Top 10 Social Media Practices

The quarter is coming to a close with only 1 day left of school for me until Finals begin next week. This is not only just the last quarter of school but it's the last quarter of my Bachelors degree. I do have an Internship this summer counting towards my degree but otherwise I am done! It's been a long road with plenty of hills, bumps and turns but I've reached the finish line and it feels great to move on to the next chapter of my life.

To close out my social media class here is a list of the Top 10 Social Media Practices.

1. Collaboration
 - This may seem like such a broad and generic term but it really is the heart of of social media. Without the willing attitude of collaboration from people social media simply wouldn't exist. It's important to keep this in mind moving forward in case we ever start to wonder off the road.

2. Participation
 - Is similar to collaboration in that it is centered on the involvement of people. It differs in that collaboration emphasizes on the building blocks of the foundation. Participation is the next step in the process that demands others to communicate, (provide input, friend, email, chat etc) and share information.

3. Community
 - The social media communities can be separate from in-person communities but they can also be branches of in-person communities. Social media and the Internet in general encourages sub-cultures and communities. This is useful for public and private organizations, agencies, individuals, and groups.

4. Networking
 - Allows for individuals, groups, and organizations to build connections with others that may be useful to them in the future. Social media networking provides a platform for people to connect from all over the world to build a better future whether it's for them personally or for a larger cause.

5. Innovation
 - Social media and innovation provides a level playing field. It's a chance for the "average" or "typical" person to be heard, seen, and recognized on a mass level. It stimulates new and different ideas to rise to the surface in a much quicker manner.

6. Transparency
 - There was once a day when privacy was the way. Today, is not that day. Privacy is now synonymous with having something to hide which in turn will lead to being unethical. Social media demands transparency not only from the client but also the consumer. Once again it provides a more level playing field and is a source for open communication. People continue to expect transparency as a must.

7. Branding
 - People associates branding with products and organizations. Social media enables branding of the individual. People can build themselves into a product. This allows for people to stand out from others and became wanted, needed, and demanded by the public. You can brand yourself however you like and you can brand yourself in more than one way to more than one target audience.

8. Self-Education
 - You may find yourself saying what's different between this and how it was before the days of social media. Sure, it's similar but now it's more accessible, user friendly, and diverse. Today people have the ability to learn how to become a chef right in their own home. They can train to be a lawyer, pick up a new skill or hobby all from their very own home. Most importantly, they can do all of these things and connect and share with others to keep the education train moving.

9. Wiki's
 - We all use wiki's in one form or another rather regularly whether we know it or not. Wiki's can be a great starting point when seeking out information. They can also be great for training purposes, group work, and sharing information. Wikipedia is a great example of a wiki and Google documents is another. They are rather different formats but provide similar opportunities for people to input and extract information.

10. Blogs
 - Being that this is a blog it only seemed right that I mention blogs. Blogs have become a staple of social media and a expected source for information on the Internet. Blogs are great for niche communities and groups while also being a tool used in branding, networking, self-education, transparency, innovation, community, participation, and collaboration. While gosh, I just named the entire Top 10 List. Blogs are an essential tool when it comes to social media and allows for you to connect social media practices on many levels. They can be vital for an individual to build themselves into a transparent brand and they can do the same for organizations.

Augmented Reality

Since there is a high chance that I will be associating myself with Yelp in the coming months I figured why don't I talk about the Yelp app. I'm actually one of the few people left in the U.S. who doesn't have a smart phone because I'm a rather broke college student but everything I've read, viewed, and have heard about the Yelp app is pretty cool.

In 2009 they rather secretly added a feature to their app called augmented reality (AR). It was secretive because Yelp was the first American company to have this feature on their app through I-Tunes and I-Phones. It was also secretive because they didn't talk about it much. If you were on the Yelp app and you happened to shake your phone 3 times then you would have an option to use AR. The phone would use the camera feature and where ever you pointed your phone it gave you a live version of what was going on. Then names of businesses in the direction you were pointing your phone would overlap on the screen. Allowing you tap on a business and then go to their business page on Yelp.

Since then they have added AR GPS and have worked out the bugs. They are continuing to improve this feature on the app and this is allowing them to set the path of innovation. Additionally, the Yelp app is free and is easy to use. Yelpers, as they like to call it can write reviews, chat with other Yelpers and friends, and suggest specific delights are specific bars and restaurants. Yelp isn't only for foodies though, it's for all local businesses from home repair, tanning salons, barbershops, apparel, bookstores and more. Yelp is a site based on participation and community. Yelp empowers the common people and demands that businesses strive to be the best organization that they can be.
Here is a picture of the AR in action on the Yelp app.

