Insta-badge

Since acquiring Instagram, Facebook has made some changes to the rapidly growing social media platform. As a photo sharing social network, Instagram is based on visuals. So when it introduced Instagram Badges, the social site hoped to help brands and individuals market their Instagram profiles along with the other sites (Twitter, Google+, and Facebook) that are currently using badges. When adding an Instagram badge, several images are available as the button that will appear as the badge:

Once you have added a badge to your blog or website, it will show up like this example from Mashable:

Instagram is growing as a source of branding for individuals, but it is becoming increasingly popular among brands. Companies know that their consumers respond to visuals, so what better way to appeal to them, as well as informing them about products, than through photos available to them anywhere? So decide for yourself if Instagram badges are an improvement on this visual platform, and while you decide, enjoy some of my most recent Instagram photos:

                                             

                                             

 

Kings and Queens

All the talk about Thanksgiving has inspired me to post about what many people focus on during this holiday: food. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? Mine has to be my grandmother’s homemade turkey and dressing- there’s nothing like it! I dream about this dish all year long, and sometimes she even makes it for me when it’s not Thanksgiving because she knows I love it so much.

Social media has been full of posts about Thanksgiving this month, especially today since the holiday is tomorrow. I came across an infographic in an article on Mashable about the most talked about Thanksgiving foods, so let’s take a look:

 

Who knew people loved green beans so much? Well, while great food is one part of the holidays, my favorite part is getting to spend time with family, especially seeing certain family members that I often miss during other times of the year. Thinking about the things I am thankful for reminded me of the people I have met in Haiti, New York City, Knoxville, and the billions of strangers around the world who don’t have these things. They don’t have a shelter where they feel safe all the time, or more food than they could ever eat before it goes bad, or even a closet overflowing with clothes that they don’t even wear (and in case you still don’t get it, I have way too much stuff). I know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are often a time when people are more conscious of the poor, but my hope is that I can make a difference in those people’s lives no matter what time of year it is, and that I can inspire others to do the same. I have mentioned the The Bowery Mission in New York in other posts, and recently they have been posting on Facebook and Twitter about the donations they received after hurricane Sandy, as well as donations for Thanksgiving. KARM here in Knoxville has also been posting about the donations they have received for Thanksgiving. Seeing these posts makes me want to help those in need, but also reminds me that I need to do a better job of being faithful in helping the poor no matter what time of year it happens to be, because many of these people will be forgotten once the first of the year comes around. I don’t want these people to be forgotten. I want these people to be loved and cared for more than I want that homemade turkey and dressing from my grandmother on Thanksgiving. I want them to feel like kings and queens, not just for a day, but every day. I guess my point is that I am happy that Americans like to help the poor during the holiday season, but I would encourage you to think about those in need year-round! Go help those in need and watch how it changes your life. So go eat some great food, help some people out who might not be having a great holiday season, and be thankful for the things you have been blessed with!

Check this music video that is part of a project to help those in Haiti:

A New Kind of Economy

What do you use Facebook for? To keep up with friends, post pictures, or manage a business’ page? Facebook has many different facets, but one that I am learning more about is the world of Facebook apps. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I am currently working on a campaign for Doritos Crash the Super Bowl. Crash began using a Facebook app for the first time this year, and has seen tremendous success because of it. Facebook apps have become an industry of their own, creating 235,644 jobs. Facebook, if it were a country, would be the third largest country in the world behind China and India. So how does this enormous platform contribute to the app industry? Well, Facebook users install 20 million apps per day, which is 2.4 times the amount of cups of coffee that Starbucks sells in one day.

While on Pinterest, an infographic caught my eye. (Yes, I am aware that I am infographic-crazy!) This graphic led me to a post on the Engine Yard blog called “The Facebook App Economy”. The article discusses the specifics of the Facebook app industry, but I will let the infographic do the talking:

The Quiet Giant

This semester I discovered a great resource for anything I could ever want or need to know as I began two separate campaigns for two different Advertising classes- one for Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt, and the other for Doritos Crash the Super Bowl. This resource is called SlideShare. From discovering target markets involving moms, to learning about the demographics of filmmakers, SlideShare has it all. And, just in case you are wondering, it has other topics that are relevant to you! So, what is SlideShare? It is a website with endless amounts of slideshows on almost any topic. You can upload your own PowerPoint presentations, or look for information on the slideshows that are uploaded by others. SlideShare even has a paid “Pro” version that businesses can use at a different level than individuals. I did not realize, however, how much SlideShare is used by people all over the world until I happened across an infographic about it on Pinterest. The pinner referred to SlideShare as the “YouTube of professional resources”. I have a slight obsession with infographics, perhaps because I am a designer, and I think that this one gives some valuable information about this incredible resource called SlideShare:

So next time you need to know something, check out this “Quiet Giant”.

