The Professional Side of Social Media

Last summer, I joined LinkedIn because I needed to find a job for the summer. I was really struggling to find something that fit what I was looking for and a lot of businesses did not want to hire someone only for the summer, so I figured LinkedIn would be able to help me get what I needed.

Since then, I found and completed my summer job, but LinkedIn has been sent to the back of my mind. I still check my email and find messages about people wanting to connect with me. Maybe LinkedIn isn't a valuable resource for me at the current time, but I know I will use it in the next two years to help get a job.

I decided to do a little research about LinkedIn and I found an article titled, "6 Steps to a More Marketable LinkedIn Profile." The article outlined ways to improve your LinkedIn profile to become more appealing to future employers. The six steps include revisit your goals, layer in your keywords, strip out the clutter, reintroduce your personality, take a look at your profile picture and get recommendations. If you are serious about revamping your profile, click the link above to get more information about how to make yourself more marketable.

Even though I don't use my LinkedIn account as much as I should it is a great tool to find jobs and to connect with people. LinkedIn allows you build relationships in a professional manner, which will be beneficial for me once I graduate from ONU. All college students should begin thinking about how they want themselves to be seen by professionals all over the world, and LinkedIn is a good way to build a profile that will definitely be viewed by future employers!

The Consumer's Voice

Chapter 16 of "Real-Time" explains the importance of social media allowing consumers to gain their voices again. This chapter expresses that customers have lost their voice somewhere along the way and they are just beginning to speak up for what they think and to share their ideas with a company. Sharing reviews of products is one of the most beneficial things a customer can do to help the company improve for the future.

Social media is a quick way for a company to see how its customers feel about a new product. The book uses an analogy of social media being like a huge town square, where people can gather and share their ideas.

In previous chapters, "Real-Time" talks about how companies often block employees from using social media at work, which is not necessarily the way to increase work and production. Consumers want to know what is going on and not allowing any use of social media is a good way to lose contact with customers. If an employee gets on their personal Facebook or Twitter and sees a post bashing their company, they can report it even if it is somehow missed by the team of analysts. Communications policies are important to maintain a balance between work and social interactions with customers.

Bullying in the 21st Century

Social media is a fast and easy way to communicate with friends and family, and in my post "Social Media and Self-Esteem" I discussed how social media can affect someone's self-esteem. I recently watched the movie "Cyberbully," the TV movie released in 2011. The story follows a teenage girl who wants to be popular, but all went wrong when she joins social media networks. Her friends began to make fun of her through social media and she attempted to kill herself. 

Although not all cyberbullying results in an attempted suicide, social media allows people to hide behind a screen and harm others. The film holds major significance in our current society because most interactions occur online and these conversations are usually not monitored by an outside source. I personally can't say I have ever been bullied online, but I have seen fights break out on Facebook over status updates. These fights are prominent around election season, where everyone wants to express their opinions and push down those that oppose their views. 

I have not heard of many cases of cyberbullying recently, maybe that trend has been outgrown, but the idea that social media allows us to be what we want to be rather than what we actually might be is scary. 

There are now social media sites that are completely anonymous. Yik Yak is the most prominent on college campuses, and I have mentioned in a previous post how this app is dangerous for people to use. The anonymity allows users to actually state what they think without thinking about any repercussions because there aren't any. Cyberbullying is still happening and now it can be completely anonymous. 

The movie "Cyberbully" might have aired three years ago for the first time on TV, but the idea of cyberbullying still exists. Instead of using social media to harm others, it should be used to build relationships and to communicate (nicely) with friends, family and businesses.

Course Overload and Registration Stress

As the final weeks of classes are coming toward me at full force, I am feeling the stress and frustration of finishing my current classes and beginning the new ones.

I calculated my grades in all of classes, which turned out to be a huge mistake. I know this semester has not been my best, but after looking at all of my current grades, I feel a wave of disappointment take over. Right now, I only have an A in one of my classes, two are Bs and two are Cs. I'm positive that I have never received a C as a final grade, but that is something that might happen at this point. We have six weeks left of classes and then it's the dreaded finals week. The stress is finally beginning to get to me, but I worry it is too late to make a major change.

I have never needed to study a lot for any of my classes, especially in high school. It is a shock to me when I see that I'm doing poorly in my classes because that has never been an issue. This proves to me that I need to make a change for the remaining of the semester and into next semester. Actually applying myself and studying will improve my experience in classes, and I hope to come out next semester with good grades.

This week is the beginning of registration for spring semester and that in itself is stressful. On top of that, my adviser has yet to communicate with me about what I need to schedule. I emailed my past adviser about courses and he informed me that he has retired and I need to contact another faculty member, who is my actual adviser. This information would have been beneficial to me at the beginning of the year so I knew who to contact with questions regarding my academics. I am disappointed in the faculty in the math department for how they handled my situation.

