A Late-Night Comeback

While in the process of writing a post on how working with social media in affects your own personal involvement with social media, I decided to take a break as I had been on the computer all day for work. And as irony would have it, there the draft sat, cold and alone for almost a month now while my jobs left me feeling a little blogged-out by the end of the day. But alas, a comeback post, of sorts!

Although this post (and lack of other posts) is a pretty good answer to 'how does working with social media affect your own person use of it?' I have stayed relatively active on Twitter, and very active on Facebook (which correlates nicely with my little use of FB for work). For those who don't know, my work was a summer internship for a PR agency with mostly health care clients, and managing social media campaigns for two restaurants. The PR agency had me doing a LOT of blog monitoring, which could be a possible excu- I mean, reason why I haven't been so avid in my postings. (thought I did post here last week) Also writing for the restaurant blogs, though not super frequent or lengthy, probably also deterred my own writing a little.

All excuses and reasons aside, this blog will be a little more active from now on, even if that means the occasional skimpy post (like this one). I'll also be moving this on over to WordPress. I've got plenty of ideas for posts, a lot of them relating to our digital lives and how they intermingle and overlap with our offline lives. I feel like this blog thus far has been mostly on social media and not so much our digital lives, so this will provide some refreshing content! I've also read a lot of great content from some awesome bloggers (mostly that I've connected to through Twitter), so they've been an inspiration for me to blog more, and blog better.

I'm looking forward to posting more frequently, and getting some good conversations going.

Social Communications & Healthcare: Case Studies and Roundtable

Today was a good day in New York City (despite the subways being an oven) at the Social Communications & Healthcare: Case Studies and Roundtable. You can listen to recorded audio from the event thanks to Blog Talk Radio. I'll be posting some thoughts inspired by the speakers soon, so keep you're eyes peeled.

Also, if you want lots of bite-sized snacks on this event from literally every angle, check out the #bdi hashtag. They were even projected on a side screen during the event in real time. Very swanky.

Are Vanity URLs Showing Facebook's Vanity?

Well, for most of us, the questionable changes to Facebook over the last few months (namely interface and layout changes) have been... well questionable. Now Facebook unveils it's all new idea (which is probably in NO way inspired by Twitter because Facebook would never be influenced by Twitter *sarcasm*) vanity URLs. Now I have a lot to say about this, BUT I've already said it on The (Not So Simple) Life blog. Consider this post linking to that post as a post, and you'll be just as happy.
So without further rant, The (Not So Simple) Life: The collective voices of many come together to present the next innovation in blogging. I'll post more info and opinion on this project in the future as it develops.

Do What You Love and Love Where You Live

I apologize for the lack of updates but I swear I've got a good excus- ahem, a good reason why I haven't been updating. Graduation. May Madness started with a frantic scurry to get all assignments in, study for tests, then graduation came, moving back home, telling everyone goodbye, graduation parties with family and friends. After a short "ah it's summer" reprieve, it was back to the full time job search (which was put on the back burner due to finishing up schoolwork. While the story of my current living situation is the seed of the post, it is not the fruit. The real purpose of this post is to tell of my two friends, and what they're up to these days.

Jen is a friend of mine and she's an artist (does lovely paintings). She went to art school and like me is a recent graduate. Now an artist's job search or employment experience I'd assume would be somewhat different than a writer's, and much different than a writer like me who wants to write for a company and do social media marketing and such. But Jen took a head first approach into life after college and moved to a little corner of Philadelphia called Fishtown. Living by herself, working as a tour guide in the Eastern State Penitentiary, and experimenting and pushing her art along the way. You can read about such adventures on her blog- Jen Brown: a life. It's tough, but she's living on her own terms in her own way and to that she deserves much credit. I don't know if her artistic painting skills helped her paint her new apartment, but she seems pretty charismatic about it.


I thought about her bold living and working decision, and it got me thinking about my own job search situation and living. But before I digress in reflection, let me tell you what Vincent did.

Vince is a friend of mine from high school two years younger than me. I hadn't talked to him in a while and saw him online and the conversation basically went like this:
Me-Hey Vincent what's up? Long time no see!
Vincent- Aloha.
Me- lol What are you visiting Hawaii or somthing?
Vincent- well i was sick of living in my parents homes so i wanted to go live someplace chill where i can do communal organic farming.
Me- So what, you just took off for Hawaii??
Vincent-Basically.
Vincent never went to college (to my knowlege) and was just working jobs from home and decided to pick up and go to Hawaii. Not knowing anybody there and only after doing some organic farming research. He now lives in a small cabin 1,200 up the side of a mountain on the big island. To me, an inspirational story of how in control you are of your own life, just in case you forget.