Second Life? But I'm Not Dead Yet...

Recently in my social media management class we watched a video by Rhonda Lowry who speaks about the possibilities and opportunities through Second Life. Some organizations like CNN have jumped on to the Second Life bandwagon while most organizations are yet to see the benefit. Perhaps organizations can profit from such a site but they don't see that profit even equalizing the additional time that would have to be put towards such a project. Rhonda Lowry argues against that view.

Everyone knows that we are moving more and more into a world at least similar to Second Life. If point A was year 2000 then 2012 is maybe point D. Second Life is more like M, meaning that it is such a large leap that most people just can't jump that far ahead. The possibilities are making more and more things reachable but change still takes time.

Some of the positives is that it promotes participation and collaboration. It allows for the most humanistic interactions of people from hundreds and thousands of miles away from one another. Conversations, meetings, and events and be pre-planned and post dated improving time management. It's an additional networking extension and it may even be an untapped market. At the same time many organizations feel that allocating many of their resources to an unproven-imaginative world is too great a gamble. I also feel that it is too great a gamble, at least right now.

Shuffle To The Finish Line

With less than a month left of school I'm starting to ask myself why I took so many classes that require so much work. This quarter I signed up for 21 credits / 5 class. 1 classes is already done with, which is nice but I still have so much work to do. Add that onto everything else that is going on with life and it makes for 1 hectic last month of college.

Yesterday, I officially moved out of my apartment as I sub-letted it. That means I'm now sleeping on my friends carpeted basement floor for a total of 24 days. I tossed and turned a lot more than I normally do last night. Hopefully, I'll just get used to it. When I was 19 and transitioning from my first apartment to college I moved in with a friend and his family for 6 months. I slept on their carpeted basement floor that entire time so this has brought back a few memories.

My friend Andrew is coming in town this weekend from Chicago. That means more partying this weekend. In reality, I'm looking forward to not drinking much for a few weeks. This past Saturday I attempted an Athens Shuffle. We called it "The Sammy Shuffle" after my friends dog. All went well until we all got trashed around "The Pigskin". We did pretty good considering we started at the Oak Room. I also had a 22oz. beer from Buffalo Wild Wings and 2 beers at Grinders since the server accidentally gave me a beer for free. Or maybe it was my good looks that got that beer for free :)
Either way, that night did me in and then Sunday night I got food poisoning from some really old shrimp I ate in my fridge. My stomach is still recovering several days later.
I did design the "The Sammy Shuffle" logo for my shirt though.
This is what I call, made by hand.

I can be a competitive person occasionally and my Social Media Management class team was putting together a viral video for our final project. We settled on doing a food eating competition for local food shops in town. I was going to compete against the other 2 guys on my team but because of my crazy weekend of alcohol and food poisoning my stomach just wouldn't allow me to do so. Instead, I got to watch the two of them compete.
Fluff Bakery, GoodFellas Pizza, Bagel Street Deli, Wings Over Athens, Big Mamma's, and Obetty's all donated food for our competition. Much thanks to all of them for helping out college students on a college budget.
Check out our Athens Local Food Challenge.
All views & comments appreciated!!!!!

Howard Rheingold is an advocate for the open source Internet movement. He discusses cooperation and collaboration relating it back to the start of mankind. Basically, he references how people from different communities had to cooperate with one another despite differences. Modern man doesn't know exactly why differing cultures chose to work out their differences and ultimately work together to create an improved solution, but we do know that they did do so.

Howard then compares that with the open source Internet movement today. In order for humans to continuously progress and move forward we must continually overcome barriers to reach a common goal. Here is Howard Rheingold elaborating in his eye-popping orange suit.

I'm definitely no expert on open-sourcing but I feel as if it still has some glitches to work out before it becomes uncontrollably popular like that of a Justin Beiber or The Kardashians. The positives are that it does work on the basis of collaboration and participation. People enjoy being involved in the process and open-sourcing means that's it's free for its users. On the other hand, open-sourcing doesn't allow for ownership or standardization.


I'm not the most computer savvy person so I don't like the idea of always having to adjust to a new format, new tools and locating items that are now in different places because the open-sourcing has changed once again. I also enjoy having ownership of what I use. That may be a bit of a pet-peeve but it is what it is.


