Social Media Project

Group Company Report

My group and I chose General Electric (GE) as company to investigate their use of social media.

Our group company report can be found here: http://ism3004.wikispaces.com/General+Electric 

Reflection on the project and what I have learned

Graphic 1: Social Media Examples

First, I was a little bit skeptical about the group project, as we did not have any influence on the groups. I have often gained bad experiences with respect to group work in this kind of format, as not an unessential number of people tend to free ride in some way. However, I have to admit that I was positively surprised by my group which turned out to be highly motivated and which wanted to finish the project as soon as possible. Apart from one group member who did not respond to our message at all and did not participate, everyone participated well and did a good job. Moreover, I thought that the way of communicating with my group members might not be convenient and easy. However, I have to admit again, that it turned out to be easier than expected as e-mail and especially the discussion board helped a lot to communicate and organize the work. Furthermore, it was not only a good way for sharing and collecting ideas, but also for giving immediate feedback.

The project itself was interesting as I did not know all these social media platforms before. I got to know many new ways of using the Social Media for advertisement and promotion purposes. I was surprised about the large number of Social Media channels being used by General Electric. However, sometimes it was hard to investigate if the company itself is responsible for the content on some of the websites (e.g. Flickr and Instagram) or if people unrelated to GE are responsible for it. One could just have an educated guess about it.

All in all, I learned many new ways of using the internet, especially the Social Media, for marketing. I got a good overview of social media channels being available and I got a feeling of how a company might or should promote itself on these platforms. Moreover, I enjoyed the group work and I learned how to use the discussion board to organize and manage the project effectively and efficiently. Finally, I learned how to use or set up a wiki as I have never done that before.

Graphic 1 by Nina Maria Scherl.

Database Project

What have I learned?

The database project taught me how important it is not only to collect data but also to manage data in an efficient and effective way. Creating a database with a good and logical underlying structure is helpful and necessary to leverage and analyze one’s data. I learned which functions Access incorporates, I got to know how user friendly Access is and I collected experiences working with it. Learning by doing is always better than just watching and hearing and so the “hands-on”-task was really helpful in understanding and the learning process itself. Concluding I can say that databases (and related topics) were always a closed book to me, but know I understand what it is, how they function and the purpose why it is necessary to have databases.

How could the functionality be enhanced?

The functionality of the database being created in the project could be enhanced by visual aids like graphs and figures. Access offers the functions of generating graphs and figures when creating a report. So as an example for the graphical representation of “Recently Departed Members Report” one could have included a graph showing the distribution of members leaving the fitness center on a monthly basis. This could be done by creating another report, clicking on the graph symbol in the ribbon bar, choosing bar graphs and using only the left date as input for the graph. Graphic 1 shows how it could look like.

Graphic 1: Screenshot of Access showing the graph

By having e.g. a bar graph it would be easier to see the fluctuations of numbers of people leaving the gym and might give some hints for the reasoning behind their decisions to quit, because maybe it is season- or month-related. This insights could be used for e.g. marketing and advertising, or decision making in general. 

Graphic 1 by Nina Maria Scherl.

Excel Project

Project

The Excel Project was about a research study on the effectiveness of a particular workout program being conducted by a large fitness center. 1000 participants of both genders and different age groups were part of the study. To assess the effectiveness of this particular workout the heart rate was measured at the start of the 15 minutes workout, at one minute intervals during workout, and at one minute intervals during the 5 minute cooldown phase after the workout was finished

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For the maximum cardiovascular benefit, it is important that the participants reach a particular target heart rate, which is a certain percentage number of their maximum heart rate. Therefore, it was examined whether the participants reached these target rates. Moreover, the owner required to be flexible to choose different target heart rates being based on different percentage numbers.

Another aspect the owner wantsed to investigate is the percentage by which the heart rate increased from the start of the workout program till the maximum heart rate was reached.

Graphic 1: "AvgIncrease" pivot table

Finally, in order to visualize the data and the results two Pivot charts had to be created as those make it much easier for the manager(s) of the fitness center to get an overview about the research study and its implications.

Skills

During the project I learned different skills. First, of all I had to learn how to apply the knowledge I gained in the previous week to a practical real-life example. So the transmission from comprehension to action had to be made. Furthermore, I learned how to create clear excel sheets that are user-friendly. I got to know how to adjust the size of columns and rows and how to make a print-out look good. In addition, I practiced using basic and more complicated functions like the if-function for example. Finally, by creating Pivot tables I learned how to easily prepare visual and clear tables to present the main points of a research study. 

All in all, the project helped me to learn how to upgrade basic Excel sheets, and to become more secure and efficient in handling Excel.

Graphic 1 by Nina Maria Scherl.

Week 5: Presentation and Web 2.0 Project

"Give Children A Hand" by Nina Scherl

 

This video can be also viewed on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQW2I4KlT0

Self-Evaluation of my Presentation: 

"Give Children A Hand"

From my point of view I have set up my presentation in a logical flow and sequence of content. First, I try to create curiosity by showing photos of poor African children and stating facts about child poverty and related topics in Somalia. Moreover, the question “Do YOU want to make a difference?” should arouse the audience’s curiosity, as they probably feel sorry for the children and want to make a difference, but do not know how so far. The presentation goes on presenting general information about Somalia and the critical circumstances there. The story about an individual child named Malia should arouse compassion and a relationship between the content and the viewer should be established by it. It is easier for the audience to think of and imagine one specific example than thinking about a mass of people. While stating that “Give Children a Hand” helped Malia, the transition to the next “topic” is made. In the following slides information about the company, its mission and its projects is given. Then the specific actions are explained in more detail and photos are provided. It follows a request for action which is directly targeted at the audience, and information about how each person can help is given. In addition the goal of the project is revealed: making children from Somalia happy again. On one of the last slides the reference to the website is given to make sure that people have the chance to react to the presentation. In the end I used a saying in combination with photos to make the audience rethink the whole presentation again. Finally, the citation is presented. 

The presentation uses the help of media in the form of graphics, photos and music, to inform the audience and to evoke emotions respectively. Especially the ballad played on the guitar and the photos shall arouse sympathy and compassionateness. The graphic is provided with a note about the source to validate the information and to make the presentation more reliable. Additionally, the use of media makes the presentation interesting and creative. Moreover, I often used questions as headlines to make the audience curious and make them watch the presentation until the end. The colors for background and texts and the font size are chosen to ensure good readability. In addition, I used many photos and only keywords to avoid overloading the slides and tiring the audience. Furthermore, the space of the slides is used well. Finally, I used only photos and media I was allowed to use with respect to copyrights and regulations. Furthermore, I provided information about the sources on every slide. I am of the opinion that my presentation provides enough information about the topic I chose and delivers the clear message that people should help Give Children A Hand and get engages in charity projects. 

Summarizing I can say, that I am satisfied with my presentation after reviewing the Presentation Evaluation Rubric, and that I am looking forward to receive feedback for it.