Twitter Hashtags That Drive Me Crazy

STOP THIS NOW

There are a lot of people that sound like crazy people on Twitter to me. Maybe you’re one of them, maybe not. I’m not talking about the people that participate in all of those terrible trending hashtags like #BackWhenIWasAKid or #MakesMeSMH (although those do drive me crazy too,) I’m talking about the people who end their tweets with words like #food, #film or #music. Let me rewind for a second and tell you why I believe this is crazy-talk.

I used to work at an indie record store where every once in a while this crazy guy would come in and ask for certain music albums on CD. Imagine a guy about 6’3’’, 220 lbs., with a giant brown beard and mottled brown skin. He always wore dirty high top shoes, blue jeans and a smelly Starter jacket. He’s kind of like a mellow crazy cat lady on The Simpsons, but without the armful of cats. He had this problem psychologically where he couldn’t stop making vocal noises, so even when he wasn’t talking, he’d murmur “auauaaghghuagghaugghahguuughahaahahggghguguaauauauauah.” It reminded me of what Max Brooks explained in The Zombie Survival Guide about how zombies would moan this way and it would drive people insane. However, when said crazy guy would come in and ask for bands like Rush, Scorpions and Van Halen, he’d say, “Do you have any Rush, Scorpions or Van Halen? AuaaaghghahguguRUSHauauaughhgSCORPIONSauauagghghguauVANHALEN.”

This is where I’m getting to my point. There are two types of people in my Twitter feed that use tweets like #food, #film or #music at the end of their tweets; Noobs and Crazy People. Such general terms might’ve been used back when Twitter first started, but I’m willing to bet that 95% of close to 1000 people in my Twitter feed don’t do that. It’s just not necessary, because it’s too broad of a term. Narrow your hashtag term down and include it in your tweet if possible, not after the message you’ve written. That way you don’t look like a noob or a crazy person.

Thank you!

Now, when I share this blog post, I will not tweet my message like this…

“I’ve got a new post up on my blog about Twitter annoyances. [link] #Twitter #annoyances #blog”

Because it will read like this…

“I’ve got a new post up on my blog about Twitter annoyances. [link] auauauguguguaTWITTERauauagghhghguaANNOYANCESauaguuguauaguguugBLOG.”

3 Helpful Uses of the Twitter Favorites Feature

Back in May 2011, Twitter moved the Favorites feature from where it usually sat on the side bar. When I first noticed it missing, I was afraid they were getting rid of it. The reason why is the same reason why I’m writing this post. This is how I use the Favorites tab on my Twitter profile to benefit my followers and the people I follow.

It’s a mobile bookmarker.

Twitter Favorites Used to Bookmark

Think of it as a Twitter version of Delicious. Many times throughout the morning, afternoon, and evening I can be found checking Twitter via my mobile device. Unfortunately, my iPhone 3G isn’t all it’s cracked up to be these days, so clicking through a link and reading the content within can take a LONG time. This is where the favorites tab comes into play. It becomes an extra bookmark or RSS feed. Plus, if I find the content remarkable but haven’t gotten to read it until a few days later, a retweet can breathe renewed life into an old tweet.

It’s a rant recorder.

Twitter Favorites Used to Capture Quotes

There have been moments on Twitter where some significant news happens that causes a storm of opinions to hail down on the twittersphere. For a PR person, these rants are open looks into the opinions of journalists. If you’re a writer, it’s a recorded document of what someone has said.

It’s a great helper with commenting on the blogs of others.

Twitter Favorites Used To Contact Bloggers Later

Typically, I will only see one tweet about an updated post on someone’s blog. Unfortunately, I see most of these posts on my mobile device and reading then commenting on a mobile device is still quite the task compared to an actual computer. When I sit down to read the post at the appropriate time, I can offer quality feedback on what they’ve written. It takes time to write a blog post, so I try to offer the same courtesy by commenting on the post – not on their social media platform.

Do you have any other uses for the favorites tab? Feel free to leave your comments below, follow me on Twitter and check out my Favorites.

Winter term can be a killer

Winter term at the University of Oregon started with two Mondays off in a row. Of course, this means that we get a whole lot of catch-up to do for the few weeks after. Many of the classes include group projects and when you match that with Public Relations Student Society of America activities, it makes for a busy term. I like to be busy though, so I don’t have any major complaints.

Now that the term is starting to even itself out, I finally have time to come to Freshfully Rad and post a little something for anyone who bothers to read this. Twitter has been an ever-beneficial tool in reaching out to people in the public relations industry. I had a great informational interview with Brandon Vaughan (@brandonvaughan), whom works at Edelman in Seattle, after having some back and forth conversations on Twitter. Informational interviews have definitely given me insight for classroom material that I probably never would’ve gotten otherwise and I definitely recommend them, even if you aren’t close to graduation.

One of my questions was answered about PR practitioners and video game journalists in episode #199 of the Xbox 360 Fancast. It’s located around the 1-hour mark for anyone interested. Find it here.

