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!

Twitter for the win

Twitter played a big role in the election this year, along with all social media. This election year Twitter stood as a forum of sorts for people around the country and around the world to discuss what was going on with the election and the campaigns. According to this article on Technorati Twitter broke many records this month. When Obama was reelected his campaign sent out a tweet of a picture of Obama and Michelle with "Four more years" written with it. This tweet broke the record for most retweets with  455,000 and counting. Twitter and other forms of social media can not be ignored any longer. Candidates from here on out will need to really consider the use of social media in their campaigns. Obama was very present on social media in his campaign but Romney wasn't as present. I don't think this decided the election but I think any little bit helps. Where can you find young voters? On social media. If you are reaching them and getting them excited for the election then they are going to go out and vote, and they are probably going to vote for whichever candidate made them feel so involved in the election. I think it is going to be very interesting in the next election how the use of social media plays a roll. Social media will be 4 years older and more developed and we will have brand new candidates to use these tools for their success. It will be exciting but I think everyone could use the four year break. Those presidential ads were getting ridiculous!

Overwhelmed

I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing it by now but I feel like this semester has the most work out of all my time at ONU. I'm sure the fact that we are on semesters now doesn't help at all. It seems like there is no end in sight and the school is just trying to torture  us. I know that can't be the case but it sure feels like it. I think I have/will write more papers this semester than I have in a single school year my entire life. As much work as writing paper is I would choose this over a class that just takes two big tests over the semester and that's it. Those kinds of classes scare me and I don't think that I learn well that way. I don't like for half my grade to rely on one test. I've never been an amazing test taker. I have always been much more of a visual learner. I have friends that love to take the test class and don't get me wrong I see the appeal. They aren't drowning in school work every week like I am. I wish I could be a two test and done kind of girl but unfortunately that is never going to happen for me so I just have to suck it up and realize that my life will probably be pretty stressful from here on out. Maybe I'll just get better at juggling. Here's hoping!

Communities and Neighbors

In Measure What Matters by Katie Paine she provides another helpful list. This list is the seven steps to measuring relationships with your communities and neighbors. The first step was to agree upon solid measurable goals that are tied to the bottom line. I think this is the most important step. That is probably why Katie listed it as the first step. She must agree. With anything in school or life you have to have a focus. Many times when I'm writing a paper I don't keep that in mind enough. When researching there should be one focus. Before you even sit down to write or research you should have one goal that you are hoping to achieve when you are done.

So when you decide to measure your company's success I don't think it should be any different from researching or writing a paper. You have to have one main focus. And everyone on your staff or team needs to know what that focus is. As Katie Paine says these goals have to be tied to your bottom line. There is one thing your company hopes to achieve. You have to know what that one thing is and all of your work relates to making that one thing successful. Like I said this seems easy but we always seem to forget the simple things. But just remember when you are measuring, stay focused and work towards the goal your company set for itself.

Thanksgiving

Can it be Thanksgiving break yet? This semester seems like it has been going on for years. I'm ready for a break. I want family time with no homework to worry about. It's very hard for me to wait for Thanksgiving break because it is one of my favorite holidays and because my family is running away to Dauphin Island, Alabama this Thanksgiving. My mom, dad, aunt, uncle and two cousins are going. I'm beyond excited to spend my favorite holiday on the beach. It's like an excitement overload. My family usually rents a beach house in the Outer Banks every summer but we all decided we wanted to try something new this year so we picked a new location and a new time. Don't get me wrong, I love the Outer Banks but we always go there and I think it is time for a change. I have also never been to the Gulf of Mexico. I'm excited to experience a new ocean. I'm not a huge fan of Winter and I can feel it creeping in. Its getting much colder and it gets dark at 5:30. I think the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s during the day on vacation and that is just perfect for me. I'm not going to want to come back. I am really looking forward to experiencing a new island. I love exploring and I like to experience all the trip has to offer. So I would really love it if the next 10 days would hurry along. I'm ready to be surrounded by white sand beaches and blue skies! See you in 10 days Dauphin Island! 

