What the hack is Yik Yak?

As if college kids needed another place to anonymously say whatever is on their mind, a relatively new platform is making it way through Athens and cities everywhere. Yik Yak, as it is called, has become the new bathroom stall of social media. Users can literally say anything that they want as long as it is  within the 200 character limit. Yik Yak pulls a feed on your phone by using your GPS location and gathering all Yaks within a 5 mile radius to display for you. It does have some restrictions such as you cannot use it at schools, you cannot use names, and you are not allowed to give phone numbers. The app also says under the rules that is discourages bullying and offensive posts. When you post something on Yik Yak other people have the opportunity the "up" your yak or "down" vote you based on whether or not they like the yak. The only problem with this system is that with mainly college users the yaks that consistently receive large amounts of "ups" tend to be mean spirited or offensive in some way. The picture I have attached at the bottom of this page shows the all time greatest yaks in terms of number of "ups". It gives a good idea at some of the sorts of things that get consistently high "ups". Feel free to fill in the blanks as you please. So as you can see Yik Yak has taken the saying "say whatever is on your mind" to a new level. While you may find the occasional witty yak that makes you chuckle, beware of the all too often obscene yaks that make you cringe. If you want to truly know is on peoples mind then Yik Yak is for you. However, if you cannot handle the obscene and all around offensive then use at your own discretion!

Why Uconn will win the National Championship tonight

I'm not going to lie, I will be going a little off topic in this weeks blog. Typically I have been talking about some sort of news in social media makenting. Today, however, is one of the most important days of the year for me so I have found myself compelled to talk about it. Tonight an event will happen that has happened three other times in the past fifteen years. The Uconn mens basketball team will play Kentucky in the National Championship in Dallas, Texas tonight at 9 PM. You may be asking yourself, "This guy is from Georgia, why is he a Uconn fan? He must be a bandwagon fan". In that case you would be wrong. I have been a Uconn fan even longer that I have been a UGA fan. I have two main reasons why I am a Uconn fan, and those are my parents. They both graduated from Uconn in 1984-1985. After graduating from Uconn they decided to move to Georgia, but never stopped cheering for their Huskies. I can remember growing up and watching the 2004 National Championship and cheering on Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor as they defeated Georgia Tech to win their second National Championship. Then in 2011, the year of Kemba Walker, I don't think I missed watching a single game. I have never seen a player put a team on their back and lead them to the promised land the way Kemba did that year. This year has had a very similar story with Shabazz Napier leading our team through the tournament with the help of his wing men Ryan Boatright and DeAndre Daniels.

In order to complete this miracle run against the Kentucky Wildcats Uconn will have to continue to do many of the things that got them to this point. The main focal point will continue to be Shabazz Napier. His senior leadership and clutch shooting are the main reasons we have gotten to this point. Another key to the game is Ryan Boatright's tenacious defense. He has been a thorn in the side of every team we have played thus far. He flustered some of the best guards including Keith Appling of Michigan State as well as Florida's senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin. DeAndre Daniels will need to continue to be the scoring force that he has become. His combination of slashing drives through the lane and ability to hit the three has turned him into a dangerous weapon throughout the tournament. It was always easy to see that he had huge potential from the time he came out of high school ranked as the 11th best player in the nation. With these three guys as our core I believe the Huskies have the ability to take down the Wildcats later tonight. Kentucky has a huge advantage on the inside with their big men. We will need our bigs, Amida Brimah and Philip Nolan, to contain their big guys and not let them take over the game. If Uconn can put together a complete game and continue to hit a very high percentage of their free throws then I believe they will be able to take down the inexperienced Wildcats and take home their fourth national title in the past 15 years. GO HUSKIES! BLEED BLUE

It's going down, I'm yelling TINDER!

The newest social media dating app craze amongst the younger crowd is called Tinder. It finally gives college kids an easy way to find an quick hook up for the night. Personally I do not have the app but from what I can see from roommates and other friends it has become quite popular in the past couple months in Athens, GA. The app is a dating website that creates matches with other people solely based on looks. All you have to do to get a Tinder profile is log in with your Facebook, download three or four pictures and fill in your name and gender and you are done. It uses your location to find people in the area that could be available for possible matches. When you search for matches all that shows up is the person's first name and the pictures that they downloaded. When you click the picture you can scroll through the pictures that they have and see whether or not you are attracted to them. If you are attracted to the other person you swipe right and a green check pops up that indicates you liked them, however they have no idea. If the other person ends up liking you back then Tinder will notify you that you two are a match. Thats when the fun begins! You can now message this person anything you want and see if they respond. You can hear anything from pick up lines right off the bat or just a simple hello. Some people are very up front about their purposes on Tinder and why they messaged you, others will beat around the bush a little at first. Either way the only thing I have seen come out of Tinder are late night downtown hookups and some pretty funny conversations.

Tinder has become the new social media "dating" craze throughout young adults, but I don't see this app lasting very long. I think people (girls mostly) will realize how creepy it is and the fad will slowly subside when some new app pops up. But for now Tinder is on fire through out college towns and spring break destinations so have fun everybody! Happy Tindering!


