Blogging with Bethany

This is my last blog post for the fall semester of 2016. As I reflect over my time blogging, I thought I'd share some things that I learned.

1.) Blogging takes a lot of time.
Blogging may seem like it's an easy thing to do, but at times it can be challenging. Making sure you have enough time to sit down and fully write out your ideas is important. Some blog posts need more time than others and may require you do a little bit of research. Making sure you have enough time to fully write your blog is very important.
2.) Keeping ideas fresh is difficult.
Sometimes, it might feel like you have nothing to write about, which can seem like it's the end of the world. I like to let the ideas gather in my head as I go about normal tasks. If I force myself to think of something good, it just falls flat. Also, knowing you can play off of what other people have written or blogged about is also nice. Just remember, it's not always going to be easy, and that's okay.
3.) Length is a challenge.
Getting your blog posts to be the right length can be very tricky sometimes. A blog is where you can share your ideas, but it's not a place to write a novel. Also, you need to have enough material so the post is worth reading. Finding that balance is hard sometimes, especially on a topic you could speak about for days or a topic where you feel like you just can't write more than a few sentences about. If you have a huge topic you love to write about, try breaking it down into smaller topics and do a series of posts over each subtopic. This will keep each post down in length, and help you get more material out of your passion. If you have a topic where you feel like you could only write a few sentences, maybe you should rethink your topic or do research on the topic for more information.
4.) Promoting is key.
Blogging at first can be difficult when you have no one viewing your blog. A way to start getting followers is to post your blog posts on social media. Facebook is a great place to do this because you can have people just click on a link and go straight to the post. However, make sure you are promoting your blog posts at a good time of day. I tend to post mine on facebook in the evening or early night time because that it when most of my Facebook friends are on the website.
5.) Freedom of expression is a double-edged sword.
With a blog comes great responsibility. Freedom of expression is a nice thing to have when you have a blog, however, you need to be mindful and respectful of your potential audience. Keeping things G rated is a must because you never know who might stumble on your blog. Also, keeping an open mind will allow for more people to connect to your posts. A diary is a private journal, but a blog post is open to everyone and may never officially go away. Make sure you are being smart about your posting. In the end, what you write is a personal reflection of yourself.

I've learned a lot through this blogging experience and I am very grateful for everything I've learned. I still do not know if I will continue to post on this blog after my social media class is over, but I might! So stay tuned for any future blog posts! For now, thank you for following my journey and blogging with Bethany and Merry Christmas!

Social Media Seven

Before on my blog, I've talked about Katie Paine's book, "Measure What Matters," about social media marketing. But now, we are finally done going through the book and I am going to give you the seven steps she uses in some form in almost every chapter. She titles the original seven steps "7 steps to the perfect measurement program." Here are the seven steps:
1.) Define your goals and objectives
This first step seems silly, but it is actually really important. You need to make sure that your goals are not only reachable but that everyone in the company agrees with them. Making your goals known is an important part of having your goals. If no one knows what the end game is, the goals will never be reached.
2.) Define your audience
Defining your audience means stating who you are trying to reach through your social media. What age group or sex are you trying to reach? Is there a certain way to best reach this group of people? Many things need to be considered before you start a measurement program.
3.) Define your investment
What is your return on investment going to be? How are you going to make your investment bring you revenue in the end? Are you doing a measurement program to just collect data, or are you going to use the data you collect to improve your program to eventually get more customers?
4.) Determine your benchmarks
A benchmark to compare against is a standard of measure you will use. Paine states that generally there are three different benchmarks you could use: competitors, yourself over time, and the industry average. Seeing how you measure up to these benchmarks will help you find out where you fit and how you can grow. Paine also states that the most effective benchmark is yourself now compared to yourself in the past.
5.) Define your key performance indicators
You need to know what you will use as a key performance indicator. This will most likely be determined by your goals and what you want to accomplish. Remember to be clear in your goals so your performance indicators measure what you actually want to be measured.
6.) Select your measurement tools and collect data
Selecting the tool to use is very important. If your primary audience is online, maybe you will use a content analysis of social media. If not, maybe you will use primary research through mail or a phone survey.
7.) Turn data into action
Without this step, the measurement program would be pointless. You want to take your data and see what needs to be fixed in your company to work at your maximum potential. Take your numbers and turn them into profit!

