Jameis Winston: Close Call

Jameis Winston is the current quarterback for the football at Florida State University and is a Heisman Trophy favorite this year. While all that is good to hear the young quarterback was accused of raping a female student and had faced felony charges after the accusations being made almost a year ago. 

Initially, the accuser told campus police on the night of the incident, but since it was an off campus incident, it was immediately taken to the Tallahassee police. During the process, the victim's attorneys were critical of them and in turn caused the police to be defensive. In their defense they presented the following timeline:

January 10th- Winston was identified as the alleged attacker (incident happened on 12/7/12)

January 15th- Rape kit was sent to the state crime lab

January 23rd- Winston denied to be interviewed by police

NOTE: The dates are given from last year/early this year

This past February the case was put in an "open/inactive" status because the victim didn't wish to prosecute. However, her attorney denied that she wanted to drop the case. Today, it was announced that the state attorney will not be pressing charges against Winston. However, over the last few weeks the state attorney took a look into the case and interviewed the accuser and a month ago it was reported by ESPN.com that the DNA found in the accuser's underwear was Winston's DNA which  is where the disagreement on whether it was consensual or rape. 

Keeping all that in mind the state attorney decided today (12/5) that Winston would not be charged. If Winston had been charged with a felony by the state, he would of been suspended from the football team immediately and ineligible under the FSU athletics Department policy. 

Winston and the Seminoles need to beat Duke on Saturday for the ACC championship and to get to the BCS National Championship at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 6th. We will find out sometime next week if he will be our next Heisman Trophy winner. 

Jameis Winston not charged (Article Courtesy of ESPN.com)

Taking a look at Non-Profits

Katie Paine and any good PR practitioner could tell you that relationships are key in any organization, but especially in non-profits. Non-profits rely heavily on people volunteering and willing to donate.

Measuring how these relationships can impact a non-profit is important and Katie gives 3 reasons for the importance.

1. Social Media: Social media has brought out new ways to reach community stakeholders and not measuring will provide no judgement on which will be most effective. There are also a number of easy no-cost or low-cost tools to create communities in order to stay in touch with stakeholders. 

    Example: Prom Genie, an Indianapolis based non-profit, uses its 

    Facebook page to tell people about it's events, where donations 

   can be made and how they can be made, and how to apply for 

   scholarships. 

2. Metrics: Recently, non-profits have to act like for-profits because of the recent financial difficulties when it comes to measuring. Non-profits are keep those difficulties in mind by adding board members in from the for-profit sector.

      Example: Prom Genie  brought in someone with a background in compliance, business

     development, and management that has worked with big name companies like Wells Fargo and 

     Wellpoint. 

3. Accountability: In turn, donors and contributors are increasingly demanding on what their gifts are being used for by the organizations. 

      Example: Prom Genie provides high school junior and senior girls with prom dresses and 

      accessories. They also provide three seniors with scholarships every year, which makes having 

      financial donations very important. However, getting the motto, "It's more than just a dress", across 

      to donors is very hard because of the name. Board members have to be detailed in telling donors 

      that they provide scholarships and are also looking into having a college fair this year. 

Prom Genie Website

Prom Genie on Facebook

Turkey Day: The Break Was Needed

As the semester ends papers, projects, presentations and other things seem to pile up. In midst of all that the week off for Thanksgiving was needed to catch up on sleep, assignments, and family time. 

This year even though I had a good amount of homework to do, it was really important to me that I got to see my family. I think the importance of family was made even stronger this year because of the crazy summer my family in losing people close to us back to back. But, I also think it brought both my extended and immediate family closer which was needed.

My extended family came over to my house on Thursday night around four and all the women warmed up the food and set it up in a buffet style to make it easier to move everyone out the kitchen. Before we ate dinner we all gathered to say what we were thankful for, the underlying theme was love, and my dad ended with a prayer. Then we all ate our weight in food while watching football then the fun began. After dinner there was a little bit of everything going on like: playing cards, watching TV, the younger kids were running around, and some people ended up helping me take my braids down. 

This year was different because I got to bring my boyfriend with me for my (extended/mom's) family to meet. I think two of my cousins, both male and older, didn't seemed to like the idea of a boyfriend. One of them didn't realize I was 21 when he asked my mom was I even allowed to date, which was really funny. Outside of introducing my boyfriend to everyone, the most eventful event of the night was having my cousins and mom help me take down my braids. My mom cut them while my cousins and I took them out. It was definitely a long process. 

But, the way the night ended was the best. I got a chance to spend it with my cousins, Savanna ("Vanna") and Davonte ("DJ"). The three of us were raised like siblings because we were born so close together. We slowly allowed our significant others into our group and include them in our hang out time. The three of us always decide to do something during the times our family gets together so we can just do 20-something stuff. This year we stayed up late after dinner to talk and watch movies. 

