A few weeks ago a friend of mine suggested that I check out the KIN (new Microsoft phone) Webisodes on Facebook. So I took 5 minutes out of my day to take a look at the adventures of a girl named Rosa, as she traveles with her new KIN to visit her social network face-to-face and find out if her “friends”, are really her Friends.
Now, for a social media geek like myself, this is an extremely intriguing idea, because I’ve made friends and built relationships with people I don’t know personally. We are able to have a relationship online, in the “fake” world, but the question is could we be friends in the “real” world. This is exactly the question Rosa is looking to find out. The KIN is Microsoft’s latest phone living only on Verizon.
Its biggest pull is that it you can tweet, talk and post in real life. According to its website, the KIN was designed to communicate as naturally as you, as Microsoft put it, “KIN is everything you love, everyone you want, all together in one place.” More than the idea of the phone being so connected with your social networks, I love these webisodes. I have an Iphone, and it connects me enough to my social networks, that I don’t feel the urge to go out and buy a new phone, but I do LOVE every time a new webisode is posted. Rosa is such a curious grounded person that she is incredibly relateable. The concept behind these webisodes is so brilliant I wish I would have thought of it first!
For example, the episode that go me hooked, Rosa asks the questions, “should we be friends with our parents on Facebook?” Now I AM friends with my parents on Facebook, and I think I’ve learned enough about posting private things on the internet that it’s doesn’t bother me to be friends with my parents. Unlike many of my friends who wouldn’t dare friend their parents on Facebook, I mean I’m even friends with my Grandma! Plus, I’m pretty close with my parentals so that’s not really the issues. But some of the things Rosa brings up is that her mother embarrasses her online, all the time. You can check out the video yourself here, it’s actually quite funny. But her mother said, “You should be comfortable enough with yourself that it doesn’t matter what I say to you online!” Which is so true.
My mother is slowly grasping the concept of Facebook, but still, nonetheless she weekly has a question trying to decipher the difference between her Wall and her Newsfeed! (Don’t worry mom, you’ll get it soon!).
Online Marketing tactics like this are great. I truly appreciate something that connects my social networks with my cell phone. Rosa asks legitimate questions that you find yourself say, “OMG I think about that all the time.” Although I may not be running out to buy a KIN, Microsoft has done a good job of hooking me into their webisodes.
Disclaimer: I have NOT been provided compensation for this blog post. It is truly a topic of interests.
A little bird sent me a direct message on twitter the other day that I should weigh in on a conversation I am most certainly passionate about.
I mosied on over to PROpenMic and weighed in on a conversation about requiring students to participate in social media in their college courses. Now, this conversation was coming from students not professors or practitioners.
I was pretty frustrated with the post and a majority of the replies from other students who agreed they felt like it was a chore. Social media has changed my life as cheesy as that sounds, and shaped my career. My first reaction was “Do you ever complain openly about writing a paper for your Writing class?” because that is what I would compare participating in social media for your PR class to. Your professors give you an assignment for a reason, you can fight it all you want, but in the end you can:
A.) Do the assignment
B.) Not do the assignment and fail
-Or-
C.) Drop the class and potentially the Major
It’s your choice, you’re a big girl or boy at this point in your college career and your professors are not here to baby you because you don’t like an assignment.
Okay, that is my rant.
What really frustrates me is what these students do NOT SEE! What I would give to go back and be a part of the social media courses they are teaching now! I Think I ask my old professor just about every week if she would video her classes and send them to me. I’m very impressed with the high level of conversation her students get into on their Twitter chats. It makes me proud to say I am a product of the same professors and School of Journalism and Communication (*cough University of Oregon cough*).
Here is my Note to those students who feel they should not be required to participate in Social media.
Dear SM Student,
I’m sorry you feel as though you are being “Forced” to learn about social media. My first question for you is, “what do you want to do with your life?” or “what is your dream job?” Is it being a sports journalist, CEO of a fortune500 company or Manager at McDonalds? Whatever your dream job is social media can help you achieve your goal or assist you in advancing within your company. But you don’t know this yet, because you are resistant to participating in social media as a useful business tool.
Your professors are trying to teach you a skill that will put you miles ahead of your peers applying for that same job. They are trying to teach you a skill that senior level managers and account directors, VP’s and Presidents in so many companies don’t understand—Social Media. Hiring managers at these companies you want to work at so bad are looking for the next great Social Media talent who can teach the organization about the wonders of Twitter and Facebook and how they can help their company reach its consumers. Your professors are trying to provide you with the tools to be that next great employee with the social media skills.
