Follow Friday: Scoutie Girl

If you're on twitter, you know that every Friday, twitter blows up with #ff or "Follow Friday" where users suggest people to "follow." I'd like to start the same thing here, but with some of my favorite blogs for you to "follow"! I hope to make it a new feature, and I hope you like it!

The next "Follow Friday" that I'd like to "introduce" you to is the blog Scoutie Girl. Do you have a blog where, in your Google Reader, you star/favorite EVERY SINGLE POST? Scoutie Girl is that blog for me. I've signed up for the daily e-mails, the newsletters, everything, and reading all of her posts, for us "creative types" is completely inspiring and just makes me want to put all of those creative thoughts in my head in ACTION.

If you need a kick in the butt, or just want constant good advice streaming into your Reader or RSS feed (and e-mail, if you sign up for her e-mails and newsletters!) I would bounce over to Scoutie Girl if I were you! You WILL NOT regret checking out this awesome blog!

Here are some of my favorite recent posts from Scoutie Girl:

• This post on valuing your creativity
• This post on the "fear of being organized"
• This advice on creative living

Do you follow Scoutie Girl? What are some of your favorite posts?

Do you have a blog that you would like to nominate for a Follow Friday post? Let me know in the comments, or send me an e-mail-- abandgeek88ATgmailDOTcom

Current Event Link

Click on the link below:

You will go to the CE game login page. You're welcome.

shortcut

The Social Network

While we're talking about social media, it would be silly to not include something about the somewhat recent movie The Social Network. Below is a trailer. Personally, I loved the movie. What did you think?

"Everything Ages Fast: Update!"

I found these "Vintage Social Media Posters" from here and I loved them and thought I would share.

One of the things that really caught my attention was the sticker on the side that said, "Everything ages fast: update!" which really got me thinking about how much twitter, facebook, and other social medias have been "ebbing and flowing." We talked in class about how some of these platforms become "plumbing" but what if the "plumbing" becomes outdated? The best example I can think of for this is MYSPACE. remember what THAT was all the rage? Now ... not so much.

It just goes to show as social media professionals, we need to STAY ON TOP of these different sites and applications, so we're ALWAYS up to date!

Social Media and Marketing: Some resources

We're always talking about CONNECTING businesses and social media, and how each can influence the other. The most important "connection" that we discuss between the two is MARKETING.

There's a lot of "buzz" out there about smart social media practices. Here are some of my favorite articles today:

Beware Social Media Marketing Myths

The Social Media Marketing Blog

This review of the e-book "Smart Marketing"

20 Best Social Media and Marketing Blogs by Women

Online shopping options... and social media?

A lot of what we do in my social media marketing class is discussing how businesses can use social media platforms to promote businesses. I think one of the best ways that this is show is through small, online businesses. As early as 10 years ago, online businesses really just didn't exist--especially widespread like they do now. If you wanted to order something that a local store didn't have, your only option was to order it from a catalog--and then you had to order by phone! Now there's hosting sites like:

These are sites that are not only online marketplaces, but have also become mini social networks themselves. For example, amazon has "lists" that you can share with anyone on Amazon, and get feedback through discussion:

On etsy, you can have friend "circles" and then share treasuries of some of your favorite items.

Not only have some of these sites changed the process of shopping in general, but they have become their own social media sites! How cool!

Visual Inspiration Boards

I've been thinking a lot about virtual inspiration boards lately. We've been discussing delcious and stumbleUpon in class, and I also have a favorite "visual virtual inspiration board," in pinterest.

Its' hard for me to directly relate these to "How can businesses use this for marketing?" since I use them all in a completely different way--as a collection of inspiration for my own creative work and business.

The more I think about it though, I have purchased things from etsy sellers BECAUSE of their work that I saw online, through places like StumbleUpon and Pinterest.

I think the key for getting your name out there through these "bookmarking" sites is to know your audience and what they like, become connected to them, and then "tag" your sites appropriately, so they they will easily "stumble" onto your product or website.