Listen Up! The Power of SM Monitoring

photo cred to
http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/blog/2012/03/london/demystifying-social-media-monitoring/

Social media is a powerful tool for our personal branding as well as marketing initiatives, and with this powerful tool comes a lot of responsibility if you want to stay competitive and effective. In order to measure your social media presence effectiveness you must utilize social media monitoring; which is basically a form of intelligence that you can acquire about your business. Monitoring your SM presence is a way of listening to your community, followers, customers, etc. SM monitoring gathers information and statistics from customers, competitors, the community you have established and summarized all of this information in an effort to create analytics about your personal or your companies social media engagement. There are a multitude of both paid and free companies that measure your engagement efforts for you. Bottlenose & HootSuite are two paid tools that analyze your activity. If your company has less of a budget to monitor the effectiveness of your SM presence, some free tools include, Facebook Insights, Klout, Social Mention and TweetDeck, among many others.

I AM

After seeing this image this morning on Julianne Hough’s Instagram account (juleshough) it inspired me to think. I searched to answer the question, “what am I?” What are the words that I can use to describe who I am? Not just the basic qualifiers that make me who I am, but who am I to the very core of my soul? What makes me uniquely me? I thought about what words come to mind when my friends think about me. As a firm believer in self-improvement I decided to become introspective and make a list of what I think I am. Full honestly disclosed, and in no particular order. So… without further ado, this is who I AM. 

I AM an animal lover

I AM an emotional being

I AM someone who strives for self-improvement

I AM a woman

I AM a feminist

I AM thoughtful

I AM a person who believes in the beauty of a smile

I AM a hugger

I AM strong

I AM a firm believer in doing exactly what you love

I AM someone who values a person who is unapologetically themself

I AM unique

I AM weird, in a good way (usually)

I AM flawed

I AM a person who sees the beauty in flaws

I AM eccentric

I AM fascinated by life & people

I AM in love with water & the ocean

I AM my struggles

I AM a film junkie

I AM a person who believes in the power of kindness

I AM loud

I AM trustworthy 

I AM a music person

I AM a nonconformist

I AM honest (sometimes to a fault)

I AM a family person

I AM sensitive

I AM an over-thinker

I AM smart, but not in the standard way

I AM a believer in the beauty of being different

I AM scared

I AM temperamental

I AM controlling, but working on it

I AM sympathetic

I AM a friend, daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin 

But most importantly, I AM ME. 

If your friends and family had to write down what words or traits came to mind when they thought about you, what would they write? Who are you, and who do you want to be?

Guest Speaker: Nick Stover

Today our class had the pleasure of meeting Nick Stover (@ULFlyingCard), the director of social media and engagement for UofL athletics. Stover provided a multitude of tips for social media influence and brought many aspects of the job market to our attention that I previously was not aware of. Nick has had an impressive educational career that has lead up to this fantastic job that he now holds. 

When Stover applied for this job with UofL he wanted to do something that would make him stand out from other applicants. Since he did not do college athletics at UofL he wanted to prove that he was willing to go above and beyond to prove his devotion to this job. As a man who describes himself as having a fear of heights, he took a major leap of faith and jumped out of an airplane (hence his Twitter handle) to make his dedication to going above and beyond known. For more info about Nick’s impressive career and accomplishments check out his personal blog http://www.nickstover.org/. With Stover’s extensive knowledge and experience in the field of social media, he was the perfect guest speaker for our social media class! 

As a senior scheduled to graduate this summer, the job search is on. Nick provided a multitude of tips, or really requirements, that you need to keep in mind before applying for a job. Employers are looking for people who have real, applicable experience to things, so as always, the importance of internships was stressed. Also, a major must-have for anyone who is looking to be taken seriously in the career world (which should be everyone), is a LinkedIn account. And don’t just make one and ignore it. Make sure you are utilizing it because it is a wonderful, and pretty much a required tool for future employers to take you seriously. So make sure you are connecting with as many people as possible on there, connect with businesses, keep your resume up to date and make sure to list all of your skills, as well as things that will separate you from other applicants. 

