Dealing with College

Part 1 of a series of stories from my college years. Between the stories are recommended tips on how one should deal with these situations.

Graduated Valedictorian of MCA High School

In my junior and senior year in high school, I was heavily pressured to go to college. Of course, my guidance counselor believed in my ability to do well in college and always remarked that I had the best grades in my year. Over the course of those two years, I visited schools along the East Coast, attended college fairs and met with representatives from universities across America. It was an exciting time for me, but there was one problem...

I was not mentally ready for college.

Winning means everything...ha

At the time, I was so overwhelmed by my responsibilities in High School, I was Captain of the debate team, leader of an IT Group, a member of the MCA Leadership Team and a high school tutor. These things made me happy and I was content with the ways things were. When it came to picking my next destination, I became overwhelmed. (This leads me into my first tip: Tip 1: Don't be afraid to plan for your future in the 9th Grade: it is a scary thing to think about but it gets worse if you wait until the last minute to plan your life)

My Family: Dad, Sister & Mom

There was more pressure at home. My parents are from the Caribbean and they are both hardworking people who may have been borderline helicopter parents. They wanted me to stay close to them and we fought tooth and nail until I conceded that I would stay in NYC for College. I chose the school that I was most content with at the time: St. John's University. My choice to go to St. John's was based on three things: prestige, price and proximity. St. John's, in my opinion, had all three so I was heading there. Of course, my parents wanted me to live at home, but that wasn't going to happen, It became clear to me that this was my experience in college and if that was the case, I needed to have my own experiences in college. The type of experiences you can only have away from home. So I decided to live on campus. (Tip #2: College is what you make of it, make the experience your own) Living on campus was the first step in making my college experience my own.

Living on campus was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I found myself meeting people, having fun and opening myself up to a new world. But as I started to enter into this new world. I started to realize that I had almost forgotten about the other roles that I had to deal with at home. Beyond my new role as a student and son I was also a boyfriend.

I gained the freshman fifty

Yes, believe it or not, but someone would actually date me back then. Me and my girlfriend at the time thought we were serious, we had these major plans about what our future would look like together. However, I never seriously considered the impact college would have on me and my relationship. As soon as I touched down on campus, I became overwhelmed with the new experiences and the new women I was meeting everyday on campus. During my first away trip with St. John's University on a volunteer-service trip, I fell for another girl while I was still with my girlfriend. While nothing happened between the both of us, I started to realize that I was not as committed to the relationship as she was, so I broke it off. This started a new cycle of us going on again/off again for the next year and mainly because I was breaking up with her. I finally ended things for her with her over a phone call in Rome. My ex-girlfriend is a wonderful person, but I realize that I was growing up and developing in new ways and while I remained faithful, I was not emotionally committed to the relationship. (This leads me to Tip #3: As college nears, if you have a high school relationship, determine what are the needs of your relationship and if you both can accommodate them)


PART 2...Coming Soon:

Likeable Media Facebook Case Study (Draft)

Introduction

Likeable Media is a social media and word of mouth marketing firm. Headquartered in New York City, it was founded in 2007 under the name of K Buzz. Likeable Media has worked with over 200 brands and is recognized as one of Facebook top preferred developer consultants. (The Resumator, 2011) Likeable Media mission is: “to leverage social media and word of mouth marketing to create transparent, engaged, responsive, likeable companies, organizations and governments. To build a more likeable world” (Likeable Media, 2012). Likeable Media achieves their mission by providing several services that can enhance the marketing presence of their clients; services such as personalized social media management, providing social media audits for their clients, develop social media driven ads and finally providing corporate training for their clients to take control of their social media presence. As a marketing firm that was founded on the value of using social media as a driver for success, the firm feels that it is important to use different forms of social media in order to drive consumer engagement for their clients. One tool that Likeable Media uses in order to achieve this engagement is Facebook. Throughout this case study I will explore Likeable Media Facebook Strategies and how they use Facebook for both their business purposes and for building marketing strategies for their clientele.

