All social media platforms at some point need to figure out how they are going to generate revenue. Facebook makes money through selling ads that are then displayed on the right side of users' new feeds and pages. They also make money through promoted posts that allow businesses to pay and have their posts featured on users' news feeds more often. These two methods of creating revenue alone have been successful, but Facebook is now allowing Facebook users to pay to promote their friends' posts as well. By paying $7 you can have your or your friend's post appear higher in your friends' news feeds. This new way of generating revenue has been controversial and critics fear that news feeds will soon be filled with promoted posts because of people trying to compete with one another.
       This new Facebook feature will gradually become available to all Facebook users, except those with more than 5,000 friends and followers. This is most likely due to technological issues. Users also won't be able to change the privacy settings of promoted posts either. Therefore, if it is set to only appear in the news feeds of that person's friends, then only your mutual friends with that person will see it. This feature provides Facebook with yet another way to make money through the social media platform, however whether or not it will be used on a regular basis is debatable.
       Many of the comments posted on Mashable's article, "Facebook: Now Pay to Promote Your Friends' Posts", have negative views about the new Facebook feature and most say they would not pay to promote their or their friends' posts. Besides examples like the ones mentioned in the article of promoting a friend's post about them raising money for a charity or promoting a post helping a friend rent their apartment, most people seem disinterested in paying for this feature. One comment was from a person that had actually paid to promote a post one time and they claimed that it didn't show up any higher on their friends' news feeds. Many comments also portray users' worries that this feature will become annoying when people pay to promote ugly pictures of their friends that people post and other posts of that nature. Others are angered with Facebook because it seems like everything with the company turns into money. One comment states, "I thought that Facebook is making enough money. Why is everything with them turning into money. I hate the fact that our profiles space on a page has become so small to make space for all the adds they run to the right of our pages, and I NEVER look at any of them, they limiting the posts people can see that likes your page, you have to pay to promote your own status plus now this? Ridiculous in my opinion."
       I agree with many of the comments myself and don't think that I would pay to promote my friends' posts, nor do I think that this new idea is a good one. Soon enough our news feeds will be filled with promoted posts from our friends and businesses, and we won't actually be reading or looking at anything we might care about. I personally think Facebook needs to reevaluate the effect of this feature 
before permanently making it an option for all Facebook users. 

~Katie

             I heard about Vine a while ago, but not until the past week or two have I seen more and more Vine videos in my Twitter feed. People are starting to pick up on the new app and have begun creating six-second looping videos. I recently made my own account, but I was yet to truly explore the use of the app through a business perspective until I came across an article on entrepreneur.com entitled “The Pros and Cons of Using Video App ‘Vine’ for Marketing.” This article points out that while the six-second videos allow you to stop and start recording to create a mixture or videos and images, it may be restricting for some marketers.

            The pros of Vine are that it is a new and attractive app that is quickly becoming popular and the use of videos and moving images will attract the attention of many. The use of photos is already extremely useful in engaging and connecting with viewers, and the effectiveness of videos is even greater. The ability to use Vine to share videos easily and quickly with viewers makes Vine a possibly successful marketing tool. Vine can be used in a variety of ways. As mentioned in the article, one candy maker used it to send a sweet message to viewers on Valentine’s Day. Vine can be used as a promotional tool to create a short demo of your product or service. It can also be used to make your brand more personable and allow consumers to connect with your brand by posting videos of employees, customers receiving the service, behind-the-scenes processes, etc. Or, if you want to focus on engaging consumers and encourage interaction, brands can get their Twitter followers to post their own Vine videos of the product. The ease of using Vine allows for multiple opportunities to use the app to promote one’s brand.

            Marketers have also found some cons to Vine that make it less viable as an effective marketing tool. Some of the drawbacks of Vine include its’ reputation, limited video time, and saturation. Immediately following the launch of the app, a pornographic image was uploaded and featured in the “Editor’s Picks” section of the app. iTunes then removed the app from their “Editor’s Choice” list and increased the rating to viewers “17 or older.” While most videos are appropriate for all eyes, Vine does not monitor or prohibit pornographic images. Businesses should therefore be careful when recommending the app to viewers. In addition to the reputation and limit of these six second clips, marketers are also turned off by the saturation of the app. Vine is simple to use and it is therefore easy to get carried away and constantly post videos to one’s account. Vine is like all other social media platforms though and posting irrelevant content too often can easily annoy consumers. Marketers need to spend time to think about the content of their videos and make sure they are providing customers with entertaining and appealing videos that positively reflect the brand.  After reading this article, I am interested to go follow different brands that I am interested in on Vine and see how they have decided to use the app and what kind of content they are producing for it.

~Katie

       With March Madness beginning this afternoon, I thought it would be appropriate to see what was going on with social media when it came to the NCAA and the teams participating in the tournament. It is evident from blogging and researching about other topics, such as the Super Bowl, that social media has become a big part sporting events. One article, "March Madness Teams Disappoint on Social Media", emphasizes the importance of individual teams to have their own accounts on social media sites that are separate from their school's athletic department.
       According to this article, "Last year, March Madness drove over two million social mentions, and 83% of sports fans check social media during games. By definition, sports is a social activity, and the second-screen's role in sports is becoming obvious." Not only is social media being used for people to interact and talk about the tournament, but fans, and non-fans, are constantly using social media as a way to receive updates their teams and scores. This becomes a lot easier when teams have their own social media accounts and people aren't wasting their time reading about the athletic department's posts about other sports that they don't care about. Having a team presence on social media sites will not only benefit your fans by giving them an easy way to receive updates specific to you during March Madness, but it also creates a personal connection between the fan and the team by receiving updates and being able to stay connected year-round. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to quickly learn about your favorite teams and are an easy and free way for those teams to spread new news and keep fans engaged and dedicated to the team. 
      Of the teams participating in the 2013 March Madness tournament, only 45% have team-specific accounts on both Twitter and Facebook. While I agree that social media is a great way for fans to interact and keep up with their teams during March Madness and the rest of the year, I don't believe it is necessary for teams to have their own account on social media platforms. It's a good idea for them to do and wouldn't hurt to create one, but there are also numerous other ways for people to be able to keep up with March Madness from their phone on social media sites. They may have to search through other updates for ones specific to their team, but numerous apps and Facebook pages are dedicated to providing viewers with immediate scores, results, and other information about the event. As previously talked about with the Oscars and the Super Bowl, it will be interesting to look up the statistics of March Madness after it is completed and see how many more tweets and posts are made about the tournament in comparison to past years. 

~Katie