Social Media For Strategic Communication Ch. 9-10

Here I am again talking about my readings for the week. This time it is chapters nine and ten. Chapter nine is about creating types of content and how to manage it. Chapter ten is about measurements, evaluations, and keeping track of money and time. 

 

A notable part from chapter nine for me was the part about the different tools to create content. I feel that when people hear social media content they just think of people posting pictures or maybe a video, but there is more to it. It can be written, audio, visual, video, and graphic. All of these ways appeal to different audiences. If you switch up your content on your page, you might attract more viewers. There is always the chance of that one person being annoyed that you posted a video and unfollow. But that one unfollow is nothing when you have also just gained ten more new followers. 

 

A notable part from chapter ten for me was the part about how important measurement and evaluations are in social media. This all contributes to the marketing factor, so you know who your posts are directed towards and what you need to post. The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication created its own framework for key areas to cover in social media. This framework includes; objectives, inputs, activities, outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and impact. They also use SMART objectives which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific.

I have included a picture that says some different ways you can use these tools on social media.

Information and photo from: “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg 

Food in Ada

If you have ever been to Ada, Ohio you know that there is not a whole lot of options when it comes to food. 

As a student at Ohio Northern I have a meal plan, so I get access to the dining hall. They switch up the foods daily but eventually they repeat. Also, if you don’t like what they are serving you get stuck with pizza, grilled chicken, or a burger. Or at least that’s how it was this past year. By the end of second semester I was tired of eating dining hall food because most of the time it wasn’t even that great. Personally, breakfast was my favorites and I only got that on the weekends if I even woke up early enough. 

 

The food outside of the meal plan is limited. The chain restaurants we have are Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Subway. The other restaurants in Ada are pretty good if you ask me. Jalapeños is my favorite. If you have never been there it is like a Chipotle. I have also tried Tavern 101 and one of the Chinese places. I’m not exactly sure which…oops. Somehow during my whole year at Northern I never tried El Campo. Which is one place you hear everyone talk about. My Mexican restaurant here at home is pretty good so I will have to see how they compare to each other. 

 

The worst part about all of this is that the nearest Chick-Fil-A is in Findlay, Ohio. I am used to having one real close to me and it being so far hurts my soul. My parents like to tell people I would eat it three meals a day, seven days a week and I fully agree with that statement. 

 

I am excited to get back to campus and try more restaurants and see if any take the number one spot of Jalapeños. 

Tornados!

Hey everyone! I am starting out this week’s blogs talking about a big fear of mine…tornados. I decided to write about this when just a few days ago we had tornado warnings where I live. 

If anyone has heard anything about the Memorial Day tornados back in 2019 that is pretty much exactly where I live. Something like nineteen tornados touched down in my area that night. Luckily, my house did not get hit but only a mile or two away the houses were completely leveled. I just remember seeing the alert come across my phone and my dad actually being worried. When he is worried I know it’s bad. I do not have a basement and every room in my house has a window so my whole family crammed into our hallway because that was the safest place. I just sat under a blanket scared to death the whole time. Easily the scariest night of my life, but we were lucky because so many other people including some of my friends lost their home and so much more. 

 

This past Friday gave me some PTSD of that night. We had some pretty bad storms and I got a tornado warning alert on my Alexa, so I ran straight to the hallway. For some reason our tornado sirens never went off. The city gave an explanation later that night, but I didn’t really understand it. While there were no tornados near me that night it did rain and hail super hard for a long time. 

 

Now to connect this to social media. Sitting in my house Friday night after the storm had passed us I realized how much people will do to try and capture something for social media. They put their life at risk to get a good picture at a potentially deadly thing. These tornado alerts and sirens are there to let us know that we need to take shelter to protect ourselves. They are not there to say go get that perfect photo so it can go viral on Facebook. Yes, some people do get very cool pictures but is it worth the risk?

 

This is similar for all types of weather. It seems like no matter what is going on outside I am going to see it on someone’s social media. The most common one I see is when there is a rainbow, every single Snapchat story I look at is a picture of it. 

 

Social media has just taken over our lives and people are willing to do literally anything to get noticed. Maybe I notice this because I am scared to death in these situations and do not leave my safe spot until I know it is safe, but still. Tornados are no joke and while seeing a picture of one is cool I just do not think it is worth the risk to go chase it for the perfect photo op. 

I have included a picture of a map of all the tornados from Memorial Day 2019.

Photo from: https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/just-hoping-that-were-going-live-through/3Yj5BUNsKbsoBVueUqCwFO/

Social Media for Strategic Communication Ch. 7-8

This week’s reading was only two chapters. Chapter seven talks about strategic writing and chapter eight talks about audience segmentation. 

