TSMRI Social Media Conference 2013: Call for papers and proposals

We are excited to announce The Texas Social Media Research Institute's 2013 Social Media Conference on Friday, Nov. 8, in Fort Worth, Texas.

We are excited about this wonderful opportunity and we anticipate 250+ attendees this year at the Tarleton State University- Southwest Metroplex campus. Deadline for proposals is June 30.  

This conference consists of a few research tracks: a SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH, SMALL BUSINESS, NON-PROFIT, K-12, HIGHER EDUCATION, and TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT tracks. The conference planning committee is actively seeking papers, panels, and training workshops focused on, but not limited to the following topics:

- Mobile applications, interactions and technologies

- Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest, Instagram (How to Use the Technologies)

- Social Media in Business (Ideas for Entrepreneurs and Large Organizations).

- Social Media in Education

- Social Media in the Non-Profit Sector

- Social Media in Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication

- Practical Solutions for Social Media Problems

- Benefits and Disadvantages of Social Media in K-12 and Higher Education

- Social Media and Generational Communication

- Social Media and Information Sciences/Library Sciences

- Social Media and Mobile Applications and Devices

Additional Information

Possible forms of submission include: panels (including roundtables and discussions), papers/abstracts, and training workshops. Complete the conference submission form (http://www.tinyurl.com/SocialMediaConferenceCall) AND e-mail papers/panels to TSMRI (texassocialmediaresearch@gmail.com) no later than JUNE 30TH, 2013

Participants will have an opportunity to publish their papers in the conference proceedings book, which will be published on the Texas Social Media Research Institute's website. The top paper will be considered for publication in TSMRI's peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of Social Media in Society.

If you have any questions, please contact the Texas Social Media ResearchInstitute via e-mail or telephone (254-307-8211).

Marketing on Pinterest

Have you ever thought about turning your Pinterest addiction into beneficial marketing?

If you’re like me, even on your busiest days you make time to pin interesting things to your boards and follow your friends on Pinterest. It not only makes time fly, but is a great way to share convenient ideas fast. So why not use Pinterest in a productive way?

      According to John Brandon’s article “9 Tips: Boost Your Business With Pinterest,” some important things to remember when creating a Pinterest account for work are to keep it simple and use other social nets to feed Pinterest.

The TSMRI Pinterest page.

This means creating clean cut and professional boards. It is important to create a link to your company’s website on every picture pinned so that viewers are always led in the right direction. Pinterest makes it easy to get carried away, but focusing on the goals of your company will help you keep the boards simple.

Your followers connect through all social networking sites. Create a link to your Pinterest page on your business website, Facebook, Tumblr and any other networks so viewers are directed straight to your pins.


Pinterest has become one of the most interesting social networks for me and I think it has the potential to become a great way to market businesses. Show your followers what your company values and likes by creating one of your own.


Do you have any great Pinterest tips? Share them in the comments section below.

Jordan Trumble is a public relations major and former TSMRI intern who graduated from Tarleton State University in May of 2013. You can find her on Twitter as @JNTrumblehttp://twitter.com/JNTrumble.

Newest issue of The Journal of Social Media in Society is available

We welcome you to review the second issue of The Journal of Social Media in Society. We have been overwhelmed at the positive response and manuscript submission rate since launching the journal in the fall of 2012, and take it as an indicator of the relevance of a journal devoted to a phenomenon that has become a ubiquitous part of our personal and professional lives.

The Journal is open to all research paradigms and disciplines conducting research and analysis on social media and mobile technologies. You’ll find our second issue to be no exception, with six articles representing the major social media platforms in the contexts of multiculturalism, inclusiveness, privacy, and communication theory.

We are excited to have launched a new online process for manuscript submission and review via the Online Journal Systems’ software from the Public Knowledge Project. This software has streamlined processes for authors, reviewers, and the editorial team, and will allow manuscripts to be easily indexed and searched online. A big thank you goes to Tarleton State University for providing our editors OJS support and training.

           

In this issue:

YouTube’s “Bad Romance”: Exploring the Vernacular Rhetoric of Lady Gaga Parody Videos 

By Amanda Nell Edgar

This case study places Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” music video in conversation with fan-created YouTube parodies. The author argues that the institutionally produced feminist rhetoric in Lady Gaga’s video is disciplined by fan parodies’ repressive vernacular, demonstrating the power of user-generated videos to contest progressive messages in mainstream culture.

Offering Hope and Making Attributions through YouTube: An Explorator Ethnographic Content Analysis of the Social Change-Oriented “It Gets Better Project”      

By Laurie M. Phillips

This study offers researchers insight into the use of crowdsourced strategic communication for the purpose of social change and applies attribution theory to the YouTube-based “It Gets Better Project.”

