Social Media Principles Class

Over the course of my final semester at ONU I have learned a lot of different things about social media in general and also how to become an effective and efficient blogger. We read two different books in my social media course starting with Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Social Media book. This book had highlighted the key aspects of social media and how to use it. The book had talked about how whether you are promoting a business, a product, or yourself, social media is near the top of what determines your success or failure. This book was an essential guide for newbies or experienced professionals in the social media field to give you the most bang for your time, effort and money. This book had come with over 100 practical tips, tricks, and insights to come up with an effective strategy to come up with a strong presence on the most popular social media platforms.

The second book we read was a textbook created by Karen Freberg called Social Media for Strategic Communication. This book had provided us with scholarly research that taught us strategic implementation of social media in both advertising and public relations. This book all taught us the skills needed to use social media in persuasive communication campaigns. It had a broad focus on strategic communication all the way from public relations, advertising, and marketing, to non-profit advocacy.

My favorite assignment during the semester was the podcast assignment. This was my favorite because I always like to listen to podcasts and this was my first time ever trying to recreate what I had heard. This was a fun experience and I feel like I learned a lot from it. The biggest thing I learned was that you need to come prepared when you are going to do a podcast because it is quite easy to run out of things to say.

My favorite part of the class this year was the actual class itself. I never really knew how to effectively use social media and now I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to put out good content. I also loved the relaxed environment that we were in when we actually in the classroom. The class was focused more on group discussion rather than straight lecturing and I feel like that made me learn a lot better.

The only area of improvement I would say that this class needs to look into is the workload amount that is given. I feel like two blogs a week instead of three is a better way to get student more engaged with their blogs instead of feeling like they are being forced to blog at a certain time.

Overall, I had a great experience in this class and would recommend anyone to take it if they want to learn the ways of social media.

How I Stay Motivated as a Senior

Your senior year of college is a weird time. All year, you are focused on making the most of your senior year, finally being finished with college, finding a job, and excelling in school. This combination of events can make it really difficult to stay focused on school. Sometimes, you would rather hang out with your friend or apply to jobs than study for a test. If you are experiencing this, it’s normal! After all of these years of school, you are bound to feel restless and want to engage activities that are fun or that will help your future. As a senior, balancing all of these feelings with school is something I have experienced first-hand. As the year ends, I decided to tell you all just how I stayed focus on school this year.

First, I had to remember that school still matters. Even though I am close to being finished, my grades still matter. First, they matter because they determine whether I pass or fail a class, which will affect whether I graduate. This was a really important motivator for me because I would hate to let being a senior distract me from the reason I am at college in the first place: to get my degree. Second, school matters because my grades will appear on my transcripts which could be viewed by potential employers. I would hate for an employer to not hire me simply because I decided to slack off my senior year.

Next, I had to find a balance between downtime, applying for jobs, and doing school work. Staying on a schedule helped me with this. I usually spent my afternoons and early evenings on weekdays working on school work. I would go to the library to make sure I would not get distracted. On nights and weekends, I made time for relaxation and hanging with friends. I spent my breaks between classes, mornings, and random spurts of spare time applying for jobs. This balance has allowed me to make time for all of the things that are important for me.

Staying motivated during your senior year can be difficult. Sometimes, you will prioritize having fun over studying, and that’s okay. After all of these years, you deserve to enjoy yourself. Just make sure to stay well informed on your grades and assignments so that you don’t get yourself into a hole you can’t get out of. Although college is fun, the real reason we are all here is to get a degree. So, stay focused and work hard! Best of luck to my fellow college seniors with the last few weeks of the semester!

Tiger Woods Post Masters Press Conference

On April 14, 2019, golf legend Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters title at the Augusta National tournament. After the big win, Woods partook in a lengthy press conference, which served as a very important opportunity for PR for him. This Masters tournament is the first time he has won since 2005. As you may remember, a few years back Woods’ was involved in a scandal for cheating on his wife, which was seen as his demise on and off the course. This win is being called his comeback and after watching him play, it’s clear that he really is back. However, a win is not enough for Tiger Woods to be seen as the champion he once was. That is why this post-tournament interview is so crucial for him. He needed to charm the world and prove himself once more.

Watching the press conference made me very nostalgic of who Woods’ was about 15 years ago – a champion whose humor and charm rocked an interview. This interview was especially important for Woods’ because he needed to show the world that he is the same man he used to be. He needed to portray himself in the best way possible to regain his fanbase. The interview covered everything from his most recent win to his first Masters' appearance in 1995. Some moments of the interview that stuck out to me are:

-Tiger expressing gratitude to his father who came out to his first Masters' tournament in 1995, despite having serious health problems.

-Tiger talking about his increased involvement in the lives of his children.

-When Tiger said, “You never give up. That’s a given. You always fight. Just giving up’s never in the equation.”

Other parts of the press conference discussed his playing strategies, hopes for the future, and the types of clubs he played with. Overall, the press conference was an opportunity for Tiger Woods to portray himself in a positive light. I believe he did just that. After watching it, I completely forgot that he spent years struggling to get back on top. Watching it also reminded me just how important good press is to a person’s reputation. The combination of his win and a well-done interview confirm that Tiger Woods achieved the ultimate comeback.

Top 10 Things I Will Miss About ONU

With graduation right around the corner, I can’t help but think about all of the things I am going to miss when I am gone. College has been a really memorable experience and I know it will be sad to leave. So, here are the top 10 things I will miss the most at ONU:

10) The professors – ONU has allowed me to meet some pretty cool professors over the years. Thanks to them, I feel ready to graduate and enter the workforce.

