Q&A with ~me~

Rushawn Williams interviewed  me:

How do you plan on self-promoting yourself?

“I would want people to see my writing skills. I’d say one of my biggest strengths is writing and it’s also the most important.”

Name three goals you have between now and graduation.
“To get an internship, that’s number one. I also want to figure out what I want to do after I graduate. I’d also like to become more involved on campus somehow.”

What employment goals do you have after graduation?  Name three of them.

“I don’t really have any at the time. Obviously I want to get a job that I like but I really don’t know what that is right now.”

Name three best-case scenario jobs you would like to have and why.
“I’m good with social media so I’d like to do something with that. But like I said before, I just don’t know what. I don’t feel like I can answer these questions until I secure some sort of internship that’ll tell me what I do or don’t like.”

Do you prefer to work professionally with a group or on your own and why?

“I definitely prefer to work alone. I’m responsible for myself when working alone; I’m not going to screw myself over. I hate depending on other people; especially for school projects, the people who don’t contribute are usually the people who don’t care, so they just let you do all the work. Maybe it’ll be different in a professional work environment.”

What contributions can you make to a group dynamic?  Name three things.

“I’m always on top of things; I’d never let any one person do all the work. I also have a neutral personality- I’m not here to cause any problems or form an alliance or anything. The last thing is that I have an open mind. I like to hear different ideas and think of the best one or ways to fix something.”

What contributions can you make working independently?  Name three things.
“All work is done by me- so it’s going to be as uniform as possible. When I work alone I can change things as much as I want without having to get a group consensus. I often do change my work a lot, for the better. It’s easier when I don’t have to run it by someone else. Lastly… I think I said it before, I’m not gonna screw myself over. I like to make sure everything is perfect and on time. Sometimes with groups, people don’t give equal effort.”

What are your pet peeves in a work environment?

“I can’t stand lazy people. A lot of people are always ‘too busy’ to do certain things. I think they’re just too busy being lazy.

I also hate when people don’t go by the rules or act unprofessional. Like for instance, at a restaurant when servers say inappropriate things in front of customers.

It also really bothers me when people in authoritative positions act unfair. You can’t really speak out against them so it’s frustrating.”

Name three things you feel passionate about professionally - this could be school related, current job related, group or organizationally related - and outline why you feel passionate towards them.
“I am still trying to figure all of this out. I guess I feel pretty passionate about school in general, I mean I don’t love it or anything, but it’s my number one priority. I’m just constantly trying to figure out what I like and what I don’t. That’s really my biggest thing right now. But I’m also passionate about balancing school and a social life. I can’t be one of those people who don’t see their friends and family because of the amount of schoolwork. I wouldn’t forgive myself for that. Lastly, I guess I’m passionate with trying to keep up with the world. It’s hard to keep up with all the current events but I do try to stay as informed as possible. I don’t want to be oblivious to what’s happening.”

How do you handle stress and pressure?

“Not that well, But sometimes I work best under pressure. Stress kills me, because I won’t sleep. Last year I can’t tell you the number of all-nighters I pulled to get my work done. This year I’ve been way better though, I’m learning better time management, which has eliminated a lot of stress.”

Name the last three jobs you had, and the best success and the worst failure you experienced at each of these jobs.

“I’m a hostess at a restaurant called Sean Patrick’s. I started last November but I didn’t work there from May until this November. I had a summer job, and wasn’t really supposed to come back because they’d hired someone else but they ended up calling and asking me to come back because I was a good worker and everyone there liked me. I’d say that’s my best success there. I started a Twitter account for the restaurant but since I was only there on the weekends, I didn’t tweet that much, and didn’t have any one telling me what to tweet. When I stopped working there, I stopped tweeting. I wish I had kept up with it so that’s my worst failure I guess. But I have a chance now to start again.

The past 2 summers I was the “beverage cart girl” at Westwood Country Club. The first summer I worked there, it was brutal- I made no money. I was so close to not doing it for a second summer because I was there all the time and it got real old, real fast. But, one of the members talked me into coming back because the club had added on a ton of new members.. And although I was hesitant, I tried it out. I ended up making a lot of money last summer and formed good relationships with the members. A lot of the members offered to help me find internships and jobs, so looking back, it was kind of a good networking experience. That’s my best success there. I honestly wouldn’t say I have had a worst failure there, it’s been a good experience.

Before I worked at Westwood, I worked at Tanning Bed. My biggest success there was getting promoted to a store opener and getting a key to the store. My worst failure was not knowing how to deal with certain customers. I always worked alone so there was no one there to help me out if I needed it. I always relied on calling the corporate office for any problem I had, when I should have learned how to deal by myself.”

How do you handle criticism?

“I handle it well. I am my own hardest critic so I most likely would agree with anything. It’s always good to get feedback from other people to improve something. But if I feel something is way out of line or just not true, I’ll question it and try to defend myself if I feel it’s necessary.”

Outline three strengths you have in school.

“Dedication, I’m dedicated to getting my work done with 100% effort. Independence, I try not to depend on any of my classmates for anything. I don’t really like missing class because I don’t like missing anything and having to rely on a classmate to fill me in. I’d say I’m responsible too.”

Outline three strengths you have in your workplace.

“Respect. Even if I don’t agree with the people in charge of me, it’s important to me that I treat them with the utmost respect. Professionalism. I’ve been to places as a customer where the workers are rude and unprofessional. It makes me so angry because I’d never do that at work. Reliable. I’m always at my scheduled shift at the scheduled time. I like to help people out, if they need a shift covered or anything because I would hope someone would do the same for me.”

