Twitter, who are YOU following?

Twitter, who are YOU following?

I absolutely love “rag mags”- However, I do not want my life to be overwhelmed with the constant gossip, drama and overall stupidity that is manifested within the “celebrity sphere”.  I absolutely do not support the Kardashian being famous. As a political science major I find it absurd- with the current un-employment percentage % (not to mention our nations overall debt) it is actually unnerving to think about the figures $$$ they make for doing… Not only that, but the Kardashian “empire” came to be on behalf of a sex tape…

            That being said, with encouragement from Professor White I thought it would be an interesting idea to begin following celebrities on my new public twitter account. It may even be an interesting idea to follow the Kardashian specifically and blog about it (an idea in progress….) maybe I am completely wrong about the whole clan, who knows? I guess I will find out.

            On another note, I already do follow celebrities, celebrities that have more or less been created…. by this I mean parody accounts I have absolutely fallen head over heels in love with Alan from the hangover. His twitter is constantly cracking me up; it’s amazing with the current day technology that characters from the big screen can essentially come to life.

            Outside of my daily need of comic relief and the obvious of seeing what my friends and family are up to, I find twitter can also be a great way to get a sense of what is going on with the world. Literally the world- foreign affairs to my local town, its all NEWS and its important! It’s amazing to be able to literally scroll through and be able to quickly get a sense of what is going on in New Canaan to Libyan to the moon, etc.! It’s an easy way to keep up on important events and is something my generation especially counts on. I think it is absolutely amazing (if not imperative) to our nations community that twitter and other social media forms can provide news (regardless of its bias and propaganda) -its at least still providing some information that a majority of my peers would otherwise not know. The reality is if it were not for social media exposing a number of events, news, etc. many of my peers would not seek out a way to become knowledgeable. They would just remain uneducated and unaware. 

 As previously mentioned, I am a political science major so unlike a majority of my peers, I know what is going on…unfortunately, (for a lack of better word) my generation is.  We are however, deeply immersed in social media wave. I actually believe we will be able to look back and say we were the social media wave, just as we look back and label the roaring 20’s, the golden years and the great depression. We are an era of technology, communication and it is all manifested in the various social media outlets that are now available. In retrospect this has made us selfish. We are constantly concerned with how our own Facebook looks, is this profile picture better then this one? is this funny? Should I tweet it? …We are enthralled with how we are presenting ourselves on social media, constantly in a sub conscious competition with our peers to out-do each other via followers, likes, etc. that we often times forget that we are one person in a society of many. Additionally, I believe we have also become selfish due to social media because many of us have lost our “filters”. I feel as though many people feel a sense of entitlement to express how they feel regardless of the audience. I believe it is important to remember that what you say can really affect another person. It is important to acknowledge who is following you- for instance, my private twitter (as for-mentioned) is one I only allow personal friends to follow because some of my tweets may be inappropriate for my 12 year old brother…. he doesn’t need to know details about Le-Laf just yet! (Lol)

           

Readers digest version:

• I am going to begin my journey into the celebrity life
• I believe it is important to follow news (BBC, CNN, etc.!!!)
• I believe twitter users in general should become more aware of what they are tweeting and who their audience is
• I did not mention this in my large post but…. I love following horoscopes! I follow one account that actually tweets about them all, I follow my friends and family’s horoscopes in addition to my own! I have always thought you could tell a lot about a person from their horoscope. 

Getting Hooked up


Public Twitter Account link



Four Square

Twitter vs. Facebook Throwdown

Twitter vs. Facebook Throwdown

If Facebook and twitter were to have a throw down I would have to establish myself on team Facebook. Not because I enjoy Facebook more, in actuality I prefer twitter more.

