Alex Bondy

CMU || Hospitality || Event Planning 

[alexbondy-blog]

Looking back and reflecting on this class, I see how much I truly learned.  With a lot of classes I have taken in the past, I never use and will never use any of the information in my daily life or in my career.  I’m glad to say that this class isn’t like those other classes.  I have truly learned so much about a wide variety of things in my personal life and about things that will help my career.

This class has taught me that so much actually goes into social media management.  So much of society is present on social media, so everyone would think that anyone off the street could be hired into a social media consultant position, but I don’t think that’s the case.  So much more goes into this than I ever would have thought.  I am glad I learned everything that I did from this class because I really do think it will be beneficial for my future career.  I’d like to say that I think this class would give me a leg up against the competition for a social media consultant position if I were to look into doing that.  Even if I don’t exclusively work as a consultant, there are so many principles, concepts, and tools I learned to use in my everyday work as an event planner.  Plus so many companies these days have a social media presence, so any help I would be able to offer to my future company, I could credit to this class.

In my personal technology usage, I am now aware of how easily that information is accessible to other people whether it be third-parties or hackers.  This class showed me to be way more cautious in sharing my information online.  It also showed me through the experiment we conducted that I want to spend less time on technology. My phone contract is actually up next month and I have been seriously considering getting a non-smart phone.  It just controls so much of our daily lives and I personally don’t like that it does.  I had always been pretty conscious of how prevalent technology is in our lives, but when we did that experiment, I was so shocked at how much more dependent we are on it than I initially thought.  I just wish we could go back to when we weren’t so dependent on technology and kids still played outside instead of being inside on their phones, iPod’s or iPad's.  I know I can’t change society’s dependence on technology, but at least I can control mine.

[haleygincott]

How effective content is developed and shared

When I completed Hootsuite’s module’s 5 and 6, I learned that it is very important to have a target market. Having a target market allows the company to better find the kind of customers they want to attract. It is very important to find the right customers for your business. If you find people with similar demographics, then it will be easier to get them to come to your business. 

It is important to develop a content calendar, so that you can organize when and where you are gonna post things. By keeping all of your materials in a single folder, not only does that make things organized, but it makes it easier to find for others that may be using it. This allows employees to post to multiple social networks at one time, instead of going to each separate social media network individually. 

[alexbondy-blog]

I believe your blog post hits on two very big points of this topic.  I agree that both of these are extremely important when it comes to developing and sharing effective content.  I touched on these in my blog posts as well.  

Having a content calendar is a great tool to stay organized for your company.  It keeps everyone on the same page by being used as a reference guide for the whole team to see the individual plans for each site, for each person, for each type of post, etc. 

Having a target market is so important because it basically controls everything about what you post.  What, where, when, and how you post.  

What: What about your company is your target market most interested in?

Where: What social media site is your target market mostly on? 

When: When are they active on those sites? / When are they going to see your posts?

How: How are you going to post? Catering towards emotion, information, comedy, etc.?

Again, I completely agree with you that these are two very important contributors for developing and sharing effective content.

[katelyndetwiler-blog]

Principles of Effective Content Developing and Sharing

In order for a social organization to become effective with content development and sharing they must interest their customers in some sort of way. This could include having posts that are effective and eye catching or even finding a way to add value to your customers. A company can be effective by first coming up with a content strategy in order to comply with company goals and objectives.

Once this strategy is in place, a company should base their posts on the company goals and objectives. This strategy will help show customers that the company relies on their goals and objectives in order to successfully run their business. Also, the content in the posts should go along with the vision and interest of the audience.

Another way to become an effective content developing and sharing organization is now worrying about how many followers you have, but having followers that share the same interests. These followers should be interested in what your company is producing or the service they are providing. This will also allow for customers to come together and talk about your products or services together, since everyone will share the same interests.

Following these steps will help any company become successful. This will allow for followers to become more interested in the company by the posts they share. If a company does not follow these steps, they are less likely to become successful, have effective content in their posts, and would not have as well of interested customers.

[alexbondy-blog]

Your point about organizations needing to not worry about the number of followers they have, but instead trying to gain followers that are interested in your company is so important.  The concept seems so simple, but society on social media only seems to want more followers, they want that validation that so many people care about what they have to post...but that isn’t always the case.  Having a lot of followers isn’t the goal if half of those followers aren’t even interested in your company.  If they follow you, and are scrolling down your newsfeed, odds are they will see your profile picture next to the post and scroll past because they aren’t interested.  You want followers that see you posted and are interested in looking at your post, learning about what you posted, and hopefully interacting with it as well.  These are the quality followers you want instead of a bunch of followers that don’t actually care to follow you.