How has creating a WikiPage strengthened your communication skills?    Name and elaborate on three things:

“I did my WikiPage on Westwood Country Club and I went to interview the general manager of the club. This improved my communication skills because I never really talked to him before, besides small talk. I was a little nervous at first to ask, but it ended up being really easy and helpful.  I had to gather a lot of different information from different sources to put them all in one collaborative page. Putting all the information into my own words improved my writing communication skills. And just the coding stuff in general, learning how to put together a WikiPage from scratch was a learning experience.”

How will Facebook be used to promote yourself?

Name and elaborate on three things:

“Having a Facebook can promote myself by showing that I know how to use it outside of basic social purposes. The fact that I know how to create a page for an organization and create events will help to promote my writing skills. Facebook is also a good self-promoting tool because I can post information about myself, including work experience and basic things about me.”

How would you promote an organization on Facebook?

Name and elaborate on three things:

“I’d first create the page as best as I could. Including all necessary information, links, photos, and videos. Once I had a good base to the organization’s page, I would have to get people to like it. Starting with employees is a good option, because they’re likely to have hundreds of friends that they can invite to the page. Once you get people to start liking your page, it’s important to keep up with it at all times. Posting status updates about anything related to the organization is important to keep up with.”

How will Twitter be used to promote yourself? 

Name and elaborate on three things:

“By showing that I can get a message across in 140 characters or less. The challenge with Twitter is to get your point across in one tweet, it can be done but it takes practice. I’ve been on Twitter for 4 years now and I think I’ve got it down.

On Twitter, you can post a bio about yourself to provide any basic important information about yourself. With that, also on Twitter, your tweets have a good chance to be seen by anyone. I have a creative mind, so I like to show that in my tweets. That’s a good promotional tool for me, to show that I can say something important in a creative way.”

Graphically what do you want to have on your website.

Name and elaborate on three things:

“I want it to be visually appealing. I’d like to have photos and things to catch someone’s attention, and I’d like to have important things that can be used to promote myself too, like my class blog or any other writing pieces. I also want to have a live stream of my Tweets. I’d also like a place for comments and feedback, this could be a bad idea but I’m hoping for positive things to come out of that.”

Dreamweaver Nightmare

Using Dreamweaver wasn't really a nightmare, I only used it as the title of the blog because at first it seemed like it was going to be, and also because DREAMweaver and NIGHTMARE- get it?....

Creating a website tailored to myself was kind of hard, but kind of cool. Kind of hard because I’ve never used Dreamweaver before, or anything like it, also kind of hard because I wanted it to have a very positive and accurate reflection on myself. It was kind of cool though because I was able to choose what was used and how it was used. 

How my website will be used to promote myself:

This website is a great self-promotional tool to get an internship or a job. It includes:

• All of my best writing work that shows my abilities as a public relations writer. I’ve come to realize that writing is one of my strongest talents in school, so I thought it was important to implement my most important and best pieces of writing I created in college.
• A self-portrait video I created on iMovie. Not only does this video reflect on my personality, it also shows my abilities to use the iMovie software.
• My resume. The resume is what employers most commonly see, so even though I included a portfolio on my website, I wanted to include my resume to show my past work experience.
• Contact information. I don’t feel comfortable giving this information out online usually, but it’s definitely important to include if I want to promote myself with this website.
• Links to social media- A person who is looking at my website can click these to see how I project myself on these social media websites. In today’s society, employers are starting to look at their employees or applicants social media profiles, to see what kind of person they are. It’s important to have a positive yet accurate portrayal of yourself on these websites.

This kind of website is also great to have to post on to your social media profiles. People are more apt to find you through these social media websites than a personal website, so having this link attached to your biography section of a social media site allows people to get to know you and your abilities better. A website is more personal than your Twitter or Facebook because you have the chance to design everything yourself, and control what you post.

Overall experience with Dreamweaver

Using Dreamweaver was kind of confusing. I’ve never used it before and I’m not familiar with all of the coding. I have used In-Design before, so it was easy for me to design a header, but not easy for me to think of what I wanted the header to be. I wanted the header to reflect my personality and be creative. For my header, I used a picture of myself from a trip to San Diego and wrote my name in the background of the picture. I picked that picture because San Diego is one of my favorite places, and it includes a picture of myself. Adding the picture into Dreamweaver was easy, but getting it the right size was not. Eventually I figured it out.

Adding my writing pieces into my portfolio was the most annoying process, but I got the hang of it after a while. Usually I am pretty fast to pick up different software and technology, and looking back, Dreamweaver doesn’t seem that complicated if I had the time to use it more.

The real hardest part of creating the website, was deciding what I wanted to put in it to promote myself. I think I did the best I could do, since most of my classes require writing and research.

If I had more time to create this website, I would have probably designed it a little bit cooler (design-wise), and more intricate. One thing that would have been cool on the website, is to include a live feed of my tweets. Maybe next semester I'll go back and edit, and add more things on the site, and maybe actually use the website, or have it go "live" as 'they' say.

I recently got hired as an intern, working in the website/social media department of the company. When I told the supervisor I was working with Dreamweaver for my final project, she told me that I will probably never use Dreamweaver ever again; this is a relief, however I am glad I have gotten the chance to experiment in it. It really got me thinking, about myself, and I think it's important for anyone to have experience with all different types of programs. 

