Social Media Positively Affecting Fundraising Efforts for Haiti

My mass media case study was about how social media affected fundraising efforts for the Haiti earthquake. With our generation living within a technological world, social media websites have the power to significantly get information out within a quick matter of time. In this case, it used its powers for good to help those in need within seconds.

Whether it is with a cell phone or a computer, people now have access to information as soon as an event occurs. Along with quick access, people also have the ability to easily interact with others utilizing blog or status updates. Therefore, users have the ability to forward or distribute further information within the subject, causing news to become extremely viral. The new way of sharing quick information has significantly increased knowledge of causes, and ways to help out simply and effortlessly.

Like the Pepsi campaign I mentioned in my last blog, I thought this was a great way to get attention from the population and encourage them to help out. I personally don’t watch a lot of TV, and would have had no idea what was going on in Haiti if it weren’t for Facebook and Twitter. The more the word gets out there about how much these people need aid, the more likely people are going to respond. CNN.com reported that the “use of mass social media alone assisted in raising eight million dollars by the end of the week.” I was extremely impressed to know that so many people have contributed to aiding in the cause and how well social networking websites positively helped getting the word out, along with information on how and where to donate.


For more information within this case, please check out my following sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/14/online.donations.haiti/index.html
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/social-media-and-mobile-texting-a-major-source-of-info-and-aid-for-earthquake-in-haiti/
http://www.journalism.org/index_report/social_media_aid_haiti_relief_effort

Soda Chains Jump on the “Do Good” Train

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been noticing that good values are becoming more and more popular among sales pitches. Dove commercials promote inner beauty, Toyota promotes going green, and soda companies are now donating profits to charities.

Pepsi-Cola recently announced that they will donate $20 million to local organizations by the end of each year. In my opinion, I think this route will not only inspire consumers to take part in buying their product, but also do well for others in their own personal ways. Pepsi is setting a great example for everyone to care about those around them and real issues, rather than purely buying a product to appear “cool” and climb up the social latter. By buying Pepsi, it appears that you are helping society. I admit, I’m not much of a soda drinker myself, but I’m even inspired to buy a Pepsi solely because it seems like the selfless thing to do.

Pepsi-Cola will be utilizing social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and even Hulu, to get their product’s new intentions out there. Coca-Cola, Pepsi’s #1 competition, caught wave of the movement and decided to use one of the nation’s most popular social networking sites, Facebook, to promote their product. They announced that they “will donate a dollar to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America each time a visitor to the Coca-Cola fan page on Facebook” (Elliott, 2010). Now it seems that the two companies are competing to appear more generous to society. I love this new form of competition. Although there appears to be a hidden agenda, they’re still donating and people are still benefitting.

By utilizing social networking sites, the companies are inviting users to interact and be a part of helping society. Do you think this is more effective than solely displaying their actions in television commercials? Do you think promoting to be selfless and heroic is more effective than promoting to be sociable and cool?

Check out the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/media/01adco.html?ref=media

Who AM I?

Well, my name is Ashley. I'm a Junior at UW-Whitewater and double majoring with Multimedia Digital Arts and Advertising. I started college with intentions of being a business major, emphasizing in Operations Management. However, once I've dipped my feet into some business classes my freshman year, I realized it was absolutely not for me. This left me frazzled, forcing me to ask myself "what should I do with my life?" I've always had a deep passion for art and knew that it was my happy place. But, I also have always had a deep passion for money. So that left a problem. Starving artists aren't called starving artists for nothing. After pondering all my options, my mom suggested for me to be a multimedia major, as technology is on the rise and it would be an indemand field. I figured why not, I'll try it out and once I took a couple classes, I knew it was the major for me. After a year of taking classes within my new field, I figured Advertising would be a great degree to correspond with Multimedia.
Throughout my young life, I have changed so many ideas on what I wanted to do when I grew up, ranging from acting to medicine, not knowing what was meant for me. Now that I'm older, I feel that I am so lucky to have finally figured out what I wanted to do early on within my college career rather than wasting time on a field that I wasn't passionate about. Have you ever felt stuck with what you wanted to do with your life?