My Social Media Story

So, I gave my final presentation in my social media class yesterday (inspired by my own blog post “Adding Ads – A No-Go or Way-To-Go?”) and I must say that I’m not quite sure about how I feel about the whole thing. As nice as it is to be done with at least one of my classes for this semester – three more to go – I can’t help but feel that I’m going to miss this class. My classmates and my instructor Jennifer are both obvious, but something else that struck me was that I’m going to miss the whole social media circus itself… something I never thought that I would say! While presenting yesterday, I realized how far I’d come since our first class meeting at the beginning of the semester and how much I’ve learned about all kinds of social media outlets these last four months.

During these months, I’ve gone from being one of those people whose social media life stretched to having a Facebook profile to someone who is now the proud owner of a Twitter account, a LinkedIn account and, last but not least, this blog! I’ve also learned how to operate HootSuite and the proper etiquette for how to interact with people online, both through comments on blogs and tweets (a big thanks to my gurus @jmitchem, @GuyKawasaki, @chrisbrogan, and @JasonFalls for helping me out with my project). In short, I feel like I have developed quite a bit lately and have finally managed to break out of my shell to become a tech-savvy (maybe that’s a stretch), social media aware person who is now ready to face the world with a whole new set of skills.

Even though many of the different accounts that I’ve created throughout the semester have been in order to pass assignments, I know that I will for sure keep some of them even though the class is done. Facebook is an obvious one, LinkedIn will definitely come in handy when looking for a job, Twitter will most likely help me keep in touch with people graduating, and I’m still trying to decide about what to do with this blog. If I keep it, it probably won’t focus as much on social media as previously, but I do feel like it’s a good outlet for some of my thoughts – guess you’re just going to have to stick around and see what happens with it 🙂 I did have a short stint with FourSquare, but since I have not joined the cool crowd and just own a simple cellphone, it was not for me. But, who knows? I’m thinking that I will take the big leap over to a smartphone in the fall and by then, everything can happen.

So, there’s my social media story. I’ve gone from a social media nobody to someone who makes sure that my blog posts are correctly spelled, I try let myself shine through in most things I say, and most importantly; I would never be caught dead tweeting as an egg!

I Have Joined the 21st Century!

In a flurry of productivity yesterday, I decided that I needed to get going on all my final projects if I’m going to have any chance of passing my courses this semester. After dragging through a slow, never-ending semester, finals are just two weeks away! How did that happen? After a slight panic attack, I took a deep breath and wrote down everything due within the next week. Listed in due date-order, I started working on the projects one by one. First out was my ethnographic presentation for my sociology semester – not overly exciting… But, my second project was something that interested me more; my social media final project about the pros and cons of adding ads to your blog (a very clever topic if I might say so myself – I’m gonna toot my own horn every chance I get).

So, as I was sitting there brainstorming how to pull this off, I decided that I needed some professional input in order to make the presentation more interesting to my fellow classmates. Click, click, click – all of a sudden I had emailed and tweeted four of my favorite trust agents in hopes of having them share some thoughts on the subject. And what do you know? Within 24 hours I had received answers from all of them; @GuyKawasaki, @JasonFalls, @chrisbrogan, and @jmitchem – my heroes! With their help, I’m now able to start piecing together my presentation and have it ready by next week.

What makes me bring this up? To most people it might not seem like a big deal, but to me it’s a major accomplishment. Prior to my social media class, my knowledge of social media stretched as far as the Internet and Facebook, but that was about it. The fact that I now easily take the initiative to pick four social media gurus (a term that @chrisbrogan told me he hated by the way), and contact them for questions via social media is huge! So thanks @pinmoneygirl for bringing me out of the stone age and thanks to my four heroes for helping me out – I really appreciate it!

Please Come Back Towel-Covered Man!

I was flipping around Hootsuite the other day, looking for some inspiring topic to write a blog post about, when I came upon something that @mashable had posted; the new Old Spice commercial. After having discussed the Old Spice series in class a couple of months ago, I decided to take a look and see if this one was going to be nearly as good as the other commercials by the same brand. With a new guy and a new setting, I had my doubts. And, as sad as I am to say this – my doubts were confirmed. The commercial is not nearly as funny as the old one with a  towel covered man in his bathroom, smelling like your man could smell like.

Why do this? The Old Spice commercials have been immensely popular with viewers of both sexes, leading Old Spice to increase their sales by 107% (!) since introducing the series of short, funny commercials. I understand that companies are facing a constant demand for renewal and change in order to stay on top of their game, but when you have a winning concept like this one – why not milk it for all it’s worth? I feel like the renewal came to soon, leading me to want more of something that I can’t have; the funny, manly towel-guy, flirting with me from his bathroom, boat, horse etc.

But, of course there is a reason for this happening. Isaiah Mustafa, the guy playing the Old Spice man, is simply too busy recording a movie at the moment and have not been available for follow-ups. Still, I feel that Old Spice should have waited for the time to be right to bring Mr. Mustafa back and film some new commercials, instead of putting this new, poor guy through the less-than-nice comments, left by not-so-exited critics. I’m pretty sure that Old Spice will regret this commercial within the near future, seeing that I don’t seem to be the only one not liking what I see… How about you?

