Disney and Facebook

                                                             Facebook
Facebook is currently the most visited website in the world. Every day, more and more companies are beginning to utilize the unlimited means of promotion available on Facebook. Facebook is also the fastest growing website and it is very important for people to know how to utilize the tool known as social media. Below is a short tutorial on “How to Create a Facebook Page” for beginners.

                                                      Disney's Use of Social Media

            
 Disney is one of the largest companies in the world, and as a large company it is important for them to promote themselves to the best of their abilities. Disney has become very involved in the social media world. In July of 2010, Disney bought Playdom, Facebook’s third largest social gaming company for $563.2 million. Disney also added Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg to their Board of Directors in December of 2009. When looking at Disney’s Company Facebook page, which is currently “Liked” by over 21 million fans, users can see how Disney has incorporated all the different aspects of their company and pooled them into one common location. An article in CF News 13 notes that Disney began posting regularly on Facebook back in August of 2009. Disney has over 200 Facebook pages that are all linked to the company’s main Facebook. In the first year, Disney managed to gain over 60 million “Likes” between their 200 pages.  Disney reached 69 Million Fans and Counting in October 2010. By this time, Disney had created an interactive way of tracking its fans. The company’s main Facebook page connects all of the fans of the individual Disney pages, such as “Finding Nemo” or “Pirates of the Caribbean” , by linking them all the this “landing page”. Disney designed a Tab function of its Facebook page that is used to showcase its fans and highlight which pages are the most popular. By doing this, they are generating more traffic to their other pages, as well as linking fans with one another. The page also shows postings about different things happening in the world of Disney. I believe that this interesting way of connecting fans is directly linked to the rapid growth of the Disney Facebook page.

           

Disney has also created interactive fan pages for different movies. The Alice in Wonderland Facebook page is a fantastic example of this. When fans go to the Alice in Wonderland Facebook page, they can “Hat” themselves and prove their allegiance to the cause. Fans can create their own hat and by doing this they are becoming a part of the action in the movie and taking their stand against the Red Queen. The movie was released in March 2010 and currently has over 5 Million “Likes”.

            In December 2010, Disney reached  100 Million “Likes” on Facebook. Ironically enough, this landmark was met on what would have been Walt Disney’s 109^th Birthday. In celebration of this achievement, the company released the following video outlining their involvement in Facebook.

                            Disney's "Tickets Together"           
One of Disney’s most interesting promotional tools is an application they created on Facebook called “Disney Tickets Together”. Disney created this application to promote their new Toy Story 3 movie. The application allows Facebook users to buy Disney movie tickets on Disney’s Facebook. The application then prompts you to invite your Facebook friends to buy tickets to that movie as well. I feel that their effort to combine selling movie tickets and the power of social media is a huge landmark. This could potentially change the way Hollywood sells movie tickets. Originally, only tickets to Toy Story 3 were available on “Disney Tickets Together”, however they have now expanded the site to incorporate more movies.

                                      Criticisms
 Overall, Disney has positioned itself at the forefront of social media promotion. By creating interactive pages on Facebook, they are linking their wide variety of users together in a common place. I feel that Disney has set the bar for other companies. However, I did notice that on Disney.com there are no widgets linking users to the company's Facebook. Although Disney has been extremely successful in their social media campaigns, I believe that by linking their Facebook to their company website will increase traffic and help them to grow even more!

Screencasting

     

      In this video, Professor Kelley is using Jing and Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 to show us how to create a narrated powerpoint. He goes through the individual steps, including making sure that viewers know to be in edit mode when they begin their powerpoint. He shows the viewers which buttons to push and when, and how to make the powerpoint continue smoothly.

      Personally, I would have found it very difficult to follow his instructions had they not been given through a screencast. By using a screencast, it enables the viewers to get a first-hand view of what they will be experiencing if they were to attempt to create a narrated powerpoint. By seeing it first-hand, it maximizes understanding, plus makes it easier for the creator of the video to convey the message to their viewers.

Facebook Perspectives

     Facebook is now the most visited website on the net. When I was in middle school, the most popular internet activity was AOL's Instant Messenger. In high school, MySpace emerged and everyone abandoned IM and moved onto MySpace. I was slow to change over, but eventually my friends sat me down and I joined the MySpace phenomenon. I did not become instantly hooked on MySpace. I felt that it took too much time to sit there, on our dial-up internet, and try to design my homepage. Once I found most of my friends, however, I found myself become attached to it. However, in the last couple of years of high school, Facebook began to allow other members, where as before, it had been a site strictly for college students. Again, I was slow to make the switch. I thought that no one would leave MySpace for Facebook, so I paid no attention to it. Finally, during the second half of my senior year in high school, I joined the world of Facebook. I do not believe that I have logged into MySpace since.
     Most of everyone I know uses Facebook. Even my Mom is on Facebook. A lot of people are now on Twitter, but as usual, I have not joined the "tweeting" world just yet. I do not stay on Facebook all of the time, but I do use it pretty much everyday. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family members, as well as keep up to date with what is going on. The only downside to Facebook is that there is no way to keep certain people from finding you. Sometimes, there are reasons for not keeping in touch with people!
     I think one of my favorite parts about Facebook is the different pages and groups that you can "Like". It adds personality to your profile and connects you with people that you share common interests with. A few months ago, I was searching on Google for a certain type of desk chair. These chairs are commonly used in college dorm rooms and are provided by the college. When I lived on campus at North Georgia College and State University, i had one of these chairs, and I fell in love with it. It was not that they were extremely comfortable of stylish, but they were made so that they lean backwards. As a person who always rocks backwards in my chair, this was an ingenious invention in my eyes. After i moved out, I missed my chair. I was searching for the chairs online to buy one, but I did not know what they were called. As I was scrolling through the links brought up on Google, I noticed a Facebook page talking about these Rocking Desk Chairs.
Thanks to this page, I found the chairs I was looking for! I was so excited that I was not the only person who had fallen in love with these chairs, because it seemed to me to be a strange obsession. This experience made me appreciate the variety of information that can be found on Facebook!

Golden Moments

The Golden Girls is a show about 4 older women who all live together. The show focuses on their everyday lives, everything from family, to friendships, to love. This show is one of my favorite shows ever. When I was in middle school, my grandmother and I used to watch it together. Of course, at that age I did not appreciate all of the humor and real-life references that are in each episode. However, I did begin to love the Golden Girls. They teach you about life, how to handle mistakes and loss, and most of all how to have fun. This is a clip from my very favorite episode. Enjoy!

My Favorite Blog

I am not the type of person to spend a great deal of time in front of a computer. I have more of a face-to-face personality. Therefore, I do not follow many blogs. I am an avid follower of ESPN Sports Blog. It is easy to navigate and is very organized. I can get online on my cell phone and check scores and get all of the information I am looking for quickly and easily. ESPN has their sports blog page divided up into sub-sections, all clearly labeled. For example, I focus mainly on the College Football Blogs. They are easy to get to and I can usually always find what I am looking for. I love ESPN Sports Blog!

About Me and My Social Media

My name is Whitney Hancock. I am a Mass Communications major at the University of West Georgia. I am a member of Sigma Kappa Sorority at UWG. I am a very active person, I enjoy playing softball, tennis, and any other outdoor activities. I also love to read. I do not spend a lot of my time using social media. However, I do check Facebook regularly. I make it a point not to stay on there for too long, because I am very easily distracted. I had a MySpace for a short while during high school, but I never spent a great deal of time online. I have delayed joining the "Tweeting" world simply because I feel like the term "following" is too stalker-ish for me. I will however be delving into the Twitter world during this class. I am excited to see how well I take to it!