Chronicles from Todd: Title Credits

Well, we finished week 2 of our blogging assignments and just like in the first week, you guys did a great job. We have seen great improvement in your creativity, visual layouts, and writing skills. Most of you took the suggestions we made to heart and it shows in your blog posts. As we have discussed in class, the title of a blog post can really make or break it in terms of attracting readers and summing up what you’re writing about in a creative and succinct way. Though all of you have been doing a great job with your blog post titles, I wanted to take this time to point out a few of the ones that really stood out, affected, or amused me this week. These are in no particular order.

Komi Oh My

In Kelsi’s latest blog post she discusses a trip she recently made to restaurant Komi. Though this title is obviously a fun play on words, it also humorously and effectively describes what her post is about: we know from the title that she went to Komi and that she was impressed. So, though the title makes us laugh it also lets us know what we are in for when we read the post. Beyond that, personally it reminded me of a recent commercial that I think it is pretty funny starring Star Trek veteran George Takei:

Ding-Dong, DADT is Dead

This title to Alex’s post takes a humorous slant on a very serious and historic event. It’s a great example of how a post’s title can bring about a great mental picture, yet, once again, sum up what the post is about. Of course, we think of the classic scene from the Wizard of Oz. I guess in this case, Dorothy and the munchkins are all those soldiers, citizens, and politicians who worked so hard to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Wicked Witch of the East is the horrible, prejudiced policy that finally came to an end way too late. Let’s just be glad that it’s finally over and brave men and women who wish to serve their country can do so with pride and openness.

Crustaceans in the Cafeteria?

I think the most creative, yet descriptive post title last week was Emmy’s post about the GW cafeteria’s attempt at a crab dinner. She reported a bit of skepticism with the idea as I think most people would, but said she was somewhat impressed even though she is a bit of a crab connoisseur. My instant thought when I read this title was of an old 50’s horror movie or (more nostalgically) the Goosebumps book series. I’m not sure if you guys are too young to remember the series, but when I was in elementary and middle school this was kind of the Harry Potter of the day. Anyway, some of my favorite titles were A Night in Terror Tower, Phantom of the Auditorium, or Say Cheese and Die! I think Crustaceans in the Cafeteria sounds like it could be another book in the series. On a side note, I used to work with the original cover illustrator for the series. His name is Tim Jacobus and he’s a great artist. Check out his work.

Now these were just three of many great titles that I saw when I was reviewing your blogs. There were many more that were both creative and great summaries of the posts they described. Besides the titles, I have found your posts to be really interesting and entertaining. Remember, to keep commenting on your classmates’ blogs and keep working on the elements of the blog posts that we talked about in class. I can’t wait to read the next set of posts!

Sharing Explicit Content - For Teaching Purposes

So today I ran into an interesting dilemma: in addition to having our guest speaker, Nisha Chittal, from the Travel Channel, talk to us about social media marketing, we're also talking about stupid idiotic stuff one shouldn't do on the Web.

So articles I've sent out include references to drugs: but in the context of failing a social media background test. Some students said they think they've had them, but they don't know.

Then I sent out the article that really got USC going last year: the sexist frat boy article that came out over a discussion list. It's horrible. A lot of women can't get through it. Maybe a lot of guys too. But it was intended to show what happens when you think the things you send are private.

It just freaked me out to send these things to students, but they were for pedagogical reasons, and it's OK, especially in the context of how not to destroy your life using social media and navigating life on the Web. But still, I feel like I have some responsibility to keep things PG.



But my students, you guys, are smart. You know, more than your professors think, that you shouldn't be doing stupid stuff. Maybe that's why you're all taking this class - you're ahead of the game. You do social media work for Congressional offices and for sports marketing places and Fortune 50 companies.

So the message I got from above: "Scare the daylights out of them" was completely unnecessary.

BUT: It isn't all about privacy.

One of the interesting things Nisha pointed out, though, was that students shouldn't be on Facebook lockdown, and that Twitter should be an open place.

You should be promoting your voice, your brand, and your Google presence. Don't let Google control you. Appear smart, articulate, and control your presence. Don't be afraid to brag. And share content that you think builds you as a professional.

Great advice.

Do I follow you: Or: Do I know what you did this weekend?

So this exchange happened with New York Times business reporter Diana B. Henriques, a GW ALUM (who basically cracked every big Madoff story) and me:

dianabhenriques Diana B. Henriques

Have you noticed that Twitter has morphed from 'here's what I'm doing' (eating lunch, seeing a movie, etc.), to 'here's some information'?

nikkiusher nikkiusher

@

@dianabhenriques I think it depends. I just realized why need to consider whether my students might not want me to follow them...

49 minutes ago

Yeah, so, I realized that even though your tweets are going to be archived in the Library of Congress for your kids and grandkids to see how you spent your Saturday night, it's possible that I might not need to know...

At the same time, I'm stuck: I want an easy way to have an in-class Twitter feed. It's part of my job to make sure that you do know these tools, even though the class is not really a skills class and much more of a conceptual class. And I think it'd be a rad way to be able to ask questions #SMPASOCIAL

Everyone on the interwebs [click on that, it's a funny link] would think I was the coolest social media prof. ever.

