How Social Media Can Connect Us

I feel like the last couple blog posts I’ve made have been geared towards COVID-19, I wanted to change it up a bit and talk about social media and how it can easily connect us.

I love how we all have access to different plat forms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These platforms are great for promoting our businesses/brands, keeping in contact with family you don’t live close to and updating you’re friend group on life events such as starting a new job, going back to school or even getting engaged or announcing you’re expecting. I personally love being able to keep in contact with family I don’t live close to as well as friends I have met at jobs who were only there for the summer. For instance, the job I am currently at, I started almost a month ago and my first day I met a summer student and we both hit it off and we ended up adding each other on Facebook and following each other on Instagram. I also go her Snapchat and her cellphone number from her so now that she is on her way back home to another province out West we have multiple platforms to connect on and keep each other up to date on different things that are going on. I also love being able to share my life updates on my Facebook and Instagram with my followers who I don’t keep in contact with every day. I love the fact that every person you meet and become friends with, you can connect with them on any social media platform and be connected for life. I just love how easy it is for us all to set up accounts and being able to connect with people.

I also love how social media can help promote different things such as businesses or events. Facebook is great for creating an event page for say a bike tour or even a music festival. I love that in this day in age, every person you talk to has some kind of social media page. You can connect with so many people and it is a great way to help promote your brand/business. For instance, if I had my own clothing shop and promoted it on Facebook and Instagram and every person I spoke to wanted to know what I did I would direct them to my social media pages and show them I have my own clothing line and I would show them what designs I have.

One of my favourite social media sites would have to be Instagram. I love taking photos and being able to share them with my followers. I also like to be able to follow people I admire as well as following brands I like and being able to see what items they are coming out with. A question I have for my followers- what is your favourite social media apps/sites and why? What draws you to it?

Blog Post 2

I feel as though you can tell the difference between strong and weak organizations. If you look at strong organizations, they have everything put together, their social media pages look amazing and their website looks great.  Everything looks so crisp and it attracts an audience and a following. I feel as though weak organizations kind of slack off on this. I feel like they struggle with what to post and they do not have much of a following because they may lack in what they post. Weak organizations may not have that large of a following whereas strong organizations do. I feel as though weak organizations may also loose followers as they lack posting content, or they may even be inconsistent in their posting.  When looking at strong organizations they are constantly posting and interacting with their following making people want more and with being so interactive it will cause them to gain more followers, weak organizations on the other hand, may loose followers and their following may not want to interact as they are inconsistent with what they post.

Blog One for Applied Social Media

I feel as though there are many different tools that can be used for social media. I feel as though it all depends on the person as each person is different. I feel we all have our own ways and techniques of what we post, we all have to find our own niche. Tools that could work for me may not work for other people as we are all different. We all may have some tools that work for us that are similar to each other but as I said, we are all different and we all work and function differently, and we all likely post about different things. I could post about fashion or sports and someone else could post about music or food, I feel as though the different tools are beneficial to us all as we all may use different ones or we may use some of the same ones.

Multiple People Grocery Shopping at a Time

In the area I live in, there are some grocery stores such as Foodland and Independent Grocer who have a rule where only one person per family is allowed to go in and shop. I work at my local Foodland, and over the last two weeks I have been there, I have seen multiple people come in as groups of 2 or more. I have also seen groups of friends come in to shop as well. Yes we haven’t had a lot of cases in my area but I feel as though with people coming into these grocery stores that have a one person per family limit, it will make the cases spike again as people are coming to the area to visit from Toronto and other areas.

This is still a scary time for us all as times are still uncertain and as someone who works in the front lines, I feel like this is a slap in the face seeing these groups of people come in to buy a couple of items. I am putting myself at risk as well as my family at risk just so I can make sure other people get food on their table.

I have been a front line worker since before this pandemic started, and once this pandemic started, I think I got maybe a hand full of people thanking me for working at my previous job and at the job I have been at for two weeks, I think I have had maybe 2 or 3 people thank me for being there and working.

I feel as though for those people who are shopping in groups of people should be more considerate when going out. I understand some people have to bring their small children in because they don’t have anyone to watch them but for the grown adults they should really think before going in as a group of 4 or more to buy stuff. I personally find it a bit scary when people I personally don’t recognize come in and shop in groups. I don’t know where they have been and I don’t want to get sick nor can I afford to get sick as I have bills to pay for.

I want to know what is everyone’s thoughts on multiple people shopping in groups during this time? Are you okay with it or does it make you a little uneasy?

Lebanon Explosion

This explosion happened earlier this week in Beriut, Lebanon. I didn’t have any idea about it until I went onto my social media accounts. I saw a couple celebrities post about it as well as one of my cousins who has family over in the Middle East post about it. I ended up going online and googling the Toronto Star and found an article and read it and I was shocked at what I was reading. I couldn’t imagine living through a pandemic on top of that having an explosion go off in the area I live in. I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel like 2020 has really been putting us to the test with one bad thing after another. I could probably say for all of us- 2020 really needs to end.

I know this event just happened, but I am hoping some type of fundraiser such as a gofundme page is started to help Lebanon get back on their feet. I feel like with the power of social media and the attention this event already has, it will be able to get world wide attention and people who want to donate can. I feel like we all can rally around and help Lebanon get through this. I feel like if we can all work together to get through this pandemic we can help Lebanon get through this devastation.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/08/04/felt-like-an-earthquake-resident-describes-blast-that-shook-lebanon.html

Thousands Injured in Giant Beirut Blast

Mask Wearing during COVID 19

With COVID pretty much taking over the world right now, I have seen a lot of articles online and on the news about masks being mandatory in stores. While some people may not agree with having to wear a mask while entering a store, I personally believe we all should do our part and wear them. It will hopefully stop the spread of the virus and we will not get a second wave of it. Yes, it is a bit of a hassle having to wear the mask every time you enter the store, but it helps us all out by protecting each other from spreading this horrible virus. As stressful as it all is, I hope we can all concur this virus by wearing our masks when we need to and be back to normal living soon. It has been such an adjustment for us all and we all need to work together to battle it. For someone who works in retail eight hours or more a day and having to wear a mask for most of the shift, it has been a huge adjustment. My hat goes go off to all the nurses and doctors who have to wear a mask for 12 hours or more each day.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/face-coverings-and-face-masks

https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/masks.aspx

Blog Post One

A recent trend that I have noticed is the use of the app TIKTOK. What is TIKTOK? It is an app where people can post short videos of them dancing, talking or lip syncing and posting it. There is a “For You Page (FYP)” where videos that may be of interest to set user show up. There is an option to follow creators and there is a separate tab for users to look at and it is the content of the users that they are following (i.e. say I follow Kevin Hart, I can see the videos that he posts).

I have noticed such an inflex in popularity of this app over the last couple of months with the circumstances that we have been in, probably because we have all be self-isolating/self-quarantining. I feel as though this app is supposed to be targeting a younger audience (high school students) but I have also seen people in their 20s and 30s using it as well as some people in their 40s).

Users do not necessarily have to create content to use this app, they can create a profile and just watch videos that are created, or they can create content and get a following. I personally use this app only to watch what people post but others create content such as story times of events that have happened to them, or funny lip sync or dance videos.

I feel like this app is a growing trend, I think it is going to keep growing larger than what is it at right now. You can connect with people on the app (being able to comment on posts as well as sending direct messages). For those that want to grow their Instagram, Twitter and YouTube following, the links to your profiles can be linked to your account.