MSU – iRok Fashion

Social License?

In my four years of college, this may have been one of the best classes I have ever taken. I was able to learn a lot of useful information, and brush up on my online communication skills. This course was also very flexible and enjoyable, allowing me to use everyday social networks to complete assignments and communicate with my professor. With assignments due at the end of each week, this course introduces new and exciting topics geared toward online social mediums and how to use them effectively.

I have created a short presentation that takes a walk through my new media drivers training! Here is a brief outline:

Why I enrolled in the course. What I expected. Beginning thoughts, etc..
Getting started. Blog. Facebook. Twitter. Google. The New Media Drivers License course. Etc.
How Ive managed to use my blog for more than classwork.
Closing remarks. Etc.

LOL…so of course my presentation will be a little more structured…but you get the drift! This course was definitely worth the time and the money (credits cost loads of MULA!), so hopefully this post will encourage other students to sign up!

Blast from the Past!

Ok weak title…What you want me to do? I’m sorry!

Anyway, so I was eliminated from MSU Next Top Model 😦 In the words of Lupe “Didn’t really make me sad, I’m used to being a loser” …LOL just kidding 🙂

…BUT I got to do a cool vintage inspired shoot before I got the boot 🙂 I got to portray Dorothy Dandridge! So if you don’t know about her, you probably have NO CULTURE. Ok that was harsh…but seriously, if you don’t know about her, read up people!

She was one of the first African American actress/singers in America! So in many ways she paved the way for many actresses and singers today! She was a BEAUTY too 🙂 Ms. Dandridge started her career when she was a child, doing shows with her older sister. She eventually made her own career by singing in night clubs and such. Mrs. Dandridge later began doing movies; most popular (to me) for her role in Carmen…check it out

So…all that to say this….I got to dress up like her! Here are some pics from the shoot 🙂 By the way…I put together my own outfit, based off pictures I found of her on google.com

Kind of a BIG Read…

Like any other college level course, you are asked to read a few books, write a few blog posts (sike), give a few educated guesses to some question, and much more.

OK…well unlike any other college course, in New Media Driver’s License, you are asked to read David Meerman Scott’s “New Rules of Marketing & PR”, write a press release promoting his book, make a blog post (seriously now), and much more!

But the cool part is that this book is actually interesting, and very non-textbook-ish 🙂 It’s actually a well written guide to online marketing! It offers incite to setting up blogs, podcast’s, social bookmarking, affordable and effective ways to reach target audiences, and much more.

So if you are interested in pursuing a career under the communications umbrella, then I would definitely recommend you read The New Rules of Marketing and PR. The skills you will acquire, and information you will receive are becoming a necessity in today’s job market.

I chose to get free press for this book by visiting PR.com. Although not completely satisfied with the site as a whole (kind of difficult to navigate), I was able to submit the press release I wrote discussing the book:

EAST LANSING, MI – Offered through Michigan State University, The New Media Driver’s License course is host to a new type of learning. Trashing the conventional textbook/lecture type of class setting, this course offers hands-on activities using social networking websites, and a single, very non-textbook styled reading about Marketing and Public Relations.

Led by digital marketer and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Ingenex Digital Marketing, Derek Mehraban, this course is structured around David Meerman Scott’s book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”. This book introduces topics such as how to use news releases, blogs and podcasting, viral marketing, and online media to reach buyers directly.

Certainly a great read, this book provides readers with useful tips and tools to make an impact on the rapidly growing information age. Scott, a very intuitive and stimulating author, discuss the major aspects of media marketing and social networking. He breaks down the components of blogs, search engine optimization, podcasts, social bookmarking site, and much more. Easy to understand and interesting enough to dive into, it provides necessary and detailed solutions to almost any problem you may incur dealing with online media.

These new rules mentioned in Scott’s book show developed strategies on how to save money on advertising, not have to beg for mainstream media attention, and also market directly to your target audience.

Be a few steps ahead of your closest competitor, and implement Scott’s new rules today!

For more information on David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing & PR, visit www.davidmeermanscott.com. For additional information about MSU and the New Media Drivers License course visit www.msu.edu and www.thedigitalbus.com/new-media-drivers-license.

I also promoted Scott’s book on Digg.com!

Check him out! Great Read!

All the COOL kids are doing it…

So I mentioned under my “Meet Taylor” page, that this blog was created for my New Media Driver’s License class. This class is beyond AMAZING so far, and I am very pleased with all the information I have been receiving. With that said, YOU should register for this course.

WHY? Ok here are a few reasons:

If you are reading this blog, then you obviously have some knowledge of the technological advances in communication, or you’re pretty swift at navigating the internet in general. You probably are also pretty jealous you don’t have a blog of your own, or if you do have one, it’s not as COOL AS MINE, and it wasn’t for HOMEWORK!

This class teaches you how to navigate through various digital media communication tools such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. It also teaches you how to explore various web bookmarking sites (so…who knew what that was before this course? Not me. LOL) like Delicious.com and Digg.com.

