What I learned in this course-Bethany Pollard

The class that I have been taking for the last month is called Digital Communication. It’s about exactly what it sounds like. Communicating online. While in this course, we learned about things such as having your own personal brand, knowing your target audience and overall knowing how to best communicate online.

For this blogpost, we were told to reflect on some of the contents that we had learned in the course. One of the things that I thought about is why storytelling can lead to such great online content. To me, one of the reasons this is, is because it gives your audience something to connect to. Think of it this way. If I were to post a photo of a tree and nothing else, people might like it or they might just scroll past it without a second thought. On the other hand though, if I were to post a photo of a tree along with the story of how I had cared for it since I was a child, people might become a lot more interested. Having a story for people to read will help people get to know you. It’ll help them start to realize who you are and your passions and the fact that your not just a bot who posts every now and then. It will help them see that there is and actually person with a story to tell.

I start to apply this thinking to my own personal brand and I realized that I’m not sure. I’m not sure what story I want to tell people. But that’s me talking about right now. When I think about the future however, I realize that I want people to read the blog posts I might make or the articles I might write. I want people to connect with the stories I write. This course helped me realize that I could actually use my writing and social media to tell a story and have other people tell theirs. In conclusion, I have a better understanding of how a story can really help you connect with your audience.

My Story-Bethany Pollard

What excites me to get up every morning?

You know, everyone has something that makes them excited to get up. For some people, maybe it’s the fact that their going to see a friend and spend the day together. For other people, it might be because they’re doing well and school and want to continue to learn and grow. What

When I think about what makes me want to get up in the morning, I think about how one day, I might be able to have a job in the social media industry, or maybe the writing one. When I first went into college, I was taking a business course as my plan was to go there then go into a graphic design course. Looking back on this, I realize that I mostly did this to make my mother happy and because I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to do. I also realized that graphic design may not be the exact job I want to go into one day. So, shortly after finishing college, I decided to look for a job so I could earn some money back. While I was working, I found out that Flemming College actually offered a course about social media. You could do it over the course of five years if you wanted to and you could also take one class at a time, which is something that I found to be very helpful as I wouldn’t have to focus on to many things at one time. After thinking about it, I decided to take a chance and sign up for the first class.

To me, this was one of the best decisions I made in regards to my post secondary education. With the course, ‘Introduction to Social Media,’ I was able to start to write about topics about social media and also practice how to put together a blog. While doing this in both the first class and this one, I’ve come to realize that not only do I have an interest in working with people on social media, but I also have an interest in writing. I never hated writing but I do find it interesting how invested I can get in something such as writing a blog such as this one.

So to answer the question, the thing that keeps me getting up every morning is the knowledge that one day, I might be able to manage someone’s social media and be able to work for them, or that I might be able to sit down in the comfort of my own home and write articles for a living.

My personal brand

Looking at myself, I would have to say that I’m a kind person with a good heart who just wants to be left alone sometimes. If you haven’t already guessed, I am a pretty introverted person.

Despite this, I do have some amazing people in my life. One of those people is my best friend Mikayla. Having her in my life gave me someone I could truly relax and be myself again. Her happiness with life, carefree and positive attitude and her really funny and stupid humor makes me realize that I see myself in her. Asking Mikayla, she says I’m smart, a good listener, and great with animals. She also mentioned that I am good around people. Although I sometimes don’t see this in myself, I’m glad Mikayla sees this in me. It makes me appreciate her more as a friend.

One of the things that I have done recently is pass my first social media course with a really high mark. This makes me proud since my last year of college didn’t go very well. In the first course of my social media class, I put everything I had into each assignment. This made me be able to look at my marks and feel very proud of myself.

Thinking about how this relates to my personal brand, I feel like I would be a good team member as my good listening skills and and my ability to connect with people would make me valuable.

How Wendy’s engaged their audience

With social media being used so much today, companies are starting to realize how much social media can help them with their business. When a company starts a social media profile, not only can it help them advertise to more people, it could also help them to connect with people and see what is being said about them. It could even help them solve problems that people think they have.

Let’s look at what Wendy’s did to engage with their audience. Wendy’s has an official Twitter account. Now while some companies have used their social media accounts to post about their products and services, Wendy’s did something a little different. They starting making fun of people who asked them different questions, some of those questions being about other fast food restaurants. For example, someone tweeted and the Wendy’s account looking for directions to the nearest McDonald’s. Wendy’s in turn, responded by sending the person a photo of a trash can. Another person who tweeted at Wendy’s asking how much a Big Mac would cost got the answer, ‘your dignity.’

