Category Archives: Seattle

Style With a Smile: The Fashionable Mollie Ruiz-Hopper

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Photos by Chad Coleman

Bold colors. Cutting-edge designs. A sense of adventure with a twist of daring! I love the ideas and energy that infuse the world of fashion. These are also the very things that have come to characterize Twitter’s Mollie Ruiz-Hopper, one of the emerging, exciting voices in international style.

As a writer for an ABC News affiliate, and creator and editor of Mollie In Seattle, Ruiz-Hopper has cultivated an impressive fan base that gives her support and feedback. A fan base she keeps rock solid by being approachable, relevant, and gracious.

Like the catwalk itself, she uses the grand stage of social media to express her passion for fashion. She manages to pull all the threads together – the innovators driving her industry and the trends we’ll be talking about. So it was truly an honor to connect with this philanthropist, noted ‘ideas woman’, and fabuloso fashionista.

How do you believe social media has changed your industry? I’m a blogger/writer and I also work in PR. Social media has really revolutionized the way people communicate with one another in such a great way. It kind of puts people on a level playing field where we can now communicate with virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime. News comes to us in real-time. I can watch a live stream of my favorite designer’s fashion show and get up to date information on the latest trends in shoes. Information is now endless and available to me all the time whether I’m on my computer, smart phone or iPad. This is all a result of the awesome-ness that is social media.

Photo by Mike Luong

I know you have a love for Nordstrom, which has emerged as one of big companies greatly benefiting from social media. What are they specifically doing right? Nordstrom is doing a terrific job with their social media. They’re constantly posting great links about clothes and products new to their stores, information on upcoming events, and are always quick to respond whenever I have a question or comment. There are a lot of other big companies out there who have Twitter and only push information about themselves. What I love about Nordstrom and appreciate as a devoted customer is that they’re always talking to people, responding to my tweets, following up on recent purchases and even suggesting things to me that I might not have thought of for myself. I just love that Nordstrom is now a presence that is always with me. If I have a question about mascara, they’re there to answer it right away.

You are quite the fashionista. Everything you’re doing is just consistently buzz-worthy. And that’s hot! How are you managing to thrive in Seattle, which is particularly strong in the fields of technology and sustainability? First, thank you very much! Fashion is something I’ve been crazy about ever since I can remember, I think it rubbed off on me from my mother and grandmother who were very fashion forward and my style role models. I think the most important element in anything is that you have to be genuinely passionate about what you do, whether it’s technology, wine or in my case fashion. I love waking up every morning and dressing up in something that makes me feel good. I also have a smart phone that helps me stay connected with my friends, family and social media all the time. I can update my Twitter feed whenever I need to, take a picture of a pair of shoes I want, or friend someone on Facebook I just met at an event. I attend different networking events, sometimes it’s weekly, and sometimes it’s monthly. An important part in remaining relevant in any industry is showing up, being an actual body and face that people can shake hands with and relate to. Finally, it’s very simple: be a nice and pleasant person to be around, if you’re happy and positive others will want to share in that.

To find out more about Mollie Ruiz-Hopper and her great insight about the world of fashion, follow her on her Twitter feed and read her work on Facebook. This is cross-posted in Smedio.

The Twitter Conference: The Hot Ticket!

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Several years ago, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey uttered these now famous words: “One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters.” As we survey the social media landscape, we can see just how visionary and profound Dorsey’s words have become. Indeed, Twitter has impacted every inch of the globe, and in the process, has become a premier information network.

But where can you connect with businesses and individuals using Twitter to inspire, transform and empower? The best place is 140 The Twitter Conference. In fact, The Parnassus Group organizes these much-anticipated events, with the next conference coming to Seattle on March 8th. From Los Angeles to Mountain View, conference attendees have come away from these gatherings with a better understanding of the keys to Twitter success.

According to the conference organizers, authentic engagement is what makes that success possible. They claim that organizations and individuals can both gain a lot from genuine, ongoing interaction with their online network. Some of the examples they’ve profiled include organizations like Starbucks, and individuals such as LeVar Burton who has garnered a massive following and positive buzz because he listens, responds, and adds genuine value to the conversation.

140 The Twitter Conference is the brainchild of business visionary Steve Broback, who has tracked and invested in emerging Internet platforms since the earliest days of the World Wide Web. His first conference for Web professionals launched in 1995 and he has authored books on a variety of tech topics. His latest book is “Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business” published by Peachpit Press.

Mr. Broback granted me an exclusive interview where he discusses the origin of the conference idea and the future of Twitter itself.

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How did the 140 Conference come about, and what does it aim to achieve?

In a nutshell, our aim is to help people get the most they can out of Twitter, meet interesting people, and have some fun while doing so. Prior to the creation of Twitter, we had the opportunity to work with Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone when he was a part of our Blog Business Summit Conferences. Biz was familiar with our ability to support and evangelize new technologies, so when we approached him with the idea of launching the world’s first conference focusing on Twitter, he and the engineering team supported us.

Despite some initial commentary that an entire conference covering a platform limited to 140 characters of text was overkill, we saw Twitter as one of the key architectures enabling the “Real-Time Web.” We knew Twitter had a robust API – for our clients and partners, we developed a system for processing tweets and tagging them with various attributes at very high accuracy — including sentiment, gender and age of the writer, etc. It was clear to us that Twitter embodied a deep editorial topic. Based on the fact that we’ve sold out every event so far, we were proven right.

We launched the conference a year ago in the Bay Area, and by the end of 2010, we will have hosted at least seven major Twitter-centric events in various cities. In addition to our events, Twitter has launched “Chirp” it’s own official conference for developers/coders, to be held in San Francisco this coming April.

2009 was a breakthrough year for Twitter. How can it maintain its tremendous growth, and continue to be a powerful force on the world stage?

Twitter has wisely focused on enhancing the platform so that the end user and developer community get increasing value out of it. As long as they continue to concentrate on making Twitter the best and easiest short messaging platform out there, they will only see more success.

What future projects and events from the 140 Conference can we look forward to?

At the Sundance Film Festival in January, the Parnassus Group launched it’s “Tweet House” series of events which was a resounding success. The Tweet House celebrates Twitter as a platform and features parties, as well as presentations by those who are using Twitter in innovative and useful ways. We’ll see the Tweet House next at SXSW in Austin, and then at the NAB show in Las Vegas.

You can register for the 140 Twitter Conference right here. You can also read organizer Steve Broback’s popular blog postings on the TweetHouse site, and, follow him on his Twitter feed.