Opinion Leaders and how they influence

Hello class and welcome to my second blog posting for my COM 6610 Leadership and Media Strategies class. Last week I discussed the diffusion of innovations and how us in the Asset-Light Generation (I say us because I am also a part of this generation) are stateless and have everything available for use on every device in every location. Everyone in class or not in this class are welcome to check out all of my blog postings at this link http://newmediaisontherise.blogspot.com/

What is an Opinion Leader?

This week we are talking about opinion leaders and how social media has made it easier than every to be an opinion leader. That leads to my subtitle, what is an opinion leader?

 An opinion leader is defined as an influential memeber or members of a community, group, or society to whom other turn for advice, opinions, and views. In relating to diffusion of innovators they would be considered early adopters that pass on information about new products to the late adopters or laggards. In our readings this week one article that I found interesting was about Starbucks and how they turned the company around after falling on hard times in 2008. They used social media (Facebook, Twitter, and their own website) to ask customers what they liked, didn't like, what needed to change, and it was a platform for customers to vent their frustrations. It worked because the company was able to get back to profitability by listening to their customers and in the process becoming a major opinion leader. They also were able to use social media to stop rumors or anything that could hurt the company if left out in the wild so to speak.

Lights, Camera, Inspire Action

We had several readings this week, but also a couple of videos from the TED website. I found both to be very insightful but one in particular is the one from Simon Sinek.

Simon Sinek is an author who is best known for popularizing the concept of "the golden circle" and to "start with why". Simon Sinek is a great example of an inspirational and opinion leader. In the video, he talks about how great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright bros. were able to persuade into believing in their innovative ideas. The reason I say lights, camera, inspire action is because opinion leaders can be very powerful. I believe they have a responsibility to put out the right message and not sway people to believing their views just for the sake of having followers on your side.

Negative effects of Social Media

Now as good as social media has been for everyone and how it connects people all over the world there are negative effects of social media. Say an opinion leader says something thinking that they are off camera, or no longer miked and someone in the audience happens to be recording on a smartphone. That recording can go viral in an instant and severely damage that leaders reputation. His or her PR team would have to work overtime to defuse the situation but it may already be too late. Sites like TMZ, Twitter, etc. get the video and within 10 minutes its all over the internet. There is another effect though. This relates to the other video from TED that was apart of our readings this week.

Sherry Turkle, who is the Aby Rockefeller Mauze professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proclaimed that as connected as our lives have become, we are very much alone. Kids today aren't learning necessary social skills needed to succeed in life. They all would rather text, tweet, or post to Facebook. In a room full of teenage kids today, its guaranteed that they will all have their faces in their smartphones. I myself didn't even need or want a cell phone when I was in high school, ( this was 1998-2002) feel naked today if I leave my phone at home or if my phone dies and I can't check my Facebook page. Social media gives you a false sense of connection. You go on Facebook and sends hundreds of people friend requests and spend all your time trying to create relationships with people you don't know, the relationships that mean the most become weakened because of the lack of attention.
Decreased productivity at work has also been shown because of distractions of social media. There has been technology put in place to try to block social media sites but that does nothing for cell phone with 4G LTE internet access.
Probably the most important negative effect of social media is you privacy. Once you post to the internet, it is there forever. You being drunk at a party posted on Facebook may be funny when you are in college, potential employers may spot that same photo when you are trying to apply for a job and may decide not to hire you because of it. I know when I first started my Facebook account back in 2006 I cared little about privacy settings or anything like that. Things have definitely changed since then and not only am I careful about what I post, only my friends that I know well will actually see what I post.

Closing

You know this weeks readings really resonated with me. Simon Sinek and Sherry Turkle both made really good points. Sherry Turkle says that technology has disconnected us. She used the example of her daughter texting her to say good luck you're gonna kill it. Sherry felt like that text was the equivalent of getting a hug which is to be expected in today's technology driven world. Simon Sinek made a great point about people not necessarily following leaders for the sake of following them but believing in what they believe and thus supporting the cause. I hope that you all have enjoyed my blog this week and stay tuned for next week for the next posting.    

