People Tweet Reaction

If I was to sum up Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do by Euan Semple in a statement, it would be: social media adds value. And it was a complete surprise to me, someone who only uses social media for personal use (to keep up with friends)

Social media adds value to conversation and knowledge sharing. Euan explains that people learn through collaboration and sharing what they know with others. This is the value that blogs and twitter add. If you blog or tweet or post your knowledge, you are adding value to and affirming it, not giving it away. This was one of the surprises to me. You always think of your knowledge as precious and the only thing that can differentiate yourself from others professionally and personally. Euan, however, argues that by sharing this information, you are showing others your expertise and calling for others to tell you more.

Social media also adds value to conversation when the blogger or poster or tweeter is good at it. By posting things people care about, asking good questions, and talking in their own voice, conversation and collaboration can happen. This is the part of social media that I have the hardest with. How do I know what people care about? What knowledge do I have to share with people? How do I find my own voice? I'm working on tweeting more, but as Euan points out, the internet is the place where success seems more obvious. Today, a friend told me she enjoyed something I tweeted, but she didn't respond to it online. When no one responds, am I still reaching people? Is someone seeing it without responding still success? Or, do I need to be more engaging? Euan responds that blogging and tweeting is about self-reflection and gathering thoughts first, and then sharing with followers second. But how do I decide what to write about? I spend time reflecting to myself, do I need to tell (potentially) the world? Will I really observe more, as Euan says?

I guess these questions are the reason why I'm taking this class.

Social media also adds value to relationships. Through the sharing of thoughts and knowledge, Euan claims that people can become closer friends over the internet than in real life. You can connect with people who you would never have met, and might have more in common with. By focusing on the quality of people who follow you or are friend with you, you can share with and talk to people who will engage with you and inspire you. I agree that the relationships being formed over the web should be given a new name. The space and context allows you to share some thoughts that you might not share with the people you call friends in real life. People who follow you might share their insight, or even funds to help you continue sharing. Euan says friends and followers are not the right terms for this commitment and connection. This is true, except in the instance where he described how he and his followers were all blogging about negative things at the same time, and successful companies project a positive message of themselves. The internet erases body language clues, but their is still tone in peoples' writings. The people reading this information pick up on this tone and either react oppositely or follow it and agree.

Another Copy Cat

This is another blog where I review other people's blogs and steal their ideas.

Everyone seems to have followed the same progression in their twitter-verse. They start a twitter to keep in touch with friend and families and possibly that kid in school you love to judge. Then they moved on to celebrities and news sources. Or, if you're like Lindsay and I, Uberffacts. I love checking my twitter really quickly when I'm with friends and telling them the random facts that pop up on my feed.

Once again, Emma's expertise shined. She included screenshots of her twitter to go along with her post. I just put pictures of cute animals. But, who doesn't love cute animals? Maybe I could do both?

What's more impressive to me, though, is that she has found her voice. When she writes, he posts are consistent and sound like they are coming from a specific person. I feel as if I haven't quite found that voice yet. And, as I'm trying to be more concise, I feel as if I'm having an even harder time.

The other blogs also reminded me to start putting my twitter in to lists. I tried last week and got bored halfway through

Maybe I should finish the job.

Also, I'd like to add my twitter feed to my blog. (Maybe if I write it down, I'll actually do it).

The Voice of Vaughn's post really resonated with me this week as well, in terms of his complaints about following news sources. He complained of the apparent "waste of tweet" that many news sources seem to have, as their use of the instantaneous and constant platform of twitter seems to be a bit too constant. I believe that it is important to keep reminding your follower that you're there, but as many of the other students point out, your follower often stops reading if you badger them.

118 and Counting

I started my twitter because my friend made me. She was and still is one of those twitter users who's figured it out and tweets often. She wanted me to get a twitter just so she "could tweet at me". She also created twitters for two of our other friends. Neither of them use it. I decided to try.

I got my twitter around the same time that I joined a sorority. I started out only following people in my sorority so that I could get to know them through their tweets and interact with them. I also followed my other friends here at Lehigh. My friends from back home don't have a twitter, they find that tumblr and Facebook are enough social media for them. 

Then, through recommendations for people to follow on twitter, I followed various Lehigh parody accounts and a couple of "Total sorority move"accounts. I also followed some celebrities. Ellen Degeneres was the first I followed. I also follow her on Stamped. I also followed Wanda Sykes and Taylor Swift. Ellen is the only one who tweets often.

