The World of Pinterest

Pinterest is a social platform designed to work for niches and is not made for general usage like Facebook. One of the main things Pinterest is used for is shopping and often people will go on the site in a buying mindset. This means if your customers are on Pinterest there is a great potential for a large return on your investment. People often use Pinterest to create idea boards for projects they might want to do in the future or are planning on doing and they are looking for ideas on what to do for their project. Users are able to create a board and then pin relative content to the board keeping it organized with other similar fins so later they can go back and see the pins or collaborate with others on ideas. Do-it-yourself is a large category which Pinterest is known for so if you are a company which can post "how to" content this platform may be useful for you. Pinterest will bring you content based on things you have liked or previously pinned and places it on your news feed as things you might like. Pinterest has a search bar which can be used like most other search bars on social media allowing you to search key terms and it will bring up results which involve those terms. You can also search what pins are coming from a particular website you can type https://www.pinterest.com/source/(sitenamehere) and it will display pins on that website.

Clicking on pins will lead to the website where the pin is from then you can buy a product or learn more about the pin. If you want people to click on your pins and view your boards they should be useful, visually pleasing, and fun. Pinterest is extremely visual, so if you want people to click on your pins they should be appealing, but also make sure it represents the message your company is trying to send. Boards and posts should be both useful and fun to make viewers want to pin and check out or even purchase your products. Encouraging people to contribute to your boards and become a part of the community is a great way to get people involved and talking about your products.

For corporate accounts Pinterest offers analytics to tell what people are pinning from your site. Google analytics can also be used for Pinterest. Being able to gauge how your content is being used and how many people are engaging with different types of content is always an important thing to keep track of, this will allow you to develop better methods of reaching and engaging with more people.

Tips for Doubles Volleyball

Volleyball has been apart of my life since the moment I was born. Both of my parents played volleyball well before I was born. Unfortunately, being born and raised in Iowa there are very few opportunities to play if you are a boy growing up. Volleyball is not a sport offered for men in high school in Iowa, and there are virtually no club teams in the area. When I was very young and my parents were still playing volleyball I learned all of the basic skills such as passing, setting, and hitting. My favorite time in gym class growing up was when we got to play volleyball. I took any opportunity to play which was few and far between but I have always loved the sport. Now, I play beech doubles in the summer and it is so much fun.

Most people do not start their volleyball career playing doubles, but because of my upbringing I had a good skill set and I was able to learn quickly. Since I am right handed I usually play on the left side of the court like an outside hitter in indoor volleyball. A right handed player will usually want to hit from the left side of the court because it gives them a wider variety of shots they can perform based on their body position relative to the court and the ball. In doubles their are no set offensive positions because the play is determined by who receives the ball first as it comes to your side of the court. In general the person who receives the first ball will proceed to pass the ball to their partner. The partner will then set the ball to you and you will hit the ball over. Being able to hit the ball hard is a lot of fun, but in doubles how hard you are able to hit doesn't mean much. Doubles is all about control and placement, with only two people covering the court there is always areas on the court where the other team is not, naturally that is where you want to hit the ball. Good players can cover a lot of court but the more you can keep the other team off balance and scrambling while you are playing in control you are probably going to win the point.

On defense there are things you can do to help cover the court since there are only two of you. Depending on the type of doubles you are playing you may or may not be using a blocker. Generally if you are playing power doubles you will be using a blocker but lower level doubles will probably not use blockers and you will both be back in a defensive position. I have played both with and without a blocker. Most of the time I have played has been done without a blocker. If you are playing without a blocker most of what you have to do is watch the way the hitter approaches the ball and how they are swinging. The more you play, there are trends you will notice in how people hit which will give you a good idea as to where they are going to hit the ball. Being able to tell where the ball is most likely going to go dramatically reduces the amount of court you and your partner have to cover. With a blocker you can try to use the block to force the ball to be played in certain areas of the court by taking away angles from the hitter. 

There is much more to the game then the few tips here, most of which you just have to play to learn. Volleyball is one of my favorite games and I am looking forward to being able to play even more when I graduate.

Life as an Athlete at ONU.

I made a short video for my Principles of Social Media class about what life was like for me the last 4 years at Ohio Northern University. The video is just a very brief summary of life and in no way does my entire experience justice.

