Chinese officials going head to head with Social Media

In the article below, I found it interesting all the lengths that China has gone to be able to control what it's citizens are saying on these sites. The article reported that sites such as  Twitter have been blocked all together and sites such as Facebook are thoroughly filtered and censored.

With all the events taken place in Egypt these controls have gotten even tighter. Despite their efforts an event was planned called the "Jasmine Revolution" calling for protests in 13 different Chinese cities. In order to prevent these protests from actually taking place Chinese officials blocked many posts from being published and went as far as not allowing texts with certain phrases to go through. The article also reported that anything to do with the events that have taken place in Egypt have been blocked from search results in Google.

I think it is interesting how very different social media is being used in various countries. These sites seem like they would be a nightmare to countries like China who seem to be worrying about a possible revolt against the government. Even though so far their censoring has been effective, one must wonder how long it would have to take for an event like the "Jasmine Revolution" to take place. The article said that China houses the most Internet users in the world and I find it amazing that officials are able to censor everything that is being said on all the sites being utilized. With social media only growing bigger and bigger it will be very ineresting how it will effect countries such as this one.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703610604576158290935677316.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Target Hits a "bullseye" on its Lastest Media Campaign

By using Facebook, this site, http://mashable.com/2009/05/11/target-bullseye-gives/, explained that Target recently launched a successful media campaign. On their Facebook page they enticed their followers to vote for certain non-profits that they felt deserved donations. Target allotted three million dollars and according to the percentage of votes casted would then translate into the money awarded to the non-profit. I believe this campaign was a very smart move for Target. Not only were they were promoting a good image for themselves by helping charities, they were able to increase their brand awareness. They were able to be fresh in the current followers minds it also enticed others to become followers of the Target page so they could cast votes.
I think whenever an organization can get involved in the community is an awesome way to give back and increase brand awareness in a positive light. Also, I like how Target didn't just limit the campaign to one non-profit they were able to involve consumers into choosing how the money is alloted. Whenever consumers feel like they are apart of descions made by the organizations they are giving their money to is more likely to keep those customers coming back.

Is social media sabatoging our professional lives?

Social media has many positive traits to offer but like everything else where there is the good the bad is closely behind. This article I found online is a prime example of social media can go seriously wrong, http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/social-media-misuse/. This article reported that 8% of US companies have reported that they have fired employees due to something involving social media sites. Whether we believe it is far or not, employers are researching what we are saying on these sites. The girl in the article is a prime example of what we may say on social media sites can backfire terribly. Many of us have become comfortable with these sites and use them to voice any and all opinions we may have. I’m sure we can all think of Facebook statuses or tweets we have posted or seen others post that have caused drama or negative reactions. We can't be too careful in what we are posting or what image we are painting of ourselves on these sites.

 But on the other side I was surprised to learn while reading the article, 10 ways to use social media in your job hunt that 80% of employers look at LinkedIn for new hires. It is comforting to know that if we put in the time, effort and if utilized properly these sites could help us launch a career. I believe that social media offers too many positives to let us be discouraged by the negatives. It can be as simple as monitoring what we post to avoid any negative situation. I thought it was interesting that one site suggested making a professional Facebook site, but I don’t see how this would discourage employers from looking at our personal sites. As a result, we have pretty much established that we don’t believe social media isn’t going anywhere, so we need to learn how to make the best of it and utilize it to help not hinder us.