By the Letter E

In this time of digital growth many of us hear different terms being thrown around the social media landscape.  Words like SEO, SEM and we often hear the term " building your network ".  Network .  What does that mean exactly?  What is a network and how does one go about building one online? A network is built from connections with people.  Those connections, those bonds can be through any means of socialization.  Pre social media networks were built by utilizing friends and family or even strangers that you struck up a conversation with. In small towns and tight knit communities, it is often through these networks that bring to mind the phrase "small world" as discoveries of mutual connections are made.  With the advent of social media building a network has never been easier.  It has allowed social butterflies to further extend their reach and present themselves to others in the world and expand their network.  For those i...

Well as I sit here listening to all of the illegal fireworks going off in my neighborhood and then the rain that has begun to fall...I can't help but think about all of the things that have come out of the crap that was 2012. On a personal level...This past year has been such a struggle for my family that I could not wait for the new year to arrive. The past it just that, the past. So in 2013, I look forward to promising events to take place that will propel my personal enrichment forward as well as uplift those around me to a new level of energy, love and prosperity. Being so close to the ground, one can only go up. Positive vibes, promising career options, and always love for my fellow man shall bring fantastic things in the coming year. I wish you all the best...and then some in 2013, I mean we've already all defied the predicted death of our planet right? That's one hurdle crossed...the rest should be cake. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Something as trivial as a day at school should be just that, trivial. Things should be normal.  People should wave at friends in the halls, pass notes in class, learn, and look forward to recess and lunch.  As we have seen in the tragedies in the US and across the ocean in China, sometimes days aren't so trivial.  This was truly a slaughter of the innocents. Shortly after parents dropped off their children at Sandyhook Elementary in Connecticut, an emergency page/txt went out to parents with a generic message that there had been a shooting at a school.  Parents were advised not to pick up their children, which as any good parent can attest was largely ignored.     Within hours word had spread through the US that something horrible had occurred within a small close knit town called Newtown Connecticut.  First, word that there had been a shooting arrived in fuzzy preliminary news reports.  Then as the day progressed twitter feeds and faceboo...

If you've ever tried to find employment at an advertising agency without any 'agency experience', you probably know how difficult it can be to even get your resume past the gatekeeper reviewing the emails much less get in to interview.  With the appearance of social media and this type of emergent media marketing ad agencies are trying to keep up.  The reason is simple, to be good at social media monitoring it involves actual interaction with the community and others online.  Creating a campaign for a client involves much more than just creating generic content to post every holiday, which is different from standard ad operations that normally send out  'holiday blast' commercial copy across all normal marketing channels for a client.  Social media requires 'interaction'.  One does NOT need a Masters degree or agency experience in order to get to know your buying public and interact with them online.  Many small businesses and even some not...

So, like many of you today in America, I exercised my right to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election. Do I find it odd that this also happens to be the year that the world is supposed to wobble our society into apocalyptic oblivion according to the Mayan big rocks?  NO, but that's an ENTIRE other kind of blog.  I'm writing today because of something I noticed while waiting in the long line at my polling place this morning.  I learned a few things this morning as I shuffled along with the rest of the lemmings.  They are..in no particular order: Some people really don't know what they're doing... Listening to the crowd around me a woman's voice stuck out so I listened to what she was saying.  She described and I quote "I sure hope they don't have the same machines as last time, and I sure hope I know how to work it, because last time I had no idea what I was doing"  That bothers me a little...shouldn't a news outlet SOMEWHERE do a story prior t...

With the advent of social media, well of the internet really people have become more inclined to share everything from photos, artwork news and everything in between.  Offline, people have been sharing artwork and utilizing other forms of communication for centuries in the form of books, and the spoken word in libraries and in museums.  Only now has the sharing images and other forms of media gone online and increased viewership by the millions world-wide. The term viral is as commonplace now in discussion of online content as it was back in the days of using the term to describe actual biological medical conditions.  Why?  How do things like art or media go viral? What is the difference between now and then? The answer to all of these questions is innovative technology and YOU. LOL CAT MEMES You and everyone else on the planet that has access to technological resources like the internet, computers and smart phones.  Even those that live in places with...

In 1980 a typical school day in Central Texas consisted of reading, writing on paper, the utilization of pencils, pens, loads of construction paper and glue to get a lesson across to the students.  The days when the lesson included a trip to the AV supply room to wheel in a large television set propped up on a metal stand with the latest technological marvel, the VCR attached were added bonuses to the learning schema. These days our children are living in an advanced society that few could have imagined back then.  While most children were learning how to walk and talk back then these days one can find children easily perusing their parents' cell phones or tablets using newly refined motor skills like swipe and touch.  Never has technology given our children such an appealing opportunity to learn.  Why then are there so many educational systems in the world that are reluctant to embrace such technology in the classrooms?  Smart phones provide an o...