Infected with the Social Media Bug

Take a look at the map above of the domination of social media. Like an infectious disease, it continues to "divide and conquer" cyberspace and millions of people around the world. When will it stop?!?! After several weeks of analyzing different social media outlets and observing companies' use of it for PR strategies, I've caught the social media bug.

In a way, it helps me connect and learn about things that I never would have heard of without social media. Although it's a valuable tool, it gets a bit too overwhelming sometimes. How can one person handle all of the networking sites and blogs? How do they manage their time with social media? I feel like it develops into an addiction. Pretty soon, people will be admitted to Social Media Addicts Anonymous (SMAA) meetings to discuss their hours upon hours spent on social networking websites and how if they don't tweet every hour, they get depressed.

For anyone starting out in the social media world, I advise you to choose your favorite sites and stick with them. If you spend more than 2 hours a day on it and feel as though you have no "real" social life, please sign up for SMAA and attend the next meeting!

"Peter Parker" visits our Social Media & PR class!

Last night, our class had a guest speaker visit, Chris Hughes (a.k.a. -"PeterParker_pa"; and no, that's not Chris in the picture...but yes, he looks like him). He discussed how newspapers have been keeping up on the ever-growing social media trends. As The Times Leader's online guy, Chris explained the different media outlets he utilizes to make The Times Leader stand out and to be on top of news stories 24/7.

You can now find headlines by The Times Leader on Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Youtube.com, you name it. It's funny to think about how the founders of the newspaper, from 1907, would think of its development. It would be unimaginable to the old guys! From all of these new social media outlets, breaking news is out in a second, which has made newspapers more transparent. So, just as Spiderman catches criminals before they commit a crime, our local "Peter Parker" catches stories and saves the day by telling the community in a second!

Although sometimes overwhelming, it is nice to have the news at your fingertips, literally. All you need is a phone or iPod with internet access and BINGO, you are forever linked in. Now...I just need to get an iPhone and I'll be good to go! Donations to the iPhone fund are greatly appreciated (just kidding, there's no fund...sadly).

H&M's Third Tweet for March, with only two weeks left of the month!

What better way to bring in the beautiful spring weather than a new wardrobe with H&M's garden collection? Through H&M's Twitter, I was able to discover their new collection on the store's website. This was the only thing I've discovered via their Twitter account since March 3rd! I can't believe how inconsistent the company has been on Twitter.

I believe it is time for H&M to either increase tweeting or leave the twitter world. I have already given them a second chance and I'm not sure if a third one is necessary. A tweet a day isn't THAT hard. From neglecting to update, I feel that H&M doesn't have anything interesting to tweet about, which makes me a little disappointed in the company. I didn't want to say this, but I might have to say "Goodbye, H&M".

And the Academy Award goes to....

Who doesn't love watching the Oscars and debating with friends on who they predict will win? It's a bonding experience to sit down at home and watch with family and friends. This year was the 82nd Academy Awards. 82 years of movie-making excellence and celebrations of creativity. I am a movie addict and "closet" critic of films and the awards show is one event I look forward to each year.

This year was different, due to the first female director, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the award for Best Director of the Year. It's sad to see that it took 82 years. After hearing that either the first female or first African American director could win the award that night, I felt sadness and disappointed in the slow evolution of America. We finally have the first African American president. I understand this took awhile because even in the 1960's, there was still segregation. But for the movie industry, how could it take so long? There were famous colored musicians and even movie stars, such as Lena Horne, who was the first African American actress to sign a MGM, a major movie studio, contract in 1942.

Although segregation of African Americans and women has come along way, it shouldn't be about gender or race. It should be about creativity and skills in the movie industry. Congratulations Kathryn, for making a break through that America should have seen years ago. Watch her speech here!