Starbucks

     Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company that started in Seattle, Washington in 1971.  It established its first coffeehouse in 1984.  Today is operating over 20,000 stores in over 60 countries.  The current stock price SBUX (NASDAQ) is at $57.51 as of July 29, 2015 at 4:05 p.m.  The company is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. Through our unwavering commitment to excellence and our guiding principles, we bring the unique Starbucks Experience to life for every customer through every cup.  Along with coffee, Starbucks also offers cookies, cakes, chocolate and recently snacks, coffee makers among other souvenirs and paraphernalia.

     Starbucks has a strong social presence as one of its marketing platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram and MySpace among others.  Starbucks marketing strategies emphasize the perfect cup of coffee, innovation, smart partnerships, brand marketing, customer satisfaction (Twitter), creating a Starbucks community on the numerous social media sites that employees and customers are encouraged to participate in.  The company has a developing international business with diverse drinks with new ones originating periodically.  It seems to be the best loved drink on social media due to its influencers.  

     The public can share their ideas on one their platform called ‘My Starbucks Idea’.  It allows the participant to share ideas, vote on existing ones, discussion, and make an examination of new and innovating ideas.  Hence, share, vote, discuss, and see (fig.1).  

        

                                   Fig.1(a)                                  Fig. 1(b)

     All its physical locations offer free Wi-Fi which has attracted retirees, college students and many young business entrepreneurs that enjoys the relaxed atmosphere.  Its social media engagements also offer a quick response to complaints along with opportunities for new connections.  Many Starbucks customers are willing to download its app, place orders and pay via their mobile devices. As such, the coffee giant’s app lands near the top for mobile payment usage. In a December 2014 study by 451 Research, Starbucks was the second most popular app US mobile phone owners used to pay for goods in physical stores in the past month, cited by 6%. This trailed only PayPal (14%) and was ahead of Google Wallet (4%), Amazon Wallet (3%) and competitor Dunkin’ Donuts (3%), among others (Fig.2).

Starbucks has cited some key points for its return on investment with its Facebook and Twitter trends, mobile payment transactions along with its store transactions and loyalty card programs.   

 

Fig.2

Here is a snapshot of their newest drink from my Twitter account (Fig.3).

 

Virtual communities

“A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. Like any other community, it is also a collection of people who adhere to a certain (loose) social contract, and who share certain (eclectic) interests.

—Howard Rheingold, “Virtual Communities,” 1987” & ‘Net Smart’, 2012.

    One of the virtual communities that I am a part of ‘Content Marketing and Social Media’ that is a part of Google+ (Https//plus.google.com).  There were 92,857 members on this site on July 27,2015 at 11:15 p.m.  I realize from my numerous visits that the membership increases constantly.  The discussions are enlightening, informative, and interactive at times.  The discussions can be invigorating yet opinionated at times centered around Facebook, Twitter, YouTube even Snapshot and Instagram. My infrequent visits are twice per week or when an assignment is due to gain insight about SMS.  Here is a link to an artless I read on the discussion http://www.businessinsider.com/emarketer-instagram-mobile-ad-revenue-forecast-2015-7.

     Another community on Google+ ( https://plus.google.com/)

     The discussions in this community are slow but has 438,977 members.  My reason for joining this group is to share knowledge on famous quotations and reflections but was disappointed.  The discussion was not very collaborative.  I was puzzled by the high volume of membership posted. With google plus there are so many discussions taking place that at times there is a continuous switch.  However, I have gained some experience in socializing in these online environments.  They lead me in setting up memberships on Pinterest and Instagram .

     

  

Privacy tracking

What's up with Snowden?

I recently read a blog in the 'Wall Street Journal' on how to use Edward Snowden's three tips for digital privacy. NSA's whistleblower and former contractor, Snowden, used encryption to pinpoint loop holes or breeches in their data security.  He advised users to encrypt their hard drive by adding password protection directly to it.   Next, plug- ins are useful in preventing organizations or companies from online tracking.  Finally he suggested using Tor, a network that promised anonymity and privacy online using its own browser.  Ganapati, the author of the article, pointed out that an encrypted chat service and encrypted mail also lowers your online profile as well.  

This goes to show that Snowden is outttt

Of the NSA

But he is definitely not

Downnnn....

Reference:

Ganapati, P. (2014).  How to use Edward Snowden's three tips for digital privacy.   Wall Street Journal. Online version. March 10,2014.  Retrieved from:  http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/03/10/privacy-snowden/?mod=ST1 on July18,2015.  

