Gracias/ONU/week 10

This being my final post for the ONU part of my blog I wanted to take this time to thank Agozzino for teaching me tools that I will be able to use throughout my life. I know this sounds like "OH please give me an A" which it should lol just kidding but seriously this class has really taught me things that I would not have taken the time to learn on my own. Being a senior I have taken a lot of classes, some which were good and others that were not so good. Social media is by far one of the best classes I have taken in my time here. Was there a lot of work? Yes, but all of it was for a purpose. I know that because despite all of the reading and work, I got the most out of this class. In closing, if you ever have a chance to take a Social Media class, whether it is at Ohio Northern or another college, DO IT!!

Merry X-Mas!/PR/Week 10

I read an article recently that was talking about Bass Pro Shop gearing up for the biggest Christmas season ever. Bass Pro Shops across the nation are setting up a winter wonderland scenario that is geared towards families. They are putting together a magical village for kids with old-time model trains, remote control cars, Red Ryder laser arcade, Nerf soft gun range and craft activity tables every weekend, and it's all absolutely free. Families need something like this in tough times and Bass Pro Shops is the first I've seen provide a free form of family fun during the holiday season. Their plan is also PR genius. Not only will they get their customers in but they will be able to receive free advertising from local stations as well as word of mouth. The company is doing this to help sales but they are also promoting doing things as a family as well. Every company should try to follow.

Do It NOW!!!!!

F2F/Week 9/Readings

In this week's readings a part that really stuck out as important was the section detailing ways of reaching the masses, other than media outlets. At the core of public relations is the face-to-face interaction. I can understand that using media outlets for a small company would be important because they are trying to get exposure for their company, but for an established company that does not need the media attention, the old school form of face to face communication would be perfect. Massive media outlets to me feels cold and unemotional. I would like to see the CEO blog about how the company is doing instead of a campaign bragging about the company's accomplishments. Maybe I am just old school for a 21 year old, but I want to know that a company actually cares and wants me to buy their product.

I Don't BeLIEve!!/Week 9/PR

Some people give PR a bad name. On Friday Criss Angel revealed his finished product of his collaboration with Cirque du Soleil called "Believe", at the Luxor in Las Vegas. After a 5 week preview period, the reviews are in. One review from Doug Elfman said "Creatively, 'Believe' is a possibly unsalvageable 'waste of time' and a 'dead end' that literally bored some audience members to sleep." That was one of the nicer reviews. Instead of responding to the reviews in a professional way, Angel's PR spokesman said the critics were being "unfair" and "the fans are the ones Criss cares about." Way to handle the situation professionally. On Friday, October 31st the Luxor hosted a black carpet gala in which several celebrities were interviewed prior to the show. The reporters were told they were not allowed to interview them after the show. I was able to see the show when in I was in Vegas on October 18th and I can see why they did not want the reporters to interview the celebs after the show. I literally fell asleep during the performance. This is one of the worst pieces of crap I have ever witnessed. Unfortunately Criss Angel's PR practitioner has tried to "spin" the situation to make it favorable to him. You can't sprinkle sugar on crap and that is what's happening. In PR sometimes it's just a lose-lose situation and Criss Angel's Believe is a LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful ONU/Week 9/ONU

We really do have a beautiful school. I may have been brainwashed by the unbelievable weather that we had on Friday, but I took a walk around campus (a.k.a I drove around campus) and was in awe by how beautiful the grounds were. The leaves on the trees have turned colors and I do not know why, but I just felt at ease. There cannot be too many schools prettier than ours. We do pay top dollar to attend this university and it seems the school has finally put our money to use. The grounds keepers are doing their jobs. Visually our school is top notch, now if we could only do something about the wind.

Gotta do Research/Week 8/Reading

Each week in this class I feel like I get a little bit smarter. Not a lot, but a little. This week's reading, Chapter 10 in New Rules of Marketing and PR, really hit home to me as I go into the workforce. I learned through the reading that for an effective web PR campaign to work you have to first and foremost think of your audience. While reading this I thought about one of my all time favorite classes here at ONU, public speaking. In public speaking before you write a word of your speech you need to assess your target audience and try to figure out what would work best in that particular situation and what would not work. Same goes for PR campaigns, they need to take the time to see who they are trying to reach and evaluate what the best ways to reach those people are. After that, then they can send the message. By no means should a PR practitioner just send a message without doing research. I'm taking public relations research this quarter and one thing I have found out is that research is key to having a productive anything.

