Coalescence of Organizational Communication

On November 27-28, 2009, there will be the two-day conference entitled COALESCENCE of the Organizational Communication Program for the Organizational Communication students of both University of the Philippines Manila and the De La Salle University Manila.

COALESCENCE, as defined by my resident dictionary, iFinger, is the coming together [to] form one mass and whole, or the combining of elements in a mass or whole. The word originated in the 16th century, from the Latin word coalscere, which meant “with” “grow up” “nourish”.

This event is being organized by the Organizational Communication Society of the University of the Philippines Manila and the Team Communication of the De La Salle University Manila. It was named COALESCENCE because both organizations envisioned a gathering of the Organizational Communication students from two different schools that will allow them to grow together as they learn the core meaning of their degree program.

—

Because I am an officer of my organization, I am aware of the nitty gritty details of this project. More than that, I am part of the persons who meet up with Team Communication to plan better how this event would spell success.

One of the speakers of the conference would be Mr Barrientos, my professor in Communication Trends and Styles. The cause of all the blog posts, viral videos, and all my new social media activities (except of course probably the Social Networking Sites and websites I’ve loved since fetus-age). I guess there is no reason to conceal this since the course is nearly ending.

For a couple of weeks, we have been engaged into writing blog entries to complete the course requirements and to make it to top blogs–some requirement that we have been encouraged to participate in. It wasn’t a cruel requirement, as I see myself continuing on posting in my comm-blog, only in a less constrained-in-topic fashion.

I would have to admit. It felt tiring to keep on thinking of blog entries that would totally become an interest to possible stakeholders in the online world. We have been used to writing personal blog entries revealing deep thoughts and putting it out in the public–exactly the kind of writing I’m doing right now.

Personal. Self-attached.

I am disobeying all the advices that were given to us in establishing and maintaining our wordpress accounts. However, let me, just this once, for I am in the mood of revealing it all.

I found it annoying to be forced to write. I loved writing back in high school. I regularly maintained my blogspot account–even xanga, asian avenue, and others like. I loved releasing my thoughts online.

I liked blogging a lot.

However, to be forced to write weekly because it is a course requirement was one of the reasons that stressed me out in college. When years ago, it was so easy to write a funny entry that will earn 20 comments from my friends, this time, the idea of it being required made it all hard for me to think of a specific topic to write about, or even to relate it in the lesson-for-the-day discussion.

I was fine with the lessons I learned about wikis, podcast, viral videos, vlogs, corporate blogging, conversation prism, social media dashboard, social media releases and all the communication trends and styles.

But I guess required blogging became somehow difficult, with the thought that it is required.

At first I found it easy. If one would recall my first post, I wrote there something like, “how can required blogging be difficult? I used to blog everyday.“

Again, since I am an officer of my organization, I got to be involved in the planning of COALESCENCE. Such that would include asking prospect speakers if they would agree to speak in the conference. To ensure that the discussion meet the common grounds of the Organizational Communication program of both schools, I had to get the course curriculum of Communication Technology of the program in DLSU.

And I saw how they also had blogging as their requirement.

And then I felt ashamed of myself.

How could I have felt negative towards blogging.

And then it hit me–Sir Barry did say this to us, it just probably did not seem real as how it is becoming now:

CORPORATE BLOGGING IS INEVITABLE IN MOST COMPANIES.

It is the reason why we were weekly practiced to maintain the blog and start to be professional. And it is the reason why in Communication Trends and Styles and Communication Technology, this activity is a basic requirement.

Write often, read daily.

This will be my often.

And in the last remaining days of this subject, I realize how much Comm Trends and Styles has heped me. And I’m sure, come COALESCENCE day, a lot of undergraduates will enjoy the talk about this program, and learn a lot, the same way I do!

The Blog-ularity

Tumblr residents know what tumblarity is all about; Numbers shown in tumblarity indicates the popularity of a blogger in Tumblr.com. It has a formula as to how many of one’s post has been re-blogged, replied, or liked by the other bloggers.

In most blogs, popularity is shown in the number of visits gained by a blogger.
The more the number goes up, the more popular one becomes.
Or if the blog owner can manipulate the numbers–the more popular one becomes in that illusion one created.

