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.