First Audio, Then Video, Next Go Live!

"A picture is worth a thousand words."  

                             -Napoleon Bonaparte.

This quote comes to mind upon reflection of the contents of chapters 9, 10, and 14 of "The Social Media Bible".  It's an informative, and interesting book that explain the "ins-and-out" of Social Media.  Chapter nine explained audio creation via podcast.   PodBean.com or iTunes were highlighted as websites that assist with making a podcast.  The steps involved were introduction, recording, shaving off, editing then publishing while adding special effects.  

On the other hand, chapter ten admonish users to share old or vintage VHS audios by digitizing them or creating a podcast.  Therefore, making them available for others to see; that is, sharing with friends, family, employees, and prospective clients.  They can be added web pages, blog pages, photographs, audio podcasts, and YouTube videos.

Finally, Chapter 14 encourages users to "Go Live from Anywhere" stated Lon Safko (2012).  Web radio, net radio, livecasting, webcasting, web conferencing, or webinars, broadcasting information online is all about creating "live" content that uses the internet to distribute or stream that content (p. 318).  Internet Radio, Justin.tv, BlogTalkRadio, and Ustream.tv are just a few examples of this type of social media.  The author admonishes users to explore livecastling by first getting a webcam, then try a webinar or your own radio show and finally try a web conference.

                              Just Do It!!!

Instagram…A Review

     The researchers Weilenmann, Hillman, and Jungselius (2013) investigated how ins tag ram was used to communicate visitors’ experiences while visiting a museum of natural history.  Visitors used their smartphones to take pictures of various pictures of various exhibits that they commented on and shared with friends and acquaintances on Instagram.  The researchers exploited certain features that only smartphones provided instead of the usual camera.

     This paper focused on the photo sharing aspect that Instagram provided  through its smartphone application.  This included its dedicated mobile application that allowed users to adjust and manipulate pictures before uploading them online.  The researchers analyzed the process of creating and sharing Instagram emphasizing the formulation of captions, hashtags, and photographic choice and the audience.  

     Surprisingly, museums allowed smartphone usage.  The exploited the opportunity of using them as personal guides.  It opened the doors of social media usage as a guide to the “Arts” as the central role in learning in informal environments. The goal of the museum and galleries was to use social media to facility  new types of participation with visitors.

     The researchers found out that social media provided enrichment to a museum’s authenticity by enabling it to maintain a dialog with its audience in real-time (pp. 1845).  Smartphones possessed a GPS locator that allowed users to check- in and share their locations with friends. This lent authenticity to the Instagram message.

   However the visitors were concerned about balancing the subject choice, aesthetics, and captioning when producing  content or hashtag.  Instagram with data sets were easily located but the others used hashtags or mentioned the name of the museum within the content so that followers could identify the context of the message.

    This was an excellent article that conveyed how social media was used in an intellectually controlled environment.  It showed the enrichment experience that the online viewers received by the visitors’ use of social media in their engagement with the various exhibits.  But there are still some concern by exhibition developers that are apprehensive about control issues with outside technology use in museums.

Reference:

Weilenmann, A., Hillman, T., & Jungselius, B. (2013, April). Instagram at the museum: communicating the museum experience through social photo sharing. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1843-1852). ACM.

Crowdsourcing

    Crowdsourcing!  Collaboration!   Strategizing!  All the concepts mean sharing, cooperating, and getting ideas.  Crowdsourcing is the process of connecting with large groups of people via the internet sharing their knowledge, expertise, time or resources (crowdsourcing.org).  It is using more than one persons or group assistance with a problem or insight  about a particular topic. It is using a crowd as a source.  Brainstorming!

     'Crowdsourcing.com' states that crowdsourcing is a way of solving problems and producing things by connecting online with people that you otherwise would not know.  How would you do this?  By accessing a large online labour force, asking the crowd for solution, finding out the existence of the knowledge, getting the ideas together and acquiring feedback.  Here are a few ways that crowdsourcing works:

                   ~crowdengineering

                        ~cloud labour

                               ~crowdfunding

                                      ~ open innovations

                                               ~crowd creativity......     

Oh Canada!

I remember the days when I lived in Langdon, Alberta, and our closest neighbor would be but a blimp on the horizon. 

 Great open spaces.. 

 Fresh, dry air to breathe. 

 The ostrich farm.

A tiny church in the small town two miles from our property which made the distance necessary when we continue driving for five more miles and there is Calgary.  

Those were the good old days.  

Happy Canada Day!