Social media to me is a way of connecting with your friends
and family to share ideas, pictures, videos, articles, and interests. It can
also be used to connect people with businesses giving them simple information
such as hours, location, and reviews from other users, as well as, detailed
information about products, special events, and promotions.
When it comes to social media I’m afraid I am somewhat
behind or slow to adapt to new forms of connecting because I don’t like to
follow social trends just because everyone else is raving about it. I realize
its hard to be original when everything has been done before so I guess my
stubborn need to try to be original is not realistic, and I do see how being
slow to adapt could actually do more harm in our technologically driven
society, especially in a forward thinking industry like fashion. Currently I
use Facebook as a social community by connecting with friends and family,
social publishing by posting pictures, sharing blogs and articles, and posting
status updates, as well as social commerce by purchasing products and sharing
information about my employers business. I am a big fan of Pinterest because I
have always been a magazine ad collector and collage maker, so having a digital
version that gives me access to even more information and images is a dream
come true. I have the least experience with social entertainment, because of
course I never wanted to become addicted to social games, as so many of my
Facebook friends have. I would, however, like to explore more with Instagram,
LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs so that I might become more familiar with these
forms of communication, and maybe use that knowledge to my advantage when
finding a job after graduation.
I think that crowd funding is a great way to raise money and
awareness for projects that need financial backing. I have participated in
funding a Kickstarter project called, The Winter Project, which is a
snowmachining (snowmobiling for you lower 48’ers) movie about riders who grew
up riding in Alaska’s backcountry; how their love of riding actually changed
the industry into an extreme sport, and put snowmachining on the map at
X-Games. Having grown up in Alaska, and eventually knowing quite a few people
that love to snowmachine and some who are friends with the riders in the movie,
seeing this project become possible was extremely rewarding to me. It was also
inspiring, in such a close-knit group of people, to see how quickly, with every
single persons help that the funding needed to finish this project was met.
There were regular updates by email telling the backers how the project was
going, giving behind the scenes videos of filming, and the expected premier of
the movie and release of merchandise.
I actually have not taken the opportunity to use social
media as a venue to complain about a business or service that I had a bad
experience with, but I have seen one company share a link to leave anonymous
comments about customer experiences both good and bad so that if there were any
problems or complaints, the company could address them.
If the Fashion Merchandising Organization (FMO) could make
sure that all of it’s members are connected to the organizations’ Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram accounts it would allow more information and awareness
about the organizations activities to be communicated; this would also enabling
it’s members to interact with each other in those experiences through social
media. Regular activity and updates on the FMO Facebook and Twitter would also
help to solidify the organizations social media presence, giving its members
more confidence in the ability for FMO to inspire them and create a sense of
community that most of us are looking for in school organizations.
Well I have most definitely gone over the word count
requirement for this post, but I hope whoever is reading this will find it at
least mildly entertaining. Thanks!
