The History of the Selfie

Today's teens, young adults and even (gasp!) real adults are guilty of continually supporting an online sin: selfies. Now, I'm guilty of selfies, or self "portraits", and I'm not ashamed of admitting it. However, this phenomenon is not going anywhere any time soon. In fact, selfies have been around for about as long as the personal camera itself.

The first recorded use of the word selfie was an Australian man in 2002 when he posted a lip of his busted lip after a night of parting. "Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie," he wrote on an online forum. But just because he was the first one to use the word doesn't mean that selfies didn't exist before this. In 1914, the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna photographed herself in a mirror in order to send a photo to her friend. 

Just like many other things, we can thank the rise of popularity of selfies to technology. Digital cameras giving users many chances to take a photo of themselves without assistance can be handed some credit here, but most believe that the rise of cell phone cameras, specifically front-facing cameras, is what pushed this narcissistic behavior to an every day occurrence in our society. 

But just being used by the average American isn't enough. The selfie is further accepted due to use by celebrities on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook fan pages. One of America's most tech-savvy families, the Kardashian's, post selfie photos on a nearly daily basis. 

If you think the selfie is going to fall off the map any time soon, hold your breath. Odds are it isn't happening. 

Not Measuring Is Not An Option in Nonprofit

In chapter 13 of "Measure What Matters", Katie Paine discusses how measurement and accountability have recently become more important than ever in the nonprofit world. The creation of social media has completely changed how nonprofits reach their audiences. However, all of the social media in the world does not make a difference without measurement. Due to how competitive the world is, nonprofits need to measure like for-profit companies to receive donations to keep pushing their mission. Nonprofits have to be transparent enough for donors to be sure that their funds are going to programs and initiatives that are benefiting from the nonprofit.

All of these above goals can be achieved through measurement. Katie Paine believes that any nonprofit organization can measure its success by following her six step process:

1. Using the organizations mission to define objectives
2. Identifying and prioritizing audiences
3. Establishing a benchmark
4. Picking metrics
5. Picking a measurement tool
6. Analyzing results and making changes

However, practitioners of nonprofit public relations may not agree that is as easy as she leads on to believe. Maggie McGary, a marketing manager for a nonprofit organization, is in charge of measuring social media for her organization. In her blog, she details the struggle of combining Facebook, Youtube, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram data into one simple, readable report at the end of the month. While larger, for-profit organizations have the benefit of a budget that allows access to $500 programs that quickly create a report of the metrics, nonprofit is not that lucky. Instead, nonprofits must pull out data individually or use free, but not as convenient, analytic tools. There is not a tool available for nonprofits to easily access measurable data and combine it into one report. While Katie Paine gives good steps for measuring in the nonprofit sector and understands the importance of social media in nonprofit, she does not outline how a nonprofit organization with a nearly nonexistent budget can find these measurements in a timely manner. 

The Legendary Life of a Roadie

On the Monday before we left for Thanksgiving break, I began my career as an officially hired Texas Roadhouse server. While I thought the training would be a cakewalk, it most definitely was not!

Each day, I was required to take a quiz on things that I learned in training, from sanitation rules and server etiquette to knowing everything about an item on the menu. After an hour long of book training from the training manual, I had the chance to put what I learned into action by shadowing the server trainer I was working with that night. After five long days of training, I took my tests on Black Friday. 

You may not think that a test on Texas Roadhouse would be hard. I thought the exact same thing when I was told on my orientation day started. This was far from the truth. To become a member of the Texas Roadhouse family and, more specifically the serving staff, you must take a server test, a bar test, fill in all of the locations of tables in the restaurant and a 103 question menu test. The menu test was a tough one. In addition to general knowledge of the food, you're required to know the exact ounces of food included in combo meals, steaks and pulled pork dishes, the exact ingredients of salads, the amount of sides included with meals and more. 

Luckily, I passed the tests and finished my final night with a trainer. As of November 30, I have been serving the hungry masses of Lima, Ohio solo. So far, I love my new job! While the obvious perks are tip money that I get to take home with me each shift and free salads and fresh baked bread while I'm working, there is a lot more to it than that. The people that work there are great and act like a huge, extended family. People hang out with each other outside of work. They know each others kids, buy cookie dough to help support whatever fundraiser is currently going on and take care of each other on and off the clock. I'm not stuck behind a register for hours at a time like I was at Rite Aid and I get to talk to people from all walks of life. I've figured out things like not everyone tips like they should (not yet from personal experience!), peanut shells do not like to come off the floor very easily and it is very easy to trip over your feet while line dancing. 

If any of my lovely classmates are bored the last two weeks of classes, come visit me at work!

