This weekend I launched my new website for my freelance business, www.KatelynDavis.com, and I couldn't be more excited.

Whether it was coincidence or not, I received a message through the new site within hours about a new freelance gig so I'd say things are working out just great!


The new site includes information about my social media strategy and web content development services as well as the most notable pieces of my portfolio and blog.

Here's what you may have missed this week in the world of tech and social media:

• Facebook is reviving the away message - The away message, long a staple of old-school instant messaging services like AOL Instant Messenger, is making a comeback. This week, Facebook began testing a new feature in Taiwan and Australia that lets users add a temporary status that shows up in the right panel of the social network’s flagship app.
• You can now pay your friends through Facebook Messenger - On Tuesday, the social network announced a new feature for Messenger that lets users send and receive money to one another. The feature will roll out to Facebook users in the U.S. across desktop, Android and iOS over the next few months.
• A Reddit newsletter may be the answer to your Internet FOMO - Reddit, the internet's portal into virality, needs a table of contents — and it's getting one, with the site's first curated email newsletter. The new email newsletter will go out to users every Sunday and will be curated by staffers to help surface stories that might otherwise get lost in one of the thousands of communities, which are called subreddits. The social news site announced the launch on Tuesday.

Here's what you may have missed this week in the real of social media and tech:

• Ford CEO Predicts Self-Driving Cars Will Arrive in 15 Years - “I would guess we get to full autonomy in 15 years,” said Ford CEO Mark Fields. “Camera technology is moving along very fast. Algorithms are advancing very fast,” said Fields, who admitted that he did not expect cars to be able to perform certain autonomous tasks, like parking themselves, just five years ago. “Now the car is becoming the ultimate technology product and we are becoming more of an information company,” he said.
• Facebook Testing Translation Tool? - Facebook appears to be toying with the option of allowing users to translate their posts into different languages. One user shared a screenshot with SocialTimes, in which users are informed: Now you can translate posts into other languages so that more people can enjoy them. Just click translate under a post to get started.
• Twitter Officially Launches Its “Retweet With Comment” Feature - Twitter just officially launched its “retweet with comment” feature, which it began testing last summer. “Retweet with comment” allows users to embed a tweet in their own tweets, which lets them get around Twitter’s 140-character limit when they write their own commentary. The feature is now available on Twitter’s site and iPhone app and will be available on its Android app soon.
• LinkedIn just bought online learning company Lynda for $1.5 billion - LinkedIn just purchased Lynda.com, an online learning company, for $1.5 billion, the company announced on Thursday. Founded in 1995, Lynda.com lets users learn business, technology, software, and creative skills through videos. People can access Lynda on their own, and corporations and schools can purchase subscriptions.

It is no secret that it is a passion and goal of mine to help change the national (and eventually global) conversation happening about Detroit. With this being said, I am proud to see a magazine aimed at just that!

Grand Circus Magazine aims to be the first and only print briefing of Detroit culture and urbanism for a national audience. This beautifully designed publication helping to spread the word about contemporary Detroit culture in an effective and engaging way.

Their mission is to repair the stigmatized name of the City, create a cultural resource for the metro region, and export the finer aspects of Detroit culture from coast to coast. This magazine is a vessel for collaboration and a stimulator for creation.

The City already has its hard-news and newsprint weeklies, but lacks a real lifestyle magazine detailing Detroit urbanism. This matte and gloss edition, with gold foil and embossing is perfect bound and ready for display on coffee tables.

If you would like to help Grand Circus Magazine become a reality and print their first edition, click here:


Grand Circus Magazine's crowdfunding campaign is seven days away from ending! Pledge your support today!


Grand Circus Magazine is the work of Alex Trajkovski and Eileen Tjan, a pair of graphic designers originally from Michigan. For more information, like Grand Circus Magazine on Facebook.

I am proud to announce the relaunch of Adventures in Homeownership!

A Guide For Your New Adventure

Are you a first-time homeowner? Or are you contemplating becoming a homeowner for the first time?

No matter where you are in the homeownership journey, whether you're just now thinking about it or you just got your keys, being a young, first-time homeowner can be scary!

