Forbes Sports Money index

For this post i decided i would write about something that i found interesting that has been recently discussed on Forbes. We all know there is a lot of money to be made in sports, from TV deals to sponsorship millions of dollars are moving in and out of the sports industry every day. One question I've always wanted to know the answer of is who makes the most? The sports money index is what they call it, and it's a list made by Forbes of the top money makers in the sports industry. First of all let's discuss the number one spot and that to no surprise goes to Nike. Nike has been around for a while and every year they add top athletes to their fleet, what that has accumulated is them being one of the most recognizable brands ever. Spending money on people like Lebron James, Michael Jordan, and much more they have been able to cement their name in the sports industry for now and many years to come. Now when it come's to individual athletes the first one on the list coming at number 5 is Lebron james. Lebron is coming off a championship year and is now in one of the top teams in the NBA. I was surprised to see such worldwide exposure from a basketball athlete but to his credit lebron has been everywhere the past year. From a lifetime contract with Nike to winning a championship, it's certainly safe to say that 2016 has been a year for Lebron James. The rest of the list includes European soccer teams, NBA and NFL teams, and much more. In realtion to topics discussed on the class room i think it is extremely difficult to brand yourself as an individual. You become the talk of the town, and the minute you do something wrong it's all over the place. That's why i think Lebron deserves much more credit than he gets. He's a role model to a lot of youg children and he understands that and that's why i think he has been able to climb up the ladder of all time great athletes. For a lot of ball players drugs and women can become a distraction and even a downfall but with Lebron his story has been squeaky clean throughout his career, he has a family and 3 children so i would guess he has it figured out. With all that in mind it now makes perfect sense as to why he's high up on the index.  

House party

In today's blog post i wanted to talk about a new app that i think might be a big thing if they play their cards right. House party is a video chat app, well you might ask whats new? It allows for up to 12 members to be in the same chat room with all high quality audio and video. Why do i think it might be the new big thing? Well first of all i hear people talking about it all around, with good reason as it's a free reliable application that fills a purpose people actually need. Video chat is used everyday but it is still not as big as texting and phone calls and here is where i think house party comes in. Having a specified friend list, as soon as you go onto the app a notification is sent to all your friends that your in the chat room. Then your friends can join and one by one you can have a real group discussion going on. I am already noticing a ton of applications for this app as it sometimes tough to organize a large group of people and with the help of house party you can all be listening in at the same time and try and decide what your doing for dinner, or even discuss the upcoming party your throwing. I can also see it do well in the world of business as we all know that conference calls are a hassle and having a quick easy one two step with house party it really eases the whole experience. All in all i think this is a great product that will help shape our future if it continues on this path, and i can only imagine all the stuff they'll be able to add late on in it's lifecycle     

Social media fame

Celebrity status is something a lot of people want and only a few get, but in today's world more and more people are finding this so called "fame" all from an app on their phone. whether it may be Facebook, Instagram, or even snapchat day by day more people are finding ways to get their personality out there and in some cases the turnover has been amazing. Now most celebs are famous for a reason, they are artists, athletes, actors and they have a skill that not every one else does. In this social media world we are seeing people go viral over a single phrase they said or even just a dance that they might have done and they can even go on and create a career out of it. Now people might thing that sure they might have the fame but they do not have the fortune and this is where it gets interesting. Things like running ads on their page or promoting a product can net them anywhere between 1000-3000 USD an ad and that is a lot of money looking at how much work was put in. Another facet of this is the youtube culture where you see influencers get as many as 55 million subscribers by putting out simple gaming videos or comedy sketches. They are slowly learning to create a brand out of themselves, selling merchandise to there fans and in some cases they go on onto bigger and better things. Is this where we are heading, internet fame? It certainly has it's benefits but it is not easy to get to that spot, there has to be something there that makes people coming back just like anything in this world. Now where it gets interesting is back where i am from and thats the middle east. Day by day more and more people are getting famous just off of snapchat alone, they are getting to do ads every day and they are seeing the rewards from it. Not only that but business are rising because of this new found culture agency's are battling over these people as to who gets to represent them. The scary part is that this has been going on for just the last five years and i can't imagine what's next. All in all we now have a way to put ourselves out there independently and a lot of good can come out of it. 

Instagram's new moves

In today's blog post i wanted to touch on another social media app that has been on the rise as of late in terms of innovation and excitement. Instagram has recently implemented two new features that i think can take the social media app to a whole another level of popularity. The first feature called "Instagram stories" is basically the same thing as snapchat where you get to post on the spot photos or videos that are usually no longer than 10 seconds. The second feature is what i am most excited about it's called " Instagram live" where anyone can start a live streaming feed of whats going on around them and with this feature everything is real time which allows for a new method of interaction.

Now The first feature is cool and everything but it's been done before and i might add that on snapchat the whole experience is far more pleasurable as they have things like little silly face filters, geolocation tags, and much more. While on Instagram's side it felt a bit bland and forced to have the feature amongst the app but never the less it's improving day by day and the content is getting better and better. Now the second feature is what i think will be the next big thing, live streaming. Now by no means were they the first to do it but i think they might be the first to actually see a return on their effort. a multitude of apps and bigger companies have tried to this same thing but to no avail as it's either to small of an app in the case of periscope, or it's to complicated and out of the way Facebook live. Instagram found the middle ground by having a well established social media application have this quick click where you can start streaming to anyone that might be interested to watch. Now some people might ask who would want to see me do a live stream? I agree to a certain extent but more and more people are doing them and it's especially prevalent when celebrities do them as the gets tons of views and feedback.

Now it's a strong move for Instagram as for a while the app felt a bit dead to me but with this recent tech i think they may be on to something. At the worst case this will only tell people that we are here to stay and we are trying to create new innovative ways for social interaction. But in the best case they have a whole new "thing" on their hands this could very well blow up and if it does that will on cement their name in the social media game even more.      
  

Snapchat's new tech, cool or whacky?

Now at this point we have all seen the new camera sunglasses made by snapchat, and if you haven't it's basically a pair of sunglasses you wear that have a small camera attached and it uploads what ever you capture straight to you snapchat feed. To some that might sound like a cool idea, a hands free camera that goes straight to my snapchat? Yes please! But to other's it might just be another overpriced piece of tech that they don't need. Today Im going to list some of the pros and cons and maybe touch on why snapchat is heading this way and how it relates to the company's brand.

$129 is what they go for but they are not the easiest things to find. At first the company was doing these random pop-up vending machines placed near big cities like Los angles and New York. They would sell out super quick and the only way you could get them would be having to pay an extra premium to who ever had them. Now they are creating more and more and slowly every one who wants one can have one. Now as to the specs of the camera they are not the best quality wise and that in my opinion might be the biggest deterrent to people. 129 dollars is a lot of money and i can imagine that if i spend that much i would like to receive a quality product in exchange. I had the chance to try them out and the looks don't fit my style so i would not be able to wear them as a regular pair of sunglasses, The user interface is easy enough, you just pair it with your phone and with a click of a button you can start recording anything you want.

Why sunglasses? The app has always carried a sense of a free and let loose feel as it is the go to when you want to post something quick and funny. Including all the silly face filters, Snapchat has set it self apart by being unique and not conforming to social media norms. With that impression i think the sunglasses fit in perfectly with the company's message. Showing innovation in terms of the company's image rather than trying to out do every social media website out there. Lastly I wanted to say that i personally won't be buying a pair any time soon but they are a cool item to check and test out, that being said what do you think? are the whacky? Or are they cool?

To learn more about the spectacles: https://www.spectacles.com/