I stumbled across a blog post a few weeks ago about how social media was ruining the traditional college experience. To me this seemed like a bold statement and more a matter of opinion. A large percentage of millennials are in college or heading to college this fall – it is interesting to think about how the generation with the highest social media consumption is experiencing college differently. The integration of social media is inevitable and offers some enhancement to the experience.

1.    Finding Roommates

Pot luck. The greatest fear of any pre-freshman student. What could be worse than arriving to your new college dorm and having an awful roommate? Thank you to Facebook going pot luck is no longer a problem. Most colleges now have Facebook pages for incoming freshman classes to exchange information and search for a potential roommate. This enables students to get to know a potential roommate, and maybe Facebook stalk a bit, before making any final decisions.

2.    University Apps

I went to IU Bloomington my freshman year of college and the IU app saved me. It provided everything from my class schedule and locations, bus schedules, sporting events, meal point tracking, and where the printers were located on that huge campus. The app was a great resource for an incoming freshman and a way to stay connected to the large university mobiley.

3.    Staying Connected

One of the hardest things about going to college is being separated from old friends and family. As exciting as heading off to create a new identity is, it can be difficult to leave your friends and family behind. I was blessed that many of my friends went to IU, but was devastated to be separated from my best friend who was attending Ball State. Lucky for me there was Facebook, Twitter, Skype and tex to help us stay connected and involved in each other’s lives.

4.    Getting Involved

It is important and exciting to get involved in campus activities, clubs and events. When I was at IU, I was involved in student run clubs, external volunteer work and attended many university productions. I became aware of these events and opportunities through Facebook. Friends would share a performance or an opportunity to come to a club call out meeting. Without the use of social networking sites I would have been much less aware of the activities going on around campus and would have met a lot less people my freshman year.

In all, social media enhanced my college experience – created ease in transitioning to a new place, while still being able to be connected to home. It helped me get involved in the community and meet new people. While social media is capable of causing more distractions in class, we are all adults in college and should have the sense to know better.

What Facebook Graph Search Means for Your Business
By Kelly Jo Horton Graph search is Facebook’s social solution for connected search. It is a search algorithm that delivers results based on connecting the dots in the mountains of data Facebook has collected from its billion users. Results are served up based on relevancy and relationship rather than keywords. So what does this mean for your Facebook brand page? It means it’s time for businesses to get social, and I do mean social.

Graph Search Optimization: The New SEO and What it Means for Social Advertisers
By Todd Herrold While Facebook hasn’t revealed the exact formula it uses to determine Graph Searching of content (they did provide a look “under the hood” which marketers may find helpful), we can identify several factors which likely impact Graph Search rankings.

How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Facebook Graph Search
By Andrea Vahl As Facebook Graph Search rolls out to more users, marketers are exploring different ways to use it. This article will help you increase your exposure in Facebook Graph Search.

5 Tips for Facebook Graph Search Optimization
By Christopher Penn It should take almost no time for Graph Search Optimization companies to spring up overnight for optimizing your marketing programs for Graph Search. I’ll save you some time with a few simple guidelines based on what Facebook has revealed.

Graph Search Optimization: What Facebook’s Social Search Means for Brands
By Max Gladwell With the introduction of Facebook search aka Graph Search, brands with multiple locations will soon find their Facebook strategy turned on its head. Which is to say that the value of marketing on Facebook is about to shift dramatically and disproportionately from the brand level to the local level for these types of companies.

The evening began with a lovely cocktail and interactive dinner at the JW Marriott in Downtown Indianapolis. The Grand Ballroom was bustling with people dressed to the nines in tuxedos and satin gowns – very Oscars-esq. You could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air as the who’s who of tech greeted each other. TechPoint really pulled out all the stops this year with the silent auction items, a step and repeat for team photos, the ice sculpture, dinner, award ceremony and the after-party with cocktails, music and dancing.

Even though we were not named the winner, it is a true honor to be nominated for this prestigious award. Congratulations to Angie’s List – our hats go off to you for being named this year’s winner of the TechPoint Marketing Technology Excellence & Innovation Award.

At the end of the day – it’s still about telling a great story, knowing your audience – and communicating effectively – in our case we use the latest, advanced technology to help us deliver strong results to our clients. On behalf of all my team members, I want to thank Duncan – your vision, tenacity and courage have kept us independent, relevant, and successful!