And I think a lot of times, we do forget. Change seems out of reach, or at the very least, as Matt Chevy describes, "inconvinient." I've been working, job searching, eating the same lunch, doing the same things, rinse and repeating. But my friends' stories of how we always must keep in mind that we're in control of our lives and what terms we live on. And while I'm not quite ready to move someplace without setting up a job first, (I'm planning on following the work and moving to whatever area I get a job in) I feel much more positive about relocating once my full time job is lined up. I'm starting to set goals and limits for work and job search, making time for writing, becoming socialon my social networks again, and exploring some new things like lomography. A sushi lunch, some new goals and hobbies, and I feel fresher already; making my life more mine one change at a time.

What changes have you made lately?

P.S.
Here is a view from Vincent's cabin at sunset, for us non-islanders!

Writing versus blogging: Is there even a line to be blurred?

I apologize for not posting in a while, but my thesis on Wallce Irwin's The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum has been eating up all my time. Now as I finish up the finishing touches and the bibliography, the gears in my head are turning and getting my back in blog writing mode. And this transition itself is the inspiration for this post; there are more blog writers than every but how many of them would actually consider themselves writers?

Of course writing a 30 page literature thesis for a capstone class in college is much different than writing an in depth blog post. A thesis (or any kind of scholarly writing) is researched, analytical, and trying to make a point about what you are writing about. Writing a (good) blog post is typically well researched, approaches the topic in an analytical... wait a second. How different are they really?

Okay, all kidding aside, how similar are the two? With hundreds of millions of blogs, many of which being credible sources for news and information, blogs have reached a state of acceptance and legitimacy. Writing for college classes or academic publication requires a more objective, personally distanced type of writing, while blogs can be more opinion based. Despite the difference in indented audience, length, and form, the two types of writing do both require a substantial amount of intelligent thinking, knowledge or research, development of thoughts and points, etc.

But how many bloggers would consider themselves writers in the same way that someone like myself who is a Literature/Creative Writing major would? I write to make points in my essays, and I write for my own pleasure. Bloggers who have no formal education or background in writing have the same habits, but why not cross the line from blogger to writer? Would bloggers still write if there was no blogosphere?

It's a matter of how you consider your writing habits, and how passionate you are about your writing, and of course, if you started writing before you started blogging.

What about you? Do you consider yourself a writer or a blogger or somewhere in between?

Atlantic City Press Release: Social Networking, Job Networking, and Yours Truly

I received an email last week from a friend at Career Services of my school saying that the Press of Atlantic City wanted to interview me about using social networking as a graduating student entering the job market. I gladly accepted and gave reporter Courtney McCann a call. We chatted about the do's and dont's of using social media to appeal to employers, its networking benefits, and how I as a creative writer and social media enthusiast fit into the marketing and business plans of companies.

But I don't want to spoil the article, so just check it out right here-

AC Press: Social networking is job networking, experts say

I just want to correct a small error in the article when it mentions me heading the social media marketing campaign for a "pet store" in Missouri. This is referring to my work at FURminator Inc, a company that is a little bigger than a pet store ;)

At any rate, what do you think of the article, and the idea that social networking is job networking? I use social networking/media sites to build my online presence and portfolio, aside from the fact that it's related to what I want to do. Do you think graduating job seekers can afford to not acknowledge their online presence? (aka employers looking at their Facebook and other profiles)

Popularity Contests, Conversation, and Buzz for Buzz's Sake

Okay, most Twitter users know there is a clear difference between followers and say friends on Facebook or Myspace. It's been said a million times and this makes one million and one: Twitter is about conversation, not some kind of popularity contest. You get no points if you have a hundreds of thousands of followers, but don't form some kind of conversation or community. If you want further insight to knowing the right and wrong approach to gaining followers and building community, you can check out Jun Loayza's post about that kind of thing here.


But this post isn't about rehashing that rather well made point, it's about another interesting incident I found. This morning, I read this article on CNN's website- Ashton Kutcher challenges CNN to Twitter popularity contest.
Now let me be the first to say I laughed at this. Kutcher telling Larry King that if he beats CNN to 1 million Twitter followers he will ding-dong-ditch Ted Turner's house is hilarious. Larry King's response was equally funny, telling Kutcher "CNN will bury you."

Now all kidding aside, it's pretty clear to me that neither Ashton nor CNN understands exactly how Twitter works. If this was a friend race on Myspace, it would make a little more sense. But Twitter is about conversation, not followers. It's not some social cult networking site where whoever recruits the most followers wins.