Hashtag TWITTER PROJECT

Twitter in 140 characters or less:

twitter.com/katie_swaine    |    alexa.com

Although the 140 character limit per tweet poses a challenge to get my point across sometimes,
Twitter is my favorite social-networking tool and here's why:

• You follow people you want to follow
• It's my main source of information
• It's more than just interacting with friends

I've had Twitter since 2009, when I was a senior in high school. All my friends in school had it too, so we would just tweet at each other all the time; before, during, and after school.  (None of us had smart phones, we would either send/receive tweets via text or use the computer. #StoneAge)

I was one of those people. The ones who have conversations with their friends over Twitter. Because God forbid we texted each other. It was pretty new to us though; Twitter wasn't all that popular yet. But now as a senior in college, along the years I've found a whole new way to use Twitter. 

Most non-tweeters (any person who either has an inactive Twitter account, or no account at all) will tell me, "I don't want a Twitter. It's just a constant feed of status updates and I don't really care."

and I always try telling them that there is so much more to Twitter than that!

I almost feel a sense of responsibility to disperse of all the common myths about Twitter, so I'll go into the reasons why it's my favorite social networking tool:

1. YOU FOLLOW PEOPLE WHO YOU WANT TO FOLLOW:

It's not like Facebook, where your Great Aunt requests to be your friend and you have no choice but to accept and subject yourself to her weird comments on every single photo you post. 

(TWITTER PERK: Most adults/family members can only handle one social networking site at a time- Facebook. You probably won't have to worry about Great Aunt Susan following you on Twitter. She probably doesn't even know what that means.)

I've had my fair share of following those annoying people who are constantly tweeting dumb things, i.e. "Goin to the gym! #grind #GTL #toned". The thing about those people, is that they don't really realize that no one cares. So- you don't have to follow them! Bam. That easy. 

I add the accounts that I follow into LISTS - you can (don't have to) create as many lists as you want on Twitter. It's basically like categorizing different accounts into one page where you only see their tweets (instead of all the accounts you follow in one place).
My Lists (click the links attached to the title to view each list)

FRIENDS/SCHOOL 
Of course, my friends. Self-explanatory. I grouped my friends with Buffalo State accounts (PRSSA, Student Government, Dining, etc.) because that's who/what is most relevant to me. I go to school 5 days a week and when I'm not at school, I'm with my friends. 

SPORTS

Ex.) Buffalo Sabres, NY Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist, Bubba Watson, ESPN, sports journalists. 

I like to keep up to date on the teams that I like and any important sports news. Hockey is my favorite sport, and with the NHL in a lockout, I get most of my information and updates about the lockout from these accounts on Twitter.

PEOPLE & PLACES

Pretty broad title, but this group consists of people that I don't actually personally know (public figures, celebrities, comedians, etc.) and my favorite places/companies/organizations. I like to laugh, so I follow a ton of funny/witty people on Twitter. (@RobDelaney, @DannyZuker, @KellyOxford)

Celebrities are always fun to follow... whether they post anything newsworthy about themselves or if they just post selfies (self-portraits) of themselves, (Yes, I'm talking about you, Kim Kardashian) I get a kick out of it. 

Some places that I follow are Tim Hortons, because I'm obsessed, and the restaurant I work at. (@SeanPatricksNY- follow them!) 

(TWITTER PERK: TRUE STORY: I follow the shoe company, Sperry Top-Sider on Twitter. In Buffalo, there are no Sperry retail stores, they're just sold at department stores. BUT there is a Sperry store in Manhattan, and when I went there in April, I wanted to go to the store so bad. I happened to be browsing through my Twitter feed that same day and noticed a tweet from Sperry reading, "Get 25% off your purchase today at any Sperry retail store!" SCORE. So as you might have guessed, I took advantage of that. #newshoes.)

NEWS SOURCES

The last list I have is News Sources, which brings me into my 2nd reason why Twitter is my favorite social-networking site. 

2. TWITTER IS MY MAIN SOURCE OF INFORMATION:

I follow a number of local news stations/local news anchors, and CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, etc. If you tell a non-tweeter than you get your news from Twitter, they probably don't understand why I don't just read the paper or watch the news. And this is what I have to say about that:

Ain't Nobdoy Got Time For That Video

But really, all in one place, I can see what my friends are up to, what Kim Kardashian is wearing to the gym, and what's happening in Buffalo and around the world.
My tell-tale story of getting news from Twitter dates all the way back to 2009:

From my blog post: "You've Got Mail"

Just saying.

Speaking of the news though, it's pretty amazing how much politics has really gotten involved with Twitter. Barack Obama is the first president to use Twitter to connect with citizens. Weirdly, he actually follows my friend Maria. I'm not sure why- but he does. During the 2012 Presidential Election, Obama, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan were very avid tweeters. During the presidential debates, a lot of people took their opinions to Twitter. 

3. TWEETING IS MORE THAN JUST INTERACTING WITH YOUR FRIENDS:

THOUGHTS. I mentioned before that when I first got Twitter, I only tweeted to my friends. Twitter is and SHOULD be used beyond means of socializing. My tweets basically consist of random thoughts that go through my head throughout the day. I try to make them funny and relevant to my followers, otherwise, who really cares what's going through my head. 

PICTURES. I like to post pictures on Twitter too. I think posting pictures on Twitter makes it more interesting for whoever is following you. I'm more apt to read someones tweet if there's a picture attached. Videos are a good tool to utilize too, when necessary.

JOINING THE CONVERSATION. As long as your tweets aren't locked/private, your tweets are fair game in the Twitterverse. On some TV shows, they might even show your tweet on-air. Ex.) On the talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, you can tweet a question if you use the hashtag "#wwhl" in your tweet. Your question might be picked to go on the air and have answered!

