Category: technology

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social media technology

Public Relations is Not What I Thought it Was.

No matter how big or small a business is they have to worry about their public relations. To me public relations is the way a business interacts with the public, allowing them to create the brand image they desire. According to Caroline Black the author of The PR Practitioner’s Desktop Guide, “Public relations was born the moment the first organised group understood that it had a need to communicate with people- in other words it has been around since the dawn of civilization” (Black, p.7). This shows that all business have always had public relationships no matter when they were active through out time.

I am currently starting my first PR class at Grand Valley, and already through my first week I have learned so much. As an Ad emphasizes it took me an extra semester before getting to the PR classes. Before this class it was hard for me to see the difference between Ad and PR, but after this week I am beginning to see it. I now think of PR as the relationship between the company and the consumer where Ad is just trying to get the consumer to buy more or create new consumers. For example, on a social media for an Ad post may bring the price of a good and provide a link to buy it. Where on the other had, a PR post would focus on building the relationship between the customer and company, and would not show any mention of buying the product. Overall, I believe ads are focusing on making money where the focus of PR is to establish a bond between consumer and company.

As an Ad and PR major who is having difficulty understanding the difference between the two of these, it must look as if they are the same to people not involved in the industry. When research exactly what PR is I found a great quote by Robert Wynne, who is a Public Relations professional in California, where he states, ” The public relations industry does a terrible job of public relations.” In this quote he is trying to get the point across that people who work in the public relations field do a terrible job explain what there job is. This is very ironic sense they are paid to communicate to the public for a company, but fail to inform the public what exactly they do as a professional.

I believe the public relations field is full of gray areas and over laps with many jobs. However, no matter where you work there will be the same underlying duties. According to the Public Relations Society of America in their articular titled, “About Public Relations,” the main duty of public relations is to analyzing the public’s view of the company, issues that may impact the company for good or bad, crisis communication, manage the reputation of the company, preforming research on the audience and how to reach them, planning and implementing campaigns, setting goals, planning, budgeting, and overseeing content used to gain customer engagement and turn into leads. I use to think advertising and public relations were pretty much the same thing but in the last 7 day’s I have learned how different they are. Between the articles I have read preparing to write this along with what I have learned in class, my view of public relations has changed directly. I still plan on finishing my major with the empathizes in advertising, but my interest in public relations has gone up a lot. I want to be the best employee possible so what ever will expand my skill I will happily learn.

Black, C. (2002). The PR Practitioner’s Desktop Guide. EBCOhost. 7-18

About Public Relations. (n.d) Public Relations Society of America. retrieved from: https://www.prsa.org/about/all-about-pr

Wynne, R. ( Jan 21, 2016). Five Things Everyone Should Know About Public Relations. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2016/01/21/five-things-everyone-should-know-about-public-relations/#25632f262a2c

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social media technology

Videos in Advertising

In the advertising and public relations field there is a big importance on visuals and videos. Visuals and videos are a direct way that companies can each out to consumers and relay a message to them. Of course, they must spend lots of time on the videos and visuals to make sure they are sharing the correct message with their customers that they want to. If they give off the wrong message it can lead to many problems for the company. However, there are countless benefits to using these marketing ideas. Two of the biggest things visuals and videos do for a company are allowing them to talk directly to the customer, and it allows the business to easily reach out to the consumer.

              In videos the business is able to put what every they want in it and air it any where that they are willing to pay for it to be on. This allows business to air their videos where their customers will see it. Yes, they must spend time and money to see where their customers are spending most of their time on social media or if they watch more TV, and if so what channels, but once they figure it out they are able to each out directly to their customers. By being able to put what ever message they want in their ads, they can show their customers that exact message. This makes it kind of like a conversation, even if one sided, between the company and the consumer. This can allow the customer to feel more attached to the business, just make them want to go buy that product again or capture a new customer who has never had that product.

Image result for videos
Posts tagged with ‘Producing a Marketing Video,” Skill Man Video Group, Accessed on March 27 2019

              Videos are also an easy way to reach out to customers due to everyone’s daily life being based around technology. It is impossible to go on social media or watch TV with out seeing a video in between shows or a visual sponsor post on your feed. In an article by Priit Kallas titled, “8 Powerful Reasons You Need to Use Video Marketing (TRENDS),” he brings up the point that ads on YouTube work much better than ads on TV do. He talks about how people now like to watch videos on the go and how the number of people with smartphones is growing so the audience for these ads is also growing. With more own experience I use YouTube way more than I watch TV, so I could not help but to agree with Kallas. Plus, on YouTube you are forced to watch the ad or at least the first five seconds of it, where on TV I would just flip channels until the commercials are over.

