New Technology

It seems to me that I am starting to see smartwatches much more often these days. I started to do some research on smartwatches and found this website that is discussing how much smartwatches are going to expand and explode over the next five years. There are some really neat features that are to be expected. 

Apple Watch 2 is set to debut this year and it has an impressive list of new functions. Such as time lapse pictures, longer battery life (rumored up to one week), and waterproof. It will also expand to have more native apps. These apps are going to be especially useful, they are rumored to be Siri - for voice texting and calling, Health Apps - to keep track of steps, heart rate, blood pressure and a plethora of other great features, Facetime, GPS and others. The new apple watch is also going to be getting a facelift. Their new designer has been listening to the complaints since Apple Watch first launched and people have been expressing a need for new design scheme. They want options that make their watches classy and beautiful, something they can wear to their office jobs and galas alike while still having great durability. There's said to be some big changes and options for colors and designs that Apple has yet to reveal. 

Another watch that I am excited to see later this year is the Omate Rise Android Smartwatch. It works with IOS and Androids and has a bit more of a rugged exterior. The Omate Rise is 3G-compatible, has GPS and is properly waterproof. It boasts a round 1.3-inch, 360 x 360, touchscreen with sapphire coating. It works with iPhone and Android and the Rise also has a 3G micro SIM slot for untethered use as well as GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. There is a speaker and mic, presumably to take and make calls as well the usual 6-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for activity tracking. As someone who loves hiking and being outdoors, I would choose this watch over the Apple Watch 2 because of its durability. 

In general, I think that wearable technology is going to change social media, especially smartwatches.

Because of the Voice-Based Updates, I imagine the shift of wearable update-ers will be dramatic. The shift from PDAs with pullout keyboards to smartphones with on-screen touch-based keyboards was significant, but the shift that will come with wearable tech will be even greater. Because screen sizes will shrink down even further, users will no longer be able to type as conveniently as they used to. Now users will have to use their voices to respond which will ultimately change how we interact. Messages/posts will become shorter, more informal and contain less typing and grammar errors which can be embarrassing. As a result, you’ll have to change your communicative style to cater to those more conversational inquiries.

Images will become increasingly more desirable because long messages won't be accessible and people will quickly lose their patience. This will not only cause people to be more concise and the to the point in their personal messages, but advertisers might be able to capitalize on this as well. Optimizing your posts to be legible and interactive on a small screen will put you ahead of the competition, and more wearable users will flock to your social profiles as a result.

It will be interesting to see where Smartwatches will reach, what will happen to regular watches? You know the kind that just tell you the time?? I wonder how long it will take people to make the switch and which brand they'll run to. Social media will have to grow and adapt to keep up, and I have no doubt that it won't upset us. 

Where Have all the QR Codes Gone?

Remember how in 2011 QR codes were the big thing? They started cropping up everywhere. They popped out the snow, like daisies! (Props to you if you know what I just quoted.) I remember scanning a couple but mainly being unimpressed with them. They seemed like they had a lot of potential, but weren't used effectively. In fact, Alex Kutsishin, president of FiddleFly, said that:

"If there was ever a technology that was frustratingly unpopular despite its true potential to improve the way consumers and businesses interact, it would be the QR Code."

QR stands for quick response. Originally they were created as a way to track things for Toyota but have since evolved. They can hold 100 times the information of traditional barcodes, making them look great to businesses for marketing. QR codes are read digitally, most likely by your smartphone, with the pairing of an app too so that you can do a myriad of marketing with it. Ideally, QR codes enable businesses to connect offline customers with online content in an engaging and interactive way.  Unfortunately, before they could really become mainstream, the technology started to trip over itself and sort of fell flat on its face - ouch. 

Consequently, the steps for engaging with a QR code often look something like this process, aptly described by Joshua Johnson in an article for Design Shack:

"1. Get out your phone.
2. Find you phone’s QR Code reader, assuming you’ve downloaded one.
3. Search for that QR code app that you downloaded one time, the name of which escapes you.
4. Realize that you deleted that app ages ago because you never used it. Go to app store, search for and download a new free QR Code reader.
5. Take a nap because you’re exhausted at this point.
6. Launch app and wait for the camera to initiate.
7. Hold phone up to QR Code.
8. Wait for browser to launch and page to load.
Tadaah, a web page! Wasn’t that easier than typing in a URL?"

The problems mainly stem from the fact that businesses don't know how to use them effectively. Some common problems are when the code sends you to a place that isn't set up for mobile sites - it's choppy and hard to navigate, which just becomes annoying and people lose interest. The next problems is that when you're on the page, there isn't a clear action - sometimes it just takes you to their unfriendly mobile site. Great. What next? It leaves users confused and frustrated that they wasted their time. The placement of QR codes is also important since you have to be able to take a picture of the code, having it in places like billboards and television commercials, isn't going to allow the user enough time to actually scan it. You also need an internet connection to scan it, so placing it in underground subways or on airplanes isn't helpful.

Those that did harness the QR and used creativity to make it beneficial for consumers did very well. Target had coupons that you could download onto your phone once you scanned their QR codes, Taco Bell and Mountain Dew used their codes for free music downloads, and Tesco, the second largest grocery chain in South Korea, created virtual grocery stores in select subway tunnels (those with cell service), allowing commuters to shop while they wait for the train by scanning QR codes next to items they want.  The items are then added directly to their carts and delivered to their homes after work.

