Tag: social media

What Does Social Media Mean to Me?

Social media has become a big part of my life. And here is how that all went down.

The truth is, I started going online in early September of 1997. It was my 35th birthday, and Princess Diana had just died. I was not a big fan of hers.

This does not mean I was actively hostile or even uninterested. It was more that I was not a royals watcher. And I am still not much of one.

Whatever Harry, Meghan, Will, and Kate are doing is not much more fascinating to me than what the Kardashians are doing.

That is, not much at all. But I digress.

I was shocked to find people (this was on MIRC) who had whatnot to talk about. Now, this was not a great swath of highly intellectual jargon. And I was not making deep, long-lasting friendships.

But I was finding out that there were people out there with something to say. And, I was learning that I, too, had what to say.

Then Came the Early Years

I switched over to the New York Times’s forum, Abuzz, in maybe 1999. There, I found more intellectual discussion but also a lot of silliness and a lot of heart. The friendships were deeper.

In fact, I am still friends with some of the people from that time.

When Abuzz finally folded, Able2know.org was born. This continued the smart talk but it also opened up less intellectual talk.

Facebook

I joined Facebook on October 5, 2008.

And when I first got there, it, too, was a more geeky and almost intellectual place. But that changed.

At some point, Facebook converted to a more egalitarian site much like it is today.

And through it all, social media has been my BFF.

Quinnipiac Assignment 11 – ICM 527 – Continuing Program Evaluation

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 12, 2015

A Look at Quinnipiac Assignment 11 – ICM 527 – Continuing Program Evaluation

This week, we continued studying the evaluation of public relations campaigns as a continuing program evaluation.

Ethical Issues Regarding Evaluation

As is true for any presentation of numbers, there are ways to spin findings which can lead a reader to believe one thing or another. You can use numbers to make a case. And some numbers, if suppressed or deemphasized or just plain omitted, could alter organizational decision-making. This only gets into telling the truth with numbers.

All bets are off if a strategic planner or any sort of analyst out and out alters the figures they have to present,. Or if they didn’t get accurate or truthful numbers to begin with.

Cans Get You Cooking

But even if the analyst is completely honest about results and figures, there are still issues with emphasis and language. For the Cans Get You Cooking campaign, the initial purpose had to have been to increase the sale of canned goods. Instead, they labeled the campaign as a success for leading to an increase in awareness of canned foods.

Awareness is a perfectly legitimate (and objective) goal for a campaign. But they seem to have swept the goal of increased sales under the rug. This was in favor of the one, demonstrable, favorable outcome – a boost in awareness.

On page 125, Place notes

“The role of ethics in public relations evaluation was described by participants as inherently associated with truth and fairness. For some professionals, this meant conveying evaluation data accurately and truthfully to organizational leadership or clients. For other professionals, this meant measuring whether the most accurate story or brand image reached an organization’s publics.”

Upshot

Professionals, fortunately, realize that others can misinterpret their words, even if they are reporting accurately on the numbers. If a campaign increases, say, signups for a class by five over an initial figure of five, then how do they report that?

Is it a report of a new five signups, or does the professional state that signups have doubled? Both are mathematically correct, but there is an exciting spin to the latter which may be making it look more significant than it truly is.

The Real Warriors and Okay 2 Talk Campaigns

A review of both campaigns revealed good attention to detail. Both campaigns seemed to be rather carefully planned.

The Real Warriors Campaign was designed to encourage active armed services personnel and veterans of recent American military campaigns (since 9/11) to seek psychological counseling and other help for post-traumatic stress disorder, e. g. ‘invisible wounds’. Primary research included focus groups and key informant interviews. All of the campaign’s goals were awareness-based.

The goal was to decrease stigma felt by veterans seeking mental health assistance.

Measurements

The measurement of the effectiveness of the campaign included the distribution of campaign materials, website visitors, and social media interactions, plus news stories. This is good for an awareness campaign, but where are the actions? Where are the increased numbers of veterans seeking help?

A far more germane measurement would be to show an increase in personnel hours for armed forces mental health professionals.

Or perhaps there could be a measurement of the hiring of more counselors, or agreements with more civilian counselors. Without naming names or otherwise violating privacy, the number of patients in treatment is easy to tally. So can the number of appointments made, even if some of the appointments were never kept. Another objective measurement of success would be a decrease in suicides and fewer calls by veterans to suicide prevention hotlines. The campaign shows none of that.

OK 2 Talk

As for the OK 2 Talk Campaign, that campaign’s goals were to create awareness and also to launch a safe social media space. Tumblr was their chosen platform as it allowed for anonymity. It seems to have also been chosen for a demographic match although that is not spelled out.

Metrics

The measurement of the effectiveness of that campaign was a lot more closely aligned with its initial goals than the Real Warriors report showed. For example, the OK 2 Talk report gave objective figures regarding engagement on OK2Talk.org. The page views are not necessarily indicative of much. It is the content submissions which seem to better reflect engagement.

On the Tumblr blog, they encourage visitors to anonymously post about how they are feeling. The blog makes it clear that they will not post everyone’s writing.

However, there are several well-written or illustrated posts showcasing various viewpoints. OK 2 Talk intelligently shows all kinds of posts. This is even those where the writers clearly need help or are just reblogging messages put together by creative professionals.

