Snowmaggedon, Earthquakepocalypse, #Irene, Heat Wave 2011 – these are all terms I've seen scrolling through my Twitter feed over the last year as Mother Nature has unleashed her fury on the us. It's been anything but normal this year, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This year alone we've been battered with ice storms, high winds and tornados and a record-long heat wave!

I've always been fascinated with weather – I took a Severe and Unusual Weather class in college, submitted weather pictures of the day to David Finfrock when I was in elementary school and even considered a career in meteorology (my lack of interest in math and science though led me in a different direction). However, my friends have come to call me Weathergirl Ashley as I am always in touch with the day's forecast. The secret to Weathergirl Ashley's success though – Twitter.

Twitter has become my number one resource for learning about weather events and what's going on in my neck of the woods (and yes that's an Al Roker reference).

Another summer has come and gone and for me, that means the end of summer internships. For the past three summers, I've brought on and managed six very different interns.  As the interns get younger and I reluctantly get older, I've realized the way college students and recent graduates view internships has changed since I was a college student looking for work. At the end of the day, the goal of an internship is to gain real-life experience that the intern can use to help them find a full-time job upon graduation. From an employer perspective, the goal of an internship is to have an extra set of hands on staff to increase productivity and to provide insight into the field you're working in. With these goals in mind, I've come up with the following tips for making the most of you and your intern's time:

1. No matter how long you've been out of school, times have changed. Whether you're from the class of 2010 or 1910, there's something out there that's different from when you were in school. Make sure your job descriptions are up-to-date and targeted towards the proper schools and departments.

2. Have a task list ready every day. There's nothing worse than the feeling of scrambling for tasks for your interns to do. Even if it requires getting to work 20 minutes early, make sure you have a clear list of items and goals for your interns to accomplish that day, week or month.

Have you heard of Pinterest yet? If not, you will soon! This social cataloging site is quickly breaking into the social media world allowing users to bookmark and share a collection of people, places and things they love. I stumbled upon it after clicking on a friend’s link and quickly found myself trying to get into the invite-only (for now) site.

So what’s all the fuss about? Pinterest allows you to “pin” items to categorized pinboards that you can share with your social network. The site was founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra in San Francisco and is currently receiving millions of new pins each week. So what are all of these people “pinning?” Their blog encourages users to “organize and share things they find beautiful on the web” and gives examples of users using the site to plan weddings, organize recipes or just to save items that inspire them.

Atomic Design & Consulting is in need of an intern to join our team to assist with social media and SEO for our wide range of clients!

Tasks include but are not limited to:

-          Creating content and brainstorming ideas for campaigns
-          Monitoring social media accounts, trends and news
-          Scheduling content for multiple accounts
-          Some administrative tasks

O Hootsuite, with your cute little owl
I love the way you schedule content
But sometimes you can be foul

You started off as my favorite social media tool
But then you decided to start charging me
And I started referring to you as a fool

I understand that you need to make a buck or two
But as a small business employee
the dollars in my budget are few

2010 has been anything but boring when it comes to the world of social media. I’m no Barbara Walters, but here are the Most Fascinating Social Media Events of 2010.

Haiti
Even though it was almost a year ago, the images of Haiti’s destruction following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake are still haunting. The journalists who arrived first on the scene began relaying images of not only destruction, but also the great needs that Haiti needed to survive. Journalists like NBC’s Anne Curry sent out a Tweet saying, “@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOKTHE most effective at this.” Thanks to her Tweet and communication with the Pentagon, the plane was able to land. Her Tweet was even named The Most Powerful Tweet of 2010 by Twitter.

We hear the phrase, “Go Big or Go Home,” all the time, whether it has to do with sports, a leap of faith or just life in general. Lately I’ve noticed that social media campaigns are doing the same – going big. They’re pulling out the big guns not only when it comes to the quality and consistency of posts, but also in the way they reward their Following, whether it is on Facebook, Twitter or a location-based social media site like foursquare. These incentives, whether they’re gift cards, concert tickets or even all-inclusive vacations, are keeping these followers coming back for more and most importantly, engaged with the brand.

I was always a little bit skeptical of these online giveaways; you always have to enter your e-mail address or another form of personal information and I just wasn’t interested. It wasn’t until I actually won something through a social media contest that I became a believer. My first win came from the Fairmount Hotel in Dallas, and I won a prize valued at $1,000 just by following them on Twitter as a part of their campaign to hit 1,000 Twitter followers. A few weeks later, I won Lady Gaga tickets just by Twittering the response to a fashion question from InStyle magazine. After collecting my winnings, I was hooked on the idea of instigating a social media giveaway campaign for a client.

Congratulations to the Class of 2010 – you did it! You’ve finished four (or maybe more) stressful years of college and you’re ready to enter the working world. You’ve heard all the dismal news about the economy, unemployment rates and limited entry-level jobs, yet you’re still heading out there with your chin up and resume in hand looking for an opportunity to put that degree to use.  You put in all the time and money to get to where you are today, but a bland resume, being un-prepared for an interview and sharing to much about yourself online can easily land you back at the starting line when applying for a post-grad internship or job.

We’ve all been there – you’re frustrated and annoyed with your client or co-worker, and you’re just about to boil over. But instead of taking a moment to cool off, you turn to your trusty Twitter account and begin to vent about your frustrations. Then you hit Enter and release all your negative thoughts into the Twittersphere. For a few minutes, you might feel a little bit better having released some tension and begin to go on with your day.

I joined Facebook in fall of 2004 when I was a college freshman. Way back then, Facebook was referred to as TheFacebook.com, there were no photo albums or Fan pages and the idea of Facebook Chat was unheard of. Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook in February 2004 and required members to have a college e-mail address to gain access to the collegiate networking site. Policies changed in 2006 when Facebook opened up to the world and just required users to be at least 13 years old and to have a valid e-mail address. When Facebook celebrated its’ sixth anniversary in February 2010, there were more than 400 million active users with more signing up each day.