What Big Brands and Pop Culture Have Taught Me About Social Media Marketing

January 5, 2015January 19, 2022Leave a comment

2014 Was full of lessons in social media marketing if you were paying attention. Here’s what I learned from people and brands who are doing social the right way – and some who aren’t.

It’s okay to admit you messed up if you’ve made an honest mistake.

Brands make mistakes on Twitter pretty regularly, tweeting inappropriate or offensive remarks, then quickly delete the problematic tweet and issue an apology. Fine, whatever; we forgive you. But one brand’s fantastic apology turns what could have been a costly mistake into their best ad of the year. Continue reading →

Nat Geo, Here I Come!

October 12, 2014Leave a comment

In my current position at Oglethorpe University, a lot of my job is the creation, curation and promotion of original content. My team and I have experimented with many different ways of displaying our content, from Storify to Animoto and testing all kinds of Word Press plugins. In recent months have begun to lean toward using fewer words and more photos. We want to capture our community members’ attention, and we have learned that what they like best is photos. Photos of campus, photos of their favorite faculty members, photos of our traditions. They do not want to read an article we’ve had an intern write about it, they want to see it.

So, last week when a coworker popped her head into my office and said one of our biology professors was looking for an extra van driver to accompany him and his class on a 4-day trip to Sapelo Island, I jumped at the chance. It was a perfect opportunity to do accomplish several work-related goals: Continue reading →

16 Minutes

October 6, 2014April 12, 2015Leave a comment

That’s how long it took me to run one mile on the day I decided to finally start running; 16 minutes. It actually didn’t involve much running – more like short intervals of barely moving above a walking pace, mixed with longer intervals of barely moving at all, panting like a dog, my chest so tight it hurt.

That was the day in June that I finally deciding to stop making excuses and saying “I’ll do it when…” and just start already. You’ve probably seen that quote floating around Pinterest that is supposedly a Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Well, that one hit home for me and helped me get my butt in gear.

An Instagram post from one of my first days running, when I decided I would get new shoes if I committed to using them!

Run, Debbie! Run!

I’ve always admired runners, jealous of the way they so effortlessly run several miles a day – without stopping! I want to be a person who runs because I want to, not because I have to. I want to be able to tell people I run to relive stress. I want to be able to run a few miles without struggling to do so. I want to be a runner. Continue reading →

Taking Care of Debbie

September 13, 2014January 8, 2015Leave a comment

I remember how I felt when I found her on the top shelf of the closet in our guest bedroom. It was a wonderful sense of accomplishment immediately followed by overwhelming regret. It was the first and last time I was successful at snooping for hidden Christmas presents. Once I found her, I realized what a mistake I had made. I now had to keep my discovery a secret for the coming weeks, and would have to fake my excitement on Christmas morning when I opened what would be my “big” present that year. I never searched for hidden presents again.

I named her Debbie because of her resemblance to me, in the self-centered manner expected from an 8 year old. She was a high quality doll, the fanciest one I owned throughout my childhood. I outgrew her eventually, and she spent some years stored in the basement. I was 15 when my parents divorced and the contents of our house went different directions. I took with me a box of memorabilia from when I was a kid: my pencil collection, a dollar bill signed my a Washington Redskins player I once met, the leg brace I wore when I tore a few ligaments in my knee that was signed by my friends, and Debbie. Continue reading →

Loving “Her”

August 30, 2014January 8, 2015Leave a comment

Warning: Semi-spoilers below (I don’t give away the ending, but do discuss the plot).

I watched the movie “Her” recently and while I’m no movie critic, I enjoyed it so much that I felt compelled to write something. I’m sure my musings have already been published by someone else, but I’ve purposely not read any reviews of this movie, so that I can claim these as my own original thoughts. 😉

The basic plot line, as shown in the trailer, is that a man, Theodore, played by the always intriguing Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with an operating system, or OS. The OS is a new version just introduced with intuition, and Theodore’s installation names herself Samantha. If I haven’t lost you yet, good. Once you get over the hurdle of accepting that these things are possible, you’ll enjoy a love story that is as endearing and complicated as any other love story you’ve seen. But the movie is just as much about love as it is about the human condition, or what it means to really be a living, breathing, person. Continue reading →

Okay With Being Ordinary

August 30, 2014December 27, 2016Leave a comment

There is a lot of pressure in our culture to be different. Be unique. Don’t just follow the leader, forge your own path.