Food for thought: You can't ever take the moments you have with those you love for granted because they can become memories quickly

Threats to Your Reputation

What makes up a company's reputation?  Paine describes it as the relationships that a company has with its public(s). It's what people think of when they here about the brand, it determines if people will buy or recommend the products or services offered, if they'd want work or invest in/for the company.

The trust, commitment and satisfaction that companies try to build takes awhile to build up, but can be lost in seconds. Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier came up with four principles to help in a crisis situation.

1) The Relationship Principle says that the company can go through it issues and crises easier if it has established good, long-term relationships with its target audiences who are at risk from the company's behaviors.

2) The Accountability Principle says a company needs to accept responsibility at the time of the problem even if was not their fault.

3) The Disclosure Principle says that during a crisis the company must give all the information it has and promise to give the information it doesn't have soon after they receive it.

4) The Symmetrical Communication Principle says that at the time of a crisis the company needs to think about the publics interest to be just as important as its own, meaning that the company should have a conversation with publics and to practice CRS when in crisis.

A company that failed at keeping up their reputation was Dell in a crisis called Dell Hell. A blogger wrote about a problem he had been having and a large group of other customers commented with similar stories. The consequences were that the story spread through social media then moved to mainstream media and their stock price dropped. Dell went through many years of listening to customers, apologizing and working to fix their computers to restore its reputation. It took a number of hefty discounts for people to come back to the company.

New Holiday Ad Campaign by Gap

The Story:
All 866 Gap retail stores in the US, the online store and even the company's Facebook page are all showing of the new ad with the  Indian-American designer and actor, Waris Ahluwalia posing with artist and filmmaker Quentin Jones. The holiday 2013 campaign started a couple weeks and has received nothing but compliments for bringing diversity into the ads.

The Response: People have been raving on the company's Facebook page about how much people are accepting and taking in the ad.

One person said, "Thanks for honoring Sikh Culture in your new ad campaign, Gap. #Respect."Another said, "It felt awesome walking past this poster wearing turban…! #sikhi #proud." The Ad also had some good feedback on Twitter.

 My Response: I love seeing cultures being excited that their being celebrated in the media. It's a nice change from the horrible pictures that our society as a whole can paint of a specific group.

Take a minute to think about how Middle Eastern people were/are seen since 9/11 and look at these comments from people and try not to smile at the happiness these people are that their culture, their heritage is being recognized as something good.

Yes, there is still racism and hate that we as a country need to work on but this story shows that while there is still work to be done some are making the effort to push for a better tomorrow.

                                                                         

Last Football Game of the Season

This weekend was the last ONU football game and I can honestly say besides a few hiccups during the game I had a blast.

I went with my Polar Pals, a group of students from Korea, my best friend Hannah, her little brother and was later joined by my boyfriend's family. The first half of the game I sat with my friends and explained to the international students the basics of the game. They also were very interested to know when my boyfriend was going in and thought it was cool that I knew a lot of the players.

The first "hiccup" of the game though was when my boyfriend went down after he ran into one of his blockers close to halftime. He just went down and all of the international students immediately asked if both him and I were ok. I explained to them it was most likely his shoulder. On the other end of the bleachers where his family was sitting there was a little less concern as his mom yelled out, "Are you are or are you injured?" Her thing is if your only hurt you can still play and that has been her thing since he played Pop Warner.

As far the game it was really emotional because it was senior day. The game started out with the announcer recognizing all of the seniors and their parents. This game like homecoming showed a different side to the guys and they were laying it all on the field and giving no mercy to Otterbein. They were up by quite a few touchdowns by the half and Otterbein was on their third quarterback.

For the second half it was just Hannah, her little brother, and boyfriend's family. We were so into the game because the guys were doing so well and then a few minutes into the third my boyfriend went down hurt again at the one yard line. This time he could say he was injured. The trainers walked off with him after they helped him up but the good part is we scored right after that.

The team put everything they had into the game and won 42-21. Then after the game was one of the most emotional times. The seniors were hugging all the underclassmen and thanking them for a good season and making sure their last game was a win. But, the most chilling sight was seeing one of the seniors laying on the 50 yard line, it was a Kodak moment and left me wondering where were the campus camera people when you need them.

Communities according to Katie Paine

Chapter 9 of Paine's book is about how to conduct relationships. She starts out talking about who are "neighbors" to an organization and why they're important.

Social media has given the word community a new look because it's no longer just the people and other organizations close by one's own organization. Now, people have to take into account virtual communities. These virtual communities will include of any group of stakeholders that has influence over the business. That includes internal communities such as customers, vendors, and partners as for external communities including advocates and nongovernmental organizations.

Businesses also need to take into account who and what is most important to measure. Majority of organizations focus more of their PR efforts on their key audiences and it's not until they have an issue that their key audiences aren't the only people that need to be cared about. In business today it is expected to some type of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and simply doing a few speeches doesn't fit. For example, one way the NBA takes care of the CSR is by having NBA Cares in place where teams get involved in the global community in some way. The key to their mission is to address social issues such as education, health and wellness, youth and family development. They've raised over $225 million dollars in the last 8 years and have put in 2.6 million hours of hands on time to the organization.

