The Fourth Post

This is the fourth post in the blog, and to be honest I'm kind of at a loss for words.

I might as well try to write a story.

Once upon a time, in the faraway land of...Space? Yeah Space sounds right, Albert Einstein invented Space. There lived an alien named Glorb, and he was just chilling until a meteor hit his ship. Glorb wasn't too thrilled about this, because he had just bought Grand Theft Auto V and he wanted to play it. So as his ship plummeted towards earth at around 800 mph before reaching terminal velocity, Glorb just hung onto his PS3 for dear life.

His ship crashed into the Hudson River, where the chemicals in his ship polluted the water even more, mutating the life in the water into awful and grotesque creatures. Glorb didn't notice this, and he went into New York City trying find a TV to hook up his PS3 and play Grand Theft Auto.

He was pretty angry that he couldn't find a single TV in New York City, and so he went to the mayor's office and made himself mayor of New York City by beating the current mayor in a staring contest. His first policy as mayor of New York was getting a TV installed in his office. That was impossible because the Mutants ate all the TVs.

Glorb was angry, and he became angsty. He travelled the world after, learning martial arts and weaponry from Robin Hood, Batman, and Shaolin monks and others to defeat the monsters and bring a TV to his office.

After an epic battle that lasted several years, Glorb defeated the mutants and became the President of the World. The economy got fixed, and everything became awesome. Better yet, President Glorb got a TV and everyone loved him.

This is the end of the story.

A Facebook Success Story

For this post, I didn't have to try hard to select my social media success story. Being incredibly susceptible to "cute" things, I immediately selected the "Squishables" from facebook-succsesstories.com, and was impressed by what I saw.

When you first look at a "Squishable", you probably won't see anything terribly unique. Its just another cutesy, stuffed animal. A nice toy, yes, but hardly anything to fuss over. But upon further investigation, you'll find that these little guys have an audience, and its all thanks to this little social media website called Facebook.

The key to "Squishable's" success comes from there Facebook page, where customers vote and pick the next design. Every couple months or so, 5 prototype designs are posted on the Facebook and official website pages, and customers vote and pick which design will be made into the next toy. It's a very reliable, and cost effective method that puts customers at the center of product manufacturing. Once the top design is voted on, its put into the development stage and several test concept sketches are posted onto the facebook for customer input. If the concept sketch has a green color, potential customers can vote to turn it green, and then the concept is re-worked until the customer's are satisfied. The concept is then finalized, and the people bring out there wallets. About 29% of the overall website traffic now comes from Facebook.

It's a genius strategy that many companies are now beginning to use, and "Squishables" seems to have perfected the art, putting the customer at the heart of its innovation and construction.

It also helps that the things are pretty damn cute. Seriously, how can you say no to that thing?

Sources used:

http://www.toysandco.com/media/products/large/SQU746610-L.jpg
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/sbc/b/weblog/archive/2013/02/19/using-social-media-to-drive-product-innovation-squishable-com-s-success-story.aspx
http://www.facebook-successstories.com/squishable-com/

How Social Media Has Impacted My Life

Since we turned this blog post assignment into a game of Risk, and are using it as a form of social competition does it count as Social Media?

There's some food for thought I suppose. Anyway I could sit here and tell you that Facebook isn't a huge part of my life, and that I only use it occasionally. But I would be lying to you if I said that, because I go on Facebook every single day and spend at least 15 minutes or so just browsing the most random things on it. Why? I'm not sure, its entertaining I suppose. Thanks a lot Mark Zuckerberg.

You guys remember this? 

Before Facebook, there was Myspace. I'm sure we all remember Myspace, looking back at it now I think I was the most ridiculous kid ever, but at the time Myspace was the best. All my free time was spent on that website. It had very little impact on my life today. I have zero contact with the people I met through Myspace, so it was a colossal waste of life. I think why Myspace died out, at least as the top social media website, was because its popularity peaked before the mainstream smartphone was released.

Facebook is just about the only Social Media I use. I do have a twitter, and I do have a good followers to follow ratio, but I probably only tweet once per month. According to SocialBlade.com, I make .7 tweets per every 30 days. I don't have a Tumblr, an Instagram and I have no idea what a Pinterest is, only that according to my Facebook post it seems to prevalent in females more so than males. I'm gonna have to check on that.

Social Media seems to be on a rise, and it still should continue to impact the world in bigger ways in the future. The whole Miley Cyrus twerking performance is still being talked about just because of its notoriety on the Twitter and other social media. The fact that I'm typing about it now is a testament to how much impact Social Media has on our day to day lives. Twitter and Facebook influenced the 2012 Presidential Election as well.

But that's not important, Miley Cyrus dancing with teddy bears is.

Images Used:http://www.intelligentspeculator.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/myspace_logo.jpghttp://www.bubblews.com/assets/images/news/1497787817_1378747134.jpg

All About Me

That little line right above, uttered by Clark Gable at the end of the 1939 film Gone With the Wind, was voted the number one movie quote of all time by the American Film Institute in 2005. The line is famous because it not only contains profanity (a rarity in cinema at the time), but it also shows that the character has finally given up on Scarlet O'Hara, portrayed by Vivien Leigh.

That little bit of movie trivia is just a small that help you know a little bit about me. Hello, my name is Kevin Urban, I'm 18 years old and I love going to the movies. Its kind of unhealthy, I think at this point I've spent over 1,000 dollars at the movie theatre in the past four years. A combination of tickets, 3D releases, snacks, gas money to get to the theatre etc.

More trivia for you, the top 3 highest grossing films of all time (unadjusted for inflation that is) are James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic, and Disney's The Avengers.  The top film of all time, adjusted for inflation, still remains Gone With the Wind.

A little dated, but you get the idea. 

My love for film also shows up in my art. I'm an artist or I like to draw things so I'm not sure if I can call myself an artist. I've had many discussions on what defines an artist, one who creates art? But then what is art? Anyway in High School I was voted Class Picasso. Though to be fair there wasn't a lot of male artists back in Agawam.

When I was 12 years old my voice changed in the middle of a sentence, and all of a sudden girls started talking to me. I now do voice over work for people on Youtube, have a Radio show on campus with my friend, and did the morning announcements at my high school and announced Football and Soccer games. I auditioned to become the Public Address Announcer for the Boston Red Sox. I didn't get the job though...

I run cross country, and as a result I can eat whatever I want, plain and simple.

This blog post now has over 200 words. Or at least I hope it does.

Nice to meet you all!

Images used:
http://noontimesports.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/img_1888.jpg?w=600&h=450