Posts tagged joie tamkin
Damn Fail Whale
Jun 16th
Ahhh. The Twitter Fail Whale, now that picture instantly raises my anxiety level. I was an early Twitter adopter as a Public Relations Professional and the first hundred or so Fail Whales I received weren’t a big deal. I would smile at the silly image and do something else. I’d cruise Facebook and wait a few hours until the tweets had stopped overwhelming the little birdies.
Here I am 1.5 years later as a Social Media Manager, swearing every time I see those damn birds carrying a whale. Put down the f*c**n whale and get my tweets up! I have sH*t do here guys.
Seriously? This one image makes me want to throw something, I just spent 5 minutes putting together the perfect 140 charater tweet with enough room left for re-tweeting!!! and now my tweet is gone and I am too pissed off to re-write it. Not to mention I had to shorten the url myself! Does the whale need all those birds? Can’t one be auto shortening my links?
Yes I know, there are plenty of Tweetme’s and Tweetdecks I can be using that seamlessly swim past these pathetic whales complete with url shorteners, but admit it, there are times when you have to go Twitter. Tweetdeck likes to freeze on me and make annoying spinning noises, so I often prefer to use Twitter for some simple tweeting and DM’s.
Sometimes its good to stick to the basics. I get a bit of nostalgia logging onto Twitter, but I am not sure I can handle anymore Fail Whales. I wonder if my doctor will prescribe me Xanax on the grounds of social media platform rejection by silly images?
Oh and if you know how to turn the Tweetdeck pop-up spinning noise making box off please save me.
Move over Craigslist, There’s a new Bird in town
May 20th
I’ve met several of my closet friends through Craigslist. Being a San Francisco girl, Craigslist helped me find several roommates after college in 2002 and sell my first car, a dodge neon.
Craigslist was one of the first social media platforms that connected people to buy, sell, rent and more. It’s now grown to be the 35th most popular site according to google. Has Craigslist gotten too big for its britches? Maybe… but it also seems a bit old school for me, as it brings back memories of Top Ramen and living with 5 people, 3 cats and 3 bathrooms. My hat still goes off to Craigslist as this “list” definitely paved the way for more innovative listing platforms.
Watchout Craig Newman! There’s a new bird in town, Adbirds. The Austin-based company has Craigslist capabilities with a bit more feathers.
Adbirds features utilize social media’s sharing capabilities with buttons to share items for sale with friends on twitter, facebook, digg etc. Its an easy way to get your items in front of more buyers. The interface is amazingly simple and easily connects you to where you want to be. Want to add 10 pics and embed video links? No prob.
The free accounts come with a unique user name and URL address, and easy pay features. Any Free account can run 5 ads at a time.
Did I mention community love? All Adbirds users are encouraged to help build awareness of a local favorite organization with name and web link using the “favorite charity” identifier from the account manager. So while you’re trying to make a few bucks off your old baseball card collection you can support your favorite charity, the name and link of the charity will appear at the top of every ad.
Join AdBirds Today Adbirds.com
California Issues Social Media Policy
Feb 28th
As a California girl I like to see that crazy state taking steps in the best direction. At first thought, regulating social media may seem controlling or invasive, but it is absolutely necessary, especially for government agencies.
We have all seen the news about the Military restricting social media from the troops, and for good reasons right? It protects the men and women serving from being located and protects our country from accidental leaks of sensitive information.
So instead of California restricting Facebook and Twitter use from government employees, they are enforcing guidelines. I applaud California and believe that all organizations, government or not, should embrace social media and enforce a policy amongst its members.
Here is the release from the State of California.
California Promotes Secure, Appropriate Use of Social Media Sites for State Government, Issues Policy
State Technology Update – February 26, 2010
The State of California has officially adopted the use of social media tools to promote communication and transparency for Californians interacting with state government. The Office of the State Chief Information Officer (OCIO) today released Information Technology Policy Letter (ITPL) 10-02 which outlines the use requirements for using social media sites such as FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube.
“The more we increase the state’s online presence to enhance communication and transparency, the better we are able to serve Californians,” said Teri Takai, California’s Chief Information Officer. “At the same time we must be diligent to ensure we use social media tools in a way that is secure and appropriate for official business. This policy provides a risk management framework for agencies to consider in their use of these innovative and dynamic tools.”
The policy encourages state officials to use social media tools, while requiring that only those users who are authorized and have been trained regarding their roles, responsibilities and the security risks as outlined in the policy, have access to social media sites while at work as a state employee. It also requires that agencies assign the management and monitoring of official social media sites to the same internal organization or individual that oversees public communications for the agency.
