What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 08/14/15

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Geek-and-proud

Greetings!

Here's what was going on in my world this week:

Constantine was a short lived but beloved show focusing on the famed demon hunter of the same name. It was really given much of a chance to succeed from what I could tell, and in an act of respect (as far as I can tell), the character of Constantine depicted in the show (portrayed by Matt Ryan) will be making his way to Arrow this upcoming season. I'm really excited to see Oliver Queen and Constantine interact, as it continues to build out the amazing TV DC universe that is being created (more on that in the next bit). While admittedly I did not watch the show Constantine, I know this is an awesome thing to exist in the first place, and maybe it will inspire to check out the episodes of the show that are out there.

On the topic of the ever expanding DC TV universe, The Flash has introduced time travel and alternate realities, which has me geeking out over how this show is just going all in on cool comic book connections. One that has been confirmed is the inclusion of the original Flash from the comics, Jay Garrick. We'll have some double Flash action in an episode (or episodes?) of the upcoming season of the show, so get ready! (The article linked above does a great job of explaining the history and setting up the TV show depiction of Jay Garrick)

  • Secret Warriors on Agents of SHIELD

While this isn't super new information, I'm keeping with the pattern of stuff in comic book TV shows. Which SHIELD has felt more like a companion series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe than a driver of it's own destiny like the DC TV universe, Season 3 of SHIELD should be pretty awesome, and will build up nicely to Captain America: Civil War, our next Marvel movie tent-pole. Season 3 will be including more superpowered folks in the aftermath of the events of Season 2, with Skye/Daisy Johnson taking a larger role as she accepts her mantle of Quake from the comics and seeks out her powered brethren for this special team of "Secret Warriors". With the introduction of Inhumans, the Kree, and now this, we're building up a far richer sandbox for the TV show to play in on it's own that is still beholden to the rest of the MCU, but it also feels like the stakes are higher now since more is happening on a bigger scale.

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Organic VS Promoted Content: Which Reigns Supreme?

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* This post is edited from the original, which was featured on Socialnomics.

So I am personally all about all-natural, organic, and sustainable stuff. Whether it is the toothpaste I use, the food I eat, or how I buy pretty much anything in my life, having something feel real and not artificial is important to me. This combines with my respect for authenticity and transparency in relationships. My overall preference for the "real deal" even comes into social media with the curious question I’ve stumbled upon when it comes to social media marketing; should one pay to promote or not?

Within the past year, both Facebook and Twitter launched the capacity for users to pay to promote their posts and tweets respectively. Facebook already had their “Ads” that would show up on the side of users’ timelines, but these two new functions put your promoted content right in the personal feeds of your customers. It comes, understandably, from the need to monetize these popular sites, but the real question comes in as to what is the best use of an organization’s money when it comes to engaging your audience; are you really getting what you pay for? Obviously, ideally your content will make it’s way out into the world on it’s own but usually, customers aren’t just following you, they’re following all sorts of different pages, even your competitors for business.

So it seems logical, you want the edge so you pay for promotion and you squash out the competition. Right? Well, the jury is still out on that. Not to say that promoted posts are not useful, but they also aren’t shown to be the way to go for every business and for every post. Social media is about engagement, and using paid promotion for posts can come across as spammy and inauthentic. Facebook paid promotions can be useful to get the word out about a new offer you have for your business or for an upcoming event since they only go out to those who “like” your page, as opposed to Facebook ads that go out to anyone and everyone. The same goes for Twitter. Think about what you’re posting and what is worth it to pay to get out to everyone and sort of muscle your way into their feed.

Another consideration to make is where you are putting this content. Are your customers even on Facebook or are they on Pinterest? Does your content make sense for the social media site you are promoting on? Facebook is different from Twitter which is different from LinkedIn which is different from Instagram (which also now supports ads). It is important to be intentional about the core what, where, when and why of posts in order to get the greatest results. From my perspective, the general logic here should focus on a few points: moderation (as with all things), organic engagement & paid promotion, and lastly, cater to the medium. For this last bit, whether that means you cover your basis on every social networking site or hone in on one, you can save a lot of money and time by knowing where your audience is and creating content for that particular venue. Doing all this will create an authentic aura that avoids the negative connotations of spam ads and allows for you to get the word out on all the great things your organization is up to.

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What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 08/07/15

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Geek-and-proud

Hey there, folks!

Here's what was going on in my world this week:

I blew through the entirety of this offering this past Sunday with my partner. We also recently watched the famed cult original movie together (I had seen it prior, my partner had not) so we were excited to check out this prequel series. It continues the enjoyable absurdist comedy tradition of the original and many of David Wain and company's work. I definitely recommend watching the original movie and the new series. You'll be glad you did!

I bought an Amazon Fire TV stick recently since I got rid of my PlayStation 3, which served as my media center hub. I now have a Blu-Ray player and media streaming sticks (my other one is a Roku Stick) for my two TV sets. While neither work perfectly, for the price, size, and convenience, I feel very happy with both purchases. Where the Roku is a basic, straightforward experience, Amazon is totally integrated with their digital libraries (television, movies, and music all included). The major caveat being you need to be a Prime member to take advantage of all of their content. Otherwise, you would need to purchase/rent exclusively from Amazon for it to feel worth it. The streaming media game is only going to grow so it is fascinating to see the competition create new ways to get content to consumers.

