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.

St. Patty's Promo

Charlotte Russe seems to take advantage of holidays to do Twitter promotions. On St. Patrick's Day they Tweeted the following:

"You found the pot of gold! Take 25% off all reg. price items until 12am ET today only with Twitter code LUCKYTWITTER."

25% off is a pretty decent deal, and sparked my interest. Because of this Tweet, I visited their website and started bookmarking cute clothes and heels that I liked. Being the broke college student that I am, I did not make a purchase. However, not all of their followers are college students, and those of which aren't broke could take advantage of this promotion. I really wish I could have, because they have such cute clothing right now! But anyway, my point is that that particular Tweet caused me to visit their page, which I normally wouldn't do after seeing one of their Tweets. I think they would benefit by having more traffic-creating promotions like this, even if it is only just once a week for a few hours!

Layla Grace

A few weeks ago I got a random invite on Facebook to become a fan of "Rufflebutts." Curious as to what this company was, I clicked the link to the fan page to find the cutest little diaper covers for infants and toddlers. After doing some exploring on their page, I learned that they were running an short promo for a good cause - for every person that became a fan, Rufflebutts would donate $1 to a fund for Laya Grace, a beautiful little toddler girl stricken with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Seeing this as an interesting way for Rufflebutts to gain more fans and popularity, I decided to do some research on Layla Grace.

When I Googled her name, the first thing I stumbled upon was laylagrace.org, where I learned Layla's story of her progressing disease. Saddened, but still curious, I continued to explore the site until if found the blog portion. I began reading an entry posted on February 28th titled "Not Like This." After reading about three sentences, my eyes began to fill with tears. I could feel the pain and horror in the words of Layla's father, and continued to read on about her worsening condition. So incredibly touched by that single blog entry, I quickly logged back into my Facebook to invite all of my friends to become a fan of Rufflebutts. Although from what I read Layla was not going to make it, I had to spread the word in hopes that many of my friends would also be touched by her story. I began following the Layla Grace Twitter account so I could have updates of her condition since the little girl kept crossing my mind day after day. Her parents Tweeted to her 48,000+ about her condition, and continuously asked for prayers.

You may be wondering why Layla's parents turned to Social Media as their daughter was struggling with a deadly disease. Her father explained that this was an easy way to keep them sane, friends and family instantly updated, and strengthen Layla's prayer base deep into the thousands.

Never would I have thought that Social Media could grow at such a rapid pace. Although it is such a terrible heart wrenching story, thanks to Twitter and Blogging little Layla Grace has not only made an impact on her friends and family, but the entire world.

On Tuesday march 9th this Tweet came on my Twitterfeed: "Layla went to play with the angels early this morning. Rest in peace precious Layla. 11/26/2007 - 3/9/2010." Instantly I teared up, and I'm sure thousands of other followers did as well.

Rest in Peace, Layla.

Charlotte Russe's Social Media Coordinator, Neglecting the Twttersphere?

So far it's be 6+ weeks that I have been following Charlotte Russe. Since their Twitter seemed to be inconsistent and they would go MIA for days at a time, I was under the impression that CR did not have a designated person hired to take care of their different forms of Social Media.

On 4/12 CR Tweeted: "Social media coordinator Lexie has a closet full of these Scoop Neck Basic Tanks..." Proving to me they do have a person designated specifically to work on their SM accounts. This confuses me, in that if this is Lexie's job, why does she seem to let the company go days on end without a single tweet? Ironically after seeing this Tweet about the Social Media Coordinator, CR went missing for two days once again in the Twittersphere. When I Googled the company I didn't seem to find any type of blog or anything that this coordinator would be producing.

What other duties do you think Lexi has, if she isn't keeping up with the most visible forms of SM?

Charlotte Russe bores me

Last week I wrote a blog about how Charlotte Russe went MIA for over fifty hours. Ironically about five minutes after I posted my entry CR came to life again and starting promoting their "Trivia Tuesday" question. I participated, and unfortunately did not win the cute little necklace that was the prize. I'll admit, I was pretty bummed. As the week went on they seemed to have more problems with staying active with use; there would be days that they were no where to be found, and days where they were blowing up my home page with tweets. I've really lost interest in their Twitter... I looked at it for a while tonight trying to figure out what I would write this weeks blog entry about, and the only thing could come up with was how ugly the jacket was that they gave away for trivia yesterday. So, that being said, I decided to do a different take on this entry...

I have an idea for future SM classes. Since CR has seemed repetitive and I've lost interest in checking their page everyday, I was thinking of different ways in which this semester-long project could work. I know I'm not the only one who became disappointed in their company, since I've ready other students' blog posts about changing who they are following.

