PR and Social Media

As the semester comes to a close, I am so excited to have learned so much about PR and social media. I have learned about all the different platforms and what they have to offer, I have learned about marketing and how to successfully use social media to do so. I have learned about so many things that I never thought even existed. I recommend taking the time to research social media and all the things that come with each platform because it is one of the most interesting things to discover. There are so many things about the platforms I use everyday (Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter) that I never knew before, but now I do and it's so helpful. Yay for social media and yay for PR!

Book Review

Out of the three books that we read in class, my personal favorite was The Art of Social Media. I felt that out of all the books this was the easiest to understand and I could comprehend what the main idea the author was trying to imply. As I was reading The Art of Social Media I found myself very interested and at points didn't want to put the book down from how smooth the topics flowed together and the new information that was introduced. Guy had a way with his words when explaining the most important parts of social media, I was able to learn a lot of new information regarding social media. Compared to the other two books, this book flowed from topic to topic, whereas the other two books I had a hard time following what each were trying to say. My least favorite book was Measure What Matters because the reading content was very heavy and at times I had trouble understanding what some words meant, which got me lost. Although I had a favorite, all three of these books were very beneficial to my class. I would recommend all three of them, but most importantly The Art of Social Media.

Softball Christmas Party 2018

Last year, as I was making my decision as to which college I would be attending, ONU's softball team sent me a Christmas card that had a picture of all of them in it. Seeing how happy they all looked together helped make my decision. None of the other schools I was looking at did that and it was special to me. Now it's my turn to participate in the party and I'm so excited. It's an ugly Christmas sweater theme and our whole team will be there at my coach's house. I can't wait to have a relaxing night and just hang out with the people I absolutely love. I hope we can influence some recruits with how close we all truly are like they did for me last year. Being a part of a sports team here at ONU is the best decision I could have made.

Trust is Key

In Measure What Matters, the author makes a valid point about trust being the key to building and defending your reputation. It affects customer loyalty, word of mouth, employee retention, and reputation. As in life, trust is so important to an individual's reputation on social media and in organizations. The more trustworthy a company is, the more customers and business they will be likely to receive. It helps cultivate relationships with donors, consumers, investors, and legislators. The higher the trust level, the better off an organization will be. This is something that should be obvious, but some companies seem to lose sight of. Trust should be the number one thing that companies establish with their perspective audiences/clients/customers. I felt that this was a very good point that needed to be shared with everyone. Trust is important in ALL aspects of life, including social media and in companies.

#CAMS1301

As I was scrolling through Twitter today, I came across one of my good friend's tweets that he posted this morning. It was a video of him talking to the camera about a quality he would use to describe himself. His caption explained that it was for extra credit for a class at ONU. I was intrigued to see if he was the only one offered this opportunity and wanted to watch more videos like his to see others describe themselves, so I did some research. I typed in the hashtag that he used in his tweet #cams1301 to see what I could find. As I thought, 20 more videos like his came up and I thought it was so cool. I was always aware of this feature of group hashtags, but never experienced it personally. I think this is such a cool thing on Twitter. Anyone who has used the hashtag will pop up on the page when that hashtag is typed in. Soooooo, naturally, I decided to look up other random hashtags to see what came up. I looked up #happybirthday and #gobucks and scrolled through all the tweets related to this hashtag. It was cool to see all the people who may have never met but are all on the same page because of a hashtag they decided to use. Just another cool thing about social media, and Twitter specifically. What is your favorite feature on Twitter?

Thanksgiving

After a week of being home, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. My family is at the top. I spent so much time with them all break and I just realized how much I truly missed them. Also, I saw all of my best friends from high school. Seeing them made me realize how much I missed them. With the chaos of college, I forget how much I miss them and how close we all used to be. I loved being home for a short while to reconnect with my old friends and my forever family. I can’t believe I will be back in 3 weeks to stay for a whole month. Being in college is kind of like living two lives, when I’m home I miss being at school but when I am at school, I miss my friends and family at home. It’s super confusing and I’m still getting used to it but I know I will eventually get used to it.

Coming Home

On Friday, I made my first trip home. I got picked up after my last class, at 12:50, and made the drive home. When we pulled into the driveway, tears fell from my eyes. I was so ecstatic to be back in the comfort of my house with my family. I was greeted by my dog, Sadie, and my younger brother. I got lots of love from my family when I got home and it felt so nice to just sit down, take a deep breath, and relax. I came to the realization that for a whole week, I would have no responsibilities, no stress, no lofted bed, I didn't have to wear shoes in the shower, I could pee in peace, and REAL food was in store for me. Coming to this realization put a big smile on my face and I was content. I am still super happy to be home, I do miss my friends at school a little, but I am so happy that I am in my own room, and surrounded by my family for a bit. I thank God for my blessings every single day, especially this week. So excited to see what this week has in store for me, and to be stress-free, even if it is just for a short while.

Seven Steps: Measure What Matters

In the book, Measure What Matters, there are six steps laid out for measuring relationships with your communities and neighbors. I thought it would be beneficial to go through each one and summarize each one in a few sentences because these seem to be very important to measuring what matters in social media.

