More Alumni Success Stories
by Kris GallagherTen years ago, social media didn't exist. Now sites such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook are revolutionizing how people connect with each other.
We talked to a few alumni recently to see how these new tools are making a difference. We found artists generating new audiences for their work. Job-hunters getting leads, support and even new positions. People making connections to get through difficult times, get back in touch with old friends, or simply add enjoyment to their lives. Here are their stories.
If You Diddit, Check It Off
Visit the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem—check. See Clay Aiken live—check. Savor cremini mushrooms—check. Serve as community manager for Diddit.com—check.
Adena deMonte (THE '05) likes lists. She keeps lists of architectural sites she's visited, New Jersey lighthouses she's climbed, vodka brands she's sampled and the worst movies she's ever seen.
Her passion for trying new things makes the self-described "social networking nerd" the perfect choice to support the users of Diddit.com, a Web site that helps people share their adventures and find new ones.
"The idea of Diddit is that you check off what you have done and start lists of what you would like to do," deMonte explains. It works best with lesser-known locations or activities, like a list of all the small museums of Chicago, enabling fans to discover gems they might otherwise have missed—like DePaul's art museum. "If you don't live in Lincoln Park, you don't know that. Now, you know you want to see it and you might find someone who wants to see it with you," she explains.
Diddit takes the concept of review sites like Yelp.com, which enable users to rate and comment on businesses like restaurants or dance clubs, and extends it to any kind of activity: national monuments you have visited, animals you have touched, microbrews you have sampled. It depends on the contributions of ordinary citizens who happen to know a thing or two about their neighborhoods or their hobbies.
"The ability to share what you know, based on your experiences, doesn't exist elsewhere in this form," she says. "You can send a message to the people you know on Facebook, but you can't send to people you don't know yet. With Diddit, you can."
Users often forge friendships with people they might not have met otherwise or discover common interests with friends or co-workers. DeMonte became pals with a Diddit user twice her age who shares many of deMonte's passions, a connection that never would have happened otherwise.
"I'm a pretty shy person, but I love getting to know people," she says. "The social networking world allows people like me to keep in touch and get to know people I'd like to meet."
"Rhubarb Pie Available Until 3 This Afternoon"
If you're a bit hungry, say, mid-afternoon, and you get a Tweet from your favorite bakery instructing you to "go get a cupcake," you might do just that.
That's what James Gray (MED '06) and Andrew Twigg are betting on as they Twitter about their Pittsburgh-based Dozen Bake Shop. Between baking and managing a thriving business, they're busy using all manner of media to get customers into their stores.
After just a couple of months of using Twitter, Dozen Bake Shop has 315 followers receiving messages about tasty offerings—desserts, breakfast, lunch and pastries, including a cinnamon roll designated as the best in the city by Pittsburgh Magazine. In addition to tickling customers' taste buds, Gray and Twigg take turns reminding customers that it's time to order holiday bakery goods, inviting them to come in late after the art fair or telling them what's just come out of the oven.
Twigg says that though they don't have a long history of sales data, since the business is less than 3 years old, their sense is that traffic has increased since they began Tweeting. The business also uses Facebook to tempt customers with product shots of their wares.
"We have a fan page on Facebook with 591 friends. People love our photos there," says Twigg, a graphic designer who creates Dozen Bake Shop's online pages and spends hours uploading photos.
Dozen Bake Shop presently has two locations in Pittsburgh, and two more will open this summer. Twigg and Gray plan to use e-mail as well as Twitter and Facebook to help launch the new locations.
The two entrepreneurs met in Chicago, where Gray went to culinary school and then earned a master's degree in education at DePaul while he worked as a baker several Chicago restaurants. After a few short-term teaching assignments, he decided to move to Pittsburgh and use his culinary expertise.
Gray says that his education as a teacher is valuable in his business. "One of the things you study a lot in education is the behavior of adolescents and how to resolve problems with that age group. Those are really valuable skills to have in managing employees. It really helped me to be a boss—to manage people."
Visit dozenbakeshop.com for more information.
Twitter feed: @dozenbakeshop