Essie's Royal Following

Brand loyalty is a fabulous thing. These loyal followers will defend their favorite brand in a crisis, constantly (and unintentionally) participate in word-of-mouth campaigns to increase awareness among friends and acquaintances as well as returning to this brand purchase after purchase. When these followers are famous, organizations essentially receive a free celebrity endorsement due to an individuals sheer adoration of the brand. Essie, a brand of nail polish owned by L'Oreal USA, is one of these types of brands.

Essie has a cult following among American women. Creator Essie Weingarten set out to create a type of nail polish "that would go on like silk and wear like iron and would look wet for a week to ten days." Followers of the brand are more than happy to agree that she has succeeded. Since 1981, Essie has created over 200 colors of nail polish. In 1983, Joan Rivers announced she was wearing Essie color "Jelly Apple" while hosting the Tonight Show. But the brand has a slightly more famous celebrity fan.

In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II's hairdresser contacted Essie requesting a bottle of "Ballet Slipper", a subtle pink color, because it is the only color the monarch would wear. During the royal wedding of 2011, Kate Middleton wore the Essie shade "Allure", a flattering nude color, during her vows to Prince William. 

In a world as fickle as cosmetics, having brand enthusiasts among some of the most watched women in the world is nothing but positive press for a brand. While Essie owner L'Oreal pays celebrities like Beyonce to serve as a brand representative in advertisements, having the most anticipated bride in years wear a shade of nail polish for the price of $8 from her own pocket is the best type of advertisement a brand could ask for. 

Personally, I tried Essie after Kate and Prince William's wedding just because she wore it. Honestly, who has never thought that if a brand is good enough for a celebrity, it was good enough for them? After trying it, I understand why it has such a following. Have you tried Essie brand nail polish? Is there a product that you have tried simply because a celebrity has used it? 

Trust is the Key to Building and Defending Your Reputation

In chapter 11 of Measure What Matters, Katie Paine discusses threats to reputations and how to measure these crises. Trust is extremely important in building and repairing these relationships. When a crisis is not handled correctly or in a timely manner, organizations can experience damaged trust with their consumers, which in turn hurts the relationships and reputation the organization had established with those consumers. 

Organizations depend on trust to create and nurture relationships with their target publics. Employees that trust their their employers are more satisfied with their jobs, which in turn creates lower employee turnover. Trusted organizations grow faster. Most importantly, good relationships with the media can help prevent a crisis. 

Trust is multilevel, culturally rooted, communication-based, dynamic and multidimensional. When you trust a business, organization or brand you are more likely to take the time to listen to their explanation of the crisis and not jump to conclusions.  

Let's look at Burger King, a fast food giant in America. In February of 2013, Burger King's Twitter was hacked and its name changed to McDonald's with a Fish McBite's background and a photo of the golden arches as its profile picture. The hacker tweeted about Burger King being sold to McDonald's, people doing drugs and linked to videos of controversial rapper Chief Keef talking.

The hour long Twitter hi-jacking resulted in Burger King gaining 30,000 new followers, the account being suspended and Burger King's social media team taking responsibility for the situation and doing their best to fix it. Burger King's response to the media was “It has come to our attention that the Twitter account of the BURGER KING brand has been hacked. We have worked directly with administrators to suspend the account until we are able to re-establish our legitimate site and authentic postings. We apologize to our fans and followers who have been receiving erroneous tweets about other members of our industry and additional inappropriate topics.”

Because Burger King was quick to respond and take control of their crisis, the media listened and empathized with their situation. Followers and fans of the brand did make some jokes at the burger giant's expense, but it was in good fun. Mentions and conversations about the brand sky rocketed. People trusted the brand, believed them when they they had nothing to do with the hacking and Burger King definitely came out on top in the situation. According to Social Media Today, Burger King received an almost $1,000,000 campaign investment for free due to Burger King trending on Twitter, media coverage of the event and the lack of time, agency involvement or human resources to create this type of campaign. 

What are some other examples that trust in an organization can help it come out on top during a crisis?

Find Your Inner Mister Rogers

In chapter nine of Measure What Matters, Katie Paine discusses measuring your relationships with your local community. She states that "it is more important that ever to understand and measure and improve your relationships with your local community," or what I like to think of as finding your inner Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers was the ultimate neighbor. He cared about people, did his best to resolve negative situations and talked about the important issues in a timely manner. 

In a world where many organizations and businesses focus mainly on their key publics, the Mister Rogers of the world would not stand for this. You must look beyond your customers, stakeholders and the media and learn to think about what else you may need to do to get approval. To be a good neighbor in your community, you must become involved. Businesses need to take an interest in the community they are involved in by creating a plan of corporate social responsibility, treating employees and consumers well and fully embodying all the positive attributes of the company. Mister Rogers would not say something to his audiences face that he didn't mean, nor would he let fear keep him from doing what is right. He would admit that his business practices were wrong before he would let his image take a hit on the internet by bloggers and the media. He would take responsibility for his actions. 

