Twitter Crushes?

This past week The Toronto Star ran a story "Tweet Hearts". Which lead me to thinking, yes most dangerous for me to do;) In today's social medial world where do you met new people?

Everyone is busy in today's world: school, work, other activities. So how do you fit in the time to met new people?

Facebook is a great place to re-connect with old friends. And at times to met new people. Facebook is more for people you have already met in the real world and to keep in contact with.

However the best place to met new people is on Twitter. It is a less formal and you can find like minded people. On Twitter you for go the usual preconceptions of how you meet people. There is some work in getting to know people. It takes time to work through all the feeds yet worth while when you find a core group of awesome people.

Through tweeting with people you do find that you do 'chat' with certain core group of people And at times these tweets can lead to more f a relationship. Yet you do have to remember there are still the unwritten rules of conversations. Plus you wish to always present yourself as how you are.Always the best policy to be yourself, be truthful and honest. Because everyone can read your feed! Including any future employers.

So go out have fun, met some new people and see where it leads you.

May the Force Be With Katie

This week was Ant-Bullying Week.
The biggest story I heard was of Katie from Chicago. She is a first grader that got bullied for all things a water bottle. However not just any water bottle mind you but one that was Star Wars.
This of course went absolutely viral. Why? Because Star Wars fans are a community that cares.
See this story also resonated with many people, including me. For as geeks we have always been that slightly different person in school. We didn't dress, read, watch television/movies quite like our fellow classmates. I even today is teased for my love of the Universe far far away. Yet I have learned and accepted that this is who I am. That what others think of that, I do not mind. At lest it's a safe hobby/addiction.
However, I one thing I found out about this love of mine, is that I am not alone. I have found some of the most awesome people that also love it as much if not more than me. This is what Katie and her family has found out this week.
The other reason why this story had an effect on me was that I too am a fan grrl. Which did bring another set of teasing. Girls just should not like Star Wars. This has also lead to a small fact that I have more guy friends than girl friends. Just on the base that not many girls will admit to their love like I do or just out grew the love because of teasing.
And with the television show The Clone Wars there will be more fan grrls showing their love!
So this week and on every day for that matter we should embrace our differences and support that differences in others. Life and this world would be truly boring if we were all the same.
So support girls in their love of all things geek, especially Star Wars;)
Other great articles about this: Death Star PR and the Queen of fangrrl Bonnie Barton and TCW own Princess Ashley Eckstein
Also I read on a friend's blog (my bad can't remember where) That maybe we all should wear purple light sabers in support of Katie and anti-Bullying. I know I'm going to make up a pin for my support of this:)

Remember: The Force will be with you always!

National Philanthropy Day

On Wednesday, November 17, our class, Loyalist PR, spend the day in Kingston for National Philanthropy Day.
Started with the guest speaker John Cairns. A truly inspirational speaker. After which we broke up into out groups to participate in the different sessions.
First up was 'saying Thank You - Stewardship'. This session was given by Pamela Shanks. Ms shanks was a very interesting speaker on this subject. This enhanced what we learned in our class.
After a short break sat in the session of 'What's Hot, what's not' given by Taslim Somari. She talked mostly how your organization could use social media,especially Facebook and You Tube, to promote your organization.
In this session got the most interaction by one question: 'So what?'
It appears that a certain percentage of the fund raising population, has yet to grasp the importance of this medium to reach new, younger demographic.The other remake was 'well we don't need $5 donations'. Total miss on understanding the younger, first time donor demographic.
This is the one speaker I found that lacked depth. However, this could be due to the time and questions that steered the talk off target.
In this session, I learned that organizations need to grasp that whatever social media is out there. They need to understand the sufficient. If they do not know how to use this medium then they need someone that does.
After the lunch and awards, half of headed to a special session for our class. Here we learned more Stewardship form Heather Smith: Gift Planning with the amazing Liz Dobbs-Jones: and Major gift Fund Raising with Beth McCarthy.
After this afternoon, we headed home. It was a very interesting day. Even though we learned most in class, it was informative to hear others speak of their experiences.
However, the one thing I learned was the lack of interest of the importance of social media. I noticed the lack of wanting top understand SM impact and how it will benefit Non-For Profit.
Another comment that was expressed was why we, PR students, were there. This was a total lack of understanding the importance of good communicator.
I found that the local groups need to understand and accept new ideas because it will all benefit the organizations and the people they help.