Because our popularity in WordPress has become a real competition in class, desperation called for desperation measures.

I would have to admit that on the first few weeks of this blog, I texted my friends inviting them to visit http://jeldirecto.wordpress.com. “I need visits! Please just check it out,” I would often say.

So some days I got a mass number of visits, some days, the visit number’s dead. Obviously, there wasn’t a clear vision of people’s interest in my blog.

Eventually, I learned how to invite visitors in my blog. But no: It was not how other spammers do it: with a misleading invitation then the link, you’re then led to something else.

Being an identified fan of Katy Perry, I received a @mention in my twitter account (http://twitter.com/jeldirecto) from a stranger saying “hey! Check Katy Perry out here __then the link__.” When I checked the link out, it was a YouTube video of a band I have never heard of. WHAT AN ANNOYING VIRAL VIDEO HOPEFUL!

So point is, such strategy is disgusting and un-online-ethical. Eventually learning that I cannot always count on my friends’ visits on my blogs, I learned other ways to gain readers.

When Tayong Dalawa became a Trending Topic in Twitter, I researched on how it happened, what caused it, and how one enters the Trending Topic list. Then, I wrote how it all happened. Soon after, I searched in Twitter, all those who asked how Tayong Dalawa made it as a Trending Topic. Posts like, “FOR REAL? TAYONG DALAWA AS TRENDING TOPIC IN TWITTER?” or those who merely ask what Tayong Dalawa is.

Then I individually replied to them saying: “Read how Tayong Dalawa became a trending topic in Twitter.” Then I gave them the link. Eventually, I got replies in Twitter thanking me for the information and even asking me how the soap ended. I also searched in Google people who were discussing about Tayong Dalawa as a Trending Topic and led them to my blog.

I gained a good number of visits, I must say. 

However, those sweet hours had to, of course, end. Eventually, Ondoy owned most conversations in Twitter, as the day after, posted tweets were about the rising flood, people getting stranded, people seeking help, the victims, the rescue, then the volunteering corps.

Of course, there’s a lesson learned.

To gain the readers’ loyal attention…

• always have updated posts so people don’t get bored seeing the same post they saw the last time they visited, or they will feel the need of regularly visiting your blog.
• Next is that if you can’t maintain frequent update in your blog, make sure the post is something unique that they can’t easily find elsewhere. Make sure that it isn’t just the same Ondoy post people have flooded online. Make sure that it has an X factor, which will make them invite other people to view your blog.
• And next is to have an engaging invitation for possible interested readers of your post.

–this are just few of the things I learned as I try to keep up in one of most visited blogs in our batch.

Of course, I have still so much to learn, as I never yet owned the top.

Tayong Dalawa, Trending Topic in Twitter, Saturday, September 26, 2009

Tayong Dalawa.

If you know this show, you would know why people have been raging online talking about this. If you know Audrey, JR or Dave, you would understand perfectly well why this is making a scene in the Social Networking Sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is currently the most popular micro-blogging site used all over the world. It is known to have 3 Million Tweets a day. Because the suggested blog is the answer to the question: ‘What are you doing now?‘, it gets different unrelated answers from all over the world.

Twitter-users are aware that most-discussed topics are listed at the right column of the homepage. The Trending Topic list is cool feature of Twitter that makes listening in discussions an easy task. So for a topic to become a trending topic, it really has to be talked about by so many people, mentioned a lot, and a become popular issue all over the world.

And this, is what TAYONG DALAWA achieved on the night of September 26, 2009.

Can’t believe it either? Yep. This Pinoy series has gone all the way up, above the epidemic H1N1 and the popular American Series Grey’s Anatomy. Everybody was commenting on the big revelations of the last episode. In fact, the conversation seems to have been going on during the last week of this series. However, the overflowing discussions last night helped achieved the Trending Topic effect.

http://www.crowdeye.com/viewer.aspx?query=”Tayong+Dalawa”&start=1260&end=1080

The clip shows that there was a total of 495 tweets 17 hours ago (on the duration of the show, and few hours after it ended). 495 tweets from people all over the world, made Tayong Dalawa, one of the most talked about topic last night.

Because I was curious with the conversation of people about the show, I searched “Tayong Dalawa” mentions on my TweetDeck and found continuous posts, by the way.