We are in a Recession and it is going to take years, not Months to get our job market back to an expectable level. I guarantee you will graduate and have a panic attack that you have no idea how you’re going to land a job–I did. But you know what I did, I used the skills I learned in my Social Media class and I put it to use. I pitched myself to hiring managers on twitter—Beat that Elevator pitch! Try selling yourself in 140 characters—it ain’t easy. But it worked. I found a creative way to sell myself and my skills that caught the eye of quite a few hiring managers. I got the job.
I continue to use my twitter account and blog that I created for my SM class to advance my professional career. I interact and network with key opinion leaders in my industry and they know who I am! This wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t TRUST my professors when they said, “leap- And the net will appear!” The net did appear and now I have a huge network of professional, professors and mentors who I can bounce ideas off of.
Social media is not a fad. It is the future. It is the future of every business and every organization. If you’re not looking for a job in public relations you can use these skills in any job whether it be to promote yourself and your services or to help promote your brand message and build relationships and two-way communication with your consumers.
Take advantage of the advice your professors are giving you, be a sponge and soak it up. It’s harder to continue learning when you’re working at a full-time job. You begin to yearn for the days you sat in class. My Blog and Twitter account have acted as wonderful supplements to my resume. I no longer have to send along writing samples, I just direct potential employers to my blog. It is not only highlighting my ability to write, but it is also highlighting my social media skills.
I will bet money that no matter what your career may be, that your future employer is either already in the social media sphere or is looking to dive in. That means they are looking for someone with ideas and knowledge about how it works…. You could be that person.
Clean up your act online. Your employers WILL Google your name— that is not a myth. Stop complaining about the work, and start caring about your future. Social media is the future. You’re paying to go to college, start caring about where that money is going toward.
I apologize for being harsh, but this is a reality and it seems as though, you need a reality check.
I use tweetdeck. I feel like it offers easy ways to share photos, shrink links and organize your twitterverse.
I do still get on twitter.com to check out my new followers profiles and see who is following whom. But I don’t use twitter.com to post links or photos or my rants. I am curious how many people do still use twitter.com as their main platform for twitter, or what other twitter clients people are using.
So I did a little research, and this is what I found:
Around 46% of all updates are made directly on twitter.com according to Sysomos twitter report. Sysomos analyzed 500 milion tweets it collected over five months and found that TweetDeck is the most popular third-party client. TweetDeck has a comfortable lead with a 8.48% share of the market, followed by tweetie, Twitterific and Seesmic.
TweetDeck is the client of choice for Active twitter users.
TweetDeck doesn’t just have the largest number of users, it is also the tool of choice for the most active Twitter users. Sysomos analyzed the number of tweets posted by active users based on their primary Twitter application. On average, TweetDeck users send out 1.24 tweets per day, followed by Seesmic users (1.18 tweets/day) and HootSuite (1.11 tweets/day). Users of all the other popular clients like Tweetie, Twhirl and Twitterific update their status less than once a day. Those who prefer Twitter’s own web interface only send out 0.67 tweets per day.
The ability for our world to integrate technology and philanthropy amazes me. How
Corporate Social Responsibility is at the forefront of development and implementation among large corporations. It’s wonderful to see Pepsi, Starbucks and Trader Joes care about our world and what is happening outside of their state-of-the-art buildings.
Today, I was introduced to CauseWorld, a wonderful phone application modeled slightly after Foursquare. Instead of simple checking in for points to one-up your friends to become the mayer, you earn Karma points to donate to an organization or
cause of your choice.
CauseWorld is sponsored by Kraft Foods and Citi and donate to the organization of your
choice when you gain Karma points and designate them, it is Kraft and Citi that is donating to the organizations you choose.
What a great way to donate while shoping or having dinner with your friends. Open up the free application, check-in and donate within minutes. You can donate to anything from offsetting carbon,
helping students in need, preventing child abuse, help fight cancer, bring art to schools, help at-risk girls, Provide relief to Haiti or Chile, give clean water, treat autism, plant a tree or care for abused animals. So many options of ways to give sponsors money to great causes.
What are you waiting for. Go download the app and start giving Karma points out!
Like many of you, I am becoming more and more obsessed with iphone apps and fun sites that interact with my friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. I’m on every social networking site you could imagine, twitter, facebook, myspace, Google BUZZ, linkedIN, Loopt and FourSquare.