9) Being in walking distance to everything – Ada is small which means you can pretty much walk everywhere. Whether you are going to class, the library, or getting something to eat, you can walk everywhere. I will definitely miss this when I have to drive everywhere after college.

8) Ada sunsets – Ada is home to some of the most beautiful sunsets. I will definitely miss walking on the Tundra or hanging out in my back yard with my friends and watching the sunset.

7) King Horn – There are very few times in your life where you get free access to weights and other work out equipment. I will definitely miss the ease of walking over to King Horn with my friends or teammates for a lift.

6) The Regal Beagle – This is one of Ada’s few bars. I have made lots of fun memories here and will definitely miss seeing all of my pals out at the “Beagle” on Saturday nights.

5) Viva Maria – Viva’s is Ada’s Italian restaurant and I love coming here for dinner. On weekends they offer a buffet with different types of pasta, chicken, veggies, pizza, and more. It is absolutely delicious and an especially fun time when they have live bands playing.

4) The ease of college life – Although studying and doing homework gets tiring, college has been fun and easy. I have minimal bills and responsibility, which has been very enjoyable. I know after graduation life will come at me fast, so this will definitely be missed.

3) Living with my best friends – This year I got to live in a house with 9 of my friends and it has been a blast. Between watching Naruto, cooking dinner together, and making vlogs, we have made some pretty great memories.

2) Friends I’ve made – Since ONU is small, I have been able to really get to know and befriend a lot of people. Whether we had a few classes together or spent every day together, each person will be missed and always remembered.

1) My teammates – As a 4-year member of the men’s lacrosse team, my teammates have become my brothers. Through all the practices, team bonding events, games, and more, we have become brothers. Through the wins and the losses, the laughs and the sighs, we have made countless memories.

Chapter 10 Reading

The 10^th chapter of “Social Media for Strategic Communication” was all about measurement, evaluation, budget, and calendar. All of these aspects are vital to effectively make use of your social media.

The first part of the chapter goes into the importance of measurement and evaluation in social media. It had talked about how measurement focuses on designating specific amount that reflects the change in specific objectives, while evaluation focuses on the assessment or value of certain actions in a campaign or strategy. Both work hand in hand with each other because you need to measure something to be able to evaluate it.

It is also important to have a measurement strategy, with a measurement strategy professionals are able to:

            -Be better informed about their key audiences

            -Be able to execute and create effective content

            -Align content, stories, and other social media updates to be executed at the right time

            -Make each post count and be more effective in coordinating a team effort

            -Identify more efficiently with key audiences, influencers, and others

In social media, it is important to always have a game plan or strategy for the actions, steps, and duties because they contribute to your overall goal and program needs.

When you evaluate your social media activities you can build relationships with your key audiences or influencers, it is important to evaluate for many reasons:

-You will have a better understanding of how your social media channels benefit your brand or client

-You will be able to see the overall performance of the content with and without paid support

-You will be able to not only the place of social media channels within the community you are engaged with but how the content spreads and is received by others

For all of these reasons, it is important to make sure that you pay attention to the measurements and evaluations you or your company are making in order to effectively and efficiently use social media.

Why to choose a communications minor

When I entered ONU freshman year, I was not completely sure what I wanted to do. I declared a major in pharmaceutical business and thought that would be it. However, down the road, I decided it would be to my advantage to add a minor in communications. I have come to realize that communication is a huge part of every career, especially in business.

 

I chose to pick up the communication minor because the need for strong communicators in the workforce is great. Although I considered myself a decent communicator before picking up the minor, I knew I needed to grow my skills and focus on improvement. I was especially excited to learn more about written and non-verbal communication because I hadn’t really had the chance to before.

ONU offers a lot of courses in the Communication and Media Studies (CAMS) program, many of which I have taken to fulfill the requirements for my minor. Some of the classes include presentational speaking, communication theory, health communication, public relations, principles of social media, and more. Each of the classes I have taken has been extremely informative in showing me the ins and outs of the communication field.

In addition to offering a diverse course selection, ONU’s CAMS program has some of the best professors I have ever had. Each professor goes above and beyond for their students, always making sure they understand the material and teaching real-life skills. One huge benefit of the professors in the department is that they are all highly qualified to teach. Each of them has

 so much experience in effective communication, so it makes learning from them more enjoyable.

Another cool part of the CAMS program is the organization Public Relations Students Society of America (PRSSA). This organization meets once a week and presents students with guest speakers who provide advice, insight, and encouragement to students in the field. At the national level, this organization holds various competitions, conferences, and other opportunities which ONU students often participate. From my experience, this organization is a hugely beneficial tool in a young professional’s life.

 

Since declaring my communication minor, I feel much more confident in my abilities and skills for entering the workforce. I know that this minor will give me a leg up on my colleagues and I will constantly utilize the information I learned through the program. 

Mac Improvements

With only a few weeks until graduation, I have found myself pondering my college experience. One of the things I have thought about in great detail are the changes that have taken place at ONU since I arrived four years ago. The most impressive change I have seen is the McIntosh renovations.

Freshman year, Mac was a completely different place. The first area to completely change was when White Bear Inn changed to a Wow Café. While they both serve similar types of food (burgers, chicken tenders, fries), they are very different. Wow Café offers a much higher quality option to students than before. Another cool thing in this area of Mac is that they created Klondike’s, which is a student hang out with TVs and pool tables.

