Employee Engagement

Part 7 of "Share This" discusses the importance of engaging the employees of a company. You must gather input and create a plan before you choose the channels you want to utilize for your company. After the channels are chosen, the information needs to stay in a real time setting in order to keep up with the demand of the audience. Employee engagement allows feedback and collaboration throughout the company, which is important in keeping ideas fresh and moving forward.

Organizations are constantly part of evolving communities and networks, and this allows a flow of social communication for a company. According to "Share This," employees need to be involved in the process to make sure the company is matching business needs to the recommendations of employees. It's important not to begin a social media site on a platform that will not help the company move forward simply because it's the hottest, new tool.

Utilizing employees to their best potential is helpful to the growth of a company. The employees do the work that needs to be done and their ideas can push the company into the right direction. Seeking input from your employees will empower everyone to be proactive.

"Share This" explains how the employees of a company need to be included on decision making and putting them on social media helps improve the company overall.

It's My Time

It's 8 o'clock and I have already completed some of my homework and a full workout. I feel extremely accomplished. My typical day leaves me feeling guilty that I didn't find time to check things off my 'To Do' list. Today is the first day I have been extremely productive in a while.

I am an extreme procrastinator; I have been that way for as long as I can remember. Procrastination runs in my family, and I truly believe that.

Homework overload hits the day before all of my assignments are due and I usually stay up too late to try to finish the things I should have been doing a long time ago. I don't always procrastinate, and when I get my assignments done on time, I feel really good about myself. So why is it that I can't finish all of my assignments ahead of time? What is taking up so much time for me not to get my work done? I have no idea how to answer those questions. Maybe I get too busy for my own life and absolutely cannot find the time, but I think I get distracted the majority of the time.

This week will be different. I'm already on a good track and I intend to keep up with this trend. Look for an update in the future! I hope I can bring you good news in a week or two.

Mathematics and Social Media

For my social media principles course, I was assigned to host an interview with a person in my preferred department and create a podcast based on that information. I chose to interview the mathematics department chair, Mihai Caragiu.

Caragiu is in charge of any PR for the math department, and he shared his plans for the future regarding social media. He gave me all the information I needed to get a better understanding of how ONU's math department connects with students.

Please enjoy the podcast below!

A Flawed Rule System

A new, Twitter-like app is becoming the hottest topic of the social media world. In this app, users are able to post anything they desire and what they say is completely anonymous. The app is also restricted by location, meaning you only see posts from those within a few miles of your location. This app is called Yik Yak.

Yik Yak is mainly directed towards college students and college campuses, and it allows people to discuss their thoughts on current topics on campus. Like all social media apps, there are certain terms and conditions the users must follow and their membership could be suspended if these rules are broken. Many Yik Yak users follow the rules and post about classes, Mac food, the black swans and various other topics, but sometimes there is a bad seed, which turns into a rotten garden, which turns into an endless sea of offensive Yaks.

I witnessed a negative post ruin a friend's night this past Saturday. Someone completely degraded my friend in a post that included her full name and our sorority's name. '

I decided I would look over the rules that are supposed to govern the users of Yik Yak, and I found that they are not well enforced.

• "You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers."
• "You DO NOT bully or specifically target other yakkers."

I think it's somewhat humorous for the makers of Yik Yak to make this rule so important, but I can't explain how many times I have seen people personally called out by other yakkers in offensive posts. Names are sometimes included, which does not follow the rules. I find some of the yaks offensive even if they are not targeted towards me. People post about how awful Greek life is, how horny they are or how hot that girl was in Mac earlier. 

• "Zero tolerance policy on posting people's phone numbers."
• "Don't clutter people's feeds with useless of offensive yaks. If you see a useless of offensive yak, make sure you do your part by downvoting or reporting it."

For anyone who has looked at Yik Yak, the majority of the posts are useless or offensive. There is no monitoring system on Yik Yak other than the users. It is our responsibility to downvote or report offensive posts, however, a post must be downvoted at least 5 times to get it removed. Each vote is counted once on a post and you cannot vote more than once on the same post, so 5 or more people have to downvote a post, and hope that no one else upvotes that same post, to remove it from the page. Does that make sense? It doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

• "If your yaks continue to be downvoted or reported, you will be suspended." 

