To Be Social on Social Media

 

The company I chose to write about is Sharpie

Sharpie is a well known and most popular brand of markers, hands down. I know when I’m looking for a dependable marker that can pretty much write on any surface I’m grabbing a Sharpie. Their social media platforms cover almost the whole gamut of major social media outlets.  They have a huge following on Facebook (3,895,086 ‘likes’), Twitter (236,204 followers), Instagram (259K followers), and YouTube (5.2K subscribers). According to these numbers, Sharpie seems to be quite effective in its use of social media to market and promote its products. One of the biggest reasons for this is its re-directed focus to young people and their creativity and desire to contribute to social change. One thing I noticed is that, especially on Instagram, they show a lot of fan art. These are pictures of artwork or things that customers have created with the different Sharpie markers.

Sharpie seems to be doing quite well with its Instagram and Facebook social media platforms. Facebook makes it easy to engage followers the way it is set up. When you follow someone or an entity or business on Facebook there are many opportunities to respond to what has been posted by the owner of the Facebook page. Even just a simple click of a thumbs up or heart or crying or angry face is considered engagement and that is quick and simple to do. Likewise, with Instagram, it is simple and quick to give thumbs up or make a quick comment in the comments section. These comments are not long at all. Both Instagram and Facebook are good with Sharpie’s announcements of contest or when new products or packaging are introduced. When it comes to Twitter, however; engagement is not so easy. Since tweets are limited to 140 characters, each letter or symbol counts so it is important to make an instant impact in a short amount of words. Sharpie might receive more engagements from its followers by posting surveys for people to respond to; maybe when they introduce a new line of products or suggestions of a color or a need that Sharpie hasn’t addressed yet. People are drawn to surveys; it makes them feel important and that their input counts. Also I feel like with Sharpie’s YouTube page they need to be more consistent with uploading new videos. The most recent uploaded video was from a week ago and then three weeks and then a year. I know for myself I would get bored with waiting on new content and just stop following all together

 

Blogging Anyone?

Have you ever considered going back to school or furthering your education? Do you sit at your office desk and say “hmmmm what can I do with all these ideas I have in my head”? That was me, sitting at work wondering who I was going to be in the next few years. I asked myself is this what I what to do? I have all these amazing marking and managing ideas rolling around in my head just rolling away. How can I put these visions to use? My answer was to return to school and finish my degree. I found Walden University and looked through the catalog and found Communications. Like Communications?! This was such a duh moment for me because this is what I have been doing most of my life, I just needed to learn how to channel the thoughts and learn the proper way to do things. I was hooked! Sign me up! So here I am.
I am enrolled in an awesome class now called Communication through Media and Technology. At first class I thought that this class was going to teach me about how to promote more through social media. With further reading of the syllabus this class is going to be a little more in depth than that. While in this class I plan on learning more about social media and how it works, how to use social media for my business, and branding. I believe this is the class that will open the flood gates for my imagination to be very creative in my future endeavors.

So follow me in my blogging journey about my experience as an adult student, figuring out how to figure it out

My Digital Story

First off I would like to say I am so terrified of this assignment, I really don’t think I am as creative as our teacher thinks I am.

Now in saying that my digital story will be on the struggle of a parent going back to school. I hope to reach an audience of those who have ever had to make a tough decision in there life. I hope to inspire my audience to press through and reach your end goal. I think I am going to either do a semi slide show or a short video.  I think I am leaning more towards a slide show. I am really lost on which song or songs I am going to use, but I hope to learn a lot from the media guy in class tomorrow. Times like these I wish I stuck to my computer graphic degree I was pursuing way back when.

I guess the video has to be three minutes and since we just got done doing a presentation that my specific group had two minutes each to present, a three minute video might a little easier than talking.  I don’t plan to use my voice I just plan to use the pics as a flow of the storyline. Well we shall see has this goes. Good luck to everyone!

The Complex Woes Of English Class

Well when I first started this class I thought I had it because I actually like to write, but when we started to got down to it I realize I suck at certain writing LOL. I have come to realize I am just NOT an analytical writer. It is to hard for me to remove myself from what I am writing and just write. One of the biggest things that has helped me is my mother. Without her being my sound board I really think that I wouldn’t be able to get through this.

