Final Mash-Up

Iowa Wesleyan Women’s Basketball PR Mashup

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Playstation Move

So, the great world of technology has blessed us with things like the iPad and the Move. But why is it that they cannot keep my phone battery from letting me down? Aside from my technological frustrations at the moment, I have to say that the Playstation Move looks like it could be pretty cool. However, I have to wonder as a Wii user, if it will have the ability to overtake it. The Wii has had a firm hold on this aspect of the gaming market for such a long time. I think that the Move has a tough road for a vie in the gaming market but since we are such a curious people it will grab the attention and maybe even the hands of true Wii devotees.

VNR

Microblogs

Yesterday IWC Women's bball win in PINK for Coaches for Cancer! Next game Wednesday against rivals St. Ambrose (there).

Iowa Wesleyan basketball action tonight at St. Ambrose.

Iowa Wesleyan WBB climbs to 11-1 in conference play with win over St. Ambrose tonight.

Iowa Wesleyan BB teams raise over $400 for Coaches for Cancer

Iowa Wesleyan WBB defeats Mt. Mercy and move to 12-1 in the conference. Win on Wednesday guarantees share of conference championship!

Iowa Wesleyan WBB pull off thriller last night and overcome 14 pt deficit to defeat league #2 seed Grandview.

Congrats to Iowa Wesleyan WBB player, Sherry Zehner. Recently named to NAIA All-Academic List! Last home game Saturday...be there!

For the 2nd yr in a row, Iowa Wesleyan WBB defeats St. Ambrose in round 2 of the conference tourney, championship Mon. at home! (7pm)

Iowa Wesleyan WBB wins conference championship and ties school record for most wins in a season (25). Way to go ladies!

Iowa Wesleyan WBB's first round Naitonal Tournament game is tom. @ 10:15...SID Adam G will provide live play by play action!

Iowa Wesleyan WBB defeats Walsh U in first round...round two action against Jamestown @ 10:15 Friday!

The Iowa Wesleyan WBB team has made it to the Elite 8 for the first time in school history. Next game @ 3 on Saturday vs. Northwestern.

Iowa Wesleyan WBB's Conf. MVP J. Beachey to throw 1st pitch @ 4pm for the first home baseball game. Catchin' for her...Coach Williamson!

Iowa Wesleyan WBB's post Jessi Beachey named an NAIA All-American this week! Congrats!

The First Pitch

Junior Jessi Beachey threw out the first pitch at an Iowa Wesleyan baseball game to her Head Coach Steve Williamson. Beachey was honored for her stellar season and also for being named as a First Team All American in the NAIA Division II. Williamson was honored for being named the Coach of the Conference for the third time in his five years at IWC.

Photo Channel - "A Tradition of Excellence"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwilson10/sets/72157623682118893/

Press Release

March 11, 2010

Tigers reach NAIA Elite 8 making school history

(Sioux City, Iowa.) Iowa Wesleyan's Women's Basketball team advanced to the NAIA Division II Elite 8 Friday with a 72-60 win over Jamestown (N.D.) College at the Tyson Events Center.

The first half was a back and fourth struggle offensively between both teams. The half ended with IWC up by one point with a score of 31-30. However, Jamestown came out strong and by the 17:42 mark of the second half they were up 37-33.

That was the last time the Jimmies would have the lead. Over the next nine minutes, IWC led by Jessi Beachey (Jr-Fisher, Ill.) and her 19 point offensive onslaught would take over control of the game.

With 4:20 left, the Jimmies had pulled it to within two at 57-55. But a three point answer from IWC's Jill Ginder (Jr-Olney, Ill.) and a subsequent field goal from Beachey gave the Tigers the edge they needed. Jamestown never got closer than five points the rest of the game.

Beachey's teammate, Melanie McCreight (Jr-Winfield, Iowa), also ended up with 19 points in the effort. McCreight went 3 of 5 from behind the arc and helped IWC stay in the game with 10 first half points. IWC's leader and point guard, Anna Jones (So-Cornell, Ill.), added 14 of her own and led the team with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Ginder finished with 11.

The Tigers Elite 8 round game will be played on Saturday at 3 p.m. and they will face the #1 seed, Northwestern (Iowa).

For more information regarding the IWC basketball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site @ www.iwc.edu/athletics.