              The world of Advertising has changed much over the past few years. As social media has begun to get more and more popular companies have had to start advertising on there too and not just on TV. This means reaching a bigger audience, but they also must plan out their budgets. For each business one might work better than the other, but it is up to that business to find out which one works better for them. Even with the benefits that this technologically advanced era is brought, it also brings along more responsibility for companies and forced them to budget their money more to their specific needs. They must make their visuals and videos to communicate the correct message they want to share with their audience, but also need to make sure that it reaches the people they want it to. They must put time and research into making sure both of those things happen. If they fail they could get backlash from the community by portraying the wrong message or have a low ROI due to not reaching the correct target audience. Due to these businesses must put time and money into making sure their ads are what they want, and they are placed in the correct location.

Sources:

Kallas, Priit.  8 Powerful Rasons You Need to Use Video Marketing (Trends). Dreamgrow, 10 July. 2018, https://www.dreamgrow.com/8-reasons-why-your-business-should-use-video-marketing/

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jobs technology

The Future of Remote Working

              As time goes on there has been an increase in remote workers compared to in office workers for business. There are many perks to having remote workers, but at the same time there is less bonding between employees. However, looking at this from a business stand point I think they would favor remote working over in factory working. By having their employees working from home business do not have to buy or rent as large as an office. It also allows the company to employee people over farther distances as they don’t have to worry about people driving in to the office. I believe by the time I get out of college businesses will encourage more remote working than in office because it saves the company money, allows them to hire people over a larger area, and technology allows companies to not need an office space.

              Owning an office space is a lot of money, so why own one if you don’t have to. Some business has to rent a space, so they have to pay every month for every. With renting there is no chance to ever pay it off and own it for yourself. On the other hand, when you buy a space you must build or redo the inside of it. This cost a lot of money up front that smaller businesses probably don’t have. With smaller companies it would be easier to just meet at Biggby if they need to meet up. They also have skype to talk, or just a conference call over the phone.  

What Small Businesses Need to Know About Remote Work
Jennifer Parris from What Small Businesses Need to Know About Remote Work 2016, Remote.CO, Accessed 21 February 2019

              Another reason I believe that once I graduate from college that business will encourage remote working is, remote working allows them to hire people over a larger area. Many people do not want to drive for hours into work every day, but working remote takes this away. It allows people to work from home and maybe only must make long car drives every once and a while. Hiring people to work remote also allows business to expand their business by hiring people over a large area. I grew up seeing this first hand, my dad works remote for a company based out of Denmark. The company that employs my dad does not have any offices in Michigan, yet he is still able to work for them along with all his coworkers. With out remote working my dad would not be able to work for them and they would not be able to expand their business to American without owning office space.

              The third reason I think companies will use more remote workers in the future is, because technology allows people to work remote but at the same time be extremely contacted. In the past when companies’ employees worked more in office, there was not as much technology to keep people in touch. Long ago there weren’t cellphones, but now we have those and contact people in seconds no matter what the distance is. But beyond that we have soft wear that allows people to work on the same project no matter the distance between them. Google docs or Google slides for example allows a whole team to work with each other on the project no matter where they are. With being able to work together no matter what the distance, it takes away the need for an office. They do not need a spot to meet as they can all meet when ever where ever over the internet. We also have things like skype and face time that allow for more personal conversations over great distances. With the advancements in technology there is no need for companies to spend money owning or renting an office space.

              By saving companies money, allowing them to hire people in a larger area, and the advancements in technology, there is no reason for them not to encourage hiring people to work remote. With having remote workers be easier then ever now and technology is only going to keep advance making it easier and easier to work this way, why would companies not focus on hiring remote? With these 3 reasons and many more I did not bring up I am certain that by the time I get out of college companies will focus on hire remote workers than in office ones. I think there is a chance that soon a lot of companies will not even own an office space.

Categories
social media technology

Snapchat vs Instagram

              Throughout my life I have seen how social media has grown and changed. There has been a constant evolution in the way social media works and what people use it for. I first started to use social media in 2013 when I made my Instagram account. Now in 2019 it’s hard to remember what Instagram use to look and function like. Instagram has added the ability to post videos, more than one picture at once, and you can even message people directly on the app. I love being able to send stuff through the app. Now when I want to share something with my friends I can just send in through the app, instead of having to take a screenshot and texting it to them. Another app that I have seen grow to huge heights is Snapchat. From what it is not compared to what it was when I first made my account, its like a brand-new app. Snapchat has not started to slow down in the world of social media, but Instagram has seemed to slow down quite a bit. I see Snapchat as being one of the future big social media sites, and sadly, I do not see Instagram being there.

              Both Snapchat and Instagram have changed a lot, but I feel Snapchat has changed more. They redid their whole app but based it around the simple principle of sending pictures to your friends. They fixed their biggest complete like being limited in the text you can have per picture. I am so glad they fixed this problem. It was so annoying having to send three pictures just to say one simple idea. They also added the ability to send videos which is also great. Snapchat added stories, and shortly after Instagram did they same. It looked like to me and many of my peers that Instagram just ripped Snapchat off with their idea as their stories were the exact same as the ones on Snapchat. I can easily see the dramatic difference in the way people use Instagram stories vs Snapchat stories. It’s very simple, people don’t use Instagram stories, but everyone uses Snapchat stories. However, even if personally people use Snapchat stories more, Business post nonstop on their Instagram stories. Their Instagram’s have a lot more followers than there Snapchats, so of course they’re going to post where ever the most amount of people will see it. Plus, this is free advertising to business, it does not coast them any money to post on their story, due to this they spam their story to always give people new things to look at and to always have it pop up and resent post.

