Final Reflection

As part of my reflection, let's review the list of goals that I posted at the beginning of this assignment:

Goals that I have for this course include:

1) Creating a complete Social Media Profile/Resume that includes links to all pertinent websites for employers to see examples of my competence in these areas. I plan on updating it consistently throughout the semester, and even after graduation, to make sure it is up to date and a positive representation of my skills related to social media.

2) Besides this one for class, I would like to establish both a personal and professional blog. I believe that by the end of this blog assignment I will have had the chance to practice blog entries, try different styles of writing, experiment with importing images and HTML coding, and learn more about analyzing the data of my blogs as far as visitor numbers, references, hits, etc.

3) While this is a smaller goal, I am interested in updating my LinkedIn account to include more accurate and current information, connect with others on there, and establish links/references to be able to use during my job hunt.

I'm pleased to say that while I may not have completely finished these goals, I've made a lot of progress and am well on my way to completing them. I've updated my Social Media Profile/Resume and feel comfortable and confident posting links to my social media pages for friends, family, and future employers to see. As far as the second goal, I'm not sure it was necessarily a realistic goal for the timeline of this course, but I did gain a lot of valuable experience with this blog and have been updating my personal blog much more frequently thanks to this class. With this experience, I now feel prepared to manage and update a daily professional blog as soon as I'm at a point in my career where this is feasible. Finally, I just recently updated my LinkedIn profile and spent a lot of time researching, rewording and finalizing my bio, and I've now started the process of connecting with others on there to establish references and a stronger network.

I will continue to use and develop my social media communication skills after this class by being more consistent in my tweeting/updating efforts, establishing and maintaining relationships online that will be beneficial to me in my future career hunt, gaining more experience by blogging and trying to incorporate new trends and ideas. I believe that building a personal brand online is a constant process because it represents me, and I'm constantly changing. So I'll continue to update, evaluate, and change my personal brand so that it accurately reflects me and what I'm looking for/who I am.

Check out my updated social media resume here!

Updated social media resume

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LinkedIn Account

Check out my LinkedIn Account Here!

Profile Bio:

Before you ask…yes, I’m named after the car. However, my name is not the only unique thing about me!

As an almost-graduate from Middle Tennessee State University, I’m focused on my future and determined to land the job of my dreams as an event-planner! I’m passionate about fashion, politics, weddings, wine, and traveling (not necessarily in the order), and I’m currently obsessed with creating a Pinterest-perfect life. My passion for planning shines through the most when I am in my element coordinating an event or wedding. While I’m a coordinator by profession, I’m a planner by nature and aptitude. How, you ask? Well, I blame it partially on my perfectionist tendencies and extreme desire for order, details, and deadlines, but creating a vision, setting goals and analyzing progress comes naturally to me. I take organization to a whole new level; some may say I’m obsessive when it comes to planning- and in their defense, I’d have to agree.   

With my degree in Organizational Communication, along with more than 8 years of combined experience, I am an aspiring professional in the planning industry. My experience has ranged from conferences, meetings, fundraisers, non-profit events, and parties, with my main focus on weddings. Although I’m blessed with the natural creativity, talent, and ability to multitask that is required of a planner, I recognize the importance of formal training, which is why my degree concentration in event planning has given me yet another competitive advantage.

Having lucked out with an internship at The Nashville Wedding Planners Group and working under an amazing visionary, to hosting inaugural events on small, local scales and larger, region-wide levels, I’ve always gravitated towards providing not only successful events, but memorable experiences for everyone involved. As Director of Operations for this elite group of planners in Nashville, I gained direct experience in all aspects of planning as I developed and executed a social media strategy, handled all membership responsibilities from creating the membership agreement to recruiting members, managed all day-to-day operations, and planned monthly events at Nashville’s most unique venues.  I led the staffing and training of other employees, and managed vendor contracts, event timelines, advanced planning as well as day-of coordination, and event design and customization.

What continues to make all of my events so successful is the combination of my excellent interpersonal skills, organizational ability, resourcefulness, and creative edge. I find it easy to generate fresh and new ideas for each event because my past events serve as both a source of inspiration and a challenge, which inspires me to new creative heights.  I constantly seek inspiration from the industry’s most up-to-date blogs, magazines, TV shows, and leading industry professionals. I am driven by the inspiration and visions of my clients because there is no better feeling than that of making someone’s dreams come to fruition.

I am currently interested in finding a job that will allow me to relocate to the Dallas area. With my vast experience in this field and my under-promise/over-deliver approach to planning, I’m confident that I am the right person to plan your meetings, social functions, conferences, fundraisers, or weddings. I enjoy networking with professionals from any industry and encourage you to contact me any time!

Two "Tips" Resources for Beginners:
1.LinkedIn for Students
2. The Beginner's Guide to LinkedIn

EventBrite Slideshare

Event slideshare

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Group Project: Social Media Training

If we were going to develop a one day training seminar to teach your colleagues how to use professional social media, the topics we would include would consist of:

1. Engagement
2. Keeping Personal and Professional Lives Separate
3. Developing Your Brand
4. Building Your Network
5. Best Practices
6. Listening
7. Which platform is best for you?
8. Taking it to the next level: Social Media for Your Business Pages
9. Legal and Compliance Issues
10. Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Social media strategy
11. Ethics

Organize: Depending on how many employees were attending this seminar, we would organize it into different session opportunities for people to choose from, with a speaker for the whole group at the end. We'll bring together experts and allow for plenty of group discussion time. After the full day of information, speakers, and discussions, we would end the day with an opportunity to network by providing a cocktails and hors d'ouevers networking reception. This way, attendees have the option to attend sessions that best fit their needs.

Promote: We would use EventBrite to organize and promote this event by creating an event, promoting it, sending email invitations, creating contact lists, integrate it into our company website, and create an attendee report and more. Then we will list the event on our other social media sites and promote it for enough time to make sure that all employees are aware and excited to go. Finally, we will utilize EventBrite's new iPhone app, Easy Entry, to track employee attendance, and even list it on the EventBrite Public Directory.

