Brand Voice

      Chapter 7 of "Social Media for Strategic Communication" talks about something very important for those who are interested in a career field involving social media. That is the importance of brand voice. This is something that is necessary in order to manage a company's social media account. Your tone of voice in every post has to correspond with the beliefs and values of your company. If not, it is going to throw your readers for a loop and probably make you talk to your superior. This idea also goes hand in hand with the fact that you should make sure you are a good fit at a company before you accept a job, or even apply there. If they hold the same values and morals that you do, then it will be much easier for your "brand voice" on social media to be in alignment with how they would like you to talk. On top of that, you will also have a greater chance of fitting in better at said company. Thus, have a better work experience and happier life overall. In essence, brand voice goes much deeper than having a certain rhetoric when you are making social media posts. It must apply to every single kind of content that you are putting into the internet. Every retweet, like, share and any other form of association or publication must align with said brand voice. In addition, your character should probably have some sort of alignment with it as well due to the simple fact that it will make the job easier. Brand voice is just another great example of something that seems easy on the surface level, but difficult once you actually understand the effort put into it.

The Transition of Social Media

      In this day and age it seems that social media platforms bounce around day in and day out. Well, not exactly with that much frequency, but you get what I mean. I still remember when I was a young boy in the fifth grade. I was outside during recess and one of my good friends came up to me and told me about this new app that was about to be the new wave of social media called Instagram. I still remember to this day looking at him and laughing. I had only even heard about Instagram a couple of times, and to be honest it seemed silly. Fast forward to today and it is one of the biggest applications on the entire market. Everyone ranging from ages young to old has an Instagram account that ranges throughout the entire world. Yet, at the time I, and everyone else my age, only ever used Facebook. In today's day and age Facebook is still popular, but it has moved away from its once younger crowd and now gravitates towards a much older, mature crowd. My point is, social media changes rapidly over the years. A great example of this is MySpace. Go back about 15 years and MySpace was one of the most popular social media communities out there. Today, it is erased from the face of the internet and no one ever talks about it. The space of social media moves quick, and it can be quite hard to grab your stake in the lottery.

The Battle of the West

      Now that the National Basketball Association (NBA) has begun it is likely that many of my personal blog posts will be about this topic because it is just something that I happen to be very passionate about. With that said, I am, as I believe I mentioned in my last post, a huge fan of LeBron James. Not only is he a great player, but he is also a great person and an influence to all young people out there trying to make a name for themselves in the world of basketball. Therefore, I obviously would like to see his current NBA team, the Los Angeles Lakers, do very well this season. Honestly, I think they have a great shot to do something amazing this year. There is no doubt in my mind that they are a lock for this year's playoffs and they could easily make their way to the Western Conference Finals. However, they would have to get through at least one tough team to get there because there will be no bad teams in the Western Conference playoff bracket. Thus, they will have to face a team like Portland, Houston, Denver or the Jazz. Every single one of those teams has a solid lineup with the potential to give the Lakers a run for their money. Also, I say all of that without even mentioning the league's new top contender. The Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers have, without a doubt, the best lineup in the entire NBA starring two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP), and arguably the best player in the league, Kawhi Leonard. They opened up their first game of the season with a 112-102 win against the Lakers. On top of that, their 10 point win was done without the help of all-star guard Paul George who is sidelined for the coming weeks due to a shoulder injury. Granted, the Lakers were also missing a key player in Kyle Kuzma. However, there is no doubt that George will add more for the Clippers than Kuzma can for the Lakers. So, I am hoping the best for LeBron and the Lakers, but they have a tough road ahead of them to say the least.

Sponsored Posts

      According to Chapter 9 of "Social Media for Strategic Communication" there is now a big need for social media brands to make use of content marketing. This is exactly what is sounds like. You advertise and push out your created content on social media by using money to have it sponsored on various websites and platforms. This is very important to do because it allows you to get viewers outside of those who follow you or just happen to see your content on the discover page. However, I recently heard a piece of advice on this particular topic that made a lot of sense. A speaker, who had experience in this particular field, said that if you are a "social media influencer" and you are paying for a post to be advertised it is vital that you use a post that is already popular on its own, and not one that is already an advertisement or uses the hashtag #ad. This is because when people see posts that are dubbed as advertisements, especially when they are already paid to be sponsored on your page, they will pay zero attention to them. I mean honestly, who wants to look at an advertisement post that they know has nothing to do with them. Therefore, it is important for people to pick a post that has done well on its own. It could create a sense of wonderment to someone just swiping through their feed instead of just turning their nose at yet another advertisement. So, if there happens to be any influencers out there reading this, don't be afraid to use this tip.