As I emotionally come to terms with Jon Stewart's departure from the Daily Show, I just started to dig into the podcast for his show (which only features Stewart in the most recent episode) and delves into the behind-the-scences production of the television show. They cover everything from pizza, rejection, bagels, and their veteran immersion program. It's a neat look into a one of a kind show and I know it will help me cope and appreciate a show I love even more.

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Book Review: The Niche Movement

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8gnwvxVb This past weekend I finished reading my digital copy of the new book from Kevin O'Connell, The Niche Movement: The New Rules to Finding the Career You Love. I'm really excited for this book to finally be out into the world, since I've been a long supporter of Kevin's and also proudly donated to his crowdfunding campaign last year to help publish the book.

Simply stated, this book is great. It excellently captures the frustrations many (myself included) feel with the status quo of job searching and workplace culture and gives some fantastic insights as to how to control your own destiny and do work that is fulfilling, whatever that may mean for you. Kevin weaves his career advice with unique stories of people from all over the country working in all sorts of fields that help send home and support his points. To top it off, he sets you up for success by giving out contact info for everyone mentioned in the book, so if you want to keep the discussion going with someone who really intrigued you, you have the means to do so and are even encouraged to reach out.

While I supported the effort to get this book published, I had no creative input in the production of it, but I trusted Kevin to create a superb product and he delivered tremendously, and that is my objective opinion. Many of the points he mentions I've heard before, which only further provides credibility to his work here. It has helped inspire and motivate me to get some things ramped up for my life, and I know it will do the same for you.

Check out The Niche Movement site for more awesome stuff, and reach out to Kevin to connect about the book. He's a pretty cool dude!

Thanks for stopping by!

What I Was Geeking Out About: July 2015

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Geek-and-proud

Hey there! Here's what was going on in my world last month:

Every Friday, I share what's on my mind from the past week. There was so much to geek out about last month, and to help you sift through it all, here's my monthly wrap up of all the stuff that was going on in July (this was another odd month with a lot of travel and stuff going on, please forgive me!):

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What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 07/31/15

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Geek-and-proud

Greetings!

Here's what was going on in my world this week:

I rented this movie from Redbox the other day and it was certainly worth it. I had heard a lot of good buzz from its initial release but just never got around to watching. Once I saw it available to rent, I put it on my list. It is a haunting, intriguing, original, disturbing, and entertaining sci-fi thriller that confronts the realities of artificial intelligence and human hubris. I really enjoyed the movie and it is definitely worth checking out for any sci-fi fans out there. It is easily the Snowpiercer of this year for me.

  • Twitter

There has been some interesting news lately about Twitter, it's revenues, possible changes, and overall the future of the site in the social media landscape. They have already made changes that make it feel more like Facebook, and it only seems to be wanting to go more in that direction if all goes according to the recent rumors. I love Twitter, and I don't think it needs to alter the core of the site too much. It has been my more preferred social media site for the past couple of years, and I hope it continues to be that way.

I happened upon this cool lifestyle company recently and ordered a few goodies from it. They have shirts, stickers, hats, and pint glasses with cool Maine logos on them. As someone who was born here, it always will have a soft spot in my heart, and getting stuff from local companies like this to represent my home state makes me happy. Buy local, people!

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Thoughts on the Movie "Admission"

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ADMISSION-Poster-580x330 So I finally watched Admission the other day, as it had long been sitting in my watch list but it never found its way to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime (as far as I could tell), so I rented it from iTunes with a gift card I had. I had high hopes for the movie and felt intrigued (as I often am) about it since it was all about higher ed. I always find myself interested in how movies and television shows depict college, and this movie was just another recent movie on the list to check out. With all that considered, I felt the need to write down my thoughts on the movie since it seems especially relevant to me and my intended audience for this site.

Unfortunately, Admission is a mixed bag for me. It felt original and fresh in some ways, but frustrating in others. Part of both the good and bad with this is that the story doesn't give you what you expect. There are twists and turns but some of them feel unnecessarily forced. The plot feels very jerking in the sense that it seems to be going somewhere and then just stops, and then goes somewhere else, and then stops. There is a lot going on in the story that all does get resolved, but I'd say it doesn't get resolved terribly well.

The basic premise is that Tina Fey plays an admissions staff member at Princeton University and has her world turned upside down by an old college acquaintance, played by Paul Rudd, who reaches out to her about a special student of his. Much of the story is revealed in the trailer, and the whole experience is enjoyable but as a dramatic comedy, it doesn't go far enough in on either of these to either just be fun or deep.

Admission does feel like it has something to say about higher education and their admission processes but it gets lost amongst the jumble of everything else for me. The whole final product feels like it must have been tinkered with too much with edits and notes from too many people to where the message gets too mixed up in the end. The best takeaway I gathered after I watched Admission is that colleges should try to take a chance on students that have potential and would benefit from the higher education experience, rather than those students who have been given every opportunity already and college is just another road mark to them.

I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts on the movie if they've watched it.

Thanks for stopping by!