How the Wolf Met the Swan

It was a Tuesday afternoon and the Swan was headed into town in order to pick up a fresh loaf of bread from the Farmers Market.  She weaved throughout the busy bustle crowded amongst the edges of the narrow street, lined up and down with local shop keepers trying to bargain with potential customers.  The Swan was in a particular hurry that day. She had to be back home within the hour in order to prepare a meal for her mother and father.  You see, her father, the Head Goose within the town's District of Authorities, had received a special accolade that week.  He was being nominated for Man of the year, and the recent buzz on the grape-vine had everyone believing he was a sure thing.   

As the Swan continued to head toward the market, lost in thought regarding all of the things she had to prepare for that night, she clumsily bumped into a stranger, causing both to fall over.  "Oh lord, I'm so sorry," she said.  "I'm afraid I've let my thoughts get the best of me today."  The stranger, wrapped in a thick, dark cloak, hiding all features except the deep glare of a set of eyes gazing back at the swan.  "It's fine," replied a ruffled, almost growl like, masculine voice.  "Apologies are not in order, but appreciated, for I fear I as well was lost in thought."

At this point, the stranger slowly revealed their face, pulling their cloak down, and to the shock of the Swan, exposing a young Wolf, not but what appeared to be only a few years older than herself. Now, the Swan had met a few Wolves before in her past, but her father always warned her about them. He said that Wolves were of a different time.  That they still lived within a lifestyle of the old days, thriving off of the thrill from hunting and gathering in the wild.  "They're beasts!" he would tell her. "Nothing but feral beasts. If you don't pay attention to where they're at when they're around, you might as well coat yourself up in butter and serve yourself for dinner!" 

To be continued...

QR CODES: Scanners Beware

When working on your company's IMC plan, it is important to incorporate methods that are unique to the various traditional and non-traditional marketing channels you will utilize.  For planning promotional and targeted marketing activities over the web, or more specifically, smart phone platform channel, the infamous QR code can be a great asset, if used properly.

The first step in properly identifying if the QR code will create value for your branding mission, is to identify who your consumers are and what they do with their technology.  Personally, I've never really used a QR scanner until recent events demanded I did, but if I ever strolled through a magazine, or saw a flier on campus with a code, I never bothered looking it up.  But, this is me.  

A lot of marketers will make the claim that the QR code, "Is Dead!"  Let's see if statistics can uncover some information regarding this statement.  According to this data site, a 38% jump in QR code scanning occurred between Q1 of 2012 and Q1 of 2013.   But, evidence also shows that this is merely reflective of the proportional increase of smart phone usage within the United States market.  In fact, further evidence shows that the scanning of QR scans has virtually stalled.

So, what this does tell me? There's absolutely no harm in incorporating a QR code.  It's virtually free (in fact, many sites make it free), and can be a nice addition to an ad that will increase interaction for certain individuals. Still, I wouldn't rely on the QR code as being the crucial aspect to the promotion itself.  This could potentially alienate certain consumers since many no longer enjoy the novelty of the scanner itself, essentially limiting your reach to your target market.

I like to think that a QR code can hold a certain amount of mystery. What does it lead to?  Should I scan it and "stumble down the rabbit hole." Well, for the sake of the QR code below, I'll give you fair warning.  Once you open this door, it can never be shut.  For it is merely the tip of the ice-burg of something so much greater, something that has lurked behind the shadows of humanity since our very creation; pulling the strings, making empires rise and fall.  Beware, reader.  But, if you wish to know more, keep posted. 

Paypal : The Widely Accepted Funds Manager and Payment Gateway

Now, I've only used Paypal once, and I didn't have a great experience with it.  But in part I found out this was due to something I did, or didn't do; but anyways, that's a different story.

Paypal is perhaps one of the most widely solutions for payment processing needs related to consumer to consumer marketplaces.  What do I mean?  Ebay for example.  It's essentially a collection of consumers who are reselling or auctioning items to other consumers, and after the transaction is finished, they needed a client that can assist in transferring funds.

So what are the pros for these buyers and sellers?

Let's find out.

Pros

* Secure Processing

* Low Transaction Fees

* Larger User Base

*Accepts Majority of Major cards

*Strong Support Network to Assist in Any Issues

*Accepts Many Currencies

*Easy for Developers to Use, Meaning High Adaption for Variety of E-Commerce Sites

Now, that's all great, but what about the negative sides?

Cons

* Negative Experiences from Users Don't Cause Innovation or Change Due to their High Market Share

* Pay Pal has Authority and Control Over Your Money

*Adoption and First Time User Can Be Tricky (even for tech savvy folks like my self...)



All in all I'd say user Paypal, but just know that it's not all peaches and creams.