In any area businesses can't think that just saying the right things and keeping the rains tight on their messages can keep up their image because there is always someone waiting to catch the flaw in what is being said or done.


NBA Cares Background

Is Un-Safe Sex becoming a Problem?

Safe sex is great sex, better wear a latex cuz you don't want that late text... that I think I'm late text.

 Lil Wayne

I understand that Lil Wayne might not be the best person to get sex advice from, but it might help younger generations to start practice sex safely. Recently, an article, (No) Condom Culture: Why Teens Aren't Practicing Safe Sex, published in Time's Health and Family section discussed the safety of young people having sex. Some of the stats and comments were kind of a shock. Katy Steinmetz, author of the article, starts of stating that in the 90's things were done better including talking about sex. 

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) said the amount of students using condoms hit it's high point of 60% 10 years ago and has slowed since then and it's going down in some demographics. According to the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada around half of those sexually active in college aren't using condoms. Other sources are saying that after the first time teens are inconsistent with their condom usage. 

Another issue is sex education because it was more of a big deal with older generations, but in the last year the Guttmacher Institute has said that there are nearly 90% of high schools are talking to students about abstinence and STD's, but less than 60% are talking about contraception methods. Which could explain the reason for the fact that half of the new STD infections are occurring in young people. Americans between 15 and 24 are contracting gonorrhea and chlamydia four times faster than the general population.

In the 90's America was in the midst of the AIDS epidemic which caused condom usage to rise. The 90's had "poster children" for HIV/AIDS such as Ryan White and Magic Johnson in the media and now we have people making songs encouraging sex being played quite consistently. Teenagers of today didn't grow up when all that was going on. Laura Kann, an expert in youth risk behaviors at the CDC, said, "They young people of today know HIV is a manageable, chronic disease,"... "It's not something that can kill you in their eyes. So that leads, most likely, to an attitude that it's not something that they have to protect themselves from."

The CDC has also found that some schools are no longer pushing the safe-sex lessons that were once in place. In places like Alabama, Alaska and Florida, fewer public school are teaching how to get a hold of condoms and the importance of the.  However, there have been setbacks because of the recession, but in places that have money to provide free condoms, health departments haven't seen safe sex increase. 

My opinion is that if the CDC, community leaders, schools, and parents are having such concerns how and why is it that they can't come up with a way to get the point across that their are problems can come from sex. Yes, I understand that as kids, teenagers and young adults, we are going to do our own thing. But, I also feel that from personal experience and shows like 16 and Pregnant that parents are becoming younger and younger. Adults, not all but some, need to stop worried about being our friends and focus on being the adults in our lives by giving us some instruction on how to protect ourselves. 

We need to find the resources to put programs in place that majority of parents, schools and community leaders with the help of the CDC. Promote them and make the best use of them. It may not be what everyone wants but it really comes down to what image do you want your family, school, community, etc to portray from the outside. 

Baby, it's a fact, that once it's gone you'll never get it back/Hold on, to your innocence, use your common sense 

 Lyfe Jennings 

Lil' Wayne lyrics (Lollipop Remix)

Lyfe Jennings Lyrics (S.E.X)
(No) Condom Culture Article

Drake was Wrong about New Friends

Recently, ONU  started this new program on campus called Polar Pals. It pairs selected second year up students with first year international students to help them get acclimate to the campus. As veteran ONU students we are required to meet with our pal or pals for an hour a week and record how each experience went and there are some required events.

The first required even was reveal night, each international student was called down to the front of the Moot Court Room followed by their pal meeting them there. I have two pals this year, Geuna (NaNa) from Korea and Thais from Brazil. After we found out who the other was we got in groups with other pals to go on a campus (photo) scavenger hunt and ended the night with a potluck.

Geuna, myself, her roommate (Heejung) and her pal (Kristen) all had dinner tonight to get to know each other. Heejung taught Kristen and I how to make seaweed rolls and how they are different from sushi. She told us that the difference is how the rice is prepared and the raw fish is only used for sushi. So we had three types of seaweed rolls and a spicy noodle dish that Geuna made. We ended up talking for two hours learning about each other and figuring out other times we all can out on again. Next time,  we all plan to go to the football game on Saturday together along with Thais and some other international students

.

I'm really excited though to get to know these two girls as well as the other people involved.

Bullying in the NFL?

Basis of the story: For the past few days all you've heard on most sports based shows is the trouble in Miami concerning two of the Dolphins offensive linemen, an NFL team, Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito. The issue being discussed is the alleged bullying of Martin from Incognito.
     
Incognito's Point of view:  Incognito talked to ESPN's James Walker, telling him that he (Incognito) was "shocked" and "betrayed" by the accusations from Martin. Walker reported that the linemen felt has though the two of them were friends and held the role of a "tough love older brother".


Background on Incognito:
Incognito was drafted in 2005 by the St. Louis Rams after going to school at Nebraska. He was released from the Rams in 2009 and picked up by the Buffalo Bills for a year (2009) before being picked up by the Dolphins in 2010.


