Social Media Project

Allstate is the company that my group chose for the social media project. The link to the social media's Wiki is http://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Allstate.

The social media project is a group project that allow us to do research on the social media policy and practice of a company. As we all know, the social media has transformed into the daily activities in our lives. It is important for all the companies to use different social medias to interact with their customers. Most of the companies now have Facebook, Twitter and an official website on the web. Companies can now get feedback faster and easier from their fans and customers by using these social media.

I can truly say that my group did a great job working with each others. Each group members were assigned with different part of the project. The project consists of research on the different social media that the company has. Each person then posted their work on the discussion board and have their work reviewed by other team members. At the end, everyone's works are post into the company's Wiki page.

Our project is based on Allstate, which is the second largest insurance company in the United States. Allstate is pretty good with their social media, they have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, official website, RSS, Google+ and a blog community. On their official website, all the social media has their own icon on webpage. Customers are have easy access through all the social media by clicking the icons.  

In conclusion, I think social medias are vital tools to today's business environment. If a business want to become successful, they will need to use social medias. 

Screen Capture by Yasmin Yuen, Allstate Official Website

Screen Capture by Yasmin Yuen, Allstate Twitter

Citation:
http://www.allstate.com/
http://www.allstate.com?cid=BAC-SN-Twitter

Week 11- Clear: Database Project Microsoft Access

By the end of this project, I felt comfortable with Microsoft Access. When I started doing the project, I thought I would never be able to finish it. With practice and research, Microsoft Access was becoming easier to use. I learned to use the basic skills for Microsoft Access, for example:  creating tables, queries, forms, and report. Creating a table was a bit challenging because we had to import a text document that needs to be import with special commands. Creating the query was a bit tough for me because I was stuck with one of the last 12 months returned data. It turns out that I did not pay attention to the field data types for the "left data" field. A lot of the functions in Microsoft Access required the user to pay attention and focus on the specific details.

 One way that I think Microsoft Access can do to enhance the functionality of this database is by having a training wheels function in the program. What I mean by training wheels is that every time when a beginner user starts to create a table, a query or a from, instructions will pop out of the program to help you with the function. Overall the program is a bit hard to use if you are a beginner user but like everything else, practice, practice, practice.

I think it is a great program to use because it is very organized. It can our business to growth because all the data for the company becomes easier to read and understand. Information and data can be organized in different forms and functions.

Excel Project

The Excel project was a great learning experience for all of us. As we all know, Excel is a very popular application software. Almost all companies use Excel today to manage the company data, numbers, tables and etc. In this Excel project, it is consisted of 1000 subjects with 21 heart rate measurements from time 0:00 to 20:00 for each subject. Using the skills we learned from the lesson videos, we need to format the data according to the instructions that were given to us.

In the Excel project, we learned different types of functions that are needed to become an expert. Well maybe not an expert but having the basic knowledge to perform different tasks. We learned the basic structure of Excel, how to create formulas, the different functions and how to create the pivot tables.

The biggest challenge I had in the Excel project was learning how to use the Pivot Table function. It was a bit challenging for me because it was a new concept. I work with Excel everyday but I never came across using the pivot table. Overall it was not hard to understand as long as you practice using the function. I enjoyed doing this project very much!!!

Presentation and WEB 2.0 Project- Sustainable Development

My presentation topic is about sustainable development. Here is the link to my presentation project on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5-DhDzey2s. 

I had a logical flow and sequence for my presentation. I presented a problem, a solution, why the company should use this solution, the benefits of it, other examples and a conclusion for the ending. There are always an answers to every questions that I presented in the PowerPoint. I make sure that there is a attention grabber at the beginning of the presentation. Using a picture of a trash landfill, I was able to grab the attention of my audience. The picture serve as a example of how our world can turn into a trash landfill where there are no resources to use. I also use a question under the same slide to spark some curiosity out from my audience. "Can you imagine a future with no resources but waste?", this question can also serve as a attention grabber and at the same time, it sparks curiosity.

I was very clear and explain to the audience the importance concept of the whole presentation. I make sure the audience know this presentation is use to persuade the CEO of my company to incorporate sustainable development at the very beginning. Everything is based on fact and there were no typos in the presentation. I did notice that there are clutter on one or two of my slides.Some slides were too busy and cause the audience to read instead of listening to my narration. I try to fix that problem by using animation effect on some of the bullet points. After my narration, the bullet point will then appear on the presentation. By using the animation effect, it helps me to say it then show it.

Based on the presentation evaluation rubric, I felt like I did a good job on my presentation project. I'm very shy when it comes to recording my voice over the PowerPoint. The reason why I am not confident with my voice recording is because knowing that I have an accent when I speak. I did overcome my fear and I did my best for the audio recording. I learned to say it then show it from critiquing my classmate's presentation. Instead of using bullet points, one can say it then use a picture to show the main points of the presentation. I also learned to avoid clutter on my slides. In many cases, the-less-the-better. 

The YouTube video below is my presentation. Enjoy!