Transparency in Healthy Care Costs: Information in Markets

I personally found this to be a pretty interesting article. Why?  The healthcare industry itself can best be described as a confusing, compilation of esoteric pricing and market structures; and while this may serve as  great fire and hot-air for political debates and politicians arguing for "change" , in reality, the most important factor that gets set aside, is that we, the consumers, end up having to navigate through a confusing and cloudy market that we know little about, besides the fact that we need it.  Great, right? Not at all.

You know, I've probably personally had over 15 procedures in my life time. A few were fairly intrusive , requiring a few months of recovery, while others, such as getting tubes replaced in my ears or having endoscopy examinations, we're relatively quick and painless.  Now, I have no idea what these costs were, I was just a kid, and my parents took care of everything.  Still, after reading this article, I can only imagine what type of costs were incurred.

To me, a strong and healthy market depends on a few things.  The first of them is honesty, and by this I mean a strong and true intent at delivering and offering value-based goods or services to consumers with the emphasis on the value created for consumers.   The second is information.  As consumers, specifically in today's fast growing and information abundant world, we have the ability to make the best purchases thanks to the educated decisions empowered by having mass amounts of knowledge at our fingertips.

Now, healthcare is completely different from paper towels, tooth paste, produce, electronics, and so on, but at its core, it's still about delivering a service to a consumer.  As a consumer, we have a need, and we want that need to be satiated in the most efficient manner while simultaneously being affordable within our budget constraints.

This article highlights the fact that healthcare and its current structure might very well not be offering the most efficient or affordable services.  With such a large gap in prices between these hospitals and surgery centers, and the fact that the main differing factor is the acceptance and lack of acceptance of medicare and medicaid, it at least should encourage us to examine and question our system a bit more.

Transparency, honesty, fairness, and efficiency; these are values that should permeate all corners of a market.  Now let's ask this question, do they?

Florida So Far

This past Thursday, around 4:30 PM, I caught a flight out of the Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe and rode it all the way down, non-stop, to the sunny coast of Ft. Lauderdale.  I make it down here at least once  year.  It helps that I'm blessed enough to have not only an uncle down here, but two cousins, and a multitude of family friends that always welcome me with open and gracious arms.

So, what have I been up to since I arrived? Well, I've been living a really demanding and stressful life, let me tell you. Once I got here, I jumped in the car with my Uncle and my Nana (Italian word for Grandma) and got some pretty good grub.  Then, pretty much just went to bed.  That Friday I woke up, laid out in the wonderful 70 degree weather by the pool, and spent my time going in out of consciousness and reading when I had the chance.

That Friday evening I also had a chance to catch up with one of my first professors and academic advisers at Clarion University, Dr. Brian Dunn.  I met him when I was a freshman at Clarion, and ever since we've been lucky enough to stay in touch. We've always talked about getting together and catching up, but we never had the chance; until now.   Dr. Dunn, my cousin Alex, Alex's girlfriend Simi, and myself met up at a wonderful restaurant called J Marks' in downtown Ft. Lauderdale.  We enjoyed an amazing meal with even better conversation to complement it.  After saying our good byes and parting ways, Alex, Simi, and myself headed back up to Stuart, Florida, the place  where he resides.

We spent that Saturday morning outside working in his yard.  I walked around cleaning up and throwing away trimmed branches from palm tress for a good hour or close to it, before we focused on mulching and de-weeding the back yard area around the pool. Afterwards we sat down, ate some awesome pizza, and decided that we all wanted to go paddle boarding.

What's paddle boarding?  It's when you get on a rather large and slightly wider surf board, stand straight up on it, and paddle out into the ocean.  Now, we weren't in the ocean exactly, we stayed in an inlet, but it was such an awe inspiring journey.  To literally be standing out in the middle of the water, with nothing but the wind and sun pounding at your back, it just made me feel so alive, so in the moment. In fact, I got so lost in the moment that almost 2 hours went by as if it was nothing.

I woke up this morning and went down to one of the local churches there in Stuart with my cousin.  It was a really nice service that set a great mood and mindset for the rest of the day.  A mindset of being thankful and aware of the wonderful things that surround our lives every day.

My family and I just wrapped up a cook-out.  I have to say, it was one of those wonderful things the preacher was talking about.  I sat there, listening to the laughter of my Nana, my Uncle, and the rest of my family.  Watching people making new friends, sharing great food, and simply enjoying life together.  It made me feel such warmth it's truly hard to put into words.

Now, I also have to add that during this time, there have been moments where I've missed my nephews, nieces, father, mother and the rest of my family.  But I know I'll be seeing them soon.

For now, I'm gonna focus on getting a bit more work done, and then prepare for tomorrow's activities.  What are they, you may ask?