To see the  complete list of the 2013 TechPoint Mira Awards winners, click here: www.techpoint.org/mira.

Millennials do not want to miss anything – we check our phones as soon as we are awake, clutch them all day, and finally fall asleep after a nightly update. For millennials, checking social media is as routine as brushing our teeth or eating dinner. Millennials have a need to be connected and fulfill this through constantly texting, updating social networking sites, and responding to emails via smartphone.

InsightExpress conducted a survey of how millennials use social networking and mobile devices to stay connected. Here are some interesting things that were found:

1.  One in five millennials check their smartphone for email, text, and social media updates at least every 10 minutes (two in five in the U.S.).

When I first read this fact I actually thought it should be higher because I check my smartphone constantly. I am always waiting to receive important emails from work and school, texts from friends, and updates from my favorite brands I follow on Twitter and Instagram.

 2.  40% of respondents go through ‘withdrawal’ effect and feel as if something is missing when not checking their smartphone constantly. 

I actually see this sometimes with my friends. I have seen my friends leave parties to get their phone charger or get irritated because their phone is about to die. Millennials use their smartphones for everything and without them there are feelings of loss, emptiness, and vulnerability.

3. 70% of millennials said mobile applications are important to their daily lives.

Instagram, Twitter, and SnapChat are big mobile applications used among my friends. My friends are constantly updating Twitter, uploading photos to Instagram, and sending SnapChats all the time – in class, at parties, and when traveling.  Even more interesting, SnapChat has almost replaced texting between my friends and I.

Facebook Home: What’s in It for Marketers?
By Andrew Cherwenka Facebook introduced the launch of Facebook Home, ending rumors of a custom-built social phone dating back to 2008. What is it and what does it mean to marketers?

What does Facebook Home mean for marketers?
By Natalie Brandweiner Facebook’s objectives and users’ are once again in conflict. Users don’t want more advertising or tracking, and Facebook wants to do more of both. How can marketers exploit the potentials of Facebook Home without alienating customers?

Facebook Home: A Home Run for Marketers?
By Polina Bachlakova Understandably, marketers are wondering if Facebook Home will make their jobs easier or more difficult. It’s still too soon to grasp a full understanding of the pros and cons – but we can start speculating.

4 Thing Marketers Need to Know about Facebook Home
By Amanda Peters Facebook’s long awaited mobile product, Facebook Home, is not about a new phone but about making Facebook a content platform for a mobile audience. Brands would do well to start thinking hard about how they’ll develop engaging content for a mobile audience on Facebook.

The Real Reason Advertisers Will Love Facebook ‘Home’ Phones: Permanent Logins
By Jim Edwards For some time, Facebook has essentially been solving, almost by default, one of the trickiest problems in digital advertising: How to figure out who’s who when users stop using their desktops and switch for a moment to their phones.

If you were to ask someone how they found out about the two explosions, they would most likely say, “social media.” I, personally, found out on Facebook shortly after it happened and almost immediately every social platform feed I looked at from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Vine, were flooded with posts, photos and videos, detailing out the event. Within hours online communities rallied to show their support with hashtags, such as #prayforboston and #prayforbostonmarathon expressing condolences, support and love for all involved.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick, and Boston Mayor, Tom Menino, announced the establishment of The One Fund Boston, Inc., an organization created “to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston.” Soon after the announcement Twitter established a promoted trend, #OneBoston, to aid the  effort. This was a very generous donation of support, it is estimated that brands pay close to $200,000 per day for a promoted trend.

In these days that follow, the running community has been especially active on social by trending the hashtag #runforboston by posting photos from past marathons they have participated in and images of remembrance ribbons. The hashtag #wearpurpleforboston was created and many are wearing purple to show support for the city of Boston as the investigation continues. It has been said that police are looking to social media platforms such as, Vine and YouTube to piece together these tragic events.

On behalf of Firebelly, our thoughts and love go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy at the Boston Marathon.

Even though I am ‘technically’ not a teenager anymore I can still easily relate to the amount of mobile technology used among the teens.

I have been out of high school for a few years, but can easily remember most of my peers having cell phones. Most of us got our first cell phone around age 14-15, some a bit earlier, some a bit later. I know my first phone was a Nokia ‘Brick’ – as I like to call it – the basic, free cell phone that could knock someone out if it hit them on the head. I was always jealous of my friends who got the newest phones, which became smartphones the older we got. This seems to go right along with the Pew Life Report 2013, which found that 78% of teens (ages 12-17) now have a cell phone and about half of them (47%) have a smartphone.

