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

The Wait Begins for The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4

That is right; I said the wait has officially begun for Disney's "The Incredibles 2" and "Toy Story 4." For those of you who are not die-hard Disney fans, the news of the upcoming movies might be exciting to you. For those of you who are die-hard Disney fans, you might be saddened by the release dates themselves. 

Awhile back, Disney announced that "Toy Story 4" was scheduled to hit the big screen in June 2017 and had no comment on if "The Incredibles 2" was to be filmed. As of the recent announcement, "Toy Story 4" has sadly been pushed back a full year to release in June 2018. It was with the sad news of the reschedule that Disney then flipped the mood and announced that "The Incredibles 2" was to be released in June 2019. 

Now, why is that Disney announced these releases dates already? Why is it that it waited fifteen years to release "The Incredibles 2?" 

Well, let us think about it from a sales standpoint. The first movie did $261,441,092 in domestic total gross, ranking it as the sixth best Pixar movie ever to be released. Those sales were mainly from those who make up the generation Y. Now imagine releasing the squeal 15 years later, there is a whole new generation that can be targeted while also marketing to those who made up the original sales. In terms of marketing and PR for the movie, it will simply sell itself with minimal advertising. On top of that, there are just about three years until the main marketing ploys will need to be deployed. 

I think Disney's decision on release date announcements is almost perfect. Personally, I am ecstatic about all Disney movies that are scheduled to be released; I only wish the wait were not as long. 

Until Next Time,

Matt