9 AM snorkeling tour in Key Largo, right out in the reef.

Blessed.

LinkedIn : My Favorite

I love LinkedIn.

That just happened.
(Drops mic, walks out of room)

But seriously. I do.

LinkedIn to me, was bound to happen, the inevitable outcome of the tech generation dominating the professional world.   It's Facebook for the yuppie. Kinda.

I've been  on LinkedIn since 2010, and I have to say, if anything it's the one social media channel that has truly added value to my life, real tangible value.  Now, I get value out of other channels, specifically, I enjoy being able to reflect upon photos with friends, but LinkedIn is one site that I recommend for anyone out there in the professional world.

If you're on LinkedIn though, here are a list of simple rules I recommend you follow.

1.  It's not Facebook.  Don't Ask to Connect.

So, there's this ongoing trend in LinkedIn where people, whom you know, and very well may be friends with on Facebook or another social media channel, will ask to connect with you on LinkedIn.  To me, that defeats the purpose of LinkedIn itself.

If you've never worked with the person, taught the person, or vice versa, were a student to the person, there is literally no way to gauge the quality of work an individual is capable of doing.  It's supposed to be an online social networking/CV/Resume, not another place for you connect with everyone you know.

2.  Make Sure It's Up to Date

I've seen plenty of people who have a LinkedIn account, but barely ever keep it updated.  What's the point of having it if you don't use it the right way?  I've had LinkedIn get me plenty of interviews, and this is in large party that I make sure to have all of my experiences posted on the site.

3.  Utilize Skills/Experiences

Do you work in a certain industry?  Are there specific requirements/skills for that industry?  Make sure you have those as options on your user profile.

For example, let's say you're a computer programmer.  You should probably have HTML, C++, CSS, Python, SQL, Root Error Analysis, and various other buzzwords in your skills section.  Now, let's say I'm your boss, and I log onto LinkedIn.  It will automatically pop up with your face, asking me if you are experienced within those fields.  My simple click, acknowledging a big fat yes, is essentially my endorsement.  I'm saying, yeah, this guy knows what he's doing.

That's enough for now.

More tips for social media will come soon!

Random Moments of Clarity

Last Thursday night (here we go again) I decided to do something spontaneous.  After a long conversation with my good buddy Josh Domitrovich regarding life, meaning, and all that jazz, I decided I was in the mood to go on a road trip.

At 11:35 PM Thursday evening, I called up my good buddy Alex and told him that I wanted to go on a road trip. He asked  where, I said New York City.  That wouldn't fit within our time constraint, so we decided to head to Niagara Falls.  By 12 AM we were on the road.

That night was perhaps one of the best in recent memories.  Alex and I have logged well over 2000 miles in road trips together, and the two of us just continued the discussion that I was having earlier that evening with Josh.   We talked about how we ended up in Clarion, and how through a series of unpredictable and stochastic events, our lives were where they were right now.  

Great tunes played on the radio, coffee and red bull were in our veins, and the highway belonged to us. 

We arrived at our destination around 3:30 AM.  Niagara itself was absolutely beautiful.  The falls were  almost completely frozen, and we had the entire area to ourselves.

 After trotting around for about a half hour, I realized I couldn't feel my feet.  We ducked into the local casino to grab some food, warmed up with coffee, and headed back toward the car.  That's when I decided to take a nap.  Alex went back out to grab more photos.  He was better prepared for the winter weather.   

We got back to Clarion at 10:15 AM Friday morning, just in time for Alex to get to work.  

He was running on no sleep, and I only had an hours worth.  But, at the end of it all, it was totally worth it.   Who knows how many more opportunities we will have to go on such a trip again. 

For the rest of our lives we will always have that night.  Nothing can ever take it away.

That night, we were infinite. 

Four-Square - My First - E-MKTG

So I have to be honest and say that I've never even bothered logging onto or checking out foursquare until I received this assignment for class.  But, after browsing the site for a bit, and just getting an idea on the purpose it serves, I have to say it's definitely a very powerful marketing device.

First off, it directly facilitates consumer-based marketing content by empowering the consumers to spread their opinions on what is exactly going on at whatever business they find themselves visiting.  Simply by logging on from my computer, it automatically brought up the local establishments here at Clarion.  This is a great way for consumers looking for restaurants in the area to get a general idea of what's around.

Secondly, it not only benefits the businesses by advertising their location, but it also benefits the consumers since they tend to offer solid reviews/advice.  Some individuals commenting on Eagle Commons posted about when the best time to attend for dinner was, in order to avoid the rush.  Others commented on what the best meals at venues such as the County Seat and Pizza Pub were, and in general what the average prices were. 

