In N Out Burger vs. Whataburger

What Do You Have The Taste For?

An analysis of fast-food restaurant's Instagram accounts

Food is something that everyone in the world enjoys. If someone is not eating food they sure do enjoy looking at it. Restaurants and fast food restaurants all over the world have been using social media accounts to their advantage, especially heavily visual platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. They use these for advertisement and to create a unity and relationship with their customers. By following a restaurant account on Instagram someone is now able to be in the loop of what is constantly going on at their establishment. It also gives the follower a way to show their support for the restaurant and what they stand for. Because Texans are always claiming that Whataburger has the best burger and Californians are always saying that In N Out Burger has the best burger, I decided it would be appropriate to compare the two restaurants to see which company is more successful on their social media accounts. In this case, I just analyzed their Instagram accounts. The main purposes for these accounts are to inform, connect and interact with their followers. Whichever account utilizes all three of these things the most is what I would define to be a successful platform.

There is a lot to look at and analyze, even just looking at Instagram, and had to decide what things to look at to give me the best data. All of the things I've looked at have covered one of the three areas to make a successful page (inform, connect & interact). I first analyzed the basics, this includes everything in the "about" area of the Instagram page. The logo, number of posts, number of followers, number following and the actual written about section. Continuing more into detail I then looked at the posts, to be more specific I looked at the most recent 20 posts of both In N Out and Whataburger. I looked at posts, post types, likes, comments and the top posts in the 20 that I looked at.

The "What", "A", "In", "Out" and About

What is going to make someone follow a restaurants account? This is on some connection that is made from the follower to the company. This is probably a majority of why people would follow In N Out and Whataburger. Connections can sometimes be built through logos and colors. In this case, both of these companies worked extremely hard to get their logo well known and establish their "colors" to represent their company. Whataburger establishes a layering white "W" with a gradient of orange behind it. Their colors are obviously white and orange and the "W" can be recognized from anyone who is familiar with it. In N Out uses a classic red hyphened "in-n-out burger". There is also a yellow arrow that intersects the "n" pointing to the right. Both of these logos do an excellent job at what they were designed to do.

Both pages contain a high follower amount but Whataburger takes the win in followers topping at 196k and In N Out trailing behind at 181k. Another interesting thing is that In N Out Burger is following 0 people, while Whataburger is following 72 people. The 72 people consists of their sponsors, a few random people and a few animal accounts (weird but funny and I guess effective). In "The Social Media Reader", Mandiberg talks about the importance of audience. It is not only important to have one but is just as equally important to keep them. This has a lot to do with interaction and when Whataburger follows some of their most important sponsors it shows care and support. This is what works best when developing a continuous and supportive audience. This gives them a more "real" feeling, less like a massive company and more like people. In N Out now feels like one of those un-real companies that doesn't establish a sense of realness.

In "Spreadable Media", the authors explain the importance of spreadability and some of the tools that are needed for medias to have in order to be successful. One of their main points is to constantly share content, just as Guy Kawasaki supports as he explains the importance of continuously getting and sharing new content. This is something that is not only important to rack up followers but it also show constant activity and that is usually what a majority of people are looking to follow. Whataburger posts almost daily counting in at 1,258 posts. While In N Out has 59 posts. This means that Whataburger is creating and posting more content for their followers to interact with. In N Out posts sometimes monthly, giving minimal content for its followers to share and interact with.

 Whataburger gives a brief description of what someone would expect and briefly advertises its social media app. There is nothing really special about their about until you compare it to In N Out's.

In In N Outs they give their brief description and include a catch phrase "Serving the highest quality burgers, fries and shakes since 1948. Followed by a copyright symbol. This to me once again creates the feeling of a massive company, not really giving its audience an attached feeling. It then of course advertises its website just as Whataburger advertised it's app.