My frustration aside, I hope to improve my study habits in the future. This year has been a test for me, but I feel like I might be failing. With six weeks left, maybe I can make the change I desperately need.

Big Things Come in Little Packages

I am finally able to announce that I now have a Little sister in my sorority. Although it was difficult to keep the secret for two weeks, the look on her face when I blew out her candle was priceless. My Little is Hannah Lane, and I could not be any happier to announce that to the world.

Getting your Little is one of the biggest events of your time in a sorority and I am so honored to have found the perfect one for me. I remember getting my Big last year and I also remember looking around the room at my reveal and seeing families with 10 or more girls in them. There were only three people from my family at my reveal and my known family only consists of eight women total. That is tiny compared to some of the families. It's about quality, not necessarily quality, and we could not have found a better person to be in the Flower Family.

I was asked two weeks ago if I would take Hannah as my Little and I said yes and began crying because I was so happy and relieved. From the moment I met her, I knew I could see her being my Little sister.

I am the youngest member of my family, so being the older one in the family is a different experience for me, but I plan to make the most of my experience as Hannah's Big.

Last night was one of the best nights of my life and I wouldn't trade how I felt for the world. There is no greater joy than the first hug you get from your Little when you reveal yourself to them. Hannah is the perfect Flower and the perfect Little for me. I can't wait to see where our relationship goes in the future, and I promise to always stand by her side.

Welcome to the Flower Family, Hannah. I can't wait to see all the wonderful things you accomplish, and I am so proud to be able to say I am your Big forever and always.

"Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life. No matter what."

Respond to a Crisis

I am currently reading "Real-Time Marketing and PR" and chapter 10 discusses crises and how no one is safe. Every company must have a plan in case of emergency, and the people in charge of the crisis plan must be ready for anything that happens.

While reading this part, I related it back to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. When a disaster occurs, people typically panic, but there should be a plan for evacuation or a safe place to hide from the storm. Information is usually broadcast all over every news station and updates are regular and informative. The same concept applies to companies experiencing a crisis.

The first important thing to remember is that everything is happening in real time, which means a story could break on a social media network before you get the information out to your audience. If that's the case, you must address the problem on that medium and move on from that point. It is never a good idea to ignore the situation, the crisis should be explained and resolved before others can comment and critique the company in question.

If a crisis occurs, a team should be ready to handle the situation and get the correct information out to the audience as quickly as possible. After the initial information is given, updates should be scheduled to continue to tell people what is going on.

The book outlines why it is important to get your message out and to react quickly, but accurately, when a problem occurs. There should always be a plan, and there should be a team to execute the plan when needed. If crises are ignored or kicked under the rug, a company could be looking at more than a flood or a hurricane when it monitors its social media content.

PR as a Mathematics Major

As most of you probably know, I am currently studying mathematics at ONU. I chose my major because I have always loved numbers and math problems, and there are many potential careers for me to consider. You can find more information about why I chose math as my major in my post "What are you planning to do with that?"

You might be asking why I am hosting a blog that contains mostly posts about PR and social media if I am studying mathematics, but the answer is simple: I am hosting this blog because it is required for my Social Media Principles course, but I thoroughly enjoy writing every week. Sometimes I feel a little strange sitting in class because I am surrounded by PR, Communication and Marketing majors, and they are taking the class for their major. I'm simply taking it because I thought it would be an interesting class.

Actually, I am interested in PR and communication classes because they are very different from my normal math classes. PR and social media is always changing and evolving and it's important to stay on top of the current media trends. Through my class, I have learned that PR is really all about relationships and building lasting connections between your company and its customers.

Before this class, I always thought PR was all about appearances and making sure you look good, but that's not necessarily the case. Obviously you want your company to be represented well, but it's more about how the customers are treated and how you deal with various crises that occur.

Although I am a math major and will probably rarely use the skills I'm learning in Social Media Principles for whatever career I choose, I think it's beneficial for everyone to see how they should use their resources to build relationships through a PR mindset. Even if I can't use these skills doing math problems, I can certainly keep them in mind for my own daily social media use and interactions with other people.

Quick Response is Key

I am currently reading "Real-Time Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott for my social media principles class and Chapter 6 explained how important it is to respond quickly to any complaints customers have. After reading this chapter, I thought about how ONU handled Homecoming this year. In a previous post I discussed the lack of posts from the official ONU Twitter and Facebook profiles during the Homecoming weekend. I feel that Chapter 6 of "Real-Time" could teach the people in charge of the ONU social media a lesson on response and reaction to the community.