If you are actively on Yik Yak, please try to keep it clean. I am tired of seeing your comments about that hot girl in your Chem class or that you haven't had sex in too long. If you wouldn't want your name posted next to it, you probably shouldn't be posting it, and maybe we should all just stick to Twitter.

 

Social Media and Branding

I finished reading Part 4 of "Share This: the Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals" and I am making connections between my use of social media and how professionals should be using social media to market their brand. 

Part 4 discusses how to use social media to improve a brand and encourage communication and interaction between a company and its customers. The difficulty of measuring return on investment was mentioned and I feel that there is a way to make the system function more effectively. "Share This" gives an example of P&G using printable coupons to increase sales in store, but there is no effective method to get people to buy items from a store while remaining on the social media site. Measuring ROI can be difficult, however, if managers keep track of their sales before and after posting on their social media outlets, they should be able to determine if there is an increase in sales.

As I was reading, I began thinking about how I use my social media websites and how the organizations I am involved in use social media websites. The book discusses the importance of engaging your followers and monitoring your content. I made a connection to Alpha Xi Delta and how our PR Vice President and Social Media Chair use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We are told to be aware of what we post in order to keep our Chapter clean of any negative or inappropriate posts. Our social media team works very hard to keep the organization's Facebook Page (found here) updated and full of necessary information. 

In terms of Facebook and the generic social media websites, my sorority does well to keep things engaging and informative, but I think we could utilize other resources to make our presence even stronger. "Share This" suggests the use of videos (YouTube) and blogging to reach out to an audience. I agree with the book that people do not make the most of using video or blogs to engage their peers (or companies to the customers). Both blogs and video content are easy to share and you can keep people more updated about what you're doing because you can go into more detail and they can actually see things in action.

I think Alpha Xi would do well to begin a blog or a YouTube channel, or both. I would love to post videos of events to show other chapters what we are doing, and maybe they could get some ideas from us!

"Share This" is mainly targeted towards professionals, but I think everyone can use these tips in their daily lives. We all are a brand, we all are trying to put our best foot out there and we all are trying to get a response from a specific audience.

The College Experience

College is a life changing experience. You just turn 18 years old and you are thrown out on your own in a world that isn't necessarily the 'real world,' but your parents expect you to be an adult. Attending any college can be the most intimidating time in a person's life. I experienced the shock of the college culture last year as a freshman at Ohio Northern University.

Of course, I knew a few things to expect: the drinking, staying up way to late, getting yourself to classes, trying to make new friends and participating in different activities. It's not high school anymore, and people are fairly open about their lives. I came into college with an expectation, but that expectation was definitely exceeded. 

It's honestly hour and I would like to share my experience and thoughts on the 'College Experience.'

When I arrived on campus, I was excited and nervous for my opening weekend. Anyone who knows me understands that I am shy when you first meet me, but I become outgoing when you give me some time. I was matched with a random roommate and we had messaged each other over the summer to talk about who would bring the fridge and microwave. I thought I would at least have my roommate as my friend.

Opening weekend came and I attended every event, but my Orientation Leader was not welcoming and obviously had her favorites. I made friends with one girl in my group, but that friendship did not last. We parted ways after we went through Greek recruitment and ended up in different sororities.

My roommate, as mentioned earlier, was the person I expected to be my first friend on campus, but that was not the case. We were civil with each other, but we never became friends. She found her group and I was left to try to find mine. My old roommate moved out of our room two weeks later and I was left alone.

During this time, I decided I would try Greek life. I have always been interested in joining a sorority but I was scared about the stereotypes. I found my home with Alpha Xi Delta and I found my best friends along the way. For the first time, I didn't feel alone and I was happy. 

Shortly after joining my sorority, I attended my first party and I had fun. I was offered a drink or two, but I politely turned them down and continued to have fun with my friends. 

Everything was beginning to take a turn for the better and I was in a good place. My best friend moved into my room after her own problems with her roommate. The rest of my freshman year included me finding who I was and growing up into who I am today. 

Although my college experience did not start off on the best foot, I ended my freshman year with more knowledge and hope for a great second year at Ohio Northern University. I am emphasizing that this is my college experience.

