Capstone Progress

My capstone project is coming together nicely despite the snow conflicting with events and meetings. For the past couple months Dr. Kushin and I have been laying down to foundation of the project by creating the social media plan and setting goals and objectives. On February 3, the first of my campaign started, which was the Game Face Selfie Challenge. Unfortunately it didn’t have the draw I expected it to. I ended up canceling the event. Right now I am in the process on revamping my content calendar by making what I post more personal and engaging. I am also focusing on getting more followers on the Twitter and Instagram. I am planning in March to start my campaign of “I Relay” stories, which highlight the reason each committee member joined Relay For Life. I am excited for this particular campaign. The rest of my work is just preparing for the event in April. It is less than 40 days! I am feeling prepared for presentations on March 17.  

Social Media: New Hybrid

In the article Social media: The new hybrid element of promotion mix, written by W. Glynn Mangold and David J. Faulds, they explore the development of social media and how it has changed how consumers communicate with their customers. The purpose of this article was to provide evidence that organizations should incorporate social media Integrated Marketing Communication strategy, to compare and contrast the traditional communication methods, and methods marketing manager can shape the consumer-to-consumer conversations. 

  

   Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the guiding principle organizations follow to communicate with their target markets. It attempts to coordinate and control the various elements of the promotional mix (advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion) to produce a unified customer focused message. 

  

   Social media has impacted IMC because it encompasses many forums, which not only allows consumers to communicate with companies, but consumers to directly communicate with other consumers. The study found Internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer-sponsored communications. Consumers are turning away from traditional sources such as radio and magazines. Social media is also perceived as more trustworthy because of consumer's ability to communicate directly.  

I found this article very intriguing. I because I think egaging with your consumers should be company's top priority. It is also important, because if you aren't engaging you aren't maintaining positive relationships. 

Social Media & Nonprofis

Social media helps us stay connected all over. It aslo has powers to spread ideas and inspire people all over the world. Social media can spread ideas of hope, change, happiness, and equality. That is why it is a great tool for nonprofits to utilize. 

In the study conducted by Lindley Curtis, Carrie Edwards, Kristen L. Fraser, Sheryl Gudelsky, Jenny Holmquist,
Kristin Thornton, and Kaye D. Sweetser about the Adoption of Social for Public Relations by Nonprofit Organizations, researchers surveyed public relations practioner to find out how they are adopting social media tools and if they view them as credible. The Unified Theroy of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was employed to examine the practitioners' use of social media and investigated their familiarity with social media, their level of participation in communication technologies, their behaviors concerning new media communication outlets, and their tendencies to adopt these tools. 

The study found women consider social media to be beneficial, whereas men exhibit more confidence in activel utilizing social media. Organizations with specified public relations departments were more likely to adopt social media. There was also positive correlations between UTAUT factors and credibility indicated a greater likelihood to adopt social media. The results of this study indicatcat that social media tools are benefical methods of communication in the public relations field. 

I chose this article to research more for research into the type of career I plan to have. I feel it benefits me to understand how nonprofits are adopting social media tools for their businesses and nonprofits. 

Viral Content

In the study done by Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman What Makes Content Go Viral, they researched why certain online content is more viral than others. They found through collecting data from New York Times articles published over a 3 month period, positive content is more viral than negative. They also found the relationship between emotion and social transmission is more complex. Virality is driven by physiological arousal, which is a state of mobilization. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that is more deactivating such as sadness is less viral. The study is important because it helps marketers and PR professional create more effective social media campaigns. 

Based this study, a connection can be made the "opinion leaders" Laserfeld refers to in his study of two-step flow, are mostly sharing positive content. I would even conclude the negative emotions like anger which were found to be highly viral could also be positive. I believe in most cases the sharing of content that is negative isn't meant to create negativity, but instead to ignite justice for all. 

It personally helps me, so I am able to understand not only what I should be posting but how to write the content. Being apart of Relay For Life is a amazing experience, because it is are creating hope for people who are in need. I didn't understand the impact until I join the committee and started researching American Cancer Society and Relay. It is important to create a positive and uplifting message not only for the students who are attending, but for the survivors and caregivers. They need to know that we believe they can carry on too. 

Cancer having a negative tone anyway, I don't want the content I'm posting in the page to be depressing. Therefore it is important to post content that is inspiring and motivational, but create a positive outlook for the more negative stories.