Likeable Media Facebook Presence

As Brian Murray, Director of Talent at Likeable Media, once told me in an interview, “our business is social media and Facebook is just one of our tools” (Murray, 2012). Likeable Media uses Facebook in two ways. The first is to engage the general public and the second is to integrate Facebook into their clientele marketing strategies. As a tool for helping Likeable engage with the general public the firm has developed four Facebook pages: Likeable Media (Likeable Media, 2012), Likeable Russia (Likeable Russia, 2012), Likeable Istanbul (Likeable Istanbul, 2012) and Likeable Local (Likeable Media Local, 2011). These pages have several objectives; the first is that they promote the brand image of Likeable giving users the ability to learn about the firm from just the actual Facebook page itself, the second is to give users and fans free knowledge tools about social media; on how they can leverage the power of social media in their lives and in their businesses. For example: just a few days ago, the brand posted a status and link on their Likeable Media (USA) page about Who’s more valuable to your brand – influencers or average users. Three out of the four pages of Likeable are centered in the United States, Russia and Istanbul, Turkey. This was done to replicate the global locations of the business as well. The last page Likeable Local was designed specifically for a new service that Likeable Media will be promoting in the next couple of months, “Likeable Local”. A service designed for small businesses and vertical markets.

            When used as a tool for integration into Clientele marketing strategies.  Facebook is considered as the primary tool when developing their strategies. In a presentation for McGraw Hill, Likeable Media CEO Dave Kerpen discusses the Facebook strategies they want to implement for their clients; the typical strategy here is to: (Kerpen, 2012)

1.      Bring awareness and education of a brand

2.      Drive people to be engaged online with the brand by providing offerings

3.      Push them to act (ie. Purchases)

4.      Repeat the process (offerings à Engagement à Repeat)

An example of how this model works can be seen through one of Likeable Client: Things Remembered. Things Remembered is the nation’s largest retailer of personalized gifts. (Things Remembered, 2012). According to Things Remembered, “based on existing data, (they) found that early engagement was essential in increasing the lifetime value of their customers.” The company at that point wanted to target brides to be, citing that the aspect of wedding planning is a significant experience for women and men, even to the point where planning for a wedding begins through Facebook posts. So in order to reach out to these couples, Things Remembered and Likeable developed an exclusive summer event for engaged couples at a few local stores. “Attendees received a free personalized gift, a private shopping experience, and expert advice by simply showing their “engaged” Facebook status via their smartphones or a print-out.” (Likeable Media, 2012). As a result of this Things Remembered was able to determine that individuals who attended these events became repeat customers, averaging out an additional $44.08 more in additional sales per person and a determined 670% ROI.

Likeable Corporate Facebook Strengths and Weaknesses

            Likeable Media (Corporate) Facebook strategy is geared towards presenting the company as a firm that has superior expert power in the field of social media, (defining them as the expert in social media engagement). Every 8 out of 10 posts on Likeable’s Social Media pages relate directly with providing tips for the best practices in Social Media. When examining the strengths of their strategy, they are several things that should be pointed out. First, Likeable Media Facebook Pages offers an amazing amount of engaging content. From articles, videos/photos, a place to leave recommendations and even links to job opportunities, if you want to learn about Social Media their Facebook page offers some great resources. Second, The page is well staffed to the point where the admins of their page directly engage others; offering feedback, comments and even complements. Finally, the content on the page develops a certain brand identity, for example any facts provided by the company are always in orange and most content on their page comes from their company’s blog.

            Likeable Media Facebook also has some weaknesses. The first is that don’t provide engaging content on their pages that relate to clients. The most that you see on their main Facebook pages about their clients are under the “Likes” portion of the page.  Likeable Media likes their client’s pages but doesn’t post anything about their success stories. In this case, many people may not even know what Likeable is actually doing. The other two weaknesses relate to Likeable Local and the marketing of that service, I especially wanted to point out this because it appears that Likeable is trying to corner the small business market with this new service. The problem however is that their Likeable Local Page is a virtual ghost town, there is no content on the Page. The final thing is that there is no discussion on the other active Facebook pages on what Likeable Local will be moving forward, there is no real buzz.

            As for Likeable Media Clientele Facebook Strategy, it would be difficult to go into every single strategy they have implemented over the years. Therefore I will examine their overall strategic approach. When we examine their strengths, the firm has done a great job in applying engagement tools for their clients and has apply tools that are directly related to their client’s mission and goals. In the example of Things Remembered the company applied this method with engaged couples and it worked well. When it comes to weaknesses it’s hard to determine that fairly without a full analysis of a good portion of their clients. My recommendation, however, will not discuss enhancing this part of their Facebook strategy but will rather discuss how these two Facebook strategies can be linked together into one overall strategy.

