A Lasting Presence

Posted on March 31, 2014

Gone are the days when potential employers simply viewed your CV and spoke to your referees. Now employers can get a genuine insight into the person you are, the company you keep and how you present yourself first hand. This is thanks to social media of course. It can be a positive or negative thing depending on how you use and manage your pages/posts. But one thing is for sure, once you put it out there, be it a picture, a comment, a statement, whatever it may be, there is no taking it back. Rest assured it has been seen by someone and can resurface when you least want it to. According to Jobvite’s 2012 social recruiting survey:

•    92 percent of employers use, or plan to use, social recruiting;
•    73 percent of employers have successfully hired a candidate via social; and,
•    31 percent of recruiters using social media have seen a sustained increase in employee referrals.

(http://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2013/07/10/think-before-you-post-how-social-media-platforms-like-snapchat-vine-and-facebook-can-impact-your-job-search/)

This is one reason why you need to be conscious and careful of what you are putting onto these sites, as it can and will come back to haunt you. Whether you mean something to be offensive or not, it may be perceived a completely different way than intended. We see celebrities, public figure heads and even everyday people making very costly mistakes on social media. 

This infamous tweet of just 64 characters caused a media frenzy and Justine Sacco’s (the former PR executive at media company IAC) world was turned upside down. It was an incredibly foolish and insensitive remark, the aftermath however, she couldn’t possibly have anticipated. Have a look at the tweet for yourselves;

Sacco posted the tweet right before her flight to Africa. When her plane took off, all was well. She had a job and about 150 Twitter followers. When she landed about 8 hours later, her tweet was the number 1 trending tweet in the world, she had thousands of followers, she was receiving threats and in danger of losing her job. She was ultimately fired. She apologized but there was no fixing the social media spiral this tweet caused. (To read more about Sacco’s tweet click here.)

Though this may be an extreme case and not all of us are this foolish, it just goes to show how something you expect your few friends and followers to see can go global and up heave your whole world as you know it. It can have a lasting affect. You need to be aware of the scale of social media and the reach it has. Think of the possible consequences of what you are about to post before you do.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a list or the top social media fails of 2013, click here to have a look through them. 

Images from; 

• http://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2013/07/10/think-before-you-post-how-social-media-platforms-like-snapchat-vine-and-facebook-can-impact-your-job-search/
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-top-social-media-mistakes-2013-20131216,0,1803883.photogallery
• http://danceexec.com/think-before-you-post/

A Lasting Presence

Gone are the days when potential employers simply viewed your CV and spoke to your referees. Now employers can get a genuine insight into the person you are, the company you keep and how you present yourself first hand. This is thanks to social media of course. It can be a positive or negative thing depending on how you use and manage your pages/posts. But one thing is for sure, once you put it out there, be it a picture, a comment, a statement, whatever it may be, there is no taking it back. Rest assured it has been seen by someone and can resurface when you least want it to. According to Jobvite’s 2012 social recruiting survey:

•    92 percent of employers use, or plan to use, social recruiting;
•    73 percent of employers have successfully hired a candidate via social; and,
•    31 percent of recruiters using social media have seen a sustained increase in employee referrals.

(http://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2013/07/10/think-before-you-post-how-social-media-platforms-like-snapchat-vine-and-facebook-can-impact-your-job-search/)

This is one reason why you need to be conscious and careful of what you are putting onto these sites, as it can and will come back to haunt you. Whether you mean something to be offensive or not, it may be perceived a completely different way than intended. We see celebrities, public figure heads and even everyday people making very costly mistakes on social media. 

This infamous tweet of just 64 characters caused a media frenzy and Justine Sacco’s (the former PR executive at media company IAC) world was turned upside down. It was an incredibly foolish and insensitive remark, the aftermath however, she couldn’t possibly have anticipated. Have a look at the tweet for yourselves;

Sacco posted the tweet right before her flight to Africa. When her plane took off, all was well. She had a job and about 150 Twitter followers. When she landed about 8 hours later, her tweet was the number 1 trending tweet in the world, she had thousands of followers, she was receiving threats and in danger of losing her job. She was ultimately fired. She apologized but there was no fixing the social media spiral this tweet caused. (To read more about Sacco’s tweet click here.)

