Tag Archives: social media

06.14.16
by

Owning Your Own Business: Writing and Social Media

Torg Stories Podcast / Recorded on Saturday, June 11, 2016.

Today’s episode is with entrepreneur and business owner Georg Efird. George is my plumber, and I’ve been impressed with his savvy use of social media in order to grow his business, Blue Planet Plumbing in Asheville, North Carolina.

small business, social media marketing, writing, composition, First Year Writing, William Torgerson

Georg and Miranda, owners of Blue Planet Plumbing

My primary interest in Georg’s work is related to the First Year Writing courses I teach at St. John’s University. Because students HAVE to take my course, I’m always trying to make sure what we do in class is relevant to the lives the students live outside of class. This means much of the writing we do is in digital spaces, and I’m always on the lookout for people outside the university who do a lot of writing so I can use their work as examples for the students.

Most impressive to me about Georg’s online accomplishments are the 215 reviews–he calls this customer feedback–posted on Google with an average rating of 5/5. Georg is obviously a savvy negotiator of digital spaces and does the kind of multimodal writing that makes use of images, links, color, and pictures.

small business, Asheville, Blue Planet Plumbing, Asheville

Georg on the job for Blue Planet

When Georg was seventeen years old, he had his first child and found himself working at a fast food restaurant trying to support a family when a friend invited him to tag along to an interview to be a plumber’s apprentice. Georg’s friend coached him up to say the following during the interview:

I have zero experience, but I am a hard worker, and I am reliable.

The advice worked and Georg was hired as a plumber’s apprentice.

 

Blue Planet Plumbing, Asheville, small business, social media marketing

 

Pro tip from Georg’s first days as a plumber:  a 1978 LTD won’t support 1,800 pounds of concrete.

Thanks to Georg for joining us on the Torg Stories podcast.

Thanks to you for visiting the website and listening to the podcast!

 

 

06.03.16
by

Customize Your Newsfeed on Facebook

Did you know that you can select whose posts you don’t want to miss on Facebook?

1. Make sure you’re “Home” on Facebook. Click on the word home by your picture.

Facebook, home, newsfeed, custom, privacy

2.  Point your cursor to the word Newsfeed on the left side of the page.

Facebook, newsfeed, custom

3. See how that little gear comes up on the left? Click on it.

Facebook, home, newsfeed, custom, privacy

3. Click on “Edit Preferences”

Facebook, home, newsfeed, custom, privacy

4. Voila! Now you can choose the people you want to pay attention to first.

https://thetorg.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/customize-your-newsfeed-on-facebook/

Enjoy your transformed newsfeed!

thanks to Howard Rheingold for showing me the way on this in his book Net Smart

 

 

 

 

 

09.28.12
by

How Much of Your Music Have You Paid For?

FBI, piracy, Remix, Lawrence Lessig

from FBI.gov website

Today, my sis and I talk Disney, Remix Culture, and our documentary project, The Mushroom Hunter.  Podcast published Tuesday. Audience interest generation today.

09.25.12
by

Would you vote and tell me about your Twitter use?

[dc]T[/dc]
his post is for anyone who thinks they might want to try out Twitter, or perhaps, anyone who could use a set of instructions to pass along to students.

Social Media, Education, NCTE, Writing, Digital literacy

The handout to my instructions are here, or you can just read them below:

  1. Consider if you’d like for people to know who you are on Twitter.  I’m “BillTorg” and that’s pretty obviously me.  If I’m “EightiesDude,” then maybe it’s harder to figure out who I am.
  2. Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters.  The longer your name, the less room you and others have to exchange messages.  So “BillTorg” works better for me than “WilliamJosephTorgerson.”
  3. You will be asked to write a short bio for yourself.  Think about what it will say.  Some people’s are silly.  My sister’s is, “What’s on the what what?” Mine explains my job and what I do. I tinker with it quite a bit.
  4. You can link to your Twitter account to another site. Perhaps your Facebook page?
  5. Click on the Twitter link on the classroom website.  It’s Twitter.com
  6. Fill out the “New to Twitter” box.  Complete the steps.  Let me know if there’s additional directions I should have listed here.
  7. I’m @BillTorg on Twitter.  If you tweet and follow me and tell me that you followed these directions, I’ll follow you back. If you don’t know how to do that, there will be another set of directions coming right up.
  8. There’s a lot more you can do with color and customizing your background.  Experiment.

A more sophisticated set of instructions is coming right up.  Love to hear your feedback on this handout and what else you might find useful.