The policy is accompanied by a Social Media Standard to help state agencies consider the various risk factors associated with the use of social media sites. The Policy Letter can be found online at http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/ITPL.html. The Social Media Standard can also be found online in Section 66B of the Statewide Information Management Manual (SIMM) at http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/SIMM.html.
When the OCIO was established in January 2008, it was the intent of the Legislature and Governor to create an agency that, among other things, establishes policies and standards to ensure that state information technology (IT) systems run effectively. Through changes to the State Administrative Manual (SAM) and the SIMM, the OCIO creates statewide policy for the Executive Branch to ensure coordination as the agency works to oversee IT activities with a common direction and vision.
Twitter Grows Up and Puts on a Business Suit
Jan 20th
Stocktweeting, an innovative website that lets you interact with investors about publicly traded companies on top of the micro-blogging service Twitter has officially gone from alpha to beta status this past holiday weekend while unveiling a slew of new features in the process.
One new feature that we think will become an instant hit in the Twitter world is their new stock voting concept. The website now boasts a social voting feature to rate publicly traded companies by tracking if users post tweets with a ‘+’ or ‘-‘.
Example
$INTC+: Indicates that you are bullish on Intel’s stock
$JPM-: Indicates that you are bearish on JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s stock
$AAPL=: Indicates that you recommend holding or are neutral on Apple’s stock
“Putting a plus or minus after a ticker symbol will quickly become a very popular twitterism – the same way that adding a dollar sign in front of a publicly traded ticker symbol became such an industry standard in ‘09.” said Matt Hagens, CEO of Stocktweeting.com. “This idea is still fresh; however, we will soon have the ability to track thousands of votes simultaneously to see if shareholders are bull or bear on a particular stock. We are not limiting this to just our site stocktweeting.com, our algorithm will calculate every vote within the freewheeling masses of Twitter stratosphere. This would essentially make guys like Jim Cramer obsolete. I’ll take a community’s sentiment over one guy’s opinion any day of the week.”
About Stocktweeting
Stocktweeting leverages the power of the Twitter community and its real-time aspect to generate investment ideas by using common word filters to bring traders together over their network. Stocktweeting is an Austin, TX based start-up business self funded by Matthew Hagens of HagensMedia, LLC. Mr. Hagens has a strong background in both web2.0 technology and finance, with a sound passion for Twitter and social media.
Stocktweeting.com Weekly Community Voting Sentiment Summary
$GOOG+ Bullish – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
$KFT+ Bullish – Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT)
$CSCO+ Bullish –Cisco Sytems (NASDAQ: CSCO)
$DAL- Bearish – Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL)
$BIDU- Bearish – Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU)
$SRZ- Bearish – Sunrise Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: SRZ)
Signs you have a social media addiction
Dec 30th
This post goes out to a dear friend of mine, Elizabeth, who has a severe Facebook addiction and is close to needing medication to deal with it. Sorry, girl, but it’s time to get grip. Here is how I know she has an issue, and I bet some of you might see a bit of yourself in these signs. If you do, please let me know so I can blog about your issues.
1. Knows way too much information about people she isn’t really friends with… like who is getting married and who is pregnant. She also gets upset that she finds this out on Facebook and says things like: “another one bites the dust” always followed by an “ugh!”
2. Elizabeth logs into her ex-boyfriends Facebook account and reads his Facebook inbox messages. There are plenty exchanges between he and his new girlfriend, so I do enjoy hearing the scoop… but this is wrong! Very wrong!
3. She is constantly checking old boyfriends pages and often visits pages of the guys she is dating. This one is not so bad, but can still be harmful to your self esteem.
4. She thinks deleting someone from her Facebook page is the ultimate punishment and often gives me advice to delete a person from my Facebook when I am upset with them. (seriously bad advice)
5. She starts conversations with “what did you think of my Facebook status earlier today” This is a really annoying question to me. I do NOT stalk my best friends Facebook pages.
Alright, you get the point, she is seriously addicted and needs to detox from Facebook. I recommend spending less than 5 hours a week on Facebook for personal use. That is plenty of time to tag a few photos and ask your network if they have any meatloaf recipes they love.
If you are considering throwing yourself a pity party over the happiness and success of past lovers and friends… please keep in mind that Facebook is not reality, it’s a place to show off and put your best face forward. People put up flattering photos and only write about the positive’s. No one writes about how crazy his or her family is or mentions they prefer to not shower on Sundays.
Making a Splash with Twitter
Dec 2nd
Twitter’s popularity seems to be ballooning at a rate similar to our national deficit.
