Hey Syncers! Check out this info graphic from ForRent.com about new social media processes to find your college roommates. Make sure to check out the RoomSync feature in the Facebook section!

We're excited to head to Denver tomorrow to particpate in the second annual Startup Alley at this year's EDUCAUSE, the largest IT conference for higher education.

While we were lucky enough to be invited to the first one, which took place in Philly last year, we can't wait to meet all the other great startups, vendors, and speakers that will be joining us this week.

If you'll be around, definitely stop by our table in Startup Alley to say hi and snag some RoomSync swag! 

Hey everyone!

Madame Director, here :) Your average student-videographer-editor-sound mixer-colorist-extraordinaire! I'm extremely proud of my latest project: "Day in the Life - The Gator Grind".

Day in the Life of a Student-Athlete's Concept

A few weeks ago, my classmate McKenzie approached me asking if I'd help her with her After Effects final - a project for UF's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The concept is a glimpse into the lives of UF's student-athletes and what they do when they're not training or playing for keeps. The purpose of the video was to promote a new blog called The Gator Grind. As one of UF's star soccer players and an intern for TV20, McKenzie herself is a great example of a very involved and well-rounded student-athlete. She is both athletically and academically accomplished and has labored all semester to successfully launch The Gator Grind blog.

We shot the footage in two weeks and edited the video in one weekend. It premiered at the Florida Letterman Awards, an annual ceremony honoring exceptional student-athletes, and then we uploaded it to The Gator Grind's YouTube channel. Twenty-four hours later, the video had gone viral with its views totaling over 2,000. We couldn't believe it! All the Gator athletes were Tweeting the video and reposting the link on their Facebook profiles. Two days later, multiple sports blogs had reposted the link and The UF Alligator had run a story on the video.

Moral of the story, whoever thinks athletes are just their sport is quite mistaken! At RoomSync we have a dynamic team full of random skill sets, and we value the idea of bringing multifaceted people together to create value and success.

Don't forget to click here to check out "Day In The Life - The Gator Grind."

I have read many articles lately about the impending digital takeover. Amber Case, founder of Geoloqui.com and a keynote speaker at the South by Southwest Convention, recently compared people who use up-to-date technology, as cyborgs. Neither I nor she believes an IRobot-type doom is impending, however, reading “The Next Generation of Student Support Systems” article on Higher Ed Live led me to question just how fast are students becoming technology dependent?

Last week I chatted with a man who grew up around the time of the first electronic digital computer. I was in my elementary school computer class when I first used a computer. My point is that everyone can say some form of the phrase “I was born before the (insert technological device here) was invented,” but is there a point where we won’t be able to reverse our dependence on the technology we've grown up using? Has this point in time already passed?

In my freshmen year of high school my English teacher assigned us a project while reading 1984. We were to stop using technology for a week. Yes, an entire week. No phones. No television. No computer. For the first couple of days I did very well…then I gave up. I tried this again over this past week as it was Spring Break and did surprisingly well. Being aboard a cruise ship without service definitely helped, but I did realize what Amber Case pointed out in her speech: “the best technology is invisible and just gets out of your way to let you live your life.”

So my questions for you are: Are you busy fiddling around with your apps and social media websites while life is happening around you? Or can you put the smartphone down for an hour or two each week, go out with friends and enjoy it before the cyborgs takeover?

I didn’t formally introduce myself. My name is Niaz, and I’m the social media manager (or ninja) at RoomSync.

I want to talk about everyone’s new favorite website: Pinterest. In the past few months, Pinterest has been slowly taking over my Facebook newsfeed. No, I’m not an active user, but I do enjoy reading some of the funny pictures that my friends post.

When I first heard about companies using Pinterest as another media outlet, I thought it was a horrible idea. How are they going to reach their audience through “pinning” pictures? I couldn't make sense of it until I read a blog post from Higher Ed Live called “Best practices for Pinterest in higher education.”

I learned that Pinterest can be integrated with other social media sites from the article. For example, companies can share pictures they have on their Pinterest boards with Facebook instead of posting them on Facebook which will bring traffic to their pin boards. This sounds like a pretty fun and creative idea to me. I think the most important thing to remember is to maintain your brand’s image and Pinterest diversifies that brand by showing another side of the company.

The article puts this adversitement of brand diversity quite nicely by saying,"Pinterest may be the first and only social media platform where you should routinely promote messages like 'This desk lamp would look GREAT in a dorm room' and 'This Drake blue tie would add oomph to your next business presentation.' It works because you’re doing more than promoting a lamp or a tie: You’re giving your audiences inspiration for how they can fit into, and reflect, the brand culture.”

Maybe this will be my new project for RoomSync? We’ll see!

Until my next post,

Niaz