THE FLOOR IS LAVA (OR WATER)

Remember that time when you were a kid and you would pretend the floor was lava? You would put pillows on the ground in your living room and if you hit the lava, you lost the game. Well, snapchat has made the childhood game a reality.

Snapchat is growing from face filters and lenses to identifying the ground floor and turning into shimmering, molten and wet effects. Snap's reality lenses have been able to recognize landmarks, transform faces and bodies and play games. But now Snapchat has developed new ways to increase usage and make landscapes look interesting.

So far, Snapchat has created two effects: making the floor lava and making the floor flooded. The effects transform the ground into the different scenes you wish to use and it stretches out pretty far. When you move the lenses, the effect goes with the lenses and redraws to new areas.

This new filter is known as ground segmentation lenses and Snapchat plans to keep building new effects and filters. All the social media platforms are teaming up to create a huge library of community and influencer filters. Snap describes this ground segmentation as "a natural evolution and next step for us in understanding what the camera can see and helping our community learn more about the world around them."

The two latest additions to Snapchat's will keep you as entertained as your previous eight-year-old self during a game of the floor is lava. But now you don't need to use your imagination, Snapchat will do it for you!

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN WORKING IN SOCIAL MEDIA

In Chapter 4 of "Social Media for Strategic Communication," I read about different social media qualifications and roles. The author explains the importance of knowing which companies to work for and accessing future employers work.

The number one thing companies will look for in a potential candidate is experience. They want to know how many internships, projects, work experience and clients you have had before applying for a job. Business and organizations, especially in the social media industry, expect a candidate to have a portfolio to showcase work.

It is important to note employers will be looking at your work, without a doubt. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to look at their experience to figure out their characteristics. Those characteristics include:

1. Portfolio of work.
You want to research what the organization or employer has already achieved. Conferences are something to look out for and see if these employees are attending and sharing knowledge at those events.

2. Colleagues and what they have done. 
Because social media is an up and growing industry, some employers may have fallen into the role and not specialized in it originally. Unlike ONU, some colleges don't offer a social media program so you need to look out for what the employers have done in the past and continue on doing in the field.

3. Culture. 
This is the most important aspect to consider when figuring out where to work. You want to be in an environment to do your best work and gain opportunity to grow, learn and contribute with clients and co-workers. Networking and mentorship in an organization can go a long way.

4. Organizational structure for social media.
As I mentioned, social media is up-and-growing industry so when it comes to social media roles, you might be reporting to marketing officers. You have to be able to understand the structure of the organization to know how to communicate, write and research content.

“Continue to grow and develop. Learning does not stop when you get your social media job: It is the beginning of a lifetime of constant knowledge creation and learning.”

ENNEAGRAM - TYPE ONE

I love taking personality tests but there is one test in particular I am obsessed with: The Enneagram test! The Enneagram test accesses you as one of nine types. Each type has a name with a set of traits, strengths, weaknesses and advice in specific areas of your life. This assessment is the most accurate personality test I have ever taken. If you wish to know which type you are click here to take the test.

You will be given a set of questions to answer "yes, no, partly." Based on the answer to these questions, you will be given a type and a number. I am 100% a type one. I am known as being the perfectionist or the reformer.

Type one people are hard-working, detail oriented, organized, internal motivated and responsible. Ones look to make things better because they always think something is not good enough. They are also looking for ways to reform and improve. 

Strengths: 

• Idealistic and optimistic 
• Deeply motivated by personal values 
• Defending what is right 
• Ability to connect and care for others 

Weaknesses: 

• Tendency to be perfect 
• Being WAY too hard on themselves 
• Becoming obsessive or self-righteous 
• Difficulty accepting change 

Loves: 

• To do list
• Making plans ahead 
• Supporting a good cause 

I would recommend everyone taking the Enneagram test and finding out their type. I love to follow Instagram accounts and see how relatable it is to my personality and life. I am, without a doubt, type one and I'm able to get insight from this test. 

CANVA, CANVA, CANVA

After reading Chapter 3 of "Social Media for Strategic Communications," I learned about visual content creation. Karen Freberg says textual and visual content is key and necessary to any social media roles.

When it comes to creating content, you want your social media to have a specific theme, voice and message to your audience that speaks to who you are and what you stand for as a personal brand for your community. There are specific tools she mentioned to use and one is called Canva. 

Canva is a graphic design platform used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. This tool holds millions of images, fonts and templates to help promote your personal or professional brand. 

I love Canva and would recommend anyone using this device to help promote their business. In college, I have taken on a lot of roles acting as the Social Media Manager in organizations and clubs. It's a lot of drag and drop and easy to use. I was creating professional and organized Instagram for various clubs on campus and then realized I can make cute Instagram post for my friends and personal accounts.

