Category: social media

blog, social media, social media creation, writing

Beautiful: The Start of My Social Media Blog Post Series

Christa Avampato
These adorable icons can be purchased at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/152160612/social-media-icons-blog-buttons-web?ref=exp_listing

Today I’m kicking off a series of blog posts about how I used different social media channels. I’m writing this series for a few reasons:

1.) To let people know all of the ways we can connect online
2.) To help people who are interested in building / enhancing their own social media presence
3.) To crystallize the strategy and value of my own use of different social media channels

Social media has been an important part of my life because it’s allowed me to stay connected with people, even if they reside on the other side of the world. It’s largely responsible for being my partner in crime as I carve my own professional path as a writer. I’ve made so many friends through social media that I’ve lost count; I’ve actually become so close to some of them that I often forget that social media is what initially brought us together.

Tomorrow I’ll “chat” about this blog, as well as Compass Yoga’s blog, and how I use blogging on a daily basis in my personal and professional life. Because it bears repeating, I’ll also recount my story of how I got started blogging and the friends who inspired my blog writing.

government, social media, technology

Beautiful: The White House Hangs Out with Geeks – Today at 2pm EDT

Christa Avampato

Today I’m heading back to the White House with 3,000 of my closest geek friends.

Rather than donning a suit in the East Room, I’ll be on my comfy couch at 2:00 EDT in my yoga clothes with my pup, Phin, right next to me. That’s right – geeks of the world, we have arrived! The White House has created a Google Hangout, cleverly entitled “We the Geeks”, in our honor and the first one is today. The event is open to geeks far and near to “highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.”

The event is free and open to the public, and you’ll have the pleasure of hanging with yours truly. Or rather, I’ll have the pleasure of hanging with you! The full press release with all the geeky details is below. Hope to “see” you there!

White House Press Release
Note: Watch the first ‘We the Geeks” Hangout on Thursday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov and on the White House Google+ page. You can join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #WeTheGeeks.

On May 16th, the White House is kicking off “We the Geeks,” a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.

The first “We the Geeks” Hangout will focus on Grand Challenges, ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. Grand Challenges are an important element of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. On April 2nd, the President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropists to join with him in identifying and pursuing the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.

An example of a past Grand Challenge was the sequencing of the entire human genome that, according to one recent study, has contributed to the U.S. economy more than $140 for every $1 invested by the Federal government. President Obama just announced the BRAIN Initiative, a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.  The Department of Energy is leading the way in Clean Energy Grand Challenges with SunShot, an initiative to make solar energy as cheap as coal, and EV Everywhere, an initiative announced by President Obama to make electric vehicles as affordable and convenient to own as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles.

The Obama Administration supports the identification and pursuit of Grand Challenges because the approach can:

  • help solve important economic and societal problems;
  • serve as a “North Star” for high-impact, multi-disciplinary collaborations among government, industry, universities, non-profits, and philanthropists;
  • create a foundation for industries and jobs of the future;
  • capture public imagination and increase support for public policies that foster science, technology, and innovation; and
  • inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

In addition to Federal investments, there are a growing number of companies, foundations, philanthropists, and research universities that are interested in pursuing Grand Challenges. During this Thursday’s “We the Geeks” Hangout, I’ll join White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation Tom Kalil and an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country to discuss the elements of an “all hands on deck” effort to pursue Grand Challenges. Participants include:

  • Matt Grob, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to discuss the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE and other bold research initiatives at Qualcomm
  • Rob High, IBM Fellow, Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer, IBM Watson Solutions, to discuss what’s next for Watson and the field of cognitive computing
  • Kathryn Latham, recent graduate from Duke University with a degree in engineering and participant in the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars Program
  • Sebastian Thrun, a research professor at Stanford, a Google Fellow, and a co-founder of Udacity, to discuss Google’s self-driving car and Google X

So tune in Thursday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov and on the White House Google+ page, as we begin a new series of future-focused Hangouts from the White House.

entrepreneurship, social media

YCombinator Alumnus, Edward Wu, Wants to Help You Raise Your Social Status

Christa Avampato

YCombinator alumnus, Edward Wu, takes a unique approach to Facebook marketing. His brand new web app, Social Status, is unlike any traditional Facebook marketing app.

