The state is gearing up for a bonfire at Birchwood Farms in Reevesville. We are so happy to welcome our peers from Columbia + Greenville, and areas in between, to join us on Saturday from 3:00pm – 9:00pm.
For almost five months now, Charleston has been tweeting up consistently and has exceeded my wildest expectations. It started when I moved back home and felt out of place because, although I grew up here, I didn’t have a professional network or attend college in Charleston. With the help of Kristin Bostic (@ChasRunner), we invited strangers and friends to meet-up and engage one another. On Saturday, we hope to make our world a little smaller and include those tech-savvy individuals across the state to move & shake with us.
I’ve put together some directions with landmarks, so you don’t feel so lost or deceived by your GPS. Some of the streets change names before you can notice:
-Get on I-95 South (to Savannah)
-Take exit 77 (to 78 East), Jim Belton Blvd
-Off the ramp, turn right and it will go down to 2 lanes (and change names, just keep straight)
-Take a left on Main St/Co Rd S-18-383, this will be the left before the Town Hall + Fire Department.
-Take a slight right over the railroad tracks on Reeves St/Co Rd S-18-18
-Keep straight for 2.1 miles Reeves St will turn into Heaton Rd
-You’ll take a left at the stop sign at Independent School Rd, for .8 mi
-1146 Independent School Rd is on the right with the white taped off fencing.
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With 1-2 events a month, we have turned this town upside down. I have found new friends and connections right in front of my face, but in the most unconventional threads of similarities. I would never have figured out that @KennethAndrews was such an art junkie with similar taste in indie music, or that @BrianCrawford was ripping electronic tracks on the side & that we were familiar with the same DJs, or that @MelMatho would be the most motivating person to get me involved in Charleston, or that @JaredWSmith would be my tech guru and a common staple in my Barcamp/social networking/#CHScowork lifestyle.
Without Twitter, these conversations may not have developed and interests would not be discovered. But that is true in life and in relationships. You don’t network with someone and expect to know them immediately. Cognitive dissonance evaporates over time and people reveal themselves in unique situations.
TheDigitel.com has the skinny on Charleston Twestival.
I created this video for the www.charleston.twestival.com site. I figured, Charleston needed a way to relate to Twestival since many businesses seem hesitant to get involved with Twitter. It’s really funny how uncommonly un-mainstream Twitter is in the Lowcountry and that organizations are unsure if they want to be associated with it.
It humors me that having concern and awareness for others strikes cognitive dissonance. I may be communicating in a different way, but the message remains clear. Twestival is here to umbrella cities + communities on the same day for the same awareness and energy to be exerted on March 25th, worldwide. No, we don’t spend the time tweeting when we’re in-person. Twitter is an introduction and a handshake into conversation that can flow from an online space to an offline environment. Twestival is the comforting hug for children around the world in the poorest nations.
Let it spread into your heart, your home, and your soul. Take it away, Avett Brothers!
This is a post about social media becoming the wallflower at the school dance. Businesses are trying to embrace their online personas and are inundated with Tweetdecks, Hootsuites, Twhirls, Tweeties, Seesmics, and other hullabaloo.
However, “The cost of convenience is being expensed at the price of integrity.” (Christina Lor, quote me, seriously.)
I am frustrated, as a consumer, to find that organizations exist on Twitter <via Facebook>. Whyyyyy?
- You aren’t engaging your stakeholders.
- Your FB status is longer than a tweet, so you’re message or link gets cut off.
- different platforms = different strategies = different publics. Plus, the language is different = bad translation
Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, of Purdue University, said,
“Even personal undiscriminated cross-posting across Twitter & Fb is a bad idea.”
She wrote a post, in November, that alluded to ‘total chaos’ from the deconstruction of our ‘relational selves’.
Our relational selves (being different around different groups of people) develop, as she describes, a social intelligence. We create reference groups to identify with and become significant or insignificant compared to other reference groups. Dr. V develops a view on the meaning of messages as the context dependency within a reference group.
As a consumer, I use Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook differently because I have a range of reference groups and friends that identify with each tool. We communicate in our own context-dependent language and have a different calendar of events. For those that have difficulty relating to social media, it may be the friends you invite to dinner from high school, the ladies you meet up with for a book club or Junior League, and the friends you tailgate with on Saturdays. You may feel like you could not entertain them at once, but tend to include them when there is a common thread of interest or persons of interest.
