Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

We talk a lot about the happenings and “moments” of social media as a company, but what about our own personal social media moments? Those of us here at Affinitive took a look back at 2011 and picked out a significant moment, near and dear to us. While some are lighthearted and in jest, others have a certain gravitas attached to them.  Without further ado, Affinitive’s Social Media Moments of 2011!

Bob on What It Means to be a Penn Stater: 

My “social media moment” of 2011 is near and dear to me, as it was something I was directly involved with. As a graduate of Penn State University, my association with the school is part of what defines me. So when news of the sex abuse scandal broke, it shook me (and my identity) to the core.

Myself, along with a few other alums, decided to take action and channel all of the anger, frustration, and embarrassment many of us were dealing with into something constructive and positive. Our goal was to put the focus back on helping victims of sexual violence by raising $500,000 – one dollar for each of Penn State’s 557,000+ alumni – for  RAINN (http://www.rainn.org/), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country. We were not going to let the horrible alleged actions of a few define us all.

In less than 48 hours, without any marketing budget, advanced planning, or university involvement (but with lots of coffee and little sleep), we launched a website at www.proudtobeapennstater.com and sought to activate and mobilize the Penn State community through what we knew best – social media.

From there, things took off faster than any of us could have ever imagined. Word of what we were doing spread like wildfire. In two weeks, the Proud to Be a Penn Stater movement reached its initial $500,000 fundraising goal, gained national exposure through major media outlets, and more importantly, shifted the conversation back to where it needed to be – on the victims.

While it only took the action of a few to create a spark, it was the participation of hundreds of thousands that turned it into a movement.

And it has helped Penn Staters such as myself to get our pride back.

Patrick on Getting Married:  

I didn’t really use social media as much as i would have liked to (partly because the wife forbid me to do anything crazy [at the wedding]).

However, I did use Dropbox  - a “social” (i.e. sharing) technology app to sync two laptops for a DIY photo booth I set up at my reception.  One laptop was hooked up to a DSLR controlled by a footswitch.  Guests tapped the footswitch which activated the photo booth software. The photos were then uploaded over Wi-Fi to a dropbox folder that was synced with another laptop across the room. The 2nd laptop was hooked up to a projector that displayed the photos in a real-time slideshow as they were added.

Margot on Landing a Magazine Cover:

Would using Flickr to house and share my photos, then ultimately someone finding one of my pics, emailing me, and then using it as the cover of their magazine count?

Andrew on Personal Klout with Celebrities:

My social media moment of the year was when televisions’ (and Funny or Die’s) Jackée Harry responded to one of my Tweets. Because if you’re not being Tweeted back at by celebrities, you aren’t really on Twitter.

Adam on New Beginnings with Affinitive:

I definitely didn’t know it at the time, but my social media moment of the year came from running a search on Twitter. Trying to find every opportunity and not miss a chance at my next “dream job,” I went to my new favorite search engine, Twitter. After entering “NYC sports #socialmedia” - BINGO!

Just a month later I jumped on a flight from California to NYC to start my new career. So without social media, for a lot of reasons, I wouldn’t be working at Affinitive right now.

Tyler on the Potential of Social Media and Running in the Rat Race:

My “Top Social Media Moment Of The Year” was participating one summer morning in the “New Balance UrbanDash“, a half mobile app and half social game/campaign. Users picked up virtual batons according to the GPS location on their smartphone and raced each other to the New Balance store. I not only realized how much potential online and offline social gaming apps have, but I also got a sick gift card out of it for coming in second place.

Katie on Making History with Twitter:

When the news broke about the death of Osama Bin Laden, I was a senior at the University of Maryland, which is only about 20 minutes away from DC.  My friends and I turned off our regular Sunday night programming and turned on the news as soon as I read a tweet informing the world that Obama would be addressing the nation any minute.  We watched the news for a couple of hours while sharing our favorite, wittiest tweets about the events that had taken place.  We also witnessed classmates and friends live on the scene at the White House.

Christina on Celeb Sightings on Twitter:

I was on a nostalgia kick with Kanye’s “Workout Plan” music video when I remembered that one of my fav ladies ever, Tracee Ellis Ross, had a cameo as a French lady who just wanted to meet ballers and shot callers. While Kanye never responded to my enthused Tweet, Tracee certainly appreciated it enough for a retweet.

Erica on Utilizing Social Media in One’s Personal Life: 

I am using Pinterest to help my family shop for me during the holidays–my aunt who is not social media savvy at all told me the idea to use “that site with pictures and stuff” was genius. Hopefully this’ll get me what I actually want this Christmas!

Rob on Social Media as Communication Channels

My “Social Media Moment Of The Year” happened when my daughter had to go into emergency surgery.  The amount of support we received from friends over social media channels was tremendous and really lifted us through our days at the hospital.  For me, it was a sign of the times of social media becoming a ubiquitous tool for communication and taking the place of email, text messages, and phone calls in many situations.

Jon on the Social Media and Social Change

My social media moment of the year was easy to remember because I’ve always eagerly watched the media landscape evolve from just reporting to actually affecting events.  2011 will be known as the year social media began affecting the course of sovereign nations by overthrowing governments.