Social Media’s Positive Business Impact

The final research paper for my COSK1221 (Argument and Research) class at Robert Morris University is worth 30% of my final grade.  I chose to argue that businesses that choose to accept and participate in this new form of interaction, social media has a positive impact in the areas of customer communication and connection, customer support, and monetization of brand evangelists.

I’d like to thank all of the companies that spoke with me, including Webnotes, Zeo, Comcast, Verizon, SurpassHosting, Discover, The PNC Financial Services Group, and Robert Morris Univeristy.  You can find all of the interviews here.  The Verizon and Zeo interviews have the most substance – they were hour long phone interviews.

You can download the final paper here.

Please leave a comment on this post letting me know your thoughts!  If you’d like permission to print the paper or copy anything out of it, please contact me using the contact page.

Jonathan Ive’s Segment In Objectified

It looks as though Gary Hustwit (the creator of the film Helvetica) has created yet another fantastic film.  The movie Objectified is all about industrial design in today’s modern culture.  I’ve pre-ordered the blu-ray version.  In the film, there’s a rare look inside Apple’s design studios and an even rarer interview with Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive.  Check out his segment:

Sorry iPhone, I Need Something New (Maybe You?)

I remember back in 2007 when iPhone was first launched.  I bought one the day after launch.  It was the “must-have” device that was unfortunately out of a lot of people’s price range.  This made it a luxury item.  For a few months, if you had an iPhone, you were the man.  Everyone wanted to see it, and everyone wanted to play with it.  ”Oooh, ahhh” they’d say as they swiped through photos.  Or “Whoa” as they felt the benefits of a multi-touch capacitive touch screen display.  Or “holy shi-” as they felt the industrial design of the phone.  An aluminium-like back, smooth curves, etc.  Now, it’s “Oh, you have an iPhone?  Me too!  Cool!  What’s your favorite app?” (more…)

Magic Mouse – A Little Too Low Profile?

Every day this past week on my way home from RMU, I made a call to the Apple Store.  ”Did you get any Magic Mice in yet?”  I was always getting the same response, “Nope, not yet.  Sorry sir!”  Well, on Friday, the Shadyside store finally got them in.  I went there on my way home and picked one up.  The packing was… interesting.  It reminded me of an iPod package, although it was slighty more “soap dish” shaped.  It was a pain in the butt to open, with tape everywhere, but once I got it opened I was immediately impressed with the industrial design of the Magic Mouse.  It was the sexiest mouse I’ve ever seen.  Such a low profile, the perfect blend of metal and plastic, etc.

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