Bidding a Viral Farewell

It’s not easy to let go of something like this.

Something so funny, and yet, something that’s been created out of sheer, hard work.

Many weeks ago, our group in Organizational Communication 152 made a video that was made viral: our HOW TO BE KOREAN clip.

When we presented the video to class, with a week’s worth of results, it was pretty down as compared to the other vids.

BUT HEY! Having checked the vid again after weeks of doing other OC152 stuff, here are the results:

*the darker the green, the higher the number of views ion that area.

 

By the way, thanks for Youtube for having the statistics.

Latest check: 3, 731 views.

It’s even creating a stir already, koreans from (prolly) all over the world are leaving comments and assessments regarding our perspective when we were making the film.

The topic even evolved; from how to be korean to korean artists to plastic surgery in Korea to who-knows-where!

It really has become a viral video, and it makes me feel we did something right.

During the course of my OC152 life, I’ve had doubts if I’ll ever enjoy this subject as authentic as how I enjoy using New Social Media for personal reasons. Besides the lesson that we should use NSM for a new approach to marketing and PR, I’ve learned more incredible things:

• A group can do a better project than if you’re alone.
• Always manage your online self.
• Study the ones who’ll receive the information before you study the ones giving it out.

Hopefully, my loose brains can save this information as I enter the corporate world.

of Chicken, Donuts, and Tempuras

This day was helluva complicated and tiring. Having no complete sleep really makes your day groggy, couple it with a 9-am pitch/proposal/employer branding for RamCar, Food Groups (RFG), and you’ll know it isn’t going to be an easy day.

I met with my group mates (Nancy Ortega, Alwyn Batara, Dasi Guevara, Hanna Sanchez, Kervi Maximo and Mina…) at Gma-Kamuning drive around 7:30 and went to the HR office of RFG. It was hot, and wearing long sleeves will really make you hotter (not in a kinky sense).

We presented our proposal rather smoothly I guess, given it’s my first time to present a proposal in front of real professional in a real, office setting. I was a bit shaky when I was giving my SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), but I guess I pushed through well. We’ve got a good proposal, if I may just say–from our jargons for RamCar, to our marketing plans, to the end.

It also felt great that when we were prepping to leave, the panel, along with Prof barrientos, were talking about our proposal. I kept hearing that they liked our terms and liked how we started with analyzing the target audience first before blasting away with activities.

In the end, we went home feeling light and happy. So Sir Barry, what other things may you add for our proposal? 

Professional Avatars?

If we all concede that the world is getting smaller and everyone’s riding the info-train due to technology and the World wide web, then it’d be no surprise that some time soon, some witty corporate person would mandate online behaviour guidelines. SURPIRSE!

Bill Goodwin, in his article at ComputerWeekly.com, reported the idea of an IT analyst guy named Gartner that it’s time to regulate avatars and make them look profesisonal. Basically, since avatars are online representations of people, using avatars in workplaces would make your online self professional and more convincing. For more information, click this!

I actually like the idea of having a formal online self. In essence, this will help employees to manage their personal and professional lives. More to that, it’s also good as a reputation management for employees and employers (therefore, for the whole company!). Even avatars are accepted when having online conferences and meetings with international partners, so it’s really good to make a professional avatar of yourself?

What do you think? Will this easily apply to Philippine companies–as these companies are proliferated with online employees?

Productive networking

Facebook, Multiply, Friendster–a lot of social networking sites have flourished in a span of a few years. We’ve seen people invite others, post pictures, tweet daily lives, take care of pets in a society, and what not. Indeed, our generation has been captured by these networking sites. We’ve been abusing it for too long. The question is, how do we make it productive and helpful?

• Start an online business! Multiply is actually a good site for doing online business. You may start buy selling your still-in-good-condition items, like old cellphone accessories, bags, shoes, even collector items like old sets of Magic cards or something. This will not only help your wallet, but also instill you a business mindframe.
• The online resume! Having a good page and decent, professional-looking photos will boost your chances of landing on a good job. Companies nowadays hunt for qualified people online and invite them to apply. Your personal accounts in social networking sites will show a hundred times more of what your paper resume can; socializing skills, attitude, graphic designing, special skills that may not be necessarily linked to work but obviously advantageous–just some of the things companies look for.
• Contact-hunting! Don’t add friends for the sake of adding friends. Otherwise, you’ll end up having pages of pictures of complete strangers–people you don’t even happen to meet or talk to. But let’s talk about that. If you want to add strangers, then make sure you’ll benefit when you’ve added them. Like if adding them in your blogroll would increase you of your chances of getting good resources for your thesis. If you add someone in friendster, will you be open too to other contacts than can help you in your career? See, these, and many more, questions will give you a good list of online contacts. Make sure adding people will be reasonable. You’re not being a user by doing this, you’re just being reasonable.
• Constantly update! If there’s something new with you, then post it! The recent event you helped making, the set of people you worked with, a blog about a succesful proposal. Name it, post it. Updating your profile will show people how active you are, not only in your personal life, but in your online life as well. An active online life is advantageous for companies since they know that these people are aware of the current trends and wants. Update your online self regularly!