Dream Internship

One Hope Weddings Brand Ambassador/Intern

This course has prepared me to obtain this dream position by teaching me best practices for major social media platforms including those listed in the job posting (Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest). The social media aspect of this job includes managing the profiles for this company, as well as managing and writing their blog. It says that written communication skills are a must, and I've both acquired and developed better writing skills in terms of social media writing. The last part of the job description says that this person would need to reach out to wine/wedding bloggers and create more of an online presence for this brand. I feel confident that with the skills I learned in this class I am more prepared to be an effective communicator in online communities, I have the ability to create and share relevant and interesting content, and I know how to determine if a social media strategy is being effectively executed.

Summer Reading List

Books about SMC/ORCO topics that I'd like to read this summer:

1. Likeable: Social Media Customers
2. The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Business with Pinterest
3. The Thank You Economy

Follow Up

I've actually learned a lot about social media communication and networking from the professionals that I chose to follow in one of our previous assignments.

To remind you, I chose to follow:

1. For this assignment I chose to follow Emily Lester Photography, a local photographer who is just getting started in the world of pictures. I admire her work and respect her as a person, so I will continue to follow her various social media pages and communicate with her.

2. 10 Professionals in My Field of Study:
@PerfectWedding
@TerriUtecht
@MusicCityEvents
@TCreativeDesign
@SouthernEvents1
@TheWhiteRoomTN
@FeteNashville
@ILoveSWMag
@OnceWed
@PinkChicEvents


3.The Heart Bandits are the #1 Proposal Planners IN THE WORLD and have been featured in a variety of national papers, TV Shows, etc. I already follow their blog (and their FB, Twitter), but I will keep a better eye on it and analyze it for the rest of the semester.

4. An example of another organization that I believe does a good job of connecting with their audience via social media is Billy Bob's Texas, a concert venue in Dallas. They are constantly updating their FB and Twitter, and they interact with their followers by commenting back, and even posing questions for their followers to answer. I'll follow them for the rest of the semester, as I've applied for an event planning internship with them.

Let's see how I did with my goals:

I've continued to follow all of these people and take special note of their posts on Facebook and Twitter. While I didn't actually post on Emily Lester's professional wall, this assignment encouraged me to get in touch with her and I was actually able to use Facebook to book a personal session for family photos, and then we continued our Facebook message which lead us to feature her as a vendor for my job!! While I haven't been that great about utilizing my personal Twitter account because my business one takes up much more time, I have been consistent in engaging those followers of The Nashville Wedding Planners Group by @replies, RTs, and I've been able to apply the knowledge I learned about relative content to my posts that are directed at a wide variety of people in the Nashville wedding industry.

I will continue to follow these people and their blogs/other social media profiles to continue learning from them :)

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My professional network has grown just a little bit since the first week of this assignment. I think that this can be attributed to the fact that I was already following most of the people that were recommended to us to follow, and I had already done extensive work in the way of establishing my network for my job with The Nashville Wedding Planners Group. I have, however, begun to pay much closer attention to those professional "tweeps" because I understand the significance of their posts and the value of their advice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In terms of social media writing, yes, I believe that my skills have continued to develop throughout this assignment. I've always been a pretty good writer when it comes to essays, school work, letters, and business communication, but I'm consistently learning and be reminded of the many differences between writing for social media or business. I feel that practice is the only way to really gain that experience and I hope to continue building on these skills.

Top 50 Social Media Influencers

While there are many wonderful options to choose from on this list, the person I'm most interested in would have to be

#10 Mari Smith, Facebook Expert

Bibliography of Experience and Work

• Since 1999, Mari was an internet marketer specializing in relationship marketing, email marketing and web copy.

• In 2008, FastCompany.com dubbed her “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” Basically, because she's such a raving evangelist for the platform!

• Her first experience with Facebook consisted of participating in an alpha test team for a Facebook App. Before long, she started conducting interviews of other social media specialists and bloggers and began creating products, online courses and training.

• She also joined Twitter a few months later and fell in love with that platform too.

• Speaking is her passion, and she attributes that to her active participation in speaking organizations like Toastmasters, Speaking Circles, and the National Speakers Association. In 2003 she began to get involved with Peak Potentials where she served as a SuccessTracs Coach for 2.5 years. Mari has been speaking on social media success since 2007 and traveling the United States and internationally to provide social media keynotes and in-depth training. She has even shared the stage with Paula Abdul, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Lynn Twist, Tony Robbins, Les Brown, Brian Tracy, Harvey MacKay and many, many more.

• One of Mari's firm beliefs when it comes to Social Media is Relationships First. 

"It’s so important for businesses today to strategically utilize Facebook and Twitter along with a wide array of other powerful platforms. However, social media requires a whole different approach to be successful in generating more revenue. You have to know the right approach. My motto is, “Relationships first, business second.”

• Currently, Mari Smith is available for hire as a relationship and internet marketing consultant and social media business coach. After applying her proven Social Marketing methods, her clients typically experience a significant increase in traffic, subscribers, clients, affiliates, lucrative strategic alliances and targeted media attention.

• Published Works:
• The New Relationship Marketing
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

Three Questions that I'd like to ask Mari about professional social media:
1) Since your main focus is relationships, and you yourself state that you are a natural networker and don't rely on social media for interaction, how to you feel that the quality of interpersonal relationships and communication has changed (or even suffered) because of our reliance on social media?
2) How would you explain relationship marketing to a novice?
3) Do you think that non-profit organizations should take the same or similar approach to Facebook marketing as large corporations? If not, how should their strategies differ?

Social Media Concept Essay

How Social Media Has Changed the Way Society Views Dating

Social networks play a large role in the development of relationships, from dating all the way to marriage. 

This infographic provides some very interesting stats about Facebook users and their relationships. Speaking in terms of the way this platform has affected relationships, this points out the fact that we can now see what our ex is doing and how they are getting along without us, setting us up to constantly compare not only our relationship to others that we see online, but also our partner as we compare them to others that we may be interested in. 