Stover was the most organized guest speaker that we have had to date with a professional and intriguing PowerPoint as well as tips that applied to our life, and he didn’t go too much into his personal accomplishments. At the end of the class Nick opened up the floor to suggestions on what he could do to improve or separate his team from other university athletic departments, in regards to social media. I loved hearing my classmate’s suggestions and how creative they got with it.

Nick Stover has been acclaimed for his utilization
of new communication technology that is on the forefront, Google Glass.
(Photo from Nick's Blog)

Social Consumerism: Great for Business, Bad for Americans

 Social media has rocked America’s figurative boat; a boat that carries cargo like marketing, consumption, businesses, entertainment, etc. All of these aspects have been greatly affected by social media’s fairly recent influence on our society. With America’s capitalistic economy it is no shock that businesses have taken advantage of social media as a way of getting the word out about their products and services in the hopes of increasing sales. Social consumption for me is something that I view more so as subliminal advertising, even though I know it is there. 

When Nike posts a picture to Pinterest of their latest workout wear or a friend posts an Instagram photo with a Starbuck’s drink in it, you are subconsciously being urged to think about the product and more often than not, you will purchase it. But social consumption is not only the power of marketing; it also comes in the form of following. Businesses like Whole Foods, Starbucks, RedBull, Amazon, and thousands of others have jumped on the social media bandwagon by creating Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social platform accounts. Their following count is astronomical and they post specials, deals, new products, and other business related news. By doing this they are creating a social environment that makes consumers feel like a part of that business’s community, and thusly creates a spike in sales and a broader awareness in the company.

In my personal opinion the focus on consumerism and always wanting the next and best thing has gotten completely out of hand. For businesses, social consumption is wonderful and a great way to increase revenue. But we have lost focus on what is truly important in life and now people define success by how many things they have. If you reach the American dream of having a wife and husband, children, multiple cars and a nice home, you are the poster-child of success. But success should be about your experiences, your joy should come from helping people and making the world a better place by inspiring people to be the best person they can be, not by encouraging people to have the more stuff. 

Don’t get me wrong, Starbucks is a major part of my life and helps me get through the day, and I enjoy a nice pair of Nike tennis shoes, but we need to downsize. Who really needs multiple pairs of tennis shoes? Or 10 televisions? I encourage Americans to switch their focus and to change their idea of success.

Nonetheless, social consumerism is a genius tool for businesses and is not always done solely to make money. Thank you for listening to me rant about my disappointment in American capitalism, and I apologize if this offends anyone, but I stand by my opinion! Let's work together to redefine the true meaning of happiness! 

As always, be kind and radiate your love!

Powerful statement.
The things that we buy are a reflection of the life we have lived.
Would you rather have all the best clothes and cars to represent your life, or do you want to be remembered by your heart and soul?
(Photo Cred to Pinterest) 

Weekly Movie Review: "Endless Love" -Comm460

Photo cred to Pinterest

So my roommate and I decided it was only fitting to go on a last minute “date” to Red Lobster on Valentine’s day, of course being surrounded by seemingly happy couples doesn’t help a single girl cope with the harsh reality of the lack of romance in her life. Naturally, out of defiance of the holiday, I sported an all black outfit consisting of a raincoat, yoga pants and the worst black and white houndstooth rain boots from Target, I mean honestly they’re hideous. As we waited for almost an hour and a half for our table a waiter walked by and casually shouted, “nice boots,” thinking he was being sarcastic because of their heinousness I paid it no mind. After our delicious calorie packed meal came to an end our waiter came up to us and asked if one us was wearing boots, confused I confessed that I was and he said that one of the other waiters wanted to come talk to me, hesitantly I agreed. This cute, tall man approached our table and said, “My father always told me that if you see a pretty lady the best way to get her number is to compliment her shoes.” *gasp! * My defiance of the dreadful holiday had landed me a date!