Rather than follow the same company for an entire semester, I think it would spice it up if we were to follow a different company every week. It could be narrowed down into categories; One student would look up different food companies every week, one would have fashion magazines, one would have sports teams, etc. I know there would probably be overlap with some students following the same categories, but as long as they were following a different company every week I think it would work out. Everyone would sign up for what there were going to follow week-by-week at the beginning of the semester, to prevent confusion as to who was following what. I mean it could end up being a terrible idea, who knows. I'm just throwing it out there since I couldn't really think of anything to write about this week.

Personally I think I would really enjoy following different companies, since Charlotte Russe's Twitter has seemed to bore me... (At least their clothes are still fab :))

My first YouTube video, Ever

So after watching random funny videos last Thursday on YouTube, I decided to give it a shot and make my own. Over Christmas break I got one of those new little video cameras that takes awesome quality footage. One day my dog was being an absolute princess and decided to take random videos of her just doing her crazy daily things. Eventually I wanted to make a movie out of her clips for something along the lines of "A Day in the Life of Fi-Fi." I never got around to editing the clips together, and then the semester started and that was the end of that idea.

Thursdays class on User Generated Content gave the spark to want to make this video work and get it posted on YouTube. Yesterday I decided to 'have at it' only to find that my new camera isn't compatible with Final Cut Pro. However, the clips would play in iMovie. I have no experience whatsoever with iMovie, but I decided to give it a shot anyway... The quality of the edit wasn't being graded so it didn't really matter. After editing for a two hours, my masterpiece was complete. I logged into my YouTube account to begin my next obstacle; posting it.

I expected it to be this long, ongoing process to get a video up. But seriously, it took less than ten minutes. Just two minutes to read the instructions and agreement, and eight minutes to load my content... then Wa-La, my first YouTube video was born.

I've been posting in on my Facebook and Twitter, and sending the link in e-mails to my family. It'll be awesome to track how many hits Fi-Fi attracts. I'll post about her success next week :)

So check out my video of Fi-Fi by clicking HERE. I promise you won't regret it, it's hilarious.

CR, Keep on Tweeting!

As stated in previous blog entries, the business that I am following for Social Media class is Charlotte Russe. This previous week CR was big on promoting their 7 Days of Sweetheart Deals to go along with the Valentine's holiday. From 2 for $20 T's to 2 for $10 leggings, Charlotte Russe was promoting it on their Twitter.

The last day of the Promo was Sunday, and at 11:24 AM and they tweeted:

"Happy V-Day fashionistas! For our last day of Sweetheart Deals we have Buy 1 Get 1 $10 Footwear until 11:59pm EST!"

And that was the last they've posted. It is now after 1 PM on Tuesday - 50 hours since their last post - and nothing has been said. In order to keep followers engaged in their Twitter, CR needs to be consistent! Even though their latest promo is over, they still could have found something to tweet about the last two days. They were fine the week before, when they didn't have the Sweetheart deals to promote.

Charlotte Russe, where are you?

The Twitter Olympic Era

The 2010 Winter Olympics are the first Olympic games to be held since the start of the "Social Media Revolution." Because of these new forms of media have recently become so popular, athletes can instantaneously upload behind-the-scene photos and information to their friends, families, and fans through their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The International Olympic Committee has set guidelines for what the athletes can and cannot post... Rule 49 of the 4 page Olympic blogging guideline charter states that athletes and coachers are not to act as journalists.

In a technological world of endless possibilities, this proves that at some point there needs to be a line drawn with what can and cannot be instantaneously accessed by the public. Reading this article got my wheels turning, and I really started to think about different scenarios.

If a rule like this appeared as a guideline for an American based competition, would people argue that the rule is against the athletes' and coaches' First Amendment Rights?

My opinion is... yes. If someone were to get in trouble for breaking "Rule 49," they could take it to court arguing that it is abridging their rights to freedom of speech / press, and would most likely win.

Readers, what are your thoughts?

MSNBC's article on Social Media in the Olympics

Charlotte Russe is better to follow

So after the epic struggle for me to find a company to follow on Twitter this semester, I finally made a decision on Charlotte Russe. Reasoning: 90% of my wardrobe is from there. It just seemed logical. Unlike my original idea of following Forever 21, when I started following Charlotte Russe I did not feel like my page was being spammed every 30 seconds by some random tweet by Forever 21. Also, CR had actual giveaways and contest that I had interest in... So CR wins the award of my religious following. It is still a debate as to whether or not I'm going to "unfollow" F21. The 10 tweets in the last 24 hours seemed to be pointless to me.

I like that CR is not just promoting their own merchandise all over their Twitter, non stop. They are using it for interaction purposes, rather than just throwing their own clothing out there with link after link after link. Personally, if I wanted to see what clothing they had on the racks these days, I'd just visit their website, not their Twitter.

