Monitoring and Listening on your Social Media

The most recent chapter of our book "Social Media for Strategic Communication" was Chapter 5, and this chapter was all about researching in social media. In this chapter I learned how important it is in social media that researching actually is, as well as strategic communication. Two of the biggest tools to do research in social media is monitoring and listening.

Karen Fregerg, author of the book, describes monitoring as a systematic process of better understanding different social media sources. She then defines listening as a way to explore different aspects that could impact a company negatively or positively. These together give research a way to provide us with evidence in which influences a specific part of our communication and dialogue.

There are many ways that we can use monitoring and listening to preform research. A good thing to start with is looking for key words which usually comes in hashtags or phrases. These can be used to narrow down what type of data you are looking for and make your research easier on yourself. Another great way is to follow popular accounts or trends. Following these will keep your feed up-to-date and never let you fall behind.

These are not the only uses of monitoring and listening that you can use on social media, but they are some basic ways to get you moving. Social media is slowly taking over how our world functions so it is important that we learn ways to stay on top of it to ensure our success.

Live-Tweet Assignment

This past weekend I did a live-tweet event at the Indoor Track & Field OAC championship meet. If you wish to take a look my twitter is @alex_eblin and follow me if you wish. I am not a very big track and field fan due to hatred of having to run nor do I know much about it but, overall it was a very interesting event to watch. There were people of from all the OAC schools there and it had a atmosphere that screamed excitement.

The live-tweeting itself proved to be very difficult for me. Not because it was a lot of work or boring to do, rather it was due from my lack of knowledge of the spot. Trying to figure out what the terms mean in a high speed event is a difficult task to handle.

Overall it was a learning experience and I am actually glad I choose this event over one I would be more comfortable with. It proved to teach me a lot of new things and gave me a new amount of respect for the people who play the sport.

How To Be A Trustworthy Leader

Trust is something that all people value and this is no different in a leadership position. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review, The 3 Elements of Trust, in which they explain how leaders are more reliable when their followers trust them.

When I first saw the articles title I figured it was about having followers that you can trust. To my surprise, it is more about seeing how a follower views their leader and what impact that has. Its focal point is about the qualities a leader should have in order to be a more trustworthy person.

Zenger and Folkman give us three elements, these elements are positive relationships, good judgment and consistency.

The first element of positive relationships is one of the hardest qualities to pick up. Being able to balance work and relationships with others has always been an issue. A good leader should be able to find the mid-ground to find what brings the best results and prevents conflict within. Allowing the use of helpful advice for followers is a good way to practice this quality.

The seconded quality mention is good judgement. The most important part of this quality for a leader to know what they stand for and believe in. If they are uncertain in their own belief then their followers will begin to doubt them, which will result in a loss of trust. Using your past knowledge allows you to be prepared for all situations that come up and ensure that they are handled within your beliefs.

The final quality is consistency. Consistency is key and that is no difference when it comes to trust. A leader being able to stick to their beliefs. Doing so places a sense of comfort and familiarity into followers which strengthens their trust.

These qualities however are not the only ones that make a leader trustworthy. Everyone has their own strength and weaknesses and all followers have their own view of trust. This is the reason why positive relationships is the most important one as it allows you to get to know what makes this trust form.

With how wide spread our world has become this task seems to have become a lot easier though. Being able to communicate using social media and other networking abilities has made it far similar to connect out of the work place.

Being a trustworthy leader is about being able to back up their ways and be consistent in doing so, but also about connecting with their followers to provide a bond between the two parties.

Abundance of Social Media Jobs

The next chapter in our book, "Social Media for Strategic Communication" is all about social media professionals. Social media is a rapidly growing industry and with its growth comes the need for more people to fill its roles. The unique thing about the social media industry according to Karen Freberg, author of the book, is that it is hard to define a social media expert. With how fast platforms evolve and advance industry workers are always having to learn new things and adapt to updates to the platforms.

Just because there is no "expert" in social media, does not mean every role is important. When it comes down to a social media job, it is more beneficial to be a part of multiple platforms include blogs and multiple channels. This increases the odds of acquiring a job, as you are a more versatile worker.

When looking for a job in the social media world it is important to think about where you might want to work. Are you a more structured type of worker that is a large business, or would you rather work for a smaller business or just for yourself? Either way, there is a job out there for you. The best thing about this industry is that there are jobs everywhere due to how new social media is.