SEO and Analytics

      In our class on Tuesday we discussed the importance of analytics within a business and search engine organization (SEO). Both of these things allow a business to function at its highest possible performance. Analytics are important because they essentially break down what your company is doing well and what you need to improve on. It is one of those things that you don't know how much you need it until you have it. It can tell you anything and everything about your business. It almost makes you wonder how companies used to function without the knowledge of what draws the most clicks on their website. With that said, it leads me into my next point which is, as I mentioned earlier, SEO. This is essentially the craft workers use to get their websites to pop up on Google when people search certain keywords. It is so important because it makes it easier for your website to receive more traffic. Also, it is used for having advertisements pop up when you are on social media websites. Have you ever been looking at shoes, or something of that sort, and then you find yourself browsing social media and an advertisement for the exact shoes you were just looking at pop up? You think to yourself, how is this possible? Is the internet reading my mind? Well, sort of. A programmed code is reading your mind and has been designed to allow that advertisement to pop up on your social media page because it knows your search history through SEO.

Tis' The Season

      Tonight starts the greatest season of them all. You may be curious considering that neither fall, winter, spring or summer start tonight, and you would be correct in thinking that. Yet, it is a season much bigger than one that follows a weather pattern. It is the season of basketball. Tonight tips off the first games of the National Basketball Association (NBA). I could not be more excited. The end of the Warriors' dynasty is on the horizon and every fan is looking forward to the new landscape the NBA has to offer. There are multiple dynamic duos, and with such a diversity in the spread of talent across the league there is no way to determine who has the best chance to win the championship. For the first time in years there is an even chance for every team. Personally, I am a huge fan of LeBron James. Therefore, I would love nothing more than to see the Los Angeles Lakers do well. However, I most excited to know that I truly have no idea who will come out of the Western portion of the league and make their way to the championship. As I mentioned earlier, the Warriors have completely and utterly dominated the West for the past six years and made a run at the finals each time. However, after losing Kevin Durant to free agency and Klay Thompson to an ACL tear there seems to be no hope left in the organization besides Stephen Curry. Thus, for the first time in a long time it really is anyone's game.

Writing For Different Crowds

      Chapter 7 of "Social Media for Strategic Communication" discusses a very important topic for those who are interested in majoring in social media. It is the idea that you need to understand how to write for different audiences based on various platforms. This is a topic that I have discussed in many of my classes this year, and it is extremely important. A great example of this is how you would write for Twitter compared to Facebook. Twitter draws a much younger crowd. Therefore, you would likely have to use a much more juvenile tone when tweeting out content. I have actually noticed this from many different companies. For example, I have seen many tweets from Wendy's that have a humorous, comedic tone, and they will receive a lot likes for that reason. On the other hand, Facebook is a completely different crowd. As time has progressed and social media has evolved Facebook seems to have drawn a much older, more mature crowd. I have noticed that there are a lot more parents and adults that occupy Facebook's users. Therefore, if you were a social media manager for a company and you had to write a Facebook post it would likely be mature and professional sounding unlike the tone you would use for Twitter. So, in today's era it is very important to understand who your audience is and how you should be writing to that specific audience.

The Evolution of the World

      Today in my convergent media class we discussed an interesting topic. It is the idea that journalism majors are not only dying out, but that those who still major in it have to do more. In its origin, journalism was exactly what you would expect it to be. Writing. However, as time has moved on and technology has evolved so many more requirements have come with a journalism degree. For example, it is expected that you should have some knowledge of photography and photo editing. Thus, if you are writing a story you should know how to take your own pictures for the story and edit them to make sure they are perfect. Also, it would be very helpful if you are skilled in the art of video editing because that would allow you to create your own news packages from start to finish. That includes: recording footage, having audio, likely creating some sort of script that the video will follow and putting it all together in a manner that is pleasant for viewers. This idea reminds me of something I talked about earlier in the year. That is the fact that the same thing is happening with businesses and the evolution of social media. Originally, businesses would only have to worry about perfecting whatever kind of service or product their company provided. At most, they would have a small marketing team that would put up some kind of billboard. However, just like journalism, as time has evolved they are expected to plaster social media sites with advertisements promoting their company. In essence, it is interesting to see how the world is changing for people and businesses as technology and expectations have evolved. Maybe there will be one person doing everything for an entire news company in the near future.