Finally getting the hang of Twitter

So I've had a personal Twitter account for almost a year now, but I never took the time to try and figure it out. Really, the only thing I knew how to do was an @Reply other than just typing in my tweet. I didn't understand what trending topics were all about, or what it meant to ReTweet. I had no idea how to post a shortened link, nor did i know why a lot of the links on Twitter were hyper-linked at bit.ly. I would go months without even logging in, and when I did log in I didn't tweet about anything with significance. From my previous experiences on Twitter - before the days of SM class - it seems like I am not alone. Most of my friends used Twitter in the exact same way as i did... to just update a status just like on Facebook, without any significant purpose.

After last Thursday's lecture on how to do all the different actions on Twitter I decided to make an effort this week to apply all of those actions. This week I mastered @reply, #hashtags, and bit.ly. I even got ReTweeted for my snow fall link for #berks county! I still have yet to find something that I wanted to ReTweet myself, though. I guess I can make that my goal for next week. Hopefully my Twitter account will eventually pose to have some significance to people other than my friends and classmates.

Is Social Media a Spoiler?

Super Bowl XLIV's ratings were through the roof this year, surpassing the all time highest rated show of M*A*S*H. Ad revenue was down by 1/2 a million, yet there were still very many memorable commercials aired during the breaks. Many people tune into the Super Bowl solely to watch the ads. Since companies are spending 2.5 million on a 30 second spot, they put a lot of time and talent into making their spot memorable to the audience.

My question is, is social media taking the authenticity out of Super Bowl ads? In order to get a good laugh of the crazy commercials aired during the game, you do not even have to sit down and watch a single minute of the Super Bowl. Within seconds of the game being over, YouTube videos and other forms of internet media had the ads immediately uploaded for everyone to see. In some cases the ads were on the internet before they were ever aired, spoiling the fun it getting your good laugh in during the game.

However, YouTube is not the only spoiler to media. Just by logging into Twitter or Facebook someone could easily learn what was going on in the game without even watching it, from viewers tweeting scores, plays, ad details, etc. I happened to log into Facebook during the game to find out that Denny's was once again doing their Grand Slam giveaway on February 9th, before their commercials even aired advertising the promo. Although finding out something like this via Facebook may be convenient for some, I personally see it as a spoiler, taking the element of surprise out of traditional media.

Twitter

Initially for my semester long project I chose to follow Forever 21. After paying some attention to their posts all week, I became somewhat annoyed with how frequently they were updating their Twitter, and with irrelevant fashion things. So, I changed my mind and decided to do Coach.

Coach's Twitter seemed much more appealing to me. It didn't seem like "update mania," and everything they posted was relevant to Coach. I thought it was awesome how they posted celeb pics using their bags as they were spotted. Also, they answer customers questions by connecting them to links about their return policies, etc. When customers posted about how much they liked their new bags, they took the time to respond to them personally.

I'm glad I decided to change my company, because I am much more interested in the activity that Coach has on their Twitters rather than Forever 21's site.

Linkedin ?

Tonight I attended the Workshop on the Professional Uses of Social Media in the ballroom of the SUB. I assumed the workshop would just be a crash course on Facebook and Twitter for older people, especially since it was open to the public.

Donna and Steve gave their demonstrations on FB and Twitter, and then came to Linkedin, which I had never heard of. After listening to Steve explain what Linkedin is, I am still really unclear as to what exactly it is used for. Is it used for communicating among your peers in a casual way, or is it strictly professional and more geared towards networking with other professionals?

I am leaning towards the latter, after remembering the different types of topics that members of Linkedin could comment on. It seemed like it's a way to sort of put your resume and expertise out there for anyone to find. Am I correct?

How can a college student benefit from having a Linkedin account?

Why take a class on Social Media?

When I first heard that Wilkes was offering a class on Social Media, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what all constitutes "social media." There are so many different ways to interact with other individuals on the internet, yet most of us college students tend to just stick with what we are comfortable with - Facebook. By taking this class, I hope to become more open minded to other forms of social media.

I think taking a course on social media will end up being very beneficial in the real world. I'm hoping to learn a lot about the different uses of how to use things such as Twitter and Facebook to promote businesses.

Within the last two classes I developed a better understanding of the business aspect of using Twitter. I was always under the impression that a business would use their Twitter to just get the "word" out about different types of promotions they had going on, or upcoming events. However, after last week's class I learned that there are businesses out there that make make their pages fun and very interactive. For example, I found what Sharpie Susan does as a promotion tactic for Sharpie to be very interesting. Knowing that businesses actually post unrelated fun information to draw people to their pages makes me more compelled to look up other business, and see what tactics they are using to get followers.

First Post

Just set up a Blogger account for Social Media class.