Finally, by having individuals "check-in" whenever they are present at the dining location, it creates an incentive for consumers to continuously broadcast the place of business via the FourSquare channel.  This factor enables other individuals on FourSquare to get an idea, based on his status with that venue (King, etc.), on the quality of service they offer.  For example, according to Dr. Marsden's theories,  if I was to constantly see my friends checking in at the 6th and Main Market, I would develop an affinity based connection since people I know and relate to are consuming a service I also desire/need, that being, food.  

In closing though, while I may not use FourSquare, nor will I be, at least not anytime soon, I can without a doubt see the direct benefit for businesses to use the social media platform as a marketing tool.  So if you’re a business, I’m highly recommending you have a profile up if you already don’t, ASAP!

Life So Far

I think it's been a while since I've actually posted an honest update about my life.  I tend to avoid these, but here it goes.  

This semester has been busy to say the least.  I was offered a position as a Business Analyst with my brother-in-law's software development and consultation firm at the very beginning of it and I accepted with honor and excitement.  Here was someone who recognized potential, and decided to gamble, take me on, and give me legitimate clients from day 1.  While I started with only 1 client, that has quickly grown to 2, and potentially 4 in the very near future.  I've spent my Thursdays leaving work from here at Clarion around 4:30 PM to head to Pittsburgh for more work obligations and some good ole family time.  I have to say, without the latter factor things may have been a bit overwhelming, but the mix is the perfect cocktail.  The kids allow for a perfect release of my pent up zany tendencies.

On top of this, and I know this is somewhat sequentially backwards in terms of narrative structure, I've taken on a wonderfully exciting and demanding position with the Center for Applied Research and Small Business Development Center up here at the Clarion University Barnes Center.  What does it consist of? A little bit of everything.  I'm part of a team of extremely talented students and professionals.  Our goal is to market and develop the structure of the NWPA Innovation Support Program, a brand new project dedicated to economic stimulation via the industries of Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Manufacturing, and Pharmaceutical technologies.   We just had our first open house for the program this past Friday, and it was a smashing success.  It made me realize just how lucky I am to be surrounded by the people I work with and have the ability to do the work I do.

Did I mention I'm still a full-time MBA student?  I think I lucked out here, because the class load this semester is relatively manageable.  The classes are in fields I never had much trouble in, and course content is interesting considering a lot of it correlates to the work I currently perform.  

But even with all of this, there is still more that I'm absolutely ecstatic about.  Faith, luck, or whatever you prefer to call it has surrounded me with some of the best co-students and friends up here.  My fellow MBA students and I feed off of each other and keep each other on track in terms of school demands.  Moreover, a few of us are progressing through the channels to present one of our Organizational Behavior projects at some Graduate and Economic research conferences.  We just landed an amazing faculty sponsor in Dr. Sandra Trejos, and I know with her to assist us we can potentially turn what started as a course assignment into a legitimate academic contribution within the annals of management research. Fingers crossed.

To top it all off I've been able to pursue one of my longest standing passions, music. Near the end of last semester two friends and I discussed the idea of getting together and playing.  But what started off as an idea transformed into the perfect social and creative outlet.  I don't get many moments where I can just enjoy time for myself.  But these few nights of meaningful conversation and music have meant the world to me.  Through all of it, they're the moments of my week where I feel right at home, where I know inside that I'm on the right path.  We just laid down a high-quality audio track and also recorded an amazing video to accompany it.  Even better we've been practicing for what I guess you can call our first, "show," but it's really just an acoustic set for a friends' local business event.  As for the video, it should be popping up sometime soon within the next week.  Stay tuned.

So I guess that's my life and you know, lately I've been thinking a lot about how people constantly focus on the future, how they tell themselves that someday, I'll get to where I want to be, and when I'm there, I'll finally be happy.  Well, the future has been the furthest thing from my mind.  I get to wake up every day and engage in work that challenges and excites me, and I'm surrounded by some of the most meaningful people I've met in my life.  

It's funny, as a kid, I used to dream of this moment.  But I think what turned it from a dream into reality was that I decided to use my imagination as fuel to drive my work ethic all while focusing on enjoying every day as it comes; I suppose you could say, seizing it...   I think if you follow that code, one day you'll look around you and be mesmerized by just what passion and honest intent can bring to one's life.  

In closing though, to paraphrase from one of my favorite philosophers and theologians, Alan Watts, I will say this: life is a song, a complex symphony of sonorous ups and downs, and just like a song, you're not supposed to focus on the finite aspect of the inevitable end, rather, you're supposed to sing and dance while the music is being played.  

To me, that's what life is about. Don't believe me? Well then honestly  look around you, open your ears and listen, and feel, then you might see that we're all playing part in creating the wonderful harmony that keeps the world spinning.  

