Coffee and Communications

Well, here we are again. It is the end of another term for those of us in grad school at Troy University, so I am here to, once again, close out this blog. As far as I know, I do not have another class that requires a blog, but who knows, I may continue this in the future anyway! I have really enjoyed writing this blog. I love writing in general, and being able to show a little bit of personality in my writing is always fun! The topics I wrote about always got my mind working, and I have learned a lot about things that I never would have without this class! This term I have learned a lot about emerging media and the importance of staying current on technology. It has forced me to think about topics that I never really have before. I think my favorite topics that we have been able to talk about are Social Media and Politics, which are two of my favorite things, and surprisingly Crowdsourcing. The prevalence of crowdsourcing today is something that I never realized. It is almos...

Before we really get started with today’s blog, I am going to post this little disclaimer: I am not a parent. I do not have any experience raising a child, so these are my thoughts and ideas that I have both researched and gathered from my own mind. If you choose not to raise your child using what I talk about below, don’t! When my nephew was younger, the only time he was allowed to use an iPad was when he was at my house, with his grandparents. His mom and dad did not want their kid, who was probably around 5, to be too reliant on technology. They set boundaries and did not allow him a tablet at that young age, even though most of his friends had one of their own. Of course, all rules go out the window when you visit the grandparents. He started realizing that he could use the iPad whenever he wanted to when he was with them, and used that to his advantage! I think he was around 2 or 3 when he figured out how to unlock the iPad, go to Netflix, and watch a movie! Even though he c...

Sometimes, okay more than sometimes, I joke that something is very “on-brand” for me. What, exactly, does this mean, you may ask? When I say it in this context, I mean that it is very “me.” The color green, hydrangeas, cats, being sarcastic; these are all “on-brand” for me. All jokes aside, it is very important for a person’s personal branding to be consistent across several different places. When people look at your social networking sites, both personal and professional, are they going to want to get to know you? Personal branding is important for everyone, but today it is becoming even more important to social media influencers. Now, I know what you are thinking. Emily, you talk about these influencers all the time, and yes, I do. I do this because these influencers are changing the way we go about our daily lives and we hardly even notice that. It is so important for these influencers to have consistent branding across their sites, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and...

The rise of social media influencers started around 2010 – 2011, and it has only grown since then. It is interesting to me that, according to our reading, a Major League sports team was one of the first places we saw these “Brand Ambassadors.” They would invite social media users to sit in a special part of the baseball stadium to watch, and post, about the game. The social media users would also have media passes in order to access information typically reserved for traditional journalists. Today, you can’t scroll down Instagram without seeing a social media influencer posting an advertisement for a brand that they are affiliated with. According to Ste Davies , a digital consultant, there are more than 500,000 active influencers on Instagram alone and over 2 million companies use these influencers to advertise products. These influencers can be used for anything from promoting a product to releasing information about the company. Influencers don’t have as many restrictions th...

For most people, it is easier to trust something that is coming out from a friend rather than a stranger. Even if this stranger’s job is to report the news. This is one reasons blogs are so popular, but according to one of our readings this week, people have been communicating news in a “blog” type fashion for hundreds of years. By this, I mean learning about local news from friends and anonymous sources by letter or newsletter, rather than just reading it in a newspaper. People find their friends to be more trustworthy. Rather than watch someone on the news tell you about a new restaurant opening, wouldn’t you like to hear it from a friend? This friend may know someone who knows the owner. This makes you feel like you have inside access to the story instead of hearing it from someone with no connection at all! Today, the mainstream media has several things against it, most of all that it is seen as untrustworthy “fake news.” In fact, according to this Gallup poll, only 41%...

I love politics. All four of my internships in college and my first job after graduating with my bachelors were in politics, and I thought it was going to be the industry that I worked in for the rest of my life. That was not the case, as I now work in higher education, but my love for politics has not faded. I know that this is not the case with other people who are from my generations (I am considered a "cusper", I am right on the line of being a Millennial and Gen Z, as I was born in 1995). I have realized in recent years that the older people of my generation have become slightly more politically active, but for the most part my generation does not participate in politics as well as we should. While I exercise my right to vote every chance I can, I don’t think my brothers or fiancé are even registered. I have been keeping up with the President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, but I know there are a lot of people around my age that don’t even know that it is happeni...

