Billionaire Bloggers

Forbes has composed a list of the world’s Billionaire Bloggers. The list has each blogger’s worth, the industry in which they made their fourtue, and most importantly, what they blog about. Memebrs of the list include Mark Zuckerberg – founder of Facebook, Mark Cuban – internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner, and people such as Sergey Brin – co-founder of Google. It is worth taking a look at this list people, you wil see that these buisness-savvy billionaires believe in the power of blogging and many of them contribute to their personal blogs on a regular basis.

How blogs start.

Sometimes I feel like this happens to me….

Don’t Believe These 10 Social Media Myths

Many people are relying on social media these days as a method of communication, relationhsip building, news gathering, staying in touch, etc. As the social media world continues to grow, many people may be unclear on the rules and norms associted with social media. Eric Branter, of Digital Labz, produced a list of 10 Social Media Myths that one should not believe. These myths help to prove the usefulness of social media and show the power it can harness. Check it out!

Being Cheryl

It sure has been a long time since I posted here on Jargon, I guess its time to dust off the keyboard, brush off the cobwebs, and get those wheels in my head spinning again……

Thanks to Dr. V, my attention was drawn to a blog titled Being Cheryl. Cheryl Harrison is a self-proclaimed “Internet geek extraordinaire, social media guru, PR, and marketing maverick.” Her blog is quite impressive and I am very intrigued by it. Cheryl sure seems to know a lot about social media and has the skill and ability to envelop herself in it. One can tell by her tremendous job offer (congrats by the way) that Cheryl has mastered the art of blogging, Twittering, and socializing around the Internet. I compliment Cheryl for always accompanying her text with post-specific pictures; this is a rare and very enjoyable element that I have yet to see anywhere else. While messing around on her blog, I came across a post I love entitled “The first rule of Twitter” (which fellow student Brittany beat me to). In this post Cheryl acknowledges that while many people respect the so called “rules of Twitter,” there technically are none and that each Twitter user should Tweet what they want when they want. After all, is it not the Tweeter’s fault if they Tweet and it causes controversy?  At first I was very judgmental of Twitter and did not want to use it but I have become accustom to Tweeting and it just makes me happy that I can really relate to Cheryl’s post. My favorite part is Rule 3. Don’t take yourself to seriously. This is a belief I have always lived by and I think life is just too short and too sweet to get caught up on all the little things…….

Changing the World Through Social Media

So I was out Digging as usual and stumbled up (no pun intended) the following blog by Max Gladwell titled “Ten (More) Ways to Change the World Through Social Media.” This blog post is incredibly interesting and although at first I had no interest, as I read deeper into it, I realized how relevant it might be to me as I am bombarded by social media sites in my Intro to PR class. Ten social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook are mentioned and as it states at the top of the blog, the main point of the blog is to inform the audience of how “Blogging, social news, peer-to-peer philanthropy, microblogging, social networking, wikis, video sharing and more [These] are the new agents of change.” And, as Gladwell states, “These are the tools and resources that individuals, corporations, and nonprofits alike can use to communicate, create, and connect on the social web…for social change.” I highly suggest everyone take a look at this awesome list and explore some of these alternate social media sites!

Oh! I almost forgot, if anyone is wondering what the original “Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media” are, look here!

Getting to chat with Laura Fitton

I cannot even begin to explain how much I learned from our in class Skype session with Laura Fitton, also know as @pistachio on sites like Twitter and others in the social media world. Fitton was at social media conference and took some time out her day to talk to our class and really help to enlighten us on the world of social media and how it is constantly evolving and changing. Fitton also helped our class relate the world of social media and PR and because of this strong connection, how we as students, can use this connection to our everyday advantage. I learned so much from Fitton, and many of the things I learned were not large overarching concepts like one might expect, but rather small tips and advice that makes living in a world of complicated social media a little bit easier.

Fitton enlightened me on several things:

1. Social media all comes down to, “What do we all have in common?” In other words, social media revolves around the interactions of its users. These interactions are most likely to occur when multiple users have common wants and interests in order to “spark” these interactions.
2. Social media is never about numbers. It is never about the number of “friends” or “followers” you have but it is always about what you have in common with other people and how you can effectively stimulate a response within those people.
3. Many people believe that just because someone is young, they should automatically know everything there is to know about social media and this is obviously not the case. Being able to navigate and interact in social media is something that has to be learned, and everyone regardless of age must take part in that learning process.

Barbara Maria Stafford

On Wednesday, October 8, 2008, Barbara Maria Stafford, an acclaimed interdisciplinary researched in the arts, humanities, and sciences from the University of Chicago came to Clemson University to give a presentation on the intersections between  the visual arts and the physical and biological sciences.  In essence,  Stafford ‘s research charts the ways in which neurosciences are changing our views on human and animal sensorium. Stafford’s lecture was very interesting, it involved a slide show and multiple images, consisting of an array of photographs, paintings, drawings, and abstract images. Stafford’s lecture was incredibly complex and confusing; she used words in her lecture that I did not even know were a part of the English language and this shows how incredibly smart she is. This use of complex and complicated language use just compliments the incredibly complex and interesting field of research that Stafford is involved in. Here are a few key points and overall important facts that I was able to gather from Stafford’s presentation:

• Images stimulate and create consciousness.
• Consciousness stimulates perception.
• Using our inherent creative ability enables us to escape from a life on “autopilot” and makes us curious about the world around us.
• Most images strive to achieve “automatic image recovery,” which is what many commercials strive to activate in the minds of consumers.
• How does one integrate the mechanisms of perceiving with conscious inattention.

Stafford’s lecture is one that I will certainly not ever forget as I find myself still trying to break apart the lessons learned from this mind-blowing experience.

No-No’s While Blogging

While surfing around the net this evening, I found an interesting blog post about, well, posting blogs. Jeremy Zawondy posted on his blog about what he felt were the 10 Habits of Highly Annoying Bloggers. I tend to agree with many of these and I thought it might be interesting to hear what you all thought about this list. Many people posted comments and even added to this “list,” so make sure to read  some of the comments as well. Are you guilty of any of these “crimes”? Do you feel the same way Zawondy does? Thoughts? As you may very well have guessed, I once again found this post through Digg.com!

Ads Created by Students!

Here are some wonderful examples of PR! These ads were all created by students! Check out this blog post from Advertnews.com, a blog about advertising, media, agency, and marketing. Some of these ads are really creative and sometimes I wish I had thought of them! Just to reinforce my belief in Digg, I found this page through Digg.com, just like I did my last post about creating WordPress themes.

Personal Touch!

Just in case anyone was wondering how they might be able to add some personal touch and spice up their WordPress blog, check out this tutorial from ThemeTation.com, a site offering “Free, Premuim WordPress Themes and Resources!” This site offers a step-by-step tutorial on how to create your own WordPress themes from scratch.  I thought this might be worth checking out for all you computer savvy bloggers out there! That is all for now….