HackCollege Podcast Episode 26: Radar Party!

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This week the guys are podcasting right before the epic Radar house party in Los Angeles. It was one last hurrah before finals week.

Topics this week:

• Apple Campus Rep Job


• "Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter" [New York Times]


• America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree [The Chronicle]


• Twitter T-Shirt Giveaway

Music this week:

• "Date Game" by Christopher Wade

This episode's sponsors:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

Using Twitter as a Social Network: Track X

For a while, Twitter was asking its users how and why they use the service. For some, like me, Twitter is another social network. This time, over text messaging.

Yes, you can start by following your favorite weblebrities for some possible exposure to your current project, but Twitter is also a wonderful medium for meeting and conversing with everyday people around the world quickly and easily. Everyday people.

In a sentence, Twitter is a group of millions who are "tweeting" and waiting for @replies. Seriously.

But how do you join in on the conversation? Simple. Track it. Send track X to 40404. Each time X is "tweeted", you'll know about it.

Some possible uses...

Track Your Project

If you own a website or a blog, track what others are saying about it (e.g., track hackcollege and track hack college).

Track Your Stomping Ground

If you're looking to meet others in your area, track your city (e.g., track new haven). Many weblebrities will "tweet" when they are recently arriving to X. Why not recommend a good place for pizza? And when you arrive to X, "tweet" about it. Ask the masses where to find the best vegan food.

If you're looking to see if anyone else at your school is on Twitter, track your school (e.g., track yale). With this, you'll also be in the know whenever something scandalous is going on (e.g., Aliza Shvarts). Everyone will be "tweeting" about it.

Track Your Interests

Are you looking for a partner for the gym? I've already sent track new haven fitness.

Track Yourself!

And, most importantly, be sure to track yourself (e.g., track @r0see and track r0see and track rosario doriott).

With how the @reply is currently set up, you'll only receive an @reply text message if you're already following that person. But with tracking, you're going to be in on conversations from those you're not already following. So @reply to them, and they'll @reply back to you. But to receive that @reply text message back, you're going to need to track yourself.

Note: But like I said before, millions are using Twitter and "tweeting" several times daily. If you find yourself overwhelmed, send untrack X to 40404.

"Tweet" on. ;)

Interview with AJ Vaynerchuk - Student Blogging Series

Earlier this week I interview AJ Vaynerchuk about his blog and blogging as a student. He's currently a student at BU. His blog covers social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook.

A semi-complete transcript is below:

What initially made you interested in blogging?

Building a personal brand. Over the next few years I would like to do something within [the tech] industry. The best way to establish a place where people can find me and understand what I'm about is by starting a personal blog.

When did you start blogging? What topic(s) does your blog cover?

Only over the last month and a half. I started flirting with video blogging and blogging with video blogging my freshman year of college. Winter of '05.

[It was a New York] Jets video blog.

Do you think students should be concerned if they aren't making money right away?

Not at all. If you're a student and you have a blog, immediately when you walk in to job interviews you're a level up among others. If you can say that you have a blog with an "About Me" page, you can show it. It's professionally designed. You blog interesting and related content to the industry that you're trying to work in. I think that gives you a huge leg up.

Who has been the most influential person in your blogging career?

The person that made me blog the best was Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. He is a phenomenal content creator. He truly gives away great ideas and guides. He gave me the foundation to become a blogger.

From a more inspirational source, I gotta say my brother. He drove me.

Do you have any advice for student bloggers or students becoming interesting in blogging?

Yes. Blog about what you care about. It's the only way you can succeed.

If you blog about something that you think will be profitable and you can't stand it and you labor through it, you'll never succeed. Eventually you will quit. On top of that, once you find the topic you're interested in, I think consistency is king. You need to blog at least five days a week with quality. It's the only way you can build a readership and a brand.

Has blogging changed your life? Explain.

Blogging has changed the way I view aspects of the Internet. Rather than reading something for enjoyment level, sometimes I'll ready something where I'm like, "Hey, that's quality content that I should blog about. It's kind of changed my perspective on how I read articles and how I perceive them."

