A stew of possibilities

Here it is. Finally. That promised blog post.

The pressure to write this has been overwhelming and yet, I seem to keep finding other things to do like grade and prep classes and sleep and play WoW and ... well you get the picture I think.

I've had a bunch of social media swirling around me lately. The discovery of Ping.FM, having multiple classes create blogs for different purposes, Twittering and realizing that there is a way to save your Tweets (I'll get to that in a few), and having people send me requests to "social media" pass their info on...and then there's that internal clearspace thing...and the new Champlain Portal workforce group...

It makes me think about all the possibilities that social media is bringing. Things that I couldn't do a few short years ago, I can do now. So let's get to it shall we?

Social Media for GOOD
It's the giving season and it would seem that some people don't get that. For whatever reason a local Non-Profit dedicated to collecting toys for children was vandalized a little while ago. Someone or someones got their jollies by bust'n up toys. Great. Makes you wonder what the heck is going on in the world today for real. Enter NEW BREED MARKETING. Devin and the gang over there clearly felt that it wasn't good enough to talk about this one, they have taken action. They've created a donation widget that you can use to give money to the cause. You can also share this widget on Facebook and with tons of others...in my case I'm putting it right HERE:



Now that is the way to use Social Media. By the way, you can follow Devin on Twitter by going here: http://twitter.com/devin1682. They've raised over $3,000 so far to help out our local Vermont children. Spread the word, will ya?

Why I need more time to read Twitter
So here are the things I've learned recently because of the people I follow at Twitter:

1. Twitter Grader: A site that helps track your "popularity" on Twitter. Note that you can also grade your website and your press release -- it's from HubSpot. Why is this important? Because this is a business that is trying to get your business so they've created a way to drive traffic and get more people talking about them. If they can do this for themselves...what could they do for your business? Great marketing!
2. Chris Brogan: @Lizschlegel Tweeted about this guy and a recent blog post he had about how to get started in Social Media -- his scenario approach is readable and interesting. I'll be saving this one for my class next semester!
3. FTW: Learned from @agahran with a link to the urban dictionary that FTW means "For the Win" which is often snarky and ends a post.
4. Gender Inequity in Africa: @DaveTaylor linked to a news article from the UN News Centre. This is getting forwarded to my students who are working on the UNFPA Project for sure!
5. Help a Reporter: I've known about this one...but it was because of Twitter. So PR People, you should be following @skydiver on Twitter and you should register at the HARO website for sure.
6. TwitterTake: Another from @agahran. A website that will back up your twitters and export them to an excel file. Why would I want this? Well so I can keep all of this great info of course!
7. OneTeam: I learned that folks from @OneTeam have ordered my recommended books! (Ok, I know, personal gratification listing!)
8. How Businesses can get Started with Twitter: This one is an ongoing gem from @gahlord at Union Street Media.
9. Branding of College Students: This article came to my attention from former student @gracekboyle. Not only is the article cool, but I'm watching a former student ROCK the social media.

This is but a sample. Yes, it's in between the personal stories of people that I may or may not know, but look at all the things I have learned because I've been on Twitter?

Another Cause...and How Students are Learning the Social Media
There's a prof on campus (not me, believe it or not) who is asking their students to get the most "views" of some cause-related vidoes over at YouTube. One entrepreneurial student has reached out and asked me to post her "Vid" so she can get "peeps". So...here it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnGOiFJUoo. The cause is 1% for the Planet.

This bring me to the point that will be another post that is swirling around in my brain -- that students aren't coming to college with the knowledge of how to connect beyond their friends with social media -- and that our job at the college level is becoming even more complex so that we can help them sort out the best practices on a moving target that doesn't have clear best practices yet.

Thanks @davidwolfe for PING.FM. You enabler you!

Social Media and the Presidency: Has social media changed our voting engagement?

As our country celebrates it's democracy today -- where we can vote without fear of taking our lives into our hands -- I thought it would be appropriate to consider how social media may be changing our voting engagement.

Not only have the politicians jumped on the social media bandwagon with social networking and twitters and blogs and community sites, but we've seen the conventions and the candidate debates turn into social media events through sites like Twitter and the mash-up of Twitter and CurrentTV.

Today, I Twittered while waiting in line to vote. I included #vtelxn so that my tweets would go into a "local" twitter meme for all Vermont voters.

Today, I'm seeing my Facebook friends "donate their status" to remind people to vote.

Throughout the day I'll probably watch http://election.twitter.com/ to get a flavor of what is happening around the country through people's tweets.

I'll check in at #votereport to see information about polling places -- is anyone having issues? What are the lines like?

Tonight, will I watch TV? Maybe. More likely I'll be online checking the different sites and streaming live commentary from various places.

There are a growing number of ways in which I can feel more plugged in to the election process. It's not about being fed information from the candidates, but rather seeing what others in my social media sphere are doing and thinking has allowed me to feel even more connected.

So as the media talks about unprecedented voter turnout. As we all get engaged this year because of so many issues, I'm left wondering if the social media so many are using is having an impact on the voter turnout. As you see your friends writing about voting and you follow others who write about the lines and what they are doing as they wait to vote, does that pressure you into going to vote? Does it make you feel like part of a bigger movement knowing that you also voted and you can actually see others engaged the way you are? Others all over the country?

It's a known fact in marketing that word of mouth and viral marketing has more power then direct messages from a brand. Social media is the biggest WoM out there right now and part of the voter turnout may, indeed, be because of this phenomenon.

So, get engaged and plug in. Be in the know. And above all exercise your right to Vote.