On February 4, 2010 I became and Aunt for the first time! My nephew, Spencer James Harper, was born to my brother Brandon and sister-in-law Amanda.  I’m very excited to welcome him into the world and look forward to getting to know him.  At Amanda’s baby shower I gave her and Spencer a Bob Marley lullaby CD from local store What the Rock and I guess he’s been loving it.  I knew he would have excellent taste in music!

Here’s a picture of our newest family member & his Daddy:

We all know there are a bazillion social media “experts” out there.  I don’t claim to be an expert because I don’t think it’s possible to be an expert in a field that’s constantly changing as technology presses forward.  Many small businesses are being duped into thinking they need to hire an expensive contractor to handle their social media needs, when in fact the solutions may be in their office already.  The trick is changing the company perspective on what or who an expert is.  Here are some of the questions I would ask a so called social media “expert”:

• How do you define social media?
• Can you give me an example of some of the clients you have worked for and the type of work you’ve completed for them?
• How do you establish relationships with bloggers and how do you pitch to them?
• How do you monitor what people are saying about you online?
• How do you measure results?
• Do you have a blog or a website and what’s your strategy for your blog or website?
• How long have you been on twitter ( or insert your fav. social media site or tool) and how are you using it?
• What do you think the future social media trends are?

What are the questions you would ask to determine if someone really knows their stuff in the social media world? If you are a social media “expert” how would you answer these questions?

As you know, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake and then hit again with an aftershock earlier this week.  The people of Haiti need our help!

Today, January 21st, the City of Columbus, Columbus media, and the Red Cross are partnering to put on a one-day fundraiser.

Here are the details:

• Volunteers from the City, media, and the Red Cross will be there to accept cash and check donations.
• If you can’t stop by you can also donate to the relief efforts by texting the word HAITI to 90999 or you can donate online on the Red Cross’s site www.redcross.org.
• For more information regarding this event click here to check out the full press release.

Please give what you can!

This summer I will begin research for my thesis paper, which is the last step in my master’s degree program.  I know I want to write my paper on something relating to social media, technology, and sociology, but I need to drill this down to a more specific topic.  My thesis is one of the many reasons I started this blog…I need a place where I can chronicle my thoughts and bounce ideas off other people.  Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.  In my Saturday grad school class my professor, who HATES technology, said something very interesting:

” Technology crafts behavior and behavior overcomes one’s personality.”

I agree technology crafts one’s behavior.  I definitely have changed the way I interact and work on things because of technology, but has this changed my personality? I’m not sure. Is it possible to have a behavioral change that doesn’t affect one’s personality? Technology has changed my interpersonal relationships and has expanded my network, but at the core I think I’m still me.  If anything, I think I’m a better version of my myself because these tools have made me more efficient.

What are your thoughts? How has technology changed your behavior? Has it impacted your personality? Let me know what you think.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of kicking off a six week series on social media with a presentation on Social Media Basics. Here’s the presentation I gave; If you are just starting out in social media, I hope you find it valuable.

Click here to check out additional events in this series.