Geek Girls Guide's Podcast Geek Girls

In podcast #51, Amanda Costello stops by to discuss her role with Minnewebcon and how she got her start as a content strategist.

Amanda Costello is a content strategist in higher education, and an award-winning speaker about working with content specialists and the web, content strategy, building web teams, and sharing ideas to do good work. She's also the director of MinneWebCon, a grassroots knowledge-sharing web conference in Minnesota.

 

In podcast #51, Amanda Costello stops by to discuss her role with Minnewebcon and how she got her start as a content strategist.

 

Amanda Costello is a content strategist in higher education, and an award-winning speaker about working with content specialists and the web, content strategy, building web teams, and sharing ideas to do good work. She's also the director of MinneWebCon, a grassroots knowledge-sharing web conference in Minnesota.

We’ve all clicked on the comment section to a blog, video or news article and immediately regretted it. That, or we’ve read each trolling comment like rubberneckers spying an accident on the freeway. Either way, internet trolls seem to be here to stay. 

 

In podcast #50, Sally McGraw joins us to discuss her work and share her experiences with trolling and online abuse. Sally is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer, and communications professional who has been blogging for 7 years. She has contributed writing to local newspapers, magazines, and websites throughout her entire professional life, and is an ongoing contributor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Huffington Post. She is also a weekly contributor to the Fox 9 Morning Show. In addition to writing her popular daily style and body image blog Already Pretty, she has published a style guide titled Already Pretty: Learning to Love Your Body by Learning to Dress it Well which is available via Amazon and ships worldwide. She has also contributed to The Frisky, TypeF, and Glamour and guest posted everywhere from the revered fashion blog The Coveted to the wildly popular style advice blog You Look Fab. 

Carol Cantwell is the founder of Fun With Financials, a company that teaches non-profit organizations practices that support informed financial decisions. She's also a recent convert to exercise, specifically running. Carol popped by the studio (via Skype) this week to discuss some of the Social Fitness apps that helped her go from a person who could barely run 1 mile to someone who will be running the Boston Marathon in a few months.

Originally, we had planned on recording this podcast and putting it up around the first of the year. We figured that listeners might have set some New Year's resolutions to get healthy or exercise more and, in turn, could be extra-inspired to maintain those goals by listening to this podcast. Well, things happen, podcast recordings get rescheduled and now the podcast is going up several weeks after everyone has forgotten that they had even made any New Year's resolutions. 



Let's take this half-empty glass and fill it up a little bit, shall we? It's time to get re-inspired to get healthy this year. Is a New Month's resolution a thing? It is now.

Do you have suggestions for some other social fitness apps or sites that we missed in the podcast? Leave a comment, letting us know which ones have helped you the most.

Facebook has destroyed online events. What began as a brilliant idea has morphed into the most ignorable feature on the Internet. If you're in a band, then chances are, hundreds of people have ignored the sweet event invite for your show next Tuesday at 11:00pm at that place they've never heard of. 

If you're active on Facebook at all, you probably have a number of invites in your events section. How many times have you logged into Facebook and been greeted with that brilliant red square notifying you that someone, ANYone has contacted you only to find a message letting you know that the event you're not planning on going to is happening an hour later than originally stated? 

By clicking 'no', you might hurt the feelings of poor Jimmy in the mailroom. I'm sure his band really IS good and they probably DO sound like Spacemen 3 meets Slade. 

You could always do the Minnesota No and click 'Maybe', but haven't we all made that resolution to be less passive aggressive this year? A simpler option to clean out your events section and make it useful again is to just remove it. 

1. In Facebook, click 'Events' on the left side of the screen.
2. Hover your mouse over an event you want to remove. A bluish-gray X will pop up on the upper right side of the event.
3. Click that X.
4. Ta da! The event is removed and you don't have to feel like the introverted hermit that declines every event invitation.

It's been a while since we've had a guest on our podcast. This week, we talked with Jeremy Wilker about Kickstarter projects. 

It seems like everyone is setting up Kickstarter accounts to help fund their creative projects with the mindset that everything will go to plan and they'll get their money. According to their website, only 44% of Kickstarters actually reach the desired goal and get funded. Jeremy recently wrapped up his second successful Kickstarter for a feature film titled 'Death To Prom'. He's here to share his experiences and give his expertise on how to make sure your Kickstarter is a success.