Recommendations

            As mentioned before, it appears that Likeable has defined two separate strategic ways in which Facebook is used within their company. In my opinion, however, the goal should be to link both strategies together. Linking their strategies together would mean that engagement tools that were successful with their clientele could carry over in promoting the brand and the services of Likeable Local. I believe this can be done through applying some changes to the current Facebook pages, these changes are centered around “marketing Likeable on other pages” and “defining what is Likeable Local”. The following are my recommendations:

1.      Define “Likeable Local” – the definition provided on the Likeable Local page is that it is a “Facebook marketing solution for small businesses and vertical markets”. The Facebook page shouldn’t remain blank. Even if the company hasn’t fully figured out the entire process. The page should have content that could define some of the things the new service will provide toward small businesses.

2.      Market Likeable Local on the Likeable Media (USA) page – once content has been generated, promote the service on the Likeable Media USA Page. This could generate a buzz in the service.

3.      Feature your Client’s Success Stories – promote as status updates: clients success. Give users the ability to understand the value of social media through hearing the success of other companies.

4.      Develop cross marketing relationships with your clients – at the present moment Likeable is strategically focused on separating brands and gearing their strategies to their client’s needs. But perhaps it would be beneficial for Likeable if many of their clients  generate content that promotes Likeable. Such as posting a status about Likeable on their Facebook pages.

Summary and Conclusions

            Likeable Facebook Strategies are geared towards two distinct groups, the individual and the organized company. Therefore their strategies are vastly different since they target different groups. In the future however I think Likeable needs to focus more on the small business. It is therefore important that they develop a strategy that plays on the strengths with their current clients and within their personal Facebook community. By developing a strategy that is centered in driving fans from other corporate sites to the Likeable media Facebook pages, we hoping that this reverse flow of engagement can help enhance Likeable Media business.

 

Works Cited

Digital Buzz Blog. (2011, January 18). Facebook Statistics, Stats & Facts 2011 | Digital Buzz Blog. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from Digital Buzz Blog Web site: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/

Kerpen, D. (2012, October). Why It Pays to Be Likeable (McGraw-Hill, Oct. 2012). Retrieved November 1, 2012, from SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/davekerpen/why-it-pays-to-be-likeable-mcgrawhill-oct-2012

Likeable Istanbul. (2012). Likeable Istanbul. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from Likeable Istanbul Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/likeableistanbul?ref=ts&fref=ts

Likeable Media. (2012). Likeable Media. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from Likeable Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LikeableMedia?ref=ts&fref=ts

Likeable Media. (2012, November). Our Story | Likeable Media. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from Likeable Media Web site: http://www.likeable.com/about-us/our-story/

Likeable Media. (2012). Things Remembered Likeable. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from Likeable Media: http://www.likeable.com/case_study/things-remembered/

Likeable Media Local. (2012, May 10). Likeable Media Local. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from https://www.facebook.com/likeablelocal?fref=ts

Likeable Russia. (2012). Likeable Russia. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from Likeable Russia: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Likeable-Russia/416019358446250?fref=ts

Murray, B. (2012, April 1). Internship Interview for Likeable Media. (K. James, Interviewer)

The Resumator. (2011). The Resumator. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from The Resumator Web site: http://www.theresumator.com/case-studies/cs_likeable.pdf

Things Remembered. (2012, November). About Things Remembered. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from http://www.thingsremembered.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=About

 

Sharing Smiley360 Mission

Sharing Smiley360 Mission: I just became a Smiley360 member! Sign-up for free at http://bit.ly/lTDqVw Be heard. Be happy. *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

What Should Kevin James Do? - Capture the Storm 2011 St. John's University

"The Sims"

Welcome back my bloggers to another exciting edition of the Video Games and More Blog. OMG what a week, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was released in theaters and let me tell you it was....amazing. Of course I'm a bit annoyed that they split the plot of this book into two movies, but whatever...Harry Potter 4ever. In addition during this week, I had the unique pleasure on presenting my girlfriend with the SIMS 2 (and yes I know SIMS 3 is out) as a gift and almost immediately she has fell in love with it. Of course I could really understand why. So I needed to investigate this. And so I decided that this week, we will explore what is the SIMS and why is it so popular.

So Lets Begin. 

First what are the SIMS?

According to wikipedia, "

The Sims is a strategic life-simulationcomputer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It was created by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons ("Sims") in a suburban household near Sim City.

The Sims first came out in the early 2000 as a simple simulation game developed in order to have the player simulate an avatar life. Since the release of the original game, there have been two additional sequels to the game. The Sequels are Sims 2 and Sims 3. The Sims allows a player to create an avatar and to play out their avatar's life in any way, shape or manner they want. This sense of customization give the player unique control over the fate of their character....(it is kind of god like).

But what would make a player want to play this game? What are some of the reasons?

