Social Networking, Facebook Style/Tutorial Blog 3

Social Networking: Why and How to Use Them

Everyone has heard of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.  These giant social networking websites are the hottest ways to stay in touch with friends, look at future hires, and now some believe the next wave of advertising.  In Joseph Booysen’s article “Social networks the new site for business,” on www.iol.co.za, he interviews the marketing director for Woolworth’s.  Charmaine Huet realizes the market offerings that these sites have along with the sheer number of customers that can be reached. She has even gone as far as monitoring Twitter on what people were saying about Woolworth’s sales and offerings.  A tool that can give direct feedback as the sale is happening in the store is awesome in the business world. 

If you are interested in reading up one the article please follow this link:

“Social networks the new site for business” by Joseph Booysen, Accessed 27 March 2011.

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/social-networks-the-new-site-for-business-1.1047722

Having instantaneous feedback is valuable and allows these businesses to adapt and ensure their plans for success are hitting the marketplace in the right manner.  Companies can advertise and reach the right market audience with any of these social networking tools.  Since I plan on teaching you how to start a simple Facebook account today in this blog I thought it might be useful to show you the link for advertising on this site.

Advertise on Facebook Link: Picture is a screenshot from the link below, accessed 26 March 2011.

http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/

The reason I choose to teach how to create a social networking account is because this is something I recently did.  Being a distance learner at the University of Florida has great advantages for full time workers but can be challenging at times as a student.  I am in difficult courses this semester and needed help in the form of tutoring.  Luckily I found a tutoring site and learned that I could watch tutor videos through the social media site Facebook.com.  This is a win-win for me and the business that is offering the tutoring. 

Even though the process only takes a minute, I feel it is important for everyone to have a Facebook account.  You will only need about five minutes and a current email account to begin.  This page is where the magic happens.

"Facebook Main Page" Accessed 26 March 2011, Screenshot from link below:

 http://www.facebook.com/ 

Enter your first and last name, then your email address, verify you email address, and create a simple password.   The next page will be a security check where you will simply retype the words on the screen in the given text box and click “sign up.”  Now the last step is logging into your personal email account to get the confirmation email.  Follow the directions in the email and you are now a member of Facebook.

Yes, it really takes less than a few minutes to create your own personal account.  Once into the website you can begin to search for friends, edit your profile (see picture below), and even join causes that you support.  You set what others see about your profile.  Please remember to be diligent and respectful on Facebook because one day a future employer may peak at it during the hiring process.  You would not want your status to be “Floated another keg last night with my roommate!”  Yes that is impressive, but no you do not want your future employer viewing that side of you right off the bat. 

"Edit Profile in Facebook," Screenshot inside personal account on http://www.facebook.com/ , Accessed 26 March 2011.

Since you have created your account now and are on the website let us look at how to begin creating your personal content.  Simply click the box that reads “Edit Profile” to begin (picture above will be next view).  When editing your profile just select one of the nine heading on the left; Basic Information, Profile Picture (you can upload this in seconds), Feature People, Education and Work, Philosophy, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Activities and Interests,  and finally Contact Information and fill in the blanks or drop downs provided for you.  Do not worry, you will not have to fill it all in or share your whole life’s story, just what you want others and your friends to see about you.  Now you can simply type in the search box names of friends, causes that interest you, or businesses that you want to find and let Facebook do the work.  Another option is to select find friends.

Finally, in editing your personal account let us look at the area where you can tell all of your friends about “floating that keg”, your status update.  Click on Home when logged in to your account.  Then on the middle of the screen you will see a box that reads “What is on your mind?”.

"Update Your Status,"  Screenshot "What's on your mind?"  http://www.facebook.com/  Accessed 27 March 2011.

 This is where you can enter text that shares what you are thinking and feeling at the moment.  Again be careful of what you say because other people will be able to read your status.  Once you have entered the text click share and let your feelings be known.

We have quickly reviewed how to do a personal account on the social networking website of Facebook.   The video below will put you at ease if you have any issues with the simple steps above.  It is also a simple step by step process on how to create your account. 

“How to Join Facebook” by Invisiblepeopletv

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zf5q0oS0FM

Knowing that businesses are using Facebook and other social networking sites to advertise I thought it might be helpful to show this simple screenshot and link to another video on starting your businesses account. 