With all that said, I see the Internet adapting more open-sourcing moving forward. I didn't even know that Mozilla Firefox was an open source site until a few days ago. Most people probably don't know which sites are open sourced and which are not. Additionally, I'd argue that most people probably don't even care. That just being because most people don't get into the technical aspects of the Internet. As long as their Facebook and email work people tend to be content.


I'm not buying into yet, but I will more than likely buy into it the more popular it gets. I will buy into it just because I will be forced to do so. To stay current and even ahead of the curve it's key to be aware of where things are heading.

Week 4: Nerves of Readiness

Like everyone else I'm dealing with midterms this week. Generally speaking I'm not very concerned but I know that my Strategic Business Leadership midterm is going to be tough. Even though I'm prepared and have been engaged during class I know that our teacher is a strict and tough grader. In a weird way I enjoy that and want to impress him. At the same time, it's my last quarter of college and I just want to be done with it.

Most of my thoughts haven't been school related for the past few months and even more so now. I landed an internship in Chicago that I start June 12th. I walk in graduation here in Ohio June 9th. I finish the internship August 24 and then start at my first career job in Phoenix, Arizona September 10th. All my thoughts have been geared towards all of this.

1. Sub-leasing my Athens, Ohio apartment June through August since I'm not going to be here. I've had a few showings and another one this Friday the 27th. Hopefully, I can get someone to sign asap.

2. Finding an apartment that I can afford on financial aid and support myself over the summer in Chicago during the internship. The internship is my greatest success, even greater than my job offer in my young career. The only problem is that it's not paid. So I'm trying to sub-lease my Ohio apartment and find a Chicago sub-let at the same time.

3. On top of that, I'm browsing apartments in the Phoenix, Arizona area as I'll be relocating there in 4 months. I'm unfamiliar with the area and because I don't have a car my apartment search is limited to Old Scottsdale so that I will be able to walk and ride my bicycle to work.

4. Garage Sale: My sister lives in the suburbs of Chicago and is having a garage sale in July sometime. I'm going to sell a bunch of my stuff that has been in storage aka my sisters basement for the past couple years now. This will help me afford my living expenses in Chicago and most of all my relocation to Arizona.

5. Student Loans: Just taking a glance at what I owe in student loans is daunting. I know that I will have to defer my loans for the first couple years until I've saved up enough and I'm fully capable of supporting myself, allowing me to pay my student loans monthly payments.

I'm excited and nervous like most college graduates. I'm thrilled that I've already landed a job and a great internship but the hurdles I must overcome in the next couple months take some planning and risk-taking. The majority of my efforts are not on school as I now have more important things to worry about.

With one accomplishment comes several more tasks.
As ready as I am for the next step I'm also nervous.

School Is For Learning: Didn't You Know?

So my teacher, who happens to have her own class BLOG wants her students to answer a few critical questions in regards to our class. But before we get to that the best way to explain my teacher would be with this....

1. Whats been the most interesting concept?

Wikis! It's something that I never looked into previously and it's something I am going to continue to research. I really do believe it's an underused medium especially within business's and I can see business's adopting this tool more often in the future. Most people know what social media is and how to use it to an extent. In reality most people don't know how to use social media to their advantage whether that be personally or professionally and that's where I feel I have a growing advantage over most others. Wikis is an additional concept that I hope I can bring to the table moving forward. 

2. Most boring/ You could care less? Be honest.


The lecture on the history of technology could have been shortened up a bit. I think it's something that most of us have heard before in some manner. After browsing some of my classmates blogs I must agree that I would love if the class was a bit more hands on. The class is a bit of a learning curve for all of us, including you (the teacher), but hands on activities allows for all of us to learn and work together.

3. How do I think I'll be able to take what I'm learning here and apply it to the real world?

I'm taking lots of what I'm learning and already starting to apply it. I've already learned simple and easy things like screenshots and have started to use it in my more personal blog. I've also added new widgets to my blog after I've seen how to use them just from browsing other blogs as instructed to.
My personal blog has been active for 18 months at the end of April 2012 and I'll be over 28,000 hits in just a few days. One of my goals this summer is to get this blog off of Blogspot and on to it's own webpage. Additionally, I plan to start getting advertisers on my blog to get a little side income.

Professionally... I have lots of creative ideas on how to make myself stand out as an employee/entrepreneur, it's just learning how to set it all in motion. This class is helping me tune up on some skills as well as learn new ones.

