My overall experience on Twitter has been very positive. I love Twitter's fast pace nature and the fact that it is so easy to find information on just about anything quickly. I've found it to be extremely valuable to follow public relations professionals who are on Twitter and sharing their experiences in the industry. It is a great way to connect with practitioners who would otherwise not be very accessible. Most of my own tweets were random and were related to my thoughts, activities or links to information that I thought was interesting enough to share. Most of my replies were directed at social media classmates. However, meeting the guest speakers has offered many opportunities to be more interactive with professionals in the field.

Twitter Statistics

Number of tweets: 58
Number of retweets: 10
Number of replies: 60
Following: 121
Followers: 96

Twitter Experience

I've quickly become one of those people who are addicted to Twitter. After following as many Marquette classmates and professionals in the advertising and public relations field that I could find, I learned the value of Twitter through observation first. Once I learned the Twitter etiquette and read articles on how to effectively use the site, I began to make my own 140 character post and interact with other Twitter users from Marquette. After enough practice, I felt confident enough to start interacting with more advanced Twitter users in the public relations field. Some people that I have found to offer valuable and relevant tweets are: @briansolis, @acraKA, @zappos and @AlKrueger. I appreciate that the mentioned Tweeters offer a well balanced mix of professional information and advice as well as personal thoughts and ideas. I don't like when Twitter users, especially professionals in the field, constantly Tweet only about what they are doing every second of the day, so I try to avoid those Tweeters. Following a large number of experienced Tweeters who are posting many times a day can start to be a bit overwhelming. I've found TweetDeck to be an extremely helpful tool in organizing my network of followers.

Many people who are not on Twitter do not get the point of what it is used for. However, when used in the right way, Twitter is a great tool for networking and exchanging information with classmates, professionals and friends. One Marquette student that I follow fully understands how to use Twitter to connect and build relationships. I suggest checking out @HalfAdHalfPR's profile for some great examples.

TweetDeck

Today I downloaded Twitter's TweetDeck. Now that I'm using it, I have no idea how I went without it for so long. It is an extremely efficient away to use Twitter. Downloading TweetDeck is easy to do and the application is simple to learn how to use. It is a window on your computer desktop that displays tweets, replies, and direct messages in columns. The application is in real time, so updates are constantly displayed without having to use the refresh button. Especially for those who are following a lot of people in the public relations or marketing industry who are very social media savvy and tweet many times a day, TweetDeck simplifies a potentially overwhelming homepage. Anyone who is accustomed to organizing everything (like I am) will appreciate that the application allows users to categorize people into groups. This helps users to receive information in a more orderly way. It is much easier to sift through a large number and variety of tweets on TweetDeck.

TweetDeck allows users to do most things that they would do on the Twitter Web, like search for people, reply to tweets, or create a post. The color, font, and sound settings are changeable so that TweetDeck users can create a window that is custom-made to align with unique personalities. To download TweetDeck, go to http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/. I highly recommend this application!

Team Building Activities

Yesterday I was required to attend All Staff. For those of you who work in the Alumni Memorial Union, you know that All Staff is a biannual event for all students who work in the Union. It takes place on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and usually includes guest speakers, presentations by the student managers, activities, departmental meetings, and lunch (the most popular event). This year, the coordinators decided to do things a little bit differently and give us much more time to spend within our departments. Usually, the department meetings consist of student managers running down an agenda of topics to discuss while student employees grumpily mumble under their breath about having to wake up early on a Sunday to sit in boring work meetings. However, this year was radically different. In my department meeting, we spent the majority of our time doing team building activities and, surprisingly, we had a lot of fun.

Like most team building exercises, the ones we participated included elements of trust building, communication, and teamwork. By the end of the session, my department members were huddling together on a tiny 4 ft. "island," standing on each others backs (yes, literally), and leaping into fellow employees' arms. Needless to say, these were intense team building games. All of the activities went extremely well and definitely met the goal of bringing our employees closer and building trust among the group.

In the case of my student employee department, team building activities have proven to be successful. However, this got me thinking about team building activities on a larger scale. Do team building exercises always work in a professional environment? In my department's case, the exercises were successful because we are all young student workers who are not afraid to act silly and participate in physical activities. Additionally, we have all known each other fairly well prior to the activity. After the day was over, I wondered if our activities would have gone as well if we were not as familiar with each other or if our department as a whole did not have such a positive attitude.

In order for the activities to work, I think the group must be somewhat familiar with each other beforehand. Otherwise, any physical activity might be awkward and make people feel uncomfortable, which would inhibit participants from being fully engaged in the activity. However on the other hand, if department members already know each other very well, the team building activity might serve as a time to simply goof around or socialize. If this was the case, the bonding aspect of the activity might not be as meaningful or effective as it would be for new group members. Most importantly, the group's collective attitude must be positive, open, and willing. This is easier said than done, especially when the activities are taking place outside of the normal work hours or during a busy workday when the worker has "more important" things to be doing.

I think team building exercises are a powerful tool for bonding, but only with the right formula.

Consumer Reviews: Who Knew?

Until recently, I often ignored the consumer reviews and ratings listed with a product that is showcased online. I don't know if it was my Freudian Id that wanted to make spontaneous and instantly gratifying purchases without doing the research and weighing the positives and negatives, or if it was simply a lack of attention to what other consumers were saying. Maybe I expected that the only people who were writing reviews about products were the consumers who were either extremely satisfied or extremely disappointed, leaving me confused and unsure as to which review I should listen to. Either way, social media has helped me learn how to be more in tune to what other consumers are saying about the products I'm interested in. It turns out, this stuff is incredibly helpful.... and addicting. Now that I have started reading consumer reviews, I am obsessed with reading reviews for every single product or service that I am slightly interested in. I start with the first comment and read every single one that is posted - no matter how many there are. If there are not any reviews, good or bad, I don't buy it anymore. This new practice helps me to feel informed and, even better yet, it helps me save money. With graduation rapidly approaching, I like to think of this as a baby step towards more responsible, adult-like (yikes!) buying habits.

Groundswell Stats

I'm currently in a Gender and Communication class. It is a discussion based class in which we talk about the different patterns of communication among males and females. It has sparked my interest in this particular area of communication. Now whenever I have the chance, I like to compare the behavior of males and females regarding any given topic.

When comparing the list of countries in the data tool, there is not a major difference in the percentage of "Creators" who are male and female when age is not specified. The number of male Creators and female Creators are within a few percentages for all of the countries except for two: Italy and South Korea. In Italy, the gap is about seven points with men leading. In South Korea, the gap is about ten points with women leading. After looking at these statistics, I started to wonder if this was a coincidence or if there was a more concrete explanation for the differences in these two countries.

I tried to think back to Augie Ray's presentation on social media. I remember that he said most people incorrectly associate social media with younger generations. I can't remember him saying anything about differing patterns among males and females or between different countries.