Rainier For President/Week 8/PR

Recent speculations have been made about Sarah Palin's wardrobe costs. Reports say that the campaign has spent $150,000 dollars on her clothes in September alone, along with thousands of other dollars spent on her hair and make up. This might be one of the most sexist things I have ever seen. Being a PR major a practitioners job is supposed to highlight the positive attributes in the client. I see no difference in this situation. This is money that has been donated to the campaign to help Senator McCain and Governor Palin win. It should not matter what they are spending it on if it is helping the cause. Governor Palin I am sure was not the one who said let me go out and drop a hundred and fifty grand on clothes. She does what the highly paid advisors think are best. If it takes that much money to make the American people perceive her as a potential Vice President, so be it. I do wonder though, if Barack Obama spent ten grand on a suit would there be this much commotion. By the way I have no bias in either side of the campaign I'm going to be voting for myself lol. RAINIER FOR PRESIDENT!!!!

Don't Call It A Comeback!/Week 8/ONU

Looks like the football team has turned things around. I don't want to brag or anything, but I guess the football team read my last blog about them. Since my post about the bears terrible start they have rattled off three straight wins. Granted they weren't against the likes of Mount Union but none the less I say a win is a win. Everyone knew the team had potential I just don't understand why it took so long for it to come to fruition. They are playing like they have nothing to lose which they don't. With four loses on the season they are out of playoff contention. Overall they have turned things around and look like a team instead of strangers playing a pick up game. If they win their final three games the polar bears could have another winning season. Hopefully some coaching changes take place next year because this team should have gone far in the playoffs. Good luck the rest of the season to the bears and way to pull it together guys.

Viral Marketing!/week 7/readings

This week's reading talked about viral marketing. Before the reading I knew very little about viral marketing, but after reading "The New Influencers" I think I know too much. With the new era of technology it is easy to see why viral marketing has become mainstream. Once YouTube became known to the masses companies started learning how to benefit from it. One of the most famous viral marketing campaigns was the coke and mentos campaign. Although coke never endorsed the campaign it sparked a world wide phenomenon, selling a lot of each product. Viral campaigns have become the 21st centuries word-of-mouth. One person puts a video up and then shows a friend and so on. Viral marketing is a genius idea; it appeals to the masses for little or no money. A recent effort was Leonardo Dicaprio's YouTube video that encouraged people to vote. In the video he instructs you to tell five people to vote and then those five people tell another five people and so on. All facets of commerce, as well as the political world, have accepted viral marketing as a viable tool.

HD Audiobook!/week 7/PR

Audio books in high definition? This week a company released its first form of an AudioMovie. The AudioMovie is the next generation of audio books. Instead of listening to a monotone ninety-year-old man who does womens voices, you can now listen to a whole cast of actors that portray each character in the book. Is this what our society is coming to? Although I am pretty stoked about this invention I feel that it may discourage students from doing, what's that thing called? Oh yeah, reading! I do not want to sound preachy but I had to suffer through reading all those books in high school, why can't future high schoolers do the same? Only time will tell if this new form of audio book will take off, but it does sound intriguing.

What is Homecoming?/week 7/ONU

What is Homecoming? I went to an all boys Catholic high school and Homecoming did not exist. What is the point? The past three years all I have seen are locals coming in and riding rides and mooching off the proverbial teet. I love the locals but I do not really feel that they like ONU that much. We have a football game that is kind of cool but besides that we have no Homecoming dance or concert. I just feel that it is incredibly unneccesary. Please if I am missing something tell me because truthfully I do not see the point. I have heard groups say that alumni come back or something along those lines. So Homecoming is a place to let the community mooch and for the school to make money off of alumni? I say the school makes Homecoming something special for everyone, not just the fraternities or the community. We pay a crap load of money to go to this wonderful school lets throw a little money our way.

