Technology as Miracle

Photo credit to Nic Wise.

I’m Catholic.  With the big C as in “love the Pope,” but really with a small C as in “my parents made me do it.”  I start with this to say that I’ve never been much of a church person.  But, I go on and off.  Over the summer, that was more on than off, because I was staying with relatives and doing my darndest to prove that yes, I am one of those bright and shiny young people who looks forward to church every Sunday morning.  I don’t think I was fooling anyone.

On the Other Side of the Digital Divide

Or, Gutter-Diving Isn’t Enough

Photo credit to lisainglasses.

I live my life with my feet (or more so, fingers) firmly planted on the internet.  But, this morning, I read an article about the other side of the digital divide.  (Yes, ironically, I read it online.)  The premise was that Paul Miller, a tech columnist for The Verge, had given up the internet for a year.  Through this abstention, he explored how the other half lived and how living like “them” might change his perspective on the world.

On Being The Hero Of My Own Story

Or: The Blog Is Back

Photo credit to NCinDC.

In the last few months, this blog has taken a bit of a hiatus.  True, it’s because I’ve been lazy, but it’s also because I’ve been busy.  I got a new job and move to Chicago!  (Yeah, I know, way to bury the lead…)

So, what’s the new job?  It’s digital marketing for Baxter Credit Union.  So, basically, now I get paid to do what I love – and what this blog is about.  And it’s fantastic.  I’m part of a great team of people who are smart and funny and passionate about what they do.  I couldn’t ask for better co-workers.  But, man were they intimidating the first week.  (“I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so scared.”)

Do Not Track — Or, At Least Pretend You’re Not Tracking

Photo credit to Zach Klein.

The other day I sat in on a webinar about using social media data in marketing.  The webinar was fascinating – and the accompanying Twitter discussion was even better.  Towards the end of the conversation, one of the presenters made the point that marketers need to give customers something in exchange for access to their data.  He named a few possible benefits to consumers, but they were all just dressed up forms of personalized advertising.  On Twitter, I commented that, “The problem is that the things you get in exchange for giving personal data are custom ads – valuable to the company, not you.” Then I sat back and watched the retweets roll in.

Searching for Meaning in Spam

Photo Credit to .::HMU::..

I get a lot of spam – on this blog, on my work blog, and my corporate website.  It feels like the snow that’s still coming down even though it’s March.  (When will it stop?!)  Most of it is rubbish, utter nonsense that I delete out of hand, easily recognizing it for the gratuitous references to Viagra, work from home jobs, or off-shore e-mail providers.

But, sometimes there’s something about it that makes me stop and pay attention.  The way that, even though it’s cold and you wish it would hurry up and get to spring already, perfect snow can still make you think of Santa and Christmas magic.  There’s something about them and the way they’re written than makes me think that they can’t all be from a computer program in China.  And maybe there really is a long lost Nigerian prince who needs my help.

Back to the Facebook Future

Or, How to Rewrite Your Facebook History and Take Control of Your Data

Photo credit to JD Hancock.

You’ve probably just gotten used to Facebook Timeline and abandoned your “Give us back the old Facebook” page, but Zuckerberg’s gone and moved your cheese again.  GraphSearch, is the newest new Facebook; it integrates search and social – and invades your privacy – as never before.

If you’re like most users of the site, you’ve been through enough versions of “the new Facebook” that you’ve become immune to the hype surrounding an announcement that a new and improved Facebook is on the horizon.  The frequency of upgrades and staggering of the rollouts makes it hard to know when you’ve been upgraded.  Add to that the fact that Facebook doesn’t do version numbers like most software (i.e. there’s no “Facebook 5.1.4” floating in the corner of your screen), and many users don’t even know if they’re on “the new Facebook” or “the old Facebook.”

Ohio is for Lovers, Montana is For Badasses

I love autocomplete and the insight it gives you into the zeitgeist of the internet.  I purposely take my time when entering search terms so that Google will throw inadvertently amusing (and sometimes racist) suggestions at me.

Recently @mattshirley41 decided to explore what his fellow netizens think about the United States and mapped the results.  The United States Is… maps autocomplete suggestions for the 50 states.

Dawn of the Facebook Dead

Photo credit to atomicjeep.

A while back, I wrote about the possibility of social automation leading to digital dopplegangers who stayed around long after our deaths (Digital Ghosts – Something creepy this way comes).  Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about this topic.

@tomscott, creator of the hilarious Actual Facebook Graph Searches tumblr and subsequent meme, created a (also hilarious) video on this topic.  When Facebook Resurrected the Dead takes a mock historical perspective on the creation of the digital afterlife.

LinkedIn: The Social Network Where Fun Goes to Die

Photo credit to sara_anne.

The other day I was working with some colleagues on a plan for digital communications surrounding the upcoming Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) conference.  Like most things that include the word accounting, buzz about the conference isn’t exactly sticky; it doesn’t rocket around cyberspace like news of Joe Biden’s latest gaff or pictures of Kate’s baby bump.

In order to build excitement for the conference, we’re going to be having social media contests in the lead up to the event.  The topic of discussion: what network to use for the contests: Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Sponsored Clutter: Coming Soon to a Newsfeed Near You

Or, Sponsored Stories are Bad News for Facebook Users

Photo credit to tqhh

Recently, my Facebook reach has been rather down.  What, I’m I suddenly not as interesting?  Are my pictures not as good?  My posts not as funny?  Although Facebook doesn’t provide individual users with stats about their posts’ engagement and reach, I can tell you what my graph would look like – like a plane crashing from 30,000 feet.

For a while, I was thinking that this was a personal problem – that I’d been so fussed on school and work that I’d let my social media presence slip.  I didn’t even want to think about my Klout score.  Then friends started mentioning that they were experiencing lower engagement, as well.  I started seeing, “Hello, can anyone see this?” posts.  Then I noticed that the same problem was happening on the pages that I admin.