Now, thanks to this class, I follow Lehigh Valley with Love and some news sources. I'm working on the rest of the lists recommended for the class.

I still mostly only follow my friends, and most of my tweets are still just interactions between the girl who made me make my twitter and I.

Inspiration from Others

I lied... This was a bit more than I expected.

When looking at the other blogs, I was constantly reminded of the difference in expertise that each of us have. This also happens to be my favorite thing about this assignment and the class in general. Some of the blogs (I would say I definitely fall under this category) were obviously started by beginners. I though I had mine completely customized because I selected my favorite from a list of default backgrounds and chose a font. This is just another lesson in the role social media can play in sharing information and inspiration. I now know what the possibilities are and I plan to copy some of my favorites.

There were people who added pictures and links to their posts. There were people who were using a personal blog, so they had all the categories of their posts in a list on the side. There were people who had links to all the other blogs on the side (definitely doing this... My RSS feed is confusing). There were people who had their twitter either linked on the page, or had their actual feed on the side. Some people, like Emma (see? I'm already learning) had it all.

I was also struck by how much shorter a lot the people's blog posts were than mine. And it wasn't because they had less to say. Perhaps I should work on being more concise, as this is a blog post and not an essay.

I've still got a lot to learn.

In terms of the other students opinions' on twitter and facebook, everyone seemed to have opinions, regardless of their level of experience. Twitter is a place for connecting with people on a more even playing field. People can interact with celebrities in a way they couldn't in the real world or on Facebook, which is something I didn't even think of. Facebook is more personal. Almost everyone worried about privacy on Facebook because of the personal nature of their posts. However, these same people loved the public aspect of Twitter.

I don't know what to post a picture of, but I'd like to post one to make this post more aesthetically pleasing, so here's a picture of something I like (customization and personalization):

Also, I'd like to highlight something I read in Stephanie's blog that I think is a great summarization of the ultimate potential for social media:

"More times than not, we, as consumers, see information as simply there for the taking. If we can shy away from the ‘what can you do for me’ and lean more toward ‘what can we accomplish together’ – from a producer AND consumer perspective – we can get one step closer to knowing it all."

Well said.

Facebook vs. Twitter

My experiences with Facebook and Twitter are extremely different. Facebook defines an "active" user as someone who signs on at least once a month, so I would probably call my self a super duper really active user. I am constantly checking my Facebook. I look at my news feed constantly and often have it in another tab while I'm doing other things so that I can see the (1) when I get a new notification on the tab. Twitter, on the other hand, I check maybe once a day. I forget sometimes and still haven't figured out how to do basic things. That being said, I do see the importance and merit of both.

Twitter is more immediate and constant. Like with Ted, you are able to post things often in order to create buzz. People aren't checking twitter all the time (well, let's face it, some people are), so Twitter allows you to consistently post things so that you are always present on their feed. Constantly reminding people of your presence will create more of a buzz as well.

Because of the list-like quality of twitter, it is also important as a business to be on twitter constantly so that you don't miss any consumer engagement opportunities. All of the companies on the article about thriving company twitters are so successful because they respond to their consumer and use twitter for customer service.

Also, the constant and immediate aspects of twitter are the reason why I wasn't surprised by the data about news organizations. People get news directly from news organization twitters because the information is timely and easy to access.

Facebook is more of a culmination of all the information you need. I can go to a page and see a store's hours, information, photos, posts, and everything else all in one place. On twitter, it's just a list of tweets. Facebook also has longer posts, so more information can be shared.

I think my main reason for not using Twitter much is because I don't have much updating to do. If I want my friends to know something about my life, I'll tell them. I also very rarely post status updates on Facebook because of this.

In terms of the articles, I have some thoughts about the ones talking about the "cons" of Facebook. They seem kind of nit-picky. Facebook is a social website intended for charing information. Everyone knows this when they sign up. If you use a "social reader", obviously this is going to be shared and social. If you can't be bothered to check a box that won't post it on your homepage, then you should at least not read anything you'd be embarrassed about. Also, the fact that one of the main reasons that Man Bartlett deleted his facebook was because he hated that his default email got changed without notice. Who cares? I don't get emails from Facebook because I'd rather just get my notifications from Facebook. Any one who needs my email has it, and if they don't they could contact me on Facebook to get it. Also, a topless woman is a topless woman. I understand that she was doing it for an important cause, but if Facebook bends the rules, then they will lose all authority in moderating actually inappropriate content. Facebook should learn how to be more interactive with their users in terms of warning them before taking action, but I think Bartlett's anger was a bit misguided.