I also think that there is something to be said for the fact that our social media profiles on a million different platforms make all of us much more attainable, and leave little to the imagination. For example, when you first meet someone, you can check out their online presence and learn pretty much everything about them. This is bad for two reasons: first, you're making a judgement and creating preconceived notions about an individual based on their profile alone. Second, you're learning so much about them, that it cuts out what would typically be discussed and discovered during the first stages of dating. This removes so much of the mystery that is appealing and important in relationships.

Finally, the ability to constantly know what the other person is doing, who they are talking to, where they are, who they are with, pictures they've taken can turn even the nicest and most trusting girls into crazy ex-girlfriend stalker material. Again, this is where mystery is important, and I have a feeling that this will prove to contribute to many trust issues for our generation that can be seen down the road.

Overall, there are a few good and positive features that social media has contributed to the world of dating and courting, including the opportunity to see mutual friends and get a feel for who a person is, as well as staying connected during long distance relationships, but I believe that ultimately social media has put a strain on relationships and that we will see the negative effects and consequences of this reliance in the years to come.

Social Media and Brand Development

Organizations should utilize social media communication tools to develop their brand identity, promote events, and engage with their audiences/communities. Three ways that they can successfully incorporate social media into their brand development strategy include:

1. Get accounts!! Sign up for all of the major social media platforms and create colorful, informative, user-friendly, accurate profiles that positively represent your brand/organization to customers, potential clients, and even competitors! Be sure to incorporate these pages into your website/email to provide customers with a variety of ways to follow you. Also, connect all of your accounts for easier access, management, and data analysis.

2. Create a blog that incorporates all aspects of your business and features your social media profile links. A blog allows customers to see what's happening with your business/organization and to feel in the know. Because a blog can mention events within the company, plans for new products, exciting news, or even serious situations, it gives the business more a personal touch and helps customers better relate to it.

3. Once you figure out where the majority of your audience comes from/what platform they use most often, focus your energy there and be creative! Keep up to date with current trends, hire someone that is a professional social media manager in order to make sure your profiles are professional and well-maintained, and insist on data analysis to determine the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

Some specific examples of ways that company can utilize these tools:

1. Create Facebook Events and invite customers, Offer discounts or coupons for followers or those that "like" your brand.
2. Engage in dialogue with your followers on Twitter by asking questions from your customers about suggestions, answer questions they have, thank ones that are current customers, and handle any complaints.
3. Use platforms such as EventBrite to create large-scale events (both internal and external).

One well-known and successful organization that is effectively using social media communication tools would be Starbucks.  They have always been pioneers, in several different aspects, but especially when it comes to social media. Advertising research firm PhaseOne tagged Starbucks as the most socially engaged company this year! (More Info) So what is it that makes them so effective? Well, check out how they use the three major social media platforms to their advantage.

1) Starbucks on twitter - Starbucks engages with customers on twitter, answering questions, retweets, what people are saying about the brand and creates an open communication channel to speak with the public.
2) Starbucks on Facebook – Starbucks uploads content to their Facebook page such as: Videos, blog posts, photos. The company also invites people to events. Fans have a place to open discussions and comment as many of them do.
3) Starbucks on YouTube -Over 4800 people subscribe to Starbucks YouTube Channel. They upload videos of commercials as well as informational videos explaining the origins of the different coffee blends and some of their charity work videos. They also upload videos showing their history thus enabling people to relate more to the brand. This video showing the beginnings of Starbucks received over 11, 800 views:

Besides these popular platforms, Starbucks has created and effectively uses their own approaches to social media:

4) My Starbucks Idea – Starbucks’ own version of a social network where customers are asked to share their ideas on anything related to Starbucks. The site gives users the ability to see what others are suggesting, vote on ideas and check out the results. This site is a brilliant and important aspect of Starbucks social media strategy. Users who are part of this network feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company and it makes them feel a part of it.

5) Starbucks Blog entitled “Ideas in Action” - This blog is written by various Starbucks employees and talks about what Starbucks is doing with the ideas given by users on the My Starbucks Idea site. The blog keeps customers in the loop and in the know regarding what’s happening with their ideas and increases their sense of loyalty to the brand.

I think that all of this combined is what makes Starbucks truly deserving of that title, Most Socially Engaged Brand! They do a wonderful job of letting their customers know that they really do care and value their opinion and their business! 

Source: http://thenextweb.com/2010/01/11/starbucks-formula-social-media-success/ 

Klout Score

According to this website my Klout Score is 47/100, with the average being 20. The True Reach data implies that I influence 453 people, and my amplification level of 19 shows my level of influence I have on those people. And the influence of my network is a solid 31.

All of this was really interesting and I enjoyed reading my score analysis. Based on what Klout saw of my interactions, they believe that I'm influential about social media, shopping, politics, and music. I would say that all lines up pretty accurately and sounds about right!

All of this combined means that my Klout Style is "Specialist", which means:
"You may not be a celebrity, but within your area of expertise your opinion is second to none. Your content is likely focused around a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly-engaged audience." Basically, I fall under the category of being consistent and focused.

This score, which measures influence based on my ability to drive action, speaks a lot about my social media experience and habits. While I'm happy with my status as a "Specialist", I love to consistently aim for higher goals and focus on approving. That being said, I love that the website mentions that the concept of influence is relative, because it all depends on your goals and current networks, so there is technically no "good score" (although more is better, typically). To improve my Klout score I need to be more consistent about engaging my followers on all platforms, creating interesting and important content, and continuing to connect and expand all of my social media networks.

Twitter: Quantity vs. Quality

When it comes to Twitter followers, and really anything related to social media, quality is much more important than quantity (in my opinion). For example, you can randomly select 2,000 people to follow and while you may have a lot of "friends" on Twitter, you more than likely are not gaining anything valuable from those connections. People seem to be overly-focused on getting a high number of followers, but I think that emphasis should be placed on the quality of people that you're connecting with. Sure, there are benefits to having a large following, including a larger audience to interact with and more exposure, but if you don't care about the tweets of all those random people, there is a really good chance that they also do not care at all what you have to say.