Most of my time spent here at ONU has been spent doing one of three things, swimming, school work, and sleeping. Swimming took up many weekends where we would travel for meets or have a long practice. We also had 3 days during the work week  I would have a morning and an afternoon practice. With swimming being such a huge time commitment, I was forced to manage and prioritize my time to make sure I got all of my school work done. My sophomore and especially my junior year, staying on top of all of the school work was a daunting task and I often found myself only getting a few hours of sleep before practice in the morning. The experience definitely taught me about dedication and kept my priorities fresh in my mind.

School and swimming did not stop me from having a good time at ONU. In fact I had a lot of fun doing different activities with the swim team, but it was the people I met here at ONU who really made the experience unforgettable. Some of the most fun times I have had were the times my friends and I found ways to just entertain ourselves. Sometimes we would stay up until five in the morning just talking about life and having a good time.

Ohio Northern has lots of clubs and other student organizations to keep students busy during their time at school. I am involved in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), this isn't a huge time commitment for me, only a couple of hours a week, but through it I have met some of the most amazing people and it has given me the opportunity to make some great friendships. There are other interesting clubs students within the engineering college such as building a canoe out of concrete, or building and racing an off-road vehicle.

My time at ONU has given me many high's and lows, and has taught me a lot of lessons. I hope everything I have learned in both life and school will benefit me as I prepare to move off into the real world. I have made life long friends and have made memories I will cherish forever.

The Power of YouTube

Video's are one of the most popular forms of content and YouTube is one of the most popular platforms used to share video's with the world. One of the great things about video's is they can be used on nearly every social media platform, so YouTube is a great medium for supporting the creation of content. Just as on other forms of social media YouTube allows people to give video's a thumbs up, to share the video, and to comment on videos. As with all other social media platforms, reverse engineering what works on YouTube is a crucial first step. YouTube offers you a great opportunity to get some performance metrics on the videos other people have already created. Using the "more" tab, will give statistics on video's and can tell you how well each video did.

Behind the search engine giant google, YouTube is the second most used search engine, you can place keywords for your channel to improve search engine optimization. YouTube is an extremely noisy social media source with a large focus of its media being on entertainment, however there is more to YouTube than meets the eye. YouTube is full of niches, you can find the niche best suiting to your brand and create content for them to get a interactions within your target market. One of the greatest uses of YouTube is the "how to" video, YouTube is often the first place people look when they are unsure of how to do something. When you create your video optimizing every aspect of the video for keywords relating to the, even the script of what is said in the video can be used to help the search optimization process and bring viewers to your video. It is important the search engine optimization part of the video is done before you upload the first rendition of the video because YouTube does the most indexing at this point.

YouTube allows you to place features in your video to engage viewers with interactivity and point them toward other videos you have created. The more subscriptions and thumbs up you receive on your video's the higher they will be placed in search positions giving them even greater visibility. Posting your video on other social media platforms will also help increase the view count on your videos and the extra views will also help the search positioning of your video.

YouTube is a tremendous platform and has much to offer in the social media marketing workplace, whether it is a "how to" video or something more entertaining, with enough creative thought there is something for everyone on YouTube.

Twitter Entering the Fight to Compete with Snapchat

The popular social media application, Twitter, may be working on a new update in an attempt to compete with Snapchat. Many popular social media applications are updating to give sponsored content more visibility, Twitter may be working on the same thing. An article by Social Media Today points out Twitter may be working on a camera-first feature and may ultimately be working on changing the app from a text based platform to a video and picture based platform. Twitter is giving news content a higher priority within their app where they will have a breaking news module at the top of the timeline for current newsworthy events. I would imagine it is similar to the placement of Instagram's stories, instead of personal users creating stories, the content would be from sponsored organizations using Twitter. I hope the potential update will bring more of a focus to newsworthy events instead of being used for advertising for companies. There are already places on Twitter for companies to advertise and I think too much advertisement on a platform can ruin the user experience which should be the primary focus of any social media platform. A news focused section on Twitter may be useful for generating greater public awareness in the event of a disaster as it is unfolding. Ideally the news in the news section of Twitter would be accurate as opposed to just the accounts of people witnessing the event posting on their timelines.  A picture and video-based Twitter may also bring new users to the application, as Twitter is a social media platform people seem to either love the platform or hate the platform. With more visuals as opposed to text there may be the potential to move some people who don't enjoy Twitter to people who would use the application. 

As with any company or application it is important for them to continually expand on what they are offering, otherwise they will become old and other companies and applications will takeover. Although change is necessary the way these platforms choose to evolve will have a major impact on their future, a focus on advertising and sponsored content may lead to financial gains in the short term but if it causes them to loose users they may want to sell their company before it is not worth anything anymore. The world of social media is highly unpredictable and the future is never clear.

