ND vs OSU: A Rematch for the Ages

This college football regular season probably didn't go the way anyone thought it was going to go. Oregon was down, Alabama lost to Ole Miss again, Ezekiel Elliot isn't a Heisman finalist and Clemson is the only undefeated team in the country. All pretty shocking potential headlines. One thing that I did see coming though, since last week anyways, was that my Notre Dame Fighting Irish would be matched up against the Ohio State Buckeyes in a bowl game. I knew it from the moment Ohio State was out of the Big Ten championship game. Notre Dame being a two-loss team and Ohio State not being in a conference title game, would be the perfect matchup for college football fans.

The two will be facing off in the Fiesta Bowl sponsored by BattleFrog in Phoenix, Arizona. These two teams have some of the most dedicated and traveling fan bases in the nation and the game will surely be electric. The stadium in Phoenix is a high energy stadium due to the fact that it indoors and tight seated in the stands.

The coaches are viewed as two of the best in college football right now, as Urban Meyer will square off against Brian Kelley for the first time in their head coaching careers.

The matchup will have tons of coverage in the press leading up to the game and despite the fact its not a national championship game, it should be just as popular as the games contending for the national title. The two faced off in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl sponsored by Tostitos and Ohio State marched over the Fighting Irish 38-14. Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith slashed the defense with his feet and arm and Ted Ginn Jr. lit up the scoreboard. The loss left a stain in the Notre Dame fan base and especially on me considering all of my friends are Buckeye fans. This rematch will settle the score for who is truly the better team. Although Notre Dame has been bitten by the injury bug this season, they have posted a 10-2 record and QB DeShone Kizer has stepped into his own under center for the Irish.

A slip up by Ohio State cost them a shot at repeating as National champs, so the Buckeyes will surely come out with a fire and competitive edge to win, considering their talent level is as high as anyone in the country.

This game will be one of the best in recent memory leading up to the kickoff, and hopefully both teams show up to play a great and entertaining game. Go Irish!

A Chapter Ends and a New One Begins

This semester has been full of reading. Whether it be the lessons from "Real-Time Marketing" or the importance of "Measuring What Matters", the books that I have read for this semester of school have been very informative and easy to read, surprisingly. The books all cover almost the same material, but each book harps on a certain aspect of PR and social media tactics. The reading was never something that I would do on my own, but when I did read for the chapter quizzes, I would find myself noticing instances in the real world and my life that applied to the books teachings.

The book "Measure What Matters" is the book we have just finished and I really liked chapter 10 with measuring employee relationships. This summer for my internship, one thing I noticed about Fox was they never really asked for their employee input or showed concern for the employees relationships in the workplace. I am not saying that Fox is wrong for not keeping in touch with their employees relationship with their job, but if they wanted to make themselves better, that would be one way.

Measuring employees relationships, according to the text is "important because employee morale and sentiment are closely tied with sales and profit."

When a companies executive members and superiors show concern and genuine care for the well-being of their subordinate employees, that really tightens the camaraderie around the office and builds trust between co-workers. Employees are the backbone of the business and without them, the grunt work can't be done. Maintaining the relationship with the employees is when the measurement part comes into play. The better measuring tools we use, such as surveys, are key in coming up with data to measure and better our relationship with our employees.

These books have all taught me something unique about the public relations field and isn't that what we want from a book? To at least be able to take away one thing from each of those books would be three lessons that I didn't know before hand. The books serve as a guide to successful marketing and PR, but it is up to me to execute those guidelines and do so correctly and ethically.

Social Media: Cyber Police?

Social media has many purposes. It can disseminate newsworthy content and information at the press of a button or the tap of a screen. It can be a way to spread our networks across the globe and increase our image. Social can even be a way to start a new business and make yourself a successful entrepreneur.

But, there is one purpose that has not yet been tapped into yet with social media- surveillance of national security. The social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have come together to help "combat online propaganda for recruiting by Islamic militants." according to an article by Yahoo.com. The companies realize that the threats to our nations security are not just coming from the characteristic enemies. In this day of social media and technology, anyone can be a potential target for Isis.