Though this may be an extreme case and not all of us are this foolish, it just goes to show how something you expect your few friends and followers to see can go global and up heave your whole world as you know it. It can have a lasting affect. You need to be aware of the scale of social media and the reach it has. Think of the possible consequences of what you are about to post before you do.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a list or the top social media fails of 2013, click here to have a look through them. 

Images from; 

• http://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2013/07/10/think-before-you-post-how-social-media-platforms-like-snapchat-vine-and-facebook-can-impact-your-job-search/
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-top-social-media-mistakes-2013-20131216,0,1803883.photogallery
• http://danceexec.com/think-before-you-post/

 

Online Privacy

Google, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Youtube, emails, online shopping..do you use any of these?

The truth is, many of us use these on a daily basis. While some consider them services and outlets that they couldn’t be without, they have both positive and negative implications.

You may think that nobody can see who you are writing to, what you are looking at or what you are purchasing but the reality of it is you can be traced. Your Facebook messages, your emails, your purchase history can all be recovered even if deleted. It is an unsettling thought that our private conversations can be seen and viewed by people and we are unaware of it.

Without even realising we disclose a lot of personal information to service providers. When signing up we enter phone numbers, an address, an email address, etc. This is then dissected and examined until we are all placed into categories and our information distributed.

Have you ever wondered why that exact pair of shoes you were looking at yesterday (through the Google search engine) appeared beside the video you were watching on Youtube? It’s because Google own Youtube and companies and businesses pay Google for adds. Google monitors the sites you access and personalises them to its users.

More serious than this, we discovered about the NSA (the National Security Agency) spying and surveillance programs the question of how to protect our online privacy becomes more important. It comes down to two choices. Either you understand and accept that your information is out there in the open and get on with it, or you take action and implement the use of privacy protection tools. Whether you feel that you have nothing to hide or are looking for ways to safeguard your data from marketing trackers, trollers and governments, having options to decide for yourself is a good place to start.

There are many different privacy protection apps and services to choose from depending on your budget, needs and/or concerns. Because there is no one size fits all you may discover that you need to use several at a time. It needs to be a digital privacy protection that’s tailored just for you.

 

Images from;

• http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2011/01/06/online-privacy-the-consumer-and-do-not-track-lists/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency
• https://www.grc.com/cookies/cookies.htm
• http://sarahsfav.es/2013/04/15/terms-and-conditions-may-apply-tacmayapply-a-documentary-on-internet-privacy/

It has come to an end!

So here we are, at the end of the semester with my final blog post. My time at AUBG was fantastic, I loved it and will be so sad to leave. I learned so much and made new friends from all over the world. With that I will be saying goodbye to you, my readers. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. 🙂

As you all know I did this blog for my multimedia journalism class (MMJ 220) with none other than Professor Melody Gilbert. Melody taught us so much in this class. It was a great class to take and I really think that it will be something that will help me in any career path I choose to take in the future. She made it so much fun for  us all and I for one barely even realised how much I’ve learned until now.

We learned everything through doing, it was such a practical class which I loved.

We learned so many different skills, about Soundcloud, video recording, editing, Storify, Twitter, the list goes on!

I had often thought about setting up a blog but never really knew how to go about it or had the time to dedicate to it. This class made it possible to do it and though it takes a lot of work, I really enjoyed it!

While I’m not going to continue with this blog I will definitely start a new one when I get home, there are just too many tweaks I would have to make to this one to make it the way I want it. I will post the link here when I have it up and running.

So, when I began my blog I was quite nervous, I had no experience, I didn’t quite know what direction I was going to take it and I didn’t know if I would be able toproduce something new every week. All I knew was that I love fashion and I wanted to show that in my blog. So I made the decision to make it a little more personal.

I began my blog with the aim of finding what fashion means to people, what affects their choices in fashion and what perceptions we get from others simply by the way they look and I feel I did this.

I found it interesting when I did an interview with my boyfriend Cathal about his perception on fashion, it seems we all have fashion in common. This interview can be found here.

“I think men often judge women on what they wear and make assumptions on that then. But I think women do this too, it works both ways,” Cathal said.

Becky, said something similar in my blog which can be found here. But I completely agree with her, you have to remember to be yourself.

“I feel like you’re expected to look presentable when you’re just walking around, like I don’t think you have to look a certain way but  I think that people do judge sometimes but it’s nice to just remember to be yourself and just do you and you’re own style,” Becky said.