In an attempt to continue my newly found “holiday” spirit I felt it only fitting to head to movies to see the overwhelmingly advertised for Valentine’s blockbuster, “Endless Love”. No regrets there. However, for-warning, if you are not into dramatic romantic movies that star beautiful people, this is not the film for you.

“Endless Love” is the meeting place for young passionate love and unfortunate luck. This love story centers around two tanned, blonde & beautiful teens who fall into a passionate love the summer after graduating high school. Jade Butterfield (played by the stunning Gabriella Wilde) spent her entire high school career studying to go pre-med at Brown upon graduation and in turn sacrificed any chance of having friends. While out at a celebratory country club dinner with her extremely wealthy family, a boy from her graduating class catches her eye, the smoking hot valet, David Elliot (played by Alex Pettyfer). The pair kick off their romance at Jade’s graduation party and from there their romance spirals out of control. With Jade being from such an influential family and David’s father being a mechanic their love is bound to be dealt with its fair share of controversy and turmoil. Witnessing this gorgeous and real love story rise, fall, and rise again will cause you to become utterly jealous and want to make-out with the next valet or hot mechanic you can get your hands on.

This film takes you on the emotional ride of your life and I never wanted to get off. Since the trailer is slightly deceiving, I went in with mixed expectations and a feeling that the film was going to be focused on an intensely eerie love. If you haven’t seen the trailer, which would be truly shocking, check it out below. But it turned out to be quite the contrary. You will absolutely fall in love with the main characters and root for them throughout the film. In an attempt to not give this suspenseful, artful, happy, agitating, and tear jerking movie away I will sum it up by saying it’s a must see! Especially for people in their 20’s waiting for their passionate love to come along.

Weekly Film Review: "Carrie" (2013) - Comm460

Naturally, like all single college girls do on Valentine’s Day eve, my roommates and I decided to bake and watch a horror film. Our film of choice tonight was “Carrie”, which I suggested since I saw it when it came out this past fall and absolutely loved it! However, I may be biased since I’m sucker for both Chloe Grace Moretz (who plays Carrie), and horror films, so the combination for me is unbeatable. Sidebar, one of the main characters of the film is Gabriella Wilde, who plays Sue Snell in “Carrie”, and is also the gorgeous blonde who you’ll recognize from the generous amount of commercials surrounding the Valentine blockbuster that is being released tomorrow, “Endless Love”. So there is our Valentine’s link, which makes me feel justified in sitting around watching a bloody horror film with my girls in honor of the holiday of love.

Back to “Carrie”, for me this film set the perfect standard for which all horror films should adhere to. First of all, for those who didn’t already know, this film is based on the Stephen King novel, and is also a remake of the infamous “Carrie” from 1976, starring the talented Sissy Spacek. Forewarning, if you are interested in seeing the original film I would suggest watching it before seeing the new “Carrie”, because if not you’ll be majorly disappointed. Believe me, I made that mistake. I was so pumped about how good the new film was that I wanted to learn about all things Carrie, so obviously I turned to the original film, but let me tell you, it has NOTHING on the 2013 version. The special effects for the new film will blow you away; to me they were flawless.

I should probably tell you what the film is actually about for those who know nothing about the Carrie “phenomenon”. Carrie is a shy high school girl who has lead an extremely sheltered life until the state orders that her mom quite home-schooling her and place her into the public education system. Her upbringing is attributed to her insanely religious mother who has completely misinterpreted all and any teachings of the Bible. This deep religious focus makes Carrie an outcast at school and she is ridiculed by the bitchy, caddy, and moral-lacking “popular girls”. Eventually the bitches push Carrie too far and she breaks all hell loose on her senior prom by using her newly perfected telekinetic powers. This film creates a perfect combination of fear, aggression, “witch craft”, sympathy, and suspension. I strongly suggest all horror junkies to experience “Carrie”!  