Looking at some of the interactions with Wendy’s and other people, I would have to say that this approach worked out well for Wendy’s. The reason for this is because the more people interact with Wendy’s, the more the Wendy’s name will be known. I also think that because Wendy’s is one of the only companies who does this kind of thing on Twitter, they are more likely to get recognized for it. Overall, I think that Wendy’s making people laugh on Twitter has helped their popularity.

Target audience COM0014

A target audience is defined as the kinds of people who use and associate with your brand, whether you’re looking at something like Amazon or McDonald’s, every brand or company has a target audience. For example, a YouTuber talking about makeup may attract people who have a similar interest. Or a blog that talks about the writer’s dog may attract other dog lovers. In this blog, I am going to be talking about the audience of Mr.Beast’s campaign called TEAMTREES and who they are and Mr.Beast advertised to them.

Mr.Beast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, started a campaign for planting trees which he named TEAMTREES. Just from some of the advertising alone that Jimmy did, it’s clear that his objective was to connect with his target audience, that being manly younger children as some of the campaign consisted of Jimmy making TikTok videos, posting a video on his channel talking about TeamTrees and inserting some memes into said video that kids would enjoy. In fact, if you go to Jimmy’s channel, most of the videos on Jimmy’s channel are clearly made for kids. This is made clear from the over the top looking thumbnails and titles as well as the content of the videos themselves which is clearly catered towards children.

The fact that TEAMTREES is advertised towards kids could be beneficial towards both the campaign and the kids. If kids learn about what Mr.Beast is doing and why it could help the environment, then they could start to go out and talk about it with their friends and family as well as taking their own steps in protecting the environment. This could be helpful to the campaign as kids doing this would help in getting their message out and if kids took steps towards protecting and planting trees, then the result that TeamTrees was hoping for would ultimately happen.

Styles of Storytelling-Bethany Pollard COM0014

When telling a story, how do you do it? Do you tell things as they were and nothing more? Do you talk about the story before going off into tangents that might be related. What about when you write? Do you just tell things how they are or do you try to write like how you would talk? When using social media, especially for a business, it is important to take this into account to make sure you remain consistent.

In this first lesson, we learned about story telling and communication styles. One of the things we learned about is using an active vs passive voice while writing. In short, using an active voice while writing describes what is happening at that very moment while using a passive voice describes what just happened. While I enjoy reading a passive voice more, I can see why an active voice might help an audience engage with you more as it might help them imagine the story going on right in front of them.

The other thing that we learned about in the week was audience engagement. Whether you want someone to leave a comment, share your content, or just simply think about your online presence, they are engaging with you. If you want to keep that audience engagement, you could do something as simple as asking a question. For example, if you asked what type of food is someone’s favorite to cook on a cooking blog, they may engage with your content by answering the question or responding to someone else’s answer. Another thing you could do is keep your content easy to share with friends. You could do this by adding a share button on your page or by giving out links to your other blogs. Doing any of this is a good way to keep your audience talking with you and participating in conversations.

Overall, I find this course interesting and hope to learn more about how I can help my social media presence grow. I also hope to learn more about how best to engage with my audience.

What I did on my vacation? Bethany Pollard-COM0014

Ever since COVID hit, it seems like no one has been able to take a vacation in years. A few days ago though, My mom and her fiancée decided that we would all be going to Ripley’s aquarium for the day and then we would be going out for dinner.

It started when my mom woke me up and told me that her fiancée, Ian, wanted to take us to the Ripley’s aquarium and out for dinner. Although I was a little surprised and knew that I had a bit of work to catch up on, I agreed and soon, we were all in the car heading to Toronto, me sleeping for most of the way there.

When we got to Toronto, we had to walk a few miles to get to the entrance of the aquarium. While we were walking we went past the CN tower and my mom told us how she’d been up there once. Soon, we’d arrived at the entrance and had to get our tickets.

Inside the entrance there were already some small fish tanks with koi in them which I liked looking at while we waited to get our tickets. When we were getting our tickets on the computer screen, I noticed that mom put me down as a thirteen year old when really I’m eighteen. For a bit of context, I’m short and younger looking, though I was a little surprised when no one questioned me on my age, not even the guy who saw my ticket.

Going into the aquarium, we were surrounded by fish tanks with multiple ways you could go. The first exabit we went to was the Canadian fish exabit. There, we saw a pike, some bass and even a sturgeon which I thought was cool. The whole room was dark as to make it easier for you to see the fish.

