PRSSA Video

For social media I made a video about the Ohio Northern's PRSSA group.  I made the PRSSA Video using imovie on my computer.  I just wanted to showcase different pictures that would be a good representation of the PRSSA group.  I hope that everyone enjoys the video!

Crisis Communication

In chapter 7 of Real-Time Marketing the author talks about Twitter as a crisis communication tool.  This specific part of the chapter explains how using Twitter can help the media, bloggers and news reporters find out more information on a crisis.  The book says that if you find yourself in surprise situation such as a crisis you Tweet the information as well as pictures, video and any information that you can provide.  As I mentioned in another blog hashtags are also important.  If you hashtag a certain saying the media can access your information to learn more about the crisis that has taken place from a firsthand source.  Another way to get your information out is to tag a certain media in your tweet so that your information goes right to the source that will be covering the event.  I think that Twitter is really an up and coming social media.  It is very convenient and straight to the point with all of its information.  It will be a great resource for crisis communication in the future.

New Facebook

Facebook is going through a lot of changes recently, but the biggest change will be arriving late this week. Facebook is changing to a timeline like format.  People that I have talked to that have tried it out are comparing it to Tumblr.  Your Facebook profile will go back to the day you were born and include everyday from birth to the present day.  Users will be able to go back to any day in the history of their life and update a status or an activity that they were doing on that day.  I think that the new changes to Facebook will be interesting for people to get used to.  I know that most people are not going to like it at first and there will be a lot of complaining for at least the first couple weeks.  But I think that if people just give it a chance and learn how to use the new changes to their advantage it might be a positive change.  Don't get me wrong, I hate change just as much as the next social media user.  I just get used to the format of something and suddenly its different again.  But I think this is what makes social media great.  It is always evolving and changing for the better to give it's users things they may have never even known they wanted! Good luck with the new Facebook!

Week 6 of Semesters

With this being the first time that I have ever been on semesters everything that happens is still new to me.  Week 6 is quickly approaching.  It will be here in roughly 45 minutes.  This upcoming week is going to be a very busy one for me and from what I'm hearing from my friends they are experiencing the same kind of work load.  It's hard to imagine that this is only week 6 out of 16 weeks.  I'm starting to miss the quarter system more and more with each passing week.  I loved the quickness of the quarter system.  I'm really enjoying my classes this semester but I get bored very quickly and I'm already ready to move on to some new things.  This is going to be one long semester.  Hopefully I can find a way to get through the semester and learn to appreciate all the time I have to really get to know the subject and work with my teachers.  If that can happen I think that next semester will go a lot smoother.

The Real Hashtag usage

I have had a Twitter account for about a year now and I love it.  I never thought that I would grow to like it as much as I have.  I originally got an account because of my friends nagging me all the time to do it.  I'm so glad they did.  But when I tweet I use hashtags to display emotions or even just funny sayings that I know my friends will appreciate.  Now I know their real use.  In Real-Time Marketing in chapter 6 it explains that hashtags are actually supposed to be used as a way for the media to look up a breaking news topic.  For instance a there is a fire in your local town.  If you begin tweeting about it you could put #Adafire as your tag at the end of your tweet and people researching the story could see what others were tweeting by looking up the hashtag! This is really cool to me.  I knew that hashtags were a way to see what was trending on twitter but I had no idea that you could search tweets by these labels.  I feel so informed and a whole new part of Twitter has been opened up to me.  This makes me love Twitter even more. Procrastination here I come!

Bloggers are people too.

I recently read an article that talked about PR companies being afraid of reaching out to the help of bloggers.  But the article had an interesting take on the situation that I agree on.  They said that most companies think that it is scary to reach out to bloggers because you don't know how they are going to react and they could shed a negative light on your company.  But really the blogger is just going on with their life and would love to help the company out but the company needs to ask.  The blogger also wants to know that the company likes their writing and style.  They are impressed when you follow and are interested in their blog.  The truth is the blogger probably receives many invitations to write for companies all the time but when approaching them do a little research before just diving in.  Read and follow their blog so when you do finally decide to ask for their help you will both be on the same page and rooting for each other.  It could be a win win situation for the blogger and the company.  And since blogging is the next best thing, get on it and find your company a blogger!