-30-

Twitter Locations

So, I noticed a couple weeks ago that now when you post a tweet beneath it, it will add your geographic location. What will be next? Will you be able to add that you are at the Hy-Vee, Aisle 7, in Cedar Rapids, IA? Or maybe, from my home bath tub? Is all this really necessary?

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an extremely important tool for attracting traffic to your organization's site. For my client, Iowa Wesleyan, there are some things I would do to improve their SEO. I would try to find inbound links for organizations in the Mt. Pleasant and Burlington area that offer their support to IWC. In doing so, this will help increase their number of internal and external links and in turn increase their site's visibility on the web. An area that I think some aspects of the school's website struggles in, is in how they use keywords and tags. For the articles and updates they post on the various social media programs they use, they do not always have the catchiest headlines. And on their Facebook page, some of the tags in their photos are not always the most flattering for their students. In addressing these issues, IWC can better the attention they recieve from prospective students, their parents, or alumni. Lastly, an area I would look into is the use of key words in the web addresses for their social media programs.

March Madness

Gotta love the underdog and a little home-state love!

Orgs on YouTube

This is the official movie trailer of Death at a Funeral. It was posted by the production company, Sony pictures. Hopefully they didn't use all the funny parts in the trailer.

Iowa Wesleyan can Benefit from Using YouTube

Many organizations have found ways to benefit from using YouTube. There are a couple of ways that Iowa Wesleyan can do the same. First, they can target all students by creating a video tour of the entire campus. They can showcase student living areas, the cafeteria, the Howe, the library, and the other various buildings on the campus. To gain more credit with potential student-athletes, they can showcase games from the various sports teams that they have. For example, good choices just from this year would be, any of the women's basketball games from the conference championships or the national tournament. For softball, they could use some of the winning games from their spring break trip in Arizona. I mean who would not want to go to Arizona for their spring break, if they could not go out with their friends. For the prospective student interested in performing arts, they could showcase choir events and other types of recitals. If a student would like to be an art major, they could shoot video of some art students talking about what they like about the program. And, the school could compile interviews from all different kinds of students answering a variety of questions. Clearly, there are a number of ways that Iowa Wesleyan could utilize YouTube for self-promotion.

Commercials on YouTube

Audiences like ads that appeal to one's sense of humor. Both commercials do that and, in doing so, make you recall the ad throughout your day. This is a good way to gain consumers by word of mouth. A co-worker goes to another, "Hey, have you seen that new dockers commercial?" Then, they just log onto YouTube and there it is.

Disney's Imagineering Department

Disney's Imagineering Department has hundreds of great photos to look at on Flickr. These are just a few of what they had to offer. They had a multitude of photos taken during the day and night. I just happened to find the nighttime photos to be more visually appealing.

Alameda Theatre

These photos are apart of the Alameda Theatre Company's group pictures on Flickr. I just selected some of the pictures that I thought would be great for the company to use in their promotions.

The Lighting and Shawdow Company

These are some of the first pictures from the Lighting and Shawdow Company I saw. I found tons of photos in this group that I really enjoyed.









I like how this picture captures not only the rainbow but the simplicity of a beautiful day.





















This next series of photos capture an ant enjoying its time on some beautiful flowers.




























Fireworks are one of my favorite things. These are just amazing pictures and seem to be taken from just the right spot.

Using Flickr for Promoting

After reading about Flickr's uses for promoting on Community Organizer 2.0 and Tech Soup, I think there are a number of ways that Iowa Wesleyan can use Flickr to promote itself. I think CO 2.0 really hit the nail on the head when they said that "Flickr combines the power of visual storytelling with the very nature of a social network – engagement and conversation." One way that Iowa Wesleyan can use Flickr is to hook more international students. They can take pictures showing how diverse our campus enrollment is and hopefully that will make more foreign students feel like they could fit in here and not feel like they were that far away from home. Flickr could also be a great tool for exhibiting a sense of community support and school spirit. A good example of this would be photos of the women's basketball team's playoff games. The fan turnout was amazing and athletes want to know that they will be playing for a school that will go all out in supporting them. Pictures of all the storefronts could also be used to demonstrate how the community stepped up to show that they cared about the sports team's accomplishments, as well. Lastly, a third way to use Flickr would be to literally show the campus. For students who would not be able to visit for one reason or another, could get a view of the campus via photos. A photo book displaying the dorms, gym, and campus buildings could help a prospective student capture what the school has to offer without actually visiting it.