Step 1: Agree upon Solid Measurable Goals That Are Tied to the Bottom Line
-This step is like measuring any other business relationship: It is about gauging the strength or weakness of your reputation among your greater community by starting with a clear goal. Choosing a goal that is attainable is very important and is crucial to having relationships with communities.

Step 2: Define Your Publics
-This step is all about defining your community and publics. Who you are trying to reach through your business pitch is super important. Without it, there is no way to isolate your actions or your relationships.

Step 3: Who or What Are Your Benchmarks?
-This step is pretty self-explanatory. Setting benchmarks is an important step as well. It is important to compare the strength of your community relations to something or someone else such as other communities or peer organizations.

Step 4: Set Your Audience Priorities: Who and What Is Most Important to Measure?
-In this step, you should prioritize your audiences and stakeholder groups. For each audience, determine at least one measure of a successful relationship.

Step 5: Choose Your Measurement Tools
-In Step 5, you should select measurement tools (obviously). Start with a relationship survey, or a local media analysis. These two things are crucial to healthy and strong relationships with your communities.

Step 6: Analyze the Data
-The next step is to analyze the media content to determine whether or not your community messages are being communicated. One way you can do this is find residents from your local community to read and code the articles or items, because only they will respond to them as your target audiences would.

These six steps could definitely help when it comes to measuring relationships with your communities and neighbors. Which one do you think is the most important?

Social Media Trends

When I was in middle school, I was a Pinterest fanatic. I pinned all the time about everything. I spent my free time scrolling through Pinterest. It was definitely my ultimate favorite source of social media. I truly thought it was the greatest thing. This continued throughout my freshman year but died down after that. I slowly stopped pinning random things, and eventually stopped going on the app all together. I find it super interesting how social media trends come and go pretty frequently. One week, some people are snapchat crazy, where the next week they may not send a singular snap. For me, my snapchatting habits have been consistent, but I used to hate Twitter and Instagram. Now, I am going through a weird Twitter hype. I love looking at tweets, and Twitter never fails to make me laugh on a bad day. Like I said, I consistently snapchat, but I am rarely on Instagram... We'll see how this changes throughout the rest of my life. What are your favorite social media platforms and have your habits changed throughout your lifetime?

Thanksgiving Break

After being on campus, basically nonstop, for three months, Thanksgiving break couldn't come soon enough. I have been counting down the days for awhile now. I have had a rough couple of weeks with time management and school and softball and socially, so this break is so needed for me. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays behind Christmas. We go to my grandma's for dinner with my whole family and eat and play games and while it sounds basic, it is one of my favorite things to do. I absolutely love and thoroughly enjoy spending time with my family. It's rare that all five of my siblings are in the same place at the same time so I look forward to every holiday. FIVE DAYS UNTIL I AM HOME AGAIN!!!! I can't wait to go Black Friday shopping, meet up with my friends from high school, and just relax for a week. Friday cannot come soon enough.

Surveys

I found Chapter 7 of Measure What Matters very intriguing...
The pages that discuss surveys were very interesting to me, in particular. They discussed the impact and effects of on-site surveys vs post-show surveys. I have participated in several different surveys throughout my life and I have to agree with what they say about the two kinds of surveys. On-site surveys are relatively ineffective. Since, most of the time, there are more than one thing that customers are looking at, these on-site surveys just get repetitive and dishonest. I usually walk around to different booths and all the surveys I get on-site, I tend to put down what I think the interviewer wants to hear just so I can walk away quicker. Not all on-site surveys are ineffective, but in my opinion most of them are. Post-site surveys force the potential buyers to take the time to actually reflect on the product and be completely honest with what they think of the product. It also makes it less awkward if you hate the product to do a post-survey so you don't bash it right in front of the sellers. Overall, I think post-surveys are far more effective and should be used more often for the benefit of the product.

Corn Maze Festivities

On Sunday, my friends and I took a road trip to Suter's Produce which is about 25 minutes away from ONU. We had been planning a fun fall day full of pumpkins, corn mazes, apple cider, doughnuts, and fun with friends since October 1st. We have a friend group of 12 people and every weekend prior to this one, someone couldn't go. We were really striving to make sure every single one of us could make it. This Sunday, my friend Abby and I decided to try to get everyone to go because it was the last weekend that Suter's was open. We looked up hours and prices and activities and texted our group chats to see who all could go. Eventually, we got all 12 of our friends to accept and we all road tripped to see what all the hype was about. We had so much fun while we were there. We got two dozen homemade doughnuts so each of us could have two, ate those while beginning the corn maze and laughing the whole time. We got lost a few times, took a lot of pictures, and just messed around in the corn maze. Eventually, we made it out and decided to get some apple cider slushies because we had heard from upperclassmen that these were delicious... They were 100% right. These slushies were definitely something to remember. After the slushies, we took some more pictures and decided it was time to go. We returned back to ONU with happy hearts and some amazing memories. We all decided that as long as we all stay friends, this would be a yearly tradition. If you get the opportunity to go to Suter's next fall, I highly recommend it. The prices are very reasonable and the memories are priceless. It left me feeling extremely grateful and truly blessed to have these people as my best friends.

