1st assignment: The Commandments of Social Media in the Internet

A website or any type of cyber-media seems, at this age, to be a ubiquitous extension of an individual’s identity. Deanna Zandt seeks out credibility of a person by “googling” their name to see their postings, or their published works on the web. Yet there are still many sites that are generic, user-unfriendly, and misleading. Both Deanna Zandt and Brian Clark have sought to delineate the ways to make a proper website. They each urge the writer or designer to be genuine with their content, and have the insight to view their own work as others would view it, and to edit it accordingly. Clark emphasizes how the copywriter should be very wary of the engineering of search engines and the social implications of web communication. The search engines pick up key words from your page, but these words must be strategically placed. To understand the strategy, you must be able to put yourself in the position of your potential reader. Zandt also says that “natural links” are necessary to string a broader audience because existing websites already have trust of their readers and any referrals towards them would be a reliable link. Without those natural links, a site would just be another speck in the masses that is vaguely situated. To be memorable, a site must cater not to the mass, but to the portion that you want to have your work read. Thus keyword placement is important to attract those users that are looking for the specifics that your website may provide.

Zandt provides less of an outline, but more of a social study of how social media in the interwebz work. She gives examples of what has worked (16 & Loved, we Are the 99%, anti-bullying), and their driving force were personal accounts of a specific theme that garnered responses from those out there, on the other side of the web, that are a part of the theme but not yet a part of the website. And judging from this, I think a good website would be one that acts as a beacon for those that are within the same social vein to communicate. The “16 & Loved” campaign seemed to work because they had an audience that was not generally outspoken. I guess that was its goal, to bring to light issues that are generally repressed and the internet is the perfect medium to access and resolve them. The internet provides anonymity that can allow a safe space to express without the backlashing judgments of others penetrating a private life. And this campaign publicized genuine responses to a mutual subject which provided examples of how people grew from similar hardships.

A crappy website is one that is generic, desperate to appeal to everyone. This is one such example. http://www.herbalremedies.com/homeopathics.html. Understandably, it is a website trying to sell you herbal remedies, but it is completely dry and devoid of human touch. The “shop by supplement” list of categories of littered with redundancies. Under that title, it lists: Amino Acid Supplements, Antioxidant Supplements, Chloella Supplements, Supplements, Supplements, Supplementalklanala. The supplement Dictionary is misleading. It is more of an alphabetical categorization. The banner is jarring and too repetitive. All the bottles of pills look the same. It forces you to read because the pictures provide nothing. Another crappy website is www.hunter.cuny.edu. All useful information seems to be buried deep in this website. A search for specific financial aid documents always lead to dead ends. The updates to faculty and staff office hours and contact information are never updated. They catalog of classes don’t give accurate detail on the classes. There’s always a misrepresentation on what the pre-requisite classes are.

An awesome site is www.reddit.com. It has good organization of topics that are catered to the individual and the masses. It is a place where anybody can post what is interesting to them and share. Responses are encouraged here and “upvotes” are highly coveted. The front page is usually kid friendly and gives off an inviting appeal that everyone can enjoy, except for Christian fundamentalists. There is a general hatred for those who force a religion to the unreceptive and those who do not hold themselves accountable for their hypocrisy when using the bible to plan out their actions. There are other, more specific categories that you can sign up to.

Another well-developed website is http://instantwatcher.com/. It is a website that shows what is available on Netflix watch instant. It ranks the popularity and is synced with rottentomatoes.com to show ratings. It also links imdb.com to relay the details of an actor, or any listed participant in a movie. It tells you what position it has fallen or risen from the list of most popular titles in the last 24 hours. They give the same categories as Netflix does with their titles to keep in theme with the site it is supplement to. And it gives more categories to those that are bored of netflix’s organization of titles.