As I expected, going to college also meant going to college parties. I have personally attended my share of parties over the past year and I have seen things I cannot write about in this blog, but I'm sure you can use your imagination. Parties are sometimes synonymous with drinking, but I can happily say that I have never even taken a sip of anything alcoholic. I honestly do not plan to drink until I turn 21, but there are some people that do not agree with my decision. I can't count the number of times I have been asked why I don't drink. I will respond with my reason and they criticize me and tell me, "but it's part of the college experience." No, I'm sorry, but drinking is not part of my college experience. 

Now I am a sophomore at Ohio Northern and I can't wait to see what the future holds for me. I hope my experience continues to cause me to grow in every way possible. I know I will not be the same person in a year, but I hope to be a better version of myself. 

Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat, oh my!

I bought my first smartphone about 10 months ago and filled my storage space with as many apps as I could, both useful and not. Many of the apps I downloaded were social media type apps, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Tumblr. Since then, I have added Yik Yak and Timehop to the mix. Why do I have all of these social media apps? Do I need every single one of them? How did I get started on so many different networks?

My experience with social media began with MySpace, much like everyone else from my generation. I remember faking my age to be able to create a profile and always forgetting how old I made myself when I forgot my password. That was the coolest thing of the time and the biggest decision I had to make was who to put as my 'Top Friends.' Like most trends, MySpace died out and is now used mostly for music. I logged on for the first time in years and I found things had changed quite a bit:

The time of social media is now and we use social media to carry out the majority of our daily conversations with our friends. I currently use Facebook, Timehop and Instagram daily to communicate with my friends. That leaves Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Yik Yak and Snapchat on my phone for no reason. Why do I feel compelled to keep these apps around? Don't get me wrong, I check these places every now and then, but probably not as much as I should.

My goal is to get more out of my social media practices. I have all the resources, but I feel that I am not utilizing them well. Does that mean I need to post more updates and network myself more? Maybe. I guess that's something I need to work on. Social media sites can be a little overwhelming, but I want to master them and use them to my best advantage. My objective is to use all of my social media apps more to improve my overall image. I don't need a million followers, but I want to at least have a profile with current posts. If I can't complete this task in a month or two, I might as well delete my accounts and forget I even had them.

Feel free to follow me on all of my social media outlets and help encourage me to achieve my goal!
Facebook
Twitter: @MichelleHaver
Instagram: @meeshell36
Snapchat: myshell36
Pinterest

Homesick and Breaking Down

This past weekend was full of excitement and fun, but also stress and lack of sleep. I couldn't be happier with how things turned out for my sorority and the rest of Greek life, but I would give anything to just go home.

I am not the type of person who wants to go home every weekend and I do not call my parents everyday, but home is calling me now. My life at ONU is great; recruitment is now over, classes are going well and I feel comfortable, but I really miss my dog and my mom and my stepfather and my house in the middle of nowhere. 

Before coming to ONU, I was always independent and didn't need my parents around all the time. I actually preferred when they weren't around. I enjoyed my freedom and I love that I was able to be responsible for myself. Towards the end of my high school career, I realized how lucky I really was to have the parents I have. They trust me and I know I can always turn to them if I need something. Like most teenagers, I couldn't wait to leave the house and be an adult, but I'm beginning to miss my parents being there. 

I can't begin to explain how much I would love to go home and curl up on the couch with my dog. It would feel so wonderful to start a movie and just relax without worrying about not being productive enough. I can daydream all I want, but reality will hit again soon. I have homework, sorority events and I was hoping to get a workout in tonight. I am beginning to feel guilty for taking that two hour nap earlier. 

I guess the old saying holds, you never know what you have until it's gone. I had a loving family, time to relax and do nothing all day, home cooked meals and a dog to always cuddle with. Now, I have my laptop, homework to do, tests to study for, one true meal eaten today and only a stuffed animal to cuddle with. Home sounds pretty good to me, and it's only Monday.

Social Media Strategy

We began reading "Share This: the Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals" this week in my social media principles class. This handbook is a useful tool that allows you to get the most out of using social media for your business. The first part of "Share This" gives statistics about users and defines the terms the authors will use throughout the book. The second part explains how planning works in using social media. 

