I attended Day 2 of the Bridge School Benefit this year. As always, it was entertaining and I had a few random celebrity run-ins. Josh Groban standing next to me as I bought a t-shirt, a few Smashing Pumkins members listening to music two chairs away from me and the literal bump in with Zooey Deschanel. Good times. Here are a few videos my sister took during the show:

Bridge School Benefit Video 2 from Stephanie Schlegel on Vimeo.
Yes, that is Josh Groban singing with the Smashing Pumpkins

Bridge School Benefit Video 1 from Stephanie Schlegel on Vimeo.
A little Death Cab for Cutie

Bridge School Benefit Video 4 from Stephanie Schlegel on Vimeo.
Josh Groban singing alone

Bridge School Benefit Video 3 from Stephanie Schlegel on Vimeo.
The hug

A weekly rundown of social media trends/stories

1) Did Twitter attract the user it’s been needing to make it in the mainstream? Yes, I’m talking about @therealbritneyspears! Britney got all “technie” last week by launching an authentic Twitter account. The actual authenticity of the account is questionable considering “Real” Britney only posts every now and again with her entourage doing most of the heavy tweeting. Will the pop star bring in new Twitter users outside of the tech community? Probably not but at least it provides extra entertainment for the more frequent users.

2) Speaking of Twitter, have you heard of Qwitter? It’s an online service that e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter. It really does take online “following” to a whole new level by notifying you about lost followers so you can follow up with them about why they no longer want to know what you’re doing every minute of every day. It can be very helpful when you are curious about how offensive you’ve been in recent posts and the impact of those updates.

3) For those of you who love to have constant access to pop culture there is another meeting of technology and the pop world. Perez Hilton has launched a mobile version of his popular gossip blog. The mobile version can be easily added as an application to your iPhone and improved the view on other mobile devices. Check it out on your mobile device at m.perezhilton.com.

Well, not sure about that just yet… the jury is still out. In the mean time, enjoy this video:

Well, it’s only been a few months since I started this blog and I’ve honestly hit a wall. I have tons of ideas, I just tend to push them out via Twitter rather than this blog. Is “Blogging Burnout” the same as “Writers Block”? I really want to know because I really want to solve the problem. I’ve heard a lot of chat about Twitter being the death of blogging since the ideas are sent out (in 140 characters or less) to the public without the requirement of a long post. Well, until stronger posts are written, check out my Twitter: @schlegelsteph.

Just got this screen on Twitter:

A weekly rundown of social media trends/stories

1) Social media meets social change: Change.org announces a blog networks built around social change, allowing readers to view blog topics focused around a variety of social issues. Causes featured on the site include everything from animal rights to stopping genocide. Change.org serves as a centralized hub for discussion on a variety of issues and is located in San Francisco.

2) Social media more popular than sex? “Facebook” recently passed “sex” on the top search terms on google.com. According to clickz.com “the adult publishing industry has often been an early driver of success for content and content-related technologies: Think video tapes, early Web sites, and early online commerce. What’s worth noting is that in each of these cases, mainstream applications eventually overtook the adult applications in terms of broad appeal, use, and economic value”. This is a good sign for social networks and the value the technology has. With social media terms dominating search, it’s not surprise that social media strategies are of increasing value to companies of all shapes and sizes.

3) Over 50% of social media campaigns fail! That’s not good. Gartner predicts that more than half of social media campaign will fail, ultimately having a negative impact on the brand. What can be done? Slow down. Many companies rush into social media campaigns because of the current “buzz” around the term. Social media should be slowly integrated in the overall marketing campaign. Too many companies rush into a campaign without thinking about the goal of the effort.

It’s been a long time since my last post… it’s been a crazy week or so at work and in my personal life. Good news! I have a little bit of free time this fine Sunday evening to write a new post (yay!). I started this post the good old fashion way, on pen and paper. I was chilling at the Seattle airport waiting for my flight back to San Francisco following an exciting and fun weekend in the Emerald city and thought it would be fun to blog. Of course, I didn’t have my laptop so pen and paper would have to work. Reverting back to a notebook and pen was actually refreshing although did lack the instant gratification of wireless. 

On of my favorite thing to talk about is apps. Every new app makes my heart tingle and skip a beat and I anxiously wait to play with it but this weekend I fell back in love with an old favorite. The good old built in Maps app saved our weekend over and over. The four of us ladies from Nevada and California met in Seattle on friday. None of us had spent more than a few days there in the past so we didn’t have a clue where we were going. The phone was able to pin point our location and help us find the hotel, restaurants and evening entertainment easily and quickly. My good friend, Cindy, was a bit faster with her 3G network but the good old reliable 1st generation iPhone still rocked the house (technically, car).

Another killer app is the Zippo Lighter app. Although not nearly as useful as the Maps app, the Zippo Lighter can provide hours of entertainment and is a unique concert companion. The Zippo Lighter functions like a real lighter without the burn. Ok, if you actually needed to light something, it would do nothing for you but to hold up during a concert is awesome. The flame follows along with your movements as if it were actually a flame. Last but not least, you can choose between a variety of color to personalize your lighter. I went with pink but that is only one of many options.