by Dani Blanchard, Meteor Solutions Intern and UW Student

Since the first time I played on a sports team, adults have been screaming at me to “communicate!” Years later, and now off the field, it seems as though the whole world is yelling at me to speak my mind in any form I can, most prominently on the internet. My name is Dani Blanchard and I have been an Intern here at Meteor Solutions for the past month. I jumped at the opportunity of a social media related internship after having just finished my freshman year at the University of Washington in the Foster School of Business. Social networking has become the most integral part of our relationships, our education and our businesses. Even as I sit in the Seattle Meteor office I send questions and share info-graphics via instant messenger instead of any physical or audible form of transfer. While this may sound as if we are becoming a very impersonal society, I believe the opposite, in that social media actually allows us to create deeper pinpointed conversations thanks to a vast set of resources (search engines), extensive hubs of interaction (social networks), and a new sense of urgency for knowledge and response (notifications/alerts).

As a member of Generation Y, I was born in the middle of a technological revolution. When it comes to social sharing I can proudly say I was an original MySpace kid, an avid Xanga user, and am currently a Facebook connoisseur as well as a zealous poster of Tweets. As of today I can also claim to be a member of the Google+ trial group, which I am already a big fan of. I was destined to network through the web. While my parents may have originally looked at my social media addiction as a distracting problem, interning at Meteor has proven to me how valuable my knowledge of online interaction will be to my future. Meteor technology allows businesses to track the sharing of their content and see who is sharing what information and where sharing occurs. At Meteor I help create reports on these sharing trends to help clients navigate through the data Meteor provides. For example, I compare word of mouth visitor rates, click through rates, conversion rates, share tool rates and the popularity of sharing via specific networks such as Facebook or Twitter. While at first I only viewed my work as data entry, within the first week I acknowledged that I was actually helping to deliver extremely valuable information to some top companies. If a business shares content, they will have more potential customers; but if a business can share content and measure where/how successfully that sharing is happening, they can know exactly where to focus further efforts of advertisement.  Marketing analysis reminds me of peer editing essays in high school; getting a paper back with a grade on it isn’t helpful for your future unless detailed comments, observations, and recommendations are included. If Company A puts content on Facebook, X number of people will see it and the sharing ends there. If Company A puts content on Facebook and adds share buttons for Twitter, Tumblr and Email however, that X number of viewers can be greatly multiplied. Further, if said company adds these share tools and then receives a report on how successful each network was at sharing, Company A can adjust their efforts accordingly to promote even further sharing and success.

Years down the road if I ever dream to run a business it will be imperative for me to be up to date on everything in the world of social media. I will not only need to stay connected, but also know why each connection is important and how I can use my networking to boost my success. So I commend my parents for looking out for my technology infatuation, but I commend myself and my fellow internet progressives even more for ignoring them, (for the most part) because social media has truly taken over and implanted itself into the lives and businesses of most all adults who feared it in the first place. Meteor Solutions urges online exposure and from what I can see, is helping all clients become more accessible and successful through the promotion of social networking.