Here's the semi-homemade cookie cake I made for my roomies (that we devoured).
Recipe: pre-packaged peanut butter cookie dough, mini M&M's, semi-sweet chocolate chips. Baked in a heart-shaped cake pan at 350 degrees and topped with petal pink Bettie Crocker tube icing. DELISH 

Visual Social Media: Show, Don't Tell

Social media has become increasingly visually based over the past few years. Platforms like Instagram, Vine, and Pinterst have proved that our society is largely drawn in by graphics and video, which my professor refers to as “snackable content.” 

More than ever before, our culture today is trying to do as much as possible in one single day. Visual social media and infographics are easy on the mind, which has made obtaining information and entertainment easier and more convenient. By creating a posting and sharing environment that saves people the time and the effort of reading (lazy, but true), it helps the modern busy-body to accomplish everything they need to do in one day. 

From a business standpoint, image is everything. Since consumers are so engaged in the visual, and thusly more likely to share, tweet, or post visual content, marketers take full advantage of this. Jay Baer (@jaybaer), marketing consultant and author of New York Times best selling book Youtility, proclaimed, “The goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army.” I couldn’t agree with this statement more. I think of that statement in terms of my personal use of social media. My Pinterst account http://www.pinterest.com/maddie_cull/ is basically a marketers dream; I have over 3,000 pins and the majority of them in some way help to either promote television shows and clothing stores or create traffic for certain websites when people are interested in my pins. The people I follow on Pinterest are constantly posting gorgeous images of the new Nike tennis shoes which causes me to head to the Nike website and check out the prices, it’s a problem. Visual social media use creates a constant interest in products, which has proven to be a wonderful tool for businesses.

This infograph says it all, however slightly outdated, it proves that the drawl for visual content is increasing everyday.

Photo Cred to socialmediaexaminer.com

Technology Chatter with Silicon Valley's Rich Miller

Our guest speaker today in my social media class was the experienced and influential CEO of Telematica, Inc., Rich Miller (@rhm2k).  Miller has had a long and impactful career in the area of consulting, investing, and software creation and has worked as an executive for many powerful companies in Silicon Valley. For those of you who only recognize the term “Silicon Valley” from the Bravo TV show, Start-Ups: Silicon Valley (and no, I’m not ashamed of this… well kind of), Silicon Valley is the nickname for the South Bay area of San Francisco, California. Silicon Valley has become the world’s “capital” for some of the largest technology corporations and is the home of thousands of small start-up businesses. 

Miller’s impressive career all started when he attended Stanford University and during his junior year had to make his own way so he began a job at IBM after taking only one quarter’s worth of a computer class. At the time Stanford did not offer an undergraduate degree in the area of computer science so Miller earned a bachelor degree in political science. It was a wonderful experience to be able to listen to such a successful man who truly has a passion for what he does. Many times throughout the lecture he referred to technology as “magical” and you could tell he still gets excited about what he does. Miller mentioned that he couldn’t believe that he gets paid to play with the “best toys imaginable”, technology. Three years ago Miller founded a company called, StreetLight Data Inc., which he describes as being like Google analytics but for brick and mortar. The list goes on and on for his accomplishments as a businessman (visit http://www.telematica.com/about-rhm/ for more info about his career history).

When referring to his business ideals, so to speak, he said an important factor is “learning how to make the elephants dance when you’re a little mouse,” in reference to the ability to keep big powerhouse companies excited about the inventions of small companies. I found Rich Miller to be extremely well-educated and well-spoken in his area of expertise and I encourage people, especially computer technology junkies, to learn more about him.

Will Television Be "Displaced"? -Comm303

For me, I believe that the communication technology medium of television will never die out. We will always be interested in watching shows and movies in our homes as a form of entertainment. TV has been a major part of American culture since the golden era of television in the 1950’s. It is embedded in our culture and is a way for families to spend time together, for people to relax, for people to escape the stresses of daily life, as well as a way for people to keep up to date on the news. Americans also love to discuss their television shows with friends and TV has become majorly incorporated into conversation on social media platforms. 

