Race An Issue in Social Media?

NOTE: I've been told I see the world with rose colored glasses, but this opinion is just mine, and I'd like to hear what you think. Let's chat on this topic, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

In a recent article I read on News.com.au, I was infuriated and frustrated by the limited scope that people seem to view the world with. It's human nature to be curious, but perhaps it's just as equally human nature to conjure up our own stories and reasons for why something happens. More specifically seeing things that quite frankly are open ended and could be determined in any number of other reasons.

In the article "Facebook 'sparked white flight from Myspace'" the author fervently attempts to make the connection between the massive migration of "predominantly" white persons to Facebook due to the...ahem...lack of refinement of the MySpace community. The word "digital ghetto" was used to describe the communities that are expanding in the MySpace world and the author went further to draw parallels to the move of societal classes from the urban areas to the suburbs. A connection that I again fail to see the relevance of. Perhaps it's just me, perhaps I'm missing the "big picture" moment here, but I ask, why does it have to fall to race?

While I do not question Ms Boyd's expertise in the matter, perhaps focusing on the issue as a matter of race is a bit of a jump. Let's look at options outside of race shall we.

• MySpace tends to draw a younger crowd, that's not big news. The maturity levels of younger individuals may be in question, but maturity levels have nothing to do with race. 12yr old who is white can be just as immature as a 12yr old of any other race or background. If individuals decide that MySpace is not for them, then leaving the space on those concerns is valid. NOT a race issue!
• MySpace has grown very popular with the creative culture, to include musicians, artists, comedians, entertainers of all backgrounds. Has this pigeon holed MySpace as an niche entertainment social network? Perhaps, but if you are not interested in following the latest bands, jokesters, or any other entertainer, perhaps you've outgrown MySpace and you move on. NOT a race issue.
• No surprise that Facebook has gained lots of popularity, especially within a demographic of women over 55 as sited by numerous sites (CNN Article from April 2009 as one example). Another study done by iStrategyLabs lists the huge surge of individuals to Facebook, saying that there was a "276% growth in 35-40 year old users." None of these studies involved race issues, and the iStrategyLabs does not even use race as a reason that was studied to determine the growth. So why would it instantly be assumed that race would be the reason for younger individuals? I'm just curious.

In defense of the above mentioned article, this is not the only article out there promoting these theories, there are many others if you do a simple Google search. I'm just floored by the conclusions drawn by the studies.

If there happens to be a large number of "white" persons leaving MySpace today it's called the "white flight" and it's because of race. What happens when those of other races decide to leave MySpace behind for their own reasons? Is it still a race issue? This whole topic of race just frustrates me.

The bottom line is this, are we still so fixated on differences in color and other superficial details that we result to these as answers when a group of commonly linked people tend to do something different? Maybe today's teens want a different experience than the cluttered and busy feel of MySpace. Maybe they want the seamless features that Facebook offers over MySpace. Or just maybe they are tired of their screen crashing because someone they follow put a custom background on their MySpace page with everything spinning, flashing, glowing, and singing to them.

Why can't it just be a matter of preference?

New Job, Constant Questions...

Fourth of July Celebration in Luckenbach, TX

A holiday approaches, and soon we will all find ourselves scrambling to make plans, find something to do, in front of a hot bbq pit at park or friends house doing the same thing you do year after year after year. No doubt tradition is meaningful, but why not make a tradition that matters to you!

Recently I've partnered with JW San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa in order to be a part of featuring some of the surrounding areas greatest things to do during the 4th of July. Instead of packing the family into a car, sitting in traffic, or just standing at a grill all day sweating away, I will be sharing with you, an opportunity to get out, have fun, and make 4th of July memories that will last.

The Hills Are Alive

San Antonio and the surrounding area has always been a place awash with entertainment and celebration all with a unique flair. Exploring the Texas Hill Country you will find treasures nestled into some of the most historic towns around. Luckenbach, TX is no exception, and the celebration they have planned for the 4th of July is going to blow anything you've ever done out of the water!