As Mister Rogers says, "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say, 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes." Be a hero, share responsibility for whatever your business or organization has done to create a negative impact and be a good neighbor.

Would YOU Pay $1.99 For Safety?

Technology is an amazing thing. We can send each other pictures that instantly vanish, give real time updates about what we are doing, check in at restaurants and other places to let our friends know where we are and connect with people we haven't talked to in ages. But, some developers have ideas on how to use technology to make users feel safety. No, I'm not talking about Facebook, Twitter or Instagram privacy settings to keep people from "creeping". What if you had a smart phone app that would call the police for you in an emergency? 

For the small price of $1.99, you can be the owner of SafeTrek, a smart phone app that changes the game on being afraid when walking alone. The app works by letting users hold the screen when they don't feel safe. When they finally feel safe again, they can put in a four digit PIN that will acknowledge that you are no longer in danger. But, the greatest feature is what happens when you are in danger. 

If a user removes their finger from the screen without putting in their four digit PIN, the police are notified of their location and that they need help. The greatest part is that the criminal has no idea that the police are coming. 

While technology like this isn't necessary in a village like Ada, the ability to feel safer in an unfamiliar city or area is priceless. 

Miss Northwestern Ohio 2014

All 13 contestants before crowning.

This past weekend, I had the chance to compete in the Miss Northwestern Ohio 2014 pageant. This pageant is a local pageant that serves as a preliminary pageant to move on to Miss Ohio, which is produced by the Miss Ohio Scholarship Program, where one person will move on to Miss America. This system is completely unaffiliated Donald Trump's Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which are great systems that allow for many opportunities for contestant. 

Chelsi and I after the pageant

Pageants affiliated with the Miss America Organization must have multiple phases of competition that account for a certain percentage of the total score. These phases include interview (25 percent), lifestyle and fitness (15 percent), on stage question (5 percent), talent (35 percent) and evening gown (20 percent). Each of these phases include rules such as remaining behind the podium while in interview, talents may only be a maximum of one minute and 30 seconds long and no necklace during the swimsuit portion of the competition. Each contestant must accumulate a $100 donation for the Children's Miracle Network to compete in a local pageant up to a certain monetary amount.

Rules aside, the actual competitions are so much fun. For this pageant, we were asked to come to Defiance on Friday for rehearsals before the production on Saturday. Each contestant had a hostess that they stayed with on Friday night and most contestants were paired up with another contestant for the weekend. Dominique was my roomie for the competition. I could not have been paired with a better girl! She was sweet, funny and we had a lot of common interest. Plus, anyone willing to eat Wendy's with me the night before a pageant is pretty cool in my book.  Our hostess was named Karen and she was a pretty rockin' lady. Not only did she open up her home to us for the weekend, she showed us some of the best local businesses in Defiance. 

After waking up and getting ready for the day on Saturday, we headed to the home of one of the directors of the pageant where they served us brunch. Interviews were set to begin at around 11:30, but Dominique and I had interviews later in the afternoon. With our spare time, Karen took us to a new store that had opened in Defiance called Nest, then to two more stores in the area that had Christmas decorations and cute gift items. While Karen was finishing up at one of the stores, I headed next door with Dominique to a coffee shop called Cabin Fever. While I was there, I tried this awesome latte called Caramel Cabin Fever and bought a half pound of dark chocolate covered espresso beans, which I had never tried before but loved! On our way back to Karen's house I spotted a cheesecake place and mentioned that I loved cheesecake, which Karen immediately turned around to take us to. Karen treated Dominique and I to the dessert of our choice, I went with a sea-salted caramel cheesecake. A Little Slice of Heaven is easily the best cheesecake I have ever ate in my entire life and I would recommend it to any cheesecake lover!

When interview time rolled around, I was feeling pretty confident. In typical Brittany fashion I was running behind and ended up doing my makeup in the car on the way to our interview. My personal interview went fantastic. Interview is by far my favorite part of the competition. I was animated, I was confident and I felt like I answered everything the best that I could. To celebrate our interview being finished, Karen took Dominique and I out to lunch at a local golf course that had a really amazing restaurant in the club house. With time left to kill, we went back to Karen's to pack our things and get ready for the rest of the competition.

Some snapshots from my night

The rest of the night went by in a blur. Before I knew it, it was time for crowning. Kara Mitchell won and she totally deserved it! She looked amazing all night, gave an incredible answer for her on stage question and performed her talent beautifully. When the pageant was finished, I came off the stage to meet my mom, Megan and Jordan who had came to cheer me on. My mom introduced me to Tony Alcosiba and Larry Nakano who were visitors from Hawaii that are heavily involved in the Miss America Organization. 

Tony, Larry and I after the pageant

My mom helped me pack up all of my clothing before we went to the after party. While it was great to catch up with some of my pageant friends, I was definitely ready to get home and relax. I learned a lot this weekend and I feel like I've improved since my last pageant. But, now it's time to focus and get ready for the next one. Miss Hilliard 2014, here I come!