Escapism: I think that most of us have ideas on how we would like our lives to be? And so I think that many people who play SIMS create their ideal life, and in many ways use it as a way to develop their lives for the better. 

Controlling fate: Can we control fate? Well in SIMS there is this theme that we have the ability to control the people we create lives'. So is there a satisfaction in knowing we are God to a set of virtual beings? 

But these are the reasons I have listed to why the SIMS is playable? 

Do you have others, let me know comment on this? 

This is Kevin "Sims" James signing off.

The Best of the Worst Part 2

I apologize for the look of it, problems with the site and HTML Coding.

Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Video Games and More Blog, and so now we are about to head into part 2 of the worse video games of all time. Before we begin lets recap, number 7-5 of our countdown of the worse video games.

7. SHAQ-FU
6. The Smurf Rescue
5. Pac-Man (Home Version)


So lets not waste time, lets dive right into the the last 4 of the worst video game ever.

4. Daikatana:

To be real honest I have never heard of this game before today, but aftr reading some reviews. It just makes sense why it is one of the worse game around. Daikatana was suppose to be this game that offer an awesome story and great first person shooting. The problem was that it simply didn't, a hype surounded this game but it did deliever this at all. It was boring, dull and the character were so stereotypical.


3. Cluster Revenge (Mystique, 1982)


Before I give my opinion, I wanted my public to read the synopsis of this game.

"Custer's Revenge, starring a mostly naked General Custer (he wore boots
and a hat) and a mostly naked Native American woman (she wore a
feathered headband), who is tied to a post. Your job was to guide Custer
through a hail of arrows and a field of cacti to reach the woman and
engage in the type of behavior one expects in a Swedish Erotica
production."

..Already...I could say...enough said...but I won't...

The story is stupid and according to my source, no only was it stupid, but really hard for no reason. It was a bad game to start and still a bad game now.

2. Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Danny Ledonne, 2005)



"Here are questions to ponder over "Do Violent Video Games inspire horrific, violent acts in the real world? No one really knows for sure....but Do horrific violent acrs in the real world inspire violent video games?...Well Super Columbine Massacre RPG shows that they could. It is also a game that was in bad taste. That is the sole reason that this game was unsuccessful.


FINALLY THE WORST GAME OF ALL TIME:





















As many of you may have realized  from my last couple of blog ET was the worst game...but why was it? Here were some of my reasons.

1.The product was rushed: Because the E.T. movie was so popular,
the video game industry wanted to capture some of it's success, so in
July of 1982, plans starts to developed this game and by the end of that
year the game of finished (5 MONTHS). Most game take at least a
year to be fully developed, if not longer. Due to this, the gameplay,
was lousy which leads to multiple forms of frustration to the game
player.



2. The Gameplay was too difficult to use: since the game was in
fact rushed, the game play had cut-screens that just happened which
throws the player off, scenes where people randomly come out of no
where. And probably the worse issues that this game had (besides the
horrible color) was that the game was only one continuous level, where
even if a player was to beat (and I say this phrase loosely) the game,
the game would simply restart and put the items ET collected in other
places.


And there we have it....the best of the worst.
But do you agree with these choices. Comment on these...This is Kevin T. James Signing Off.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board System Useful or Useless.

This is a current paper, I was writing, not a blog entry for grading....Part 2 of the Worse Video Games of all time at the end of this week.

Once upon a time the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) System was a system developed in order to regulate the sales of violent and crude video games to minors. Over time, however, the rating system became heavily criticized because it had various loopholes and issues with it. In the past 18 years, the video game industry has evolved so much that some critics argue whether or not the system is still useful. Over the past 2 decades the video game industry has evolved tremendously. Not only has it evolved when it comes to game play and graphics, but the content in Video Games has certainly become more graphic, more violent and certainly rawer. The original rating system was developed in order to protect minors from certain video games, but now since times have change and the content in games has certainly change. The question is: Do we still need to protect our kids and if so is out current system adequate enough to do so?

During the early 1990’s, video gaming progressed into the 16 bit-era where graphics and sound capabilities were dramatically increased. Things such as blood and gore were clearer. And the release of games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom, made parents feel that video games during that time were too violent and graphic. Ultimately, these concerns were lobbied to members of congress, where Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin and Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut lead various hearings to deal with these new games and their potential impact they could have on children. They handed an ultimatum to the Entertainment Software Association, either develop a system to rate games or the federal government would. This resulted in the development of the ESRB Rating System. According to esrb.org,

“The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit, self regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).”

