Yesterday afternoon, Amanda Arms posted this message on her Facebook wall:

I didn’t know Amanda at the time, nor were we Facebook friends…but my wedding photographer was.

Around noon, Jennie (who knows I couldn’t turn down a loving pit bull) sent me an email mentioning what she saw on Facebook. I asked her to have Amanda contact me.

Around 8pm last night, Michael and I became foster parents. — Upon meeting this very sweet dog, Michael and I couldn’t help but take him in and work at finding an adoptive family for him from the warmth of our home. We gave him a bath too : )

By 3pm this afternoon, “Turbo” had a new adoptive family (I even had backup adoption offers based on my own Facebook post. I think Amanda did too).

So within just 2 days, Turbo went from being a lonely stray, to living in Amanda’s garage, to living in my spare bedroom, to living with his new family — all because of one Facebook post.

This whole situation made me feel awesome. I felt good that I was able to help save a stray from the pound (and possibly euthanasia). I felt happy that social media once again proved its worth in a charitable situation. And I feel empowered to make this scenario happen again.

Michael and I are hoping to foster another pit soon…and hopefully repeat what happened today. We even tossed around the idea of one day starting our own pit bull rescue…one day.

But the real reason I’m writing this post is because I hope this story inspires other people to send a few tweets or Facebook posts next time a cold stray shows up on their door!

After declaring on Monday that I’m going to be using social media as much as possible in my own personal wedding planning, I thought it was fitting for me to post a little something about the groom who changed his Facebook status and tweeted at the alter. Literally…right before the “you may kiss the bride”. Check it out…

Of course, I personally am not planning to do any social media-related activity while at the alter next November. I think Michael would be kinda mad at me lol…but I think it’s funny and perhaps even a sign of the times that someone else did.

Social media is truly infiltrating every single aspect of our lives. Well, most. Maybe someone will tweet while giving birth? Who knows…

Either way, it interests me that Facebook, Twitter and the like are getting so HUGE that no one (I can’t say that for sure but I’m assuming) was hurt or offended by the groom’s online wedding updates…even though a wedding is a sacred ceremony that often takes place in a church.

What do you think? Are we getting too involved in social media for our own good? Should status updates stay clear of certain situations?

Personally, it doesn’t really bother me either way. To each his own I guess. But I’d love to hear your opinions!

Every now and then someone will ask me — when you’re looking to hire someone, do you really look at their Facebook account? My go to answer is to advise they keep the account on private…because yes, some people DO care what’s on there. But do I? Honestly no.

If I look at a person’s social network accounts before an interview, it’s more to get to know them a little better as a person. While I’ve heard of people not getting hired (or even getting fired) because of a drunken college photo on their Facebook page…that’s just not me and that’s not the way I approach it.

Honestly, for people like me – Facebook has followed me from my freshman year of college, through graduation, internships, and now into my career. Do I really feel like spending 15 hours sorting through the 2,000 photos I’m tagged in? No. My account IS set on private (and I still encourage yours to be as well), but that’s not to say I don’t accept friend requests from people I know professionally.

I’m a firm believer in being able to live your life as you want outside the office…and I’m pretty sure that’s the general consensus in my office. Plus, I’m never going to hold a few late night party photos against you if you’re what I’m looking for in an employee (or intern in this case)! — Just don’t bring it into the office! So it bothers me to hear of people loosing jobs because of a few bad photos. Plus, aren’t we a little hypocritical to judge someone based on a drunken photos when the majority of us have had one or two floating around sometime in the past? (I mean, did you see the IZEAfest pics?!)

But maybe that’s just me. It just annoys me that some companies are so overly concerned with Facebook photos…especially in the marketing/PR/advertising industry!

What do you think? When you’re looking to hire, do Facebook photos matter?

