Please Don't Show This To My Therapist

          I finally completed the Stukent Social Media Simternship program for my Principals of Social Media course this week. This program allows students like myself to experience real-world digital marketing. It guides you through 12 rounds, concentrating on creating organic social posts, paid social posts, collaborating with influencers, and ultimately executing all three types of posts simultaneously. Along with creating media, you also respond to customer messages, examine company data and analyze post success to help with future decisions. You undertake all of these tasks for Buhi Supply Co., a company that specializes in the sale of a wide array of bags. Personally, I would purchase from Buhi, they have some cute products!       All-around, I think my favorite part about completing the program was getting to create my own organic posts. While I enjoyed organizing the paid posts, the rounds focusing on the organic posts were defin...

          TikTok, the app that brought millions together when everyone was forced to be apart. Whether it was Charli D’Amelio's infectious dances or Nathan Apodaca, better known as DoggFace, cruising down the highway to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” there's a niche for every individual within the app's diverse community. TikTok is swiftly exceeding the benchmarks of other competing apps, making it the perfect opportunity for businesses to market with. But businesses first need to understand how TikTok has become one of the most popular apps in the app stores.       As I mentioned in my social media workshop recap blog post, TikTok’s algorithm differs from that of Instagram or Twitter. It works from negative feedback, meaning it monitors how long you interact with a video, comment or sound. The program delivers a video to your For You Page based on the videos you are most interested in, or at least the ones you’ve shown the most interest in....

        It’s interesting to think about LinkedIn as a social platform used for advertising or even a social platform. For people in my generation, LinkedIn is for professional use only, to shout out friends who got jobs or to post about professional conferences we attended. To us, LinkedIn is far from the fun, creative likes of Instagram or Snapchat and more of an online resume used for our future. It’s the ultimate personal branding tool. But if you take a step back and look at it from a business point of view, it’s not that much different from other social networking platforms.       Like other platforms such as Instagram, X (formally known as Twitter) and Facebook, LinkedIn has content strategies that businesses should be aware of when they’re creating and publishing content. A survey showed that the top two reasons people follow a business on LinkedIn were to stay up-to-date on the latest news with the company and to stay informed about t...

On Wednesday I was given the opportunity to travel to ONU’s Women in Business Conference in Columbus, Ohio. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, I had never been to a business conference before but I was pleasantly surprised with the entire day.  The event, hosted by ONU alum Stephanie Saghy and Bank of America, began with a panel of Bank of America employees. All women in higher-up positions, it was inspiring to hear their stories of how they got where they are today. None of them really began their employment journeys picturing themselves in the positions they have today which was validating in a way. I feel like at this point in my life I’m supposed to have everything figured out and I don't but hearing about their journeys made me feel better about where I’m at. Each woman offered a piece of advice with their story as well and one that really stood out to me came from Jamine Kozar, she said,  “Don’t be cool. Be yourself.” She went on to explain how after a meeting she wa...

     Despite being a less popular platform, Pinterest is a great outlet for businesses to sell directly to consumers. People visit Pinterest to find new ideas and products and be inspired, making it a perfect place for advertisers to place ads. And with the Pinterest Ads Manager, brands can easily make, monitor and manage their ads.       Pinterest offers four ad objectives for business owners: Awareness, Consideration, Conversations, and Offline Sales.  The Awareness objective is what a business would choose if it wishes to grow its reach and build its brand among its target audience. Awareness objectives help drive visibility and recognition to help grow consumers’ familiarity with the brand, its products, and its values.  Consideration aims to influence potential customers whether it be hosted directly on Pinterest (such as Pins, boards, or profiles) or external content linked from Pinterest (such as blog posts, articles, product pages, ...