Comment

Chris Brogan's book Social Media 101 talks a little bit about commenting. There are many great blogs but the authors of these blogs shouldn't let the lack of comments deter them from their writings. This being because most readers don't comment. This may be due to a time restriction or because they simply have nothing to add. Think about it like school, most students when attending class just don't voluntarily raise their hand to make a comment during class. That doesn't mean their not listening or that they are not interested. There will be people who do comment, but the majority of readers will not do so.

Readers may also be bookmarking the blog for them to come back to and make it easy for them to follow the blog. Additionally, readers may be "liking" or tagging the blog on additional social networking sites thus increasing the blogs popularity.
Here is a brief youtube overview of Chris Brogan's book Social Media 101.

In the spirit of commenting I thought I'd take a little time out of my day and comment on a few of my classmates blogs.

1. Chris Summers - Blog Post 6: Quick Class Evaluation
2. Mary Swick
3. Doug Trein

Wave At The Bus

Wave At The Bus
Is a blog that has blown up. I actually stumbled across the blog on Yahoo news a couple months back. It's based on a father who decided to dress up in crazy costumes and stand in front of his house waving at his son who got on the school bus. His son at the time was a sophomore in high school and it was his first time riding the bus. The father never repeated a costume and did it for every single day of school his son had. The father also lost one of his legs in 1992 and he used that to his advantage in many of the costumes. For instance, he was a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder and had a peg leg.

In the midst of embarrassing his son he decided to start a blog as well. He documented his costume for the day along with a little story. Before he knew it he started receiving attention from media outlets and appeared in their local newspaper and then the local TV news. He's continued to grow with his blog and is now making money from something that was just supposed to be light hearted fun with his family.

The blog is wrote by him and updated often. He includes pictures, videos and occasionally links to other pages. He's reaped some success from his blog however the blog could still use some improvements.

For starters, he simply made a mistake in a recent post that needs to be fixed. Take a look.

As you can see two photos and some words have shifted to the right side of the page and actually run off of the page. A mistake like this is a simple mistake and one that shouldn't be made. It can easily be fixed and the posting shouldn't even be posted without proof reading. 

The site has advertising and that is expected with the site having over 7 million hits. I like that the page hits is listed, I've always been a fan of this feature. I understand the yellow and black color scheme as it goes with a yellow school bus theme. With that said, I'm not a fan of the color scheme the way that it is. I also feel that the layout could be improved. When a blog starts making money and has ad listings I believe it's important to invest a little money to improve the overall quality of the site. 

The blog does link to his Facebook page and it also features his Youtube video about the "Wave At The Bus" inside story. These are great features and helps him attract more attention to his blog. The Youtube video helps explain more about the blog to new visitors. It's a couple minutes long though and because of that I would still like to see a brief "About Me" section. New comers to the site are seeking clarity and an "About Me" section could provide just that.

Probably my favorite feature on the site is the link to the "Wave At The Bus" phone app. This is a key feature allowing millions of people to easily access his blog with the touch of a button on their phone.

The blog is a mix of personal and business. The blogs original intention was to be a purely personal-public blog. Now that the blog is producing money it's a mixture of a personal and business blog. Because there are ads on the site the writer must be semi-aware of what he says in that he doesn't offend any advertisers. Due to the nature of the blog that's probably not a big concern but it's still one to be aware of.

Overall, it's a fun blog to follow. The content is there and it's updated regularly. The dialogue is broken up with pictures and video and can almost always provide the reader with a laugh. The biggest question the blog is facing is, where do they go from here? Does the father/writer continue to dress up in crazy costumes or does he change it up. It will be interesting to see how the blog evolves.

Light The Wik

Brogan talks about the several different types of social media platforms and how each vary but can also play off one-another. Some social media sites are definitely more useful than others, especially when it comes to business's. Brogan does a good job a categorizing the social media sites and makes it rather easy for the reader to understand. I particularly enjoyed how he went into talking about the differences between social profiles and business profiles.

In a growing technologically driven world it is important to not only recognize the difference between the two but also understand how to make each of them fit your needs. Focusing on the business profile, an organization really has an opportunity to implement creativity, organization, and communication internally and externally.