This kind of thing, especially on this grand and public scale, makes people focus their attention on numbers of followers, not on making actual connections. As I was writing this post, someone retweeted this: TWITTER WAR DECLARED: @someecards (361,733) vs @MarthaStewart (364,507) to 500k. follow someecards and retweet.
I hope that these popularity contests aren't a sign of a new trend to come. Creating buzz about something is good, but creating buzz for buzz's sake leads to a whole lot of nothin.

There is however a redeeming point in Ashton Kutcher's challenge. His original sentiment that a single person can, in today's media, have a voice as big as an entire news station is an interesting and progressive thought. Granted that calling for a popularity contest might not have been the best way to illustrate his point, I still think his idea has merit.

So what do you think? How much value do you put on your number of followers? What do you think of Kutcher's challenge to CNN and (oh what the hell) do you think he can beat CNN?

Prestopedia.com

The main website is finally all finished! Prestopedia.com is my official website and online portfolio and future source The Prestopedia- an index of quick, easy to understand info on social media and the web. Personal portfolio + quick web 2.0 info + perspective and opinon right here on the prestopedia blog. Yee-haw.

Me 2.0 Out Today

Yesterday personal branding guru Dan Schawbel released his first book Me 2.0. I've personally been waiting for this book to come out, as I regularly read Dan's Personal Branding Blog. I've got my copy already and look forward to reading it and writing a review on it right here. But I don't have to read it to recommend that anyone graduating from college this year, anybody graduating from college in the next few years, anybody who is or will be looking for a job, and anybody who wants to build their personal brand (okay, so basically everybody) check this book out!

Hear what Dan has to say about his book

Check out AwesomeBlogger to see Jun Loayza's(one of my fav video interviewers) interview with Dan.

Is the Spotlight on Social Media Scaring Off Guerrilla Marketing?

Just a year ago, social media hadn't quite exploded into the thing we know it as today, especially with regards to marketing. Now every major news station has a twitter and every company has a Facebook and a blog. Major companies having an open presence on social networking sites is the norm now, but what happened to subtly?
I first saw the "guy catches glasses with face" video during a presentation a year ago when I was highlighting the benefits of using social media marketing. Someone asked "How come we don't see all major companies using this kind of thing if it's so successful?" I said a lot of companies are to which he replied "Okay, search... Ray Ban. See it they're using it." So I did. I clicked on the guy catches glasses video and everyone at the meeting slowly realized it was produced by Ran Ban as a guerrilla marketing video. Ray Ban's Never Hide Film campaign continues today with videos like Super Chameleon, (brought to my attention via Neatorama) which got me to start thinking about how few guerrilla marketing campaigns I see these days.

Around the same time last summer, major car company BMW had a wildly successful viral video series on YouTube on "Rampenfest," which was a fake documentary on how a small town in Bulgaria planned to launch a car across the ocean to the United States. This fake documentary was never directly linked to BMW until months after when the car company claimed responsibility for the series. When it was covered by CNN, it was looked at like a more experimental form of guerrilla marketing on a fresh new media outlet. (watch CNN's coverage here) Now CNN has a YouTube. And a Twitter.

With the spotlight on social media marketing, users expect that anything that looks well put together is probably an advertisement of some kind or is put together by a company. Have guerrilla campaigns been replaced with open and thoughtful social media content by companies? Not that well done, entertaining content from companies is a bad thing, but with lots of companies putting this kind of content on the web now, it's nice to have a guerrilla video sneak up on you, camouflaged in the colors social media.

Facebook Changing Faces Again?

Let's talk about what's on every social media user's mind, feed, and status update: the new Facebook layout. Although I kinda like the new layout, (for reasons I'll go into in a sec) this bumper sticker seems to be the general opinion of the new homepage. I've yet to see anyone post anything even close to positive about the new layout. Most people are confused about the change, not understanding how to use familiar features and even more confused about why the layout of the homepage was changed again. When Facebook changed the format of the home page the first time, many people at first didn't prefer it, but understood how to use it and grew to accept it. This time around, people are threatening to just stop using fb if these constant unwanted changes are a sign of how the site's services will continue to pull the carpet out from under them. The new unwelcomed change adds to the negative snowball forming from a few months ago when Facebook suddenly changed it's terms of service, claiming all content posted on the site was theirs to use. This was revoked shortly after due to a storm of controversy.