Hashtags are the most important aspect of joining the conversation. You can use them in your tweets and see if other people on Twitter are tweeting about the same thing. If you're trying to get people to read something you tweeted, use a hashtag that is specific, yet searchable.

For example, if you're a local restaurant in Buffalo, you might want to incorporate the hashtag "#Buffalo" in some tweets. If someone searches the word Buffalo on Twitter, there's a good chance that they'll notice and read your tweet.
Twitter shows you what is "trending" around the world, or you can localize it down to your city. If an item is trending worldwide (or wherever), it means it's among the top 10 things being tweeted about. Right now, one trending topic in the United States is "RIP Sean Taylor". Sean Taylor was a pro-football player for the Washington Redskins who died 5 years ago today, at the age of 24. A lot of people are remembering him today in their tweets, making him a trending topic. 

There are so many different aspects of joining the conversation, you can even enter contests through Twitter. Participate in polls. Or you can tweet things at famous people for fun, hoping they'll answer....

(Not to brag, but I've had a good number of "celebrity" responses in my day. I've even gotten into Twitter fights with Phoenix Coyotes hockey player, Paul Bissonette and also with 2 cast members of The Real Housewives of Vancouver. It's actually pretty entertaining, if you want to know the truth.)

Twitter is different. It's fun, and can also be used as a journalistic tool. It's considered a micro-blog, which is a condensed version of a regular blog. You're only allowed 140 characters per tweet, which can be an advantage and a disadvantage as opposed to regular blogging. 

With 140 characters, you have to cut out the fat of anything you want to say. Sometimes it's frustrating when I can't tweet what I want to in 140 characters, no matter how hard I try. But when it comes to anything newsworthy, your tweet should be used as a teaser/summary lead for your followers to find out additional information. Most tweets like that will include a link to a story, video, blog, website, etc.

When writing for a a blog, or news website, people will generally will choose what they want to read from a list of titles/headlines, but with a tweet, you can write a short summary that might interest readers to click the link attached.

Like this:

I hope I've convinced any non-tweeters out there to sign up and start Tweeting away!

#IfYouCanTweetYouCanDoAnything.. Like getting a new pair of shoes for 25% off.

-@Katie_Swaine

POLITICS!

MAKING THE VIDEO

For our group video, composed of each person's self-portrait video, our theme was POLITICS! Which was great, because I'm really interested in politics and all things political. NOT. 
When meeting with my group for the first few times, we thought to incorporate a quote, "Money, Power, Respect" with our videos. Aisha would base her individual video on money. Matt on power, and me on respect. We thought Money Power & Respect were all words that represented politics. But I was struggling with relating respect to politics. Or anything really, because POLITICS! is something I've never understood that well. I'll admit it. (Ironically enough, I actually had purchased a "Politics for Dummies" book in August to get me all ready for the election.)
I talked to my group and decided that I was going to take a different approach on my individual video. The individual video is supposed to represent us and our topic.. so I thought, what better way than to just show how damn confused I am. 
Thinking of ideas and making the video was much more easier this time around because I knew what I wanted to show. I wanted to show what I think politics is. I wanted to show me looking for answers to things I care about most involving politics- ex.) Why is college tuition so expensive?
I taped myself looking up things on Google, Twitter and watching The Presidential Debates. This is how I obtain my information regularly. Twitter is everything and my main source for any news.
I chose the song, "Good People" by Jack Johnson. The chorus of the song is "Where'd all the good people go?" and he talks about how it seems that there are no good people left anymore. I chose this song because I feel like politics has gotten so twisted, and I have a hard time understanding it because I have a hard time trusting anyone, especially politicians. 
Since I wanted to show myself being confused, we thought of a good idea for our group video (for transitions, opening and closing of the final project). Matt and Aisha were shown trying to "teach" me what politics is. Matt tried showing me politics was about power and Aisha tried showing me it was about money. It worked out perfectly and I thought it was a clever idea.
It's hard to make a self-portrait video that has a theme to it, that you can't make obvious. I hope an outsider would be able to recognize that my video was related to politics.  Overall, despite any worries I had in the beginning, my video and my group members' videos turned out great and really reflected the topic of POLITICS! 

STRUGGLES ENCOUNTERED

It's not a real project if I don't face any struggles. When shooting my video, I had a pretty old tripod and it was hard to tape myself because the camera wasn't always sturdy. It would have been easier if I had someone tape it for me, but I am a control freak. I would have rather asked someone to pretend to be me, and have me tape it, than let someone else tape it. I didn't want anyone to mess anything up. It ended up turning out perfectly fine in the end.

When it came time to edit my footage, it was easy. I've used iMovie a few times before, so I am used to its features. Once I got into it, I didn't want to stop. Not only a control freak, I am a perfectionist. I will edit things over and over and over again to make sure it's just the way I want it. It was hard trying to get the video down to 1:20. I had to take some stuff out, and try to make certain clips shorter, but I also wanted certain lyrics from the background music to align up perfectly with some of my clips. That part took a long time.

Exporting my video never happened. My laptop wouldn't allow it. I'm not sure why, but this was frustrating. Luckily, my group  member came up with the idea to play the video, go into QuickTime and record a Screen Recording. Which basically just records whatever you're doing on your laptop. 

After finally exporting my video, it was ready to be put together with the group's footage. The 3 of us has recorded footage together for transitions/opening/closing in the video. We then had to combine it all, but we had to do it as a group. It was hard to choose what went in the video and how to edit it, and who edited what. Matt taped most of the footage, and him and I edited it into the video. Aisha added the music, which would seem easy but she had to stop the music when our individual videos came on and start again in the transitions and at the end. 