The Home Depot and the Racist Tweet

I have wrote previous blogs about major corporations making the mistake of creating insensitive posts on social media. Whether it's related to race, gender or sexual orientation, companies continue to offend people through accidental posts. Unfortunately, the Home Depot is the guilty party in this blog post.

This past Thursday, Home Depot tweeted a preview picture for College GameDay featuring three people drumming on plastic buckets and asked followers to identify which drummer was different than the others. These followers responded and they were not too happy about it. 

Fortunately, Home Depot did not ignore the situation. Instead, they were quick to respond and explain what had happened, as well as taking responsibility for the tweet. While the tweet should have never been created, real time response prevented this situation from becoming out of control.

Butt Glue, Lashes and Lipstick, Oh My!

Butt glue...Check. False eye lashes...Check. Caboodle full of make up...Check. 

While to some of you these items may sound like strange torture devices, for me these items are essential. This week, I'm preparing to compete in Miss Northwestern Ohio where I have the opportunity to win scholarship money from placing high in the competition and winning individual categories and the chance to become a titleholder and continue to Miss Ohio. I'll compete in multiple areas of competition, including a 10 minute interview panel, lifestyle and fitness which is better known as swimsuit, evening gown, talent and on stage question. A panel of judges will decide between myself and 12 other girls on who will best represent this title. 

I've been preparing for this pageant for a while. Lifestyle and fitness is an ongoing effort and I've been trying to better myself through being in the gym five to seven times a week for one to two hours at a time. I memorized my piece for talent, which is an alto saxophone arrangement of Adele's "Rolling In The Deep", over the summer for a pageant I competed in before school started. Evening gown is probably the easiest section, it just requires you to walk elegantly and smile. 

For this pageant, I'll be staying the night at the home of my hostess who will also be my lifesaver when the actual competition begins. While I haven't met her yet, this woman will be the one that will help zip me into my evening gown, find my swimsuit and talent costume, locate my earrings and more than likely have to calm me down at some point. When you are quickly moving from one section of the competition to the next and stripping as fast as you can to be ready for the next section this kind of help seems heaven sent. 

The amount of things that I have to pack for this pageant is a little overwhelming. Picture this: an evening gown, my black talent costume, my swimsuit, an outfit for opening number and on stage question, my interview dress, five sets of jewelry organized in a tackle box, extra earring backs and back up earrings, butt glue to keep my swimsuit bottoms in place while I walk, four pairs of heels, a bathrobe for when I'm backstage, shapewear, a caboodle filled with more make up than I need, clothes for rehearsal the night before and day of....The list goes on and on and on. 

I did well in my last pageant. Not only did I win interview, but I won some scholarship money that is really helping me out this year. I'm nervous, that's for sure. I've been nervous since Sunday. But no matter what, I'm going to be loading up my Nitro and making my way to Defiance, Ohio for this pageant. Wish me luck!

Seven Steps to the Perfect Measurement Program

In "Measure What Matters", Katie Paine has an entire chapter dedicated to the "Seven Steps to the Perfect Measurement Program". These seven steps include:

1. Defining your goals and objectives
2. Define your environment, audiences and your role in influencing them
3. Define your investment
4. Determine your benchmarks
5. Define your key performance indicators
6. Select the right measurement tool and vendors and collect data
7. Turn your data into action

When I read the title, I was naturally intrigued. Measurement is an important concept to understand in public relations, but I have not had the opportunity to really learn much about measurement yet. This is at absolutely no fault to my professors, because Kathie and Aggie are pretty much awesome. I just have not been involved in any projects or campaigns that have or will involve measurement until this semester.

These seven steps will be invaluable to my group during our Bateman Case Study Competition campaign.  Being able to clearly define what we intend to accomplish will make it easier to actually achieve our goals and not overwhelm ourselves with ideas or impossible expectations. Having a set strategy of how we will measure our results and constantly evaluating our strategies as we develop our campaign will help us create the best possible campaign that we can, as well as measuring how successful we were with our campaign.  But the greatest thing about these seven steps? Every single one of these ideas have been preached to me in multiple classes since I became a public relations major. 

COSI in the PAC Lab

Last Tuesday, Jaclyn Reynolds came and gave a presentation on her job as the Public Relations and Social Media Director for COSI, or the Center of Science and Industry, in Columbus. This girl has one of the coolest jobs in the world, in my opinion. Growing up I loved to visit COSI and the idea of working there is crazy. 

Jaclyn did a cool experiment for us with the help of one of my classmates and had brought videos of science experiments that they perform at the facility. She also explained how social media, media skills, multi-tasking and working with her target publics of moms, science fans and families is important in her job. 