Luckenbach plans on rolling out the red, white, and blue carpet out for everyone looking to celebrate our country's independence with live music, tasty food, cold beverages, friendly people, and an entire day of remembrance for the men and women who keep this country free for you and me.

The host of the day, Walt Wilkins, a seasoned musician, and his wife Tina Wilkins, will be jammin' with the audience, and has a planned lineup of amazing artists who will keep you on the dance floor. You looking for a parade? No worries, what's more American than a lawnmower parade? The 4th of July celebration will feature, what is sure to be an amazing lawnmower parade and classic Weenie Roast.

Can YOU already feel the anticipation?

FREE FREE FREE

Have I mentioned all this is FREE? Well, now you know, so now what are you waiting for. Start making plans, especially if you're looking for something new to do. This event in Luckenbach, TX is just one of the many events going on during 4th of July and YOU can be a part of it.

If you're looking for more information on the event, or perhaps want to chat with people near the area to get a feel for what's to come, you can follow the city of Luckenbach, TX on Facebook here. For their 4th of July celebration, they've created a Facebook page for their fans and those interested that can viewed here.

If you want to have even more fun, check out the other activities on the list. Other San Antonio bloggers have provided their take on some of the best activities in the area.

Take a look:

5. San Antonio Missions Baseball Game Fourth of July Extravaganza, by Derrich Rodriguez

4. Fourth of July Celebration in Luckenbach, TX, by Luis Sandoval Jr.

3. Tubing on the Comal River (New Braunfels, TX), by Jennifer Navarrete

2. Celebration on the River (Kerrville, Texas), by Shelley Cook

1. Aqua Boom Festival on Lake LBJ, by Jessica Young

Photo Credit IgoUgo



This blog post is part of the JW San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa “List of the Best Things to do in the Texas Hill Country” Blog Scavenger Hunt. The goal is to compile a list of the best ways to spend this Fourth of July (and any day of the year!) in the Hill Country. Bloggers from San Antonio, Texas and anywhere around the globe are invited to participate and share they favorite thing to do in the Hill Country. To participate and have a link to your blog featured in the JW San Antonio “List of the Best Things to do in the Texas Hill Country” blog post all you have to do is write a blog (length, style and everything else is up to you), include this paragraph at the end of your post and send us a link to it via Twitter at @JWSanAntonio. Visit our blog for more information about the Blog Scavenger Hunt. We can’t wait to read your post! Thank you for helping us discover the Hill Country – the home of the newest and largest JW Marriott Resort, opening January 2010.

Covering a Red Carpet Event!

As a freelancer it's been a unique experience transitioning into a business owner. But when paired with great talent, and good friendship, despite fears of others, the partnership in which we've established ourselves is solid and fun.

Advantj Media, which launched earlier this year has been a lot of fun to be a part of and things just keep getting better. I don't typically plug myself or push myself into the forefront of anything that I do as I typically let the work, the words, and the experiences speak for themselves.

Today's post is a departure from that just for now, because I wanted to share something with everyone that I think some of you, or someone you know might be interested in.

Advantj Media along with 24 Hour Entertainment and iGOSA have been asked to partner with Neiman Marcus for the premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor. This amazing red carpet event is going to highlight one of the fashion industries biggest designers and San Antonio and our local community is honored to have been able to be a part of this.

Utilizing the variety of online tools at our disposal, we will provide live on the scene coverage as it happens using Twitter, Forums, and Facebook to help spread the word on this amazing film whose proceeds are going to the American Heart Association. Tomorrow night will be a night that San Antonio's fashion world will not forget as we converge on the premiere of this amazing film.

To read more about Advantj's involvement as well as more information on the actual event itself and how YOU can be a part of it, click HERE for the announcement.

Thanks for the support San Antonio! And for those outside of San Antonio, if you know of anyone interested in fashion, a fashion designer, or has a deep love for Valentino's amazing fashion ingenuity, then please pass this information along so they can follow the updates.