If you’re creative, open to learning new technology, socially blessed, and familiar with the rapid change of communication objectives around the world, then you probably want to take this class. Make one of our friends take this course with you! It will be fun, and only meets TWICE a semester!!!! Yeah, you’ll have weekly work, but nothing compared to the crap you do in regular classes with text books and lectures.

Seriously, if you are looking for a few extra college credits, or just want to be a few steps ahead of the folks in competition for your next job (LOL), this class would definitely benefit you. This may be the only class in the world that involves Facebook as homework!

The Professor pretty cool too; Derek Mehraban.

Informative, useful and fun…can’t get any better huh? Join today (ADV492 section 701)

Cool SEO Tools

How cool is this? We had to write a post about exactly what SEO’s are and our experiences with them. If you are anything like me, you probably want to read about them yourself. No problem, click HERE.

For everyone else, SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. SEO’s work to improve website performance when being searched on Google.com. Its basically like a guide to effective internet advertising that helps you set your page up to be search friendly.

There are plenty FREE online SEO tools that can help you get your page up and runing as effectively as possible. For example, SEOmoz.org is home to over twenty free SEO tools such as on-page targeting, and keyword difficulty.

So yeah, this was a pretty cool topic this week because it teaches a bunch of stuff, mostly organization. SEO’s are very helpful and effective in making your website easy to find, navigate, and explore!

We also looked into two social bookmarking sites; Digg.com and Delcious.com. Check them out to find popular websites about anything!

Google AdWords

I know you all have seen the little ads that show up on the right hand side of your screen during Google search. Cool. Those ads are actually paid advertisements that use key words to exist. Making sense?

Here is a little break down: Companies (just a general independent variable) buy keywords and ad space. These ad spaces basically show up whenever the assigned keyword is typed into the search bar. It cost money, and the more money you spend, the more times your ad will show up. So I consider this a cool investment for businesses.

I tried to make an ad for my blog as part of a class assignment. It wasn’t hard to get the ad and keywords created, but as a broke college student, I only supplied 5 bucks to get it running. So I’m sure you can guess how many times it showed up during the search! LOL 🙂

I bid on keyword like: Fashion, Trend, Music, Entertainment…you know, cool stuff 🙂 And result wise was pretty cool. Here is a screen shot of my created ad. I suggest this kind of advertising because its not too expensive, and with the right keywords it can reach a heck of a lot of people.

adwords1

MSU Next Top Model

After four years of attending Michigan State University, I FINALLY decided to participate in an on-campus activity! Yay me 😎 Better later than never. MSU Next Top Model.

Any-hoot…So the thing is, ten girls were chosen out of like twenty-five, to compete in an America’s Next Top Model spoof. We all had to audition, record a confessional, strut out stuff in our highest heels, and other crap like that.

I hate taking pictures, so my personality obviously shined through because they picked me, and they used a portion of me singing “I’m going down” by Mary J. Blidge, for the promotional video footage! LMBO! Embarrassing because I CANT sing!

As I get photos from the various shoots….I’ll update this post. Until then, here is a group shot!

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Here are my two Fav shots from the outdoor shoot (that I missed…got me put in the bottom 3 😦 I wont miss any more…promise)

antm

antm2

WOW! Facebook is taking OVER!

Google has a blog search tool. Its pretty straight foward. Click the link, type in keyword/topics related to what you are looking for, click search. Bada boom. Bada bing. RESULTS!

I tried this bad baby out, and after typing in digital media, a bunch of blogs popped up about Facebook. A blog that stuck out to me was the Digital Media Wire, mostly because it was the first result in my search (LOL…Im kind of lazy).

Skimming through the article I found out Facebook has about 80 BILLION users.That’s twice as many users as it’s closest competitor, Myspace.

Moment of silence…

WOW! OMG! 80 BILLION?!?! I remember when I first joined facebook, about four years ago…entering my freshman year of college. There were no applications, add-ons, etc., and it was only open to college students. Now, Facebook has evolved into a mega-communcation tool. Coolbeans! Join..if you haven’t already 🙂

So…Google is kind of a “Big Deal”

A recent homework assignment involved researching various tools/applications that Google.com offered. Now, if you are anything like me, you use Google for email, information, maps, and maybe chatting. And if you are exactly like me, then you never really reviewed the many other applications Google makes.

There are at least fifty cool and useful applications that are offered through Google. I actually decided to explore a program call Google Earth.

So people probably wont use this application on a day to day basis, but it’s still pretty interesting. It is important because it gives you a 3D map of the Earth and various locations on and around Earth. This is helpful in planning trips, exploring outer space, or even stalking an ex (just kidding).

Did you know that with this program you can watch the Sun rise and set in any location on earth?!?! Sexy 😎

You can also learn interesting background information about landmarks in the area.

I like this tool because it shows you detailed pictures of places all over the world, and street level pictures of cities. There really is not anything that I do not like about this feature, except it is kind of difficult to navigate, and somewhat costly. My favorite feature is the sunrise/sunset option, and I probably will use Google Earth after this homework assignment.

Toodles!