Companies have been unsuccessfully trying to make Facebook work for them by using “contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, content curation,” says Wu. “Social Status focuses on the bread-and-butter of your social media campaign and enhances your posts.”

How it works: Social Status transforms your text-based social media posts into stunning images, getting you more Likes, Comments, and Shares. Social Status conducted a study using 500 random posts; half were plain text and the other half were enhanced with the app. The Social Status posts received 60% more Likes, 400% more Comments, and 12x the number of Shares.

Social Status works with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Users can post directly to their Facebook Fan pages, Twitter Feeds, or Pinterest boards, all in a matter of seconds. Before Social Status, there was no simple way to post text on Pinterest; Social Status now makes this possible. Social Status also has an export feature that makes it fully compatible with social media management tools like Sprout Social, HootSuite, and TweetDeck. Social Status has an aggressive roadmap. They plan to add detailed analytics, hundreds more templates, and more social media platform integrations in the coming weeks.

If you want to take it for a test drive, Social Status is free for personal use, and $10 / month for businesses. (The $10 fee removes the watermark and unlocks all the templates.)

About the company: Social Status is based in San Jose, CA. Edward Wu is also the Co-founder of Vidyard (Series A funded startup with over 30 employees).

Africa, philanthropy, social change, social entrepreneurship, social media, technology, thankful

Leap: Day #3 of Mashable’s Social Good Summit Wraps Up With Inspiring Calls to Action

Christa Avampato

This year’s Social Good Summit was full of examples of people fusing their passion for a cause with their expertise in technology. Thankfully all of the sessions are available online if you need a healthy dose energy and motivation. Here are my favorite highlights from yesterday’s events:

Making It Real
Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and co-author with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, of the book Half the Sky, delivered one of the most-anticipated and talked-about conversations about their partnership with Games for Change. Kristof and WuDunn have dedicated their lives and careers to covering social cause issues in the most ravaged parts of the world. To raise societal consciousness, they have co-developed a set of Facebook games to help others understand the impossible choices and desperate circumstances of marginalized populations. Their book has also been expanded into a mini-series that will air on October 1st and 2nd on PBS. Details here: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

Empowerment Through Low-Tech Solutions
Anthony Lake and Clay Shirky made the case for low-tech two-way communication over high-tech one-way communication. They highlighted u-report, an initiative in Uganda, that is empowering local communities to take responsibility for their health by disseminating information and results of programs through mobile SMS service. To date, u-report has 147,000+ users that are spreading information and local data about health topics such as vaccinations, sex education, and breast-feeding. This program fits the principle that, “Ideas must be aggregated for impact,” said Shirky. “Go where the people are. Tech in the field needs to be low-tech to be widely accessible.” Follow the conversation on this topic on Twitter, hashtag #Promise4Children, and come together for child survival by visiting APromiseRenewed.org.

It Took a Village to Get the Lady to the Harbor
The crowdfunding discussions rehashed a lot of the facts and figures on their impressive impact that have been surfaced over the last few years. There’s no doubt that tech has vastly improved the efficiency and speed of crowdfunding. In all of our tech crazed eyes, we forget that crowdfunding is an ancient concept. For centuries, people have been banding together to do good work in their communities. My favorite example comes from New York Harbor. When France gave the Statue of Liberty to America, they forgot to create a pedestal. The people of New York, rallied together by Pulitzer, the publisher who ran a small print publication that would become the New York Times, pooled their funding to construct the pedestal. Over 100,000 people gave an average of $0.89 each to make it happen. Thanks to Danae Ringelmann, Co-Founder, Indiegogo, for reminding us of this historic act of generosity that demonstrates the power of community.