The Ultimate Endurance Sport

On November 18th, 2018, I will be competing in Ironman Arizona. Ironman Arizona is a notoriously flat race but a lack in elevation change does not make the event any less difficult. Athletes will have to complete a 2.4 mile swim in Tempe Town Lake where the water temperatures are expected to be frigid in the mid 60s. To put the water temperature into perspective, most pools are heated so they are at a temperature in the upper 70s or low 80s, and many people find pools are a bit chilly to get into at first. Following the swim, the athletes face a 112 mile bike ride, the course is flat but is often subject to swirling winds. The bike course is a 3 loop out and back course and there have been times where riders go out into the wind, the wind shifts and they end up biking back into the wind. The athletes will also have to deal with the dry heat of the desert they will be riding through and proper hydration and nutrition will be crucial for them to complete the run at the end of the race. After the bike, the athletes get to finish their day with a marathon run, if the sun goes down while the athletes are on the run they will have to deal with the large temperature drop in the desert. When the athlete is finished with all of these events, and they met the time limits, they will be called an Ironman.

The event was first created in Hawaii after John Collins, a Naval Officer was debating with his friends over who the most fit athletes were, swimmers, bikers, or runners. Later, Collins and his wife decided to combine the three most difficult endurance events in Hawaii into one and on February 18, 1978, the first Ironman took place. Since the event began, the Ironman has been a proving ground many to show just what they are capable of and every year there are many triumphs of the human spirit, showing people are capable of so much more than they could have ever thought.

I am really excited to compete in my first Ironman, it will be an extremely difficult day and there will be times I am sure I will be asking myself why I am doing an Ironman. What will help push me through is all of the hours I spend training up to the day of the race, and ultimately crossing the finish line will be amazing. I will have accomplished a goal I have had for a very long time. I am not sure what I will do after the race is done, I will have to look for the next challenge to conquer, after some time to rest and recover from the race of course.

The Secrets to Joy

I had a long drive home for spring break and to pass the time I listened to an audio book my sister had recommended to me called "The Book of Joy" by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams as the co-writer. The book was written to share the views of the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu on how to have lasting happiness in a world which can bring so much suffering. I found this book to be very inspirational, and it helped view some things in my life from a different angle and it the advice given in the book can help change your views of the world. The book is split into three overarching sections. The first section is a discussion on the nature of true joy. The second section then looks at what the obstacles are to true joy, and the final section is a discussion on the eight pillars of joy.

As I was listening to the book I often found myself drifting off in thought after a point was raised and I would miss the bit of the book as I was thinking of how what they were saying applied to my own life. So, when I got home I purchased a hard copy of the book so I can go through it again at my own pace more carefully and thoughtfully. There were stories told by both of the great leaders showing they have not lived easy lives, and joy is not something they have simply because the positions they hold or something they have that others do not. One of the first things that struck me when they were discussing how to obtain joy was that it is not something you can pursue. Joy instead comes from other areas of our lives when we are not focusing on ourselves and our own situation. Throughout the book a point is brought up by the Dalai Lama, when we experience suffering we should focus on all of the other people in the world and their suffering. There is a quote by C.S. Lewis which says "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." I think the second part of his quote is often what the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu are talking about when they say to receive joy one of the best ways is to bring joy to others.

There are so many good things brought up in the book about living a life filled with joy. I would highly recommend the book to anyone looking to live a life full of joy despite the things in the world that cause us pain and suffering. It is well written and one of the few books that I will read more then one time to help refresh and renew my perspectives on the world around me. I have found myself asking how I have helped other people at the end of each day and view my daily struggles as opportunities to find joy.

The Business of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a well known platform for searching for jobs, and of the different social media platforms it is the best for job searches. However, LinkedIn is capable of more than just a job hunting platform and it can be used as another platform for public relations. Companies are capable of creating their own page which individuals can follow and allow them to start a conversation with the company they follow. LinkedIn is an employee driven social network so the more on board your employees are with having a great profile and actively participate on the site. As with any social media platform you are starting to work on, start out with a search of LinkedIn and see what other people are doing and take note of your likes and dislikes.

A major use of LinkedIn is for networking but do not spam to create connections otherwise LinkedIn may deactivate your account. LinkedIn does offer paid accounts, this will grant you with a nicer looking profile, better positioning when you apply for a job, access to see all of the people who viewed your profile in the last 90 days, the ability to view third degree profiles, and extra search filters among other things. For many people I don't think a paid account is extremely beneficial but if LinkedIn is your main platform than it may be worth it.