It's just like personal interactions with people on a daily basis; you have to earn their respect and their time, because time is a valuable commodity. You wouldn't meet a random stranger on a bus and expect to have an intense, in-depth conversation with them without at least establishing a relationship, right? The same social rules and principles apply to social media. Choose those people that you follow wisely by making sure you have some common ground, ideas or interests. Don't feel obligated to follow people back if you have no idea who they are or what they are promoting. Social media isn't just about getting your name out there and collecting followers like they're pennies, but actually establishing and maintaining relationships! Make sure that you're engaging in dialogue with these people, or if your sole purpose for following them is to simply gain knowledge and insights from their tweets, make sure that they are actually providing you with valuable information and not wasting your time.

When I choose people or brands to follow on Twitter, I want to make sure that there is actually some form of connection there whether it be a name-brand recognition, someone I've met in the past, someone that (obviously) shares a similar interest that I'm passionate about, or someone that is also in my field of work.

My top 5 Professional "Tweeps" include:

1. @SocialSavvyGeek    Laura E. Pence is the President of Social Savvy Geek which is a social media management firm that helps to protect your brand name and reputation online. She always posts interesting tips and articles, and she engages all of her followers.

2. @chelseahandler        Well, she's basically hilarious. She doesn't seem to hold much back and just tweets whatever is on her mind. She absolutely cracks me up!!

3.@NC5_HeatherGraf     Heather is a local reporter for News Channel 5 in Nashville. I've worked with her at several different events and she is one of my favorite reporters to watch and interview with! She's always the first one I call when doing any type of PR, so I like to see what other things she's up to and reporting about. Her tweets are informative, but her kind personality seems to really shine through in everything she writes!

4.@CRNC       This is the account for The College Republicans, a group of conservative youth with chapters across the nation. I'm involved with this organization at a local level, but I love their national account the most because they share relevant and interesting information, they don't tweet TOO MUCH, and they strongly encourage interaction from their followers.

5. @PhiredUpMatt      Matt Mattson is the Co-Founder/President of PhiredUp Productions, and is a recruitment and social excellence expert. His tweets, while aimed towards collegiate greeks, are really beneficial to anyone as they address issues of handshakes, introductions, self-confidence, social cues and guidelines, public speaking, business ethics, decision making, etc. through the use of quotes, questions, articles, and dialogue with followers.

• On my business account for the Nashville Wedding Planners Group, I currently have 313 followers (that has grown a lot in the past few months!)
• On my personal account I now have 478 followers (a huge jump from when I first started this class!)
• On my anon account I have 1,195 followers. That's not a lot compared to most big anon accounts, but having only started this one 2 months ago, I'm pleased with my progress.

As far as engaging with my followers, I'd say the only account that I'm consistent about doing that with is for my job. I have scheduled tweets every morning for our new blog post, I #ff different planners and vendors, I RT important info and exciting news from our members, remind members to RSVP, post links that I think our followers would appreciate, and respond/participate in dialogue among my followers.

My personal account seems to really fall by the wayside because most people that I interact with still use Facebook as their primary means of communication, so I rarely spend time even logging into my personal one.

My anonymous account, on the other hand, is a lot of fun and I engage with my followers as often as possible. Obviously my work one comes first, but whenever I have free time I like to spend it with my anon account. I've established a lot of close "connections" with other anons and have a pretty consistent dialogue going with some of my favorite followers. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is a virutal pinboard that lets you share all the neat things you find online! It allows you to upload pictures directly from a site, or your own computer, and gives others the options to comment, like, or repin it. With the ability to create a variety of different boards, people are using Pinterest as a tool in many areas of their life! For example, Pinterest is most commonly known for the extensive collection of wedding-related pins, so someone can plan their wedding almost completely online! You can find ideas to help you redecorate your home, find places to travel, new recipes to try, fun crafts to create, and anything else you can think of.

Pinterst is hands-down my favorite social media platform and tool, and there's a good chance that I'm slightly addicted... :) I have a Nashville Wedding Planners Board which is actually a shared board between other staff members where we can pin ideas, themes, and concepts for future events. I also have my own personal wedding planning board! Both of these will be helpful to me in my career of event planning. Follow me and check out my boards! 

****I even have a board dedicated to this class, called ORCO 4000: Social Media. It has a lot of REALLY interesting things including infographics, social media blogs, tips for different platforms, etc. If you don't check out any of the other boards, for sure look at this one!

In my area of business, wedding planning, Pinterest is a commonly-used tool by all sorts of people and businesses in the industry! Planners, vendors, venues, bridal fairs, bridal blogs and magazines, caterers, photographers, etc. all have accounts for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it's free publicity! When a bride-to-be starts her "Wedding Board", they want her to be drawn to their board and pin from their selection! This creates new client opportunities, and helps to get the word out there about their company. Since putting an event together requires a lot of collaboration among all sides of the industry, Pinterest is a great tool to find out about other vendors in your area, see examples of work that they've done, and get ideas from them as well!

I'm in charge of membership for the Nashville Wedding Planners Group, and on our huge membership list we actually have a column for each members' Pinterest account so that we can be sure to follow them, repin from their boards, and comment/like their pins! It is a highly effective and useful tool for the event planning industry.

3 Professionals that I'm following:
Tiffani Helms, Owner of Creative Events and Designs
Jennifer Hamilton, Owner of Mr. and Mrs. Events
Houston Station (A Nashville Event Venue that I'm currently working with) 

2012 Presidential Candidates

Websites for the Current Presidential Candidates:

Obama
Ron Paul
Newt Gingrich
Mitt Romney
Gary Johnson
Buddy Roemer

I think that so far, Romney is the candidate who is using socially media the most effectively. He utilizes social media to really connect with his constituents, and this is made evident by the fact that he has more than 1.5 million supporters on Facebook. He also launched his own platform called "MyMitt" that links all of his sites together and offers a place for volunteers and supporters to connect. He has established a very strong online presence by tweeting consistently, interacting with their supporters, engaging in dialogue, and keeping things personal.