[alexbondy-blog]

Social Organization and Content Development

The principles of developing effective content has a lot to do with catering to your target market and making your posts as effective for your audience.  This directly relates to becoming a Social Organization.  A Social Organization is all about becoming a community.  To be a community, you want your social media page to be a gathering of people with similar interests and you want your posts to be valued by them.  In order to create value for your specific customers, you would take note of who your customers are and post according to what they like.  You won’t create a community of people around your company if you aren’t communicating to your customers in a way that will be easily received.  

[alexbondy-blog]

Effective Content - Development and Sharing

Some people may think making a social media account for a company would be easy and simple, but through the Hootsuite Training Modules I have learned that so much more goes into it.  

The Hootsuite Training describes the purpose of developing a content strategy is “to ensure your company has set clear goals, know your target market, have identified the best channels to distribute and share your content, have established a set of topics that will interest your audience, and have set a strategic publishing schedule in place.”  

To make the most out of a company’s social media account, they should want their posts to be as effective as they can be.  One way to do this is to establish a plan.  They should create a strategy on what they want to post and what they want their posts to embody.  Having a plan will lead them to complete their business objectives more effectively.  

In order to know what you want to post, you should decide who your target market is and cater your style of posting towards them.  Whether it be through comedic, informational, or empathetic posts, it doesn’t matter as long as it works for your audience.  Along with this, you need to determine which channels you can best reach your target market through.  Different markets use different social media sites and it is important to realize that and decide which of them you should use for your company.

Another part of making a strategy is creating a schedule.  How you format this schedule depends on what works best for your company.  Whether it be a formal online document, or post it notes on the wall.  It just would be beneficial to have something to visually show your specific posting plan for your company.  

Again, so much more goes into this process than some may think and I am glad that these Hootsuite Trainings are teaching us the strategies to use to make the most out of social media.

[adamaldredblogs-blog]

Online Community Building

     Community collaboration is a huge importance when it comes to having a successful social media presence. Finding customers and followers that can truly be connected and helpful to your brand, and amongst themselves, is what a strong community is all about. While it is a never-ending process, the connections made with your followers can prove to be beneficial to everyone involved.

     Making sure that your company has a clearly stated vision statement not only creates a concrete brand image, it also allows for followers to find commonality with your company, which can lead to a collaborative community atmosphere. Understanding the road map for your social media accounts works hand-in-hand with that clear vision statement.

     One company that has clearly done a great job when it comes to creating a great community atmosphere is PlayStation. They have a unique way of connecting PlayStation users to one another, maybe more than connecting the users to the actual company. Nonetheless, the community atmosphere is clearly apparent.  The PlayStation Community has done an exceptional job at providing an online space for gamers to connect. Users are able to zone in on their specific interests, whether it be by game, interests, or the type of support they need, and it’s clear to see how the network caters for the pillars of feedback, advocacy, and support.

[alexbondy-blog]

I agree with all that you have said here and think you have an interesting example that definitely works.  Like you said, it is a little different because it is a community within the PlayStation users instead of the users and the company...but it has a similar effect in that it’s still creating a community.  They created a community for the PlayStation users to go to and connect with other users with the common ground of this gaming system.  

[taylorrichey10-blog]

Online Community Building

As social media continues to grow companies are starting to realize the benefits of maintaining a positive online community. It is important for companies to grow the relationships with their customers. A company should work hard to maintain their current customer base to gain brand loyalty and to also gain new customers to grow the company and its products. 

A great way to start is to create an effective vision statement. A vision statement should help a company clarify their objectives and motives for the future, which will in-turn create an great online community. 

Community collaboration is another great step and is best suited in large groups. This allows people to share openly and independently which then turns into a bigger picture. The goal is to create diversity of information to produce a broader understanding of the community. This is less suited for a deep analysis. If information is more sensitive then sharing it to a mass crowed may become inappropriate. 

Starbucks is a company that has a great online community. They are on multiple social media sites and interact with their customers on a daily basis. They also created “My Starbucks Ideas” which is a online version of a suggestion box. This section of the website has allowed for nearly 300 innovations that have been implemented. 

