Tag Archives: Facebook

The Cult of (Multiple) Personalities

28 Monday Oct 2013

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Welcome to Facebook, the land of followers.  Where else can you get 50 or more of your friends to follow your lead all at once? I’ve been watching as people change their profile pictures to giraffes because they lost at figuring out a riddle.  I have to say that the pictures people are using are very amusing.  I’m looking at it as an escape from reality, although why you’d all want to be an animal that makes no noise is beyond me.  And imagine the cost of a turtleneck sweater!

Here is one of the riddles making its way through the newsfeed:

It’s 3:00am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. It’s your parents and they are here for breakfast – you have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?

The answer is obvious…right?  Based on the amount of giraffes in my feed, I’m guessing the answer is no.  It almost reminds me of the game “Telephone”.  You have to wonder how many have changed just a little bit of it as it makes the rounds.  I have learned that this particular riddle has a few versions and the answer changes based on the way the question is worded.  Have you figured it out?  If not, this little critter could be in your future!

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Then there’s the bitstrips app.  Everyone has now become a cartoon character.  This could actually be a great marketing tool if deployed properly.  Right now it’s just another silly app.  As someone told me, “it’s a way to show your feelings without actually saying them.”  In a funny way, I guess that’s exactly what it is.  Humor always makes things a lot lighter than would normally be.  We could all use more  laughter in our day to day.

I know you’re all thinking I rag on social media on a consistent basis but truth is, I have met a lot of incredible people BECAUSE of social media tools like Facebook & Twitter.  If I allow myself to think back, my life could quite possibly be much different than it is today.  People make strong impacts on you, whether personally or professionally.  Sometimes, both.  For this, I thank Mark Zuckerberg,  Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, for giving us a means to expand our lives through business associates, but most importantly, friends.

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dorindaduclos.com

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And That’s A Wrap!

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Life, My Thoughts

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Dear friends & colleagues,

After almost 16 years in the wedding and event industry, it’s time for me to say goodbye.  As of November 1, 2013, Favors by Dorinda will cover its last candy bar. Thank you, to everyone, who has supported me over these years.  I am so grateful for the business relationships that turned into amazing friendships and for the opportunities this industry has offered me.  But my party isn’t over.  On the contrary, it’s just beginning.

I may be leaving the retail part of the business but I will still be around.  I decided it was time for me to pursue another passion in my life…writing.  I’ll be putting it all out there, so you can bet if it’s affecting the industry, and/or the world, I’ll have something to say about it.  Mostly, it’s my heartfelt words about things that affect us all.  Eventually, there will be a novel, some of which I will share from time to time on my website, just to tease you, but it won’t be about the industry <everyone can breathe now>.

Join me on my journey  ~ My World, My Thoughts, My Words at www.dorindaduclos.com

**Please note that anything connected to my business; website, Facebook page, etc, will come down as of November 1, 2013.

ImageAgain, thank you for making my time in the event industry an incredible part of my life.  I look forward to sharing with all of you in the years ahead.

You can find me here:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

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dorindaduclos.com

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Facebook vs Twitter – Social Media Mania

24 Thursday Oct 2013

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The social media revolution has taken over.  If you thought it was just a fad, you couldn’t be more wrong.  Today, individuals and brands use social media to get their message across to hundreds, even thousands of people.  It’s a great way to make new connections in your business & personal life.  Social media is a great concept but it has its downside.  You’re also opening yourself up to the scrutiny of all those people who now follow or friend you.  Make a mistake and it’s sure to cost you somewhere down the line.  Just look at the mess with the Healthcare.gov website (see additional links at the end of this story).  Do you think you would know what was going on, up to the minute, without social media?  So, which social media site do you choose to make your point?  Today, I’m going to concentrate on two.  I’ll give a rundown of what I think works best and why.

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Facebook – Facebook is great for visuals, sharing photos with your friends, for brands launching new products.  However, Facebook has changed quite often over the past few years.  At one time, a brand, using FB pages, could easily promote their latest entry in their line of goods.  Not so anymore, unless you’re willing to pay for Facebook Ads to reach a broader viewing audience.  Posts with links to outside sites or photos are now seen less in someone’s feed than ever before.  If you have a business page you know this by looking at your insights.  But you still need to make your post one that will catch someone’s attention and make them share.  This is a huge plus when companies want the world to know who they are. On a personal level, Facebook becomes a playground.  A place to catch up with high school friends, past coworkers, and even long lost family members. A place to write your feelings at that particular moment, a diary of sorts.  If you’re a rather verbose individual, then Facebook is the place for you.  But don’t be too wordy or you’re likely to lose some of your following.

Twitter – 140 characters or less.  Sounds easy, right?  It’s not.  You can join twitter, pick a user name, start following people and tweet away.  Is what you’re saying making an impact?  If you’re busy telling others what you had for lunch, chances are no one will care unless they’re a foodie.  The impact that Twitter can have on any given subject is limitless as long as you know how to get your message across the right way.  And you need to tag your tweet the proper way.  Twitter lets you know what the popular hashtags are, as you type it in, they may give you a drop down.  For example, I wrote a piece about the Nevada school shooting.  The tweet I sent out included the link to the story and the hashtag that was trending  with that story, according to twitter.

Ex: Would love to know what you think..please share your thoughts #TragedyinAmerica #NevadaSchoolShooting

It got attention and it got people to my blog to read the story.  If I had simply written the tweet without the hashtags, you may not even know what I was talking about, and you would 1) give me some random thought in your head or 2) just pass right by it.  More than likely it would be the latter. Twitter gives you 140 characters (I suggest you use roughly 120 or less so there are no issues with retweets) to make a point.  Don’t waste them by telling me you’re having a caramel mocha latte from Dunkin.  While America may run on Dunkin, most of us don’t really care. Honestly, not worth a RT in my book.

Those are just some of the differences and likenesses between Facebook & Twitter.  Most people can master both apps, some will find they’re more comfortable with one over the other.  Whichever way you choose to get your message across to the minions, make sure your words matter.  Having thousands of followers means nothing if they’re really not hearing what you have to say.

Copyright 2013

dorindaduclos.com

All Rights Reserved

Original photo via marquettejournal.org

You can follow additional stories about the Obamacare disaster & Twitter by visiting http://pauljpannone.com/2013/10/21/obamacare-glitch-becomes-a-botch-what-a-bitch/ and http://pauljpannone.com/2013/10/17/so-you-dont-get-twitter-maybe-its-time/

Dear Facebook

21 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by in My Thoughts

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Starting off a Monday morning, unable to post, comment, like, etc, is not exactly my idea of a fun time.  So this begs the question….what changes can we expect to see NOW?  And why weren’t they tested in the wee hours so it didn’t affect the morning commute?

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I see everyone posting that their Facebook isn’t working.  Truth is, if you’re posting, it’s working.  It’s just limping along.  It takes several attempts to actually post a comment, but eventually it does work.  I’m guessing they’re updating the database again.  This is what usually happens when they play with themselves….I mean their servers.  All the news services are buzzing about it.

Hopefully this “issue” will be taken care of shortly and we can all resume our regularly scheduled programming.  Otherwise, head over to Twitter and chat away.  You don’t have Twitter??  What are you waiting for??  Check out my buddy Paul’s post on exactly why you should.  http://pauljpannone.com/2013/10/17/so-you-dont-get-twitter-maybe-its-time/

On a positive note, I do have to give kudos to the addition of being able to edit a status.  Before, we had to delete and start over, now we can just edit, pretty much like a comment.  I wish they’d extend that feature to pages.