Wrapping up Social Media

Bare with me here, I am about to wrap up my whole social media spring semester in about 500 words. This will be difficult, because we have learned so much over this short period of time. My JRM 327: Social Media class was definitely my favorite class this semester. There was a lot of work that came with this class, but everything that we did was so interesting and fun. Throughout the semester we learned about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, policies, metrics, brands, and so much more. Way too many things to list.

My absolute favorite thing to learn about this year was personal brands. It made me think about myself and my social media in a totally different way. It made me understand how important it is to be careful what I post online. What I put online is a part of my brand and it is important to create a well rounded brand. Something I found

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really fun and interesting was creating certain tweets for our twitter accounts. Also, we made LinkedIn profiles. I learned that it is much more than just having a profile. You need to make sure you have a well rounded and put together profile. I had to find a professional picture, create a strong summary, and have experiences. I have been able to implement what I have learned about personal brands and used them in my own social media. Even after our in class experiment with our personal brands, I have kept up with my social media and have still been working on creating a strong brand for myself.

Something I really enjoyed about the class was that our teacher did not try and drag out lectures. I have been in classes before where we are almost done with a lecture, but since class doesn’t get out for another 20 minutes they will drag on the last few slides. I really appreciated how we learned what we needed to learn and if we ended early; then we ended early.

I do have one suggestion for future classes. The final project, creating a social media plan, is really interesting and fun. Something that I would suggest is assigning partners. Allow students to choose their partners, but the students who do not have partners should be assigned someone. The assignment is fun, but it is a lot of work, especially for only one person. This will also make sure that there is enough time for everyones final presentations.

From taking this class I have learned a lot about social media. The good, the bad, and the ugly. There was so much that I never knew about social media and it opened my eyes to new ideas and things that I can change. I will definitely continue to use what I have learned throughout this class and implement it into my own social media.

 

Shamed to Death

Have you ever posted something that you regretted? How about, taken down something from social media because you were embarrassed you posted it? I know I have done that before. Old selfies I took in middle school making the duck face, old “like for honest opinion” posts on Facebook. We have all been there before no matter

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what it was. Sometimes people make mistakes, and that is okay. The problem isn’t the mistake, the problem is the shaming that comes along with the mistake. Being on social media a good portion on my life I have seen a lot of public shaming. Someone makes one mistake, whether it be on social media or not, and we pounce on it like its the last piece of pizza at a party. We rip people apart by throwing in our opinions and making them feel ashamed of what they have done. Sometimes it goes so far, it becomes cyerbullying. I think it is about time we changed that.

Everyone has heard about Monica Lewinsky. I mean, come on, there are even rap songs made about her. She made a mistake back in 1998 when she was only 22 years old. She was only two years older than me when her whole life was flipped upside down. In the Ted Talk with Monica Lewinsky she talks about how she was almost humiliated to death after this scandal broke loose. Audio tapes were aired on TV and even thrown online, photos, private words and actions were out for everyone to see. After going through all of this, she wants to stand up and show that she can survive. She talks about how shame cannot survive empathy and we need to start showing more compassion. We need to realize that there is a person behind this story. There is a human that you are bullying and picking apart. I agree with Monica Lewinsky, it’s time for us to make a change. It is time for us to stop killing each other online over mistakes that we have made. We need to start showing each other compassion and empathy.  We can do this by understanding that there is a real person behind all of this and what we are saying can really hurt them. In an article written by The New York Times called, Monica Lewinsky is Back, but This Time It’s On Her Terms, Monica tells us more about her story. She wants to tell her story and use it to help others. I think what Monica is doing is brave and shows much courage. I think she is preaching the right things and if we follow her, social media can become a better place. Where there is less bullying and more compassion.

Monica Lewinsky isn’t the only one who has made a mistake and paid for it. Justine Sacco made one tweet that turned her life upside down as well. One tweet that ruined the life of Justine Sacco. The New York Times article talks about what Justine has gone through. The shaming became so bad it caused her to lose her job. Maybe the tweet in general would have made her lose her job, but because of how people reacted and blew it up on social media, forced her out of her job. Justine is not the only one who has faced this. Lindsey Stone lost her job over a picture. Alicia Ann Lynch lost her job over a

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halloween costume. Adria Richards lost her job over one post she made. Referee, John Higgins , was forced to go to law enforcement after being a referee at a basketball game. When is enough, enough? We are bullying people online and are satisfied with ourselves. People post mean and rude comments about someone and get likes and retweets. When are we going to realize that this is not what social media is for? We need to start making a change in how we use social media before it gets much worse.

