Alana Taylor

Alana Taylor is a self-made new media evangelist, consultant and freelance correspondent. Her interests range from digital media to television and magazines.

She is a tech blogger for Mashable.com, writes occasional guest posts for PBS.org and is double-majoring in Journalism and History at New York University.

>> What can she tell us about her wide variety of interests, and how does she do all she does and keep up with her studies?

Alana was born in San Diego, California on May 24, 1988. Both her parents are from Mexicali, Mexico (two hours south) and her family lived in Mexico until she was old enough to go to Kindergarten.

>> What did she enjoy about her early childhood and what were important influences?

At the age of 5, without any knowledge of the English language, Alana’s parents sent her to school in La Jolla, CA (a section of San Diego), where her family lived until she was in the 5th grade. After the 5th grade, because of her father’s job, the family moved to Amherst, New Hampshire and after the 7th grade they moved again, this time to Laredo, Texas where she spent the remainder of her teen years attending St. Augustine High School.

>> What did Alana gain from moving around a lot? What was difficult for her?

In high school, according to Alana, she “wasn’t very geeky at all.” She was very much a tomboy and loved sports (probably because of her beach/outdoors childhood in Cali). During high school she played volleyball, basketball, and softball and also ran track and cross country. She was extremely active.

>> How does her active lifestyle mesh with the internet and social media she does now?

At the time, Alana wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life but she knew that she was a very good writer and that she wanted to do something that was related to entertainment and media. What she didn’t realize was just how much she loved technology and how it played a big role in my life. It all started with her brother…

Ever since she could remember her older brother Robert, 22 (who recently graduated from UT Austin and is now pursuing an acting/directing career in California), was an expert on computers and video games. Because of him she was surrounded by technology and gadgets growing up, and although her family was never extremely well-off, her father thought it was important to have the latest technology around the house.

>> I’ll be discussing more with Alana how her family played a role in her introduction to technology…

Of all her friends, they were one of the first families with a computer and a cell phone. As a result, she always knew how to work with the internet and computers. To her it was second nature. She was always searching for and discovering new software and games that her girlfriends didn’t know about and, frankly, didn’t really care about. Says Alana, “In high school, the girls would persuade me to wear eyeliner and mascara while I would try to convince them to use Kazaa and Trillian.”

Alana has always been a big-picture kind of girl, and she placed a lot of emphasis on location because she “believe[s] your surroundings play a significant role in motivating and inspiring you to set high goals.” So when she was applying to college, she knew she wanted to be in LA, DC, or NYC. And when she was accepted to NYU, the decision had already been made.

>> What does she enjoy about being in New York City? Has it made her status as a social media and technology writer more possible?

At school I focused heavily on writing. She loved it. She decided to major in Journalism and to pursue a career in the media — becoming a magazine editor, freelance correspondent, news anchor, etc.

She had tried to keep up a blog her senior year of high school, but failed miserably. Her freshman year of college she forgot about blogging altogether and it wasn’t until her sophomore year that she started using Google Reader very heavily and subscribed to blogs that she found interesting. Eventually, she decided to start blogging again.

This time, she bought her name: AlanaTaylor.com, and decided to try to be more consistent and interesting. She started writing about journalism and entertainment, but as Facebook and Twitter became more and more popular… she realized she had a passion. She knew more about social media than many of my friends and she was slowly creating her personal brand.

>> What can Alana tell us about creating a “personal brand”? Why has this been so important?

Over the course of two months she was able to create a viral video with thousands of views, get written about on the popular tech social blog ValleyWag, create a small following of fans, gain hundreds of Twitter followers, and even get job offers. It was a very whirlwind experience — and still is.

Alana was quickly contacted by Mashable.com and asked if she wanted to blog for them (of course!). After that, she became an expert on social media by reviewing startups and interviewing CEOs.

Eventually, more job offers and freelance gigs followed — many which she had to sadly turn down because there are just not enough hours in the day when a full-time student.

She knows that a lot of her success (up until now) has been a direct result of wanting to create a personal brand for herself and not being afraid to use social networking to its full potential.

>> What other online strategies does Alana have to share with us?

Today, Alana is a blogger for Mashable.com, PBS.org and a freelance social media consultant for various companies. Between school, her jobs, homework and trying to go out every once in a while, she still somehow manage to keep up a personal blog at www.AlanaTaylor.com.

The twenty-year-old dreams of going to grad school, traveling the world, working for organizations like CNN, Wired, E! or Vanity Fair, and eventually becoming a CEO.