The Continuing Program Evaluation Campaign

The campaign report shows the number of content submissions and the number of clickthroughs to a ‘get help’ screen. There is also a statement regarding ‘thousands’ of comments but no specifics. They could have shown this more clearly. But that does not truly matter.

Showing the number of clickthroughs to the ‘get help’ screen was an objective and direct measurement of how the campaign is going. It answers the question, ‘did it work, or was it just a colorful and fancy waste of time?’ with ‘yes, it did’, and far more effectively than the distribution of materials ever could.

Smith Says…

As Smith notes on page 335

“Guesses aren’t good enough; Hard work and cost aren’t measures of effectiveness; Creativity isn’t, either; Dissemination doesn’t equal communication; Knowledge doesn’t always lead to acceptance; and Behavior is the ultimate measure.”

In particular, Real Warriors should have remembered that dissemination does not equal communication. After all, the distributed campaign materials could have gone right into the trash. Yes, the campaign’s stated goal was awareness. But the campaign can only really measure it with some form of observable action. Without some demonstrated actions, Real Warriors seems more like a lot of paper redistribution.

The two campaigns have similar goals, and both have the valiant ideal of helping the mentally ill. But it’s only OK 2 Talk which is showing objective and relevant results.

Relating it all back to the ILSC

For the Institute for Life Sciences Collaboration, deciding what to measure, and to make sure it is being accurately measured, are important steps to take. It is pretty easy to count website visitors using Google Analytics or the like. But a better measurement is actual engagement like blog comments, Facebook comments and shares, and LinkedIn comments. This will tie directly to awareness objectives.

For objectives on adding high schools to the Small World Initiative, good measurements include the number of times that educators click through to a ‘get information’ page. The ILSC should add one to a revamped website. They can also expect such inquiries in the comments and messaging sections of a possible future ILSC Facebook group.

A similar vehicle for obtaining such inquiries could be a possible future LinkedIn group for the ILSC, and its topics.

Measurements of the campaign reaching donors could be a look at the number of visits to a donations page. It would also be the percentages of site visitors who went all the way through the online donations funnel. Knowing where they stop (if a visit does not lead to a donation) would be extremely helpful information to have.

More About the Continuing Program Evaluation

For the website, Google Analytics should be used to tie back to visitor acquisition. If Facebook turns out to be the most popular place for visitors to come from, then the ILSC should concentrate there. A surprisingly small amount of money (e. g. $20.00 or so) can boost a post and reach even more people.

This measurement is useful for all types of objectives, as it helps to define where to best concentrate the ILSC’s social media time. There is little use in devoting substantial time to LinkedIn if the publics don’t come to the website and don’t donate any funds.

Awareness needs to be related to action, for it is action that will get the SWI out of its funding gap and help keep the ILSC going for years to come.

The Five Elements of Hip-Hop Content Strategy

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 22, 2015

A Look at an Oldie: The Five Elements of Hip-Hop Content Strategy

On June 2nd, 2010, I got to attend The Five Elements of Hip-Hop Content Strategy. The speaker was Ian Alexander. Ian is down to earth, informative and fun. The meeting was hosted by Content Strategy New England. A special shout-out must go to the tireless Rick Allen.

Ian led us through a history of both hip-hop and content strategy as a discipline. Neither one sprang up overnight. So the roots are in the 1970s or so, perhaps earlier.

Then it was down to business – an outline of the Five Elements.

Hip-Hop Content Strategy – Five Elements

#1. DJ’ing – on the Content Strategy side of things, this is the technical expertise. It’s being able to understand and apply semantic categories. It is being able to interpret analytics. So a Content Strategist cannot be a Luddite. She cannot fear spreadsheets.

#2. MC’ing – on the CS end, this is the editorial expertise. Often, this is what people think of when they think of Content Strategy. It is acting as a copywriter, a librarian, a research analyst and something of an artist.

The Content Strategist finds and tells the story. He or she selects the format and helps to promote the brand.

The Content Triangle

This is where Ian introduced the concept of the Content Triangle.

Building Trust

(a) The first type of content is Trust Building. This is where a company establishes its expertise. So it is also where it provides value to its clients and potential customers. Here is where the company is informative about internal and industry trends.

For a product-based company, this area should encompass approximately 30% of all of the content. For a service-oriented company, this area should be about 70% of all of the content.

Informational, Please

(b) So the second type of content is Informational. This is basic internal site information, such as the Contact Us page and the FAQ. This is for users to understand how to, for example, return a defective product.

For a product-oriented company, this area needs to be around 30+% of all content. For a service company, that figure should be around 20+%. So in either instance, start here.

Calls to Action

(c) The third and final type of content is Sales/Call to Action. Somewhat self-explanatory, here’s where you close the deal. The deal need not be a commercial one; your call to action may very well be for your reader to sign up for a newsletter.

For the product-based company, this area will have to be around about 40+% of all of the content. In the case of the service company, it’s less than 10%. So either way, this should be A/B tested.

So in all instances, analytics must drive the percentages and the content.

Hip-Hop Content Strategy – More Elements

#3. Graffiti – for the Content Strategist, this equates to design expertise. Infographics are, according to Ian, only going to continue to become more and more popular.

#4. Breaking – to the Content Strategist, this element represents Information Architecture expertise. The two are related but not identical — cousins, not twins. Yet the gist of it is the concept of movement through a site.