Iowa Wesleyan WBB

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with social media or PR for that matter but I just feel the need to rant about how amazing the Women's Basketball Team is doing this season. They have come into the tournament hearing rumors of being the most overrated team here. Boy, have they proved the critics wrong. After making it to the Elite 8 they have accomplished two firsts that no team in Wesleyan women's history have done. This is the farthest a team has made it into the tourney from our school and they post the best record ever at 27-7. They take on an incredible Northwestern team today but I know they will definitely put up a good fight. Good luck girls and fight hard to keep rollin'!

MSN

As a faithful MSN user, I was pleased to see the new design of MSN's homepage. It seems to flow much better than previous pages and is very appealing to the user's eye. Even without customizing the page, you can find information on anything you would like. Plus, it is always up-to-date. My personal favorite feature is the twitter trend watch. Another great tool is that it lets you stay connected to your twitter and facebook pages. I have noticed that this is becoming extremely popular with services like MSN and Yahoo!. I haven't really heard any complaints about the new layout and I know that MSN will not be hearing any from me.

5Across: Smartphone Etiquette, and Our Lack of Civility

Today I read an article on MediaShift that discussed the etiquette of using a smartphone. Basically, the article talks about how people text while walking, check game scores while out on dates, and use their phones as a navigational tool when asking a nearby person would suffice. I think an even deeper question is what has the smartphone done to our nation when it comes to personal contact. Communication can know be done without a sense of emotion being displayed. I think that is an extremely significant disadvantage for all people who use phones. My question to you is..."Are smartphones the death of personality and emotional conveyance?" Sure, I understand that you can still call up a friend or chat with one on a walk. But so many people now rely on their phones, that the inevitable fact remains...smartphones are taking over and people have no sense about when and when not to use them.

Ethics Tip Sheet

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=158630

The ethics case I decided to read about discussed how one should react if Obama lifted the ban on showing flag draped caskets of fallen soldiers. Al Thompkins, the writer of this article, wants to know the answer to a lot of questions on how this would raise certain issues for journalists. The basis of the problem for journalists would be trying to figure out buffers to the public and their use of these photos if they are allowed to do so. Thompkins interviewed several people associated with Poynter Online and they believed that this is a timeless question. The President of Poynter says that this very same issue still exists when showing pictures from our nation's past wars. When this very question was posed as a survey among Americans in the last 20 years, a significant majority had no problem with lifting the ban. Even a mother of a soldier killed in September of 2009 said she would have loved to see the ceremonial treatment of her son's casket upon its return to American soil. She went on to say that she was very much in favor of full media coverage of a soldier's return ceremony. However, Kelly McBride, Poynter's Ethics Group Leader, says that repeatedly showing these photos will have a cumulative effect that journalists will have to heavily consider. She goes on to say that the public judges journalists on their individual decisions and news judgment. They also have to take into consideration how the presentation of these photos will heighten the emotions of the public, positively or negatively. By providing a deeper story behind the photos, though, the public may be more accepting of the lifting of the ban.
Personally, I do not see a problem with lifting the ban. However, the public distribution of these photos must be done tastefully and respectfully. I think it would be an extremely significant movement towards making those not directly impacted by the war, a little more conscious of it. It is so easy for those who do not have family serving to look past it or forget about it from time to time. That is the biggest problem about being engaged in such a long and devastating conflict. The public must remain aware of the situation we are in and that there are people out there losing their lives daily so that we may go on to live ours. The only stipulation I would have is that the family of the fallen soldier is given the right as to whether or not their loved one's coffin is displayed publicly.

Copyrights

Although copyrights have been a form of protection for artists for many years, it is all too easy for those who break those laws to go unpunished. As a college student, I see copyright laws broken on a daily basis. Even more now that the economy is not exactly the best its been in recent history. No one wants to spend the extra little money they have on compact discs when they can just get the audio material from a source like Limewire or Frostwire. These programs are free and allow the user to download anything from audio to video. Students all over the nation, and this campus as well, use these services instead of purchasing the artist's work. That breaks the copyright law but no one ever really gets punished for it. It would take an extremely large amount of law enforcement personnel to even begin to crack a dent in something like this. And, even so, what would happen to crime and drug fighting. So, it seems that breaking copyright laws in that instance, will only continue to occur. Another situtation I have witnessed during my lifetime is when someone records a sporting event. It clearly does not matter that at some point in the broadcast, the organization makes sure to point out that it is against the law to reproduce or record the event without the expressed written consent of the organization. I have seen this "crime" be committed many times and I have never seen anyone get into any trouble for it. It seems that there are a lot of ways to break copyright laws. People throughout the world have figured out how to do so without dealing with the repercussions. And, due to the high levels of crime and drug use in this nation, I do not see law enforcement cracking down on it any time soon.

