Harnessing the Power of Social Media with Mandisa & NASA

I must confess that I am not the person that would usually enter into contests. But with the internet and now facebook and twitter, I find myself entering all kinds of contests and drawings. It's as if I were tapping into my inner Grandma Gage. She was always buying a lottery ticket or putting her name in for a prize at the local grocery store. "What's the worst thing that could happen...I don't win.", she would tell me. But I just never got into it...until recently!

It is no secret that I am big fan of Zumba! If you have not tried it...you should! It will change your life...and after all, the hips don't lie! Anyway, the local radio station was hosting a drawing to have a Zumba class with Christian Artist Mandisa (who is a favorite in the Gage house).Mandisa and Christian Comedienne Anita Renfroe were coming to the area to do a concert. In fact, it was a Girls Night Out event for the ladies of the church(remember this side note for later in the story) Naturally, I entered my name, and Ashley entered her name as well! In the mean time, I decided that I would use my twitter page to express my joy and excitement about this opportunity to work out with my wife, the radio DJ's, and of course Mandisa. So the days went by and the humorous tweets were flowing! Two weeks before the Zumba Contest, I stumbled across this email about NASA hosting a tweetup for the last Shuttle launch! If you were selected, you would spend two days at the Kennedy Space Center...including the day of the final launch! This news thrilled my science, Star Trek, Star Wars, loving heart! So of course I put my name into the hat...along with 5,000 other people!

The week of the concert and zumba class had arrived. I had worked hard using twitter as a campaign to get me and Ashley a spot in the class. There was even some response from the radio station. At last, the moment had arrived...and we didn't get the tickets! But here's the good news, because of my humorous tweets, the DJ's offered me two free tickets to the Girls Night Out Concert! Most men would have passed on the chance to go to this all girl event, but you better believe I used it!
A few days after winning the concert tickets, I get a tweet from NASA telling me that they have sent out email confirmations about the tweetup. I didn't really think anything about it. In fact I almost didn't check it out! But when I did, I was thrown in the floor with delight! I, along with 149 other people were selected to attend the tweetup! There are no words to describe how I felt and are feeling!

But the story continues! So I decided to attend the Girls Night Out Concert (because my wife asked me to drive the church van. It was an interesting evening from the get go! I once again decided to take the opportunity to tweet about my experience leading up to the concert...including the fact that I was hoping to keep my man card after the evening was over. Little did I know, Anita Renfroe had planned to use these tweets and pulled me up onto the stage to perform a special rap with her titled "In Da Muthahood." Clearly I do know scream hip-hop, but I was determined to make the most of it!

So it's safe to say that I am on social network overload. I could go on with more details, but after these experiences, it is safe to say that I will be a fan of social media for a long time.

RG