Wiki's are an underused medium within organizations. Wiki's allow organizations to capitalize is several areas within their business:

1. Improved Communication
2. Saved Time
3. Improved Training for New Hires
4. Saved Money

Wiki's improve communication because it allows for a rather unbiased collection of ideas. It allows for employees of all levels to have their voices heard. Some of the best ideas come from people who work in lower-level positions. The overall goal is to create the best organization possible. Wiki's create a team environment and encourages everyone to participate.

Time is money, cliche but true. Wiki's save employees time when it comes to having to teach fellow employees. Wiki's don't eliminate human interaction and that's not the point either. Wiki's provide a base knowledge and allows for employees to ask more educated questions. Wiki's are a starting point. Wiki's can save a few hours a day and days within weeks. This allows for more efficient work to be completed.

The improved training for new hires piggy backs saving time. We've all been there, been the new hire at a company whether it's a law firm or McDonald's. A new hire is excited but also nervous as they are coming into a new environment where they don't know much of anything. Wiki's can provide early education prior to the the new hire ever stepping through the doors.

The most important thing any business wants to do is save money and make money. Wiki's create smarter employees. Wiki's create and sustain the workings of a team. They save man hours when it comes to training new hires as well as cross-training. They provide a locked safe full of ideas and solutions that employees can go to for assistance.

Wiki's are an upgrade over traditional manuals. They are well worth the money. Organizations across the world spend tons of money on team building activities. Organizations spend money on outside consultants to improve their efficiency, collective efforts, organizational culture, and profits. Wiki's is a tool that can be used to improve all of the above.

With all that said Wiki's can be done the right way and the wrong way. I have an eclectic assortment of hobbies and one of them is basketball. Here is a Wiki about that very sport titled Basketball Wiki.

Granite this Wiki is a personal, non business site however there are many ways to improve the overall quality. One thing to keep in mind when building a Wiki or any kind of website is to be careful with a white background. A heavy white background can be harsh on the eyes when there is a lot of reading involved. The overall site itself isn't very aesthetically pleasing. It appears to be a bit unorganized as if it was whipped together overnight. It's definitely important to put a little thought into a wiki, especially when it's open to the public. Take a look yourself.

It's not to say that you can't have a white background, you just have to be careful when doing so. Often times it will look like this, which isn't very appealing. Additionally there are too many moving buttons whenever you hover over a tab. The site is simple where it needs to be more thought out and complicated where it should be simple. I think the creator was listening to much Kriss Kross while making this Wiki.

The Wiki has a little over 3000 hits on the site which really isn't that much. I'm not surprised by this as there also aren't any links to connect to other social networking sites to help promote the Wiki. I don't see anything linking to Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook.... nothing.

The topic being discussed is March Madness which is actually a bit outdated. It's important to note that a Wiki should be regularly updated. It doesn't have to be long posts but just staying current and fresh makes a big difference.

So if you ever want to know how NOT to do a Wiki, this is a great example.

Battle of The Social Networks

Before going into the details on why I prefer one social networking site over another it's probably important that I air something out to my readers first. I am a professional model. With that said, my work ranges in the alternative, fetish, and tattoo communities. It's an industry that is dominated by female models, however I was determined to get my foot in the door my freshman year of college in Chicago. If you are unfamiliar with any of these terms you can do what the cool kids do these days..... Wikipedia It!

The first thing I had to do was create a name for myself as well as brand myself. For this I joined the site Model Mayhem.

Autumn of 2006 was my freshman year at Columbia College Chicago after taking a year off out of high school. At the time Model Mayhem was really popular for models, photographers, make-up artists, hair stylists etc. The site featured a forum, individual profiles, a search engine, and casting calls. The problem is that the site hasn't changed much from 2006 to now, in 2012.

I still have a profile on there in case someone contacts me. I don't log on very often though as I don't get much work from the site nor do I make many connections with others. The site provides a gathering place for a niche community. I have gotten work through the site and it's actually how I started getting jobs as an independent model. The problem is that the site doesn't create a "community" the way sites like Facebook and even Myspace did. The format actually reminds me of a dating site in that there isn't much inter-connectivity beyond a forum.

How Do You Create A Web-Based Community You Ask?

• Having the ability to publicly follow members

• Having the ability to publicly share content
• Creating efficiency with an easy to use format
• Having the ability to embed and or link on your additional social networking profiles to your page

Unless Model Mayhem overhauls their current format, I won't be returning as a major user of their site. Even if they were to overhaul the site I still may not become a major user unless many others began to sign up with Model Mayhem. The point for a user of a site like Model Mayhem is to connect and build working, profitable relationships with others. If there isn't a large, active member base then the site remains rather useless to someone like me.

