Blog # 7: Chris Paul to the Clippers!!

Posted on December 15th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

The New Orleans Hornets just traded all-star point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange of promising shooting guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, second-year forward Al-Faroqu Aminu and a 2012 first-round draft pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves that is currently unprotected to the Hornets. This deal makes the Clippers a legit competitor in the Western Conference on paper. The combination of Blake Griffin and Chris Paul and the scoring ability of Caron Butler makes this team a lethal thread. Also, Chauncey Billups experience mixed with emerging young talents Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan will provide more energy to the team, and their roles will become more important. The only two positions in which the Clippers will need some spark will be the shooting guard and center position, something that I’m sure the organization will work on during the course of the season. This is a young and talented team with magnificent athletic abilities, so I’m looking forward to the ESPN’s Top 10 Clipper Highlights! The upcoming NBA season will be a great one, the fact that there are many free agent moves and trades left will make this off-season one to remember.

2 comments.

Blog #6: JJ Barea (A.k.A.The secret weapon) is getting paid $$!!!

Posted on December 14th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

After the NBA lockout and the creation of the new CBA, one of the noticeable free agents in the market was Puerto rican  point guard JJ Barea, known for his intense 2011 playoff performance and for being a key player for the Dallas Maverick finals championship run. Because of the rapid improvement of his stats throughout the last five years, JJ was sure that he was going to sign a multiple year contract with the Dallas Mavericks. However, the Mavs had other plans and couldn’t afford to give JJ a contract for more than one year. So after Barea’s off season disappointment, he began negotiations with other teams. Even though the Knicks were offering him a 2 year- 2.5 million contract and in New York he would have the support of the large Puerto rican fan base, he decided to secure his economical future by signing a contract with the Minnesota T-Wolves which involved 4 years and an amount of $19 million. With this contract he is now part of  the “top 15 most payed point guards in the NBA”, earning more than players like Jordan Farmar, Daniel Gibson, and Steve Blake (not bad for a 5’9″ point guard).

1 comment.

Blog #5: Viral Video- Dew Tour

Posted on December 12th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

For our viral video activity, our group was assigned to film a short video that could relate and promote the Dew Tour, an extreme-sport tour with four main events in different parts of the United States that have superstar participants like Bucky Lasek and Pierre Luc Gangnon. This video would have not been possible without the participation of Luke Frecerro, a skateboarder who is sponsored by clothing brands: Gifted and Fat Trax. So it was good to have somebody who knew how to look like a professional when riding and doing tricks with the skateboard. Our video was 30 seconds long with a great background song (Quad City DJ’s Space Jam), and it was composed of Luke’s tricks and the Dew Tour logo with messages warning the viewers about the things you may see in the tour. We ended it up with some humor, as Luke felt down while attempting to do a stairway rail grind. I feel like it was a short but successful viral video, because it is created for our target group which is the hardcore extreme sports fan. Overall it was very simple and easy, but the result was outstanding. It showed me how easy it is to make an effective viral video when there is actually a purpose of doing it.

1 comment.

Blog #4: Googled: Bringing happiness to employees!!

Posted on December 12th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Another fact that I believe was fundamental for this book was the effectiveness Google has keeping employees happy and comfortable in their own environment by giving them many benefits that are not found in any other company in the United States. I believe that the way Google deals with its employees, has a huge impact on the positive results and feedback from consumers of the search engine. An example of these benefits is the special treatment of employees in the Googleplex. The Googleplex is a collection of buildings where employees enjoy free meals and are offered bicycles to travel between these buildings that contain gyms with personal trainers. The employees can also take breaks in lounges with pool tables and espresso machines. They have no need to leave campus for a car wash because it is available on Thursdays; there are barbers, day cleaners, day care, dentists, and doctors to provide free medical care. Also, maternity leave consists of five months off at full salary, and new dads can take seven weeks off at full pay. The most important benefit that can directly affect the company in a positive way is that “Most employees are allotted 20 percent of their time, to work on projects they feel passionate about”. This can often produce technological breakthroughs beneficial to the company.

The fact that Google has so many benefits for its employees, more than one million people apply for positions in the company each year, but Google only hires one percent of these applicants. Half of the applicants hired by the company are engineers and technical employees; this is a result of the company’s focus of having a better search engine and not their focus of making money through advertisement. “When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve the problems”. Whether the employee is an engineer or a marketer, a belief in the company’s mission is essential to the success of the company.

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Blog #3: GOOGLED: The end of the World as we know it

Posted on December 12th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

After reading Ken Auletta’s “Googled: The end of the world as we know it”, I had a different approach to how I see Google as a company, and how its business plan is made accordingly to its main mission and not its main source of revenue. Google is a search engine that had indexed 80 percent of the World Wide Web during 2002. One of their missions when a person types a word into the search bar is that the results appearing near the top of the page will be more relevant to that person. Google assigns “relevant” results their value according to the person’s location and by mapping how many people clicked the respective link.

