Archive for the category ‘Peer Perspectives’

Peer Perspectives: Part III

By Ashley

This week, I sat down with one of my closest friends here in Austin to discuss his role in the tech community, as well as what suggestions he has for students entering the work force. I have come to rely on his advice and expertise as I navigate my own career here in Austin, and beyond.

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Cesar Torres, 24, is one of the co-founders of Conjunctured, a coworking company and Austin’s first coworking space. By day, he’s also a freelance brand designer, art director, graphic and web designer and serves as creative director of TechStyles Apparel. Cesar lives in east Austin with his Mac and his dog, Tumbler.

What role does social media play in your professional life?

Social media played an integral part in the creation and development of Conjunctured, the coworking space I helped create. Since very early on, various social media tools helped us pool together a collection of people who were interested in the development of an Austin coworking space. These same tools helped us keep in contact with the community and gave us a platform to talk about everything we were learning on our journey from the inception of the idea in March to our opening in August and beyond.

Social media helped us attain the right connections to the people that were important to our success, whether that was family, supporters, members, friends outside of Austin, the national tech community and even media and press contacts (we obtained writeups in the Austin American Statesman, two writeups on the Mashable frontpage, I made some guest posts on Dell’s Digital Nomads blog and the Austin360 tech blog and we landed spots on KXAN News and NBC Nightly News as a result of our online contacts!).

How has your use of social media improved your career?

Outside of using social media tools to help promote Conjunctured, coworking and Austin, social media has been a huge help in my personal career as a designer. Through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, I have been able to create a strong presence as a freelance designer and have been contacted many times over for work via these networks. Social media helped me make connections and keep my ear to the ground as to who was in need of services I could provide.

I think people hear the words “social media” and immediately are concerned about privacy issues. I feel that the transparency of social media tools helped people get to know who I was and gave them a better understanding for the kind of work that I liked to do. Once they got a sense for that, they had the communication tools (my blog/portfolio, my Twitter or Facebook accounts, etc.) to contact me regarding work they personally needed done or leads they had.

What has your role been, specifically, in the Austin tech community and where would you like to see it go in the future?

To date, I am called on to provide feedback on branding and design elements for companies and tech starups in town and around the world, which I totally love doing.

A big portion of the membership-base in Austin for coworking is web designers, developers and other tech knowledge workers (naturally, these people have the freedom to work outside an office environment, given their flexibility thanks to technology). I get to meet these creative and talented people and hopefully help them come together and know each other—whether that’s within the walls of Conjunctured or on a one-to-one basis when I’m out at tech events. I’ve even collaborated on some cool projects with a handful of these people.

I feel Austin is at a critical mass where so many things are going on, even outside of the tech landscape, that the city is trying to figure out what kind of place it wants to be when it grows up. While much of the city is still in development, whether that’s figuratively or literally (with the countless highrises going up), I would love to have more of a say in the way the city is portrayed once it gets closer to self-actualization. I’ve been living here since I came to the University of Texas in 2002 to study Advertising and I’ve watched the city evolve right before my eyes. As a result of my background, I’m huge into branding and it would be interesting to officially be in charge of the “branding” of the city, whether that’s indirectly like I’m doing now with Conjunctured, or directly in a more formalized setup. 

As a professional in the tech industry, what would you recommend to students entering the work force in the coming months?

Millennials have the unique situation of being an age group to know life with and without the internet, which puts us in a great place, I think.

I mentioned before the concerns of privacy on the internet—definitely be careful of what you or your online friends upload to the web, but also, don’t compromise who you are either. We hear countless stories of people being fired because of their MySpace profiles. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a company that wouldn’t hire me because I had party pictures on my profile, but do remember that once college is over, you have to draw more of a distinct line between your professional life and your party life. Two words: Facebook lists. Learn to love ‘em.

Also, I would say, once school is over, you’re at a unique age where you can make mistakes—and it’s okay to make them! Dream big. This is a great time to go out and experience new things to help you gain perspective. Travel, meet everyone you can, talk to people (if you’re willing to listen, older people know what the hell they’re talking about, as it turns out), read a lot, journal your thoughts and ideas about the world and your life, get a mentor or five, learn to look at your folks as peers, surround yourself with the right kind of friends and just come to figure yourself out. Come to learn that anything ever is possible, as long as you work your ass off to get it. It may be hard work, but in the end, it’s better to have tried than to sit around unhappy, wondering “what if.” No regrets!

What social media tools do you find the most useful in both your professional and personal lives?

I was one of the early adopters of Facebook when it launched at UT, so it’s safe to say I’m addicted to that still. I love how it’s transitioned and evolved with me as I’ve gone through school and into a more professional role; I find that it’s definitely a reflection of myself. I’m hopelessly addicted to Twitter (follow me @cesart) and I’ve been blogging for about seven years now. You can find my posts at http://c3sart.com. I have replaced reading the paper on the weekends with Google Reader and I unconditionally love any tech startup that comes out of Austin.

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes: “No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. … If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,— that is your success.” -Thoreau, Walden

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This entry was posted on November 8th, 2008 under Peer Perspectives, Social Media.

Peer Perspectives: Part II

By Ashley

Since moving to Austin, I have had the pleasure of meeting many amazingly talented individuals in the technology industry. One such individual is Kristine Gloria, an Account Executive at Waggener Edstrom PR Firm. Kristine has pioneered the use of social media within her company and understands the importance of both developing and maintaining an image of professionalism.

