Tag: Social Media

8 social media FAQ, answered in haiku

Last week at work, I showed some nonprofit organizations a few best practices and tips for social media.

Most of the discussion focused on how an organization would best operate Twitter or a Facebook page, but some of the takeaways can be applied to personal use as well.

For this blog post, instead of hammering out a long-winded explanation of the social media tips that were imparted at the workshop, I responded in haiku to some of the most frequently asked questions from the workshop and other recent, related conversations.

Granted, I could say a lot more than 17 syllables in responding to these questions, but my goal with the haiku format is to cut the fat and give you a quick, easy and cadenced look at the most important tips. Here they are:

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Why is Twitter on trial for Mendenhall #OBL tweets?

We’ll all remember where we were the night of May 1, 2011, when President Barrack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been captured and killed.

I was eating dinner at home with my girlfriend. We sat, glued to the TV, and talked about how that moment felt like one of those scenes in a movie where an entire nation, and many parts of the world, was united, hanging on every word of a news broadcast.

But the TV screen wasn’t the only source of news and commentary for us. That night, like so many other nights in the past few years, laptops and mobile phones were positioned on dining room tables so we could see the latest from our Facebook friends, refresh our Twitter searches and send text and instant messages as the events unfolded.

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Mommatorial: April Fools! A lesson in transparency

Why I told my most supportive fan to delete her Facebook comment.

Confession: my mom is my best friend on Facebook. I’m fine with that. She’s embraced the social network, friended me and leveraged the channel to show, among other things, her relentless and unyielding motherly support.

Whether I’m tagged in a photo, linking to a new blog post or telling a joke, mom is there in a heart beat to Like it, share it and comment on it.

Is it lame that my mom is usually the only person that comments on my content? Yeah, I guess it is. Whatever. There are worse problems in the world than having a mom who’s “too” supportive.

But as much as I appreciate her good intentions, sometimes a comment from mom can cross the line. And on April Fools’ day (of all days) I had to ask her to take one down.

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Mommatorial: 5 Twitter Fears, Conquered

My mom asked me a while ago to show her how to use social media better. After I rolled my eyes and said something snobby and confusing like, “Well…what do you want from social media?” I realized that it’s a great question for her to be asking.

I sometimes forget that despite the massively over-publicized explosion of Facebook and Twitter users, there are a lot of people who are still unsure of how to get any value out of social media for themselves.

In my Mom’s case, she knows how to find her way around on Facebook, and she has a blog, but Twitter is still a scary, somewhat hairy animal. The more I thought about her question, the more it made me realize that I know a ton of people like her, who are still either afraid or completely unfamiliar with Twitter.

And it’s a shame because if they could all just get over a few initial hurdles, they’d have a much richer social media experience and easier access to information that they would probably find very interesting.

In hopes of getting my mom (and others like her) over these entry barriers and to shed some of the stigmas associated with Twitter for newcomers, here is my first Mommatorial: 5 Twitter Fears, Conquered.

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How Twitter and Foursquare ruined breakfast and saved Christmas

One check-in shows the best and worst sides of location-based social media.

My Saturday couldn’t have started any better. I woke up on my own accord feeling refreshed, with the sun and a beautiful blue sky seeping through the window. No alarm. No appointments. No noise. My girlfriend woke up smiling too and after a few lazy moments of staring at the ceiling and rolling around in the covers, we agreed that breakfast at a coffee shop would be perfect and decided to head out to Luci’s Healthy Marketplace.

It might have been the easiest dining decision we’ve made together…ever. Furthermore, we got out of the house quickly without harshing the mood by getting wrapped up in chores, laptops or TV before we left. I thought I was still dreaming.

It was mildly busy when we arrived at Luci’s, with a short line leading up to the counter and scattered one- and two-top tables throughout the store. While waiting to order, I checked-in to Luci’s on Foursquare.*

After checking-in to Luci’s and tweeting out my location, I stepped forward in line to pick up our coffee and pay for our order. As usual, I didn’t think much of the check-in or the resulting Tweet (pictured below), but little did I know, my check-in was already rippling through the social media universe.

No more than a minute later, one of the servers, a middle-aged woman, started canvassing the restaurant shouting something that sounded like, “Adam Fuller!? Is there an Adam Fuller here?”

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