Tag: Social Media

Creepy reminder from Instagram

Motel 1

The filters and effects drew me in. The user interface and design wowed me. But the community and the creativity keep me coming back every day.

I check Facebook and Twitter for the news, but I go to Instagram for fun.

My feed seems cleaner and more interesting, with much less of the stuff that I routinely tune out (like ads, promos and app activity). Granted I am following less people on Instagram, but most of them seem to put some thought and care into their photos (although food and cat pics are inevitable on any platform, not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I also enjoy Instagram’s weekend hashtag projects. A few weeks ago, I had fun posting entries to the motel-themed project, and found myself thinking very highly of Instagram and felt appreciative for the creative outlet.

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How to avoid snoozefest PowerPoint presentations (and Facebook posts)

Digital Hollywood Conference

With three years under my belt in the corporate world, I’ve been spending a ton of time listening to, and creating my own, PowerPoint presentations.

Seriously. Cog-folk love us some PowerPoint.

And as a social media professional, I also spend most of my life on Facebook, either managing my company’s page or trolling reading the latest from my friends and subscription lists.

Given my intense exposure to both of these modern marvels of communication, I’ve developed a nose for the good and the bad, and can sniff out both pretty quickly.

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WTF inappropriate?

My “Tri for Les” triathlon training has taken over most of my free time these days and unfortunately my blogging time has been pushed aside for early morning bike rides, evening swim and run practices, and late-night fundraising brainstorming sessions. Excuses, I know, but it’s all for a good cause, in honor of a great woman (my Aunt Leslie) and I don’t feel too bad for prioritizing.

I’ve also been getting a creative fix from a side project, called Letters to Letters. It’s a fun commitment and good for keeping the creative juices flowing.

That being said, I am still working in social media full-time during business hours and wanted to share a bit about a recent experience I had with the term “WTF.”

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Notes on Google+

I’m trying not to get too excited about Google+.

I remember when Google Buzz launched about a year ago. I was all jacked up, and within a few weeks I felt pretty silly for contributing to the over-hype of what has turned out to be a dud thus far.

And as genuine as my efforts for objectivity are, I can’t deny that I’m a Google fanboy and am cheering for them to succeed in the social space.

So, yes, I am excited about Google+ and here are some of my notes on the new platform.

I hope they help your exploration of Google+ in one way or another. At the very least it’ll be fun to look back on this in a year and measure the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of my assessments and predictions.

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Social media breakdown: 3 sentences on the channels I use and their value

Bejeweled spider webs: Bristol is so frosty this morning.

I’ve seen others break down their methodology on various social channels and thought it would be interesting to evaluate what I’m using, how I’m using it and the value therein.

I hope this gives you some ideas for new ways to use these networks, and I encourage you to share your own breakdown in the comments.

Also, I plan to do a post like this every year to see how the industry, and my participation, is progressing.

And to keep me from getting too long-winded or granular in my evaluations, I restricted myself to three sentences on each topic (inspired by a great creative writing blog called Six Sentences that you should subscribe to).

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