The 1 Percenters demanding transparency... wk 4

I kept sitting back and laughing to myself while reading this week's chapters in Citizen Marketers. The 2nd chapter on the 1 Percenters opened my eyes to several things I hadn't noticed before. Firstly, I was never aware that anyone had the time/energy to sit around and formulate "power laws" based on tons of information that I never in a million years would think to compilate into a statistic. However, I must say that the 1 Percent rule is alarming to me, because if asked this question on a test without reading the information, I'd SURELY guess that the number of people contributing to social media sites was more than 1%.

The 1 Percenters are also interesting to me because I find similarities in that group of people and my Millennial Generation. Wasn't it on the first day of this class that we learned the characteristics surrounding our generation? The book says citizen marketers are usually "in their 20s, highly educated, intellectually curious, sociable, interested in many things and in finding new interests." Wow! Does that describe this generation to a T or what?!

Consequently, I also found a tie to this generation while reading chapter 3 and the push for everything to become more transparent for everyone. We're always the ones being called "control freaks" for getting upset when a professor bumps a test up by one day... or when they change ANYTHING on the syllabus (man, I hate that!) Maybe it's not that we're so spoiled that we need to have everything laid out for us, but rather, that our society is one that is becoming more dependant on transparency!

So which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Millennial Generation, or the demand for transparency in life? Perhaps this debate will go on forever, but I'm sure that as long as one exists, so will the other.

My Matthew... wk 4

Everyone has those few friends who, no matter what, will always hold a special place in your heart. For me, my core group of friends is mostly made up of boys. This weekend was a bit sad for me, as it was my last chance to hang out with my friend Matt for a while because he left for Iraq this morning.

Matthew and I have been friends since I was 17. He's become like my brother. I've had so many good times with him, and I know that no matter what he'll always have my back and be there to protect me. Matt joined the Army last spring and spent most of the summer gone at basic training in Kentucky. He was home for a week at the end of August, before he left for base in Georgia. It was a total shock to me when he called and told me he was coming home for a few days because they were sending him to Iraq. I still can't believe it.

This weekend we rented a party bus and went all over the Toledo area bar-hopping and whatnot to give him a good time before he left. It was really hard to leave him this morning, I still can't believe I cried like a baby! I know he'll be safe and come home to us, but it still hurts to think that he'll be in danger and be away until February at the earliest.

I am so proud of Matt for his dedication to our country. Prayers for his safety would be greatly appreciated!!


<--- Matt and I back in the day



<--- Swimming


<--- Last Year


<--- At Little Mexico


<--- Me and my Matty his last night before deploying

Check out our band on MySpace! wk 4

Last Tuesday I went to a show in Columbus to see one of my favorite bands (MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK) play at the Newport Music Hall. Of course, especially among the bands I love to listen to, it's important for their image to be marketable to the younger generations. So what's the trend for bands who want to reach the masses?

MySpace.

According to an article on the Redwood Technology Consortium Web site, there are roughly *1.4 million band pages on MySpace. (*though I'd expect this number to be larger now since the article was published in 2006) Band pages on MySpace allow for bands to better connect with their fans by posting new music, upcoming shows and special promotions.

Bands aren't the only ones taking notice of this new trend. The article also talks about how some radio stations even use MySpace to seek out new talented musicians to play. Also, once a band is spotted online, the radio deejay's can even conduct interviews through the MySpace messaging system.

There are also programs especially designed to help bands reach fans who may never have otherwise had the capability of hearing about them. A company called NumberOneMusic specializes in marketing bands to audiences based on musical preference. The company will automatically generate a friend request for MySpace users who have showed an interest in a certain type of music, thus directing people to bands they may not have considered before.

I personally have discovered several new bands by visiting their MySpace pages, and I also use MySpace to check if there is anything new going on with the bands I already like.

So in the spirit of Social Media, enjoy this video from Motion City Soundtrack, called My Favorite Accident.

Technology and the Generation Gap... wk 3

One thing I've always found interesting is the fact that with every new technology comes the beginning of a new gap between generations.