[alexbondy-blog]

I completely agree with what you have shown that Starbucks has created a successful online community.  I especially like their creation of “My Starbucks Idea.”  I think it is a great way to help people feel included in this community.  Having their ideas heard and knowing that Starbucks actually uses those ideas and implements them has to be an encouraging reason to be a part of the Starbucks community. 

[alexbondy-blog]

Online Community Principles

A lot more than you would think goes into building an online community.  Through the book, The Social Organization, you can learn a lot about the right and wrong uses of Social Media.  

Having a social media presence doesn’t particularly cut it anymore.  People are learning how to use social media more effectively.  One way they do that is having a clear idea of what they want to do.  They shouldn’t just try to get a bunch of followers, that’s not a community.  Instead, they should want to form a collective group of people that all share the same vision in their company.  

Another way to effectively build a community is to figure out where the collaboration will create the most value.  There are different groups of collaboration that have been found to create the most value.  Those different options are as follows: by Industry, by target audience, by source of business value, by business use, and by type of mass collaboration.  

To build your community, you need active workers to collaborate on the different platforms.  But the question is how do they motivate their people to do this.  Simply providing them access to the social media sites isn’t enough. Rather you should give them a detailed explanation of what you want from them, what their goal is by collaborating, and why.  “People need a compelling cause.”  This is very important because you can’t grow a community without workers communicating on the company side.  They need to fully understand the purpose of what they are doing. 

Many things go into building an online community and these are a few of the points I found to be necessary and important.

[alexbondy-blog]

Growing an Online Community

This weeks Hootsuite Training showed the importance of growing an online community.  Companies should know getting involved in social media is more than just increasing your social media presence.  It is about how you make that presence that really matters.  You want to connect with your followers.  Social Media isn’t one-sided, it goes both ways.  When you relate it to real life, you don’t want your social media sites to be like a lecture, you want it to be more like a conversation.  

The thing I want my client to know is that it will take time.  They want their social media presence to be great, which is totally understandable.  But it takes time, effort, and patience to grow this community, it won’t just pop up out of the blue.  But they should also know that the work they do put into growing this community will be worth it in the end because of how important it really is.

[ricoabro-blog]

Successful Social Media Strategy

Social media is used in many different ways. To consumers, it is a way to connect and engage with their social network, but many businesses are hopping on-board the social media trend to market to and engage the consumer. The businesses most successful in social media, though different in their approach, generally have similarities in their execution strategies. To help identify these industry best practices, I will highlight one social media success story and discuss how the company creating the social media plan achieved their success.

The company that I chose to highlight is Dominos. Many consumers know Dominos for their pizza, but do they know that this company also has a winning social media strategy?

Dominos uses its social platforms as a way to engage with their customers. They don’t just broadcast specials or post pictures of their products, but instead they also provide several ways for their customers to take part. One way they recently did this was by allowing their customers to place orders through Twitter and Facebook.

Another great social media strategy implemented by Dominos occurred a couple of years ago. Dominos encouraged their customers to upload pictures of the pizza they purchased from Dominos. They did this to show that pizzas made in store can look just as good as the pizzas that are shown in Dominos advertisements.

These are two examples of how Dominos used social media to engage with its customers. By using tactics like these, businesses allow customers to contribute and have a higher chance of being successful in social media.

[alexbondy-blog]

I really like this example.  Dominos definitely has a great social media strategy.  Using these social media platforms to take orders is so unique to them, I don’t know of any other company with that capacity.  I also like that their strategy seems to exclusively involve their customers.  They don’t highlight celebrity endorsements, but instead use their customers as their marketers.  They have them tweet pictures of their purchased pizzas to share with other prospective customers the quality of their product.  This is a free of cost strategy that I am sure is very effective.

[zacharyhaywardcmu-blog]

The legal side of big data

    Big data is getting bigger in the business world and that means the risks are growing with it as well. One thing businesses should be aware of when dealing with big data is there is always the possibility of it getting compromised. In targets case, 740 million data records were stolen. Anyone with a target card was in jeopardy of having their information used in nefarious activities. Furthermore, this has caused target 252 million dollars with the total still growing.

     On the other side of the coin, consumers should be aware that there is no guarantee that the government or a corporation can keep their data safe. This is even true for the health provider you go to. One must be aware that if anyone entity is storing your information there is the possibility it gets stolen. Yahoo had 500 million accounts stolen, one of the biggest in history. This information could be used for a variety of harmful things.

