Do as the Romans do

I never thought I would be getting a history lesson when reading Chapter 23 of “Share This.” The chapter was about using communication in the public sector and looked back to the past for examples from anti-smoking campaigns and pro-voting campaigns.

Looking further into the past, the authors explain how communications has not changed that much since the Romans’ Acta Diurna. “The Acta Diurna were daily public notices, posted up in public locations around Rome” (210). Scribes would be sent to make copies to bring back to their rulers.

This Roman communication was very important in that time. The book states four lessons we can learn from the Acta Diurna:

1. Put your information where the audience is

2. Spice up information with interesting human color

3. Make it easy for people to share your information and it will spread

4. If you want to influence what people thing about you, do not leave it to others to do all the communication

The funny thing is, social media and public relations haven’t changed that much since then. We still put information where the audience is: mainly the Internet. The book says we spice up information with cat photos if all else fails (which is true). Sharing information is very easy in 2014 with share buttons, email and social media on almost every page we visit. It’s comforting to know the basic principles of communications still remain the same, even after all these years.

The Urge for Surge

Does this can look familiar? It’s a blast from the past for many of us born in the 1990s. This is Coca-Cola’s Surge, which was sold from 1997 to 2002. Not even a year later, a website called savesurge.org was created and petitioned for Coke to bring back Surge. “A Facebook group called the Surge Movement was created in 2011; to date it has more than 130,000 likes” says an article from Bloomberg Businessweek. This group even raised $3,800 to post a billboard next to the Coke headquarters.

The soda was marketed towards “boys and men between the ages of 12 and 24.” The article states this demographic are now twenty years older and want to reminisce about the days spent drinking Surge. This is just enough of a market to possibly bring back Surge, since the average age of a Coke drinker is now 56.

And that’s what Coke did. On September 15^th Coke announced Surge would be sold for a limited time. It is only being sold on Amazon, not in any stores, for $14 a 12 pack.

People were/are talking about Surge and Coke listened using social media. The company felt as though there was a good enough opportunity for this demographic and this product. Coke used the brand monitoring listening strategy. The company did not need to set up its own private community, because the Facebook group was already in place.

It’s amazing how only 130,000 Surge fans on the Surge Movement Facebook page could reach Coke and get them to start selling Surge again. Maybe Coke will be the next case study in a Groundswell chapter explaining listening.

A+ for PTX

The latest album I have been jamming to is Pentatonix’s new CD PTX Vol. III. I have been a huge fan of Pentatonix since their first album’s release. Their music is so unique and so catchy. For those of you unfamiliar with Pentatonix, the band is an a capella group made up of Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Kirstie Maldonado, Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola. They competed in NBC’s “The Sing-Off” in 2011 and have since then exploded in the music scene.

The last two CD’s have had a couple good songs, but overall the whole thing did not impress me. That is not the case for this new release. All seven of the songs on this album are fantastic! Each of the tracks is different from the last, which keeps the album interesting.

The first track is a cover of Ariana Grande’s “Problem” (music video above). This is a strong start to the album and I love when Grassi lays down Iggy Azalea’s rap. The second track, “On My Way Home,” is my favorite on the album. It has a very worldly feel to it. Pentatonix has even said they would love to sing it with a children’s choir some day. “La La Latch,” a mashup of Sam Smith, Disclosure and Naughty Boy songs, is next. At first, I was not a fan of this song. But, the more I listen to it; the song is definitely growing on me.

Pentatonix covers Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” next. This song features Maldonado and I can see why. It is perfect for her vocal range. “See Through” is one of Pentatonix’s original songs and features the whole band’s strengths: Grassi’s high notes, Kaplan’s very low register, Olusola’s beatboxing, Hoying’s smooth voice and Maldonado’s rhythm. Violinist Lindsey Stirling joins the band to cover a French artist’s song called “Papaoutai.” Although the music video is a little weird, the song is super catchy, even though I can’t understand the lyrics. The mellow jam “Standing By” closes out the album. Kaplan is featured on this song and it is so refreshing to hear him sing rather than just sing the bass line.

I would highly encourage anyone and everyone to listen to this album. Die-hard Pentatonix fans will be proud and new fans will be thoroughly impressed.

So You Think You Can Write a Press Release?

Well, if you think you can, you’ll need the 14 essential elements listed in Chapter 12 of “Share This.” These 14 elements are the basics to building a social media news release and newsroom. They are:

Headline, introductory paragraph, Supporting paragraphs, Anchor text links, Quotes, Supporting facts, Multimedia, Infographics, Social network sharing tools, Email sharing button, Social bookmarking tools, Links, Creative Commons License, and Contact information

The book goes on to say how the press release has evolved over the years, starting from the very first published about the Pennsylvania Railroad (pictured below), to Tom Foremski’s critique, and finally to the ever changing social media release.