The ESRB Rating System consists of a 2-part equal rating system. Ratings, which can be found usually in the front lower left hand corner of a game or the back lower right hand corner, consists of a letter grade and a small statement which indicates something about the nature of the game, eg. violence or crude language. There are currently 6 different ratings used within this system.

1.     Early Childhood – (EC) – Titles that are rated EC are usually suited for Kids ages 3 and up. And usually contain no inappropriate content for kids.

2.     Everyone – Titles that are rated for everyone are usually suited for children ages 6 and older. Titles in this category contain forms of cartoon violence (minimal) and minimal suggestive themes.

3.     Everyone 10+ - Titles that are rated E10+ are usually suited for children 10 and older and contain more mild forms of cartoon violence and suggestive themes.

4.     Teen – Titles rated T (Teen) have content that is only suitable for kids ages 13 and up. Titles rated in this category usually contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood and/or usage of strong infrequent language.

5.     Mature – Titles rated Mature have content that are suited for individual ages 17 and up. Titles in this category contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

6.     Adults Only – Titles rated Adults only have content that should only be played by persons 18 or older. Titles in this category contain prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or sexual content and nudity.

The ESRB Rating System is a highly recommended system but is strictly voluntary. Today major corporations such as GameStop and Best Buy work hard to follow the system (voluntarily) for the simple fact that most of these companies don’t want to have a law suit or a bad public image if they sell a controversial game to a minor. According to Gamestopcorp.com,

“In 2006, GameStop launched a nationwide public education and awareness campaign to assist parents in making informed decisions on video game purchases. The campaign is an extension of our ongoing corporate commitment, in concert with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), to restrict Mature-rated video game sales to minors and to provide age-appropriate content information regarding video games.”

In addition, GameStop Corporation even went as far as to create a 2006 public awareness campaign for the voluntary rating system called “Respect the Rating.”

However, despite the efforts of these companies, many people argue that in today’s time most people, especially parents don’t care about the rating system. An example of this theory would be the one on one interaction between Scott Steinberg, an expert in Video Game theory and managing director of Embassy Multimedia Consultants, and Chang Liu a former employee of an independent game store. According to gametheoryonline.com,

“Chang Liu’s store had enforced the ESRB ratings during his time. (He) told me that his store would not sell, rent, or trade M-rated games to kids under 18…ID was necessary to do any kind of transaction at the store. Parents reacted to the store’s zero-tolerance…Apathetic at best, and hostile at worst. “I never once had a parent ask me about the ESRB rating…Nearly half of all parents didn’t care if what their kids were buying was mature or not. Most minors we turned away came back with a parent or relative…who made never made a fuss about the purchase, though in one extreme instance I saw a kid grab a random passerby heading inside the store.”

Surprisingly enough as a consumer, I find this to be a norm in both corporate stores and independents. More and more, parents are ignoring the rating system and kids (especially pre-teens) are looking for any way to get their hands on a mature rated game even going as far as asking random adults to buy these games for them.

             But what does this example of the Rating System show us about today’s society? Well first, in today society, violence, crude language and humor exist in a more wide spread manner in our media. It can be found on TV, the internet and even in print media in which most kids today are exposed to on a regular basis. Does this mean that our kids are becoming more desensitized to these things because of this exposure? It’s hard to tell. A case, however, can be made that parents are no longer putting as much effort in shielding their kids from such games. Does this mean that the rating system is obsolete? Not necessarily. The purpose of this system is to inform parents about these games. Whether they care enough to ensure their kids are not exposed to this is their choice. In addition, since the rating system is voluntary, many independent stores have the option of following it or not. Many could simply choose not to follow it due to the fact that kids under the age of 17 have extendable income and it is simply profitable to sell these games regardless of the nature to them. Ultimately, the ESRB Rating System is a uniquely complex rating system, it isn’t perfect, but it is what we have at the moment and maybe with time, this system will be subject to change and hopefully for the better.

Works Cited Page

Esrb., By The. Entertainment Software Rating Board. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. <http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp#1>.

James, Kevin T. "Video Game Rating System - Useful or Useless." Video Games and More. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. http://ktjvideo.blogspot.com/2010/09/video-game-rating-system-useful-or.html

GameStop Corporation. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. <http://www.gamestopcorp.com/esrb.aspx>.

"Do Video Game Ratings Work? ESRB System Reviewed." Game Industry News, Interviews and Videos | Game Theory. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. <http://gametheoryonline.com/2010/09/21/video-game-ratings-esrb-violence-mature/>.