Chapter 4 of Citizen Marketers (McConnell/Huba) describes the advancement of blogging, and particularly makes me think about the big change differentiating my generation from that of my parents'. My parents were part of the "TV/Radio Age," one that was drastically different from my grandparents' newspapers. It's funny to me that my parents thought they were "ahead of the curve" with their TV programs and radio shows, but here they are behind the times with things like blogs, podcasts, and even the internet in general! Headlining Web sites like MySpace and YouTube are constantly evolving, and that makes me wonder what could possibly be coming next to set my generation apart from my children's?!

OTHER RANDOM THINGS THAT MADE ME SAY "WHAAAAAT?!"
**RSS- I read and read and read, and I STILL can't tell you exactly what this means. Anyone care to explain it to me in Lehman's terms??

**ANIMALS BLOGGING??- I hope I wasn't the only person disturbed by this tidbit that might be part of the not-so-distant future...

**Does anyone else but me notice that the writers of Citizen Marketers use the word "democratize" WAYYYYY too much? If I wasn't so lazy I'd go through and highlight and count it every time I see it. There has GOT to be a new/different word they can use... it's as easy as visiting thesaurus.com

Not Facebook Friends... wk 3

It should have been a red flag to me that our personal life was in jeopardy once Facebook opened it's membership to non-college affiliated people. I know that social media sites are attractive to companies and school officials because of the amount of personal information one can gain by just simply perusing through pages of information.

Much to my dismay, I logged into Facebook early Thursday morning to find a surprise friend request from none other than the Career Services Department here on campus. And just why is the office of Career Services befriending students on Facebook?

According to an article on Wikipedia, many school officials are using the social media sites to investigate academic misconduct on campuses. While I know that things posted on the internet are essentially public and viewable by anyone, I'm confused as to why it has become such a hot tool for them to use against us. Wasn't there a time where personal life was personal life and professional life was something separate? I seem to think that what I like to do in my personal time that does not reflect on how I perform in school should not be questioned. I'll be 22 in less than a month, and I'm sure I'm grown up enough to be able to use social networking sites without training wheels or babysitters from school, especially when I have no idea what they're even using the site for in the first place.

Needless to say, that friend invitation from Career Services is still sitting there waiting to eventually be denied...

The Chap stick Chronicles... wk 3

So I was hoping to write my personal post this week about something interesting, but once again all I have to talk about is crap...

Yesterday morning I threw away my favorite chap stick, Burt's Bees Pomegranate, because it had finally kicked the bucket. Now anyone who knows me knows the obsession I have with always having chap stick on hand, so much to my dismay, I couldn't find any more of that kind in my makeup drawer. Of course I have other chap sticks.. you know, the kind that are like "sort-of" friends, the ones you call to hang out with you when there seems to be absolutely NO ONE ELSE around...

(Don't you make me feel like a bad person, because I know you do it too...)

I used a makeshift chap stick, but I told myself that before class I was going to run to Rite-Aid and get a new one of my favorite. Of course I had about a million other things to do so that didn't get done. Fast forward to the end of the day and I STILL never made it to the store for my chap stick, thus guaranteeing another meltdown in the morning when I rediscovered my loss.

Now before you think I'm totally crazy, let me give you something else to laugh about. I go to bed chap stick-less and for once in a great while I have a dream that I can actually remember! The sad part is that the dream ended with me getting shot by a giant tube of Burt's Bees Pomegranate. (I'll spare you the rest of my crazy dream) So before I end this post, let me just tell you that of course I made time to make it to Rite-Aid today so that I could stop obsessing over the stupid little .15oz tube of wonderfulness that seems to control my life.

PS- laugh if you will, I'd surely laugh at me too if I were you!

Bring me some toilet paper!

Going along with the social media theme, I want to share someone I often watch on YouTube (even though she hasn't posted a video in a while). She's absolutely hilarious, especially her videos where she prank calls people...

This one is her calling a restaurant pretending to be in the bathroom and needing toilet paper...




I think everyone should watch Katlitter, she's absolutely hilarious! :)

Viva Maria owns my life!

I know that by waiting until the last few days of the week to do the required blogs makes me look like much of a procrastinator (no complaints in that department), it also makes me look like I don't care much about writing them... which I'll say is untrue.