The Grey Matter in the Room

That's what I was surrounded by recently at a speaking engagement I had last night. It was an honor to be invited to speak at the Alamo Inventors Group, an organization that I did not even know existed, let alone know what they did.

When I think of inventors I think of all the images of the crazy, crack-pot individual locked away in an attic, a basement, or a laboratory, and tinkering with things until something explodes. I've never really met an inventor in my life, at least not that I'm aware of, so I knew that the audience was going to be a unique mix of dreamers, idea makers, driven creators, and that's exactly what I got!

Bringing Awareness to the Tools

It was amazing to be standing in front of qualified programmers, engineers, software developers, technicians, industrial designers, all of them focused on one thing, their longing for understanding on the new ways they can establish a fan base and promote the word on their ideas and products. Many of them were seeking funding and needed new avenues to attract attention to what they were doing.

The world of online media has grown tremendously and because of the ease of accessibility, it's become a virtual gold rush as people, brands, corporate entities, and entrepreneurs all attempt to make sense of the space and find ways to make it work for them. Like any of the other marketing plans and advertising platforms, there are some general guidelines and rules in developing a consistent and interested community for what you are doing. That is what I shared with them last night.

I informed them that social media is a medium where the door swings both ways. As good as it can be for someone, it can also hurt brands and damage reputations. I shared with them the good and the bad, but the hopeful and optimistic ways that they can truly develop keen interest in what they are doing, find funding, and establish a possible customer base by targeting key markets that would be interested in what they have to offer.

I could see eyes widening, questions were being asked, many of these amazingly brilliant people were intrigued at the opportunities that lay before them. This motivation was generating ideas, and as inventors I wondered what innovative ways they would use their profiles and if they would go so far out of the box that they themselves would be leaders in trend setting.

Never Discount

I had an amazing time last night. While I spoke for an hour, I encouraged questions during my presentations, and in the back of my mind I was hoping that those that had previously discounted online networking and online tools as something frivolous and not for them would reconsider their approach. The idea for my presentation was to hopefully open those doors for conversation and questions.

These are people doing great things from the big to the small, creating something tangible that makes the world better. It's truly interesting to see how the online world has opened itself up so quickly that boundaries and borders that existed once and segmented our communities have been torn down and now allows the easy ebb and flow of communities to overlap and learn from one another.

A huge thanks to the Alamo Inventors Group for allowing me to be a part of their evening, and taking care of me. I hope to see more of them and encourage other groups, not just inventor groups, but any group out there to invite someone to speak to them about the opportunities available to them online. Make sure the individual is credible and has work online to shows they know what they are talking about, but after that due diligence is done, get them to speak in front of you and be ready to learn!

Not Like Being Up Sh*t Creek Without a Paddle

Seriously...it's completely not like that.

Yesterday San Antonio media professionals had the amazing opportunity to explore the new extension to the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. This exclusive "sneak peek" brought together traditional journalists and new media professionals to explore, inquire, and document all they could in a two hour tour that was granted to them by the City.

I could sit here and rehash the entire event, but I won't. There's a lot of coverage out there that is far better than mine, from a first hand perspective, and if you're interested in really seeing what was said live as the tour was happening, do a Twitter search for the hash tag #sariver, this will give you a first hand account of what was experienced as it was experienced.

I'd like to discuss the bigger implications of media coverage, specifically new media and the opportunities it availed to the community of San Antonio and use that as an example that any city anywhere in the world can capitalize on.

Implications of Last Night's Event

I like a few others that were invited were unable to attend this amazing opportunity, but instead of feeling the disconnect of not knowing, I joined the rest of the City of San Antonio in the live stream of the event step by step, word for word of what happened. I never felt like I was left out, I heard all I needed to hear and saw all that I needed to see. Now I probably did not get the same overwhelming feeling with some of the sights that I would get when seeing it in person, but I was able to participate unlike any other time that I can remember.