 

The part in chapter seven that stuck out to me the most was the common writing mistakes. It talks about not jumping on the bandwagon and inserting yourself into conversations. Only do it when the time is right. Everyone is going to make grammar mistakes, but you can prevent the other mistakes such as inappropriate content and spreading false information. Another important part is to make sure you know what you are getting into before engaging. A hashtag can be one thing and mean something completely different. Just always be careful and double check before you post. 

 

The part in chapter eight that stuck out to me the most was the part about influencers. There are different types of influencers such as brand influencers and social media influencers. Brand influencers just do ads and try to get you to buy products using their platforms. Social media influencers are different. They create a person who may or may not actually be who they are. They pretend that they have a perfect life to rack up their follower account. I feel like this is how lots of influencers are on Instagram. Use filters and heavily edit their photos to make it seem like they have the perfect body. Anyone can work their way up to an influencer, but how they use it is up to them. 

 

Information from: “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg 

Pinterest

This week I had an assignment that had to do with Pinterest. When I think of social media I don’t automatically think of Pinterest. However, when I remember that it exists I get drowned in looking at random things. 

 

If anyone doesn’t know Pinterest is where you can organize ideas or pretty much anything into boards. You can make a board for any and everything. Recipes, home décor, hairstyles, literally anything. 

 

I used to use Pinterest all the time as a kid. I would use my mom’s account and just make random boards and pin things all day long. Some of my favorite things to pin were crazy shoes, nail polish designs, and things I wanted to do in the summer but never actually would. 

 

My mom sent me a post she saw on Facebook about Pinterest. I do not know who to give credit to since she sent it to me, but I loved how they worded it. See the image in this post to see what it says!

While it may not seem like social media, but it is. There are other people on there that you can interact with. But unlike others people are less likely to judge you. You are free to pin what you want. Others may judge you in their head but that is better than saying it out loud. If you don't have a Pinterest account I highly suggest you try it out!

Dorm Room

Let me tell you about living in a dorm room for the first time ever. I had a randomly selected roommate since I did not know anyone else. I saw a room on my tour the previous fall, but when I got all my stuff moved in it seemed even smaller. Two people and all of their belongings shoved into one tiny room…not for me. I am glad I got the experience, but I am glad I do not have to do it again. 

Ohio Northern gives you a bed that you can loft, a dresser, a desk, and a closet. Now that may sound like a lot, but I can confirm that it is not. I am used to having tons of choices on what to wear each day, but at school I do not have as many options. I learned to really switch up outfits and only wear something once until I wore mostly everything else that way it didn’t look like I was wearing the same thing every day. 

 

Personally, I did not like the lofted beds, so I kept mine lower. Still high enough to keep my dresser underneath along with another plastic container for clothes from Walmart. I kept my shoes in a little hanging thing in the closet which saved lots of space. 

 

Thankfully this coming fall I am in a different building which gives me my own bedroom and bathroom. Well, I share a living space and a bathroom with one other girl, but anything beats those community bathrooms. Sharing a bathroom with one girl versus thirty… I’ll take one. 

 

Overall, I am glad I got the experience of living in a dorm just so I can say that I have done it. However, I am glad I am done with it!

 

Social Media for Strategic Communication Ch 4-6

Here we are again talking about the same book as last week. Only this time it is chapters 4-6 instead of 1-3. 

One thing that really stuck out to me was how at the beginning of each chapter there are questions that they had some people answer. It goes through and asks how they got her start in social media, their favorite part and even the most challenging part. I really enjoyed these parts because it gives you an inside look as to what other people are thinking when it comes to social media. 

 

Another part that stuck out to me was the SWOT analysis. I have learned about this before, but it has never really stuck with me. This section went into details and even included a diagram. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. “A SWOT analysis can be used to explore and identify solutions to problems, take advantage of new opportunities and ventures, decide which steps to take to help rejuvenate a community or brand online, or brainstorm new ways of engaging online through social media” (Ferberg 237).  I know it seems relatively simple but for some reason I can never remember what it all means. 

Strengths is when you write out everything good happening with your social media practices. It can be one big group or even divided into categories. Each strength that you come up with has to be supported with data from your social media communication audit. 

Weaknesses is any challenges you are facing preventing you from accomplishing your goals. Usually opposites of strengths. You can use your communication audit to help this but also use your focus groups and observations to help determine what would be best for you to do. 

Opportunities are sets of ideas that can lead to new behaviors. You can do this by making a list of new ideas to maybe implement in your company. These ideas can come from strategic insights and research as long as they are all supported by data from the communication audit. 

Threats are external factors. Negative events that affect your employees and/or company. These threats can include; political, regulatory, environmental, and technology-driven. You have to explore all areas to try and prevent them the best you can. 