Fall Break

      I would say that this week it only seems right to discuss fall break seeing as it just ended. Of course, I did absolutely no school work over the long weekend. There were a couple of times that it crossed my mind, but ultimately I decided it was not worth ruining the good time I was having to focus on mediocre school tasks. Therefore, I feel it is appropriate to simply give a breakdown of my weekend. So, after classes on Friday I decided to go to the gym and shoot before I went home for a four day break. After that was done, I went back to my room to gather my things and prepare for the drive home. For those who don't know, which I am assuming most of you don't, I am from Springboro, Ohio. That is near Dayton, Ohio by the way because I am also assuming that no one reading this knows where Springboro is. Nonetheless, it is about and hour and and a half long drive from Ohio Northern to Springboro. Anyway, once I got home I had a great evening spending time with my girlfriend, Brynn, and my family. Honestly, it felt like a holiday weekend. Everyone was home, there was a big dinner and I got to see all of my favorite people. Then, on Saturday my family, my girlfriend and I all went into the basement where we held a pumpkin painting contest. I'll go ahead and spoil it for you. My girlfriend and I's pumpkin didn't win. Although, that is okay because I suppose it is that fun that counts anyway. Now, on Sunday I went to the annual Sauerkraut Festival held in Waynesville, Ohio with my my girlfriend, her mom and my mom. It was a good time where we walked around for a little bit and ate extremely unhealthy food. After that Brynn and I went to the University of Cincinnati where her apartment is and stayed there for the remainder of break. It was a great time. We made breakfast together, walked around campus a little bit and even went to dinner at Dewey's Pizza in Newport. Needless to say, it was a perfect end to a great fall break. However, I am not too sad to be back considering that basketball practice started this afternoon. Thus, cheers to fall break and the upcoming season.

The Grueling Preseason: Finale

      This blog post will serve as a reflection for one of my very first blog posts. Specifically, the one where I discussed the grueling preseason. Now, almost six weeks later, and the preseason is over. We topped of this last week with a workout and conditioning session on Monday, and an early morning pool workout on Wednesday. Knowing what I know now I can truly say, it was hard. However, it was worth it. Like I said before, if you approach conditioning with a bad attitude then you are going to hate every second you are out there. Therefore, I tried to adopt the mentality that I knew it was going to suck, but I would get through it. In my head I would just keep thinking that at some point later that day I was going to be in my bed. The truth is, nobody enjoys running 800 meter sprints six times. I mean, that is three miles of actual running. Not jogging. Running. Yet, I'm alive. I made it and the worst of it has passed because now I get to enjoy actual practices, and play in actual games. It was funny, one thing that always motivated me was the little saying on the bottom of every one of our lifting sheets. It read, "What is worse, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret?" Right below that it had the date of this year's Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) championship game. It was small, and you could barely see it on the paper. But, there were times I didn't want to be there, or I didn't want to lift that weight or do the core to finish out the last set. However, I know that I couldn't live with myself if I were to get to the end of the season and think that I could have been better if I had only worked harder in the preseason. Thus, I would like to end this post with a quote from the great Muhammad Ali that seems to relate well to this topic. He claimed that he hated every minute of training, but he would tell himself, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

Social Media's Rocket Science

      Content calendars. They seem almost silly to think about. The idea that a company needs a schedule for various things to tweet, post or blog about on social media. It seems equivalent to planning out basic things. For example, you don't plan out your meals months in advance. You just decide what you're going to eat as you go. Just like tweeting isn't something you plan out for weeks at a time. A funny tweet comes to your head and you tweet it. Simple as that. Or is it? Because if you agreed with what I just said, then you are in the same boat I was first in too. However, pumping out content on a daily basis for weeks on end is really hard work. You have to come up with funny, relatable, interesting or important things to talk about every day multiple times a day. Honestly, I doubt I could think up five good tweets in a week. So, I can't imagine what kind of rocket science goes into content calendars. I mean, of course there is going to be guidelines if you are working for a company and you know that there are policies, products or something else of the sort that you are supposed to tweet about. Although, I believe that creating a content calendar is likely akin to a podcast. At first, you think it is just sitting in front of a camera and talking. How hard could it be? Then, you realize how weird it is to talk to yourself, by yourself, in front of a camera. On top of that, you realize you have to come up with something to talk about every day. Not to mention the entire editing process and equipment that goes into it. I guess what I am trying to say is, content calendars are hard work, and reading about the work that goes into them gave me a newfound respect for workers in the social media industry.