One theory that we have discussed in class that I think can be applied to a discussion about television and its future is the displacement theory. This theory states that the amount of time we have plays a major part in our involvement in communication technology and that our participation in one type of technology takes away from our time with another. This can be applied to TV because I believe that some people may predict that as newer communication technologies come along they may take time away for people to watch TV. However I will argue that TV’s future will always exist but will change and evolve with new technologies that are created that will change the way we view television. In my opinion, no matter what new technologies come along, TV will always be a constant, and nothing can replace the basic concept of it. 

However I predict that in the future, the way we watch TV will change and in some ways already has. A few that have already come along are Netflix, Apple TV, and other forms of Internet viewing of TV shows, like Hulu. I hope that my predictions become truth because I cannot imagine an American culture that doesn’t somewhat involve the shows and movies that are created for television.

Who Who HootSuite Comm460

The social media class that I am currently taking has been the most informative class I have taken in my four years at college and for the first time  I can honestly say I actually look forward to going to it. Not to mention it has been the only course I have taken that I feel actually provides you with practical and useful knowledge for making a name for yourself in the career world post graduation. On the first day of class we were introduced to something called HootSuite, which, at the time, I had no idea what t was. Our professor informed us that by the end of the semester we would be "HootSuite certified" and that putting that on our resumes would be impressive, so I took her word for it. At first I just imagined that it was some new social media platform that I hadn't heard of yet, but when she said "certified" I knew it had to be much more than that, and it was!

It actually wasn't until last night (I know I know like 4 weeks into the semester) that I finally got on and started looking around. I was LOST. I had no idea what HootSuite was all about and I found the website to be terribly confusing. So my natural next step was to "Pinterest" (the verb I use to describe the act of searching something on Pinterest.. like googling) it to see what it is all about. It has to be said that if you're in search of anything; inspiration, a tattoo idea, fashion, recipes, business and technology advancements, you name it, its on Pinterest! Some people say that Pinterest is dead but I couldn't agree less!

Enough about Pinterest (can you tell I'm obsessed?). From my findings on HootSuite I learned that it is actually a wonderful business tool used to manage an social media platforms all in one place. However HootSuite cannot manage just any social media platforms, the ones it can link are Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Mixi, Google+, and WordPress. The type of people to benefit most from this tool are bloggers, small businesses, larger businesses, and potentially a really busy individual who is involved with social media. I am still learning how to maneuver the website and get as much out of it as possible, but I am looking forward to becoming certified and knowing how to help future employers get started with HootSuite as well as manage their platforms.

As I get more involved with this great tool throughout the semester I will be sure to post updates and hopefully tips!

Weekly Film Review: "That Awkward Moment" - Comm 460

It’s time for the weekly film review and I’ve had yet another positive experience with a film. I’m switching things up this week with a bit more of an upbeat comedy rather than a serious drama. “That Awkward Moment”, which hit theatres this past weekend, came in at the No. 3 position at the box office, just behind Disney’s “Frozen” (blog to come for this groundbreaking film soon), and Kevin Hart’s “Ride Along”.  But for me of course, no film can rival the eye candy combo of Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and my personal favorite, Miles Teller (yum).

“That Awkward Moment” is a film that’s advertisements don’t do it justice, which says something since the trailers are hilarious. The film is a perfect coming together of comedy and romance but not in the standard romcom way (thankfully). After my roommates and I saw it on Saturday I couldn’t wait to write about it, if only for the fact that I get to reminisce on the complete wonder that is Miles Teller (don’t ask me to explain my addiction to this guy, he is simply my end all). The film follows these three 20 somethings on their journey to avoid romance while simultaneously finding themselves entirely caught up in it. The romances that are portrayed in this film inspire me to get out there and find a guy of my own to spend my days with. I can’t say much more about the plot without giving it away, but the film’s depth will stun you. If you are a college student or recent graduate this film is a relatable escape and definitely worth seeing!

