Blog Post #4 - the Millennium Quiz

Blog entry #4

Welcome and thank you, thank you for returning to my blog. If you have recently become a follower let me say, thank you, thank you again.  I look to have 50+ followers by the end of this semester and so encourage you to pressure and coercive friends and family to….no, no, sorry sorry that was my pre pre-refuge taking self talking out loud.  He he

Here we go – new location same excitement better pastries. Yes, Starbucks has its conveniences, yes, I can get my coffee “made just the way I like it”, and yes, they know my name.                           It’s ok - I own it.                                                                                                                                                 But at least my world doesn’t “run on dunkin”.

But, viola, there is more to the world!                                                                                                           For wonderful patisseries and café drinks you just have go to La Petite France in West Hartford Center.   Yum yum yum – la petite raison, mini almond and chocolate croissants, éclairs, napoleons, and great fruit tarts.  My favorite is the pear and almond paste tart with, of course, a rich smooth delicious Café Americano. I’m on my second but it is a Sunday afternoon and a treat to be here.        Seriously, no trick.                                                                                                                                              Ok, I’m cutting myself off for making a pun post.

Ok, again, new paradigm – I see Social Media as having the capacity to have a life of its own; if you see value in what I am sharing you will share it with others. Right?

In another past life I was a unit manager for a Colgate-Palmolive Co. named Princess House. 100% commission with a 5% override on what your team sold.  On a good night or weekend you helped the hostess: prepare spiked sherbet punch, have fun with family and friends, and receive $300.00 (in 1980’s dollars) in free beautiful crystal products.  Other times, I helped new distributors do the same thing for their hostess.

My point, yes, there is one to the story so stay with me please. At first, to be a successful distributor, it is your family and friends that get you started. I’m asking you to help me get my blog off and running by sharing my link - www.alcmst99.blogspot.com/.
Yes, it’s a Public Relations & Social Media 495 – Special Topics class for fall 2011 only – ya, ya.

I see how it can be more with your help.

Blog post #4 – The Millennium Quiz - http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/

I scored an 86 out of a 100 which goes to show age is a state of mind.  I am sure many who know me would not be surprised  at my score as I am an absolute adolescent some days. lol. I'd say I missed a 100 due to my having read a newspaper in the last 24 hours. lol x 2

The demographics associated with the quiz were definitely interesting and easy to read. A great resource site.

Oh, did I mention that at La Petite France located at 967 Farmington Ave., in West Hartford you can get delicious, fresh breakfast and lunch options starting at $4.00?

Oh, and the window treatment looks good enough to eat.

Speaking of Halloween – it is written that the veil is at its thinnest on the eve of October 31^st, All Hollowed Eve, and a time to commune with and commemorate your ancestors.  So don’t forget to have a candy bar for Gramps.  I know I won’t.

Ok - here we are at post #3 - a response to the question - "can the Social Media ideas for non-profits we have been studying in class be used for for-profits as well?"

If you are tuning in for the first time this blog has been created as a part of my Public Relations & Social Media Special Topics course #495 offered at CCSU and taught by Prof. Ismeal L. Mendel, PhD.

Thankfully this is a highly experiential class and the expectations for the course include being creative and "hands on" - this is my first blog attempt.  Here is your chance to showing Loving Kindness.

Namaste

So, here I go again - before I worked in the field of IT Education I worked in the fields of Sales & Marketing in numerous capacities.  One of my positions was Marketing Specialist, which can encompass alot.  The dates were late 1980s to the mid - 1990s and even though computers were mainly used as data bases and a means to take an order, we were a primarily direct order house, the principals of promotion have stayed the same.

A non-profit needs brand recognition, so does the for-profit; a non-profit needs a consumer base, as does the for-profit; a non-profit needs to grow to stay current and viable, just like the for -profit; and both need to attract a talented workforce.  These needs, and more, are common to both the non and the for profit.

We have seen already in this course the exponential growth in recognition both non-profits and for-profits can experience with the right Social Media solutions.

Well  - sounds of a throat clearing - once, then once again.  "Is my face red" I stated declaratively.

This post has to be post #2a because I only, maybe, partially answered post question #2 correctly. If you remember, in post #2 I boasted about my background in IT Education from back in the 1990s and into the early 21st century. I seem to remember mentioning having seen the coming of Facebook.

For this, I can't even blame the caffeine.

Well - I didn't feel that solid in my answer but at the time I must have felt solid enough to make the post.  That was until I got to class and took a closer look at my notes.  Wow - not even close.
It's Tweeter *%#! not Facebook.

I never saw Tweeter coming. Ok, I never saw Facebook coming either, at least not specifically.  I never even saw a way you could track tweets coming but I knew someone would find a way to make money from all the info being stored on all those servers.
I have a Tweeter account and have for maybe close to a year. I have Tweeter for Dummies but haven't used either one.  No one Tweets me, I wonder why.

So here goes Post #2a - first, I have mixed emotions about the type and amount of tweets' data needed to create the tweets usage map shown to us in class. 
Although I did find it fascinating to see the similarities in behaviors of people from different parts of the world. It was as if I was watching a worldwide human pulse as the images on the screen grew larger and smaller, darker or lighter, depending on the Tweeter usage around the world.

As a means of understanding the emotional aspects of people using Tweeter, based on time of day, day of the week, and the context of the message this information could be good research material for the Social Sciences, such as Sociology.  As an American citizen keen on Privacy I always feel uncomfortable signing my personal privacy away to use a product - no matter how cool and versatile it may be. 

So no, I didn't specifically see Facebook or Tweeter coming but I certainly was part of  conversations focused on the hopes and the fears that the collectivism of the Internet could bring.
Anyone read a Brave New World recently?

Hello and welcome back!

I'm starting to feel the wind in my hair as though I was running with the White Queen on the chessboard, running faster and faster ....... whew, sorry, not sure if it's the caffeine or the excitement of doing something new (at least for me) - probably a bit of both.

Except for becoming a follower of myself and not yet, having figured out how to make myself go away I feel I am catching on to the functionality of the blog.

My second assignment for the Public Relations & Social Media (PRSM) class is to blog on the statistics shown to us in class on 10/3.

I was surprised by some of the statistics but not really.  For me the surprise really was that I was surprised at all.  The internet and Facebook has been growing expediently.  As one who worked in the field of IT education from 1995 to 2001 this is what was expected of the internet; it is amazing and a little overwhelming to see it as a pie chart that encompasses the world (minus Africa).  lol
Facebook has also grown expediently and continues to do so in new and unexpected ways.
Can anyone say HBO.

Hello and hello again - wow, what a long hard road it has been to post to my blog.
As a first time blogger I am just thrilled to find a page with a publish button!

My first assignment in my Public Relations and Social Media class is to set up a blog and post on the new Facebook privacy settings.
Did it, did it and here it is.

I found some of the Facebook privacy settings to be of interest. I found the information about being tagged and who can then see your account helpful, as well as how to chose an audience for my postings. This exercise made me very aware of how much I have taken for granted about Facebook and just how complacent I have been about a very public profile of myself.

As one working in the fields of domestic and sexual violence I feel these new privacy setting options will be of value to victims/survivors of dv and sa and their families.

I did disable the following two functions:

Invitations to participate in research about Facebook and weekly website updates for admins

I am concerned that the invitation would be generated based on mined info and that the weekly updates to admins is also a data mining function. It may be pie in the sky to think I can limit such activities but I can try at least.

Also, looking at the privacy settings prompted me to reset my security settings.

May all sentient beings know Peace,

Paula