    There are a few things that can be done to balance this out. Consumers need to be aware that there is a possibility their data gets hacked and therefore should be more wary of giving it out. On the other side, the people holding the information should invest more into keeping it safe. While this would incur a higher expense it would save them from the cost of getting hacked.

[alexbondy-blog]

I completely agree with all that you have said here.  Consumers need to be conscious of who they give their information out to.  Like you said, even health care providers are subject to hackers.  Although, the sad thing for the consumer is that even if they are aware of the possibility of their information being stolen, there isn’t much they can do to prevent that - if it is necessary to give their information out to certain entities.

[alexbondy-blog]

Nike’s Social Media Strategy

When trying to think of companies that have established a successful social media strategy, Nike came to mind.  I think Nike is unique from other companies.  Think back to any commercial, Instagram post, twitter post, etc. that simply advertises one of their products.  It’s hard to think of, right?  That’s because they rarely put too much focus on the products.  They focus on this “world” of Nike.  All their Instagram videos and commercials highlight the athletes, the atmosphere, and this feeling of being in the Nike community.  It is something that has remained a constant throughout their campaign.  Their videos are intense with incredible graphics, and what is most memorable is this feeling they leave you with...not the product they were showing.  In this video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BNhbkXnFlJ_/?taken-by=nike - the first time I watched it, I just thought it was a really cool video and I honestly didn’t even know what the ad was for until I watched it again and paid more attention to it. 

A lot of their videos don’t even highlight specific products at all, but just the heart of their motto and campaigns instead. You can see this through these videos:  https://www.instagram.com/p/BIwM3jxDYjY/?taken-by=nike , https://www.instagram.com/p/BISbWlhjRpj/?taken-by=nike , https://www.instagram.com/p/BI-dFvGDeBA/?taken-by=nike , https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ0N2C3DRRk/?taken-by=nike

I think their strategy is extremely effective.  They have such a strong following, because they highlight the feeling that Nike represents.  Nike would be a totally different company if their marketing strategy was just to show off their merchandise.  They succeed by selling their company, not just their products. 

[alexbondy-blog]

The Legal Side of Big Data

This video really brought the severity of hacking to light.  The statistics on all the  historical hacks are insanely prevalent and should be taken seriously as it can happen to any company.  Businesses should be aware that they are just as open to being hacked as the next company.  It has happened to huge corporations, and even the government.  The government probably has the most protected servers out there, with the most experienced people there to keep their information protected, but hackers got through.  Everyone is subject to hackers and should be aware of that.  By acknowledging this they can try to make advancements in their technology before they’re hacked, instead of after the fact - which is what so many companies do.  They should also be prepared with a plan of what to do in the case that they can’t prevent it.

Consumers should be aware of the sharing of their information once it gets on the internet.  Before taking this class, I was never exposed to the truth of this.  Consumers need to be educated on the lack of privacy you receive once your information is put on the internet.  They should be aware that their information is very susceptible to being used for things they aren’t knowingly agreeing to - whether the information is shared, sold to third-parties, or hacked.  They have to realize the risk of putting information on the internet.

It has to be hard to balance the opportunities and risks of using Big Data.  This information could truly be necessary to the business, so they want to use Big Data.  But by doing this, they put a lot of personal information at risk.  I think they can try to balance it by only taking the information needed, and by putting a significant amount of effort into preventative measures against hackers.

[zacharyhaywardcmu-blog]

Professional Social Media

   To enhance my professional social media presence I have done a couple things. First of which is set up my LinkedIn account. Secondly, I set up my GitHub account. These are both great professional social media tools.

   LinkedIn is an important social media platform for someone entering the workforce as many employers look at LinkedIn before hiring someone. LinkedIn is a great way to show your attributes and qualities to all employers looking for new hires.

.    GitHub is a tool used by many companies. It allows people to work together on projects whether they are in the office or at home. Having a GitHub account shows employers I am ready to join the workforce.

   Other than the two social media platforms I discussed earlier I do not have any other social media accounts I use on a regular basis. That is excluding my twitter, facebook, and tumblr that I use for this class.