I will admit the day I got my first smartphone, around age 17, my life changed for the better! The convince of always having the internet at my hands, always being able to look up something I was wondering, always being able to check my email, and always being able to catch up on my favorite blog! The Pew Internet Report found that mobile access to the internet is most common for teens – cells phones have become extremely important for this young group of individuals and how they receive information.

55% of older teen girls who are smartphone owners use the internet mostly from their phone, a decent percentage higher than older teen males. This could be because of the excessive computer use teen boys use playing online video games, which requires a laptop or desktop computer.

Cell phones are today’s point of access for teens and young adults. Internet use is most commonly used through mobile devices by teens because of the convenience, fast-results, and easily hide-able size from teachers in class – just kidding.  As the generation grows older I am certain the trend of mobile access to the internet will continue, but with new branches of connections – higher tablet use for example. 23% of teens already own a tablet computer with that number increasing rapidly.

7 Surprising Ways to Grow Your Business on the Twitter Vine
By James T Noble It’s been hailed as Instagram for video – and that’s a pretty big accolade – so the big question is…can Twitter Vine be leveraged for business? Well if we’re going to find out, first of all we need to cut through the buzz and take a closer look at what Vine is really all about.

How 15 Real Businesses Are Getting Creative With Vine for Marketing
By Hannah Fleishman A lot can happen in six seconds. You can text your mom, read an email (or delete 20), or give an epic high five. But can you create a lasting impression within six seconds? Marketers seem to think so.

Bite-Sized Marketing: How Six-Second Vine Videos Can Build Your Brand
By Anna Pedersen While adding Vine to your company’s social media arsenal sounds like a cool idea, you’re likely wondering, “Does my business really need another social media channel to manage?” The answer is… well, possibly.

Vine: What A Six-Second Video Can Do For Business
By Rocky Walls Vine is great for telling short stories with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Whether you’re a regular Joe traipsing around social media outlets or you’re operating accounts for a company or business, apps such as Vine can provide you with the tools to be entertaining and creative with the content you’re sharing.

How Small Businesses can use Twitter’s New Vine App
By Jonathan Handy Go behind the scenes of your business. Social media has already done a great job of getting to know brands more personally, with Vine you can take that even farther and create videos demonstrating how a product is made.

From the left: Duncan (Millennial Score: 88), Charlotte (98), Stephanie (77), Chad (87), Kelly (87), and Jacquelyn (90)

There is a fun quiz offered by Pew Internet that gauges how millennial you are. I am a member of the millennial generation and got a pretty solid score of a 98! Duncan, who age wise does not qualify to be a millennial, got a score of 88 – not too far behind me!

Here are the scores of the rest of the team:

• Chad: 87
• Kelly: 87
• Jacquelyn: 90
• Stephanie: 77

It seems the Firebelly team is pretty millennial in general considering Jacquelyn and I are the only two who qualify age wise. Take the quiz and find out for yourself: http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/how-millennial-are-you/

The quiz asks questions about TV consumption, newspaper reading, and political views – all pretty easy to guess what makes you millennial or not. What the quiz did not touch on was how Millennials use the Internet and social networking sites to share their creativity. Personally, I believe the Internet has created amazing opportunities to share how creative human beings are and the Millennial generation really utilizes social networking as a resource.

1 in every 5 Millennials has posted a video of themselves online. I have a few friends that get real enjoyment out of creating witty videos and posting them on YouTube and Facebook. These videos can be anything from mock music videos to high quality mini-movies.

53% of bloggers are Millennials. It seems everyone has a blog today because everyone has something they want to share. From cooking, fashion, beauty, humor, or sports there is a way to express that interest creatively and share with those who share that interest. Millennials understand this and use blogs as a way to express their creativity and interests.

28% of Millennials use Instagram. This is a pretty high percentage regarding Instagram has only been around for a little over 2 years. While most Instagram users just take pictures of their food or friends and apply a filter there are some ‘professional’ users that post beautiful and unique photos.

NFPT is running a photo contest through April 28 for one winner to receive $500! Also, everyone who enters will receive 25% off any NFPT course now through the month of May. We will announce the winner on April 29.

Click here to enter: http://bit.ly/YNHQSc

Good luck to all who enter!! Let’s see your best workout face!