Response Blog #6: DC versus Miami.

I’ve been saving this response blog post for last.

This post goes out to my classmate Nicki of “Fabulous-N-Favored,” in response to a post she wrote back in February titled “DC > Miami.”

Now, before I begin, I would like to say that I obviously love DC. I don’t think I would ever go as far as to say that it’s better than Miami. They’re two very different cities.

Yah won't find one of these guys in Miami, that's for darn sure!

Anyway, where was I.. oh yes. So being from Miami, I was definitely a little taken aback by many of the claims made in this post. So I thought I would take a little time here and clear some things up.

I know I know don’t tell me… I’m SO Miami 😉

Ok so, first and foremost Nicki, why on earth would you want to live on South Beach? That’s like living in Las Vegas and saying you want to live right on the strip. No one from Miami actually lives there! Unless they work there… or have like a gajillion dollars lying around. It’s super expensive and full of tourists.

If you actually lived in Miami, you would probably only go to Miami Beach for a day trip or a crazy night on the town.

When people say they grew up in Miami, or lived in Miami, chances are about 8 times out of 10 they didn’t live anywhere remotely close to South Beach. Miami has several beautiful areas, much like DC has its own unique neighborhoods.

South Miami -- Sunset Place Mall

Coconut Grove -- Coco Walk Shops

Coral Gables -- The Biltmore Hotel

Obviously, at the end of the day every city has its pros and cons. However, if there’s anything you should know about Miami, it’s that only people from Miami are allowed to hate on Miami!!

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Week #9: Crowdsourcing.

Last week in Social Media we learned about crowdsourcing.

(Flickr)

The term crowdsourcing was first coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article titled, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”. In the article, Howe explains that technological advances have closed the gap between professionals and amateurs, allowing businesses to take advantage of the talent of the public. By doing this, Howe comes to the conclusion that companies aren’t “outsourcing,” instead they are “crowdsourcing.”

The idea behind crowdsourcing is that there is strength in numbers — the larger the crowd, the higher quality of knowledge, and the better the results will be. Nowadays, many companies are use crowdsourcing to engage their audiences and improve their businesses.

Listening to your audience adds value to your companys brand (Flickr)

One great example is Threadless.com, an online community that has built an entire business by crowdsourcing.

Need a funny shirt idea? Just ask the crowd!

Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online, which are then put to a public vote. The winning designs are then sold online, and their creators are awarded prizes up to $2,000.

This week, I’m going to try and do a little crowdsourcing experiment. Since I started this blog many of my friends have come to me with suggestions for topics they would like me to blog about.  So, I thought I would get you all to participate a bit and ask everyone to leave a comment with something they would like me to write about. It can be anything Miami or DC related: Cool places in Dupont Circle, My favorite places to go in Miami, Chongas, Spanglish– Anything!

Okay ready set GO! I’m looking forward to seeing what turns up!

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Week #8: Word-of-Mouth

While everyone else in the city was off enjoying this year’s mildly disappointing Cherry Blossoms, I decided to meet a group of my friends over at DC’s newest beer garden, Standard.

One of Standard's promo shots by Leo Schmid

On the corner of 14th and S, Standard was basically packed to the gills when I got there.

No frills, straight forward menu — just an all around great place to hang out outside, eat some home style BBQ favorites, and drink German beer.

Photo by Prince of Petworth

Photo by Prince of Petworth

FOOD! Photo by Alla G. (Yelp!)

Weihenstephaner! aka a delicious German beer who's name I cannot pronounce. Photo by Cameron B. (Yelp!)

While I was waiting in line for a beer I actually overheard some interesting conversation (major creep alert, I know.)  According to these two bros, Standard has done little to no advertising — news of its opening has been spread largely by word-of-mouth.

Well, who knows how true that is, all I know is that I heard about Standard from friends, so perhaps there is some truth behind this. After all, word-of-mouth is the most effective form of marketing (after that is Coupons, learned that in IMC. Thanks Professor Neal!)

Anyway, I got so caught up in all the excitement I forgot to take pictures (thus all the borrowed pictures above) HOWEVER, I did remember to check in on Foursquare! WOOHOO! I have to say, Foursquare is quickly becoming one of my favorite social media tools, especially after their latest software update.

I like Foursquare for a lot of reasons. For one, it’s really great for looking up cool places in the area. I also really like that you can leave tips, or read tips people have left, about what’s good or what to avoid. However, I think what really draws me in is the competition aspect of Foursquare. After this latest update, each week Foursquare puts you in a competition against the rest of your friends, to see who can have the “best week.” A different amount of points are awarded depending on: location, whether or not your friends have checked in there before, etc etc.

It kind of hard to explain, and my friends make fun of me all the time for loving Foursquare, but it’s AWESOME so download it!

And ok, I take back the Cherry Blossoms comment earlier. Even the ones that haven’t really been able to fully open are still quite beautiful. I’m just being bitter about the cold weather. Hello spring?? Where are you??

Some beautiful little buds 🙂 Photo by the lovely Ruchika Gupta (Flickr)

 

Photo by Ruchika Gupta (Flickr)

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Week #2: Finding My Muse

The past couple of weeks have been an absolute whirlwind! A new job and a new semester of grad school, not to mention last week’s snow storm (please see Thundersnow 2011.) Needless to say, I’ve had my hands full.

When first asked pick a topic for my blog, I was stumped. I’ve considered starting my own blog for years but I could never find a subject that I wanted to stick with. I knew taking this class would require me to write and maintain a blog, as a part of our grade. I’m hoping that over the next weeks of the semester, this blog will encourage me to find my voice.

The idea of blogging is overwhelming to me. I started off thinking I would write about movies. I got the idea after stumbling upon a hilarious blog http://lawrenceandjulieandjulia.blogspot.com/. Lawrence, some random college bro, decided he would watch Julie & Julia on his Netflix account everyday for 365 days, and blog about it, much like the movie’s main character Julie who decides to write blog about cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, over the course of a year.  The blog started out as a joke until Julie Powell, author of the book Julie & Julia, commented on the first post. Now this poor guy has to sit in front of his computer everyday for the next year and watch this terrible movie, over and over and over again.

May God have mercy on his soul.

Anyway, I signed up for Netflix about a month ago and my idea was to blog about any interesting movies I came across and talk about how they related to my life. At first I was really excited about the idea, but after thinking about it for a couple weeks I think the novelty might be fading. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t scrapped the idea all together; I’m just not convinced it’s something that will capture my attention for a full semester.

In addition, the snow did more than just mess with our class schedule. The Netflix movie I was going to write my first blog on, Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino, was delayed for three days. I had planned it out perfectly- I would watch the movie over the weekend, then blog about it on Monday. Much to my dismay, the DVD didn’t appear in my mailbox until Monday evening and I was left with even more doubt as to the state of my blog.

Then it occurred to me, writing a blog should not be this hard. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a computer and can write a couple of dumb ideas down and call it a blog. I was over thinking the entire situation way too much. I just needed to relax, write, and the inspiration would come to me.

So it is with great pleasure that I announce, the moment has arrived!  It appears the answer was in front of me all along. When I first registered for Social Media I created a new twitter account, in preparation. I didn’t create the account so much because I was worried about having to censor my tweets. It was more because I want a fresh start. And so, @BLSinDC was born.

I think the title speaks for itself, BLS (me) in DC (our nation’s Capitol). I can sleep well tonight knowing I’ve finally found my muse. 🙂

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