Syd's Blog

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IM 260 Course Reflection

Overall this class taught me a lot about different platforms and how they can be used in a professional manner. I have had experiences with most all of these platforms except creating a website and infographic creation so these two projects were very good learning experiences for me and I really learned a lot about them. I also have never created a blog before so this also was a new experience for me. I think using this blog in the future to track my process through finding a position and creating a career will be beneficial for myself as well as others if they are going through the same process.

This course was very good at teaching myself how to really focus on the professionalism of digital media platforms. This blog especially has taught me to work on my writing skills making sure the information I present is understandable to the reader. Also with the research project I was able to learn a lot more about Social Media Marketing. Although I am not directly going into a position like this at this point in time, every business uses social media these days so this was very beneficial to learn more about industry trends.

I would definitely suggest this course to all business majors especially. It helped me get a better understanding of different platforms that businesses use on a regular basis. Especially looking at the class from a marketing perspective thinking about who is reading this material put out on the web also this could help target different groups. I think this class is beneficial to anyone going through college because digital media plays a very big role it day to day activities.

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Twitter Reflections

Overall my professional twitter was a lot harder project than I expected. I fell behind a lot because of classes and work trying to make sure I tweeted every day ended up on the back burner so I wasn’t able to meet all the requirements. I tried to log in spontaneously and tweet about the assignments but other than that I was stumped to posting professional tweets because I have been using Twitter for my personal uses which isn’t always super professional. It was nice to learn a new way to use Twitter leaving more of a professional footprint on the web. Also connecting with different marketing organizations allowed me to keep up with different trends and new news coming up in the industry so this was something I liked about creating a professional Twitter

 Looking back to when we started this project I think it would have been better to continuously tweet throughout the semester so I was behind most of the time. I also would have tried to check in more often and really think of professional aspects I would be able to tweet about instead of sticking to my own personal Twitter.

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LinkedIn & Resumes

Because I am in the business school for one of our classes we were required to create a LinkedIn to start networking within the business world so I believe I have had it for almost 2 years now. Also the business school required us to follow the same individuals as this assignment so I basically already had it completed prior to this class. 

Overall what I have learned from LinkedIn creating is that it allows you to create a network with different individuals from all over. I have over 500 1st connections which leads to an extreme amount of outreach because it links you to those connections as well. I have kept up with my work experiences as well as some volunteer work. I use to use linked in a lot because I wanted to be able to reach as many people as I could to possible set up job connections. I was able to get my student position at Red Bull through LinkedIn so it does have its benefits. I also have had many recruiters reach out to me because of my profile. i have achieved the “All Star” rating so that gives me a sign that I have been able to create a successful profile.

For Resumes I have spent so much time trying to format the proper way and create the most professional resume with enough information but not too much. And this task was very hard to accomplish it too many different styles to reach one that I thought was successful. I attended a Career Services seminar last year to learn how to properly format a resume and also got feedback. You would think building a resume wouldn’t be too much work but it actually takes a lot of time and dedication to get it to where it looks presentable. I recently applied for a job and they commented on how professional and impressive my resume looked so that hard work and many drafts paid off in the end. 

Overall reading the information fro this project within my digital media class reinforces and gave me a better understanding of what it takes to leave a professional footprint.

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Social Media Marketing

Social Media has become a large impact on today's business industry. Utilizing different platforms properly can enhance the overall marketing campaigns within a business whether a...

Website Reflection

Overall I was surprised how my website came out! I had not used any platforms to create a website so initially I was nervous bur the templates provided by Weebly really helped to see my vision come to life in a website. I went through the material I wanted to include in my website then played around with the different features to see what I was able to do within the website creation site. After I got things figured out I was able to start digging into the material and start putting together my site. I organized into three different categories to help structure my different pages.

I really enjoyed figuring out how to use the software because I like to learn new things so this new platform was really interesting to use. Adding different sections with pictures and texts was very fun but it was very difficult to think of what specifically to include, One of the difficulties I had was trying to separate the information in an organized fashion where the user would be able to understand my message. It took a long time to try and really apply what I had laid out in my wire frame to fit what my website was going to look like but thankfully I was able to get the connection between the two.

I think focusing on my plan was the most important thing and not getting to overwhelmed with all of the different features within the platform. Just keeping it simple and the information precise without overloading the reader with graphics or text. I think if I did this again I would have more information to have within my website so be able to have external links references outside of my paper include videos and more stuff like that, I think if I had planned more time to work on my website it would have been better but overall it was a great experience! 

