Wait, I have a blog?

So latley I've been thinking about running a blog again. It's hard to believe that I had one that I updated weekly for class last year, it just seems so long ago! Reading my old posts was kind of bittersweet. I wrote mostly about technology so it was pretty cool to see what I had to say this time last year about Twitter and Facebook. It's crazy to think that so much has changed in just one short year. I really don't think that I'm going to write about technology anymore so that is where I need your help.

I want ideas on what to write about. I really don't know what direction I want to take with this, I have a few ideas up my sleeve and would appreciate any type of input I can get. Here we go.

Idea #1: Being a recent college grad fighting to find a job in the current job market.

Idea #2: Fashion, for less. Cute affordable outlets that don't break your bank.

Idea #3: To go to grad school or not, the dilemma.

Idea #4: Reviews of things around town.

I'm pretty much open to anything, let me know what you think!

*AG

Charlotte Russe Spring's into spring

Charlotte Russe has taken a pretty avid approach in promoting their spring collection on their Twitter. Whether it be their T's, Spring dresses, or accessories, CR has Tweeted it all.

They also have recently made an effort to have more interaction with their followers on Twitter. When visiting their page, almost every other tweet is an @Reply to one of their followers. This is a very important aspect to managing a Twitter account for a business, and I am happy to see they are taking a step in that direction.

This being my final blog post about Charlotte Russe for our semester-long following, I have a few things I would like to say as this journey is brought to a close. While Charlotte Russe does a much better job on Twitter than many other businesses, there is still room for improvement. Number one, who ever is running it cannot go 4 days at a time without posting. Number two, bring back Trivia Tuesday! It was a very important trafficking tool. Andy finally, find something to tweet about that is not always directly promoting your products, change it up from time to time.

Twitter Announces Advertising Plan

Ever wonder how Twitter made money? Well, there was no official financial plan until this week. Twitter execs just announced their plan to "split advertising revenues equally with smartphone and Web partners that account for most of the micro-blogging service's traffic." Twitter will now have a "Promoted Tweets" ad business that will allow marketers to pay in order to have their Tweets as the number one result when result whenever a search is done on a particular topic.

Twitter has released a blog post with a Q&A as to how this new advertising approach will work. Promoted Tweets will be found in searches, and will be clearly labeled when they are paid for. However, they are not going to look like a typical internet advertisement... they will look like a normal everyday tweet. Only one ad will appear on a search page. This is their first attempt of having advertisements, so they want to get a better understanding of how this will work in terms of user experience and advertiser value. Users will have the opportunity to @Reply and ReTweet the Promoted Tweets. If one of the advertisements is not getting positive feedback from users, it will be taken down.

Personally I feel as though this is a great transition into the advertising aspect of social media. Promoted Tweets will not look like an ad, therefore it will not clutter up the page like other traditional internet ads do. I'm looking forward to see how this platform works out for them... What do you think?

Facebook keeps me "in the know"

I sometimes get out of touch with what is going on at home when I am away at school. Often times my mom will call me and update me when something big happens, but sometimes she does not, leaving me clueless to what is going on back in my hometown. NEPA does not have the same news channels as we do in Philadelphia, therefore a lot of stories don't make their way up to the WB area.

There have been a number of times that Facebook has been a news source for me. This morning major news broke in our area. A woman was shot in her morning commute, due to road rage. I had no idea of this until I logged into my account and one of my friends made a post asking if anyone knew what was happening on the major highway. One of her friends responded, telling her the story. A few minutes later she posted a link to the story on myfoxphilly.com, where I could read the news report. What a crazy people there are in this world!

Facebook is not only a great way to connect with friends and family, but it also is a provider of significant news. Instantaneously news can reach anyone no matter where they are, thanks to different social media outlets. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all act as news sources for many people these days, and with social media continuously growing, more and more people will be using it to get their news.

What happened to Trivia Tuesdays??

Every Tuesday Charlotte Russe would have a triva question that they would tweet, and they would pick a random winner from all of the entries they received from their followers. Often times the question involved searching for something specific on their website. After a few minutes, they would give one hint, than another, and another. After about a half hour (give or take a few) CR would announce a winner.

Every Tuesday I looked forward to the contest. If the prize was something cute from their store, I was sure to answer the question in hopes of winning. However, the last time CR had a Trivia Tuesday contest was almost a month ago, and there are no signs of it returning. I'm really disappointed in Charlotte Russe, especially since their contest was one of the few things on Twitter that they do that I really enjoyed.

PeterParker_PA Visits WU

Last class PeterParker_PA, formally known as Chris Hughes came to our Social Media class as a guest Speaker. Chris is in charge of the Social Media aspects of our local newspaper, The Times Leader.

Chris explained to us how important it is for the Times Leader to send out updates to keep their followers "in the know" about current events. Twitter and Facebook allows their readers to learn what is happening in the world around them instantaneously. It's crazy to think how not so long ago we had to sometimes wait a WHOLE 24 HOURS to get news from print media, back in the dark ages before the internet allowed us to stay connected anytime, anywhere.

Tweet Deck

Lately I've been updating 2 Twitter accounts on the regular; my personal account and the Zebra Communications account. From time to time I struggled with staying up to date with my own Twitter, and adding a second account to my schedule made things even more complicated. So rather than continuously logging in and out of accounts and trying to keep up with @ replies and frequent posts, I turned to @DonnaTeachesSM and asked her:

"@DonnaTeachesSM How do you juggle multiple Twitter accounts! I've been trying to upkeep the Zebra Twitter, and keep neglecting my own :/"

She responded with:

"@Amanda4PR TweetDeck helps, but mostly it's just trial and error!..."

I decided to take her advise and create a TweetDeck account. I was set up in just a few minutes! When I first logged in it look a little overwhelming, it just seemed to be update mania! TweetDeck gave me 3 columns of updates, and 1 column of "suggested" people to follow. Seeing some of the columns were unnecessary to my needs, I played around with what I did and did not want to have in columns. I then added the Zebra account to my TweetDeck, which was just a short matter of typing in the Twitter name and password.

I need more time to play around with TweetDeck in order to fully understand what all it has to offer. However, to anyone who is struggling with juggling more than one Twitter account, I definitely suggest giving TweetDeck a trial. It seems like once you get the hang of it, it is really helpful.