I have learned that we all have an interest in fashion, though some more than others. It is important for us to be comfortable but also to be presented a certain way.

I really hope you enjoyed my blog as much as I loved doing it. Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

Lots of Love, Cianna.

And remember; the world is your runway! X

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

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Being so far from home I didn’t think I’d get that warm fuzzy feeling I’m used to for the weeks leading up to Christmas but I was wrong. Waking up yesterday morning to see the ground covered in a blanket of snow made it feel so Christmassy! I took a walk through the town and the pretty decorations and fairy lights brightened up the little town of Blagoevgrad so much.

I love Christmas for so many reasons, but mainly because it cheers everyone up. This year I’m looking forward to it even more than usual because I will be reunited with my family and friends who I haven’t seen for months because of mine and their travelling.

The one thing most people despise about Christmas is something I really enjoy which is obviously Christmas shopping. I always try to get the most thoughtful gifts possible and am the personal shopper in my family. My mom asks for advice on my dads present and vice verse, my sister and brothers ask about each others presents and my brother asks about his girlfriends presents. I help them shop, give suggestions and quite often end up just telling them I’ll sort it out!

So I thought I would give you all some tips on getting gifts for your loved ones.

I always think a nice hamper or gift basket is a lovely idea for anyone and any budget.

I put all of the little things that they like, their favorite bottle of wine, a nice box of chocolates, things they like, a book by their favorite author, some treats like perfume or jewelery, shower gel, little but essential things.  I think the key to this is to make it as personal as possible. To me, personal gifts are the best, they are things money can’t buy. Alternatively you can do a hamper that (almost) everyone would like, filled to the brim of sweets and treats!

Another nice unique gift idea is a picture of you and that person in a pretty picture frame. It is something they will have forever and it is thoughtful.

After this it depends very much on the person. So I’ll give you an idea of what I’m thinking of for my loved ones. (Hopefully they won’t see this post!)

So for my brother seeing as he is going to Australia travelling in the New Year I thought it would be nice to get him something that would come in handy over there. So I’m thinking of some sunglasses like the Ray ban aviators below.

For my mom and dad I think my brothers and sister are getting them a weekend away to a nice hotel in Ireland somewhere, just to have a little relaxing break.

My other brother, is a huge fan of music and is always listening to it at full blast, driving the whole house mad so I thought some new ear phones or head phone would be a good idea for everyone! I’m just not sure between the two yet.

My sister is also a major music fan and has thousands of songs on her iPod  so I think I’m going to get her a connection for her phone to her car so she can listen to her favorite songs while chauffeuring me around town!

As for my boyfriend, I’m not getting him anything, he doesn’t deserve it! (Only joking, he’ll be reading this I’m sure so I won’t be giving it away I’m afraid!) Last year we went to Egypt on holiday as our Christmas present so it’ll be tough to top that!

My tips for Christmas shopping are;

1. Make it as personal as possible

2. Don’t spend loads of money, you don’t need to

3. Always make a list

4. Start early (now!)

5. Shop around, don’t just settle on the first one you see. And check online.

6. Try DIY. If you don’t have the money to spend then why not make something, even a card, it’s thoughtful and often will be more appreciated that something that cost you a weeks wages.

7. Give a gift that keeps on giving from sites like gorta or concern where you make a donation to a charity on your behalf.

8. Bake something if you know someone with a sweet tooth. Maybe brownies of cookies, decorate them and wrap them up nice.

9. A cute thing to do if you have someone special (even your mom/dad/child/etc) in your life is to buy them a star. You can get it named after them and get the directions for it so you will be able to find it in the sky. You will get a certificate and a map on some sites online.

I hope some of these tips help and I hope you all enjoy the run up to Christmas, I know I will! 🙂

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

It’s that time of year again, it’s officially the run up to Christmas!! YAAAAY!

Christmas is the one time of year you can get away with wearing the giltz and the glam that you’ve been eying up all year.

I love this time of year more than any other. I love the fashion, the make up, the decorations, generally the spirit that goes with it.

Personally my favorite time to buy clothes and get dressed is the Autumn/Winter season. Maybe it’s because living in Ireland we don’t really get much of a Summer, it rains a lot! So during the Summer you don’t really get to wear the Summery dresses and cute shorts as you would imagine. There are a lot of coats still in the shops and heavier clothes.

