Below is a tour of my LinkedIn account. WordPress does not allow me to embed videos on a free account, so I have embedded it into a PowerPoint presentation.
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Final Paper Rough Draft
The following is a *rough draft* of my final paper. If you are a class AIS4012 peer, please comment below with a constructive critique. Thank you for your help in improvement of the quality of my work.
Revamp Your Blog
Blog Review
There are millions of blogs out there to read. The funny thing is that everyone who writes them seems to be an expert! I had trouble finding blogs with issues, so it took a lot of searching and often-times clicking to ‘page 14’ etc., on Google. The following are two examples of blog posts that I found to be either dull, or poorly written. I will explain what is wrong with each blog, and then re-write them.
Blog #1
“Straightening the Doormat
I noticed that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its correct place. The edge of the mat was then perpendicular to the door.”
- As you can easily see, this blog is extremely dull and serves no true point. Granted this blog is meant to be humorous, but that does not mean that there are not real blogs like this out there. This blog post could be seen as more metaphorical, so I would re-write it like this:
“I noticed that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. The doormat was me. Sometimes I wondered what was wrong with me; and why I felt this way. I reached down and moved the mat, me, back into its correct place. While the edge of the mat was then perpendicular to the door, something still felt off. Do you guys ever feel this way? How have you overcome this feeling.”
Blog #2
http://fearlessfishing.net/blog/
“Fearless Fishing Report for Feb. 17 (Islamorada, FL)
Today we fished a full day and we started off bait fishing. We caught enough Cigar Minnows for the day and so we anchored down and had a great Yellowtail #Snapper bite! We caught around 25. We then fished a Wreck and caught our limit of King #Mackerel – one weighing in around 25 lbs. The wind laid out today and the seas went from a couple feet to flat calm.
#fearless #fishing #charter #captjoehendrix #florida“
– The above blog is clearly about fishing, and is set up like a journal. There are some grammatical issues that distract from the reader and the Twitter-esque hashtags are not appropriate for this type of media. I would re-write the post like this:
“Today we fished for an entire day; starting with bait fishing. After catching enough Cigar Minnows for one day, we anchored down and to our luck caught a Yellowtail Snapper. In fact, we caught about 25 of them! We then moved to fish at a Wreck and caught some King Mackerel- one of them weighed 25 pounds. It was an excellent day with low winds and a calm sea.”
Action Plan
The following is an action plan that one can use to ensure their emails are professionally and effectively communicating what one intends.
- Establish the purpose of the email – do not just go into it blindly, think of why you are about to write the email and what message you are trying to convey.
- Check yourself – make sure you are in the right mindset to be writing a message, are you angry, upset, etc. It is important to not be any of those things.
- Know your audience – who are you writing to, be sure to use appropriate introductions, Dr. Smith vs. calling someone by their first name, etc.
- Limit jokes – jokes are not always funny to everyone, it is best to leave them out of emails in the professional setting.
- Don’t use slang and emojis – they are not professional, so avoid at all costs.
- Use manners – since email is in writing, tone is very hard to tell, so make sure you write as politely as you possibly could.
- Check grammar – do a spell check, and re-read your message. Check for common errors like saying “there” instead of “their.”
- Re-check purpose – make sure your purpose was achieved and message is being effectively established.
- Check for flow – read email several times, possibly out loud, to ensure proper flow and to make sure it sounds ‘right.’
When it comes to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the rules tend to change a little bit. First of all, if you follow someone on those sites, you probably know them on a fairly personal level, so you can drop some of the professionalism. It is still important though that you use your manners, and check your purpose and flow. Do not worry so much about formalities and feel free to joke when appropriate. Emojis are allowed on Facebook and Twitter, and feel free to say ‘lol.’
Resume Reflection
To view my current resume, roll over the ‘career’ tab above, then click ‘resume.’
In this post, I will answer the prompt below.
“During your time in the Applied Administration BTAS you have had several opportunities to refine your resume. How has it changed? Have you changed jobs, joined community service organizations, learned new skills?”
I have had a resume since high school, and just so you know I have no idea what that would look like even if I could find it. However, in college I have certainly changed and improved my resume every few months. For example, I used to have my work experience out of correct order. I also used a lot of present-progressive tense verbs (-ing verbs) which is a no-no on resumes. To make it easier to understand I will go over how each section has changed.
Education:
My resume started out saying where I graduated high school from, that has since changed and been removed. I am proud to say it now sports an earned Associates Degree in Business Management. Soon it will say that I have a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Administration. Parallel with my education runs my coursework which I have listed. All of which are things that I have been adding as each semester ends.
Skills/Training:
Most of my skills are the same as they were a few years ago, but I now have more experience in certain areas. Such as more language experience in French from college, and more training and development experience from work.
Volunteering:
This is a brand new section that I get to add as I volunteer for my senior capstone project. I think this is a great addition to my resume. I am working with a cat rescue, and am learning a lot about that organization and how much work volunteering actually is.
Work:
I have had the same two jobs for the last five years (I like them a lot). Both of which I have been promoted in since my first semester of college.
I have removed the references section as I learn it goes on a completely different document. I also removed my objective, I do not think employers really care about my end-goal.
Use of 4 C’s at Kings Island
The following are the 4 C’s of how firms should use social media to work better for them and their consumers. The analysis is of Kings Island and its social media strategies.
Cognize: the park is excellent about being aware of its own social media presence. Part of the cognizing factor is for a firm to understand its consumers. Kings Island puts a lot of research into this, and that is evident when reviewing their social media practices. An example of this is their common responses to questions posed on their sites.