Hippo Hype

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas... Only a hippopotamus will do...." The song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" has been a big hit when it first came out in 1953. Kids for many generations have been annoying their parents with the song and a request for a hippopotamus under the Christmas tree. However, not much is ever talked about of where the song came from and the little girl who first sang the song. Many people believe it was made for the Oklahoma City Zoo because they did not yet have a hippopotamus, but that is only slightly true. I decided to get to the bottom of the hippo hype and find out what the song is really about.

Original Record

1.) The original singer of the song was then 10-year-old, Gayla Peevey. She started singing on a local TV station when she first moved to Oklahoma city, in the fourth grade. Although her singing career never took off past the famous hippo song, it is a song that has definitely stood the test of time.

2.) It was recorded before the Oklahoma City Zoo launched it's hippo campaign. The song was first heard by people everywhere in October of 1953 on the Ed Sullivan Show. Because she had roots in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Zoo used her fame to their advantage to raise money to buy "Gayla" a hippopotamus.

Gayla meeting Matilda for the first time

3.) Gayla did finally receive a hippopotamus. Through the Oklahoma City Zoo's efforts, on Christmas Eve, Gayla met Matilda, a baby hippo that was bought for her through donations. Of course, Gayla then "donated" (as was the agreement with the zoo) Matilda to the Oklahoma City Zoo where she lived for over 40 years, giving birth to many other baby hippos in her lifetime.

Gayla visiting Matilda

4.) Although Gayla did eventually have other minor music successes as a teenager, some believe she is just a "one hit wonder." Oddly enough, Gayla eventually went into writing advertisement jingles and owned her own advertising agency.  However, every Christmas she gets to relive her "glory" days as the song continues to be played on the radio to this day.

Click here to enjoy the original song!

Reference

What's your favorite Christmas song? Let me know in the comments below!

Holiday Traditions

I am the type of person that starts singing Christmas songs and watching Christmas movies the week before Thanksgiving even begins! Although many people are very anti-Christmas until after Thanksgiving, it's safe to say Christmas time is now officially in full swing! Christmas is not my favorite Holiday, however, it is my favorite "season!" The days leading up to Christmas are my absolute favorite! Everyone seems to be in a better mood, the semester is almost over, and everyone is out shopping for the perfect gift! Not to mention the Christmas music, gingerbread cookies, and Christmas lights up everywhere! Another special part of the Christmas season are the Holiday traditions. Every family has their own traditions for the Holidays that makes this time of year extra special. Here are a couple of Holiday traditions I always look forward to this time of year:

Christmas 2015 with my sister
at The Twisted Olive restaurant

1.) Christmas Tree: I love having our Christmas tree up in our house. I love the colorful lights and all of the ornaments that bring with them memories of Christmas' past. One of my favorite times to look at the tree are late at night or early in the morning when no one is really up or moving around in the house. There is something just extra magical about a Christmas tree shining in a quiet house!
2.) Shopping: My favorite part of Christmas day is giving people the gifts I have bought/made for them! I love seeing the reactions people have to what I give them with all the thought that has gone into getting them the perfect gift. One tradition I love about gift giving is the shopping! When I was younger, my whole immediate family would go out to the mall one Friday night and eat dinner at the food court. Then, my sister and I would each go with one parent for about an hour of shopping. After an hour, we would switch parents and shop for the other parent. Although as my sister and I have gotten older, this tradition has stopped, I still go out shopping with my dad as close to Christmas day as possible to help him finish shopping for my mom (which I am usually the one to find the gifts for her). It's always something I look forward to doing, especially because I love shopping!

Family photo at Burnt Wood Tavern for my sister's birthday
(December 23) 2015

3.) Candle Lite Silent Night: Christmas Eve is a time of church and celebrating the birth of Jesus in my family. My favorite part of Christmas Eve service is singing Silent Night in the candle light. Seeing everyone lite up by just the light of their candle, celebrating God's gift to the world together is such an emotional experience that always brings me warm fuzzies. It is truly the reason for the season.

Those are just three of my favorite Holiday traditions! Let me know what you love about the Holidays in the comments below!