Twitter’s recent Neilson ranking as the fastest growing member-community site renders it a force to be reckoned with. It’s the shark in the ocean – and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything that anyone can do to stop it.
So if you can’t beat them, join them, or as Matthew Hagens, founder and CEO of upstart Stocktweeting.com like to say, fuse them.
“In a world full of financial news, it’s hard to get personalized financial chatter spoon fed to your wireless device. Connecting with the 800lb gorilla (Twitter) to fuse this information seemed like a logical answer for our customers and our company,” stated Hagens. “As Twitter grows, we grow.”
Among the largest of sharks one can always find a few Remora fish alongside.
Small upstarts like Stocktweeting.com and Stocktwits.com have made quite a splash this year by providing their social investing communities with live ‘tweeted’ financial information. Yet as complex as the business model sounds, their recent successes are due largely to their simplistic nature – live financial tweets, personally tailored to suit each member’s portfolio. That’s something even whales like Yahoo (Nasdaq: Yhoo) and Google (Nasdaq: Goog) can’t provide. And best of all, it’s free.
How small these two companies stay, well, depends on how much their king (Twitter) eats. Judging by the latest internet site rankings, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits, the king seems to be eating quite well.
So while Twitter grows in popularity within the investing community, will upstarts like Stocktweeting.com and Stocktwits.com begin to make waves?
Should be an interesting ride.
and the most popular word of 2009 is…
Dec 1st
and the most popular word for 2009 is… Twitter!
The word is out and it comes straight from a company in my home town of Austin, Texas. The Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, just released the annual list of the most popular words and phrases within the English language.
The Top Words of 2009 from The Global Language Monitor
- Twitter
- Obama
- H1N1
- Stimulus
- Vampire
- 2.0
- Deficit
- Hadron
- Healthcare
- Transparency
- Outrage
- Bonus
- Unemployed
- Foreclosure
- Cartel
Twitter came in second on Bing’s most popular searched terms list, beat out by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Top 2009 Bing Trending Topics:
- Michael Jackson
- Swine Flu
- Stock Market
- Farrah Fawcett
- Patrick Swayze
- Cash for Clunkers
- Jon and Kate Gosselin
- Billy Mays
- Jaycee Dugard
Now remember these lists are cleaned up, meaning no pornographic terms and of course anything that is old from last year probably got deleted to keep it interesting.
Not that we really care all that much about the Dictionary anymore, but just for fun let’s take a quick look at what Dictionary.com has to say about 2009.
Top Searched Words of 2009 for Dictionary.com
- Affect
- Ubiquitous
- Irony
- Socialism
- Effect
- Melancholy
- Love
- Integrity
- Nostalgic
- Pedantic
I guess we don’t care about words used in December?
The Magical World of Networking
Oct 28th
I’ve been working my magic in public relations for several years now. I don’t put much faith in magic, especially when it comes to my career and my agency’s reputation. I do, however, believe in the power of networking. Once you feel comfortable networking, you gain a profound advantage in business and that is when the magic happens.
Networking is a huge part of any communications based career, from advertising to marketing to public relations. Even with social media, networking is a crucial skill to possess. You may already think you are the master at networking; you never miss a grand opening, you have over 1,000 Facebook friends and three times as many Twitter followers, and you were recently asked to speak at the black tie children’s shelter benefit. Bravo!
Even if you are the creme de la creme… and trust me, I meet a lot of you, there are still a few key points to keep in mind when you network. Whether you are attending an event, or joining an on-line conversation (social media) or having a one on one encounter, these tips should help you be a bit more aware and prepared.
1. Always think about your intention when you enter into any networking situation. Ask yourself if your intention is genuine and if it will shine a positive light on yourself, and your company. Are you there for new contacts? Sponsorships? Resources? Friends?
2. Knowing your intention leads to the next tip, which is to remember that networking is a two-way street! Be genuine about your intentions and think about how you can help others. How you can add value to others. Don’t be afraid to offer up a resource or contact that might help them.
3. Go early and stay late. This is a tough one with our busy schedules and loved ones, but often some of the best connections come from the quieter moments of the events with less chaos. I am usually one of the first to arrive at events.
4. Always be present and engaged. Look people in the eye when you meet them, stay present throughout the entire conversation. Stop checking your cell phone for e-mails or texts. I see a lot of people doing this during luncheons or awkward moments of silence. I used to do it myself, now I breathe through the uncomfortable silences. Our cell phones have become this security blanket people use when they are at a loss for words or have just entered an uncomfortable situation. If you stay present and remember your intentions, those few moments of discomfort will be worth all your new connections.