Posts, posts and more posts

The importance of Instagram is simple, it's to post, get a lot of likes and hope its shared. This is the main goal of why these accounts exist. I analyzed the posts of both of these accounts by creating three categories for which I thought would be the most prevalent in a restaurants social media account. These three categories are food, no food and people and food. I then looked at the most recent 20 posts from both the accounts. Separating the posts into their corresponding categories I was then able to get some data:

	FOOD	NO FOOD	PEOPLE AND FOOD
WHATABURGER	12	3	5
IN-N-OUT	5	15	0

In N Out has had 5 posts dedicated to advertising their food, while this is only out of 20, the account only has 59 posts. Browsing over their account they hardly have any posts containing their food. This is strange to me because this is what I would think would be most prevalent in both In N Out's account and Whataburger's account. Whataburger has 12 posts out of the 20 containing their food. This is more of what I was expecting. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just not what I was expecting. However, I do believe that by posting content of their food can make their followers more in the mood to eat. If the account isn't posting mouth-watering and juicy pictures it is a lot less likely for the follower to crave the food. Here are the top FOOD post based on likes:

Friends who Whataburger together stay together. 📷 by: @chicagofoodpharaoh

A photo posted by Whataburger (@whataburger) on Dec 4, 2016 at 3:38pm PST

Freshness you can taste.® #quality #burger

A photo posted by In-N-Out Burger (@innout) on Jan 16, 2015 at 10:31am PST

Back to the data table:

	FOOD	NO FOOD	PEOPLE AND FOOD
WHATABURGER	12	3	5
IN-N-OUT	5	15	0

The next category that I looked at was NO FOOD. This category is any posts, within the 20, that did not contain any direct food advertisement. This was what I was expecting to have the lest amount in both the restaurants, but once again I was proven wrong. In N Out had 13 posts within the 20 that were not of their food. While Whataburger only had a minimal amount of 3. Here are the top NO FOOD posts based on likes:

Introducing our new 2017 tshirt!

A photo posted by In-N-Out Burger (@innout) on Nov 25, 2016 at 9:01am PST

You know you’re with the right person when you love them as much as you love Whataburger. 📷 by: @caitlinthurman

A photo posted by Whataburger (@whataburger) on Dec 2, 2016 at 3:38pm PST

In the top embedded photo In N Out is using this to promote their new 2017 t-shirt design. This is strictly a merchandise and advertising post and it struck their followers in a really good way. With 12.7k likes there is no arguing with that. The picture itself is a professional picture, casting a silhouette of palms against the orange dusk sky. It also contains a realistic In N Out Burger logo in the bottom left corner. Its followers are excited with the news of the new t-shirt coming. This proves that their followers want the connection and want to be affiliated with In N Out. The connection is one of the things that makes an account successful and here in this post for In N Out, it definitely succeeds. In both of these categories In N Out destroys the amount of likes these posts get. The first post "Freshness you can taste" it is simply a well thought out picture. It is very obvious that it is highly edited and it was taken by a professional but this really struck the audience that follows In N Out. 
The Whataburger picture creates a completely different vibe. Most of the photos that Whataburger posts are taken from their followers. This checks off the box for connection and interaction. Both of these things can work really well together on Instagram, as Whataburger proves. The amount of likes on this picture are significantly lower but is it more effective? The picture shows a newly wed couple kissing in front of a Whataburger location. "You know you're with the right person when you love them as much as you love Whataburger (with assigned photocreds). This is sharing someone else's experiences, which as we learned in Dr. Vrooman's class, people love to watch other peoples experiences and get the insight on other peoples lives as much as possible. This picture does exactly that, it also is obviously not a professional photo and it has photocreds. As a follower it makes you more inclined to think "hey I want them to share my photo" creating more interaction between Whataburger and its followers, especially in the aspect of sharing. This is because more of Whataburger followers are more likely to take pictures of their food and share it with the tag. This photo also has a fairly low amount of likes compared to the In N Out top photo. Whataburger gets a significantly lower amount of likes. This is weird because Whataburger has a larger number of followers than In N Out. It also kind of makes sense at the same time because In N Out doesn't post as frequently, making whatever they do post seem more significant.
In the last category of FOOD AND PEOPLE:

	FOOD	NO FOOD	PEOPLE AND FOOD
WHATABURGER	12	3	5
IN-N-OUT	5	15	0

Whataburger has more (5) than In N Out (0). This is something that I was expecting more from both companies. People with their food, I would think, would be their biggest connections and interactions. Whataburger still has more than In N Out which makes complete sense based on how In N Out uses their account. Here is the top Whataburger PEOPLE AND FOOD post based on likes:

Sharing your Whataburger is how you show true love! 📷 by: @steelamy

A photo posted by Whataburger (@whataburger) on Nov 20, 2016 at 10:35am PST

Are we going to eat yet, 'cause I'm hungry?