Social Media Problems

During the Sandy storm I was watching the live feed on Twitter to stay updated. One of my favorite things to look at are pictures because I'm a very visual person. But the problem I have with Twitter is that some times I'm looking at a very rule looking picture but it is fake. The picture to the right is an example of that. This picture doesn't look as real as some of the others but still I have never seen a hurricane take place so I don't know what it looks like in person. I know this isn't really Twitter's fault because they aren't posting the picture, the users are. But I still wish there was a way that Twitter could tell me, "Hey this picture is fake." I also think it is kind of weird that during a national disaster people are posting fake pictures. I get that people want to be dramatic and make jokes but to the rest of the world looking at the pictures we don't know what to believe. Twitter did do something to react to this. There was an article posted of the top five or 10 fake pictures of Sandy. There were some outrageous pictures and others were normal looking ones that could have easily taken place. I guess I just don't understand the reason for the "real looking" fake pictures. I guess what I'm saying is don't post fake pictures and pass them off as real. If you have a cool picture to post just tell people it's fake. Sorry for the rant guys. I just find this so annoying.

Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween two of my friends and I dressed up as loofahs. We went to OU for their annual Halloween party. Or if you are an avid Twitter user their HallOUween party. HallOUween was the hashtag for the weekend. My roommate through all of ONU, Megan, graduated last May and she now goes to OU medical school. This was our first time visiting her since she started school. I had never been to Athens before this past weekend. It was great to get to see her and her very own "big girl" apartment. On Saturday morning Megan drove us through the campus which was so beautiful, especially in the fall. The campus was a little too spaced out for my liking but it was still great. She also drove us downtown and through Athens other neighborhoods. The downtown is adorable. The roads are brick and there are many little shops and different restaurants. I hope that I can go back when we have more time to wander around and try some different restaurants. Saturday night was great. Athens blocks off the main road by campus and the street is lined with bars and there were people everywhere in the street. It was awesome to walk down the street and see tons of people dressed up as so many different things. We saw everything from marshmallows to Clifford the big red dog. We all definitely had a good time but it was very crowded. I think everyone should experience OU Halloween at least once in their life, especially just to see that many people dressed up in costumes. But I don't think it's something I feel the need to do every year. But if you love Halloween and costumes, check it out!

New Rules of Social Media and PR

Measure What Matters by Katie Paine described the rules of public relations and social media changing. This isn't the first time I have heard this. We live in a very different world than we did 10 years ago. Social media has changed everything. Katie Paine describes the new rules:

1. You're not in control.

2. There is no market for your message.

3. It's about reaching the right people.

4. You WANT to be talked about.

I think the most important rule in this new list is the fourth rule. Your company WANTS to be talked about. People are so used to things being bad if your company is being talked about. But customers talk about good things your company does too. Even if your company is being talked about in a negative light at least your customer's care enough about your company to talk about you. Katie Paine mentions that if your company is not being talked about it is hard to convince journalists that your company or product is newsworthy. It's important to spark conversation with your customers and customer to customer conversation as well.

If people are talking let them talk. And most importantly listen. If your customers are talking negatively about your company you can learn what they want to change. If they are talking positively about your company, keep listening. It is always a good idea to know what your company is doing to make your customer's happy.

Google +

I feel like I'm pretty up to date with social media. As long as it has been popular I've had some form of social media. I had a Xanga, which seemed a lot like Blogger. I had friends/followers and I would basically write a blog post for everyone to see. With Xanga you didn't really interact with people other than commenting on their posts. You couldn't write on their page like you can now on Facebook.

After Xanga I had a Myspace. Myspace was a lot like Facebook in some ways. You had friends/followers like with Xanga, but you could write on another person's page. With Myspace you could rank your friends and everyone was over dramatic and thought it was a big deal to be on someone's top friends list. But eventually Facebook took over and a lot of us, including me, left our Myspace page high and dry. 

Now I have Facebook and Twitter. I love them both separately. They both allow me to do the social media things I want to do. One allows me to keep up with friends and the other allows me to read funny posts and keep up with celebrities and current events. But I don't understand Google +. I'm not trying to discredit Google + but I'm not sure what it can offer that the other sites already have. If anyone can tell me what they love about Google + that Facebook or Twitter doesn't have I would love to hear it. I guess I'm just wondering if there is a reason to add it to my list of daily checked social media. Social media already takes up a good portion of my day. And I'm reluctant to add another if it just the same thing I already have. So if there are any Google + lovers out there I would love to hear from you! 

Can Twitter make you smarter?

An article I recently read said that smarter people tend to enjoy using Twitter over Facebook when using social networking. A study at Michigan State also revealed that students who use Twitter tend to be more engaged with their studies and have higher grades.