Keep in mind – this is just MY opinion and probably not the general consensus, so be smart and keep your party pictures private just in case : )

During my mid-morning article recap, I stumbled upon this: Want 5,000 More Facebook Friends? That’ll Be $654.30. To sum it up, online ad firm uSocial is selling Facebook friends, Twitter followers and more. Basically, you pay them money and they’ll make you APPEAR to be big on the internet.

However, I really have a problem with this whole business plan. As numerous people have said many times before, social media is about QUALITY, not quantity. Sure, I can have 10,000 followers, but if not one of them really cares about me…then what’s the point?

Let’s translate this to business. uSocial says:

The simple fact is, Twitter followers are worth money to you and your business. The more followers you have, the more money you will inevitably make marketing your products and services to them.

I disagree. For instance, if one of my clients has 100 followers, and all 100 were found or return followed because of their interest in the brand or the services it offers, then yes, those 100 followers are worth some amount of money to the company. On the contrary, if my client has 1,000 followers, yet all were randomly purchased through a service like uSocial, what are they really worth?

For one thing, we all know how many bots consume Twitter…so how many of those 1,000 followers uSocial gets you are even REAL people? Of the real people, how many are active users? If not one of your 1,000 followers gets on Twitter more than once a month, what’s the likelyhood of your message reaching them? And even if they ARE active users, do they care about your brand, product or service? Because if they don’t, what’s the point?

Plus, uSocial promises these thousands of followers in a matter of 7 days…truly showing they’re about quantity over quality. I’m sorry, but you can’t find a good follower-base that rapidly.

Finding a fan base takes time, care and knowledge of the brand!

For example, at Pyxl, we help our clients get started on Twitter. But the difference is that we KNOW them, their brands, their products. We live and breathe it everyday and know how  to help our clients use social media in ways that best suite their business and industry. So when we help them create a Twitter account and build their fan base, we take time and care to find people that actually care about them and are (or could be) current or  potential customers of their brands. We don’t find 1,000 followers in 7 days. Instead, we build the following little by little. Like I said: QUALITY, not quantity.

What do you think? Would you use uSocial or a service like it? Why or why not?

We all know about brand loyalty. We either like Coke or Pepsi, PC or Mac, Google or Bing…but are social medium fan-bases divided by brand loyalty as well? Or will they become divided as networks like Facebook and Twitter continue to evolve?

Last week, Facebook bought Friendfeed and launched Facebook light – two things which somehow seem to be moves made in an attempt to “beat” Twitter. Each week, we see articles on Mashable, TechCrunch, and others about which medium has a better real-time search, which is growing faster, etc, etc, etc. But are these two social mediums on a crash course which will one day force users to choose one or the other?

I can’t say for sure, but with millions of users and ad dollars at stake, I have to think that the creators of these popular networking sites are hoping to be the best, and thus win out in the “brand” loyalty battle.

What do you think? Are you more loyal to Facebook? Twitter? …or any of the other popular networking sites?

Me personally – I’m more of a Twitter girl than anything else. While I use many social mediums for different reasons, Twitter does get the majority of my online networking time. I have to admit that I can barely go a day without writing a tweet. On the other hand, I only check Facebook a few times a week.

Your thoughts? Is there social media brand loyalty? If not, will there be one day?

If you’re following me on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network, chances are you knew that last week, my dog Diesel went missing. He disappeared from my front yard Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning I had lost “ads” posted everywhere I could think of online. We visited the shelter everyday. By Saturday afternoon, I’d hit every vet, Walmart, gas station, restaurant, etc. within 15 miles of my house with flyers. Michael and I drove and walked around the neighborhood numerous times, but by Saturday morning, we still had no luck. I was devastated and freaking out.

Luckily for us, around 10pm Saturday night we got the call I’d been waiting for. Diesel was about a half mile away from our house, at an older couple’s house. They’d had him locked in their fenced yard since Thursday night, but they couldn’t get him to come to them to read his tag.

