LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

So as I am sure you are all ridiculously aware, this past Thursday was the LAST DAY OF CLASS!!!

And I am just as happy as the kid above if not more.

I feel like I have been in school for a million years and finally I am going going to graduate. It's been a long time coming and I so excited.

Anyway, just wanted to get that off of my chest.

Back to the group project....

We all met on Thursday and were feeling very confident about our individual parts.

Professor, I think that you will find that this next project will be a step up from the last project. Which I suppose wouldn't be that much since last time we did terrible. Ha Ha Ha. Just kidding.

Well, since the project is basically done at this point we convened for only a short period of time and went on our separate ways. 

Perfect ending for the last day of class!!!

Have a great summer!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Meredith

ALMOST DONE....

So this past Tuesday, my group and I, Group 6 got down and dirty.....

we cranked out a bunch of work and were well on our way to finalizing our project. 

As you saw in posts before this one, we had a great outline to go off of....and armed with that I think that we were very well prepared.

We went over our parts together and combed through them.....

Combed through them so much that if our project were a dog we would be able to take this

and do this!!!

Impressive. 

I know right.

What I am trying to say is that we got a lot done, fine tuned everything and i feel very positive about the product that we will be turning in.

At least, I think it will be significantly better than our project 2.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

-Meredith

.....

Outline of all outlines

Well, our group wasn't in strong numbers on Thursday. But we came up this this, and I think it is pretty awesome. I worked hard on this, so I figured I might as well post it and get some feedback.

Ok, so here are some of the ideas that we discussed in class today with professor Abel. All of these were approved by him and would help us build a cohesive argument to write about.

So Clay emailed his part to the professor and the professor said that we should only focus on one demographic, because men, women and children is too broad. Clay opened the floor for us to focus on Women. I think that this is a good idea.

-Audience-  So basically, in the Audience section you would discuss the following:

·      Who the audiences are that the NFL targets- men, women & children. Discussing the percentages of the market that the NFL markets to.

·      Then mention that because the NFL already has a successful system for interacting with men through social media, and that we would like to focus on Women, as the NFL should increase their social media relationship with women.

·      Then further delve into the female demographic.

·      The professor offered phrases like “ NFL has already maximized the male market” they want to “focus on building future consumers” and “ what new people can we attract? –“There is a potential new social media plan”

-Publics use of social media

·      Then this section would cover the ways in which women use social media.

·      Discuss both how they use social media to interact with the NFL, and the popular methods in which they use social media outside of the NFL (this will lead to later parts that discuss new strategies to tap into these markets).

·      Ex. Mention how women use Instagram to take “selfies” (pictures of themselves in the mirror) and how women use Pinterest to find crafts and clothes, and Forums to discuss issues with other women and how women use social media to interact with television shows and stores (this will come in to play later)

·      Also discuss how they ALREADY use social media to interact with the NFL.

-Social Media Activities of your organization or brand

·      This section is straight forward. How does the NFL already direct it’s social media activities to women.

·      Ex. Pinterst – clothes and crafts

·      What social media are not being used at all? (this will come in to play later) ex. Instagram

Competitors

·      Focus on women as well.  I will talk about how the NBA uses it’s affiliation with tv networks for shows like Basketball wives. Etc.

·      And mention the other ways that the NBA, NHL, MLB and College Football attract women.

·      This section, and the section above ( Social Media Activities of your organization or brand) should be similar format so we should get in touch with each other.

Then we go into the four subsections in recommending a plan

Objectives-

·      Mention that the NFL is not doing enough to gain a social media presence with women

·      Then explain that the objective is to attract more women consumers and viewership by using the various social media

·      Basically we want to attain a larger segment of the market that equals and surpasses what we have now, and that of competitors

·      Mention providing a social media atmosphere that attract and nurture the female perspective……etc etc

·      Increase general football knowledge among women

·      Increase the female conversation about women.

Strategies-

·      What GENERAL approach will we take?

·      Increase media presence in areas more affiliated with women.

·      Try to utilize social media that has yet to be utilized. (ex. Instagram)

·      “relaunch or launch revamped social media platforms”

Tactics-

·      Tactics include specific ways to implement strategies.

