Saturday, February 28, 2009

#GBE#1 Group Blogging Experiment #1 (Subject: Will Social Media Die Out?)

Hello there,

Well tonight I thought I would try something a little different. An experiment if you will? This will be an attempt at a group blog based on the comments you leave? I will post a topic for the blog discussion and then you leave your comments. After about a week I will come and look over the comments left on the subject title and then proceed to write the blog incorporating what everyone has said in the comments. Once the blog is written everyone is welcome to still participate by making comments on the finished blog. I will also create a hashtag for this on twitter which will be #GBE#1

If there are any questions please DM me at #Nochipra if you are on twitter or email me at wheely5@hotmail.com. Thank you in advance for participating in this experiment. If it is successful I will do more. The deadline for leaving a comment before the blog is written will be 12am EST on Mar. 7.

Nora

GBE#1 SUBJECT IS: Will Social Media Die Out? Will Some Other Format Take It's Place? How Important Do You Feel Social Media Will Become Or Not?

What Do You Like To See In A Blog?

Hello Peeps,

I've been up all night doing some research on blogging, social media, adsense, and other related topics. What I have discovered is a world that has really developed into this huge opportunity to do something I believe I would enjoy and may make a little money at in the process if done correctly?

Now, I've always been interested in writing, but I've never really figured out exactly what I wanted to write about? I tend to be a little (I guess?) ADD in that I will find something that interests me for a little while and then I get bored with it and move on to something else. In my life I've had several different jobs, mostly in customer service (like selling that junk on tv like the old Jerry Springer videos), but I've also been a peer counselor's aide, done volunteer work in a hospital, spent around 10 years as part of a country/western wheelchair dance group that did exhibition type shows around the east coast and been a sort of a "scout" leader for children with disabilities with the Winners On Wheels program.

All these jobs and activities I've been a part of were great and I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything but in a way I wish I had been blogging at the time I was doing them. Now granted at the times I was doing these things blogging was not even invented yet but how nice it would of been to have a written record of what I was doing and how I was feeling at the time.

This "somewhat" new thing called blogging has really opened up a world that I am looking forward to participating in. Now granted. I am the first to say that I am not a great writer and to tell the truth I'm kinda out of practice since I've been out of college almost 20 years but I want to try and give it a shot?

My first objective is to try and create blogs with interesting content. That may be easier said than done but I'm going to do some experimenting and see how things go? Once I create the blogs, then the next step I'm going to try is getting the traffic to my blogs. Then, if by some miracle, I manage to get some descent traffic to my blogs I'll see about adding some adsense adds and see how that goes to see if it's worth trying to make a little extra income through this new type of media?

Almost all this information is something I've learned through watching the youtube videos tonight and reading relevent tweets on twitter. One set of youtube videos I'd recommend watching is just about everything you can find that Joel Comm has put on there. He is very quickly becoming my guide/guru to social media studies and how to properly use them. I'm planning to purchase his latest book TWITTER POWER and probably others he's written as well. If you are interested in social media and blogging as a career and you have not checked out his youtube videos then you would be doing yourself a great disservice. This is just one of the many he has on youtube.



I actually just discovered Joel on twitter the other night during his Tweet-A-Thon that he was hosting. I was on twitter as usual and I kept seeing all these RT/retweets about the live Tweet-A-Thon at this web site, so I clicked it and watched it the rest of the night. I really enjoyed it so I started following @joelcomm and discovered that he's made a fortune in this business. If I could just end up making a pinky full of what he's made doing this then I would be extatic!

Well, I guess you could say that that is my "business" plan as of now but I'm always going to do more research on the subject because I'm sure it will only grow in the future. Please help me with some research by taking my little survey in the top left corner about the types of blogs you like to see and feel free to comment on this blog and elaborate about the kinds of content you enjoy in blog reading. Thank you.

Friday, February 20, 2009

What Is Marketing and Social Media To You?

Hi all,

Well today I'm about to start a topic that I'm sure may open up a big can of worms sort of speak? It has to do with marketing and social media? Lately as I'm acquiring more and more followers on twitter I'm noticing a steady trend of people describing themselves in their bios as "marketing experts" and "social media experts". Now to tell the truth I'm still kind of fuzzy on exactly what marketing and social media "really" means? I have not gone to school and taken any kind of marketing or social media classes, so you can call me an ignoramous about the subjects although I do have a couple of associate degrees in word processing and office tech from back in the day? I have an "idea" what they are but it seems that everyone has a slightly different definition themselves? I guess it depends on what they are trying to sell?

My understanding of marketing first comes from the wiki definition of marketing :

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. [1] The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to sell goods or services.

Marketing practice tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.

Marketing is influenced by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Anthropology is also a small, but growing influence. Market research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also infamous for re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.


Now, from this definition I get that marketing(in may laymens terms) is the selling "of a way" to sell a product or service to the public? Kind of like a person behind the success of someone else? Or in other words, like an agent or manager is to an actor, a secretary is to a boss, a wife behind a successful husband, or husband behind a succesful wife? This is my basic understanding of what marketing is but I could be all wrong?

As for being a "social media expert" as I noticed some of my followers describe themselves? That is a totally different kind of *cough* "important title"? The wiki definition of social media is:

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Now my laymens understanding of social media is basically that you like to talk to people through internet and mobile devices (period). That's not to say that what you talk about is not of importance? The subjects of which you talk about can help you gain new friends, a job, gather information, discover new places, hire someone for your business, and just keep you from being lonely, etc.

