Empire State of Mind

No I am not going to New York...but the next best thing to that is that Jay-Z is coming to the Frank Erwin Center very soon! And as an intern at the Erwin center I have been walking around campus with "him" and taking pictures. That's right, me, Jay, and my fellow interns, have become quite the pals.

Check out Jay-Z in 2-d at the on the Frank Erwin Center Twitter page and watch out for "him" all week with us on campus! You could get your picture taken with him and put up on our website.

This is probably one of my favorite marketing campaigns I have done to date at the Erwin Center, considering that it is incorporating unique marketing techniques with our social media. Pretty awesome!

Welcome Back Kevin!

I know there has been a lot of buzz about the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder game at the Frank Erwin Center tonight.

For one, we don't have our own NBA team here in Austin so this game is an exciting change from our college games, especially since it is featuring a local favorite, the San Antonio Spurs. Also, and I think more importantly, Kevin Durant will be making his BIG return to Austin since leaving the Horns to embark on his NBA career. He started out with the Seattle Supersonics, and since then has come a little closer to home, playing with the newly franchised Oklahoma City Thunder.

Anyways, this is not a piece about Kevin or to get you to go to the game (all though you should because tickets are not expensive and it will be awesome!), but more of my own little blurb. I am kind of bummed because I work at the Erwin center in the marketing department, and part of my job is to work the events that we book. So when I heard about the game I was SUPER excited because I am a HUGE NBA fan. One of my saved tabs on my computer is NBA.com. I really wanted to be at the game tonight, to see Kevin and Tony Parker and Tim Duncan and Manu UP CLOSE ( I mean I have been to a Spurs game before when they played my home team the Houston Rockets) but never really close.

So have fun all of you that will be there. Give a shout out to Kevin for me. I will be in class, filling my head with lots of knowledge that is extremely important I will admit. You win some you loose some.Photo courtesy of pacejmiller.wordpress.com

Working it Out

For awhile I never really saw the impact of social media in the workplace. I didn't use it in the workplace, wasn't hugely involved in it, and didn't go home and do much research on it. I wasn't extremely interested in creating a blog, I am still reluctant to create a twitter account (although I have as a result of MUCH pressure), I didn't join Facebook until I got to college, and I was never part of a social network until I got to college.

I guess you could say I was more into human contact than about getting on the computer and connecting. Well I was guilty of late night chat sessions on AIM, I mean what middle schooler wasn't...and who doesn't remember their first ridiculous screen name. Mine was halogurl125 (where in the world did that come from???)

However, working in marketing at the Frank Erwin Center I have realized how EXTREMELY important social media is not only for our work, but for all the people that we are involved with. In the past six months we have launched a Facebook page and a twitter account, and we have started keeping track daily of all the social media that our clients are involved with. For example, since Jay-Z is coming in November we have begun tracking his twitter account and all the media attention he gets for anything interesting.

In doing this I have learned so much about social media. Not only about how important it is in the sense that it does make a difference in getting the word out, but that there is so much you can do with it. For instance, Jason Mraz was here last night. One of his interesting social media tactics were a series of comedic webisodes called Grati Tube. The series really had nothing to do with Mraz's music, but they were really popular because they showed a completely different side of him. Jason Mraz is known for being a soulful and thoughtful musician, so viewers were interested to see him being playful and comedic. The videos got thousands of hits on his official Youtube website.

I think that doing things like Jason did that show you have a different side to you than what you always show the world are important not only for celebrities, but for other people in the spotlight. In light of all the recent outbursts in the public eye lately, social media might be one of best outlets to shed a new light to the situation. The way people look at news is definitely changing, and perhaps being real can be the best remedy to some situations.

Song Of the Day (in light of Jason Mraz):

"Live High"