Rapper's success based on Social Media Stardom

     Above is a video of Rapper Soulja Boy, speaking about how he is the product of social media fame. Soulja Boy's smash hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” in 2007, made him one of the youngest performers to have a number one hit on Billboard’s Hot 100, has used social media to become a hip-hop star. I thought that this interview was very interesting because it is rare that people become such eminent entertainers just from being social media stars.
     Soulja Boy actually began putting his music on Myspace, I social media networking website. From there he began to receive several listeners and fans. He he then used music download service soundclick.com, a website for free music download, to launch his career while still in high school. From broadcasting his music on many social media networks as well as creating mixtape and songs made for download, his listener rate skyrocketed and he was finally signed to a record label. Although he gets flack about how his talent does not overpower his fame, it still stands that he seems to be a very successful former social media star, who has progressed to the music industry as well as Hollywood.

Socialmedia.com

     With the topic "social media" fresh on my mind, I became more, and more curious. I wanted to know more about it. Not just the history of social media such as who started it when it began and why, but specifically how has it advanced over the years and its different aspects.
     When I googled the term social media, one of the websites that comes up is socialmedia.com. When I first saw this website I thought maybe this is a website that had something to do with the different types of social media networks, and their components. However, it seemed to be something totally different. The website socialmedia.com is basically a website for people powered advertising. According to Kurt Abrahamson, "SocialMedia.com increases advertising effectiveness by incorporating social features and functions into conventional online creative units." This website allows online retailers to publish high-performing ads to be viewed for specific products. It was started in 2007 and has been successful for four years now.

Are You a Skyper?

    While I was sitting at a session during a journalism forum someone asked me if I was a "Skyper". As I am thinking of a way to answer this question, I then as myself, what is a skyper? Before actually verbalizing the quesition I figured out that the root word in "Skyper" was Skype. Skype is software that enables the world's conversations, (skype.com). I then aswered, "well occasionally". I have a skype account, however I very rarely use it, and when I do, I only use it to talk to my friends back home who I would not see for months living in a city that is a three hour drive away.
     The person that asked me if I was a "Skyper" was a very professional person who has been successful for years. I wondered how did they know about skype. It boggled me that someone of her magnitude would interest themselves in an activity that was popular among college students. Little did I know, there was more to Skype then I thought. The woman explained to me that several people around the world as well as businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. I did not know that something I thought was just a social aspect amongst my peers was a new technological resource that has not only molded friendships, but sustained business deals and produced important interviews as well. This shows that social networking goes beyond websites, but has made technological advancements as well.

Social Smack

     There are many different aspects of social networking. As I have discussed in previous blogs, social networks are used to expand ways of communicating on different levels, business, dating, friendships etc. Ultimately "networking" is simply finding ways to meet certain  people as well as finding ways to benefit  from these relationships.
    As my friends and I were searching through YouTube videos, we came across a group of people discussing something called "social smack". Social Smack is a community for the passionate consumer, to talk smack about the things that you buy, see and do on an everyday basis. When I first heard about this network I felt as though it was a ridiculous way for people to broadcast their feelings about specific people whom they may not care much for or have some sort of vengeance toward.
     Basically the site is used for people to talk "smack" not only about people but about companies, products, etc. In my opinion, I feel as though this stage of the advancement of social networking is unnecessary specifically because either of the social networks; be it dating, friendship, business, all result in positive communication. Personally, I believe that having a site that expresses one's opinion openly could affect that person in the long run, therefore it would not be beneficial at all. For example, if a person buys something from a specific establishment and they were not pleased with the product, they are free to go on this website, www.socialsmack.com, and express their feelings. Yes, even if this website was not created people are still free to express their feelings, which could affect that particular business in a negative way however, I feel as though having a whole website dedicated to negatively impacting people as a whole is certainly not how the founders of the idea of social networking predicted this way of communication should reflect.

The Social Network (The movie)

On October 1, 2010 the movie The Social Network was released in theatres. The movie is a story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook, as a social media site, and of course about its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It details how the idea for Facebook was conceived by Mark Zuckerberg on his laptop while a Harvard undergraduate, and chronicles its rise to the top of the social networking sphere, becoming the most successful social networking site in the world. It also shows how Facebook changed the way people communicate on a permanent basis and what a revolution it was for the Internet, all because of a computer programming genius who sat down in 2003 and didn’t give up on his idea. Mark Zuckerberg is played by Jesse Eisenberg and the movie also stars Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield. If you want to check out the video trailer see below this post, http://www.onlinesocialmedia.net/20100716/the-social-network-full-trailer-facebook-movie-synopsis/. Although, I haven't saw the movie yet, I would definitely be interested to see it how a social media network that I am obsessed with came about. Below is the trailer for the movie, The Social Network.

Twitter ACL Insight

     In the October 7, 2010 edition of the Austin American Statesman Newspaper, the was an article about the social network, "Twitter". Twitter is a site where you can post what you’re doing, feeling, eating, whatever, in no more than 140 characters.The article discussed how the producers of Twitter gave fans a peek into Austin City Limits, "ACL". The article discusses how if you have a question for the people who actually work  behind the scenes for ACL, you would actually get a response in real time via Twitter. The producers who are currently working for twitter are actually twittering to the fans of ACL. This was not able to happen before. There are so many people who work on the show, and it’s allowed the general public to get to know those people a little bit and give those us working behind the scenes a voice, (Austin American Statesman). There wasn’t any meeting in a conference room about establishing a Twitter presence for “ACL. It just kind of happened. “We just did it without asking,” Nichols says, a producer of Austin City Limits who gave an interview to Austin American Statesman. However, I think that its good that they did this because now fans can learn interesting and useful tweets rather the day by day schedule of someone's weekend!

The Advancement of Social Media Networks Overview

    As I began searching for a blog topic I decided to brainstorm about things that interest me or better yet, an action that I am frequently involved in. I came to the conclusion that I may be a Facebook junkie. As a think a little further about my so-called "diagnosis", theoretically, a junkie is someone who is consumed by an addiction. I would have to say that any free time that I have where I am not studying or preoccupied with friends and family I am on Facebook. Facebook is the latest and most prominate social network to date. Social networks were created as a form of communication via internet to build relations among people. 

    

     There are several types of social networks with different purposes. There are the ones that people use to find long lost friends and family such as Classmates.com. There are also networks for business purposes as well such as Linkedln.com. Facebook.com for example was mainly created for networking. Although these networks were created for "friendly" usage, I feel as though certain social networks have been used to get people's personal information, in order to take advantage of them. Certain dating networks such as Match.com have been used to sexually abuse the users. It has been instances where people set up a profile pretending to be a certain person and agree to meet each other and sexually abuse them. The abuse of social networking has expanded, and it has become a danger to provide personal information online even for networking purposes.