A site that was created to help stop this cyberbullying was called TrollBusters. This site was created by Michelle Ferrier to combat trolling and online harassment and provide people with support. There are three elements to this online site, Online rescue service, Support center, and Exterminate ‘troll nests’. Each one provides a different outlet for women online. More of these sites need to be created. It is important that we come up with ways to combat this public shaming. No one deserves to feel ashamed and afraid to go out in public. It is time we make a difference.

 

Humane Social Media

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was headed to the Nebraska Human Society to listen to Elizabeth Hilpipre talk about running a social media strategy for the shelter. I use social media daily and I enjoy learning about how businesses use social media to their advantage, so you could say I was pretty excited. Plus, it didn’t hurt that she was going to be talking about animals, because I am obsessed with dogs and cats.

She started off by briefly explaining her journey, how she ended up at the Nebraska Humane Society, and what it is like to work there. She then went over the social media sites that they use; starting with Facebook. Their Facebook page gets a lot of interactions which

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was pretty surprising to me. They received a lot more interactions than I was originally expecting. She told us that funny and gross posts got the most interactions as well as posts with pictures.

One thing that really shocked me was that she is the only one working on their social media. I would have expected maybe one or two more people working on it with her. It seems like a lot of work for just one person. She even explained that her job is not done once she leaves work. Sometimes she is out with friends and is still on her phone responding to people on social media. Which makes sense, because she told us that she wants to respond to people who interact with their posts to keep the interactions flowing.

I currently follow the Nebraska Humane society on Snapchat and it is one of my favorite snapchat accounts. Elizabeth explained that she was not sure how successful snapchat was going to be when they first started, but boy was she wrong. She said that snapchat is very popular and has really helped them with adoption of the animals.

After listening to Elizabeth talk about her job it seemed like it was a process; she was continually learning along the way. With social media you never know what the next big thing is going to be. This is where metrics come into play. Elizabeth told us that Twitter gives them the most feedback. They tell her how many views a tweet got, how many times people interacted with it, when is the best time to post, and much more. These metrics can help Elizabeth figure out what her followers want to see and what will give her the most interactions.

Overall, I really enjoyed learning about Elizabeth’s journey and what she has learned along the way. She gave us some pretty good advice at the end of her presentation. She told us to be friends with all of our professors and make connections. I thought this was really helpful advice, especially because I am coming to the end of my time at Creighton. It is important to start making connections, because you never know who you will need down the road.

Insta-Brands

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In my first blog post I talked about the social media sites that I enjoyed the most and the ones that I enjoyed the least. I mentioned that Instagram was my favorite social media site to use. Instagram is a place where people can post photos and videos with unique captions to share with their followers. It is my favorite social media site because it is filled with pictures and videos and I love looking at pictures. It is a great way to keep your followers up to date as well as share interesting photos that you have taken.

After reading, “17 of the Best Brands on Instagram Right Now“, I decided on one brand that I thought was promoting themselves the best on Instagram. I had never heard of this brand before; it is called WeWork. WeWork is a company that provides office spaces around the world. To help their customers to see what these office spaces look like, the brand does a great job of posting photos of the different spaces and looks. They also use their own hashtag; #WWCamp, as well as a slogan; “Do what you love”. Hashtags are always a good idea because it is an easy way for people to find a brands page. I also think that their slogan is an easy way for their followers to feel connected and interact with the brand.

The second site that I looked at was, “6 Nonprofits On Instagram Who Are Getting It Right“. After looking at the six nonprofits, I decided, To Write Love On Her Arms was my favorite. This nonprofit helps people struggling with depression, self harm, and addiction. I think they are so successful because they are not only using hashtags but they are creating hashtag movements. These movements are meant to stir up conversation between people and get them talking. I think this is a really good idea, because it doesn’t only get people talking about the hashtag, it gets them talking about the brand as well. I think that it is wise of them to not only post photos but also videos.

