Social Media

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!