The truth is, my new job has completely consumed every ounce of free time I once had spending bored/putting off homework! I started working at Viva Maria last week (Wednesday) on their first day of business in town. Before anyone asks, the place is an Italian restaurant, authentic food... pizza, calzones, stromboli, pasta... you know the drill. So far in the 6 days we've been open, I've had a whole day off. I can honestly say I never even did this much running around waiting on customers when I worked at McDonalds back as a sophomore in high school (why do I keep feeling like sharing my embarrassing life details on this thing?).

But is it worth it?

I'd like to think so. The big boss man, Dom, is 100% Sicilian. English is his second language, and he often stalks around the place barking in a heavily accented voice. He IS the pizza master, though. I've never seen anyone be as passionate about cooking as he is. I never quite know where I stand with him, because he's pretty hard to read. I mean, he can walk up to me and say, "Casey, wha'you mean dey don' wan' no onions on da cheese steak?!" in the gruffest voice ever, but then smile at me in 15 minutes for no apparent reason.

Today he was wearing some really crazy pants, though. They were like sweatpants with all kinds of little Italian pictures and whatnot all over them. I was half scared to even say anything about them, but I told him I liked them anyway. He looked right at me and said flatly, "Oh yea? Well you can't have'em." Uhh... to say the least, I would've been content with a thank you, or even maybe a nod of acknowledgement?!?

It wasn't until I completely walked out of the kitchen that I heard him laughing. What a turd. He gets so much pleasure out of intimidating me to death!! I have a feeling I'll be sharing more Dom stories in this blog throughout the quarter...

New Influencers... the beginning.

It seems like forever ago since I read the intro and chapter one in New Influencers, but really it's only been a week. The biggest thing I can remember thinking while reading the first chapter was, "duh."

Allow me to elaborate:

As I talked about in my last blog, being part of this generation means being right in the thick of the social media boom (beginning at a fairly young age) and sort of "growing up" with it. For an adult like Gillin, who was NOT born of the "blogosphere" age, giant leaps in technology like this require one to stop and think about what's happening around them.

Of course, sometimes being right in the middle of all the action can alter one's perception of the changes, so it's nice to know that someone will take a section of their book and dedicate it to telling me the differences between business blogs, culture blogs, gossip blogs, online diaries, etc.

So I guess what I'm trying to say with this is that it's kind of nice to be growing up with all of this knowledge that some of the older people are just trying to grasp.

Social media leads me to PR

SOCIAL MEDIA FACT: The metrics enthusiasts at Jupiter Research claim that 57% of bloggers have a household income of under US$60,000 per year, a figure that is presumably consistent with concentration of blogging under college students. (for those of you who don't understand, that means OUR generation)

Social media in public relations is something I guess I never pictured going together. This, of course, was probably back when I was still a third year nursing major who felt out of place in the world of science brainiacs and uptight organizers. When I finally grew a pair (no that's probably not PC language, but my mom could definitely read that) and left my routine for a new major, I was sure in for a surprise! This is right in my element, because you see, I've been playing a role in the social media boom for years and I never even knew it!

I've been a member of the blog site Xanga for years. I haven't written in a while, but I used to write religiously. (insert lots of laughing at my apparent nerdiness...) I think it was back in middle school when the site became really popular and just about everyone I knew was writing in one. I'm also a member of the YouTube community. (as if Xanga wasn't embarrassing enough, now I'll have people I know searching for me on YouTube...) I post all kinds of videos on that site, some impromptu things I capture in day-to-day life and some are planned vlogs where I just talk about random stuff.

It feels really weird to say that I'm part of a statistic. I guess there really is a method behind all the madness though, because like I said, a social media nut like myself ended up a PR student!

1st Day

The first day of Social Media class is also the first day of classes in general for what would be my senior year here at Northern. Unfortunately because of changing my major last year, I will NOT be graduating this year as I'd hoped. This obviously started my day off badly.

I've had all but one of my fall quarter classes today and Social Media looks like it will end up being my favorite. The class length is a little long, but I'd rather be sitting in here than over in the Hill building wondering why history has to be so boring and why all history professors are born weirdos...