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.