WHY USE VIDEO AS A COMMUNICATION TOOL INSTEAD OF WRITING AND PHOTOGRAPHS?

Videos are a great communication tool because you can incorporate audio and visual elements. You can have someone talking in the background, or you can have a video with music in the background and text added onto it. Videos are more likely to hold someone's attention. When you goto certain websites, for example- your local news station- sometimes they have a story written with a video right above it about same story. Most people would choose to watch the video to see the video clips, while at the same time listening to someone read the story to them. Photographs are a good communication tool when used with writing- either a caption to explain the picture or the picture as a supporting element of a writing piece. Videos are a whole other ballpark when compared to writing and photographs, there are just a lot more options that come with it.

TO UPLOAD TO YOUTUBE OR VIMEO?

Though both great video hosting websites, to upload our video online, I will choose to use Vimeo. Vimeo seems to have a more professional platform, good for school projects like this. Outside of school, this isn't a video I am trying to get a lot of "hits" on. If it was, I would upload to both sites- especially YouTube since it has a lot more traffic than Vimeo does. Vimeo also seems to have a better viewing quality than YouTube. 

In conclusion, I am proud of the work me and my group did for our final project. I'm happy that I decided to change the way I made my individual video because it made me feel more at ease. Sometimes you gotta go with your gut instincts! 

There Are 2 Kinds Of People In The World

Last night, I spent an hour and a half watching clips from old episodes of some of those terrible singing competition shows.
You might be wondering why....
Well, I was bored. And what do people do when they're bored in the year 2012?
YouTube. 

YouTube is the most popular video hosting website out there, no doubt. It's owned by Google and is automatically installed on our iPhone/iPad devices. 
"Did you see that video Donald Trump made about President Obama the other day? Look it up on YouTube."
It's become a household name and our go-to source to watch almost anything we want.

But what about "Vimeo"?
Vimeo, like YouTube is also a video hosting website. I've never went to Vimeo (willingly) to search for a video. It's a nice site though, don't get me wrong. It seems more "clean" than YouTube- just the way it's presented. Less clutter.

When it comes to posting a video of your own that you want the public to see, you might wonder which website is better to use- YouTube or Vimeo. It depends on your preferences, so comparing the pros and cons of each site is a good idea.

YouTube Pros:

• Popularity. It's the most used video-hosting website, owned by Google- which is the most used search engine. So if you try to look up a video on Google, it'll suggest YouTube videos. How convenient.
• It's always free. And you have the opportunity to make money with advertisements.  Some people even earn a living having a YouTube channel.

Vimeo Pros:

• Less clutter than YouTube (Less ads, no "suggested" videos)
• You can pay for Vimeo Pro, which has a lot of great features- including a "Tip Jar" where viewers can donate money to a video they watch and enjoy.
• The first time I used Vimeo was when my video was too long to post to YouTube. It was only a video meant to be viewed by 2 others, but it was 40 minutes long and couldn't upload it to YouTube- so I used Vimeo and was successful. 

YouTube Cons:

• Lots of competition. After viewing a video, you always see "Recommended" or "Suggested" videos, similar to what you had just watched. If you've posted your own video, you don't really want your viewers to start watching another video similar to yours, that's potentially your competition. 
• There is a maximum of 10 minutes allowed per each video 

Vimeo Cons:

• In order to get a lot of great features, you do have to pay, which can be a turn-off if you have a tight budget.
• It's just not as popular. It's hard to compete with a website owned by Google.

If I was uploading a video, I would choose both. Why not, right?

Both websites allow for interaction and feedback with viewers.

Both are free.

Potentially, you could reach 2 different types of people. There ARE Vimeo people and there ARE YouTube people. 

It's kind of like Facebook and Twitter. They're both different- Facebook more popular than Twitter. If you're trying to promote some sort of message or product or whatever, you should use everything you can.

Critiques

Aisha

First Time Using the Internet:

You described your first experiences and how the Internet has changed as you grew up and how you use it now, which really makes this a strong article. I know a lot of people can relate to the whole MySpace thing, and always being on the computer. It really got me thinking about how much I was on the computer at that age, and it makes me sick!!!

There are a number of grammatical/punctuation errors in your article. This is one of my pet peeves so it’s hard for me not to point that out. Another thing I would change is the layout of your article; it would have been easier to read if it was separated into several paragraphs. Other than that, you made a lot of strong points.

Some of your best remarks were when you mentioned, “That’s when a computer became a habit instead of leisure.” I couldn’t agree more with that, ever since a young age I would just go on my computer and log onto the Internet by default, like it was part of my daily routine.

I have to say that I disagree with limiting yourself to one social network. I don’t know what your major is, but mine is public relations and knowing and engaging with social networking sites is huge. If our generation doesn’t know how to use all types of social media, it might be looked down upon depending on the field of work you want to pursue. I totally agree with your reasoning though, wanting more human interaction. But at this day in age, that’s like saying you want world peace.

Web 2.0:

The first part of your article was very accurate in describing Web 2.0 in your own words. I think you have a good grasp on what Web 2.0 is and have good points to make but the way your points are presented could be better. You were naming a lot of the same things about Web 2.0, like how people can interact now- it might have made the article stronger if you elaborated more on this. 