Virtually, you could probably figure out where I am at all times. Which means, is my house empty? Am I a target? Could all of my tweets, updates and notifications be aggrigated into one site that informs the world I’m not home?
Pleaserobme.com is a site that is bringing awareness to those naive internet goers who are caught up in the excitement of new applications and are constantly letting the world know, “Hey, I’m not home, Please Rob Me!”
The site was created by three individuals who aren’t really out to get you robbed. Here’s how they describe the problem created by check-ins and the purpose of the site:
“The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the Internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have ‘friends’ who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the Internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.”
There are a few things you can do to protect yourself:
Don’t list your address ANYWHERE on the internet. If you even have your Resume posted somewhere online, make sure you blur out your address or remove it.
Don’t connect your FourSquare or Loopt to your twitter or Facebook status. By keeping these social media tools separate you avoid your exact location being broadcasted to 10x as many people.
Avoid including your phone number. This is also a search that is easy to conduct and find where you are and where you live, leaving your vulnerable.
So are Foursquare, Loopt, Google Buzz and all the others just sites that make us all easier targets? Location-sharing is becoming such a popular trend this year that it doesn’t seem likely that the site will do much to curb the behavior. If there is such a thing as safe location-sharing, however, I hope you practice it.
In our fast pace world it has become harder and harder to meet people through a traditional courtship. And our favorite Web 2.0 sites are making it much easier to show someone you’re interested via their widgets and services. TheFrisky.com blog posted this rundown on ways to flirt online. They say, “Sure, the Web has made many aspects of our lives easier, but it’s also complicated a few things—specifically, how we date, flirt and meet potential love interests.”
Being a twenty-something I still have faith in the traditional ways of meeting people, at a bar, the grocery store, or that mix-up of drinks at Starbucks- He grabbed my triple grande soy latte, and I grabbed his grande americano- you know how it goes. I’m sure it will diminish as my career and priorities shift and I will become more dependent on the untraditional methods of finding a mate. But I find this whole process interesting as my generation has been spearheading this technology revolution.
I love Drew Barrymores line in He’s just not that into you she says, “Now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies- it’s exhausting!” And it couldn’t be more true, you have to check all of these different applications to see if you’ve been “poked” or someone sent you a gift. And the interpretation could kill you. There is no guide book to online flirting, so how are you supposed to interpret a poke? was it friendly or playful?
It is interesting to watch the trends in older generations using dating sites like Match.com increase. Definitely wasn’t somethingn I expected- I have a hard enough time teaching my mom how to turn on her computer, let alone teaching her how to upload a picture and a profile to one of these sites. I would have imagined that this phenomenon would have skipped that generation and hit mine.
It does scare me that younger generations will be more dependent on this way of life- Communicating through Web 2.0 applications more than through human interaction. And does this lead to poor grammar?
Does this form of communication work against our english and grammar teachers, because when you use text messages or twitter, you have to simplify your messages, sometimes reducing the words and removing correct punctuation confusing it’s and its, a simple, but significant differance between the two words just to fit it into the 140 characters allowed?
But then again, does it help to simplify your message. I have found that working to cram my tweets into 140 characters teaches me to be sycnt and percise with my message, like a lead in a newspaper article.
There are pros and cons to both, but what I guess my point is we’re definitely moving quickly to a 2.0 world- especially when our flirting happens online, but what will this do to future generations? Will they become dependent on technology to be the liasion between human interaction? Will children fall into the trance of the online preditors, because they are comfortable online?
How can we as the Web 2.0 crusaiders prevent future generations from using the web and its tools incorrectly? Do we begin to teach classes on online ettiquet and safety?
Time for something new! I was inspired by Jason Calacanis’s blog post “Ten Things I Love” so here are ten things I love right now.
1. Christopher David Ryan – My new obsession. I love it. I love him. He has an eye and I already ordered this print. He posts his favorite prints of the day and they are always great. I’ve never been one for art, but I may have found my muse.
2. Tumblr – I’ve always had a hard time keeping my professional blog from my personal blog. Tumblr allows you to post quotes, links, text in easy to use formats. Took me awhile to catch on but Love it.
3. 2Birds1Blog My new favorite blog. It’s funny cleaver and very relate-able. check-it out! This is my favorite post on 20 facebook photos of guys.