Of Food and Music
Angelique Kidjo is a world-renowned singer and songwriter. Originally from Benin, she is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, and never one to back down in the face of adversity, she spends a lot of her time advocating for women and girls around the globe. Anthony Lake shared the stage with her and explained that simple basic nutrition information is a tool that is incredibly effective and drastically underutilized in development work. He went on to detail the condition of Stunting that affects 160 million children worldwide. If children do not receive proper nutrition (not quantity but quality and variety of food) by age 2, they will suffer from permanent cognitive impairments. Getting help to these children in the earliest days of their lives is critical to building a peaceful, productive world.

In honor of the work of UNICEF, Angelique sang a gorgeous impromptu spiritual for all of us. I have no idea what she was saying, but I felt her emotion in every syllable and she brought tears to my eyes. For the first time in 3 days, the auditorium went completely silent except for her voice.

Everyone’s an Idea Person
So, you’re an idea person who wants to stretch the boundaries of human impact? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has thrown down the gauntlet. Get your idea down, send it in, and they’ll evaluate it for funding – $100K for a pilot with the potential of $1M to gain leverage and grow it. Visit grandchallenges.org for more information.

Audacious Ideas Get Support
The Global Fund and Wikipedia called on all of us to get creative with our mission statements. If Wikipedia had called people together to write a series of articles on any given topic, the reaction would have been mild at best. Instead, Founder Jimmy Wales put together a far grander vision – “to create a free encyclopedia for every person in every language.” It’s an enormous, unfathomable goal, and impossibility excites people to get involved. Who doesn’t love to be the underdog and triumph?

Transfer this kind of thinking to the issue of HIV / AIDS and you understand why The Global Fund has the audacity to dream of a world free of HIV in our lifetime. As they pointed out, we have eradicated diseases before. Small Pox is an excellent example. So why couldn’t we do the same thing with HIV / AIDS?

Reuniting Families Torn Apart
The Danish NGO Refugees United has partnered with Ericsson to reunite refugees separated by war. They have developed an online and mobile platform that creates profiles of refugees and then runs these profiles through a series of algorithms to match people to family members. They’ve engaged with 200,000 people to-date, mostly in Sub-saharan Africa. In 3 years, they want to grow the platform to 1 million people. Find out how to be a part of the solution at RefugeesUnited.org.

Now What?
Conferences like the Social Good Summit fire people up in the moment, but what happens when they get back to their everyday lives. How do we keep this goodness going? Here’s my advice: go through the agenda from this year’s Social Good Summit, identify the cause you care about, and then connect with the people from the Summit who are involved with that cause.

Email them, follow their blogs and social media channels, send a card, or heck, send a carrier pigeon. Do what you can to reach out and build a bridge to someone who cares about the issues you care about. Build something together for the good of the world. In the words of Timothy Leary, “Find the others.”

blogging, change, community, entrepreneurship, social change, social entrepreneurship, social media, writing

Leap: I Will Be Live Blogging the Social Good Summit at 92Y

Christa Avampato

I am very excited to share the news that I will be live blogging the Social Good Summit at 92Y in New York City from September 22nd – September 24th. Huge thanks to the networking groups Ladies DC and Ladies NYC, and especially to Anastasia Dellaccio of the United Nations Foundation, for inviting me.

The Social Good Summit is a three-day conference where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions. Held during UN Week, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges. The most innovative technologists, influential minds and passionate activists will come together with one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and then to translate that potential into action.

This year’s Social Good Summit will be more engaging than ever. People from around the world, in both the developed and the developing world, will unite in person and online to participate in The Global Conversation – the world’s largest conversation on how technology can grow communities and improve life for all of us as we move toward being a networked society.

On September 24, 2012 the Social Good Summit is coming to China and Kenya. Key leaders and citizens of Beijing and Nairobi will unite and explore the same themes that inspired the birth of the Social Good Summit. You’ll hear directly from these countries via Livestream, and can witness the live intersection of New York, Nairobi and Beijing on Monday morning from the stage of the 92Y in New York City.