So, what are the funnels? What kind of an experience do you want your users to have? What’s your preferred destination for them?

#5. Knowledge – this final piece of the puzzle speaks to the Content Strategist’s Project Managerment/Change Management expertise. Change concepts are disposable, iterative and proposed. It is the idea of moving from a concept to a solution.

The best solution is not the best solution, per se – it’s the best solution that you can implement. For, without a consensus (and a budget and a signed contract!), the so-called best solution is no solution at all.

But What Does it All Mean?

Content Strategy is different from Content Marketing. So the first must drive the second. One of the best ways to help the discipline to get more respect is to branch out the network. Get to know people in vastly different disciplines (say, Robotics, for instance).

So, what about helping the client? Think differently. So generate a 404 error and see what happens. Sign up for something: what kind of message does the user get? Is the message consistent with the remainder of the site’s look and feel and philosophy?

Is the footer out of date?

Check sites like Compete and Tweetvolume for more information about how a company is really doing. So note: Compete does not exist any more!

So consider CMS Watch as well. Know the company’s baseline strengths and weaknesses and understand related practices and disciplines. So note: CMS Watch now redirects to Real Story Group.

Takeaways from 2010

The Content Strategist often wears a millinery’s worth of hats, not just during a particular project but in any given day. For the CS to excel, he or she needs to have an understanding of fundamentals in a lot of areas, and be able to speak knowledgeably.

Fortunately, acquiring and applying that kind of knowledge makes and keeps this discipline fresh and exciting. Plus, Ian clearly has fun every day. And who wouldn’t want a piece of that?

A Look Over 14 Years Later at Hip-Hop Content Strategy

Welp, things have changed. Big time! Ian is no longer under the above URL. So you know, it’s the one in the first paragraph. And two other sites no longer exist. Plus, the world is a lot different now. So that includes my life.

Now, as I look back on older posts like this, I can see where I did not write them too well. In addition, I can also see where older events were, can I say it?

Kinda gimmicky.

So, I get what Ian was trying to say. And a lot of his advice is still spot on. Yet now, though, I think there are other ways of saying it.

Quinnipiac Final Paper – ICM501 – Creative Obfuscation

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 27, 2014

Quinnipiac Final Paper – ICM501 – Creative Obfuscation

What is creative obfuscation?

Internet identity, reputation, and deception in the online dating world. Truth and little white lies on the Internet.

Introduction

Several weeks ago, when participating in class, I used the term creative obfuscation. The idea behind it was (and still is) that people of course bend the truth or cover it up, or they lie by omission. Some of these lies are more egregious than others.

For my final paper, I decided to look at what it all means with reference to internet dating. And boy, was there a lot of fodder! Here are some excerpts.

Identity

For many people[1] these days, social media is wrapped with identity, as identity is, in turn, intimately wrapped up with social media. It is often a daily[2] presence in our lives. As Julia Knight and Alexis Weedon discovered, online life and self are increasingly just as important as offline life and self.[3]

“In 2008, Vincent Miller’s article in Convergence recognized in our ubiquitous and pervasive media the essential role of phatic communication [4] which forms our connection to the here and now.

Social media has become a native habitus for many and is a place to perform our various roles in our multimodal lives, as a professional, a parent, an acquaintance, and a colleague. The current generation has grown up with social media and like the 10-year-old Facebook, Twitter too has become part of some people’s everyday here and now.”[5]

References

[1] About 39% of the world is online, according to Internet World Statistics. This includes just fewer than 85% of North America and over 2/3 of Europe and Oceania.

[2] According to Pew Research, in 2013, 63% of Facebook users visit the site daily. Just under half (46%) of Twitter users visit that site on a daily basis.

[3] Knight, Julia and Weedon, Alexis, Convergence, ISSN 1354-8565, 08/2014, Volume 20, Issue 3, pp. 257 – 258, Identity and social media

[4] Phatic communications are generally language for the purposes of social interaction rather than the conveying of information or the making of inquiries, e. g. ‘small talk’.

[5] Knight and Weedon, Ibid., Page 257.

Reputation and Creative Obfuscation

Unlike offline reputation, online reputation can be categorized and quantified. For sites attempting to preserve and promote civility, but which cannot or will not adopt a real-names policy like Facebook’s, reputation scores can sometimes alert other users to an individual’s tendency to be either helpful or abusive.

AS Crane Said…

As AS Crane noted in Promoting Civility in Online Discussions: A Study of the Intelligent Conversation Forum[6],

“Moderation in combination with reputation scores have been used successfully on the large technology site Slashdot, according to Lampe and Resnick (2004). Slashdot moderation duties are shared among a group of users, who can assign positive or negative reputation points to posts and to other members. Users who have earned a sufficient reputation rating are allowed to participate in moderation if they wish. Meta-moderators observe the moderators for abuse and can remove bad moderators, or reward good moderators by assigning a higher point value to their votes.” In Slashdot’s case, it would seem that good behavior not only is rewarding in and of itself, but it also provides a reward in the form of being granted the ability to police others’ behavior.

[6] AS Crane, 2012, Promoting Civility in Online Discussions: A Study of the Intelligent Conversation Forum, rave.ohiolink.edu, Page 17

Deception

For those who bend the truth on Facebook and other social media websites, some of the consequences are unexpected ones.