I learned a lot of tips and tricks for my Instagram after analyzing these two brands. The first thing that I learned was that hashtags are a great way for people to notice your brand. It is a way to bring people to your picture or page. Another thing I learned was to not only post photos. Videos are a great way to share my content and mix it up so it is not always photos on my page. I think it is also important to notice that the captions on their pictures were written professionally and appropriately.

Social media is a great place to build one’s brand, personally and professionally. After looking at these two brands I will be taking their ideas and using them on my own Instagram.

 

Simple Sentence

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After watching Daniel Pink’s video about the one sentence project I was really excited to come up with my own unique sentence that described myself. One sentence about myself seemed pretty easy at first, but boy was I wrong. Who knew that one simple sentence describing oneself could be so difficult to write. Personally, I really enjoy reflecting on myself and learning more about who I am as a person. That is a big reason why I keep a journal. That is why when we were addressed with this assignment I was really excited. The problem is, as much as I love learning more about myself, I am pretty bad at talking about myself and what I am good at. Because of that, it took me a while to come up with a good sentence that I thought really fit me. I will walk you through how I got to the final product.

Starting with my top three personal strengths was a lot harder than I thought it would be. After taking some time to think about myself I finally decided to settle on personable, supportive, and hardworking.

For my top three talents I thought that I should include drawing, getting things accomplished, and getting along with people. I put a lot of effort and determination into these areas of my life.

I decided for my core area of expertise it had to be basketball because I have been playing ever since first grade. It is practically my life and I still play it today here at Creighton.

The last part that I analyzed was what I can do better than anyone else. This was probably the hardest question to answer. I don’t tend to think of myself as being better than other people, so it was hard to decide what I was better at. I decided that I was better than others at being compassionate. I really care about people and want to make a difference in people’s lives. I do this by showing love and interest towards others. I believe that I have a big heart and love caring for others which is why I landed on compassion.

After analyzing myself and looking deeper than I ever have I finally landed on my sentence.

She was a hard worker with a big heart and just wanted to make a difference.

A Millennial and Social Media

My name is Sydney Lamberty and I am twenty years old. I would say social media is definitely a big part of my life. I tend to use all kinds of social media throughout the day. On my phone I currently have Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, VSCO, and Pinterest. I tend to use Instagram more than anything else; it is definitely my favorite type of social media. I think that is because I really enjoy looking at pictures and physically seeing what people are doing. It is a nice way to keep up with people’s lives and to see what they have been doing. I believe it is more of a personal choice though. Twitter also does a good job with keeping you up to date with what is going on in people’s lives as well. I just enjoy looking at pictures a lot more than just posts.

Just recently I have begun using Facebook less and less. I deleted the app on my phone because I never used it. I think I use to use it so much that I am just bored of it now. I still will never delete my Facebook account because I believe it is a good way to stay in touch with people who may not use Instagram – like my mom. It may also be a good tool when looking for a job or just networking. Even though I do not use it as much anymore I still have an account and sometimes go on to keep updated on friends and families lives.

My favorite thing about social media is how it connects so many people. Yes, like i

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mentioned above, it helps you stay in touch with friends and family, but you can also follow people that you may not know so well. Personally I follow a lot of celebrities and health accounts on Instagram and Twitter. I find it interesting to follow other people’s lives and to see what they do and what they think. It really fascinates me how fast news and ideas can travel through social media. Sometimes it is like wild fire and I think that is so amazing. People from on the other side of the world can interact with you and I find that so crazy.

Although I really enjoy social media and use it a lot, there are a few things that I dislike about it as well. The first thing that I do not enjoy about social media is that it is very easy to spread false information. Like I mentioned above, ideas and stories can get spread around like wildfire on social media. Because of this though, false stories can get spread as well. Sometimes it is hard for people to decipher whether things are fact or fiction, so that is a major problem. The second thing that I don’t really enjoy about social media is the bullying side of it. Throughout my years of using social media I have seen a lot of bullying and have even experienced it myself. It is so easy to hide behind a screen and say mean things to people. Because of social media’s layout it is very easy to spread cruel words and bully people.

Overall, I really enjoy social media and I think it is a great tool to have. In this class I would love to learn more about the history of social media and the effects that it can have on a society. I would like to learn about different viewpoints on social media as well. I think that this class is going to be very interesting and I am excited for it to really begin.