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!