I definatly can tell the difference in my writing from the first paper to the second, and i can’t wait to start on the third cause it will be my opinion. I’m good at that. I think that doing the contexual analysis  was much easier to write about because it was more then 2-5 minutes  of a video. I like the conferences that we have with Dr. Harris even though she doesn’t directly answer your questions LOL. I know she does that cause she wants us to think for ourselves which is good cause that is actually a life lesson.

All in all I think that everyone is learning and growng in our writing, atleast I hope we all are. One thing I wish was a little different would be that everyone is so quiet. I know there are some good ideas or thoughts in our class LET THEM BE HEARD!

Till next time.

Analyzing a Digital Story

So before starting this class I had no idea what a digital story was. I was seeing them without knowing that that is what I was looking at. A digital story is a short form of digital media production that everyday people used to share aspects of their life story. The way I look at it in more of modern times it is our Vine or Instagram short videos. In order to analyze a digital story first you need to find a video to analyze. In order to find a video I researched what made a digital story. I found that there are seven elements of digital storytelling:

1. Point of view or point of the story, which helped me with my thesis

2. Dramatic question, something that captures the audience

3. Emotion, feelings, memories

4. Voice

5. Soundtrack, the music of it all

6. Compact, brief, fast-moving

7. Pacing, rhythm, tempo, interest

If I could answer all of these questions meaning if the video had all of these elements then that was my video. So know that I have found my video now I have to analyze what I see. In my particular video I have had to do some background research to further analyze the story. I ask myself questions like who are the characters in this story?  Who are they talking to? Is it emotional or logical? Overall what is the point?

There are plenty of other questions to ask but if you keep an outline of the ideas you have then there will be no problem keeping it all together.  Sometimes you just have to write and then go back and smooth things out. Oh and make sure you cite, cite, cite.

This is defiantly a different form of writing for me but I worked it out.

Let Me Tell You A Story

Our assignment this week in class was to say a story that our families tell all the time, well, that really got me to thinking. What is a story and where do they come from?

I have a small child who loves for me to read her stories. It doesn’t matter if it is at night or midday. You can tell that her little mind just wanders off into story land as I am reading whatever is the book of the hour. When I am finished a lot of the times she wants it read again. Her imagination just runs wild with all the ideas and discoveries in the book and I think that is why stories are so important to us even as adults. I believe storytelling opens up a different world of possibilities and hope. Even when we listen to the stories our families tell over and over depending on who is telling the story, it gets bigger and bigger. The guy who you beat up was ten times your size, the fish you caught was so big it was pulling the boat, or you were so nervous that you were literally shaking in your boots. These things might not be all the way true but to you at that time it was the most accurate portrayal of the current events. These stories are important because for the most part they show triumph and courage. We love reading books that have a good hero or some good drama because someone always comes out on top. I feel like stories give us a sense of purpose in our everyday sometimes mundane lives. Everyone needs a little excitement in their lives and hence the story.

Happy storytelling

My First Week Back In College

      This is my first week back at school and I do have to say that it has been a very interesting week. First I would like to say that this is my first time going to school on campus and I have to say I really like coming to school rather than online, but that’s another story. At first I thought I was going to get lost trying to find my classes but that didn’t happen. I’m glad that IUE is not that big of a campus.

       Me being 33 I thought all the fresh out of high school students was going to look at me like “who is this old lady and why is she here?”, but I haven’t gotten any strange looks yet. So far though everyone has been so nice. I think, especially in the pre req classes, everyone is just nervous.  I know I am! I have been able to buy a book off of a returning  student and I even got invited to a party. I really felt cool after that. I wanted to run home and tell my 15 going on 22-year-old daughter that I still had it, especially because I was invited by a guy. I just laughed out loud at that last sentence.

        I have realized that I have acquired a pet peeve already. Let’s say a bit of an irritant. I have come to the realization that I CAN NOT stand when a teacher is talking and students (yes that means plural) are having a whole conversation about something totally different. I mean why are you here? I am in a class where there are three particular student who constantly talk while the professor is talking and you can tell that the professor is irritated, but it is the first week. Another one of my classes there is a student who comments on every single solitary thing the professor said. We could barely get through the syllabus because he had so many questions about what was on it. That made for a long class.

         Well anyway like I said it is the first week, stay tuned for following weeks. I hope they are as exciting as this week has been.

First Post

Well hello,

This is my first blog post for my english class. Not sure exactly what to say so just stay tuned and hopefully it gets better.