The internet companies described their policies as straightforward and to the point: they ban certain types of content in accordance with their circumstances and they require a court order to remove or block anything.

This court order can be taken care of with one simple step. The social media outlets have always had this feature and it will come in handy sooner or later. The "report/spam" button on posts allows the audience or viewer to report the post as threatening, inappropriate, or vulgar.

I personally believe if we can be a force that stands for justice and freedom for all, then recognizing and doing something about cyber-terrorism can help us become a stronger nation and world. I am not saying we should put restrictions on social media, because that will only upset people and make them wish they they had not done anything to change it.

Now Watch Me Whip

These past ten days of Thanksgiving break have been unbelievably great. The people I saw, the times I had, and the changes I went through were truly some to appreciate.

One particular event that happened to me over break was one of misfortune. I was driving back to Lima on state route 309, the dark plains of Hardin county were filled with deer and one found its way into the road and in front of my car. Seeing the deer, the only thing I could think to do was to speed up so the deer didn't ride up on my hood. I hit the deer and my car was pretty damaged. I managed to make it home with a headlight out and my horn honking the entire time, but still home in one piece. As for my car, it was not in one piece. The front bumper was hanging off, my airbags were deployed after impact, so my steering wheel was funky to drive with, and grill was cracked.

The Ford Explorer seen to the right is my first car.
 I always wanted to name my first car and in honor of my dad's service in the military, I named it 'Nam. I named it that because my dad was in Vietnam and it was his car before it was mine. Also, for those that know me, my car has been through Nam and back with how many problems and breakdowns its had. It always found a way to be fixed and come back to the road somehow. Now, after the deer made its fatal hit on 'Nam, it was time to come to terms that I had to give up my baby. I have had that car for so long and so many memories have been shared in that car, that if you were a part of them, you would understand why I had a legitimate tear come to my eye when we traded it in.

The old was past and the new was to come. Having a few days to reflect on my car, I had to choose what car I would get to replace my old one. I looked at some of the 10 and Under lots in Lima and found a few options I liked, but one in particular caught my eye. A 2005 Nissan Frontier. I wanted a truck and I wanted to have a 4 door truck so people could get in and out of the car freely instead of waiting on the front passengers.

On Friday the 27th, my parents and I had scheduled an appointment at Reineke Family Dealership in Lima to go hunt for a new whip. I had always wondered what it was like to go through this process. When you see a commercial for people at the car dealership, it is supposed to be quick and painless. This appointment was not quick and not painless. I had to wait for 6 1/2 hours until an agreement was finally made between my bank and Reineke. I would be paying for the car myself and will have to make a car payment of $254 a month. This seems to be a challenging task for me since I don't make a whole lot of money, but it is something I wanted to step up and accept as a young man. I got to purchase my first car and take my first step into adulthood.

As one chapter of my life closes, another one begins and nothing is more exciting than a new beginning. To all the miles yet to be traveled!

Lima Boy takes down his fellow Buckeyes

This week in the sports world, many watched as the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes took on the Michigan State Spartan in Ohio Stadium. With the cold mixed conditions falling down on Columbus, it was an unpredictable atmosphere. The Buckeyes offense was stalling and potential Heisman trophy-candidate Ezekiel Elliot only had 12 carries in the game.

All in all, everyone soon found out that the Buckeyes 23 game winning streak was snapped by the Spartans on a game winning field goal as time expired.

What most people didn't know, is that the quarterback who won that game for Sparty is a young man named Tyler O'Connor. Tyler hails from Lima, Ohio. The same town as yours truly. Tyler is an Irishman from Lima and was a standout dual-sport athlete in high-school at Lima Central Catholic. Also, this blogger got the chance to guard O'Connor in his high school basketball days, but the results were pretty one-sided.

Anyways, O'Connor had not played a game in "The Shoe" since the summer he graduated high school for the annual Ohio North-South All Star Game. O'Connor played for the South and led his team to victory that day 22-14.