And like I said, non-Filipinos were conversing about it too! Check what I re-tweeted.

I wish I know what that tweet’s about though.

Eventually, all these musings brought me to re-tweeting the fun questions of non-Filipinos about Tayong Dalawa. So then, I found myself being challenged by my professor barrycade (@whereisbarry) to explain what Tayong Dalawa is, for the benefit of those who were asking.

After about an hour, TweetDeck keyword search showed another Tayong Dalawa definition.

http://whatthetrend.com/trend/Tayong+Dalawa

However, something seemed so wrong. 5-sentence description is fine, but 1 out of 5 is about Tayong Dalawa; 4 out of 5 is about Malaysia.

Realizing the good thing about wiki’s, I felt the need to correct the definition.

http://whatthetrend.com/trend/Tayong+Dalawa

Of course, Tayong Dalawa deserves justice.
I’m a huge fan, too!

So if years ago, the main popularity count was based on TV ratings, like this one:

http://www.starmometer.com/2009/09/25/tayong-dalawa-tops-nationwide-tv-ratings/

and press releases…

Audience-listening has gone far better.

http://whatthetrend.com/trend/Tayong+Dalawa

Congrats, Tayong Dalawa!
Clearly, you owned SNS last night.

YOU WERE NOT A VIRAL VIDEO! STOP FEELING IT! URGHK.

I was eating Viva Lasagna at Pizza Hut with my boyfriend some days ago. We were also given some good breadsticks to munch aside from the pizza. I must say, Viva Lasagna tasted really good.

Point is?

There seemed to be nothing that could take my attention away from the PIZZA+PASTA-IN-ONE that we were eating that time.

But.
Hold it.
Because… there was.

Kevin told me that there was this video I should see. He tried to check the keyword on YouTube but what we were looking for was not appearing. He checked who from his friends had the link and there was no easy reach. Most were not online.

He tried a million ways to get it–so I thought, Wow, this should really be good.
He said that when he was watching it, his family happened to be there with him, watched it too and ended up laughing really hard.
Then his dad passed on the link.

Ooooh, VIRAL!

The video’s about Hitler’s reaction when he learned that DLSU got out of the FINAL FOUR.

Hilarious isn’t it? However, I did have to check the comments of the video. Although most were expressing how the video made them go gagacrazy, some few people commented how the video was already used by San Beda before.

I don’t know how San Beda used it. Same basketball issue? No idea.
I don’t know too when they showed the video. Some years ago, or what?
I have no idea on that San Beda – Hitler thing.
Or that if it does get around, will I watch it? I’ve no friend in Beda–nor do I actually care about Beda, if I watch it, will I find it hilarious?

No offense, really.

My only point here is to stress what a VIRAL VIDEO means.

VIRAL VIDEOS are videos that are…

• Continuously being passed to others (because they are)
• Really really interesting (funny, disgusting, weird, scary, etc.)
• People repeatedly watch
• High number of views
• Simply, EPIDEMIC

So let’s talk about the audience of this video.

Of both videos: DLSU & SAN BEDA, I am not a target audience.

But the HITLER DLSU got into me, and I found it funny.
I made other people watch it by passing on the link.
And I downloaded it (sorry, illegal, is it? ) for re-watching purposes.

Point is, it might have been a viral thing in San Beda’s time.
But… it wasn’t viral enough.

Viral Video’s ABCXYZ

Because we had this viral video project, I learned a lot of things.

1. People can CHEAT YouTube’s view count.
Let’s admit it, repeated visits in our viral video can cause 20 visits, which is huge. That is equal to my 1st-degree extended family visiting my blog, which isn’t really equal because our computers aren’t in 1:1 ratio with us anyway.

2. YouTube’s (inaccurate) view count sortakinda sucks.
We all experienced it. At a certain point, the view count stops. Only after some time will it continue counting again. Sometimes, you see the unmoving view count and the totally moving comment count. More comments coming, but views not coming! Errh?

3. It helps to become a FEATURED VIDEO.
I’m not sure how much it helped Cielo’s group’s video, but it did. For one, to some people who rely on whatever is recommended, the featured video will be sure be a hit. So aim to get there, and know how!