The second part that was to be written in a journalistic, objective style also had a lot of good points that could have been elaborated on. Instead of just putting the link to the articles the way you did, it would be better if you referenced to these articles and explained what they said. At some points in this part, the writing was a big subjective, like when you wrote “The more the user can engage on the site, the more successful it is” This could be true, but you provided no facts to relate back to that which makes it seem like an opinion. 

You seem to understand Web 2.0 and provided interesting articles, it just needed a little bit more elaboration and detail.

Video Reviews

You did a lot of things right for this blog post:
1. You had a good opening paragraph to lead the reader into what you’re going to talk about and why.
2. You provided links to each video you critiqued. This is helpful to the reader to understand what you’re talking about, or in my case to refresh my memory...
3. …BUT I didn’t need to refresh my memory; because you described each video in great detail which helped me to remember the video you’re describing- without re-watching it.
4. You offered constructive criticism; you gave your opinions and then talked about what they could have done differently to improve. I liked how for the cooking video you critiqued; you said you watched the video once with audio, and once without. That shows you really judged the videos thoroughly and thoughtfully.

Something that I believe makes all blogs more appealing are images. Even though you provided the links, a screen capture of a part of the video is a good idea to show the reader what you’re talking about.
Lastly, a closing statement/paragraph/sentence is essential for any piece of writing to wrap up your thoughts.
However, this was one of your best blogs that I’ve read!

Social Media

Although I agree with everything you said, regarding any positive/negative effects of social media, I thought the format of your post could be better. It would help the reader if there were a clear opening, body, and conclusion paragraph. The body could have been split up into two different paragraphs, one for the positive effects and the other for the negative effects. In the beginning of your piece, I felt like a lot of your sentences didn’t flow. You just listed off a bunch of things and ended the sentence and moved on, you didn’t really explain anything until the end of your post. You have a lot of good information but it’s just hard to read the actual post itself because of how it’s presented. One sentence stated, “Today’s society is pushing a rising brand of digital society, which is being achieved through social sites.” To me, I have to re-read this sentence to understand what you’re trying to say, and it doesn’t help that you have nothing written after that to explain what you meant. These are all easy fixes that will make your posts a lot better than they already are! 

Matt

First Time Using the Internet:

Your article about your first experiences with the Internet has a lot of relatable and strong points to it. Before I get into that, it’s important to note a few minor details:

1. The font size was really small and hard to read, especially the first paragraph- which is in black font- I had to highlight it to read it. Obviously, this is an easy fix but if I didn’t have to read this article, I wouldn’t because of the way it stands out.
2. (I’m glad I did read the article though.) Another minor detail, I really appreciate the breaking up of paragraphs in your article. As with anything on the Internet, this makes it easy to read.

But onto some notable points within the article, everyone our age can always relate to MySpace and the Top 8, which is good to include in any opinionated article, to keep the reader interested.

The part where you said you were amazed by the possibilities to create yourself on your own page is a really great point. Until someone actually sits down and thinks about these sort of things, I don’t think anyone actually realizes that we have created/re-created ourselves on the Internet.

You were on point when you briefly mentioned how a picture of you doing a keg stand can get you fired from a job, it’s crazy how much the world has changed because of the Internet!

All in all, this was an easy and enjoyable read but also very relatable at the same time, which is a good mix when writing a blog.

Web 2.0:

I like how you took the route to explain Web 2.0 and what it’s done, rather than explain what it is. You make a lot of good and accurate points about Web 2.0, but it would have been easier to read if all of your points were broken down into bullet points. You have a great writing style, it’s very intelligent. 

In the second part of the article for the journalistic/objective piece on Web 2.0, you provided 3 different links to articles but never referred to them. When I see a sentence written, ex.) Social media has aloud anyone to talk other people anywhere there is a computer and internet.  

The term ‘social media’ has a link connected to it, but you never mention what the link is to. If I am reading this article, there is nothing that makes me want to click that and read more.

Aside from that, I like how you related Web 2.0 and social media to companies. The business aspect of social media is an important point to make because a lot of people don’t realize social networks can be used for such things other than to post pictures and update your Facebook status.  

Video Reviews:

For this particular post in discussing 3 different videos, I was confused. It would have made more sense if there were:
1. An opening paragraph detailing what you’re talking about, what a self-portrait video is, etc.
2. You should have provided either a link or a visual of the actual video you were discussing. I wasn’t sure which videos you were critiquing and I wasn’t going to go back to the original blog post with all of the videos to find it.
3. Proofread. I noticed a lot of typos and sentence fragments.
4. Since you didn’t provide a link to the video, it would have helped to describe your opinions in more detail. Instead, I felt like I was reading off a list of your dislikes/likes, without any detail or explanation.
5. Instead of ending your post with the last critique, a few sentences at the end summarizing your post would have been good.

Besides that, you seem to have strong opinions on each video, with necessary points to make. Instead of listing the likes/dislikes, you could have listed what the person could have done better or different to make their video stronger.

Social Media

I enjoyed this blog post because I agree with everything you have to say, with the positive and negative effects of social media. I thought it was good that you provided the link to the articles, but I don’t think you should have written “I have to come up with a short summary” – I think you could have taken this out or switched the wording around, because even though it was our homework assignment I don’t think the audience needs to know you “have” to write this.
You made a lot of great points about the positive effects of social media and you pointed out it’s prominence within the past decade. I like how you talked about its effects on intercultural communication, and how social media has allowed people to start looking at stereotypes and cultures in a new light. That’s something I’ve never thought about before, as I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t.
When you talked about the negative affects, I like how you focused on human psyche. Most people might say social media makes people lazy and have less people-skills, but you talked about depression- which is very true, and sometimes overlooked.
Overall you had a strong piece equip with an opening, body and closing paragraph. 