Now O'Connor is 2-0 in the Shoe. Tyler, someone who grew up in Ohio and most of his close friends from high school attend Ohio State, must've felt some serious butterflies when he got into the game, whether he'll admit it or not. For someone like Ty, who is so competitive, they were probably the good butterflies. The ones that give you excitement and anticipation for battle. I can personally say that since I was in Lima on Saturday, almost everyone in Lima was in Columbus Saturday, so O'Connor had a home crowd, even on the road.

Ty's final stats were: 7/12 completions for 89 yards and 1 touchdown. The Ohio native delivered a handful of key third down conversions for the Spartans and helped keep the momentum on an even playing field. This is key because OSU lost on its senior day, in front on thousands of fans that might not always go to games, and to keep that stadium quiet is one heck of a mission.

O'Connor said in his post game interview,"They [Ohio State] recruited me to come punt for them, but I obviously made the right decision. Good team win." A little sprinkle on top for the team that fell to its own son, A Lima kid taking down the Goliath of the college football food chain on its own turf.

Measure What Matters Chapter 7

Chapter seven of the book, "Measure What Matters" deals with measuring the impact of events. In social media today, events have become "redefined" according to the book on page 107. 

"'Events' is a term that can now refer to an online fund-raiser or an in-person Twestival organized via Twitter."

As we always seem to point out, there are a multitude of ways that social media has enhanced the marketing world and industry as a whole. When we see how much the social media platform changes things that were capable before, but are easier and quicker now, it is changing the opinions of consumers to use social media and that it is more than just a way for teens to retweet their favorite memes. 

The best part of the chapter in my opinion was the 7 steps process. I like these steps the book lists for the reader because it provides order and strategy. The seven steps in the book to measure sponsorships and events are:

1. Define Your Objectives

2. Determine Your Measurable Criteria of Success

3. Decide Upon Your Benchmarks

4. Select a Measurement Tool 

5. Define Specific Metrics 

6. Choose a Measurement tool

7. Analyze Your Results and Use them to be more effective 

The last step was the one that caught my attention and Dr. Agozzino alluded to it in class last week. The measuring process is not over. The process is never over, because we must constantly be updating, remodeling and improving our content and tactics if we want to thrive. 

Steelers Deliver BIG vs Browns

Most of the time, when we see no. 7 on the field for the Steelers, it is as a starting quarterback. This past Sunday, that was not the case. Coach Mike Tomlin listed Ben as active for the game Sunday versus conference foe, the Cleveland Browns. The reason Ben was not starting on Sunday was due to a left mid-foot sprain he sustained in the previous week in the Steelers week 10 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Roethlisbeger was sacked in the middle of the 3rd quarter and his foot was landed on by Raiders defensive end, Aldon Smith. 

The Steelers began the game with back-up quarterback Landry Jones. In just his second career start, Jones was 0-1 and facing a battered Cleveland defense at home, so the odds were somewhat in his favor. Jones' day however,  was cut short. On the opening drive for the Steelers, Jones delivered a throw near the endzone and a Browns defender pushed a lineman into Jones and stepped on his ankle. Jones couldn't put any pressure on that ankle, so that was when Mike Tomlin looked like a genius. 

If Ben had been listed inactive instead for the game due to his injury, he wouldn't have been able to play and backup Jones and the Steelers would've had to have played tight end Heath Miller at quarterback. Luckily Ben was active and played the entirety of the game. If Ben is healthy, that can only mean one thing. A good day for this man:

Antonio Brown is arguably the best receiver in the NFL when Ben Roethlisberger is under center. The chemistry and connection those two have is remarkable and it shows up in numbers. In games with Roethlisberger, Brown averages 10.4 catches per game averaging 153 yards. In games without

Ben, Brown is averaging a dismal four catches for 64 yards. It is Ben that stirs "AB's" pot and Ben was the spark that Steelers needed on Sunday. 

The game was tied at 3-3 with the Browns having the ball in the first quarter. That is until Ben found his favorite target. Last week versus the Raiders, Brown had franchise recording-setting day, hauling in 17 catches for 284 yards. 

This week, Brown followed it up with 10 catches for 173 yards a pair of touchdowns. 

