Blogging and Social Media of Today

Event: Blogging and Social Media of Today
Venue: Children’s Museum, Houston, Texas
Date: September 16, 2009
Report By: Ruchi Mukherjee

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First Lady Andrea White and OPMOM hosted an informative presentation on Blogging and Social Media Today here at the Children’s Museum in Houston, Texas on Wednesday September 16, 2009.

The event was part of the “We’re All Neighbors”, a unique community outreach program.

The event highlighted social media today including Facebook, My Space, Twitter and others. The first speaker for the evening Katie Laird, who heads SCHIPUL, a web marketing company, explained to the women centric audience about the perks, benifits, and responsiblity of social media. “It is about building a relationship with your audience, and as women are good tellers the job gets easy,” says Katie. She also expressed that Facebook is one of her favorite means of communication “and how can we ignore the fact that it has reached over 300 million participants, so lets connect online,” she added.

The next speaker informed about OPMOM an initiaive for mothers to meet and interact with other moms to compare notes and swap stories. OPMOM is about bringing moms together for social networking and more. Social Media is about individual voices and people. It is not just about selling or buying. It is more than that, it is about connecting and opening the doors to raise your voice. “The can-do spirit in Houston opens the doors for social media so no matter what field we are from, social media awareness is on the rise,” explained Andrea.

This was the first event of “We’re All Neighbors” for Monica Danna, a social scientist who is proud to coach Andrea White through twitter, facebook and other modes of social media. “I think “We’re All Neighbors” the concept of hosting different events is really an awesome idea and I really enjoyed the session today. A great way to meet other women from different walks of life,” says Monica.

Also present Tammie Kahn, Executive Director for The Children’s Museum of Houston. The speakers felt the venue was very appropriate for the topic that evening as The Children’s Museum was about story telling and pursuing a passion, which is what social media is all about.

“We’re All Neigbhors” took shape right after Mayor Bill White joined office in 2003. “During Bill’s campaign, I had accompanied him to many events, political and otherwise, and was struck by how many surprising and amazing places there were in the city of my youth that I’d somehow never managed to see or experience. I wondered how many other “native” Houstonians would feel the same. Upon reflection, I realized that what I wanted was to get to know this international city better, bring together different groups and forge a stronger sense of community. Sharing this thought with my friends, we conceived of We’re All Neighbors, this unique community outreach program,” said Andrea White.

“I wouldn’t have had the energy to keep We’re All Neighbors going for over seventy programs for six years without my dear friend, Franci Crane. Franci devoted her time and creativity to developing original ideas for each month’s program and planning them in meticulous detail. Franci’s high standards and unique sensibility have made these many events truly worth attending,” she added.