Notable articles from mashable.com

I absolutely love social media! Web 2.0 is here to stay, and I am fascinated to learn new things almost every day from my fellow colleagues and social media industry websites.



Mashable.com is by far one of the best websites out there on all things social media, and I found a few notable articles that I wanted to share with you.

• 140 Reasons Why We Love Twitter
  
• Top 20 Ways to Share a Great Blog Post
  
• How PR Pros Are Using Social Media for Real Results
  
• Social Media Hub: Los Angeles
  
• Twitter

Enjoy!

#justce4mj - Power of Twitter

Happy Friday, everyone!

It's a beautiful, sunny day in Southern California. On days like today, I feel very lucky to live in Los Angeles. :)

It's no secret that I love social media. I specialize in social media marketing/PR, and I am so impressed and amazed when I see successful social media campaigns. I am thrilled to share with you the power of Twitter I experienced last night.

Michael Jackson fans all over the world got together last week and decided to make 3/11, Thursday, the Justice 4 MJ day on Twitter. The plan was to get everyone on Twitter from 7 to 10 pm PST to write about Michael Jackson and make #justice4mj a top trending topic worldwide.

The cause? We wanted to see justice prevail in his case.

I hadn't gotten involved in such a major event before, and frankly, I didn't know what to expect. Surely, Michael Jackson had the largest fan base in the world and a group of extremely loyal fans. What I did not expect is the power of unity for the right cause. That is exactly what I experienced last night.

I got on close to 8 pm, due to having to pick up my dinner to prepare for this event. When I got on, I was starting to get flooded with messages from Twitter users asking where I was. That was fun. I sat down with my food and my laptop on each side and went for it!

MJ fans have established a tight-knit online community, and I am so happy to say I am part of that. I started tweeting away sharing what I love about the man, the music, his contributions and humanitarian efforts.

I didn't even bother chewing my food, which ended up in my having an indigestion, but that's another story...

Then, fans started reporting how we became #1 trending topic in U.S. and Canada already in less than an hour. I kept tweeting away, RTing other worthwhile tweets and having my followers RTing mine as well.

Around 9 pm, Twitter kicked me off. YES, you heard that right. Twitter said I could not post any more status updates saying I've gone over my limit. You can guess how crazy that one hour must have been for me. I had no idea I was tweeting over the limit.

When I was finally able to get back on around 10:30 pm, I discovered that #justice4mj was the worldwide trending topic! MJ fans all over the world came together! Romania, Italy, Japan, Australia, you name it we were united.

I have to say it was quite an emotional experience reading what Michael Jackson meant to each of this fan, and the whole world came together. I also thought it was nice of his brothers to leave us a tweet thanking us, the army of MJ fans.

It's one thing to hear about the power of social media, but when I got to experience it first-hand last night, I realized how much I love what I do.

The whole world came together for #justice4mj cause - if we can do this for Michael Jackson, imagine what possibilities lie ahead for many social causes.

I am so humbled by the experience, and I want to send my love to my online family! Yes, we are family!

Twitter brought unity, harmony and love from all parts of the world, from people of all race/ethnicity, culture, religion and gender for the unified cause of bringing justice - #justice4mj.

Social media is a powerful, effective tool when used for the right cause, and I am happy to say I got to experience that, and I am sure I will continue to see it more and more in the future.

Thanks to social media, you can now make a difference for the cause you believe in with a computer in hand.

For My Fellow Trailblazers ---

More and more women are breaking the glass ceiling and being promoted to be in the "boy's league", and we are seeing more highly successfully professional women kicking butt in Fortune 500 companies.

As a young professional with big career ambitions and goals, I wanted to share some of the websites I enjoy visiting to read about success stories and gain insight into the experiences and lives of many professional women out there.

I strongly believe that women should empower and help each other for the greater goal of succeeding in the corporate world.

For my fellow trailblazers out in Corporate America, I wanted to share these sites for you to read and get inspired!

• Forbes Women Section - A recent article titled, "What Not to Say to a Laid-Off Coworker" is a great read! Another great one is "Networking Survival Tips."

• The Wall Street Journal - Career Section

• Business Week - Career Management - There is a good article titled "Are You Fun to Follow on Twitter?"

• Mashable - If you want to find out the latest news on all things social media related, this is THE site to visit!

• PINK Magazine

ENJOY!

It is the media's responsibility to tell the truth!

I respect true journalists. I greatly admire those that report the truth, even if it goes against the popular belief.

I have great admiration for Geraldo Rivera for telling the truth about Michael Jackson's 2005 trial even thought his network as well his audience were falsely led to believe all the media hype and the popular belief. He never backed down and insisted on reporting nothing but the facts until the very end when he was indeed proven right.

I also recommend Aphrodite Jones's wonderful book titled "Michael Jackson Conspiracy" in which she tells the truth about the 2005 trial. I admire her courage for coming forward and telling the truth after being involved in the media circus during the trial.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the majority of the "journalists" out there who have no journalism background what-so-ever, but are on TV because they look the certain part. They simply cut and paste others' reporting and stories rather than analyzing anything and repeat one particular part only to sound smart and credible.


I wonder if it's too much ask that we have journalists who do investigate and who do analyze the subjects and the story thoroughly. I always thought it was their job, but these days, in an effort to be the first ones to break the news, they simply regurgitate what other news outlets are reporting.


I found this wonderful blog post by Charles Thomson who wrote about the media's distorted reporting on its favorite subject/person to "torture"

It's a wonderful, in-depth article on why the media MUST take more responsibility to report the truth and STOP distorting the truth for sensationalism.

I have so much respect for the field of journalism, and I sincerely hope that we shift away from sensationalism and focus on reporting the facts, not opinions. The truth will prevail in the end.