I loved that she shamelessly plugged the internship opportunities at COSI, as well as how highly she spoke of her job. Having a job I love when I finally grow up is something that is very important to me and the fact that she wants to share her and her interns amazing experiences shows how much she loves it. It was comforting to know that all of the things she does on a daily basis with her job are things that I'm being taught in the classroom, like good writing skills, proper use of social media and the importance of being skilled in multiple areas. She was extremely personable and entertaining throughout her entire presentation. It also doesn't hurt that she is an alumnae of my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta!

Check out one of the videos that we were shown in class below. If you want to learn more about Jaclyn, follow her on Twitter @jaclynreynolds1 or email her at JReynolds@cosi.org.

Tweet-a-Coffee? Yes, Please!

Online gift giving is nothing new. Facebook encourages users to give digital presents to friends on their birthday and other important occasions, such as getting a new job, becoming engaged or when celebrating an anniversary. Since 2011, users have been able to send Starbucks gift cards to fellow users. Now, the coffee giant is making it easier to enable your friends caffeine addiction through Twitter.

By linking your Twitter account with a credit card, Tweeple can send coffee to friends by tweeting at the user @tweetacoffee, then the Twitter handle of the friend you would like to receive a $5 e-gift card to Starbucks. As an additional incentive, the first 100,000 qualifying Visa card user that uses Tweet-a-Coffee will receive a $5 Starbucks e-gift card for themselves as well through November 6. 

Users are already adopting the technology. A simple search of "tweetacoffee" on Twitter shows that users are send each other coffee and redeeming the gift cards. 

Social media is making is continuously making it easier to manage our offline relationships online and Tweet-a-Coffee is just another example. Personally, I could see myself using Twitter to thank my coffee drinking friends for help, giving them a small pick-me-up when they are having a bad day or as a present for a special occasion where I couldn't be there to celebrate in person. Would you use Tweet-a-Coffee? What would your reaction to receiving a gift card that can be used in the offline world through a digital means? 

The Life and Times of a Chronic Snoozer

I will be the first to admit that I have a problem: I am a chronic snoozer. I am that person who has five alarms set to wake up on time for their 9:00 class, and still manage to sleep through four of them. 

A realistic representation of what my alarm screen looks like

I've tried going to bed early, I've tried placing a real alarm clock on the opposite side of my desk (sleeping Brittany was able to reach it from the bed with no problems), I've tried setting my If This Then That app to call me to wake me up. Nothing I try works. In high school, I could wake up two hours before school started no problem. Unfortunately, college has changed me. I have super human sleeping abilities that let me do cool things like snooze my alarm and sleep on top of books. 

Kinda like this.

But I'm going to beat the alarm clock. Tonight, I downloaded a new alarm clock app, Freaky Alarm, for the whopping price of $1.99. This is a big commitment due to the fact I usually don't download an app unless it has the price of free. This app makes users do puzzles, solve math problems or even take photos of an object before it will be silenced. 

I want to become a functioning member of society before the sunrises. I don't want to be lazy and incapable of getting homework done before classes start or making myself breakfast because I can't drag myself out of bed. Hopefully, Freaky Alarm fixes this. I know I'm not the only one who has a sleeping problem in college, how do you guys make yourself roll out of bed?

Shirley's Gourmet Popcorn Company Competition

Yesterday, I traveled to Bluffton, Ohio with my fellow TrueNorth PR team members, Julie and Jordan. We had agreed to take on a project for Shirley's Gourmet Popcorn Company, a heavenly popcorn shop that is connected to Bluffton's Shannon Theater. 

I have loved Shirley's for some time now, to the point that I travel there the minute they send me a coupon for their always delicious popcorn of the month. This month, when they introduced the special popcorn (S'mores and red hot popcorn anyone?), there was a tiny box in the side bar announcing a Shirley's commercial contest. The contest asked for submissions that were anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds, with the winner receiving $500. Naturally, I wanted in on this and brought it up to Dr. Aggie and Julie. Unfortunately, I didn't think I would be in charge of organizing this.

Before you think I'm whining or acting full of myself, let me explain some. I have never been in charge of any project for our student ran public relations firm. I have no video experience to speak of, besides putting together small video slideshows for mine and my sister's graduation parties. Luckily, Julie was quick to volunteer to help and we recruited Jordan, who has WAY more experience with videos than I could ever imagine having, to help me tackled this project. After a slight freak out on Monday because I had no idea what to do for this project or even how to begin, we picked a day to go and film at the store and then edit the video in to a commercial.

I was super nervous that entire day trying to think of how this project would turn out, but I should have known that was pointless. We're public relations students! We're smart, creative and extremely  good at working well under pressure and deadlines. After a quick brainstorming session in the Freed Center and my car, we were ready to take this project on. The filming for the video did take a while, but we had a lot of fun doing it. We were super lucky to have one of the employees of Shirley's be such a good sport and let us film her as part of some of the videos. While the actual commercials are not finished yet, keep your eye out! We're going to create them tonight and I may upload them on to my blog to show off our comedic and acting genius. 

