The Final Reading Review

Well the semester here at Ohio Northern University (ONU) is wrapping up. The grades are being entered, books are being scavenged through, and computers are on for countless hours. That is, all expect for my Social Media Principles class. Instead, all we as a class have left to do is blog and do some real minor tasks. Being that we finished our books a few weeks back, our professor asked us to blog about which of the three books we liked most from the semester. 

Out of the three, I am torn between two of the books. I equally enjoyed the first book we read. "Real-Time Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, and the last book we read, "Measure What Matters" by Katie Paine. I feel both books provided interesting information while hitting multiple subject matters. I am not one to read on my own, but there were some chapters within these books that I enjoyed reading about. I do believe all three books were helpful and I would or will use them later on in my career as reference. 

Until Next Time,
Matt

The Mets Make the Switch

Although I am not a New York Mets fan, I am a fan of Coca-Cola (Coke). So when I heard Citi Field, the Mets home stadium, is switching from selling Pepsi-Cola products to Coke products, I got a little bit excited. The contract between Pepsi Co. and the Mets expires Dec. 31 and the top executives of both Coke and the Mets have already signed a contract to begin as of 2016. 

Now why would the Mets switch this contract after such a long relationship with Pepsi? Well that is an easy answer, money. 

First, Coke steals an extremely large contract from its leading competitor. On top of having this contract, the Mets are projected to have stellar year due to winning its first pennant since 2000 in the last season. Expectation goes up, attendance goes up, sales go way up, and the profits make those executives smile. 

Second, the Mets get to have a slight face-lift done to its stadium. It has a portion of the stadium named "Pepsi Porch" which is a landing area where anticipated home run balls are hit. It gets to not only rename the area, but also maybe even change its layout. Personally, I do not know how or even if this change will be made, but regardless I expect marketing ploys that relate to such. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

The "Fun" Week

How much "fun" can I have in the next five days? 

Most Ohio Northern University (ONU) students already know the answer to said question. Without a doubt, the common answer would be "none at all." These next five days is what the university calls "dead week" but it is anything but dead. 

 It is the hellish week where professors all across ONU decide to have multiple of projects and papers all to complete. I have no idea where the term dead week came from but it is the farthest thing than what ONU experienced during the week before finals. I am not going to explain to you what all I have to do and how bad it blows because I know there are hundreds of students that have it much harder than I do. 

It is the week of stress, limited sleep, countless cups of coffee, and an increasing anxiety about the following week. My only advice is no matter how heavy of a workload one may have, nothing can be solved in an instant, so take your time and focus on the end result. Nothing is more motivating than getting to see ones family or animals after a stressful period. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

The Well Needed Break

Thanksgiving, what a time it is to eat massive amounts of food and not feel sorry for doing such. It is a time for being thankful for everything you are given with one’s life. Let me tell you right now, I am beyond thankful for my food, family, and friends. 

When I went home, I got to see and be with my baby girl. No, she is not an actually baby nor a girl. She is my 14 years old Austrian Shepard, Stella. She is the love of my life and although she is getting up there in age, she still cuddles with me all the same.  

I also was able to spend some quality time with my family. Beyond just seeing my parents, I was briefly able to spend some time with my sister. She recently bought a house and started her big girl job, so her free time has become limited to say the least. We all spent Friday together, which was the day all of us had work off to have a thanksgiving meal together. 

Personally, I am too lazy to go out hours before a store opens to stand in a line for a relatively good deal. I love sleep and relaxing in the warmth of my house, so Black Friday shopping is not on my priorities. 

I am thankful for having time to spend with my family and friends. It just is sad that my family's numbers have dwindled in size over the years. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Salesperson on Measuring Salespeople Relations

As I finish “Measure What Matters" by Katie Pain, one of her last chapters intrigued me. Within Chapter 12, she directly focuses on how to measure relationships with salespeople, channel partners, and franchises. Now, I could bore you with the exact steps on how to measure and blah blah blah, but what I want to focus around is the way she introduced and explained other measures of success in this area. 

As many know, I am a sales representative for a promotional product retailer. So when I read the following ways she proposed, it made me stop and think about how it related to my experience being a salesperson.

