Twitter Takeover

In Risky Business, I talked about how Twitter was debuting on the stock market this week. Today, prices of Twitter stock is all we see on the news. It went from the predicted price of $26 to nearly doubling at $45.10 when it opened for users to buy.

This made me consider the impact Twitter has on users today. Although Twitter doesn't have the same amount of followers as social media sites such as Facebook, it has had a lasting impact and it continues to grow in popularity. This past summer while I was an intern for the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University, my entire project focused on researching social media and finding what outlets were most prevalent. Through my research, I found it was most beneficial to create a Facebook, but I recommended creating a Twitter account once Facebook was established.

In a few of the trainings I went to, Twitter was a main focus because it was seen as the "up-and-becoming" social media source. There are several blogs out there that focus on how Twitter can best benefit you business.

Besides business, Twitter is an important news source. According to statistics from 2012, Election day was the most tweeted event that went down in U.S. political history. Each user can choose what types of accounts they want to follow. If the person follows many news sources, then it's a great way to see the trends in the most prevalent news. Just by glancing at the timeline to the right, three out of the five posts reference Twitter stock. The accessibility to news is incredibly important for educating people of all ages. Twitter targets a younger age group, which will hopefully lead to a better educated generation when it comes to current events. Twitter will be taking over the social media sphere and hopefully will lead to a more updated and curious generation.

It makes me wonder, what will be the next big thing?

Risky Business

For someone interested in social media, this is an exciting week for twitter supporters. Twitter will be debuting as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing people to buy stock in the company. This past Monday, the company increased the value of the stock from $17 to $20 a piece to $23 to $25 each. This indicates that the company has confidence in stock and that it will rise quickly.

There is some debate on this, however, because unlike other social media counterparts (Facebook or Linkedin) twitter does not have nearly as many people supporting the site, nor has it started turning a profit yet. There is great potential in twitter's following because the target age group is 18 to 29 years old. As these followers get older, they may continue using the social media site and with time the age group of the users will expand to an older audience as well.

USA Today used a statistic from pew research that stated on 16% of American adults use twitter and of those, a little over half use twitter for news purposes. I am not surprised that twitter is used as a news outlet, however, I am shocked that only 16% of American adults are making use of this social media site.

By making twitter a public company on the New York Stock Exchange so quickly, I feel like twitter is taking a huge risk. This could end up being a great opportunity for investors who put their trust in the company early and watch it grow as stock did for Apple years ago. Hopefully the potential of twitter is worth the risk.

According to ABC News, twitter has plenty of fans on Wall Street. Some people believe that twitter stock is worth $50 per share, which would allow investors to make a quick profit. Investing in a new market opens the investor up to countless opportunities.

Regardless of who is right, only time will tell the true impact of twitter in the economic world.

Unexpected Connections

Just this past Saturday night, BuckeyeThon hosted its first Fashion Show, in collaboration with Sam Edelman and Nordstrom. Both companies fully supported BuckeyeThon by providing hair and make-up artists, clothes for both the student and kid models and staff members who helped make the event run smoothly.

Both the models and kids were huge hits at the Fashion Show as they strutted their stuff down the runway in front of approximately 800 people. All of the kids who took part in the event were either kids treated at Nationwide Children's or siblings of the kids who were treated. The Fashion Show was a great way to recognize the kids for the rock stars they truly are.

For those who weren't at the event, but are tapped into social media, they got a live update of the event via twitter and Instagram as it was happening. #SamFTK was trending in the Columbus area, as event-goers sent pictures in for a live contest. This was a great way to document the entire night through testimonials and visuals.

Twitter was an excellent way to connect all audiences to the Fashion Show and our cause. Not only was the live audience able to connect with those who didn't attend the event, but they engaged the kids more fully in the event. The kids were excited to see pictures of them on the large screen that was showing the constant twitter update and they stayed more focused on the event, since they had a better understanding of the role they played with the audience.

Many of the pictures that were tweeted were coming directly from Instagram. People were constantly uploading photos from the show itself or from opportunities for them to feel like models, such as the pictures taken in front of the step and repeat backdrop.

The Fashion Show showed the importance of social media connecting audiences in unexpected ways. You never know the next person you may impact through social media.

Humor in Discomfort

On Friday, November 1st I started the month out with an incredibly funny, yet shocking performance that I would not recommend to my parents, grandparents or anyone over the age of thirty. Sarah Silverman performed live comedy at Ohio State in the Mershon Auditorium.

The event started with 8th Floor Improv, a student-run comedy group at Ohio State. Their act was focused on spirits vs. humanity and made jokes about a monarchy system. They got the crowd laughing right from the start. Once 8th Floor Improv finished their act, Sarah Silverman got on stage and pulled an audience member up. As nervous as Jim, the audience member was he played along, joking back and forth with Silverman. This was the least raunchy part of the entire performance.

As the act continued, Silverman became more and more comfortable with the audience. Her jokes made the audience squirm in their seats with a sense of discomfort but caused uproar of laughter nonetheless. One man in the audience had such a distinct laugh every time that she specifically pointed it out.

Silverman had several moments during her show where she focused in on a individual in the crowd. About half way through her performance she questioned a girl in the first row who was on her phone, asking if she was checking her twitter feed.

Twitter wasn't the only media outlet that gave Silverman attention. The Lantern posted about her coming to campus, while OUAB used social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to encourage students to get their tickets as soon as possible. Silverman had many Ohio State students talking positively after the show, both in person and through social media. I was excited to see that even though Silverman didn't respond to any of my tweets, 8th Floor Improv favorited my tweet about them, giving making the experience even better than before. As explicit as the show was, I would go back to see her again.

Next time Silverman has a performance by you, make sure to keep an open mind and go with friends who have a sense of humor. Who knows, maybe you will even get called onto stage.