Glad I Don't Have To Be A Secretary...

While I have never taken a class yet with Mr. Rift Fournier, I feel like I already have.
My first encounter with him was on Sibley Day when I went to the Emerson Black Box to hear Mr. Chris Cluess speak about being a writer for MADtv, and all of his life experiences.

I have to admit the first time I met Rift, he slightly took me by surprise. The way he talked...he just didn't give a damn almost and I really enjoyed that.
So, when he came into class I had an idea of what to expect.

As he was talking, he started telling us where he had traveled and what he had done. He's traveled and worked all over the world and written for Orson Welles. I'm sure there's plenty of other things he's accomplished as well.
The only thing it made me think about was, "Wow, THAT'S what I want". To travel and experience life, while doing something I "give a damn about," according to Rift.
(I also find it interesting that a lot of successful people say that getting their dream jobs were almost by accident, it makes me really wonder if I'll ever get my own "accident").

It also kind of freaked me out when he asked us how far along in college we were and if we were positive about our majors. After a few head nods, he says confidently, "You'll change your minds". (Or a variation of that). It scared me to think I may actually change my mind, because I LOVE doing this.

I've come to realize that it's people like him, Penelope Trunk, and Gary Vaynerchuck that inspire me to keep doing what I want to do, despite what anyone else says.

Rift had the passion for writing, he said ever since he was little he had a desire to be a writer.
He's from a small town, so am I.
Hearing things about people's lives like Rift's gives me hope that I can be just like that, and that being from a small town doesn't mean anything.

The whole guest speaker topic usually really kind of bums me out when we're assigned to write about them because I feel like we're just paying attention to what they say formally about the media.
Rift took a different perspective. He still talked about the media, but applied to his life and added stories to tell us exactly everything he's been through.

I really appreciated Rift coming in to guest speak, and I feel like he'll be a good teacher and great mentor for the future.

Wow, Gary...wow.

A Man After My Own Heart, Gary Vaynerchuck!
Googling Gary Vanerchuck's name led me straight to his website.
I watched his vlog addressing Dominoes and how other chains are going to be afraid to put things online and use social media. After watching it, all I could think was 'this guy is an absolute genius'.
I didn't even have to watch or look at the rest of his website to know it! The way he was saying that it's fine if they don't get it, the people that do can use it to their advantage is exactly the way everyone should be viewing it! Finally, a man who says exactly what's on his mind!
Working on building his family's local business into a "national industry leader", he uses things like Twitter, Tumblr, and Cork'd to spread his business.
He's made guest appearances on Conan O'Brian, The Today Show, Ellen Degeneres, and others. So this guy obviously knows how to market himself out there in the televsion market and not just the internet.

Everyone is using the internet more to find sources and businesses and better, more efficient ways of living and he's one of the best examples of a gate jumper that we have. Seeing the way he uses social media to his advantage makes me believe that GenY will maybe eliminate gatekeepers altogether because we're the ones creating the new technology and making new things popular...but we'll see though.

'Ze Brazen Careerist!...(I would really enjoy knowing how this came to be the title for the website...)

Okay, so I didn't really know anything about Brazen Careerist so I checked out the "About" section of the website. And this is what I found:
*It's a place for GenY people to get together and talk about everything about jobs and future careers. Not just the three piece suit people telling us what to do for jobs or how to it.
Brazen Careerist has company profiles and corporate bloggers, making it easier for everyone to have access to companies and what they're looking for.
There's a job board that shows: the job's title, the location for the job, the company that's posting it, and when the job was last posted. This website literally has everything for anyone looking for a potential career. The other extremely nice thing about having this job board is the hyperlinks they have that can take you straight to the full description of what they're looking for.
Blogs are posted on the website also, discussing all different topics, some called "What I Want vs. What I Want," and "Big Kids Do Cry and Sometimes It's at Work".
This place even has coaches in order to help every individual figure out what steps they should take in their career.
I can see vlogs being posted now for live webchat Q&A. Maybe evolving into more than that.

The only thing that I can see Gary Vaynerchuck and Brazen Careerist have in common is that they are using social media to their full advantage. They're aware of how beneficial the internet is to help and inform someone.

Here's an interview about what it's like with Brazen Careerist and being a GenY entrepranuer.
(I like how the first related link is a Gary Vaynerchuck video...)

Twitter: Jill's Favorite Past-time is a Social Media!

That's right...Twitter. After we've all figured out how to work the infamous micro-blogging, I googled "Social Media"...and it was pretty much everything I thought it was.

"So what EXACTLY is Social Media?" You might be asking? Well, it's basically when a regular person starts up a social, interacting, data and information sharing place on the web.
Things like Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter (..oh joy), and even our Blogger accounts are all classified under the social media category.

The list goes on and on considering picture and music sharing, like Photobucket and LimeWire.

The Craze
This new industry has gotten to be so popular that I actually found a website, that I'm sure many other people will have on their blogs, that helps people figure out how to use the new social medias to their advantage...SocialMedia.biz. This website has helpul videos and strategies that discuss bringing a specific company a new online community to draw in a diferent kind of business to them. The website even discusses setting up a customized Web 2.0

Social media, in essence, can really help or hurt a company that's promoting itself within the internet.
A perfect example would be from this website, discussing how Dominoes had their business hurting after a video put on YouTube about a Dominoes employee sneezing and farting on a sandwich. The video recieved over 500,000 views. It's no longer avalianble on YouTube, but is accessible for visiting that website.

The Negative to Social Media
Now, don't get me wrong, I love social media as much as the next person. I have a Facebook, Myspace, and even a Twitter now (thanks to this class). But part of using social media is knowing when to stop using it, and come back to the "real world". Places like Twitter and Facebook and even instant messaging (yup, it's social media) are seen as almost sources of evil by parents with young teenagers. According to this other website, news reports linked Facebook to the main cause of poor grades and Twitter is "accused of putting morality itself at risk".
Which leads me to wonder...

Is Social Media ever going to really stop? No. It's pretty safe to say that.
Is it going to start dictating our lives though? Isn't it already dictating most of our lives?
It seems so strange to me that something so fun and recreational can also be used for business, but I suppose that's just a characteristic for Gen Y to have developed.

Now, it might seem like this whole blog I've written so far has been about the negative affects about our growing social media, but in reality, it's just the scary truth that could possibly happen.
But Social Media overall has been a positive experience for everyone. It's connecting us all in ways I'm sure people before us never thought to imagine...or at least didn't think it was coming so fast. Social Media has a power all it's own and is now a force to be reckoned with.

Jill asked us to post our favorite YouTube videos. Here's two:


If you don't know, I work at a Renaissance Faire. I took this video :)


This is one of my favorite shows, Man and Wife!