For example, a ten-year-old child claims to be thirteen. So, in five years, they’ll be considered eighteen on a social networking site. This will alter her privacy settings automatically. And lets everyone see images, including pedophiles.[7]

[7] Olsen, Tyler, 22 April 2013, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: An Explanation of Deception, Professor Combs English 1010-21

Creative Obfuscation: Conclusion

It is fairly easy to bend the truth when composing an online dating profile. But an in-person meeting will expose the lie to all. As a result, the liar will lose social capital and likely never make it to a second date. More problematic is when a person’s sincerely made identity does not jibe with their appearance or their birth characteristics.

Differences between online verbiage and offline appearance might not have an intentionally malicious origin. So, it is entirely possible for online daters to, through ambiguity or poor word choice, appear deceptive and untrustworthy. When they may be anything but.

But regardless of the reason for an untruth, online daters care about their reputations. And their online and offline appearances. What others think matters to them. Much of that directly relates to the object behind the use of an online dating site. So, the object is to meet. That is, the mission is the date.

Setting up the date for failure or the loss of face is not in online daters’ best interests. So, most act to assure success or at least prevent and minimize failure and the loss of social capital.

Personal Identity

Personal identity matters in the online world, and it is a heady brew of inborn traits, learned and attained characteristics, and identification, desire, and preference.

For the person presenting their identity and showing this admixture to all and sundry, what it means to be them, what they think of as the ‘self’, is they cobble together from potentially thousands of measurable and nonquantifiable data points in order to present a full picture of their personality.

For the recipients of these messages, the potential dating partners and perhaps even more permanent mates, the choice is whether to read or listen to these many messages. And accept all or some of them. Even if they conflict with or downright contradict the evidence that the recipient can observe or otherwise gather independently.

You are who you were at birth, who you have become, and who you claim to be, and who you think you are. But that does not mean that anyone has to believe you, accept you, or love you.

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Quinnipiac Assignment 11 – ICM501 – Mobile & Locative Media

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 6, 2014

Let’s look at Mobile & Locative Media

Locative Media? Just as online communities are giving us digital posses and homes away from home, locative and mobile media are providing us with a means of joining a group in person at any time.

There’s A Party Somewhere

With locative media, there is always something going on.

For persons traveling to an unfamiliar section of their city, locative media can give them a sense of where to go. Let’s say a person living in the Allston section of Boston takes the wrong Green Line trolley outbound from Park Street. Instead of the B, which would take them along Commonwealth Avenue to home, they get on the E, which goes down Huntington Avenue.

Instead of despairing at being lost, or turning around, or getting a bus or cab (or the correct trolley) back home, what if the unintentional explorer looks on FourSquare (or if this scenario took place before 2013, Google Latitude, the successor to Dodgeball)?

Locative Media Mixes the Familiar with the Unfamiliar

But with locational technology, the traveler finds friends, or recommendations, or even just a bit of tracking thrown out there by people they’re connected to. If the traveler can find his or her friends, the unfamiliar space might become parochialized.

As Humphreys, L. (2010). Mobile social networks and urban public space. New Media & Society, 12(5), 763-778. [Library Link | PDF] wrote,

“Parochial spaces are territories characterized by ‘a sense of commonality among acquaintances and neighbors who are involved in interpersonal networks that are located within communities’ (Lofland, 1998: 10). Neighborhoods are examples of parochial spaces.” (Page 768)

So, the act of parochialization lends familiarity and commonality to a public space. Humphreys further stated,

“Mobile social networks can help to turn public realms into parochial realms through parochialization. Parochialization can be defined as the process of creating, sharing and exchanging information, social and locational, to contribute to a sense of commonality among a group of people in public space. Sharing information through mobile social networks can help to contribute to a sense of familiarity among users in urban public spaces.” (Page 768, Ibid.)

Pre-Planning

Humphreys refers to a use of Dodgeball as a means of pre-planning parochialization, and wrote,

“People also used Dodgeball to parochialize the public space when traveling with a group of people. For example, several New York participants mentioned using Dodgeball at South by Southwest, an annual music/film/hi-tech festival in Austin, Texas. A large group of colleagues and friends were at the festival and used Dodgeball to ensure meeting up with familiar people in an unfamiliar city.” (Page 773, Ibid.)

However, even a semi-serendipitous finding of like-minded individuals could happen. For our hypothetic traveler, a stroll down Huntington Avenue reveals Northeastern University and the Museum of Fine Arts.

Nearby is the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum.

But with FourSquare checkins, the traveler knows that her friends are at the Gardiner, and she can choose to join them, or contact them and suggest a change of venue to the MFA, or avoid them by entering the campus of Northeastern.

Is the RSVP dead?

So now, even planned meetings have changed.

As Rheingold, H. (2002). Shibuya epiphany. In Smart mobs: The next social revolution (pp. 1–28). New York: Basic Books. [Posted to “Course Materials” on Blackboard] wrote,

“‘Kids have become loose about time and place. If you have a phone, you can be late,’ added Kawamura. Kamide, the other graduate student, agreed that it is no longer taboo to show up late: ‘Today’s taboo,’ Kamide conjectured, is ‘to forget your keitai [cell phone] or let your battery die.” I later discovered that this ‘softening of time’ was noted for the same age group in Norway. ‘The opportunity to make decisions on the spot has made young people reluctant to divide their lives into time slots, as older generations are used to doing,’ agreed another Norwegian researcher.” (Page 5)

But all of this is small comfort to someone planning (and paying for) a major event like a wedding or a Bat Mitzvah. Kids may have become looser about time and place, but caterers have not.