Looking active is a good way to to create trust and will keep you fresh in the mind among important prospects due to name recognition. Posting updates with informative content and participating in LinkedIn groups are two ways you can stay active on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn also has a blogging feature built in called LinkedIn Pulse. The pulse feature is part of LinkedIn's effort to increase it's usefulness to not only be useful for those searching for jobs but for those who are already employed. The Pulse feature allows you to post and see content relative to your industry which allows you to stay up to date on industry trends and shows you are trustworthy and intelligent in your field of industry. LinkedIn Pulse allows you to post on other social media platforms and will track all of the traffic together, if it gets enough momentum then it can go viral and create even more connections. LinkedIn is a professional social media platform and is continuing to develop to create better ways for people to connect and grow their network.

The Death of Sharing Content

In the world of public relations, the amount of engagement you get on social media outlets has been the primary means of getting people to see your content. However, as an article on Forbes points out, the amount of shares on social media is dropping drastically. There are many potential contributing factors to the sudden drop in social media sharing such as, changes in the algorithms used by social media platforms to determine what content is pushed to the top of timelines, or an over saturation of information and articles being generated. The world of social media is constantly changing so the current downward trend may not stay the same, but it is important for people running social media to be flexible in the strategies they use to distribute their content. Sticking with the same strategy for social media is one of the worst things you can do, the Forbes article points out, if you used the same strategy as 3 years ago, your strategy would be 50% less effective. The sheer quantity of content put out on social media every day is playing a major role in the decrease in content being shared. Whenever an important event occurs there is an extreme amount of content produced in a short period of time covering the same story so people don't need to share the content because something they are following has put out the content already. The amount of sharing and engagement may not be the best way anymore to determine how successful the content you are creating is, instead the amount of people who view your content may be a better indicator. Finding other ways of sharing content may also be necessary if the amount of people you are reaching and the effectiveness of your content is suffering.  For publishers, making your content searchable on google has recently proven to be a better source for getting traffic than through social media. The Forbes article points out that in less than a year Facebook went from being the number one source of traffic to publishers sites to google being the source of nearly twice as much traffic over Facebook. Understanding where you are getting the bulk of your engagement and how you are getting traffic to your created content will allow you to focus on your energy effectively. If you are not seeing as much interaction on your social media, maybe lessen the amount of content you are creating and instead focus on creating higher quality content.  Youtube videos and political content have shown to be the two things which have not seen the dramatic decrease in the amount of engagement they have seen. So, one thing to consider is changing the form of content you are distributing, if Youtube is not being affected by the decrease in engagement maybe Youtube would be a good way to share content. 

Going to an Out of State School

I grew up and went to school just outside of Cedar Rapids Iowa. I chose to go out of state for college and it was one of the best decisions I have made. Moving two states away was not an easy transition for me but it was one that I needed. I have always been a shy person, and one of the reasons I wanted to go to school so far away from home was to force myself out of my comfort zone. Coming to school and taking part in a varsity sport was extremely beneficial because it gave me a group of people right away to meet and do things with on campus. The main thing I learned from moving so far from home was to be self sufficient, if I had a problem driving home for the weekend was not an option for me so I would have to find a way to solve it myself.

One of the drawbacks, of living far away and being on the varsity swim team was often my breaks would get cut short in order to return to school in order to train. The last four years most of the time I spent with my family was during the summer. I don't think it was a bad thing I didn't see my family as much as others, because it taught me to cherish the time I did get to spend with them. If I lived close to home and could come home every weekend I don't know if I would appreciate what they are to me as much as I do now.

I think moving away from home for a period of time is a good thing for anyone to do. Moving away allows you to experience an entirely new group of people and if I had to make the decision to move away from home again I would in a heartbeat. Going to a school in a different state allowed me to meet people and make friends from places I would never have imagined while I was growing up.

The most difficult part of living far away is the long drives to and from school all alone. The drives have taught me a lot of patience but I will admit there are times where I am just ready to get to my destination. My worst drive home was for thanksgiving break, there was a huge snowstorm over almost the entire area I was travelling and it took me over 13 hours to finally make it home at 2 a.m. exhausted. There are times when the long drive is nice, especially after a stressful finals week, it gives you some time to be alone and reset. Moving to a different state for college was one of the best decisions I made and I would not change it for the world.