You may remember my first post about the site brand yourself, well this is post number two. In the couple week between posts I was spoused to be improving my grade by completing the suggested optimization techniques. Well I failed. I completed all of the optimization techniques I could, and yet my score went down. Unfortunately a lot of techniques weren't possible for me or weren't recognized by their system. For example, this blog isn't easily connected to my name. Brand yourself recommended that I change the name of my site from blogbyamber.weebly.com to ambermiller.weebly.com. Unfortunately, that name is already taken. While my search results don't seem to be getting any better, this assignment has made me rethink my name online. Currently I use a combination of my first middle and last name on all of my sites, but not consistently. Moving forward I am going to try to use my full name on everything (Amber Layn Miller) since that seems to be a little more unique.
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This week in CAP 105 I learned how to make infographics. Before today I never knew making one could be so easy, and FREE! I decided to make my infographic on the social media outlet of sharing data. To make my infographic I used a template from Piktochart and pulled my information from two online sources (1,2). I then customized the images to match my topic and changed the graph styles to better represent my topic. Learn how to use Piktochart and check out my Piktochart below! May apply? More like do apply! Have you ever actually taken the time to read everything listed in the terms and conditions? I sure haven't! You might think "oh its no big deal", but it is a big deal! This week in class we watched a documentary called "Terms and Conditions May Apply". If you ever have some free time I highly suggest you watch it and see just whats in those terms your signing. I must say I wasn't too surprised with everything they reveled, but I was still angered that I had to accept such conditions just to use my favorite products. In case your not aware, majority of companies make you okay the storage of all of your information and data, your surveillance, and even use any of your data without further consent. If any or all of this angers you, check out the trailer below, watch the documentary, and prepare to be furious! This week in class we learned the basics of InDesign. InDesign is an Adobe Creative Suite Product used to create an edit print publications. Our project was to take the Saguatuck Center for the Arts 2013 Annual Report and make the following three corrections:
1. Change Kathy Kirby's name to "Whitney Valentine, Exhibitions & Education Manager" I completed this step by copying the replacement text above, highlighting the text I wanted to change, and pasting over it. 2. Swap out the clay woman photo for another photo we were given To complete this step, first I saved the image I was given to my desktop, and then I relinked the existing photo slot to my image. 3. In the graph change one instance of 35% to 36% and change the 24% to 23%. For this step, I simply erased the last digit in each number and replaced it with the new value. In the end I thought using InDesign was fairly simple! You can see my before and after photos showing my corrections below. In todays world we are surrounded by social media. I am willing to bet that those of you with a smart phone have at least three of the following social media apps: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Vine, YouTube, Pinterest or Yik Yak. Was I right? If your anything like me you are almost always on some form of social media. In my opinion the most beneficial aspect of social media is being able to stay up to date on literally everything (including events, news, trends, family, information, and more). Unfortunately, social media also has its downsides. In my opinion the most detrimental part of social media is the constant arguing it tends to lead to. People who are behind a screen tend to be much harsher to others. Additionally this screen shield allows for a lot of cyber bullying assumingly because they feel less connected to the victim and the negative consequences that can arise. I use social media for a variety of different reasons. I use Facebook to keep up with family and friends across the globe and to keep up with all of my sorority events. Its also great for group communications between commitees and the floor of my building. Even my work uses a page on Facebook to trade and give away shifts. Twitter is much more limited in my eyes. It is great for sharing and reading thoughts as well as getting news, but it doesn't allow for easy commenting or long thoughts which aggravates me (this also probably accounts for why 44% of Twitter users have never sent a tweet). I love snapchat! Sending pictures of my day was something I was already doing via text so adding this platform just made the process a lot easier. Instagram is fantastic for sharing pictures, but not much else. I love seeing my friends pictures, but I use Facebook for the same thing. LinkedIn is a fantastic professional tool I am first starting to able in. Avid users use it as an online resume and a site for virtual networking. I do not use Vine, but essentially it is a site full of short funny videos (which much like Twitter are limited to a time constraint). YouTube is my ultimate go to. I use YouTube to listen to music and to learn how to do just about anything! Other people also use YouTube