5 Social Media Articles You Should Read

It's one of those weeks. Long and hard, a lack of sleep, tons of homework and studying, but it's finally done. I can relax for about two days because fall break is here. I'm so drained I can't really write a blog post, so I'm just going to do some content curating, which is a new term I learned this week. Apparently I'd been doing it all along; just inadvertently. So I'm doing it now on purpose. Here are 5 articles on social media this week I think you should read. Enjoy.

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Are You an Expert in Social Media?

If there's piece of advice that every college senior should know, it's make sure you complete at least one internship before you graduate. There's no debate that a college degree is a very important to having a successful career, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. There are certain things that a college education cannot teach you, and this is where an internship comes in. Internships give students valuable experience and show employers how a student might fare in the actual workplace.

Like the example above, just having a Facebook or a Twitter is not enough to be branded an "expert", or mean that you know something about social media." Trust me, anyone can set up a Facebook page, or send out useless babble on Twitter.

In order to become an expert, you need to actually practice social media on a continual basis, like I'm doing with this blog.

I've never been a big fan of the "work" aspect of school. As a college senior, I came into this year wanting to try as hard as I could in my classes, but I realize that I just can't make myself care too much - and that's ok. Because I have a direction of where I want to go with my career, I know I can just focus on that and everything will turn out alright.

Instead of doing work, I'll often be on my Google Reader, reading over 30 plus blogs and learning more about social media, digital marketing, public relations, and advertising. Instead of studying, I'll comment on the blog posts I found interesting, send out via Twitter the links to 10 articles I read that day, post videos to my Facebook, and blog about the things that interest me.

Through my reading and active engagement on social networks, I'm learning more and more everyday, so much that I've become an "expert" of sorts on social media, so much that some of my friends now come to me for advice.

The best part about all this is that I don't need a traditional resume (I do have one), or have to worry about whether my major will land me a job. The reason being that the proof is in the pudding. Across the internet, on blogs and social networks, I have branded myself as someone who knows a decent bit about social media. When I begin applying for jobs, I hope that an employer doesn't judge me on the basis that I attend Duke University, but rather on the basis that I know how to create, manage and market content, and engage with people across various social networks.

Being an expert in social media is not easy, and its not supposed be, otherwise everyone would be really good at it. It takes time, and it takes practice, but if you're really serious about becoming an expert, you'll put in the effort.

How To Make Classrooms More Social

I'm sitting in my history class, without a laptop (my professor doesn't allow us to use one in class), zoning out because the class is 2 and 1/2 hours long (and I have the attention span of a five year old), when this idea pops into my head, "How can I make this class more social?"

Instead of focusing on the professor for the rest of the class, I was trying to come up with ideas to make classrooms more social. My professor banned laptops because he knows we're likely to spend more time on Facebook than we are listening to him. But it doesn't have to be that way. What if we could use Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to learn?

Social media can be such a wonderful, powerful tool. Case in point, after class I went home, I popped open my Google Reader, went to the Mashable feed, and there was an article titled, "The Case For Social Media In Schools".

The writer Sarah Kessler, makes some interesting points for why social media should be used in schools.

1. Social Media is not going anywhere.

I would have to agree here. I understand why my professor bans laptops, but in this day and age, a laptop is a powerful tool for taking notes and learning. Kessler makes a good point about how when the internet was first created, there was a similar debate in schools about whether it should be allowed. Nowadays, there's no denying that the internet is an important, if not crucial component of learning in schools.

2. When Kids Are Engaged, They Learn Better.

I can only imagine how much more productive and entertaining class would be if I didn't have to sit and listen to my professor lecture to me. Although there is an emphasis on discussion between students, near the end of class discussion fades because we're all bored to tears.

3. Safe Social Media Tools Are Available - And They're Cheap

This is probably one of the better aspects of the social media - its free to use. Schools nowadays are strapped for cash anyways, and social media is something that could easily be employed at no cost.

4. Replace Online Procrastination with Social Education

If you're a college student, then you understand how much time students spend on social networks, updating their statuses, chatting with friends, tagging pictures, all while they're sitting in lecture. Instead of taking notes for that midterm next week, you're studying up on that cute girl on Facebook. Not productive.


5. Social Media Encourages Collaboration Instead of Cliques


This right here is the biggie. People learn better when they collaborate. Study groups have been around for a long time now. Can you imagine the possibilities of collaborating in real-time via Twitter with say, someone in China?

Or, what if during class, students selected a hashtag, like #ushistory, and for class, tweeted important events that happened in U.S. history. Not only would they be learning together, they would also be adding more information about U.S. history on Twitter. Then if someone had a report to write, they could search Twitter for information relating to U.S. history.