Caveats

Also, constantly knowing where everyone is at all times can take away the fun of accidental meetings. It can make them nigh well impossible. Continually seeking preexisting friends when in unfamiliar places can keep people from extending their hands and introducing themselves to new people. With augmented reality, the locatability isn’t even necessarily voluntary anymore.

As Lamantia, J. (2009, August 17). Inside out: Interaction design for augmented reality.UX Matters. [Link] wrote,

“With tools like augmented ID on the way, what happens if your environmentally aware AR device, service, or application recognizes me and broadcasts my identity locally—or globally—when I want to remain incognito? At least until the advent of effective privacy management solutions—including hardware, software, standards, and legal frameworks—AR experiences that identify people by face, marker, or RFID tag could severely challenge our ability to do ordinary things like get lost in a crowd, sit quietly at the back of a room, or attend a surprise party for a friend.”

Even more chilling, what happens when victims are trying to escape abusers or stalkers? It seems, at times, akin to the microchipping of pets. We don’t want our dogs and cats to wander too far, because we fear they’ll get lost or will be injured or even stolen. But humans are (ostensibly) smarter than all that. So, shouldn’t we have the freedom to, if we want to, just go out without having a tracer put on us?

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Quinnipiac Assignment #2 – Disruption (NSFW)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 28, 2014

Disruption (NSFW)

Consider disruption (NSFW): Good Lord, people, hide the fine china! Lock up your children! Clutch your pearls! It’s all gone NSFW!

Still, I shouldn’t kid.

This assignment is about using social media being as a tool for disruption. I chose to examine the Boston Marathon bombings, and of course, that’s nothing to be flippant about. Further, I selected a completely NSFW (Not Safe For Work) moment during the ordeal.

David Ortiz for the Disruptive Win!

I chose to center my video around Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz taking the microphone during the first game after the bombs went off, and him bellowing into the mic, “This is our f—in’ city!”

There are some people who complained, after the fact, about the obscenity. But the vast, vast majority of viewers took it all in stride.

How Did Social Media Handle All This?

What did Social Media do? How did it disrupt coverage? Well, let’s just put it this way. If the bombing had occurred fifteen years ago, or even five, coverage (and our memories of it) would have been far, far different.

It would have been far less immediate. We would not have seen the carnage in anywhere near as much graphic detail. Jeff Bauman would have maintained some privacy with reference to his grave injuries.

And David Ortiz, if he had dropped the f-bomb live on TV at all, would have been fined, big time, as would have the Red Sox organization.

Instead, we know. We have seen. We have heard. And it’s a lot harder to forget. The news is no longer being sanitized successfully in America.

Welcome to the media treating us like grownups.

Disruption Eight Years Later…

Looking back at this post in last 2022, my first observation is that it’s almost quaint. No one seemed to really care about Ortiz dropping an f-bomb on television. But why?

It’s quite simply because he just said what we were all thinking. And many of us had probably said it in the comfort and privacy of our own homes.

But David had the microphone, and the platform.

Oh, and PS — my own video ^ is restricted on YouTube these days! Wacky. So, social media does not treat us like adults these days!

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Onward to Quinnipiac!

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on January 21, 2014

Woo-Hoo! Onward to Quinnipiac

For quite a while now, as I have searched for work, I have been dismayed at not only issues with networking, but also with the need to make myself stand out from the pack. Hence, onward to Quinnipiac.

I believe that education will do this. However, most social media educational opportunities are with what seem to be more like fly by night operations.

When I learned that Quinnipiac University had a graduate and certificate program in social media, I decided to give it a whirl.

Currently, I am taking one class, ICM 522.

ICM 522 In a Nutshell

ICM 522, Social Media Techniques and Practices, 3 graduate credits
Spring 2014, Summer 2014 – 12 weeks

The proliferation of social media in society has created a new communications environment built on platforms that encourage contribution and collaboration through user-created media and interaction. This course explores the underlying theoretical concepts, development and management of social media platforms as well as the creation of effective strategies to facilitate a viable social media presence.

Covered will be:

• Content creation and interactions from semester-long blog postings
† Establishment and maintenance of credible social media presence on multiple platforms
• Demonstration and understanding of platform usage and capabilities
† Written analysis and review of notable social media practitioners or brands
• Overall growth, and effectiveness of student’s semester-long social media presence

What it’s All About

ICM 522 proved to be an excellent introduction to the subject matter. It was also a really great way for me to get into the mindset of taking a class. And studying. And trying to get a good grade!

One thing I was not prepared for was how much I was going to truly love the class.

Onward to Quinnipiac: Takeaways

So I guess it’s back to school (that is, graduate school!) for me.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t just pass. I graduated—in 2016—with a 4.0 GPA.

Oh and PS

Since most of the Quinnipiac posts are old and not getting any readers, I am unpublishing many of them. I get the feeling no one will be looking around for them.

