Marketing Project

For the Marketing Project, I decided to use social media to promote Fox 25 Sports. Although the local Fox News station, had social media, the Sports department did not. I made a Facebook page called Fox25sports and decided that I would ad material, pictures and top stories on the page. We tried doing a "perfect status" but I did not see any responses.

I also made a twitter page for Fox Sports, the handle is @fox25sports. We tried live tweeting during the football games, but quickly realized that live tweeting actually made us lose followers.

Recently, after a false fact blog post, I am no longer able to upload the status on Facebook, but I have been adding the images from practice to my own pages and getting feedback. I realized people like to see images, and stuff that is not always shown, like what the locker-room looks like behind the scenes.

I have also been keeping a blog about my experiences. The blog is just like a diary of what working for Fox Sports is really about.

Twitter For A Small Business

The webinar I chose to participate in was “Twitter for SmallBusiness” put on by Erica who works at Constant Contact. This webinar went into a how to use Twitter and what Twitter is good for. Erica made the comparison of Twitter being like a cocktail party, where you can make all sorts of connections.  In a cocktail party you do not want to pay attention to just one person, you want to work the room and make connections with other people. This struck me as smart, and also made me think of my internship and how networking is the key thing to getting a job or your foot in the door. Twitter is the same thing.

Erica talks about how Twitter has the same manors you would use if attending a cocktail party, she calls these manors Twittiquett. To have proper Twittiquett, you want to be polite, and mingle the social site. You also do not want to tweet about yourself too much. You should use your judgment and use general social rules. 

Here is some advice when starting your account.

• ·         Use your real photo
• ·         Complete your bio; you should include your interests and personal details about yourself. You should also use key words, when you use key words you seem more human, and it is easier to connect.
• ·         Fill out a website, if you do not have a website, then add you linked in URL

For a small business, Twitter is used as a listening tool. Some ways Twitter is good for a business because it…

·         Promotes awareness

·         Gives costumer service

·         Shows thought, and leadership

·         And gives business intelligence which is earns media customer attention.

Twitter is all about followers and getting the word out about yourself or your small business. To get followers you need to follow other people. Look at the key words you have in your bio and search for people with the same words. You should also look at the people who you follow and who they follow. People with the same interests tend to run in the same circles. Just remember gaining a following takes time and patients. Like most things in life you are not going to be a success over night.

Some advice I found helpful, was to type your tweets in word first so you get the correct spelling. This works if you have access to word when you need to tweet but not when you are tweeting from your phone. Another piece of advice I found interesting, is that although you have 140 characters to tweet, you should try to keep your tweets to 120. The 120 rule is to gain retweets. People might want to quote your tweet and add their own stuff to it; if you keep it around 120 characters you are allowing people and customers to do so. 

You should try and tweet at least 3 times a day that way you gain followers. To help with the three times a day rule, using a free platform is advice. Also if people tweet to you, you should respond back.

You should make sure your tweets are…

• ·         Honest
• ·         Casual
• ·         Real
• ·         Funny (humor is always good)
• ·         Relevant
• ·         And HUMAN

Erica advises people to just get out there and start. The best way to learn is to do, something that applies all things in life. If you want to talk to Erica or see how she tweets, her twitter handle is @constantcontact.

Politics and Social Media

The article I read was called “Social Media and Political Engagement.” This article was written on October 19, 2012, by Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, and Sidney Verba. The publisher of the “Social Media and Political Engagement” was published by the Pew Research Center’s Internet &American Life Project in Washington DC. This article is a survey of 2,253 adults who are adults 18years and older who were asked a series of questions about civic engagement through people’s use of social networking sites and Twitter.

FIVE KEY POINTS

1.       Politics are taking over social media, and more people are using social media to promote politics.

2.       34% of social media users have used the tools to post their own thoughts or comments on political issues and social issues.

3.       31% of social media users have used the tools to encourage people to take action on a political or social issue.

4.       21% of those who use social media sites or Twitter belong to a group on social networking site that is involved in political or social issues

5.       20% of social media users have used tools to follow elected officials and candidates for office. 

FIVE TERMS I DID NOT KNOW

1.       Civic engagement

2.       Attributable

3.       PSRAI

4.       Partisan composition

5.       Ideological composition

REACTION

At first when I got assigned this article was not to happy about it because I am so tired of being haunted by politics. Then I read the results, and I was amused with what I found. It is interesting to me that more democrats use social media than republicans. The younger generation is using social media to promote political issues than the older generation. I was not really surprised that the generation 30-49 was more likely to encourage people to vote than the younger generation, but I was surprised that the younger generation 18-29 encouraged people to act on political issues.

I find this information interesting because I personally do not believe in sharing politics, unless it is to make fun of the politicians. I am also in my 20s and do not  vote, I do not see the point in voting, I do not feel that my voice is heard and that politics is a waste of time. I also not like the fact that all these people lie to you; I just do not like liars who just care about hurting each other instead of improving our country. I tell you this because when I see all my friends sharing their political views over social media, it upsets me. I sometimes feel that they are forcing their views on me, and it in a way makes me judge them.  Our forefathers wanted a silent ballad for a reason, it was so we did not judge people on political beliefs and get separated by our views and our votes. It is weird to be that social media is a way to share our lives, but some things are meant to be private, in my opinion.

I just found the whole article interesting that younger people are trying to push politics on social media sites. However, I do think that it is cool that politicians use social media to connect with voters, I think it is important for people to see politicians as people and vote on a person not a party or a figure.

I guess my overall rant is that we use social media to share everything, and when people take up my news feed on Facebook with nasty comments about politics I personally do not want to be friends with them. I think there should be a restriction on politics on social media, that way we can get away from the stress of people hounding us with beliefs and keep something’s private.