The Outing of Instagram: Online Communities and Changing Habits

On this hot Saturday morning, I did what I do nearly every Saturday morning. I woke up, made breakfast, then sat down to read the NYTimes. I flipped through the travel section, slightly disappointed in the lack of photos illuminating the stories and then realized - I haven't checked my Instagram today. Immediately upon realizing this, I pulled out my phone, opened the app and hit refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Nothing. So I checked for updates in the App store. Nothing. I connected my phone to my computer, wondering if the app had crashed in some weird fashion and considered deleting and reinstalling.

"Deleting "Instagram" will also delete all of its data"

All of its data!? You mean - it might erase my comments? The autofill when I type in #catsagram?! I decided the risk of doing this was too great and chose instead to seek answers. I opened Twitter and typed in #instagram. Five seconds later I had my answer - lightening from a storm had brought down Instagram's servers. Surrounding that pertinent information were sarcastic Tweets reminding everyone that, yes, they could eat their breakfast without documenting and sharing the process. Others smartly pointed out that it's ironic that nature was the cause of such a disruption in our newly formed digital habits. It was a timely reminder of just how powerful nature is - that despite our technological leaps, nature can still destroy us with its forrest fires, hurricanes, heat and draughts.

After reading through a few more Tweets, I leaned back from my computer and suddenly a brief moment of sadness washed over me. I wondered, what's my "Instagram friend" in London doing right now? Did he explore any new interesting places in the English countryside with his family? Where are my daily, mind-blowingly gorgeous photos of the South African coast? How is my friend in Brooklyn right now? Has she stumbled upon any interesting graffiti? What will my day be like if I am forced to actually live in the moment - sharing my world with just those who are physically in my presence?

While I agree that we need to be more present and respect nature, I think they're missing the bigger point. Nature is a powerful force that will always push back regardless of our technological advances. It may be punishing us for our pollution and destruction but certainly not for our advanced communication tools. But the bigger question is - do we really share just for the sake of sharing?

No - we share to become part of a community, using our photos and comments as a tool to build relationships. Like the closing of ones neighborhood bar - we're not sad because we miss the drinks. We're sad because we miss the people. And thus the world of Instagram is not a magical place for its ability to turn mundane imagery into something beautiful - it's magical because like a crystal ball - it allows me to see what they see - helping me connect with these specific people in a way that no other platform can.

Tête-à-Tête Tuesdays with Molly

Margaux Zion is a Social Media Consultant, specializing in interactive customer experience. She works with retailers in the Fashion, Cosmetics, and Home Products industries to make shopping as easy and FUN for people who don’t love shopping as much as she does.

When not glued to her Tweetdeck feed or Tumblr dashboard, she works as a makeup artist, painting some of fashion’s freshest faces. Follow her on Twitter @margauxz or catch the occasional blog update at margauxzion.tumblr.com for a little insight into the world of all things Margaux!

To introduce you to my readers - we met last year at my birthday party via a mutual friend but then didn't have a quality introduction until a few months ago. And it was all uphill from there.

Can you give me a brief introduction of what you do for MAC?

I am on the Online Product Team- a position that is synonymous with “mystical psychic wizard.” I use social media to assist customers with cosmetic product selection that they cannot touch or see in a physical store. I cannot see them, and they cannot see me, [hence] the mystical psychic wizardry. I worked as a freelance makeup artist and in a MAC retail store for years previous to this promotion- the product knowledge I’ve amassed in combination with my loquacious personality and savvy for social media was logical next step.

This is only what I do for MAC, though not at all what I do in my secret alter ego as a Social Media Consultant.

Talk to me about your background. You were a costumer for a Soap Opera. How in the world did that happen?

That was my wildcard career. When I was in college for Textile Science before I worked for MAC, I volunteered my services as a dresser at New York Fashion Week. My uncle, who is a Broadway Producer, caught wind, and decided I needed to be in the Theatrical Wardrobe Union. He literally walked me directly into the President’s office where I registered on the spot. The President, a well-poised, elegant woman, phoned the supervisor at the now defunct Guiding Light soap opera, and in her best showbiz voice:

“Heeeeeeey! I have a GREAT new girl here, MARGAUX! She is so ENTHUSIASTIC, and has a GREAT SMILE; you’ll just LOVE her! She just registered; she’d be GREAT for the show! I can’t talk now, but let’s do lunch! Bye babe!”

