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.