Degrees of Separation

I came across an article and video on Mashable today called “Facebook World Map Reveals Unexpected Trends Between Friends”. The article features a video about an interactive map that shows the friendship connections of the one billion active users on Facebook. The Mashable video pointed out an interesting fact about this map. It shows the top five countries that have the most connections with the country that the user clicks on. Many countries still have strong relationships with the countries that colonized them such as the United States and the United Kingdom. I am currently taking a world civilizations class, and the most recent lectures have focused on the “scramble for Africa”, or the fight for African lands by the greatest powers of the world at that time. Those countries believed that in order to be a great power in the world, and to have great influence, they must claim as much land as possible. It struck me that even though the majority of the colonizing countries treated the natives of their colonies horribly, those lands still have strong connections with those colonizing countries today. No matter what, people are connected- even through evil acts such as slavery. What does this say about our relationships with the people within our own lives? Are we willing to forgive and move on? Maybe that is a discussion for next time…

Purely Preferences

As I start my day, I pick up my iPhone 4s to stop my alarm and check my messages and emails. I get out of bed to get ready for the day, and I check the weather. As I wait for my coffee to brew, I check Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. And on and on the day goes…

I could bore you with details of how I use my phone, but I think you get the picture. Instead I will say that I use my iPhone constantly, and for just about anything. I love Apple products because they have never let me down (and because they are pretty). Recently, the iPhone 5 was released, and has taken some pretty heavy criticism. I looked to Mashable.com to tell me about this new product when it was released. Since then, articles like “iPhone 5 Compared with Competitors” have been published. These articles do not make the iPhone 5 look like the wonderful creation that it is, but instead they point out what is not good enough about it. To all those skeptics out there who are disappointed with the iPhone 5, I would just like to say that an iPhone can do a lot for you that other smart phones cannot.

When I find a product that is more of a help to me than a hassle, I stick with it. The iPhone is such a great help to me that I would never go back to any other brand. This is purely my opinion, but none of my Apple products have let me down, and I do not intend to use any other brand to access my daily needs like social media, my alarm, reminders, weather, phone, email, and even games. Today I choose reliability over everything else. It is purely preferences that make me want to defend this product over and over again.

No Regrets

A couple weeks ago, I made a post called “Death, and the Life of Social Media”. Little did I know how close to home this would hit me just eleven days later. On September 16, 2012 around 7:30pm, my nineteen year old cousin, Chandler, passed away in a car accident. He was driving down a road he had driven a thousand times before. He lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a power pole. He was pronounced dead on the scene when help arrived.

When I decided to blog about this, I was not sure how to approach it. When I began thinking about what I loved most about my cousin it became clear; I had to write about my cousin’s love of life. Not even two months ago, he tweeted this:

Chandler was constantly spending time with friends and family, and doing whatever he could to have fun and make the most of the day. He played sports, loved being on the water, riding dirt bikes, and other crazy and fun things. It touched my heart to see him play with his little niece and nephew who loved him so much. He loved people, and loved life. He tried to live without regrets. This might be cliche, but it is true – you never know when your last day will be, so live today like it is your last. It is easy to slip into the thinking that “this is not fair”, or “his life was cut too short”, but I cannot let myself dwell on those ideas. I believe that God has a reason for everything. He did not cause this to happen, but He allowed it. I do not understand the reason, but that has to be ok because He sees the big picture and I can only see a small part of this world that my life is embedded in.

Chandler turned nineteen a week before he passed away. This is a tweet from the day before his birthday:

In some ways it is wonderful to be able to visit this trail of memories that he has left behind, both on Twitter and Facebook, but in some ways it is hard to revisit them. In another way though, it is almost like a little part of him is still with us, making us laugh and reminding us of this young man who we miss so much.

One of my favorite artists, Lecrae, says it best:

“And when it’s over then something else starts. The only thing that’s really gonna matter is that hope inside your heart.” -Lecrae