PRSSA has been providing some great speakers each week that have given me insight on what to provide in a portfolio, resume, and how to obtain a mentor. One thing I love about PR is how happy everyone is to keep learning more and more. Twitter is definitely a great way to keep up-to-date on the daily happenings in the PR industry.

In the next couple weeks, I plan on having much more material to throw on Freshfully Rad after some nice R & R in Yachats and a trip with the PRSSA crew in Seattle for a tour of some agencies.

So, to end this blog entry, I would like to thank the following for helping me cope with this term:

• My girlfriend, Yaicha, for understanding my busy schedule
• Ninkasi and Lagunitas, for calming my frazzled nerves on brutal days
• My group members, who are just as busy as I
• My friends, who I may not see much because of time constraints

Staind Said It Best…

...And It's Been A While, Since I've Wrote a Blog!

Oh my goodness!  It feels like it has been forever since I’ve gotten to blog about anything at all!  I’ve had many ideas I’ve wanted to write down but I’ve been so bogged down with a Spanish 103 class during the last eight weeks that I’ve had no time to write anything but Spanish homework.  After earning my well-deserved “B” in that class, I finally have time to relax with an ice-cold Long Hammer IPA in hand and write about what’s been going on.

I’ve had a few experiences that have occurred within the past month that I’m going to reiterate in some other blogs but I feel that I must share why I haven’t gotten on here sooner to write.  I understand that in keeping a blog, one is supposed to update it often with content that is actually useful to the person reading it.  Keeping that in mind, although I may write about experiences in my life, I will try to share something that I learned in hope that you can take that for yourself.

First thing’s first: Spanish 103 at Lane Community College can consume your life.  I realize that learning a new language is a bit daunting.  It’s like a puzzle; you start basic and build from there into something that becomes complex with its own set of rules and rule-breakers.  The homework was broken up into many different tasks that all seem to work upon each other, although it’s not strictly that way.  Your main grade was built upon homework called “Tareas” where you have to write in Spanish, draw pictures and then color them based on what you write.  This is typically done in a two-way conversation format and it takes a lot of time to do.  (It usually took around two hours for me to write, draw, and color six pages.)  You also have to listen to a poorly recorded CD that was a major struggle and required alot of patience.  These were called “Charlas” and they were the tasks I most loathed.  We also read a book in Spanish called “Encuentros Culturales” and had to answer true or false questions from our homework about each chapter.  The last task we had was to write six journal entries answering questions about the class format or about how our learning the Spanish language is going.  Overall, so much homework consumed my life that I had absolutely no motivation nor the time to write on the blog.  If there’s one life-lesson I’ve learned from this class it’s this: If you ever take a language, be prepared for a struggle and definitely use as many outside resources as you can. I made good use of a translator and a conjugator.  Just remember to use the tools wisely and don’t depend on them.  The tools must help you learn but not be an answer sheet.

On another note, I’ve been living without my television for about two weeks.  I own a 40″ Samsung television that I bought from Best Buy about a year-and-a-half ago with some inheritance money.  It was the biggest investment I’ve ever made to date.  Two months after the one-year warranty expired, the picture disappeared while the audio remained on.  The next day, the picture came back on and stayed that way until two weeks ago.  Long story short, I went through about seven phone calls and one fax of my original bill-of-sale to Samsung.  I micro-blogged about it on Twitter and coincidentally got a reply from a nice gentleman working for Samsung who tried to help me with my problem.  After being told from one of the many different Executive Customer Service people that there was nothing they could do for me, I decided to utilize some websites I found that had detailed accounts of others who’ve had the same problems with their Samsung televisions.  I put my P.R. skills to work and let everyone I knew on my social media platforms what happened to me and other owners of Samsung televisions.  I posted links to these websites, stating exactly what happened on Twitter, Facebook, and I was in the process of writing my review of the television I own on Amazon when the nice gentleman from Samsung’s Twitter called me on my cell stating that he resubmitted my claim and it was approved.  A huge burst of relief came gushing out of me and I thanked him on the phone and again on Twitter before letting everyone know on those same social media formats that Samsung is now helping me.  This has taught me one thing:

Be polite and be patient but if you know you’re in the right and someone tries to screw you, be ready to fire back.  Don’t go down without a fight!

I have to call Jim’s Electronics tomorrow to see about getting my television repaired.  I just hope after it’s repaired, it stays that way.

Livin’ the Good (Digital) Life!

On Wednesday May, 27th I attended the full session of the event “Your Digital Life” supported by the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and sponsored by Conkling, Fiskum, and McCormick.  I learned much about certain aspects of a life you can lead digitally and ways to protect yourself from potential threats.  In this short blog, I’ll give you some insight to the helpful information the speakers gave.