It's also changed my life in terms of time managements. Over the last two months I've spent at least an hour a day blogging. That hour or two a day used to go somewhere else. So it's definitely changed my lifestyle minimally.

In terms of my personal brand it's helped a lot. It's helped me build my Twitter credibility completely.

Use Twitter - Student Blogging Series

If the social potential for Twitter isn't appealing to you, then the promotional aspects should be. Granted, if you use Twitter merely to promote yourself, you'll lose followers fast.

Twitter?

Check out this video from commoncraft to figure out what the eff Twitter is if you don't know already:

Note: Twitter nomenclature yields that every Twitter user shall be preceded by the @ sign. I'll be using this notation in this post for brevity's sake.

Follow the Leaders

In many ways, Twitter is like high school. Everyone knows about the most popular people using the service, whether they associated with them or not. Likewise, the most popular people have the most sway. One tweet from a Twitter god like @chrisbrogan can rocket your fledgling blog into fame.

And thankfully, most of the Twitter power users are down-to-earth. They will follow you back if you start following them. And they just might retweet a post of yours if they really like. Start following these Twitter maniacs:

• @ajvchuk


• @garyvee


• @chrisbrogan


• @zefrank


• @ijustine


• @gruber


• @guykawasaki

Learn from Best

AJ Vaynerchuk is the best when it comes to Twitter analysis. We get to kill two birds with one stone, because he's also a student blogger.

AJ's (@ajvchuk) such a pro at Twitter, he's dedicated a portion of his blog to it. He knows the service inside and out. To keep yourself updated with the ins and outs of Twitter, add AJ's blog to your blog reader.

Shameless Tweets

Once you've connected yourself, it's time to start shamelessly tweeting out posts. Again, don't use Twitter only to promote yourself. Once a power Tweeter retweets a post of yours they like, you'll see a huge jump in traffic. Your server might crash. A few days (most likely hours) later, traffic will return to normal.

But this is not a bad thing. In fact, you should expect it. As with any "-effect," there's always a period of severe disappointment. If your new blog somehow makes the front page of digg, you'll see a huge spike in traffic. But then everything will settle back down to normal. But there might be 4 or 5 people that are sticking around and added your blog to their feed reader. Those people are the most important; they will become your biggest fans and will gladly sport your T-shirt when you get them made.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post titled "Connect with Other Students in Your Field of Expertise."

You just read a post that's part of the student blogging series. To check out other posts in the series, please visit hackcollege.com/blogs

Getting Started with Wordpress - Student Blogging Series

It's a common misconception that everything "white-boxed" is unprofessional. (White-boxing on the Web is when it's apparent you are using another service rather than hosting it yourself.) That certainly was the case in the "Web 1.0" world; you wouldn't host a personal and professional digital business card on a GeoCities account.

For some reason or another, the evil overhead of white-box accounts seems to have disappeared.

Wordpress.com Fits

Wordpress.com is simple, professional, and accepted. I like visiting a blog that ends in ".wordpress.com." It makes me feel at home. And for 95% of students, the free version of the site will get you everything you need.

If you want to remove the white-box, it will be a few bucks. Buy yourself a domain name and redirect it to your blog. You just added three points of professionalism to your blog.

Best of all, Wordpress.com doesn't lock you in. If you eventually decide to host your blog on your own server (like we're doing with HackCollege), it's super easy to export all of your old posts. Bringing them on to your new blog installation is as simple as an import.

Virtually Ad-less

Wordpress.com does such an amazing job of serving up ads, that most users of the site don't know that the site even has ads. Matt Mullenweg, the genius behind the product, says this every chance he gets at conferences.

And it's true. Wordpress.com serves ad to some single-digit percentage of visitors. Only what it needs to stay afloat.

Why is an ad-free environment important? Ads tend to scare readers away or deliver the wrong message; that message being "I am exploiting your interest to make money for myself." In the case of you, you are the biggest loser: you don't get the revenue from the ads and you lose readers.