-More visibility than the competition

            The business that I work for is relatively small in both size and overall influence in regards to the market share. The thing that sets us apart though is how we strive to make every order one that our customer would want to promote and be proud of the work that we provide. We do not simply create articles about what we do, we want our customers to mention us publicly because it provides an additional insight, or visibility, that could not have been seen otherwise. The measurement of success is more so for bigger company because of the comparing aspect of sheer volume of coverages. 

-Better image than the competition

            I think this measurement concept is beyond the need to explain. For any business to be successful, it must have a reputable image. The better the image compared to the competition, the more sales or exposure it will get. At the franchise level, this concept is a lot easier due to the analytical software out there that are able to measure the articles, blog posts, and treads already out there. 

-Getting visibility for local franchisees  

            This idea revolved around the establishment of company spokespeople as community leaders on certain topics of interest. At the business that I work, we all take on this role as soon as we become hired on. We have weekly meetings for the sole purpose to get across our "corporate" messages. 

  

Until Next Time,

Matt

Hunger Games Disappointment

Well this weekend was the release of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" and sadly it did not go over as well as planned. The movie was hyped to be the movie of the holidays and was backed by a large fan following. The only issue is that the movie openings did not have as long as a wait as it project it would have. 

The movie is the fourth and final film in the series to be released. The trilogy has been building up its marketing promotions for some time now in hopes that it would bring the full fan following to opening. Sadly, that was not the case by the results of the box office sales. 

Now, I too am one of those fans who decided on not watching it on opening day. Do not get me wrong, I will see it the movie someday soon but just not on opening weekend. I think the films directors and marketing staff had to high hopes for what the last movie could bring to the table. With that, the marketing strategies could really only be focused towards those who have read the book or those who have seen all of the previous movies. It is from this that the amount of people who they could sell tickets to was already limited. In any right persons mind it is obvious it would not do higher sales or profits than the previously released films. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Winning Weekend (Almost)

All I can say is what a weekend for my favorite sports teams. Just as a disclaimer, I am from Michigan and I am proud to be a Michigander. Anyways, this weekend many of my favorite football teams had games against challenging opponents. The following is the results of the "almost" winning weekend. 

On Friday, Ohio Northern University (ONU) had its first game of the NCAA playoffs against Franklin College. ONU was down by 16 points and was struggling to make any moves, that is, until it started to snow. Franklin was a dominant throwing team while ONU was a dominant running team. When the snow came down, it made it hard for Franklin to do what they do best, while ONU was not phased even in the slightest. ONU rallied and stuck it to Franklin by finishing and more so winning the game, 27-22. That was win number one for me this weekend. 

On Saturday, two games had my attention for a majority of the day. First was the Michigan verse Penn. State game. Although I am a Michigan State University (MSU) fan, I still root for its sister Big Ten School in the same state. The game was interesting to say the least but Michigan came out on top by winning the game 28-26. 

The most important game of the weekend was the Michigan State University verse "the" Ohio State University (OSU). This game was crazy to say the least. OSU has had a bunch of criticism against its schedule thus far in the season. The team was 10-0 and had yet to face a team ranked in the top 25. Going into this game, MSU was ranked ninth with a record of 9-1. MSU was also posed an even harder challenge due to the game being at OSU's home stadium and playing without its starting quarterback. The game was a dogfight and in the end, MSU kicked a 41-yard field goal to win the game, 17-14. As a MSU fan who attends a university that strongly roots for OSU, this was a huge win for my weekend.  

Today, my favorite NFL team won as well. The Detroit Lions pulled out a win against the Oakland Raiders with the final score being 18-13. The Lions is a team that must fight for every win more than any other team out there, at least that is my opinion. Therefore, this win was the cherry on top on the weekend of winning.

You are probably asking why I kept referring to it as "almost" winning even though all of my favorite teams had won. Well the answer to that is not one that can be seen from a single watchable game. The reason why this weekend was not perfect was that my Fantasy Football team let me down and was absolutely destroyed in points. I was projected to win by 35 points with a score of 127, but sadly, that number is solely theoretical. My team ended up not even breaking 50 points while my opponent ended up scoring more than I originally was projected. 

