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.

Social Networks Dominate Online News Distribution

Is Facebook Suffocating Social Media?


The Easy-to-Use Tool To Build A Breakthrough Blog

50 Best Twitter Guides, Stats, Tools and Tips of 2010

Content Curation




 

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.

In An Instant

So media outlets have been abuzz today with the news of Google unveiling new search features. Early this morning, you could count me as one of the uninterested.

It's not because I don't care about what Google does, its just that with school now back in session I have many other obligations to attend to.

One of those obligations is blogging. (Sorry I'm late! I didn't have internet in my apt. last night and the library was so far away!) I was writing a post for My iWriter when I realized that I needed a picture.

So like everyone else who needs something and needs it now, where do you go? Google. I typed in google.com into the address bar, typed in blogging into Google and wham! I was hit with instant search, my eyes almost popping out of their sockets!

How glorious a concept! As if searching Google wasn't fast enough, now I get to see my results as I type. I need some time to process this information.




Ok done. I'm trying to think of the implications of Google's new technology. Obviously users will now be able to search better and faster. Instead of typing in various terms hoping for certain results, now you can see where the results are going and change accordingly.

For a blogger like me this is great. I can get my search results super quick, cutting down the amount of time I need to search the internet for things such as pictures, links, etc. While the time it takes to load search results normally is minimal, this is a huge advancement. With the advent of the internet, humans nowadays are accustomed to getting their information quickly, and this is even quicker.

I was in class while writing this so I don't have time to fully ponder the implications, but this is a good start. What do you think the impact of Google's new technology will be?

Strategy Is Key

These past few days I've truly begun to realize how much work social media is. Running three blogs, being active on Twitter and Facebook; it's not easy.

My social media strategy is basically just "winging it" right now. I write blog posts at 3am, tweet sporadically and in bursts, and post a scattering of Facebook updates. I still read other blogs everyday but I haven't commented on one in about in about a week.

Now I know what those talking heads mean when they say you need a social media strategy. It just makes sense to have everything organized instead of haphazardly employing social media, which can be detrimental to your brand.

I don't have enough motivation right now to properly devise a social media strategy, but since school is starting next week I'm hoping I'll be able to stick to a more consistent schedule.

First, I need to establish how often I will post content on my blogs.


I think I've figured out how the breakdown is going to go. I think that I will update my own personal blog, SunofSam, daily. I read numerous blogs and news outlets daily so there is always something interesting to talk about.

This blog, I think I will update every Tuesday and Thursday. Two days of posts should be enough content related to social media to satisfy me and you right? Correct me if I'm wrong.

And as for My iWriter, who knows. Maybe once a week? Twice a month? I think I'm going to use my Tumblr blog to showcase some of my other writing. I've written some short stories and my Tumblr blog seems like a good venue to showcase them.

Second, I need to establish a certain level of daily social engagement.


A blog can only expect to grow as much as it engages with its readers and other blogs. I need to structure my posts so that they are more conversational and I need to comment on other blogs more often. I'll say five comments a day. That seems like a good number.

By commenting on other blogs, you may even increase your readership as readers are more likely to visit your blog and the author may do so as well.

Next, I need to tweet less information about me, and more about we. I've come to realize that to be successful on Twitter, you need to be engaging. When rape allegations about Julian Assange emerged this past weekend, I took to Twitter and began reacting to tweets I found interesting. What happened next was an extremely interesting discussion about conspiracy theories used by the CIA to discredit opponents.

So my strategy now will be identify two trending topics on the day and start five meaningful conversations for each. You'll be amazed at what engaging with fellow tweeters will do for your following.

Lastly, I need to be more active on Linkedin. I have over 130 connections and I'm a member of 7 groups but I've yet to really engage with others. At worst, engaging on Linkedin would be another way to drive traffic to my blogs, and at best, I might learn more about social media.

This isn't the most concrete of social media strategies, and I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but this is the first time I've actually sat down and thought stuff through (It's also 3am and I'm struggling to stay awake). I'll be revising it as I go along and I'll fill you in on any updates.

What does your social media strategy look like?

How I'm Building My Personal Brand Part I

One of the most important things I've learned this summer was the concept of personal branding. It simply had never occurred to me before to think of myself as a brand.  

According to Dan Schwabel, personal branding is essentially how “we market ourselves to others.” Personal branding is all about how other people perceive us; how do we define ourselves, what differentiates us from everyone else, and what value do we provide to others?