Filters

I had a conversation with my classmate, Steph on how high performance athletes need media training. That they have troubles speaking to and with the media..
They more than ever are not only athletes but brand ambassadors of their respected teams. However, they need the training not only in speaking to members of the media, but how to conduct themselves in all social media.For more and more are finding themselves called on their behaviour or what they have said.

A few athletes have either tweeted inappropriately or have been called out on Twitter.
If athletes behave as professionals, they will also perform better. Especially if on a team. This is important to forming team bonds.
Athletes must, however, remember their fans. Most of which is children. This I think is lost on some.
I have been around high performance athletes, and know how they think and act. So in SM based world, athletes live in a crystal clear fishbowl with everyone watching.
SRC Magazine, a Canadian ski magazine article: Norwegian Gentleman vs American Brat - Who will prevail in WC'11. This article pits American bad boy Bode Miller against Norwegian superstar Askel Lund Svindal. It points out that same fans are drawn to the bad boy.
Some attitude is fine, goes to that fight spirit that makes them great athletes.
Sport's teams need to have a cohesive team look and need an unified image to present to the media and public. For right now some teams have problems with some players on overall team moral.
Until the athletes start listening to the PR people some will still get into socially awkward situations. Also they need to engage their own personal brain-mouth filter as well.

Respect

To me three words always come to my mind: understanding, listening, and love.

Facebook are friends you wish were strangers. Twitter are strangers you wish were friends.

This week while perusing the Twitterverse. I came across one tweet that was poking fun about social media. This was not tweeted by the person, it was told to them.
Strange as this is, it's not the first time I have heard this. I have friends that don't understand my fascination with my social media sites, especially Twitter.
I have already told everyone why I got onto Twitter. Yet I find myself spending time defending myself about it. Facebook has become not so much a boring place. Only because of my cool Tweeps/classmates have joined me.
I have noticed that many of my friends that don't get it, especially Twitter and some extent blogging, are over a certain age. And the most part not an outgoing social group. In the way they stay within their clique and don't meet many new people.
They don't understand that Twitter has become a strong influential networking place, for both business and socially. I have seen this with many of my classmates. Yet, when you try to inform them they don't believe you are telling them the truth. They parrot back back that why would they want to tell everyone what they are doing or where they are every five minutes of the day? When you go to explain that Twitter has evolved beyond this, they shut down and don't want to hear anymore.
The odd thing is that this does not happen just to my friends but to business executives. This whole new medium is a foreign land/language to many. However, it's an important one for it has the possibility of your message reaching out to a whole new audience.
It is good that we are being taught about it all in school.And that employers are realizing thatthey need employees with these skills.
However, I do think we need more time in class with more hands on with this subject. I have heard this from some of my fellow classmates that may not have had any contact with the mediums. Or need a bit more time with those that have, to be more comfortable with all this new Verse of the Interweb. This will lead to a stronger skill set in all of the class.
For without the actual hands on, dive feet first into social media like Twitter can a person truly understand it's impact on people and our lives?

It's a job you only get one mistake in

This past Friday The Toronto Star published a story on the causality list from 2008. This got me to thinking about a question: Do we need to know this?
Why I ask such a question is that I have always believed that information about the military should be 'need to know'. And as a civilian I don't need to know every detail of the military. Yes I am naive about this I guess.
In this information age do we really need to know every piece of information especially when it comes to the military. This posses a public relations nightmare for The Canadian Armed Forces.