Adopt innovation or live in mediocrity

Hello all and welcome to my blog. My name is Dwight and I will be taking you through my journey of COM 6610 Leadership and Media Strategies that I am currently taking at Troy University's Strategic Communication graduate program. As I took 6630 Strategic Communication and Emerging Media last year, I will be continuing the use of this blog from that class. You all are welcome to view my past blogs as well as the new ones that I will be posting every week. In this class we will be examining how the changing media environment affects outreach methods and explore practical solution to achieve communication goals. In case you aren't in this class in came upon this blog by search engine or accident, the can get to this blog by typing or pasting http://newmediaisontherise.blogspot.com/

Post Title

Now alot of you must be wondering what I meant about adopt innovation or live in mediocrity. Sometimes I can be a little over the top but let me explain. It's no secret that technology has advanced so much that physical things such as money, books, music, movies, etc. no longer need to be in a physical form to be used. Most people have changed with the times and have adopted new technologies to survive and adapt in this advancing technological world. There are some that have not however, and the readings that we read this week call them laggards. Laggards are the very last to adopt to innovations and are either traditional or isolates in their social system. The picture above illustrates this perfectly. The woman in the picture is using a typewriter that is decades old. Laggards are often suborn who don't believe in changing from the old ways. Millennials, (who are people who reached young adulthood in the early 2000s ) most likely have never used a typewriter. I used one when I was growing up and in high school I took a typing class using a typewriter. However by the time I got into college it had been adopted to computers. My computer concepts class that I took as a freshman taught me how to use Microsoft office and a number of other applications. Just three years prior we were still on typewriters in high school. (Just so you know this was in the early 2000s in case you all are thinking I'm old) The picture states in perfectly, don't be afraid of change.

   Diffusion of Innovations

This week in class we discussed and read about the diffusion of innovations. My favorite article we read is Les Robinson's summary of diffusion innovations. He explains that an innovation is an idea, behavior, or object that is perceived as new by its audience. For instance, in the last couple of years, I have noticed a number of car companies getting WiFi  built into the car. The most prominent I've seen is Chevrolet. Most of their 2015 models have WiFi built into their vehicles. I would definitely call that an innovation because everyone has not adopted to these type of cars. I can definitely see early adopters that are WiFi heavy users already getting these vehicles. As most cell phone companies no longer offer unlimited data, this has to be welcome news for people who travel and use up their data quickly. (I can attest to that) Another quick example of how technology has evolved is the fact that I started typing my blog on my computer, got up to get a quick bite to eat and continue typing this blog on my smartphone through the blogger app.
Earlier I mentioned Laggards and how they were the last to adopt to innovation. Well, they are just one of five segments of diffusion. From highest to adopt to lowest to adopt they are: Innovators, Early adopters, Early majority, Late majority, and finally Laggards. I can attest to being a early adopter. On November 19th, 2006, on a cold night, I was one of the few waiting in line at GameStop to get (at the time) brand new Wii console. It launched at midnight and I was one of the first to pick it up. It didn't take long for it to catch on and they were selling out everywhere for the first couple of years of its release. It ended up becoming the highest-selling console of that generation. (It competed against the Xbox360 and the PlayStation 3) So what are you? An early adopter or a Laggard?

Asset-Light Generation

Lets talk a bit about the asset-light generation. In our discussion point for this week for class we had to determine how we can use the diffusion of innovations to capture the attention of the asset-light generation. I determined that you needed to use social media, make things simple and to the point, that the innovation should have full customization to fit each individual. Now I did some additional research and cam across a blog from a guy named Donald Ham, a corporate strategy and emerging technology analyst. He calls the asset-light generation as stateless, which means that everything you own is available on every device in every location. He's definitely correct as once upon a time I carried a heavy laptop whenever I went out of town. Nowadays I carry my smartphone and tablet. I also used to use internet explorer but last year I switched completely to Google chrome. Everything I had from my phone contacts to YouTube account were already with Google so the switch was simple, plus my bookmarks, website history, settings etc. carry over to every device I use that has Google chrome and is logged into my account. I really don't know how I could have did anything without it now. Donald did give a warning though. With everything at the tip of your fingers and always accessible comes at a cost. If you lose your device or it gets stolen look out! Make sure you have a way to erase the data on the device should it get lost or stolen. You also have to deal with app and OS updates and some devices being overly complex.

Closing comments

I would just like to say thank you to my classmates, professor, and anyone else that has come to read my first blog for 6610 Leadership and Media Strategies. For the next 9 weeks I will be posting a new blog about various topics related to the class. Take care and until next time.

Check out Donald Ham's blog at http://www.infrics.com/2013/04/mary-meeker-calls-us-asset-light.html