Brown and Ben are hotter than any other duo in the league and have high potential if Ben stays healthy. Headed into the buy week, the Steelers will receive a much needed rest and prepare for a tough road test in week 12 versus the Seattle Seahawks. Go Steelers!

Social Media reacts to Paris attacks

When the world goes into a mode of crisis, it is times like those when we see what we are truly made of. On Friday night, Paris, France was under a terrorist attack, led by members of the Islamic radical group, ISIS. The attacks occurred in a shop/market in downtown Paris and left 129 people dead and many more seriously injured. ISIS has been the talk of the world for the last year or so and I wonder why they keep getting more popular. The people who cause the chaos and turmoil amongst us get the most media attention and talk. I understand that in certain situations, it is necessary to have media time for issues such as ISIS and the war on terrorism. On Friday night however, the media was entirely focused on Paris.

When I say the media, I should say all forms of media. Television reporters swarmed the town, as well as journalists, civilians with cameras and social media users. If you were close to technology on Friday night, odds are that you heard about or saw the tragic events in France.

Social media took off after the reports of the attacks and it was just what social media does best. Gets the information out quickly and gets people talking. The trending hashtag, #Pray4Paris is the tag that has been used all across the world to show support the allied country. Channels such as Facebook, have made an option for users to make a filter of their profile picture by inserting the french flag colors across their image.

Other influential figures in the world took to social media as well to express their sympathy and prayers for Paris.

It is no question that social media has a grasp on our world today, but when it can show how much we care about each other and for those that are in a foreign country, it really opens your eyes to how benevolent the world can be.

The terrorist attacks on Paris are not going to be an easy wound to heal. Although, with the right support, precautionary actions and diplomatic solutions, there will be a brighter day ahead. The city of lights and its people are in a dark place, but as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that."

Impressions in SEO

This week in our class reading of "Measure What Matters", we have been reiterating the lesson of impressions. What types of impressions there are, how we can track our impressions, what to do with our impression data moving forward. One thing Dr.Agozziono stated in her notes is measuring is a constant thing. You are always looking to improve your measurement strategies and impressions.

The types of impressions can be differ in terms of how the impression was made. If the impression comes from a solely a search and a tag is matched, then it is considered an organic impression. Also if you are getting impressions from traditional media without paying for impressions or viewership, then it is organic as well. 

The counterpart of organic impressions are paid impressions. Paid impressions are simply paid advertising or product placement. It can be noticed deliberately and/or separately from the content that it is in. These impressions are not as rewarding or as concrete as the organic impressions because without the money, it is unknown if your product, (or organization, or service) would have been found. 

The best way to track the impressions for your website or your organizations social page is probably through Google Analytics. Google Analytics is way to transform the social media platform and how our content is truly perceived and not just going off of views or likes. Google Analytics is proven to be a productive tool for most organizations, but last week when a guest speaker came into our class, she she worked for the Hollister Co. and she spoke of her companies own way to track their impressions on all of their social channels. The system showed how each channel had a certain number of organic and paid impressions and what times the impressions were at a peak and at a low. Lindsey taught me some very valuable social media skills and tips going forward into my career. Although I don't have aspirations to be a social media manager or coordinator, I do know that social media is going to be around for awhile and will continue to change the communications landscape. 

Better Men Making Better Lives

This weekend I got to do something real cool. This weekend I got to make 10 young men's lives better. Not only in the facet of them joining a fraternity and broadening their horizon's, but because they had the tenacity to do what others couldn't. If joining a fraternity/sorority was easy, then everyone would do it. I am proud of the way these young me set themselves apart from others in their age group and took the Delta Sig challenge to become a better man.

The new guys all have special qualities about them that I like, but the one quality I like the most is they have become a unit. Their pledge class really rallied together and came close, despite their different backgrounds and interests, they became the best of friends and understand the true meaning of brotherhood. They are not the same at all, and yet they couldn't be closer.

The new initiates of Delta Sigma Phi will not only be better man, but they will be surrounded and influenced by better men and will put them in situations to succeed in life. Joining a fraternity is almost the sole reason I was offered my internship with FOX sports this summer in Los Angeles. Accepting the challenge to become a better man and balancing a varsity sport, a fraternity and school really taught me a lot about myself and what I am capable of and this capability was tapped into by the fraternity aspect of my freshman year of college. Watching these young men go through really made me reflect on my days as a freshman and what I want to tell them to avoid the same mistakes as me. Now I know how my dad feels...