Overall, you cannot win them all...but winning four out of five is not half bad. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Internal Communication Improvement

All businesses, regardless of how large, needs to not only measure its external communications, but as well as its internal communications. If organizations do not know what its employees think, say, and or do then the company is on a road to its demise. Within Katie Paine's book "Measure What Matters,” she goes explains the importance of measuring these factors. In Chapter 9, she states that there are seven key steps to measuring what ones employees think, say, and or do because of one’s internal communications. 

1. Understand the environment and where they really get information 

          I loved the way she phrased this step, "where they really get information." To many times I have seen companies believe its customers and or employees gets its information from one source but in reality that option does not make sense. Katie then brings up a major point of the step, that being "what channels or vehicles do employees trust?" This is key because this relates to where is it the employees are getting the information. The channel could be at the water cooler or in the break room, but the need to know these channels are important. 

2. Agree on clear, measurable goals

          This is one of those steps that are present in all measuring processes. This one relates more specifically to understanding what senior management wants to know as well as the HR department. 

3. Select a benchmark to compare to

          Again, this is a common step among most to all measuring processes. This step most likely would be a comparison of year-to-year results, but it is a benchmark nonetheless. 

4. Define the criteria of success

          This step is as simple as the name implies. What criteria are you using that will be your specific, measurable definitions for success. 

5. Select your measurement tools and collect data

          Within this step, one could end up using a variety of tools to collect the data. These tools generally come in three types of areas: message analysis tools, outcome measurement tools, and surveys (to determine what employees think). 

6. Analyze and take action

          Examine, examine, examine. This is the "so what does it all mean" step. 

7. Make changes to improve employee relationships and repeat

          As our professor likes to say, this is the "rinse and repeat" type step. Once one knows what the issue is, improve and or fix it, and repeat the process to see if the outcome is more desirable. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

More Options To "McPick" From

Ladies and gentlemen, please take note that you will have an additional option to choose from at McDonalds. 

 By no means am I talking about another food option choice to choose from, but more so a food combination option. That is right, McDonalds is soon to start offering the "McPick 2" deal. What is the McPick 2 deal you may ask? It is as simple as the name can imply, you have the choice to pick two items for the low price of two dollars. Customers are able to choose their McPicks from a list of four items: McDouble(s), McChicken(s), small order(s) of french fries, and mozzarella sticks. 

The launch of this menu is to take place starting Jan. 4, 2016. McDonald's believes that is has finally hit gold with this product deal. For years, fellow fast food competitors have struggled to offer a deal that satisfied the "I am hungry, but not that hungry" market. 

I think McDonald's is right in saying it has struck gold with this option. For one, it is launching the menu in the winter, following the holidays. Typically, all the leftovers are finished by this time and people begin resuming his or her normal schedules. With this option now available, it will bring in the sales of those on the run and not looking to spend more than a literal couple of dollars. 

In addition to that, it is offering three of its most well known options. These options also allow the individual to purchase any amount of any option he or she would like. There is no requirement stating the choices have to be different, so McDonald has again struck gold. Personally, I do not eat fast food, and if I do, it is once in a blue moon. Does this new menu option entice a person like me? Not at all. Do I believe it to be a brilliant marketing and sales move? Without a doubt. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

One Week Left

As many of my fellow classmates would agree to, this is the second worst week in the semester. The only other week worse than this one in terms of class load is finals week. There is no clever way to put it.  This week simply blows with as many projects, reports, and exams that are to take place within five days. Being that we as Ohio Northern University students have a Thanksgiving break starting on Friday, our professors timed most of their last exams before finals to take place in this week. Am I mad at the professors for doing so? No, because I understand that time is a scarce thing and this is college, not high school, so we need to "grow a pair." In addition to the typical homework assigned each work, this week for me is filled with a total of three exams, three reports, and much, much more.

I am lucky enough to have a relatively lighter semester with only five classes, but that does include everything additional that I must do this week. Outside of being a student, I also am an athlete. So right there alone is three hours out of each of my days for practice.  I also am a sales representative for Polar Merchandise, a nonprofit promotional merchandise provider. In addition to meeting the monthly sales goal, I have four projects I am working on, all of which are to be relatively concluded by the end of the week. These projects include interviewing for potential new sales representatives, develop and lead the new training process from scratch, designing a new customer product fundraising document, and getting our new promotional ads around campus. Typically I spend about two hours a night on Polar related things, so another time limiting factor. Let’s not even mention the amount of sleep I need to even stay awake because of all of this.