·      We discussed a “Dress to Impress” contest using Instagram. Women can submit selfies through instagram in their cutest football gear. After the Sunday game, a winner for each of the 32 teams is selected. This attracts females to football in an interesting way…..elaborate on that.

·      Build/ use relationships with TV stations to develop a NFL wives tv show where women can indirectly gain interest in the NFL and supplement this by having a facebook , page twitter account and etc. for the show.

·      Start a NFL pinterest page specifically designed with crafting for football games and parties. (knit a football shaped jumper for a baby, best superbowl Sunday dip, diy dresses using NFL t-shirts)

·      The NFL could open up women’s only forums (women like exclusivity) and then the NFL should release control and let women do the conversating. The NFL should only step in occasionally to help direct the conversation to football.

·      Etc.

Measurement/ Evaluation-

·      How will we measure/ demonstrate success?

·      Monitor the various social media sites using netvibes or other media monitoring sites

·      Is there an increased presence on pinterest? Are there more likes on Facebook? More football  tweets by females on twitter? Etc.

·      How we will evaluate the specific results of the above mentioned tactics? Ex. Did a lot of women on instagram send in “selfies”?

·      Did women respond to the various relaunches and revamps?

·      What is NFL wives viewership? Did Footbll game viewership go up as well. As well as social media presence for each of these.

·      How many posts to the forum?

Everything should be related and cohesive.

Find ways to weave in the LOCI & ETCH parts of the lectures from class.

Provide APA sources for your information if necessary.

This is the general discussion we had mixed in with some of me and Anna’s brainstorming. This could serve as a guidline for the paper if we choose to use it. I am also emailing the professor so that if he so chooses he can offer any feedback.

Please respond with any questions, comments and ideas.

Don’t forget, you should have your section written by Tuesday’s class so we can review in a group on Tuesday.

I have posted this in the email and as an attachment so if needed, you can highlight and respond as you so choose.

-Meredith Rolen

THIS PAST TUESDAY

This past Tuesday we got into our groups.

Then the Professor went around and discussed with all the groups about their work and how they did.

Let's just say that he took

And ripped us a new one. 

I think that at one point, towards the beginning he told us that ours was the least effective paper out of the lot.

I wanted to do this.....

I think we all felt the same way so we put out brains together

and we can up with magic!

get your minds out of the gutter!! Not that magic!! ( That's what happens when the class is mostly women!)

Damnit! Not that magic either, but you are closer!

That's what I am talking about. That's the kind of magic we made!

We really got to dive into the nitty gritty about what is happening with our project. We are making good progress and we're well on our way to developing a great outline. We will be trying to do a lot better. For the next time.

Thanks for tuning in. - Meredith

First Day of Project 3!

The first day of project Three......The beginning of the end!!!!

Side bar for a second...... This means that I am that much closer to graduating after a 7 year bout with college!!! College almost won.....but guess who is coming out on top this round! I am, I made UMSL my........ UH....sorry, forgot this was for school. You all know what I was going to say. 

Ok, Sidebar over!

So, back to the actual class. Today we learned about all the details concerning project three. Afterwards, Anna ,Clayton, Joe, Thomas and I all met up to discuss who would take what sections. 

Since there are five of us we had a couple of different choices on how to divide up the work. Ultimately, we thought it would be best to just give the difficult areas (tactics and competitors) to one person each, as opposed to dividing them in half. I got the competitors section.

For the competitors section I will be using the various dashboard applications.......

...to monitor various other sports outlets. These outlets include.......

College Football

Major League Baseball

The North American Soccer League

The National Basketball Association

and the National Hockey League.

Wish me luck, hope I find some good info. Thanks for reading my blog.

-Meredith Rolen

Last Day of Project 2! Hooray!

On class this past tuesday we made our final plans and touch-ups with regards to Project 2.

Together, our group put all the puzzle pieces together.

We agreed that I would be the compiler and in very timely manners everyone sent in their work to me and I compiled the paper. I wrote the first part, the summary about the NFL, Clayton wrote the methodology section, Anna wrote the results and Joe and Thomas split the conclusion. 

