Blogging: All About You

Blogging is all about writing what you are passionate about. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we need to talk about a certain topic, event, etc. But, there are no official rules to blogging. Blogging is personal. It’s about whatever you want it to be about.

Blogging begins with an idea. Your idea. You need to start with a topic that inspires, motivates, and interests you. A blog should never feel like an assignment or be stressful because that will take all the fun out of it. It needs to be genuine, authentic, and real.

One of the biggest problems in the blogging world is that bloggers don’t have a defined purpose. Understand why you are blogging. Is it for money, a business, or just a place to share your thoughts? Once you’ve discovered what your purpose for your blog is, then you need to remember that focus when you post. If you don’t remember your purpose when blogging, then you’re thoughts will be scattered and so will your blog.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to blog about, but by using simple brainstorming techniques you can find a topic in no time. Like I said before, blogging is to express your opinions, ideas, etc. about whatever you are interested in or are passionate about. This is your blog, so you can do whatever you want to do with it. Make it your own.

Overall, I think blogging is great. I think it’s important to have somewhere to share your thoughts, ideas, etc. Blogging is a great way to express yourself – enjoy it.

Check out these sites about blogs:     

http://www.sdavismedia.com/whats-your-purpose/

http://whydoweblog.com/

Quantitative Research: Social Media Profiles

I discovered a qualitative research study done in 2008 that categorizes social media users into groups by their attitudes and behaviors on their social media sites. (If you don’t know the difference between qualitative and quantitative research go to this site, it’ll help out a ton http://www.snapsurveys.com/techadvqualquant.shtml ). Anyways, I found the findings from this research way too interesting that I just had to share. The research discovered five groups based upon the attitudes and behaviors of social media users. The categories are as follows:

Alpha Socializers – “use social media in intense short bursts”

Attention Seekers – “crave attention and comments from others.”

Followers – “joined sites to keep up with their peers.”

Faithfuls – “used social networking to rekindle old friendships.”

Functionals – “using sites for a particular purpose.”

I found these results to be spot on, because I can easily classify my friends, followers, etc. into these specified groups. We all have that friend that just post pictures for attention (attention seeker), or that friend who always knows what’s going on in everyone’s lives (followers), or even that friend that only uses there account every once in a while (alpha socializers). This really is an interesting research finding.

I have been thinking about where I would be classified within these categories and I have come to the conclusion that it’s different depending on which social media platform I’m thinking of. I don’t think that any of these are necessarily really bad or good, it’s just interesting to see where you fit within these categories. Think about yourself, where do you see yourself categorized? I think by realizing where we fit within these groups it can help us to learn a lot about ourselves and our social media platforms.

Here’s a link to the research (I found the categories in 2.2 of the Executive Summary): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_ofcom.pdf

SWOT Analysis: A Personal Look at Your Online Self

            Recently, I came across an article which discussed how to evaluate yourself by using the SWOT analysis tool. This article immediately had me evaluating myself as a student, employee, friend, and overall person. This is so important to do if you want to understand yourself a little better in any given situation. Seeing a list of your weaknesses is definitely humbling, but it’s crucial in order to improve yourself.

Soon after, I found a SWOT analysis on social media as a whole. This quickly filled my head with ideas of the impacts of social media on organizations. Eventually, however, I started comparing and contrasting the social media analysis along with the self evaluating analysis, and discovered what I will call the Personal Social Media SWOT Analysis.

Think how beneficial this would be for us if we conducted a SWOT analysis for every personal social media account we had. I mean people always say that whatever you put on the internet will stay there forever, and that’s true. If we conducted our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts as if we truly believed that, then we would not be caught off guard when future employers, co-workers, friends, etc. view these pages. Don’t we want to be showing the world our best selves? So should we wanting to show the online world the same thing? If we broke down our accounts and really analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, how much better off would our social media footprint be?

I believe that social media is a huge means of communication in our world today, and so it is vital for our social media accounts to truly show who we are and what we represent. I don’t mean you should go out and lie about who you are, but just analyze and see if you are showing off your strengths so that you can have opportunities arise through your social media networks. I mean, after all, we’re great people - we just need to show the online world that as well.

Here's a link to the articles I mentioned above:

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05_1.htm

http://anikocommunication.wordpress.com/swot-analysis-for-twitter/

New Year, New Hobby

Here's to a new year and therefore a new hobby - blogging.
I haven't quite got the hang of it yet, but I'll learn.

Well, it's the start of a new semester up here in L-town and it's FREEZING. Today the high was in the 20's. That is way too cold for this girl. So, while I'm walking on campus in the bitter wind and slick sidewalks, I'll try to imagine being on a beach with the warm summer air and sand in my toes. Due to it being the first day of classes I'd better bundle up and go get some homework done.

Keep up the good work.