Others' Point of view:
A former teammate, Josh Brown, who is the current kicker for the Giants is no stranger to Incognito. Brown played with Incognito at the University of Nebraska and again in St. Louis. Josh remembers the lineman being, "somebody who's really got some demons that are out of the building," and that this was no surprise. Brown went on to say, "None of it shocks me,"... "I don't know any details obviously. The league hasn't released anything. But Richie seems to be a person with a tortured soul. He's had these issues for quite awhile, and it's sad." He also said he didn't remember their being any big issues with Richie while with the Rams, but  was released by them in 2009.

NY Daily News reported that while with the Rams, Incognito was referred to as one of the dirtiest player in the league. This past Monday, a former coach of the Colts, Tony Dungy said that Incognito was on the team's DNDC, Do Not Draft because of Character,  list before the 2005 NFL draft. Former (Kansas City) Chiefs GM and (New England) Patriots player-personnel vice president, Scott Pioli, said he didn't want him when he was coming out of college and he didn't want him now.

However, not everyone saw him as someone negative. Ryan Tannehill, quarterback for the Dolphins, told the news on Wednesday, "If you asked Martin who his best friend is on the team two weeks ago, he'd say Richie Incognito,"... "It's tough for us to sit here and here all that when we have each others' backs."

Another teammate, tackle Tyson Clabo who also spoke to the news on Wednesday said, "What's perceived is that Richie is this psychopath racist, and the reality is Richie was a pretty good teammate,"... I don't know why (Martin is) doing this. And the only person who knows why is Jonathan Matin."

Which every side sways the public more didn't really matter because currently Incognito is indefinitely suspended and Martin has taken what seems to be a leave.

My Point of view: Before I give my opinion, I'd like to state that I don't know all of the details because every story that has come out either has very little detail itself and/or has a contradictory story to others. Some parts of the story make it seem like this guy (Incognito) has been the image that media is painting and when you speak to current teammates they don't see the same guy. Honestly, with the given information and the different stories that are out, I feel like Richie was a guy that got to caught up in the culture of the NFL. The name calling and the trash talking went to far and his teammate's feelings weren't taken into account. Now, by no means am I saying what he did is right because I feel as though he does need to make an apology to Martin and that this could've been a situation that spiraled out of control and should've been handled privately.

Richie Incognito feels 'shocked and betrayed' by Jonathan Martin

Richie Incognito sent Dolphins teammate Jonathan Martin threatening, racially-charged texts and voicemails:report

Bullying accusations against Richie Incognito don't surprise Giants kicker Josh Brown

Dolphins players defend Incognito, question Martin in bullying case

Oh What a Social World We Live In

Social media had changed the way we have done many things and has cause a need for people to change their perspective on how they present their businesses. 

Katie Paine gives us a three part social media revolution or 3 areas where she thinks that our thought process needs to shift because of social media.

      1. Timeliness has been redefined

               -There's been a change in how we think about time in the business world now because 

               responding to people within a day or two is no longer thought to be responsive or responding 

               in real time. Katie suggests that responding before it goes viral. Brand monitoring should be a 

               daily process if you aren't doing it hourly. 

                     - One example of this going wrong was Domino's Pizza. A video about the less than 

                      desirable conditions in one of their restaurants went viral and the communications office 

                      didn't respond until 48 hours later. In that time they sales had dropped significantly.

                             -That leads perfectly in to crisis communication because you need to prepared to give 

                             a quick response. Companies need to have their brand influencers identified before 

                            problems come up and be aware of possible things they can/will say something about. 

      2. The role of marketing and communications has been redefined

                -Social media and the internet in general has given us the opportunity to ask friends and 

                 others for their opinions before decided on things like where we should go to dinner, what 

                 movie we should go see, etc. 

                     -A personal example, my family and I spend a good amount of time in Chicago, but when 

                     we go we always try to find different restaurants to try instead of going to our staples the 

                     whole time. So, our main tools are Yelp! and Open Table. We just plug in our current 

                     location and look up places close by and we pick a few that sound good and go through 

                     the reviews. One weekend we found a restaurant for Sunday brunch, Table 52, that was 

                     located in  a spunky area away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. We chose it 

                     because of the description as well as the raves of the desserts and the untraditional takes  

                     on traditional brunch foods. And I can say their take on Shrimp and Grits was REALLY 

                    good. 

 Table 52 (52 West Elm St. Chicago)

          

      3. Most definitions of success are irrelevant

              -Success based on the number of eyeballs or impressions in the world of social media is hard 

               to keep up with and really doesn't matter. Those of us study Public Relations have had the 

               next phrase shoved in our face countless times, but it's important ---> 

               RELATIONSHIPS ARE KEY!  Measuring them by engagement is the best way to count 

              success in social media. 