Harvest and Herb

The thing I like about small towns is all the different events that take place.  This weekend in Ada there was the annual Harvest and Herb festival.  It's the only time of the year that I see so many people in Ada.  The streets are full of booths, venders and people.  When this festival comes to town it reminds me of Gilmore Girls.  The town that the Gilmore girls live in has all these weird festivals and events all the time.  I have always wanted to live in a town like that.  Ada may not be quite that entertaining but every now and then it brings some entertaining things to town.

My roommates and I live on Mains Street so we just walked down the street to the festivities.  It was nice to see all the people out and there were so many cool things going on.  We just wandered and looked at the different crafts.  They had sand art there and I haven't done that since I was little.  I wanted to do it but ran out of time.  We did have time to get some fried pickles though. They were so delicious! If Ada is as close to living in Stars Hollow (town from Gilmore Girls) as I can get then I think I would be ok with that!

Social Media in the Workplace

An article from PRSA's website explains that a lot of companies are working social media into their budgets because it is becoming more and more important in the way we reach our customers. The article stated  "249 chief marketing officers of U.S. companies who participated in the survey said they intend to increase spending on social media — from a current 7.1 percent of their overall marketing budgets to 10.1 percent over the next year."


I think that companies are smart to see the change in the way their customers and clients interact with the company.  Social media helps communication as well as keeping your customers up to date with what your recent venture is.  Social media can also help make the company feel like a human being runs it compared to years ago when it felt like you were dealing with a machine.  And speaking from the client side of things  I know that I like to be involved with the companies that I like.  I hope in the future all companies can dedicate a budget to social media. 

United Breaks Guitars

In class we watched the "United Breaks Guitars" video and I was surprised to find that I had never seen it or heard of it before.  If you don't already know the video went viral in 2009 (and I posted it at the bottom of the page) and the "Real-Time" book uses it as a great example for how companies big or small need to be ready to respond to media while it is happening.  No matter what company you are you won't always have a week to decide how you are going to respond to allegations about your company...sometimes you don't even have a day.  Thinking on your feet has become such a critical part of public relations.

The most interesting part of this whole situation for me is that United never thought it would be a good idea to respond publicly to these videos.  I realize that some of these concepts and ideas are new to dealing with the public and no company never wants to admit that they have done something wrong but there comes a point when not saying anything is much worse.  I think that when the views for the YouTube video began to skyrocket someone at United should have decided it was better to do something about it.

The second thing I found fascinating was how fast the video received so many hits.  I guess even now in the world of technology it is still so amazing to me how quickly word can spread about a video.  But it never fails to happen.  One friend tells me about something and before I know it everyone is watching the same thing.  So this concept is exciting to me if there is something I want to get out there in the world because the little people have a chance but frightens me big time when I think about this happening to my future company I work for! At least I'll know what to do when the situation comes up!

Cable and Internet Finally!

So for those of you that don't know about the installation of your internet at cable it is maybe one of the most stressful experiences of my life, after accounting class of course.  My roommates and I have been trying to get Time Warner Cable to our house to install our internet for 3 weeks now.  We missed our first appointment and getting a second appointment for our installation was like trying to get the president on the phone.  Once you miss your appointment you are automatically set back at least a week! So we finally get the guy out to our house to install our stuff and after asking me lots of questions that I have no idea how to answer he says that we should be good to go.  Well that is great in theory but of course as soon as he leaves the house and pulls out of the driveway the internet no longer works.  I spend the next several hours trying to figure out what went wrong.  My roommate is on the phone with Time Warner looking for some sort of solution.  They have already transferred our call 3 times and put us on hold for a half an hour.  We find out that they are charging us more than they quoted us for and saying that we didn't request wifi (even though the installation guy told me we had it).  Their only solution is that they can come out to the house a week from that day and charge us an extra $50! Um...I don't think so! After complete frustration and some choice words Time Warner agrees to listen to our recorded talk with the original quote and call us back with more information.  Thank god for my roommate Megan.  Her brother-in-law works for Time Warner and he was able to fix the wifi problem.  The solution: unplugging the router and plugging it back in. BAM! It works.  Over an hour spent on the phone with Time Warner and not once did they come up with this solution! As well as lying about not having wifi and trying to charge us even more money to fix their mistakes.  Moral of the story is that living on our own continues to be an adventure and living in the small village of Ada does not allow a lot of variety for services like this! (How I wish we could have AT&T!)  But we are smarter and less gullible with ever encounter we have that our parents would usually be in charge of!

FYI: We are still waiting for Time Warner to call back.  That was 3 days ago.