The biggest thing about this project is that movie goers the weekend of November 1 and 2 will be voting on the winners. Help TrueNorth PR win $500 by going vote on our project and enjoy some delicious Shirley's Gourmet Popcorn while your at it. 

Homecoming 2013

Within most high schools and colleges throughout the United States, the grand tradition of voting on a homecoming court has lived on as a major part of the festivities. For Ohio Northern University, we have supported this tradition through yearly voting of different representatives from student organizations that we eliminated in a Survivor style voting to five men and women in a popularity contest decided by the entire student body. 

Over the weekend, Ohio Northern celebrated Homecoming in the usual fashion with parades, tailgates, football games and more even though the weather did not want to cooperate. After announcing the parade and visiting the Alpha Xi Delta Teddy Bear Tea with some sisters, we journeyed to the football stadium to watch the Polar Bears dominate Marietta and witness the crowning of our 2013 Homecoming Court. If you weren't there to witness this historic moment, have no fear! I was kind enough to live tweet the entire event as part of an assignment for this class. Is the suspense killing you? More than likely. 

While I was able to tweet exactly what is going on with the Homecoming Court, Ohio Northern University did not. This is completely understandable, considering the crowning was during the football game. ONUSports did a fabulous job of updating the game, as well as some of my classmates. Most of the promotion for the Homecoming Court was through students that were on the Court and their friends. In the future, I believe that the ONU Homecoming Twitter should be used to promote things the crowning of the court, even though this was not used at all over the Homecoming festivities. 

Don't waste any more time! Discover the results of the 2013 Homecoming Court through my Storify. 

Do Us A Flavor

In Real-Time Marketing & PR, David Meerham Scott discusses a concept that many of us are extremely familiar with: crowdsourcing. Many of us use it at least weekly in the form of Wikipedia, the ultimate crowdsourced online encyclopedia. In chapter nine, Scott discusses how crowdsourcing is used in television like American Idol or, in it's most common form, "to make decisions based on massively collective wisdom".

 In June 2012, Lay's decided to take advantage of this concept by introducing the "Do Us A Flavor" competition. Through this competition, fans of Lay's Facebook page were able to create their own flavor of potato chips that would eventually make it to the final three. Nearly 3.8 million chip flavors were submitted and more than one million people voted on Facebook and Twitter. The winner of the competition was picked from three flavors: Garlic Cheesy Bread, Chicken & Waffles and Sriracha. Karen Weber-Mendham, a mother from Wisconsin, was the winner of the $1 million dollar prize and bragging rights to having the winning flavor. 

Scott organized some steps for "Finding The Right Crowd", which includes soliciting suggestions from supporters for things such as new product names, encouraging people to vote on or rank a list of items or generating submissions to a contest-- all of which Lay's did. Lay's took a big leap of faith in how involved its target audiences would become in this high-stakes competition and experienced some amazing results.

Did you participate in the "Do Us A Flavor" competition? Did you try the flavors? I personally tried all three, Cheesy Garlic Bread was my favorite by far! 

Almost Reunited and It Feels So Good

There comes a time in every sorority woman's life that she finds her perfect match. No, not a boy. Her little. 

Our first photo together!

When I was going through recruitment last year, I met plenty of fabulous young women. However, Kaylee May introduced me to a girl that was the same year as us who was really looking in to becoming more involved with her pageant platform, Autism Speaks, on campus. Kaylee had known Becca for a while and I had taken anatomy with her the previous semester. Kaylee suggested I talk to her some because we both had a mutual interest in pageants. 

Kaylee and I cheering Becca on during the Miss America finals!

The moment she found out I was her big.

We started talking and I fell in love with this girl. She received a bid from Alpha Xi Delta and I became her Rose Buddy for the next week. We talked constantly, had lunch dates, studied organic chemistry and ate chips and salsa together constantly. When it came time to make our little lists, I had no doubt who would be at the top of my list. The entire sorority knew. When I finally got my call telling me who fate (or the sisters in charge of big/little pairing) had paired me with, I knew in my heart who I was paired with as soon as I answered that call. I was officially Becca Yeh's big. 
Even though I haven't been able to spend much time with her since she's became Miss Minnesota, I'm there for her whenever she needs me and she's there for me when I need her too. She became more than a sorority sister or a classmate, she's honestly one of my best friends. Just like I can't imagine going through college without my twin, Courtney, I can't imagine not having Becca there either. While we may not have been able to go through with all of the plans we had for this summer, like me traveling to Minnesota to visit and her visiting Ohio so I can drag her to Cedar Point, I have been looking forward to the moment I get to see her again. Finally, I get to see her this Friday!
I'm not sure how much time we'll be able to spend together, but I do know that no matter how much it is we'll have a blast. How can it not be when we get to spend time together? 