PR Tools/week 6/reading

This week's reading really brought to light the amount of tools that are available in the social media world. Over the past few weeks I have learned about so many tools that it has become hard to decide which ones to use and which ones to discard. One tool that I will definitely utilize is the RSS feed. In the reading it talked a lot about RSS and how it was not currently being used to its full potential. Podcasting is also a tool that I have not had the opportunity to play with yet, but I will keep you updated. Hopefully this book puts me ahead of the curve when it comes to social media, but only time will tell. After reading this chapter I reviewed all of the various tools that I have learned thus far and listed the pros and cons for each. Almost every single one can be used in future employment. Social media has made everyone in this class ahead of the masses. In closing thank you ABD. Aggy.

Barker speaks/week 6/PR

Travis Barker was recently involved in a plane crash, which took the lives of his best friend/assistant and bodygaurd. He was also severely injured himself. Travis recently spoke to DJ AM for the first time since the accident via blog. When I found out Travis spoke for the first time on his blog I was shocked! Wow, we have come far in a social media aspect! In the old days (six months ago) this would have been published in a newspaper article or aired on a video interview, but instead he opted to write on his blog. In the past few months I have noticed a trend among celebrities. Instead of calling up MTV or Perez Hilton they just release the information or statement themselves. By doing this the artist can connect on a more personal level to his/her fans as well as not having to pay a publicist. Travis Barker was able to update his fans on his status as well as share his condolences for the lives lost in the plane crash. With a blog you get the whole story. If it were a TV interview the channel would have cut out most of what he said because of time restraints. Travis Barker inadvertently brought about awareness to the blogging world. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Where's our entertainment?/Week 6/ONU

What ever happened to having concerts on campus? I remember my sophmore year we had O.A.R. come and it was the jam. Since then all that we have had are these old performers that only our parents would care to come see. We pay a whole lot of money to go to this school and we get very minimal entertainment in return. Even if we had to pay for tickets students would still go. I say SPC steps their game up and gets a big name here in the spring. Whenever I talk to someone for SPC they say they have no money in their budget. Well do not waste it on comedians and stupid magicians. Why doesn't SPC ask the students what we want to see rather than assuming what we want to see. Ohio State has had close to ten concerts a year for free and it is not small name bands. Last year OSU had Kanye West and Rihanna. Now I don't think we could afford Kanye West or Justin Timberlake, but let's see what we can afford. Let me know what everyone thinks.

Podcasting/week 5/reading

Before Social Media class the only kind of podcast I had heard of was from I-Tunes. Technology has brought a voice to the unheard. Anybody can voice their opinion, whether right or wrong, and there are people that are willing to listen. Podcasting is basically blogging in an audio form. Nowadays everything from T.V. shows to radio shows are broad casted via the internet. We have come a long way from the old radio shows. I found in my reading that podcasts are like Tivo for radio. Anything recorded can be heard in audio form. I feel that podcasting is a more legitimate form of social media because you can hear the voice of the creeper posting rather than just his creeper words. Over the next few years look out for podcasting to breakout into the mainstream. Overall podcasting is in the early stages and is prime for the youth of America.

Do You "Believe"/week5/PR

Criss Angel, who is known for his hit TV show "Mindfreak", recently opened a live show named "Believe" in Las Vegas. The previews of this new show and the reviews over the past week are not as good as hoped. Although the show is considered in the preview stage, a time to work out the kinks, audience members were furious at what they saw. They said that everything was very predictable and that it had all been seen before. Criss Angel is known for his breakthrough illusions, but audience members said they were nowhere to be found. So far there have not been any positive reviews about this show, except to say that there is potential. Criss himself has not issued a statement but his PR representative wrote to the all-star blogger, Perez Hilton, to say that fans loved it and gave him a standing ovation. Here's hoping that everything gets straightened out by October 31st, the official opening of the show, because Criss has signed a ten year contract to perform the show 8 days a week. The bad reviews could affect ticket sales drastically. Before the internet you really had to go to a show to get the feeling of it. Now, you can get pictures, first hand accounts, and even video of the actual preformance before you go. Apparently the show, which is teamed with Cirque Du Soleil, costs $85 million to put on. Nothing that costs that much could be that bad. Criss needs to make a statement himself and address the obvious problems with the show and reassure his future ticket buyers. Nothing starts out perfect and with some fine tuning I'm sure Criss can make believers out of "Believe."

