social media « maggiemayfield

A Change of Scenery

Posted on January 14, 2014

Hey y’all!

Long time, no talk. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday vacation with their families and are already into full swing for the new year. Today I have some good and bad news. The bad news is that I am starting a new class this semester that requires blogging, however I will no longer be using this blog. The good news is that you can follow me over at my new blog, “22 And Counting” to read about this semester’s upcoming endeavors. Like I mentioned in my very first blog post…

Thank you so much for reading over the past few months, I hope you’ll join me at http://mcmayf01.wordpress.com. Get excited!

xo Maggie

This entry was posted in new blog, Uncategorized and tagged college, New Blog, social media.

COMM 460 – HootSuite University Completion

Posted on November 22, 2013

Hello and happy Friday!

I’m pleased to announce that I have some pretty exciting news for all you social media gurus, I’m HootSuite certified! It feels so good to be able to say that and thankful it is the end of an era.

I am so excited to be finally finished with this program and even more excited to be able to put the official certification widget on my LinkedIn and resume. HootSuite is becoming a common tool in the social media world, and I feel very grateful that I had the opportunity to try it out as an undergrad student.

My most favorite topic from my HootSuite experience included “The Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media Etiquette.” I can not emphasize enough the importance of knowing basic social media etiquette. I’m not sure if some people are oblivious to what they post on the internet, but many are doing it so wrong. This section of the program should be required for completion for everyone before they can set any social media account! “The Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media Etiquette” included various etiquette guidelines for keeping things on the internet professional and polite. It is so important to always keep a professional head on your shoulders and keep in mind whether you are on the the internet for work or personal time, you are always representing a brand: your client or yourself. From this section I learned the proper way to respond to Tweets professionally and also appropriate Tweets and Facebook statuses.These may seem like little things but if used incorrectly, it can help your companies reputation take a big hit. Your social media accounts are not a diary. It may be fun to post about how drunk you are getting with your friends or how much you love your boyfriend, but this information is not cute nor does it belong on the internet. Keep it classy!

My least favorite part of the program experience was completing the lengthy and dull videos which were required to complete the exams. I found many of them to be uninteresting and think HootSuite could definitely tune it up a little bit.

Overall I enjoyed my HootSuite experience and am grateful for the opportunity to test it out. I hope that the knowledge I acquired ail help me someday in the workforce.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Business, Etiquette, Facebook, Hootsuite, LinkedIn, social media, Twitter.

COMM 460 – All Good Things Must Come to An End: Semester Reflection

Posted on November 21, 2013 Updated on November 22, 2013

Hello!

Happy Thursday! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I certainly cannot, however I am more than excited to spend some time with my family on the holiday. My extended family is coming over to my parents for dinner and on Black Friday we are ditching the crowded malls and spending the day at Churchill Downs instead. It should be a great time and I’m pretty excited! Not to be cliche, but the holiday season is my most favorite time of year.

With the holiday season comes the time in the semester when school starts winding down and crunch time begins. This semester has been a very sentimental one because it is my last fall semester as an undergrad at the University of Louisville. This is a very exciting yet nerve-wracking time for me because I know my time here is ending quickly, and graduation in the spring is rapidly approaching.

I feel like this semester has been one of my busiest ones yet, and that partly has to do with this social media class (in a good way). I don’t think even in any of my English classes I’ve written as much as I have for this class. Blogging has been a very positive experience for me. It has forced me to put my opinion on topics out in the open and also to research and write about new people and things I’ve never learned about before. As with anything, practice makes perfect and writing is no exception. I would like to think that I have become a stronger writer as a result of this course.

I have loved the various guest speakers who came and gave up their time to come and discuss their careers with us. It was really cool to see how other people have broken into the industry and this opportunity also allowed for networking possibilities as well.

This course also allowed me to become HootSuite certified and explore different apps and programs which I think will make me a more appealing potential employee. I truly have enjoyed this class and will miss it. I am very grateful to the University of Louisville and Dr. Freberg for taking a chance and offering a social media course. It is nice to know that my school believes in taking a proactive approach and redesigning its courses to fit the needs of it’s students and advancing technology.

Thank you for reading!

-Maggie

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Hootsuite, social media, University of Louisville.

COMM 303- Thoughts on Internet Privacy

Posted on November 12, 2013

On a daily basis I need accounts, usernames, and passwords for pretty much everything I do on the internet. My school account at UofL requires a username and password, so does my bank, e-mail, and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter). While it may be a pain to keep up with so many different passwords for different accounts, I think it is very important that the internet is as secure as it is today. In the day of account hacking and identity theft, it is now important than ever to make sure the amount of personal information you have about yourself on the internet is kept to a bare minimum.

All of my social media accounts are on private despite Twitter because I need to keep it unlocked for a class. Growing up, my parents were very strict about what we were allowed to put on the internet about ourselves. I would like to think that I have kept that mindset and still apply those rules to my life. For example if I am going out of town, I never post on Facebook or Twitter that no one is at my apartment. Additionally, I usually have someone come and check on my place while I am gone as well. There are so many robberies that have resulted from people posting Facebook statuses about being out of town. By refraining from posting this information, you can prevent many bad things from happening.