I grew up with both my grandfather and uncle servicing in the military.   My grandfather served in WWII and my uncle was a PeaceKeeper for 32 years plus 10 years as a civilian contractor. My grandfather total me the time he spent during the war in the last few months before he past. My uncle never talked about 95% of what he did. I knew he was a munitions technician. That my uncle's job was to disarm all manner of explosive devices. What and where my uncle was deployed will always be a mystery to me and my family. Don't get me wrong we were worried when he was deployed. But had faith that he would do his job and that what he did was bettering our world.
I do believe that the military needs to operate in some black area. That they are only accountable to a oversight committee. They need the support and ability to conduct the duties of a military force. Canada does need to return to the PeaceKeeping heritage that we are known through out  the world for.
The news that disturbed me about the military was that when my uncle retired he was not considered a veteran. Because he did not service in an active war. Yet he serviced in every major PeaceKeeping theater in his 32 years. Even the troops fighting in Afghanistan had to fight Ottawa to get veteran status.   
I do live in a social media world but I still do not need to know every little bit of information about our military. Because most of it will never change. We need to let the military run the military. And if this means keeping certain information to themselves then so be it. Because they only thing really we need to know is that they are there and doing their jobs. The other thing need to be understood it that the military is different to us civilians. They live in a different world with different code of conduct that we can not come close to understanding.
The thought just came to me the job my uncle did and PR is much the same  philosophy: You only get one mistake in it. One chance to do the correct and effective job.
                                                             

Twitter 102

To expand on my post Twitter 101, today's post is about interacting on Twitter and Facebook. This was in-lieu of a question I was asked earlier this week. 'How do you interact with people?'
Well, you just do! At lest that's what I do. I make comments to what others say that I follow. I make it revant to the topic. I also ask questions.
Another thing you can so, is also comment on the person' blog. Should use your Twitter screen name and avatar picture. If on Facebook have the same profile picture as your Twitter avatar. This will let whom you are commenting get to know who you are.
The thing to remember is to follow people with the similar interests and comment on what you know. Even with the anonymity of the interweb, my advice is to be true to who you are.
I don't say go out and tell everything about yourself. Tweet and comment as you would in the real world. You do get a sense of people once you banter back and forth with them. I should know this well. I have gotten into some of the most interesting and best conversation with people.
When you make your own 'what's happening?' Do make it interesting. This will let people get a sense of you. They can also tell this by who you follow.
Another thing to remember when you do reply a comment or question don't except an instant tweet or comment back. Some of the people you follow have many followers and following many themselves. Plus have a busy real world life. So it will take time. This is were being interesting, creative and knowledgeable comes in.
I can speak from experience how this can be. However, if you are a great admirer of this person it can be  euphoric when you get that acknowledgment.
After sometime you will find that there are a few people that you tweet often with. This can lead to being friends.
This has happened with me. All are awesome people and glad to have gotten to know them. I treasure their continuing friendship.
So with perseverance and savvy you can make the best of both Twitter and Facebook. And met some awesome people.
Best of Luck.
Any questions feel free to ask (please)

Randomness #2

To Dude or To Bub
Why do guys love to call you dude?
Ms Lauren O'Nizzle posed this question the other night on Twitter. (She is awesome and you should totally follow her) I have just started to wonder about this. Me, I prefer to use Bub. It's short and to the point. I don't know where I picked up to using this term. But I works for me. Plus it sounds kewl!
While Dude sounds too Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for me. Don't get me wrong I love The TMNT. Big fan since forever. So when a guy calls me this , that's all I think about. That or the surfer dude at the beach.
So I challenge you to think of which term you use. Then to start to used the other for say a day.
However, you won't be getting me to say it, Dude;)

Open House Fall 2010

Was up early again today, which is not unusual for me. However today was different as my PR class was to be volunteering at the school's Open House.
After getting to school and receiving our funky limited edition T-shirt. I was assigned to greet the visitors as the arrived. Oki dai that's right the shy person got to be greeter yet again. Someone is so determine that I am no longer shy around people.
As the first of many buses of high school student arrived I had no time to truly think about anything of my shyness. Yet I did have a fun time with my classmate Grace. She made the day go quickly, fun and not too panicky.
Also my high points of the day: seeing the little chipmunk in the garden
:being called a bouncer, if you know me you understand that I am a small person so not bounce like
: another awesome day to bond with my amazing classmates, talked with some classmates that I had not really chatted with before

But my most fave high point was the lunch. For almost the whole class sat down together to eat. It was like a large family gathering, the green T-shirts kind of had a cohesive look to us all.