Here's a list of "The Unwritten Rules of Tinder" written by Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/unwritten-rules-tinder_n_3689441.html

SXSW

Earlier this month the South by Southwest festival happened in Austin, Texas and boy was it a great one. For those of you who do not know what South by Southwest (or SXSW for short) is, it is a festival that happens once annually that celebrates the best and newest trends in music, film, and interactive technology. They have everything from guest speakers, trade shows, and mentor programs, to games, awards, and comedy performances. The one downfall of this event is that it is QUITE expensive to attend. The cheapest badges are around $500 and that only gets you into a limited amount of events. Some badges can even go all the way up to $1695. Seeing as how I am a broke college kid I did not have that amount of cash to dole out for this event (although I image it will be worth the money someday). So instead I had to hear about the festival second hand through a mentor of mine, Todd Copilevitz. He is a partner at J. Walter Thompson in Atlanta, GA and specializes in Digital Strategy. Todd has been coaching a group project that I am currently working on for the UGA Digital Marketing Competition and has been a tremendous aid and has given us insights into the industry that I had never known before. I had the opportunity this Monday to go into the JWT office in Atlanta and sat down with Todd and an associate of his, Breanna Rotell, and spoke with them a little about the SXSW festival. The story that he told me that I found most interesting was about the game that Pennzoil had set up this year in Austin. Pennzoil had teamed up with Nintendo and created a go kart track in order to set up their own real life Mario Kart game. What they did was hook up GoPro cameras to the top of the go karts along with attaching an RFID sensors to each kart so that when they drove over markers on the track it gave them power ups or hurt the speed of their kart. I found this to be a great marketing event because it got people engaged with things that almost everybody loves ( go karting and Mario Kart). It also allowed people to upload their videos of them racing from the GoPro and share them with their friends. I know I would have loved to have raced around on that track with my friends and definitely would have shared the video afterwards through Facebook or Instagram.



Here's the SXSW article on the event:

http://sxsw.com/interactive/news/2014/dont-miss-pennzoils-mario-karting-reimagined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRmqlrlP2m4

What's Up with WhatsApp

About two weeks ago Facebook acquired WhatsApp in a block buster deal. The app allows users to communicate with people all over the world for very limited charges ($1 a year). It's also the only widely used app that has more engagement and a higher percentage of people using it daily than Facebook, according to Mark Zuckerberg. This was probably motivation enough for the Facebook creator to acquire the app and add it to his portfolio of potential cash cows. However, WhatsApp currently is mostly used internationally and is much less known here in the United States. It is going to be tricky to try and increase usage in the U.S. where we seem to be more cut off from other countries. The EU creates a need and a natural market for Europe, because people are able to travel and communicate more easily than we are able to in North America. Another problem that might arise is that WhatsApp currently does not have ads and the CEO says that he is happy with the current subscription model and that "monetizing is not going to be a priority for us". We'll see what Zuckerberg has to say about that. The Zuck bought WhatsApp for $4 billion in cash, $12 billion worth in shares for WhatsApp, and $3 billion in restricted stock units for employees and founders. I would assume he would like to see some cash flow come in from that kind of an investment. I know I'm anxious to see what he has in store for his newest acquisition.




Here are the founders of WhatsApp enjoying the fruits of their labor:

Nick Bilton ‏@nickbilton  Feb 19

The founders of WhatsApp right now. (cc: @MikeIsaac) pic.twitter.com/8CzbbZpAoK

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R.I.P. Flappy Bird

On February 8, 2014 Dong Nguyen, the creator of the newly popular app “Flappy Bird,” announced over Twitter that he would be taking the game down for good. Nguyen had been on social media throughout the day explaining his decision and what would be happening in the next 24 hours. His reasoning was bizarre but respectable. He explained, “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.” 

There was immediate outrage and support for Nguyen, seen through the 45,000 followers he gained following his tweet about the shutdown; however, many people, including myself, are still reeling from this quick decision.

I downloaded this game a couple of weeks ago when it began gaining fame. Since then I have experienced my fair share of the addictive aspects of the game. My roommates and I have been in a constant battle to see who can navigate the warped pipe maze to achieve the highest possible score before nose-diving to failure.

I can empathize with Nguyen who became addicted to his own game, losing sleep and socialization. But contrary to this negative, it is estimated that he was making over $50,000 a day. It takes a lot of guts to shut down a moneymaker like that, but he did it.

For those of you who have downloaded the game, keep on flapping. For the many who may never experience it, you are the lucky ones… Or are you?

Flappy Bird, you lived a good life. You may have brought disappointments, but you also brought triumphs. Thank you for the distractions from work and school and also for bringing us together and giving us goals, as worthless as they may be.

We will never forget you.

5/24/13 – 2/9/14

Olympic Fan/Athlete Interaction

The olympics are more interactive now than they ever have been. In the past the only way fans could interact was through viewing it on TV or sending fan letters. Of course if you were lucky enough to go and view it in person then there were a plethora of other options. With the advances in digital media, and most importantly social media, fans are able to interact with their favorite athletes from anywhere in the world. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook allow all fans the opportunity to message their favorite athletes and with them luck in their events, congratulate them on a win, or just show their overall country pride. 

