Memorial Day LUV: Get Social with U.S. Army and National Guard!

 In honor of Memorial Day, I'm highlighting of some social media sites that show the lifestyles of U.S. Army and National Guard troops in today's social world.

The U.S. Army is invading Pinterest!

LOVE THIS PIN! Source: http://pinterest.com/pin/157837161910914462/

According to a recent article from The Atlantic Wire, the U.S. Army seeks to reach a broader audience via Pinterest. Below is a quote from the article explaining the intent:

"We saw that would be a way that we could potentially reach an audience that we don't normally reach with our other platforms," Major Juanita Chang, Director of Online and Social Media for the U.S. Army told The Atlantic Wire. "We know pinterest is highly dominated by women... A lot of people that follow the military are men because that's the majority of the military. We want to connect and reach out to the female population and maybe the Army spouses and family members -- the people who wouldn't have any other reason to follow the military otherwise."

I'm honored to live in a country where our military leaders not only serve and protect our country, but have a pretty awesome social media strategy.

Google+ freaks me out, but I like it!

I've been playing with Google's new shiny toy, Google+, more and more since learning more about it at PodCamp Nashville 2012 and from the Google team themselves at the #G4eNashville event.

Just like any emerging social network, I see a little buzz around it, so I sign up for it to see what all the fuss is about.

Personally, I like connecting with people and ideas that inspire me and love sharing resources and ideas with others. As a marketer, I'm always looking for examples of how brands are using technology to reach and engage audiences and create communication channels for customer service and brand advocates.

What I've discovered I like about Google+:

Circles of organization: I've been collecting people, brands, and topics I'm interested in and putting them into categories of "circles" - I love organizing, so this is helpful- and it is another way to brand myself by the categories and people I follow.

#Nashville's #TechVille 2012 Social Media Cheat Sheet

Tuesday, May 15th is #TechVille 2012 in #Nashville! 

If you are attending Nashville Technology Council's 2012 annual conference, TechVille than you are about to find out why Nashville, TN has been named by Forbes Magazine as #3 on the list of the "Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S.". It's not because of our booming music scene, but because we have some of the brightest companies and minds in technology.

If you haven't already figured it out, we're kinda a big deal! (As if Google coming to town wasn't a clue.)

I am honored to be covering the TechVille conference as a "SocialITe", along with a few fellow Nashville marketers and fellow Social Media Club Nashville Members. We will put all the good content coming from the event onto the social networks for the world to follow along.

Here's a little social media cheat sheet of some of the topics, speakers, companies, and presenters we'll be tweeting about throughout the day:

Conference Hashtag:  #TechVille

Yo Mama's So Social…

It's mother's day in Nashville, Music City and there are a lot of "mom" tributes on the social networks today from Facebook wishes to Instragram pics to FourSquare check-ins with moms…and guess what? Most of the moms are on the networks are commenting back!

I would have to point out as a disclaimer, that it depends on how old your mom is and what your lifestyle is like. Not all moms are using social media, but the numbers are pretty big, especially for younger moms with children under eighteen.

#HASHTAGS: Teachers hate them, Marketers love them

With the rise of social media usage has come the popularity of hashtags. If you do not know what a hashtag is, you have probably at least seen it in an ad campaign, on a Facebook post, or even in a text or email (by the way, they don’t work in text or email).

Hashtags originated as a way to group conversations, topics, or events within searchable streams in social media. They are most commonly used on Twitter and Google +. I’ve seen hashtags on everything from TV shows (#madmen, #TrueBlood) to general slang (#swagg, #ohsnap) and the ever popular #FF – FollowFriday.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a teacher about how her 8th grade students are using hashtags. She told me students use them everywhere: on homework assignments, in general conversations, and even requested she accompany the lesson plans on the chalkboard each day with hashtags. She hates them because they are overused and misused. This could be a translation issue with youth. Her frustration is understandable.

The Golden Rule of Olympic-sized Success

Joanna Hayes' 2004 Summer Olympics Gold Medal

Today I had the unique opportunity to hold an Olympic Gold Medal in my hand (yes, that one!). That gold medal belongs to the fabulously talented Joanna Hayes for her 2004 Summer Olympics win in the 100 metres hurdles.

Joanna was the keynote speaker at a conference, talking about her journey from a child to winning the gold medal, as well as her competitions and challenges along the way. The key takeaways for me were her messages to "work hard, do the right thing, and be persistent."

Above all, I found it very inspiring that she is going for the gold again in the #2012Olympics, as seen on her Twitter profile here:

 Which got me to thinking....Joanna has already won a Gold Medal, but doesn't want to stop there. She's not settling for success once- she is motivated to make a comeback.

This just proves that you should always strive to better yourself, challenge yourself, and top your own accomplishments because #WINNING is more than just a token, such as a medal- it is proving to yourself that you can make your dreams come true if you try- and try again. Never settle. Strive for greatness!

*Learn more about Joanna Hayes at http://joannahayesfoundation.org/.