It’s the Holiday Season…with social media?

What’s the holiday season without shopping? The craziness that begins the day after Turkey Day, while tradition for a lot of folks, can still be quite overwhelming. The goal of course is to find the best deals on all of the gifts you plan to give to family and friends (and why not pick up a little something for yourself too?). While “Black Friday” ads from the newspaper are fun to sift through on Thanksgiving, since so many people, unfortunately, no longer purchase or read traditional print media, most turn to the Internet and social media to find their deals.

There are a ton of websites that give preview scans of all of the major stores’ print ads, like bfads.net, blackfridayinfo.com, and theblackfriday.com.  Here eager shoppers can find out all of the best deals before the big day, mapping out their game plan. No, I really mean map it out… Target.com offers a service to map out your route in their store!

There is a Twitter handle that gives a feed of Black Friday deals, as well. Follow @blackfriday to find out where to find that big screen TV for $299 without the hassle of paper cuts. 😉

Some of those websites also have Facebook pages to streamline searches. Black-Friday.net has theres at https://www.facebook.com/blackfridaydeals.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and that in spite of the hectic-ness of shopping, cooking, and traveling the true meaning of this time of year shines through! Enjoy with your family and friends 🙂

Travel the world…with social media?

We all know that social media is this fantastic tool that can help us to find and share information in basically any area of our lives. Like I wrote about before, it can even help you get some tasty lunch. But another great way to utilize this tool that many people overlook is for travel.

Many traditional travel websites and companies are now turning to social media to help them reach their customers as they are changing the way they shop, communicate, and gather information. AAA offers an iPhone app that shows where the nearest AAA rated hotel, gas station, etc. can be found and also where in your area is a store that offers an AAA discount. They have a webpage that is dedicated to social media, http://midatlantic.aaa.com/SocialMedia/, where a customer can find their Twitter handles, a link to their Facebook page, and a members benefits community center.

Most travel companies, whether an airline like Southwest or a booking agent like Orbitz, most have an app available for added convience for their customers. Orbitz’s app allows customers to book flights, hotels, and cars on the go while American Airlines offers a mobile boarding pass through their app.

Disney has one of the cooler apps available. The Walt Disney World app through Verizon Wireless, Mobile Magic, gives the user attraction wait and FASTPASS return times for the particular park they’re in and even lets them know the location of their favorite character so they can find Goofy or Snow White faster than they can eat their Micky Ear ice cream pop. Mobile Magic uses GPS to show the user what is going on in their vicinity, helping to save time and crankiness. There are trivia and other games available on the app as well. Outside app creators have made some other really cool apps that are very similar to Mobile Magic, so if your aren’t a Verizon Wireless user, there are other options available.  The Disney mobile website gives weather and dining information on top of the info provided through the app.

The community boards available through websites like TravelAdvisor help to make expensive choices less scary, by having truthful and up-to-date info on a hotel, restaurant, or activity that wouldn’t have been available before.

Hungry for some social media?

Social media has become the go to for information for most of us in many different areas like entertainment, news, and personal communication. Now, we can get food too! A new food fad that has hit the streets in many cities like New York and Los Angeles are food trucks. These aren’t your average dirty water hot dogs and Nuts for Nuts. These trucks are serving up some major gormet offerings, there is even a dessert truck! Since it is pretty difficult to always know where your favorite Asian BBQ fusion truck is located, these hipster roadies are now using Twitter to let their followers know where they are and whats being served. So when you get hungry for a cupcake and you’re not near a Crumbs, you can hit up your Twitter feed to find out where that cream puff delight on wheels is headed next. Here is a list of street food vendors on Twitter:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/05/a-list-of-street-food-vendors-trucks-carts-using-twitter.html

Social media is also being used in other areas of the food industry. Finding and sharing recipes online with websites like AllRecipes.com isn’t really anything new. Now there are food finding  mobile Apps such as Near Me, UrbanSpoon, Yelp, LocalEats, and Eat Street. When out at a the retaurant of your favorite celebrity chef you can take a photo on your phone and Tweet it to your pals with a hash tag or geo-tag to guide them in the right direction. Social media can also help to find a local farmers market and to know what is being offered. Chefs are even using Facebook and Twitter to share recipes, ingredients, and ideas with other chefs around the world.

