Twitter

Keeping up with Twitter for a few weeks was very difficult.  Because I do not have much free time, I found it hard to keep with with current posts from other people and when I would go to post something, I felt that I was just talking to myself, rather than sharing information with others.  The posts that I did read from others were both annoying and insightful.  Tweets from friends were mostly entertaining but they had no lasting impact.  

The feeds I found the most useful were BigShoesNetwork, and BreakingNews.  However, when signing onto Twitter, BreakingNews had filled my page with information which was annoying and I didn't want to waste my time reading all of it. 

As a student, Marquette's Tweets were always exciting because they informed me of things going on on campus.  I also found that Steve Rubel's tweets were informative.

Because of how many people I am following, it is hard to sift through to the important information, or the information that I deem relevant to me.  Like I said, I do not have much free time, and I feel that if one really wants to be involved in Twitter, they really have to invest much of their day to it, which I do not have.

Overall, I feel that Twitter is good for businesses, and other people who have free time, but for me, especially, as a student, I do not feel it is worth my time.

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Skittles.com

I just learned about the new Skittles site and although it uses social media in a very interesting/modern way, I don't know how I like it.  I feel that if people wanted to find information about Skittles they would want to see a more 'normal' site that gives more forward information.  If people wanted to find out what other consumers feel about it they would go to twitter etc for themselves.

On the other hand, it shows that they are humble and are confident in what others are saying about them and that they have nothing to hide.

Thoughts?

Google

In my marketing class I learned that because Google's biggest competitor is YouTube, they bought it.  I found it interesting because people are now first going to YouTube rather than Google or Yahoo to search for information.  Google is also looking into buying Twitter, which to me just seems like they want to be known as an even bigger name than they already are.  I say this because Twitter would not provide Google with any additional revenue -- which leads me to believe that it would solely be used as a 'badge of honor' building their egos.

I dig Digg.com

For our class, my partner and I researched social news sites such as reddit and digg.com.  Although I did not like Reddit, I am enjoying Digg.com.  It is easy to find important/relevant/unusual news that I may not have found otherwise.  However, I have no friends on Digg and am still finding a way to find people on it.  Other than that, it is very easy to use and is overall a great way to find information.  It has become one of my regular sites.

Social Tech Ladder - Europe vs USA

It is interesting to see the differences between social media users in US vs Europe -- specifically females.  It shows that the inactives in the US is at 10% while in Europe it is at 24%.  Collectors in the US are at 23% and in Europe is only at 9%.  Creators in Europe is at 31% and US is at 36%.  It is obvious that Americans seem to be more 'into' social media than Europeans, however those in Europe who use social media, are very interested in it, which is shown by the very slight difference between the creators' percentages between both countries.

Menards. Really?

So today I went to Menards looking for a plastic lawn flamingo, and to make sure they had them, called to confirm.  Naturally the kid answering the phone said yes and I decided to trust him.  Well, needless to say they were sold out (you thought I was weird for buying tacky lawn ornaments in February.  Well apparently they're very popular this time of year).  Getting to my point, Menards may pride themselves on low prices, however, you'd think that customer service should be something else they pride themselves on, especially due to their 185 isles.  It took 5 different people and 20 minutes of my time before they checked their stock numbers on the computer.    

In such a large store, such as Menards...and other Menards-like businesses, it can be tricky to keep track of all of your employees.  But do those employees have to be sneaky and incompetent?