FaceCrack

In wrapping up a Facebook project for class, I read a few articles entailing Facebook, and social media in general. The concept that tied each of these articles together was: creating yourself via the Internet. 

For our Facebook project, we were to create 5 different Facebook pages. (Pages for either a business, a public figure, a product, an organization, etc.) However, my professor insisted that we create these pages within a new/separate personal account than the one we might already have.

When we join Facebook, we have the ability to portray ourself any which way we'd like to. We have the chance to let our 'friends' get to know the "real" you... (depending on your definition of real.) I think this is why we were instructed to start from scratch with our Facebook account for this project. Instead of using the personality we already built of ourselves on our real accounts, we had the chance to create ourselves in a way we want our classmates and professors to see us.

The articles I read explained that not everyone is the same when it comes to using Facebook.

Some people entertain and embrace the idea of putting personal information on the web; Instead of being concerned with the privacy of their content, they're more focused on projecting a certain image of themselves. 

On the contrary, some people experience feelings of discomfort knowing that their lives, and everyone else's lives are so accessible.

As a college student, I see the people of my generation all the time posting inappropriate things on the Internet. 

Including and not limited to:

• Underage drinking
• Binge drinking
• Drug use
• Promiscuity 
• ETC. 

I know, I know- Freedom of Speech. Well, remember that kid in grade school who got detention for saying the 'F' word in the middle of class, and proceeded to explain the first amendment in his defense? "FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!" Yeah, that doesn't work in that case. With mostly anything, there are a set of rules or guidelines to abide by. These rules might be written, or they might be an unwritten set of norms. In grade school, those rules were probably written in some student handbook or displayed in a class room: "NO PROFANITY."

With social media, there isn't a set of rules to abide by; but it shouldn't be a total free for all. There are certain rules of etiquette...

etiquette |ˈetikit; -ˌket|nounthe customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group. 

But as we already know, everyone has their own opinion on what is right or wrong, what is polite or rude. As with anything, I try to instill my personal values with everything I do.

KATIE SWAINE'S RULES OF ETIQUETCY ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

-Be honest. Don't fabricate any stories about yourself or anyone else

-Be original. Don't copy and paste things and play them off as your own!! Not cool.

-Respect yourself. No one will ever respect you if you can't even respect yourself.

-TREAT PEOPLE THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. Duh.

It's important to me to follow these guidelines because I wouldn't feel right if I didn't. However, I'm definitely not perfect and I AM guilty of bashing some people on Twitter. It makes people laugh! (Unless you're the punchline...) A really awkward situation happened last semester, I tweeted about these 2 girls in my class in a negative-ish way. Just kind of made fun of how annoying they are. Anyway, somehow someway, they saw my tweet and figured out it was about them. They then continued to mention it to their friend of a friend of my friend, (no really) and the word had gotten back to me that they think I'm a ~bitch~.  After I cried to myself for a week for being called the 'B' word, (just kidding) for our group project in that class, one of them was in my group.. We never spoke of it, but we both knew. Awkward.

I am a long time Facebook user, and I don't intentionally try to convey any sort of personality. I get pretty paranoid when it comes to posting personal information about myself on Facebook, or any social networking site. My Facebook is private (I think..I hope) but as Facebook continues to evolve, I feel less and less 'private'. I just feel like if someone really wanted to, they could gain access to your information. 

As much as I hardly even use Facebook anymore, sadly, it's not that easy to just not have one. I've tried it!! ....and forgot about 5 of my friends' birthdays, missed out on event invitations in the process, didn't know my friend and her boyfriend broke up.... You get the point.

I deleted my Facebook in the first place because it's so damn distracting. Instead of writing a paper I'll go on Facebook "for a minute" and end up getting instant messaged by one of my friends that I don't see anymore because they live in Europe now. 

But, those friends are also part of the reasons why I end up reactivating my Facebook. 

My Facebook is activated for social reasons- 

• Birthdays. Sad but true. There needs to be a way I can get all my friends' birthdays on the calendar in my iPhone so I don't forget anyone....
• Long lost friends.
• Keeping up to date with friends who are making sure their Facebook friends are keeping up to date with them.
• Events.

Friend: "Hey Katie, are you coming to my birthday party tomorrow?" 
Me: "What birthday party? Was my invite lost in the mail?"
Friend: "I sent it out to everyone on Facebook!"

Love it or hate it, I feel as if I have no choice but to be on Facebook these days.

PS: I entitled this post "FaceCrack" because that's what my Aunt calls it because it's so addicting. And she's old, so it's funny. FaceCrack. LOL.

"A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool?"

"A billion dollars."

-The Social Network

FACEBOOK HAS BECOME A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR SOCIAL NETWORKING INDUSTRY GIANT, WITH OVER 900 MILLION USERS.

If you saw the movie “The Social Network”, you have a good idea of how far Facebook has come since 2003.

It started off in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm as a game called, ‘Facemash’ and then the dramatic name change from: The Facebook- to just Facebook.

I've been on Facebook since 2007, and it seems like it changes everyday. We never used to have the 'stalking abilities' that we have today. What do I mean by that? Well-

Example:

YOUR NEWSFEED: 

[Your friend from work] wrote "I MISS YOU" on [her sister's boyfriend's brother's friend's mom's (aka someone you're not friends with)] wall. 

[Your second cousin, twice removed] is going to [an event half way around the world] hosted by [some French guy].