Freberg gives a list of multiple different fields you can go into. Being a sport management major the field that stood out the most to myself is the sports field. I always knew that social media is important to the world of sports, but never did I think it was so pivotal to the industry. Every part of the field requires social media. From stories about the game and content creation to fan engagement and social media account management, everything has a role to be filled.

Managing College

Being a senior in college has taught me a thing or two about how to manage my time and energy to avoid being overwhelmed. Finding yourself loaded with papers, projects, and homework is one thing, but trying to balance all that while playing a sport or being a part of a time consuming club is another thing. There are however some ways to take pressure off your shoulder to make this all manageable. These are some of things I found to be useful in stressful situations.


Do not wait
Everyone has heard from someone that you'll regret waiting until the last minute to do everything, but if you are like me, you have had your fair share of procrastination. If there is one thing I wish I could have done better in college, it would be to split up my work and slowly take chunks of it out every day. I could not tell you how many times I have waited until the day before to finish a paper or project, and sometimes that effected my grade.

Make sure your getting your sleep
Many people will shove sleep aside and believe that stay up late to study is more beneficial. I on the other hand find this to be more damaging to my performance in school. Your body needs its rest to be on top of its game, so give it some down time.

Find something fun
I believe that this is one of the best things to make school a little bit easier. It could be anything from going to see a movie, playing an instrument, or a sport. Finding something fun will not only relieve you of some stress, but will also give you some needed time away from your studies. So do not be afraid to put the book down for a little bit, grab some friends and go have fun.

These are just the things that I have found useful in my time at school, but everyone has their own ways to manage their work. So remember, stay on top of your work, get some sleep, and have fun while at school. You'll find that school is not so bad when you do so.

My Top 5 Blogs I Found

Blogging has quickly become a staple for social media strategy and there is blogs everywhere that provide advice for those in the industry or just an interesting in blogging. If you are tired of seeing what people are eating for dinner and what to learn some new things about social media, check out these five blog spots.

1. TechCrunch

TechCrunch is an international site that provides viewers with all kinds of different resources to use. One of their best resources is a section that is constantly being updated in order to provide the most accurate social media help.

2. Inc.com

This is a great site that much like TechCrunch, offers a large diversity of topics, however, Inc.com focuses more on the business side of things. If you are interested in a blog that gives great social media marketing advice and has some interesting information. This is the blog for you!

3. Social Media Today

Social Media Today is a blog platform that takes everything there is about social media and places it onto one site for our viewing. They cover anything from news all the way to popular topics on the hottest social media sites. Great for those who are just trying to find something to catch their eye.

4. SocialMouths

Out of all the blog sites I have seen, this has to be the most interesting to me.  This blog is independently owned and purpose to help smaller companies and individuals grow their social media presence. They provide a great amount of knowledge on how to expand already existing social media accounts into successful business resource. Although with it being a privately owned blog spot he is currently have technological issues, which can be an issue with smaller blog sites.

5. Rebekah Radice

The final blog that I think is worth a follow is Rebekah Radice. She is a very talented digital marketer. She provides her followers with in-depth guides on how to sell product and promote a brand through social media. With how fast our society is moving to this style of business I believe she is provide a very unique and informative blog.

Those are five blogs that I found to be very insightful and entertaining to me. What are some of your favorite blog sites? Comment below and let me know!

Social Media - A Positive or a Negative?

Social Media has changed how we interact across the world. It seems to be that our planet is getting smaller due to how easy it has become to communicate with other countries. The fact that people are able to send media picture or messages across miles of ocean to another person in mere seconds is incredible.

There is so many platforms that make this easier of a process however. Twitter is capable of sending news out faster than ever. Snapchat allows us to show people what we are currently doing in a instant. Facebook has the ability to reunite friends old or new across the world.

Put all of these platforms together and we have a world that is quickly evolving to a fast paced media.

This is not to say that this is all a good thing however. With all this evolving media sometimes people get their selves consumed in its speed. How often do we see people walking down the street with their heads deep in their phone?

Society has made it acceptable for people to use their phones whenever and where ever they desire, creating a new norm. The question is, is this new and ever enhancing use of social media beneficial to our society or is it hindering us from some potential?

