Analysis of Chapters 7 & 8 The Art of Social Media

Chapter 7

While reading through chapter seven I was reminded of what we do for the Student Planning Committee (SPC) on Ohio Northern University’s campus. For those that do not know SPC bring acts and events to campus on almost a weekly schedule and all events are free for students. I sit on the executive board as a group coordinator. My role is to plan the events and put them on. For example, I worked with my group to do Glow in the Dark Mini Golf in the fall.

This semester I am in charge of Paint Shop (February 22nd) and our Annual Hump Day Camels (April 19th). One of the biggest things leading up to an event is advertising there are many things that are done for each event but we are also expected to do some form of secondary advertising that is unique. The traditional advertising is a Mac Board (sign outside of our campus dining hall), a-boards (white boards put up the day of the event, emailing (daily emails to all students one week in advance), a Facebook event page, Instagram and Twitter reminders, and Snapchats. It is a lot of advertising which is why the communications chair and his team handles all the social media side. It is not enough to get students there, but also show what other students are missing out on so they come to the next event. Since camels is an annual event I may try to work in a Twitter hashtag to get people to tweet more. The issue is always encouraging students not only to post about the event, but like our social media in general. So, like SPC on social media its ONUSPC on all social media sites. What hashtag do you think I should use with the camels? ONUHumpDay? ONUCamelRides?

Chapter 8

This book was published in 2014 and shows how quickly social media can change. In chapter eight it is describing how to do a Google+ Hangout. It states that this is the only social media where you can have a live video chat with your followers. In 2016, Facebook released Facebook live which is the same concept. You stream your video live and your friends can watch it. I personally never understood Google+ and not enough of my friends got on it for me to make my own. There is a theatre group I’ve been following for about eight years that would do live streams to try and raise money for their next production. I never logged on and Google+ then archived the streams to YouTube so I would watch them there. One of the best parts of Google+ Hangouts and Facebook Live is the viewers can post comments in real time and the people creating the video can read them and respond. I no longer see Google+ Hangouts as the best way to reach your market segment. More people are on Facebook and it does not seem like Google+ will be coming back soon. If you want to watch a funny video about the changes in social media click here. Fair warning it is somewhat old and has a few questionable parts, but the topic is still relevant and it does not get very funny until around a minute in. If you need to procrastinate for around four minutes check it out.

That is all I have for these chapters check back next week for my thoughts and ramblings on the next few.