How Millennials are Engaging and Building Relationships with Organizations on Facebook

By Tina McCorkindale, Marcia W. DiStaso & Hilary Fussell Sisco

Because of the tremendous influence of the Millennial generation in terms of purchasing power and clout, understanding how they engage with organizations on popular social media sites, such as Facebook, is important. Millennials are more willing to “like” organizations in order to receive information, updates, discounts, or other benefits, but would “un-like” the organization if they wanted to dissolve the relationship or if they received too much communication.

Examining Gender Differences in Self-disclosure on Facebook Versus Face-to-Face            

By Pavica Sheldon

Men disclose more intimate topics with a recently added Facebook friend than women do in this study of more than 300 college students.

Family Communication, Privacy, and Facebook

By Eric M. Fife, LuAnn LaCava, and C. Leigh Nelson

Focus group research suggested that college students maintain and enjoy family relationships through Facebook, negotiating privacy issues as explored through the lens of Communication Privacy Management.

An Examination of the Role of the Communicator on Gratifications Attained on Social Networking Sites

By Eric Langstedt

Using the uses and gratifications approach, results of this analysis suggest the gratifications received on social network sites will vary dependent on the role of the communicator.

Book Review: The Social Media Sales Revoluation (1st edition), by Chase and Knebl, Reviewed by Ryan J. Gautreaux & Tyrone Leeman Adams

Producing the second issue was an important step in further establishing an outlet for research of social media, and our thanks go to our editorial and review board members and patient authors who contributed to this effort.

The Journal of Social Media in Society is a product of the Texas Social Media Research Institute, based at Tarleton State University, in Stephenville, Texas.

Secure your smartphone now

Summer is a great time to get in shape, make new friends, or just relax.
It's also a great time to make sure your smartphone is safe.

With many different smartphones on the market, and new releases such as the iPhone
5 and Samsung Galaxy S III, everyone is walking around with a computer in their pocket.
There are also apps for email, social media, and banking, so these computers are loaded
with personal information as well. In a world of portable information, hackers have
moved from the desktop and laptop to the smartphone.

According to PBS, it did not take much for News of the World reporters to hack into
voicemails back in 2011. If trying a simple code (such as 1111) didn’t work, they could call the service provider and reset the password, or use a separate voicemail to hack into the desired
account. While no one smartphone platform is any safer than another, here are ways to
protect your phone from smartphone hackers.

Photo from Wikimedia.

1) Lock your car, Lock your house, Lock your phone
It is a simple fix, but locking your phone is the first step to phone security. This
will stop, or at least slow down, many potential phone hackers.

2) Don’t open SMS from unknown numbers
Just like it is with fishy emails, these can unleash spyware or malware into your
phone. The malware can then access your call logs, emails, texts, or any bank
information you may access from your phone.

3) Keep it Current
Don’t neglect phone or app updates – these usually include fixes for holes that
hackers could get through.

4) Shut down Bluetooth
According to Computer How-To Guide, whenever you aren’t using Bluetooth, it
is best to just turn it off. This can be used as an avenue for hackers to get inside
your phone.

If your phone is stolen or missing, you may need to consider a remote wipe,
which restores your phone to factory settings. You can learn how to do this for iOS, Android,
and Windows phone here.

Melissa Smithey is a TSMRI intern and Communications Major at Tarleton State University.

References.
Dachis, Adam. "How to Secure Your SmartPhone." Lifehacker.com blog. Retrieved April 20, 2013 from http://lifehacker.com/5724683/how-to-secure-your-smartphone

"How to Prevent Cell Phone Hacking." (n.d.). ComputerHowToGuide.com. Retrieved April 30, 2013,  from http://www.computerhowtoguide.com/2012/01/how-to-prevent-cell-phone-hacking.html

"Just how easy is phone hacking?" Need to Know, PBS. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/culture/just-how-easy-is-phone-hacking/10407/

Book review: Online Reputation Management for Dummies

This post, originally from the "Teaching PR" blog,  is used here with permission from the author, Karen Miller Russell.

Two points to clear up before I review Online Reputation Management for Dummies by Lori Randall Stradtman. First, I'll disclose that I know the author and have invited her to guest lecture in my class. She's also helped me with some work on How Mysterious!, my book review blog and Twitter account.

Second, the title. My 8-year-old was horrified that someone actually used the word "dummies" in a book and kept insisting that I'm not a dummy. (Good to know.) If you aren't familiar with it, there is an entire series of books called something or other for Dummies, which is only meant to signify that the book assumes you're entirely new to the subject and will explain even the most basic of concepts.

When Lori first told me about the project, I assumed she was working on personal reputation management, and the book does have some of that. But it's most helpful to small-to-medium businesses who don't have a PR agency but need an employee or team of employees to monitor and participate in building an organization's online reputation.

The book is divided into five parts (with a sixth section dedicated to helpful lists, a standard feature of books in the Dummies series): Getting Started, Organizing Your Teams, Listening, Establishing Your Reputation, and Responding to Crisis. Each part contains several chapters with both explanations of the basic concepts and practical, hands-on advice about what a person tasked with online reputation management should be doing.