I love to be able to get dressed in the morning knowing I’m prepared for the weather and in the Winter it just comes so much easier.

The chunky knits and cosy coats just have something about them that I love. The beautiful burgundy shades and darker prints, the heavier take on fabrics like lace or silk. I also love the glam of Christmas, it’s the one time of year where we can truly get away with dressing head to toe in glitter or sequins.

The darker make up looks with a berry or vibrant red lipstick are something I’m obsessed with for the Winter season, it brightens up dark outfit or even a dark day!

I love to go Christmas shopping with my friends on the crisp cold days with the pretty twinkling lights making everything look so much nicer. Then popping into Butlers for a delicious hot chocolate, it’s my idea of heaven!

So basically everything involved with Winter and Christmas I love. I’m kind of obsessed as all of my friends know. And soon, I’m sure you’ll all know too!

I had trouble posting my video this week but will restart and post it when I solve the problems. It takes a look at some of my favorite Winter looks around the campus here at AUBG.

I have a fun Christmas gift guide planned for my post next week so make sure to check back! Until then, enjoy and keep smiling! 🙂

Storify

Today in class we learned about Storify where you can tell a story using tweets, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, basically whatever we like to help tell the story through other people. It was really interesting, I have often seen people use it but now I can do it too!

The example we saw was the Colorado shooting in at the screening of the Dark Knight Rises. It was really sad but showed perfectly how people can tell a story using a series of tweets. It is more exclusive, genuine and touching. Piecing these tweets together it was heart breaking to see how things unfolded.

It is a really unique and fun way to tell a story, I will definitely be using it from now on!

Victoria Secret Show

Storify by
CiannaGreene

Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:41:23

Victoria Secret Show

Every year the Victoria’s Secret show leaves us banning chocolate from our lives and doing sit ups from our couch while watching. This years show was no different of course! Themes included Birds Of Paradise, Parisian Nights, The British Invasion, Shipwrecked, Snow Angels and Pink Network.

1. 

   #VictoriaSecret #VictoriaSecret2013 #OMG #hot #wings #models #beauty #beautiful #fashion #fashionista #wow #DatBody #VS

   

   Kira-Lea Dargin

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:18:21
2. 

   Certamente estou muito orgulhosa, de poder reconhecer mais um talento ANgolano, parabéns @Maria borges28 ������
   #fashion #streetstyle #vsfashionshow2013 #vs #mariaborges #angola #febreb4 #b4

   

   Dulce Cristovao

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:14:45
3. 

   Instantly inspired for the gym tonight. #VS #VictoriaSecret #Angels #Pink #Wings #legs #legsfordays #TheBody #inspired #NCY

   

   Haley Bartlett

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 02:50:18
4. • 
   [pics] @TaylorSwift13 performing ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ at The 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show t.co/zik4wz6bSe

   CreativeDisc.com@creativedisc

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:15:44

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
5. 

   Victoria’s Secret (@VictoriasSecret) Fashion Show 2013 (JustJared) t.co/diKMVNjoxy

   Glam Inside@GlamInside

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:21:30

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
6. 

   Victoria’s Secret (@VictoriasSecret) Fashion Show 2013 (JustJared) t.co/Pjf3SmCPoE

   Glam Inside@GlamInside

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:21:45

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
7. 

   In Pictures Victoria’s Secret show: t.co/ZODHpe2jpw t.co/oegtRT2din

   Telegraph Pictures@TelegraphPics

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 02:23:58

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
8. 

   Here’s our cover star @angelcandice owning the #vsfashionshow last night! Read all about it: t.co/qpmlVAqYf6 t.co/exdxqC4ORt

   ELLEUK@ELLEUK

   ·

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 00:06:02

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
9. 

   Poppy May.@Thatgirlpoppy

   “@VogueParis: Just in: See all the looks from last night’s @VictoriasSecret 2013 show t.co/Av02QaIGH3”���� I want their bodies!

   Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:20:42

   ReplyRetweetFavorite
10. 

    Espectaculares @taylorswift13 y @angelcandice en el show de VICTORIA’S SECRET 2013!!! t.co/dwdWgrlKWR

    Tony Aguilar@Tony__Aguilar

    ·

    Thu, Nov 14 2013 02:21:33

    ReplyRetweetFavorite
11. 

    Perfection #jealous #vs #fashionshow

    

    Vicky Gill

    ·

    Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:24:49
12. 

