Inescapable

Social media has certainly made it's impression on the world in a short period of time. As I was perusing Mashable for some inspiration for my final blog, I came across an article regarding how social media has changed our everyday lives. I've chosen the three that are related to my personal social media experience.
1. Where we get our news- You know, there was time when I would turn on the computer and look at CNN.com to see what the day's important news was. Now, I just go to Twitter and see what my followers are tweeting about or glance at the trending topics. So much has changed, in such a quick period of time. There was a point in time where reading the newspaper or watching the television would inform me of what was going on the world. Now, I just look at Anderson Cooper's tweets on my Twitter home page and see what important news he has linked to. And if that fails, then I can always see what President Barack Obama's (or his trained PR professionals) is tweeting about. Times have changed and I have found a more appropriate way of keeping myself informed.
2. How we meet and stay in touch with people- In high school, I went through a huge transition when my best friend moved back to Canada. I was devastated because at that point, the only way I could use the Internet to contact her was through e-mail or instant messenger. Then, Facebook swooped in and saved our friendship. Through Facebook, we have been able to keep in contact with each other and see how our lives have changed over time. Not only through Facebook chat, but with photos, videos, notes, etc. In addition, I have befriended distant relatives from all around India on Facebook. How cool is that? I can keep in contact with people I've related to without even meeting them. Social media has seriously shrunk the size of our world. Not just through Facebook, but even with more interactive outlets like Skype.
3. What we reveal- I think my start in the social media realm was activating my Xanga account. I started blogging in March of 2004. Little did I know that I would keep this blog for 5 1/2 years! Now, my Xanga is primarily used as a emotional outlet of sorts. I used to pour my heart out through elaborate journal entries and my readers (mostly just people from school) would respond and relate to what I was going through. It wasn't quite as embarrassing as talking about my feelings out loud, but through social media, I was able to be myself and not feel the need to hide anything.

Social media is an ever-changing field. I hope to try my hardest to keep up with it as much as I can. Because the truth of the matter is, social media is the future, not just for PR, but for the world in general. It's inescapable.

Ride the Wave

Since my recent annoyance of Facebook and their need to add unnecessary features, I have been looking for a new outlet for my social networking needs. While researching for my interest group, I came across Google Wave. I am unbelievably excited about this compilation of the greatest hits of social media. For those of you that don't know, Google Wave is Google's newest social networking site. It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client ( Mashable). I believe that Google Wave has the potential to win over my heart. Unfortunately, Google Wave hasn't been released to the public yet. It's only been released by invitation and those have mostly gone out to developers to help work out glitches. I have been avidly using Mashable to figure out Google Wave has to offer to the social media realm. The coolest extension I found was:

Twave- a Twitter extension for Google Wave. This basically embeds a Twitter feed into your Google Wave page. It has the capability of doing everything you would normally do on Twitter, except you can do it from Google Wave.
Google Wave also has a "playback" feature that allows you to playback a conversation from the beginning. This feature can also be used on Twave, so users can see what order their followers tweeted. How awesome is that? Not just for Twitter, but in general. I mean, I can't even say how many times I tune out of my Facebook chats and then find myself super confused when I deign to pay attention again. With this feature, I can playback from where I tuned out, and catch up on all the excitement.

I think Google's decision to join Twitter instead of try to work against them was smart. As of now, I don't have any complaints about Twitter, so it will be nice to see the two as a collaboration. Twitter is still growing and with Google Wave's capabilities, I think the two will go far together.

This is only one of the many extensions that will be coming our way from Google Wave. I agree with Mashable , Google Wave has the potential to be a "game-changer" in the social media realm. I can only hope that it can live up to all the hype and take the world by storm.

Let's Go Back to the Good Old Days..

I have no hesitation in saying that almost everyone I know is a Facebook user, including my dad. It seems like Facebook is trying to get their users to hate them. Just in this past week, they have made changes to the homepage by making two different newsfeeds, a live one, and something else that I find kind of useless.
I just want to go back to the simpler, easy to use Facebook I know and love. Also, they have this new feature on the homepage that makes "suggestions" on who's wall I should be writing on. This is just ridiculous, I'm sorry, I don't feel like "re-connecting" with my 10th grade World History teacher or the girl that sat in my row freshman year in government.
This post is a bit reminiscent of Kelsey's Blog on simplicity. I love Facebook because it helps me keep connected with my friends and family, but with all these new additions they have planned for us,(Mashable) I feel like they're headed in the wrong direction. I hope that they respond to users feedback and realize that over complicating features that were fine to begin with is going to be to their own detriment. I can only hope that Facebook decides to take a step back and realize that keeping things simple leads to success.

Tweeting the Ellen Way

With the emergence of Twitter, most American celebrities (and their skilled public relations advisers) have made use of this social media outlet. One such celebrity that has caught my eye is none other than Ellen DeGeneres. Along with having a daytime show and several comedy specials, DeGeneres has used Twitter to reach her fans. Not only does she continuously update her Twitter page, but she has made a point to mention Twitter on her talk show.
Many celebrities use social media to keep their fans updated on their day-to-day lives and keep connected with followers. Ellen does this too, but in addition she shares videos and links that she finds humorous or heartfelt and she offers prizes to her followers. I've watched several of these videos and have always found myself smiling afterwards.
Just this past week, she reached out to her followers in Dallas and connected with them by having a give-a-way of a GMC car from Sewell GMC, a dealership in Dallas. By localizing and distinguising between fans in different cities, Ellen has used Twitter the right way by not only keeping her fans updated, but also making it an interactive by involving them in her Twitter experience.
As Twitter continues to grow, I hope to see more celebrities and well-known figures use this social media outlet to not only keep fans updated, but perhaps build a stronger connection as well.

Myspacing Out...? Perhaps Not

So I was reading an article earlier about how Myspace has become pretty much obsolete in the realm of social media. The only exception to this observation is the reigning success of Myspace Music. The writer of this article described Myspace Music as the web site's one "bright spot" in all of the darkness. I couldn't agree more. As much as I love Facebook and Twitter, I still revert to Myspace when I am looking to find new music or learn more about an artist. On Myspace Music websites, like the one for Taylor Swift , not my particular taste in music but I'll give her her props for gathering a huge fanbase of 1,607,047 friends on her Myspace site. On her site, in addition to finding full-length songs, there are music videos, blogs, pictures and a plethora of links. While this number of friends would be much larger if such a page existed on Facebook, Myspace has still stolen the spotlight on this one aspect of social networking sites. Facebook apps have attempted to fill the void from the lack of music sites, but yet I always find myself running back to Myspace. My latest, and a little shameful use of the Myspace Music has been for the Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack. Yes, go ahead and mock me, but I will say that while the acting in those movies is abysmal, the music selection is truly fantastic. I was excited to find the entire track list and full songs on Myspace. I got to listen to each track before I decided if I wanted to buy the album, which I did. The best thing from my point-of-view about Myspace Music is that they haven't forced people to stay members in order to see musician's profiles. If I had to be a member of the Myspace community, I would join, but I am so glad that it's easily accessible. All in all, Myspace Music is still a vital part of my everyday online adventures, and while most of its features are pretty much phased out now, their music section is still holding strong in my book.