4. Some companies buy views!!
I read it! It’s scary. It’s like buying votes in elections. Apparently, a video’s current view count either invites or drives away a surfer. Because for example, I am looking for that Kanye West dissing Taylor Swift video, and I see two videos, one with 500 views, and the other 2000 views, OF COURSE IT IS THE ONE WITH 2000 VIEWS! It helps build credibility or popularity for that video just with that number.

5. The success of viral videos is not only seen in the view count.
Because there are other factors like the number of video reposts (embed), comments (in text or in video responses), links, related videos, we cannot merely rely on that fat number of views.

6. You did a great job, if people starts talking about your video!
What more if your video was featured on TV? in GMA NEWS? YAY! WAY TO GO TO OUR TEAM! Well of course, we made a socially relevant

You? Have you learned anything?
Want to add something that is not my list?

If You Were the President of the Philippines…

There are so many advocacies convincing people—especially the youth—to register for the 2010 presidential elections. Indeed, it is important that people take that shift from being apathetic to taking an action.

I am eligible to vote, so I will vote.
I will make my vote count.
That single point for that person I think should win the presidency should count.
…It will make a difference.

And so it will. But the question arises here:
“That single point for that person I think should win the presidency should count.”

Who is it then?

• Do we know him so well?
• Has he performed well in the government these past years?
• Has he been clean of corruption in the government?
• And most importantly, does he really know what should be done with the Philippines?

If he were the president of the Philippines, what would he do?
And last of the many, of the things he say, can he really do it?

Let us choose well.

Because our vote can make the difference.

If we choose well, our vote will make the next best president.

If we don’t, our vote will make the next corrupt president (one among the many in history… again).

You?
Can you give it a shot?

What would you do, if you were the president of the Philippines?

www.kungikaw.tk

Kung Ikaw Ang Presidente ng Pilipinas…

Midweek Realization: The Internet is better than my family, my boyfriend, and my bestfriends

There are quite vicious moments of my life that I simply want to freak. Such moments that makes it okay to walk the dangerous routes in Ermita, Manila, at night—even when I’m with Little Lulu. Such moments that makes me realize that whatever problem I may face that day, or that night, the problem that’s completely owning my mind is a thousand times bigger.

I love the Internet because for whatever danger it has, it always gives the illusion of being secure.
I know about the password hackers, and the online stalkers. I know how deceiving computer-mediated-communication goes. I know everything about it. But in the Internet, entering and exiting places are always my call. I can go to the farthest places Google-earth can take me. I can even go under the sea. But for whatever instance, that I can leave a site in a snap, or even surf in an Incognito window in Google Chrome, gives me the illusion of security. Some mere illusion many people would die for.

In times when we want to be with someone, or some people. Like when I leave my house to go to school, I recall the schedules of my classmates. Tough then because I realize that the person I most need doesn’t have a class, some of my friends are working on a project, and another of my friend has class and not in the building.

So I try to text my boyfriend, hoping he can turn the day from worst to worse, or bad, or anything lighter. Then, he ends up saying he has some errands to do. And few hours later, life shows how he’s got no time to text.

These are days when we’re filled with emotions but everybody is too busy with academics, or with schedule so full.

Alone. I am very much alone.

Then, I realize the existence of my laptop. Something tangible, yes. I open it and I connect to the Internet. I see friends from the other countries online, awake too late in their place, too normal in our time zone. I see my friends who don’t have class in school, or those who are doing their projects in Momo.

I see my friends online in Skype as well. If I need a virtual face-to-face conversation with them, it’s possible—except that my webcam sucks, not a good motion picture. I log in Facebook and there I see notifications from people who tried to reach me few hours before I connected online. I tweet something, and few minutes after, Tweetdeck notifies me of a caring reply.

And when you’re clearly annoyed with the world, you realize that the Internet is the best place on earth. A much too reliable friend than your best friends, a much loving person than your family, a much sweeter person than your boy friend. Always having time for you.

This is what the Internet caused us: an illusion of a perfect person.
A person too knowledgeable, a company too therapeutic.

Nothing more you would ask for.
I love this Internet that has most definitely become my best friend.

So growing up with the Internet, I have come to realize that at the end of the day, so long as you’re connected on line, you are never alone.