One aspect in our society that I have an issue with is with companies such as Kroger and Target keeping track of what you purchase with your store card. The gimmick of using a store discount card such as a Kroger card is that while you may be receiving “discounts”, Kroger is tracking your purchases and selling your private information to companies. This practice may not be as extreme as identity theft, but I think that society is becoming a little too naiive about what information is available about them on the internet. Some people willingly post private details about their lives on the internet, enough that you can get a sense of who they are without even knowing them. I think that many people are the source of their own problem and need to take a step back and take the time to begin making changes about what information they post before it’s too late.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Facebook, Identity theft, Privacy, social media, Twitter.

COMM 460 – Guest Speaker Lizelle Lauron

Posted on November 8, 2013

Three cheers for Friday!!! Woo hoo!

Today in social media we were blessed with another opportunity to have a guest speaker talk with us about their profession. Today’s speaker, Lizelle Lauron, was super exciting because not only does she have an awesome job, but she is a recent graduate of the University of Louisville and a #Freberg13 alum as well! It is always motivating to hear a recent graduates experiences in the work force, and that it is possible to be successful right after graduation. Lizelle currently works for the Dallas Mavericks as a social media coordinator. Thanks to technology, she was able to talk with us via Skype!

A native of Dallas, Texas, Lizelle recently graduated in the Spring with a B.S. degree in Communications and a minor in Sports Administration. While in her last semester of college, Lizelle worked as an intern for the University of Louisville Athletics department under the guidance of one of our previous guest speakers, Nick Stover! Once her UofL internship was completed, she moved back home to Dallas and began working part-time as an intern for the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team in August. After a few short months of interning, Lizelles’ team decided they needed her full time and she was hired as a social media coordinator November 1st! Hard work really does pay off.

Lizelle gave us an inside look at what exactly she does every day at work as the social media coordinator for a big time pro basketball team. She is in charge of monitoring all Maverick social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Tumblr, Google+, Instagram, and Vine. In addition to running these accounts, Lizelle also runs the fan give-aways via social media, and also attends practices and marketing promo to take pictures and keep fans updated in real time. She also described the various tools she uses on a daily basis to help manage these accounts, many of which we have used in #Freberg13! Lizelle relies on TweetDeck, and Offerpop to organize these accounts.

Lizelle also had some advice for us who are about to graduate and are currently looking for jobs and internships.

1) Always put yourself out there. Never be afraid to give something a shot, even if you fail.

2) Be organized.

3) Make yourself available and set yourself apart from the crowd.

4) Never stop learning!! Always pick up new skills and challenge yourself to be better.

5) Have a great personality and be personable! A positive attitude will get you far.

I really enjoyed Lizelles’ presentation and her bubbly personality is infectious. It’s people like her who make me excited about my future profession, especially when they seem to really love their job. She was extremely relatable to us and the fact that she has gone so far in such a short amount of time is definitely something I aspire to be.

Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend, go Cards!

Lizelles’ Twitter handle: @letstelllizelle

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Dallas Mavericks, Instagram, social media, Twitter, University of Louisville.

COMM 460- Guest Speaker Joey Wagner

Posted on November 5, 2013 Updated on November 5, 2013

Hello and happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! Today in my social media class we had the privilege of having Joey Wagner come and speak to us about social media and event planning. Joey’s company JWagner Group, is one of, if not the best, event planning and marketing firms in Louisville. Many of these events include charity, celebrity, and Derby functions. Not only does JWagner Groups’ parties draw in big name guests, but they also have a pretty impressive list of clients for these events. Some of their corporate clients include Bacardi USA, Brown-Forman, Red Bull, Churchill Downs, Makers Mark, Susan G. Komen, Playboy, and the University of Louisville Alumni Association…just to name a few.

In addition to having some top-notch clients, J Wagner Group also hosts some pretty fabulous parties annually. Pink Prom, Jocktails, and his annual celebrity drenched Kentucky Derby Galas are just a few of the events which have made JWagner Group an acclaimed company in Louisville since 2003.

Joey modestly admitted that he does not know everything about social media, however, the numbers in attendance of his events seem to prove that statement wrong. Take Pink Prom for example. Only in its second year, Pink Prom started out as a “teaser” idea. Once Joey came up with the idea for the event, he said that he and his team would throw out random “tease” questions on social media platforms to get followers curious. He said that JWagner Group would Tweet or upload a Facebook status with vague questions such as, “Wish you could go back to prom?”. He said these questions drove people crazy and by using social media, the company was able to create interest in the community for Pink Prom. Pink Prom is a 21+ “prom do-ever” with all ticket sales benefitting the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research. The first prom was held in 2012 in Louisville, however this year’s Pink Prom grew to 3 different events in Louisville, Lexington, and Cincinnati. The Louisville prom alone held 750 guests and raised $15,100. Joey also mentioned that Pink Prom will continue to grow, and next year will expand to events in 8 different cities.