The planning aspect of using social media is extremely interesting to me. I personally use social media daily, but I don't put in a lot of planning to what I'm doing. When a company wants to use social media to its advantage, more planning and strategy is involved. These strategies require six steps: select a squad, choose a goal, listen, think character and content, integrate your outposts and measure what you treasure.

Selecting a squad to be in charge of the social media is one of the most important steps. The people you select must be active in social media in their daily lives so they actually understand what to do and how social media works. These people must be able to keep everyone else involved and up to date on what is happening with the company. 

Choosing a goal is a basic step in planning to use social media. What does your company want to achieve by using social media? It is important to choose only one goal because you can focus all of your attention on that one goal and make it the most successful that it can be. Success in a goal is usually measured by return on investment (ROI) by the leaders of the company.

Listening, as I have mentioned in a previous post, is an important skill for businesses, especially when using social media. Checking keywords and typing your company's name into a search engine is a great way to begin the listening process. This step allows you to find out what your customers really want from you and you can build your brand from their suggestions. Even if the reviews are bad, your company can learn from those mistakes and never make them again. Listening also gives you the opportunity to see what you are doing well. It is important to use tools that allow you to listen and participate.

Thinking character and content is the next step in making a strategy for using social media. Character and image are two completely different things; character is the real deal and image is what you show others. A company needs to reveal its human side in order for customers to feel more invited. The content being shared needs to be monitored, and if there are negative comments, they need to be handled. 

Integrating your outposts means making the most of the social media sites you are using. It is not necessary to use all of the social sites you possibly can, but it's more about using them well and connecting them to each other. 

Measuring what you treasure is looking at your ROI and deciding if your plan was successful or not. You can then take this information and plan your next goal accordingly.

These steps are the basis of using social media to your best advantage. Business use of social media takes much more planning than personal, everyday use.  

Use Your Resources

In my previous post (found here), I described the ideas of listening to customers using the groundswell as a major resource. I recently finished reading "Groundswell" and everything about the book was put into perspective. The final chapters describe case studies of companies using the groundswell to its advantage. I found the stories about Dove and Dell to be the most significant.

Dove, a Unilever brand, was able to tap into the groundswell successfully and used the public to help enhance its brand. It began its journey by creating a challenge on The Apprentice. The ads created by the contestants turned out badly, but Dove used this opportunity to create its own ad. The new ad created a flow of visits to Dove's website. Dove's team did not want to stop there, Rob Masters decided to create a stream of Web-based videos to promote its new product, "Dove's Calming Night." They used this new site to offer free samples to users, and this was the moment Unilever realized the potential of the groundswell.

Throughout Dove's experience, the leaders of Unilever were able to loosen their control on the company and let the groundswell work. "Groundswell" gives three elements that Unilever used to help use the groundswell to its best advantage: have a plan, take small steps that make a big impact and include leaders in the plan.

Using Dove's example, we can see that there are many things that contribute to a growing company. Utilizing the groundswell takes time and patience. Planning in advance and taking small steps to achieve the company's goals are important to make a difference. The idea of the groundswell is to let the customers take more control of the company by allowing them to share their feelings about the products. Leaders must let go of some of the control they have to allow the groundswell to work.

Dell's experience is very different from Dove's. Many customers were displeased with Dell's products and they became more displeased when Dell did nothing to help them or to improve its product. The company finally realized what was happening and started listening, which I explained in a previous post to be the most important part of the groundswell. Dell began blogging to reach out to the customers, even the higher ups in the company contributed to the blogs. They were able to let go of some control over the company and allow the groundswell to work.

Letting go of control is a very important step for companies to tap into the groundswell. This process allows customers to feel comfortable with talking to the leaders of the company because they actually care what the customer has to say.

Social Media and Self-Esteem

Have you ever felt the joy of opening your Facebook page and seeing a lot of notifications? Have you ever checked your phone and smiled because you had a list of users who liked your Instagram picture? Have you ever posted something funny on Twitter, but no one favorited or retweeted it? Have you ever messaged someone but never got a response? Most people, including myself, would answer these questions with a yes. Why does social media hold a major role in how we feel about ourselves?

While thinking about how to answer that question, it all began to make sense. People don't post status updates or pictures to not get a response. We post these things with the hope that someone will 'like' it and respond. When I post a picture on Facebook or Instagram, I expect that my friends will give me feedback on it. If I check my recently added photo and it has not yet received more than 10 likes, I feel my self-esteem drop a little bit.

