Great work this season, let’s finish it off right and get to Miami. Now with this whole Buck Burnette situation, kudos to y’all for handling it quickly, I’m not here to pass judgement on those actions – that’s team policy. I want to talk to you about social networks. In your press conference after Burnette’s dismissal, you were quoted in the Statesman as saying that social networks can be a “very hurtful and dangerous thing” and that Longhorn coaches “have encouraged every one of our players not to have one” (presumably to prevent incidents like this from happening).

Now I’ve read about how some of your players in the off-season go hunting. Do you discourage that sort of activity? I hear that guns be pretty hurtful too. I’m sure that if you tell them anything, it would to just tell them to be careful. Why not do the same with social networks? Rather than discouraging them, show how to use them responsibly. Social networks are going to be an integral part of their lives in one form or another, staying out of them now is only going to be a handicap later in life.  It’s like skipping summer workouts because you might get hurt – well, you still have to do them, just do it safely and you’ll be stronger in the end.

I think you have the message to the players half-right, their profiles and activity on social networks can be visible to many people, so they need to be careful what they do. It’s no different than when they do their players press conference – I’m sure they have been trained about the sort of stuff that they can talk about and how to talk about it. Do the same thing for players and social networks! In fact, consider this an offer from me to you, Mack; I will happily to give a crash course on the responsible use of social networks for your players.

Good luck next week with the Aggies!

Hook ‘em,

David Giesberg ‘09

P.S. Quick story on college sports and social networks: when I was at RPI, there was a campaign by the hockey team’s supporters every week to go onto Facebook, find the opposing team’s goalkeeper, and poke him relentlessly – psychological warfare!

This is the full text of Brown’s response from his Monday press conference on November 10th (copied from MackBrown-TexasFootball):

The University cannot tell a young person they can’t have one. It’s against federal law and it’s against the right to have what they want. We have encouraged every one of our players from day one not to have one, and we check them as often as we can. That’s a difficult thing to do. I think that all young people need to make sure they are very cautious of everything they write on there, because it’s just not public, it goes all over the world. It’s out there immediately and it can be a very hurtful and dangerous thing. We’re constantly telling our guys to be very careful. You’re talking about the media looking at them and employers in the future might look at them. I don’t watch them, but it’s amazing to me what I’m hearing is on some across the country. It’s a dangerous thing. I’m sure it’s a great thing for communication, making friends and all of that stuff, but at the same time, I think we all need to make the young people aware that it’s also a dangerous tool for the rest of your life if it’s not used properly.

Come on out and meet other students interested in social media as we check out what projects/products that UT students and alumni are involved in. Right now, it looks like we’ll have:

• Archana – Radar
• Brian – Minggl
• Juan – The Semantic Web

I’ll be talking a bit about SocialMediaCamp.us, as well. They’re providing us with snacks from Tiff’s Treats for the evening!

If you can’t make it out in person, we’re planning on streaming (if UT’s firewall cooperates) on Ustream.

I’m here to tell you that today, there is another type of blogging out there, blogging for the powers of good against the forces of evil! Tomorrow, October 15, is Blog Action Day, a day dedicated to bringing thousands of blogs from around the world together to speak out about one issue and start a discussion – this year, the topic is poverty.

If you have a blog, put up a post about poverty. It doesn’t have to be anything unusual for your blog, just work it into whatever sort of material you normally have on your blog. (Here are some ideas for posts, if you’re stuck)

On the other hand, if you don’t blog, post a note or share links on Facebook or MySpace, comment and respond to other people’s Blog Action Day posts, do whatever you can and join the discussion.

A group of folks from here in Austin are getting together and coordinating some activities that are focusing on hunger here in Austin – join in if you can!

Comment below with links to anything you are doing for Blog Action Day!

P.S. In other breaking news, Twitter and other blogs are being used right now to help a family find their missing teenage daughter. The story has been retweeted (similar to forwarding an email or reposting a story) like wildfire today, CNet has coverage and here is the original blog post being linked to (at the moment, the website is having issues, but it will probably be back up later).

Is there something you want to learn about social media or tools? Let us know!

Here is some of the stuff we’ve thought about:

• How to use online tools in your student organization or group projects
  • Document sharing
  • Calendaring
  • Organizing on social networks
• Sharing your online activities with your friends (easily!)
• Setting up a directory of UT Twitterers
• Social Technology HowTos
  • Twitter 101
  • Online Video/Youtube
  • LinkedIn for Students
• Blogging for Fun and Profit

What sounds good to you?

Also, if there is something you want to share or if you want a soapbox to stand on and blog for us, comment on this post, send us a message on Twitter, facebook, or our new-fangled contact form.

Bring all of your content back to Facebook!

One of the cool things about Facebook is that you can link lots of different sites into Facebook, so your friends can go to one place to see everything that you’re up to (if you share it with them).