Canva offers different templates you can choose from like flyers, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, logos and infographics. You can also create brochures, resumes and business cards. My favorite thing about Canva is the fact of how user-friendly it is.The creative process is extremely simple and you don't need any previous experience to make the artwork with the program. 

"Canva is a great visual tool with affordable templates and social media-size configurations for you to use, personalize and share for branding online." 

NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

This weekend, the NBA All-Star was trending on Twitter due to one aspect of competition, the dunk contest. There is a lot of controversy over the winner and the judges reportedly planned for the final round to end in a tie but one judge went off script.

There were many NBA stars who competed in this contest, however two all-stars stood out, Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic) and Derrick Jones Jr. (Miami Heat). Gordon and Jones scored a perfect 50 on their first round of dunks, which forced the contest to go longer than expected.

The judges "planned" on giving a tie to both stars but one of the judges went away from the plan. Because of this, Twitter blew up and even LeBron James tweeted about the contest.

A lot of people believed Aaron Gordon should have won the contest because he dunked over a 7-foot-5 rookie in the league but Derrick Jones Jr. pulled out the win by one point. Gordon seemed very upset after the contest in the interview and brought up the fact how he lost in 2016, which he believed he should have won. There are a lot of memes and tweets about Gordon getting robbed in the 2020 dunk contest. 

On a positive note, articles are saying this contest is the best top-to-bottom display of dunking in the history of the competition. And social media never fails to show highlights and information about the all-star weekend. Take a look at this tweet and tell me who you think should have won the contest!

GALENTINE'S DAY

If you have ever watched the show Parks and Rec, you might know about the holiday of Galentine's Day. Galentine's Day is the day before Valentine's Day and it is all about celebrating the friendships you have.

So basically Galentine's Day is amazing because who wouldn't want a day to just show all the love to your gals. I love the idea of this day because it's an excuse to have a girl's night, get all dressed up (or stay in) and make all the memories with some of your favorite people. 

Galentine's Day offers a welcoming and chill vibe rather than a serious and romantic vibe for Valentine's Day. It's a party where "ladies are celebrating ladies." 

This day is celebrated on February 13th and I spent the day and weekend celebrating a HUGE basketball win with some of my favorite girls. On the actual day, we had basketball practice and we prepared for a tough league match up against John Carroll. 

After all the preparation, we traveled to Cleveland to take on the streaks and we won by one point! This game was so fun and we loved beating JCU. But even better, we won with our favorite girls. We got back on the bus to go home to Ada and had a girl's night filled with singing and dancing. We took a lot of pictures and had a lot of laughs. It was a great night. GO BEARS! 

If you ask me, this was one of the best ways to spend my Galentine's Day, playing basketball and celebrating with some of my best friends!

THE BUCKET LIST FAMILY

In chapter 2 of the textbook "Social Media for Strategic Communication," the author writes about ethics and policies with the different social media platforms. In one section, Karen Freberg highlights the use of endorsements through social media. With endorsements comes bloggers and influencers, which makes me think of my favorite social media influencer: THE BUCKET LIST FAMILY. 

The bucket list family is a family of five, who travel the world for content. They are known for their 2.4 million Instagram followers, 955K subscribers on YouTube and their vlogs posted about with every adventure.

This family sold everything they owned and traded in everything for a lifestyle of travel. They planned on being gone for six months but it turned into a never-ending travel around the world. They are very successful social media travel influencers and promote themselves on Instagram and Youtube. Click here to watch more about their story.

The bucket list family partners up with a bunch of different companies to promote a brand, company or their own business. For Christmas, the family conducted a 12 day of giveaways to people who follow a business, comment and share certain posts.

I love the bucket list family because their children are adorable, their life seems incredible and their social media content is amazing. When I start watching a video, I can't stop stalking their social medias and I want to be able to travel like them. 

The content they post is high quality but also very personal. It is a perfect example of a travel influencers as well as a family-friendly account to follow. 

5 *Random* FACTS ABOUT ME

As you know, I am really weird, loud and random. So this blog is going to be random facts about me and my life.

1. I graduated from the same school as Jeffrey Dahmer. 
 Jeffrey Dahmer is known as the Milwaukee Cannibal. He committed the murder of 17 boys and girls and he graduated from Revere High School. Where he grew up, my house is probably six minutes from there. We drove the same streets and walked the same halls.

2. Fishing is fun!
I love to fish. We have a boat on Lake Erie and love to catch perch and walleye and then cook it to eat. I love to be on the water with friends and family and get a nice tan. This fact surprises a lot of people because you have to be patient and quiet when fishing but I am not patience and quiet at all.