I decided to do a little research on the relationship between social media and self-esteem. Like most things, there are two sides to this story: the positive and the negative.

The first article emphasized the negative, stating that social media gives a false sense of reality and causes the user to become envious of others and measure their success by the success of others. Social media allows everyone to brag about their life and demonstrate how well they are doing. The article also says that people who use social media a lot crave attention and drama. Wait until election time and log onto Facebook, that is the best time to scroll down endless comments of arguing political views. The amount of drama that comes from a single status is astounding.

The other article I found focused on the positive images of using social media. This article describes a study done on college students at Cornell University. They placed some students at computers and allowed them to change their Facebook profiles while the others sat at computers that were turned off and had a mirror propped next to the screen. After a few minutes, the students took a questionnaire to measure their self-esteem. The students that were allowed to edit their Facebook profiles showed higher self-esteem levels than the other students.

Social media gives users a chance to show off their achievements and put their best foot forward. Watching people 'like' or 'favorite' your posts gives you a sense of belonging and happiness, but if your posts are not well received, your self-esteem can drop. Although updating your profile picture or your twitter feed makes you happy and raises your self-esteem, it is a good idea to leave your phone or computer somewhere and enjoy real face to face contact.

Not Enough to Do

The first weeks of classes are over and everyone is now getting settled into their schedules. Various sports and organizations are beginning to meet and plan their events for the year. Welcome Fest, Ohio Northern's activities fair, was a couple weekends ago and there was a wide variety of clubs and sports and musical groups for all to join. Last year, I remember signing up for as many things as I could, but I sadly did not follow through with many of them.

This year at Welcome Fest, I signed up for fewer clubs. The emails have started to file into my inbox and I write the meeting dates into my planner and wait for the day to arrive. 

Even though I have signed up for some activities, I feel somewhat empty; almost as if there is more I can be doing. I want to be active in more organizations, but I'm not sure that makes sense for me. My sorority emphasizes participation in other organizations, and I think I am involved on campus, however, when I write down what I actually am participating in, I realize there is not much on my list.

Why do I feel the need to push myself into campus organizations? I am currently enrolled in 18 credit hours of classes, I have a campus job as a Math/Stat tutor and I am actively involved in my sorority. Is there more I can do to fill my time? Of course there is, but I feel overwhelmed already.

I am hoping that working towards leadership roles in my current organizations will fill the empty feeling I have. I want to feel accomplished after this year, not stressed out about all of the activities I have to keep track of. Here's to my round two at ONU; may my sophomore year bring more memories and good times.

"Listening to the Groundswell"

My social media principles course at ONU is reading an interesting book titled "Groundswell." This book was published in 2008 and was written by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. Although the book is outdated, it gives meaningful advice for businesses trying to make the most of the social media around them. Chapter 5 spoke to me most while reading because it shares the idea of listening, which I feel is often lost in today's hustle and bustle.

To give some background information, the term "groundswell" is defined in the book as "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations." The beginning of the book describes the three main forces that cause groundswell: people, economy, and technology. Out of these three factors, I find people to be the most important.

People power business and the economy. Without the consumers, companies would not exist because there would be no requirement for their services. Chapter 5 illustrates that listening to the consumers is important to the success of the business. Everyone has heard the old saying, "the customer is always right." Although I have dealt in some situations where this may not necessarily be true, the idea still holds. If the customer is not happy, they will tell other people and business will drop.

"Groundswell" describes two strategies for listening. The first is setting up a private area for people to review items or engage in conversation about the company. In this strategy, businesses can hear the opinions of others and get a discussion started about the products. Then, necessary changes can be made to improve the brand. The second strategy is to look online at various websites, such as YouTube, blogs, or other social media sites, to find what people are saying about the products. People may not feel threatened if they post about a product on their personal blog, and will speak their mind.

I feel that companies who listen to their consumers have the most positive outcomes. After all, the reason you make a product is so the public will buy it. It only makes sense that you listen to their likes, dislikes, and feelings about the products. Listening enables a company to better fit the needs of the customers, which will lead to more sales and a growing brand.