Chapter 6 explains a crisis that occurred for Amazon.com when they illegally sold books to their Kindle users and then they abruptly refunded and deleted the books from the customers' Kindle accounts. It took the CEO of Kindle one week to send an apology to customers after they complained on a Kindle user forum. The book emphasizes how important it is for companies to respond quickly to its customer complaints. Although the CEO apologized and was sincere about it, but the apology was sent too late to make a huge difference.

During Homecoming weekend, ONU did not post as much as they should have given the major event that occurred. For my class, I was assigned to live tweet an event from Homecoming and make a blog post about how ONU could have improved their appearance on social media sites. There are about 15 people in my class and we all discussed the same idea that ONU did not post as much as they should have, but no one from ONU has reached out to say anything about why they were not posting. If they were monitoring the content that included anything ONU related, they would see posts about how lacking social media was about Homecoming.

"Real-Time" explains how important it is to move from the old-school, traditional media approach of newspapers and magazines to the new, real-time approach. Social media has evolved the way news spreads and companies need to begin using the new ideas to spread information. Homecoming at ONU is a recent example of how real-time social media was not used effectively to benefit a brand.

Home is Where the Heart is

This weekend was Fall Break for ONU, and I was lucky enough to spend my time at home with my family and old friends from high school. Although I couldn't wait to be home for the first time in 8 weeks, nothing went as I planned and this weekend wasn't as fun as I was hoping it would be.

Friday was Homecoming for my high school and I was really looking forward to the football game and seeing old friends. After being home and seeing my dog, I tried to get in my car to meet my friends for the game. Those plans hit a roadblock when my car wouldn't start; the battery was completely dead. My step dad pulled in a minute or two later and we attempted to jump the car, but that didn't work. The next 40 minutes consisted of us trying to get my car to start, until he finally offered to take me into town to the game. I was only 10 minutes late to the game. After that, everything was fun with my friends and we won the game!

After the game, I went to get some food with the friends I was meeting. I didn't realize how much I would miss having Buffalo Wild Wings, but those boneless honey barbecue wings hit the spot. My mom, Nolan, and I then went to watch my sister's band perform at a local bar. Spending time with family and friends is the best stress relief.

 The weekend was off to a great start, until Saturday night. Without getting into all of the details, I went to spend time with a few friends and it felt like everything had changed. I guess that's what happens when you leave your hometown for college. Old friends become just that, old friends. Now, not all of my friends from home have changed, but Saturday night made me realize that my "hometown" isn't necessarily my home anymore.

I will always have my family and there are some friends I see myself having forever, but my homecoming is not what I expected it to be and I think reality of change is beginning to set in. I love being home, but I can't wait to return to my second home at ONU.

Homecoming at ONU

This past weekend was Homecoming at Ohio Northern and I had a blast celebrating and attending different events the university sponsored. For my social media principles course, I had to choose an event and live tweet important updates. I picked the football game against John Carroll University. Those tweets can be found here in a Storify. Spoiler alert: We lost the game, but I had fun cheering with my friends in the stands.

Homecoming is one of the biggest events for ONU, but you would never know by looking at their Facebook and Twitter updates. I was extremely disappointed to see that they didn't post anything about the various events that were taking place all weekend. Alumni look forward to Homecoming so they can come back to campus and see old friends and meet some new ones. The lack of information posted on Facebook and Twitter shows ONU's lack of engagement in the community.

During the weekend, Ohio Northern's Twitter posted 3 updates about events and they were all pictures with very little meaning. For the live tweeting assignment, we were to use the #ONUHC14, but these tags were nowhere to be found in ONU's tweets! There was hardly any information about the events including what they were, where they were, and where they were happening.

The same trend follows with Facebook. The major post that mentioned anything about Homecoming was a photo album, which was posted on Monday. There was no mention of the schedule of events or where those events could be found.

Ohio Northern was not engaged in the community at all for one of their major events, and I think that's pretty sad. I would expect the university to reach out to alumni and parents for such a big event. The social media profiles should have posted updates of events during the weekend, but also reminders of events during the week.

For future events, specially Homecoming, ONU should establish a tag for all to use and tweet updates and events leading up to the main weekend. There was a spirit week last week and I did not know about most of those events. Engaging the community is extremely important to get your audience to listen and want to join your activities. The Facebook page should have posted the schedule of events, as well as updates during the events.

How you use social media says a low about a brand, and ONU should be attempting to market themselves more effectively, especially because future students will look at these resources to see what kind of events are available on campus.

The Big Four

One of the more beneficial parts from reading "Share This" is part 3. This section of the book is the most helpful in my life and holds the most significance. Part 3 of "Share This" explains the major social media networks and how a company could use them to its best advantage.

The first social media site the book discusses is Facebook. I personally use Facebook in my daily life and I know it is a growing presence in the business world. The book says that companies should use Facebook to amplify messages, build communities and engage with fans. Evaluation is still important when using Facebook and there are three tiers to evaluation; those include conversation triggers, conversations created and conversation outcomes. Facebook strategies are helpful for companies to build a network and promote a product.