While looking and discussing the data it is clear that both of these accounts serve a different purpose than the other. Whataburger places an emphasis on making a strong connection with its followers and its users. They do this by sharing almost all of their followers photos and giving them credit for posting. It is kind of like a rewards system, you tag us in a photo we will post it. While not every photo gets re-posted by Whataburger it keeps people constantly sharing to hope they are one of the chosen ones. Whataburger builds a strong connection and also builds a strong interaction while doing this they are also informing through the advertisement of their food. Not only are they sharing the coolest pictures but they are choosing ones that are in the current promotion. Not only do these posts serve the purposes of what the company of Whataburger wants but they are also delivering content to Instagram. People are seeing these posts as soon as they are posted. On Instagram not a lot of things can be shared easily, it is becoming easier now but a lot of the time tagging someone in the comments is one of the easiest forms of sharing something on Instagram. Whataburger comments are almost 90% tagging. I think that this counts as sharing media and it most certainly would to the authors of "Spreadable Media".
In N Out places a higher emphasis on less quantity and more quality. This is obvious from their lack of postings and from their few posts they have a higher hit of likes. In N Out relies on the connection that their followers have made for them, they do not reciprocate. Also, no connection is made between the followers (customers) and their food. That is something that is alarming to me is they aren't making a physical connection on their Instagram page to their customers.  This can become problematic, especially when a its page has minimal amount of the food that they serve. They do create a well informed page, by announcing new merchandise and wishing everyone a holiday season. In N Out's content is a lot less relatable and a lot less sharable. While they do get a higher number of likes there aren't as many comments. There is still a high number of tags but not nearly as much as Whataburger. This is because there stuff just simply is not sharable and is not relatable. Does this make In N Out less successful? Probably not and this may just not be In N Out's main social media platform. They are still going to be successful regardless, could they be more successful in social media? I definitely think so.
Whataburger definitely takes the win as far as informing their audience, making a connection and being interactive. So this makes it a successful social media platform. In N Out lacks connection and interaction by creating minimal sharable content but creating a great deal of informative posts making it not as successful as it could be.

We are not miracle-workers, so how can this be fixed?

In N Out its not the end of the world, there is still time to change! If I were to run this Instagram account I would do a number of things differently making their page more interactive and more connecting.
First, I would start posting a whole lot more. A post every month is not going to do any justice. More content the better chances that the information is going to be shared. I would be posting almost daily, even weekly. It needs to be available when the audience wants it. In "Spreadable Media" the authors state, "available when and where audiences want it...if you build it, they will come". This proving my point exactly the more content, the more interaction.
Second, I would create a less official page. The page seems like it is too robotic, with all of the copyrights, the official checkmark and their lack of following other people. This way it makes an equal level and doesn't create a feeling of hierarchy.
Third, would definitely have to be the connection factor. This would consist of me reposting other pictures that their loyal customers have been taking and letting them know how much we appreciate them. By doing this it creates a connection with their followers and customers. It also increases the amount of interaction the page gets by people now tagging more and more to try and become featured on their page. In chapter 5 in "Spreadable Media", it states "Content that appeals to more than on target audience, both intended and surplus audiences, has greater meaning as spreadable media". This is what making a connection is all about, it benefits the audience tagged and it also benefits the rest of the followers and recreates moments that others may have experienced as well.
Lastly, I would want to create more media that advertised the promotion of their food. Less graphics more food! This is why people come to your establishment, this is why people follow the account! It's more important than one might think.
By taking these steps, they aren't too hard, and applying them I think that In N Out burger could potentially have a higher follower base and create a ton more of shareable media.

Even though Whataburger won in my analysis, it doesn't mean In N Out can't "flip" the results.