'Stalking Abilities': The stuff we can see our 'friends' doing on Facebook- even if we aren't friends with the person they're said to be interacting with.
(i.e. WHY do YOU need to see that your friend from work is missing her her sister's boyfriend's brother's friend's mom?!)
Let's face it, Facebook continues to outdo itself in the 'privacy' (or lack there of) department. It's not all bad though. Consider it from a crazy ex-girlfriend's point of view... She can see everything!!!-
Ok maybe let's just consider this from an organization's or company's point of view,

EXAMPLE:

Your company- Tony Walker & Company (Local business, Williamsville, New York)

First step: Create fan page
Second step: Get people to 'like' it! (Employees, invite patrons, advertise in-store, etc.) Once people start liking your page, that will show up in THEIR friends' newsfeeds. "Sally Walker and 2 other friends like Tony Walker & Co." This will lead to more 'likes' on your page, and increased visibility of your company.
Third step: *MOST IMPORTANT* Keep up with your page!!! Update as much as possible about upcoming events. Interact with your fans. Post pictures, videos.
If you simply create a page, get your 'likes', and fail to update it- people are going to forget about you, and you won't increase your Facebook fan base. 

Taken from the Tony Walker & Company's Facebook Page

Like I said before,

FACEBOOK HAS BECOME A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR SOCIAL NETWORKING INDUSTRY GIANT, WITH OVER 900 MILLION USERS.

It's extremely important to communicate through social media. 
INVITE people to events that they might not otherwise know about unless they're a regular customer.
REMIND them of your services.
ENCOURAGE them to take action.

Best of all- Facebook is free.

www.facebook.com

Self-Expressions on Self-Portraits

A self-portrait video is one's effort to express themselves visually; whether it be showing how a person got to be where they are today, or creating visuals on a value they strongly hold. In the most simplest of self-portrait videos, it pieces together different things that make-up a person's lifestyle.

I viewed 15 different self-portrait videos, and there were only a handful of videos that stood out and grabbed my attention. 

THE REALLY GOOD:

One of my favorite videos was done by a student named Alicia Scott, titled, "About Me-Revisited." This student illustrated 'a day in the life'... literally. 

Watch video on YouTube.com

While watching each video, I jotted down a few initial thoughts:

"VERY COOL!!" ... "LITERAL & METAPHORICAL"

Not only was this video very "cool" and unique, it was also literal and metaphorical. It was literal in the fact that it showed her daily routine, ending up at her iMac computer using different programs (Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects); yet metaphorical because she used her actual illustrations- which show that drawing and animating are an important part of her life. 

"VERY ARTISTIC"

What made the visuals even stronger was how the student used her [real] hands to interact with the animations. The video had good quality, good music and kept my attention.

"SHORT, SWEET & TO THE POINT"

This student clearly put a lot of time and effort into her video. Though I would enjoy more to this video, it's length is just one minute but easily got right down to the core of her lifestyle. To me, if you can get someone to know you in a minute without using any words, that's a job well done.

THE GOOD:

Another video that made my top favorites was made by James Barany.  The video, titled, My Most Important Self-Portrait takes the audience into his this man's head to understand his weight struggle. 

Watch video on YouTube.com

My Initial Thoughts:

Alright so maybe titling this video, "the FAT guy", on my notes isn't the most politically-correct or nicest thing. My apologies! Anyways....

POSITIVES:

Throughout the video, plays a voice-over of the man's thoughts; which are also cleverly animated on the chalkboard behind him. In my opinion, the chalkboard animations brought the video together for me, it grabbed my attention and kept it. Not to mention, without these words moving around in the background, our eyes would have to feast on the image of a clearly depressed, morbidly-obese man- not very visually-stimulating!

 The voice-over could have been removed from the video, and the video would still get its point across- BUT the voice-over adds to the overall mood of the video. The man's voice is very agitated, and depressed, which is fitting for theme of this black and white video.

NEGATIVES:

The video is seven minutes long, and after the first few minutes it started feeling redundant. There were 2 separate parts of the video where the chalkboard showed the fluctuations of the man's weight in numbers, as he stood up and turned around showing his body. When this was showed the second time, I thought I was watching the same thing. This could have been showed all at once and maybe cut down on the total length of the video. 

Despite the negatives, I thought this video was inspiring. After watching, you start to really feel for this guy and his struggle (hence my regrets of calling him 'the fat guy').

....AND THE NOT-SO-GOOD:

One video, titled, "Fragments" by Emily Esperanza, really caught my attention, in a bad way. If I had to sum this video up in a single word it would be: Awkward.

Watch video on YouTube.com
My Initial Thoughts:


The fact that there was no audio in this video (until the ending credits) was one of the biggest flaws. I was too distracted by the static-like noise to even know what was happening in the video, so I re-watched it... But I still didn't understand. The images/video clips playing in the background were of bad quality, and I'm not positive what exactly these images were. The message of this video wasn't clear to me at all.
The only recurring theme I saw in the video was women. There was a woman, perhaps the same woman who made the video, standing and doing poses the whole time. (And you could hear her movements because there was no background audio... awkward). Maybe it's just me, but I could not gather an idea of a central topic or message with any of the images of women that were used.
To make this video better, this person should have...
-Used some sort of background music throughout entire video or voice-over
-Had better quality visuals
-Made use of text to help viewers get some sort of an idea of a theme

It's not easy to create these self-portrait videos because you can't be too obvious with your theme but you also can't get too metaphorical with it, where you are the only one who understands it. All-in-all, it was interesting to watch the 15 self-portrait videos, and see how different people express their lives in video-form.