Reaction to 'Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25'

 When I first read the article, I had a lot of thoughts and opinions. Most of them were covered in the response articles, but I'll repeat some. To put it plainly, this girl was mistaken. She generalizes too much about the two age groups (above 25 and under 25) to even have a basis for her argument.

She believes that everyone under 25 would be a good social media member because she assumes every one has grown up using it. Not true. I didn't get a twitter until last year. I just found out how to view when some one tweets at you last week, which was super embarrassing because I've missed a lot of tweets, including one which informed me I won a sweepstakes I'd entered. If I was running a twitter for a business more than I week ago, I might've missed important feedback. Granted, I would've found how out to look for it sooner if I was running as something as sensitive as a business twitter, but you get the point. A friend of mine didn't get a Facebook until the end of his Senior year of high school. I hardly call that growing up with social media. If anything, the older generation knows more about running a Facebook professionally because that's what they've always been using it for. They were part of the professional world when Facebook started, so they've been using it for that while we were just using it for tagging pictures and updating people about our lives. Cathryn Sloane argues that our social use makes us more knowledgable about social media, how does social translate to professional? We are constantly told to be aware of the difference between professionally and socially emailing, talking in an interview, and connecting with customers in business school, the same distinction is important to be made for social media. Social media is a marketing tool that's just as important to be experienced in as print, radio, television, etc. Practicing with someone there to correct your mistakes is the only way to learn to properly use this tool.

This being said, I don't agree with all the responses so aggressively attacking her. They immediately jump to defending their generation, claiming that experience is always better and 23-25 year-olds don't know how to run a business without messing it up. I don't think this is always true either. The managing director of the theatre I interned for over the summer was 26. She was one of the most competent, organized, and effective business owners I've ever had the pleasure of working for/knowing. She didn't need ten years of experience. She learned how to do her job better than her predecessors quickly and seamlessly. She wasn't in charge of the social media, but based on her press releases and other professional communications, she probably would've done an equally great job.

My major thought about this article, then, is that is perfectly demonstrates the power and necessity of social media. Cathryn's article is an example of the type of response that a social media post written by an author under 25 years old could cause. Many of the responses also point out her lack of professionalism  for not apologizing or responding. Whether or not this is due to her age and/or lack of experience isn't for me to say, but it is possible. If she were in charge of a business' social media accounts and refused to respond or post a retraction, she could destroy the business. The article displays social media's ability to inspire and provoke conversation. The article and the subsequent backlash reminds us that everything is sharable and so it is important to be careful what you share as a business.

Thoughts for 8/29 Class: Zoellner Facebook

ZOELLNER FACEBOOK TAKEOVER (I should pick a less hostile word.)
I think you were asked to run the Facebook right before the Katherine McPhee Gala. I say this because there is a change in terms of frequency of posts and content. Before, there would be one or two posts about the shows, with a quote from a review, or a link to a page. It was all very Lehigh-specific, meaning all the information was about the show at Lehigh, not the show. With the Katharine McPhee show, there's some info about her show at Zoellner, but there's also some really fun links related to her that are shared within a few days of each other. There's pictures of her from Smash, and an interview with her talking about how much she loves her job. The audience is getting a feel for who they're seeing and the type of tone her show will probably set. There's already been a bunch of fun stuff, like hairstyles and music for Rock of Ages, and the show hasn't even opened.

FACEBOOK LIKES
When I was an active administrator of the Spring on 4th page, getting likes was one of the hardest things. I needed people to see what I was posting, but how could I get that number to increase? The only ideas I have involve networking. I think the people in the class should ask their friends to like the page because some people go to shows there and "check-in", without also liking it. If they liked one show, they should find out about more, right? Also, connecting with other performing organizations on campus, like the choruses and groups who perform on the Zoellner stage. They all have their own following, but they're the type of people who'd like Zoellner too. Also, Zoellner's biggest audience demographic is non-Lehigh students. Connecting with local businesses and other performance arts venues will connect Zoellner with potential audience members from that community as well.