It may seem like I am complaining about this hell week, which I am a little, but it leads me to my next point. All of this "craziness" I think will help us in the future. If we can get through it all now, then later down the road when we experience similar stress, we will be prepared. I hate how busy I am this week do not get me wrong, but a part of me likes this challenge. It is absolutely exhausting, but when break finally arrives, it will only be that much more relaxing to go home and forget about the stress for a few days. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Measuring Relationships With Your Influencers

This week in Social Media Principles, I read up on Chapter 8 of Katie Paine's book "Measure What Matters." This chapter revolved around how to measure influencers and thought leadership. As I went through the chapter, something started to click in my mind about the topics that were being discussed. That something was when measuring things, such as your relationships with your influencers, it all slightly related back to the "seven steps to the perfect measurement program" discussed in Chapter 3. 

When trying to measure your relationships with your influencers, Katie relates it back to the concept and only alters it in minor ways. 

1. Define your goals
             This step is as simple as it sounds but is universal across almost all measurement programs. This step is completed by simply defining measurable objectives for your influencer outreach program. 

2. Define your audience
               So instead of focusing on a target audience, this step for this program is focused more so on defining the specific influencer groups you are trying to target. 

3. Define your benchmarks
               Same as in Chapter 3, this step is essentially making the standards clear about who or what you are trying to be and what you will be comparing your success against.
               
4. Define your key performance indicators
                 This step is more "program specific." Katie states that any influencer relations program should have at least one, if not multiple, of the following indicators.
                           -Percent increase in Grunig Relationship Survey scores.
                           -Percentage increase in share of recommendations.
                           -Percentage increase in share of desired positioning.
                           -Percentage increase in share of desirable quotes.
                           -Percentage increase in coverage containing desirable quotes
                            from key influencers.

5. Select your measurement tool 

                 Again, another self-explanatory step but is one that is absolutely needed. Within this type of measurement program, one could use something as simple as Microsoft Excel or Access all the way to something as specific as a web analytic program.

What is great about these steps outlined above is there was little change from measurement programs. Yeah, some things are different such as not exactly having an investment step, but the core concept stayed the same. Katie then states that the final steps for thought leadership measurements would just follow steps six and seven from that which was outline in Chapter 3. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

"No Guns" at the Zoo Please

To what extent will our society be too focused around stupid matters? Recently, a Houston Zoo had to disband its "no gun" policy because the citizens felt it was their right to carry guns on the technically public land, which is owned by a private entity. It was from the success of the lawsuit that lawyers are taking aim at the Dallas Zoo now. 

The Dallas Zoo has signs posted all the premises stating its "no gun" policy. It is from these signs that the select citizens feel slighted and now are taking legal actions because of the previously similar successful lawsuit. To me, it makes completely logical sense why it does not allow guns on the premises, this being because it is a freaking zoo.

Now I get it, citizens do have the right to their guns and what not, and do not get me wrong, I am all for it, but just not in the zoo. I think Dallas is handling the PR side of these claims extremely well. The zoo immediately appointed a spokesperson to handle all matters relating to the topic. The zoo is not ignoring the responses, rather acknowledging it and responding transparently. The only issue I can see it facing is that Texas sure loves its guns and will fight day and night for it.  

It is still early to see what the outcome may or may not be, but as of right now, the Dallas Zoo is doing exactly what it should do in a situation as this one.  

Until Next Time,

Matt

My Animal Videos Are Getting out of Hand

My love for animal videos is starting to take on a life of its own. For all of you who do not follow me on Facebook, I have an obsession with finding, watching, and sharing cute animal videos. Now, it may sound weird for me to call the videos cute, but I have no shame in calling them cute because that is exactly what they are, cute. I mean how could you not call the video below cute?