So there is great potential for these little guys, but you can see how things can fade very quickly if they aren't used creatively. Now, I don't know if it would be possible to bring these codes back, people have already written them off. It will be interesting to see what the future holds - maybe they'll make a comeback.

Viral Videos: What it Takes

We've all laughed at Charlie Bit My Finger, cooed at Sophie the Bulldog Rolling Down a Hill, shared David After Dentist, chucked at Pizza Rat or Grumpy Cat, and quoted Double Rainbow or Damn Daniel. But it wasn't until recently that I learned that there is an art to making a viral video and actual techniques people use. Originally, I always thought viral videos were organic, they were posted simply because the creator thought their friends would find it funny, interesting, sad, etc. I had no idea that there were people out there - like Travis Chambers who came and spoke to us - that actually tried to make a viral video.

With the help of these articles (1, 2, 3) I was able to compile a list of ways in which you can make your video go viral.

1. Release your video on a Monday or a Tuesday.

When do you find yourself online the most? For me, it's when you're at school or at work. And Mondays and Tuesdays tend to be very boring for people, they need something to get through their days. So they read the news at work, or go online, check out what's trending, post on social media, etc. If you release your video on Monday or Tuesday you can give it the whole week to gain momentum. Some people may think it's better to release it on a weekend, but you have to remember that people usually are out and about during weekends, not online. Weekends are speed bumps; avoid them. While you can't always avoid it, try to upload something on a normal day. Be aware of holidays in your country and others. Some people don't work on certain days so it's important to release your video when the most people are active online. It's also important that you don't release it when any big new stories are going on unless it pertains to that news story, it is likely to go unseen.

2. Keep your video short.

This is the age of quick attention spans, I don't have time for a video that's over one and half minutes. I need quick and simple. 30 seconds to a minute is the perfect amount of time. If your video is too long it is less likely that people will click on it to begin with, let alone actually finish it. Short videos spread faster.

3. YouTube is great, but don't limit yourself.

Post it to Vimeo! There's no disputing that YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform in the world (official data puts YouTube as the third-most-visited site in the world behind Google and Facebook.) However, it's not the only place to upload your videos. Hosting sites like DailyMotion, Vimeo, and more sometimes offer attractive features to video providers. For instance, DailyMotion is sometimes ranked higher in terms of video quality than YouTube.

4. Use animals or babies.

Let's face it, animals and babies are the best. I follow multiple accounts that are run by the owners of pets on Instagram and Facebook. Animals are so pure - too good for this world. Use them.


If you follow those steps, your video is destined to get more views. Be careful what you wish for, though, people often regret making videos and posting them online because of how crazy comment sections can be, media attention, and trolls and haters. People love to share things online, and once it's out there: it's out there forever. Even if you take the video down, other people still have access to it. 15 minutes of fame can quickly turn into 15 years of hell if you're not careful.

SEO - not Sia, unfortunately.

I'll be frank, I had zero clue as to what search engine optimization (SEO) was up until a few minutes ago. When I first read the phrase I assumed it had something to do with Boolean searches, but apparently not. Thankfully, the Internet knows all the things.

This beginner's guide defines SEO as a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. So, from what I understand, it's the process of getting your web page to be pulled up in the search results when a keywords or phrases are typed into a search engine. The goal is to create more traffic: people accessing your web page.

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines, Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Although social media and other types of traffic can generate visits to your website, search engines are the primary method of navigation for most Internet users. Obviously, Google has the upper hand here, with more than 80% of all people using Google's search engine.

The argument has been made that while Bing is the most helpful search engine,  as we talked in class, because of how popular and well known Google is, it will most likely always have the upper hand. The word "google" is a verb itself, so if you want to focus on a specific search engine optimization - stick with Google. I inserted a commercial from YouTube that Bing produced that shows how the results you want from Bing are generally more accurate than what you receive from Google.

Anyways, back to SEO's. There are some common tools and search engine protocols that can help get more traffic to your website. The first is Sitemaps.

Sitemaps are most easily understood if you think of them as files that can give hints to search engine on how they can find your website. They can help the search engine label specific content on your site that the search engine might not have found on its own. Sitemaps can be useful because if you have videos, images, or news on your website because Sitemaps can use those different types of formats to generate more traffic.

You can also implement Geotagging.

Formally, geotagging is know as: "the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names."
Simply stated:geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification to photographs, video, websites and SMS messages.

Keep in mind, geotagging has big privacy flaws to it. Why? Well, you are giving up your location, whether you are still there or not. In this article, it explains how to avoid the potential risks to geotagging.

You should always be aware that your phone may automatically geotag your location - this has been shown to be problematic, especially for people in the public eye who do not want their location given away. Turn your location settings off if you do not want your photos to be tagged with your location.

There are other risks involved because if your photo is posted with the location it can be a great way for potential stalkers or thieves to find you/your location. It's important to know where you shouldn't geotag: private addresses, dorms, hotel rooms, public settings (beaches, amusement parks, etc) and never geotag photos of children.

And finally, if using geotagging websites, control with great care the people who are able to see where you're located. "Each website differs in how it confines your information to only those people whom you want seeing it; always be sure to read the instructions carefully and don't just rely on the default setting which might be allowing anyone to see your whereabouts."

Overall, search engine optimizing can be extremely helpful when trying to gain more traffic to your website through keywords and phrases, especially using tools like sitemaps and geotagging. But be careful, privacy is something that is much harder to get back than it is to maintain.