Twitter is a cool one to start with because if you’re already tweeting and want to make it easy for your friends that aren’t cool like you to see your tweets, why not send them to your Facebook status? It’s pretty easy and I’ll show you how to do it with Twitter’s Facebook Application.

(Note: This is the direct link to the Twitter application)

Now you can share your Twitter updates with people who don’t directly subscribe to your Tweets – and perhaps entice them to join!

In other news, we’re having our first TweetUp tomorrow night at Cafe Medici on the Drag (where the Metro used to be next to CVS). If you’re interested in social media and technology in the UT community, want to hear about what UTweet is all about, or if want to meet the people behind UTweet, come on down at 8:00 PM Wednesday night.

It was that ripe old smell of cellophane and a glance at the calendar that knocked the wind out of me: school starts next week. Time to rub the sleep out of your eyes, grab a Pop-Tart and sprint for the bus. For some us, it’s also the beginning of recruiting season at UT and figuring out just what in the world life after graduation holds. For many, that means what company and job we intend on aligning ourselves with.

Mark your calendars for the following UT Austin career fairs:

• September 10 – McCombs School of Business BBA Career Fair
• September 22 - College of Natural Sciences Career EXPO
• September 23-24 – Cockrell School of Engineering EXPO
• October 15 - Liberal Arts Career Expo
• November 5 – College of Communication Job and Internship Fair

Besides resume, the interview, and the beads of nervous sweat – all integral parts of the recruiting process – one has to consider their online presence. Even with legal authority, employers are Google-ing you and accessing your social sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) to find out more information about you.  While this may only increase the severity of your sweating, you’ve got to play the game to your advantage – enter Twitter.

I sat down with Kim Haynes of Bulldog Solutions (follow her @kimhaynes), to discuss how students can use Twitter as an effective tool. As Human Resources Manager, Kim is a recruiter in the Austin area and human resources industry. Here’s the scoop:

• Twitter, the new sourcer
  After Kim posts a job on the company website, she will immediately tweet it out and then post it on other sites, such as her blog, Facebook account, or LinkedIn. This is a more personal way to find out about job opportunities at a low level of involvement.
• Breaking the job board
  Kim is moving away from using job boards such as Monster.com to find potential employees; instead, she looks to social media to scope out candidates and share potential positions.
• Build your brand
  Employers are going to find out about you whether you like it or not. Twitter – along with your other online activities – can help shape the impression you make. Do you want to be taken seriously about writing? Share links to news stories relevant to the media industry. Up-and-coming photographer? Tweet out your flickr url.
• Build your network
  Twitter is a place to have a conversation – use that @ symbol like you just don’t care! Send a DM or two to make the conversation private.

But how do I build my network and make those connections?

“You need to reach out beyond your small group of friends. Find people that you’re interested in, follow them, watch what they are talking about, and talk back to the them.”

Twitter’s a tool. Use it!

But did you know that there is a Twitter account that does this too? It’s called SecretTweet, and anyone can tweet out their secret through the submission page. The only form of identification is your IP address (for spam purposes). 

I like the challenge of having to express a secret in only so many characters!

Would you ever tweet your secret?

Our second pitcher is Will Roman, he is an entrepreneur and an advertising RTF student here at U.T.

At Wednesday night’s spectacular Mashable party, amid the flashing cameras, handshakes and frequent card exchange, I overheard this conversation:

Guy 1: You know, it was great to meet you, are you on Twitter?

Guy 2: Yeah, man, I tweet.

Guy 1: (whips out the iPhone) What’s your handle?

Guy 2: …. my what?

And it struck me – Twitter is growing at such an exponential rate, but at some point, we’re all new to to Twitter in some manner. There will always be words or applications or practices that you just don’t know about until someone tells you about it.

Here are some very basic Twitter words to learn so you don’t end up like Guy #2:

Tweet

(v) to make a post to Twitter; ex: “I tweeted out that link.”

(n) the actual message; ex: “Did you see my tweet about the party?”

Handle

(n) your twitter username. a.k.a. twandle (Twitter + handle); ex: petestweet, imdane or ingridcamacho.

@

(v) to reply to someone’s tweet. We’ll expand on this on another post.

DM

(v) to send someone a private, direct message; ex: “I’ll DM you directions to my house.”

(n) a message that is private between two people; ex: “I’ll send you a dm with my phone number.”

Tweetup

(n) an informal gathering of folks who are connected through Twitter; ex: “We’re having a tweetup at Trudy’s.”

OH

When placed before a phrase, it stands for ‘overheard’; ex: “OH: It’s 12:30, time to drink my lunch.”

FTW

For The Win, a way to express gusto for something; ex: “Taco Bueno FTW”

Check out the Austin American-Statesman article on Twitter or head on over to twictionary for a full list of Twitter words.