Next, Mac created an on-campus coffee shop that serves Starbucks coffee. I think the whole student body would agree with me that this addition was necessary and impressive. Whether you are craving a latté or a muffin, this coffee shop has what you need. Surrounding the coffee shop is a ton of new, comfortable furniture to sit in while you study or just to hang out in between classes.

The final improvement is the dining hall. My freshman year, the dining hall was a sub-par cafeteria that had a few different areas of food and a big dishwashing station in the center. Student’s criticized the dining hall on the daily and it was a very poor representation of all of the greatness ONU has to offer. The new dining hall is state of the art. It offers students new types of food, including a Mongolian-style grille in the middle. The seating options are diverse and much more comfortable than before. Finally, the dishwashing area is tucked away in the back and much more efficient than before.

In just four years, one building experienced a 180-degree transformation. I am really happy that I got to experience this because it showed me just how much ONU is on the come-up. It also makes me excited to see all of the changes that will take place after I graduate. I look forward to coming back to campus in the next few years and seeing all of the improvements to come, such as the new engineering building.

Infographic

The other day I worked on my first ever infographic to show what I learned during the 2019 Social Media Workshop here at Ohio Northern University. This was a fun process because I had known little about how to make an infographic and I had no idea where to even start. The first thing you must know when getting started is to use the website Canva because it can satisfy all of your needs if you are ever in the business of making infographics. The website can be used by strangers to making infographics as well as experts because it displays everything you may need in an easy to use manner.

The speaker I chose to do an infographic about was Shana Tachikawa. I found her presentation very interesting during the Workshop and thought it would be beneficial to take a deeper dive into her thoughts and make an infographic about it. The main topics Shana had covered were the 7 Social Media Tips to Maximize Event Coordination. I felt this was important to pay attention to because of the research Shana had done that proved how important social media actually is to big events or conferences. After looking into what Shana had described and explained to us I made up an infographic about the presentation which will be shown later.

I faced a few different challenges when creating the infographic that I feel should be explained here. The first problem I faced was my inexperience in the subject of infographics, I have never made one before so I did not exactly know what the assignment was looking for until I took a deeper look into the rubric. Another problem that I had faced was making the infographic look good, I had a vision in my head of what I wanted to do but it was hard to actually put these ideas into the infographic. Now that I am a little bit more familiar with what a proper infographic should look like I feel like I have a better understanding of what needs to be done. I think infographics are a very important tool in the public relations field because it shows a quick and easy way to understand what is being presented to you.

Benefits of Blogging

Many people have never started a blog or consistently kept up with it and they do not realize how beneficial having a blog can actually be. You may think that blogging is not worth your time and effort but it really is. If you work for a business or just have a personal blog it can be very beneficial to your brand.

Having a blog is a great way to express yourself and share your passions, you can share your thoughts and feeling and connect with people that have similar passions or interests as you and build your network. Another reason to have a blog is you can share your knowledge you have acquired on specific subjects, if you are proficient in a topic then you can share your knowledge to other people and educate them with what you know.

Having a blog is also a great way to improve your writing skills when you are writing more you become better at it from having constant exposure to it. Having better writing skills can correlate to your life in many ways. For example, if you need to send a professional email to an industry professional then you want to have more experience in writing so you do not look like you are uneducated.

Having a blog can also help you build your professional network, whether you are blogging with either a personal account or a professional account. One way to do this is by blogging on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a feature in which you can create and publish your own articles. In doing this, you may spark attention from prospective employers and other new professional connections. If you decide to blog for professional reasons, be sure to triple check your article for typos and grammatical errors. Additionally, make sure that the topics you choose to blog about are appropriate and ones in which you are well informed.

Whatever your reason may be for blogging, I know you can find the same joy in it that I have found. No matter your blogging intentions, I am sure that your blog will serve as a necessary outlet in your life to speak about things that matter to you. Finally, always keep in mind that your blog is memorabilia to your life. Years down the road you can come back to them and remember the things that were important to you at the time of writing them. 

Reading Chapter 8

For this week’s reading, we dove into the first part of the 8^th chapter of Social Media for Strategic Communication. This chapter was all about audience segmentation and analysis. The chapter starts out by talking about what audience segmentation is, which refers to the process of categorizing people into a certain group based on specific criteria. This is useful when trying to implement content to a targeted market because when people are grouped together you know exactly who you are trying to show content to. The different audience segments relevant to social media campaigns consist of demographics, psychographics, platform specifics, type of social media user, and social metrics. All of these different audience segments contribute to finding your specific audience.

Later the chapter goes into what an influencer is, and influence is defined as the capacity of power of persons or things to be a compelling for on or produce effects on actions, behavior, opinions, etc. of others. This is huge in the social media world because if you can get an effective influencer more people will want to look into or buy whatever you are selling. It is important to remember that brands and influencers have to disclose their relationship or they could be in some serious trouble. When talking about influencers you must know that influencers have built their connections over time, not with endorsements, but rather through constant social connections. This means that influencers really do have a lot of pull in the social media world because they have been working on their connections and building relationships for a very long time, this shows the trust that people have in influencers. As a social media correspondent be sure to cautious when evaluating influencers. Some influencers may not present true information about who they really are. Some people may change who they really are online in order to look better or more influential so it is important to be wary about authenticity in the engagements with audiences.