Congrats Fall initiates of 2015 and welcome to the brotherhood.

How To Overcome Your Fear

The video you see above is a video of me showing how to sing the James Taylor song, "Fire and Rain". The decision on what to do for a how to video was not as easy as I though it would be. The first idea was to try and draw the Disney character, Simba. That would take too long and was not a timely subject for my project.

The next idea was to show how to grip a baseball and pitch it differently since I am a pitcher here for the baseball team. But I am not able to get up and throw a baseball due to my knee being in an immobilizer.

Then I thought about doing something like how to make a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That seemed too simple and not creative enough.

I was ignoring my confidence in singing because I was too afraid to do it in front of a camera or for anyone to see or hear. The idea was creative, easy enough but still required me to overcome something that wasn't an easy task for me, personally. I knew that I was going to have to swallow my fear and just do it with no regards for how people would react to it.

Social media is a great way for us to share our thoughts, expressions, feelings, and so forth, but it is also a way to express ourselves with no regard for feedback, good or bad. Doing it for the feeling of self-worth and self-esteem. In terms of good social media principles, I would want to have plenty of feedback with good impressions and views and likes. Don't get me wrong here, I want to have a healthy viewership of this video and let people discover my voice if they want or just have them learn how to sing this great song, but this project helped me overcome this fear of singing in front of a camera and that cannot be taught in a textbook.

This video was also on Jon Andrew's birthday, and I couldn't help but think about Jon when I chose to sing this song. Check out the YouTube video above for how to sing "Fire and Rain" and also check out my facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/casey.p.mulcahy

Enjoy and God Bless!

Measure What Matters

As the beginning of our next class reading comes upon us, the book, "Measure What Matters" by Katie Delahaye Paine has a different tone to it than others. It seems a little harder to comprehend and follow, but with the assistance of Dr. Agozzino and her power points, it is very much a refutable resource and has content that made me think this weekend.

In chapter 2 Paine states that there 10 questions that every communication professional needs to answer:

1. What are your objectives?
2. Who is the target audience?
3. What is important to your audience?
4. What motivates them to buy your products?
5. What are your key messages?
6. Who influences your audience?
7. How do you distribute your product or service?
8. What are you going to do with the info from the research?
9. What other departments or areas will be affected?
10. What other measurement programs are underway?

The more I analyzed these questions, the more I realized that it was true in the real-world. I understand that the author would't publish these ideas if they're weren't applicable in the real-world, but I found them very relatable to my experience this summer in Los Angeles working as an intern for FOX Sports. Question 6 is the question in particular that got me thinking, because what really motivates or influences us as an audience to a company like FOX Sports? In my opinion, what influences us to watch FOX is the whatever ESPN is not showing. FOX has had trouble trying to keep up with ESPN, but in it's efforts this year, it has made some significant triumphs over the bigger brother that is ESP. FOX hosted the women's World Cup for the summer and also just hosted the World Series. Those 2 monumental events are not being televised on ESPN, so that influences us to watch FOX sports more frequently. These questions are a great way to break down your job as a communicator or just to prepare for the future in the business world. 

New Twitter Feature Gives Fire to Sports

Twitter, as everyone knows, is a place to find newsworthy content and real-time stories going on around the world. But, as every good company does, they have found a way to enhance themselves and critique their flaws to make their product or service even better. The news on Twitter, in my opinion, has always been hard to pinpoint. Either you found it on your timeline or you had to search for it yourself and make a decision on what you wanted to find.


Now, thanks to the innovation by the folks at Twitter, there is a much easier and efficient way to find your news and what is going on in the world. The feature, "moments" has been created to be much more user-friendly to Twitter users."What we're trying to do is get the content directly in-front of you without you having to make decisions," said Madhu Muthukumar, the project manager over seeing the new feature. When you enter the tab for "moments", it categorizes options so you know what you want to look at. The categories are: Today, Sports, News, Fun, Entertainment. When you get to whatever tab you want to look at, it is previewed with a video. I believe involving this media really catches the audience's attention and is a great hook for SEO. 