I am becoming low-key famous for my Facebook posts similar to the one above. In fact, it was just yesterday that I was walking through campus and someone went out of her way to speak to me about my posts. The individual told me that she was absolutely in love with all of the videos I find and post to the point she could not wait until I posted another. What is even stranger than that is that I have had that conversation more times then I can count. 

Part of me was thinking about starting a picture or video collection page, similar to BuzzFeed or Adorably Cute Animals. It would be a lot of work but it would be basically the same thing I already am doing on my personal page. I think I already spend a majority of my day searching and sharing the videos as it is, so a part of me is worried that it would consume my whole day even more. But who knows, someday soon you may or may not end up seeing a blog post from me promoting it. With that, I will leave you with another absolutely cute animal video to hopefully brighten you day and or night. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

That Pesky Mattress Sheet

Alright, how many times have you struggled to fold that annoying mattress sheet? 

I know I have fought that battle way too many times. I typically end up getting so angry that I ball up the sheet, throw it in the corner of my room, and forget about it until I need it weeks later. It is for that reason along with a class assignment that I decided to do a "how to" video about it. You can either click on the link to watch it on YouTube or simply watch it below. 

The video is about 90 seconds long and is as straight forward as is has to be. As I said in the video, there are probably thousands of ways that one can fold the sheet, but I found that the way I show in the video is the easiest and quickest way. 

  

I know I do not have the best video quality but the concept is still there. I hope the video was insightful and helps with your future folding battles. 

Until Next Time,

Matt 

Seven Steps to Measurement Success

New and exciting news is happening in our Social Media Principles class, we have moved on to a new book for us to focus on. Katie Paine titles the book “Measure What Matters.” As you might have guessed from the name and what class it is for, the book focuses around the online tools that are needed for understanding customers, social media, engagement, and key relationships.

Keep in mind I have not read super far into the book yet, but there is one chapter that really stuck out thus far. Within Chapter 3 of Katie Paine's book, she revolves around the "seven steps to the perfect measurement program."  I completely agree with these steps and the reasoning behind why each one of them are vital for measurement success. 

1. Define your goals and objectives

                 I knew this was going to be the first one, if not in the first few steps, because it really is almost the first step in anything successful. I completely agree with it being the first step because it really does set the foundation for a measurement program to be successful.  

2. Define your environment, your audiences, and your role in influencing them

                 This step is one that is more self-explanatory. Overall, I could not agree with this step more.

3. Define your investment

                 This step focuses around the ideas of "what will it cost" and what will be needed for investment. I love the fact that Katie brings up the idea that "the rule of thumb is to spend five to seven percent of your marketing program's budget on measuring that program." 

4. Determine your benchmarks

                 Again, another self-explanatory step but is one that is absolutely needed. 

5. Define your key performance indicators

                 This is step is more so about establishing the "criteria of success" or better known as the key performance indicators. Katie highlights that there is a difference between "visibility" and "awareness" within this step, but both are greatly needed for success to be earned.

6. Select the right measurement tool and vendors and collect data

                 Again, another self-explanatory step but is one that is absolutely needed. 

7. Turn data into action

                 Within this step, we can see the analysis of the data, draw actionable conclusion, and then make recommendations. The segment of making accurate and meaningful recommendations is what all of these steps was working towards. With this, the researcher can then leverage the results to get what it wants, whether that is asking the boss for more funding to saying no a program is not working and is wasting money. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

21, the Truly Magical Number

Something amazing happen last night and or this morning (depending on how you view the time change), I took the next step into adulthood and turned 21 years old. That is right everyone, my driver’s license is now horizontal rather than vertical. But forget all those bogus details about turning one year older; let us talk about the real topic of how that night is one for the record books.

Well to set the scene, Halloween this year fell on a Saturday. Instead of staying around and celebrating both events at my campus, Ohio Northern University (ONU), I decided to make a four and a half hour trip up to Mount Pleasant to do such there. Now Mount Pleasant is home of one of the biggest party schools in Michigan, Central Michigan University (CMU). Anyways, on Friday and Saturday we celebrated Halloween and "socialized" until the break of dawn. It was not until Sunday though that I found out that Timeflies was set to perform at a bar/club within walking distance of the apartment to which I was staying. My friends already purchased tickets for the event, so it was down to me to make the call if I go to the concert or go back to ONU that night.  

