Ferguson and Twitter

A very informative BuzzFeed article illustrates how Twitter was used during the Michael Brown grand jury decision.

These are geotagged tweets that either mentioned Ferguson or used #Ferguson. BuzzFeed points out that the usage significantly increases around 8:30 when the decision was released. “There were over 3.5 million tweets about the Ferguson decision Monday night.”

I think it is incredible to put this Twitter use into an illustration. Of course, Twitter is still used to share opinions about Ferguson, even after this grand jury decision. I see at least one tweet on my timeline every day about Ferguson. It will be interesting to see the role Twitter plays in this current event.

Universities: Who is their target audience?

That’s a trick question! Universities have target audiences. Reading Chapter 14 of “Measure What Matters” by Katie Payne made me stop and think about just how many audiences colleges have to think about.

Payne lists the following as the “typical audiences” (211) of higher education:

Faculty, staff, deans, alumnae, students, parents, prospective students, parents of prospective students, donors, federal government, state government, local elected officials, local community, local media, national media and trade media

That's a pretty hefty list. I can't think of a company that has this many different groups of people to target.

I never stopped and thought of all these audiences, their different “needs, wants, expectations and desires” (210) and how the university must respond to them. Each of these groups are different ages, have different levels of education, varying salaries, etc.

Identifying these groups is the first step in measuring programs at the higher education level. After identifying, the college must prioritize the audiences. All of these audiences mean measuring their responses as well. No wonder college PR departments are so busy!

CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

It’s that time of the year again! Time to start listening to Christmas music!! Some people usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but this year I was cranking my Christmas Spotify playlist a few weeks before Thanksgiving. This music is too good to only listen to it for a month! Here are my top 5 favorite Christmas albums:

(Throwback) Honorable Mention:

N*Sync- Home for Christmas

Favorite song- “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays”

5. Family Force 5- The Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant

Favorite song- “Christmas Time is Here”

4. The Maine- …And a Happy New Year

Favorite song- “Mr. Winter”

3. Straight No Chaser- Christmas Cheers

Favorite song- “The Christmas Can-Can”

2. Relient K- Let it Snow Baby, Let it Reindeer

Favorite song- “In Like a Lion (Always Winter)”

1. PTX- That’s Christmas to Me

Favorite song- All of them! Go buy this right now!!! There is not a bad song on this album. Below is their original song:

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Every year since I can remember, I have watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every Thanksgiving morning. Whether it is by myself, with my brother or my whole family, I always enjoy curling up in my pajamas and watching the show.

As I’ve grown older though, the magic of the parade is slowly going away. Now the balloons are just advertisements for upcoming movies and I can see right through the lip-syncing performers. The parade is also just a big advertisement for Macy’s, with its name EVERYWHERE.

I did, however, enjoy the performances by the Broadway shows. Those are usually my favorite. The show I will see in NYC this month did a performance, so that was fun to get a sneak peek! I also really like the marching bands because I can relate to them and have been in their shoes before (not in the Macy’s parade though).  

Although the magic may be fading, I think I’ll still continue to watch the parade each year.