The 2012 Social Good Summit is brought to you by Mashable, 92nd Street Y, the United Nations Foundation, Ericsson, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

There are plenty of ways to follow and participate in the conversation, no matter where in the world you live:

Follow this blog for updates and to leave comments on my posts http://christainnewyork.com
Follow my Twitter stream at http://twitter.com/christanyc and use the hashtag #SGSGlobal
Watch the Livestream of the event
Attend or organize a Social Good Summit meetup in your city
Buy a ticket and attend in person
Follow the Social Good Summit website for updates

I look forward to all of the conversations!

change, friendship, home, moving, relationships, social media, social network

Leap: Social Media Provides Us With Room To Move

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

As I think more about my potential move to a new city in the coming year, I realize how much freedom social media provides. I’m able to connect with friends and friends of friends to ask questions about potential new homes. And when I do make a decision of where to move, I don’t need to feel like I’m leaving behind my friends in NYC. I won’t see them as often in person but we will still be close with the lines of social networks drawn between us. I also remember that a number of people whom I consider good friends are people I know through this blog and other channels. I talk to many of them daily in one way or another.

This ability to make and keep connections over long distances makes moving easier than it’s ever been before. Moving to a new city doesn’t need to feel isolating or lonely, even while we are in the process of reestablishing our physical social lives. These reflections make a move from New York a less scary proposition, an exciting new possibility, and they open the way for options that I never would have considered before. As the world gets smaller, individual opportunities expand.

blog, books, social media, story, writer, writing

Leap: A Facebook Community for My Readers

Christa Avampato

5 years ago this weekend I started this blog. I never thought it would become such a labor of love that would bring so many incredible gifts. And finally, after all of this time, I got it together and created a Facebook Page expressly for the readers of this blog for several reasons:

1.) To provide a way for me to connect more closely with all of you and for readers to connect with one another

2.) To promote the works of other writers and to give readers the opportunity to do the same

3.) To offer all of us a way to share what inspires us – books, articles, photographs, stories, good works in our communities, quotes, travels, ideas, questions, etc.

4.) To give writers another way to promote their own work and connect with other writers

5.) To connect people who are taking big leaps in their careers and lives

I want this page to be a place where we can all offer up ideas and commentary in a supportive and thoughtful way. As I’m preparing to make my own professional leap, I’ve met so many people who are in the process of doing the same thing. Here’s our chance to get behind one another and encourage each other on the path forward. I really want this page to be incredibly dynamic with many contributions by a wide circle of people who are curious and passionate about living their best lives.

I really hope you’ll all join me, like the page, and then let the sharing begin at http://www.facebook.com/ChristaInNewYork.com.

politics, social media, SXSW

Beginning: Clay Shirky Explains How You Can Play a Part in Global Politics

Christa Avampato

Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky was his sparkling, brilliant self at SXSW yesterday. I would go so far as to say just his one hour talk made my first day of the festival worthwhile. I’ve heard him speak before, though had never heard his views on global politics and social media. Citing Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan examples, he explained the 3 basic tenants of why we should not be surprised by social media’s effect on the global political landscape:

1.) Social media gives us the ability to synchronize across small and great physical distances
2.) Social media provides an avenue to coordinate our efforts to achieved shared goals
3.) Social media provides a way for all people to document and share the circumstances happening around them

In short, social media is the stage that political revolutions have been waiting for. The very best part of the talk was his closing in which he gave us his take-aways about how all of us can have a profound impact on global politics with the help of social media:

1.) Take the long view, not the weekend warrior approach. Pick a country you care about, and start following the social media buzz around the happenings in that country. Retweet your findings on a regular basis to find others who care about the politics happening in that country.

2.) Volunteer remotely. Many organizations now give us the ability to help a cause right from our couch. UN Volunteers, Radiofreenet, Ushahidi, and Global Voices are 4 examples of organizations that provide us with this opportunity for action.

3.) In our own backyards, protect the religious freedoms of all people, particularly those who practice Islam. There is currently a witch hunt underway against American Muslims, and it cannot be tolerated if we are truly to become an evolved society.

