New Netflix Watches For You

Throughout my college career I have watched a ton of Netflix including movies, shows, documentaries, you name it. So for my final blog I wanted to talk about a few of them that I have watched to maybe spark your interest in finding a new watch or maybe make you re-watch your favorites.

Most recently, I have been watching "How To Get Away With Murder", and let me tell you this show is awesome. I had already heard great reviews from social media and friends but never really took the time to start it. Well this past weekend one of my roommates and I were bored on a weekend night and decided to look for a new show to start when we stumbled upon the show. We immediately were hooked as the show throws a curve ball at you around every corner and keeps you coming back for more.

Another great show that I have seen all the way through multiple times is "New Girl". The show provides countless hours of laughs, emotional moments, and plenty of entertainment. Recently the came out with a final season to give closure to their previous seasons cliff hanger and I am glad they did. No more wondering what might have happened.

The "Good Place" is also an interesting show that received good reviews and I had several friend recommend it to me and I am glad I watched. It is a shorter show with only a couple season but is packed with plenty of great moments to make you laugh. Due to it being a shorter watch it makes for a good filler show until you find another.

Honestly, there are so many shows on Netflix that you should have no problem with finding one for you. I found that just watching an episode of something is a good way to tell if you will be interested or not and often times is well worth the time.

Senior is coming to an end

The past four years have been long and strenuous and they are quickly coming to an end. There has been many ups and many downs but in the end I would not trade it for the world. We are not done yet though. Finals week is right around the corner and now is not the time to check out. I want to give a few help tips to surviving college to those who have a few years left.

The first and foremost tip I want to give is to find a good group of friends. Coming into college most of us do not know many people and are forced to make new friends. These friends may become the most important part of your success and you must pick them wisely.

Another great tip is to be ready to try new things. There are several times where you will come across new opportunities and this is a great time to jump on those opportunities. They may create a path that you never thought of taking and open your life to a new experience.

Do not be afraid to branch out. Try new things while at college. This is a great time to figure out who you are and the best way to do so is by having new experiences. This class is a great example for me. I would have never thought of myself having to write blogs but here I am and it has taught many great things.

College is a time to be yourself so go out there and have fun. Do not be afraid to try new things, meet new people, and explore new possibilities, but the most important tip I can give you is to just have some fun!

Recap of Social Media Strategies

Social Media Strategies was a book that taught many new things about how the social media world works. The book itself appears to be full of useless information on the outside but is full of a surplus of useful information. Typically I am not a fan of read books full of long text which made me dread having to read this book. However, due to the relevance of social media to my major I ended up enjoying the read quite a bit. Though there were a few chapters about metrics and math that we long and boring, most chapters were every enlightening.

One of the most interesting parts of the book came before even starting the reading. Each chapter include a reading from a social media expert that gave some insight to what the chapter would be covering. I found this to be an interesting and helpful way to transition readers into the information. It showed how great having a life in the social media world could be.

Social media is growing every day and it is important that we understand as much of it as possible before we enter the real world after college and this book is an amazing resource to do so. I am extremely thankful to have this book as a resource and be able to use this in my future career.

The Comeback Story of the Decade

I am not sure if you missed the news, but something in the sports world has been blowing up social media. Something no one was predicting to happen again. A 43 year old man who has had countless injuries, career crippling scandal, and a lot of doubt from fans has won on the biggest stage in their sport. If you have not guess it yet, Tiger Woods won his fifth masters!



Tiger has always been an amazing golfer and one of the world's best if not the best. However, for 11 years he has gone without a big win and many believed he would never achieve one again. Growing up I remember watching Tiger golf and thought to myself this man will never lose. So, for the past several years I have been waiting for his comeback, and boy did he deliver.

Winning the Master's is as big as it gets in the golf world, but this was not Tiger's biggest win of the weekend. He proved something with that win. He showed the world that he was not going to back down from all the criticism he has received in the past. He showed us the meaning of getting back up no matter how many times you get knocked down.

With his win social media exploded. Pictures of him were everywhere, fans were coming out of nowhere and critics were fast to change this side. It is truly remarkable how much of an impact sports have on our social media. One man brought life to social media for millions of people by winning one tournament. It goes to show how fast the word travels through the web.

My New Job

As a sport management major, I am required to have a internship at some form of sports facility, company, or team. Having a home town of Columbus, Ohio you would think finding a internship to fit that category to be easy. Well, you would be wrong. I spent hours in front of my laptop searching for internships, filling out applications and then repeating the process. I made calls, had interviews and spent a lot of gas doing so. One thing I never expected in how particular sports internships in Columbus were.

Finally, I decided to outsource my efforts to other cities including: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo and Lima. Within one week I got an email from a friend and old teammate, DJ. He was the general manager at Apex Sports Zone in Lima, Ohio and he told me to come in and talk with him. Now Apex is a sports facility that does everything from sports leagues to birthday parties. It is also owned by an ONU facility member and one of my professors, which is really cool.