Next time you are jonsing for a fish taco, want to read up on your local sustainable restaurant, or are looking for dinner ideas, head to your favorite app or Twitter feed for inspiration!

Here are some websites to check out:

http://marcussamuelsson.com/news/how-social-media-is-changing-the-food-world

http://www.foodcandy.com/

http://mashable.com/2009/07/30/social-media-foodies/

Image c/o:

http://www.thatsnerdalicious.com/fast-food/the-rise-of-the-social-food-truck-infographic/

Is Social Media a cure for Cancer?

No, it’s not, at least not directly, but it has helped multiple organizations to raise money, spread their word, have their voice heard by the government, and to provide more information and support for patients and their families.

I have had many people in my family and close friends suffer from Cancer so it has always been a topic of interest for me. I recently found out that one of my parents’ dearest friends has had a relapse. This gave me the idea to research how SM has impacted the Cancer community.

The four largest and most influential organizations, LIVESTRONG, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital all have a very active social media presence. Their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube channels, and blogs have helped to raise millions of dollars for research and to directly impact the recovery of the millions of Cancer patients around the world.

LIVESTRONG’s social media community has brought in more than 60% of their website’s traffic (Hibbard, 2010).

American Cancer Society has several Twitter handles as well as an iPhone/iPod/iPad app, which community support the community and increase donations and participants in their annual walks.

Susan G. Komen has a blog that is meant to provide information and support to the community dealing with Breast Cancer. With it being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this blog becomes particularly popular.

St Jude’s Children’s Hospital provides medical care to children with illnesses regardless of their parents ability to pay. Donations are particularly important for this organization as they are what keeps this wonderful service available and keeps their research going. St Jude’s has a fantastic online presence with a social media toolkit for people to use to spread the word.

This really opened my eyes to the potential social media has to change the world in a great way. If anyone ever asks you what “the point” of Twitter is, I think you’ll have a pretty snappy reply! 😉

Reference:
Hibbard, Casey. (2010, April 13). How LIVESTRONG raised millions to fight Cancer using social media. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-livestrong-raised-millions-to-fight-cancer-using-social-media/

Susan G. Komen
LIVESTRONG
American Cancer Society

Over connected?

While on a solo drive home from AC (for you non-Jersians, that’s Atlantic City), enjoying the quiet, I started to think about how connected we all are to social media, and really, media in general. In the casino I found myself completely over sensitized by the sounds and lights and people, but I was able to spot some of the Bravo® Real Housewives walking through the casino. My first thoughts about this were, a) am I a dork for knowing who they all were (and being kind of excited about seeing them) and b) I should totally Tweet about it.

My professor had an interesting insight into this phenomenon: thinking in “status updates”. When something happens to you, or you do something cool/funny/stupid, you automatically think about how you would word it as a status update or tweet. I have to admit (don’t judge me!) that I definitely do that…

When at a Foo Fighters concert a couple of weeks ago, it was interesting, amusing, and kind of depressing to find that everyone around me (including myself) had their iPhones, Blackberries, etc. out in order to Tweet, FB status update, or check-in about the concert and the people they were with. In times past we would have just shared and enjoyed this experience with those around us, but in these SM crazed times we feel the need to share with everyone else.

Are we over connected or just more informed?…

Blog, the first.

Hey!

I’m starting this blog for my social media class that is a part of my MBA program that I’m enrolled in at Southern New Hampshire University.

Mostly, I’ll be discussing topics having to do with this delightful, new-ish medium, but I might sneak in other thoughts about random topics that peak my interest!

Say hey once in a while and follow along!

🙂 Jen