4. Mark Beasly – I’ve been a fan since moment I heard him. He has the most amazing voice!
5. Digg-Took me awhile to catch onto this site, but what a great idea to basically vote on what information on the Internet is deemed interesting, funny and likable.
6. Top Chef Need I say more? I’ve missed this show, and I don’t know why I love it so much, I just do!
7. Etsy Love. Love. Love it. Etsy is a community of shopping & selling. With the most amazing gifts I could browse this site for days and never get bored.
8. Influence by Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen- This book is a collection of interviews and photos of the women who have influenced their lives. I’ve never really liked the two of them, even though I grew up watching them on Full House, but until a recent interview on Oprah and the lack of media presence I find this book a Must buy!
10. Hulu – where would we all be without hulu? Hulu is a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies. If you haven’t checked it out… you must be under a rock.
Hope you enjoy my favorite things….What are your favorite things?
And as an extra treat, I have had a request to add the People I love most (all my friends seem to love these crazy people too)
#11 on my I love list, and by popular demand is Mama & Papa Stringer!!!!!
I’ve been at it again, updating my resume. And it is just around the corner for the senior PR students at UO, who are wrapping up their campaigns and focusing on their portfolio reviews. I remember one thing I struggled with the most was my resume. Thanks to the career building class taught by Bill Morill and the Career Center at UO, they taught me a lot about writing my resume. But I’ve learned more from playing around with it, looking at others, and having people look over mine as well.
Although this class was great in introducing me to the descriptive verbs to describe the tasks I’d accomplished, it also closed my mind about the format of my resume. There are so many different ways you can format your resume there is no wrong way.
So here is some advice I wish someone told me:
1. Keep your Resume to one page, and one page only: After 10 years of experience you are allowed a second page! But no one is going to read your resume if it is longer than one page. This helps you to be concise and use descriptive words to describe what you’ve accomplished.
2. Your visual presentation of your resume says a lot about you. Spice up your resume. Add some fun fonts and colors (just make sure it’s legible) and even print it on a nice thick resume paper. It will set your resume out from all the others, and the employer will know you put in extra effort to make it enjoyable to look at. Note: Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT use a Word Template. SO boring. If I were looking at your resume and you used a plain word template it just lost about ten points!
3. If you got the skills, flaunt them. Highlight an unusual skill you poses. It doesn’t have to be that unusual, but for instance Social Media is a great skill to highlight as much as possible in your resume. So many employers these days are looking for new talent that hold that skill set. So don’t be shy.
4. Be Adventurous. Re-format your resume multiple times. I was so stuck in my way of having my resume cut and clear and to the point. But, recently decided to take a chance and write a short profile section explaining some of my skills, and I think it will help the employer know me that much more. By writing my skills out in sentences this freed up more space for bullets under my experience section.
5. Put another set of Eye balls on it. I’ve already had 3 different people look at my resume this past week, and have another person tomorrow. Be open to suggestions, fresh eyes come with fresh ideas.
If you have any other tips for writing resume please comment! I know there are plenty more
The University of Oregon’s Career Center provides this PDF packet on how to write good cover letters and Resume’s, it is a great resource and you can download it here. Page 3 has a great list of verbs to use when describing your skills!
Happy Resume writing and I’m more than happy to be another set of eyes! Good luck!
Recently, I’ve been asked to put my social media passion into action. This is exciting for someone who has been blinded by my daily routine and the grind of the working world.
Since graduation, I’ve had minimal time to focus on my blog, tweeting valuable information, and exploring the social media sphere. One thing I’ve noticed over the past seven months is that I stopped actively learning, and for a topic I am so passionate about I am extremely excited to begin exploring again!
Now I’m working on a social media strategy for a company that you wouldn’t quite expect to use social media as a valuable tool. I feel limitless, which is basically like handing me the world on a silver platter.
But, this doesn’t mean I am going to dream up some crazy ideas of how to “jump in” that is unreachable for this company. I need to get back to the basics and deliver a strategy that they understand and doesn’t make them want to run in the other direction.
It is never to late to continually learning, and that is what I love about Public Relations- is that there is always knowledge to grasp, you can learn something new everyday.
A few weeks ago a friend of mine suggested that I check out the KIN (new Microsoft phone) Webisodes on Facebook. So I took 5 minutes out of my day to take a look at the adventures of a girl named Rosa, as she traveles with her new KIN to visit her social network face-to-face and find out if her “friends”, are really her Friends.
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