To top it off, Shirky is a remarkably down-to-earth guy. The man sitting next to me at Shirky’s talk pointed out that his blog, Shirky.com/weblog, has a a generic WordPress theme. No fancy design or catchy name – just really fantastic content. Despite his fame, talent, and tremendous intellect, seemingly none of that has gone to his head. He’s rare. A lot of people of his caliber and influence, particularly in the interactive space, have egos so large they barely fit inside the Austin Convention Center. By contrast, Shirky is a class act and I feel honored to have had the chance to hear him speak.

books, marketing, social media

Step 207: How Greg Verdino’s Ebook Inspires Me

Christa Avampato

I love Greg Verdino’s blog. I find him interesting, controversial, and wicked smart. He’s also humble, curious, and consist and constantly learning and sharing. He started up his blog almost 4 years ago; I’ve been reading his blog for about a year. Mostly, Greg writes about social media and marketing though conversations (in any form) and relationships always seem to be his underlying topics to me. I’ve been looking back over a number of his posts as I prep the curriculum for the marketing class I will be teaching at LIM College in the Fall.

On my plane ride back from vacation, I finally read Greg’s ebook 4 & 20 Blog Posts, a selection of his writings from his first two years of blogging. As someone considering a career shift, I found his book and back-story very inspiring. Greg was “the social media guy” at Digitas when he started blogging and a brilliant marketer. Then he went to crayon, and now is part of Powered, a full-service social media agency. Conversations are now the mainstay of his profession. I think that’s a great answer to the “what do you do for a living?” question: “I talk to people.”

You don’t need to be a marketer or involved with social media to enjoy Greg’s ebook, the same way you don’t need to be a chef to enjoy Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations. Yes, if you love talking with and listening to customers in a variety of ways, Greg’s writing will be not only enjoyable but incredibly useful to you.

Greg is a guy who enjoys his life, has undergone a number of personal and professional changes since beginning his blogging life, and shares that every day with his readers. He gives us big ideas to chew on, visions that inspire us, and calls to action that makes us want to roll up our sleeves and get to work on the work that most interests us, whatever that work may be.

Give his ebook a read (it’s available for free download on his website) and let me know what you think. Greg’s book microMarketing will be published by McGraw-Hill in August.

education, social media

Step 175: My First College Teaching Gig This Fall at LIM College

Christa Avampato

In January, I spoke to my friend, Trevin, about my desire to teach in a college setting. At that point I was still considering a PhD program because I thought that would be the surest way to teach at a college. Trevin, now a college professor, in his infinite kindness offered to connect me to a friend and mentor of his at LIM (Laboratory Institute of Merchandising) College in New York. He thought his friend may be able to offer me some advice.

Trevin’s friend offered to take a look at my resume. He said at the time that there wasn’t a teaching position at LIM that matched my background though he’d keep my resume on file should anything come up. He mentioned that I may be a good fit for the Marketing Department so he’d keep an eye out for me. I thanked him profusely and archived the emails. Several months later, the head of the Marketing Department at LIM asked me if I’d come in to the school to meet him. He wanted to offer a class on social media in the Fall and thought I might be interested.

I went into the school, had my interview, and we talked about social media – where it might be going (anyone who says they know for certain where we’re heading is bluffing), how students could learn from the platforms available, and how brands can and should measure the results of social media campaigns. After a wonderful morning, I felt confident that this might have real potential, that I could actually teach in the subject area I’m most interested in without needing a PhD at all. We went back and forth on email over the following months, and then we seemed to reach a scheduling impasse. I thought the opportunity had died on the vine.

And then something really incredible happened. I sat down and really thought about how I’d feel in 5 years if I passed up this opportunity now, and no matter how I turned it over in my mind, I knew in my gut that turning down the opportunity was the wrong choice. (Brian’s proud of me for trusting my gut more often these days.) So I went back, worked out my scheduling conflicts, LIM compromised a bit on my behalf, and voila, problem solved. Compromise only results if we’re really honest about what’s most important to us.

This coming Fall I’ll joining LIM’s faculty as an adjunct professor, my first college teacher role (hopefully one of many). I will be teaching a class entitled Viral, Guerilla, and Social Media Marketing. (I can’t take any credit for the title, but I do love it!) The Marketing Chair and I are working out a cool curriculum, and are uber-excited to see how it all pans out. There’s magic in trusting our gut and going for what we want.