As I have said before in my blog I prefer Twitter to Facebook. I don't know if I see any correlation between Twitter and my grades but I feel like Twitter helps me to stay connected with current affairs more than Facebook does. When the presidential debates were on I recorded them but followed the hashtags on Twitter because I wanted to know what people were saying about the candidates. I follow a lot of people on Twitter that I really respect the opinions of. Mostly the people I wanted to read tweets about were celebrities that I respect. When I would get on Facebook during the debates I felt like it was just a bunch of people complaining about the candidates and not really saying anything productive about the debate. This may just be one example but I feel like Twitter is more educational but it can also be funny and pointless, it just depends whose tweets you are reading about or what topic you are reading about.

In my news writing class we have to write news stories all the time and our teacher gives us advice on how to get better at writing our leads. One of the tips she gave us was to pretend like the lead of our article was a tweet on Twitter. She said to pretend we only had 140 characters to get our point across and we had to fit the most important fact of the article in those limited amount of characters. This really helped me because it made me condense what I was saying and really focus in on what my article was about.

I think I would have to agree with the article I read. Twitter can be educational. I'm not sure if it can make you smarter but if you are using Twitter the right way it can definitely make you more aware of current events and even make you a better writer if you use my news writing teacher's tip!

Halloween

I love Halloween! It's one of my favorite holidays. I think it's partly because it takes place in my favorite season, Fall. And I just love the spirit and feeling of Halloween. I've always been interested in witches and the super natural side of things. I'll admit I believe in spirits and ghosts and have always had in odd interest in Tarot cards, psychics and Ouija boards, although I'm not sure how much I believe in them. 

My favorite parts of Halloween are endless. I love:

• Carving pumpkins
• Going to pumpkin patches and picking out my own pumpkin.
• Hayrides
• Cider
• Trick-or-Treaters
• Passing out candy
• Dressing up
• Halloween parades
• Attending Halloween parties
• Watching scary movies
• Going to haunted cornfields

I just love every part of Halloween! I can't wait for the day to get here. I'm dressing up with two of my friends as loofahs. I'm making the costume this week and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Benchmarks

In the current book we are reading for my social media class, Measure What Matters, the latest chapter talked about the seven steps to the perfect measurement program.

The most interesting step to me was step 4: Determine Your Benchmark. I think this step was the most interesting to me because it explained some things that I hadn't heard of before. All the other steps were relatively familiar to me, especially the step about knowing your audience. But the benchmark step had some new terms that I didn't know before. The three terms used in this section of the book were stretch goal, peer company and underdog. Stretch goal refers to the companies or products that are are more popular or produce a better product than you. In class we discussed the terms in reference to colleges. So Harvard would be a stretch group to ONU because it is an Ivy League school and provides a better reputation and education that ONU does. Then there is your companies peer company. Your peer company would be a company that produces a similar product or service to yours. So for ONU our peer company would be Ohio State or University of Toledo. The underdog is a company that is inferior to yours. In reference to ONU our underdog would be communities colleges.

Not only do you have to track the success of your competitors but your company also has to compare themselves to themselves. It seems obvious to me that you wouldn't know how well you were doing unless you knew if your company was doing better or worse than the year before. Katie Paine reminds readers that it's important to be tracking your companies successes and failures. In order to know where your company is headed you have to know where your company has been. We hear it over and over again, but that's what makes it important. Don't forget to measure your company's programs!

Pinterest

I love Pinterest. There I said it. When I first heard about Pinterest over a year ago I didn't understand the concept at all. One of my roommates is an early adopter of new things so she already had Pinterest and she was obsessed with it. She asked me if I wanted her to invite me to Pinterest so I could also be a member. I replied that it didn't really matter to me either way. But over this past summer is when I really started to understand and use it the most and now I can't stop. I have tried several recipes from Pinterest and I haven't made one yet that wasn't delicious. I will leave you now with my favorite Pinterest recipe so far. If you love Mexican food like I do you should definitely make these Mexican Stuffed Shells. They are easy and delicious! Click here for the recipe! Enjoy!

Surprise!