Overall, the SWOT analysis is good to help keep your organization or company moving forward. It shows the good and bad, so you know what needs improvement. Be firm and honest that way you are getting the most out of it that you can. 

 

 

 

 Information from: “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg

 

Women's College World Series

Hi everyone. In this blog I want to talk about softball. This happens to be my favorite sport, so I know what all is going on in the softball world. If you didn’t know, the Women’s College World Series (WCWs) is happening right now. I am actually watching it right now as I write this blog. These recent games have been all over social media both good and bad. 

Some good things about the World Series that have been online are the fact that an unranked team upset the number one team in the country. That team is James Madison University (JMU). JMU’s pitcher is named Odicci Alexander and she really made a name for herself. She made outstanding plays and shut down the best offense in the country. Multiple famous people were tweeting and talking about her performance on social media. These games are played at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. This stadium was just upgraded so it now holds 13,000 fans and I was so happy to hear that most of these games are nearly sold out. College softball is trying to make a name for itself and it may be working.  

 

Now while there were many positives about the WCWs, there still is those negatives. Fans make it known online that they are not happy with the way these women are being treated. Due to rain, one game did not start until almost midnight and did not finish until after 2 a.m. This same team had to come back and play a double header that very next day. Most of the girls were limited to only about 3 hours of sleep. There is a NCAA law saying a game cannot start after 11 p.m. but they decided to ignore it and keep it going. Luckily, there was another rain delay the next day and so they pushed back games one more day. Since they did this, the final three games of the World Series got pushed back. Game 3 which is winner take all is being played at 3 p.m. EST. Most of the country is at work and cannot watch the game all because ESPN wouldn’t push back their regular prime time shows. Not even for the most exciting game in college softball. 

 

Social media just gives us all an insight to knowing how everyone feels. It lets me know that I am not the only one who is not happy with the way these softball players are being treated. I just know they are physically and mentally drained. Not to mention that it is 104 degrees in OKC on the field right now. 

 

These women continue to show their strength and grit even in the worst circumstances and I tip my hat to them. I just sit and watch in awe of their ability. 

COVID at College

Hey everyone! In this blog I am going to tell you a little more about how college life was during a pandemic. I’ll start by saying it was an experience. 

Everyone dreams of going to college and living their best life. I think it is safe to say that I did not live my best life this past year. I just did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I did all I could to get the experience but COVID really limited all of that. I know that sounds bad, but I just mean the whole being away from home. I had made some friends, but we were basically limited to my room or theirs. No activities or anything for the most part. 

 

Luckily, second semester I started working for the Ohio Northern Sports Information Department. This let me be able to attend some sporting events. I worked football, baseball, and softball games. Every once and a while I worked a lacrosse or soccer game. I was loving it. I got paid to watch sports. I’ll take that any day!

 

When we got the email saying that we were not going to be required to wear masks this coming fall I was ecstatic. I will actually hopefully get to see what real college life is like. I’ll be seeing everyone’s whole face for the first time. Having on campus events to go to and being able to be in a room with more than 10 people without getting in trouble. 

 

To sum it all up, I basically sat into my room a lot. I found more things to do eventually but I have heard that there is more to college life than what we just experienced this past year. Even the dining hall was completely different, but I don’t know it any other way so it will be interesting to see how everything is this fall. 

Podcast!

I made a podcast! 

It's my first one ever so hopefully it's at least a little bit interesting. I talk about sexism on social media. It's not very long so give it a listen!

I have attached the notes for my podcast that I used as I went.

Here is the link to the website I used for information:

https://gehweb.ucsd.edu/social-media-sexist-online-gender-based-violence/

Link for podcast!!

https://anchor.fm/megan-allen87/episodes/Sexism-on-Social-Media-e128clk

Social Media for Strategic Communication Ch. 1-3

Greetings from my bedroom. I finally made it home after what felt like forever. 

After last week’s readings and finishing up “The Art of Social Media” book this week, I had high hopes going into another book. This book is “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg.

 

I wanted to emphasize the “Skills Needed to Showcase Personal Brand Effectively” (123). I think this part of the chapter is important because it is one thing to have your own personal brand, but it is another to be able to put it out there and be successful. It really made me think about myself and how I am showcasing my skills. 

 

The first part of this is research. Yes, it sounds boring like you are just googling things but that is not the case. Research can be found or conducted with surveys or experiments and not just on your computer in a search engine. Being able to showcase your research shows that you have data analysis skills, that you can do all of these things to prove or gather more information on a certain topic. 

 

Next is writing and visual content creation. Writing is a must in social media and public relations. Not just writing articles or papers but knowing how to come up with captions or show that you understand your audience and can connect them to the reading. Propper grammar is an obvious one but this also comes with the need to be able to adapt and knowing that anything can change at any moment. 