Technology is such that even from home I can participate in the experience, and anyone who was able to catch the live stream was able to participate in the question and answer session as well since the chat room was being monitored. Sound powerful? It was. While the city may have extended the invitation to only a handful of people, the entire community was welcomed to follow along via the stream and their concerns were still addressed.

The opportunities that something like this shed light on was completely overwhelming, as it also dawned on a few people during the tour, so I'm not alone in my musings.

Tourism the World Over Can Change

The idea that someone from anywhere in the world could have tapped into the stream and watched this video is testament to just how small our global community really is. New media has truly torn down the boundaries of borders, distance, and location and brought everything to us with a click of a button.

As someone who enjoys traveling, I realized the implications of yesterday's event are bigger than just a one night opportunity. Too often the chamber will send tourism packages for attractions and sights around the city they represent. Typically pre-packaged material, staged video recordings to provide information, all nice and neatly packaged into what they hope will attract people.

For starters nothing attracts people like word of mouth, and the days of staged videos, and professional voice actors are long gone. Last night I saw, like a few others, an opportunity to record river tours online, capture the same information as the chamber will capture but through the eyes of a community member. Someone who lives here, or visits here should be allowed to be a part of encouraging others to visit our city, or any city in the world for that matter.

The city government should embrace new media tools and opportunities and allow for a tourism page that allows the posting of vids, audio, photos, and such that tells the story of what it's like to live in that particular city. I truly believe nothing speaks more powerful than the voice of the community, and by releasing that control over the message, the real story told by the voices of real community members and videos will outshine the staged videos and brochures that the city is spending so much money on.

I'd like to hear thoughts and ideas on this. Perhaps I'm missing something, or the idea can be expanded upon. Leave your comments and lets get to chatting!

Photo Credit cbcastro

The Reality is People Don't Care About You

Image via Wikipedia

...has that sunk in yet?

When I tell people that, it reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live skit with Stuart Smalley who would provide daily affirmations in front of a mirror, repeating that "people like me." The reality of today's marketing and advertising efforts is simply people just don't care about your product, what specials you run, or how it fairs against the competition.

What they do care about it how it makes them look, how it makes them feel, and if their lives are better because of it.

It's a harsh concept to wrap yourself around, but as it relates to branding, it's something that marketers needs to realize. As social technologies have been integrated into the business culture, brands seek out fan followings and groups of supporters that will speak on behalf of the product or service being provided. Still, customer loyalty is a fleeting concept, chances are the market is flooded with similar products, and most loyalty exists out of habit or fear of changing.

Providing quality customer service, a quality product, and a quality experience from beginning to end is what will keep customers happy. It's not how much you talk with them on Twitter, it's not how low you can bring your prices, it's not even how fancy you can make your product look, while all this helps in terms of experience, the customer will ultimately decide based on their own needs and perceptions, further driving home the fact that they don't care about YOU, they care about them.

I'd like to hear some feedback, let's get some chatter going. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this, share your experiences, and perhaps provide some insight on what you do as a brand to keep interest in what you do or provide as it relates to how it makes the customer feel.

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Twitter, Dial Tone for the 21st Century

On a recent episode of This Week in Tech (TWiT) with Leo Laporte, Jason Calacanis made a bold but interesting statement the status of how we connect with one another and the focus was on Twitter.

His comment on the podcast was that Twitter has become the new dial tone for our generation. This century alone has already seen drastic changes in how we communicate with one another, and Twitter is becoming more and more established as the communication form of preference. I'd like to elaborate on this topic and field your comments as well.

Voice Mail Era Comes to An End?

As much press as Twitter has gotten recently, there is no doubt that when used accordingly, it has become a key form of communication for B2B, B2C, and between friends, family, and those seeking information. Taking ourselves away from the desktop client specifically, almost every major mobile device has a Twitter application that is constantly connected, and quickly becoming the way we send messages.