Teach Me How To Foursquare?

I consider myself to be pretty technologically savvy. I belong to one of the best public relations programs in the nation with super cool professors that encourage us to use the latest and greatest in technology and classmates that are quick to share when they find a super useful tool (this is where I insert my shameless plug for If This Then That, which I blogged about last week and am already in love with!). However, I ran across an app that to this day I have never tried while doing some reading today: Foursquare.

In chapter 11, David Meerman Scott discusses some ways to use Foursquare as a marketing and PR tool:

• Participate yourself by checking in and becoming the "mayor" of your establishment
• Cultivate evangelist by letting other people become mayor, which people tend to brag about, and give them special offers as a perk of being mayor
• Pitch special offers to people that pass your business by advertising that you have specials for Foursquare users only
• And finally, get fans' opinions by involving them in decisions

These all sounded like fantastic ideas to me. Unfortunately, I had no clue what he meant by any of it. The only contact I have had with Foursquare is the commercial from a couple of years ago where the guy says he's the mayor of the water cooler.

After a little bit of research, I discovered that Foursquare is a social tool that allows you to check in at places, leave tips for other people in the area, tailor your recommendations based on previous places you have visited and compete with others to earn points based on your check ins. A user can become the mayor by being the person to check in the most in a place in the last 60 days or compete to earn badges based on the amount or places you check in at. 

Making brand engagement a competition is a great way to make consumers more involved. While I don't see the point of using Foursquare in the metropolis of Ada, I would definitely use this in a larger city or on a vacation to find the best local options available.

Have you used Foursquare? What was your experience with it? Did you discover any great restaurants or venues through the app?

Scott, D. M. (2011). Real-time marketing & PR: how to instantly engage your market, connect with customers, and create products that grow your business now. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

#Justice4Daisy

In many cases of things gone viral, it's things that put smiles to our faces. Like this video of a guy singing Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" with a Gollum Voice. 

Unfortunately, not everything that spreads like online wildfire can be humorous. Sometimes, the thing that is going viral on social media makes your heart want to break in two. Daisy Coleman, a teen from Missouri, has one of these viral stories. On October 12, "The Kansas City Star" published an article online about how after her family moved to Maryville to move on from the death of her father, she was allegedly raped by a high school football star named Matt Barnett and left outside intoxicated in January. However, many people are not content to settle for Daisy to continue living her life without justice, including the internet hacker group Anonymous.

Anonymous has created a call to action in getting justice for Daisy Coleman, just as they had in a similar case in Steubenville, Ohio. A women's rights activist by the name of Courtney Cole has organized a peaceful protest that has gained the support of Anonymous that currently has over 1,000 people meeting at the Nodaway County Courthouse in Maryville, daisies in hand. This young girl is receiving outpouring support from strangers, but was met a horrendous victim-blaming culture in the place that was supposed to help her heal from the loss of her father.

But it seems that Daisy will soon have her chance at justice. Due to the negative response to Maryville's actions as a result of a CNN news report and multiple articles, cyber threats, social media posts and campaigns, Nodaway County has decided to bring in a special prosecutor to finally give Daisy's case a day in court (click to 3:30 in the video stream).  Social media, while often used for pleasure, can be used to make major changes. It is a powerful tool that can bring awareness to issues and bring results and justice to those who would not see it otherwise. 

Do you believe that extreme uses of social media are appropriate for cases such as Daisy Coleman? Do you think that groups such as Anonymous are a positive or a negative force for bringing attention to the issue? 

If This Then That

If This Then That is a smart phone app that allows you to create recipes for based on pre-existing apps on your phone. Through IFTTT, you can automatically upload any photos you Instagram or take on your regular cell phone camera to Dropbox, create reminders for each month, be sent push notifications when specific users upload photos or get text message alerts based on weather.

Besides being entirely useful in every day life (getting weather texted to your phone every morning is the ULTIMATE convenience), IFTTT can be great for professional lives. Updates on competitors or on products your company promotes can be sent to your phone automatically, any time someone hashtags a product on Instagram or Facebook you can be sent an email. The possibilities of recipes are endless. 

I've downloaded the app for myself and have created some recipes of my own, and I completely believe that this app will change how people use their cell phones. Would you be willing to try IFTTT?

Real Time Media and Public Relations

Not every company is as lucky as Oreo. This summer when they posted a photo of a rainbow stuffed Oreo cookie on their Facebook in honor of Gay Pride Month, the company stirred quite a bit of buzz. Surprisingly, the buzz was not completely negative. 

Oreo Sentiment Graph, Credit SalesForce Marketing Cloud

On social media, fans of the cookie and their stance on gay rights stuck up for the brand in comments, posts, blogs and tweets. The company did not have to handle the controversial issue on their own, their fans helped them respond to their crisis directly. 

