MY Social Media Policy November 28, 2009

My Social Media Policy

 

1. Connecting: Introduce yourself and tell me why you want to connect

Personally I think it would be nice to have new followers to type a little about themselves. But that’s it; just the basics, no personal philosophy or worldly experience, simple the facts and maybe a favorite quote.

2. Follow, add, friend: …or even stalk if you’re lucky

If someone requests to follow/befriend/stalk you I believe that you should have the option to filter the people you allow and to block the ones you deem appropriate. I believe social networking shouldn’t be about finding strangers unless you are online simply for business networking purposes.

3. Privacy, boundaries and safety: Whoa there…that’s too far

Upon adding a friend/follower/stalker you should immediately be able to classify them into a subcategory. Upon this classification things should automatically be filtered or be shared accordingly. For example business colleagues would be filtered from pictures and possibly a normal posting wall and instead be guided to an all professional contact site.

4. Signal to noise: Calm your engines…and updates

The social media experience I seek is very minimal. If you update your status a million times asking questions you would like people to answer. If you ask me to join your farm, mafia, or cult I will delete you. The best way to be my follower or friend on a network is to simply do the minimal things asked of you. And be there to check up on or talk to once in a blue moon.

5. Personal data and sharing: Understating is amazing

Social media is not about finding your soul mate or you’re long lost best friend you never knew you had. It’s about keeping in touch and making business connections, at least to me. The need to share everything about you is definitely a con in my mind and to me makes the sharer seem unapproachable.

6. My networking needs and uses: “oh baby you……got what I need”

MySpace to me seems like a tri-cycle, a network to get you started and gets your feet wet in the big and giant world. Although I at one point did have a MySpace I eventually felt that I was never on it and that to delete it would be completely fine. Facebook to me is pretty ideal although I find some flaws and annoyances now and then I believe it serves its purpose. LinkedIn has not yet drawn me in but I’m sure as I become older I will probably use the tool to market myself for possible jobs.

7. Availability: Exactly how do I know you?

I believe that you should have the ability to block people completely and only have the ability to only find others and not be found. This way you do not have unnecessary people or stockers finding you and having to ask them…”Where do I know you from?”

8. Truthfulness: Be the real you, it’s that simple

If ever possible I would love to be able to know, truly know that whoever I was friend requested by or who I was talking to was truly themselves. This would include 54 year old men stating that they are actually 54 and not 22 year old athletes. Simply put: no lying.

Blogs, Babies, and Secrets November 16, 2009

  One of my favorite blogs I check weekly is PostSecret. It was started by Frank Warren on January 1, 2005. The concept is relatively simple and very interesting to me; send in a postcard that is decorated and on it state a secret that had never been spoken before.  The results are phenomenal and have resulted in thousands upon thousands of entries, five books and numerous exhibits across the country. The blog is fully comprised of “postsecrets,” and is updated every Sunday. It is completely ad-free and I absolutely love it. One secret from this week is, “I’m 20 and I don’t know if i’m an alcoholic or the typical college binge drinker… it scares me.” Another is, “When I don’t want to file things at work I shred them.” I personally own all five of the PostSecret books and I think that that blog was a great way to start a successful movement and business. Another blog that I recently found was The Stephan Clan, a blog about a newly married couple as they start their life together. They have blogged about finding a home and most recently finding out they are pregnant with a little boy. I particularly love the blog not because of how advanced the text and set-up was but because of the excitement that radiates through the young parents words and descriptions. You can tell from the pictures and everything else that they are just so happy to be where they are in their life. Overall I believe both blogs, however different are both great and I plan on checking them often.

Podcasts and Cigars November 9, 2009

I just finished listening to the Red Bar Radio podcast and I can say it was interesting. I haven’t listened to a podcast before but this one at least was exactly like a typical radio show without a million commercials or songs. I could definitely see how this could appeal to a fast-pace individual, you are able to download and listen to exactly what you want to listen to anytime you want. The Red Bar Radio was a little crude I’ll admit; some of their topics included the stupidity of taxi-cab drivers, the way your mind thinks when you are about to get into a fight, and the random stupidity of most people, as well as a few topics I probably shouldn’t mention. Throughout the podcast the two comedians, James Fritz and Kyle Lane, went on and on about how they were simultaneously drinking and smoking cigars while on the radio. All in all it was a good listen; I especially enjoyed the two talk about movie previews and how previews in the past were epic compared to the more recent previews with less than par music and predictable editing. They also touched on a couple of teens being arrested for rapping their order in a McDonald’s drive-thru, which needless to say I thought was absolutely hilarious. Although the Red Bar Radio had some harsh things to say, they were hilarious and absolutely held my attention. My podcast experience wasn’t a bad one and I would recommend it to anyone.