Side note: Diesel, a purebred American Pit Bull Terrier, was a dog I rescued from a very sketchy situation at 4 months old. Already past his prime socialization point, he was a dog I spent an extreme amount of time (and money) training and molding to become the dog he is today. While he’s made leaps and bounds in the socialization department, he still has a hard time trusting those he doesn’t know. He needs mommy’s “go ahead” to really accept most people. (Note: he’s not mean by any standard…in the “fight or flight” scenario, Diesel just runs.)

So how did they find me? Not from his tag, the microchip implanted above his shoulder blade, or the hundreds of signs posted around town…Their next door neighbors happened to check Craigslist and found my ad (with photo, description, and phone number).

In my opinion, this is an amazing example of how powerful the internet is. Without a tool like Craigslist, would I have my dog back? How many extra days would it have taken?

Another remarkable story here…is the support I received via Twitter and Facebook. After tweeting that Diesel was missing, over 100 people retweeted, and even more @ed and DMed to see how they could help or to just offer their prayers and well-wishes. On Facebook, I received similar support. It was amazing to me that people all over the country were worried about my dog. Even the follow-up amazed me, as people I’ve run into here in Knoxville have been asking about D, along with friends online.

It really goes to show how social media allows friendships to form like they never have before. I love it! (And a big thanks to all those who were worried about Diesel, I really appreciated everything!)

So for anyone who’s interested: How is Diesel doing now? Sometime during the span of time he was missing, he was hit by a car. Fortunately for us and for him, no bones were broken. The road rash was pretty bad, but he’s well on his way to recovery. And for all the pain we assume he’s feeling, he’s taking it very well and has been wagging his tail ever since he’s been home. He lost 7lbs during the fiasco, but after a steak dinner and numerous bowls of dog food, he’s starting to plump back up just fine. All in all, I think we got very lucky that his injuries were minor and that he’s home safe and sound

By: Sasha Muradali, guest blogger

Last week a CNN headline read, “[Michael] Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him.” Google, Perez Hilton, CNN, Facebook, AOL and Twitter all experienced high volumes of traffic and immense lag time.

When was the last time you heard of AIM on the verge of crashing?

Lag time, for you non-so-net-savvy is the amount of time waited upon before something is discharged. For example, lag time on CNN would be how long it would take you to load an article in order to read it. Or in Gmail, this would be how long it took your e-mail to load or send an outgoing e-mail. In the case of Twitter, which is facilitated in real-time, a lag is how much time it takes for a ‘tweet’ to appear after it is originally submitted and appear in the search results, as well as, on the applications (iPhone, Blackberry, TweetDeck, TweetGrid etc.,)

Well, thanks to Michael Jackson, the Internet nearly broke last week. Literally.

I heard a few people talking about what effect the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana and even the events of 9-11 would have had on the likes of Twitter and the Internet, had they been around in full-force back then and that got me thinking: what would have happened?

If Michael Jackson nearly broke the Internet, Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy would have surely killed it. We are talking about the woman who bought the world to its knees in mourning like nothing ever seen before or since. We are talking about the man who brought the American nation to a standstill.

And 9-11? Well, I think Twitter would have had to do more than just disable its ‘trending topics’ and ‘search’ in order to cope. With the need for information, like with #IranElection, 9-11 would have crashed the server.

What we saw with Michael Jackson, was a smidgen of what could have happened had the same luxuries been as freely available previously.

So what does this mean? Why all the hullabaloo over something so seemingly meaningless. Well, is it really meaningless?

The Internet isn’t a person, it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t feel. So why should you care?

You should care because that’s the speed of information and the progress of technology. This is the future of the world.

People want information, they want to know what is going on and they want to know now. They don’t want to know when CNN is ready to confirm it themselves, they don’t want to read about it tomorrow in the New York Times, and they aren’t ready to wait for the 6 p.m. newscast of the BBC.

It’s not just a fad and it’s not just going to go away.

