Summertime in the city

SO MUCH has been going on since my last life update!  All good things!

First of all, I started my new job—as of June 1 I am an Assistant Account Executive in the Social Marketing Practice of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide’s DC office.  I’m rounding out my fifth week now and really enjoying it!

  

If you don’t know…it’s been HOT in DC this summer.  As in, the hottest June since 1871.  Beyond either a) being sweaty and b) whining about being sweaty, I’ve spent my free time on the following:

-Kickball!  Team Orange Crush rounded out our season with a 4-3 record—which left us ranked 3^rd out of 8!   I missed our playoff games, but we… lost in an extra inning in the 2nd of 3 rounds!

-Graduation party!  We had a lovely gathering of family and close friends to celebrate my graduation.

-Fourth of July!  Spending Independence Day in DC is not something I take for granted.  Some friends and I kicked off the weekend with a crab feast at my friend Heidi’s house—she taught us her tried and true method for Maryland crabs.

I made patriotic strawberries:

  We headed back to DC just in time for my friend Jackie’s 6^th Annual Fourth of July Pancake Brunch, then headed to the National Mall (braving the 100 degree heat) to hang out by the Washington Monument and wait for the fireworks.  

All in all, a great weekend with only a few bug bites and crab-eating-injuries to show for it (no sunburn!). 

That pretty much sums up my life lately—now I’m looking forward to a Wyoming trip in less than two weeks with the family, and moving to a new apartment the last weekend of July!  I can’t wait to get to know a new neighborhood of DC (moving from Van Ness, where I’ve been for two years, to Eastern Market).

Why I Like Social Media (& why you should too!)

In this post, I'll detail my reactions to a classmate who was adamantly against Twitter and talk about why I like using it from a personal standpoint.  

Recently in my PR Portfolio class, a classmate attested that she was "abstaining" from Twitter.  She fully intends to work in the PR realm come graduation in a month, yet instead of taking advantage of the chance to embrace new technologies (at an age where that comes intuitively) she was afraid.  I felt awful for her..but also glad for me that my experiences have really let me embrace social media as it's become increasingly more important in PR.

The biggest question I get from people outside of PR (and even some within PR) goes something like this: "Why do you like Twitter?  Do you really need people to know that you ate a tuna sandwich for lunch?"

My answer is usually:
a) I don't eat tuna
b) You obviously don't understand social media, but that's okay because I'll explain it to you!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a current events junkie.  It all started when I was Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper- since then I've been a rabid devourer of news.  I love getting news online because it's easy, I can do it anywhere, at anytime (ie multitasking while at work), and between my Blackberry, laptop, and work computer, I almost always have internet access.


While I adore consuming news, between work and school I certainly don't have the time to sit down and watch television news with any regular frequency.  I also don't find it necessary to sift through stories I am not interested in in order to find the things I want to read.  This is why I love Twitter!

Media is becoming more and more decentralized: as larger newspapers fold and layoff staff, blogs and news aggregates pop-up every day.  Cuts in journalists on specialized beats make for an increased demand for niche bloggers, and geo-tagging via foursquare (and Twitter itself) lends itself to more hyper-local blogs than ever.


So what do I personally like about Twitter?

It lets me get my news, fast.  My tweetdeck desktop has columns for personal friends, DC specific tweeters, PR/social media, general/breaking news, and skiing.  This means I can get a comprehensive, real-time look at the news, trends, and blog posts in the news realms that I am interested in almost instantly. 

If you're one of those scared folks who hasn't tried Twitter yet, give it a shot!  I always tell people that you have to use it a bit before you truly understand its capabilities: everyone uses it a little differently and has to find their own comfort level with it.  Go for it!