Now for the part you're going to boo at. I like the new Facebook format, with some definite exceptions. The requests moving to the top of the page in more of a verbal list is kind of a messy pain, especially if you have several requests for different things. The new real time stream down the middle of the page is the real big change, along with the stream filters on the left. This, in my opinion and many other's, is trying to imitate Twitter. The live feed, above which is the "What's on your mind?" status update is definitely rooted in Twitter design. But I like Twitter. I agree that we don't need two social sites doing the same thing, but Facebook's filters make it a easier to narrow down the content you want to read, and the status updater has now been upgraded to the full publisher which was previously only on profile pages. This is the main improvement in my eyes. I typically post lots of pictures, links, etc for my friends to see, and the redesigned publisher on the main page definitely makes that a little easier. Facebook has always been about networking with people, as well as sharing content with friends, and I think the new stream and publisher allows for that. However, the "highlights" section is kind of similar to the feed, only it includes events you weren't invited to, or having anything to do with you directly. Makes the whole idea of a highlights side stream kinda questionable in it's usefulness.

But to say that the update has some improvements in a sea of discontented users isn't enough. If the users ultimately don't think it's easier, more integrated, and overall better, than it's not. I do take into account that people are usually going to complain and be reluctant to change at first, but this overwhelming consensous of disapproval says one thing: Facebook isn't listening to the users. While my humble preferences for the new format lay few and far between, I agree that Facebook needs to listen to it's users in regards what's easier and better.

A lil Ketchup

Let me first start by apologizing for not updating regularly; The lack of updates doesn't stem from me not paying attention, it's from me paying too much attention.
In my drafts, I have 3 or 4 posts in the works that were meant to be as long as that first one. But with all the goings on in the social media world, everything can't be given that kind of length- at least not yet.
Anyway, here's some ketchup.

Okay, I promise the next post won't be about Twitter. It's just hard not to write about it; Twitter is the hot newness.

A few weeks ago, Twitter turned down Facebook's 500 mil offer. The many people (me included) think Twitter did this because it has great potential as a real time search tool. Searching Tweets by keywords and #hastags to get a real-time snapshot of opinions as they're formed could be a tool Twitter's not ready to put up for sale just yet. While Twitter keeps working on their search functionality, users are finding their own ways to use Twitter. Social Media guru Waynesutton uses Twitter via Tweetgrid to watch basket ball games by running searches with the team names, score is, and other tags to get a real time reporting of the game while people watch and Tweet about it. I think this kind of innovation is a great idea and hope to see more things like this developed by users and Twitter in the future.

Followers vs Friends, Popularity vs Privacy

It's been said that Twitter followers are followers and not necessarily friends, but does that make it any less creepy when complete strangers start following you? Many Twitter etiquette guidelines say it's pefectly fine to follow and be followed by strangers, but I'm inclined to believe there's more to it.
Some Twitters like news feeds, companies, or celebrities are meant to be followed by strangers, and follow an informational-broadcast type update pattern. Just the opposite, some people update everything that they're doing on a deeply personal level, updates that are only meant to be seen by friends and sometimes these tweets are locked to strangers. Then we come to the ambiguous middle. (Which I admittedly fall into.) Being a writer, I don't mind when people read what I write, and I look at twitter with this perspective. My updates are semi-personal, sometimes containing entertaining links, and are written so that followers and friends alike will enjoy them. That's not to say I'm one of those people that tries to get a large amount of followers; I try and settle at a happy medium of updating about my thoughts for whoever wants to read them. However, I can see why Twitter accounts with thousands of followers would change their content to provide entertaining content for everyone instead of super personal entries. But how much is the content driven by the amount of followers, and how is the amount of followers effected by the type of content posted? (As far as regular people and not celebs or companies.)

Let's take a quick look.
According to Twitterholic, Kevin Rose is the number 10 most followed person on Twitter, understandably upstaged by Brittany Spears, Barrack Obama, CNN, New York Times, Etc.
Rose's tweets range from providing links and info "excited to get my sonos music working - just downloaded the iphone app, demo here: http://sonos.com/demo/iphon..." to more personal "back in the office (after 2 day move to new apt in SF) tons to do.. email count: 720," content not so different then my own, or most other people's. So why does he have 231,487 followers?

For starters, he's founder of social news site Digg.com. He has a website, a blog, and an active life on the many social networks of the web. While the content might not be so different than most people's, the exposure via linking to his Twitter page from many already popular other sites certainly is. Does he think it's creepy that 230 thousand complete strangers are following him? Probably not. You control the exposure(to a degree) of your twitter page and the content relevance to strangers.

There is one more aspect mentioning that pertains to how and why strangers find your Twitter page in the first place. With more and more tweet searching sites such as Tweetgrid and Twitter Search becoming popular, the chances of someone seeing your tweets if you're talking about a hot topic are substantially increased.

So good luck at becoming the next big Twitter celeb, or keeping those strange strangers from following your every update. Whichever you prefer.

-Presto