April Fools Day

A lot of people love to play pranks of April Fools jokes on their friends and family but have no idea where the origins of these jokes came from. If you didn’t know April Fools is the first day of April where people celebrate by playing practical jokes or spreading hoaxes, the joke is often followed by the perpetrator yelling April Fools! Many companies today have started to commemorate April Fools jokes in their marketing schemes by showing that they are going to come out with a crazy new product or get rid of one of their beloved products. An example of this was yesterday when McDonald's announced that they were implementing a new all pickle burger, this had some mixed reactions where some fans thought this was a hilarious joke while others were outraged with even the thought of a McPickle. This is a key problem with doing an April Fool’s joke because you never know how people are going to react. People can be all about the joke and laugh at it or they can be annoyed and you could receive some backlash for it.

There are many disputed stories of the true origins of April Fool’s day but the most commonly cited one comes from France in 1582. This all started when France had switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The people who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the New Year had moved to January 1^st, still celebrated New Year’s during the last week of March through April 1^st, this cause the people that did not know the calendar had switched to become the butt of peoples jokes. People that were pranked or were the butt of the joke were often said to have a paper fish placed on their backs which symbolized a gullible person. Thus, creating what is commonly known today as April Fools day. 

Ferrero Rocher

This week in the world of public relations lots of big things happened, one of the biggest may be that the Italian candy company, Ferrero, most commonly known for Nutella and Tic Tac. Has acquired many different iconic American brands from Kellogg for $1.3 billion. This acquisition consists of Kellogg’s cookie, fruit snack, ice cream cone, and pie crust business. These combined areas generated a combined $900 million in 2018. The Ferrero group has been on a spending spree since early 2015 from an aggressive new approach by the CEO in order to expand and get more business. The CEO Giovanni Ferrero had said that his goal is to double revenue every 10 years meaning more acquisitions are to come. The Kellogg group that is very well known for the elves making Keebler cookies, actually wanted to get rid of its cookie brand since November 2018, this is due largely to the fact that Kellogg wants to keep its attention towards its main brands of cereals because it is said that the cookie industry is already a very crowded industry.

With Ferrero making so many strong acquisitions you start to wonder if the company is becoming a Monopoly and who are if any, the competitors for this billion dollar company. Some competitors consist of Hershey, Mars, Lindt, Nestle, and Godiva. When you look at all these companies you start to think that they are huge competitors because their brand is so well known. But, Ferrero’s aggressive acquisition style has led it to be in many different industries including cookies, chocolates, candies, and breath-savers. This is a huge competitive advantage for Ferrero because they have dipped their toes in so many different industries while their competitors tend to only be in one or two big industries.

The backstory of how Ferrero created its first top seller is actually very interesting. The company started as a modest coffee and pastry shop during WW2. Back then the shop had to make some tough decisions because cocoa was so scarce during the war, this caused Ferrero to start implementing hazelnuts, cocoa butter, and vegetable oil which was turned into a paste. This paste became very popular among the people coming to the pastry shop and was later named Nutella. It is interesting to look at where the company started and how they were so scarce on materials that they had to switch to other cheaper materials which inevitably lead to an amazing new product.

Chapter 7 reading

This week we dug into the 7^th chapter of the Social Media for Strategic Communication book. This chapter was all about strategic writing for social media. It had talked about how writing effectively on social media is a challenging responsibility for public relations professionals and how many job postings emphasize that this is a fundamental skill that all young professionals should have. I find this fact to be true because as a culture we are becoming more and more reliant on social media so in order to effectively utilize the different platforms in your workplace you need to understand how to write professionally. The book goes on to talk about the six C’s of effective writing for social media. The first C is Content in which you create, curate, and feature relevant content while evaluating its effectiveness. When you make sure your content is relevant to your target audience then you will get more and better interaction from followers because they will truly care about what you are putting out there. The second C of social media is Community where people come together based on common interests, values, and characteristics. When people come together surrounding what you put out there then you are effectively writing on social media. The third C of effective writing in social media is Conversation, this consists of not just responding to a post but engaging in a discussion that is meaningful to both parties. This is important because when you respond to a post or engage with someone in a discussion they can look at it as you are not just trying to market or advertise to them but you are invested in what they have to say. The fourth C of effective writing in social media is Culture, you should make sure to consider someone’s beliefs, ethics, common practices, and professional experiences before commenting or interacting with someone because you could say the wrong thing that insults their culture. The fifth C is creativity in which you are coming up with new and different posts to keep your audience intrigued. If you constantly stay creative and come out with new content then people will be more likely to be interested in what you are putting out there and more likely to engage with what you put out. The sixth and final C of effective writing for social media is Connection, when implementing the other five C’s people can come to a connection with what you are putting out there and are going to want to hear more of what you have to say. If you can implement these six C’s into your social media writing then you can come out as an effective and efficient writer for your brand or company.