This website and this one both do a great job of analyzing the similarities and differences between the social media campaigns and tactics of all candidates.

YouTube in Professional Organizations

Professionals everywhere are relying more and more on YouTube and other video-sharing services to promote their business and interact with their customers.  Businesses can use this site to share examples of their services or products, host interviews with experts in their fields, engage with their customers by encouraging video submissions and commenting on others, run contests, or even post "how-to" videos for their products. This article lists a variety of other examples.

In the event planning industry, YouTube is an important platform that most professionals utilize to promote their business and brand. A unique example of this that I found recently was for a venue that I actually just booked called OZ Nashville. Check it out! This example is a time-lapse video of an event setup at this venue, and it's very interesting to see how much work goes on behind the scenes to make an event successful and designing a room layout. It's amazing to see this room transformation!

Ashley's Bride Guide is a vendor that I work closely with for my job, and she uniquely incorporates YouTube into her blog and other social media platforms. For example, this company has their own YouTube channel that features videos like this one. On her channel you can find clips that spotlight a variety of local vendors, planners, venues, etc. as they discuss trends and current industry issues.

Academic Research Articles

1) The first article is found in The Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing and is entitled "Using Video to Build an Organization's Identity and Brand: A Content Analysis of Nonprofit Organizations' YouTube Videos."

Organizational scholarship has increasingly focused its attention to how nonprofit, for-profit, and government agencies develop their unique organizational identity through their strategic communication efforts. As social media continues to become more prominent in communication campaigns due to the high levels of public usage and public involvement with organizations on social media sites, it is important to examine these social media messages as they relate to organizational identity. YouTube videos increasingly are being used by organizations to educate and inform just as much as they are to entertain. Through a content analysis of the most viewed videos on the top 100 official nonprofit YouTube channels, this study found that nonprofit organizations primarily use their YouTube videos to inform and educate viewers about their missions, programs, and services. While the videos also occasionally discuss the organizations' advocacy, volunteering, and fundraising efforts, nonprofit organizations were not living up to their potential in terms of engagement through direct appeals for involvement. Additionally, the organizations were more likely to use outsiders' words and stories to build the videos' narratives rather than using internal stakeholders. The benchmark numbers provided by this study reiterate key rules that are stressed in practitioner-oriented work on video production for branding and identity-building efforts.

2) This next article, "How public relations executives perceive and measure the impact of social media in their organizations" can be found in Public Relations Review.

Decisions about social media in organizations are not made lightly. Corporate executives are faced with an ever changing and in many cases, uncontrollable opportunity with social media. This study provides insights obtained from 25 interviews with communication and public relations executives to identify their opinions about what drives social media in organizations, what challenges they face, and what questions they have about social media and its measurement.

Skills for ORCO Professionals

Organizational Communication professionals can develop and practice more effective social media engagement and networking skills by enrolling in courses designed for advancement in these areas, joining online communities aimed at practicing and dialoguing about it, reading books and researching best practices, and most importantly gaining experience through trial and error, and lots of practice. 

 

3 resources for further reading/exploration:

1)http://mysocialface.com/tips-develop-effective-skills-social-engagement/

2)http://biznik.com/articles/the-art-of-social-media-and-how-to-develop-effective-skills-in-social-engagement

3)http://dorai.me/2011/10/08/social-media-engagement/

Twitter is...

...a constant dialogue, filled w/ both valuable & irrelevant info, between those in your social circle thru an exchange of short updates.

Engagement (And not the kind with the fancy ring...)

The social media buzz word “engagement” means: “a dialogue; it’s the ability to choose how and when to engage; it’s the value each channel represents; it’s whether or not expectations were met. Engagement in social media means the ability to reach out to and get response from a company (as a consumer) or an audience (as a company). For instance, if I go onto Twitter and post a question to a specific company (@Ebay, for example), I hope to receive a response. That’s engagement. Instant, human.” It involves participation, listening, monitoring, and strategic bookmarking/marketing. 

 

http://socialmediatoday.com/angela-hausman/321908/what-engagement-social-media

 

There are several similarities and differences between traditional interpersonal communication within relationships and engagement on a social media level. For example, they are similar in the sense that both of them require building some form of relationship, consist of a dialogue and two-way communication, and expanding your network. Some major differences might include the fact that social media engagement all takes place online, and therefore relies solely on Internet communication instead of any non-verbal cues or physical touch. Social media engagement is also much easier to analyze and it is easier to employ someone else to fulfill these responsibilities, whereas in real life you can’t do that.

 

Three best practices for SMC engagement and networking came from this site:

 

1)Listen First, Then Respond

2)Remember that each interaction is unique, don’t take a cookie-cutter approach to communicating with your customers.

3)Don’t underestimate the power of both positive and negative comments, and be sure to respond to both.

Professional Social Media Top Ten

Pinterest Top Ten Tips

1. UTILIZE IT!-This is free advertising.
2. When uploading pins for your business, be sure to link them back to your website.
3. Feature the "Pinterest" button on your page; this makes it even easier for others to "pin" your products.
4. Be consistent and active, by doing so, you will keep your followers engaged.
5. Keep your professional and personal pinterest accounts separate.
6. Follow your competitors in order to stay up to speed with current trends.
7. Link all of your social media pages to your pinterest account in order to make it easy for customers to find more information about your business.
8. Be specific and key words in your descriptions of your pins, including hash tags.
9. Organize and arrange your boards in a way that is logical and allows followers to easily access your products.
10. Don't just post things from your business; feel free to re-pin from others. By doing this, it shows you are innovative, open to new ideas, and networking.

