About Me

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Orlando, Florida, United States
I am a graduate from the University of South Florida, with a degree in English and American literature, as well as professional/technical writing. I am a graduate student at Full Sail University-- seeking a Masters in Entertainment Business. My background includes blogging, social networking, branding, creative and strategic marketing, advanced technical communication, etc. I am currently writing my first book and look forward to this new platform for conveying my thoughts, ideas, and observations.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What We Know About Lift: It's Not Twitter


There is probably our world needs more than another social media platform. Right? We need another application to teach grandpa. We need another URL for IT to block at the office. We need another website to drain us of more, what were, potentially productive hours. The fascination with social media has spread like the plague; however, the question remains—what can social media offer us in the future that we are not currently being offered?

A few of the masterminds behind Twitter have been spending their time creating a new networking application. At the moment, we don’t know much about the project, but here is what we do know: the name is Lift; a brief, vague description: “an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement” (¶2).

Social media experts were quick to sniff around the secretive project and quickly dismiss it as a variation of Twitter. Crowdvine Events Social Media Networks CEO Tony Stubblebine was quick to clarify that Lift will not include anything having to do with tweeting or following. He defends the company’s ambiguous statements by stating that descriptions at this point do not properly depict Lift’s indefinable, innovative qualities. Stubblebine continues by saying if social networking is even a proper categorization for the platform; yes, it’s social, but doesn’t feature photo albums—an obvious reference to Facebook.

Currently, Lift is in alpha testing and there is no formal word when the application will be released or even become available in beta. If you are interested in receiving updates about the development of Lift, join the e-mailing list located on the company landing page.

At the present time, we don’t know how Lift will “unlock human potential”; we don’t know what type of “positive reinforcement” they expect will make that happen. We don’t know if it’s hype or a new concept that will make this world a better place.

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Friday, September 9, 2011

Beef With the Biebers


In previous blogs, I have discussed strategies for achieving YouTube notoriety, including: video ideas, descriptions/tags, upload frequency, promotion via social media, and search engine optimization. Recently, a young YouTube user received fame, on a small scale, for manipulating the system and, by doing so, aggravating many Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna fans.

As most know, when a user signs up for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or virtually any online platform, there is an acceptance of “terms and conditions.” These rules give the service the ability to terminate your account if you act in a way that could be perceived as wrong or unethical.

YouTube user iLCreation allegedly made several copyright claims against well known the videos of well-known pop artists, which lead to the temporary removal of many popular music videos. Justin Bieber fans fired back on all social media sites, including Twitter. The video takedown lead to #WeWantJustinBieberVEVOBack making Twitter’s top trending list. Additionally, Justin Bieber’s fans identified 13-year-old iLCreation as the responsible party by trending "#iLCreation you totally messed with the wrong fan base dude. Bet you're gonna regret it" (¶13). YouTube terminated iLCreation’s account for “repeated or severe violations of terms and conditions” (¶6).   

YouTube recommends that users with trademark concerns contact the responsible party directly, as doing so may result in a quicker, more appealing resolution; however, if the problem is not resolved, users can submit forms to YouTube identifying the problem and requesting the video’s removal.

This story should be a reminder and verification that ploys to achieve undeserved fame will result in unnecessary problems. If wishing to acquire YouTube followers, focus on creating interesting, original user generated content and market the content via Facebook and Twitter; add relevant tags—which are automatically bookmarked through YouTube’s owner, Google; and keep content updated—even if that means re-uploading videos that have been sitting stagnant for more than a month.

For more information regarding YouTube’s terms and conditions, click here.

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