Together, we put in a lot of hard work.

Hopefully, we all get an A+!!!!

So Who Got the 9.9? And How P***ed Off Are You!? Ha!

In class today we divided the writing parts for project 2.

I am writing the purpose part, Anna is writing the results part, Thomas is covering part 2 of the conclusion, Joseph is covering part 1 of the conclusion and Clay is covering the methodology.

By guessing a number I "won" the opportunity to  compile the work for 3 extra points. Which is good because I did the math and I am right on the cusp of getting one grade higher.

Speaking of grades, the professor basically said it's impossible to get a perfect grade. That is messed up!!!

It reminded me of this.....

AND HOW NONE OF US WILL NEVER GET IT!!!!! HA HA!!!

If I was the 9.9/10 person, I would be mad!!! lol. Fortunately I do far too mediocre work to be affected by this. 

But to the 9.9 person.....my heart goes out to you!

Anyway, back to the group. We all agreed to email everyone else by class on Tuesday, there we will do the final editing and combining of the project.

Also today, in my college level communications course, we went over its vs it's. That was......well, I found this picture so I figured I may as well post it. This helps elaborate on the its vs it's dynamic. Mostly, I just thought it was hilarious!!

- Meredith Rolen

More NFL Stuff

Hello Everyone. This past  Tuesday our group met and talked about the progress that we had each made individually over the weekend. Each of us already began to put together our charts that needed to complete this project. It seems that everyone is doing a great job and staying on track on following the activity of NFL.I have very much enjoyed my time monitoring the NFL. Who knew that the charts could be so interesting. I am learning so much about the NFL, and not through NFL sources, but through fans of the NFL who are getting on line and offering information for everyone. Gee, love the world wide web. There is such a large surplus of information and activity, I don't know how we still have dumb people out there with all the information available to us.  As I continue on in my evaluation of material for curating and youtube, I continue to be intrigued and surprised by some of the information out there. There is a lot of positive and negative information about the NFL, for the most part it seems to be fifty/fifty. Everyone with an opinion shares it, which makes it easy to find the information. I think that my teammates are also doing quite well.  Thanks, Meredith

MORE PROJECT TWO

Whoa Man!!! Boy there is a bunch of information on the NFL!!!! People talking, people posting, people ranting.........Americans sure love there football!!!!

It is almost difficult filtering through all of that information. I am covering curating and youtube.....I forgot what that is again. There is so much information out there, from the players, the media outlets and the the fans!!!

 I think that the load would have been too much but we got an extra team member so that will be a nice addition. She also saved me from being the only girl. lol.

Everyone else in the group is finding a bunch of information too!!! I think thus far, things are looking great!

Seeking: NFL Know- How & Feedback

Hello Everyone,

It's Me, Meredith!....Again

In the last class, we went over project two. Our group decided on the NFL. I anticipate that a ton of stuff will pop up because it is such a large juggernaut of a brand. I believe that we are on of the groups that influenced the decision to disappate team 1. Sorry team 1! lol. I am going to look up curating and whatever technologies youtube is in (sorry, blanked on the word). I guess I will report back after the next class to tell you how everything is going after the next meeting. Thanks for checking out my blog.

Plead for help....

I have tried to blog before, about crafting. I think that the failed blog I am referring to is automatically accessible because this blog and that Blog DIYlazysundays are both on blogger. Anyway, back to the point.....I think that we have to do these blog posts because it helps us better understand the time commitment it takes to truly keep up with a blog. That was one of the important things we learned about blogs, post frequently. We also learned that the content should be interesting, and frankly, I wish I could get class credit and start blogging about crafts on lazy sundays again, because my own blogs about class projects and what I am pretending to get done is putting me to sleep.

Before, I was excited to blog, I got to add pictures and try to make witty quips, and talk freely. I felt confident about my blog. Remember the vampire post? Now, I dread these posts.

Or, do you think this is intentional because if I was, say Patricia Lee (the Panera Guest Speaker), would I enjoy blogging about muffies and Asiago roast beefs? Probably not. I guess it's just a job...... much like school....