Facebook Posts: On The Grind vs. Emily's Coffee Shoppe

Social media is always causing a battle between businesses in the world today, especially smaller businesses where most of their popularity is from social media. In todays society it makes it much easier to follow the processes of what's going on around us without actually having to put out any effort. This is what we tend to do on social media, is we follow something that we are interested in so we can have access to it at all times. Following a small business can allow you to not only show support but it can keep you updated on certain promotions, new products and events they are taking apart in around the community.

Smaller businesses that usually thrive on social media a lot of the times are the least popular. This is often because they only get attention when something beneficial is being posted by them that other people want to take advantage of. In this case I examined On The Grind, an uprising business in the small community of New Braunfels, TX and I also examined Emily's Coffee Shoppe, an even smaller coffee shop in the heart of Cibolo, TX. Both of these businesses use their Facebook accounts for the exact reason of wanting to get their business seen to get people to come try their coffee. Conducting a small analysis of a small sampling of likes, comments, and shares on their Facebook pages, I have come across some interesting results for each individual business I examined. I have found that if the company is making a connection with the audience and the audience is getting something out of it, it can than become a successful post.

Going through the Facebook page of OTG I found that they have definitely created a mass audience for themselves, well at least more of an audience than Emily's Place. I found that most of the posts that got the most activity were for specials that the company was giving such as 4 drinks for $10, or 9 stamps on a stamp card for 1 drink, or 1$ smalls, $2 mediums and $3 large drinks. These types of things benefit people because they can not only save money, but they can also enjoy their favorite drink with benefitting towards the next purchase. This not only gives a reason for the customers to come back but it also gives them a chance to engage with the company and share the great news with their followers to help them save some money.

 

This was an example of a post that was shared over 50 times. This is because someone had the opportunity to win free coffee for an entire month. This has something beneficial not only for the customer but to the business as well. People are going to share this because its an opportunity to win free coffee, who wouldn't want free coffee for an entire month. So the company is aware that this is going to get shared. Now the company not only made this a high shared post, but they also integrated a contest into the post. Now people are having to go to the stand, order a drink, decorate the cup, post a picture of it online and cross their fingers in hopes to win. This is now promoting OTG and getting interaction with their customers in a positive way. This totally works in every aspect of a successful post. 

 

Here is another example of one of their high posts. This one is buying 4 drinks for only $10. This post is connecting with the audience because they are posting it out and they know its going to be shared, and its also giving the audience something in return, which is the promotion. These types of posts seem to be the ones that work best for OTG and are the ones with the highest activity of likes, shares and comments.

 

However Emily's Place has an entire different agenda, this company doesn't have as great of an audiences as OTG has. This coffee shop is located in an even smaller town Cibolo. Here is mainly local people and less traffic comes through the area, but it is interesting as to how the same style posts as OTG also work for Emily's Place.

Here is the graph showing results for likes, comments and shares for Emily's Place.

 

 

 

This post has one of the highest counts of social media activity on their page. This post invites the customers to come out and take a picture in this fall theme booth and advertises their wonderful coffee. This makes a connection with the audience and it also gives them something, a great picture spot. Emily's place also fails in some other ways:

This post is one that didn't get all that much interaction whatsoever. This is just inviting their customers to come to their coffee shop. However, as someone on social media there is no reason to share this. It does not establish a connection with the audience and it doesn't give them anything. Not only this, but they don't even use a graphic that helps share who they are. A picture of their coffee shop would be much more effective, but this generic picture kind of makes them seem un-legit. These are the types of posts are almost irrelevant to the social media world and will not hold up. If someone saw a post like this versus a post from OTG people in Cibolo are probably more likely to drive to New Braunfels to save some money and get a great coffee.

Social media posts are more likely to be effective with proper imaging, making a connection with the audience they are targeting and giving the audience something they want. When all or some of these connections are made, the post gets higher numbers. Everyone loves coffee but which shop would you be more likely to go to based on these posts?

Is it Worth Sharing?

Sharing has become a huge part of social media, in fact that is what social media can be defined as. Sharing peoples ideas and information has become apart of everyday life and can be accessed through our smart phones at all times throughout a day. Just because there is a ton of media at our finger tips doesn't mean that its worthy of being shared. How does one know what is sharable and what isn't.

