Social Media in 2013

While browsing around PR News Daily I found an interesting article about the top tips for using social media in 2013. With social media and the internet things are always changing. What you were doing with social media at the beginning of this year may be silly when 2013 comes around. The biggest part of being successful on social media is keeping up with the times and staying relevant. The articles number on tip was this:

1. "My #1 tip: Read. A lot. Spend the majority of your time reading. Everything. Books, blogs, magazines, newspapers, everything. Read content out of your sphere of interest and read content that drills down into areas you are very passionate about. Reading inspires creativity and helps me create content." — Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image


I thought this was a great tip and obviously so did PR News Daily since it was listed as number 1. Social media is all about knowing as much as you can about what is going on on the internet, in the world and with your target audience. Reading blogs will help keep you fresh. I love that Joel says to read outside of your comfort zone. You always want to be well rounded when it comes to knowledge. You don't want to only know about one subject. So in 2013 read everything that gets placed in front of you and everything you have a chance to get your hands on. It will probably come in handy. 

The light at the end of the tunnel

I can finally see it! I never thought this day would come. This is the last week of classes for the semester. After this, finals week. I only have one paper due during finals week so finals will actually be the easy week for me. Although finals week will be easy, this week will not. This week truly will be dead week for me. I have about a million project and papers to wrap up. But I will make it! I'm really looking forward to the end of the semester because this semester has been so crazy and I'm ready for Christmas. I miss seeing my friends and being with my family. Doing Christmas activities is so much more exciting without giant papers looming over my head. It's like sugarplums dancing in my head, except the nightmare version. I really want to go see the lights at the zoo this year. I have never been to the zoo to see them and I feel like this is the year. The school year has been stressful so far and I think I deserve a special treat for surviving. So here we go, 5 more days! We can make it!

PR Promo

For my social media class we are required to make a video about the public relations program at my school and post it to YouTube. iMovie was incredibly easy to use and you can publish your videos directly to YouTube from the program. For my video I wanted to show prospective students all of the options that the pr program has to offer. I discussed national conference, luncheons, and PRSSA meetings. I hope you all enjoy my video!

Life's a beach: Thanksgiving on the Gulf

We've always said, in my family, that our dream was to spend Thanksgiving on the beach.  Listening to the waves crash as we carved our turkey - that's the stuff of fantasies.  So this year, with my cousin and his new wife living in Alabama, we decided to kill two birds with one stone.  We stopped in to see them on our drive south, and then they joined us on Dauphin Island for Thanksgiving off of the gulf coast of Alabama.
We rented a house, where our backyard was the beach.  Twenty yards away, we set up beach chairs, umbrellas and fishing poles in the hot November sun.  We even managed to meet some wildlife, with a heron joining us for our fishing and dolphins cresting on the waves within swimming distance.  As the shrimp boat tugged by every morning, we watched pelicans dive and splash for churned up aquatic sustenance.  Packs of dolphins, the island's namesake, seemed to appear every day at roughly the same time, to our amazement and amusement.
We decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner a day early, as some of group had to head back on Thursday. The usual fixin's made an appearance: sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, homemade pumpkin and pecan pies, creamy green bean casserole, and, of course, a juicy gobbler with from-scratch stuffing.  Early that morning, we visited the local bakery (one of only a handful of businesses that existed on the island, which is 6 square miles of land) and returned with fresh bacon-wrapped rolls and cream cheese danishes.  Once dinner was prepped, we all headed down to the beach for some Thanksgiving sun-bathing before we started cooking.
As the sun set, firy red and glowing, all of our appetites were more than sated, as was our desire to get a little sun, sand and surf.  When we packed up our suitcases (and put away shorts and bathing suits for what was probably the last time for at least 6 months) a few days later, it was bittersweet to end this Thanksgiving trip.  But, with the taste of pumpkin still on our lips, sweetness won out, as we decided that perhaps this was the beginning of a brand new Thanksgiving tradition.

Here is my family at Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island.

The view from our front porch on Thanksgiving Day.

And finally, this was our gorgeous house for the week!

Motivation Out to Sea

My family and I arrived at Dauphin Island on Saturday evening and it has been a blast so far. Our has is on the Gulf shore. The house is beautiful. Yesterday we woke up to dolphins swimming right in front of our house. The only problem with all this beauty is I have lost any motivation for homework I may have still had. I just want to lay in the sun and hang out with my family. We don't all get to be together that often so I don't want to spend this time doing homework. But little by little I'm getting things done. Later this week I'll have more pictures to post but for now I will leave you with a preview. This picture is of a heron that was fishing yesterday morning that allowed my mom and I to hang around with him for a little while. My mom and I named him Salvador.

Cell phone crazy

I thought this infographic from PR News Daily was really helpful! It provided a lot of statistics and I have to admit that I do a lot of the things on this list. I sleep with my cell phone in my bed or on the night stand. I use my phone as an alarm clock so it needs to be near me when I'm sleeping. I also usually have the my phone in the bathroom most of the time. I don't really know how it happens but I guess I'm just so used to having it with me that my cell phone just ends up in there. But I do get really annoyed when people use their cell phones in quiet places or when they are checking out at a store or restaurant. I think if you know you are going to have to talk to another human being in person you should try your hardest to not be on the phone at the same time. Read the statistics people! Find out what kind of a cell phone user you are. 

If I don't get it by now, I'll never get it

I was so glad to see that my classmates were feeling the same about Katie Paine's book. I feel like she repeats herself a lot and it makes the book a hard read when you are just sitting in a classroom and can't actually apply much of the lessons she is teaching. The book might be more helpful once I'm a professional with a real job and I'm actually experiencing similar situations to the ones Katie is explaining. But until then, it just seems like she is rambling. I enjoyed all the other books that we were assigned this semester because they didn't repeat themselves and the books gave great examples of different pr situations. Those books I could relate to as a consumer. But from Measure What Matters all I'm really taking away from it is the importance of measurement, in all situations. You should measure even when you don't want to, or when you think it's expensive, and especially when you think you already know what is going on with your company. We have a test over this book tomorrow and lets all just pray that I can keep all of her lists straight long enough to answer all the questions. If nothing else I will just guess that the company needs to find their target audience and set benchmarks!