Seriously? How adorable are they?

photo credit to nylonmag.com

                                      

Blog #3 - Technology & Education (Comm303)

As a 21 year old, born in 1992, I have had the ability to watch technology greatly progress throughout my life. Not only that, but I have been along for the ride as technology has become more and more integrated into the education system. I don’t remember much before 4^th grade, but I know that when I was in grade school, chalkboards were the only tool and white-erase boards hadn’t even been introduced. I remember the old-school “projectors” they would use that involved a light shining on a clear sheet that the teacher would write on and have us come up and do math problems together. That is the first time I remember using technology in an interactive way in education. I can also vaguely recall doing “computer class” where we would learn how to use Microsoft Word and some other program that I don’t think even exists anymore. As I got older and entered into middle school I saw a huge spike and advancement in the technology we used in school, this may also be partly due to the fact that my middle school was brand new and my grade were the first class to attend. Every room was equip with white boards and some even had “smart boards” which were extremely interactive. We began to be required to type all papers that we had to turn in instead of hand-write them, and we had more and more computer classes as time went by. Now to current day as a senior in college I have to admit that technology is an essential aspect of education and most are unaware of just how often they are utilizing technology, as they take it for granted. If I did have a personal laptop my life would be far less convenient. I have to use my computer everyday in order to do my coursework and do research so without it I would be lost. I firmly believe that technology has improved the quality of my education. The more tools you have and different ways to look at something, the more likely you are to understand it. Of course technology can become distracting when you have the ability to search anything and get on social media sites while attempting to do your homework, but I absolutely feel that the benefits of technology far outweigh its downfalls. Personally, I am not a fan of e-books at all. I don’t like the idea of having every aspect of my life electronic. I am the kind of person who still takes notes with a pen and paper instead of typing them up on Word. Especially with textbooks I like to be able to hold it and flip the pages physically as well as highlight. Regardless of the cost benefits of e-books, I still think I will utilize true textbooks as long as they are still available. On the other hand, MOOCs or massive open online courses, I am okay with. Sometimes life gets so hectic that it is difficult to find the time to physically go to class, especially if you have children or work or just want to have more time to spend with family and friends and do things for you. MOOCs interactive nature allow for you to get things done at a time which is convenient for you while at the same time not losing they interactive aspect of a physical class. MOOCs are a thumbs up for me!

Managing your Online Reputation - Comm460

Contrary to popular belief, the way you are perceived by others based on your online "persona" does make a major difference to your career future. As the American business magnate, Warren Buffet, once said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." I think it wise to take this into account in all aspects of our lives. As tacky as it may be, the commonly known phrase, "check yourself before you wreck yourself" is an important message to keep in mind before posting anything online. Like I have mentioned before, anything you post or say becomes your digital footprint and it doesn't go away, so if you're in a bad mood or feeling the need to rant it is better to cool off and collect your thoughts before letting those thoughts go public. Because once something has been said, it can only be forgiven, but never forgotten. There are plenty of things we can do to manage our online reputation but I think the most important to keep in mind is to think before you post. Other steps we can take is to Google yourself. See what is out there on you and if you see something you don't like, get rid of it, delete it if you can. Try to keep things positive and uplifting, negative posts or comments will make you seem like a negative person; which is not what employers are looking for, and also you shouldn't want to be a negative person anyway. Keep all of your profiles up to date and current. Make sure to post weekly, don't just leave your followers wondering if something happened to you; after they don't see your name in their feeds for a while, they'll begin to forget about you. And lastly, keep it fun! Social media is meant to be fun and entertaining, as well as informative, so the best thing you can do is come off as intelligent, inspirational, and humorous and your golden!

This Virtual Friends visual I found on Pinterest is the prefect way to understand your online reputation! Think of different social media platforms as friends with different personalities!

Via Pinterest