What's new on Pinterest?!

Pinterest has come out with a new option for businesses that have a Pinterest account. Businesses will now be able to get data about their audience and pins. The analytics show an audience profile of what they are interested in to help the businesses figure out which pins work the best for what audience. The analytics also show the average daily impressions and average daily viewers. This type of information is very important. Pinterest is a great platform to reach your audience in a way that Facebook and Twitter cannot. Pinterest uses pictures to display news, fashion, sports, and anything else someone could dream. These analytics are important for businesses to break down what they are doing right and wrong with the information they are sending out.

I was really excited when I found out that Pinterest added this feature. As an intern in the athletic marketing department at Virginia Tech one of my responsibilities is to update their Pinterest profile regularly.  With this new information I am able to see which pins get the most likes, repins, and clicks. Out of the 22 boards I manage it is nice to see on charts and graphs who likes what pins and what has a high reach. I can also see the average monthly viewers and the average monthly engaged. All of these statistics can help me understand what our followers like and want to see on the page.

Pinterest has increased their value by adding the analytics feature. More businesses will want to add a Pinterest account and see how their business can grow a social media presence on this platform. Hopefully with this new feature Pinterest will see an increase in viewers on this platform and profiles that are created.

How do you look at information? Social Media or Websites??

Research was the focal point of our class discussion this past Tuesday. We were able to go over valuable information to help us with our social media project. Research is important for any type of project. You need the hard facts to back up your key message(s). The research we looked over in class will help us when we present our social media plan at the end of the semester. If we use the data to back up our solutions then our objective is clearer and the solution will seem reasonable with the supporting data.

The research we looked at surveyed two different groups of people: 2014 seniors and parents. They were surveyed about their use of social media, smartphones, and which devices they use to look up information. All of this data was extremely interesting to me such as 73% of students use YouTube. I was not expecting a high percentage of students using YouTube. My social media group will have to take this into consideration when we start forming our plan.

Students rely more on college websites than the school’s Facebook page for information.  In a world that is revolving around social media, I was happy about this data. Facebook is a good tool to connect people, read the news, and follow your favorite businesses and other interests. I don’t think that people should resort to only Facebook when deciding which college to attend. They should look at the website and social media outlets when making this decision.

Our class discussion on this topic was great. Everyone was giving their ideas on how students should receive their information and how to contact them via websites or social media. We even discussed the voice that our client should have on their website and on social media. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s social media plans at the end of the semester, I’m sure we will all come up with good suggestions and clever ideas.

Social Media Project Update

The social media project is in the beginning stages but after today’s class things will be coming together faster and smoother. Dr. Robert Stephens, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and Monica Kimbrell, Student Recruitment & Career Development Director spoke to us today about the need of a social media plan for the College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences. I am really excited to work on this with my group throughout the semester.

Social media is a fascinating subject to me and I love learning and finding new strategies to implicate. This past summer I was able to work with social media for my internship. I was able to analyze the different platforms that the athletic department uses to reach their audience and study the other 14 schools in the ACC.

My first assignment for our group project was to evaluate Virginia Tech’s social media and CLAHS. I found very valuable information with looking at their different platforms. Both the school and CLAHS attempt to post to twitter and Facebook each day. The CLAHS has areas that need improvement but Dr. Stephens and Ms. Kimbrell are open to hear our ideas. Another part of my job in the first step of research is to look at two other schools within the state of Virginia and evaluate their social media plan. I think that it is a smart idea to compare Virginia Tech and the CLAHS to two other schools in the state. It will be good to see where Tech is compared to the other schools and see what the other schools are doing that we aren’t doing. I’m really excited about this project and I can’t wait to see our finished plan.

The "Dirty Dancing" Road Trip

 Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies and just happens to be on TV tonight as I’m blogging. This past summer, the day before school started my sister and I went to Mountain Lake Lodge, also known as Kellerman’s Lodge to visit the home of Dirty Dancing.  The drive up the mountain was twisty and long. The lodge was located around seven miles off 460 west. Once Paige and I were almost at the top we realized that we were extremely close to the West Virginia border. When we finally reached the top of the mountain the scenery was beautiful! The lodge looked exactly like it did in the movie and it was hard to believe that we were at a place where one of my favorite movies was filmed. After getting out of the car, we immediately went to a museum that was set up with pictures, information, and bios about the cast from Dirty Dancing. I took plenty of pictures to send to my best friend, JoBeth, who is a dance major at Radford, and just happens to share the same love for Dirty Dancing. There was also a box set up to take donations for the Patrick Swayze Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. Walking around the exterior of the lodge I could just imagine the cast filming scenes and hanging out between takes. One difference from the movie that everyone will notice is that Mountain Lake is drying up due to sediment washing out of the lake. Paige and I had a wonderful time spending the day together, exploring Mountain Lake Lodge, and remembering Dirty Dancing.