Twitter "Best Practices"

Three "Best Practices"

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!
2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.https://business.twitter.com/en/basics/best-practices/ 

 Three "Bad Practices"

1. Be relevant. Don't tweet about what you had for breakfast or what store you happen to be in. Do other people really need to know?
2. Beware of linking Twitter to your Facebook page. Your multiple tweets work on Twitter but may be annoying to peope who get feeds from you through Facebook
3. If you can't say it in 140 characters or less, say it in a blog.                          http://www.emilypost.com/social-life/social-networking/953-twitter

Listening

As a social media professional, the term “listening” means monitoring and analyzing what others are saying, as opposed to just being so concerned with talking and putting information out there. It means actively listening to what others are saying about you, topics you’re interested in, and listening when you are unsure of the proper protocol for a specific platform. There are a variety of tools designed to monitor your social media, and these services come in a variety of different shapes and sizes cater to all types of users. 

 

This academic journal article discusses why listening is important in social media, and Ms. Crawford summarizes it very well, “A consideration of listening practices allows for a more acute assessment of online engagement, and de-centers the current overemphasis on posting, commenting and ‘speaking up’ as the only significant forms of participation. Additionally, it allows for the deep sense of connection that listening participants can feel in online spaces, rather than diminishing this form of presence as lurking, with all its linguistic connotations of a sense of threat, ambiguity or concealment.”

 

 

Another interesting article that addresses the topic of listening is found here. 

According to this, we can improve our SMC listening skills by establishing a strong listening strategy. You can accomplish this by determining your target audience, identifying the major influencers, understanding the needs and preferences of your audience, learning the keywords and trends, and incorporating all of that information into a strategic social media business plan.

Group Post

Our group's recommendation for how to develop the ORCO major/minor presence and community on Facebook:

As you may or may not know, our ORCO department has already attempted to connect with their students/faculty through this page.

We aren't sure who exactly started this page, but they set it up as an open group. The group currently has 107 members, only 1 past event, and 8 photos. For the few students that are actually in the group, it is a great resource and several of them (included Porsche and Madison) have posted on the wall within the past month about internship opportunities, questions, and important announcements. Because the purpose of this particular group is to create a space for ORCO majors to communicate with each other, this open group seems to be the best format for this because students can invite others to join, and anyone can see what is being posted.

After a discussion about the differences between groups and fan pages, we collectively agreed that ORCO should continue to use their group, but make it a more interactive page and encourage all ORCO majors/minors to join. Because it is important for ORCO students to be able to communicate with each other, the group serves a special purpose. At the same time, however, it is important for funding purposes (as well as for the growth of the program), that more people become aware of the opportunities that ORCO offers. A great way to spread the word about the program would be to create a Fan page that everyone on campus can like, and even people from across the country like other ORCO students/faculty. They could use this page to feature ORCO students and what they are currently working on, talk about developments within the program and recruit new majors, and interact with the MTSU community at large so that when we tell someone that we are "ORCO Majors", they will hopefully know what that means!

To further develop their online presence, they could create and post events, highlight student projects, have student/faculty contributors, and even post fun facts or ORCO tips, just to keep their page updated and active.

((((((Porsche, Madison, Sadi, and Jonny))))))

Facebook Fan Page Resources

1) 21 Resources for Effective Facebook Fan Pages
2) ADVANCED Resources for Customizing Your Fan Page
3) 20 Ways to Promote Your Fan Page

Facebook's Top Brands

According to Facebook's new "Pages" page, some of the top brands that recommend as examples include Ben and Jerry's, Starbucks, and Verizon.

Because I'm already obsessed with Starbucks, this is the example I'll use for this assignment.

Starbucks successfully uses Facebook by actively engaging their customers on a variety of levels. They interact with their followers by responding to their posts and even posting questions that encourage followers to respond. They consistently update their page and post a variety of things from videos, pictures, quotes, stories, and even coupons! All of these combined help to further create and establish their brand. They make it easy for fans to "share" their content, and even encourage customers to post their own experiences on the main page. They seem to genuinely care about the dialogue they create with their customers by listening to their feedback, they partner with other large organizations and use their power for good (example: Red Cross Relief Efforts), and they encourage the use of social media by offering special deals for their followers.

This article was especially interesting to me, and (although it's from 2009) it talks about what specifically makes Starbucks a top Facebook brand, as well as hosting a short video that addresses their unique take on social media.

I really enjoyed this infographic about Facebook's Top Brands

Fan Page or Group Page

While I have experience creating and managing personal, group, and fan pages on Facebook, I took some time to actually research the difference between all of them. This site seemed to offer the most information in a format that was easy to understand and compare.

Obviously all three of these designs offer unique pros and cons, and the advantages/disadvantages for each should be considered before deciding how to brand your business or organization.

Sharing Options and Visibility

Your profile, fan page and group all have privacy settings that enable you to control sharing permissions and visibility. Here is how these differ among the three:

	Facebook profile	Facebook fan page	Facebook group
Set who can update the wall	yes	yes	yes
The differences	You can set the update visibility globally AND on case-to-case basis.	You can only choose who can update the page wall: admins only or all members	You can set global settings separately for links, videos and photos
How?	Account tab -> Privacy settings	Edit page -> Wall settings	Group settings

Note: There’s one weird thing about sharing for admins within the page: when you (as admin) are trying to post something at you page wall, you get “non-personalized” – posting as a page (not as yourself).

Promotion Tools

Facebook Pages are known to have more visibility and (viral) marketing potential than groups due to these important features:

• They are displayed in each fan’s profile “Info” tab
• They are public and can be linked to externally
• They have various widgets that allow for external promotion (e.g. from a company blog)
• They can be added added as your “Page favorites”

To make a long story short, here’s a quick recap of page versus group versus profile (viral) marketing-friendliness:

	Facebook profile	Facebook fan page	Facebook group
Private? (seen after you register and become fan/friend)	Yes	No	Yes (BUT: discussions are public and crawled)
Usernames? (facebook.com/username/)	Yes (Should be verified via mobile phone)	Yes	No
Visible within fan / friend profile?	Yes (Friends box)	Yes (Info tab)	No
Promoting to friends	“Suggest friends to…” (one by one)	“Suggest to friends” (one by one)	“Invite people to join” (one by one)
			“Import from email”

Overall, if you are a small organization or club that needs to rely a small amount of info to a smaller amount of people, a group is your best best. It allows more control of who is allowed in the group, who can see things and post things, etc, and is really the most customizable.

