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.
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:
- Using the organizations mission to define objectives
- Identifying and prioritizing audiences
- Establishing a benchmark
- Picking metrics
- Picking a measurement tool
- 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.
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!