The next place I remember going to was a tunnel where all around you, there was glass that allowed you see inside the tank while you stood on a moving platform. While slowly moving across, I was able to see some sharks, some sting rays and even a sea turtle. To me, I think the sea turtle was coolest, though I also liked the saw tooth shark, (a shark with a long spiked nose) that I saw swimming around.

The next to things I saw were the tank of puffer fish and the sea dragons and horses. The puffer fish were kept in a small tank and just swam around. To me, their faces looked really cute and like they were smiling at you. The sea horses and their baby’s were kept in separate tanks which were magnified so you could see easier.

In the jellyfish area, I learned about how you can tell a female jelly apart from a male one. While the male jelly has white circles on top of it, the female has darker circles which are looked at as pink, though I only saw them as being a darker color.

While we were heading out, we stopped over top of a sting ray tank where you were able to reach in and touch them if you wanted. I touched one and to me, it felt kind of rough and slimy, though I found it cool that I had touched a ray.

The very last place we stopped was the gift shop. In there, they sold things like plushies, books and jewelry. While I thought about getting a necklace, I quickly saw the price and thought it was a little to much. Instead, I settled on a underwater themed adult coloring book that only cost about ten dollars. Overall, the trip was very fun and I’m grateful that Ian took us.

Looking at what people do on Social Media

When you browse social media such as Instagram or TikTok, what do you look at? Whatever it is, you may have started to notice something. That something being the multiple people attempting dangerous stunts, such as the tide pod challenge and the cinnamon challenge, for views . Some people, more specifically kids, could potentially see these challenges as something fun to try and not realize how dangerous they really are. In this blog, we are going to look at both the Cinnamon and the Tide Pod challenges and see how dangerous they really are, as well as what could happen if you attempted them.

Cinnamon challenge

The cinnamon challenge

If you don’t already know, the cinnamon challenge is a challenge where people on the internet take a spoonful of cinnamon and attempt to eat it without drinking any water for sixty seconds after. The problem with this is the fact that cinnamon contains something known as cellulose, which in small amounts, is tolerable. However, if taken in a larger amount, cellulose can cause gaging, coughing, choking along with more serious reactions such as nosebleeds and vomiting.

https://www.childrensmn.org/educationmaterials/parents/article/14035/is-the-cinnamon-challenge-dangerous/

Now that we’ve looked at the cinnamon challenge and some of the damage it can cause, let’s look at a case where someone actually tried it. 15 year old Andrea Velasquez had decided to try the challenge at a sleep over with some friends. Lucky for her and her friends, they only felt a burning sensation before spitting it up. As much as Adrea and her friends were lucky, others have not been.

https://kdvr.com/news/dangerous-dare-cinnamon-challenge-sends-colo-kids-to-hospitals/#:~:text=Denver%20teenager%2C%2015-year-old%20Andrea%20Velasquez%2C%20tried%20it%20six,powdery%2C%20so%20we%20all%20spit%20it%20all%20up.%E2%80%9D

On example of this is Kentucky mom, Brianna Rader’s four year old son. According to Brianna, her son had ingested almost a full bottle of cinnamon before choking to death. He had started to seize after inhaling enough of the spice to the point that he couldn’t breathe. Brianna’s case is just one of the cases where trying the cinnamon challenge has ended poorly for someone.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d75enx/this-woman-is-trying-to-end-the-cinnamon-challenge-after-her-sons-death

Tide Pod challenge

I’m sure you’ve also heard of this challenge to. The so called, ‘Tide Pod challenge’ is a challenge where someone takes a tide pod and bites into it, resulting in the cleaning product going into the person’s mouth. This is dangerous for a number of reasons including the fact that tide pods contain cleaning substances that are not meant for human consumption. If ingested, tide pods can cause severe mouth burning, damage to lung tissue and even death.

Although I could not find a specific case, the CBS has reported that at least ten deaths have been related to the tide pods.

https://people.com/human-interest/tide-pod-challenge-deadly-health-warn/#:~:text=And%20CBS%20reports%20that%20at%20least%2010%20deaths,from%20dementia%20have%20been%20reported%20in%20recent%20years.

Conclusion

As you can see, both the tide pod challenge and the cinnamon challenge can have very dangerous results so the next time you are on social media and see something that could be dangerous, make sure to alert the right people. Have you ever seen something on social media that could or should be considered dangerous? Did you do anything to stop it?