This podcast is a collaboration between myself, Sloan Chouest and Adam Raven. Refer to the Show Notes below for an outline of our interview and links mentioned throughout the podcast:


0:00 Intro

0:35 Describe Waggener Edstrom and your role at the firm?

a. Waggener Edstrom (WagEd) specializes in technology and is incredibly relationship oriented. Specifically, WagEd has a long track record with Microsoft.

b. Kristine Gloria is the liaison with account work and digital strategies.

1:17 How has social media evolved and what is your role?

a. Social media has grown from social networks such as Facebook, to micro blogging on Twitter, and has developed into a tool for both personal and professional purposes.

b. WagEd often uses LinkedIn to do bio searches on their clients and future employees.

c. Kristine’s role has been to implement these tools in the business. She is not an early adopter, but watches the space closely.

2:27 How did you gain an initial awareness of social media and how have you implemented it at Waggener Edstrom?

a. SXSW 2007: Sarah Lacy/Mark Zuckerberg Interview and the importance of Twitter

b. Took this momentum to the office.

i. Began a WE Digital Think Tank

4:06 What forms of social media do you use and how does it benefit you as a P.R. firm?

a. Twitter: “Everyday, every hour”

i. Relationships with reporters

b. Facebook

c. LinkedIn: Bio searching specifically

5:11 Commercial

a. FriendorFollow.com

5:41 What is Waggener Edstrom’s involvement with the blogosphere and how do you approach bloggers with pitches?

a. Active bloggers on external side of WagEd as marketing

b. Use of blogs internally

6:13 What do you think the relationship between bloggers and P.R. firms should be?

a. Understanding the avenue of communication is key

b. Building relationships is essential

c. Bloggers write what they want to write-it’s not personal

6:50 What social media tools do you use on an everyday basis and how have these tools expanded your personal and professional relationships?

a. Keep things professional

b. Social media has helped expand Kristine’s network

i. Helps others understand social media tools

7:41 You mentioned social media as a double-edged sword, can you elaborate on this?

a. Blurs personal and professional life

b. Social Media is extremely self-involved

c. You must be in tune to your own personal brand

i. Austin 3.0

9:12 Where do you see social media going in the future in both public relations and personal lives?

a. Kristine does not see blogging as taking over the journalistic venue

b. The public will begin to understand idea of the “double edged sword.”

9:53 Outro

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This entry was posted on October 31st, 2008 under Internet Technology, Peer Perspectives, Social Media.

Peer Perspectives: Part 1

By Ashley

As I mentioned in my previous post, Austin is a hot bed for social media. Therefore, I have decided to highlight several professionals that are well versed in social media over the course of the semester. This “Social Media: Peer Perspectives” column will feature interviews from local companies, entrepeneurs, and freelancers. 

Cullen Wilson is a tech entreprenuer who was born and raised right here in Austin, Texas. He has worked for multiple web development studios and is currently the co-founder of a local web development and design company.

 

What role do you see Social Media play in business on an everyday basis?

Social media plays a huge role for both small and large businesses and this growth will only continue. From the smallest businesses to freelancers trying to find new partners and clientele to corporate conglomerates attempting to curb their images and appeal to a wider audience or even fix a failing image, social media is paramount to the success of your business. You are either behind in the game or simply losing out on a potential market by not using all of the resources social media provides- especially the free ones!

How does social media affect your business and how do you use it to portray your company and yourself in a positive light?

One of the great things (or in some cases the worst) about social media is that it gives the general public a ground level view of how you operate your business and how you interact with potential customers. For example, anyone who follows my Twitter stream will know intimate details about my day to day duties which you would otherwise never know. This gives a business the opportunity to let a potential client or partner know exactly who they are going to be working with.

Would you say that social media use has changed over recent years, and if so, how?

Definitely. I think it’s become easier to use, much more accepted, and just generally more important in day to day operations. A few years ago the Washington Post did not have “Digg This!” buttons under all of it’s articles and political figures didn’t use Twitter to update supporters on their day to day lives.

How do you see social media being used here in Austin specifically?

Austin is pretty unique in that we are ahead of the crowd when it comes to the use of technology-specifically social media. We have social media companies headquartered here who are developing new tools, a huge community of freelancers and small business owners who use services like Twitter to connect and expand on a daily basis, and of course all of your standard larger companies who would be in any “tech city.”

As a professional in the web development industry, what would you recommend to students that are beginning to use social media tools in both their personal and professional lives?

Pick one tool and master it, then move onto another tool. Far too often I see students and even professionals who have been in their respective industry for years attempt to jump into using social media tools but become overwhelmed because they sign up for every service available to them. The nature of many social media tools requires you to constantly update them and because of this, it can quickly become a full time job just to let others know what you are up to. Many of these tools can also take a while to master, or fully understand, so jumping from using nothing to a full suite can be very daunting unless you have absolutely nothing else to do.

What are your favorite social media tools-both professional and personal?

I use various tools every day to stay connected with friends, peers, and even clients. Many of the websites I have developed, including my own blog, are all run by Wordpress, which is the best platform out there when it comes to hosting a blog or simple site. I’m an avid Twitter user- although when I am swamped with work I make it a point to stay away from it as much as possible (it can suck your time away pretty fast). I also use a few tools that are a bit more unique to my industry but are quickly gaining traction elsewhere like Basecamp for project management and collaboration within a team and your clients. Last but not least are all of the standard social networks like Linkedin, Facebook, etc.

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This entry was posted on September 21st, 2008 under Peer Perspectives, Social Media.