Every website should be mobile friendly. There I said it.  In my opinion, I think every company that has a website should make that site mobile friendly, even if a majority of the visits to the site are from desktop computers. Unless 100% of site visits are from something other than mobile phones, there should be some type of mobile friendly element to the site. I think this can be make or break for a company. According to the article “Why Are Mobile Friendly Websites and Content Important?” 2016 was the first year that people used mobile internet more than a desktop. This same article lists out 10 reasons to make your website mobile friendly: 1.        Google prioritizes mobile friendly websites. Since 2015, Google has been more likely to place mobile friendly sites over those who are geared more toward desktop searchers. 2.        People everywhere use mobile devices to do more than just calling and ...

While more traditional news organizations, like The New York Times and CNN, are powered by donors and sponsors, the new age of digital media, like Buzzfeed and Vice, are driven by digital advertisements. When you think about the amount of people viewing all of these different news sources, most would think that the digital advertising would be sufficient to keep those sites afloat because they are so popular, but those people are, for the most part, wrong. Donor-backed news media seem to have better survival rates than media backed by ad sales. That does not mean that it comes with out problems. According to the article “The Future of News,” people distrust mainstream media now more than ever. As much as people want to believe that journalists are reporting the news fairly and without bias, this is wrong. Not only do journalists have opinions that can, and do, influence how and what they report, but the organization in itself has someone to answer to. News companies will report ...

You may have visited my site before, as I previously kept up with this blog for a different class, but I am back now with a different topic.  A few things have changed since the last time I wrote, so here is a little refresher:  My name is Emily, and I am a graduate student studying Strategic Communications at Troy University. I am originally from a small town in Southeast Alabama. After graduating high school I moved to Tuscaloosa to go to the University of Alabama. I studied Public Relations and Political Science while at UA. I thought I would go into politics after college, and I did for a while. I ran a campaign for a gentleman running for the Alabama State House of Representatives, and decided that life in the political sphere was not for me. I currently work in the Admissions Office at Troy University. I mostly handle the campus experience, including tours, events, and department meetings for prospective students. While it is definitely not something I ever saw myself...

Well, we have come to the end of another term of grad school at TROY, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that these posts will stop. I plan on taking a short break to focus on work, but then I will be back! I have learned so much from this blog over the past few weeks, I have always enjoyed writing but this was a little different than what I am used to. Instead of having to be incredibly formal in every post, I am allowed to write conversationally. It makes talking about what I have learned so much more fun! Speaking of what I have learned, this class has taught me a lot about media strategies! I have learned about the importance of companies and organizations communicating directly with consumers; transparency is very important today! It is also vital that companies have a solid plan in place in case of crises. Even if there is a one-in-a-million chance that this will happen, it still can and it is important for everyone to be prepared! With crisis communication is it importa...

My reading this week talked a lot about tracking ROI, or Return on Investment. Was this campaign worth the money? This can sometimes be hard to track, how can you really tell if something is worth the money unless you make a profit from it? I think it is much more plausible to base success on ROO, or Return on Objectives. These can be a little easier to track the successes, as most will have very specific objectives, For example, a company will not say they want to “increase sales.” Instead, they will say they want to “increase online sales by 15% by December 1, 2019.” These objectives can be incredibly specific, that way an organization always knows when goals have been met and when they have not. Being able to measure the success of PR campaign is extremely important, but it is also difficult. While studying for my undergraduate degree, I had to implement a campaign for a Tuscaloosa thrift store and the hardest part was figuring out how to measure the results. While most compan...

John F. Kennedy once famously said , “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” They say natural disasters and other national crises are good for the government. Even though wildfires and hurricanes can cause so much devastation, they boost the economy and, some think, cause people to put more trust in the government. When public officials have strong, prompt responses to crises, the public notices and ratings go up . For example, the former Governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon increased his approval significantly after a tornado struck in 2011, and President George W. Bush’s approval shot up after the attacks on 9/11. But, when the public sees the response as lacking, public approval can drop. In 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush dropped a significant amount of points because many in the public blamed him for response not being fast enough. Can companies and organizations use c...