Admin. Picture of Social media concept. 2017. Managing Social Media Profiles. Zoom.http://www.zoomyourtraffic.com/blog/managing-social-media-profiles/

              Snapchat and Instagram have both added features in which business can have ads on their platforms. I have noticed much more big-name brands to have ads on Snapchat and brands I have never heard of to be on Instagram. This is another reason That I think Snapchat will end up being a big social media site for a long time where Instagram may fall off. This makes me think that Snapchat can charge more for their ads and Instagram will just take what they can get. For example, while writing this paper Snapchat had a filter that is sponsored by American Eagle and I have not seen one ad for a brand I know of on Instagram for weeks. This shows that big business are choosing to use Snapchats advertisements over Instagram’s. Business may most more on Instagram but when it comes to spending money they choice Snapchat. This gets Snapchat more money to further on the track to being one of the best social media platforms of all time.

              I believed within the next few years there will be a big drop in users on Instagram and a continuous increase in the amount of people who use Snapchat. I myself, already use Snapchat way more than I use Instagram and I do not see that changing any time soon. Out of the three social media cites I have (Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram) Instagram is the one I check the lease and Snapchat it the one I check the most. I think that with people using Snapchat more and bigger business sponsoring them they will end up being a massive social media platform in the coming years.

Categories
technology

The Next Frontier TED Talk Review

This week I decided to sit down and listen to a blog before going to bed late at night. I listened to a blog titled, “The Next Frontier” it was published by Ted Radio Hour. This podcast was about if the colonization on mars or on other plants was possible. This podcast focused on the technology we would need to invent for this to happen. The most shocking part of this podcast to me that most of what we need we had already invented, and it was predicted everything else we would need will be invited within the next ten years. I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast as it brought up many things that would be a problem about colonizing on other plants that I had never thought of. A good example of this was when the podcast was talking about Mars not having a strong ozone later like earth. This means a lot more harmful radiation from the sun reaches the surface of mars then it does on earth. We would have to invent a way to get around this radiation. The author demonstrated two ideas, we would have to make suits that people could wear that could protect them or genetically modify people to be able to take in the radiation.  Another interesting topic talked about on the blog would be the travelling to get to Mars. This would be a huge space ship with all its food freeze dried to limit the weight on board and it would reuse water. That means that human waste would be cleaned and be drank or used in another way again. Water weighs a lot; therefore, you have to limit the amount on board, so it must be reused. I would say overall, I enjoyed the talk, learned a lot, and loved how many guest speakers were on it. However, near the end I did get a little bored it was very long, and the host was not the most exciting person to listen to.

              There was a lot of different advertisements in this podcast. After each break, the host would read off a list of the sponsors for that episode. The advertisements in this episode were Yahoo Finance live, advertisements for other TED Talks, Stanford health, Moo a business printing company, and Hulu. I feel that these ads were related to the show even if not in direct ways. None of them are about space travel, but they are related to what TED Talks bring in general. Yahoo Finance and Moo are both business related company’s and TED talks apple a lot of people in the field of business. For Stamford health also applies to lots of TED Talks as there is a lot of them that are medical or about future ideas for medicine. Hulu and the ads for other TED Talks make sense as these are other things you can watch or listen to later in your free time. I also feel that these ads appear on many episodes of TED Talks and this is not there first time on their podcast. I believe they are TED Talks regular sponsors.

              One company that I think would have been another good advertisement is Amazon. People who listen to broadcasts are probably on the internet a lot. This podcast was also on Spotify which a subscription base serves just like Amazon Prime. If someone is willing to pay monthly for Spotify they might also be willing to pay for Amazons subscription too. Plus, TED Talks bring in a lot of business listeners so if Amazon could market their free delivery with prime and how it would be nice for business people with busy work schedules.

mars then vs now
Sarah Fecht from We Finally Know what Happened to (most of) Mars’ Missing Atmosphere 2017, photo of mars landscape next to earth’s landscape, Popular Science, accessed 6 February 2019

              Overall, I highly enjoyed this TED Talk and learned many things about the new technology coming out for space travel. The podcast discussed the way they would be able to bring food, water and shelter there. I found it very interesting how we would first send robots there to make all the shelters for people before they would even arrive. So, when people do show up everything will already be built for them. The technology we need to begin to colonize other world is ridicules but it is turning from science fiction into reality.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KXFojmO0ejqeaMpFlG8BO?si=Oh5qeCRlSm-m-Q7FQO_ajA

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