[alexbondy-blog]

I have actually never heard of GitHub.  I think it is great that you have shared this website on your blog so people can expand their presence.  It sounds like a great collaborative website that could be very useful.  I will definitely be checking this website out.  In addition to what you said about showing employers you are ready to join the workforce, I think having previous experience with this website can be used as something you can bring to the table in an interview.  If they ask if you have ideas to improve the company or similar questions, you could utilize this website as an example (if they don’t already use it) of something you think the company should adapt into their business.

[albrodz-blog]

Strategies to improve social media presence

Social media is extremely important to the business world in this day and age. Staying aware of your social media presence in the business world is crucial because most jobs now a day require some sort of social media knowledge. One way that I hope to better my professional social media presence is by clearly stating my goals and objectives. You have to be clear with what you want to achieve and what you can do. Also showing people your accomplishments is a great way to gain recognition if done in a tasteful way. 

Another way I hope to better my social media presence is being as engaging as possible. Simply replying and commenting with people is a great way to learn knew things. Another crucial aspect is making sure you do your research. It is important to read and study something that you are hoping to pursue so you know exactly what you are talking about. Lastly using LinkedIn and their recommendations that they give you. LinkedIn is such a great tool for keeping track of companies and gaining recognition. Personally that is what I really need to work on, keeping up with my LinkedIn by checking it regularly and providing valuable information for potential employers. 

[alexbondy-blog]

I think you have a great idea in mind when it comes to improving your professional social media presence.  Having set goals and objectives is a very helpful thing.  Plain using social media in general for business is useful, but using it for a purpose is going to be much more beneficial.  I also think engagement on social media is very beneficial.  It helps customers feel heard, and like you said it helps us to learn.  I hope you do increase your LinkedIn usage because it really is a great professional website to utilize. 

[alexbondy-blog]

Qualities of a Social Media Consultant

The most important qualities I think a Social Media Consultant should have are as follows:

-Wanting to continually learn. – A Social Media Consultant needs to stay up to date on the latest social media trends/sites to stay qualified for the position.  If they aren’t aware of new sites that could be used, a company could be missing out on another potential way to reach their customers.  Not being educated would be doing the company a disservice.

-Patient – A Social Media Consultant needs to understand that not everything they do will have immediate effects.  It will take some time to see the results in their work.  Not everyone can be patient enough to wait for their changes to play out either in a good way or a bad way, but you need to be patient in knowing things won’t happen right away.

-Analytical – A Consultant’s job will consist of constantly analyzing what is and what isn’t getting the company closer to their goals.  They should be a person who can read between the lines of data.  They should be able to or be able to learn how to analyze the data they collect, and then act upon that information. 

-Adaptability – Something I think is vitally important is the ability to adapt to each individual company’s specific needs.  A consultant needs to understand that not each company you consult for will have the same goals.  They need to know how to create different, unique plans for each company.

-Realistic – These consultant’s also need to be humble in understanding the fact that Social Media isn’t the answer to everything – but just an element in a company’s overall marketing plan.  

-Communication skills – Social Media Consultant’s will work withall different types of people, at many different kinds of companies, targeting a variety of customers.  They should have the ability to communicate with all sorts of demographics. 

-Experience in digital communications – Some people think you can hire any millennial these days to be a Social Media Consultant because everyone has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other account pages set up for themselves.  What people should realize is that consulting for a company is a lot different. It involves a whole other side of social media that the typically user isn’t familiar with.  

These are a few qualities I believe Social Media Consultants should have.  There are so many more that could apply to this job as well, but these are the most relevant attributes that I could come up with.

[alexbondy-blog]

Professional Social Media Presence Plans

My only professional social media presence before this class is being present on LinkedIn.  I have an account, I have connected with friends, previous employers, professionals I have met at career fairs and conferences, and with people I have met through other people, and I have most of the profile filled out.  I would like a better professional photo for my page, and I would like to attach my resume onto it.  One thing I thought of is having references on that page, or something like a general letter of recommendation attached like the resumes are for people to access them if they would like to see that.  I am unsure about this thought though, because I’m not sure if that is an acceptable thing to have on your LinkedIn page?  Or if I should just wait to use those for an actual job application. Other than that, I just plan on continuing to update my page as I get more experience in the industry.  

Since this class has helped us utilize a website like Tumblr for blogging, I will definitely continue blogging throughout my career.  My ultimate goal is to have my own Event Planning company.  So I would love to have a website for my company featuring a blog about different trends in the industry, about the specific things my company offers, or about the employees within it, and more.  I don’t know the exact specifics of that goal, but I just know it is a goal I wish to fulfill!