I believe social media can be a great tool and used the right way can change our lives for the better. The key is to knowing how to use said tool the right way to do so, not abusing its power. If used incorrectly it can keep a person from really standing out and can bring a negative light on them.

Two Weeks, Four Seasons

The past two weeks in Ada have been the most unpredictable and extreme weather I have ever seen. You might actually have a better chance of being struck by lightning than predicting the temperature outside.The past two weeks in Ada have been the most unpredictable and extreme weather I have ever seen. You might actually have a better chance of being struck by lightning than predicting the temperature outside.

It all started two weeks ago. A polar vortex made its way through Ada and brought a bone chilling wind chill of -40 degrees and lower. The arctic like weather was not the only thing that came with the cold however. We have also received a large amount of snow which even caused Ohio northern to close two back to back days.

This was the first time in years that I truly felt as if we had serious winter weather. However, this would not last for long. The next week the weather rose to 45 degrees, which felt amazing given the deep free that we had.

People were outside walking, running, and moving about. It almost felt like everyone was getting into spring mode. Now, you might be thinking that 45 degrees is not spring weather, but when the temperature is an 80 degrees difference you would think otherwise.

The craziest part was that this weather was not the warmest we would get. We eventually hit the upper fifties. The multiple feet of snow drifts began to melt, squirrels were out and moving, and we even got a few days of rain.

People were walking to class in shorts and t-shirt. The car wash was packed with people trying to remove salt from their cars. You would think that summer was upon us and that the cold times were a thing of our past. However, you would be mistaken.

We dropped from nearly 60 degrees to high 30s within hours. It was like fall came and went without a single leaf hitting the ground.

We are currently sitting at a whopping 28 degrees with another heavy snowfall coming down. It makes me wonder if we are going to get another heat wave to melt this snow again or a deep freeze that forces us inside.

I personally would rather be done with these cold temperatures and deep snow. Unless it involves us not having class again. 

Podcast Interview with Dean Paul

On the 1^st of February, Trevor McConnell and I conducted a Podcast with Ohio Northern’s head football coach and social media expert, Dean Paul. The purpose of the interview was to get an understanding of how social media is run on a professional level and the importance behind it. Paul provided us with a surplus of insight on how he runs the social media accounts and the benefits behind it. Overall he told us valid reasons on how it helps with informing different demographics depending on the platform and that it even helps with the recruiting process. The podcast proved very informational and provided a great amount of information on how important social media can be.

Some of the questions that we asked Dean Paul Include:
1. How long have you been using social media?
2. Which social media platforms do you use personally and for the program?
3. How do the benefit the program?
4. Have you ever notices any easier task such as recruiting with social media?
5. Do you look for specific post to comment or share?
6. Have you ever had negatives comment or feedback on a post and if so how did you deal with it?
7. Which platform do you find the easiest or most effective to use?
8. Where do you see the future of social media in college football?

The Differences in Platforms

Social media is a popular and large part of everyone's daily life. We use many different kinds of s platforms in order to do preform different tasks. Guy Kawasaki gives a few tips on social media in his last chapter of the book. This gave me the idea of naming some pros and cons I find in social media ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn.

The first platform I wish to discuss is Facebook. Facebook is what really started it all and quickly became a largely popular tool. A big pro to the platform is that it automatically sorts out posts for your viewing. This allows users not to be swarmed with spam accounts and unwanted post and instead only shows relative post. A con to Facebook is that it is no longer used as often by younger generations which makes it more of a formal and business platform which brought down its popularity.

Twitter is the next to be talked about. This platform is immensely popular to the younger generations and has many different uses. A pro to Twitter is it easy to keep in touch and see what your friends and accounts that you follow are doing and posting. There is also a limit to characters which prevents large post taking up a large amount of your feed. A con to Twitter is that there is often unprofessional post on the feed which makes people be careful on what content they follow.

The final one I wish to discuss is LinkedIn. This platform differs greatly from the previous two as its primary use is for business. The pro to LinkedIn is that business can easily find job candidates, communicate with other businesses and post professional content. The con is that the platform is not used for casual content which prevent it from acquiring a younger generation of users.

Social media is an invaluable resource for people of all ages and is continuously evolving. Social media keeps people connected and allows the exchanging of content and business a breeze.