to learn information from videos and listen to peoples thoughts on prominent issues. Pinterest is my guilty pleasure! It is this amazing collection of literally everything which you can then pin to organized boards to find later. In my experience the most popular board categories include: DIY, Hair and Beauty, My Wedding, and Food. Yik Yak, the newest of the bunch, is much like Twitter, only completely anonymous. People can post there thoughts and receive feedback from complete strangers. This concept is a little weird to me, I feel like Yik Yak may generate more hateful remarks than its worth and hence try to stay away from it. Now I know what your thinking: "What about MySpace?". Okay, maybe that isn't what you were thinking, but have you ever taken a step back to realize how far social media has come? The earliest form of social media began in the 70's with Bulletin Board Systems where users could upload and download games, files, and messages locally. After that was the popular AOL system in the 90's. If you're a 90's baby like me, you've probably spent plenty of days logged onto your AIM instant messenger chatting with all of your friends online. Once you grew out of Aim you probably moved onto the famous MySpace. In my opinion MySpace is what people think of when they think back to the earliest social media. MySpace was revolutionary! It allowed you to post your thoughts, add pictures, and completely customize your page. Just think, in the span of 40 years we went from barely being able to share local files, to being able to share videos and pictures instantly with users across the globe. All factual information was taken from the following sites: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/ http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-facts-figures-stats-infographic/201164 http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm This week my class was asked to create an account on brandyourself.com. This site is a useful tool for determining how your presence ranks online. After reviewing the searches associated with my name (and deciding if they were positive, negative, or not about me) I was a little disappointed to see my initial score: When ranking my results I found that majority of the results weren't even about me which led me to such a low score. Over the next few weeks I will be taking the suggested steps to improving my search results (which can be seen below) in hopes of improving my score to at least a C.
For todays assignment on my class blog, I was asked to do a project on Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short). SEO on the simplest level is configuring your website or blog, and its content, in a way that leads to higher listings on search engines and more traffic to your site. One way you can do this is through keywords. Keywords are words you strategically place in whatever your writing, in my case my student blog, to make it possible for people to find your site using search engines such as Google or Bing. For my assignment I was asked to generate my own list of keywords I think people already use to find my site and put those into an online keywords tool which in return gives me additional words to include in my posts to generate more views. My list of five words or phrases was: "personal blog", "free blogging", "blog", "class blog" and "student blog". (For this assignment I was supposed to connect each of the words on my list with its highest searched keyword match, but seeing as multiple searches yielded the same results I chose to eliminate the words I already chose and select the next highest option.) When searching "personal blog" the top return search was "free blog" with 1,220,000/mo, "free blogging" returned the search "blogs" with 30,400,000/mo, searching "blog" returned the keyword "blog site" with 1,830,000/mo, "class blog" returned the search "blog class" with 60,500/mo, and "student blog" returned the search "blog for teachers" with 40,500/mo. After using the keyword tool, writers can then use their results in their free blogging to create more searchable posts by simply including words with higher search values. For example, the sentence " Use our blog site to create one of the best blogs you have ever seen" will yield higher results than the sentence "Start your own free blog at our blog class today". By writing a post with the words "blogs" and "blog site" (with a combined search rate of 33,450,000/mo) the writer is able to yield higher results than a post using the words "blog class" and "free blog" (with a combined search rate of 1,280,500/mo). I hope this assignment taught you a little bit about keywords and their role in SEO. If you are interested in doing this for your own personal blog you can find the tool I used here. Did you notice the random black words throughout my assignment? Don't worry those are simply the keywords I slipped right into my post without you knowing. If I can do it, you can too! For my CAP 105 class we had edit an image with Photoshop. We were asked to add or remove an element and add a filter. This assignment was way easier than I thought! With only a couple of attempts I was able to successfully remove the tongue of the Giraffe with the spot healing brush tool and add the crosshatch filter. This assignment has made me want to use photoshop more in my other advertising classes (and go back to the Binder Park Zoo where I pet the Giraffe in this picture)! If you are interested in purchasing Adobe Photoshop you can do so here.