Humor is a huge part of why people share in social media. Not just any humor though, the humor has to be a trending in what is funny in social medias. "Recognizing a joke involves exchanging judgments about the world and defining oneself either with or against others", says Mary Douglas. "Humor is not simply a matter of taste: it is a vehicle by which people articulate and validate their relationships with those whom they share the joke", she adds. This is a common tradition of why people share things, the humoristic side emphasizes those relationships with humor. If someone is able to identify something important or not important through a joke, it is more easily able to catch someone's attention.

Memes are always evolving to form with whatever events are trending and can be transform any sort of social issue into a joke.

 

In this meme it brings together the community that is anti-Donald Trump and connects them with an Orange is the New Black message. Not only is this meme going to appeal to those that are anti Trump but it also will be sharable for those who favor OITNB. If something has a greater message it is more likely to be shared especially through humor because everyone is willing to listen or see humoristic things. This clearly has a defined message but by adding in OITNB it serves as a gap as is shared in chapter 5 of Spreadable Media. 

The second thing that I think really promotes something to be sharable is its importance. However, this idea of importance must also be intertwined with my followers for it to be sharable. This not only makes the sharer feel more knowledgeable, in the case of being the first one to hear about it but it also helps get interactions and connections from your followers.

In this case I would share this sort of thing with my followers. Not only does it affect me but the people that follow me. It will promote some kind of interaction with the people that I am friends with on social media. This is going to save the city more money and it could end up helping us TLU students in the long run. Like maybe they can fix the on campus roads with this extra money. In this case it would be important to all my fellow students and peers that I follow. It would also create a sort of boundary for helping them out and sharing something that is relevant to them.

If the message isn't relative to most of the followers a lot of people will share directly. It is still functioning as the same purpose, just not to a mass amount of people. Inside jokes are a common one, or relatable things between you and a small number of people. It also can depend on what kind of social media platform that you are sharing on. This has a lot to do with different audiences and how they will respond different on something like Facebook vs. Twitter. These are two different levels of how something and why something should be shared.

Thirdly I believe that some things will always be sharable and those types of things function under what Lotz suggests in chapter 5:
-available when audiences want it
-portable
-easily reusable
-relevant to multiple audiences
-part of a stream
In these cases something is always going to be shared for at least one of these reasons. It doesn't necessarily matter what the topic is, but it will always matter on one of Lotz's stipulations. Sharing is easy and actually quite simple but for the individual reasons of why certain things are shared and why certain things are not is a complicated concept.

The fourth thing that posts must include to be sharable is something relevant to a particular audience that is on the social media channel you are interacting on. In this case it would be important for you to share something about Texas Lutheran University if you attend the university and have followers that are also in your community of TLU. This will make it more likeable and sharable because it is relevant to those around you. However, if you were to share something about TLU to a community of people who aren't in college the share ability of that post has decreased significantly, not because the post isn't good but its just not relevant to that particular audience.

Lastly a post is more likely to be shared if it can irritate or up-rise a particular audience by standing out. This can relate to some of the political posts that are all over Facebook and these posts are high profile for people to comment and share their opinion on them. This has to do with the connections of people to what they believe their timelines to be full of. If a person sees something on their timeline that isn't in their beliefs they are more likely to share content on it because it stands out. Standing out doesn't always have to be with political views, it can also be done with photographs and stories.

Humans like to be entertained but its sometimes one of the hardest things to do is to get someone to pay attention, this is why the post must stand out like a sore thumb to the audience. This is how news posts get shared at such a high rate, they have an aspect that stands out, usually by a terrifying headline. As economist Richard Caves explains that uncertainty principle is not knowing what our audience really wants, but its important to make content available in forms that the audience will find useful. There will never be an answer for what makes our audience more likely to share something but there are tactics we can use to make the odds high for sharing content.

