This blog started as a class assignment and morphed into a strange after school project, now I’m not sure what it is… but I’ll try to update it more often.

I’ll probably take a holistic approach to marketing, technology, and whatever that interests me. For example, take the image above. It’s from Smashing Magazine’s website.

Either way, it’ll be good stuff… so stick around.

Courtesy of http://www.wordle.net

Malcolm Gladwell’s latest work, Outliers: The Story of Success, is great. His interview with Charlie Rose just scratches the surface of its content.   

I love the section on expertise. What makes someone an expert? Research shows that expertise – in any given field – is reached only after a minimum of 10,000-hours, roughly 10-years, of practice. I’m into it. 

Gladwell goes deeper on the subject of genius in his conversation with Robert Krulwich at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Robert Krulwich is a superior interviewer (sorry Charlie) and keeps the conversation flowing. 

Main take away: live what you love. 

Countdown one year to graduation and into the real world. I want to go into brand management, and have been thinking about graduate school, law school, and maybe even nursing. There’s just so much out there still to do!

Thankfully Path 101 Career Discovery is here to help. It’s an online personality test made to assess you’re career compatibility. My score is below.

Highest Scoring Traits

Lowest Scoring Traits

Like-minded people work in:
Sales, Commercial Banking, Automotive and Transportation, Computer Hardware and Infrastructure, Laboratory Sciences  

See julieatty’s full assessment and get your own.

The personality test has me pegged, but sales? No thank you.

Conclusion: a fun way to pass the time; don’t believe everything you read.

After clicking around for a while, I stumbled upon  SmashingApps.com

It has both paid and free services from around the web.

Highly recommended.

When I first read the New York Times article, Putting a Bloder Face on Google, Marissa Mayer’s job sounded unreal.

Mayer is the person who keeps Google running smoothly. “Almost every new feature or design, from the wording on a Google page to the color of a Google toolbar, must pass muster with her or legions of Google users will never see it” (Holson). She is Google’s brand manager.

Now, after seeing her interview with Charlie Rose, I officially want her job. It’s out of this world. She lives in San Fransisco, gets to analyze, collaborate, and impliment, ideas that change the way people communicate, is continually advancing Google’s appearance, and has spare time to read. Where do I sign up?

I was a skeptic. Twitter seemed like a bunch of meaningless facebook status updates from boring people who update the world on what they had for breakfast. Then, I saw Common Craft’s Twitter in Plain English video and decided to give it a try.

I was wrong. Twitter is a forum for sharing ideas and breaking news. It all depends on who you follow,of course…  so if you want to hear how people feel about their breakfast cereal, you can get that too.

By following Harvard Business School I get their latest articles and opinions on current issues, by following Tiny Buddha I get daily piece of mind, and by following  Tina Fey I get a good laugh every once in a while.

So if you’re still on the fence about Twitter, from one former skeptic to another, try it.

Yesterday in my PR Wired class, taught by Kevin Hauswirth, Fausto Fernos from the Feast of Fools podcast stopped by and shared his thoughts on social media. Being a social media veteran, he had a lot to say on the subject.

One website that caught my attention was linkshare. It’s the new middle man between customers and products. You receive something like a five-cent kick back for each product you sell through your website, which may not seem like a lot until you’re selling thousands of clicks per week. I’m interested. I’ll sign up and write a new post when I make a dollar.

Traditional theories of marketing, advertising, PR, and branding were simple: professionals communicated messages to target audiences.

Now, people are talking back.

The first chapter of Groundswell eases professionals of any level into this–social media–type of thinking.

It’s about relationships. Men should not become the tools of their tools, as Thoreau noted long before the advent of social technology. Online communication is about using technology to enhance relationships, not end them.

Some examples of branding through social media are Mark Cuban and John Mayer.

Mark Cuban’s blog, Blog Maverick is the perfect example of talking and listening to consumers, Dallas Maverick basketball fans and fellow entrepenures. Cuban poses questions to the community and gains insights through posted responses and email.

John Mayer’s blog builds meaning around an already public figure. He writes posts from the road, addresses public issues (political and social), and sprinkles in transparent product endorsements (entire posts devoted to his new Blackberry).

Although modes of communication change, fundamental elements remain the same: it’s about people… and relationships.