Stradtman points out that you should first learn how you or the organization and its competition look online and then set goals before launching into content creation. She includes careful instructions on how to protect your privacy through platform settings and through creating strong passwords. The book also includes advice on developing social media policies, choosing a monitoring tool, identifying keywords, joining networks, and creating content.

The book is fun to read, with lots of good examples and Lori's sense of humor peeking through. My favorite part was her "Hierarchy of Needs," adapted from Maslow but applied to brand evangelists (pp. 262-63). Starting at the bottom, "Knowledge," and building to the top, "Recognition," Stradtman shows how companies can energize brand evangelists who already love the company. I also liked that she consistently emphasized that behaving well -- building communities organically, participating with transparency and authenticity, telling the truth -- is the best way to protect your online reputation.

We've already established that I'm not a dummy (thanks, kid), so I didn't expect to learn much from Online Reputation Management for Dummies, but I found myself dogearing pages to come back to later -- search-for-pay sites that aggregate personal information, sites that allow you to create your own infographics, sites that attempt to rate influencers (not just Klout and Kred), and so forth.

This book would be useful to anyone who's new to using social media for business purposes. It won't, in my opinion, replace a degree in public relations, but reading it would prevent an employee or job seeker from making any egregious online errors and help them establish a positive presence as well.

Twitter Trademark Usage

Are you using the correct Twitter logo on your website?

As of June 6, 2012, Twitter officially changed their trademark to “Larry,” the bird.

Courtesy of Twitter

From then on, using the old “t”  (see below) became a violation of Twitter’s Trademark and Content Display Policy.

(courtesy of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twitter.svg)

Twitters do’s and don’ts for usage of the bird are shown below:

Courtesy of Twitter

The correct Twitter icon is available for downloading through their Logo and Brand Policy page.

Apparently, many companies don’t know about, or are too lazy to change to, the new Twitter bird. It has been about nearly a year since the new trademark has been released. Organizations and companies have legal teams that are supposed to know about these things and change it if their company is using the wrong icon. But that is simply not the case most time. I’ve come up with a list of a few companies and organizations that, as of this writing, are still using the wrong icon.

         Fast Food/ Restaurants:

o   Papa John’s

o   Dunkin’ Donuts

o   Quiznos

o   On the Border

o   Chicken Express

o   Golden Chick

o   Olive Garden

o   Golden Corral

         Cosmetic/Beauty Brands:

o   Neutrogena

o   Dove

o   Maybelline

o   Clinique

        University/Groups:

o   Tarleton Sports Page

o   Texas Tech University homepage

o   Sam Houston State University homepage

         Food/Drink Brands:

o   Skittles

o   M&M’s

o   Mars

o   Fiji Water

         Stores/Businesses:

o   Target (using a modified bird)

o   Kmart

o   Kohls

o   Cavenders

o   Shell global homepage

o   RaceTrac

o   Sears

o   JC Penney

         Brands/Corporations:

o   Dish Network

o   Southwest Airlines

o   AT&T

o   Sprint

o   TNT Drama

These are just a few that I found. Same companies don’t always get it right everywhere; they have the bird on their main website, but are still using the “t” on mass emails, like BassPro Shop. 

Sometimes their social media sites are displayed in their actual store or business using the “t” while it is actually correct on their website. Organizations and companies (or you!), need to be aware of Twitter’s guidelines.

Questions or comments? Ask us below.

Victoria Greer, an intern with TSMRI, is a sophomore Communications major with a public relations and event management emphasis at Tarleton State University.

Tarleton Tip Thursday: Pinteresting Secrets

Pinterest announced their secret boards back in November 2012.  While this was
some exciting news for Pinterest lovers, a question does come into mind. What
should be your Pinterest secrets be?

Maybe you are a teacher who likes the school craft projects you come across. Perhaps you'd rather not have co-workers who follow you re-pin your project and get to it before you do. Or maybe you'd like to plan a surprise party for a colleague or a loved one.

Would you like to have a wedding board?

Perhaps you haven't created one yet because you want to avoid the embarrassment of one of your followers posting an e-card like the one below to your account.

See more at someecards.com

 There's a secret board for that. No one will ever know, except YOU the creator (unless you invite someone to it).

A secret board can be anything you want. Having them is like your very own
Pinterest diary.

How to find, create & select a secret board

1. Log into Pinterest, and click on the link to your profile (on the top right of the screen) where all your boards are showing on the page (see below).

This is my Pinterest profile and a list of my boards.

2. Scroll all the way down and, et voila! You'll see a space for your secret boards (you can have up to three).

Click on this area to create a secret board.

3. Create your board before you search for pins by clicking on Create a board under Secret Boards. The secret board title will look like your other board titles, except that it will have a lock icon. When you find pins you'd like to keep secret, click on your secret board after you click Repin.

No one can see your secret board except for you.

Happy Pinning!

Becca Escobar is a junior Broadcast/Journalism major at Tarleton State University and an intern for TSMRI. You can find her on Twitter @Beccaescobar87.