Long story short, DJ offered me the internship for the summer but he also offered me a side job for the rest of the year which was really nice. Every Saturday they host a youth flag football league and I have the privilege to referee the games.

It is not a hard job, besides dealing with grumpy parents and the occasionally rowdy kid. Other than that it is a great way to keep active for myself, be a part of the game I love and make some money.

My internship itself is really interesting. Basically I am a facility manager and run multiple things at once. One minute I am helping work the concession stand and help around the facility with guest needs and the next I am secluding customers and getting sponsorship's or helping with youth players practices. Personally, I believe it is going to be a great experience and I am really excited to see what I learn. 

Creating Content

As week 12 rolls around the corner I find myself digging deeper and deeper to find fresh content to write about. Ironically enough, one of the chapters we were required to read was about content creation. So without further ado, let us jump into chapter nines content.  This chapter gives us four key types of content used on social media.

Written:
This form of content is the first for foremost thought of content. There are several types of writing tools and ways to improve your writing, however the best way is to always be writing. Often times putting your ideas into words and bringing them full circle with our brand is a great way to improve your writing

Audio:
Audio is one of the easiest pieces of content to engage your audience. One of the most popular forms of audio in our world today is podcasting. Other forms of audio content is radio, talk shows, recorded interviews, etc.

Visuals:
Visual content is a very broad spectrum of content. From presentations to statics, visual content may not seem important but without visuals a large part of a content creator's story may be missing.

Graphics:
This form of content is the glue to content creation. It holds everything together in a content creators work and is important to helping your audience get the whole story.

These past few weeks, I have found creating content to be a tough task. By using these four forms of content creation we find new ways to be creative and diverse in our content. Mastering all four forms into a single content use provides the most effective use of content on a channel.

Dublin Irish Festival Infographic

This past week I took the time to work on a infographic for the City of Dublin, Ohio. More specifically the Dublin Irish Festival. The reason I choose this organization is because I am from Columbus and only live 10 minutes from the festival. I have been there on several occasions and always have a good time, so I figured that writing about this organization would be a lot of fun and I would have a better respect for the festival.

Making an infographic was a new experience for me and though I did learn a great amount from the experience, it was not an easy task for me. First of all, I want to say infographic are an extremely useful tool and images are a great way to show information in a fun and creative way. However, I quickly learned that I am not a very creative person when it comes down to doing infographics and that made this assignment difficult for me. I found it to be very confusing and I struggled to get the site we used to work properly for me.

I would like to make more infographic in my field in the future, but I will definitely need more practice before I am ready to make a professional infographic for a company I am working with.

Math in Social Media

One of my least favorite subjects is math. Luckily for me, chapter 10 of our book is about all things math! Outside of a few financials and numbers I choose a sport management major to avoid the dread of using numbers. Yet, here I am talking about them again. However, chapter 10 is still an extremely important part of social media and math is a big part of this.

The chapter explains how social media needs to be evaluated and measured in order to ensure the success of some content. First, we have measurement, which is the focus on specific amounts of reflecting change and then evaluation focuses on results of these specifics. Measurement and evaluation are both important to a companies planning, programs and campaigns in social media. Measurement provides statistics on a social media's target audiences and how they should be focusing their content. This allows social media content creators to write the correct material at the right time to the right audiences to get the best viewership.

Next is evaluation. Evaluation allows professionals to see what types of content have the greatest impact on their audiences. After the find this information out they can then go back and reassess how to create this content to be more effective in the future. Another key factor is evaluation is how the content spreads through the channels. In other words professionals are able to which ways their content is being passed around and how the viewers are taking the information.

As bad as numbers are, I still learned a lot from this chapter. It taught me a lot about how important numbers and statistics are when it comes to social media and there is no hiding from math.

Embracing Change

Change is a concept that most people are quick to run away from. The thought of change scares us, not knowing the outcome and moving away from the norm. One of the most difficult things to do is to get a large group to embrace change. Edith Onderick-Harvey gives us some ways to motivate a group to be willing to change in her article “5 Ways to Help Your Team Be Open to Change”.

Edith claims that leadership and engagement is not the key to this change, but instead being able to inspire others to adopt the idea of change through creativity and innovation is the key to change.

Edith’s five ways to help change are:

1.       Tell stories about others who moved beyond the status quo.

2.       Create dialogue, inviting others to ask questions and share emotions, experiences, and insights.

3.       Ask “what if?” questions in one-on-one and team meetings.

4.       Set expectations that everyone (including yourself) should acknowledge, and take responsibilities for mistakes. And then, treat mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth.