Google and Technology

The other evening my cousin shared an interesting video with me regarding the recent activities of Google.  Now, I'm an avid technologist, so this video was right up my alley.  It went through the various aspects of the company that really help differentiate itself from others in the industry.  But what really stood out was the groundbreaking frontiers Google itself is entering.

First and foremost the video highlighted some really interesting products and services Google's been developing for commercial purposes.  The one that stands out the most is probably their recent acquisition of Nest Labs, a small-start up   co-founded by two Apple Engineers,  Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers. What does Nest Labs do?  Well, they essentially create smart houses.  They've found a way to deliver smart thermostats and smoke alarms; devices that can automatically learn heating and cooling preferences, coordinate it with monthly costs and budget restraints, and accomplish all of this with the extra comfort of being able to be controlled from any device that is capable of running the correlated application.  Pretty cool, right?

So great, Google is on the verge of making Disney's 1999 made for TV-movie, Smart House, a very real possibility, but that's not all they're up to these days.   What I'm about to discuss next though may alarm some people, for there's always someone to sound the dystopian alarm, and proclaim we're on the verge of seeing Schwarzenegger like machines coming for our day of judgement.

Over the last few months Google has gone on a shopping spree of very large and small companies within the advanced robotics industry, and when I say advanced, I mean it.  Just take a look at their biggest acquisition, Boston Dynamics, and see what their machines are capable of doing.  On top of all of this, they've been buying up companies that specialize in all sorts of robotic parts, from optics, arms, to legs. 

Moreover, it was recently announced that Google was partnering up with NASA and D-Wave, a company who is making waves (no pun intended) within the field of quantum computing.  What's quantum computing you may ask?   Well, computers run off of bits, small tiny pieces of information that either exist within a binary state of a 1 or 0.  Quantum computers operate off of qubits, pieces of information that exist under the conditions of quantum phenomena known as super-positioning and quantum entanglement.   What does that mean? Essentially qubits can exist as both a 1 or a 0 at the same time, allowing for greater optimization of power, since these qubits would also be entangled with other qubits, exponentially increasing said power.   It is believed that these computers one day will assist in tackling some of civilizations greatest issues; from climate change to global poverty, advanced algorithms could be used to solve tough questions and benefit society.  

The last bit of recent news was that Google acquired DeepMind, a London based AI firm that was started in 2010 by child prodigy Demis Hassibis.  What does DeepMind do?  Well, the website is rather terse, with just a simple home landing page that states," We combine the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms."  From what I've gathered a lot of what they do will allow computers to critically analyze images and semantically interpret its content.  Google hopes to utilize this to improve services such as Google Images, but with augmented reality devices such as Google Glasses in the works, one can only wonder what ideas they may have up their sleeves. 

Now take all of this in, Google is making large advancements within the fields of machine learning, robotics, computing power, and on top of all of this, they have one of the most prominent futurists and technologists at the helm of their engineering;  Ray Kurzweil.  A man that Forbes. Inc magazine has called, "the rightful heir to Thomas Edison,"  Kurzweil has consistently made headlines for his accurate predictions of what technology would bring to human civilization, and he's positive his biggest prediction is only years away; the moment of the singularity, when artificial intelligence achieves a conscious like state parallel to human ability.  

In the end, it's clear no other company is in a better position to usher in a new-age of technology, in fact, it very well seems that they're already on the verge of it.  Still, there comes a point, I believe, where humans will have to make a decision under their own volition and decide to what extent we want technology to exist within our lives.  I believe if anything, technology should be there to improve our existence within our environment, to makes us more efficient, to better our relationship with our ecosystem, and allow maximization of knowledge, sustenance, and welfare for citizens across the globe;  but we have to ensure we do not perceive this as a justification for us to become dependent upon technology, rather, it's sole purpose should be to improve our lives, not define it.  

Clarion University's Social Media Presence

Now, I know I spoke of Clarion University in regards to my post on how to use Twitter within the Higher Education marketplace, but I feel there is more that can be said in regards to how and why I feel their utilization of Social Media is one of the best when it comes to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Clarion University itself had an early jump on the Social Media scene, with a Facebook presence for about 3 years.  Moreover, they use their Facebook page in both creative and effective manners.  They ensure that there is a consistent line of communication with their audience by having a designated social media strategist at the handlebars at all times; summer, fall, winter, or spring.  They also focus on creating collaboration between other inter-department university related offices as well, such as athletics, student organizations, and so on.  They capitalize on creating the most effective posts by ensuring a consistent stream of interactive and consumer related content, as well as using it in a manner to disseminate pertinent news topics.