I guess I am saying this because if anyone that reads this, in my class or out on the world wide web, I would like your opinion on how I can revamp/ get my mojo back, because blogging for the sake of blogging, with zero passion.....is painful.

At the very least this post is interesting because it could be considered contreversial ( It is also on tone, relevant, honest and interesting [for grading purposes]. So to all you bloggers out there, you're welcome.


I don't know how obvious it is.....but this is in no way, shape or form meant to be disrespectful to the assignment, class or professor. Just trying to work some kinks out, get feedback and figure out how to do engaging blogs that meet assignment requirements, while being fulfilling and entertaining.

Project 1

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a great spring break. Mine was pretty uneventful, but hey, at least I caught up on my TV shows.

Well, like all great things a good project takes a lot of 

THOUGHT

TIME

& EFFORT

Thankfully I have this wonderful outlet to engage with my peers about all that I have been working on. And I have been working a lot. What a great assignment.

Now that I got my brown-nosing done. I am studying the AT&T don't message while you drive campaign. I am basically just following the instructions. Well, I guess If anyone else is studying that post on here and we can chat.

Thanks for viewing.

I Fricking Love Groupon!

Thursday in class we learned about discovering media. I have a lot of experience with this because I have been a Groupon-a-holic for awhile now. Seriously, I buy one like everyday.

Groupon is a tool that offers group coupons, hence: Groupon.

Organizations use Groupon to get their name out there and to attract business.

I find that it is also a great tool to travel. I visited New Orleans last year and wanted something fun to do while I was their. I consulted Groupon and I found a great deal. I paid $10 for an Alligator experience, which was a $30 value. In my package I got to take a picture holding alligators and tour the farm. The friends I was with didn't get the Groupon and they paid $20 and weren't allowed to hold the alligators. It was awesome! I have also used Groupon for restaurants and retail stores.

Here are some pics from the alligator farm. Enjoy!

Discussing

Today in class we discussed various discussing technologies. More specifically, Communities where people with similar interests can get together and discuss things through forums, threads and posts. One community in particular that is a great platform for people interested in Weightloss or achieving fitness goals is the my fitness pal community.

Along with being a tool to help track and store your diet and exercise statistics, it is a place where you can discuss all your exercise and weightless fantasies! Whether you want to know what eyeliner to wear that won't smudge while sweating or to connect with other people trying to loose weight this is a great forum! Check it out MyFitnessPal!

We Can Be Big Brother Now!!!

Now playing big brother isn't just for the government, big tobacco, prime time reality shows of the same name and this guy.......

We can do it too! All we need is a little help from this awesome new tool we learned about in class, NetVibes!

I had a very fun time trying to figure out what the heck I was doing on netvibes. I don't think that I can post my dashboard since it is password protected, but here is a great video about NetVibes that offered some interesting insight and helped me figure it out!

Middle Finger!

Not gonna lie, I have been waiting for Facebook so I could use that title......ha ha

So today, we are looking at the middle finger

Ha Ha, What were you expecting? Ofcourse I meant......

One company that I think uses Facebook extremely well is Houlihan's. Specifically, Houlihan's in Brentwood. Their Facebook page is run by one woman on a management staff of four yet she does a great job at listening, the have clear objectives, interesting content and it is integrated with other social media like twitter and foursquare. She also does a great job at helping the site endure by being actively engaged in the conversation, she also exhibits a great, friendly and fresh tone. She also keeps control by directing the conversation, but not in a direct way! Also, she is very honest with the clientele. If they have an issue like a customer complaining they don't delete it or mask it, they address it head on and in a timely matter.

Curating

In class we studied curating technologies.

For this post I will be focusing on

and the company up for discussion is

TOMS does a great job at utilizing the curating technology. On their page they offer beautiful imagery of fashionable shoes and their philanthropic quests. It enables us to be visual stimulated while learning more about the company. We are also able to share this content through email, our webpages, twitter and Facebook. With Pinterest offering so much I am surprised that more companies don't fully utilize all that Pinterest has to offer.