I went to work on the show the very next week, and the rest is history. This is where I decided I needed to embrace Social Media for my livelihood. I used to sit in hair and makeup in between shooting and sign the actors up on Twitter and made Facebook groups for our adventures making the television show. Then soap fans started to follow ME, and I knew I had something.

The show was very dear to me. We were cancelled last year, (ON APRIL FOOL’S DAY!) and I miss it very much. It was a privilege to work with such an outstanding group of people.

Switching gears here -what are your three favorite MAC products at the moment?

Three products I wear no matter WHAT the look, are Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, (Buffed with the #182 brush) Opulash Mascara, and Fast Response Eye Cream. I have over 1,500 individual MAC Cosmetics products in my “stock" so choosing color would be a very hard decision to make.

Over the last few weeks, we've attended a TON of techie networking events and I've noticed that you're the social media, networking, friend-making queen. When did you enter the Twittersphere? What are some tips for quality networking? And how do you keep track of all your contacts?

I just really like meeting new people. I’m a really talkative person and this reflects both in the real world, and online. Twitter is actually a very evolved form of social media for me- I used to regularly post and moderate on Ezboard communities and LiveJournals as early as 1999, and still keep in touch with friends I made then, today.

Quality networking doesn’t mean you have to reach the widest audience by talking to a million people. It means that you have to meet the right audience by talking to people who want to know more about what you already know a lot about. It's also helpful to be somewhat interesting, friendly, and approachable. This attracts people’s interest in your character, and lets them know that you’d be a super awesome/knowledgeable/hardworking member of the team. I naturally smile a lot both online and off- it's a lot like dating.

As for keeping track- I have Oompa Loompas. That was a joke. I have FIT interns. Also a joke. (I’D LOVE TO HAVE ONE, THOUGH!!!) I have a special cheat sheet and a little black book, nothing too fancy. I also have a bookmarks folder titled: “REALLY AWESOME WEBSITES” for all the new utilities I liked at NYTech Meetup, etc.

Interns... not a bad idea. Inquiring minds want to know - i.e. ME. While at the last Tech Meetup, I noticed that you often managed to add someone via Twitter, Tweet, and reference a presenters comments within the Tweet before they were finished talking. What Twitter program do you use? And how do you do this?

Haha! I did do that, didn’t I? As I said before, I am a very chatty person- tweeting instead of talking keeps me from interrupting people who are supposed to be talking!

I like Tweetdeck for personal use- it's a very easy dashboard to control my two Twitter accounts, Facebook profile, two Facebook Pages, and Foursquare account. (C’mon Tweetdeck! Integrate Tumblr and Wordpress next!) I also monitor updates with MAC related hashtags; MAC fans are pretty much really nice people, with a lot of artistic insight and brand enthusiasm. Social Media is exactly how to find conversations about things you really like and want to discuss with others.

For my professional clients, I am currently discovering Postling, a web-based social media management tool for brand management. It allows me to keep track of all my blog posts, tweets, status updates, comments, and all return correspondence. I met the Co-Founders through NY Tech Meetup and they are really smart guys with a great product.

You interact with people from all over the country. How do you think the soccer mom from the middle of Wisconsin will benefit from the technological revolution?

I think she has it better than us New Yorkers. Media consumes our space like none other. She can sit in her nice quiet SUV, waiting for the kids to come out of practice, and choose what types of media she wishes to take. She may use her shiny new tablet device to coordinate recipes and prepare dinner later in the evening, read her Cosmo mag in a digital reader, or order groceries from her local market to be assembled for pickup or delivery…. The possibilities are endless! I wouldn’t be surprised if a new wave of tech startups are designed and marketed as productivity apps by and for busy moms!

Hmm. I think you're on to something. Any developers out there DM me @missmolls. Tell me more about using technology and social media in retail. How do you think our retail experience will evolve over the next few years?

I think that phase one is over now and that most companies integrated e-commerce in the late 90’s. Many e-tailers now provide Live Chat services- a great service for shoppers who cannot experience products using their 5 senses and must rely on an expert.

With the explosion of social media, the virtual shopping experience is going to be huge; filled with rich content, more useful, personalized services. Even advertising will be smarter and less annoying because it will be properly targeted and more interactive in nature. I don’t want to reveal too much, because building the e-commerce experience is one of my current projects. My specialty is landscaping the customer experience for virtual retailers. There is so much work to be done, but most retailers understand that this dynamic shopping experience is essential to keeping loyal customers.