There are many opportunities for social media in education. Bill Gates recently said that the best education will soon come from the internet. Think about when you're writing that history paper on medieval warfare, but you can't find the sources you need for your thesis on the internet. What if you could, with a social network like Twitter or Formspring, ask a question and get a response in real time? And what if the source was a reputed historian living in Britain? And what if you could quote him in your paper?

Now those are some possibilities right there. Education seems poised for an upheaval soon. What will social media's impact be?

Social Network Content Creation Levels Off

I read some pretty interesting stuff on Mashable yesterday about how content creation on social networks appears to have plateaued. A study performed by Forrester shows that while involvement in social networks has increased, the amount of content created by users has not.
The Forrester study breaks up consumers into seven distinct profiles of Conversationalist, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, Inactives, and finally Creators. In the case of Creators, the study found that the number of Creators dipped slightly in 2010, from 24% to 23%.

Source: Mashable.com

What this most likely means is that many people who are joining social networks nowadays are more spectators than they are producers of content, and that's fine. I think people get a little over excited when they mention the people will take the power out of hands of current content creators (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.) and place it into the hands of everyday people.

There's no disputing that the rise of the internet and social networks have allowed ordinary people like me to become content creators in our own right, but not everyone is interested in creating content.

We should also take into account that the amount of information shared across the internet is truly astounding. With so many outlets for news and content, people are more likely to syndicate or share content across the web rather than produce their own. I imagine that I'm the nth person to write about this very same story.

I was reading PR-Squared the other day when I came across a post titled, "Which Social Media Marketing Agencies Will Thrive in 5 Years?"


I thought to myself, Well that's a strange train of thought. Why wouldn't social media agencies thrive? 


The author makes the argument that every Industrial Revolution is essentially a story about battling for control. It points to historical examples such as the oil, railroad and telephone industries and to more modern examples such as cable, search engines (Google) and even social media (Facebook).


As a history major, I of course understood that veracity of this argument, and it disheartened me for a little bit.


But after sitting down and thinking for a while, it actually gave me some hope.


You see, I've always wanted to start my own business, and now is really a great time to do so, especially for social media.


Mentioned in the post was the fact that many PR and Advertising agencies are trying to hoard social media expertise and add it to the list of services they already offer. While this may be true, I do not think that this is necessarily bad news. This means that social media is becoming even more important which is a good thing, meaning more jobs and opportunities in the communications industry.

But as the post mentioned, early on in industrial revolutions there are little barriers to entry, and only as the revolution becomes older do we see more consolidation.


So now is about as good of a time for me to start my own social media advertising, public relations or marketing agency. I could easily set it up with little cost: I already have a name, all I need is a logo, a website, some business cards and some clients. 


Although I am busy at school this year, I could do it right now and work part time from my room. I could enlist the various student groups on campus and other nonprofits in the area. Who knows, maybe I could turn it into something big. Whether I'll go through with it or not remains to be seen. (I have to get over my fear of failing first.)


What are your thoughts about this topic? Are you thinking of starting your own social media agency? Discuss.

Hello World!

Ok, I wrote this blog post at 3am and I couldn't think of good name for my first post. But I am excited to be starting another blog. Yes, this is my second. My first blog I started less than a month ago and I loved blogging so much that I felt I needed another one.

This summer, I came up with the idea to create a pop culture blog. It would be my first foray into the world of blogging and I was a little apprehensive. Would people read my blog? Would they find my writing interesting? Funny? I'm not a funny person, I'll be the first to tell you that.

So I created my first blog SunofSam on Wordpress as a means of practicing blogging for my pop culture blog, and also to promote my personal brand.

SunofSam is a blog about all the things I'm interested in, ranging from my interest in communications to my love affair with music and pop culture. So basically everything I'm interested in; which is a lot.

So instead of cramming all my interests in one place, I decided that I would use this blog for my career interests; communications, advertising, public relations, marketing and social media. And SunofSam would be for other areas that interest me such as music and fantasy writing.

It also made sense from a stylistic standpoint as well. I wrote a pretty funny story on SunofSam that had some colorful language in it, and I routinely use expletives on SunofSam. Even though I would want my potential employers and other people looking me up to see that I am creative, have a sense of humor and a personality, I think it would just be wise to separate the two. This way, both my creative and my professional sides are catered to.

Since this is my second blog (and I will also be blogging about ACC basketball and pop culture in the fall), I need to formulate a blogging strategy so that I'm not wearing myself thin.

On SunofSam, it's like I'm all hopped up on sugar; I'll write about 6-9 posts in a day. Yikes! There's no way I could keep that up plus school, my other blogging commitments, and work.

So I'm thinking for this blog I'll write a post once or twice a week. Or everyday I may compile a list of important articles, news, tweets, etc. for you to read, and then write a long post about once a week. Who knows, we shall see.

But enough about me for now. This blog will be about you. I created this blog as a means of learning more about communications and social media, and I hope that by reading, you'll learn something too.