This weekend  I attended a surprise birthday party for one of my best friends, Cody! It was so fun. He had absolutely no idea that there was a party planned. We took him out to dinner for sushi, which was delicious as always and then we went back to his house where everyone was hiding and the whole house had been decorated. When he walked in the door he screamed. And once he caught his breath he went around and hugged everyone and told everyone how surprised he was. It was truly a great night. Cody was having the best time and all of his friends were there, even people he hadn't seen in a long time and people from out of town he never would've expected. When I was getting ready to leave he told me that this had been one of the best nights of his life and he was sad that it was over. He told me that it was so cool to have everyone he loved in one house for the night. Which got me thinking, how often does that happen. A surprise party really is one of the coolest things. It's one party that everyone that you love comes over and no one worries about who gets along and who doesn't and no one worries about whether or not people know each other because you are all there for one reason that suddenly makes you friends. There were a lot of people I knew and a lot of people I didn't know but everyone was so friendly and by the end of the night I had new friends that I hadn't expected. It was a great party and a great night and I'm so glad everyone was able to keep it a secret from Cody because he absolutely loved it!

Measure What Matters

I'm now reading Measure What Matters by Katie Paine. In the chapter one there is a section called dispelling the myths of measurement. My two favorite myths that Paine points out are: myth #3 measurement is expensive and myth #7 I know what's happening: I don't need research.

Probably my favorite among the two myths is the measurement is expensive myth. It baffles me that companies actually use this as an excuse to not measure the success of the programs they are running. If a company is running an unsuccessful program it could be costing them thousands or even millions of dollars. So maybe measurement is a little expensive or maybe it's not. Either way I can't believe a company would be willing to throw out that much money and not even know if their program is working or not. It reminds me of the saying "you have to spend money to make money". In this case sometimes you have to spend a little money to make sure the money you are dishing out is actually worth it. Do yourself a favor. Measure your programs. It could end up saving the company money.

Next is myth #7, I know what's happening: I don't need research. You may know what is going on with your company but you can not possibly know all the ways your programs are making or losing money. You can't know instinctively how the client or customer is reacting to your product. You have to do research to figure these things out! Don't just go around assuming that everything is fine just because your company's Facebook has a lot of followers. That doesn't mean anything in terms of measuring your product's success.

Companies everywhere, don't forget to research! You could find out some interesting things and you may just save a little money too.

The Path to Great PR

This week we had to read a handout about the path to great pr. On the first page the handout says "Regardless of the platform, it will always be your job to make sure that your public relations and marketing communication are done for the right reasons, at the right time to reach your stakeholders with information, in a manner that gets their attention." Right away we are hearing a lesson that has been drilled in to our heads many times. No one seems to be able to stress enough  how important it is for public relations practitioners to respond to their customers and get involved with the conversation. Just as important as getting involved with the conversation is responding in a timely fashion and using the right media to do it.

I think that if more practitioners thought about how they feel as a consumer this would be a no brainer. When I think of myself as a customer and what I want from a company that I'm involved with in some way it seems simple. I want them to be honest about their company. I'm impressed when I see a company responding quickly to a consumer's complaint. I'm also impressed when I hear someone I know and trust saying good things about the company. I want the company to be up front and transparent about what their doing with new products as well as how they are handling any issues that are presented to them. If the practitioners think in this frame of mind it could really help them know what to do in difficult situations.

Puppy Sitting

My best friend has been in South Carolina for the past week for her sister's wedding. Which means that I have her puppy, Daisy. It has been an interesting week to say the least. She looks innocent in the picture because I was able to catch her in a moment when she was actually sitting still. This kind of thing doesn't happen often. It has been a long week of cleaning accidents from the floor, picking up scraps of what used to be toys and of course in the calm moments (basically when she is sleeping) thinking how cute she is and then she opens her eyes! Probably the craziest moment of the week was when I took her to the dog park to let out some of her energy. It had been raining a little since it basically rained all week. There was one puddle at the dog park that was just one giant watery mud hole and she laid right down in the puddle. Then a dog who seemed to love the puddle even more than she did showed up and they started to play in the puddle together. By the end of the trip she was covered in mud and soaking wet. Thankfully there is a hose there so we just rinsed her off and let her dry before we loaded her up in the car. Moral of the story we haven't been back since then in fear that the puddle is probably still there because it hasn't been warm enough to dry it. Her mom should be home either today or tomorrow and my house will be less exciting when she leaves but I think everyone is ready to go back to their normal routine. I know the cats are ready to see Daisy leave. The cats aren't Daisy's biggest fans. But we will miss her none the less.