As far as physical stores and retail events are concerned, Diesel had an amazing promotion a few weeks ago, inviting traffic into the store with a free t-shirt for the first X number of foursquare checkins. Heavy store traffic is what makes a store seem cooler so this was a brilliant idea. Also, aside from the brands that users may follow on Twitter or Foursquare for great tips and shopping guides, there are great networking apps like FoodSpotting and Fareshare. There are even apps for retailers to use geo-tagging apps to drive customers into stores.

And finally, dream big. What's your next upcoming project?

Ah! I can’t talk about it! I’m always working on my dreams, I’ll be sure to let you know when they come true.

How To Make Your Personal Brand Visible With Social Media

Re-Blogged from Jeff Bullas's Blog

PDRTJS_settings_649365_post_5608 = { "id" : "649365", "unique_id" : "wp-post-5608", "title" : "How+To+Make+Your+Personal+Brand+Visible+With+Social+Media", "item_id" : "_post_5608", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fjeffbullas.com%2F2010%2F06%2F09%2Fhow-to-make-your-personal-brand-visible-with-social-media%2F" }Personal branding is a relatively new concept and is thought to have emerged in 1997 after a ground breaking article was published on the Fast Company website by Tom Peters.
We are in the age of the ‘knowledge worker‘ and the days of being an anonymous cog in the wheel of a faceless corporation are fast disappearing. The opportunity to stand out as a personal brand without having to know a politician, grey and grizzled powerbrokers or gnarly gatekeepers is now a reality and it is possible to accelerate the time it takes to make it happen.
Firstly what are the key elements and the questions that we need to consider to become a visible and effective personal brand.
1. What makes you different?
What is it that makes my product or service does, that makes it different? The challenge is to state that in 15 words or less and it needs to light up the eyes of a prospective client.
Here some questions to ask and honestly answer to help you with this task.

• What makes you distinctive from your competitors?
• What have you done lately.. this week.. last month to stand out?
• What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy personal trait?
• Just like a corporate brand what features do I offer that yields an identifiable and distinguished benefit for my client or customer. An example is how some companies pride themselves on offering lavish personal service, complete your projects on budget
• What do I do that adds remarkable measured distinguished distinctive value?
• What do I do that that I am most proud of or I unabashedly brag about or shamelessly take credit for?

Finally you need to ask a rather brash question ‘What do I want to be famous for? This questions are to get you focussed on what you as a personal brand are about…once you have that clear then you take the nest step.
2. How Do you Market ‘You’ the Brand
Ten or Twenty years ago it was a much more difficult proposition and it could have involved a range of offline networking opportunities such as.

• Signing up for an extra project inside your organisation to to showcase your skills or develop new ones that grew your personal brand.
• Freelancing to a new group of  people that could spread the word about how remarkable you are.
• Teach class at a local community
• Contribute to a column in your local newspaper
• Write an article for the company newsletter
• Make yourself available for a panel discussion in your industry
• Put yourself forward for a presentation in your area of expertise whether that be within your company or an external association

You need to remember that with this personal visbility campaign is that it ‘all’ matters. Everything you do communicates the value and character of your brand. This about not just about substance but style.
In 2010 you have at your fingertips the tools and social media platforms to leverage yourself into high personal brand visbility at digital nanosecond speed and here are some of the social networking channels that are most important to help you achieve that. You don’t need to be on all of these but choose the ones you ae most comfortable with but the more you are on the easier it is to get found.
What is important to remember is that it is now a digital web world so if you are not on the web you are fast becoming invisible. So here are the core channels for promoting brand ‘You’.
1. Blog or Website with a domain name that is either your own name or a ‘Brandable’  version of it
This is your personal  homebase that becomes your personal brands portal. It could be a website or a blog but my personal preference is for a blog as it seems more personal and authentic as it allows interaction with your readers and visitors to the site that a website doesn’t provide. If you are not comfortable with your personal name being so visible.. and some people are not comfortable with that, another option is to get a vanity URL that encapsulates  what you are about. eg Personalbrandingblog.com (Dan Schwabel)
2. LinkedIn
This is essential but here are a few elements that are crucial

• Make your profile public
• Ensure that youset up your other online web channels on your profile such as your blog, Facebook and your company’s site ( you are allowed three on LinkedIn)
• Set up your Twitter account feeding into the account page as well as your blog feed. These are all visible and easily set up on your LinkedIn homepage profile