In today's overwhelmingly digital society it is important to create a central hub to tie everything together, also called a nameplate site. For my nameplate, I decided to dabble with about.me. While I was extremely confused at first I seemed to get the hang of the site rather quickly and have grown to like the page I created. I had a couple issues making this site, one of which being my lack of professional photos. I searched and searched through just about every picture I have ever been a part of and non of them are even remotely professional! I decided to stick with a simple headshot from last year, the one which looked the least like a "selfie", and made a mental note to get some real photos taken. (A big, bold, highlighted mental note) Another issue I had was writing my bio. Who knew it could be so hard to write about yourself? What I found most difficult about this was writing something that was professional, yet interesting for a student with almost no experience in anything. I imagine this process was easier for older students who had internships and other job experiences, but as a Freshman with only two real prior jobs it was far from easy! In addition to lacking prior experience, I haven't decided what I want to do with the rest of my life yet. I couldn't bring myself to characterize my future desires because I am at a point where my possibilities are endless. If you would like to check out my finished nameplate you can view it here.
My newest CAP 105 assignment requires me to look up several jobs that I would like to apply for in the future and include basic information on them. This includes the suggested and required technology proficiencies for the position. The jobs I have chosen can be found below: Marketing Communications Specialist at Shape CorpFor this job you must have experience with Adobe Creative Suite (particularly InDesign and Photoshop) as well as Microsoft Office. In addition you must also have experience in social media and video production. This job can be found here:http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Shape-Corp/jobs/Marketing-Communication-Specialist-9fd7cbb19cf82d0f Print & New Media Advertising Account Executive at ValpakFor this Job you must know how to use the Microsoft Suite of products. While Microsoft is the only listed technology requirement for this job you must also be able to make numerous email and phone communications and thus must possess proper phone and email etiquette. The original job posting can be viewed here: http://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Careers.aspx? k=Job&c=qDc9VfwD&j=o6OzZfwc&s=Indeed Advertising Sales Specialist at Cumulus MediaThis position does not specifically list any technology skills that are required for the job, however it does state "Strong understanding of lead generation and ability to connect with viable prospects". That statement leads me to believe the person who is in this position must be familiar with the newest softwares and the newest ways of communication including social media. In addition, since this position is within a radio station, they must have strong communication skills as well as basic radio knowledge and understand the functions advertising and communication via radio. This job posting can be found here: http://cumulus.hrmdirect.com/employment/view.php?req=227662&jbsrc=1014 Marketing Director at MeijerThis position does not list specific technology requirements either, but several can be inferred from the job posting. One listed qualification is an "Understanding and experience in delivering technology as a business solution". This qualification suggests extreme familiarity with technology related to advertising such as Final Cut and Adobe Photoshop and also general technology such as machinery. In addition the posting states "Ability to manage financial/budgets" which in this day and age lends itself to a proficiency in some kind of spreadsheet system such as Microsoft Excel. The original job posting can be found here: http://jobs.meijer.com/us/united-states/marketing/jobid5848516-marketing-director-business-team-full-time?apstr=src%3DJB-10002?ss=paid Digital Advertising/Media Consultant at Outside SalesThis position is perfect for anyone interested in technology! It is required that you have proficiency in Power Point, Excel, and Outlook, along with familiarity with Microsoft OneNote. Additionally you must be able to work in an online virtual environment and use iPads in daily work. You must also have a strong understanding of SEM, SEO, Online Display and Social Marketing. This job can be found here: https://jobs-hibusales.icims.com/jobs/1788/digital-advertising-media-consultant---outside-sales/job?mode=job&iis=Indeed&iisn=Indeed.com&mobile=false&width=655&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false Digital Marketing Coordinator at Create and CraftThis position deals a lot with Email marketing and thus familiarity with email platforms is necessary. Additionally you must be able to monitor the companies Social Media platforms and provide analysis on the effectiveness of current marketing programs.
The original job posting can be found here: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Create-and-Craft/jobs/Digital-Marketing-Coordinator-6c3d4dfa32aed700 |
AuthorAs a first year college student you can say my life is a little insane. My daily week consists of work, sorority events, club meetings and a whole bunch of college classes. Sometimes I get a little stressed but I wouldnt trade this life for anything! Archives
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Blogging for CAP 105
This section of my blog will be school orientated and based around my current class: Technology in Advertising and Public Relations.