    My Len Style@MyLenStyle

    Victoria’s Secret Show 2013: Taylor Swift, Cara Delevingne And LOTS Of Glitter t.co/julto2JFUU

    Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:20:38

    ReplyRetweetFavorite
13. 

    ♥♥♥ #victoriassecret #vsfashionshow #amazing #beautiful #models #2013 #pink #photograph #photooftheday #jealous #dream #dailyphoto #loveit #vsangels #vs

    

    Soph

    ·

    Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:16:32
14. 

    d’Liew@don_Liew

    52 Photos From Tonight’s Outrageous Victoria’s Secret Fashion Showt.co/BsmnuFidpp

    Thu, Nov 14 2013 03:20:34

    ReplyRetweetFavorite

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Inside my Wardrobe

So this week we had to make a longer video with audio and all that jazz! I found this one a bit of a challenge to be honest, took me quite a while, not that you can tell! Anyhu, I thought it would be fun to show you all around my wardrobe in my limited spaced dorm room here at AUBG.

I hope you enjoy the video, I also did an interview over the phone with my mom, asking her a few questions about my style.

“I knew how much you loved fashion since you were a little girl, wearing my heels and jewellery and telling me what I should wear.”

My mom is one of my biggest style inspirations, she has such a classy and elegant style and has no doubt been the reason for my love of clothes, shoes and everything else. I use to go to my mom asking her how I looked for everything, she always gave her opinion, though some times I think she was just being nice. Now she is the one that comes to me, she is always asking me for style advice and I love that, we love to shop together even though we have different styles.

“I have not always loved what you wore but I let you experiment and it worked, your style has evolved with you beautifully.”

I loved to try all of the different trends going when I was younger, you name it; I’ve tried it! From dark and gothic to hippy boho. What I loved though was that my mom would allow me to just wear what I liked (within reason) and find my own path.

It’s funny, when we were at the airport and both on the verge of tears, I didn’t want to say anything too sad or sentimental so I said “who’s going to put the fake tan on my back now?” and my mom said to me “who’s going to help me decide what to wear, I’ve got 3 weddings to go to when you’re in Bulgaria!” So we laughed at the little things we’ll miss rather than cry about the big ones. At the time, it was the perfect way to say good bye for a few months. I’m the baby of four children and me and my mom are really close. (I’m a daddy and mommy’s girl..I’m so the favorite!)

I couldn’t find a recent picture of us because all I have access to is Facebook so here’s one of the family at my 21st party last year.

What we’ve got so far

Starting this class I was nervous, our professor, Melody went around the room and asked each of us our experience with multimedia journalism, mine was very limited whereas everyone else seemed to have a good idea of what they would be doing.

Getting started we had to choose a subject that we would blog about weekly which we had an interest in. I chose fashion. 

Unlike classes I’ve taken before, this was a much more practical class with a very hands on approach. We learned through doing. During this class we learned all about wordpress.com. I started exploring, uploading posts, pictures and playing with the settings.

Next, Melody introduced us with Audacity program, where we could edit our first voice recordings. The first to record was ourselves explaining why we chose to do our blogs on the subjects we did. It was weird hearing our own voices! Next learned how to make a slideshow and edit videos.

A really cool thing we learned was the 5 shot video sequences. This was a simple process to something which originally daunted me. It is something I will always remember and I think it will always be a helpful process to know. 

We also learned all about Twitter and the importance of tweeting, #hashtags and basically getting out there with the help of social media.

From my previous posts I have interviewed people from all over the world.

My interviews with Anna, Becky and Gabi taught me about their different styles and what people from different sides of the globe have in common-fashion!

“Fashion is a way to express myself; it’s something that can show people what I am and what I’m interested in.”

This is from my interview with Anna from the Ukraine which you can read here.

“I feel like you’re expected to look presentable when you’re just walking around, like I don’t think you have to look a certain way but  I think that people do judge sometimes but it’s nice to just remember to be yourself and just do you and your own style.”

This is from my interview with Becky from America which you can read here.

“Fashion means a lot to me because it’s a big thing that integrates a huge amount of people in one. And I think it’s important because clothes are essential in showing who you are and making the first impression good.”

This is from my interview with Gabi from Bulgaria which you can read here.

I have really learned so much from taking this class, and am still constantly learning and trying to improve so bear with me!