Now Learn Some HTML

To be a successful blogger, you'll need to learn some simple code. HTML is that code. You can start blogging without knowing a lick of it and just use the buttons found inside of Wordpress. As time marches on, you'll need to familiarize yourself with HTML code. How else will you understand other bloggers' nerd jokes?

If you're looking to get a headstart on learning HTML, pick up a book (gasp) or head over to the W3School's HTML Tutorial.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post titled "Use Twitter."

You just read a post that's part of the student blogging series. To check out other posts in the series, please visit hackcollege.com/blogs

The Case for Student Blogging - Student Blogging Series

If you aren't already convinced, you need to start blogging. Right now. Stop reading this post and visit Wordpress.com and sign yourself up. Then we'll talk. Let's kick things off with a Common Craft video:

If you haven't heard our pitch yet, read on.

Every Student Needs to Blog

Blogging is an ugly word. It sounds like "clog." People associate it with flamers and politicians and Fox News and LiveJournal. Blogs are seen as a place to whine or an extra source of white noise.

Blogging, though, will change your life. In more ways than one. It has for the staff of HackCollege, at least. HackCollege has been going strong for nearly 2 years now. After all this time, there's still one thing we're lacking: regret. We chose to start a blog about lifehacking in college.

We've changed a little bit over time. If you have a passion, you need to blog about it. (I hate the word "passion.") Passions usually align with your major, or maybe they don't. Whatever you know or want to know more about, you need to blog about it. Blogging changes the way you think; you become much more critical of the world around you. And no matter how bad you are at writing, you'll learn. I'm still working on the writing thing.

Because of the blog and not the podcast, we've been approached by multiple larger organizations. It's awesome. Starting a blog establishes credibility and gives you something to do.

But There are So Many Blogs Out There

There's an oft-quoted statistic that "a blog is created every 10 seconds" or whatever the fuck. It's stupid "conventional wisdom" and utterly inconsequential. How many of those blogs created ever publish 5 posts, or even 2 for that matter? Let's not even talk about spam blogs, i.e. splogs.

And writing on a blog is only 50% of blogging; the other 50% is networking. You can blog in a vacuum, but you won't make it past 10 posts.

Blog Ideas

While there's plenty of lifehacking student blogs out there these days, there are a few relevant student blogs that have yet to be invented. Here's a quick list of blogs that haven't been done (well) yet:

• Student Business Blogs. There are a few in existence, but none of them really whet our appetite.


• Art Blogs. Where are they? We need some creative influence


• et al. The family should be huge!

Pick an idea and start writing today. Your knowledge should be far enough to get you writing your first post, sans code.

Fellow Student Bloggers

Best of all, you can start off with friends. There's already a family waiting to accept you with open arms. They include:

• AJ Vaynerchuk at AJ Vaynerchuk at social marketing, twitter, and web design


• Chris at college being


• The guys at College Drinker


• Briana at College Fashion .Net


• The blokes at Gearfire


• Paul from PaulStamatiou.com


• Sean from SeanBlanda.com


• Stephanie from Poorer than You


• Cal from Cal Newport's Study Hacks


• Gideon from Mindful Ink


• David from david giesberg dot com


• Alex from Student Bloggers


• Andy from his blog


• Alan from ASU's geek stew

Note: I know I'm missing a ton of folks. Email us if you would like to be included in the list.

Check back tomorrow for our post "Getting Started with Wordpress."

We're Giving T-Shirts Away!

And yes, there is a catch. You have to start following us on Twitter and religiously watch the podcast. For now, the contests will be lightning-fast and last only a day or two. We already gave away our first shirt to @KushalP for his post suggestion in the last episode! Awesome! We'll give one away each week on average.

So sign up for Twitter and start following us!

• @KellySutton


• @lesinski


• @r0see

Student Blogging Series Online Tomorrow!

We hinted at in today's episode 25, but the student blogging series will be going online tomorrow!

It will feature posts about the case for blogging, why students in particular need to blog, and interviews with some successful student bloggers. Stay tuned!