            Over the years I have begun using Facebook for purposes un-related to “social media. Facebook has become a space that I use to store photos, for example- unknown to the public; I have numerous albums on my personal Facebook that only I can view. Yes, Facebook “owns” the rights to these photos but in reality they do not own the rights to my privacy settings, nor can they alter them without my permission. Thus, I do not really care what geek sitting in the “Facebook Corporation” or whatever it is they do…that could possibly view these albums? If they even do that? To sum it up, he does not know me and the likelihood of us ever meeting, let alone this situation even occurring to begin with is little to 0 chance. I use Facebook in this manor because once the updated version of “Timeline” was released it was evident that Facebook (unlike my past computers) is probably never going to crash. Thus, I use it as a space to store photos that I do not want to lose in addition to information in general.  I commonly will inbox myself reminders or information that I am afraid I may forget or lose. Alike many of my friends who email themselves I find this to be easier to 1. find and 2. Do/actually remember. I don’t know about you but I get a million emails a day and it can be easy to overlook one.

            In addition to using Facebook as a method of (more or less) extended storage I also use Facebook’s group application on a regular basis. I have a group for my relatives, home friends, and sorority sisters. Facebook groups have the ability to post thread discussions in which people in the group can comment on, like, etc. Post videos and photos, etc. I especially find this useful now as a majority of my home friends are abroad- between the time differences and cell phone fees the group we created has made it easy to stay in touch!

However…. I rarely post on friends wall’s or look at my friend’s pages. …Anymore. I will admit having “stalked” my peers in the past. Who didn’t? I think every girl can honestly admit to having their own personal “girl crush” whose outfits, boyfriend, and overall life seemed far more appealing than your own. It’s almost as if you are caught up in a good book and for a moment you think you’re Bella dating Edward but in my case I am Christen (my best friend) living abroad in Madrid…. you get caught up in the daydream, eh? Comparable, relatable? (Well that’s how I USED to use Facebook) But in reality, the girl crush and stalking phase in my life has passed and instead of seeing who is in their life, looking at photos to get an idea, etc. I would much rather prefer logging onto twitter and reading in a short couple lines of what it is they are actually doing. I also love that twitter makes it easy for you to share photos by allowing you to use instagram in addition to their own method; “twitpic”.  One of my most favorite features of twitter is the capacity limit of 60 characters. Many times people can get caught up in their own lives and forget their audiences/ that they are broadcasting to a large majority who probably do not want to read a paragraph of the break up you are going through…. The limit of 60 characters makes people think about what they actually want to say and creates a much more enjoyable social media feed. I personally only follow people that I find to be enjoyable, I hate when my twitter feed is spammed (whether it be by a parody account I’m following or a peer who is a constant negative Nancy.)

That being said, the follower vs. friend are also a completely different pool of people, of course there are overlaps amongst the two but often times people that I would have otherwise accepted as my friend on Facebook will not be someone I allow to follow me on twitter. Note my last blog post- I have just created my first public account; prior to this public account twitter was my safe haven of free thoughts. Exposing myself to a small crowd of followers- I do not allow large social media accounts to follow people nor me I do not legitimately know. In the past, I have allowed many people that in my opinion- I do not know well enough are my friend on Facebook. This past summer I actually struggled with this debacle when one day I was bored at my internship and realized there is no way I know over 1,000 people well enough for them to be able to view my photos, location, wall posts, etc. In all honestly, its creepy and exposing- if I knew how to work timeline correctly my photos would be blocked from everyone but me…. Everyday I attempt to un-friend at least 10 people that I do not know.

Moreover, outside of my personal usage of Twitter and Facebook, I believe the two are quite comparable within the overall mission, ability, and opportunity. Both missions appear to be social media tools used to broadcast a message, idea, etc. that you want your peers to know whether it be personal, business related, etc. Both are methods of staying communicating and exemplifying what your doing, whether that be using Facebook to create a page demonstrating your new entrepreneurship idea or tweeting about what it is you are doing with a link to your website, etc. Both create a space in which you can use to your advantage in whatever way you chose. For example, last year we used twitter to live tweet updates from the event Spring on Fourth, What’s on Third? #SOFWOT broadcasting pictures and event details such as, photo’s of Blue-sky, last years costume winner’s serving their Chile to costumers outside. Advertising the event in this manor generated a lot of feedback in addition to a larger audience and the event attendees feeling involved.