As a public relations practitioner, I communicate differently with unique messages when engaging with Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. Linkedin would not be approriate for the use of abbreviations or hashtags. I want to see what kind of testimonials you’re receiving, who you know, and what experience you have under your belt. Facebook would not sync well with Twitter because you may exceed your character limitations, which render your links as broken and thoughts incomplete. This is a failure. Plus, you cannot keep track of the communication coming in using one platform. You should be checking them all periodically.
I see these social media “experts, mavens, enthusiasts, et cetera” leading workshops and, referencing technology in communications, on television and they make me cringe. Cringe because they are telling people how to fail for free. They all sing the praises of syncing your platforms of communication to broadcast simultaneously, but then you would be neglecting the context of your reference groups and failing your stakeholders.
Why would “experts, mavens, enthusiasts, blah blah blah” encourage you to create fallacy on your integrity and make you look bad? And why would you hire them for that?
Here’s some free advice: Don’t ever sync across the board. If you can’t afford the retainer, pay for the consultation, identify your reference groups and honor your patrons. If you’re above the consultation, then please respond to those that take the time to leave you a message.
Sometimes you and I fail to realize the weight of words. They come out and we forget to follow the ripples of cause and effect. Sometimes we do in the form of anger, hatred and malice. Sometimes in the form of a compliment, praise and a smile. In PR, I am responsible for measuring ROI for my clients and their footprints. We fail to do so in the verbal form unless we are measuring broadcast hits, but track the written word well.
Well, as these words came out of me I didn’t think twice about them…
After running my hands in the reflection of those words, I realize I can say that because it’s the story of my life. Some days it feels like I’ve become detached from the sentiment, but I look around and see that I am and you are — in it. You have to reconnect and recharge. Looking in the mirror, that’s not the story of one’s life, it’s the transition into the next chapter and it reminds me that the story is ongoing.
This is a chapter of my life.
You should really know Meggie, she radiates a brilliance around her and is a contributing editor to QuarterLife Magazine.
Charleston has joined the roster of international cities to participate in the worldwide Twestival! We look forward to building our team and reaching out to the Charleston community in global giving. As we count down the weeks, we ask you to save the date on March 25th! This year’s fundraiser will support Concern Worldwide. Their education programs and initiatives target the world’s poorest countries.
All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. In a 24 hour period, hundreds of international cities will unite under one cause and impact education at once! Join us as we begin to plan an event for the Charleston community to attend. Support us as we begin seeking sponsorships and put education at the top of your priorities in 2010.
Update: And the Tweetup made the news.
For those of you Twitter heads who haven’t heard yet, the second @CHStweetup is happening tonight at Taco Boy Downtown.
After the huge success of the first tweetup on October 19th, this one is sure to attract an even larger crowd of people who will most likely respond to your questions in more than 140 characters. The happy hour/networking event will feature talks from both Michael Moran (@mjmfurniture), furniture maker extraordinaire, and Resse (@healthinsgal), a Charleston gal who aims to save people and companies money on their health insurance costs. Rumor has it there will also be a prize giveaway via Twitter afterward.
Untitled from Ergonomix PR on Vimeo.
Largely responding to our 2nd monthly Tweetup, Live 5 News has done a piece on the growing impact of social media and micro-blogging, like Twitter in Charleston.
It’s a little scarce on how it’s impacting, but the mere fact that tweetups are now broadcast news worthy speaks of a culture shift.
If you want to hear still more about Twitter in Charleston, check out TheDigitel’s twitter topic page.
[ Read original ]
Ever wanted to but a human face behind the virtual one on Twitter?
Yeah, me neither. But that doesn’t mean meeting Charleston’s Twitter aficionados in physical form can’t be fun (and a good networking chance.) @CHStweetup will be holding its first gathering on Monday, October 19, at Mount Pleasant’s Bambu at 6 p.m. No word on if conversations will be limited to 140 characters.
Bambu is at 604 Coleman Boulevard. (843) 284-8229.
[ Read original ]