Feel free to go to the link and check out what I was able to create!

[sydneysouder-blog]

Digital media has changed the way business and individuals market themselves in many ways. For instance LinkedIn is a huge networking site in more if the business world that allows individuals to market themselves on a online platform. I actually got one of my student jobs because someone came across my LinkedIn profile and reached out to me about the position based off of the professionalism and my experiences listed on my profile. Also with creating just simple resumes. There are many programs that can build your resume for you. Technology along with digital media plays a big role in today’s society with networking and marketing individuals.

I visited this site http://rleonardi.com/interactive-resume/ with an interactive resume. It was definitely different than anything I have ever seen. Being in the business school they always enforced professionalism and simple clarity with resumes so seeing this was very different. I thought it was very cool but if it was used to actually represent a resume for a position as a professional I wouldn’t be able to pull enough information. If it was a coding/computer software company they might see the value in someone creating such a creative platform for their resume.

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Website Creation

I have never created a Website before so this project will be interesting. I plan to accomplish this project by carefully following the instructions provided and watch the videos supplied through D2L to get a better understanding of the fundamentals of creating a website. I feel that getting a good understanding of the project first is very important since I have not worked with this before.

Initially I want to be able to focus on my research information I was able to gather like my survey information results, research paper, and also my infographic. Since I have my own resources with these materials I wont have to worry about copyright issues with using others materials.

Overall I am very excited but also nervous for this project. There is a lot that goes into planning and setting up a website. I have not created anything like this before so I am nervous to see if I will be able to be successful with setting up my won website. I hope the preparation for the assignment will help em through.

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Survey and Infographic Reflections

For this project, I created a survey on Google Forms asking questions in regards to my research project  topic of Social Media Marketing. This was the first time using Google Forms so it was an interesting learning experience! I distributed the survey through my personal Facebook and Twitter to target individuals that utilize social media. I was able to get 50 respondent that allowed me to transform the information into an infographic. For my infographic I used Pictochart, another platform I have no used before. I picked different stats that I thought would be valuable to overview the information I received.

My favorite part about this project was definitely making the infographic. Like stated before I had never used a platform that created an infographic nor have I created one before so it was a great learning experience for me an dI found it to be a lot of fun.

The most difficult part about this project was forming survey questions that would obtain the information I needed. I have taken a marketing research class but still trying to format questions in a way that the reader would understand and also get the information I wanted ended up being more difficult than anticipated.

Overall I think the project went very well! Working with different platforms for the first time was overwhelming at first but being able to use my problem solving skills to figure out how to work the different programs worked really well. For next time I don’t really think I would do anything differently. Everything worked really well I was able to finish the project and do very well on it!

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Post Technology Disconnect Summary

After having to be disconnected from technology for 24 hours, I was very happy to be reconnected with my phone and computer. The most difficult technology to give up was my cell phone and all the different features I use on it such as texting, social media access, and checking emails. There wasn’t really any technology that was easy to give up being completely disconnected was extremely difficult because I rely heavily on technology to pass the time. This is what I expected through this assignment though, I knew it would not be easy to give up technology.

 The most challenging aspect of disconnect would be exactly that, disconnecting from the world. I am so use to being able to pick up my phone respond to a message or keep up to date with what everyone is doing and not having the ability to do so was extremely challenging. Like stated before nothing about this assignment was easy to give up because technology plays a huge role in my life which is what I expected from this assignment.

The main thing that surprised me about this assignment was realizing just how much I rely on technology on a day to day basis. I knew that I use technology a lot during the day but had no idea just how much I really “needed” it.

The disconnect was difficult for others such as my mom because she was not with me and couldn’t get a hold of me for that time period. I was surrounded by family members and my boyfriend so that helped with the disconnect process so I was still allowed to communicate with them on a face to face basis.

I did not enjoy this assignment at all and don’t think I will disconnect from technology for 24 hours again. I will probably disconnect for smaller time frames but not a full 24 hours because I do not like the feeling of being away from what going on and not being able to contact someone right away of i need something. I feel that technology has become a norm in my life and taking that away causes stress and disorganization which in my busy lifestyle I cannot afford to have happen.

[sydneysouder-blog]

This new infographic outlines 32 key social media stats that marketers need to know.