So, I guess someone who claims to be a social media expert means that they talk using these means a lot. As for me I guess I'm a social media expert wannabe. Right now, I'm mainly just a twitaholic since that and facebook are about the only social media tools I'm using on the internet right now. I don't even own an iphone or mobile device at the moment; a sad feeling just came over me:(, so I'm stuck doing my social media interactions at home.

Sooo! My question to you is:



Now please, please, please, if you wish to leave a comment about this blog, please DO NOT leave an advertisement for one of your marketing products. I'm only interested in hearing your opinions about what marketing and social media is to you. Do you use it for business or socializing? Any discussion is welcome other than self promoting yourself or business. Thank you.

Monday, February 16, 2009

A Blog About Valentines Day and Twitter

Well I'm back and in a blogging kinda mood:) Chip and I had a very nice Valentines Day. We went out to dinner at The Crab Shack and had a delicious seafood dinner. Chip had to have a couple of teeth pulled a few days ago so his mouth was not feeling too good but it had healed enough to where he could eat something a little softer like seafood instead of a steak which is really what he wanted I think? When we arrived we were told it would be an hour and a half wait so we stuck it out. It pretty much worked out to be that long although I would have thought when the tables were called and noone showed up that the wait would be shorter when those people lost their table but no such luck.

I'm a little ticked off that we had to wait so long but what can you do it's Valentines Day?


Once we got our table we already knew what we wanted, I think it was called the Seaside Platter to split with fish, shrimp, scallops, fries, and cole slaw. YUMO!


After eating the platter we were still a little hungry so we ordered the clam chowder. That was delish too with lots of clams.


What made the day so much more fun was the fact that after we had dinner and went to Wally World to get some things, I had taken some pics while we were out and when I got back home I got on the computer and went to twitter and shared what we did with my followers. Lately I got back into "tweeting" more after being away from it for a while. I had fogotten how much fun and addicting it is. That simple little question "What are you doing" makes you want to tell the world what you are doing at that moment however "stupid" or "boring" it is. Why is that? I really can't figure that out for the life of me but I'm compelled to do it. It's gotten so lately when I wake up that is the first thing on my mind is to go to twitter and chat with the world?

Now I've started a quest on twitter to TWEET THE WORLD! I'm reseaching at least 1 or 2 people from each state in the US and on each continent to follow and hopefully they will follow me back? SOMEONE NEEDS TO STOP ME BEFORE I GO TWEETIE!!! LOL

Monday, February 9, 2009

Our Anniversary Blog

Well, it's almost midnight here and our anniversary is about over. Eight yrs ago today Chip and I met for the first time at the mall after having met on the internet in a yahoo chat room. I can still remember the first time I saw him. Neither of us were driving at the time, he because of his eyesight and me because my van was having problems so after chatting online for about a month or so we decided to meet at a local mall. Luckily we lived in the same town, actually it was kind of ironic because we both had been born and raised in the same general area and had shopped at the same places all our lives but had never met.

Anyway, the first time we met I was so nervous because I had never done anything like this before so I hoped on the bus to the mall as he did. I was there first and hung out. He was actually late and I really thought he might not show? I had not eaten all day because I was so nervous, so when I thought he wasn't going to show I got in line to get a pretzel at Auntie Anna's. That's when I saw him come into the food court. He had on a red shirt and either black pants or jeans (can't quite recall that?). He was in a wheelchair at the time too because his legs were giving him problems. I recognized him because he had sent me a picture in the online chats and from his profile. I jumped out of line and went up to him and we got a table together. We talked and both decided to get a pretzel and share it and that was the beginning of a long, beautiful and very happy 8 yrs together. We've been through quite lot in those 8 yrs with his kidney transplant and my health issues as well but we are still going strong. I can't imagine the last 8 yrs without him. I love you the mostest babe:)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Wow, It's Been A Long Time!


Well now, it has been a really long time since I blogged last. I figured it's about time to get back to it. It's been a really long few months with all the holidays and the other personal junk that's been going on around here and still is. The most heartbreaking thing that happened to us though was the loss of our "baby" Tippi. He was our cat and a big part of our family since Chip and I don't have kids. Chip had him even before I met him 8 yrs ago and they had a special bond between them.

Before Christmas I was working on my family genealogy and put together a book for my mom and grandmother as Christmas gifts. I still have a lot of work on it still to do but I have my grandmother going over the info I gave her to help me fine tune what else I need to put in it. Overall its over 100 pages long and includes 4 different branches of the family. The best thing about doing the genealogy though was finding new distant relatives I never knew I had? By going into the different Surname forums and inquiring about certain relatives I found a lot of others researching the same info. only to find that we were related. It really does help a lot too when you have others with some of the same stories you've heard about all your life being told by others you just met and being able to get new info from them as well as share your own.

Overall the last few months have been kind of depressing other than the time I spent researching my genealogy since it's been so cold. Chip and I have pretty much been hibernating til it does get warmer. I'm really just not a winter person. I prefer the fall and spring. In the last 3 months or so we probably only filled our gas tank about maybe 3 times which tells you how much we have been out of the house.

Oh well, enough depressing info for now. Spring will be here soon enough and we'll get out and enjoy life a little more but til then I guess I need to blog a little more to keep my spirits up til then. Til next time:)