Case Study

Lululemon Athletica

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Media Survey

After asking 25 people to take the class-given survey, I must say that I was not very surprised by the results. A lot of those questioned read print newspapers, such as, Iowa Wesleyan's, Mt. Pleasant News, Burlington-Hawkeye, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and the St. Louis Dispatch. The heavy majority reading newspapers in print that are relatively local. In regards to how often, it was across the board ranging from 1 day ago to over a month ago. For online readers, 1 day ago was the heavy favorite in the poll. For a few, the question simply did not apply. Print magazines read by those who took part in the survey were Cosmopolitan, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, People, US Weekly, and other tabloids. People really enjoy their scandalous gossip around here. The winner in for that question was reading one with in the last week at 60%. However, for 60% of those readers, they did not read magazines online. The AM radio question did not really surprise me at all. A high majority did not listen to AM radio via an antenna. And those listening to online radio was split almost equally between that day and over a month ago. The stations that people did listen to were NPR and SportsTalk Radio. The people who answered my questions listened to a variety of stations ranging from pop to country to hip hop. Again 60% had listened to FM radio within the past day, with in the last week coming in a hard second. Over 60% had listened to an Ipod or portable music device during that day. Favorite TV stations included, MTV, BET, VH1, FX, TNT, TBS, and many others. For all but two people, they had not watched TV with an antenna in over a month. And finally for those who had recently watched a video on the Internet, all answers were either that day or in the last week. Of all the questions asked in the poll, the only result that really surprised me was the first one that dealt with print newspapers. I thought for sure that a lot of people would answer in the over a month category. Surprisingly enough to me, the answers were spread throughout the past day, the last week, the last month, and the last month plus. The other answers that sort of surprised me was about the portable music devices. I thought that at least 20 if not all of the people would say within the last week. However, there were a few that said that they had not used one within the last month, let alone in over a month.

Blog Analysis

The title of the blog I picked is Amazon Web Services Blog. The URL for the blog is http://aws.typepad.com/. The blog is written by an individual named Jeff Barr. He has been deemed a "Web Services Evangelist at Amazon." He is definitely pro-Amazon when it comes to using the services and products it has to offer. The blog is written professionally but Barr writes in a way that allows the reader to fully understand the content that he discusses. Barr employs a formal writing style when it comes to using proper grammar but it reads with a touch of informality because it is understandable to anyone. The AWS blog is extremely topic-based. It talks about the web services that Amazon provides and how to use them successfully in one's business. Barr's content is informative because it tells the reader about the services, educational because it shows the reader how to use them (see blog from Feb. 3 for example), and persuasive because Barr solely talks about the benefits of Amazon's services. The blog tends to be updated every 3-5 days. Barr posts new content but takes advantage of links, as well. The blog has been in existence since March 2005. After searching the archives, a reader is able to see how these services came to be in existence and how they have progressed as technology has over time. The links that Barr includes in his website take a reader to the AWS website and how-to demonstrations of particular services. Glancing over the blog roll shows a number of technologically savvy indidviduals and groups that either are looking to employ the use of these services or already do use them in their daily business. The majority of the sites that link with this blog are other blogs that discuss the benefits and downfalls of these types of services. Barr's blog does use trackbacks to see who else is referring to or linking to his blog. The blog does enable two-way communication by allowing readers to post comments to Barr's entries. There are not a large number of comments but this may be because the comments are moderated and have to be approved by Barr before they appear on the blog. Comments seem to come from a number of different blog followers. Generally, the people who follow Barr's blog are technologically savvy people who can benefit from purchasing and incorporating these services into their businesses. On the other hand, a lot of the readers seem to be avid supporters of AWS. I think that the visual design supports the blog because it is simplistic and basic. The site is very easy to navigate. Down the sides of the blog are a number of links to Barr's posts by specific dates or topics. My overall impression of the blog is that although it is put together well, it seems rather simplistic for the technologically advanced topics that it talks about. On a personal level, I would rank the blog as a 3. For those in the business world and that could really use these services, I would give the site a 5. I do not really need to use these services seeing as how I am still a college student. But for those small and large companies that want to compete in certain industries, these services and the knowledge on how to use them properly, is extremely important.