It is really hard to understand how,  even thou the implementation of new advertising techniques used by the company is what accounts for almost all of the company’s revenue, Google keeps most of its focus trying to improve its consumer’s searching experience. However, Google has come up with innovative ways of advertising a product through the internet. For example, Google’s system (cost per click) is a new and efficient way for companies to revise the effect of its advertisement on its target market, and a relatively inexpensive solution since the company is charged by Google only when a user clicks on the Advertisement. Also, the way Google helps advertisers target consumers by personal preferences, helps these companies have a measurable rate of the effect it has on the people searching through the page.

It has taken the internet a little more than 10 years to reach 50 percent of Americans. It took TV three decades to accomplish this, which makes the internet a fast growing, new, and fresh target for advertising when compared to other media sources like television, newspapers, and radio. Google’s Ad revenues in 2008 matched the combined ad revenues of the five main broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CW). “We began as a technology company, and have evolved into software, technology, advertisement, and Media Company rolled into one.” All of these attributes that Google has have not been produced as main goals of the company; they have been the results of the company’s focus of educating and informing its consumers through its search engine. “Google could run more ads than it does, but instead discards ads that don’t attract clicks or are not deemed “relevant” to users as information.

1 comment.

Blog #2: Followers and Likes!!

Posted on December 5th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

One of the newest and most efficient ways of knowing how connected a sports organization is to its fans is through social network website accounts. My motive for this blog was to find which sports organization had the most Twitter followers and Facebook likes combined. However, as I was looking through the numbers, I found some information that is really important to understand the effects of sports on people throughout the world. One of the not so surprising facts is that the 20 “most popular” sport organizations through Facebook and Twitter were mostly composed of international soccer clubs (nine teams). This was not surprising given the vast popularity that soccer has in many countries throughout the planet. The list is followed by five NBA basketball teams, four NFL teams, and two MLB teams. The three organizations with the most Twitter followers and Facebook likes were FC Barcelona (surpassing 25 million), Real Madrid (24.6 million), and Manchester United (20.7 million). It was also very interesting to see the Los Angeles Lakers as the fourth team with the most social network popularity; having better numbers than six international soccer clubs including Chelsea, Liverpool, and AC Milan. Other than tradition, championships, and fan base; I believe that the biggest reason for the Lakers’ popularity in these sites is their ability to maintain a world class superstar athlete like Kobe Bryant. The Celtics, Yankees, and Cowboys were the other U.S organizations with a shocking number of followers through social media. What shocked me the most about this research is that fan base is not the sole factor of why organizations have such popularity in the web. The organization’s ability to maintain their followers informed by keeping updates, sharing news as fast and constant as possible, and being effective when trying to communicate with their fans. This will show transparency and a genuine care of connecting and communicating with the costumer in a better way. 

20 Most Liked and Followed sports organizations:

TEAM                                           TOTAL

  1. FC Barcelona                                  25,138,364
  2. Real Madrid                                    24,647,969
  3. Manchester U                                20,758,162
  4. L.A. Lakers                                      13,166,664
  5. Arsenal                                                9,129,401
  6. Chelsea                                                8,292,668
  7. Liverpool                                           8,104,025
  8. AC Milan                                            7,096,048
  9. Galatasaray                                       6,771,586
  10. Boston Celtics                                  5,867,009
  11. Fenerbahce                                       5,411,521
  12. N.Y Yankees                                     5,298,515
  13. Miami Heat                                       4,633,745
  14. Dallas Cowboys                               4,284,936
  15. Chicago Bulls                                   4,221,133
  16. Pitt. Steelers                                    3,892,785
  17. Boston Red Sox                              3,331,016
  18. N.E. Patriots                                    2,902,175
  19. G.B. Packers                                    2,507,488
  20. Orlando Magic                                2,162,443

1 comment.

Blog #1: Technology Deprivation

Posted on November 7th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

During the two days of my technology deprivation assignment I tried my best to not use any of the technologies that we were not suppose to engage in, however I had a really difficult time dealing with it. The first day I planned to keep myself outdoors in order to not be tempted to use my computer in my room. After a couple of hours in the gym, I received a text from my father, which I had to answer right back. After that text it all went downhill. When I got to my room, I decided that in order to not use my computer for web browsing, I wouldn’t use it at all. So I started to read some of my course readings and doing homework which didn’t require much help from a computer. It went well for one hour, but after I was done with homework I felt really bored, and my only way to know where my friends were was through texting. After failing to keep up with this “technology deprivation” twice, I realized that texting was something that was part of my daily routine, and something really difficult to not use. I knew that not using e-mail was going to be easy, but I had no idea it was going to be so difficult to not use texting.

Another technology that was very difficult not to use was web browsing. It seemed that by the end of the night I simply needed something to do.  I was too bored, and the fact that I can’t go to sleep without watching a movie or an episode of my favorite series didn’t help the situation at all. So in order to go to sleep I went online and watched “American Gangster”, through online streaming while falling asleep on my couch. The second day of my assignment was a total disaster; I started the day going online to check the weather during the morning. It is evident that our generation has become dependable on these types of technology and- even when we put effort to not use them- they are part of our daily ways of communication with friends and family, and also a great way to procrastinate and kill time.

2 comments.

Hello world!

Posted on October 10th, 2011 by eparra.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Welcome to blogs.umass.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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