This week in Leadership and Media Strategies our topics are word-of-mouth marketing, opinion leadership, and social influence and size of network.  After reading and viewing our assignments for the week, I look back on my adaptation of modern technology.  Around nine years ago, I remember assuring some of my high school college-prep students that I would never join something like Facebook.  Honestly, I had no idea what it was; I just knew that it was online and that they seemed obsessed spending time on it chatting with friends and posting pictures via their cell phones. Being old school was something that I was proud of. My students didn’t understand why I still called my friends, wrote and mailed letters and sent actual birthday cards. I had no use for such a thing.  After a few months and a lot of coaxing from my students, I finally joined MySpace and Facebook.  I still didn’t really understand what it was or why I really joined but I scored cool points with my students……. UNTIL I saw that several of my friends from college were on Facebook!

            Years earlier I had moved from the city to a rural area and lost contact with a lot of friends.  In no time, I reconnected with friends that I had not seen in decades.  I don’t know what happened to my MySpace page, but about nine years and over 1,000 Facebook friends later, I am a fan, to a point. Honestly I love Facebook because it is my lifeline to friends that I have lost touch with.  Over the years it has grown to include marketing of great products and it now keeps me informed on issues of the day. I cannot count the number of times I have learned of a death in our area or of a developing news story from Facebook instead of from mainstream news or a neighbor. Now there is much more advertising, and the members are so diverse, especially in age.  I personally don’t like the negative or disrespectful cultures, but my “online filter bubble” prevents me from distasteful topics in which I have no interest.  

            Just as I was reluctant to join social media, I never really desired a smart phone.  I had a Blackberry for years, and four years ago, I finally got an iPhone.  My cell phone is important.  It is far more important than Facebook. Focusing on our week’s topics, I look at my once reluctance towards things like social media and innovative technology and I see how marketing trends are changing just as I am.  Nine years ago, I was a laggard, slow to adapt to new technology and new communications. I am older than the asset-light generation.  Maybe this is one reason why it took me so long to adopt social media and smartphones, but I see their importance in my life just I see its importance in marketing.  A study this week weighed PC word of mouth versus mobile Internet word of mouth.  This study pointed out many reasons why more marketing is done through mobile Internet rather than PCs. Factors such as convenience, spontaneous and personal communication, purposive value and social enhancement influence marketing strategies just as it has my adaptation of innovations.

            But how in the world have I gone from a laggard to possibly an opinion leader?  I’ve grown probably because of the high school students that I interact with five days a week. My students are smart, technologically savvy leaders and they stay on top of trends that make their lives easier as part of the asset-light generation.  Often they see me struggling with things in my life and they introduce me to products and ideas that enhance my life. It wasn’t always this easy for me to accept change, but after buying an iPhone and experiencing all that it does to make my life easier I, in turn, introduce my friends to innovations brought to me by my students.  A lot of my friends have adopted social media and smart technology because I have influenced them to do so. One friend called Facebook “Fussbook” four years ago and vowed to never join.  She kept hearing me talk about my positive experiences re-sparking friendships and learning about new products through social media. She is now a proud member, posting and promoting her businesses constantly throughout the day. Word-of-mouth persuasions from my students in person and online have introduced me to so many vital innovations, and my word-of-mouth persuasions have introduced many of my friends to important innovations. My students are my opinion leaders in a lot of areas, and I am an opinion leader to a lot of my friends. 

            I truly understand why people are still reluctant to adopt technological and communication innovations.  Our topics this week made it very clear that the use of the Internet and social media can cause problems.  I had no idea that who I am and what I do on social media and the Internet can dictate the “online filter bubble” and keep me from being exposed to information that is important to me being “old school.” I may spend a lot of time online searching for trends to help my young students.  This, in turn, might make the filter bubble alienate me from information that I hold dear like health, nature, world tragedies, weather, and entertainment of decades ago. I must remember to spend as much time online with my interests as I do with my students’ interests until this problem is solved.
            My students are passionate about social media, and you cannot separate them from their cell phones.  But I guess the reason why these things are so important to them is because in their culture they truly believe in the why’s of their products and the things they hold dear.  They believe in the technology and innovations of today.  I criticize my students in that a lot of them cannot spell and that they lack important interpersonal skills because of technology. But they have grown up as members of social media and have had cell phones since elementary school if not before.  These things are a part of their culture just as a land line and running letters to the mailbox were a part of mine. 

            I have not changed much; I still call my friends, and still send birthday cards through the post office.  I just remember that I had lost touch with so many friends over the years that my network had become small.  Now, my circle of friends is much larger due to social media.  Now I not only send birthday wishes to a few friends through the post office every other month, but daily I send birthday wishes to several people via Facebook.  A lot of my friends live busy lives with their families all over the world, so texting and posting through social media is helping me to continue friendships that I once lost because of lack of communication.  I owe a lot to my students.  We enhance each other’s lives. I am fortunate enough to interact with such passionate people who have in turn introduced me to innovations that I rely on and hope to grow with in my future. They and the innovations that they have brought to me have changed my life, just as the technology of today is changing the lives of marketing and communications.