When I think about how this new feature of Twitter will change sports, I think of how we watch sports. I personally, watch sports live and on television because I am an avid sports fan and like watching the full game. In today's culture however, the way people watch sports is "highlight syndrome" or people only watching the highlights on ESPN or something. In "moments", the highlight's are given and in high quality, which is another overlooked detail. Also, when the highlight is seen, if the user finds an attraction to that post, they can favorite it, retweet it, or comment to it. In the video above, this feature gave wildfire to the MLB postseason and created a whole new animal in terms of fan engagement. The trending ability of Twitter really came into play this post season and how people followed Major League Baseball. 

Wake Up the Echoes

The Fighting Irish have done it again. They played a game down to the wire and found a way to pull out the win. In a tough road game in Philadelphia playing the undefeated, no. 23 ranked Temple Owls, Notre Dame was clinging on to the rest of their season and hopes for a birth in the college football playoff. With 2:14 left to play in the fourth quarter and trailing Temple 20-17, Fighting Irish quarterback Deshone Kizer rifled a pass to the back corner of the end zone ESPN, Kizer has a QBR (quarterback rating) 152.1, which is above the average QBR in Division 1 FBS of 97.4. Kizer demonstrated extreme poise in this tough road game and is another checkmark on the list for the Irish. Having a quarterback that can deliver in the clutch on the road is something every team in the country want. Notre Dame knows they have that, and they need to do everything in their power to utilize his talents and skills. Temple was undefeated and had the biggest game in program history at home, so that can justify the close score for me. As for the playoff selection committee, I am not so sure. There is still plenty of football to go with about 5 weeks left in the season, but as time passes, Notre Dame lives to see another day and fight for a spot. This win was not only huge for Notre Dame, but also coach Brian Kelly who was 10-10 vs top AP 25 (elias sports bureau) teams before coming into the game on Saturday night. That win putting him over that .500 hump helped take a big weight off his back and maybe a bit of job security as well. The Irish's defense also played a large role in the victory as safety #6, KeiVarae Russel intercepted a Temple pass in their hopes of making a game winning drive. The interception sealed the deal for Notre Dame and put the cherry on top for a full team victory. Notre Dame travels to Heinz Field on Saturday to take on the Panthers of Pitt. If Notre Dame wins on the road next weekend, that will be the first time a backup quarterback has won back to back road games for Notre Dame since 1983. Just saying.
and into the hands of his receiver, Will Fuller. The kid had done it again! When the pressure was on, Kizer delivered a big time play. Kizer has gone 5-1 in his 6 career starts this season and has proved that he has what it takes to win whether it be coming from behind or holding a lead, but especially coming from behind. According to

KIND Bars

Around campus these last two weeks, I have heard time and time again about the new "KIND" bars. Last week I made a post talking about if the goal and mission of KIND was realistic or if it was just a poorly set up idea to make money and sell granola bars. I truly believe that it has a good mission behind it and that it has the potential to make a real difference in the ONU community. After making
the post, I was keeping an eye out to actually see KIND bars people acting on their goals. Sure enough, a day later I was perusing through my Instagram timeline and found a post by Megan Cottongim. Megan is a PR major here on campus and is on the team for KIND bars. In the video, there is a woman standing in front of the entire football team and she is leading them through what appears to be a stretching exercise. All of the big, tough, sweaty football players were following the actions of a thin, petite woman and the funny part was the football players were feeling a workout from the stretching and bending. The caption of the video was:

Teaching Ohio Northern University's football team some #KINDbears exercises to be KIND to their bodies. Thank you, KIND snacks for putting together a national campaign for my team and I to help build awareness among students that KIND snacks are the perfect snack for both health and taste. Want to join our team's mission to bring healthy living into ONU's campus community? Post a selfie or a brief description on Twitter and Instagram about how you live a healthy life, both in exercise and in appetite. Also include the brand's social handle (@KINDSnacks) and hashtag (#KINDbears) Thank you! (@smileitsmegannn/Instagram).