In the end, having a social networking site just because others are in on it isn’t enough. You have to make it useful. Once you make something online, it becomes a part of your system already. Just make sure that online privacy is still needed that’s why you have to make sure of whatever you want to post.

Silver Anniversary

This was one of the few Organizational Communication events that I have attended for my home org: Organizational Communication Society. I really had a blast.

Having these photos will remind me that Organizational Communication is a balance in work AND play! hahaha!

This event would have not pushed through if it weren’t for my the efforts of the 09-10 batch. Kudos to us all. Wanna see more of my pics?

Visit www.xtian57.multiply.com

Capitalist Companies

The money that's useless

This is a clear-cut example of what a company SHOULDN’T BE. Money, money, money–this is not the only thing that makes the world go round. Your employees’ loyalty to your company is something you couldn’t force on them. If it’s all about money, then there’d be no such thing as being tenured since people have the tendency to shift away from the things that makes their life miserable and complicated.

Never be a capitalist. A company must be a feeling company towards the employees and other stakeholders.

Say no to capitalists.

The best thing about being OrCom

OrCom has taught me a lot of things this college life. Even if I’m thinking of shifting to another UPM-pinoeer degree, I’d be proud to say I took 3, non-wasted years of Organizational Communication. Here’s a list of a few OrCom things I learned, which I found useful , :

• Never be okay with the superficial, there’s always something behind every facade.
• Push more than what you previously can.
• Working as a team is always better than working alone.
• Be creative, even with something as simple as thinking of a group name.
• et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…

You see, the best thing about being an OrCom student is not really about those notebooks and laptops that we often use, nor the fab and grepa jargons, not even the way we dress. We’re actually beyond those things. We have this jelly-substance here in our heads, and we definitely know how to use them.

Professor Barry once said, all UPM satudents are intelligent, but it’s only UPM-OrCom, that carries intellect withy style (lol at that!). What’s the use of having good brains if you don’t know how to communicate it effectively, and even if we concede you’re good in communicating and intelligent, how would you be able to forward the right message when you don’t even look and act right for the situation. Nowadays, it’s not all about having good brains, but also using that well.

Carry it like you use it!

What’s the best thing about being OrCom for you?

Humor and the Organizational Communication perspective

I love how companies now forward their message with the use of Humor. A lot of commercials are integrating humor with the way they present their advertisement for their product. Using humor may even be the best way for us to forward our messages. Using something so light, something that people would not question, is a good strategy to do, especially if you want your audience to fall in love with your brand.

What’s even good with using humor is that it has no boundaries. Laughing is a universal expression to show how much we understood from a certain act/scene/joke/etc. Also, humor is good to use when your audience is feeling down. Using your brand as an uplifting factor for their problems is a sure-fire communication strategy.

Here’s an example of DHL commercial. Do enjoy!

Broadcast PODCAST!

Are you having a hard time looking for videos on YouTube? Or having difficulty bringing your laptop just to watch your saved YouTube clip? Or even risking watching your iPod Nano (4thGen) along the street because you simply want to be entertained? Then don’t fret, because the geeks of the world has supplied us seekers with a helping hand: the Podcast.

Podcast, basically, is the audio form of today’s New Social Media (NSM). By NSM, I mean the user-friendliness of this generation’s information tools to congregate and distribute knowledge. We have Blogs and Vlogs as examples of NSM formats.

However, Blogs and Vlogs still have weaknesses. I remember this one time; I wanted to watch an episode of Naruto Shippuden so I went to an internet cafe (because I can’t wait any longer—that episode was too good for me to wait another minute!). Cr@p. The PC was taking so much time loading the whole 30-minute clip (45 minutes loading time to be exact!). I only have Php20.00 that’s only good for 1 hour, and thanks to the slow PC, I was only able to watch 15-minutes of the clip (more cr@p)!