Slow Start/week 5/ONU

So it was another tough weekend for the polar bear football team, falling to 0-4 with a loss to Muskingham. I still have to give these guys credit, they play their hearts out for the pure love of the game. They do not do it for money or a scholarship they play just to play. That being said I do not know how much more this team can take. This is the first time since I have been here that they are 0-4. With the playoffs out of the picture can this team pull it together to at least finish strong? Dean Paul might be looking for a job pretty soon unless he turns this team around. In two of these games they were simply out-coached. With the players ONU has they should be at least 3-1, if not undefeated. I wish the team the best of luck throughout the year and hopefully they can rebound next year.

Web Hit Wonders!/week 4/readings

While reading one of the greatest books ever, "Citizen Marketers", I found the section about the web version of a one-hit-wonder very interesting. It struck me as odd at first and then totally made sense. If music can have one-hit-wonders, why can't the internet? The particular example that caught my eye was the song ,"Milk and Cereal", by G. Love and The Special Sauce. It struck my interest because I remember stumbling onto this song while searching videos on YouTube and actually ended up liking the group. The only downside with web one-hit-wonders is that you do not get paid like the real music versions. Although G. Love found mainstream popularity through this song, he did not get a lump sum for the millions of views. Overall, I found this chapter exciting because no longer is the ordinary person insignificant to big business. Instead of begging for a record deal, an artist can just post their music on YouTube. If you want to voice your opinion there is now an audience to listen. The next web-hit-wonder is out there and it could be you!

New Type of Advertising/week 4/PR

While surfing the web I stumbled on an article that stated that Perez Hilton, famous for his super popular blog, makes close to $54,000 a day for advertising on his website. Being in a Social Media class I found this shocking and interesting. Three years ago he was just an average person blogging about his ideas and now he is one of the richest bloggers on the web. According to Nielson, the soundscan perezhilton.com gets 196 million hits a month and people who visit his site stay there for an average of 45 minutes. I have a total of 13 followers on blogspot; I cannot even imagine having millions. Although it sounds like an easy job, Perez posts about 30 times a day! Some people will say that it is ridiculous making that much money for blogging, but if 196 million people look at his website that is 196 million people reading some company's advertisement. Is he annoying? Yes, but everybody needs a gimmick and he has found his. He started out just like me and every other ordinary blogger, maybe somebody in my class is the next Perez Hilton. This is the new way of advertising, forget magazines and commercials, advertising on blogs is going to be the next big thing, I guarantee it.
www.perezhilton.com

White Bear/week 4/ONU

I recently was talking to a friend of mine and he said that he paid $3.50 for a Mountain Dew energy drink at White Bear. How can they legally make him pay that much? It is not like we are at a Reds game or something. This school makes so much money off of the students it is not even funny and yet they continue to gouge prices. Why doesn't the school put the students first? Profit always comes first with this school. Yes without money this school cannot go on but we pay so much to go to this school and I feel that I am not getting my full worth out of it. The students need to organize and do something about it, if people refuse to go to White Bear and the cafeteria they will be forced to do something about it. I'm sick of sitting back and letting the school monopolize on the situation at hand. Unless they change the prices I will never go back to White Bear.

Gutenberg invented the Blog!

While reading Chapter 4 in Citizen Marketers it got me thinking. If it weren't for Johann Gutenberg there would be no Facebook, MySpace, Blogspot, or possibly civilization. With his invention of the printing press he was able to give the world the opportunity to learn what was going on in other parts of the globe. The printing press made it possible for people to express their ideas without censorship, leading the way for the reformation. Hundreds of years later and blogs are the same concept just with better technology. People use blogs the same way those in Gutenberg's time used the printing press, to express ideas. We, as americans, take a lot of stuff for granted, especially technology. Gutenberg literally paved the way for today's technology. Without the printing press we could still be stock typing letters and who wants that.