Big Boeing Problems

There has been a lot of talk about the Boeing 737 Max 8 recently around the United States. If you do not know what has been going on with these aircraft then I can bring you up to speed. One week ago a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia killing all 157 passengers and crew. This had led to many questions regarding the safety of the aircraft so Ethiopian Airlines grounded all 737 Max 8’s. Following the crash, Boeing had extended its condolences and sent out a team to investigate this event and see what had gone wrong. The next day, on March 11^th, stock for Boeing is down 11.5% in premarket trading, the worst it had been since 9/11. On this same day, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered all 737 Max 8s to also be grounded. Nine hours later Indonesia airlines grounded their flights. According to The New York Times, Chinese and Indonesian airlines are two of the biggest users of the 737 Max. On March 12^th the E.U Aviation Safety Agency also grounds the jet. The same day Trump speaks with the Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg in which the CEO says that Boeing is going to tweak the software of the 737 Max’s flight control system. This same day Elaine Chao, U.S Secretary of Transportation flies on a 737 Max 8 from Austin, Texas, to Washington DC in defiance of a public outcry to ground the jets. On March 13^th Trump finally decides to ground all Boeing 737 Max jets via executive order, Trump had said that Chao and acting FAA head Daniel Elwell “are all in agreement with the action. Any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded until further notice.

These events have turned into a PR nightmare for the Boeing Company. Not only do they have to deal with the problem of recently crashing a plane and killing many people, but they also have to deal with the fact that their planes have been grounded and they could potentially lose billions. With airlines losing trust in the Boeing aircraft they could start losing their business to other manufacturers like Airbus and Lockheed Martin. Boeing will have to soon come to the conclusion of either spending money to fix the technical problems of the aircraft has and trying to prove once again that the aircraft can be trusted, or completely scratching their 737 Max 8s in order to show that their other aircraft are the safest and can be trusted. Boeing is going to have to come up with a big response to these problems that have occurred in order to bounce back, what would you do in order to solve this PR nightmare if you were on the Boeing team?

Zeta Formals

This weekend was the annual Zeta Tau Alpha formal and I was lucky enough to get invited to it. I was skeptical before the event because the last sorority formal I went to was a little too intense for me. The last formal I went to was in Cincinnati with some Kappa Kappa Gammas, this was a fun event besides the fact that every girl sang and chanted the entire bus ride so I got very annoyed. After going to a formal at a big school like UC, I did not know what ONU’s formal was going to be like. 

To start the day we all had to meet at the Zeta house because that was where we were going to be picked up by a bus and taken to the venue. The house was a little overwhelming because there were about 70 girls and all of their dates just hanging out in a pretty small space. When the bus finally arrived we were off to the venue, this was a little worrisome because I did not think it would be that great of a place because we were still in Ada. It turns out it was actually a very beautiful venue. When we were seated at our tables we were given 3 drink tickets to redeem at the bar, somehow when I went to the bathroom I lost all my tickets so that was a bummer, one of my friends brought some extra tickets so they were willing to share with me and it all worked out. 

The night then continued with some dancing but the best part of the night was that they gave me free food, they gave us pulled pork, mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, and noodles so that was great. Towards the end of the night they started to give out superlatives, I, unfortunately, did not get any of these awards even though I wrote my name down 20 times for best dressed. This was sad that I did not get any awards but everyone that got the awards definitely deserved them. I can’t forget to mention my date for the night because she was an absolute smoke show. So overall I had a really fun time at formals and wish I was able to do it all over again.  

Spring Break

To most people spring break is a time to sit back, relax and have a good time drinking on the beach with your friends or family. It is a time that most students look forward to because it is a break from all the drama and work that comes along with school. Spring break is timed perfectly during the school year so that you can have a nice break and then come back to school and finish the semester strong. I, however, have never gone on your typical spring break where you get to party for a week straight and have no responsibilities. Every year during spring break I am occupied with a week of just lacrosse. Some people may look at this and think that I have never been able to go to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami for my break and think that it sucks but I look at it completely different. Having a week to just play lacrosse and not have to worry about any school work is a blessing in disguise. I get to hang out with my teammates for a week straight which in my opinion is better than any beach party because I get to be with my closest friends for a week straight and our only job is to play the game we all love.

This year we went to North Carolina for our break to take on some good competition that you just cannot get from some Ohio teams. The first team we played was Guilford College which is typically a very good team out of the ODAC conference. This game had some more weight behind than a typical regular season game because we played this team two years ago and had lost to them. This loss stung more than usual because they talked a lot of crap the whole game about how Ohio sucks at lacrosse, so we had something coming for them that they were not expecting. We went on to win this game 6-4 which was very exciting for us because we put a cheap talking team in their place.

We had two other games while in North Carolina against two former D2 teams in which we beat them both pretty convincingly. We won all three of our games over spring break and this was the first time we had ever done this as a program so the mood around the team has been very good and we are excited for our next few games against some tough opponents. I had a great time over spring break playing lacrosse with my friends and it just goes to show you no matter the destination you can have a great time if you surround yourself with your closest friends.

Live-Tweet Assignment

 Today, I did a live-tweeting event where I went to the Performing Arts Center and joyfully watched the Ohio Northern Symphony play. If you are interested in the play by play you can see it on my Twitter @THEMAXWEESE give me a follow when you get a chance. This was a very fun event because in all my years I have never been to a symphony. The Ohio Northern Symphony was a great choice for my first time because it was a beautiful and elegant display of great music. Through the entire performance, the audience was totally locked in and, in awe for how amazing the music was. Between all the different instruments and, added vocals this symphony was a must see. I also learned a thing or two about music in general. The first thing I learned was that a Sitar, which I have never seen before, is a string instrument that is commonly used in India. I also kind of learned when it is appropriate to clap and, when it isn’t. There were a few times when I thought that a song had ended and started to clap but in reality, the performers were just taking a little break from the action. After, I had clapped by mistake a few times I decided to just follow the crowd by clapping when they clapped to save myself the embarrassment. Overall, I had a great first time at the symphony and would recommend to anyone that they should go. Follow my Twitter so you can see what happened on this day of music, use #SMspring19 to get to the good stuff!