Blogs are fine too, only when you are totally alert and up for some reading. But when you are half-way interested, coupled with the lengthy write-up, then screw reading. One time, I was looking for step-by-step instructions on how to use a particular feature in Adobe Photoshop when I found a blog claiming it can teach me. At first, it was really good, and I found myself getting hooked. However, as my reading went on, the writing became less interesting. It was also 18 paragraphs long; a hassle if you tell me. Eventually, I asked a friend of mine about my prob and he told me the solution—in only three, easy sentences.

For people-on-the-go, it’d be best to try Podcasts. Simply look for the downloadable file, load it in your iPods, cell phones, and what not, then play it whenever you want! Downloading podcasts is not time-consuming since average podcasts are more often just 5-10 minutes long. Moreover, there are no downloaded images, just pure audio, so downloading is a breeze!

You can also play the podcast whenever, wherever. When I was watching a downloaded YouTube clip of Rex Navarette’s comic stint in my friend’s iPod during our trip to Makati, it was very uncomfortable. Talk about dizziness and headaches and you’ll realize you shouldn’t really be watching videos when on a ride. Thankfully, my friend has a podcast version of the same clip. The effect was the same! I started laughing inside the van. In this case, for example, I don’t really have to see the person doing those jokes; it’s the voice that brings the humor.

We should all try podcasts for a change. A lot of time and effort may be saved because we are witty enough to try something new.

So broadcast podcast!

Phlogging

Phlogging (pronounced as flogging) or Photo Logging may be a good way for corporate people, especially for photography-enthusiasts, to connect to the external environment by tapping this generation’s crave-craze: cam whoring!

But hey, this isn’t just any cam-whoring. This would be cam whoring with a cause.

What’s with pictures?

I love taking pictures of people I meet, places I go to, parties I celebrate; those memory-filled moments that we spend with the best people in the world! Seeing the smiles and laughs, the cries of joy, the shouldn’t-have-been-taken-but-was-taken-nonetheless moments of sudden, humorous accidents—it is a satisfying feeling. In addition, when other people see these photos, and laugh with me as I tell them the story behind every picture, that’s where my satisfaction become their happiness.

Realization hits.

I was doing my Phlogging one time (about my day spent inside my crib with nothing but TV to keep boredom at bay) when I thought, “What if we use Phlogging in the workplace?” Blogging’s there already, and so are Podcasting and Vlogging; basically, there’s one field for one that’s into literary, for one who’s an aspiring radio jock, and for one who either wants to be a performing artist or a director. So why not broaden the creative spectrum and include a way for amateur and professional photographers to get involved with a company?

It’s as simple as one-two-three.

Taking pictures may be a simple task. Just point, zoom in or out a little bit, click the button, then either print copies and/or post the photos on your social networking site (i.e. Facebook, Multiply, etc.). Nevertheless, what differs Phlogging from cam whoring?

Phlogging VS Cam-whoring

Phlogging isn’t like cam-whoring that you just point your lens at anything/one and shoot away. If that’s what you do, and you intend those shots to help your company, then hey, you’re thinking exactly like those in the tri-media. Remember: your goal is to use your shots to present a good, lasting image to your company—to present a more humane facade that will make your company more interesting and appealing. Will you taking a shot of yourself, angled from the top of your head, showing nothing but your hair and emo eyes, forward your company’s image? Hell, no. Phlogging is as basic as story-telling: the idea is to present your audience with the things you do so as to humanize your company, that you’re no biggie, lording capitalist.

Example!

Let’s say your organization had an event last week. This may be a good opportunity for you, as a practitioner of organizational communication, to capitalize on the special moments and show this to your target audience. Post the top 10 best photos of the night for you on your personal account. Tell your audience the story behind every picture; have them feel the emotions of the story too. Make them one with those in the photo. Make them feel wanting to have been there with you. What you do here is almost close to emotional branding, where we brand ourselves with a typical emotion (in essence, showing happy pictures would brand our company as one that puts happiness on a pedestal). Tell them your story, and share conversations!

Bottomline…

Using photos to capture moments has been there ever since. Capturing the moment within the four points of that photo paper, and having proof of that moment, is actually a good way for you to show people who you are. It’s about time that we start Phlogging.

P.S. I just made up this word, so forgive the wording if it doesn’t sound nice to you. Lol