This month, you’ll meet Britney Munguia, as I sit and chat about how she landed at the firm, her inspirations, quirks and slight coffee addiction.

How she got the job: From spring to summer of 2011 my life was a constant whirlwind — I graduated, received my diploma, ended my job at University Marketing, and began researching job opportunities in both Austin and Houston. After numerous interviews with start-ups and small businesses in Austin with no luck, my hopes were quickly dissipating. That is, until I got an interview with IntegratePR.

Allie and I met at a local coffee shop called Dominican Joe in Austin. Unlike many of my other interviews, our conversation flowed effortlessly. Allie was easy to talk with, and I felt like I could really open up and show her my true colors. We finished our coffee, parted ways and I headed home with my fingers crossed. I had a good feeling about this particular interview, but wasn’t going to get my hopes up just in case. A week later — coincidentally enough on my 23rd birthday — Allie called me up and gave me the good news. I hadn’t been this excited since receiving Backstreet Boys tickets for Christmas when I was 12.

Two weeks later I had relocated to Houston, moved back in with my mother (who was wonderful enough to put up with me for 3 months), had my wisdom teeth taken out, and started my new position with IntegratePR. And I can happily say that I’m still enjoying every minute of it all. The rest is history.

What’s your favorite thing about working in social media? Social media is constantly evolving, and that’s exactly what makes my job exciting. I get to learn the newest tools in the industry, attend “tweet-ups,” connect with new faces via online platforms, and the best part is that I’m always “in the know.” If you think desk jobs are boring, think again.

What is the best lesson that you learned working at IPR? The most crucial thing that I have learned while working at IntegratePR is learning how to communicate with an array of personalities. Some prefer doing so via e-mail, while others rely on the phone or face-to-face conversations.

What social media moment are you most proud of? I manage Salt Lick BBQ’s Twitter, and recently received this mention:  ”@Cherie_Cobb: If you want an example of a co that does Twitter well, follow @SaltLickBBQ. Active, relevant, responsive to tweets, tasteful. Well done.“ This tweet made me extremely happy because it shows that my hard work and dedication to my client is truly paying off.

Who is your role model/inspiration? This might sound weird, but I don’t have a single person that I look to for inspiration. I’d like to think that everything around me inspires me. Art, music, shooting a roll of 35mm film, going on adventures — Creativity inspires me.

What is one thing no one knows about you? I had my gall bladder removed when I was 18 years young. I’ve got some gnarly scars to prove it.

What’s on your desk? (Picture attached) From left to right: A Halloween beanie baby… It’s cute, okay? Play-doh is a must. Not only is it a stress reliever, but it’s fun to sculpt all kinds of things… like kittens. Pens, sharpies, gel pens and highlighters in every color are absolutely necessary –  I really like office supplies. Kitten notepad… I don’t need to explain myself. The last item is my Pier One owl mug, which is used approximately 3 times per day. You could probably say I have a slight addiction.

As discussed in last week’s blog post, social media is playing a developing role in politics. As candidates seek to connect with their constituents, they are finding an increasing number of them online. The notoriously under represented age demographic at the polls is most certainly online, and the hopes that engagement and awareness will prompt them to make the step to vote encourages more politicians to expand into the social media sphere.  This is of course, in addition to the multitude of middle aged Americans who are already ensconced in social media – the fastest growing segment of twitter users, both male and female is between 35-54 – and would have tweeted, posted, etc. even without the White House jumping into the conversation.

The following is a timeline of the initiatives the White House team will take regarding the State of the union:

Monday, January 23

•  The White House team invites the public to submit questions on domestic and economic policy to Quora,

Tuesday, January 24

• State of the Union will stream on White House Live
• A live panel of senior White House advisors will answer questions from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ about the speech

Wednesday, January 25-Friday, January 27

• Policy experts and Obama advisors will participate in Twitter “office hours” where they’ll discuss issues asked via the #WHChat

Monday, January 30

• Obama will enter a special Google+ hangout where citizens can submit questions to the White House YouTube channel

Although the audience scale is enormous – US population last clocked in at a little over 307 million in 2009 – the lesson here is one that every communicator should learn. The necessity of following such an important speech for its entire duration can be seen in the White House team’s measures to monitor conversation, preliminarily, in real time and as a follow up. Similarly, one should treat each client’s conversation with the appropriate amount of forethought, insight and hindsight. Evaluating all aspects equals not only great results but ensures success for the future.

Art imitates life, but does Facebook? Many people argue that getting too involved in social media devalues real life relationships. Studies have shown estimates that Facebook is the cause of one in five divorces. Does this mean that everything we do on social sites translates to the real world? Although one may be hesitant to suggest that the answer is yes, it is evident that even when looking into the less personal sphere of politics, Facebook can play an omniscient role.

In the race for the spot of the Republican candidate, likes and shares have run parallel with the winners of primaries. Mitt Romney, with 1,349,187 likes and 108,827 shares won both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Coming in second, Ron Paul, with 752,412 likes and 98,979 shares placed third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire.

Simply put, anything that you re-post that is not your original content would be considered a copyright infringement. In many countries with internet access, online piracy is a massive problem for the industry, in China alone it costs $250 billion per year. However, this means potentially that anything you Re-Tumble, Re-Tweet or Re-tag could be considered piracy. These publishing laws would affect some of the most well-known and heavily trafficked sites on the web. Virtually everything on Wikipedia, Youtube, and Tumblr would be illegal to publish.

Internet giants who are fighting against the bill have made this an international day of protest by “blacking out” their websites.

Wikipedia

Google

WordPress

What you can do about it – Sign the petition and join the largest online protest in history – tell Congress to stop this bill now!