Personal branding is especially important when it comes to job searching. In order to differentiate oneself from the crowd of other job seekers, one must market themselves effectively.

As I enter my senior year, I have invested a significant amount of time in my personal brand and it’s showing. Here is the first step I took:

Start a blog.

It could be about anything, but preferably in line with your passions. Personal branding is about defining what you do well and are passionate about, and a blog is a big step in this direction.

I started my first blog a month ago, with the intention of branding myself as a communications professional. I wanted to show potential employers my excellent writing skills, my creativity, and intelligence. All traits which would help me succeed in advertising, public relations or marketing.

At the beginning, I would Google my name but the same three outdated results always came up, and they had nothing to do with the transformation I was undergoing at the time. So I began updating my blog daily, publishing about 5-7 posts a day. I also engaged with other bloggers by commenting on their posts, contributing to the conversation and establishing myself as knowledgeable.

After a month of blogging and related activities, the top ten search results on Google belonged to me! I At first it took a while for Google to crawl my page, but due to the fact that I regularly post content, my posts now show up on Google a day after they are posted. 

How has blogging helped you with personal branding? Post your comment below!

Also stay tuned for the next step I took towards building my personal brand.

Three Lessons Blogging Has Taught Me So Far

I couldn't have anticipated the impact that blogging would have on me when I started less than a month ago. It seems like an eternity since then - I've learned so much about myself, blogging and writing and there's still light years ahead of me.

I initially began my own personal blog SunofSam for practice. Over the summer, a friend and I cooked up the idea of starting our own music blog, which in turn morphed into starting a pop culture blog. I was extremely excited by the idea, creating style guides and strategically thinking of plans to market it around campus and on the internet. However, what kept me up at night was the fact that I had never blogged before. I wasn't sure if people would like my writing, if it would be entertaining, funny etc.

I figured that blogging would be easy. I assembled a brain trust of people I knew around me to contribute and I figured that since we were are all socially connected with various groups of people, getting readership would be no big deal. I figured that we would just use Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to push our blog and be big in no time.

Thank goodness I started my own personal blog because I was setting myself up for disappointment.

Lesson number one: Blogging is not easy.

Actually, it's quite easy for anyone to blog; all they have to do is post some opinionated drivel on a page and call it blogging.

But all types of quality writing, blogging included, require research, dedication, time and practice. I realized that it wasn't just easy for me to sit down and write a post about a newspaper article I had read. I had to do research, find a picture, proofread, and then there was the actual writing. People forget how hard it is sometimes to master the blank page. How do you start that opening paragraph? What am I trying to get my audience to understand? Does my headline draw people in? And then while writing you might find that your post morphs into something else, requiring you to change everything. So after completing a series of posts, I often began wondering where all the time went.

Since blogging consumed so much of my time, I realized that once school started, and with other blogging assignments soon to come, I would have to create a schedule. The way I was going about blogging was simply getting ridiculous. I would write well into the night, completing about 7 blog posts for the following day. And then I might write even more if I saw something interesting I didn't see the day before. This was simply unsustainable over the long haul and even after one week, I was feeling a little burnt out.  

Lesson number two: create a blogging schedule that works for you.

Determine how often you are going to post, what days, and try and write your posts beforehand. You'll thank yourself later.

As I stated before, I was setting myself up for major disappointment when I expected to just waltz into the social media landscape and have an impact.  

Lesson number three: crafting a social media strategy requires patience and experience that I didn't yet, and still don't have.

I remember creating a Facebook fan page for my blog, and inviting my 600 plus friends. I expected a good chunk of them to "Like" it and then read my blog posts, and in no time average hundreds of viewers. Guess how many of the 600 have actually responded to date? Only about 50.

And I expected to be an Influencer on Twitter as well, only to realize that I had no clue how to use it. And even when I felt that I was making headway into understanding Twitter, I'd be lucky if I got one click from Twitter linking back to my blog.

There are many sites, guides and gurus who claim there is a magic formula to get you 1000 readers in a day, or whatever. But fortunately for me I decided to throw myself into the fire and got burnt a little, which was all for the best.

I could continue on about all the things I've learned from blogging, and I probably will in another post, but I didn't want this to be a self-help post for blogging. I don't have the experience yet to write one of those.

What I hope to convey through my own experience is that creating quality and engaging content requires time, hard work and strategy to get that content into the hands of readers. I hope that beginning bloggers reading this will be able to relate. What is your experience?

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.