Family Discussion

I recently posted a podcast on my blog about a discussion I had with my family about Facebook. The discussion was really interesting and got kind of heated at times. The most interesting part of the discussion for me was that almost everyone in the room hated Facebook but still logged on and used it multiple times a week. I think that is basically how social media works. Most or some of the people that use don't actually like the fact that they spend so much time using it. But we can't help it. It's addictive. As humans we are naturally curious about other people's lives. We want to know what they are doing, who they are with, what vacation they recently took and we definitely want to see all the pictures of them doing said activities. Facebook is the perfect place for us to find all of this information. But sometimes I think it's not really being nosey if the people are willingly posting the pictures and status updates about their recent activities. That is another reason Facebook works so well. People are curious about their friends or acquaintances and people want to post about whatever vacation they just took. Facebook users supply the information knowing full well there will be hundreds of people with access to their pictures and status updates. One of the other most interesting parts of my interviews was when my aunt said that her Facebook time replaced the time she used to spend watching the news. Facebook is more exciting to her because she relates better to Facebook. She can relate to one of her coworkers status updates better than she can to news of explosives over seas. Should we care more about Facebook and social media than what is going on outside our little worlds? Probably not. But we can't help what we are interested in. Somehow we all will just have to find a good balance between social media and current affairs. 

Podcast

For my social media class I made a podcast. I talked to my family about social media which just turned in to a giant discussion on Facebook. Click here to get to my pod bean page and then click listen now on the pod bean page! Hope you enjoy it!

Wedding Weekend

This weekend was my cousin's wedding. My family is very close and growing up I was always around my cousin Andrew and his sister Erin. I honestly think of them more as siblings than I do as cousins and we definitely act more like siblings also. I'm always thankful that my mom made sure we were close because I'm an only child and that can get lonely sometimes. Anyway, Andrew got married this weekend to a great girl that we all love. They have been dating for around five years so she already felt like family to me. I was one of the bridesmaids and it was a ton of fun. They got married in a beautiful park in Toledo. They said their vows on a dock with the fall trees in the background. I meant to take pictures with my phone so that I would have one to post but I failed at that but I'll get some pictures some where and post them another time. This weekend was a whirlwind of family and fun. I'm exhausted but it was completely worth it. It's always hard to get back in to the swing of things after a fun weekend away but I'm making it through. The memories of this fun weekend will hopefully be enough to get me through to next weekend!

Internet Townsquare

In Real Time Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott he talks about the internet being like a town square. This is a great way of explaining the internet and social media. I have grown up mostly in a generation that has information at their fingertips. Anything I need to find is just a few clicks away. If there is a song that I haven't heard in ten years I can find it on YouTube or download it from iTunes. The same goes for television shows that have been cancelled for a long time. I know there will be at least one site that will allow me to watch that television show. So I agree that the internet is a virtual town square. I get on my computer and I can see what my friends are doing on Facebook, on Twitter I can see what celebrities and companies are saying. On Instagram I can see pictures of my friends and celebrities. This seems normal and sometimes necessary to me because I grew up with technology and social media. I don't know how things are going to evolve in the future but I think social media, in one way or another will always be around.

Company Facebook Pages

In this article from Technorati it talks about why people like brands and companies on Facebook. Most people are liking the page because they are hoping to get something free or a discount on whatever product that company produces.

I personally don't have a lot of companies as Facebook friends. I would have to be really interested in a company for me to find them on Facebook. I have followed companies in the past and I felt like they posted too frequently. I get annoyed when I log on to Facebook and all I see are posts from one person or organization. For me to stick with someone they would have to post frequently but not so much that I could get tired of hearing from them. And most importantly I want their posts to be useful or funny or intelligent. I want to take something from the post. They don't have to be giving me free or discounted things for me to want to read their posts. They could even just be a little funny blurb or comic strip. For companies I just feel like it is a fine line between reaching your customers effectively and really just annoying them and having them ignore your posts and possibly even stop following you.

Knowing your media

In the book Real Time Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott he talks about getting to know your local reporters. I think this is an easy step to becoming credible that most professionals often overlook. It makes sense to me that as soon as you need something and run to a reporter who has never heard of you may be skeptical about helping you out. Plus it could leave the reporter feeling used if he/she only hears from you when you need something. So stay involved. Get to know them.

The following are some easy steps you can take to be a credible source for your local reporters:

Follow their publication: It's a lot easier to market your idea to someone if you know what interests the person and you have a feel for what type of story or news that certain reporter likes to write about.

Comment on stories and blog posts: Get your name out there! If you post on their blog or stories and you are intelligent about your posts they will start to recognize your name. If they recognize your name you are no longer someone they have never heard from before.

Send an email introduction: Send them an email telling them who you are working for and what your job is with that company. Tell them what your specialties are and be friendly!