Ms Autobot Porn-Whore

Since we are talking about strategic online presence, let me share to you how (seemingly) strategically unattractive porn sites’ agents do.

Two weeks ago, I found a series of messages in my Skype account. They were all offline messages from this Ashley girl which made me easily see that it was a frickin’ pornsite promoter’s spam messages. Then, last night, I found myself in actual conversation with the porn promoter in Yahoo Messenger, which I later figured to be an autobot. =))

Below is our conversation.

samantha.robinson91: hey there cutie? ? ?

Me: whore you?
who’re you?*
Obviously, the asterisk indicates that I mistyped the first line.

samantha.robinson91: there’s no whores here!
who is this again? Sorry I don’t recognize the name lol

Me: i dunno you added me!
haha!
At this time, I had yet no clue that this account is the same as the Ashley spam in Skype.
The replies were in perfect sequence in a getting-to-know conversation in online chat.

samantha.robinson91: Oh Ok LOL,Nice!how you doin? ?

Me: im good you

samantha.robinson91: I’m actually working right now what are you doing exactly? ?
There you go, I finally remembered the whore in Skype.
samantharobinson is Offline
samantharobinson will receive your Chat message after signing in.
Samantha Robinson would like to add you to his or her Online Contacts list.
Accept | Decline

Samantha Robinson: I’m actually working right now what are you doing exactly? ?

Me: doing my paper
But I didn’t think it was an autobot, I still believed there was some person operating it.

Samantha Robinson is Available

Me: how old are you
See here that she didn’t actually answer my question.

Samantha Robinson: nice, nothin I work from home just starting doing these cam shows It’s pretty fun actually lol
I am a little busy right now cant really talk here but I would LOVE if you came to watch and give me some  company, and maybe a GOOD rating ? ?

Me: wow youre a spam

Samantha Robinson: nah, I am a vegetarian… no spam for me! Haha
FUNNY!! They have an automatic answer for any statement that contains the word “SPAM.”

Me: LOL
youre a spaaam!
So to check the autobot, I sustained the letter ‘a’ so the computer won’t easily detect my statement.

Samantha Robinson: well I think i have my free friend’s pass lyin here one sec babe.. I mean would you want it? ?
yup, I do got another pass left!..YAY.. just please don’t tell anyone else I can get in trouble.
What color panties should I put on for you sexy, i’ll let you pick! LOL
And there went Ms Autobot Porn-Whore, continuously seducing me with the color of her panties, not realizing I have dozens of my own in my own closet. =))

Me: spam
spam

Samantha Robinson: nah, I am a vegetarian… no spam for me! haha

Me: spam

Samantha Robinson: nah, I am a vegetarian… no spam for me! haha

Me: wow
Okay, so there, I could not hide my amazement. LOL. I was amazed with the auto-replies.

Samantha Robinson: k lol .. You joining me ?

Me: nah
whore you
See here how Ms Autobot Porn-Whore answered my statement—exactly the same way she did when I mistyped my “who are you”

Samantha Robinson: Ok, go to http://myhomeca mnetwork.com/chooseme scroll all the way down to the bottom babe, and you will see “friends of ME”, click that and when you get the password page, put in the password:”lucky” okay?

there’s no whores here!

Samantha Robinson would like to add you to his or her Online Contacts list.
Accept | Decline

Samantha Robinson (8/30/09 7:31 PM): CC is just to verify your age hun,its the sites policy to ensure no minors get access to the site .. i gave u my free friend’s pass

Samantha Robinson (8/30/09 7:31 PM): ok let me know when you get in so I can invite you directly to my cam.

Samantha Robinson (8/30/09 7:31 PM): k, you in yet babe? ? Don’t keep me waiting!