You're suddenly responsible for a lot more things than ever before. And you have to make decisions that will dramatically impact you financially for a very long time. And since this process is something you've never experienced before, it's enough to make your head spin.

Let me guess, you've tried googling everything and it's still so complicated, right? That's because it is written by experienced professionals who don't understand that you're just a twenty-something who is just figuring out that mortgage has a 'T' in it! It's so over your head, you have no idea where to start.

No worries, start here.

The right kind of information when you need it most.

AiH has information written and curated by all types of first-time homebuyers to fit any timeline. We have resources that will help you months, or even years, before making your purchase to help you adequately prepare for the new responsibilities including budgeting and other financial elements, house hunting, and more.

And we don't stop there! Once you've signed on the dotted line, AiH has information on home improvement projects, keeping inline with your budget, and stories of our contributors' heartache and joy from their journey of being a homeowner.

Beyond DIY and home decor.

Adventures in Homeownership thinks beyond the typical and trendy do-it-yourself projects and home decor hacks to provide readers, both perspective homebuyers and new homebuyers, with insight to hopefully prepare them for what lies ahead in their journey. Owning a house is so much more than finding the perfect couch or trying the one million uses for vinegar, it's about your personal journey in prioritizing, finances, decision making, and making a smart investment that is sure to impact your life for many years to come.

We're not experts, we're just like you.


The AiH contributing writers don't claim to be experts in anything other than an expert of their own story. By telling our stories, we hope to help and maybe even educate the new homeowners that are following the same journey. We all understand how daunting this commitment can be and we're here for you through it all.

Interested in sharing your adventure?

Join us and share your journey on Adventures in Homeownership! We are always looking for contributing writers to share their advice on any piece of the homeownership rollercoaster. If you're interested, shoot us a message!

I'm very proud and excited to annouce that myself, along with my Ford Compensation and Benefits team, have been awarded Ragan Communication's Best Benefits Communication Award for our creation of Ford's Benefits eGuide.

On my first day as a Team Detroit employee working with Ford Motor Company, I was handed a brand new project which was a redesign and refresh of printed booklet Ford mailed to employees to explain their benefits and prepared them for the annual Open Enrollment period where they would have to make their benefit selections.

Together with the Ford Compensation and Benefits communications team, we developed a digital, interactive guide that walks employees through all of their benefits and retirement options as well as outlines the steps for Open Enrollment. The 2015 Benefits eGuide was born!

Our interactive 2015 benefits enrollment guide, which is accessible outside the company firewall on desktop and mobile devices, provides a one-stop shop for benefits information from wherever employees (or the family members responsible for decisions) happen to be.

The eGuide features tabs employees can click to seamlessly move through the materials, identifying what they need to know before enrolling, the various choices available to them, and easy-to-follow instructions for completing their enrollments online. Links to calculators and other tools enhance the document, which is also available in printable versions for workers without online access (or with a preference for print).

A comprehensive communication campaign accompanied the revamped enrollment, which resulted in a significant reduction in the number of calls to the service center and a high rating in a follow-up survey. Ford was also able to tout the ecological benefits of a mainly digital enrollment guide while reducing the cost of production, print, and mailing. And because the document was crafted as an informational resource, it serves employees year-round, and is part of the new hire toolkit.


Ragan writes, "In addition to a sound strategic plan and good, measurable outcomes, the production values of the finished guide blew away the competition"

Recognized for our outstanding work producing what is often a dry, officious communication, Ragan's 2014 Employee Communications Award for Best Benefits Communication was awarded to Ford Motor Company. Congratulations to Catherine Biondi (Ford), Kathleen Hurt (Ford), and Katelyn Davis (Team Detroit), along with our counterparts at Xerox.

Ragan Communications has been the leading resource and publisher of information about corporate communications, internal communication and employee communications for three decades.

One of their most popular award programs, the Employee Communications Awards draws hundreds of the finest internal communicators from around the world. The entries demonstrated the many extraordinary ways that internal communicators are informing and engaging employees. This year’s program offered awards in categories covering digital and print publications, videos, intranets, employee communications and more.