I found this information online that relates to my research topic and also has an awesome infographic outlining the statistics that I wanted to share on my blog! I think this is a good representation of how infographics can really help connect with users while still providing factual information.

[sydneysouder-blog]

Survey & Infographics

I plan to start this project by evaluating different survey options that best fit what I am looking to get out of the assignment. I would like to create a survey that can be applicable to college students to where they are interested in taking the questionnaire because I know most students don’t enjoy taking surveys.

I have conducted campus research both for classes where I have had to generate all the questions so I feel like forming survey questions will be a bit easier knowing what type of structure is need for a good survey. I also have had to conduct campus research using my employers questions so I have seen both sides of it which I think will benefit me in the long run for this project.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiTz2i4VHFw)

MIND TOOLS

I though this video was a great addition to show how the brain works differently with many different ways of thinking. In the video it touches on how our brains automatically react to different situations based on how we were trained and how our brains were trained. Analyzing the different ways a brain automatically perceives things is very interesting! 

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Progress Report

At this point in the game I have finished my research paper! The topic was very interesting and gave me a lot of in site as to how different businesses utilize different social media platforms to help achieve a better marketing plan.

Overall I learned that incorporating social media marketing to a business process can help reach more people at a lower cost than creating its own marketing plan and trying to figure out on their own how to accomplish the task. Also, with social media there is many more ways to track how far a marketing strategy is going through the use of the social media’s analytical systems.

What went well for me was finding scholarly articles that really helped back up my points I wanted to talk about which was very helpful for developing evidence for the paper. One thing that i could have improved on was time management and organization. As a college student writing papers staying on track and organizing them can be a struggle but it was an obstacle I was able to overcome.

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Social Media and Marketing Research Topic

The goal of this project is to conduct research on how digital media can impact different areas in todays world. I chose to do social media and marketing because there is a huge boom in digital media specialist positions in the marketing industry and considering I am going into this field I thought it would be interesting to learn more about it.

My plan was to start looking into different databases provided by the schools library as well as google scholar to collect some information on how social media can relate back to marketing. Initially I thought I would just overall explain what it means but then I realized it was better to go in depth with statistics and precise information to really back up the benefits of social media in the work place.

I am excited to learn more about this topic and get a better understanding of how social media plays a role in business. This will really help with with my future career as well considering I am looking into marketing positions.

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Professional Twitter Organizations

Considering I am looking into a career in the Marketing Industry, I searched for different types of businesses and organizations that have a professional presence on Twitter. First I thought about school organizations such as Husky AMA and looked at connections they had developed through twitter such as Dayta Marketing group and followed them as well. I went through this process to utilize the connections already make in my network to expand to a broader network of organizations.

Most all the organizations I followed had to do with different types of marketing such as traditional forms of promotion to more digital media marketing. Seeing these different type of marketing organizations and groups helps me to see what opportunities are out there in regards to different positions in the field. Connecting with these organizations could also help me with connecting and getting my name out there in the marketing field.

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Google Wisdom

What started as a simple search engine has now changed the way the internet works all together. Google is a search engine platform where users are able to type in a phrase, sentence, or question to get a response, definition, and/or answer to the material searched. New technologies have allowed to create different filters such as Web, Images, News, Books, and More where it allows to have a more precise search.

Google has transformed into a norm where if someone doesn’t know the answer to something the response is “just Google it.” It has turned into a reliance platform instead of a complimentary one. In ways such as looking up definitions, finding directions to a unknown location, looking up homework questions, finding material for research papers, and a wide variety of topics beyond that.

[sydneysouder-blog]

The latest Tweets from Sydney Souder (@SydneySouder). Current Marketing student at St. Cloud State University seeking to make connections and stay up to date in the Marketing Industry. Minnesota, USA

Follow me on Twitter!

For this project on creating a professional twitter I plan to connect with different Marketing Organizations, share information about the current industry trends, and also create professional tweets in regards to the projects we are going through in class. 

My initial ideas are to search for different Marketing groups on twitter that have a large following as well as a professional tone to the tweets. Utilizing some of the material presented by those organizations, I will retweet and share the information on my feed to show that I am keeping up with the current marketing information. This will help me leave a professional footprint on twitter so when I start applying for jobs and if someone searches my name I will be able to show that I have connected with marketers through twitter.

In regards to this project overall, I am excited to utilize this platform to connect with different marketing organizations to learn more about the industry. I have not used twitter to connect to professional organizations in the past so this will be a learning experience for me which I am looking forward to.