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Just Trying to Make Some Sense of it All

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Just Trying to Make Some Sense of it All

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on April 21, 2013

Be aware, there are adult words in here, for very adult events. Turn back if four-letter words bother you more than terrorism. That makes no sense to me. But maybe it does to you.

Stay Strong and Keep Every Sense About You

For all who have been living under rocks, things here in Boston have been astounding over the course of the past week. If it were a film script, it would never be made. Because no one would believe it.

On Monday, April 15th, 2013, the unthinkable happened, when two bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people died, and nearly 180 were wounded, many gravely.

Adventures in Career Changing | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Trying to Make Sense — Close call in Brighton – the blue star is more or less where I live

And then, going from Thursday, April 18th at night, into about 24 hours later, Friday, April 19th, at about 8:40 PM, there was a lockdown and a manhunt here.

To give you an idea of how close it all was, check out this map – I can scarcely fathom it.

And I have friends, former colleagues, who were even closer, people who heard shots and explosions.

This is reality.

But I want to put in what, to me, is a bit of perspective, I hope.

A Sense of Destruction and Despair

There are plenty of horrible images and I will, mainly, not focus on them.

But this image should tell the tale of Friday. We, like most people, did as requested and stayed in our home.

I took maybe 20 minutes at about lunchtime and sat on my front porch. I saw a guy walking his dog and another getting a smoke. Plus maybe three cars went by.

And that was it.

I firmly believe that staying out of law enforcement’s collective way was vital in not just keeping bystanders from being harmed but also in the swift conclusion to the manhunt. Also, I will not publicize the alleged (yes, alleged; I believe in the right to a fair trial) perp’s name.

A Sense of Hope and Glory

There are a lot of images and words and I cannot possibly cover them all so I will cherry pick a few.

Neil Diamond and Sweet Caroline

So Neil Diamond hopped on a plane yesterday morning at 4:30 AM.

He just showed up, 40 minutes before the Red Sox game was to start, and asked if he could sing “Sweet Caroline“.

Sure thing, Neil.

David Ortiz (who never made more sense than at this very moment)

David Ortiz got on a microphone and dropped the f-bomb on live TV. The FCC shrugged and said the equivalent of, hey, no sweat.

Ortiz, I am sure, did not plan what he would say. He just spoke from his heart.

And I am sure most of us agree with him and aren’t about to hold the f-bomb against him. I know I don’t.

People care. And they have also expressed their caring in some amazing and offbeat, quirky ways. These are the ways that make the most sense to them.

Always & Forever

The Always & Forever Tattoo Salon in Watertown has a sidewalk memorial going. Add to it, if you like.

Fundraising

There are multiple fundraisers going on. The big one is the OneFundBoston. This charity was started by Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick and is of course legitimate.

The local running club, the Brighton Bangers, also held a fundraiser.

Sense, Memory, and Healing

I refuse to provide the names of the alleged perps. But I will gladly share the names of the lost and the injured.

Krystle Campbell

This young woman was 29. She was a restaurant manager at Jasper White’s Summer Shack and mainly worked in Hingham and Cambridge, putting in 70- and 80-hour weeks.

I celebrated my 50th birthday at the Cambridge location last September, and may very well have seen her.

Sean Collier

This MIT police officer lost his life in the Thursday night shootout. Boston Police stood at attention with respect as his hearse passed, remembering this young man who gave his all.

Lingzi Lu

This young woman was a graduate statistics student at Boston University, my alma mater.

The wildly generous trustees of Boston University have already raised over half a million dollars for a Lingzi Lu scholarship in her name.

Martin Richard

This eight-year-old child was wiser than most of us, eh? His father, mother and sister were also hurt. So please remember them, also.

Jeff Bauman

This young man‘s image was all over the news, as Carlos Arredondo helped get him to safety and care. Some images were cropped. Others showed the full extent of the awful damage to his legs. This site is a legitimate fundraising site to help pay for his care.

Also, if you want to send him a card, send it to:

In care of Jen Joyce
for Jeff Bauman
117 Tynsboro Rd.
Westford, MA 01886

Celeste and Sydney Corcoran

Sydney and Celeste Corcoran at Boston Medical Center

These women are mother and daughter, and they were both also hurt (Celeste has more extensive injuries). Also, there is a legitimate fund to help with their care.

Dic Donohue

This police officer and Navy veteran was also wounded in the Thursday night gunfight. And so here is a legitimate fundraising site for him.

Patrick and Jessica Downes

These newlyweds also each lost a leg. This is a legitimate fundraising site to help pay for their care.

Marc Fucarile

So he is neighbor to a friend who lives in Stoneham. And this young roofer has already lost one leg, and there is shrapnel in his heart. There is a legitimate fund to help him, too.

In Every Sense, It’s Personal

I have loved Boston ever since I attended BU (I am from the Class of ’83) and am also a runner (but only 5K races – marathons are too long for me). Many of these directly affected people are second and third degree of separation from me.

I cannot begin to describe just how personal it all feels, and I know that my feelings are rather small within the scope of this immense tragedy.

So I leave you with this image –

The Strip and sense — The Strip made a ton of sense!

and with this song.

Peace. Please, now, more than ever.

27 Comments

My New Job at Neuron Robotics …

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on June 4, 2010

… or, how Janet Met Bob. Back in the day, I had a job at Neuron Robotics. And it was kinda fun.