Follow the reporter on Twitter: This is a super easy step. They will see you have followed them. You can retweet and comment when necessary. This is just another way to get your name recognized.

With these easy steps that won't take you very long at all there should be no reason that your local media isn't familiar with you. The more familiar they are with you the likelier you are to have your story  or press release recognized.

Where are you fall?

Fall is my favorite season. It has gotten unusually cold pretty quickly this month and I'm not sure I like it. I like when it gradually turns to sweatshirt and jeans weather. I'm hoping that Fall is hiding somewhere close by and will show itself after this cold front moves on.

Some reasons that Fall is my favorite season:

The leaves change colors and there are piles of them everywhere to jump and play in. I also love those bags that look like jack-o-lantern faces when you stuff them with leaves.

Like I mentioned before the temperature changes and everyone starts wearing hoodies and jeans. You can go outside and be comfortable and not sweat to death.

Fall also includes two of my favorite holidays: Halloween and Thanksgiving. My Mom and I love Halloween. We pass out candy to all the little trick-or-treaters and the best part of all we go to the pumpkin patch in Toledo and pick the perfect pumpkin out right from the pumpkin patch to take home and carve. Thanksgiving is my other favorite holiday because everyone comes home to be together and my family spends the whole day cooking together and listening to Christmas music. And we all eat a delicious meal together.

Last but not least I love lattes and other special coffee drinks and in the Fall everyone goes crazy on specialty coffee drinks!

Fake Friends

An article on Technorati says that Facebook is finding that some users are using fake names or pseudonyms for their usernames. This is costing advertisers a lot of money because they are spending money marketing to, essentially fake people who aren't going to buy anything. The blog was asking if people would be willing to report their friends if they were using fake names. Or if anyone could think of a good reason that someone would have to use a fake name.

I don't think I would have a problem reporting someone with a fake name. I have gotten friend requests from users that I have never heard of before and their names don't seem like real names. I don't know why someone would be using a fake name unless they were up to no good. Facebook is a social network site. People use it to stay connected and find old friends or distant family. Using your real name is the first step to successfully staying connected. So if you get a friend request from someone who you think may not be real report it to Facebook!

Riding the Buzz

In The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott he talks about riding the buzz. There is no formula to make a video go viral or popular. But when there is a video that contains your companies product or brand and it happens to go viral you have to ride the buzz. What does this mean exactly? The company has to first be listening to what is going on in the public with their company. You won't be able to do anything with your company's buzz if you don't know about it. Then you just need to capitalize on all the free publicity that your company is getting. It's a fine line between supporting the publicity and over supporting it. This kind of free attention is going to happen very often so the company should be thankful.

Scott uses the example of the Coke and Mentos video. Mentos did the right thing and supported the video while Coke said it wasn't their style of publicity. I don't think it should matter what style of publicity your company or brand is going for. Here is a huge free marketing tool thrown at you that your customers think is a pretty cool concept so I say go with it!

iPhone 5 Confusion

The iPhone 5 was announced last week. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone because whenever there is a new Apple product announced most everyone I know is talking about it. Apple is great at getting the public and other companies in their field excited about what they are doing with their new products. Everyone wants to have a look at what the new phone or gadget will look like and what new improvements Apple has made. Even non Apple users want to be in on the action. The iPhone 5 was no exception. 

When I saw what the new phone looked like I was surprised to find that it didn't really look that different from the iPhone 4 that I have now. It supposedly runs faster and has a bigger screen and other various improvements but I was surprised how unexciting it was for the most part. With as much hype as their was I really thought there would be more improvments. Don't get me wrong it's still great. I love my iPhone and wouldn't trade it for any other phone in the world. But I think overall people were just expecting something more. One of the biggest things I was happy to hear they changed was the navigation app. The navigation on the iPhone 4 is terrible. There are no voice directions and you have to manually change the directions yourself. But the biggest upset is the new charger. I have the old charger obviously, actually I have two or three of them which is nice because I can only ever manage to find one at a time. I have an ihome of sorts that is also a radio. I also have a MacBook Pro. I know what a challenge it must have been for Apple to change all of this. All the companies that sell iPhone accessories are now going to have to completely remanufacture them. My only hope is that iPhone 4 accessories don't become scarce just because of the new charger and design. I have read some articles that say Apple is going to include a free adapter with the new phone but I have also heard that they will make all of their customers purchase it. I think it would be a smoother transition if the first one was free. This is a big change and I think Apple customers are some of the most loyal customers around. If the company is going to present this much of a change Apple needs to give their customers something to help them acclimate to this change smoothly. 