Or maybe, the old just "raising your hand" thing just works fine. And maybe our etherpad is kicking butt. I don't know.

So tell me: Do you want me to know what you did this weekend? In this Mark Zuckerberg world where there is no privacy, actually there is privacy, but we don't need to keep anything private, should it matter?

For the record, I went to my wife's grandma's 80th birthday and saw Amish people. It was pretty rad.

Dispatches from Todd: Confessions of a Blogging Latecomer

I must admit: it takes me a while to appreciate something. It’s not that I’m not aware of things when they happen. But to really understand, appreciate, and eventually love something, I usually have to give myself some time. It took me until their fourth album to realize thatRadiohead was my favorite band in the world. It took me viewing after viewing of his films to realize that Stanley Kubrick is the greatest film director that ever lived. And although I had been to every home game throughout my college life, it took me graduating from college to realize how important a part of my life Penn State football is.

And so it also went with social media. I remember hearing about Facebook when I was a sophomore at Penn State. Like most things, I was skeptical. “You’re telling me to sign up for a site where I put up all my personal information on the internet for all to see? Why?” My private nature could not comprehend the need for such a thing. Eventually, after seeing how other people used it and how vital it can be in connecting to and meeting others, I caved. Now I check my wall every few hours and sometimes learn more about people through their Facebook Profiles than I do actually speaking to them. (Is that sad?)

The relationship between blogs and I followed a similar path. Again, I had friends in college who started blogging early and, again, I could not comprehend why. I thought of blogs more as online diaries where people wrote their innermost thoughts for all the world to see. My private side once again got the better of me and shielded me from seeing the other possibilities blogs can bring. When I left college and started working for Dscape Interactive, a media company in New Jersey, I started to see the value of blogs. This value came in various forms: information,entertainment, and, most importantly for my purposes at the time, business (Benjamin Moore was one of our clients).

So now, as we start this semester and you begin to cultivate your blogs, I am very excited. From what I have read so far, food and drink, sports, and pop culture seem to be the biggest themes, however the variety between all of them is great! I hope that my appreciation for blogging grows as I get to delve into what each of you are interested in. I have already learned a lot about pizza (thanks Lauren!), photography (thanks Sandi!), and fancy, overpriced Aqua gel bags (thanks Alec!), and am looking forward to see what else you guys can come up with. If you haven’t already, remember to include lots of links, blog rolls, and about pages so that we can learn more about you. In the end, though I may have been a latecomer to blogs, like everything else in my life, I am now a huge fan and I’m sure my appreciation will grow when we get to see what your blogs can expand into throughout the semester.

Do as I say, not as I blog

So here's a challenge for all professors of social media who happen to start to feel like they're dinos (even though I'm well, not at ALL a dino and still ok shopping at Forever 21 - at least I think...)

What do you do when your students are better at tech than you? You know what you're supposed to be critiquing, analyzing and doing to help them make their blogs better -- and how to help them use things like Twitter more effectively, but at the same time, I'm not a programmer, and I didn't grow up livejournaling, for instance. I guess it's just not as intuitive for me.

Still, I'm a web consumer, and a social media omnivore, and it's my job to be critical. So even if I needed a little help making this blog better than blah, well, so it is.




And anyway, I still am the authority, at least in this class, when it comes to teaching you about hard-to-read people like Habermas.

Stepping up the Challenge

Well, my original blog failed.I mean, I meant for it to fail. As a learning exercise. You see, my students were supposed to critique things that were wrong with it. Turns out everything was wrong with it. Sigh.

We had a pretty swell class, with Todd Kominak, our TA presenting on some blogging tips.Hey class, did you know he was Phi Beta Kappa? I didn't, but wow, you all should aspire to such great heights. You have one smart TA.

When I took the first look at the first student blog to come in, Alex Laska's Justifiable Anger -- I have to say this is one of these instances when you realize students know more than you do, especially if they can code. Alex has been keeping this blog on LGBT politics on and off for years. It has the visual layout and cues and links and photos we talked about in class.Still, I teach you the theory and the history of blogging, and the class now knows that blogging was practically invented by a college student. And I introduced you to etherpad. So we learn from each other. /Your Prof

Welcome back to school....an adventure begins...

So for our first few classes, we talked a bit about our own social media memories. A lot of students remembered Myspace as their first experience with social media, with other students recalling Xanga. We talked a little bit about popularity on these sites.

We tried a social media deprivation test, and for those students who could handle it, the test was a good way of gauging just how intense social media is in our lives. Some students found that they were completely cut off from news--but SOCIAL NEWS. In class, we explored ideas about offline and online networks, and talked about the definition of social media across a variety of platforms.

One of the things that I think will be challenging to me as a professor will be to try to incorporate all of the great ideas students have for this class and bring it into discussion with some of the broader theory and thinking about social media. I think we did a good job this first week talking about Web 2.0, for instance. But now I'm rethinking some of the reading with regard to social media deprivation and technology deprivation as a whole. Here's the results, by the way, of a college that tried a social media blackout.Looking forward to seeing how you all keep up with your blogging.

/your lovely prof