Snapchat Memories

If you don't know what Snapchat memories are, I am so sorry.
The feature on Snapchat that has your memories saved is probably one of my favorite things about the app and in social media in general. Every single day at midnight, I get a notification of a memory on my snapchat. It shows me pictures and videos that I took on that particular day years ago. It is so cool and fun to see where I was and what I was doing a year or two years ago today. It also makes me sad sometimes when I see videos of my friends being goofballs when they are now at school 12 hours away from me. It's definitely one of my favorite things to do when I wake up every morning. I love to see my past and see how much I've grown since then. I hope you all get to experience snapchat memories at some point because it is truly one of the best features in social media platforms.

Defining Your Goals

In the book, Measure What Matters, chapter three was really insightful. The seven steps to the perfect measurement program really gave me perspective on how to prove results and use results to improve. The first step discusses how to define goals and objectives really showed how goals should be measurable as well as specific. A date, a budget and an intended audience should be included to have a good goal. Step two discusses how to define your environment, audiences, and roles. This just helps by going into detail about each of these and how they can be attained. Steps three and four are all about what will it cost and how to determine benchmarks which are both really crucial steps. Step five says to define your key performance indicators. Each objective might require a different type of measurement so it is important to find these key indicators in each goal/objective of your program. Step six discusses how to select the right measurement tool and vendors and collect data. This may be the most important of the steps because these three things are key to success. Step seven is like the end result. It explains how to turn data into action, and thus make recommendations. These seven steps are CRUCIAL to having a perfect measurement program. Which step do you find most important in the process?

Live Tweeting

If you are interested in reading about ONU's Homecoming football game that took place Saturday October 27, 2018 in Ada, Ohio then you've come to the right place. I did a live tweet throughout the game with frequent score updates and the winner of our Homecoming king and queen! It was so much fun despite the rainy weather. A little rain didn't change the amount of fun that was had by all. My twitter handle is @StudentONU and there you will find tweet updates from yesterday's game. Live tweeting is a lot of fun and a great way to keep people involved in an event. I love sporting events so naturally I picked the football game to tweet about. I hope you all enjoy!

ONU Homecoming 2018

Coming up this weekend is Ohio Northern's Homecoming weekend. Before coming to college, I never understood what homecoming in college was. I didn't know what to expect when experiencing homecoming at a University. When I think about homecoming, the image of dresses and dancing, dates and awkward, cheesy "proposals" come to mind, but not in college. From what I've heard, this weekend is going to be filled with football, tailgate food, alumni, and parades. Homecoming in college is just a way of saying "Alumni Weekend". I'm excited to experience my first college homecoming and see what it is all about. I can't wait to go to the game and cheer on my fellow athlete bears. I can't wait to eat hamburgers and hot dogs and have a lot of fun at all the festivities around campus. I know it will be so much fun with my friends and my sister who is an alum and coming for the game. GO BEARS!

Several Uses of Youtube

After reading about Youtube and the amazing things it can be used for, I realize I never looked at Youtube as a social media platform. I have always just used it to look up songs or watch my favorite family and their vlogs. After reading the chapter about Youtube, however, I realize how important Youtube can be. If you needed to advertise something for a company or school, Youtube is where you can upload videos. Also, videos on Youtube can be as long as needed, which is nice for marketing purposes. The noise about Youtube in pop culture is all about music videos, funny videos, trailers, etc. but it's important to notice that Youtube is so much more than just that. What do you use Youtube for?

Trusting the Process

Throughout high school, I was known as an independent, free, relaxed girl. I went with the flow for everything, I didn't stress about a lot of things. I was religious, I followed the rules and I tried to be the best person I could be. As I continue to find myself in college, I struggle with self love often. This is something that I have not really worried about since freshman year of high school. I'm struggling to trust in God's plan even though I know, with my whole heart, that there is one. I know that everything that is going on in my life has a reason and a purpose but yet I find myself questioning a lot of things far too often. I find myself worrying about little things too much and consuming my brain with the "what ifs" or "what should be". I find myself trying to conform to society and stressing about not being good enough. I realize that this is completely normal for a freshman in college because it's a whole new world here, but I never thought I would be this type of person. I am working on myself every single day and I will continue to strive to be the best version of myself, but I also know that none of this is possible until I trust in the process and in the plan that God has laid out for me. This is definitely something that I think everyone has struggled with at one point in their life, and it's something I just need to push through and come out stronger than ever from. I can't wait to see how everything turns out, and to see how much happiness is in store for me. Trust the process.

Fun Things to do While in Ada...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCiOaPXW3ak

Go watch my video on fun things to do while in Ada, Ohio!
In this video, I go through pictures of activities and other things that are found in our small home of Ada, Ohio. Although small, this town is full of fun and things to do. This college town is packed with sporting events, movie theatres, bowling, and you'll have to watch the video to find out what else! The opportunities are knocking here... Come visit!