Productiveness

During the week I am always looking forward to the weekend. I always think it will be a time for me to catch up with all the things I need to do. All the piles of homework, laundry and picking up my room. And then the weekend arrives and passes in what feels like the blink of an eye. And I usually end up starting the week with even more work than I ended with. This weekend was very different. I made a list of all the things I NEEDED to get done. Its only Saturday evening and I already have gotten so many things done. I have cleaned my room. Not just the normal pick up of clothes. I dusted and swept. I did all of my laundry and my bedding and I already vacuumed my car out. And now I'm starting in on my homework. There is nothing better then starting a week with a clean room, car and fresh sheets. Plus the weekend always seems to go so much smoother when I get my homework done and I'm already ahead of the game when classes start on monday. Cleaning gives me great satisfaction. It's such a rewarding feeling to know that all the things around you are clean and organized. I hope that I can be just as productive tomorrow because there is still so much to be done. But either way today was very productive and unexpected.

Brands

In the book Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff the authors talk about brands.  A lot of companies believe that they determine what their brand is but in Groundswell they say that may not be the case.  The authors introduce the idea that a companies public determines the brand of their product or company.  I think that this wasn't always the case.  In the days before social media the company wasn't as inclined to listen to what the public was saying about their product.  But with the birth of social media comes new responsibilities.  Now a company is expected to be in tune with all the different channels that could be discussing them or their product.  They need to be aware of Facebook, Twitter, various blogs and a ton of other mediums.  With all of this new media around the public has an easier way of communicating with the company.  So the brand really is no longer their own.  The people are talking and listening to what others have to say.  And as a consumer I know that I am more likely to listen to what other customers have to say than I am to listen to the company themselves.  Of course the company is going to say all good things.  But as a consumer I want to hear the truth, good or bad.  So I think that the authors of Groundswell are spot on companies need to start getting involved with the conversation and learn from their customers what their brand really is and the best way to market to their consumers.

Unexpected Weekend

On Friday I was in the library during my break from classes. I was doing homework and wishing that the time would speed up and I got a text from one of my best friends.  Her name is Megan and she is the one on the right in my picture.  Megan, Jenna (left) and me (middle) were randomly selected as roommates our freshman year.  So for the last 4 years we were inseparable.  We got really lucky being placed together. We continued to live together for another two years. Megan graduated last spring and now goes to OU medical school and Jenna is still at ONU, she is a P5 this year.  This is the first year since we have known each other that we haven't been living in the same house/village. We have drifted a little.  Just because growing up and life gets busy and things get in the way.  But Megan text me on Friday and asked if she could come stay with me for the weekend. Totally unexpected! Which made Friday seem even that much longer as I waited for her arrival! But she finally arrived and it seemed like no time had passed at all.  We were right back to saying the same things and thinking a like.  It was so good to know we were still so connected! We drove to Ada on Saturday night to go out for Jenna's 23rd birthday! The three of us haven't been in the same place in at least 4 months.  It was a great night! So great that I'm having a hard time getting back to reality.  Its amazing how quickly college flies by.  It seems like just yesterday we were moving into our tiny dorm room and practically living on top of each other.  But we have been through so much together and we have grown so much in the past 4 years.  I can't wait to see what lies ahead for each of us.  It's so true what people say about college.  You build some of the most amazing relationships in those 4 years.  And these are two girls that I will always be able to turn to no matter how much time, distance or life may come between us.

Facebook vs. Twitter

I was searching around on Technorati and stumbled on to an article about Facebook competing with Twitter.  The article says that while Twitter is making substantially more money than Facebook but eMarketer expects Facebook to bridge the gap by next year and by 2014 be making quite a bit more money than Twitter.

I found this article very interesting because I honestly thought that Facebook was pretty much on its way out. I feel like I know a lot of people that have stopped using it a lot more than they used to and I have limited my use by at least half within the last year.  I didn't think Facebook would just disappear because I still use it for some classes and getting ahold of people that  I'm not able to text or call but I was starting to see it as a slowly dying fad.  Twitter, however I use constantly.  I'm always checking it or responding to tweets from friends.  I love to use Twitter when there is a big event happening like the VMA's last week.  I like that you can look up a hash-tag or event and read tweets from people all around the world watching the same thing you are watching.  It's like a giant conversation.