                 -I think I've used this example before but I'll use it again. Over the summer I got a new 

                  laptop from Apple and my little brother got my old one. At Apple they transfer all the stuff 

                  you have on one laptop/computer to the new one, which is helpful (my first impression of 

                  service). Until you find out that your supposed to turn off your iCloud after a good chunk of 

                 your contacts are gone. I spoke to two people the night that happened and lost my contacts 

                 right after Apple told me how to fix the problem. So sensing my frustration (and countless 

                 angry tweets while this is all going on) they hooked me up with a "geek", they use the word             

                 Genius, in a higher position the next morning. I told him my problem and he walked me 

                 through the same process from the night before which of course led to the same ending, he 

                 tried it again but with an extra step and then gave me his email, phone number, work hours, 

                 and told me that I needed to contact him personally anytime I had problems with any of my 

                 Apple products. 

The Last ONU Away Football Game, Another Road Trip, and Cookies: OH MY!

Well today away game of the ONU football season at Willmington! And that meant another road trip!

I started the road trip off by spending the night with my best friend, Hannah, and her family watching her little brother's first high school playoff game.

Even though they lost we still ended up having fun. Hannah, "Lil' Hammond" (her little brother), and I ended the night with an interesting McDonald's trip. It was interesting because Hannah put her food on the roof of her car so she could open the door and as she got in she only brought in her drink. As we drove away she realized she didn't have her food and we had to turn around. We found her fries all over the street and her burger sitting messily in her bag. That ended up being the joke of the past two days. 

Today, we started it off by going to Shuler's Bakery, which is a Springfield (OH) staple, they have the best iced pumpkin cookies, but instead we got donuts to eat on the way to the ONU football game. This game against Wilmington was the  football team's last away game. They did so well! They had quite a lead at halftime and came out of the locker room after ready to go and even more excited to play. It was so contagious. They had a couple quarterback sneaks, an interception and lots of big hits from the defense. "Da Bears" ended up winning 52-10! Sadly next week is the last game of the season. The boys finish the season at home against Otterbein and it's rumored that they might play under the (new) lights. 

There's a Difference between Counting and Measurement

Katie Paine makes it very clear that counting and measuring are very different in her book Measure What Matters. 

Paine describes counting as simply adding things up and getting a total. As for measurement involves much more than that. She describes measurement as follows:

• Taking the totals (from counting) analyzing what they mean
• Using the meaning to improve business practices
• Provides the data necessary to make sound decisions
• Helps set priorities, allocate resources, and make choices
• Without it
• hunches and gut feelings prevail
• mistakes get made and no one learns from them 

Paine then goes further into some of those items as well as others to describe why they are important.

• It helps Allocate Budget and Staff
• Gain a better understanding of the Competition
• a company needs to know how they "stack up against' rivals
• measurement gives insight into competitive strengths and weaknesses 
• Strategic Planning
• Measurement Gets Everyone to Agree on a Desired Outcome
• a company can't decide what form a measurement program is going to take without an agreed set of goals
• that reason alone maybe a reason to start measuring 
• Measurement Reveals Strengths and Weaknesses
• can compare data to see what strategy works best in certain situations
• Measurement Gives a Reason to say "No"
• making decisions base on your gut rather than data leads to an overworked staff and unclear priorities 
• data on results of previous programs, frequently gain the leverage needed to turn down requests that will be a waste of time or resources

After reading, it seems as if I never realized the number of things that could be measured, what should be measured, and how those measurements could affect an organization. I found myself falling into some of the myths that Katie pointed out. For example, #2 focuses on the idea that measurement will create more work for employees. It seems reasonable, but if a company doesn't measure or keep track of a budget that is where more work comes in.

OMG Batman, It's Halloween in Ada

Well, I haven't been out that much this year and what's a better weekend then Halloween. I spent Halloween night in Walmart helping my boyfriend to find a mask to wear with his Spider-Man shirt, he took from me, and add some things to my Catwoman costume.

To start off the weekend, my best friend, her roommate and I ate spaghetti and garlic bread while watching TLC's Bride Day shows on last night. Tonight, her and I are going to one of the football houses, the Goat House, for their  Halloween party (she's the Batman to my Catwoman) and to help them celebrate their win today. It also is my second weekend of being legal so we are also going to celebrate that by trying some stuff we found on Pinterest.

So, I'm excited to see what tonight holds here in the A-d-a. Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Costumes: What is too far?

This week as I scrolled through my Twitter timeline, I found one of my followers/"followees"extremely bothered by one of his retweets and out of curiosity I went to check it out. When I went to look at it,  I  instantly caught his irritation. Two of the three people in the picture were representing George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. The kid who was supposed to be Trayvon Martin is in Blackface with a hoodie with a "blood spot" where his heart is located while his friend wears a hoodie with "Security Watch" in iron letters across the front as he held his hands in the shape of a gun to "Trayvon's" head (the picture above). 