Sure enough, I jumped on the opportunity to not only see Timeflies perform, but turn 21 years old at the concert. The concert was absolutely crazy leading up to the stroke of Midnight. When it finally hit midnight on November 2nd, I sprinted over to the bar, pulled out the ID, and ordered my first legal drink with the biggest smile on my face. Keep in mind that I am the baby within our friends group, so I was the last to hit this milestone.

As you can see from the smiles on all of our faces, the concert was a success, my birthday was a success, and the memories gained are ones never to be forgotten. We rarely are all in the same place at the same time, so for a moment such as this made it even more special.

As a side note, I was responsible with my drinking choices and made smart decisions that represented not only myself in a positive way, but as an ONU student as well. I would and will never condone underage drinking and I believe that as a young professional, we should be under control of our own actions at all times. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

China to Have Rise in Pacifiers

How many kids do you want to have? One? Two? 

Well if you live in China, that answer was made for you, you could have only one, just one. Over the years though, the law slowly became easier to get around and a small percentage of couples were able to have more than one child. Regardless though, the norm was you are allowed one child, that is, until today. 

China announced today that it would allow two children for every couple. That is right, two whole kids. Citizens of a nation now more than 1.3 billion people strong, no longer have to follow the one child per couple policy establish in the 1970s. 

Why did China decide to disband the policy and allow the extra child per couple? Could it be better PR for the country as a whole? Maybe it is because it was tired of having so many complaints. Nope, the sole reasoning behind it was to improve its economy. 

I mean think about it, the country's economy is slipping and the world is watching it happen. So what better way to jump-start the economy in both in the short-run and long run by allowing millions of couples to legally have one more child. Being completely honest, I think this was a great move by China. Typically, if an economy is struggling, the government attempts to simulate the economy in hopes for more consumer spending, thus causing the economy to recover. There are two major issues with that typical solution, there must be money to be spent and the economy must use said spending correctly. As seen during the United States struggle, the ladder did not occur. I do not think there is a better way to jump start a struggling economy compared to how China did. It required no money, the consumers obviously will take advantage of the rule change, thus increasing spending dramatically.

Granted the announcement was today, I predict two outcomes will occur in the near future. One is China gains better publicity with both its citizens and noncitizens. Second being there will be a dramatic increase in pacifier purchases in about eight to ten months.  

Until Next Time,

Matt

Athletes on KIND

College athletes are always on the go, it is just that simple. We, me included, are always in a crunch for time whether it is from waking up and getting to class on time to only having five or so minutes to grab something to eat. It is from this constant rush that we sometimes are missing the vital nutrition's that our bodies need. No, I am not talking about our protein intake or major vitamin groups because generally athletes already have a high intake of foods that provide such. The nutrition groups I am speaking of are along the lines of grains. 

As in athlete, I avoid eating things that are bad for me such as food with high sugar counts and what not. The issue that I was having though was when I have an extremely small window to eat something, that attempted avoidance is replaced for quickness. It was not until I was introduced to KIND snacks that made these two factors go perfectly with each other. 

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what KIND bars are, let me give you some background information on them. KIND bars offer a wholesome and delicious alternative to snacking. The organization is "focused on making the world a little kinder - one act and one snack at a time." Ultimately that simply means it has the consumer at hearth first. 

They pride themselves on the ability to say that they are made from ingredients you can see and pronounce. On a side note, I love this because I have zero idea what half the ingredients are in today's food. Like seriously, what the hell is "Soy Lecithin" or "Inulin?" KIND snacks offers a variety of healthy options such as Fruit & Nut bars, Nuts & Spices bars, KIND Healthy Grains Clusters and Bars, STRONG & KIND, and KIND breakfast bars.

Let us take the Peanut Butter Berry KIND Healthy Grains bar. Within the bar, there are five different types of grains allowing for at least 18g of whole grains to be ingested. This bar has 10 percent of my daily value of dietary fiber in one bar. That also is not to mention is only is 150 calories and only 7g of sugars. As in athlete, I can tell you those numbers are impressive. Rarely would I ever just eat one bar in any situation, so imagine those values doubling maybe even tripling. Therefore, if I am getting a solid amount of my grains within a quick and healthy snack, KIND bars are the way to go. 