This same type of philosophy has landed them success within the Twitter world. The most important aspect to their success here is that they also know how to differentiate their content for the platform itself.  They ensure presence of brand consistent meta tags, and they also use search methods to ensure the highest levels of audience interaction.    Furthermore,  they know how to deliver messages within the succinct manner Twitter itself demands.

The most important aspect to their success though is the leadership and organization behind their endeavors.  Every Wednesday the University's Marketing and Communication Department hosts a Social Media round table in which the Director of Marketing is present to assist in any marketing related questions.  Furthermore, the presence of such higher leadership keeps the student leaders who are in charge of creating the content focused on important aspects such as metrics and other methods in which they can gauge the success of their content.  This brings up another important facet to their success, which is the fact that they have students of a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from Marketing and Communications, to Advertisements and Film, in charge of brainstorming for content creation.  Social Media itself is a marketing channel that is overwhelmingly dominated by demographics of a young age.  By ensuring the creators of your content are demographically similar to the market segments in which the University is targeting, they mitigate potential dissonance issues between content creators and consumers while simultaneously gaining insight on what type of Social Media channels are being utilized by said consumers.

Such organization has led to their recent expansion into the field of LinkedIn, in which Clarion University was one of the first PASSHE systems to take use of LinkedIn's brand new University Page feature.  This endeavor, while elicited by upper level management, was taken on by a student named Paul Yi; a young professional student who was in the process of studying the marketplace and identifying key industries he desired to work in.  By having someone with such a mindset at the helm of their expansion into LinkedIn, they were able to directly match the exact ways in which the University Page feature was supposed to be utilized; as a gateway for current students to match up with alumni and businesses of which they are interested in.

Overall, Clarion University's Social Media presence has continued to strengthen over the years, and this is in large thanks to the proper leadership and organizational structure that is in place.

E-Marketing : Why I Don't Use Pinterest

Last night (I'm starting to wonder if all of my  blog posts are going to begin that way...)  I found myself searching Google for an electronic copy of a book by one of my favorite 20th century American philosophers and theologians, Alan W. Watts.  Specifically, I was trying to find a Kindle version or at least a free library PDF version of his book, "Beyond Theology: The Art of Godsmanship." For those who don't know whom Alan W. Watts is, just click here and please, enjoy!

Anyways, I stumbled across a link that posited to be offering a digitally free licensed copy of "Beyond Theology," but what I actually found was a Pinterest page that simply had the book cover.  I was confused, baffled, angry, and somewhat let down all within what seemed to be a matter of seconds.  I wanted to read! I had no need for some website that could show me how to make delicious puppy shaped peanut butter pretzel cookies or watermelon infused mojitos from scratch.

But suddenly, after a few short breaths and click of my Chrome's back-page button, I realized the irony in the moment. I had to make a blog post (this post) about Pinterest for my E-Marketing class, and I also had to highlight why I did or did not prefer to use it.  If one can gather from my unabashed and terse tirade  not but just 2 sentences up, I think I perhaps indirectly gave away my position.

To be honest though, I have a very limited understanding of what Pinterest is; sure I know it is a social media site in which individuals can share, or "pin" images covering a virtually unlimited variety of interests, but I suppose I really don't know what it is because I'm not really interested in it. In fact, my rudimentary understanding largely stems from my cousin's girlfriend, Simi, visiting us in Pittsburgh and always making us desserts and or wonderfully tasteful mixed drinks, that when I ask where she found out how to make these amazingly delicious treats, I always here, "Pinterest."  Or my sister, Jamie, she'll show me some cute craft idea for my nephews' and nieces' elementary school holiday parties, and once again, when I ask where did she come up with the idea, what do I hear but, "Pinterest."

Maybe that's why I don't have an interest in it.  Not that I don't like cookies or drinks. I'd be absurd to say I don't like cookies or drinks! But I think it more or less has something to do with a gender stereotype I have developed since any users of Pinterest that I know tend to be women.  Thankfully though, after once again utilizing the all-mighty search engine Google, I have come to find that my perception is statistically verified. According to an article from the Huffington Post, 72% of Pinterest users are women.  

While this explains my perception of Pinterest, it doesn't fully explain my lack of use.  As for that answer, while I'm well experienced in a myriad of social media platforms, such as Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon; I try to spend as much time as I can on other things I enjoy, such as music, art, books, and films.  To me, these social media sites are a great means to attain those interests, but I think sometimes we end up focusing on the means themselves too much.  I try to avoid this over indulgence of social media as much as I possibly can, and rather I prefer to focus on the content, or the ends themselves.  But that's just me.