Crowdsourcing Response

"Even if these social movements are just in the form of memes about Trumps hair, they are still created by a crowd coming together with a common goal in mind in order to create, share, and make a recognizable theme of humor that those outside of this crowd can understand," Kaydee Nance shares. I can totally agree to this statement not only does crowdsourcing allow a crazy amount of communication but is all towards the same goal. Isn't this what the work force is looking for now and days, people that can work together with massive amounts of people to work towards one goal? I think so and I think that crowdsourcing is way more important than we think.

With the presidential campaign being the hottest topic in the media these days the campaigns have been skewed off to finding all of the terrible information about our candidates and sharing it and putting it on blast through social media. People add on to it, create new things from it and share even more. This is where crowdsourcing can sometimes become problematic. Now nothing is highlighted in the media about good things that these candidates are doing...not that there are any. However, so much work is going against them instead of support. "The reasoning behind this type of crowdsourcing is if you get a big enough group of people together, it will make up for the unhelpful weirdos who just scream conspiracy theories when they have nothing else, and they never do," says Kaydee. This proves the point exactly, that yes crowdsourcing is important and can be extremely useful but only if it is used in the correct manor. 

I also believe that it depends on the size of how big the "crowd" is. Based on that size restricts the level of effectiveness that it may or may not have. Like in class having about 12 students it was possible to locate where the absent student was based on the resources that we, 12 students, had. This goes to show what a small amount of people can sometimes figure out, sometimes the bigger the crowd the better the results but I feel that it doesn't always go that way. Sometimes there needs to be a very specific amount of people targeting the same thing rather than too many. There is a workable number and I think that when that number is off it creates things like the rage towards our candidates or conspiracy theories.

Remixed Stranger Things

"Never before in the history of copyright law has it regulated so broadly. In my view it makes no sense to regulate this broadly right now. Instead copyright law needs to focus on professional work being copied without being remixed," says Mandiberg. The Netflix original series Stranger Things, recently released on Netflix has caused a huge uproar in our TV series world this past few months. The show captures an 80s nostalgia with a heavy sci-fi background that is derived from previous shows. This show has not only gained a lot of attention but it has started an entire new fan base for sci-fi lovers, especially directed towards this show.

Fans often create fan work based on how much they love the show and the creation of the show. There are different levels of fandom that sometimes can go to the extreme. I believe in the hierarchy of this fandom the base level is just watching the show. While anyone can watch the show and enjoy it or hate it. This is the most simplistic level of interaction. Usually this causes an engagement in conversation with other people that have the same or differing opinions on the show. While the extreme fans create and export new medias that support the show, such as art work, drawings, cos-play and discussion boards. Some fans even take it to the next level of re-creating what was already created and putting there own spin on it. In this case the YouTube famous "Super Fruit" that have over two million subscribers are recreating or commenting on popular media to make fun.

This remix of Stranger Things is clearly only pointed towards people who enjoy the show and its a comical relief that makes fun of the show. It is actually hard to tell if the cast that created this video is a true fan or is just making fun of the show. This is problematic to me. This not only creates massive spoilers for the people who haven't watched the show but it puts a negative impact on those who do watch this before the show. They will then only compare the show to this remix, instead of watching the show for the sake of the show. I would be concerned for the copyright laws and the Duffer Brothers (creator of show) because millions of people are watching this. It not only gives away an entire season of spoilers in a short three minutes but it is also creating satire. As Mandiberg says, "The context will help us distinguish between copies and remixes". I believe that this is definitely a remix and serves its purpose for comical relief to the fans but it serves a negative purpose to the audience that hasn't viewed it and that's what is concerning to me.

Super Fruit is now making money off of this remix and is now just suddenly their own because of a title change. Everyone who watches this know that it isn't there idea so its not problematic that its being copied but it is making money which could be a problem for the creators. "This law needs to change, but so do we. We need to practice respect for this new generation of creators", says Mandiberg. I agree with what he is saying and his idea of how this new economy is based heavily of sharecropping. Everyone's work now and days is built up off of the ideas of other people and it is so easy to take part in because of how easy it is to share ideas on the internet.