As a college athlete and more importantly a college student, KIND snacks are the way to go. All it takes is one person to spread "kindness," which hopefully inspires other people to do the same. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Being Social is the Key

In Chapter 22, Part 7 of "Share This," Rachel Miller focuses on employee engagement and how social media is changing internal communications of businesses. Within this chapter, I found there to be a central theme that is reoccurring, the theme is "it's all about being social." Rachel offers a quote within the chapter, which highlights this central theme flawlessly; the quote reads, "Do you know the difference between social communication and social media? The key word in those terms -- social -- is the path to success."

I love that quote because in all of the communication aspects, being social is the underlying core of them all. She goes into further detail about how different social medias and be effective in being social with the desired audience. Once that relationship is formed, it then allows the employees to be engaged. I completely agree with her tip that a company should not "view social media as something that are done 'to' employees, but 'for' and 'with' them." If you can get an employee passionate about communicating with the companies audience, whether it be though social media or not, the result is infinity more beneficial to the company assuming the employee is communicating in the correct ways.

Rachel later goes into the bottom line about how to effectively gain employee engagement. She looks into a study done by Kotter, which lists the fundamental steps into the implementation. I too agree on the following six steps to be successful "stepping stones" in the implementation process:

1. Establishing a sense of urgency.

2. Forming a powerful group to lead the change.

3. Creating a vision about the change and communicating it widely.

4. Empowering others to act on the vision.

5. Planning for and creating short-term wins.

6. Consolidating improvements.

I believe that Kotter and Rachel are correct on saying that these steps are vital in being social. The ability to become social is now starting to rotate towards the employee’s involvement, and these steps could be the key difference to making or breaking it in this 21st Century

Until Next Time,

Matt

MSU v. MICH Spectacular

This past weekend was the weekend all of Michigan has been waiting for. It was the college football meetings of the two in-state Big Ten schools, Michigan State University (MSU) and University of Michigan (MICH), who were facing off for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Being that I am from Michigan, I can personally tell you this game ranks above all others. 

The game was so intense that it easily is considered the best game of the weekend, and arguably the best game seen all year. Now I am not going to bore you with the exact details of the full game, rather only the last ten seconds of the game. 

Let me set the scene first though. The two rivals battled what seemed to be though hell and back all game. There is ten seconds left in the game, Michigan is winning 23-21. It is fourth down and Michigan decides to punt the ball away from about the 38-yard line in hope to run the remaining time out. This game was considered to be over, that is until the unthinkable happen. Watch the video below to find out what happen, 

Within those ten sounds, Michigan's worse nightmare became true. MSU returned the ball for a touchdown while also running out the clock. Final score becoming MSU winning the ball game 27-23. 

What were the results of this play you may ask? The punter, lord knows is kicking himself in the butt, has received multiple death threats from various fans. The player who returned the ball is in the hospital from a broken hip. It is unknown if the cause is from being tackled from scoring or from the massive celebration that followed. A Michigan inspired meme has arose from the aired actions of a fan. 

I cannot tell if this game is overall a win or a loss for either teams PR departments. On the MSU positive side, it won the rivalry game and brought back the trophy for another year. On its bad side, it hurt and potentially ended a player’s football career. When we look at the University of Michigan, there are more negatives than anything. The team lost the game in its home stadium, rioted in the streets, has a disrespectful meme circulating the social media channels, and has death threats towards the punter. 

Overall, the game was amazing to watch. I along with every MSU fan out there was jumping and screaming for joy when MSU won. It is just hard to think of the damage control these teams have to implement because of this spectacular game. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

The "Deets" of Gossip Girl

Whether you have caught on to it or not, I am in a communications class at Ohio Northern University (ONU) called Social Media Principles. Within this week’s class, we were given the assignment of creating and sharing a podcast. Within minutes of hearing the details of the assignment, I instantly turned to my good friend and classmate, Courtney Hendershot, and pitched the idea of it being on Gossip Girl. She then agreed and we went forth with creating and ultimately sharing the podcast. It was from our shared love for Gossip Girl that we felt it completely necessary to name our podcast "All About Gossip Girl." If you would like to listen to our masterpiece, please click either the previously stated title and or the following link. 