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 in Social Media for Strategic Communication was all about personal and professional branding. There are many different things to consider when making your brand and they can make or break your online profile. The important components of a personal brand consist of personality, consistency, and expertise. All three of these can help you keep a positive brand and make sure you look professional on your sites.

Bryan Kramer says that there are six different types of personal brands consisting of Altruist, Careerist, Early Adopter, Boomerang, Connector, and Selective. The Altruist brand depicts how the individuals are committed to helping others in the community and actions speak louder than words, an example of an Altruist is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. With a Careerist brand, you are more interested in professional advancement over personal achievements, an example of this type of bran is Gini Dietrich or Jay Baer. The Early Adopter brand is where individuals tend to be the first to share something to their followers and friends and are dedicated to being independent of each other, an example of this is Carlos Gil and Rosanna Pansino. Boomerang, the fourth type of personal brand focuses on individuals that share content to generate a reaction from others whether it be positive or negative, an example of this is Robert Scoble. The fifth type of personal brand is a Connector which are people who are the ultimate networkers and try to make sure everyone knows each other, an example of this is Deirdre Breankenridge. The final type of personal brand is Selective where individuals only share relevant information to a select group of people and are usually exclusive in their networking, an example of Selective is Jason Falls.

It is important to know what kind of personal brand you are shooting for because there are many benefits associated with establishing a strong personal brand.

3 Fast Ways To Get Good Press

The Green Entrepreneur states that there are many different ways to get good and bad press in the world of public relations, today I am going to headline three fast ways to get good press. With the current restrictions on paid media companies sometimes have to shift their focus towards earned media. The first way to get good press in public relation is to know who you are pitching to. It is important to form your publication or pitch to accommodate the target market you are presenting to, it is important to promote stories that are relevant to the writer’s needs. It is important to practice quality over quantity in order to target the people that can truly benefit from what you are putting out.

The second fast way to get good press is to be a valuable asset, it is important to make sure you have value in your leads so that you can make the job easier for your writer or promoter. You must scan your large network so that you can try to find someone with a valuable story to tell even if they are not a current client, in the field of public relations how large your network makes up how much you are actually worth. It is important to broaden your horizons and grow your network because it helps build strong relationships with other people and can help push you higher up at your organization.

The third and final way to get good press quickly is to tell a good story, a good press release can make or break a company in this growing world in public relations. In order to be effective in public relations it is important to have a strong understanding for your client or company in order to depict them in a positive manner. Knowing and understanding your client or company is critical in case you are in situation where you need to get a press release out very quickly. It is also important to send your releases to the right people, sending you stories to someone that can show off your good press release can help your client or company stand out and people will either gain some respect for your client or grow their interest in the company.

Dirty Franks Hot Dog Palace

Being a native of Columbus for 21 years I have had a few meals here and there and like to think I know some of the best spots to stop at whether you are a native of Columbus or just visiting the city. The place I will be highlighting today is a neighborhood hot dog joint called Dirty Franks Hot Dog Palace. It is located in 4^th street which is where there are a lot of different things to do day or night. As the name of the place implies this joint is all about the hot dogs.

What makes this place special is not the hot dog but all the different things that can come on top of that warm lengthy meat. They have many different condiments, some are your regular well-known ones like relish, sauerkraut, and coleslaw. They also have some outlandish ones like mac and cheese, pretzel bites, and scallions. When you visit this place it is hard to just choose one dog because there are so many different options and so many different combinations. A few of the dogs I would recommend for a newbie are the Mike’s Mac Attack, The Real Man, and Tot-cho Dog. Mike’s Mac Attack comes with man and cheese bites, cheese sauce, and bacon bits. The Real Man comes with Coney sauce, sauerkraut, onion, and brown mustard. The Tot-cho Dog comes with tots, cheese sauce, jalapenos, and onion. Each one of these is a good choice for your first time at Dirty Franks because they really bring to light the creativity and deliciousness that each dog has.

Another aspect that makes Dirty Franks a great stop is its location. There are many places around the hot dog parlor that can keep you entertained after you get a great bite to eat. The best place to go after getting dogs, in my opinion, is the bar right next door. This is no ordinary bar but a video game and arcade game bar. 16-bit is a very popular destination because you can play as many videos games in this bar as you want as long as you have an open tab. The games range from classic arcade games like Galaga all the way to newer games that have just recently come out so you have a wide variety of entertainment. So whether you are a Columbus native or just visiting the city I would recommend these two hot spots to ensure you have a good time. 

Buffalo Chicken Sweet Potatoes

Today I will be talking about a great recipe that is a great sweet and savory dinner for you and your friends. Your first impression may a little taken back by this recipe because before I tried I thought it looked weird and was not a normal mash-up of good food. This recipe came to me by one of my roommate's moms and she prides herself on delivering fresh and delicious recipes every time she comes and visits us. This recipe is called buffalo chicken twice baked sweet potatoes, now sweet potatoes and buffalo chicken may sound a little off to you but trust me this meal is mouthwatering. 

This recipe combines some of my favorite foods and sides, most of my dinners consist of chicken because I am a college student currently on a budget and you can buy bulk amounts of chicken relatively cheap. The meal also incorporates hot sauce which I put on almost everything I eat, from breakfast to dinner. The sweet potato part was the part that concerned me a little bit because I do not eat sweet potatoes on a regular basis. But after eating this meal I was impressed to find out how well these foods worked together. This recipe can be used to feed a family for dinner, have a hearty midday lunch, or provide for your friends during a sporting event. No matter when you decide to make this recipe I know you will love it.