Always on Politics

Hillary Clinton is taking the day off again, she needs the rest. Sleep well Hillary - see you at the debate!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2016

"Mainstream American campaign news has been shaped by the same norms and routines as other daily news: a norm of objectivity according to which reporters are strongly discouraged from expressing personal opinion", as Farrar-Myers and Vaughn share in Controlling the Message. It is interesting to find that most people who are sharing these ideas and opinions on the political campaign are actually doing the opposite. Politics has become an even nastier battle-field where no ones opinions are respected but rather shot down in an instant. Even Donald Trump, as shown above, is bashing Hilary Clinton. He is recognizing the fact that she has taken some time off of Twitter and the campaign and makes the assumption that she is sleeping. Our candidates are even expressing personal opinion on their own campaign!
Twitter has definitely played a huge role on this years political campaign. Trump is only tweeting 4 to 8 times a day, most of his Tweets are bashful like the one shared above about Clinton. People are always looking for what he's going to say next, especially the democrats. In a way he has become more successful on Twitter for causing arguments amongst his followers. I believe that Twitter has made it a lot easier to get insight on the candidates personal life, where most elections before this no one saw. Twitter is a glass window into candidates lives and in our lives error occurs more often then wed expect, however, our errors are easier to recover from, especially when it is not going to go viral on social media sites. It creates a "transparency to followers" as Farrar-Myers and Vaughn share. These candidates are not able to recover so easily where everything they do can be shared in an instant and already cause an uproar with people on social media.

Terrible attacks in NY, NJ and MN this weekend. Thinking of victims, their families and all Americans! We need to be strong!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2016

Great job once again by law enforcement! We are proud of them and should embrace them - without them, we don't have a country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2016

These are some "recovery" Tweets that Trump is supposedly in agreement with. While now the people on social media are more likely to be informed on campaign information, we are now unaware of what's the truth and what's not. Trump could be Tweeting these or the person he hired could be. It actually doesn't really even matter because recovery is a huge part of why these candidates use Twitter.
Hilary uses Twitter a completely different way. As her page is a lot less self selling and more selling of what she is in favor for, for this country. She Tweets almost double the amount that Trump does but gets a lot less interaction. Even when she posts hot topics:

Trump’s calls to torture and mistreat prisoners go against the very values we are fighting to defend. We’re better than this.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 20, 2016

Hilary claims to sign her tweets with "-H" when they are directly from her. Clintons most recent Tweet signed by her is:

Another unarmed Black man was shot in a police incident. This should be intolerable. We have so much work to do. #TerenceCrutcher -H

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 20, 2016

This has considerably more interaction with the public than most of her other Tweets. This brings me to my point of people wanting that feeling of "transparency". Like explained with Trump, he brings a lot of conversation to social media and starts a lot of interaction amongst his followers, even if they don't agree with him! This interaction is caused because he says tons of ridiculous things all the time, where as Clinton says what she thinks people want to hear. People respond to what they believe, not to things that you want them to believe. Trump definitely has said some crazy things and because he says them people are more responsive because they believe that he might actually do it. Transparency=Success on social media.

Always on Response

#MarthaAndSnoop @VH1 comn soon 👊🏾 @marthastewart48

A photo posted by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) on Sep 18, 2016 at 1:24am PDT

Social media in a way has become a documentation of peoples lives while they are always sharing what they have done, what they are doing and what they are going to do. People, especially people who are heavily involved with social media feel a desire to share with others. This is how humans are naturally wired, we all want to be connected with the people we like or the people we care about. This is the phenomenon with social media in this generation, is now we are sharing information out with people who we aren't even wanting an interaction with. As Kaydee http://kdcomm339blog.blogspot.com/ said in her post, "However, being “on” doesn’t always mean you are connected with those who are also “on”. I find myself being both on and “on”, but I don’t necessarily find myself feeling connected or “connected” with those who are always on and “on”; not even with my friends who are actually my friends, I’m just there to be supportive in the form of a like or comment."
Snoop Dogg has been one of those people on social media that just shares for responses. He posts on Instagram up to six times a day. He is just looking for a connection with anyone who is online, unlike typical users such as myself, where I only post to get interaction with my friends. Snoop is trying to get interactions with anyone and everyone.