But, due to some of the responses on the Facebook page, the post and comments that followed the post were deleted. Obviously, Oreo has not experienced any backlash. It's 2013 and the Oreo brand is still in full effect. However, Oreo's response to the post came in a timely manner to the issue when many news sources and consumers were commenting on the post. 

“We are excited to illustrate what is making history today in a fun and playful way,” the company rep said in an email to ABC News. “As a company, Kraft Foods has a proud history of celebrating diversity and inclusiveness. We feel the OREO ad is a fun reflection of our values.”

While this situation is no where near the situation United Airlines faced in the case introduced in Chapter One of "Real-Time Marketing & PR", Oreo handled the situation considerably better than United. They did not ignore the situation or make light of it, and while there were still negative responses that were highly publicized (I'm looking at you, Buzzfeed), that was not the majority of responses. 

I could not find any articles measuring a change in the brand after this post. But, Bangor Daily News perfectly summed up the best case scenario for the company: the company, which is over a century old, looks cutting edge. I believe that Oreo did what the United Airline's of the world would not because they stand firmly behind their consumers, whether they agree with their personal opinions or not. Responding firmly and quickly while being sensitive to the opinions of others cemented Oreo as a company that does not idly throw out support about issues, but a company that has beliefs it fully supports that played it smart on social media, had fans that supported them as well and prevented a larger crisis as a result. 

Scott, D. M. (2011). Real-time marketing & PR: how to instantly engage your market, connect with customers, and create products that grow your business now. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Healthy Eating Is NOT As Easy

See that face? That's the face that I usually make when thinking about vegetables. I don't "love" vegetables. I didn't grow up being forced to eat vegetables. Until I got to college, there were few vegetables I would willingly eat, including but not limited to okra (fried only), green beans and potatoes in their french fry and hash brown form. 

However, when I started school I learned that I could not survive on the food I had been eating. After a lovely freshman year of gaining the infamous "freshman 15" (which was more like the freshman 10 plus all of my muscle turning into fat) due to a year of stress eating, I realized I had to change something. Sophomore year, I occasionally went to the gym and tried to watch what I ate but I was never consistent. Junior year, I have decided to get my butt in gear.

I joined PolarFit, Ohio Northern's CrossFit club. I do Pilates on my own at home and run when we don't in class. But, most importantly, I'm changing the way I eat. I'm forcing myself to eat carrot sticks and salads, which I'm beginning to tolerate. I'm trying to eat more protein instead of carbohydrates and not let myself eat out so much. If I do eat carbohydrates, I try to eat good ones instead of nasty processed ones. This week I made the decision to actually eat as clean as I possibly can. I'm on day three of my eating change and I have already faced temptations in the form of the smell of french fries and the Oreo's in my cabinet at home. But, I've also started to like carrots. Small victories, right?

The biggest thing I've come to realize is that I have to make small changes. Substituting low carbohydrate, wheat tortillas for white corn flour tortillas, eating chicken and turkey instead of red meat and trading chips for carrots is a start. Even though I may not be perfect when it comes to eating, I try my best, and that's better than everyone else who isn't trying at all.

Greek Leadership Day

Last Thursday night, I volunteered to help our lovely PRSSA President Kelsi Rupersburg with the public relations presentation for Greek Leadership Day. She was absolutely amazing and wrote out notes and created slides for me, all Lauren Hector and I had to do was get up on stage and present. Easy, right? 

Not quite.

It was intimidating being in a room full of my peers, many of which I went through recruitment with or occasionally see out and about. Lots of the girls in the room were pharmacy with me before I changed my major. Right in the middle of the room were two Alpha Xi Delta's, Tessa and my lovely niece Macey, and a Sigma Phi Epsilon brother I went to high school in the corner that gave me a focal point for when I got nervous.

But getting up on stage and discussing public relations made me feel like I was proving myself right for changing my major. Believe me, I was scared to death once I saw some of the people in the audience. Some of the people (and I'm not naming names) were people that I felt uncomfortable around and not good enough when we had classes together. But as I looked around the room during my presentation, these were the exact same people that were taking notes and asking questions. They were interested. They cared about the things Lauren and I had to say and didn't discredit or write off our presentation as nonsense that didn't work. 

One of the things that excited me most was that there was discussion. There were representatives from almost every Panhellenic or IFC organization on campus and they helped each other. We came up with ways to creatively advertise on campus and even cornered Lauren into finding out what would bring more unaffiliated people to campus. 

Seeing people looking like they were taking something away from the presentation made me extremely happy. I was happier yet when I had a few people that weren't in the room for the presentation come up to me and say that they heard I had "killed it". As nervous as I was, I think that the presentation was a success and look forward to see how it changes how events are promoted on our campus.