New Facebook

Sad to say but it looks as though the new Facebook is here to stay. Recently compete.com did a survey to find the amount of users who switched from the old facebook to the new and the results baffled me. In the past month over 50 million users, which is about half of the entire Facebook, have switched to the new format. I thought that facebook was suppose to be for people to interact, now that big industries are developing ways to market their products on it it is becoming a platform for companies to advertise. I suppose it is the chain of events, something becomes successful then big industries find out how to make money off of it. Unfortunately anybody who liked the old Facebook is out of luck. Facebook has made it impossible to be friends with someone who does not have the most up to date version. Facebook really shows how much social media is a part of ours and companies' lives. It is unfortunate though that something that starts out as a simple idea to help the little guy gets abused by the man.

Unwanted Classes

Looking for spanish classes online I began to wonder, why do I need a foreign language class to graduate? I took 2 years of spanish in high school and all I remember is me llamo Brandon, that's it. College is supposed to be a place where you learn the skills that will help you in your future career. Foreign languages are crucial to society but I never plan on being in an environment where I will have to know another language. I live in America where everyone speaks english or at least should. No one in college remembers anything about the language they study except how to say their name and ask where the bathroom is. Why do universities keep trying to stick unwanted, unneccasary classes that students are not interested in down our throats. Why can't universities listen to their students and give them what they want instead of charging them $40,000 to learn how to say el cuarto de baño. College is supposed to be about the students so why not listen to us.

Best artist you've never heard of.

www.facebook.com/people/Brandon_Rainier/36002195

PR 3.0

After reading Chapter 15, The Path to Great PR, I realized that times are changing. In the article Brian Solis, one of the "Founding Fathers" of PR 2.0 talked about the changes within social media. While reading I started to get really excited about the possibilities for public relations majors. PR 2.0 is geared toward the younger generation, with blogging, youtube, facebook etc. there are endless possibilities for the younger generations to expand on old ideas. One of the topics I found interesting in the article was the fact that businesses were not utilizing social media to benefit their company. My only hope is that businesses realize they need the younger generation of ideas in order to thrive in the marketplace. With talks of PR 3.0 on the horizons, businesses as well as students better learn to perfect 2.0 quick.

Stalkbook

I found this article and had to blog about it. In a recent survey 39 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds would quit their job if they couldn't access Facebook. Reading the article I was shocked at the percentage. Being a college student Facebook is a nice place to talk to friends that you may not otherwise talk to, but to quit your job because you couldn't look at what Timmy did over the weekend, get serious. I used to always laugh when my parents would say "you don't know how good you got it, your generation is spoiled." After reading this article I'm going to have to side with my parents. In the words of our parents we need to grow up.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/tve/?p=338

9 Weeks To Go

One week down, nine to go. My first week went as smoothly as possible. Classes were good, friends are great, and I am still engaged lol. The only problem I had was all of the freshmen in the weight room. When I work out I like it to be quiet and not crowded. Forty-five minutes in and out. This week was the first time I left the weight room because it was too busy. ONU needs to either build a much bigger gym or set some allotted times for upper classmen to work out. The school will build a 50 million dollar hotel that the students won’t even use, yet they can’t build us a bigger gym. Something’s wrong with that picture.

Bad PR?

Is there really such a thing as bad press? Recently Oprah took some heat for refusing to have Vice President nominee Sara Palin on her show. As a result of this statement there have been boycotts of her show and magazine. The sad thing with all of this is that Oprah’s ratings and sales have gone up since the announcement. Like the old adage goes “there’s no such thing as bad press.” I feel that she is wrong by not allowing Miss Palin on her show because she is supposed to be a supporter of women and women’s independence. Yet, she refuses to have on her show a woman who could potentially be the first woman Vice President in the history of the United States. Oprah needs to bite the bullet and give her viewers what they want and that is a Sara Palin interview.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/15/wynter.oprah.boycott.cnn

1st Day!!!

Another year in Ada. Coming back down Main St. there seems to be some new additions to my lovely little town. My first shock was that there is a new burrito restaurant. From what I hear it is a knock off of Chipotle but I say the more the marrier with restaurants. In addition to the burrito place is that the McDonalds is almost ready to serve delicious breakfast. Ada is starting to thrive into a little metropolis.