Nutritional educator, web blog design and social media

This the pro web blog for Erin MacDonald.

I was raised on a macrobiotic organic farm, studied massage therapy, nutrition  and herbology. I am veteran of retail management and inventory control. Check out my resume.

Currently I do demos for the natural  products industry and am available for hire. Contact me here.

Practiced in social media, WordPress CMS and other blogging services. I can set up a WordPress website or blog for you.

Follow this blog for posts about recipes, nutrition and web tech. I also have been blogging and using social media under a pseudonym since 2009.

A life living organically is a beautiful one.

How to get more likes on Facebook – The Oatmeal

Don’t take social media too seriously and be authentic. Like is says at the end of this great montage on the Oatmeal:

“Instead, create great things that hilarious, sad, beautiful, interesting,  inspiring, or SIMPLY AWESOME.”

 Make good content. That is the Goggle algorithm simplified. As we said back in Field of Dreams times, updated for post social-media apoco-zuckerberg: “If you build it, they will like you.” It get’s tricky because the way it works is you want more people interacting with your brand consistently, so it goes into other people’s feed, hence getting more “reach”.  This fervor is around us all the time. I was at 24 hr fitness today, running to the bathroom in the middle of a Zumba class and my mind is bombarded with signs about playing some kind of tag game on Facebook. Companies want us talking about them in social media but the best they can do is give us good product.

The Oatmeal did such a great job on this, I had to share.

How to get more likes on Facebook – The Oatmeal.

Misquote Firman E. Bear Organic vs. Conventional Graph

My last post was a graph showcasing the difference between organic vs. conventional. It came to me via Facebook and was posted by a few different people. I did not think it over. I sent it to farmer Dad, who was already familiar with the misuse of that study.

These highest and lowest values have been misrepresented as vegetables grown organically and inorganically, respectively, in various organic farming and healthfood newsletters, which cite the report (copies of the misquotes are available on request).–Rutgers

The study was not to compare either. It analyzed mineral composition between the north vs. the south and the east vs. the west. It did not collect data referring to organic or chemical fertilizers. If you think about, it was 1948. How much interest do you suppose there was at that time exploring organic vs. conventional? The concept had barely surfaced.

Read more on the misquotes in “Variation in Mineral Composition of Vegetables” at Rutgers.

I found this website about healing from diseases containing the full Firman E. Bear report as  a PDF. This chart is dropped into the PDF and cited from a website in Australia, even though it was not part of the original 1948 report.

Conspiracy? I don’t know, what do you think? Surely organic is better for you and better for the planet but this is not the chart.

Organic vs. Conventional

Updated and axed: This chart came to me via a social sharing but as pointed out to me by my father after I posted it and it’s origin is suspect and the Firman Bear study has been consistently used to illustrate the benefit of organic whereas it was not the intention nor the conclusion of the study. See more on my next post.

I mostly eat organic to avoid exposure to pesticides, hormones and chemical fertilizers but also organic farmers maintain the soil through crop rotation, fixing nitrogen and other soil enhancements that increase nutritional benefit.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1793, of weak soils at the Monticello estate, Virginia: “We will this winter try to cover our garden with a heavy coating of manure. When earth is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and of the best quality”

Social Media More Then Just Modern Fluff

Unless you stayed off the internet and didn’t talk to anyone all of last week, you heard about the Stop Kony 2012 video. The dialogue, reaction and impact is still unfolding but no one can doubt the record-breaking views of 79 million, as of today: March 15, 2012, one week after being posted–as the power of social media and proof of it being the all-powerful realm we now live in.

I took a workshop last week, “Social Media for Social Justice” with Deanna Zandt, a social media tech consultant who wrote, “How you will change the world with Social Networking” .  It opened me up to a deeper appreciation of social media as being more than post-modern tech and that sometimes addictive trend. Social media is about relationships and building community. Deanna expanded the potential of what I had already experienced, connecting with writers and comrades online. You have the potential to reach millions via social media and at the same time interact directly with your biggest supporters, fans and fellow crusaders nearly immediately. Today, I was able to communicate with a well-known activist and minor celeb about a recent public interview through Twitter. I suggested a concept to her and she replied. It was only a smile in return, but it was the beginning of my forging a potential relationship with an influential person.

Deanna started a Tumblr, Planned Parenthood Saved Me,  in response to the Komen/Planned Parenthood funding pull–in 72 hours it had accumulated 260 story submissions, 1000 Tumblr followers, 28,000 hits and Deanna ended up talking to the Rachel Maddow show, among other news programs. Read more about that campaign here.

People are motivated by their emotions and personal stories and that’s what the Tumblr is devoted to, a chance for women to express how Planned Parenthood saved or changed their lives. As you may know Susan J. Komen foundation reinstated funding just four days after the original announcement.

Food Politics » Walmart’s new logo remind you of anything?

Food Politics » Walmart’s new front-of-package “buy me” logo.

Wal-Mart’s new indicator for healthy food looks reminds me an awful lot of the Burning Man logo, what do you think? Via Food Politics.com