We are Squared Online (SO FAR) - blog 3

As I head into module 3 of this 6 month course I must admit I am definitely getting my money’s worth hehehe J  . No I do not work for squared and no I am not an Apple user who tries to justify my reason for spending over a £1000 for a MacBook (sorry if you are) but in all seriousness I have learned so much in a short space of time. Admittedly you get what you put in so another person may have a totally different outlook to me but I paid a lot of money for this and that is more than enough motivation to give it my all. 

So what have I learned so far:

1. Let’s be Squares. The online community is such a vital source of information and collaboration. Thanks to posts from fellow squares and Squared tutors I have been able to access helpful resources that have furthered my studies, knowledge and skills. I recently saw a post from a fellow Square for a Google Analytics course which was running for about 3 weeks. I thanked the Square and took this opportunity to learn about micro and macro conversion, attribution and so on. At university I read an article about the benefits of ideas to economic growth. The author Joseph Cortright stated that “because ideas can infinitely be shared and reused we can accumulate them without limit” and I feel this is a MAJOR USP and plus that the squared community offers. 

2. Teamwork. I am afraid I was one of those people who use to prefer working alone and doing everything myself. Also I did not trust others to do the work properly. However, from my experience in squared I worked with highly motivated individuals who were all incredible in promoting ideas for the project we worked on in Module 2 and even prompted me to step up my game - not that my game needs stepping up you know what I am saying… (Cricket cricket cricket) - Annnnywaaayy in all seriousness I gained a lot more from the team than I could have ever hoped for.

3. Technology. I have learned and used so many different technologies that I would never have      used before. First of all there is Adobe suit which we need to access in order to watch our weekly webinars to hear from the course tutors. There is Google+ which I had never heard of – REALLY, I KNOW THAT BAD HUH – where I would participate in Google hangouts with my group – THE FIRST TIME EVER I HAVE EVER USED A WEB CAM – Google docs to share documents with my group, along with Dropbox as well – I have used Drop Box - Doodle, Blogger and YouTube for making a video. 

4. Resources. I guess I have touched upon this in the first lesson learned but this needs its own subcategory. I CANNOT STRESS how much resources are available to the point where at times it’s overwhelming – I had to take a week of work to catch up haha.  I use to think that I could find all the information on my own and to be honest I probably could have if I knew where the information exist but how do you find something that you don’t know exists. Therein lays one of the courses USP from my perspective. 6 modules all structured so you can focus on an area and not just gain knowledge for knowledge sake. Knowledge is abundant these days; however, the course takes it one step further by giving you TACIT KNOWLEDGE and therein lays the key. By providing you with practical activities to interact with the information you have been given, you are better equipped to learn and apply what you have learned in the work place. For Knowledge is not power it is potential power, Knowledge un- invested is wasted.

5. Have Fun!!! J. It may be stressful at times, but ultimately I believe you should have fun with it. Share, joke, complain, don’t complain whatever you do just have FUN with it and I believe the experience will be more than what you expected.  

I can’t imagine what I would be doing now if I was not on this course. YIKKESSS!! 

Well that’s all for now folks. I hope I have provided some insight into the course and its benefits. By all means it’s my personal experience and everyone else’s will differ but hopefully just slightly. Also I am half way through the course and my view may change, apparently module 3 is a KILLER hahahaha but no, I just need to have fun with it and do my best and forget the rest (For my P90X fans) 

Alright as usual GOOGOOBANG!! 

Google and Squared blog 2 - STOP TAKING SELFIE's!!!!

AHHHHHHHH SELFIE AFTER SELFIE AFTER SELFIE!! If I see another selfie again I am going to hurl something.

 

Okay maybe I won’t but seriously has the digital age made us more ego centric and narcissistic? With sharing so easily available on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, MySpace to name but a few, it just seems like more and more people feel the need to be acknowledge or liked by others.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for feeling self-confident and yeah you might really look damn good on a day and you figure I want to share this but when half the images on in your Facebook gallery of images are a selfie of you I believe you may have a problem.

Hear me out or in this case read me out. Hahaha see what I did there – ANYWAY- yes problems people. Psychologist have found that by posting a picture of your self and having your friends chime to give you like and smiley icons plays a huge part in contributing to your narcissism which can cause neuroplastic changes to your brain, WHAT!! YEP YOUR BRAIN TURNS INTO PLASTIC!! Okay so no, it doesn’t actually change into plastic - DOH! What actually happens is thanks to all that dopamine reward you receive from those “likes”, changes occur to your neural pathways and synapses which are due to changes in behaviour, ENVIRONMENT and neural processes. I capital ENVIRONMENT because it’s this ENVIRONMENT which is constantly reinforcing something – regardless of whether or not its true – which can actually lead to one developing a pathological addiction to the attention of others.

Oooh that sounds dangerous.

And it is!!! According to Erik MacKinnon “the worse it gets, the more provocative the photos will become. Why? Easy – there’s less of a reward to be gained from your online followers (sorry. “friends”) when things aren’t hot enough. And when someone is addicted to likes… they need more likes to sustain their mental state.”

This is something which has been highlighted by this article I read recently in the Evening Standard

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/tackling-the-internet-porn-trolls-8848891.html

To summarise the author of the article Benjamin Cohen cites how he was subject to a “Porn Troll” – Whats a porn troll. Well if we take Erik MacKinnon quote from above we can conclude that it’s a narcissistic who’s gotten way out of control and DESPERATELY seeking attention. In this case this person sent Mr Cohen an explicit selfie which was made the more shocking because it was sent from his Facebook account. The article further explains the situation and Mr Cohen does get the 19 year old’s account removed but is this where a harmless selfie starts from? Was he just another young guy who needed more and more gratification in order to get that dopamine reward?  We will never know but beware when you take that first selfie and you receive 100 likes or so and you get that fluffy feeling inside to continue, you might just be heading somewhere you might regret.

Alright guys GOOGOOBANG!! (Sorry its grown on me, for those thinking WHAT refer to my first blog post). Thank you so much for reading. 

Oh yh Don’t forget to +1 this, come on PLUS THIS PLUS THIS!!!!!! GIVE ME A PLUS!!!! I NEED THAT PLUSSSS!!! HAHAHA maybe i am developing those neuroplastic symptoms.

Google Sqaure Digital Marketing Blog 1

I know what your thinking it looks S for SIMPLY but every journey begins with humble beginnings. To be honest i was quite apprehensive of starting a blog, the problem with the internet is it seems to attract all the C for Critics and i just don't want to deal with trolls who have no life and just go around on the internet being A for Against anything productive created on the internet. Alas i have succumbed to the pressure as i have joined a digital marketing course run by Google Squared - hence the post title. 

My assignment so far have been to create a digital slide of my activities in a day, submit at least 10 of these blogs and create a You Tube video which i thought was just R for Random. The idea is that you introduce yourself to your fellow colleagues so that can get to know a little bit more about you. I however, decided to take a slightly different root because i have such an E for educated head on my shoulders. It's this same educated head which left it till the last minute to finish the slide, video and his first blog. Now i definitely know what your thinking, "that was D for DUM!!"

Till next time, if anyone does read this. I still have 9 left and i possibly may write more! I feel like i should have a catchphrase or something to leave with. Something like GOOGOOBANG! NO! I will keep working on  it.