Time to Team Up?

Do people who have played team sports typically do better on team work related tasks compared to people who have participated in individual sports (track, horseback riding, sailing)? This was a question that was brought up in my social media class yesterday, and I do find it an interesting one with many different answers, depending on who you are talking to.

Team sports are known for creating a sense of belonging in the participating individuals, while shaping a knowledge of the importance of team work and support from you peers. Individual sports are just that; individual. I’m not saying that these sports are any better/worse than any other sport, but the sense of belonging to a team is something special. In the individual sports, you have the support of your organization and the other athletes competing for the same organization, but once it’s time to compete and the game face comes on, you are the one with all eyes on you, expected to show off your skills.

I, personally, have never participated in an individual sport, but played/coached/refereed soccer for many years when I was younger. Do I feel like it has shaped me? Yes. I can honestly say that the days that I played for my team were some of the best days of my life. Not just because I love the game and was decently good at it, but because it gave me a sense of belonging to a group of friends that I still keep in touch with today. The understanding of what it means to work together in order to succeed is something that has stuck with me, and I feel like it has helped me through college in many ways.

So, as much as I like sports (individual or teams), I feel that team sports offer something that is hard to find anywhere else – an understanding of the importance of team building. Thanks to this, I feel equipped to participate in group work inside and outside of school, confident with the knowledge of how to act in order to be the best team member that I can possibly be.

GO TEAM!

Know your ABCs, 123s, and Social Media…

Looking for a topic for today’s blog post, I typed in “blog post topics” into my Google search bar. The first link that showed up was ‘100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write‘, by Chris Brogan. Seeing that he is the author of the textbook we read for my social media class (Trust Agents), I decided that I should probably check it out in order to try to find some inspiration. After scrolling down a few lines, my eyes caught sight of  a topic that I, coincidentally, had been thinking about earlier today. After deciding that it must be a sign from the online Gods, I decided to go for it; How Schools Could Use Social Media.

The reason it caught my attention was that I was on Facebook earlier today and read a status posted by one of my friends, a middle school teacher from back home. She decided to share with the world that she had finished correcting and grading the week’s exams, and that all that was left was to post the grades online. This got me thinking about the 13-year old I take care of after school. Each day, he comes home, drops everything (coat, backpack, probably head if it wasn’t screwed on so tight) right inside the door. He then progresses to walk over to the computer to check on the grade of the day in all classes, as if it wouldn’t be there 10 minutes later – it drives me nuts!

But, even if the behavior displayed by a 13-year old can be slightly annoying, the idea of grade/message posting online on the school’s website is brilliant. This way, students will constantly know in what areas they should improve, while parents never have to sign any grade cards and still are able keep a close eye on what’s going on in school. Important messages are sent out automatically to the website, email, and cellphone of the same parents, guaranteeing that they are kept in the loop. So, even if I find some behavior slightly painful, social media is definitely improving the way school business is handled today.

To Comment or Not to Comment – That is the Question

I just read @jmitchem‘s blog post on “Why GoDaddy Sucks“. The reason for doing so was not, as most people might think, because my social media teacher recommended it on Twitter (I will admit that I ignored the tweet and didn’t do it). The reason was because Jim Mitchem himself tweeted today, 13 days after blog was posted, and wondered why, after 4,600 views, no one had commented on his spelling error – ‘new’ for ‘knew’.

This is a good question brought up by Mitchem. It is often talked about how many people become more verbal and honest behind a keyboard, this due to the fact that they don’t have to take responsibility for their comments and no one is going to hold them accountable for what is being said. But, what about the other way around? What about the individuals who hold back their negative comments because the author is either famous, or someone that the individual wants to make a good impression on? This is something that I believe happens all the time. I wonder how many people read Mitchem’s post and thought; ‘oh, he spelled that wrong’ – and moved on?

It reminds me of the social media personality, ‘The Wallflower’ (one that I count myself to belonging to). It’s time to speak up people! Just because someone is famous or you look up to them, it doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the work they put out for you to read. Mentioning a spelling error in a blog post is something that I think a lot of people are hesitant to do, but that the authors of the post will be grateful for, if you choose to do it. Otherwise they wouldn’t be posting things such as @jmitchem’s tweet; “Just found where i’d spelled ‘knew’ as ‘new; in this recent post http://bit.ly/eDyWy1 and no one (4600 views) mentioned it. Why not?”

So, don’t be afraid to correct people when you know that you’re right, they will most likely be thankful that you did!

 

No TV? No problem!

Before logging in and starting today’s blog post, I decided to read Julien Smith’s blog post ‘Why You Should Quit the Internet’. The reading was assigned in class and I figured that it couldn’t hurt getting some inspiration about a topic. I didn’t have much hope though, since I haven’t been too impressed by Julien’s blog earlier (he’s a little too honest for my taste). But, this time it was different; I found his post both thoughtful and inspirational. Most of all; I felt like I could relate this post to my own life.