          Last Friday, March 22, I had the opportunity to attend the Ohio Northern University Public Relations Student Society of America’s (PRSSA) sixth annual social media workshop. As a student looking to pursue a career in marketing or communications, this workshop proved valuable. Throughout the day, I shared insights and key takeaways from the sessions I attended via live-tweeting. Here is a quick recap of my day.  The day began with a compelling keynote speaker, Amy Hertsenberg, who talked about AI-powered digital mastery. It was an amazing presentation illustrating how AI can do the smallest tasks that humans either don’t have time for or dread doing. Hertsenberg had me captivated the entire time.   Following the keynote, I delved into my first session on brand engagement. Presenter Sally Stearns talked about what she calls the three C’s of brand engagement: Connecting, Converting and Cultivating. Stearns did a deep dive into each top...

          As a part of the younger generation, I frequent Snapchat. It’s a part of my everyday life. I am without a doubt more active on Snapchat than I am on any other social media platform such as Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter). I probably know the app inside and out. But for some reason, when I think about Snapchat, I don’t think about advertisements or shopping for things like I do when I think about other platforms. However, in recent years, Snapchat has become the place for businesses to run their advertisements and many people don’t even know.  Here’s how they did it:   Shows:       You know those random stories that pop up on your discovery page? They always have some sort of cliffhanger or dramatic title or even feature a popular artist or athlete. Yeah, those are actually paid advertisements from companies. Snapchat offers two kinds of shows: Snap Originals, which are basically mini-documentaries or T...

               Depending on who you ask, my next comment may be an unpopular opinion but I don’t care. X, formerly known as Twitter, is stupid and should change back. If I had to read “X, formerly known as Twitter,” one more time in this chapter I was going to lose my mind. However, I digress. While X has changed the delightful blue bird we all grew up with, it continues to help business promote not only their products but their visions as well. Here are some strategies for businesses to use when creating their X account.  Less Promotion, More Conversation      “Talk less, smile more.” Just kidding, in this instance, businesses are going to want to leverage X to start conversations with their customers in real-time. This can be as simple as posting a poll with a question about what color item customers want to see next. Being able to have conversations with customers is also helpful when it comes to good customer service. ...

          When I say the word “influencer” what comes to mind? Maybe a teenager standing in front of a camera getting paid tons of money to brag about this company sending them free merchandise? Or maybe a 20-something-year-old who has risen to fame because they took one picture with an actor and now has brand deals with all these different companies? It doesn’t matter what you think of, the overall connotation of the word “influencer” is negative, but why? And why do companies continue to use influencers in their content strategy if there is such a negative connotation around it?  The word influencer is a more recent term added to our everyday vocabulary. Influencers themselves are still a newer idea to begin with. An influencer is someone who carries influence over others and in the case of social media, this entails a person with a big platform whose followers will listen to and do every little thing they say. If the influencer said that red wasn’...

     As the number one social media platform, advertising with Facebook seems like a no-brainer. The app reaches an audience of 1.98 billion people with a worldwide advertising revenue that has continuously grown year after year. However, with recent controversies and changes in algorithms, will Facebook be able to keep its top dog status for much longer?      For the most part, everyone knows the story of Facebook's humble beginnings in the Harvard dorm room of student Mark Zuckerberg back in 2004. And if you don’t, you need to watch “The Social Network” starring the gorgeous Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. While the film is loosely based on true events, it’s good enough for a quick run down.  Anyway, for years now Facebook has been growing like wildfire, becoming more and more popular by the day and making key investments along the way. In 2012 the company bought another highly used platform, Instagram and in 2019 they acquir...

            Many businesses have discovered that social media plays a crucial role in the way they market and advertise not only their products but their overall brand image as well. There are 10 steps to follow when creating a social media marketing strategy, however, I’m only going to focus on one today: Step 5: Establish a Tone of Voice.  A brand's tone of voice is a vital component when posting on social media. It must remain consistent across all platforms, appealing to both existing and potential customers. The company’s voice should reflect the brand's characteristics and convey messages effectively. Consumers are unlikely to respond positively to an advertisement that looks like a corporate memo; a connection and conversation between companies and consumers are essential. Companies can make their media content fun and entertaining while still being informative.  Here are some examples of companies that have perfected their tone of v...