Instagram Popularity

The very first line of this chapter is the most mind-boggling sentence in this chapter to me. There are 800 million active monthly users, 500 million active daily users, and 95 million photos per day. When I think about the amount of people and posts on Instagram daily and monthly. This amount of people on one social media platform is unfathomable to my mind. Every single day there are 95 million posts on Instagram. Thinking about this large amount makes me think about how many people there are on social media that I don’t even think about. Because of the amount of people on the platform of Instagram, I get upset knowing that I will never get to see all of the amazing and interesting posts that are up. However, I love imagining all the different people out there using the same social media sources as I do every single day and all the different uses that Instagram is used for.

Groups on Social Media

To me, it is insane how group chats work through social media platforms. On snapchat, you can literally have a group chat with people all over the world and receive pictures of Italy or The Bahamas in a split second all the way in Ohio. It's crazy how fast and convenient these social media platforms are. On Instagram, you can get DM's from people anywhere around the world and communicate with them. On apps like GroupMe, you can have group chats with anyone and everyone and it's totally awesome. I just think social media is such an important thing in today's developing world. I think about it a lot and I think that it is such an interesting thing to look at and discuss. I love being involved in group chats and talking to people who are so far away from me, especially being in college now!

Learning Lessons

I’ve learned so many life lessons in my first few months at college already and I thought I would share. First of all, everything happens for a reason. No matter what that reason may be, there is one for every event that happens. This was a hard pill for me to swallow at first because I never understood why bad things happen to good people, but I’m beginning to understand that it’s because there is something better in store for them. Another thing I’ve learned is to not stress and to just go with the flow. The more I try to force things, the less likely it is that they will happen. Last, but certainly not least, love yourself first. Self-love is so important in college and I’ve had a hard time dealing with that the last few weeks. I’m now starting to understand that it begins with me. I can’t love anyone else until I love myself and that’s something I have to work on every single day.

Celebrities on Twitter

Throughout this chapter on Twitter, the author discusses celebrities use of Twitter, specifically Donald Trump. I did some research on my Twitter account on these celebrities that seem to spend 75% of their time tweeting about seemingly pointless things. Donald Trump has 39.1K tweets, which is one of the most tweets in the whole platform of Twitter. I am thoroughly so shocked at how much time he spends on Twitter. As our president, there are so many things he probably should be doing but rather he is tweeting about everything. Even our former president, Barack Obama has a significantly lower number than Trump at 15.5K tweets. I never noticed this, because in all honesty, I'm not a huge politics fan so I don't really pay that much attention to it unless I have to. Therefore, doing this research after reading this chapter really opened my eyes to see how often Trump really does use Twitter. Celebrities use social media quite often, but Trump really takes it to another level of use. I would even say that he overuses the platform of Twitter.

Social Media and Athletes

I saw a tweet the other day from a high school student-athlete looking to play collegiate sports that tweeted something that had vulgar language in it. I began to reflect on athletes on social media and how much it can affect them. High schoolers don't even realize how much one tweet that contains a bad word or a sexual image can truly change their future. I've learned through my journey of recruitment that college coaches are constantly checking social media accounts of their potential future athletes. Anyone that is looking at their school for sports is being monitored constantly for inappropriate posts on social media. As soon as college coaches see this, they cross them off their list. They stop considering them because they don't want someone like that as a reflection of their program. I sometimes wonder if these high schoolers even realize that these posts that they are putting on their social media platforms can affect their future collegiate careers and even their future careers. When I was being recruited, I really watched what I put on social media; posts, comments, tweets, etc. I monitored it all and had my friends watch for me as well because they knew how important it was for me to get recruited. I wish some athletes in high school would take the time to recognize this and really start to pay attention to the "funny" things they are putting on social media. It's not worth it at the end of the day.

Home?

There is a major discussion I have had with several of my friends here at Ohio Northern in the last few weeks: the discussion of the word home. When I'm talking about my house in Swanton, I refer to it as home. We talk about how we can't wait to go home and how we miss our family, and that is what "home" is for the time being. However, when I talk to people from my hometown, I refer to Ohio Northern as my home. When I went home one weekend, I kept referring to Ada as "home". I would say things like "I go back home tomorrow." Little things like that having me thinking about what home is to me and I've realized one major thing. Home is not a place or a specific town or house, home is who you are with. Home is a feeling and people, not a destination or location. I used to get so upset when my older siblings referred to college as home but now I totally understand. It's not replacing my original home but my friends here have become another family and it has become a second home to me. Honestly, if your college doesn't feel like home, I think you should consider transferring because it is an amazing feeling to feel at home when you're away from home. I love having two "homes" and I know how big of a spot ONU has in my heart already, and I have four more years here. Words can't describe how excited I am for these next few years at my second home.

Posts on LinkedIn

As a freshman in college, I am not super familiar with LinkedIn. I was forced to make an account as a senior in high school, but I don't really recall my login information... Yikes. I have never used LinkedIn unless I had to for a project or a worksheet, so I am really unfamiliar with the website. Reading this chapter of our book was extremely insightful and helpful for me. I think the part that I learned most about was the content that should be put on LinkedIn. I never really understood what LinkedIn was used for or what you were supposed to put on it but this book really broke it down for me.
The main things that they tell you to post on LinkedIn are:
1: Blog Post Summaries
2: Quotes
3: Comments and Engagements on Industry Items
4: Infographics and Instructographics
5: Quizzes, Surveys, and Response-provoking posts

These five post recommendations help me out so much because I honestly had no clue what should be posted on LinkedIn accounts. I didn't know that you could post blog post summaries on a professional site like LinkedIn. I honestly think I overthink how professional LinkedIn is. I am going to remake an account and start over and begin to use it the correct way.