In the post, Julien states; “Saying the web is important to your life is like saying that television is important. It might be social, sure, but it’s still media. It can help connect but it also divides in a very fundamental way”. This is so very true! It makes me think about a situation from last year. My boyfriend left downtown to move up on the west side and ended up in an apartment without cable (roommate troubles). I remember thinking that this was going to be rough; what on earth were we now going to do at night (or, more importantly, during football season)?

The last thing I would have expected was enjoying this TV-celibacy. But, believe it or not, I don’t miss watching TV at all! The football games have been caught at my house or the nearest neighborhood bar and, outside of major sporting events, I have realized that I don’t care much for watching TV at all. There are so many more productive things to do with my time and, as my boyfriend is signing his lease for another year, I catch myself not worrying at all about whether he’s going to have cable or not. If not – we can just hang out and, God forbid, talk…

Mommy is Coming to Town!

Last week, my mom called to ask if it would be OK if my family came to visit me this summer. OK? – I was thrilled! I immediately started thinking about things they might want to do during their stay, where they would be staying and how I was going to be able to entertain them for a full two weeks. Even if they’ve both been here before, I do want them to feel like they’re on vacation and having a good time – that way, they keep coming back. So I took on the task of planning the vacation…

The task of organizing a full two week vacation is no small one, and I started to regret having promised to get back to her the following weekend (which happened to be two days later). I decided to take on the task just like any sane person would do; four hours before the email was due with a beer in my hand. The four hours due to my lack of ability to plan, the beer as a sedative to calm my stressed nerves. How on earth would I be able to pull this off? After sitting down and thinking radically about the assignment at hand, I realized that it didn’t have to be so hard – thanks to all the various websites, offering any kind of service that money can buy.

So, what had in the beginning seemed like a huge project that I would not be able to come through on, turned into a walk in the park. Hotels in Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, and Milwaukee? Check! Summerfest tickets to see my mom’s favorite artist (Toby Keith)? Check! Tattoo appointment for my brother? Check! – Check! Check! Check! These things, and a dozen more, all done within a couple of hours – without the headache I thought it would bring. So thank you Hotwire, Ticketmaster, and Tripadvisor for making my life so easy and for helping me maintain my reputation of being a well-planned, organized human being!

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Please Tell Me You’re Joking…Snooki?!

As I was surfing around the Web today, I came upon an article that stated that Rutger University had paid Snooki from the MTV show Jersey Shore, $32,000 in order for her to give a speech to the students on Thursday night. I laughed a little to myself, thinking that it for sure had to be a joke – it is April fools day after all. But, as I kept looking around the web, I found several other websites sharing similar articles. Really?!

I read a couple of the articles and realized that Snooki got paid $2,000 more than Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, who is delivering the university’s commencement speech this spring, is receiving. All I can think is; what on earth has this world come to? According to one of the articles, Snooki offered “important advice on her hairstyle, fist pumps, as well as the GTL — gym, tanning, laundry — lifestyle”. No offense, but I would rather stick forks into my eyes than having to listen to a college -speech given by a girl who hasn’t even gone to college herself…

By now, you’ve probably figured out that I am not one of Snooki’s biggest fans. Reality shows like Jersey Shore and all the 100s of other similar shows, have created a whole generation of “celebrities” that, according to me, haven’t earned their status. So, as much as I enjoy watching other people make fools of themselves, reality show participants are not celebrities, and definitely NOT inspiring enough to hold college-speeches!

 

“Study hard, but party harder”?

Adding Ads – a No-Go or Way-To-Go?

When I sat down in front of my laptop to write today’s blog post, my mind was completely blank. No matter how hard I thought about events that had recently occurred, I just could not come up with anything to write. So, I decided to look into what my social media ninjas and gurus were talking about today and, within two minutes, I had probably come up with about six different topics. The one I settled on was inspired by a blog post written by @MackCollier; Why do we Apologize for Wanting to Make Money?

This is a very good question raised by Mr. Collier, unfortunately without any mind-blowing answers. The blog post talks about  how one of our authors, Chris Brogan, today announced that he is going to start accepting ads on his blog. And, while most comments are positive feedback, Mack talks about issues he’s had with ads and sponsorships in the past. My question to this is; why is it that some people feel like the creators of their favorite blogs/chats etc. have to do it all for free, or barely no money at all? Shouldn’t these followers be happy for the success that is obviously reached by these creators and their work?

Apparently not. To me, the negative feelings created from another person’s success can only be explained in one word; jealousy. Why on earth do these followers feel any sort of entitlement to critique such a decision made by the author? – A decision that only affects the author’s own creation to start with! The concept of making some money off your blog (and it doesn’t sound like any amazing numbers), is great. It shows that you have enough followers and clout to be considered a great influence on people in their day-to-day decision making.

So, a conclusion of my thoughts on this subject would be something like; good for you Chris – way to rock the blogging world!