Readers digest version:

I could live without Facebook, its easier reading a tweet and seeing what all my homies are up to. But in the long run, I need Facebook for all that I physically store there and data I would not want to lose. It is more realistic and offers a larger majority of features. In actuality, it’s interesting because Facebook now owns the rights to twitter and twitter allows you to share your instagrams…

Twitter and Facebook are both social media outlets that allow you to stay connected with friends/peers through broadcasting personal and/or business related ventures. Both are effective and successful- I personally prefer a more private audience and am thriving towards that goal. However that specific element of how many friends, follows, etc. you have depends entirely on the individual user.

As the school year begins

As the school year begins I am already excited about the future knowledge that Professor White will bestow on my this year! I have already learned so much about a social media outlet I thought I was beyond familiar with, seeming as I have had twitter since my senior year I thought there might be a few tricks to learn, short cuts, etc. how wrong I was. Prior to class I had no idea that a private twitter user tweets could not be broadcast in a live tweet by using the # connection. Thus, with this knowledge not only solved my problems with being able to participate in class but I also finally solved the puzzle as to why DJ's I tweet to before concerts, etc who often times re-tweet most of their fan base never re-tweeted me! During class time I created a new twitter and this one is public! I can not wait to begin tweeting from a public account... maybe now I will finally be re-tweeted by one of my favorite artists....tbd! (I go to Alesso, Ingrosso and Otto Knows on October 27th, so until then!)

Moreover, I find there to be a much larger difference between a public and private twitter. I find myself without sensors on my private account and often times do not allow older family members, public affiliated accounts or university affiliated accounts to follow me. With this new public account created I will not only learn how to sensor my ideas, opinions and thoughts in order to be able to positively broadcast to a larger audience without negative feedback. I plan on also using this twitter account for future internships, jobs, etc to be able to demonstrate my knowledge, ability, and skill with current day social media. 

"If you have nothing nice to say don't say it all" will definitely be a motto I thrive to follow within my upcoming tweets on my new public twitter. As Professor White mentioned in class with her debacle with a friend that only tweets negativity- no one needs a constant negative update on their news feed. In other words, no Eeyore's allowed. 

Homework:

I could not find the specific storify articles you requested us to read. Nor could I come across any stories when I searched the issues of age and social media manager.

I was uncertain about whether we were supposed to be looking at the Zoellner Arts Center page via the Lehigh orchestrated websites or Facebook. However after looking at both I can notice a drastic difference even from the past year/couple of months. Because I was involved in the beginning stages of the social media entrepreneurship class prior to this semester I became familiar with the Zoellner Arts Center page. It appears that the one on the web (i.e. not Facebook’s page) is structurally organized better then last years page as well as is more generally aesthetically pleasing. The pictures are appealing to a younger crowd, and the color scheme is bright and inviting opposed to the old theme of our school’s colors, brown and white. In addition to providing an easier method of purchasing tickets and even donating as well as offering clear information about upcoming events, seasons and dates. Overall the website is much more appealing.

   Furthermore, the Facebook page seems to have taken on a younger voice. The status’s and photos that are published appear to have a better tone in which it gets its message across. In addition, the page has begun outreaching to its followers in an interactive manor. For example, by asking fun questions such as- “Time for a season opener fun game. Tell us your favorite 80's fashion statement.” Interacting with followers is a great social media tool. It generates a positive follower base by creating a sense of need for its followers and a sense of their individual importance to the page’s cause- (in this case increasing the awareness about the events occurring at Zoellner and around the Lehigh valley.) In addition to not only increasing the page’s overall likes. Furthermore, the page seems to have updated its status’s to not only broadcasting dates and ticket sale information about upcoming events but positive recaps of old events. For example, I found the August 27^th post regarding the Rock of Ages play list to be a positive contribution to the page. The play list gave page followers a chance to hear what they missed out on! …. Who knows, that could be the last Zoellner event that follower misses out on!

Ideas for increasing the number of likes on the Zoellner page would be increasing its popularity through social media exposure. For example, students and professors tweeting the link, or making it their status on Facebook is a good place to start!