Ohio Northern University Lacks Homecoming Promotion

As we all know, promoting ones organization through its social media sites are key for success. Whether it is for the use of gaining more sales, better PR, or even talking to the follows any organization should capitalize on social media when an importation event arises. Sadly, I do not believe Ohio Northern University (ONU) did such for its homecoming weekend.  

After looking at ONU's official Facebook and Twitter profiles, I did notice a few things on what it is doing well and what it could drastically improve on for each account regarding homecoming promotion. 

Facebook Account:

The admin of the account does a great job of displaying and linking the few posts that are related to homecoming. On the other side, the account could have better prepared for the event by posting and marketing the event earlier in the week instead of on that Friday when it all began. In terms of during the weekend event, the account lacked posts in general. There were over 45 different events that took place from Friday to Sunday of Homecoming weekend, but the account only posted three times over that period. Lastly, the account could better improve on sharing other ONU homecoming related posts. As simple as sharing a followers post could improve the accounts followers and gain better relationships with its loyal followers. 

Twitter Account:

Again, the admin of this account does a great job in the way the tweets are designed. Similar to the Facebook account, the Twitter page is lacking early promotions, quantity of posts, and shares from its followers. All it had to do was search something as simple as #onuhomecoming and tones of related tweets come up, yet the account did not share any. To prove this example, I searched the aforementioned hashtag and I posted the results to my Storify page, so click on the link to view it. 

I am sure if one were to search any combination of onu, homecoming, 2015, etc. that they would fine a vast amount of related posts and tweets. I understand the accounts might have struggled because of the lack of staff or time conflicts, but the least it could have done was use what was already posted to its advantage. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Stepping Into My "Big Boy Pants"

Growing up is such as weird thing, right? I feel like it was just yesterday I came to Ohio Northern University; rather it has been over two years. I look in the mirror and I wonder if I actually look "grown up" because I still see the kid who carried his blankey everywhere he went. It is even crazier to think I am 20 years old and am about to turn 21 years old, the age that defines all things adult. 

Last night, I took one of the many big steps most college kids eventually have to take, this being signing a lease for a house. The picture to the right is me in the action of signing and putting on my metaphorical "big boy pants." I honestly was shaking as I signed the lease because it was me realizing I am an adult now. In that moment I realized I am no longer the foolish high school student who pulled pranks constantly. It hit me that I am a mostly mature college student that is taking his first steps into adulthood. Beyond just signing for the house, I also am starting to search for internships and potential careers. Like when did these changes occur? What happen to the kid who constantly played Xbox 360 last year? 

All of my realizations were finally brought to light due to me signing a simple piece of paper. I cannot believe what I have already accomplished in my 20 years. Even more so, I am excited to see what adventures and events are to come in my future. I love my life and signing the lease last night only made me surer of it. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

X’s and O’s of a Real-Time Sales Playbook

Modern companies are now starting to fine-tune their sales processes by developing a “sales playbook.” Within Chapter 15 of David Meerman Scott's book, Real-Time Marketing & PR, he elaborates what sales playbooks are and what it allows companies to now be able to do. Sales playbooks are a sales representative’s best friend. It guides the sales representative from the initial contact of the sale to the last steps of closing the sale. Granted no sale is ever the same, the playbook allow the sales force to share a common goal of "closing more business by optimizing for real-time marketing and sales agility." 

I do believe sale playbooks are useful, that is to an extent. I believe the larger the company and the more infrastructures it has the better the playbooks will work. Scott mentions how IBM Software uses sale playbooks, but does not touch on small-localized businesses almost at all. Now I cannot speak for him nor argue against something that he has yet to say, so I will just offer my thoughts on the continued topic of using these sales playbooks in a small company. I work as a sales representative for a small organization and I can first hand say the playbooks would cause more trouble than benefits. The process of a sale is generally the same regardless of the organizations size, but sometimes a company’s strong suit is being free-versed rather than bound to predetermined responses. 

By no means would I argue that playbooks are completely a bad thing, because it is not at all. The use of the books does provide structure and repeatability to the sales process if used in the right way. Scott defines and explains the real-time sales playbooks well, but I do not believe the playbooks would work as efficiently or effectively for smaller organizations.   

  

Until Next Time,

Matt

Social Media Is Becoming Social

In some parts of the world, social media is strongly resisted for its ability for free speech. As we progress into this technological era, more and more political figureheads that used to be against social media are now starting back it. Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has realized what the benefits social media can have and decided to speak up about it. Today, Mr. Modi sat down with Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and had an hour-long question and answer session. There were more than 1,100 who attended the event.

At the event, Mr. Modi brought up the concept that social media is no longer just for traditional use; rather it is shaping politics. Mr. Modi said, “We used to have elections every five years but now we have them every five minutes.” If you actually think about his statement though, he is absolutely right. On any social media platform, we constantly are exposed to new polls being conducted, some form of voting needing to be done, or being pushed into a new forum to discuss some type of election. What used to take years to determine who has the upper-hand in an election now takes only one good days work of researching on social media.   

Not only does he back social media use, but he also provides some advice to governments around the world. He states that the governments should embrace the use of social media, that “you’re not going to gain by running from social media, you must join it.” I do not know about you, but to me that sounds a heck of a lot like the "if you cannot beat them, join them" type advice. Being that social media is prominent force with our society; I think Mr. Modi is on the right page.

While Mr. Modi was in the area, he also paid a visit to Google Inc. to speak with one of its executive, Sundar Pichai. During the meeting, Mr. Modi spoke about his plans to provide internet access to more than 400 Indian railway stations by the end of the next year. If you would like to read more on Mr. Modi and his visits to Facebook and Google, please read Deepa Seetharaman's online article that was published on the Wall Street Journal.

Until next time,

Matt