As I looked at the picture, it was hard to breathe because I couldn't gather the thoughts to even begin to understand how that would ever be ok in someone's mind. The level of insensitivity for the family or how this could raise the level of tension from the case didn't seem to be thought about. Along with the picture I also began to see links and statuses about related topics. One post that caught my eye was a chart to tell if your costume was racist (Is Your Costume Racist? Chart) . 

Another picture that was originally posted on Twitter is slowly making its rounds to other social networks and I found it on Facebook. It's two girls  in BlackFace, but this time with a caption using the n-word. All I want to know is when did making a mock of someone's death, whether you agree with circumstances of the trial and/or situation, ever ok and what where are the parents. Seeing things like this and the constant debate of whether using the term "Redskins" as a team name definitely makes one wonder if  racism every really faded away in the first place. 

Whoa I'm turning 21... In Ada?

It's my birthday! Now, I've spent every year for the last 3 years in Ada, but this one is a little more of a milestone than the last two. I'm celebrating my 21st!

So far it's been a little slow with classes and completing homework before the weekend gets started. And the one question I keep getting asked is, "What do you have planned when your done with classes and things?", and the most excitement I have been able to tell people is hanging out with my family and boyfriend. Now, yes I'm extremely grateful that my family made the little over 3 hour drive to spend a cold weekend in "The Village", but at 21 most people are doing something more exciting to ring in this monumental day. 

Enough of being a "Debbie Downer" because my birthday fell on a Friday and I only had two of my three classes today! On top of that one of my groups of friends is planning on doing something with me before we all go out and party tomorrow night. So I hope the football team can get another win to help get some of the campus in a good mood to help the party atmosphere.

Social Media and Business

Real-Time Marketing and PR, Chapter 13: Let Them Communicate Now tells us that social networking is here to stay and one way or another employees are going to find ways to communicate in real time.

Scott starts by saying he understands why companies don't want to give in to letting employees use social media/networks. His gives three reasons on why companies prohibit real-time communications. Those reasons: 

                 1. People may say something inappropriate and harm the company's reputation

                 2. Twitter is just inane chitchat- no serious business happens there

                 3. If people are online, t will take too much of their time 

He then follows that up with the fact that real-time communication is here to stay and companies can either embrace it and grow or stay behind. 

An example of a company that embraced real-time communication is IBM. However, something that helps them try to curb issues is a real-time communication policy. IBM requires that employees be who they are; be thoughtful about how they present themselves in online social networks; respect copyright and fair use laws; protect confidential and proprietary information; add value; don't pick fights; and don't forge your day job. Scott thinks they're most important point is that employees use first word singular for their posts. That's because if "we" is used readers might think that employees are giving a formal corporate announcement, even if they aren't authorized to talk about product launches.

An example on the other end of the spectrum is a local cleaners in my home town. They tried to embrace real-time communication, but employees were more focused on using social networks for purely being social and not helping the business by spreading the word about the business or helping customers in a timely manner. Now, the owner has made it so if you aren't in an upper-level position (ex. one of the two owners or general manager) then you are denied internet access.

Scott developed 8 steps or ways for companies to implement guidelines for real-time communication after discussing IBM.

1. Get initial agreement from stakeholders that such guidelines are required.
1. Explain the importance of communicating in real time and the need for comprehensive rules governing what can be done at work.
2. Select a team of about six people to draft the guidelines.
1. Find people who are active communicators from different areas of the company.
3. Study any relevant corporate guidelines already in place.
1. Many of the issues to be addressed may already be covered by the guidelines.
4. In creating guidelines closely study IBM's Social Computing Guidelines and others like it. 
1. Adapt them to fit your regulatory environment, corporate culture, and marketplace. 
5. Share your draft guidelines with stakeholders and get their sign-off.
1. If you started with sufficient up-front buy-in this should go smoothly.
6. Incorporate feedback without getting bogged down by process.
1. You don't want the project to die from endless editing.
7. Publish the guidelines on internal sites, and if you, can externally, the way IBM has.
8. Communicate the guidelines to every in your organization until it becomes second nature. 

Guidelines let employees know they have the freedom to communicate in real-time when they are awarded the opportunity.

Northern and Social Media

This weekend I learned just how helpful Northern, as a whole and individual students,  could be with their use of social media/real-time communication while making my Storify.

During our (Aggie's Social Media Principles Class) live tweet assignment I found it hard to stay focused on tweeting during the game because I LOVE football. Something that was extremely helpful was Ohio Norther Sports Twitter page (@ONUsports) because if I missed a play I could easily quote the tweet before I retweeted and it  allowed me to double check that I was tweeting the right player.

Another page that Northern used that was helpful is the Ohio Northern Sports on Facebook. It help provide pictures for my Storify captions. 

Not only did it meet my needs in that way but ONU's (general) Facebook, even allowed me to catch up on events that I missed out on during the weekend. I was able to look at pictures and comments from events like the Sig Ep Balloon Glow that helped a local Boys and Girls Club and the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. 


Homecoming 2013: ONU v. Marietta (Storify Link)

ONU Homecoming 2013

This weekend the Polar Bears put a win against Marietta with a score of 45-0 after 2 tough losses against Mount Union and Baldwin Wallace.