PRSA

After reading about the PRSA, I have come to realize that Public Relations has ties to every aspect of the sport industry. Which is a fact that is very important to me, because someday I would like to be working in the professional sports industry. Under the "Public Relations Defined" sub-section, it discussed how important it is to be able to deal with the attitudes of the public. This is very crucial to operating a professional sports team for many reasons. One part, in particular, is the development of the sports team facilities and it's relationship with the community. Many sport organizations make efforts to appeal to various interests that would drum up more financial gain. Examples would be, breast cancer awareness games, girl and boy scouts day, and offer support to a variety of local and national charities. For any group or organization to be successful with the public, I think it is a necessity to address advocacy, ethics, and diversity. PRSA clearly states where they lie in all three of these categories and I agree with their position. Advocacy is important because staying current on issues that impact your clients or targeted audience is fundamental to being competitive in whatever industry you are employed in. Ethics are a rocky topic in society due to the recent actions of many top officials and authorities. By drawing a publicly known line, PRSA is basically saying that they will not deal with any member's bull. Rules and standards to operate by are extremely beneficial because it allows your employees or members to know what they can do within the context of their job descriptions. Lastly, diversity is something you run into every day in this country. I like how they come right out and say reaching a high level of diversity is no longer a goal for them but basically a strategic way of operating and reaching the levels of success they strive to obtain. Public Relations is not my area of study, nor really something I strive to be employed in, but I can clearly understand why it is such a necessary tool for doing business in society today.

"Show me your friends and I will tell you what type of person you are: How one's profile, number of friends, and type of friends influence impress"

In this article, Dr. Sonja Utz examines how one's profile presentation, their number of friends, and types of friends influence their attractiveness. Utz says that since there are social networks that allow a person to express themselves, one can now push past anonymity on the Internet. For example, SNS is a social system that allows people to connect and make friends. One such popular social network is Facebook. People can request a Friend to add them. But Friend is not always used in the traditional sense. One can request a friend acceptance from celebrities and music groups. Utz believes that SNS is important for one's perception by others. Because we can identify ourselves through our profiles, it is extremely hard to be fake or lie on these sites. That is in large part thanks to the addition of Friends. The Brunswick lens model was developed based on this, in that, one's profile can be used to portray their personality. The number and types of friends we add to our sites are called cues and also contribute to our online persona. Basically, Utz's article discusses how a number of studies have come to the conclusion that based on the people you make your Friends on SNS sites, people can come to see what kind of person you really are. These sites have broken down the barriers of the Internet that existed when it first began, anonymity and false perceptions.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123248036/HTMLSTART

iGoogle Webpage

Old Media vs. New Media

When addressing the concepts of old media versus new, there are a number of similarities and differences between the two. Old media consists of your typical print information sources, such as newspapers, journals, and magazines. It used to be the best way of informing the public regarding anything from politics and current events to food and travel. This much is the same for new media content, as well. However, new media, courtesy of the Internet, has made it much easier to obtain this information. Access is quicker and larger amounts of information is more readily available. The big difference was the creation of the Internet and it has taken media to a whole new plateau. With old media, if someone wanted to respond to the topic at hand or discredit it, they would have to send their rebuttal via print also. Now someone can comment to a blog post or article in a matter of seconds. One of the articles I read on ojr.com stated that new media is a digital revolution that has changed everything. This is most certainly true. New media has devastated some print businesses but has also given others the incentive to take their newspapers and magazines to the Internet. As another article noted, "all the staples of the old newspaper format are proliferating online." New media is an upgrade of the old way of sharing information and is continuing to prove beneficial to society.

Information Overload

There is nothing far-fetched about what Mark Nelson has to say about information overload and its hold over our society. The Internet is an ever-expanding realm that has become more of a catalyst for frustration than anything else. Was not the point of the Internet to make gaining access to needed information quicker and easier? It seems that this novel idea has become just that, novel. Eliminating unnecessary results only distracts the reader from reaching their ultimate goal. The only problem is that with the amount of new information added to the Internet on a daily basis, there seems to be no viable solution for the problem at hand.