Homecoming Weekend On Social Media

This past weekend back home was Homecoming weekend for my little brother. Noah is a sophomore in high school and he went to homecoming with his girlfriend. As I was receiving pictures of him from my mom and dad, I thought about how social media is involved when it comes to homecoming and prom seasons. It's actually crazy how much social media is important for these events. After a weekend of homecomings, social media is filled with pictures from it. You scroll on Instagram and it's post after post of beautiful dresses and crazy high heels, tacky corsages and sparkles. I live for these weekends now that I'm not involved in them. If you don't post a picture on social media from your homecoming or prom, did you even go? I love looking at all the different dresses and cheesy couple poses. I love admiring the shoes and the friendships that are so obvious through the screen. This is one of the things that I truly love about social media. I can live through people at home and watch them thrive through events like this.

The End of My First Fall Ball Season

After my first long, tiring, mentally and physically draining fall softball season, we finished yesterday at Ohio State with three games. We played Mount Vernon University, The University of Toledo, and Rio Grand University. We played the first game at 10:30 and lost but we kept the energy level high the whole game. Since this day was for exposure purposes and for our coach to see how we worked in a game situation, wins and losses weren't important. We played the second game at 3 and lost again.
In the second game, I got concussed. I was covering second base for a steal and as I went to catch the ball, the runner came into me like a truck. Her helmet hit my head and my head hit the ground. She ended up on top of me and my vision was slightly blurry. I got up and finished the inning with a pounding headache. I was taken out after that by my coach and got evaluated by the athletic trainer. She told me I couldn't play in the last game and that I had to be evaluated again by my trainer back at school. This morning, I got re-evaluated and diagnosed with a mild concussion. I have to continue to check in with the trainer until my symptoms are gone and I pass the baseline concussion test again... What a way to end my first fall softball season.

National Unplugging Day: 2018

While scrolling through Twitter late one night, I came across an extremely interesting article in the news. It was an article about National Unplugging Day last year. I'm not sure why I am just reading this article, or even why it showed up on my timeline but I am glad it did because it was so interesting. Last March, on National Unplugging Day, several Americans attempted to detox from their social medias, cell phones, and all technology... And it did not go so well for most of them. Unplugging from these things is extremely difficult for the average American. I tried to apply this to my life while reading the article about how Americans were having actual withdrawals from their devices for 24 hours. I like to think that I would be able to do it fairly easily, but honestly, I don't know if it would be so easy for me. I counted the amount of times I checked my phone in a day and I stopped counting when I hit 25 because I was so shocked. I check my phone without even realizing it sometimes, and when I'm not on my phone, I have the ability to text off my laptop. I have so many mixed feelings about technology and our society. On one hand, it's amazing all of the things we are able to accomplish with the touch of a button, but I am often left wondering how many missed opportunities there are because we are too busy with our technology. I talked to my parents about when they were little, and it's amazing that they used to just leave the house in the morning, show up to their friend's house with no warning and not come back until dinner... And they did all of this without their parents worrying about them. Society is so dependent on technology and cell phones nowadays and it's crazy! I want to try to go 24 hours straight without technology and I think you should too so you can see how long you last, it's crazy to imagine how hard it actually is.

Social Media Marketing Workbook

As I read Chapters 1-3 of Jason McDonald's Social Media Marketing book, I have some comments about it as a whole thus far...

First of all, I think the comparison of social media marketing to throwing a party is genius. Just as there are steps and preparations for throwing a party, there are steps and preparations for social media marketing as well. Comparing these two made so much sense to me and I would have never thought of this on my own, it puts into an easy perspective for audiences to look at. Some steps to throwing a party are super easy where others are a lot harder, just as social media marketing can be somewhat easy at some points but challenging at others.

Secondly, looking off your competitors on social media and basing your page off of theirs, trying to make it better is an intelligent route to go. If you want your page to "be the best" and beat out your competitors for followers or likes, it is important to check their pages and compare yours to it. If your competition has 4,000 followers, you need to figure out a way to get 5,000. It's so important to do this to be the best social media marketer possible.

These are just two major points I pulled out of the reading that really stuck out to me and I felt needed to be praised, commented on, and shared with y'all.

For Granted

Going on my sixth week here at ONU, I continue to reflect on my life and how much has changed in the past month. Two major things come to mind when I think about what I took for granted at home.

#1: Private bathrooms.
Community bathrooms are so not fun. Having to share with approximately 20+ other girls really just makes me miss being able to lock the door at home and be in the bathroom for as long as I please. I used to complain about having to share with my siblings, but that was nothing compared to college bathrooms... YIKES! This is something that I really never thought about at home as being a "luxury" but now that I don't have it, I notice how much I truly miss it...