Hipsters are pretty much defined by their quest to determine the latest trend; to find the gem of a restaurant before everyone else; to become fans of that small indie band before they have their first hit played on the radio. Meanwhile, chain restaurants, sedans, planned subdivisions and big box stores are all seen as boring and ordinary. Continue reading →

10 Ways to Make Your Internship Awesome

July 29, 2014Leave a comment

If you are a college student, you’ve probably considering completing an internship. If you aren’t, you should. There is an abundance of evidence that an internship is perhaps the most important activity college students can complete outside the classroom to support their future career.

Here are 10 things you can do to help your internship reach its full potential:

ASK QUESTIONS! I put this in all caps because it’s the most important thing you can do. Your supervisor doesn’t expect you to have all the answers – that’s why you’re interning. Spend more time soaking up as much information as you can and less trying to impress everyone in the office.
But ask all of your questions at once. Don’t interrupt your supervisor 5 times each 4-hour shift. Write down your questions as they come up during your time in the office each day. Once you have a few on your list, ask your supervisor if he has a minute and get all of your answers at once. He’ll appreciate that you’re being considerate of his time.

Continue reading →

SAÏAH: Redefining Theater

June 8, 2014June 8, 2014Leave a comment

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to one of the last sold-out performances of Terminus, the most recent production by theatre company SAÏAH, based out of Atlanta’s Goat Farm. It’s hard to explain how Terminus is different than many of the other plays on any given night in Atlanta; calling it a play certainly is not appropriate. Let’ try this: An outdoor, choose-your-own-adventure, civil-war era, moving performance based on the plot of Watership Down. It was amazing.

SAÏAH’s postcard for Terminus.

I don’t want to give away all of SAÏAH’s secrets, as I’ve heard this is not the first “theater experience” they’ve hosted, nor do I think it will be the last. But I do want to highlight the aspects of Terminus that really stood out to me,and have certainly made me want to keep on eye out for what this group does next.

I went to see Terminus on a double date with my coworker and friend, Renee, and our husbands. We heard about it from Weston Manders, a former intern of ours at Oglethorpe University, where Renee and I work. He was offered the part of Fiver, a leading role, and when he explained to us how Terminus was “not just a play”, we knew it was going to be good. After our first reservations were canceled because of rain (as several other performances were) we ended up going on the very last weekend the group was scheduled to perform. Continue reading →

Don’t Judge a Biscuit by its Crust

May 25, 2014January 8, 2015Leave a comment

The first time I passed it, I thought it was abandoned. I thought it was just another old building that was left to slowly decay along one of the narrow country roads in Cumming. It certainly didn’t look like an operating business. The rusted roof, unpainted plywood walls, giant potholes in the parking lot – they all supported my assumption. The peeling, barely-readable white letters stenciled onto the side of the building seemed almost laughable: “FRESH BISCUITS 5:30 – 11AM.” I figured it had been a long time since any biscuits had been served.

The biscuit place is not on a road I travel frequently, and I usually pass it on weekend afternoons. Then one day, I took a different route to work and passed it early on a Tuesday morning. There was a line of cars wrapped around the building waiting in line at a drive-thru window, and a red neon “OPEN” sign lit up in the window. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I figured maybe the locals had been going there for biscuits for so long that they weren’t bothered by the building’s deteriorating exterior. Continue reading →

Urban Sprawl, Paused

March 20, 2014April 12, 2014Leave a comment

I live in Cumming, Georgia, a rural suburb about 30 miles north of Atlanta. Cumming is growing very rapidly, and was listed on America’s Promise list of 100 Best Communities for Young People in 2012. It’s an interesting area, where you’ll find long -time rural residents mixed with newly transplanted yuppies. Cattle graze the peaceful rolling foothills of the north Georgia mountains, while the roads that pass their pastures are becoming increasingly crowded.

Half of the cars you pass on Cumming’s back country roads are pickup trucks, now sprinkled with the occasional BMW or Range Rover. The area still maintains a small town friendliness, it’s residents holding on to their strong southern accents. It’s the kind of place where the owner of the local convenience store, with it’s aging neon sign, will ask you which is your favorite flavor of coffee creamer, so he can keep it in stock. The kind of place where people greet their new neighbors with a basket of biscuits – even if they are only renting.

Continue reading →