Trust

In order to be successful in the social media world, creating and cultivating good relationships is key. A good part of any relationship is trust. Without trust, many relationships would fails. However, what exactly is trust in the social media world? According to "Measure What Matters" by Katie Paine trust has three levels:
1.) Competence- In order to have trust in any relationship, both sides must be able to actually provide what they say they will provide in the relationship.
2.) Integrity- Both sides need to have so sort of reputation that they will be able to continue the relationship to some degree of certainty.
3.) Dependability/reliability- Without reliability, a relationship will not survive. If both sides cannot provide what they promise to provide in the relationship, the relationship will not survive.
Through these three levels of trust, Paine talks about trust being the key in keeping a good relationship and keeping a good reputation. In her chapter on crisis, Paine states that trust has a measurable effect in the realm of company reputation and in preventing a crisis. Take an example of two different companies you decide to order from online. The first company, company A, says the shipping will take 2-3 weeks and company B, the second company, states it will take 2-6 weeks. Imagine both companies are the same distance away from you and you have order essentially the same item from them. It's easy to see that company A has more competence than company B because they are confident in their ability to get their product to you within a one week window of time whereas company B states it needs about four weeks of time. Even if both companies fulfill their orders within their time windows, the next time you go to buy a product, you'll probably go to company A first because you know that you can rely on them getting your product to you in a reasonable time frame. Therefore, company A has built up a level of trust with you whereas company B's level of trust is a lot lower.
As you can see, trust is a very important part of any relationship, especially in the marketing world. People want a company who will follow through with what they claim to do and they want that to be done in a reasonable manner. Without trust, almost any relationship would fail.

Bitmoji

If you have an iPhone with the newest iOS update, then you know about the different stickers you can download for iMessage. However, did you know you can have your own personal stickers with Bitmoji? Bitmoji allows you to create your avatar to look just like you, just like Bitstripz. You can now send your friends tiny versions of yourself displaying a wide range of emotions. Here are some of my personal favorites!

1.) Naptime! For me, I am always taking a nap and it adds more fun to telling my friends, I'm going to take a nap now. Instead, I can just send them this!

2.) Bye Felicia! I am definitely outdated when it comes to saying this phrase, but I still say it when I am "mad" or "offended" by what someone says to me. I am actually very happy they made this into a Bitmoji. It even has the hand motion I like to do! I will probably end up sending it more than I should....

3.) Heart! I like sending this one to my friends when they say something nice in our group chat or even if they need a little bit of extra love. It's a simple Bitmoji, but it can show many great meanings, that's why it's one of my top favorites!


Want in on the fun?! Don't worry! Just download the Bitmoji app from the app store! To get it on your keyboard, you must go to your keyboard settings and allow it to be used. What's even more fun is that Bitmoji is also compatible with Snapchat so go ahead and start Bitmoji-ing away!

Here are two bonus Bitmojis for you of me before and after dinner on Thanksgiving!

Before

After

Binge Break

It's Thanksgiving break and even though we all have a lot of homework to get done, most of us are spending our time catching up on something else, Netflix. Even though many of us watch Netflix throughout the school, it isn't until we have a nice long break that we can catch up on all of the latest Netflix binges. Here are just a couple of my favorite shows on Netflix that are totally binge-worthy.


1.) Criminal Minds: This show deals with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit or the BAU as they go and solve crimes. Each episode brings a new serial killer and a new way of solving the case. What I like about this show is the level of depth each character has. Once I started watching it, I couldn't  stop. It has a dark tone so watchers, beware.

2.) Jane the Virgin: This show is a new spin on the classic Spanish soap opera or telenovela. Jane, who is a devout Christian woman ends up being artificially inseminated on accident which starts a spiral of many crazy things happening in her life. Although it is all pretty ridiculous, I found myself connecting in small ways to each character. There are only two seasons on Netflix currently, but the end of each season will leave you wanting more!

3.) New Girl: If you love to laugh, this show is for you. Although it has more adult themes than other shows, it is constantly making me laugh. The characters each bring a different perspective to the show that in the end makes everything mesh really well together. Whether you are a Nick fan, a Schmidt lover, a Winston-ite, or just a crazy Jessica Day, you won't want to miss out on this great show!