Samantha Robinson (8/30/09 7:31 PM): k

Samantha Robinson: k when u login click LIVEWEBCAMS and I’m the girl on the top row farthest to the left. There’s a chat there so I’ll see u there babe … maybe u tell me what to do

Amazing, isn’t it? But there are actually three ways to look at this:

1. The approach is pretty effective most especially to guys who don’t have anything better to do. The language of Ms Autobot Porn-Whore is really sexy with all the “hun” “babe” “cutie” “what are you doing exactly” “tell me what to do” “sexy” “panties” keywords she used. Old, bored and dirty geeks will exchange Einstein for this sexy btich.
2. The approach is pretty ineffective since they don’t screen the recipients of their invitation. Had they only known it will be sent to an uninterested woman, I wouldn’t be annoyed and blogging about them right now. Had they controlled it better, their porn-ific approach won’t be all out in the open online.
3. The approach is pretty ineffective because as was said in Organizational Communication 152: Communication Trends and Styles class, one should learn how to listen. One of the keys to becoming an effective online writer is not just having good blog entry writings, but also learning how to read other people’s writings and commenting on them too.

Because without interaction, what for is life?

And since Ms Autobot Porn-Whore did not answer me with my simple question: how old are you?
It helped me figure out that Ms Autobot Porn-Whore didn’t have big boobs, rather big megabyte size of a program, and that Ms Autobot Porn-Whore wasn’t wearing red panties, rather possibly made by someone using a black skinned computer.

Owning the consumer’s minds?
NOT THAT EASY.

So Four Years Ago

Four years ago, I was walking every step of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Philippines Manila. Everywhere I looked was a totally new thing. Every view was a discovery. The floor right above the bat-cave—I thought it’s a place I’d always forget. Though UP Manila is one of the smallest college buildings of all the UP campuses, I still envisioned it as something to be lost inside at. The staircase of the RH lobby, I had always thought it was dragging, or nice, or too tiring—whatever, but usually I just thought it would lead me to a huge dance floor. UP Manila, for me, was magical. The walls might be really old but four years ago, every little bit of it seemed really new and beautiful.

Much as I would want to continue this as a totally emotional post reliving four years spent in the University, plus the fact that it has really been four years since UP Manila campus bought the term HOME from my real house, allow me to twist it up a bit so you can relate too.

The Internet as a Magical World
A couple of years ago—and I mean it, just a couple of years ago—the Internet was merely just for e-mail. Though the function was already there, facts, references, and communication, Internet then was already useful. But I wouldn’t say then that Internet has everything, much as I would want to scream it out right now for total emphasis.

Internet then did not have all the movies I need online.
Internet then could not lead me to a relevant page that could give me a personal information about a person I’m interested about, uninterested about, or a person I’d be introduced to the next day.

Internet was not as magical as how it is today.

The Internet as a Not-So Magical World
The series of presentation in class on August 22 showed the function of the Internet in a number of companies. And there goes the truth: The Internet doesn’t seem to function as a magic to them. The companies that were presented in class were not 10k-invested companies; we were talking about the two-digit million ones.

And what do those companies have? A website.
I’m not even sure if those companies were as oriented as I was about daily web-visits. Does a StatCounter ring a bell? (I know that since eight years ago because of blog maintenance.)

To bank on just a website, and mere advertisements in sites like Multiply, Facebook or Friendster, that is just but too minimal.

Here goes the sad reality.
That the two-digit thousand invested companies make more scene in the cyber-world than these two-digit million ones.

Apparently, I see the youth owning these small companies (insert online shops here, and other creative businesses with huge Internet involvement) and businesses who spread word-of-mouth in online forums and social-networking-sites about what their companies can do online without meaning to commit information overload.

The Kings and Queens of the Internet
Obviously, because the youth spends more time in the Internet than in studying, they learned how to live well with it (probably needs just a little more help in strategy though). However compared to these old people who run big businesses and just banking on websites, the competition in winning the youth’s heart is not too wild. The youth wins the market.

If you’re already old, and you don’t know how to use the Internet well… you may just as well cry now.
You know about how the old working people are scared of the new graduates? Well you can totally apply it here. The kings and queens of the Internet, can totally eat an old ignorant alive.

I am not so sure if I am making a point, as I have totally swam inside an ocean of metaphors.
But let me just end this like this: I hope the website-Multiply-Facebook thing of companies will soon expand into a more strategic Internet involvement.

I hope that four years from now, I can also reminisce the Internet-involvement of companies. That their being strategic then in the cyberworld will make me call this time a “so four years ago” kind of thing.

The informative sites will come to an end.
So that leaves me the next few hours thinking how it would be applied to my organization.
LOL. Crap. Of course, I practice what I preach.