Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley February 3, 2014 Deadline March 2014 Issue Social Media Getting Older, Losing Its Cool Social media are losing their “cool” factor, becoming a part of the largely ignored information static in our daily lives. Automated “bots” dominate Twitter, sending out so many tweets that it takes an effort to find any value. A small group of real, human users remain entertaining and informative, but searching and sorting tweets requires too much effort to be fun anymore. If you follow sports scores, news alerts or special events then Twitter is a wonderful tool. My friends who participate in fantasy sports leagues rely on Twitter for breaking news, at least on game days. They seldom send tweets, except to trade barbs with other “team owners” in the leagues. Twitter was supposed to make “texting” more social and more engaging, but the sheer volume of traffic renders Twitter useless. For most of us, hashtags, those “#WordsToFollow” that need a secret decode...

University instructors have it somewhat easier than K12 teachers: accepting "friend" requests from our students, especially our adult and non-traditional students, isn't much of an ethical quagmire. Still, you have to be careful and have some guidelines or you'll risk trouble. 1) I only accept "friend" requests from former students who are 21 or older, so nobody can claim I have favorites or suggest anything untoward. Connecting to young students is, in my opinion, always a bad idea — especially for male teachers, but we've seen female teachers have "problems" online, too. I explain to students that it isn't that I don't like them or want to be friends later in life, but it is important to maintain professional standing while they are in my courses. 2) LinkedIn is the "safest" social network for teachers to remain connected to former students. It is a professional, career-oriented network that is more about employment ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley April 8, 2013 Deadline May 2013 Issue Tech Etiquette: Why Manners Still Matter As my wife and I watched the actors on stage, the woman sitting beside me raised her iPad and started to record the performance. She waved the iPad, aiming around and above the people sitting in the row below us. I dodged her elbows and tried to ignore this breach of etiquette as best I could. When you attend a live event, unless it is your child’s play or recital, do not try to record the performance with a phone or tablet. The devices are not inconspicuous. A handheld video camera might be small and (slightly) less annoying to other audience members, and I’d still prefer that nobody have one in the audience. Community and college theater companies often record their performances. If you ask, many schools and community groups will make copies of their recordings. Yet, I counted at least a dozen people trying to capture video on phones and tablets during the night. I’...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley March 4, 2013 Deadline April 2013 Issue Getting Social to Build Your Business Facebook, Twitter , Foursquare, Yelp and more. If you want to grow your business today, you need to know the power of social networking. You also need to be prepared to change your social media strategy quickly to keep up with trends. Social networks come and go, as quickly as the “likes” and “trending” data they report. In the late 1990s, I recommended basic Web pages and e-mail addresses to my clients. Today, deciding which types of online presences are best for a business or organization presents a challenge. Whether you focus on business-to-business (B2B) services or retail sales helps determine the best online strategy for your company. The more public exposure your company seeks, the more important a social media presence will be. The basic Web presence still serves a purpose, and inexpensive hosting services cost the same as a stack of good business cards. Bu...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley June 2009 Issue May 3, 2009 Twittering or Tweeting, It’s Not for Everyone I don’t tweet. Apparently, I’m not as cool as Ashton Kutcher, Oprah Winfrey, or the dozens of media personalities begging us the follow them via Twitter. Twitter (http://twitter.com/ without the “www”) is a “microblogging” service that allows anyone to post short messages via the Internet or cell phone. The concept is deceptively simple: instead of sending a text message to one person from your phone or computer, why not send the same message instantly to a large group? When you post a message to Twitter, you “tweet.” Some people are tweeting constantly, letting their followers know their every move and thought. Other people and organizations use Twitter for major events and announcements. The recipients of messages are known as “followers” on Twitter. If I wanted people to receive my tweets, I would ask them to follow my twitter feed. There is definitely a unique Twitte...