The days of calling and leaving a voice mail are slowly dwindling. Will it ever truly go away, perhaps not, but overall more people are relying on sending a quick message via the micro-blogging platform whether it's a message into the stream, or a direct message to a specific person. Twitter message are quickly becoming the new voice mail, and the new recording device of our daily habits and whereabouts.

More people are found to be texting and tweeting on their actual mobile devices than actually talking on the phone. This phenomena is not to be overlooked and is something that I think all of us can chime in on.

Who Needs A Phone Number?

Earlier this year, on a podcast I did for Tech in Twenty, we discussed how our Twitter handles are becoming the new calling card when we meet people. We've this happen at conferences, "unconferences", trainings, in dating and relationships, and casual business settings. Even more specifically, when people ask for information, it's becoming almost second nature to ask if they are on Twitter. Typically if you say yes they just want the Twitter handle and they can get the rest of the information from there. An interesting change in dynamics of how we associate with one another.

Note, that I'm not saying this has permeated into every sector of the industry, perhaps it's more prevalent in the media industry, but the trend is growing.

There's been an obvious rise in more people including their Twitter handle on their point of contact information. More are including it on their business cards, websites, and blogs. Are we seeing less of an importance being placed on our phone numbers and more on our social network profiles? And what is this saying about our communication habits?

I'd like to hear from my readers their thoughts on this. Are you using your social network profiles (Twitter or otherwise) as your main points of contact, or do you still rely on the email and phone number? I'd be interested in seeing what sectors of our industries are adapting and which have not.

Photo Credit elycefeliz

Consumer Electronic Blogger Sought

An amazing opportunity for new and established bloggers has just come my way. A globally recognized technology news agency is seeking talented writers and media enthusiasts to assist them with coverage of the latest and greatest in all manner of formats.

Biz-News is quickly rising as the go-to site for consumer electronic news in the field of HDTV, Smartphones, Storage, and and VoIP. The readership of the site extends across all professional markets specializing in said categories. This is an excellent opportunity for writers and bloggers to be featured on the site and gain international exposure as the expert in your field on behalf of Biz-News. Credit and bylines will be given to the writer, from time to time, passes to exclusive conferences and seminars for industry professionals will be granted for you to cover the event on behalf of the site.

Interested writers are asked to submit a portfolio of work to establish social proof and existing presence in the blogosphere. Interest in these fields is always a plus, and commitment to producing quality content is key. Biz-News focuses on high quality writing in order to maintain its established reputation amongst the numerous industry professionals that gather on the site. If you're writing is not online, but you've got a body of work that includes printed articles in newspapers, journals, or magazines you are not excluded from this all call for writers.

The position does not offer any financial compensation, but does offer the following:

• inclusion into the established professional writing team of Biz-News
• FREE passes to major conferences worldwide as they become available for events in your area
• exposure and experience in writing for a globally recognized consumer electronics news site
• byline and attribution to all work done for Biz-News

Biz News is a platform of expression. We are eager to let the writer's voice provide valid, informed, independent and relevant information in our columns.

Email all inquiries HERE.

Old Media is NOT Dead!

Image via Wikipedia

Just finished listening to the latest TWiT podcast with Leo Laporte, and I want to elaborate on some of the topics on this show and I want to hear what the audience has to say.

So often we hear that "old" media is dead and more often than not we see this happen when newspapers close up shop and leave town. In the past six months, we've seen a lot of papers really struggle through the existing times, and it's more than just the economy.

An interesting factor of "old" media is that even though we see its demise, it still holds so much credibility. Being on Good Morning America means more overall than being on Diggnation. Having a column in the Wall Street Journal holds more credibility than any blog you can think of. There is no doubt that new media has a substantial following but no one can deny the "wow factor" of being on traditional media outlets.

What are your thoughts? Is this just a slow death and eventually "old" media will truly die? Or is this the balance between keeping old and new media in a co-existing state?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and expand the conversation. Whether you're in old or new media, chime in and share!