White Like Me… and You October 18, 2009

When I first heard success series my immediate thought was that I could actually learn something useful, and something that could make me (as corny as it may seem) a, “success.” White Like Me completely through me for a loop. Instead of being seemingly preached at about the importance of planning and time management we were informed of the racism that is still so prevalent today. Tim Wise made it clear that we as a society have maintained a certain white privilege that no one can escape. He stressed the fact that even if you are the most liberal person on earth sometimes racist thoughts can still run through our head even if only for a minute. Tim Wise has worked with many different organizations such as police academies, large corporations, and non-profit organizations. In one particular example he asked a batch of policemen what they would think if they saw a black man in an expensive lavish car. Their response saddened me, they all answered that they would probably think that the man was selling drugs. When asked if they saw a white man in the same care they answered that they would simply think that the man came from a upper-class family.  He continued on to point out that it’s been statistically proven easier to get a home loan for a white family than for a ethnic family.  Although we often think that racism was gone away with a long time ago Tim Wise made it clear to me that prejudices are still prevalent. After his speech he said something that truly shocked me.  He said to not try to end racism because honestly it cannot be done, but to simply do your part each day to lessen the affects of it. He said that white people have never been told that they couldn’t do something, so for someone like him to say that racism cannot be ended it upsets some. I think he’s right.  You can’t get rid of it, it’s embedded in history, television, snide comments, and in the stories passed on from generation to generation.  Overall Tim Wise’s, White Like Me, really opened my eyes and I truly am happy that I got a chance to hear such an educated, well spoken, and open-minded person speak.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet October 12, 2009

This past week we were given the assignment to Tweet.  For all of you that don’t know what tweeting is it’s updating your “status” on Twitter or sharing information for the fun of it. At the first of the week I have to be honest and divulge that I was not excited at all. Facebook is already a very time-consuming and a successful procrastination aid sometimes, who needs one more thing to add to the mix? I started off by tweeting everytime I would remember which was usually once a day maybe two at max. Even though this would be the time to tell you how i started tweeting every three hours and talk about how much it changed my life….  it didn’t. I found my self dreading the infamous tweet and spending sometimes ten minutes at a time just trying to figure out what I could possibly say in 140 characters that would be interesting enough for someone to follow (the action to be updated on someones tweets on Twitter). Now don’t get me wrong, if I was famous and I had a Twitter account I could see some of the possible perks. You get to broaden your following while letting your fans think they know you on a little more personal level.  But for me in the state i’m in now, a freshman at Georgia Southern University, the only value I find in Twitter is finishing an assignment for my F.Y.E. (first year expieriance) class and getting to know a little more about what it’s all about. Now I will however keep my account valid because who knows in 3 months or years even I may think Twitter is the best thing to happen since Starbucks, calculators, and converse.

Ropes Course?… Yes Please October 4, 2009

The Infamous Maze

Two weeks ago my F.Y.E. (first-year experience) class went out to Southern Adventures low ropes course. When I first found out that we would be going I was a little hesitant since I had already attended the same one earlier in the year. Surprisingly I had more fun than I thought I would.

In a specific activity we were told to put on blind folds and follow the instructor to a “course/maze.” Once in the maze we were instructed that once we were out of the maze we would know and that we had only two questions we could ask. Number one: Am I ok? and number two: Can I have help? As soon as we were told to put on the blind fold i knew what was happening because the first time I came to the low ropes course with BUILD I had done the exact same exercise. The first time for me was horrible, after being determined to stay calm and find a way out I was one of only two people that refused to ask for help. Everyone (which was nearly 40 people) asked for help and was immediately instructed to remove their blindfold and step out of the web-o-strings that had no end. After refusing to ask for help seemingly dozens of times I was told that the exercise was over. The entire point of the activity was to ask for help and I had failed. I then realized that the maze was exactly mirrored real life situations. I never asked for help, I’m always determined that I can do it by myself and that for some reason asking for help is a sort of failure to me. So to cut things short, the second time around I asked for help as soon as I was able.  At the same time I was learning about myself I learned that many of my classmates had no problem asking for help and that it seemed some preferred to ask for help before they had a chance to possibly fail on their own. I in no way think that this character trait in them is a flaw but simply that it is much different than my sometimes one track way of life.

This experience connected to our Making connections theme because whether your in class or in the business place you have to learn to trust, ask for help, and even work with people that may be completely different than you. Regardless of whether you think so or not the connections you make everywhere are carried for years and those connections can either be the cause of your sink or swim experience. If our class were to return to the ropes course we would be able to the see the progress we have made in making connections with each other as well as being able to see if our communications skills have improved. In future class and group activities I will be able to carry what I learned in the ropes course by being able to realize that everyone communicates differently and that you sometimes have to just stop and focus on listening to truly get the point. I will also be aware that even if someone isn’t directly asking for help they may need it and the only thing you can do is to sit my and be prepared to give them that helping hand.