Social Media Plan Update

            This semester has flown by extremely fast. We are over half way done and are presenting our social media plan in a few weeks to our client. My group is continuing to work hard and provide great work. We are in the content stage of our project at the moment. Over Thanksgiving break we’re going to take time to make content for each of our platforms. I’m excited to see all of our ideas come together on paper and digital media.

            The journey from start to finish with our project has been a learning experience. We have been through the research process, planning stage, and we are now in the creating process. There are six people in our group and we have always enjoyed getting together to talk about our project and the different ideas we bring to the table. We all have a different thought process, which makes this a unique group. We each are contributing to the ways we are creating our content. And one of the best parts about this process is that we each came up with something different to contribute.

            Looking back over this semester I’m grateful to work with a client that is giving me real experience that I can use in the field. I love working with social media and this class has offered me opportunities to expand my knowledge. I’m excited to pitch the social media plan that my group and I have developed over the semester to our client in a few weeks.

Why I love Theatre

Tonight I saw the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts present The Laramie Project. It was a beautiful performance. The cast, crew, and talented director, Susanna Rinehart, did an excellent job capturing the audience’s attention and taking us into their world for two hours.

I love this about theatre. When watching a performance, you’re pulled into their world for however long the play lasts. You feel what they feel, you experience the joy, heartache, and anger that each character may go through while on stage.

Growing up I was involved in my local children’s theatre group. I continued acting until my senior year of high school. I enjoyed every moment that I was on stage. I loved bringing a character to life and allowing the audience to let go and enjoy the show.

Going into college I knew I wanted to continue theatre. I took Intro to Theatre my first semester and enjoyed every minute of that class. We read plays from Othello to The Laramie Project. My professor, Susanna Rinehart, broke down each play with us and discussed the themes, key messages, characters, authors, settings, and anything else you could imagine about a play. I remember reading The Laramie Project for the first time. I remember having a discussion about it in class and then going back to my dorm to finish reading it with tears coming down my face.

 For those who don’t know The Laramie Project is a play about a homosexual guy, Matthew Shepard, in Laramie, Wyoming who was the victim of a hate crime. Two guys robbed him, brutally beat him, and left him tied to a fence post for 18 hours. Matthew died days later in the hospital. The two guys that did this hate crime to Matthew are serving life sentences in prison.

Plays that represent real life events hit right to the heart. As I was sitting in the theatre tonight I couldn’t help but look around me and see the reactions from the audience members. When intermission hit, it was the quietest intermission I had ever experienced. No one was talking or moving. The same atmosphere happened at the end of play. I’m hoping that people were taking in what they just saw and were processing that the play was based on an event that happened over 10 years ago.

Tonight was another reminder of why I love theatre and the affect that it has on the audience and myself.

Branding and what it means to you

Branding is extremely important whether it’s your own personal branding or a company’s branding.  The #SocialHokies4264 reading for next week is about branding and I’m going to spend this time blogging about branding and it’s importance.

The article, The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand, by Neil Patel & Aaron Agius informs readers that branding isn’t just for companies. The article starts off about a story of one of the writers as a boy riding in a car and associating the golden arches on the highway to McDonald’s. Whenever he saw the golden arches he begged his parents to stop for a happy meal. McDonald’s had their brand engraved in his mind at a young age. McDonald’s does well with their branding, when people see golden arches they automatically think of McDonald’s. Companies, who brand right, usually have a successful long lasting business that resonates well with consumers. 

Personal branding is the same as branding a company. Patel and Agius argue that branding is “a symbol, design, name, sound, reputation, emotion, employees, tone, and much more”. When thinking about your personal branding, ask yourself what sets you apart from your coworkers or other job applicants. Patel and Agius point out that your unique qualities and what you can offer to the company are what sets you apart. Go into the job interview prepared with what you can do for the company that other applicants might not be able to do as well.

Once you brand yourself, establishing what you want in a job and what you can offer will become easier. Stick true to yourself and pull out your best qualities to shine. Remember, branding isn’t just for companies it is also for you!  

Hello Ello

Social media sites come and go but some are here for the long run. Facebook has been around for over 10 years and hasn’t had much competition in their realm of social media. Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat all offer something different from what Facebook offers. The hot social media platforms today offer their consumers something different that they want to use daily.

Ello is a new social media platform that is competing against Facebook for users and networking. Ello launched in July 2014 but is only open to people through invitations. People can go on their website and request an invitation to join. Ello promotes a social media site with no ads. Users can also not give their real name or other information they wish to not be shared.

In my opinion, Ello is trying to promote a laid back social media site that will target people who don’t want to revel their identities, teens, and potentially people who are tried of ads on Facebook. I personally don’t think I will try Ello. I’m content with all of the social media platforms that I participate in today. My friends say I’m obsessed with social media and I think they’re right. I like looking at each platform and how people use it on a day-to-day basis. When Twitter became a big thing with my friends I watched how many of them decided to use that platform. 

None of my friends are using Ello at the moment and I don’t see them trying it soon in the future. Ello is reaching the niche that it was intended to target. If this was the goal of the creators then they are succeeding. Over time I’m sure Ello will pick up and become a social media platform that comes across more people’s lips.   

It's all about being social!

The past couple of weeks in class we have been giving presentations on different social media platforms. We have covered it all from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube and podcasts. These presentations have given me a deeper insight to each of the different platforms. I now understand each of them better and have learned new facts that I didn’t know before.

I learned about the different circles people can join on Google + to stay connected to people with the same interests. Facebook is one of the better social media platforms for brands to promote their mission and values. Snapchat is becoming a social media platform that businesses are starting to use to stay connect with their customers by offering coupons and behind the scenes material. YouTube is a great way to advertise your business using quirky attention getting stratigies. Businesses are attempting to use as many social media platforms as possible to keep up with their consumers and to stay connected.

These presentations were extremely helpful for our social media project for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech. Now that we have all heard presentations about the different platforms we can make our social media action plan or as like to call it our social media strategy guide. By looking at how different brands are using these social media platforms we have a better understanding of how we want to strategize our plan for the CLAHS.