Facebook: Have you ever really thought about the things you see people do on social media? In her next blog, Bethany talks about the dangers of some of some social media challenges. Check it out! https://wp.me/p3QRy0-v30

Twitter: Ever heard of the cinnamon challenge? Check out Bethany’s thoughts on it! https://wp.me/p3QRy0-v30

#InternetChallenges #Dangers #Cinamon #Tidepods

Should I buy this?-Bethany Pollard COM0011

If you’ve been anywhere on social media, whether it be YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, or anywhere else, you likely know about influencers getting sponsored by different companies. When an influencer gets sponsored buy a company, they are being payed to promote their product, such a new computer program or an online class. Whenever you see these sponsorships, take note of how much the influencers praise the company and how there is no criticism being pushed towards the company. Although this can be great for marketing purposes, it can also create a wrong image and lead people to believe that the company is flawless or better then it actually is.

So far, I’ve seen two examples of this. A wireless set of headphones called Raycons and a mobile game called Raid Shadow Legends. Both products have a lot of promotion, specifically from Youtubers because of the sponsorships. A YouTuber named Rslash has partnered with Raycon a couple of times. Here is one of the videos that has a Raycon sponsorship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQcYyjR5xVw&ab_channel=rSlash

And here is a video that is made by a channel called NerdECrafter, although this one has a Raid Shadow legends sponsorship in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0yyowuzIQ0&ab_channel=NerdECrafter

Now, when you look at these videos, specifically the sponsorships, what do you notice? If you said how both sponsorships only say positive things about the product, then you have gotten my point. Although the YouTubers in these videos say good things about Raycons and Raid Shadow Legends, it’s clear from a quick google search that this is not the case.

Look at this post on Reddit by user u/YoviQ. https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/hnohop/never_buy_raycon_earbuds/

In this post, the user talks about how they got the earbuds for their birthday and how they already started having problems after only two weeks of use. Some of the problems described are, the buds slipping out at even the slightest movement. sound cutting off for no reason and the sound quality being just bad.

Now take a look at this video by RennsReviews on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5knGcX55Zuo&t=327s

In this video, problems are brought to light about Raid Shadow Legends. Some of those problems include, repetitive game play, constant pop ups trying to get you to buy things and even a system that resembles gambling. Take note that not one of these problems, whether it be with Raycon or Raid, are ever mentioned in the sponsorships.

My point with this blog was to hopefully shed some light on how not all products are as good as your favorite influencer or Youtuber makes them out to be. Now I want you to think about this. Have you ever bought a product from a sponsorship? If so, was it better or worse then advertised?

Twitter: Think about what you’re buying. Check out Bethany’s new blog on influencer sponsorships

Should I buy this?-Bethany Pollard COM0011

#Safebuying #Honestsellers #InfluencerSponsorships

Facebook: Have you ever bought a product sponsored by an influencer? Did you like it? In her next blog, Bethany talks about her thoughts on this and why it’s not completely honest with it’s clients https://wordpress.com/post/algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/118491

My Experience with Social Media-Bethany Pollard COM0011

In my last post, I talked about some of my favorite social medias and why I liked them so much. I also asked you to talk about some of your favorite social medias. No matter what social media you use however, I can tell you that all of our experiences are probably going to be different. For example, some people may spend hours scrolling through Instagram and liking photos while other people may just watch YouTube videos all day. In this blog, I am going to talk about how YouTube and Instagram have affected my life.

About two years ago, the only thing I did during the day was watch YouTube videos and message friends. When I was introduced to art projects such as cross stitching, adult coloring books and paint by numbers, I realized that I could find things to listen to on YouTube while I worked and it honestly made art more fun. I also realize that I’m not spending as much time in front of a screen as I become more interested in my art.

Facebook came into my life around two years ago when I was doing a co-op for high school. During the co-op, I worked for the Lindsay Advocate where I would write articles for them and take photos around where I lived. On one of these assignments, I was asked to take photos of the Christmas tree in the town square. The photos I took were sent to my boss and uploaded to Facebook with me credited for them. Although this only happened once, it gave me an idea of what a post by a company might look like.

When you take a look at my experience with social media, I doubt it’s going to look the exact same as yours. Maybe you spend more time then me on social media. Maybe you spend less. Think about how much you use social media and what you use it for then talk about in the comments.

Twitter- New Blog by Bethany Pollard. Check out her experience with social media! https://wordpress.com/post/algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/117900

#Realtalk #MyExperience #Socialmedia

Facebook- How do you use social media? What do you think of it? Check out Bethany’s experience in her new blog! https://wordpress.com/post/algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/117900