Joey was a wealth of information and was a joy to listen to. I’m very grateful he took time out of his busy schedule to come and speak with us about his career. JWagner Group is definitely doing big things, go check them out!

Joey Wagner Twitter: @JoeyJWagner

JWagner Group Twitter: @JWagnerGroup

Official website http://www.jwagnergroup.com

Thanks for reading!

-Maggie

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Brown-Forman, Churchill Downs, JWagner Group, social media, University of Louisville.

COMM 460-Guest speaker Scott Adkins

Posted on October 31, 2013

Hello!

I hope this post finds you well on this dreary Halloween afternoon. On Monday we had a marvelous guest speaker, Scott Adkins visit us in COMM460. Scott was a wealth of information and gave us an insight of what it is like to be a news broadcaster for WAVE3 News in Louisville, Ky.

The Ball State graduate discussed different aspects of his job working at WAVE 3 since 2011: his very early work schedule (5 A.M. news eek!), various stories he has reported, and what goes on behind those stories. Honestly I never really thought about who finds the news stories that are broadcasted, and it was interesting to find that many of the reporters research the stories themselves. Hearing Scott’s honest experiences was an awesome opportunity, he really didn’t hold anything back and wanted to share his experiences with us.

One thing that probably stuck out the most to me about Scott was his genuine honesty about what he does, and how difficult his job can be. He recalled several stories when it has been his task to contact families asking for pictures of the family members who passed on during a massive tragedy. He said that is the hardest thing about his job, but the public wants to be able to put a face with a name. Once he finds the family, he said that he always prefaces his e-mail with a genuine apology for the suffering family, and that really stuck with me. Although accidents are reported on the news everyday, it is important to remember that that person has a family who is suffering a loss. It’s Scott’s job to get facts, while still being a kind-hearted person as well.

Another thing that impressed me about Scott was his eagerness to ask about our opinions on what WAVE3 could do to spice up their 5 A.M. broadcast. Many of my classmates had good suggestions, and I thought that it was very admirable of him to ask. His main concern was how the station could engage their viewers more in the morning, even if many of them just have their TVs on in the background while getting ready for work. Today, many people use their phones to check the weather and news in the morning via Twitter and mobile apps, and he would like to come up with a fresh approach to get people to watch the morning news again.

Overall I enjoyed Scott’s presentation and thought he had a very down-to-earth approach when discussing his profession and all that it entails. If I ever have a need to be up at 5AM, I will definitely tune in to see Scott!

You can contact Scott Adkins at: @scottadkinsWAVE or at http://www.Facebook.com/scott.adkinswave

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged News Broadcasting, Scott Adkins, social media, Twitter, WAVE (TV).

COMM 460- Coffee Is A Food Group

Posted on October 18, 2013

Hey guys!

I hope that everyone had a good week. I can’t believe it is already Friday and the work/school week is over, hooray! Also, today I found out that the school semester is already halfway over and that just blows my mind. Gotta make these last few weeks count!

Today I wanted to talk about something that doesn’t really have any connection to social media in any shape or form, except that I am just as addicted to it as I am social media. This addiction is…coffee! I am in love with coffee, literally I can not start my day without it, as pathetic as that sounds. Well I guess I could, but I probably would not be a very fun person to be around until I get my caffeine kick. The funny thing is that I never really ever drank/relied on coffee until college. That may seem like a no-brainer, but up until I was in college the only thing I would get from Starbucks would be some foo-foo non-coffee beverage. Once I started needing to pull all-nighters and stay up late working on assignments and studying, I decided I needed a little help in the mornings to help my days run more smoothly. Now, I depend on coffee everyday, multiple times a day.

I’ve never considered myself a coffee snob (I used to use easy instant coffee) until recently. A few days ago I recieved my first Keurig as a gift! It is safe to say that I am addicted. After hearing about how great they are, I have thought about getting one for quite sometime. Well this past week I was surprised with one and I have been using it non-stop ever since I plugged it in. The great thing about Keurig is that its super easy to operate and is mess free. There are also TONS of different varieties of K-cup coffees you can purchase; from Dunkin Donuts to Starbucks. My favorite coffee flavor I’m currently enjoying is the pumpkin spice and it’s perfect for Fall! Not a coffee fan? No problem! Keurig also sells apple cider, herbal tea, and hot chocolate K-cups just to name a few. There really is something for everyone!

The only downside of Keurig is that the K-cups can run a little pricier than regular coffee, but they created a reusable mesh K-cup that you can purchase and fill with your own coffee if you’d like! You can purchase Keurig at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macys or online at http://www.keurig.com. If you’re a coffee drinker, go ahead and give it a shot. I promise you won’t regret your purchase!

Thank you for reading and have a great day!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Beverage, Coffee, Dunkin Donuts, K-Cup, Keurig, social media.