Looking for Work in All the Wrong Places

I had been looking for work for a while. The same things had been working all right, but it was time to shake things up. I was in a rut!

I received a notification of a job fair at the Microsoft Nerd Center, to be held on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010. Great!.

Except for one thing.

The subject was robotics.

So, my knowledge of the subject spanned R2D2, Lost in Space, Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Star Trek.

In short, I was about as over my head as anyone could possibly ever be.

What the Hell

But the event was free, and I figured, well, everybody needs social media marketing, right? So I decided to go anyway.

I got a haircut that morning (completely unrelated, I swear!) and prepared for the event by printing up business cards and generally doing pretty much everything but think about it. Yet onto the bus I went.

The space is interesting. It is a two-level area, where there is a huge staircase in the middle, splitting up the lower level. Being that in a former life I was an insurance defense attorney, I always look at that big, beautiful staircase and think: someone is gonna trip.

But I digress.

I walk in, and I am easily a good 20 – 25 years older than everyone in the room who is not an employer. Also, I am one of very few females. And most of the job seekers are in corners or staring at their shoes.

There are two skateboards in the room (fortunately, they are not being used — see tripping hazard, above).

God knows I do not belong.

I do not belong. Cough, wheeze.

Mild Panic Attack Ensues

But seriously, folks.

I do not belong.

Taking the Plunge Which I Did Not Expect Would Become a Job at Neuron Robotics

And that is all I can think of, but I plunge in anyway, and I talk to some people but, frankly, I can only reel off about five words before I am done. I drop cards wherever I think I can.

And then I retreated to the sidelines, to an area where there was a large wall that showed information on all of the companies attending. I stare at the names, and I am having an existential crisis.

I do not belong.

Oh, I do not belong. Panic, slight panic, big panic.

But let’s face it.

I do not belong.

Gawd, this is not good. I look up and I see this guy standing nearby. He is, perhaps, thinking some of the same things I am; I cannot tell of course (it turned out, he more or less was). He looks at me, I look at him, and perhaps there was a flash of recognition or sympathy or commiseration because he smiles, says, “What the hell!” and sticks out his hand.

He is Bob Breznak. He owns a robotics company.

Thank God!! And, Suddenly, a Job at Neuron Robotics

So, we chat, and I find myself becoming animated again. It is a free and easy discussion, on topic and off, and it is, above all else, easy. Hallelujah, saved from despair.

We part ways in order to mingle and network, but keep circling back. We are not there together, of course, but keep circling back anyway, you know like you do when you are at a party with a friend and comparing notes or taking a breather.

The evening ends and the next morning, I send a note. But I hear nothing, and chalk it up to experience. I continue, as always, to go to networking events.

In late April, I get my reply. So, we start emailing, and agree to meet on May 10th. Coffee okay? Sure.

I get in early, and the coffee shop is playing The Smiths. This I consider to be auspicious. Bob arrives and we again chat easily. Finally it comes down to brass tacks. Do you want to help us out? Do you want a job at Neuron Robotics?

Sure. Details are discussed over the next few weeks, and I meet the rest of the team, and we hit it off, too. We agree on a shmancy title: Director of Social Media and Public Relations.

And I think to myself:

I belong.

… and …

I belong. And egad, I suddenly had a job at Neuron Robotics.

A Quick Look Back at My Old Job at Neuron Robotics

The Name Side of my business card! — A bad scan of my Neuron Robotics business card! If you met me then, you could have gotten a much nicer one.

We used to make stuff. Or, at least, that was the plan. The company, apparently, was sold or taken over or got its own taste of reinvention. Helfino.

Did it help me? I cannot honestly say. I came away from it with some fun stories. As in, running through the streets of Cambridge, barefoot, hunting for a place to buy batteries (my shoes were off because I was in killer heels).

Also, as a person who has worked in a startup, it gives me some street cred around not only startups but also fast-paced work and modern work.

I made friends. I still keep up with the guys. And I did a ton of networking, but that is only semi-helpful as it is not in the field where I want to be these days.

In retrospect, it filled what would have been a rather large gap in my work history. And, if nothing else, I made like Socrates and learned just what I did not know. So, I went to Quinnipiac and got my Masters degree!

2 Comments

Every time I think of careers ….

Online Presence, Supercharging your online presence, pet peeves, careers, virality, Alibaba

Every time I think of careers ….

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on April 2, 2010

…. I get nervous. Careers scare me.

That’s Because Careers Are Definitely Scary

I think of just how long I’m (hopefully) going to be living. And can I ever really be happy? But now I feel I’ve found my bliss — social media.

All I needed was to make the leap into doing it professionally. Every day I would run up, hard, to the gate. Eventually, I made the jump and landed in a few places.

There was robotics, where we competed for money at the WPI Venture Forum. Or I would go to lectures that were sometimes kinda gimmicky. Okay, very gimmicky.

And a Master’s in Communication (Interactive Media) from Quinnipiac University.

Come watch.

An Update After a Decade and a Half Plus

So, over 10 years later, it felt like I had finally landed somewhere. And then…. things changed.

Careers and Ambitions

Careers are tricky things, aren’t they? We ask people about their ambitions all the time. In fact, for children, it can even be an occurrence that happens more than once per week.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Raise your hand if you ever said, “I don’t know.”

Because that is totally okay.