Pages are a better option if you are a larger organization or brand that wants to get more publicity, and you also have more of an anonymous option because you don't have to put your name or any information on there. It's easy for people to simply click the "like" button, and they aren't bombarded with a million updates, so I think this is the best option for brands and big companies.

Want to know how to create a page? Click here!
To learn more about groups, go here. 

The Social Graph

According to this article at WhatIs.Com,

Speaking at the Facebook f8 event in May 2007, CEO Mark Zuckerberg used the term "social graph" to refer to the network of connections and relationships between site users. Zuckerberg said that "it's the reason Facebook works. "He went on to say the social graph is "changing the way the world works... As Facebook adds more and more people with more and more connections it continues growing and becomes more useful at a faster rate. We are going to use it spread information through the social graph."

Although this term is relatively new, the concept is not. The idea of this sort of web that connects people within societies, countries, and even across the world, is one that has been around and has been studied for hundreds of years. With the development and rapid growth of social media sites in the past 5-10 years, it has made it even easier to track these connections and analyze what we consider to a "social graph"

Since presenting this idea (in terms that everyone can understand), it has drastically changed the way people approach business, marketing, and connecting with their customers. Social media marketing strategies now embrace trends new web technology, focus on customer research and analysis, and customized content. In this especially helpful article, I found that

At the recent Web 2.0 Summit, Mark Zuckerberg said, “Over the next five years every industry will have to redesign itself around social.”

This idea will change businesses because it challenges them, and individuals on a personal level, to be more future-oriented, flexible and adaptable, and content-focused. 

About.Me

So I've only just started my About.me page, and I've linked it to my Twitter and Facebook profiles. It's really a great site, and I'm looking forward to spending some more time playing around with it and making it more my own. I think it will be a great tool for job hunting, as well.

Facebook

Porsche Kristina

24 January 2012

ORCO 4000

Facebook

            I remember the day clearly – I had been waiting for my MTSU acceptance letter and roommate assignments to come in the mail for weeks, and I couldn’t contain my excitement when it finally got there. I ripped open the envelope and immediately after reading my roommates name, I went to look her up on MySpace. When I couldn’t easily find her profile, I started to get worried. “Surely any normal person my age would have a MySpace, right?,” I began to wonder to myself.  So I did the next best thing besides stalking her online, I called her. One of her questions to me was if I had a Facebook profile, because she couldn’t seem to find me online. Come to find out she was just as worried as I was at the apparent lack of social media skills of her future roommate.  I’m not sure if Facebook was originally limited to certain regions, or perhaps it caught on differently throughout the country based on culture, but I had never heard of this website (and I was friends with a LOT of college students)! Thankfully she explained it to me and told me that anybody who’s anybody is on there, and I needed to immediately sign up with my newly-assigned MTSU email address. You can guess what I spent my next week doing.

            Since then, I’ve seen Facebook change and grow throughout the years and adapt to the progressing social media trends. I remember when you couldn’t post a status, when your only photo was your profile picture, and when you could start joining groups. It quickly became a staple in my life, and more honestly, an addiction. My roommate was right; it was THE way of communicating with people. Especially since I’m from out of state and my fiancé was back home in CO, it made it much easier to keep in touch with everyone and stay connected. Since joining Facebook in 2005, it has gone through a variety of makeovers, and my needs and reasons to use it changed as well. Once they opened it to everyone, it became a way to connect with my family. As an activitist and a student leader, I was very interested in the Facebook Groups and constantly created groups, invited friends, and joined as many groups as I could. As an event planner, I created and RSVP’d to an unbelievable amount of Facebook Events. And now as a professional I use my Facebook to keep tabs on all of my friends, but mostly to connect with people in my industry and keep up with any important news.

            I am a big fan of keeping personal and business accounts completely separate, but I also recognize the fact that it is almost impossible to divide them entirely. Because of this, I think it is highly important to maintain a professional Facebook page and make sure that I’d be willing to show anyone in the world what’s on my page without worrying that it might be inappropriate.

            I’ve recently had a neat opportunity to help The Nashville Wedding Planners Group as we create our entire online persona from scratch. There are challenges that come along with managing a Facebook Page for a a business/organization because every move made from that page represents the group as a whole, and not just me. It has been interesting, however, to see the impact that social media plays on group formation as we’ve had lots of our members and vendors find out about us from our Facebook page.

My Tweeps

I've recently reached my limit of people I'm allowed to follow (ridiculous, right?!), so I can't add anymore at the moment. But for now, these are the people that I'm following:

10 Professionals in My Field of Study:
@PerfectWedding
@TerriUtecht
@MusicCityEvents
@TCreativeDesign
@SouthernEvents1
@TheWhiteRoomTN
@FeteNashville
@ILoveSWMag
@OnceWed
@PinkChicEvents

10 Non-MTSU Students in My Field of Study
@MichaelaMaskell
@Rebecca_Danehy
@RAElt
@DavidWallace
@Soderstrom
@RossTyner
@ILYJennaay
@NatalieJoyA
@MarcTheJerc

10 ORCO Professionals
@AllenFuller
@RWrasse
@KenRobinson52
@PikeDreamGirl02
@NickSPalmer
@AmSam16
@WedCandy
@TravisRose554
@LizMichels
@Seth_Tidwell

10 Social Media Blogs
@PRNews
@TodaySocial
@TweetSmarter
@WebGreek
@HootSuite
@DanielZeevi
@LindseyC_work
@SocialSavvyGreek
@Mashable
@SocialMediaToday
@SocialGuide


10 Local Entrepreneurs
@NashvilleFlower
@BinksOutfitters
@PaintYourEvent
@ImageTrickPhoto
@Gionni_Carr
@MainStreetMurf <a great one to follow to find other local entrepreneurs
@InTheBoro
@DNJ_com
@BoroPulse
@TootsBoro
@HobNobMboro
@NashChamber
@SmoothieKing
@NashWeddingGuy
@BlueRaiderStore


10 MTSU Orgs
@MTSU
@MTSU_raiders
@MTSUHighFive
@MTSocialNetwork
@MTSUNews
@MTSULibrary
@Boro_Life
@MTSULeadServe
@MTSUStudProg
@MTSUGreeks
@MTSUAlert
@MTSUBaseball
@MTAthletics
@UpTilDawnMTSU
@MTCareerCenter
@MTSUSGA
@YALibertyMTSU
@ZTAMTSU <<<(my personal favorite)

Local Entrepreneur

For this assignment I chose to follow Emily Lester Photography, a local photographer who is just getting started in the world of pictures. I admire her work and respect her as a person, so I will continue to follow her various social media pages and communicate with her.

