Who are you?

This blog post is for our Data Mining subject under Mr. Mon Duremdes, which explores Online reputation and how it affects you as a person.

Reputation. Impression. How others see you...

These are just a few things a person needs to give importance to when it comes to personal interaction. In the cyberworld, we also interact with others so there's this thing called Online Reputation. With the growing number of social networking sites and with information literally at your fingertips, you can be loved or hated just by looking at your website. People can "Google" you and voila! they know you.

Online Reputation is how people see you over the internet. Reputation can actually be negative or positive. It will just depend on the person which reputation to build up and either can cost you BIG. Online reputation is a factor that affects you as a contributor to the society, as a person.

So what's the big idea? Why is your online reputation so important?

I came across an article about monitoring your online reputation and it had this comment which also happens to be a song:

"I don't give a damn about my reputation!
You're living in the past, it's a new generation!
Hey, a girl can do what she wants to do
And that's what I'm gonna do!
And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation
Oh no No, no, no, no, no, no, no Not me Me, me, me, me, me, me!!!"

Interesting! This girl actually has online reputation. You be the judge.

The world today is officially radical and more so, transparent. It's radically transparent. It is the Information Age after all. Google is already a household term. You need recipes? Google it! (Recipes? Now that's really household.) But you get my drift.

Google has changed the way people do research. No more big books and it is very transparent. Google can actually give you millions if not, billions of results for every word search you make. Every detail you can find. Every blog, site and profile can present lots of information and more importantly, criticisms which are actually really interesting to read if you ask me.

People are talking about you online. Who would not want to read juicy gossip and negative articles about others? The cyberworld has no more reservations. People say what they want to say, compliments and complaints both. It's a free (virtual) world.

So, how would you like other people blogging about you? Cool right? But that depends on the content of the blog.What could they be saying about you? How can you actually monitor your online reputation? How can you turn it all around and use these conversations to your advantage?

Here's a good news. According to the book Radically Transparent by Beal and Strauss. There are a number of do-it-yourself monitoring tools available over the internet. There's

• Google Alerts - where you can check your sites just like e-mail
  

• bloglines.com - free service where you can check favorite blogs and sites for monitoring reputation
  

• netvibes.com - where you can use feeds to regularly check your online image
  

• feedblitz.com - where you can market your sites or blogs for building up online reputation
  

• Copernic Tracker - keeps you updated on new things or posts from different sites
  

If you also want to monitor brand profiles, there's LinkedIn, Naymz and Facebook. These sites allow you to see how people respond to your favorite brands and even manage your own brand. These sites are used by professionals to broaden their network and build relationships.

The book also discusses

• how you should define who you are, create and develop your online personality.
• thinking twice before sending e-mails and posting content over the internet and
  
• creating a positive image.
  

Being radically transparent is actually a bit of a shock from our past culture of being reserved and modest. Nowadays, people react to their experiences by what they truly feel and sometimes do not even mind if they hurt or offend others online.

Online reputation or reputation itself is something that's easily forgotten or neglected because of today's culture and lifestyle. Rumors about you might have already spread online and you're the last to know. The internet is the biggest database and something about someone is bound to be in it.

Monitoring your online reputation is just as important as guarding your physical self from forces outside that may harm your integrity. As graduating students, I believe that our online reputation may very well indicate what kind of persons we are. Companies that we will apply for can research about us and not even consider calling us for an interview. That would be bad.

Our group monitors our assigned company through Google Analytics. We can actually see what's going on in the company and its competitors through updates. The Telecommunications industry is facing a lot of issues right now that might make or break their reputation. Issues like the "Prepaid Load Validity","Spam Messages", etc. Monitoring tools can actually make or break their reputation as bloggers can jump at this situation for criticism.

My group mates also discussed meaningful posts about online reputation. You can see Camille's, Chabby's, Julie's and Ikah's blogs.

about me, my studies and data mining

Name: Danielle Benig
Nickname: Deedin(n. dee-din)
Year Level: Senior
School: De La Salle Canlubang yeah!
Course: Business Administration - Management
Blog Purpose: Data Mining
Professor: Sir Mon Duremdes

i ♥ everyday, books and music.

I took up the course not knowing what exactly I'd learn from it but as I went through it in all my subjects I actually came to love it. College, for me, has also been a way of self-discovery. It's a stepping stone and it slowly changes the way I look at things and in a way lifts me to the "real" world.

So far, I can say that I am still in good terms with my studies.

Data Mining, as what I've learned so far, deals with discovery, a very present aid to today's business generation where information is crucial.

"Information Age: Where Knowledge is Power."


:)

Advantage is actually Gain

Technologies are drastically changing the way we look at businesses. It practically has a new face. These technologies are called "disruptive technologies". It sounds bad but it isn't. It has but a great influence in decisions, businesses, progress and even pop culture. This blog post explores how these technologies play a vital role in today's society and is a partial requirement for our Data Mining class led by Mr. Ramon Duremdes.

There are also posts about gaining advantages in IT written by my classmates Camille, Charles, Julie and Ikah.


From the article "Competing on Analytics" by Thomas Davenport, I saw this really interesting statement

Some companies have built their very businesses on their ability to collect, analyze and act on data.

which says that the collection and analysis of data are actually some of the pillars of a successful business. According to the article, organizations are rapidly transforming into information gobblers which is true. Today's organizations compete on business intelligence and analytics not just because they can but because they should.

Everybody wants to gain advantage and what better way to have it by checking out what others do and have. This is what they call the democratization of information access. This democratization brought about a big difference in how organizations do business today.

Businesses now know everything about their consumers... what products they want, how they want it, how much they are willing to pay for it and everything essential to their business. Business processes has become a last concern for differentiation. This gives businesses a total advantage and room for growth. Business Intelligence has come a long way from what it is years ago.

Since it is very useful in today's business generation, the decisions they make, whether big or small strive to be the best and are the best because of Business Intelligence. A lot of major players in different industries use Business Intelligence solutions that helps them get ahead of competitors. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Marriott International and UPS are already using these technologies to remain on top of their game.

überanalytics!

Business intelligence understands what it takes to be successful. A lot of websites that we see and use everyday are not just regular sites. From what I found out, these sites are extremely analytical and they follow a "test and learn" approach to business changes.

Although many organizations now use software analytics and these so called disruptive technologies, it is still a matter of making the information useful to drive the performance of the business. All organizations have access to information. Not all organizations have access to the right information.

Drastic changes in business intelligence, sophisticated networks, powerful processing, inexpensive storage all contributes to solutions that work. Not only is an organization concerned about "what happened" but it is also concerned about "what's happening now" and "what's likely to happen". These whats are crucial. These whats are the very heart of why a company wants to gain competitive advantages.

INTELLIGENCE is exploring every possibility. Every detail. Every room for improvement and growth.

How are Information Technology and gaining competitive advantages useful for telecommunications? Very.

A telecommunication company cannot work witveryhout networks, without intelligence, and more so without information. It is like working with nothing. Nothing will happen. Information is the air telecommunication companies breathe. Business intelligence is its blood. Without both, all these telecommunication companies will all be useless. Dead.

To be able to cater to the needs of subscribers, companies like Smart and Globe rely on information.

Are there limitations to these disruptive technologies? I think that the possibilities are endless. A lot has been going on with technology back then, how much more now? Sooner or later, businesses will know every single detail about their consumers, which is honestly a bit scary.

All in all, Business Intelligence is a very powerful tool for gaining competitive advantage. This tool should be used intelligently to achieve results.