The second social media site the book discusses in Twitter. Twitter is an easier and faster way for a business to spread information and engage the community. Twitter is different from Facebook in that it is easier to favorite and retweet. People are more engaged and tags allow users to connect with other users. Twitter allows companies to spread news quickly to a large number of people.

The third social media site the book discusses is LinkedIn. This site is a more professional network for companies to use. I have a LinkedIn account and I used it to find a job over the summer. LinkedIn allows people to share their skills and experiences with potential employers. Companies can utilize LinkedIn to find employees and to spread information about new ideas or job opportunities.

The final social media site in Google+, but I feel that this site is not a helpful one to use. We discussed that no one uses Google+ and it isn't moving forward in the social media world.

Reading "Share This" has helped me understand how social media can be used to benefit a company and the employees within that company.

The Blogger Life

As you probably know, I am currently enrolled in a class called Social Media Principles. One requirement for the class is to create a blog that includes 3 posts: one about social media or PR, one about my life at ONU and one about the book we are reading in class. Although I struggle to find something to write, I couldn't be happier to have this blog. 

I personally feel that blogging is one form of social media that is often overlooked in our society. Blogging might be different from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, but it is a great way to release thoughts and to promote yourself. 

I found an article titled "The 20 Biggest Benefits of Blogging,"which explains how maintaining a blog is beneficial for users. The benefits that stood out the most to me include becoming a better writer, gaining influence in the online community, building your network, learning in-demand skills, improving your SEO, expressing yourself, helping others and taking control of your identity. These benefits are the most important because they all play a part in creating an online presence. 

The article also talks about how companies can use blogs to reach out to its customers to improve its brand. Companies are able to learn more about the customers and sell products by using blogs, and blogging is a skill that not all people can master. This gives companies that use blogs an advantage over those that don't. 

Blogging is the best kept secret of the social media world, but I think more people could benefit from hosting a blog. I'm just getting started in this class, but I plan to continue with a blog in the future. 

The Greatest People I Will Ever Meet

My life here at Northern has been full of ups and downs. I explained the past year at school in a previous post, "The College Experience." What I failed to mention in this post was the amazing friends I have made on this campus, and I think I owe them at least a post on this blog.

Let me start be telling you that I am originally from the Bowling Green, Ohio area, and three students from my high school decided to come here, including me. One of the other students is my boyfriend of four years, and the other is an old friend of mine (who recently actually became a sister through Alpha Xi Delta). That being said, I only knew two people when I arrived at ONU.

I struggle at making friends and meeting new people because I am generally extremely shy until I get to know you more. Well, I can't get to know someone if I never talk to anyone, so it was a major obstacle for me to overcome. As I discussed in the post linked above, I expected to be best friends with my roommate, but that didn't happen and I had to find another way to make friends.

I tried sorority recruitment, which worked out in my favor because I met 3 of my best friends that way. After that process, I gained about 50 people who were my sisters. There is a common misconception that joining a sorority means you are paying for friends, and there is a saying that goes with that where the sorority member says, "if that's true, I didn't pay nearly enough." I did not pay for my friends; I am paying for my T-shirts, socials, formals, housing, and dues for the National Fraternity. My sisters don't have to be my friends, and I'm not close with all of them, but the majority of my good friends have come from Alpha Xi. 

I now have two 'daughters' and they bring me joy and I would never trade them for anything. These are two of the girls I met through recruitment and, even though there was a rough spot last year, they have been a constant part of my life. 

Here's us at Spring Bid Day 2014!

My roommate this year is the last one who has been there from the beginning. I am so glad we have been able to get to know each other more over the past year. We have too much fun together, but I won't complain about that. Our room is usually full of dancing, singing and laughter.

Next up is my sorority Big. We might not have known each other much when we were matched up, but we are the same person. I couldn't be happier to be her Little and I hope to soon get a Little of my own to share the joy of the Flower Family! My Big is the most caring person I have ever met, and I hope to be like her to my own Little.

The final person I want to mention is my boyfriend. I'm apologizing in advance if  I get sappy. I would not be the person I am today without the love and support of my boyfriend. We ended up both choosing Ohio Northern and we have grown together by being here. It is really important for both of us to have our own individual activities so we actually have to work a little to be together. We recently celebrated four years of being together and they have truly been the best four years of my life. 

These five people have changed my life for the better, but they are not the only ones. I have more friends than I can write about in a post on this blog. No, they aren't all my closest, best friends, but they all have the ability to make me smile and laugh and be myself. I am so thankful for the people I have met and I believe these are the greatest people I will ever meet.

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good." -- Lyrics from "For Good" from "Wicked"