PANEL 1: Risks, Privacy, Copyright and Security

Three speakers informed us about these topics that I thought were very helpful.  André Chinn spoke about “Safe Social Media”, bringing some very helpful tips about how to protect your digital self.  André explained that one of the main things a person should do with their online identities is not use the same password everywhere.  He also recommended using a strong password; mix letters, numbers, case, and punctuation.  Phishing is a hot topic in his profession and one that should be taken seriously.  Some ways that phishing is successful is when someone clicks on a link in a place such as their email, then are asked to enter in their protected information like passwords and more.  Overall, André said to do three simple things:

1. Pay close attention
2. Be skeptical
3. Use common sense

Joanna Goode was the second speaker who shed some light on “Teachers as Cyborgs” and about how our digital footprints are expanding enormously the more we people use technology.  Her insight on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has five points:

1. Interface Stability
2. Growth of Technological-Dependency
3. Growth of Hyperconnectivity
4. Increased Amount of Information on People’s Lives and Actions
5. More Creativity

She said that a lot of these can be perceived as threats to our personal growth but that more creativity could very well be a good thing to come from technology in the form of blog writing, art programs, and more.  One last point she touched on was about cyberbullying and other forms of dangerous behavior.

The last speaker on the first panel was Ryan Vacca, speaking about “Applications to Social Networking & Online Media.”  It seemed to me that translating Internet law to people outside the industry has to be a difficult thing to do.  While there was some jargon used, Ryan brought some good points to the audience explaining how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) helps the public from getting sued over copywritten posts on forums you may, in part, own or oversee.  After the speakers were done, I asked Ryan if the DMCA has anything to do with how people can use music file sharing on forums such as blogspot and he said those people are actually the ones taking advantage of it.

PANEL 2: Opportunities and Practical Applications of Social Media

Four speakers shed some light on many practical and interesting ways on how to use social media to your advantage personally and professionally.  Crystal Lyon and John Weiss both spoke about how the company they work at, Waggener Edstrom, uses social media and some applications they’re creating to help with research and more.  John said that one of the key things an individual should do is create their own personal brand.  He also said that one should match their experiences with others easily and center their brand on engaging discussion.  I believe this should be done to ensure maximum impact and transference from one to another.

The second speaker was a very informative assistant professor of public relations at the U of O, Tiffany Derville Gallicano.  Her panel was about “Tweeting Your Way to an Entry Level Position” and gave some great tips on how to do just that.  Her focus was mainly on Public Relations but also gave tips that could be attributed to any sector that’s connected digitally.  The first tip was to find your career interest and then find individuals in the industries Twitter handle. This can be found through such places like P.R. Open Mic as well as using hash tags for key search words like #prjobs and #pradvice.  She also said to turn your Twitter profile into a professional place with a nice background that stands out among the rest and putting pertinent contact info and links on your page so that someone can thoroughly check you out.

The third speaker was a very animated young lady who writes for the Register-Guard Ticket section, Serena Markstrom.  She brought an old-school approach to a new emergence in digital technology by showing how she used to communicate with people and how the tools we use today can still be directly applied to older ones we once used more.  Serena writes reviews for shows she’s seen and still uses places like Myspace to contact artists and find where shows are going to be.  She also tries to not only develop relationships with people but to maintain them on a personal level.

The last speaker, Hannah Smith, is an Associate at Conkling Fiskum & McCormick and spoke about her process of creating a burgeoning online community for Tillamook Cheese.  Her process included connecting with their community offline to see if they were online to begin with then, once they heard that people were online, they began “listening” to the online conversation about Tillamook Cheese.  After that, they created a Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube page, and a dedicated Tillamook Cheese Fan Club Website.  Critics of this type of media usually argue that once you have these types of social media websites, there will be individuals that will go out of their way to bash the company.  Her argument back was about how the conversation will happen regardless if you’re in it or not, so you might as well have your own voice in the conversation to speak some sense about a situation.

When the speakers were asking questions, I stated another place of where to go to find jobs via Twitter with which Tiffany also said that Twibes is another good place to find a job then asked John and Crystal how much their agency is devoted to research and what types of tools they use and/or are developing.  They said a very large part of the company is devoted to research alone and are creating more tools rather than using existing ones devoted to research.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

The final speaker was the Executive Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society (CIS), Lauren Gelman.  Her main focus was about why people are posting so much online and to how our privacy is affected.  Lauren went through some of the history of the World Wide Web and how Web 2.0 has been created by the convergence of message board forums with static web pages; blogs are a perfect example.  She then went to talk about how privacy has been affected by social media and how we should have some restraint about what we put online that can be connected to us that could potentially threaten us some way later.  She then started taking questions that took up the rest of the time and, I speculate, the other part of her written speech.  I asked her about how certain companies are asking their employees to sign “No Blogging” contracts and if she thought this was going to increase in the future in a time where companies should be encouraged to become “part of the conversation.”  She didn’t think very many companies would embrace that.

Overall, the presentation was full of helpful advice about living a digital life and how to properly maintain a professional profile safely.