#2: Home cooked meals made by my mom
Not only did they taste better than Mac food... But it was made by the hands of the woman who loves me most. I totally took my home cooked meals at home for granted. A solid, homemade lasagna with some quality breadsticks from home is one specific meal that I really miss. Some of the food at Mac is good, don't get me wrong, but nothing will compare to the meals my mom made me at home. I have gotten pretty used to the food here, and it doesn't really bother me but sometimes I just really crave a good, home cooked meal from my mom. Counting down the days until Thanksgiving break... Today marks 60 days until then, and I truly can't wait.

500 Word Posts

After reading Guy Kawasaki's Art of Social Media book, I learned a lot about social media that I never would have realized before. Towards the end of the book, he pulls everything together and gives general tips. The most helpful and new tip I learned was that he says to post a 500 word post twice a week on social media. I hardly ever post on social media, except snapchat, and the posts are never 500 words long. I think for certain social media sites, this is a good rule to keep followers tuned in to your page, but when it comes to Twitter and Instagram, it becomes a bit repeated and annoying. If I posted a 500 word caption on Instagram twice a week, I am almost positive that I would lose more than half of my followers. However, on blogging websites or Facebook, this is a good rule and it makes more sense for it to be followed. Throughout this book, Guy did a really nice job of explaining social media sites and rules that should be obeyed in the social media world. I believe that he could write an updated book and it would be extremely beneficial to our society, but overall, he did a really good job of explaining the Art of Social Media through different platforms.

Comparisons In Social Media

As a teenage girl who has had several body image problems and confidence issues, I find myself comparing my body and looks to those on the internet almost every single day. I know that this is an extremely common problem in our society today and that thousands of girls do this same thing on a daily basis. This is one thing that I despise about social media and the way women are portrayed. I see all these girls' posts on Instagram with about five different filters and edits applied to them and I begin to wonder why we do this. Why do we feel the need to put up a front for others to see? The best people are usually the genuine ones, the ones that put everything out there as it is and how it should be. However, for some reason, we all feel the need to edit our butts to make them bigger or our noses to make them smaller, along with the singular pimple that we think is huge but is really microscopic. Instead of embracing our flaws and telling other girls that it's okay to have them, we do everything we can to cover them up and point them out to others. This whole societal problem is something that I think everyone needs to work on. If we all work on our personal positivity, the stereotypes will eventually go away and we can stop comparing ourselves to each other and to celebrities. I think that this is a problem that will not go away for awhile, but one person at a time, we need to stand united as women who are perfect just the way we are.

One Big, Happy Family

As I lay in bed here at ONU at night, I thoroughly enjoy thinking about my family at home and how blessed I have been the last 18 years to have them as my support group. I figured I would share how amazing my family is back in Swanton, Ohio.

First things first, my parents mean the world to me. They have always supported my every decision. From deciding to play DIII college softball, to taking my first step as an infant, they have always believed in me. Having six kids can't be easy, but they sure do an amazing job and they don't get enough credit for it. Along with my parents, come my five siblings. My sister, Taylor, has been my rock since I can remember. Being the only two girls, we have a relationship that I know will never be replaced. My brothers, Shayne, Ben, Ryan, and Noah are incredible. They are all so different but all mean so much to me. I have a special relationship with all of them individually. They protect me and never let me give up on myself. They also know how to keep me tough. I've never gotten away with shedding many tears without being told to "Suck it up!" or "Rubel's don't cry." I know my brothers always have my back whenever I need them to. I also have an amazing family outside my immediate. My grandparents have always played such an important role in my life, and I couldn't imagine my life without them in it. My aunts and cousins also always support me and everything I do... I'm truly so blessed.

Along with my blood family members, I also am extremely fortunate to have a very best friend and her family supporting me every step of my life journey. They mean as much to me as my own family, and we treat each other like we are blood. It's important to have that one person to rely on when you feel alone or upset, and I have been blessed to find that person in Sarah. She is my #1 fan but isn't afraid to tell me the truth and I admire her for so many reasons. I am beyond blessed to have her and her family as my second family.

I enjoy sitting and reflecting on how important my family is to me and how much they have done for me throughout my life. I feel like so many people take their families for granted, and that makes me so upset. So, if you can, just tell your support system thank you. It will mean more to them than you realize. It's extremely hard to take time out of our busy schedules to thank our parents for the opportunities they have given us, but it's so important to do this every once in awhile.

Podcast Blog

PODCAST FINAL.mp4

Questions:
-What made you switch your major?
-What was your favorite show to work on?
-How does social media affect how you search for jobs?
-What's your major?
-What is your focus in International Theatre Production?

Doing this podcast really gave me perspective on how social media can affect the ITP major and career path and I got to learn a lot about how that major works and what is all involved in it. I am so disconnected from theatre and know minimal information about it so I'm so happy that I got to learn more from this podcast. It is quite the complex and interesting major!