In Addition: A Comment on , "An Open Letter To Those Never Touched By Addiction," by Kelsey Westbrook

It was around 2 AM when I found myself wrapping up some work and plopping over on Facebook to casually scroll through the myriad of posts fresh upon my news feed.  Usually I just find myself "liking" a few posts that are particularly interesting or funny before I power down my computer and let darkness engulf my room as the last pixel from the screen disappears.  But this evening, or should I say morning, was different.  I saw an article my cousin-in-law shared.  The title itself is what caught my eye, for it contained a word which will forever hold an august weight within my life; addiction.

The post was from a girl named Kelsey who recently lost her father to drug addiction; heroin overdose to be specific.  As I read I found myself in an empathetic and understanding state of melancholy.  Here was someone that has gone through the ups and downs of what addiction can do to a family, and she found herself on the oh too sad end it very well takes sometimes; losing someone who means the world to you.

Her second paragraph is what truly struck at my core, "I share this with you, not because I am in search of pity, on the contrary, it's because I yearn for the moment when those that suffer from, and have fallen victim to the horrific disease that is addiction will one day be given the memorial that their souls truly deserve."  

What marveled me was that the second post I ever made here had a similar line and similar theme.   This is where the coincidence comes into play.  I spent this past Sunday evening with a friend and we began sharing our life stories.  She told a tale of her family's history and how she ended up in Clarion, and I shared mine. Now some of you may know about my family's history, yet, from what I'm gathering thanks to the words of my friend, most of you may not; nor would you even suspect it.  But from a very young age I grew up in a household where addiction tore apart the very bricks of my family's foundation.

My father, the man who was everything to me, changed from being the one who laughed, smiled, and hugged, into the man who came home late whom I barely saw.  My mother, the strong, passionate, and artistic caregiver, lost all the colors to her once vivid palette and became a shell of the person I once knew.  My sister, my brother, myself, we lost our parents, not in the physical sense, but in a way unique to itself. I think the only way I could describe it would be by calling it a secular state of purgatory; caught between life and death, never knowing what the day would bring next.

Now I stand here today as a man who went from being a troubled teen that could care less about school to being merely a semester and a half away from graduating with an MBA.  I stand here today having a sister who through it all grew and become a wonderfully successful and hard working human being and mother of 2 absolutely brilliant nephews, 2 amazingly beautiful daughters, and wife to a husband I'm lucky to call my brother-in-law.  I stand here with my brother, Joseph, who had his own troubled paths, but now finds himself further away from taking the wrong steps in life.  

Even with all of this though, all of these wonderful amazing things,  there are two things I'm most proud about in my life.  The fact that I can say my father has been clean for almost 2 years now and my mother for over 7.

Here's the thing, as I'm writing this, I find myself wanting to echo again the words of Kelsey, that I'm not writing this for some sense of pity or attention.  And I find it particularly interesting that it is a common concern of those who have grown up where addiction was an unwanted family addition.

 I'm writing this because of what I value. Because I believe the most important aspect to existence itself are the relationships we have with each other, the networks we exist in.  I believe that every single one of us leaves an impression upon each other, a memory, forever guaranteeing eternal legacy.  Through our interactions, we have the capability to enrich each others lives.  

Now I have no idea what tomorrow may bring for my parents, but I do know qualities I'm sure many friends and family members enjoy about me come from my mother and father, and no matter what happens, the memories I will always have of them are the ones that bring a smile to my face. 

Still, it kills me whenever I see a man or woman walking into the local clinic with a child holding his or her hand.  It kills me because I've seen how awful addiction can be, and I know too well what it can do to a family.  But I've also seen the miracles that life can bring.  I've seen what can happen just by keeping your head up, fighting what may seem like incredibly arduous up-hill battles, having the faith and confidence in yourself, and being able to surround yourself with ones who truly love you.  

Because of all this, I find it hard to explain the happiness I get from being able to go home on a weekend and do something as silly as read to my nephew.  Now I'm sure any Uncle would feel the same way, but for me, everything has a little bit of a different weight behind it, because at one point in my life I never would have imagined I'd be 24 years old, laying in a Super Mario themed bed, reading The Time Machine to a 7 year old who shared my blood.  I never imagined I'd be driving home from the Lego Movie sharing with my nephew and niece the wonderful joys of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.  I never thought any of the things that have occurred in my life would have ever happened.  But they did, and I don't see why they can't happen for other people as well, people who have their own battles, because in the end, mine and my family's story, objectively, are no different from any other; there were ups and downs, but everything turned out alright. 

I wanted to write this for Kelsey though, because I know what she's gone through to a degree.  And I know that sometimes people have their demons, but that doesn't mean they're not people; wonderful, curious, people - grandfathers, fathers and sons, mothers, daughters, and loved ones. 