 

Third is data analytics and strategic application. This includes not only data entries but insights on social media. Knowing how many people a post is reaching and what needs to be done to make sure it is getting onto as many screens as possible. Businesses use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to find what people are looking for so they know what will do better than other things. SEO is very important in strategic application because without it, business would just be winging it with what they think is popular at the moment. With this they actually know what people want to see. 

 

Customer service specialist is next on the list. I have experience in this category and let me tell you that it is not for everyone. There is always going to be rude customers and you have to know how to deal with them. But how does this relate to social media? Well, there are people who you can go to when you have a problem. And you can guarantee there are extremely rude people out there because if their social media isn’t working, they might go crazy. Literally. You just have to keep your composure and do your best. 

 

Last is being a lifelong learner. As Harry Styles says, “Every day is a school day” meaning you learn something new pretty much every day. You can never stop and say I’ve learned enough I am good now. There will always be more room to grow. Social media is a growing platform and is ALWAYS changing. And I mean always. So, you have to get yourself out there and change along with it. 

Information from: “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg

Social Media and Mental Health

Hello from Tennessee! I am currently on my way home from Florida right now so what better way to kill time than to write a blog. 

It’s a long ride (about 17 hours) so I’ve had a whole lot of nothing to do. I’ve been jumping from Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and even Facebook. I find it crazy that every time I open an app there is new posts for me to look at. I rarely see the same thing twice. It really shows how much people rely on social media. Without it I think I would be bored to tears on this ride home. I have even turned on ESPN on my phone to watch a softball game. So, it is not even just social media, it’s everything on my phone in general. 

 

When I was little we used to drive to New Jersey every year to visit family. Even thinking back to then I had an iPod to keep me occupied in the car. 

 

Honestly, the world would probably be a better place without social media, but it is such a big part in everyone’s lives I don’t think it will ever go away. There is so much hate on every site and it is detrimental to people’s mental health. I really only engage and comment on my friends’ posts. Along with this I never comment anything negative. You never know what people are going through behind that screen. Those people could be using it as an escape from their life to help them feel better. You never know and you don’t want to be the person to make it worse. 

 

Some people decide to take breaks from social media or start out by giving it up for lent. My aunt did that and did not go back until well after lent ended because she said it was so nice not seeing all the negativity. 

 

Tik Tok has been a big source of negativity lately. Some of my favorite creators have been forced to stop making videos due to the fact that people were spreading rumors about them and it was harming their everyday life. It hurts me to know that there are people out there who find joy in ruining other people’s days. 

 

I just think that some people do not think before they post. They need to think about how they would feel if someone said something like that to them. These are real people on the other side of the screen and them posting about their life for fun should not be taken away because people think it’s funny to be rude. Mental health is very important in today’s world and small things can affect it. 

 

I am guilty of spending too much time on social media, but I can at least say that I do not do anything or post anything that will harm anyone else in any way. Just think about others and do not say something that you would not want someone to say to you. Mental health matters and social media could help or hurt that in an instance.

College Decision

Picking where to go to college is one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make. I never had that moment where I knew I had to go to a certain school. If I am being honest, my mom picked out a few schools for me to maybe play softball at and those are the ones I applied to. I really hated the thought of college and picking somewhere to give all of my money to. During the month of May of my senior year of high school I still had not picked a college yet. My parents asked me every single day and I just cried because I did not have a clue. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or anything. It was so stressful. I wrote out all of the pros and cons and still got nowhere. One day I just randomly decided to choose Ohio Northern University (ONU) and it was a decision I am glad I made to this day!

I had my list of potential schools narrowed down to Ohio Northern and University of Dayton. Complete opposites. One is D1, and 20 minutes from home. The other is D3, and an hour twenty from home. I liked the campus on my visit, so I said lets go for it. Worst comes to worst I can transfer. And not only did I pick a school, I picked a major. I chose sport management. 

 

After one year of college under my belt I am still majoring in sport management. This program is different at ONU compared to most other schools. The sport management major is included in the college of business. This was another factor into my decision to go here. This is good because it is always good to have a business background for anything. 

 

Picking a smaller school is not a bad thing either. Some people think that since it is D3 that it is only for athletes or for people who cannot get into the bigger schools. That is 100% not the case. I got accepted into big schools and still chose this one. A smaller school gives you more than what those other schools can offer. Our professors are great, and they actually care about you and how you are doing. They will know the real you and not just see you in class yet never know your name. My sister goes to Ohio State University and I can almost guarantee you her professors do not know who she is. 

 

I do not regret my decision to go to school at ONU one bit. The community is so welcoming, and the atmosphere is something that those big schools cannot even begin to offer. So, if you are ever struggling to make a decision, just know that I too struggle, but it will all work itself out eventually. You just have to make the best of it!