So Long, Xanga

Xanga logo

Anyone heard of Xanga? Amazingly it has been around for nearly 15 years. It is a blogging community, and I even had my own blog so I could keep in touch with my middle-school friends back in the early 2000's. (We were so "cool" back then to have our "own" website..!)

Well the news about Xanga is that it has gone bankrupt. The Xanga Team announced that they wish to relaunch Xanga, and started a fund-raising campaign to raise $60K. I don't think they'll reach their goal because with only 3 days left (donation page here), they've only raised $46K (even after their 15-day extension of the fundraiser).

Why only $60K? Because they want to make the blogging feature a subscription. So you have to pay to blog. Even with the "Vision for Xanga 2.0" from a July 8th post, I think that Xanga has already dug it's grave, and has been dead for a while.

An interesting fact: one of the co-founders of Twitter, Biz Stone, helped create Xanga. Stone designed the original Xanga logo, too. On his old Xanga page you can see how he posted about his new Twitter site.
Ironically, I think that Twitter's micro-blogging contributed to the downfall of Xanga.

Has anyone else had a Xanga blog? I would post the link to my blog here, but it's way too embarrassing. Plus, if/when Xanga shuts down, it will be gone forever unless you download an archive here of your entire blog. I've started my download, but I don't plan on ever looking at my old, silly, teenager posts.

'Til next time,
Amanda

P.S. Rest in Peace, Kidd Kraddick.

What's Your Score?

I guess I am behind the times when it comes to knowing your 'influential' / 'popularity' score. A service called Klout provides users, including famous people, with Klout Scores. These scores indicate how much you influence the people around you. Below shows how the score works:

Source: Klout How-It-Works page

Klout uses your social media connections to determine your score. On your profile, it collects your 'moments' from your recent interactions and posts on your various social media sites. Basically, the more that your friends comment, like, re-post, reTweet, etc, the more your score increases.

I've connected my few accounts and I have an okay-score of 39. What does this mean? I think that for businesses, a higher score means that you are already influencing others, and getting more people talking about your company. For an individual, it's more like bragging-rights material. What do you think?

So now I ask you, What is your score? Do you think this score really matters?

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Have a great Friday everyone and have a safe, enjoyable weekend.
-Amanda

Vodka Sales Stop due to Russia's Views

I have heard that some people in the Gay/Lesbian community are boycotting the Russian Vodka company Stolichnaya, better known as Stoli. The only reason these boycotters have is that Russia (the country) has decided to go anti-gay and discriminate and that Russia has "no laws protecting against discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity" (source: Wikipedia).

Well, after some research, I've discovered that the Americans who are boycotting Stoli are making a bad decision. Why? Because the Stoli sold in America is made in America, and has no connections to Russia. So by not selling the vodka, the bar in Chicago is actually just losing money, losing customers, and causing a ruckus even though it is no-big-deal.

What do you think? Would you boycott a brand just because the original company's country has laws that you disagree with?

Source: The Nibble

Claymation: Clay-Animation

Claymation is the most amazing type of animation to me, in terms of the level of difficulty. Back in the day, before computers were in every household, animations could be created by taking actual clay figures as the 'actors,' and photographs of them as the frames for the movie!

Claymation is a form of stopmotion, because after each motion made in the clay, you have to stop to take a picture: The way this worked is a clay scene was set up, then it was photographed 360 degrees around (to get all angles), and then whichever objects/clay figures had to move next were moved a tiny bit, and the photographs were taken all over again. In the end, you had a zillion pictures, and each set for each frame was for only 1/24 of a second ... so for a movie 100 minutes long, you had 8,640,000 pictures! Now, I'm sure that number was decreased if a clay's pose was the same for multiple seconds, but still, it was a lot of work!

To give you an example of what claymation looks like, here are some examples:

Wallace and Gromit

[source]

Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

[source]

Anyways, I hope you appreciate the artists behind the next movie you watch that has been done using clay animation, because they sure did spend a lot of time to make the movie great!

Job Searching

Almost everyone has tried to search for a job. In my father's words, "looking for a job is a job in itself." So what does job hunting have to do with marketing?

Well, I am currently looking for a marketing job! :) And there are many branches in marketing and business, so I'd like to share with you some of my favorite job titles in marketing.

Marketing Manager
This title is very broad, but wouldn't it sound great to be a manager? You can be in charge of keeping things organized, and overlooking the "big picture" of the marketing department. You might work with functions such as training, presentations, technical analyses, and other leadership roles.

Social Media Coordinator
If you love Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, this is the job for you. You'll manage the social media of your company, by planning the content, the calendar, and all else social. Setting up the time/date for posts seems easy, but across multiple platforms and with huge audiences responding with comments - it can get busy and scrambled! (This job is best for the organized marketers out there!)

Digital Media Analyst
This is for those of you who can look at large amounts of data and be able to see trends, problems, opportunities, and other relationships. You'll look at analytics and tracking sources to help your company find new ways to improve the media launches, new content promotions, and other infrastructures.

Anything else?
If you have a favorite marketing job title, comment here and let me know! Plus, I'll keep everyone updated on my job searches! :)


From iconstaff