Twitter Tips for Higher Education

Over the past Summer and Fall semesters I took on a primary leadership role as a Social Media Strategist with Clarion University.  What does this mean?  Essentially, I analyzed processes and best practices for how to engage our various target market segments; potential students, current students, and non-traditional students (individuals pursuing Higher Ed later in their career or life path).  This involved seeing what our competitors (other Universities) were doing in terms of channel utilization and gathering data via surveys from potential and current students at on-campus open houses and other various events.

What we saw wasn't too surprising, an overwhelming majority of people are on Facebook.  From Universities, to students, to parents, they all have a profile.  For the sake of capitalizing on market channels though, it's important to note that the next largest Social Media channel people use is Twitter, the micro-blogging platform.  But how do you reach out to an audience in 140 characters or less, and more importantly, how do you measure your impact?  Let me share a few tips and tricks I picked up during my journey.

Content, Content, Content, but not too much...

The first thing to understand is the rate of consumption and thus limit to said consumption Social Media users expect and experience on their favorite platforms.  People get on Facebook and twitter and they expect to see updates from the various individuals or organizations they follow, but the last thing you want to become is a troll on their feed.  What does this mean ?  I'm sure we all have that friend who constantly posts about every little detail of their life. It gets to the point now matter how much you like the individual, you may find yourself un-following them.  You want to avoid this at all costs!

From a Higher Education standpoint, 2-3 posts a day is the maximum unless contingent situations demand otherwise.  If it's during the semester, try to share any exciting events that are going on campus.  Perhaps you're running a promotional event?  Make sure to give everyone an update on the status of that event. Remind them if it's starting up, or perhaps it's closing soon, either way, make sure you get the message across without flooding their screens.  You have to tweet at the right time with valuable information.  If you tweet too much, no matter what you post, people will tend to see less value in what you say.   Which brings up my next topic of discussion.

Timing is Everything!

Put yourself in the shoes of your consumers.  The average individual will check their Social Media channels a few times a day.  Once in the morning, perhaps at lunch, and then later in the evening.  If you have something great to share, focus on getting it up between 8 AM to 10 AM, 12 PM to 1PM and 5PM to 8 PM.

If you follow that rule, you're posts are going to get exposed to the highest audience.  If you miss those times, the world isn't over, but you risk getting flooded away in the sea of tweets.  No matter how strong of a swimmer you think your post is, try to avoid playing in the water when the tide is going out.

# Branding

One thing I found to be great is creating a consistent set of hash tags.  What's that you may ask?  Essentially it's search engine optimization, a meta tag if you will.  It creates a staple on your post that cascades and connects to any other staple of its exact kind that has ever been posted before.  For Clarion University, I made sure to follow most of our tweets with #ClarionU.  It helped create a unique, but appropriate Social Media brand, that allowed consumers to become acquainted with our content and presence.   Furthermore, it's a great way to start a trend and measure your impact.  What do I mean?  Well...

Finding and Engaging Your Audience

Twitter allows you to search for anything that is currently trending.  But by using hash tags, you can specifically search for the staples I just mentioned above.  For example,every morning I would log on and search for #ClarionU or potential variants such as #Clarion #ClarionUniversity #CUP and so on.    If you do this, your eyes will instantly light up with the amount of people talking about you or your organization.  Furthermore, you can now directly engage these people.  For the sake of Clarion University, a lot of students would share exciting stories such as their acceptance to the school, or perhaps they received an award, or just had something nice to say.  Either way, this was the perfect time to reach out to them. A simple tweet back to them saying, "Congratulations!" or ,"Way to go! We're excited to have you here!" could make their day.

 Don't believe me?  Well, let's say I tweeted at someone in the morning saying something along the lines of what I just spoke about and then did another #ClarionU search later in the afternoon.  There was almost a 100% rate of direct engagement afterwards.  Sometimes they would "Favorite" the tweet, "Retweet" it, or say something back, either way, I just engaged Clarion's audience. Better yet, if they perhaps retweeted back with your #ClarionU, our exposure rate just exponentially increased by having everyone in their closed audience (their follower list) see it. Success!

Be Social!

Lets not forget that Social Media is not the run of the mill marketing channel.  This is your chance to show people your personal, fun, yet professional side.  People don't want to always see serious posts.  I'm not saying you shouldn't, for all means you should have tweets with links to interesting and important articles, but it shouldn't be the basis of your strategy.

The most successful tweets and posts I've seen in the history of Clarion University's Social Media years mostly consisted of something exciting with a photo attached to it.  Whether it be a picture of people walking across the stage to grab their diploma with some text saying, "Congratulations to the #ClarionU #ClassOf2013.  Spread your wings and take flight!", a neat photo of people cheering at a volleyball game, or even a photo of Founders Hall during a wonderful winter snowfall, people will love it.  It helps foster school pride and social solidarity, and in the end, that's the best ROI you can ask for in a Higher Education Institution.