Maramulous

The branches of communication

My Personal Learning Network

For my Social Media for Public Relations class this semester,

our professor instructed us to build a Personal Learning Network out of Social Media websites such at Twitter, Diigo, Delicious, Tumblr, and of course out of this blog.

This network would constitute as my constellation of information on educational matters such as Social Media in this case, and even on personal interest matters.

But, how would I go about that, followers?

I’ll tell you.

So, first things first, our professor kindly demonstrated to us how to subscribe to somebody’s RSS feed. I know that this may not seem like a social media break through move but what followed was, at least for me it was.

She showed us that by following the right people, experts in their own fields, that our research is pretty much done for us on whatever topic we choose to subscribe to.

For instance, I’ve followed several Social Media Experts and it has taught me a significant amount of info on how to really do this Social Media thing right.

From Twitter, I learnt that consistency of tone really matters, and I learnt how to form my own voice so to speak. Twitter also taught me how to get people hooked or even merely interested with a brief headline and also how to mix up my mediums.

From Diigo, I learnt that the quality of the person that you follow is the most important filter I’d need to apply. Following someone that simply shares an interest you have is not enough, it’ll only bring you quantity, if even that. Yet, following an expert on the matter is quite significant for fact checked material and for the sake that it’s coming from an authority on the topic, this is what they do day in and day out.

From Tumblr, I learnt that even a museum curator can post some crazy stuff sometimes and that’s all right as long as they do remain consistent in the content that they post in a general sense.

Another thing I did with my personal learning network project was that I made it personal.

I created my own network for an interest that I am working at growing, I’m trying to learn to code in my spare time, followers, yes! me!

It has been beyond helpful to have lists on twitter that speak the lingo, people open enough to receive my countless, maybe even silly, questions and gladly!

It has been great to have many people on Diigo posting about coding for beginners in particular, as a reference to revert back to whenever I am feeling stuck.

Over all it’s been a whirlwind, but a beautiful chaotic one where I’ve been doing more than just absorb and observe.

This way I have my bases covered and I have useful and productive material to kill time with now.

Or as I prefer to say skilling time with. I prefer skilling myself than killing my self metaphorically speaking.

You ought to try it in your free time, go skill yourself!

Paradime Shifts

When it makes no cents, it becomes sad and neglected. Yet when its solely para el dime or el dinero then it becomes selfish and greedy. Where lies the mystical middle-grounds?

run towards

It seems as though our world’s tilted axis is finally straightening itself out, in the mental and metaphorical capacity. Society has become less individualistic and more interested and encouraging of celebrating individuality in a collective setting where each individual becomes complementary to another, and together the collective strives for a higher purpose.

Even larger scaled companies have been adopting lower power indexes as of late, tossing away the ways of old self-serving competitiveness and inviting in a more genuine and breathable sense of community and wholeness.

This shift, in my opinion, should be accredited not only to the earth’s shifting magnetic wave but also and especially to the boom in social exposure via social media. Not only are apps and websites being programmed everyday for the sole purpose of connectivity, but even websites that we buy personal items from have become an open platform for the rating and sharing of higher quality products.

Our mentalities have been shifting, as has the marketplace. It has stepped up to match the recently ever evolving genuine wavelengths of its customers. People are becoming more conscious of what they are eating, wearing, and buying altogether. So for the first time, perhaps in history, the consumer is now the one setting the terms. We want organic foods, we want to recycle, we want to reduce Co2 emissions, we want to know if our clothes were made ethically, and most importantly we want to know all about our market’s integrity.

Is my market feeding me what it would feed its own children? Does it care that there are millions of people dying of starvation around the globe? What is it doing about that?

The market has become the consumer, we have become more aware than ever that it is now only putting our money here its mouth needs to be. For our loyalty and our word of mouth’s growing power, the market has become a more humanized entity.

People are beginning to understand that relations with corporate entities ought to be treated like human relationships. I can now ask myself, is it being good to me? Is it constantly trying to be good for me? Is it helping or hindering my personal growth on all spectrums? Does it genuinely care about me? Are it’s flaws acceptable ones to me or are they immoral deal breakers? Can I still see myself happy with it in 5 years when I’ve flourished into a higher quality lifestyle? How would it react to my constructive criticism? Would it care if I became dissatisfied with it one day?  Would it care enough to try to make it up to me?

A true friend would care, but the market? It should care and it needs to care if it is genuine about personal growth being a two-way road and it would care if its integrity is truly what meets the eye. It has become a quick learner and has finally begun to care about me, and you, and most importantly about a sense of us. 

Mission: Statement.

When you are loyal to a brand, it is because you believe in what they stand for.

You become as consistent as they have shown themselves to be in upholding certain standards in ethical ways.

Transparency is most probably what drew you in to trust this brand and thus become loyal, stretching the trust into a two-way road.

It certainly doesn’t hurt when the brand has beneficial, useful, and even beautiful products.

It is, however, the brand’s mission statement that keeps you coming back for more.

What’s behind a mission statement? How do we know that it is being maintained and ethically so?

Take Tom’s for example, you buy a pair of their shoes and another pair is donated on your behalf to a child in need.

We see photographic evidence of this, but is that enough transparency?

Wouldn’t it be far more transparent if volunteer opportunities were available to consumers to donate the shoes themselves?

With the rise of non-profit boutiques, an opportunity as such would be the most viable manner in which to open up to the conscious consumer.

Rather than buying loyalty with words or photos, an experience speaks for itself, transforming any skeptic into a life-time loyal brand ambassador.

Think about that. A brand that has voluntary ambassadors across the globe.

It exists, and ought to be a more common thing.

After all, isn’t it all about sharing wealth?

Global wealth of resources, experiences and knowledge should be shared freely, that is my very own mission statement.

Does your mission make a statement?

The Saint Edward’s Social Media Scavenger Hunt

We had an exciting assignment for my Social Media for PR class.

A visual/ Social Media based scavenger hunt!

All themed St. Edward’s!

Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fstorify.com%2Fvivaciousvirgo3%2Fst-edwards-social-media-scavenger-hunt

 

The Loop

Today I learnt that a fellow student in my school was found dead in the lake.

I feel as thought I have no right to mourn him because I never knew him. I was sick to my stomach when I heard the news anyway.

I am not a drinker, and I am not an emotional escapist anymore. I have no idea how to deal with death though.

I have never had close deaths occur in my life. I have never mourned a human being.

I have turned to this outlet, writing, to help me cope with my unjustified mourning of the 20 year old that I merely shared a campus with.

He was the eldest of 8 siblings. That must have been a heap of pressure.

Pressure that I was hoping he had chosen to deal with by coloring his hair and assuming a new role in a different town.

I hoped this for the entirety of the 10 days that he had been missing for.

He was said to be off of his anti-depressants. It made me think of a reality in which everybody is secretly anxious and depressed in fluctuations.

We hide our emotions under our collars so well. But don’t we all just feel the same on the inside anyway?

Transparency has become the rarest of commodities.

If you tell a stranger how you really feel on a bad day, would they really listen or are they playing their own tune in loops over the sound of your flapping vulnerably expressing lips?

Feeling alone is a natural phenomenon, not expressing it, however, can easily lead to the unnatural.

I just wish I could have shared a smile with Elleno and surged through him with a hug on a beautiful sunny day like today.

I did not know him. But I mourned his loss gazing at a beautiful oak tree today

Skip to toolbar