Since I have little PR knowledge, I liked reading about the history of the press release and where it is going. I know I’ll have to write a press release at some point in my career, so it was very nice that this book spelled out the individual aspects that come together to make a successful press release. I have most of these elements in my blog posts, but for a company I’ll have to incorporate almost all of these for a successful press release.

One of My Firsts

I had a pretty unique experience yesterday- I was able to sit and watch a parade. You might be thinking Kelly, you’ve never actually watched a parade? Besides the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV, that is unfortunately correct. I have always been in the parade.

I was in many parades with my baton-twirling group leading up to high school. We did Fourth of July, Christmas and Labor Day parades. Sometimes we even twirled fire in the night parades!

For three years of high school I had to be in parades with the marching band. The coolest parade during high school was when we went to Disney World and got to march down Main Street in Magic Kingdom.

2014 Harvest and Herb Festival- ONUMB Drumline

I thought the parades would let up when I got to college, but I was totally wrong. With the Ohio Northern University marching band we always had to march in the Harvest and Herb Festival parade and the Homecoming parade. I also marched in a Thanksgiving parade at Disney Land and a Columbus Day parade in New York City with the ONU marching band.

Since I am not in marching band this year, I realized I would be able to watch the Harvest and Herb Festival parade. And that is exactly what I did. I felt like the ultimate ‘townie’ bringing my lawn chair to Main Street and watching the parade.

It was definitely a different experience being on the other side of the parade. There were a lot of little kids around me more concerned with what pieces of candy they would pick up rather than the actual parade. I secretly wished I had brought a plastic shopping bag to grab some candy for myself!

I’m glad I got to experience a ‘first’ of mine this weekend and see my marching band friends in the same position I was in before.

Interview with Caroline Mangan

Above is an interview I conducted with my good friend Caroline Mangan. Caroline works as an admissions counselor at Ohio Northern. I chose her to interview because she graduated in fields I am interested in and she is involved with a lot of the marketing activities that go on at ONU.

It was interesting to hear she uses a lot of the skills she learned here in her job. She says the most important thing she learned and uses now is teamwork. This gives me hope that all of the group projects I do in my business classes will hopefully pay off! Caroline also mentioned the importance of time management, which I am pretty good at now. I just need to keep in mind it will be harder in the future to manage bigger projects.

Then I dug deeper. I was really interested to hear her opinions on social media in the workplace. She says right after graduating, adjusting to seeing what students post on social media was kind of awkward. Caroline carefully monitors what she posts, although she does not have a separate work and personal page.

I feel like I might handle social media differently than Caroline after I graduate and enter the workplace. I might have two separate pages for work and personal life, but maintaining two pages may get to be too much.

As Caroline said, “Think before you post!” I definitely took this to heart and will continue to monitor everything I post, no matter on my personal Twitter or my professional LinkedIn. You never know who is watching!

How Six Seconds are Changing the Music Industry

I am a frequent checker of BuzzFeed. I thought I would use the site to find some inspiration for my social media post this week. As soon as I clicked on my bookmark and the page loaded, I saw what I was going to post. The featured article was entitled “How Vine Became The Music Industry’s Next Hope.” Reggie Ugwu writes about how the music industry is using Vine to find the next big thing.

David Massey, president of Island Records, recalls how the search for new talent has evolved from open-mic nights to Myspace to YouTube and recently to Vine. He claims he can “tell whether an artist will have a career in music within two minutes of meeting them.” Now he can save one minute and 54 seconds by just viewing a Vine of an artist.

The article describes Shawn Mendes’ rise from a nobody on YouTube to now being signed with Island Records. Mendes got 10,000 likes on his first Vine and about 3.1 million followers. This ability to reach a large number of people with the simplicity of a six second video “can suggest a star power that will translate outside of the service, at the record store, and on tour stages,” which means big bucks for music companies.

I definitely think the music industry will continue to use Vine. The industry will be able to save time and money by looking at vines rather that scouring YouTube. Although record labels haven’t figured out the exact science of turning a Vine artist into a mega-hit, they have definitely reaped the financial benefits from single sales.

So many people use Vine that artists can create a fan base before they even sign with a record company. An artist with talent, a social media presence and an existing fan base? Sounds like exactly what the record companies want.

Who do you think will be the next Vine artist to make it in the music industry?