I myself can say that I try and keep up with how the USA is doing in medal count each day and watch the highlights of as many events as I can. Twitter has made it easier for me to keep up with these highlights now that I can wake up and see what happened the night before. I wake up each day and check the USA medal count (which is slightly lacking at the moment) and then try and figure out which of our athletes won gold medals the night before. Even on days when I don't have time to watch any events on TV I can always keep up with the twitter updates on my phone and stay current on the latest news.

One of the coolest new things I have seen through twitter is the Olympics Athletes' Hub. It basically compiles all Olympic news and allows you to select the different athletes, teams, and sports you want to follow. It tells you what is trending and gives you the leader boards each day. It basically is the place I now go to get all of my Olympic news on the days events. In fact I am on it currently and just saw a spoiler for an event that will be on TV tonight. I won't give it away, but USA wins :) GO USA!

Here's a link to the Olympic Athletes' Hub

http://hub.olympic.org/desktop

Super Bowl Ad: #EsuranceSave30

In case you were not aware the Super Bowl happened last night, and it was quite a thriller! Or maybe not... It was a blow out by the end of the first half. As the game grew more and more boring most people began paying more attention to the the commercials during stoppages in the game. However, the commercial that created the most social media buzz came directly after the game. Esurance grabbed the first commercial slot after the Super Bowl and apparently saved a lot of money in doing so. The average commercial during the game costed $4 million. In Esurance's commercial the actor is sitting with a pile of cash and says that they saved $1.5 million by taking the commercial spot right after the game was over, as opposed to having one during the game. He says that Esurance will be giving away the $1.5 million to a lucky winner. All you have to do is use the tweet using the hashtag #EsuranceSave30 by 1:00 AM on February 4th and you will be entered to win the $1.5 million they saved. According to Adweek there has already been more than 3 million tweets using the hashtag and I am sure many more are to come before the deadline tonight. This commercial clearly stole the attention of most every one watching and I am sure annoyed many of the advertising directors of the other commercials who paid top dollar during the game. When you offer $1.5 million up for grabs you are likely going to steal the show. I myself see it as a cheap ploy that may boost current social activity for Esurance, but in the end will not create loyal customers for their service. If their goal was to boost immediate conversation and buzz they sure did accomplish that. I would be curious to see whether or not it helps them out in total sales in the long run. My guess would be no...





Heres a link to the commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCPzdDVCN8Y  

Social Media Recruiting

This past week I read a particularly interesting and slightly disturbing article on ESPN about how fans are now able to interact with recruits more than ever because of social media. It is currently against NCAA rules for fans to interact with any possible recruits because they want people to offer them any unfair incentives to attend a particular school. After all it is the coaches who are paid to do all the recruiting for us fans right? If the schools wanted our help they would pay us too. I love following all the recruiting news regarding UGA football as much as anybody but when I heard what some fans were doing to try and entice players to come to their school I was shocked. Twitter and all the other social media sites now allow fans to interact with recruits on a daily, and even minute by minute, basis. The article I read talked about a fan that saw on twitter that a recruit was getting ice cream some where and showed up wearing his team colors and talked to the recruit about attending his university. The recruit said that it was very uncomfortable and really creeped out his girlfriend at the time. Understandably.  Other equally disturbing incidences have occurred to other recruits. One of the most popular things that I have come across is deranged fans wanting to name their next child after the recruit if he chooses to attend their school. Umm thanks, but no thanks. Do they really think that offering to do that will make that recruit any more like to attend choose their school? One fan even tried to get a player to go to USC by saying that he would kill himself if the player did not commit. He later went on to say that he was kidding and that he has kids at home and would never do that. To that fan I say THEN WHY DID YOU SAY IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. What a messed up thing to kid about. Most fans out there know the lines that they should not cross, but clearly there are some that are willing to do WHATEVER it takes.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/10304532/football-recruiting-age-social-media

Here is a little snip-it of a USC fan trying to get the #9 high school player in the country to commit to USC. There were many many more tweets by this fan, but I figured this would get the point across.

1. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs508h

   @AdoreeKnows Adoree,you don't need to be, " The next Anybody!". Just be, Adoree Jackson of USC & the 2016 U. S. Olympic team!

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2. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs508h

   @AdoreeKnows the next Percy Harvin! How about being better than, Percy Harvin! How about just being, the Great Adoree Jackson of USC!

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3. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs508h

   @AdoreeKnows C'Mon SWEET PEA,stay home & do, USC. The city of L. A., will forever love you & you will be a, " USC Great & an Olympian!" Cmon

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4. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs5010h

   @AdoreeKnows Team Up, Come Up! Fight On!

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5. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs50Jan 21

   @AdoreeKnows Fight On, Eat On! Go USC! Trojans never die!

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6. Darryl Revels ‏@DarrylRebs50Jan 17

   @AdoreeKnows I can't wait until,you're on Madden, one day! It's going to happen, Brodie! You're phenomenal, Ajax! Fight On!

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