Pinterest 2018

Pinterest is a media application that is so nice in expressing yourself and things you like. Guy offers so many tips in his book for how to make your Pinterest cool and filled with more information but as I am thinking about it, I am beginning to realize how much Pinterest is dying out and being replaced by other social media sources. Personally, I used to use Pinterest daily and I had the app on my phone always. Now, I will simply download it if I need to look up an idea for a birthday present or graduation gift. I don't use it nearly as often as I used to and I sometimes wonder why that is. Is it because it is not as "cool" as Snapchat or Instagram. Is it because I just don't need it anymore? I really  wonder why Pinterest is not as popular as it used to be and am curious as to what other people's opinions are about it. I think Pinterest is a great source of social media and should be used often but it isn't as popular as it used to be. I looked up an online poll of most frequently used social medias and Pinterest was rated 8, following Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Youtube. I find it interesting how fast social media sources change and how our society uses each one differently.

Mental Toughness as a Student-Athlete

"Mental toughness is the ability to resist, manage and overcome doubts, worries, concerns and circumstances that prevent you from succeeding, or excelling at a task or towards an objective or a performance outcome that you set out to achieve."

This definition of mental toughness I found online hits me in so many ways. As a high school student-athlete, it was easy to count on my parents to tell me my practice times and get me where I needed to be. When I began to drive, I simply stayed after school and waited for my practices to begin. I did some homework, messed around with my friends, sometimes I took a nap or got some food. It was the same routine every single day. I would then come home and throw my laundry to my mom for her to do for the next day and the cycle continued. Balancing school, friends, and sports wasn't too hard in high school because I had so many other people watching my schedule for me and reminding me when I needed to be where. It was a pretty simple routine; school, practice, home.

Mental toughness was only important for game time situations. I never really worried about being "tough" while my mom was making me dinner and my dad was throwing my load into the washing machine. Living at home was living pretty lavishly. When I went away to college, my whole perspective changed. Everyone always told me how much different it would be, and how much more time management I would need to have and blah blah blah... I thought I knew what I was getting into. However, it has been a lot more difficult than I ever thought. Being a student-athlete is a huge time commitment and staying mentally tough is so important for me. Between classes, eating, softball, laundry, study tables, working, God, friends, sleep, football games, exercising, and homework, it's a lot to juggle. I have learned very quickly how to be independent and find a time for everything that needs to be done. I have the most amazing teammates and coaches, as well as parents back home, that are supporting me and helping me with it all, but at the end of the day it's up to me to manage my time and schedule. It definitely hasn't been easy so far, and it probably won't ever be easy, but it is definitely forcing me to grow up quickly which is teaching me a lot. Through all the chaos going on, I know mental toughness is so important. I need to remember that I'm not alone, and that I can push through, not matter how many times I doubt or question myself.

Another super important thing that I need to remind myself is how important it is to set time aside for myself and to take a moment every once in awhile to breathe. Life gets crazy sometimes, and it's hard to remember to just relax for a minute. I need to remind myself to step away and call my mom to talk, or listen to music in my bed for 30 minutes. It's not going to kill me to step away from schoolwork every once in awhile to take time for self-reflection.

All of these things are things that I'm sure all college freshmen struggle with, especially within the first month, but I know I will get a hang of it and become more comfortable with everything. I need to stay mentally tough and positive and work hard in everything I do.

The #Hashtag

Back in 2012, hashtags were extremely popular. Whether it was #awesome, or #friends, or #thistweetisthebest, they were used with every post, all the time. They are used to express a more detailed post, and they are used for explaining the post in a little more detail with few words. I, personally, have always been somewhat against using them, at least a lot. Every once in awhile, I will add them to my snapchat story or on my instagram comments, but other than that I find them pretty pointless. However, as I read Guy's perspective on hashtags, mine was altered. He says to use a hashtag that is trending and constantly in people's faces and to use it all the time for events. I find it interesting that a small hashtag could give so much information and could make people eager for more. I don't use hashtags on my social media accounts very often, but if they are going to draw attention and cause more followers, then a hashtag may be a good route for me. I think it is important, as Guy Kawasaki mentions on pages 102 and 103, to stay consistent with your hashtags and make them stick in people's minds so they want to know more. As I dove deeper into this topic of hashtags, I did some research and realized that they are super helpful. For example, the Olympics use a hashtag all the time to draw attention. Also, #polarbearup at Ohio Northern is used often when describing the winter or rooting for the sporting events. After diving deeper into this topic, I have discovered that hashtags aren't so annoying after all and I might even use them more often that I ever would have thought! #learning #gobears

Social Media in Groups

Have you ever noticed the amount of time people spend on their cell phones while hanging out with a group of friends? I have noticed this repeatedly the last few years of advancing technology. Whether they are texting someone else that isn't with them, or scrolling through Twitter to read the latest gossip, a lot of time is spent on social media even when people are "spending time" with their friends. I try to imagine a time when there wasn't such thing as social media or iPhones, and snapchat stories didn't exist. Imagining this makes me realize how much our society and social media standards have changed. At a team bonding my senior year of high school, our coaches forced us to put our phones in the middle for dinner and whoever touched theirs first had to buy their own meal. For some girls, this was worse pain than getting teeth pulled. It was actually really sad to see how hard it is for some people to socialize without a device in their hands. No matter how intriguing the conversation may be, it is so hard to concentrate without the comfort of a phone in our hands. Personally, I could go days without my phone. I enjoy quality time with the people I love most, and the people that matter will make you forget about social media and other distractions for the time being. Our world is changing so fast and so much every single day, and I hope that people stop relying on social media and their phones to give them happiness. I challenge you the next time you are with a group of people, to stay off your phones. Try an hour, then try two, and so forth. People are starting to forget the importance of spending quality time with friends and family, and living in the moment, off their phones and social media.

