Twitter - The Musical

I stumbled across this video on YouTube and couldn’t help but share. It first starts off making fun of Twitter, talking about how people use Twitter frivolously to do things like post what they are eating and post pictures of their feet. But then, they get into why Twitter is important, including bringing up how Twitter helped spread word about the Arabs, and how it connects us to news and important information.

It made me wonder how people really view social media. With these stereotypes out there, a lot of people probably don’t take it seriously. But in reality, it’s an amazing source of news and information. I personally don’t watch the news or even visit news websites, but I do browse Twitter every day and get a lot of my news that way. If a story is breaking, it’s guaranteed to be on Twitter. In fact, I’m much more likely to hear about a story on social media before I would catch it on the news.

What are some stereotypes you hear about Twitter, and other social media, and how do you think those will change as social media continues to grow and progress?

Video Source: AVbyte

Hatching Twitter

For my free post, I decided to write about the book I’m currently reading: Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton. This is the true story about how Twitter was founded and the drama that ensued when the four founders clashed.

As a social media addict, when I started seeing reviews about this book I was immediately interested. Where did they come up with the idea? How did something so seemingly simple gain such intense popularity so quickly? How was it that one element that other platforms already had (status updates) could manage to hold its own so well? I picked up the book and although I’m not finished yet, I’m hooked on the story and what I‘ve learned so far.

The book starts off with one of the founders, Evan “Ev” Williams being ousted as CEO of Twitter and replaced by Dick Costolo, the COO (Bilton 2013, 2). It then flashes back to the early days, when Ev became famous for creating Blogger (Bilton 2013, 16). After selling out to Google, he then teamed up with some guys working on early podcasting (Bilton 2013, 26).  Not sure yet where it will evolve, but ultimately I’m sure it turns into Twitter.

While I’ve never watched The Social Network, I imagine it’s the same premise. Humanizing something like a social media really puts it into perspective. Something we are so heavily reliant on today started as a simple idea tossed around by a few young guys. It’s also fascinating to learn how intertwined a lot of these platforms were, that they were all the brainchild of only a few different individuals.

Source:

Bilton, Nick. Hatching Twitter. New York: The Penguin Group, 2013.

Social Media and Adobe Connect

During this course, we had to select a social media platform and present on it to the class in a live, webinar forum called Adobe Connect.  I chose to present on Twitter, since I’m pretty familiar with the platform and it is a heavy hitter in e-communication today. This was my first time ever using Adobe Connect and it was quite an experience!

At first, I was very confused. Do I need an account? Does it cost money and is there a free trial? How do I become a presenter in the classroom? Should I share my screen or upload a document? I went into the classroom a few times to play around, and that helped answer a lot of my questions. I also communicated via email with a few of my classmates and we helped each other figure it out.

On the day of the presentation, I logged in plenty early. Since I was presenting first, I uploaded my PowerPoint and played around with switching between slides, etc. to make sure everything was working. I also tested my audio with a few of the other participants who were in the session waiting for the presentations.

During the presentation, I was surprisingly relaxed and comfortable. I liked being able to communicate with my classmates as they typed into the text box and I could answer their questions out loud. I think that was a great way to keep people engaged and promote interaction.

Once it was over and I got to listen to/watch my recorded presentation, I thought it went well. My volume was good, the slides worked properly, and the class got engaged.  I started a little too quickly, so my intro was cut off a bit, but that can easily be fixed for next time. Although I was nervous about using a new platform, I learned a lot and am looking forward to getting to use this medium again towards the end of the course!

If you want to take a look at my presentation on Twitter, you can find it here!