Why do we fall?

"Why do we fall, sir?" The million-dollar question asked by Michael Cain in the film, Batman Begins, has always stuck with me. Failure is something in our nature as human beings. We fail all the time and it is our failures that magnify our success'. The best thing we can do we when we fail is to realize our failures. So many time, people will just find excuses to make or find someone to blame it on. Now with all these failures, there is room for triumph. In my past few weeks I have fallen. I think to myself, "Casey, there is something wrong in life. We need to step back and get a fresh take." So I went to SubWay. I'm kidding, but seriously, I needed to refresh my thoughts and think in basic, bigger picture terms. I was falling, but after I fell I just stayed on the ground. I have now realized, it is the way of man, to get up off the ground and rise again like the sun. The fall I have been going through right now will eventually be a thing of the past and I will be a better man for enduring the storm, instead of running and hiding. I will be a stronger man because I got up off the ground instead of being fossilized into the ground. I know this post is a little more ethos and not as much logos right now, but when I think about a post for my life at ONU or life in general, these were my thoughts this weekend following my surgery. Sitting there all day on the couch really forces you to think about things deeper than the surface of the scars and stitches. I drove myself crazy thinking about the pain and how I would ever be able to do what I could do before, ever again. Then I took that step back and realized that this is a fall. This is a test of my will and that is one test I never plan of failing. Will power can seem empty and bleak at some time in life for all of us, but it is that little voice in the back of my mind saying "you can't afford to lose. There is gonna be something worth fighting for". The first time I blogged I didn't really have the confidence to put these deeper thoughts on the blog, but the more I have blogged and read blogs, I have found the niche for it and how blogging can help me get things off my chest and into the light (of your screen) haha! So as I fight back through recovery, I remember that the cause of our falls may be different, but the reason we fall is to pick ourselves back up.

KIND bars: Can they do their job?

Whenever I see a company or organization try to make a global difference through a campaign, I always try to "dumb down" their mission statement and see if it is believable or not. For example, some people thought that the campaign by McDonald's of "Pay with lovin'" was a good idea, but I can personally rebut that campaign. Every time I went to the McDonald's in Ada, I was never once greeted with "lovin'".  I understand; Ada isn't always the most loving town when it comes to employees at McDonald's, but they still represent the brand of McDonald's and their mission statement. In my opinion, McDonald's missing statement was faulty and was not put into action at all of their locations. Now, on campus here at ONU, there is a new campaign being put into action by some students. It is called "KIND bars". When I first heard about the campaign, I thought I would be going to the Regal Beagle and seeing everyone in there being kind and appreciative of each other. Then after looking into the campaign of the KIND bars, I found out it was granola bar and the bars came in different flavors. According to the team behind KIND bars, "KIND is a brand that not only makes wholesome and  delicious foods, but is focused on making the world a little kinder- one act and one snack at a time." The ingredients in the bars are said to be gluten-free and non GMO (Genetically modified organisms). The healthy and organic image of KIND bars gives me a good notion of their actions and "work behind the scenes" if you will. The only thing that concerns me  with their campaign is how do they plan to get these bars to actually get results. Make the world a little kinder- one act and one snack at a time. The campaign information says there is a foundation named KIND Causes. The program helps people grant their socially impactful ideas to life through $10,000 grants monthly. The KIND bar campaign does have some serious points that make them legitimate, but getting a granola bar to make people happy and spread the kindness just seems a little far fetched. Even still, I see promise in this campaign and just because something is far fetched, doesn't mean it is impossible. 