I've made the transition from Model Mayhem to Fetlife. 

Fetlife is very much like Facebook just with less chaos/ads and apps. It also differs in that it's specifically catered to the alternative and fetish communities. For someone like me who models in these industries this became the perfect, large platform to promote myself. Beyond the niche platform, Fetlife really provides at atmosphere that allows for web-based communities to form.

Fetlife

• 100% Free
• Easy to use interface
• Members can publicly follow each other
• Members can publicly share content
• Members can link to other social networking sites they are apart of
• Active groups for people to join
• Events, classes, & parties across the world are posted
• Model calls, photographer/videographer calls etc.
• Over 1,300,000 active members
• Fetlife I-Phone App

Most importantly Fetlife continues to make adjustments similar to how Facebook does. Additional features are periodically added, layout changes occur from time to time and the creators have the user in mind. I would like to see the search engine improve when it comes to locating other members by name if you don't remember exactly how they spell it. With that said, this is a minor complaint and Fetlife is always talking advice from members through email contact.

I Don't Fit In A Box

Everyone has pre-judgements on others and how we expect someone to be from their appearance or what the say. Many times we're correct in our thinking and other times we are really far off. 99% of the time what people think of me is completely wrong, at least from first impressions.

The thing about me is that I know who I am. This didn't happen over night and it's also a topic that I'm interested in. I believe that people should really get to know themselves and be happy with who they are. Don't be what everyone else wants you to be, explore what makes you tick, your passions, desires, wants, strengths, weaknesses and so forth. My entire life I've been exposed to massive changes and it's become something that I thrive on. Most people fear change, I love change. I've learned about myself through lots of failures, good times and more importantly bad times. I've dealt with family issues like most people except I lost a lot of family members early on. I've supported myself since the age of 18 and put myself through college. It was an experience that I hated, yet loved as it really has opened me up to a lot more as a young person. I've had my own gender questioned as I learned I was born with Klinefelter's aka an extra female chromosome - XXY as a young adult. I've worked and continue to work as a part time model to support myself as a college student. I'm a die hard Cubs, Bulls & Steelers fan who loves to write, have good conversation, travel, eat great food and try almost anything at least once. I'm a tattoo enthusiast with a body covered in ink that is going into business professionally and I appreciate art of many different mediums.
Here's a fun & recent "graffiti" style I did on a chalk board last quarter that I sketched out really quick for my teacher as I know he loves graffiti. It says his name, "Dr. Stoner".

Some of my looks/styles through the years

2012 - Business Man celebrating my job offer

 2011 Halloween - I was Jeffree Star & dyed my hair pink

 2007 B&W Art Photo of Me

 2010 Me & my best friends (Chicago bar)

 My chest tattoo - Finished Jan 2011 - My favorite personal piece

 2010 Halloween - I was Boy George (I like androgynous looks if you haven't noticed yet)

 High School senior Picture (I had a shaved head for a very long time)

I'm a standing, walking, talking oxymoron. I bend the norms yet I can also be "typical" and boring. If I've learned anything in life to this point, it's that life goes by quick so enjoy it.

I'm excited for this class because I know that it will help me in the future. It will actually assist me in two ways.

1. I'm going to be an account executive for a media company so it's important to be savvy in social media

2. As an independent alt model social media has created the brand that is me. It really is everything and this class will only improve my skills.

After years of college I know that the media field is for me. I actually kind of stumbled into having an interest in media when I was about 19. A friend of mine went to Columbia College Chicago that has one of the best, if not the best college radio program in America. I thought I wanted to do on air talent but rather quickly found out that wasn't for me. I slid over to sales and have been passionate since.

This class will expand my knowledge and skills in blogging, creating a marketable presence and brand, the do's as well as the don'ts and trends to pick up on in the future.

Some of my personal goals are to be making a 6 figure salary within 10 years max of graduating with my B.S. I plan to travel the world as well as live in at least one other country for more than 1 year. Goals within this class are not as well defined but as I'm currently in the storming of forming a new personal/professional blog I hope that this class can answer some of my questions and help me along the path of creating a new brand about myself.

Everything I've learned about social media marketing, planning, etc is all self-taught. There aren't too many classes on topics of social media or anything even semi-related as it's still relatively new to everyone. Because of this I felt that it was important to get in on the ground floor, sort of speak.
I'm excited to see where this class takes me.