Time Keeps On Going; If You Don’t Look Around, You Just Might Miss It

So that’s kinda, sorta paraphrasing Ferris Bueller.

But that’s all right. Because, you see, time slipping away has made careers like mine possible in the first place.

Say what?

Seriously.

Invention and Reinvention

So, I graduated from high school in June of 1979. There were no smart phones. There was no internet. Yet there I was, a kid who kinda, sorta understood communications.

Oh yeah, computers were the size of a room. And the popular fiction of the time showed them as unhinged menaces, lurking and ready to get us.

I’m looking at you, 2001.

And you, Star Trek TOS.

I graduated from college in 1983. Computers were a little smaller. But their cost was still comparable to a car. I had taken one programming class, hated it, and had dropped out before I could get a failing grade.

But I had liked fooling around on the computer. I just didn’t want to program in DOS.

And then…

I graduated law school in 1986. I had used LexisNexis. But then I went to work for a large firm where there was still a typing pool. And IBM Selectric typewriters. No lie. Two secretaries had word processors.

But at least the managing partner had a computer which he was trying (miserably) to teach himself how to use.

So, I left after 6 months and was at a firm where we had dumb terminals with some actual information in them. We did scheduling this way – although the clerk still used a huge book.

When I left a few years later (and left the practice of law altogether), things had not changed much.

Plus…

I taught paralegals. And I adjusted claims. Everywhere I went, it seemed computers were used less and less. In 1995, I started as a litigation auditor. I did not know how to turn on the Apple PowerBook 170 they gave me.

According to Wikipedia, it was vintage 1991. I 100% believe that. And so, ever since then, I have hated Apple products. Sorry, not sorry.

So I taught myself how to use it, and how to get faster. Slowly, we were switched to better computers. In my last 3 months or so (late 1999), we were finally given internet access.

Because I knew databases, and it was the dot-com boom, I found another job fast. 9/11 happened, and it stole my job, along with a lot of other peoples’. I drifted.

Slowly, I was getting away from databases. In 2004, I worked at Dictaphone, and I did three separate stints at Fidelity Investments.

And I was at that third Fidelity job when I first wrote something like 73 words for this, my first-ever blog post.

Life Has Changed and Along With it I Have Changed Careers

From there to here, I wanted out. So I went to grad school and I blogged – here! Plus I made whatever contacts I could.

In 2014, I became a published fiction author. And in 2017, I was offered a job managing content for a business credit company. Now, I don’t even do that anymore. The future looks blurry. The current administration makes it even blurrier.

And AI? Ha, you must mean the stuff that’s falling all over itself to make people like me obsolete.

What a long, strange trip it’s been. I have never regretted changing my life this way. Careers, I have learned, are for bending and changing. Because you will never know if there might be a better choice out there than you’ve got right now.

Careers are for reinvention. Never, ever set yours in stone.

2 Comments

Tag: social media

What Does Social Media Mean to Me?

Then Came the Early Years

Facebook

A Look at Quinnipiac Assignment 11 – ICM 527 – Continuing Program Evaluation

Ethical Issues Regarding Evaluation

Cans Get You Cooking

Upshot

The Real Warriors and Okay 2 Talk Campaigns

Measurements

OK 2 Talk

Metrics

The Continuing Program Evaluation Campaign

Smith Says…

Relating it all back to the ILSC

More About the Continuing Program Evaluation

Like this:

A Look at an Oldie: The Five Elements of Hip-Hop Content Strategy

Hip-Hop Content Strategy – Five Elements

The Content Triangle

Building Trust

Informational, Please

Calls to Action

Hip-Hop Content Strategy – More Elements

But What Does it All Mean?

Takeaways from 2010

A Look Over 14 Years Later at Hip-Hop Content Strategy

Like this:

Quinnipiac Final Paper – ICM501 – Creative Obfuscation

Introduction

Identity

References

Reputation and Creative Obfuscation

AS Crane Said…

Deception

Creative Obfuscation: Conclusion

Personal Identity

Like this:

Let’s look at Mobile & Locative Media

There’s A Party Somewhere

Locative Media Mixes the Familiar with the Unfamiliar

Pre-Planning

Is the RSVP dead?

Caveats

Like this:

Disruption (NSFW)

David Ortiz for the Disruptive Win!

How Did Social Media Handle All This?

Disruption Eight Years Later…

Like this:

Woo-Hoo! Onward to Quinnipiac

ICM 522 In a Nutshell

What it’s All About

Onward to Quinnipiac: Takeaways

Oh and PS

Like this:

Stay Strong and Keep Every Sense About You

A Sense of Destruction and Despair

A Sense of Hope and Glory

Neil Diamond and Sweet Caroline

David Ortiz (who never made more sense than at this very moment)

Always & Forever

Fundraising

Sense, Memory, and Healing

Krystle Campbell

Sean Collier

Lingzi Lu

Martin Richard

Jeff Bauman

Celeste and Sydney Corcoran

Dic Donohue

Patrick and Jessica Downes

Marc Fucarile

In Every Sense, It’s Personal

Like this:

Looking for Work in All the Wrong Places

What the Hell

Mild Panic Attack Ensues

Taking the Plunge Which I Did Not Expect Would Become a Job at Neuron Robotics

Thank God!! And, Suddenly, a Job at Neuron Robotics