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 #7: Social Media, Spring Break, Winning?

This week marks the beginning of the second half of our semester. Thus far, I’ve learned more about the Internet and social media than I’ve learned in my entire life. I’ve realized there is much more to social media than what meets the eye, and it takes a lot of time and energy to master such a complex topic. While taking in all this new information at such a rapid pace has been exhausting, it continues to intrigue and fascinate me.

However, I must admit I was pretty excited when I heard we would be a having short break from classes this past week (a Spring Break if you will?)

Over the break I took a weekend adventure back to my hometown, followed by a road trip to the Poconos in Central Pennsylvania, with some of my close DC friends. Talk about two very different places! My weekend in Miami consisted of running around town, fitting in as many activities with friends and family as humanly possible, all while trying desperately lay out in the sun and attempt to get a tan.

Highlight of my weekend in Miami, this little Asian girl practicing golf with her Mother!

The Poconos, on the other hand, was cold as ever. It started snowing half way through our drive up and the lake outside our house was still frozen. Nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful and Central PA’s rolling hills did not disappoint. Highlight?  I got to exercise my second amendment right and shot a gun for the first time!

 

As a result, I can't stop listening to country music or wearing flannel shirts.

Last class we reviewed different search engines, looking a little closer into not just how they function, but their significance in the corporate world. To be successful, companies must strategically position their website’s content in order to increase visibility on search engines and reach target audiences. As we learned in class, businesses sometimes go to great lengths to achieve this. The ultimate goal? Be the first search result on Google, of course.

After class, I decided it might be a good idea to go through my own blog and tag each of my entries, using keywords that might direct someone to my site. I didn’t think much of it at the time. To be completely honest, I did it mostly because blogging is a part of our grade and hey, I want to get an A! 🙂 So you can imagine my surprise after checking my blog’s stats today, only to find that people had been actually visiting my blog, on their own, just by searching for the terms I has tagged under my post! I was a little shocked, but mostly excited. I never thought doing something so simple would have such a large impact. The Internet is truly amazing, let me tell you!

Haha- In conclusion, as we enter into part two of the semester, I am definitely feeling more confident about this whole “blogging” thing. Now that I’ve tagged all my entries, it might be time kick things up a notch. Ultimately, my goal is to keep on blogging, post about cool things, and kick some serious social media ass!

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Week #4: When Worlds Collide

Our focus this week was to consider ways we can allow our personalities to come through in our blogs, while still staying on topic.

When I first started writing, I wanted this blog to be about my experiences living in DC and how they relate to my upbringing. I’m originally from Miami, Florida and as you can imagine, life in DC is much different than my life back in Miami. I can only describe Miami as an alternative, perhaps even parallel universe. In many ways it’s just like any other American city. Much like New York, Miami is a melting pot of cultures and ideas. For many Spanish is the language of choice, and for second-generation children like myself, speaking a mixture between English and Spanish is the norm.  Growing up I was blissfully unaware of how unique my childhood truly was. It wasn’t until I moved to the Northeast for college that I realized how different my life had been.

Trying to describe Miami to someone who has never been there is next to impossible. Trying to explain growing up in Miami is just out of the question.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about home. It’s a love/hate relationship really. And while I miss my friends and family desperately, I know moving back at this point in my life would be absolute misery.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Miami more than any other place in the world, but there are also aspects of living there that are just intolerable.

Many times when I think about myself, it’s almost as though I lead a double life. I have DC Brittany on one side and Miami Brittany on the other.  I want this blog to be a place where those two worlds can come together, perhaps one day even co-exist.

Returning to this week’s discussion, given the fact that this blog is essentially about my life and personal experiences in Washington DC, I feel my personality will shine through pretty easily. And hey, if anyone is looking for places party over Spring Break, just let me know!

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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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