Ingredients:

4 medium sweet potatoes

2 cups shredded chicken

½ cup diced yellow onion

½ cup diced celery

½ cup shredded carrots

1/4^th cup chipotle mayo

1/4^th cup of buffalo sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ cup crumbled blue cheese

Instructions:

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place your sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and poke them with a fork. Bake for 45 mins

2.       While the sweet potatoes are cooking combine celery, onion, and carrots into a saucepan and sauté. Set aside once cooked

3.       When the sweet potatoes are done cooking cut them in half and scoop out the insides. Add the insides to the bowl you set aside with celery, onion, and carrots

4.       In the bowl add your shredded chicken, mayo, buffalo sauce, and spices. Mash all of these ingredients together and then scoop them back into the shells.

5.       Evenly distribute your blue cheese crumbles on top of the shells

6.       Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for 20 more mins

7.       Enjoy!

Coors Light #ToastToFarmers

Recently a lot of attack advertisements have been airing targeting different brewing companies. The first to do this was Bud Light, the company aired an advertisement during Super Bowl LIII slamming Miller Lite and Coors Light for including corn syrup in their ingredients. To combat Bud Light, the Coors Light marketing team decided they are going to do a “national toast to farmers” on February 15^th. The angle that Coors Light is taking against Bud Light is that the company did not just attack their brand but they attacked the hard-working American farmers who grow and care for the ingredients that are used in both the companies’ beers. The vice president of Coors had said that “we’re standing up for our beers, our ingredients, and the farmers who grow them.” The Coors Company has not released any details about what the actual toast to farmers will be but the anticipation for the event is growing. After the Bud Light advertisement had aired the National Corn Growers Association responded and expressed their disappointment in Bud Light on behalf of America’s corn farmers. Bud Light did not consider the kind of backlash they would receive due to the advertisement and this may cause them to lose some valued customers. This is a perfect opportunity for Coors to steal some market share from Bud Light by showing that they value the hard working farmers that help make their product. The hashtag #ToastToFarmers has quickly blown up on Twitter and many people are interested to see what is going to happen. If Coors can play their cards right here they should be able to steal some business from Bud Light by showing that they truly care for the people that not only drink their beers but also produce them. We will have to wait and see what happens this Friday and how Bud Light is going to rebuttal.

Super Bowl

Over the weekend as many of you know, the Super Bowl happened between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. This was predicted to be a high scoring game with two powerhouse offenses facing each other. It turned out to be the exact opposite, this game was decided by the defenses of both teams stepping up when their offenses were not producing. With a low scoring game ending at 13-3 in favor of the New England Patriots, a lot of fans felt cheated out of their entertainment. The Super Bowl is usually where fans can sit back and watch two teams clash at each other in a very intense matchup but this year with such a low scoring game fans felt as if this game was a waste of their time.

A big reason as to why people watch the Super Bowl besides for their love of football is the commercials that are aired during the game. These commercials are usually unique, funny, and outrageous. It is very important for these commercials to have an impact on the people that watch them and encourage people to buy the product they are putting out. A 30-second ad during the commercial costs around 5 million, this is an insane amount of money to be giving up for just 30 seconds of exposure. With around 98 million people watching the game it may be safe to say that throwing out 5 million dollars may be worth it to get your brand name out there. The expensive airtime and the number of people watching the game lead to companies and brands needing to make their product stand out to the average American, this is why so many commercials are so outrageous so more people may get intrigued by the product.

One of the biggest commercials that stood out to me during the game was the commercial that had a crossover between Bud Light and the TV series Game of Thrones. This commercial stuck out to me for a few different reasons, the first being that it gave us a preview of the new season of Game of Thrones which so many people are excited about, including myself, and it showed one of my favorite characters in the show “The Mountain”. I found it an interesting concept that the Bud Light corporation was willing to let their own brand be beaten and destroyed in a matchup between The Mountain and an armored knight for Bud Light, from my perspective I feel like if I was advertising my brand I would not want my brand to be defeated in battle but be the one to be victorious.

Chapters 11 and 12 reading

For this week’s reading, we dove into chapters 11 and 12, the final chapters of the book. The 11th chapter of the book focused on how you can optimize the individual platforms that you use. The chapter first talks about how Facebook uses something called “EdgeRank” to determine which posts your followers see. I found this interesting because I have never heard of this and feel like if someone follows you, then they should be able to see all the content you put out not just the stuff that gets the most interaction. 

The next Social Media platform Guy had touched on was Instagram, he talked about how you should keep things short and to the point. This was an important piece of information because I follow some people that post stories with hundreds of hashtags on them and I get easily distracted and do not bother reading the whole thing, I learned to now start keeping my posts short and sweet and to the point. Another solid point Guy had made was, to share your Instagram posts on Twitter and other Social Media sites. This will lead to ultimate exposure time and can cause people that may follow you on one site to start following you on another.

 The next big Social Media platform he had talked about was LinkedIn this one I paid the most attention to because I use this platform on a regular basis because I am starting to look for jobs after graduation. The biggest thing that stood out to me was how Guy had talked about making a personalized request when you are trying to connect with someone cause that can help you stand out in front of possible employers because you look like you are actually interested in them instead of just sending them the automated message.