College Football Podcast

This weekend after going home, I had the chance to sit down with my best friend Brandon Kohl. Although Brandon is not a professional, I chose Brandon to be in my podcast because of how good he is at arguing and proving his point. Also me and Brandon watched college football all weekend long and we've played football along side each other since we were 8 years old, so we have a pretty firm grasp on football in general. In this podcast, Brandon and I were originally going to be doing one topic in college football. Instead, Brandon made a good point to just do a college football segment, and in that segment, cover all of the points that were going to chose from. Attached is the link to the podcast. Making the podcast in itself was pretty easy to us because it is just us talking like normal guys about something we are passionate about. The hard part of editing out all of the long pauses or speech miscues. Luckily my editing class in the past and my experience working with convergent media helped me find my way to the finished product. I also have given a link to my podcast on my Facebook and Twitter pages. The bond me and Brandon share is unique and he is someone who relates to my problems better than anyone else, so when I thought of who could I get to do this podcast with me, BK was the first one to come to mind. Enjoy the podcast and if you like what you heard, come get some "moe".

Can Snapchat take the Crown?

In the timeline of social media apps to come out, none of have been as personal, hot and trending as much as snapchat. The app is owned by a variety of age groups and even some professional organizations have a snapchat profile to show their everyday business and to give the audience a more personal look at what their day-to-day agenda looks like. For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a snapchat account and as a fan, I follow the account to see what is always happening in Steeler nation. Whether it be the videos of practice drills, players talking to the camera or just plays captured in action, the account gives its fans and audiences the chance to see content that most other news outlets and journalists couldn't capture. The app also has the ability now to chart and track events all around the globe and bring them to the tips of your fingers. I may not know what is going on in the Presidential campaign right now, but if I look at Snapchat, I can find the Story feed for the Presidential campaign and what the candidates are doing to win our votes. Even other stories are shared, such as a story for Paris or Rome or any city for that matter. Snapchat is starting to take over the social media turf and it's major competitors are still the "big 4", but the little ghost we all love is making its way to the top. When someone snaps me, my first thought almost every time is, "how can I respond?" The app really forces us to carry on a conversation because when we send a snap to someone, we can see when they opened and when they opened it. I also think that because Snapchat is so instantaneous and real-time that we want to send back an immediate reply to carry on the conversation. Although Snapchat is popular, it does have it's downfalls and is a reason why it has yet to take that extra step and separate itself from the other younger and less popular apps. Snapchat has no trending ability for SEO. There are no keywords we can look up to find content, but that is because the content we see in a snapchat is gone after the snap is over. Granted, the story is up for 24 hours, but after that, there is no way to track your click-rate, your content and how long it was viewed. There is a feature on snapchat that allows you to see how many people viewed your snap and who viewed it, but you can't see how long they viewed it and how often they viewed your snap. The room for improvement is there, but the app is progressing at a rapid pace. Snapchat is here for the long run and could spook out the competition in years to come. 

Brand as a Media: Share This

This week in our class reading for the book, "Share This" we covered the topic of brands becoming their own media and how that can be an advantage for public relations professionals and journalists around the world. It is happening in many magazines, newspapers and publications and has created something called "brand journalism". Brand Journalism is simply promoting your type of journalism through your brand. An example of this can be used as sports journalism is brand journalism because it is predominantly fed through ESPN the magazine or Sports Illustrated. The brand almost owns the media because when people pick it up, they are not only reading what the magazine represents, but what the brand as a company or corporation represents as well. When people see the ESPN body issue, it can be a toss up. I am sure there are plenty of people out there that are opposed to seeing the 350 pound nude body of Texas Rangers baseball player, Prince Fielder. An argument to that would be that these players are having the courage and comfort to show their bodies to the whole world because their body and their sport is their craft, respectively. When I read an article online once about the ESPN body issue, I saw a different, more artistic side about how the athletes approach the offer and how the photographers really capture the elegance in these athletes' bodies. The brand that ESPN is giving off to some is an appropriate way to get athletes to show their sexy side and is too vulgar for some audiences. The brand that ESPN is giving off in my opinion (and I'm sure I'm not the only one), is a brand that isn't afraid to push the envelope in our day and age and takes something that could be seen as sinful and graphic, and turn it into something beautiful and strong. The journalism of sports is something that has more content to it than just pictures of naked athletes and washboard abs, but this little inkling of sports journalism belongs to ESPN the magazine now, because no other sports magazine will be able to take the body issue that ESPN has created and mimic it in a better way. The brand of ESPN transcended with the body issue and will only get better with all of the highly tuned athletes still come in the future.