5.       Champion cross-boundary collaboration and networks to open up thinking and gain new perspectives.

Together these five ways to help with change allow for new ideas and food for thought to enter the team. Telling stories about others succeeding motivates others to go out of their comfort zone to achieve new goals. Creating dialogue brings new ideas and begins innovation. Asking “what if?” brings in new possibilities of where they could be. Expectations provide sets standards and helps the team work in an efficient and structured way to achieve their goals. Cross-boundary collaboration and networking brings in fresh ideas and possibilities that they may not have thought of before.

Change for me always was a scary thought and I never wanted to explore the possibilities that come with that change. However, once I realized that change is literally life changing then I realized the potential that comes with that change. Being able to grow as a person, as student, a worker or whatever you are doing allows us to be not only a better leader but a better follower as well.

These five way are just a few things to easing the idea of change into others but they are not all the ways. Everyone has their own way of embracing change so what is yours?

Staying Active

Staying active for me has never been a problem because I always had football to do it for me. However, now that I no longer play the sport I have found it increasingly difficult to stay active. I was so used to being forced to wake up to go lift, run or practice. I was obligated to a group of people to get things done and to be accountable so being active was not an issue for me at all. Anymore I just want to sit around and watch television or play video games and it can be very difficult to find motivation to get up and do something active.

College does not help this at all. Staying up late doing homework, being mentally drained after a long day of writing notes, or even just having to take care of yourself because your parents are not here to do so. Well I want to give you a few ways you can keep active at school.

• Find a workout buddy.

Finding a good workout buddy is an easy way to keep yourself active. When we have someone to go to the gym, run, or play a casual sport with we are more likely to do so. We feel more obligated to go and it usually is more enjoyable as well.

• Play intramural sports.

Find an intramural sport is an easy way to get up and moving. Being on a team is a great reason to get up and play because you will have more fun doing something with all of your friends, plus you’ll get a good exercise while you are doing it. There are a few intramural sports here on campus and even if you are not good at that particular sport, it is still a great way to have fun.

• Do something you enjoy

If you find an exercise you love doing, then do it! Personally, I hate to run but if running is your thing then do not be afraid to jump on the treadmill. The sports center is full of rooms with fun activities and sports you can play so we have no excuse not to partake.

Chapter Eight of Social Media and Strategic Communication: Audience Segmentation

Chapter eight of “Social Media and Strategic Communication” was all about audience segmentation and analysis. A simple way of putting it, social media is not meant to reach every person who uses it, but to focus on individual audiences. This is done by understanding their needs, expectations, services, relationships, products, etc. It is very common for a social media account to focus on a specific location or interest rather than a broad topic.

Audience segmentation is the process of categorizing people into specific groups based on different factors. These factors include demographics, characteristics, populations and more. The reason audience segmentation is so important in today’s social media is because this is how companies and businesses sell to an audience. Audience segmentation allows them to reach a certain group that will be most interested in conducting business.

Understand a target audience can be tricky but luckily we know have demographics and psychographics to make things easier for us. Demographics is population statistics such as age and gender, while psychographics are opinions, attitudes and interests. These help content creators understand the type of content to create in order to reach their audience effectively.

A big part of all this is understand the two types of audience that we want to reach. First we have a primary audience. This audience is made of individuals whom is your first priority to reach, this is where most of your energy goes into. Next, we have the secondary audience which are people like your primary audience but are less of a priority.

Energy Is Everything

When we think of the word “work”, we think of stressful situations and task. When we work think about work we think about how we can manage out time to get the job done. Well, according to Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy, we should be managing our energy, not our time. Energy is a precious resource, and we have all had days where we have lacked sufficient energy to get work done. However, thanks to Schwartz and McCarthy, we have an inside look on how and what energy we should be managing.

The most obvious type of energy we think about is our physical energy. We all know that they key to keeping up on this energy is exercise, sleep, rest and nutrition, but are we actually reaching are needs in these categories? Sometimes we forget how important it is to get a good nights rest or to eat some vegetables every now and then and this can be important to keeping our physical energy at maximum.

The next energy type is emotional energy. Emotional energy is all about being able to control our emotions throughout the day. Being able to keep positive, despite any external factors and not let yourself become overwhelm with emotions will increase the productivity and performance of our work.

The last two energy types to manage is our mind and spirit energies. Personally I believe these two are very much connected but are both equally as important in their own way. Our mind energy is being able to stay focused and disregard distractions. When distracted we tend to loss the amount of efficiently we have in our work. Our spirit energy is the passion in which we have for our work. Without passion, meaning and purpose in what we are doing, it may prove to be harder to complete our jobs in a positive way. Together the mind and spirit can increase the amount of work a person can accomplish in a given day. They provide the want and time to get things done.

Managing these emotions is no easy task however, we must be willing to accept and practices their energies in order to full master them. Once you do, works become less stressful and more enjoyable.