The last of the Social Media platforms that I use and Guy had talked about was Twitter. Guy had talked about how the use of a graphic can cause more attention to your post. I find this true because whenever I am scrolling through my Twitter feed I usually just scroll not really paying attention to what the words are saying but a picture attached to words always grabs my attention and makes me want to read what it is all about.

The 12^th chapter of the book was about how to put everything together. This chapter talked about how you should build the foundation, amass your digital assets, and go to market. Guy had given an example for a book launch and had emphasized that this technique was to only be used by amateurs and not experts in the field.

Podcast

This week for my blog I decided to do a podcast about the use of Social Media for the Ohio Northern Men's Lacrosse team. We talked to head Coach Nat St. Laurent and his assistant Coach Rossie and found out how they use Social Media.

Chapters 9 and 10 Reading Blog

Chapter 9 was all about how to rock a Twitter chat. A Twitter chat is a live event where people include a hashtag in their tweets to discuss a topic. This is started by the host tweeting out a question and people from all over the world replying to that question with the hashtag so that anyone can see their response.

I find this a very interesting idea because before the reading I had never heard of Twitter chat. I think this is a cool way to see what different people around the world have to say about your topic at hand. I think this idea could be able to help many different businesses find solutions to some of the problems they face, if a business can start a Twitter chat and ask a question about a problem they are facing they could get a lot of people to respond to the problem and could figure out a solution without having to spend a dime. On the other hand, tweeting about your problems could cause people to lose trust in your company and give competitors an upper hand.

I also found it interesting how much the book highlighted how fast you have to be at typing in order to effectively and efficiently perform a Twitter chat, the book had even mentioned that you should hire a typist to type out your responses during a Twitter chat. This was surprising to me because I did not realize how fast-paced a Twitter chat could be, I know understand that with so many people responding to a Twitter chat that typing fast is essential.

The 10^th chapter of the book was about how to not look clueless on social media. This is an important part of the book because it talks about people being too sure of themselves on social media and you could get called out for doing this if you do not know your facts.

It talks about how you should not tell someone what they should or should not share because it is none of your business and you can just unfollow that person if you do not like what they are sharing. I have found myself telling my friends many times that one of their Tweets or post were stupid and they should take it down, I now realize that they are free to share whatever they want whenever they want because that is the freedom that social media gives you and everyone should have the opportunity to share what they feel is important.

My House

I live in a duplex that consists of eight other roommates so you can imagine how it can get a little crazy some days. I waited four years to finally be able to live off campus with my friends. I love living in a house with so many people because there is always something going on. With something always going on this can takes different turns as to being super fun or just too much sometimes. It can be super fun when you just walk out of your room and see at least five of your friends just sitting in the living room so you instantly have something to do. On the other hand, when you want to get some studying done it can be difficult to get stuff done with so much going on.

It was interesting at the beginning of the year trying to figure out who the messy people are and who cleans up their messes. Our house was pretty dirty at the beginning of the year so we decided to come up with a chore sheet to keep order in the house. This chore sheet consisted of eight different chores assigned to different individuals that had to be done once a week and then the individual rotated to a different chore the next week. Having established this order finally we realized how much cleaner our house was all the time compared to before and we were really happy about it.

Another problem we faced was configuring our schedules to be able to efficiently get our laundry done because everyone was trying to do it on the same days because our schedules are so similar. We came to a simple solution that we each had a day that we were allowed to do our laundry while doubling up on the weekend.

The biggest thing I learned from living with so many people is you need to be willing to adapt to other people’s lifestyle because they may be very different than yours. After getting over these humps of figuring out when and what to do for chores I realized how great it is to live with all my best friends and would not trade it for anything.

Pro Bowl

Sunday, January 27, 2019, the National Football Leagues’ all-star game was played in Orlando Florida. This consisted of the best players from each conference went head to head to show off their skills and put on a show for fans. This event was hosted by Verizon and televised by ESPN, around 8 million people tuned in to watch the clash of some of the best players in the league.

On Twitter, there was some negative feedback about the Pro Bowl because fans had said that the players do not care about the game and do not try in it. This lack of effort among players could happen for a few different reasons. The first being that the players are concerned about getting injured for the upcoming season which causes them to not want to go all out each play and protect themselves. Another reason behind players not caring as much in the Pro Bowl as they do in real games are the cash incentives, each player from the winning team of the Pro Bowl earns $64,000 while every player of the losing team earns $32,000. This is a minuscule amount for these top tier players who are used to making around $80,000 or more a game with more money made from sponsorships and endorsements. Other incentives are offered to players when their team does better in the regular season and the playoffs so players tend to disregard the Pro Bowl and not take it seriously.

The AFC completely dominated the NFC coming away with a 26-7 convincing victory. Patrick Mahomes walked away as the offensive MVP with 156 yards and 1 touchdown. The young Kansas City quarterback showed this season that he is the real deal. After leading his team to the AFC championship in only his second year in the league Kansas City can place their hope for the future in this young quarterback.

After the game, another outburst on Twitter happened when Jason Witten tried to pick up the Pro Bowl trophy and it broke in half. Fans had talked about how the NFL does not even care enough to get the players a real trophy instead of a plastic one, this also leads to more complaining about how the Pro Bowl is just a weak excuse to get more money from fans.

Due to the negative feedback that engulfed social media after the Pro Bowl, it is safe to say that the NFL is going to need to make some major changes to the format of this “all-star” game in order to keep viewership and ratings up!