From there you can start participating on LinkedIn in Groups and the Question & Answer features. That will get you started. You need to keep in mind the importance of this channel as the demographic includes an average  salary of LinkedIn member is $130,000 plus and currently there are 60 million members globally.
3. Facebook
This social media platform cannot be ignored with nearly half a billion members and has become the ‘elephant in the room’ or the ’800 pound gorilla’ of social media. There are  privacy challenges but it can be used to engage with people and increase your visibility and make you real. One way to look at Facebook is that it is more like a barbeque where you turn up in Jeans and a t-shirt, whereas  LinkedIn is the company cocktail party
4. YouTube
As the newer generation are much more video centric and would rather watch a 5 minute online video than read a page of text this a social media channel that I would recommend you start becoming familiar with. It is great site for uploading your videos that have recorded your speaking events or your panel sessions. If people are looking for speakers and you have an easily found and distributed recording of your presentations then you are much more likely to be hired for a gig.
The other benefit of YouTube is that it much easier to rank high and be found online in YouTube with a video search than Google. You also need to keep in mind that it is the second largest serach engine after Google.
5. Twitter
Register your name ‘NOW’ .. if it is still available!! Twitter is not about ‘I am having a coffee with Bill’ but it is one of the most effective platforms the world has ever to distribute content (blogs, videos, presentations, music and images) and promote a brand whether that be corporate or personal.
These are just the basics on the channels and how you should be using them for your personal brand, optimising your social media platforms to get your personal brand highly visible requires constant fine tuning and tweaking.
What have you done to promote “Your” brand?

What To Do Now That Twitter Is Down

Hysterical article on TechCrunch on what to do now that Twitter is down. Suggestions range from blogging that Twitter is down to discussing the outage on Facebook. Personally, I'm doing deep breathing exercises and desperately trying to focus on my work at hand. Interesting to see how habits change from a situtation like this. Facebook has been acting funky lately too. Is it because everyone is using Facebook now that Twitter is down?

This is messed up. Latest news via TechCrunch is that it's a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. i.e. someone hacked their system and is messing with it. Jeeze.. think about the little people hackers! What would we be without our Tweets.

Tweet Tweet

For those new to Twitter, it becomes instantly obvious that the actual twitter site is somewhat bare bones. I've discovered that one has to do a lot of leg work to figure out how to Re-tweet and other common twitter practices. More research is involved when trying to discover who to follow. Who will inspire you? Who has relevant information? It's amazing how much twitter is being talked about in the media and how it's really changing the face of communication. Over the last few months there's an explosion of services related to twitter like websites that shorten URL's, blogging services that mimic the short, simple twitter platform, etc. Anyway, Chris Anderson from TED neatly outlines some easy to use Twitter tips here along with linking another helpful guide which I'll be checking out here on the how and nitty gritties.

Aight, I will now disconnect myself and enter the happy dreaming world. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning, I won't wake up clutching my eye glasses- having slept through my alarm after battling the adorable but annoying Pheobe Mc. Pheobester.

Great Resources

Found a great new resource for improving my blogging skills and success. Of course I'll have to put this into action once I actually have time and have found a new apartment. Check out Copyblogger found via (the very intelligent and handsome) Saman Rahmanian who followed me on Twitter for god knows what reason. (saman325) And recently launched Tischen.com which looks like a well designed dating site meets Craigslist meets eBay that connects people with local services. Kind of a site we all wished we started first. Looks like the site runs itself but in a much prettier way than Craigslist. Plus I suppose those using this service are "in the know" and it's not overrun by everyone and their mom.

Speaking of mothers, mine just joined Facebook last week. I don't even know where to begin. Comedy gold.

First Day in San Francisco

I totally could have woken up at 7:30 and taken advantage of my body being on East Coast time, but true to lazy form, I set my alarm for 9:20. And here I am. Debating what to do with myself. I've been here a few times and feel no pressure to do touristy things although I haven't done much of that the previous times here. So far my ass hurts from the hills. What was supposed to be a nice stroll home after pancakes and hot chocolate turned into a - I think I'm going to hurl my pancakes and hot chocolate. At least there's no worry of me getting out of shape here. Um okay. Boring myself.

What you really want to hear.. I saw a man that had a dog on a leash. On the dog sat a cat. On the cat sat a rat. And looking at this dog with a cat with a rat, was one slightly jaded New Yorker who thought she's seen it all. She hasn't.

P.S. You can follow me on Twitter. MissMolls of course. Feel free to email me with ideas on what I should do while in San Fran!