Socially Acceptable

"Listening to Ike Pigott talk about social media. #ALsocme"

Sitting in the front row I grabbed my phone, opened twitter and tweeted this message while Ike was speaking. He was standing three feet in front of me and I did this in plain sight. Rude? Not hardly.

I was doing my part to generate buzz about the Alabama Social Media Association's inaugural event. At the check-in table I was encouraged to check in on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. I took a moment to do just that and there were already a flood of tweets using #ALsocme. People were saying hello from across the room, inviting others to sit with them and generally tweeting their excitement to be there. One brilliant girl even tweeted the hashtag along with a link to her resume to everyone at the event. THAT is (social) networking!

Ike Pigott spoke to us about Social Media: The 21st Century Canary. He discussed how to measure a social media 'crisis' so that you know when to respond. He also explained the concepts of framing and sharing. Framing gives context to fact. If you provide the right context you can frame someones perception. What makes a message sharable? Ike gave us the ABC's...
  Authority
  Brevity
  Clarity
  Detail
  Emotion
  Focus
  Gossip

Canaries make a lot of noise. Noise lets you know you are in the right place but it doesn't let you know what to take seriously. Measure before you react. But, by all means, be prepared to react.

You can see Ike's slides plus a full transcript of the event here.
Thanks to ALsocme for a great event. I think you should host one here in Montgomery :)  Oh, and thanks to Zoes Kitchen for a free lunch!

"It's All Happening."

I could look up the origination of that quote, but I'm not going to. I want to always hear it in Kate Hudson's voice as she is whisked away into her dream life in Almost Famous.

This week is here and it's all happening. Tomorrow I'll be in Birmingham attending the inaugural meeting of the Alabama Social Media Association. Thursday I'll be blogging about the event and packing. Friday I'm off to Tuscaloosa to see Band of Horses. Saturday I'm second shooting a wedding!!!
Sunday I am heading to Nashville for a 3 day photography workshop. Wednesday I'll be home, squeezing my baby girl tighter than ever. Then, Saturday I'll be second shooting another wedding. SMILEY FACE!



It's. All. Happening. - Jessi D

I will always choose the beach

Ft. Walton Beach, FL and Wiesbaden, Germany are basically the same place. At least, in my mind they are. Growing up an 'Air Force brat' I lived in both places and the one thing that sticks out in my memory about them both is water. Wiesbaden on the Rhine river with magnificent indoor pools and Ft. Walton on Gulf of Mexico with beautiful white sandy beaches. My childhood memories almost always include splashing and playing in the water.

Has anyone ever asked you if you'd rather vacation in the mountains or at the beach? Well, I'm a water baby and I will ALWAYS choose the beach.

Last weekend we snuck down to the beach and I scratched off #28 on my list of 31 before 31 - Vacation at the beach.

Time. Travel. Speed.

It's weird how time gets jumbled. New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day, the Fourth of July, Football Season, Christmas... One year can come and go just like that. The munchkin is almost a year old and I catch myself saying 'I can't believe it's been a year' as if it's gone by in the blink of an eye. Truth is, it was a looooong year and it went by at warp speed.
Only a year since my Olive was so tiny that I was scared to pick her up? Just one year since I was scared to put her down because how would I know she was still breathing? Only one year... are you sure?
How'd she learn to smile, and sit up, and crawl, and laugh, and flirt, and walk, and eat her veggies, and melt my heart? She did all that in a year? Buh-nanas!

Today was her 1 year portrait session and she was such a big girl!

When I see her with her Daddy, it seems as though she's been part of our lives forever. How has it only been a year?