Congruity: This section is all about how a firm can use social media to push its ideas. In this case, Kings Island wants to get a lot of visitors, and they want their visitors to come back many times. The best way that they do this is by marketing the Gold Pass, which allows for unlimited visits. This is frequently advertised on social media, because the park knows that Gold Passers spend more money, and return much more frequently. Going after those individuals is the key to creating a happy park guest.
Curate: When Kings Island sees a question on social media, they tend to respond to it. But they do not respond to everything. The important thing about curation is knowing when it is appropriate to chime in and when it is not. There are often-times negative comments on their sites about old rides being removed, etc. Those are the kind of things that the park does not waste time worrying about- because they cannot be changed. Kings Island would look too much like a bully if they went after everything like that that came up.
Chase: The importance of chasing information in regards to social media is crucial. Kings Island makes sure to be present on sites that are used. That is why they do not have a Myspace page. In addition, you will see more frequent posts on Facebook then other sites, because they know that Facebook reaches the most people. Their YouTube usage has gone down some, because there is not a good chance to collaborate on that site. Also, commenters tend to not have valid feedback and questions on YouTube as well.
In general, the park does an excellent job with the 4 C’s of social media. I will say, that they could benefit from asking more questions and creating more polls on social media, before decisions are made. In some cases, like the removal of a ride, they could see how much people would miss that particular ride. Would they rather have it removed for a brand new roller coaster, or keep the nostalgia. In addition, it would not hurt if the park answered even more questions and especially Facebook reviews. Often-times the park has reviews from people who do not understand the importance of a specific rule, which makes the park look like its being unfair when in fact it is not. I do not think it would be a bad idea for the park to explain that to those particular people.
Honeycomb Analysis of Kings Island
The following is a honeycomb analysis of Kings Island’s social media presence.
1: Presence: Kings Island has a huge social media presence with over 400,000 Facebook followers, and over 50,000 Twitter followers. They constantly post any and everything on these sites. They also use several other sites including Instagram and YouTube as well. The following link is an example of their presence.
https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR/status/699982439117099009
2: Relationships: Kings Island is good about responding, and interacting with its followers. The following image is an example of that. You can see that Kings Island responds to users’ comments and questions.
3. Reputation: They are known for supporting consumers’ wants and needs, and are interesting in sharing valuable information. The following link shows a poll to see which race people are most interested in doing with family at the park.
https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR/status/698874737255149568
4. Groups: There are several groups that can involve the park. In fact, for employees of the park, each of their locations has its own Facebook group. (For the sake of privacy, I cannot include a link to those.)
5. Conversations: The park uses sites like YouTube to get people talking to each other about things they are excited about. The link that follows takes you to the Banshee teaser video from 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0prGGzKtAA
6. Sharing: The park shares as much as it can to keep park guests wanting to come back for more. This helps with marketing and promoting the park.
7. Identity: As you can see Kings Island is known for having a strong social media presence. Anything that they can post, they will.
I believe they have a very effective strategy. It works well for promoting the park, and it certainly makes me want to come back, I am sure it does the same for others. I love how they are willing to comment and answer questions, which helps users on social media feel that they can go to those sites for help.
Social Media and Your Profession
My intended career field, also my current career field is in the amusement park business. The following items are three separate ways that amusement parks utilize social media.
#1 Promotions
As you can see in the screenshot below, Universal Studios Orlando uses Twitter to promote sales and promotions.
#2 News
The following quote is from August of 2015 when Cedar Point posted on their Facebook page the following message after a man was killed by a roller coaster.
“At approximately 5 p.m., a guest entered a restricted, fenced area of the Raptor roller coaster and was struck by the ride. Park safety officials responded immediately to the situation. Unfortunately the guest has passed away. Local authorities are on the scene conducting an investigation.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family at this time.”
#3 History
Kings Island frequently uses social media to promote the parks history, which in turn promotes the park in general. The following screenshot is taken from Kings Island’s Facebook page.
Each strategy is obviously doing very different things. Promoting sales, promoting history and shedding light on recent events. Each of the three parks have used social media to do these three things. All of which do an excellent job of reaching a large portion of park guests. In Universal’s post they are promoting a sale that is ongoing. This brings people to the park and, like the other posts, promotes the park as well. Unlike the other posts, this one specifically focuses on money. Cedar Point’s post is a sad piece of news, but it shows that the park is actively engaging in telling guests the truth, even if it may not be good. It is similar to the other posts in informing about something, but different in the way that it is discussing something negative. Finally, Kings Island posting about an old roller coaster brings back memories to people, making them want to return to make more. All the posts, including Kings Island’s, tell guests about a particular park, keeping them informed; making them want to come back.
I think the best of these posts is the one by Universal, mainly because it is promoting the park, and promoting sales. After all, amusement parks are businesses so making money is the main goal.
Product Launch: Bansheeeeeee!
In August of 2013 Kings Island announced their 14th roller coaster, Banshee. Banshee debuted the following year in April of 2014, and social media was used very, very heavily for this. The product, an inverted roller coaster (a coaster where the cars hang below the track) was marketed as the World’s Longest Inverted Roller Coaster. It is 167 feet tall, reaches speeds of up to 68 miles per hour, and has over 4,000 feet of track. Kings Island used both their Twitter (https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR) and Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/visitkingsisland/) pages to heavily promote the launch of this coaster. Example images and articles can be found below. Kings Island was very effective with the launch of their coaster because they made sure to frequently post cool images and videos which get social medias excited to ride. Another interesting thing Kings Island did was promote hints and pictures long before the ride was announced, this was to get people interested and curious about what was to come.
Austin L. Smith 