This game I arrived a lot earlier than usual and had some time to watch the team warm-up. As they warmed up it seemed like all I heard was, "It's a good day to be a Polar Bear," or "Today's our day boys." The guys had no crowds to hype them up or to impress they were just ready to play. They all seemed so focused and on one accord  One visual that was great to see was they chant they do as they do jumping jacks  (clip up above). It then translated very well when the first whistle blew for kick-off. 

Every time the guys had a play that took either line out of the game, those on the side line made sure they all felt the love to get it together. It just stop their either after every big play the celebration was huge. Ryan Reid, Senior Defensive Back, broke up two of Marietta's chances of a touch down and all you hear was "Wooooo" from the end zone as his teammates tackled him in excitement. They weren't they only people excited though. The fans were just as into the game. I sat in front of one player's family and they had a response to every play.  Hopefully with this explosive game the guys can keep it up and win out the rest of the season.

Next game on the schedule: John Carroll at 1:30 pm 

Real-Time Marketing and PR: Chapter 9

Scott spends this Chapter 9 talking about crowdsourcing or outsourcing a task to a group of people.

Everyday examples of this crowdsourcing is audience voting, by text messaging or calling in,  that competition television shows like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars does to find out which contestants are going home. A BIG example is the BrandBowl 2010, an idea was stared by Mullen, an ad agency, and Radian 6, an engagement provider. Together, they used Web-based crowdsourcing techniques, monitoring and measuring opinions, and ranked ads as the game was played.

Brandbowl 2010 collected a little less than 100,000 tweets during the Super Bowl to determine the overall rank of all the ads and the rank was based on a composite score. The score was dependent on volume and sentiment. The opinions of tweets were used to get a net sentiment score to measure if the fans' reactions were positive or negative. To differentiate between positive and negative tweets  Radian6 built a reference library of examples that assigned values to language used in tweets to sort distinctions and colloquial usage. In the end of all the processing Doritos and Google had the top ads after the game rather than giving the results the next day in the paper.  Although this all sounds great, Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen, co-creator of BrandBowl 2010, described crowdsourcing as both a challenge and problem because seeing all the wisdom of your crowd can come back with the results you wanted more quickly or in a way you weren't expecting.

Personally, I think it's a good idea to use crowdsourcing because of some of the things Scott mentioned. One of the things that it allows is brainstorming, but it allows companies or people to ask the public to participate. An example of this was Mark Levy's use of it for coming up with a title for his book, Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content. Levy said, "For me, crowdsourcing was interesting in unexpected ways... crowdsourcing backed up something I had suspected, and it gave people a forum to help me construct (a subtitle), I wouldn't have gotten without their input."

Endia Beal's "Can I Touch it?" Photo Blog

In the past few days as I logged into Facebook, I had been seeing a lot of people post and share an article titled, "Can I Touch It?", by Endia Beal on my newsfeed. Curious to see what it was about I clicked on it and began to read. 

Beal did this photo blog to open up discussion topics such as race, gender, and differences between generations as a part of a five week residency for the Center of Photography at Woodstock. For this she chose white women in their 40's but was hoping to get mostly baby boomers and gave them "Black hairstyles" that would be worn in a profession portrait even if they ladies did not like them.  Most of the ladies thought they'd be sporting braids or cornrows, but to their surprise Endia chose finger roles and not the type worn in the 20's.

The idea came to Beal while she was an intern in Yale's IT department where she stood out among her colleagues. Beal was the tall black female who wore a huge red afro as she towered over her shorter white male counterparts while in the office. As time went on, someone told her that their was a rumor going around that some of the men wanted to touch her hair and her response was for them not to simply touch it but pull it.  She later posted a video, Beal Office Scene Excerpt, to describe the experience.


Endia knew her hairstyle might cause some issues in corporate America, but she did not feel like it should be up to just her to fix them and that's the reason for the project. During the experience the women, some from Woodstock, NY and others from North Carolina, were excited to learn about the products and styles being done and used on their hair. Many of the women also were taking and posting pictures to Facebook and they seemed to take to Beal after the experience was over.  Beal is considering having the women, the ones based out of North Carolina, wear their styles to work and make video about their experience.

*Endia Beal's website will be up on November 1st (endiabeal.com)*
Center for Photography at Woodstock
Facebook Story
Photo Blog

Real-Time Marketing and PR: Bigger Companies and Organizations Have To Work

David Meerman Scott, author of Real-Time Marketing and PR, takes the time to discuss "real time" and the demand for it in today's society. One topic he spends some time on is large organizations/businesses and how real time can be incorporated.


Chapter four, briefly mentions that the more people an organization has the more difficult it is to communicate in real time. In what Scott calls a command-and-control environment nothing can be done without someone with authority giving it the okay. He goes on to say that the challenge is to get a balance that allows employees initiative and offers real-time guidance when it is needed. There also needs to be a leader that is going to make it happen. Someone has to spread the mind-set of real-to,e communication throughout the organization.