“FaceBook Page for a Business,” by Lancetube01, Accessed 27 March 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r56TWaLpdeE&feature=related

Get social, start social networking.  Facebook and the other social networking sites are not only fun for us to use but can bring profit to our businesses or causes we support.  Spend five minutes and be introduced to the power of social networking.  Good luck creating your account.  Please post comments to this blogs if you have questions on the process or content.  Thanks again for reading the ConfusedUFBlogger.

An Access Database Assignment and What I Learned that will Help you

Microsoft Access 2007 is a great tool to use in the workplace.  The most recent assignment for the ISM 3004 class was to use Microsoft Access, import data, create a query, create a form, and then finally a report from the data of the created query.  During this project I learned how valuable the Design View is in Microsoft Access along with how to set certain parameters in queries that make them stronger sorters of data.

Design View allows a person to adapt data to their needs.  There are too many useful tools in the view to break it down in this brief blog, but I would like to mention that without this area in Access it would not be as useful of a tool.  During the assignment of creating a database Design View was the go to screen to make it work.  Here is a screen shot from my database in design view.

I also found it useful to know how to adapt queries to get the data in the order you need it.  One major lesson I learned in the query portion of the assignment was that if you need to filter or sort more than one item, always put the key item in front by order of precedence.  It was as simple as highlighting and dragging the columns in front of one another which allowed the end product to show the needed specifications.  It sounds easy, because it is easy.

I think that this database could be made more useful by creating additional queries.  I think that the owners of the gym may want to know the average of how long most people stay as members.  They could create another query with all the members from the “Members” table and sort the join date in ascending order and then insert other functions in the Design View to see what the average length of time a member has been at the gym. 

With Microsoft Access there are so many different ways to take your data and manage it in the way you need it.  If you are looking to do a new database I would suggest just two simple things to you.  First buy Microsoft Access.  The link below takes you directly to Microsoft’s website to buy this great tool for under $140.00.  I would also recommend buying the book Access for Dummies.  The second link is directly to Amazon.com where you can purchase the book from $12.00.  It helps answer those burning questions that arise during your database build.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/productID.216392600?WT.mc_id=pointitsem_US_Google_5-Access_generic&wt.term=microsoft%20access%202007&wt.campaign=*5+-+Access&wt.content=okqhWTDc&wt.source=google&wt.medium=cpc&WT.srch=1

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_18?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=access+for+dummies&sprefix=access+for+dummies

References:

Access Picture.  Microsoft Store Website.  26 March 2011.

    http://www.microsoftstore.com

For Dummies Picture. Amazon Books.  26 March 2011.

    http://www.amazon.com 

Phillips, Fred.  "Picture of Design View During Access Database Project".  Taken 25 March 2011.

 

Presentation For a German Shepherd Rescue Organization

This assignment was tougher than most.  I feel like I spent many hours spinning my wheels but thinkl I accomplished more than I thought I could.  My presentation was really about an organization I believe in.  I wish I could have done more for the organization and plan on taking this experience with this presentation and applying what I have learned, and most all, how I can improve my skills with future presentations.

I think the flow of my presentation started smoothly.  Within the first thirty seconds I grabbed the attention of the viewers with lines like "man's best friend is in trouble" and "final fate in a high kill shelter."  I attempted to avoid clutter by trying to have bold statements without to many items on a slide.



Crisp Slide







Attention grabber

My attempt was to let the viewer see the importance of this rescue operation, German Shepherd Rescue Inc.  I tried to lead them down from why this organization exist, what is its mission, how can we help it, and finally remind them of why their help is needed.  I did not read directly from the slides but could have worked on preparing a better script.  I also was able to validate that the organization is needed by telling Charlie's story.

If I had two weeks to work on the project again I would change little with the slides or the timing of them.  I would work on the sound and potentially some animation .  All the music and the voice was original .  It is so much better to hear a crisp clean sound and feel. I feared copyright infringement and decided to make the music.  The sound quality did not turn out as well as I would have liked with my computer microphone. There are points where I could have done better vocally during the presentation.

I learned a lot more about power point and it's tools on this project.  It is a great tool and I have used it for presentations at work in the past but have gained a new respect for it after this project.  I will work on better preparation and due diligence for future presentations.

Here is the link for the  final product.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXYE_MwXYiY