Different yet Connected

Walking through Ohio Northern's campus seeing so many different groups of people is truly incredible. Throughout the last three weeks, I have encountered people from so many different backgrounds and it's so cool to see how people come together despite our differences. I was speaking to a few of friends the other day about how I get to go home this weekend to spend time at the Fulton County Fair... something that I have not missed since I was two years old. My new friends were so curious and interested in an event that is so important to me and my family, although they had never experienced it before. Watching this made me so intrigued with the way people connect here at ONU. No matter where an individual is from, or who they were back in high school, they are accepted here and welcomed in with open arms. Everyone I have encountered here has been so intrigued with my life and where I come from, it makes me so happy. I have yet to encounter a rude person here, everyone has been so amazing and like family already. No matter how different we all may be, we are connected on campus and it is something so special that makes me feel so blessed to be able to call this my home away from home. Thank you ONU for everything so far, can't wait to see what is in store for me the next four years, I'm sure I will continue to learn everyday about life on campus. I hope to continue to meet people like the ones I already have.

Snapchat...Good or Evil?

Pretty much everyone with a pulse has heard of the social media app picturing a white ghost on a yellow background. If not, well welcome to Snapchat. Snapchat is a way to communicate with other people by sending pictures. Sounds pretty fantastic right? Let's dive deeper into the world of snapping...

I am a victim of the app of Snapchat. I sit in bed at night for hours just opening several photos of my friend's faces or dogs or pointless household items. I typically respond with a simple picture of my face, but hardly any conversations are had. This realization made me really start to think about how truly pointless the app is. Rather than having conversations in person, we, as a society, tend to send stupid pictures of nothing to each other... How crazy is that? Snapchat is a way to hide behind a screen and act like someone that you are not. You can say whatever you want and send it for 2 seconds without having to actually have a conversation with another human being. Most people snapchat people they don't even know for hundreds of days but when they see them in person, they avoid eye contact. After they see them without having a conversation, they will send them a snap saying "It was so nice to see you earlier!" How ridiculous is that? Our society is so dependent on having conversations through a screen that we forget how to have a real conversation with words and another person. That's why I wonder whether Snapchat is truly a good social media app. It's great to get to talk to a friend that moved 12 hours away over Snapchat and see how their new lives are, don't get me wrong... However, I find that it makes it so incredibly easy to hide behind a screen to be able to talk to people. If Snapchat was never invented, would teenagers and young adults have better communication skills? It's hard to say for sure, but I am starting to believe that this could be the case. This is where I sit and ponder whether Snapchat is truly a good source of social media or not.

Resharing on Social Media

In the reading, I found so many things very interesting and insightful about social media. One thing in particular that stood out to me was the idea of resharing on social media. Whenever we enter a social media source, it is crucial to reshare posts and "like" our follower's pictures or tweets. I have never thought that resharing is the ultimate test of social media. Our main goal on any website is to show love to the people that are on there as well. When we post images or tweet a funny joke, we expect our friends to reshare and send our media to other places. We should, in turn, do the same thing for them. Instead of leisurely scrolling through our social media accounts without doing much of anything, we should be liking or favoriting all of the posts on our feed. I have never thought that a like from me or a retweet could make someone's day a little better. It is interesting to think about how much social media can affect a human being's life. We each expect our friends to share our posts, so why would we not do the same thing for them? Additionally, our main goal on social media should be getting a lot of reshares. This kind of contradicts what I have been previously taught about social media. I was taught that it doesn't really matter how many likes we get on a picture or tweet, and if we like it we should post it and not worry about the amount of reshares. Where I think this is slightly true, I also believe that the main reason anyone posts is to get likes and draw attention to ourselves. I think this is super important to remember because social media has more of an effect on our developing world than ever before, so we need to fully take advantage of it.

Week One as a College Student!

Ohio Northern University. Last fall, when I made the decision to attend this college, many factors played into it. Not only was I offered the chance to be on the softball team, and several great scholarship opportunities, there was something more than money and sports at ONU. The atmosphere of the campus was far different than any other visit I had been on. It felt like a family and I knew the moment I stepped onto campus that I would call this my home. When I moved in on August 16, 2018, the excitement really set in. The first week on campus has been hectic, to say the least. Between working out, starting classes, making new friends, and adjusting to community bathrooms, I haven't had the time to sit and really reflect on how amazing it truly all is. From welcome weekend to studying in the library, the opportunities here are endless.  I have learned so much already which makes me extremely ecstatic for what is to come. Even though I know it won't be easy, I am positive that eventually it will be worth it. I have high expectations for my college experience and I will do everything in my power to meet those expectations. Getting the chance to come to the college of my dreams is something that I will never take for granted and something that I will be grateful for every single day. Everything about ONU is so incredible; the people, the facilities, the professors, the classes, and everything in between. The last week and a half has been everything I have wanted and more, and I can not wait to see all the opportunities that the next four years will bring.