find posts of girls listing the meals (or lack of) that they ate for the day, which averages anywhere from 300-600 calories. Their posts provide negative advice for others looking for help, and the communities created by these girls need to be seen so they can receive psychological help in some way.

 

While Fitspo blogs are generally a positive outlet for people who need that extra boost of motivation and confidence to kick-start a healthy lifestyle, the Thinspo blogs need to be stopped. Both Tumblr and Pinterest have banned content that actively encourages self-harm, mental distress, and harassment, and it is listed in both Terms of Service. However, one can easily search “thinspo” tags on either site, and find posts regarding unhealthy weight loss.

 

The more Fitspo and healthy lifestyle bloggers there are to engage positive change for these young girls, the better. Rather than discouraging girls from posting live vent sessions and cries for help, optimistic influence from other mentally stable bloggers should be stimulated to strengthen happiness and hope in the lives of these girls. 

September 24, 2012

 

By: Briana Brochu | @brianajane17

 

Now that Pinterest has taken off, it seems like social media enthusiasts are trying to find ways to create a similar site by taking it to the next level.  One of these platforms is LoveIt, another visual, social media platform. They admit that their layout is similar to another, and that “LoveIt is a place where you can easily share images of everything that interests you, find people who have similar tastes, discover new things you may not have found otherwise, and turn those interests into actual experiences.” Sound familiar?

 

Though LoveIt is in it’s first stages, it is trying to solve Pinterest’s problem of not giving credit to the original content owner. LoveIt gives the necessary credit through their “content importer tool” which as an algorithm directing people to the original source of the image. This is made possible because LoveIt doesn’t claim ownership of the content posted by it’s users, and people can share that same content to any other site that they choose.

 

Because LoveIt is new, they are constantly looking for feedback and responses from their users. What should they add? What can they improve on? One request to make LoveIt unique is making boards “private” or “invite-only.” Boards on Pinterest are readily available for complete strangers to follow. This can be good, because the content is shared faster and easier, making Pinterest’s content library grow, but there are also a lot of users who don’t want random people following their boards and pins.

 

Another option provided by LoveIt is a code made accessible for you to block the LoveIt button from being used on your personal websites. This allows for more privacy, and the code can be copied on their website and pasted into any html coding on any website.

 

Will LoveIt take off like Pinterest did? Maybe not as quickly, but they are taking multiple precautions so that their content is legally credited to the original source. And, they are trying to create a community that is even more personal and tight-knit compared to Pinterest’s open sharers. Want to learn more? Check it out and see for yourself: http://loveit.com/.  

September 17, 2012

 

By : Briana Brochu | @brianajane17

 

Little did tween musicians Lennon and Maisy Stella know that their career would skyrocket with a simple song cover on YouTube.  The sisters created a cover of the song, “Call Your Girlfriend,” originally by electro-pop artist Robyn, but they followed the same concept of another cover of the same song by female, Swedish vocal group, Erato. The Stella sisters and Erato used empty containers of spreadable butter to create a melody by clapping and slapping the containers against a table. The video of the Stella sisters went viral, with about 8 million hits to date. Because of this video, more people have taken notice of their musical talents, which are showcased on their YouTube channel.

 

Since the video came out in May 2012, the girls have become YouTube sensations. In order to promote their music, they have also become quite the social media mavens. The girls have a Facebook page with 31k likes, and the page is used to provide links to their latest updates on their career. For example, they were mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter,and they posted a status about their excitement toward the three covers on iTunes they released, including “Call Your Girlfriend.” The Stella sisters also post videos on Facebook and YouTube reaching out to their fans, as well as keeping up with their tweets.

 

Lennon and Maisy were just recently cast in the television show,Nashville, premiering this October on ABC, and they have been tweeting about their fun and enthusiasm behind the scenes. Through their Twitter and Facebook, the two sisters have established a successful brand for themselves. Most of their statuses and tweets are expressing gratitude toward their fans. They always post happy and lighthearted comments, and they are also quite fashion forward for their age.  Lennon and Maisy connect their Instagram to their Twitter so that their fans are in the know of their daily lives at home and off set. The two like to remind their supporters that they are just normal kids who love music.