I'm really interested to see what in store for Facebook in the future.  I think if they intend to hold on and be on top of the social media ladder they are going to have to constantly be improving.  I'm also looking forward to watching Twitter evolve and gain new followers.  I think that Facebook is in for some real competition. Let the race begin!

Facebook Events

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook events.  I think they are useful for some things and should have no part in other events.  I think the biggest problem I have with them is that I will get a Facebook invitation to lets say a cookout but the cookout isn't for another 2 months.  So I read the description and the guest list and decide to RSVP that I'm going.  But the only problem is I'll forget pretty much within the next week about this event.  2 months fly by and I miss the cook out.  I know that whoever is throwing the event needs to get the invitation out to people with enough time to have them schedule off work and make sure they are available but I think that Facebook should do a better job at reminding.  I don't get on Facebook on my computer very often.  I know that the computer version of Facebook usually has a list of your events on the top right but Facebook mobile has nothing. I have to actively search for my events which isn't going to happen most of the time.  I need some sort of alert.  If they alerted me that the event was in the next 3 days it would be perfect because I do like the Facebook event capability because I never have everyone's address or phone number to get ahold of them.  

The events that I think Facebook should have nothing to do with are more traditional, formal events.  For example my family has our reunion every summer in July for longer than I can remember.  This year some of the younger family members were in charge of the reunion.  They sent out a Facebook invitation.  NO.  This annoys me for several reasons. First being that they have every single family members address and phone number.  The invitations haven't magically been arriving every year in the mail for my whole life so some one has all the information.  Another reason is that some people in my family don't have Facebook.  My grandparents don't have it and neither does my mom.  So they had to hear about the reunion from others that are on Facebook.  It just seemed lazy and impersonal.  I'm sure it was easier but I think for an event including your whole family you should take the extra time to send them all something in the mail.  It would also help avoid a lot of confusion that went on this summer.

New Rules

In the book New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott it talks about blogs and how a lot of PR people aren't blogging or reading blogs.  There is a quote saying "In five years, I can count on one hand the number of PR people who have commented on my blog or reached out to me as a result of a blog post or story I've written in a magazine."

I understand that blogs are important and PR professionals should be monitoring them, especially in regards to their company or product but if you aren't really a blogger or someone very comfortable or familiar with social media it is harder than it sounds to check different blogs everyday.  I grew up with computers and social media is second nature to me at this point in my life.  I have an iPhone and the first thing I do in the morning is check my email, Twitter and Facebook.  It's like the older generation's version of reading the newspaper.  But instead of news I'm seeing more what is going on in the immediate world around me.  But for some reason blogs are still a mystery to me most of the time.  I'm not really sure how to find them, what to be looking for, and up until a few days ago I had no idea how to follow them.  If I'm having this much trouble with blogs I can't imagine how hard it must be for the older PR professionals who haven't even mastered Twitter and Facebook.  Social media is a lot to keep up with.  It is constantly changing and evolving and if you miss the changes you can really fall behind.

With social media always evolving I don't think, for me at least that I don't read blogs because I don't want to I just need to become more accustom to the ways blogs work.  When I first joined Twitter it took me a while to get a handle on things and now I love it.  I think the PR world needs to recognize that  a lot of little blogs talking about your product can have a much bigger impact than we thought and bloggers are here to stay.  They shouldn't be ignored.  And it would do us all good if we could figure out the blog world a little better! With everything else it just takes time.

New Puppy!

I'm commuting to  ONU for my last year and it has its ups and downs.  But one of the best things about being in Findlay for most of my week is that I get to see Daisy.  My best friend got a puppy about a week and a half ago and she is so adorable.  I'm her godmother. A little silly, I know but this is the first time Jessica has had a dog all on her own with no one else's help.  She lives with 4 other roommates so the dog is her sole financial and keep it alive responsibility.  Jessica and I went to Teddy's Rescue in Findlay to see them break the record for most dogs walked by a single man and there she was! The Hardin County Humane Society was there with Daisy trying to find someone to adopt her.  Jessica and I both instantly fell in love! The foster parents said that she is a lab but we think she might be mixed with something because she is all black except for her white feet and a white line down her nose.  Last week Jessica and I drove to Kenton to pick her up. Immediately we took her to Pet Smart where Jessica bought her an adorable collar and leash and other various toys and things.  She is very spoiled!  I can't wait to see what lies ahead in for Jessica and this little puppy!