Chapter five goes more into the idea of big businesses using real-time. An example that shows large organizations can do this is Todd Blecher, communications director at Boeing, who responded to a tweet of an irritated father. Harry Windor's, an eight year old, father was not to happy with the response his son's picture of a plane received from the company and tweeted that they needed to work on how they responded to children. Blecher responded that they could do better when it came to children and he personally did something about it. Todd called Harry and took the time to talk to him about the drawing. The quick response shows that big businesses can succeed at real-time communication.Things companies should keep in mind while trying to integrate this mind set is to build a team, monitor what's being said about the company (like the Boeing), develop guidelines and train staff and engage with the market.

I can personally say I have seen some of those in action with how Apple deals with customers. This summer I had a few issues with my phone because I decided to spend my summer in a small town of Tiffin, Ohio. Apple told me that the lack of signal was causing me to miss calls and texts. But, the biggest problem came when when they did a data transfer from my old laptop to my new one. I lost all of my contacts and every time I tried to sync them from the Cloud the disappeared right after. So after my first 2 hour conversation with them and a very mean survey, Apple put me in contact with one of their top tech people the following morning. The person I talked to not only fixed my problem, but saw the other issues I had and gave me his direct line and email in case of any further problems. Apple has a team of people set up to deal with customer issues as they happen, they have a way to keep track of past issues and they (try) to train their staff to fix problems quickly.

A Twitter Death That's Real?

On Friday morning, word spread quickly that Adrian Peterson's, Minnesota Vikings' running back , two-year old son died. Which NFL fans later found out was the personal reason Peterson missed practice on Thursday. The child, whose name has not been released to the public, was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday night after being found unresponsive and later determined to be in critical condition. He was under the care of his mother's boyfriend,  Joseph Patterson. Patterson ended up with two counts of aggravated battery of an infant and aggravated domestic assault according to ESPN. Even with this situation on his mind, Adrian played today in the loss against the Carolina Panthers with a total of 83 yards on the day which is a quiet day at the office for him. However, he had the support of many fellow athletes and fans on Twitter the day his son went in the hospital and the day he passed.

Many fans and athletes from other leagues also posted supportive tweets over the weekend. Some of the common hashtags that I saw were  #AP, #PrayingForAP and #SickForAP. Adrian did not let the attention on his tough time go unnoticed. He addressed the condolences, asked for fans and fellow athletes to be respectful and not post pictures on social networks and the son that he had living with him, Adrian Peterson Jr., was healthy.

The pictures that were being posted were of Adrian Peterson and Adrian Peterson Jr. While I understand that fans, who I'm assuming posted the pictures, where just trying to show support, did not know which son they were posting, but I have only seen two pictures of Peterson and a young child during the time the story has unfolded. However, the two pictures that were floating around Twitter did have quite a few retweets and favorites because they showed how much care there was for the child in them, but it also showed you how quickly things can move over social networks and who all has access to them. Peterson's tweets showed us that celebrity status does not make you any less human. Fans' tweets showed that we can keep a story going even before and after we get all the details. But, in all seriousness my thoughts and prayers go out to Adrian Peterson.


ESPN article #1
ESPN Article #2

Cultural Conversation: Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Yesterday morning, Multicultural Development had its monthly Cultural Conversation. These conversations usually last about an hour and discuss relevant issues of today. This month's conversation was titled, "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later", and took a look at the Stand Your Ground Laws and the Trayvon Martin Case. Dr. Antoinette "Toni"Clarke, an ONU Law Professor, began the conversation with discussing what the Stand Your Ground Laws mean and how they related to the case of Trayvon Martin with mention of a few less known cases. 


After going over the basics of what the laws meant and how they related to Martin's case the floor was open to conversation. Once the conversation is opened those who come are allowed to ask questions and/or make comments about how they feel about the situation. One that stood to me was a comment of an older gentleman who believed that the decision to acquit George Zimmerman, was more rooted in the South's history of racism more so than the laws. He believed this to be so because majority of the jury was white, the judge was white, and so was the prosecuting attorney. Another thing that stood out to me is the reason Dr. Clarke chose to be apart of this conversation. 


Dr. Clarke chose to lead the conversation yesterday because a friend of hers had mentioned to her that she was worried for her young (black) sons to grow up in this country after the case. She said because of that she wanted to educate the young people she came in contact with on laws like these so that they know how to protect themselves. However, that was not what stuck in mind through the whole conversation. 


The main thought I had was about my cousin who was shot this summer and although it was a different situation than Trayvon's, both were teenagers at the time of their deaths. My cousin, Cameron (CJ), was shot and killed by someone he believed he was his friend over a "He said, She said" conversation. He died two days before his 19th birthday. CJ missed out on the birth of his daughter, Cameryn, who was born in early September. In either case, they both did not get to a chance to finish out their teenage years and a parent should never have to bury their child. 


ONU Cultural Conversation on Local News