This means that the Internet-types need to tighten their buckles and safeguard the world’s main channel for communication. This means that news sources like CNN, need to pay attention to the emergence of things like Twitter and Facebook (as they have already started doing – yes! #CNNwin). And this means that you as an individual, living on this planet, with these resources freely available to you, are challenged.

You are challenged to have knowledge, spread knowledge and create new knowledge.

It’s like Big Red said, in Bring it On, “This is your mission should you choose to accept it…and you better…or else you’re going to Hades.”

__

Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’. She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima.

Two days ago, I blogged about the end of MySpace and the future of social media as a whole. I posed the question: what major social network is the next to go? And who will take its place?

Well, ironically I came across an article about a really interesting new social network – Vyoom…and I think it might be coming for Facebook…

Still in beta, Vyoom looks a lot like Facebook at first glance…with the social stream capabilities of Twitter integrated nicely in. The concept I found most interesting though, and what I think might make Vyoom huge – is that you are rewarded with points for all of your social networking activities. Then, you can cash those points in for some really cool stuff – digital cameras, video recorders, TVs, iPods, computers, GPS systems, etc, etc…

What’s also nice about Vyoom, is it’s really easy and straight-forward to make things public vs. private. Facebook’s gotten a lot of flack lately over its decision to make updates public by default, so I like how Vyoom make its easy for me to decide what I want the world to see. Another nice thing – is that Vyoom was built on the platform that everything is done in real time (as opposed to integrating that later on like Facebook did).

Thus far Vyoom seems pretty cool. I’ve got my profile up and now I’m just waiting for some friends. Sign up & find me!

As I’m sure you’ve all already heard – this week, MySpace will lay off hundreds of its employees and close at least four offices. I can’t say I’m very surprised by the fact that MySpace is on the major decline (I deleted my own personal account over a year ago). However, I wonder now – who’s next? With MySpace soon to be out of the way, which major social network(s) will be the next to go? And what does the future of social media look like?

{ Could it be Twitter? }

I’ve written before about Twitter’s poor first impressions and the idea that only 40% of new visitors return to the site after signing up. Some think it’s a fad, others are obsessed (in fact, 10% of users make up 90% of tweets)…but will the 10% of users that make of 90% of tweets soon get tired of it? Will Twitter sell out like some other networks and become overly-commercialized? Will the spam-bots get so annoying that we all just say “forget it”?

{ Could it be Facebook? }

Facebook has had quite a long run at this point. When I signed up in 2004, only select colleges were included – and now anyone can have a Facebook account (and most people do). However, is Facebook going down the path of MySpace? Are the 100 application invites we receive everyday soon going to turn us away from Facebook? Will a better personal profile network come out? Wasn’t MySpace the top dog until Facebook’s awesomeness overtook it? So which newer, smarter technology will overtake Facebook?

{I Think}

There’s always going to something bigger, better, and more awesome coming around the corner. Social media is a hot topic, and the people/companies that have the ability to make new networks will…it’s just a matter of what and when.

The thing about social media is that it’s full of fads. Something may be hot today and forgotten tomorrow. It’s all going to come down to which new networks come out, and how well we receive them and help them grow.

When something comes out that is better than Facebook, Facebook will fall…Same will eventually be true about Twitter. The only thing these networks can to do ensure that they remain the top dogs for as long as possible is to keep getting better. However, it’s also important not to ruin the network in the process of growing (think Facebook apps). It’s a fine line to walk – and I’m curious to see how it will play out.

{Discuss}

Of course, I don’t know who is the next to go and which new networks are being created as I write this post. But what do you think? Which network is the next to fall from grace? And what does the future of social media look like? Discuss it here!

Yesterday, Mashable reported that Facebook would begin offering vanity URLs (or usernames) this weekend. At first, I thought – cool… facebook.com/nicolevanscoten. But then I started thinking, is Facebook becoming even more like MySpace? Opinions on the Twittersphere are mixed, so I want to know – what do you think? Will Facebook just become full of users with “SexyGuy09″, or will the majority use it professionally?

Comment your opinions…