 

This post clearly shows meaning as to why he posting. He is advertising a new cooking show that is going to be airing soon. However this is just one post. Where most of his posts are useless, like this one:

 

A photo posted by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) on Sep 15, 2016 at 11:21pm PDT

This one is has a completely different purpose and he is clearly trying to target different audiences. He is just trying to target those who are "On". Where as the first picture was clearly an advertisement for his own fame, clearly targeting his fans and people who admire Martha Stewart. This is interesting, especially for Instagram where only photos and videos are shared, for everyday people this is where they go to get noticed and are trying to get shared by people. This is the reason for hashtags and people go to the extreme to try to get their posts shared. Some people even post the hashtags in their comments, so once they get shared they can delete their hashtags, making it look like they just got the fame. So why is it that everyone is so obsessed with wanting their media shared by everyone.

 



Looking up videos of kittens hugging each other, probably.

A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Sep 9, 2016 at 8:38pm PDT

Taylor Swift posts on Instagram for an entirely different reason. As the picture above shows she just wants to live her life through social media as a glass window for people to see what she does as a celebrity. People then feel empowered when they see a post that she posts, that they have also done. When people see this connection it gives them a feeling of empowerment and makes them feel good. So yes we are always "On" social media, but we are all "On" for different reasons. Those reasons define who we are as social media users and maybe even as people.

Wikipedia Response

While Wikipedia is credible and makes our lives all a lot easier because of its accessibility, how do we know that it is approving accurate information. We give people too much trust through the internet because we all assume they are their to help us, but this isn't always the case. In the Gifting readings all of Wikipedia would be considered gifts to society because people are posting information for our use while we give them nothing in return. This benefits us, but it doesn't really benefit the gifter. Yes, the gifter feels better about themselves theoretically with page views and popularity, but why do people feel the need to change information. This is the only problem I have with Wikipedia and its credibility, is so much has been changed and is constantly needing to be changed, I come to ask myself, what are the true facts.
When people share their posts on social media I still think that it belongs to them, but I think the more important question is why do they share it if they know it has the opportunity to be stolen or claimed by someone else. Social media is full of theft, hypocrisy and bad people yet we still offer up everything we post online to these people. I think that the benefit of the people we care about sharing things with outweighs the negative outcomes of having ideas stolen. Why do we care so much about what we post and who sees it? What determines some of us to put our accounts on private and others to leave them public? We have kind of developed altered senses of feelings through our social media, because in real-life we would never want to be robbed or have something stolen from us, but when something is stolen from us online it becomes less of an issue.

The Art of the Gift

The art of gifting is a hard on to understand. In its simplest terms gifting can actually be really simple, giving someone something and not expecting anything back in return, now what you had once paid money for or "owned" is now given up and that ownership is only shared theoretically, because it now belongs to the other person. Gifting gets more complicated when you are wondering whether to buy a gift for your boss during the holidays, in fear of your fellow co-workers calling you a suck up or a brown-noser. But what is it about gifting someone in a higher position than you are that makes us feel like we have done well? I believe this is the idea of wanting to get the total service as Marcel Mauss discusses in "The Gift".

"The tribe is organized by hierarchical confraternities and secret societies, the latter often being confused with the former, as with the clans. Everything-- clans, marriages, initiations, Shamanist séances and meetings for the worship of the great gods, the totems or the collective or individual ancestors of the clan...". Mauss feels as if there is a hierarchy in our society, which is definitely there so when something is gifted how does this affect the hierarchy? Mauss calls it an inextricable network of rites, of total legal an economical services this meaning we get something out of the act of gifting. The more someone gifts the more "total service" one receives. This total service isn't something tangible but it is rather a new position of where you sit compared to someone else. Gifting gives power over someone else, you gave them something they didn't have before or you shared a social media post that they would have never seen if you had not shared. All of these "gifts" give power over someone making them higher on the social ladder.

While it raises the person giving the gift higher, what does it do for the person receiving the gift. Does it make them lesser or does it give them a power they had not had beforehand? "The invitation must be given, and must be accepted", said Mauss. So by them accepting something shared, given or gifted they are not necessarily being moved to a lower position of total power, because they now have something they didn't before but they do not have a sense of more power over someone else. More gifts, more power!