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.