The Heart Bandits

Okay, as corny as this sounds, I want to be a proposal planner. I love everything about engagements and romantic stories about how men propose, but every time I hear one of these stories I think about how much better it would be if I planned it for them. Cocky? Perhaps. But that's why I think it should be my job! Believe it or not, proposal planning is actually a legitimate career - and a competitive field to enter, at that!

The Heart Bandits are the #1 Proposal Planners IN THE WORLD and have been featured in a variety of national papers, TV Shows, etc. I already follow their blog (and their FB, Twitter), but I will keep a better eye on it and analyze it for the rest of the semester.

Social Media and Wedding Planning

In my area of professional communication, wedding and event planning, social media is a very useful tool that ultimately determines the success or failure of your company (whether you're a planner, vendor, venue, etc.). The first place brides go when they get engaged is online, and if your online presence is minimal, so is the chance that they will even give you or your company a second thought. As far as planning goes, I've learned quickly that Nashville is a VERY small town when it comes to the network of all wedding industry professionals, and there is a lot to be said to their online relationships.

More specifically, the organization I work for is using social media outlets in a variety of ways. Nashville Wedding Planners Group is an organization that is focused on creating a closer network of Nashville's finest wedding planners and featuring the best of Nashville's local vendors and venues.

1) We have a Facebook page (well, we have a fan page, a group, as well as a personal page). But check out our fan page!

2) We also have a very active Twitter account where we communicate daily with our members as well as give shout outs to our featured vendors of the weeks. Follow us!

3) In order to highlight all of the cool things that our group does, as well as spotlighting our members and their real weddings, we have a daily blog. It's pretty cool, you know you want to at least LOOK! :)

An example of another organization that I believe does a good job of connecting with their audience via social media is Billy Bob's Texas, a concert venue in Dallas. They are constantly updating their FB and Twitter, and they interact with their followers by commenting back, and even posing questions for their followers to answer. I'll follow them for the rest of the semester, as I've applied for an event planning internship with them that would be AMAZING!

Blogging 101

If, like me, you're a beginner in the world of blogging, here are some helpful tips:

1) Don't be afraid to ask for help.
2) Get involved with your readers and those who comment on your site; be an interactive blogger so you can adapt to your audience and learn from them as well.
3) To get more traffic and readers, incorporate your blog into all of your other social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, and other websites.

Check out these websites for other useful tips and tricks about getting started with your blog:
1) Beginner Blogger Tips
2) 50 Blogging Tips for Beginners

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is important to note that social media writing is different than traditional web writing. To better develop your blog/social media writing skills, check out:
1) Traditional vs. Social Media Writing
2) 100 Twitter Feeds to Sharpen Your Writing Skills

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reason I chose Blogger as my platform for this class is because it is an easy option for beginners and makes the process of starting a blog very simple. I also have had some experience using WordPress, so I wanted to branch out and try something new to expand my web knowledge.

Mashable

Mashable.com is a website and blog that focuses on social media news, and has been referred to as a "one-stop shop" for all things social media. Their coverage includes news stories, features, reviews, guides, resources, and other analysis of web trends.

I constantly rely on this website for information to help me understand and learn more about specific sites.  Some articles that I've discovered that have helped me "get up to speed" with professional social media communication include:

1) A recent article was especially interesting to me because it describes a situation where a couple's wedding event company folded just weeks before their wedding, and Twitter helped save their day! I enjoyed this because it applied to my field of study.

2) This article was surprising to me, but also very exciting, because it explains how Pinterest can actually be used to help you in your job search. As a Pinterest-aholic, this makes me especially happy, and it was easy to apply the information to my future career plans.

3) In this article, I learned a lot about 7 different ways businesses can get more social with slideshare. In the event planning industry, pictures are so important because you have to be able to explain and show your potential clients what you're capable of doing, and slideshare enables you to incorporate pictures and text into an easily-presented format to share with them.

I <3 Mashable

:)

Infograph

This infograph, found here, examines the top responses to marketing among the most popular social media platforms. This demonstrates the importance of social media communication for organizations and individuals because it shows how far-reaching a message can be to consumers and potential customers.

It's All About ME!

Who am I??

Well, I'm a senior ORCO Major at MTSU, with an emphasis in event planning/non-profit work, and a minor in Leadership Studies. I was really excited when I saw that this class was being offered because I believe that social media is an essential part of organizations, and it will only continue to grow. By taking a class and being competent in Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging, I think that I will be more prepared to enter the workforce with a competitive edge, and be able to successfully use those tools to promote myself to future companies.

Goals that I have for this course include:

1) Creating a complete Social Media Profile/Resume that includes links to all pertinent websites for employers to see examples of my competence in these areas. I plan on updating it consistently throughout the semester, and even after graduation, to make sure it is up to date and a positive representation of my skills related to social media.

2) Besides this one for class, I would like to establish both a personal and professional blog. I believe that by the end of this blog assignment I will have had the chance to practice blog entries, try different styles of writing, experiment with importing images and HTML coding, and learn more about analyzing the data of my blogs as far as visitor numbers, references, hits, etc.

3) While this is a smaller goal, I am interested in updating my LinkedIn account to include more accurate and current information, connect with others on there, and establish links/references to be able to use during my job hunt.