Our podcast was centered on the discovery of who Gossip Girl was and our take on the main characters. So in case you have not finished the season and or do not want to know who Gossip Girl is just yet, you might NOT want to watch our podcast. Courtney and I go into detail about who this mystery character is and what our opinions are on such. Let me say right now, Courtney to this day still is mad about who that person is. We later elaborate on our opinions on the main characters such as Serena van der Woodsen, Chuck Bass, and Dan Humphrey. 

If you would like more information about our podcast and or things related to Gossip Girl, please visit Courtney's blog and or her similar post. Being that she finished the full six seasons and is most likely going to restart the series, her post are especially insightful when on the topic of Gossip Girl. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Sentiment and Contextual Analysis

In Chapter 18 of the book "Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals," Andrew Smith writes about social media monitoring and two ways to analysis such. More so, he brings up two forms of analysis that one can use: sentiment analysis and contextual analysis. Being that I am soon to enter the marketing world, knowing different analysis styles is always a good thing especially in the terms of social media monitoring. So when I read Smith's chapter about these two styles, I found it to be particularly interesting. 

Smith concludes that sentiment analysis is basically an "attempt to deduce how somebody feels about a particular person, topic, issue or organization based on what they say." So in other words, the technique assigns certain words to have either a positive or a negative relation. The social media is then analyzed, creating a total count of positive verse negatives. If the negatives count is higher, than the subject is deemed negative and vice versa.  

I do like this technique but it does propose one major issue, accuracy. Smith touches on this topic of lacking accuracy by explaining how the technique does not consider the slang words. For example, "sick" would traditionally be considered a negative word, but in today's slang, it could be meant in a positive way. 

From reading Smith's description of contextual analysis, I concluded that it is sentiment analysis's "bigger brother." I call it that because it uses "sophisticated computer algorithms and semantic analysis" making it more accurate than sentiment analysis, or you could say it is smarter if you are still thinking about it terms of a bigger brother. The cost for this technique is much higher of course, but the results have such a higher degree of accuracy. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Puppy Love

Let me tell you that this weekend was one for the record books. No, not because I did something crazy or once in a lifetime, rather because of who I got to see. This special someone is not so much a person but instead my puppy, Stella. My baby girl is not so much a puppy anymore being that she is 13 years old. Regardless, I still think that the Australian Shepherd you see below is as cute as the first day I saw her. 

As a heads up, I use "baby girl" and "Bella Baby" interchangeably. Now the last time I saw my dog was about two months ago when I left for college Mid-August. I have gone longer without seeing her but in those two months a lot have happened, so I missed her a bit more than usual. 

This weekend is considered Fall Break for the students at Ohio Northern University (ONU). So for my break, I decided to go home and see my baby girl. I had a four hour long drive home and let me say that the last half hour was the longest because of my anticipation on seeing her. The following videos are both of our reactions from this extended time apart. 

Please do not judge my crazy high pitch because I am sure if you were as happy as I was, you would do the same thing. Once I got unpacked and sat around the house, Stella of course never left my side. I mean look at the picture below and tell me she is not overly happy that I am home. 

After a few more hours of petting and cuddling, I end up going to bed and shutting my door. When I woke up the next morning, guess who was lying outside my door? That is right, it was my Bella Baby. Saturday I relax around the house and Stella of coarse was still ecstatic I am home. Sunday swings around and she is still trying to play with me any second she could. Keep in mind she is 13 years old and does not play when I am not home, not even with my parents. 

Sadly, today rolls around which is the day I had to head back to ONU. She could tell something was up and was acting especially cuddly. When it came time for me to leave, I naturally took forever to say goodbye. After a while, I finally said my last goodbye and left for my car to leave. As soon as I got in my car and put it in reverse, the picture below is what I saw staring at me. 

It breaks my heart to say goodbye to her but she knows I will be coming back. It will be at least another month maybe another two until I see her again, but I know when we do see each other she will cry just the same as she did when I picked her to hold while at the Last Chance Rescue Adoption Shelter. I have nothing but unconditional love for my Bella Baby. 

Until Next Time,

Matt