Live Tweeting Amateur

      This past weekend was the weekend for live tweeting. Each of us in my social media principles class had to live tweet an event happening at homecoming weekend. Being someone who enjoys attending sporting events, I decided to go to the Ohio Northern football game where we played Marietta. I'll be honest, at first I was anxious. Tweeting is somewhat of a foreign concept to me. It's not that I don't use Twitter, or that I don't know how to tweet, but more so that I just never do it. I mean sure, I will retweet something sports related or funny every now and again. However, that is never something tweeted by me. So, I knew going into it I was would feel weird tweeting out the happenings of a football game when most of my Twitter followers have almost never seen me tweet before. Although, I must say it went relatively smooth. Well, the very first tweet where I gave the score after the first quarter took me a second to get out because, for those who don't know, you can't just hit return or enter and have your cursor go to the next line on a tweet. That is not how Twitter works. If you want to tweet something where you different sentences on different lines, the easiest thing to do is to go to the notes on your phone and type it out the way you want it to look, then directly copy it from there to your tweet. At first, I had forgotten that I needed to do this trick. But, like riding a bike, I caught on pretty quick and never had that problem again. So, overall I would say my first live tweeting assignment was a success. Because while it did seem odd to me at first, it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and do something that I'm not accustomed to. Thus, I would consider doing it again. Maybe.

The Power of Image

      In Chapter 3 of Social Media Strategic Communication the author talks about something important that I preached in my social media policy this week. It is the idea of keeping a consistently positive image of yourself across all platforms of social media. The important part there is the fact that is must be across all platforms of social media. I find that many people have one account, such as LinkedIn, where they come across professional. It is the kind of account that an employer would look at and be willing to hire you. However, you could go to that same person's Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account and see all kinds of posts, tweets or whatever else they may have and it will not match the professional appearance they have on LinkedIn. This is a dangerous thing to do especially in today's modern era because employers are checking all aspects of our social media. Think about it, all they would have to do is look up your handle and be able to find out all kinds of information about you. For example, by looking at who you follow, and who follows you, it could tell them what kind of political affiliation you hold. Thus, retweeting, liking or posting one wrong thing could end up being a detriment to the entirety of your future. A great example of not keeping a consistent positive image on social media is something that a great deal of high school kids come across some time throughout their four years. They go to some kind of party and decide that they are going to post a picture that has alcohol in somewhere in it. Then, the wrong person sees it and they get called down to the office and receive some sort of punishment. Granted, this isn't the largest deal in the world, but a mistake like this in the future could lead to the difference between you getting hired or not. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to consistently maintain a positive, well-rounded image of yourself on social media.

11 Years of Mario Kart

      Today I am going to talk about a subject very near and dear to my heart. Of course, that subject is "Mario Kart". An arcade-like racing game involving all of the characters from the beloved series "Mario". The first time I ever played was when I was around eight years old. My parents bought it for me as a gift for my DS. For those who don't know, a DS was a handheld gaming device that nearly every single kid had growing up and I'm not sure how you wouldn't know what it is. Anyway, I immediately fell in love. I would play "Mario Kart" in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health and anytime I was allowed to get it out at the dinner table. My brothers and I all had a copy and we would race each other online to see who was the best. From what I can recall, I believe I got my butt handed to me every single time. However, that never deterred me from playing the game because I legitimately loved everything about it.
       Fast forward to today and I still play it. Over the summer I bought the game for my Nintendo Switch and my roommates (CJ, Grant and Landen) and I all play it together. In fact, there is a white board in our dorm room that has a "Mario Kart Hierarchy" chart with all of our names and a tally for each time that we have won. If my memory serves me correctly, then I believe Landen and I are tied for first with 40 tallies each, CJ is a close second and Grant is nowhere to be found. Although, it goes beyond winning and stems back to the original reason why I played it as a kid with my brothers. We have fun doing it and it truly brings us together. That isn't to say that when we lose we don't yell a long list of profanity at the person who won, but I suppose that is just boys being boys. Overall, it is a great game that I wouldn't trade for the world and I honestly don't know what I would do without it here at college.