3. I played basketball once with LeBron James.
I was in the fifth grade and went to the Cavs preseason scrimmage. I was a major tom boy and came all dressed in basketball shoes, Cavs shorts and a jersey. And I got picked to play a game of horse with one of the players. I went down to the court after the game and my
partner was LeBron James.

4. I have watch the show "One Tree Hill" 12 times.
Netflix stole my heart when they put One Tree Hill online. I was initially intrigued with this show because it is about basketball but I quickly fell in love with all the characters. I have watched it so many times I can tell you what season and episode if you describe it to me.

5. I am obsessed, OBSESSED, with the color light blue. 
Everything of my is light blue. My computer case, my computer laptop case, my prom dress, my phone case, my wallet, my water bottle and pretty much everything else. I am not sure why I love it so much but if you showed me anything light blue, I would love it.

I hope you enjoyed learning more about me and my weirdness. I know I'm random but I wouldn't have it any other way.

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGAND, PART TWO

If you read my blog last week about the most popular food brand mascot, Mr. Peanut, you know my thoughts about the whole Public Relations and Marketing strategy of this campaign. IT WAS GENIUS!

In my last blog about Mr. Peanut, I mentioned there was going to be a two part
commercial and I loved the result. It was something I didn't expect and I believe the audience was happy about the ending.

The company called this ad "The Tribute" to Mr. Peanut. Many people wondered if Mr. Peanut actually died? They asked who is going to replace one of the most popular food brand mascots in history?

So, what happened?

The commercial took place with Wesley Snipes giving the eulogy to Mr. Peanut. Some important characters are in attendance, including Mr. Clean and Kool-Aid man. As the funeral was happening, Kool-Aid man shed a tear, which caused a plant to sprout and a baby Mr. Peanut was born.

Click here to watch the commercial.

So, Mr. Peanut died and came back to life as a baby. Once again, Twitter blew up about the Mr. Peanut campaign, which helped Planters with this public relations and marketing strategy. The twitter account for Mr. Peanut is now called Baby Nut instead of The Estate of Mr. Peanut. 

The two episode commercial of Mr. Peanut is a great example of a company using social media to promote its brand. You can see the use of social media and how it impacts everyday lives. I'm looking forward to Baby Nut being the new and cute face of Planters.

2 KEYS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TO BE SUCCESSFUL

The next textbook we are reading in my social media principles class is called "Social Media for Strategic Communication." The author, Karen Freberg, gives insight about creating a strategic mindset for social media activities, tools, audiences, conversations and relationships. 

In Chapter 1, Freberg mentions the use of two areas in order for the social media platform to be successful: creativity and storytelling. 

CREATIVITY

Creativity in a post is getting more important because of the increase use of social media in businesses and organizations. Creativity creates buzz, excitement and conversations with the audience. You have to find a way to execute your creativity. For example, we created a hype video for this basketball season. It got us really excited for the season and a lot of parents and friends commented on the post. 

"The ultimate goal is not just to have one organization or brand tell a story but also to create a spark for others to be motivated to participate and share these conversations and stories with others."  

STORETELLING

Going along with creativity, there has to be story behind the post so the audience can relate with the organization. The post should be able to tap into the emotions so a memory can pop into their mind and have it relate to the post. Remember, the best person to share your story is yourself. So make it your vision, personality and persona.  

"All successful social media brands, companies and professionals spend a lot of time and energy sharing their stories in a creative and unique way." 

Make sure when you post about your brand, product or company, you use creativity and a story to relate to the audience. If you focus on these two aspects within your social media, you will find yourself being successful and happy with the results. 

8 & 24 FOREVER

"Heroes come and go but legends are forever."

The texts are starting coming Sunday afternoon when the world found NBA legend has been killed in a helicopter crash at 41 years old. Many people went to social media to pay tribute to Kobe, his daughter and seven others who died in the crash.

I was going on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and literally any other social media platform and found the same news. I grabbed my tissues and started crying about the news because I realized how Kobe has impacted the lives of so many.


Every tweet was related to Kobe. Pictures, tributes, videos and articles all about how Kobe was more than just basketball. Obviously, I didn't have a relationship with Kobe Bryant, I only saw him play a basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. So why was I crying so much about this death?

Kobe played 20 years in the league, won five championship rings and scored 33, 643 career points. He was known for being a champion but something I realized from the death of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others that life is not fair.

Life is a gift. Life is precious. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. So hug your friends, your loved ones and don't hold on to grudges. We will never get answers to why bad things happen to great people. God is the only one to know that answer, so turn to Him. Ask God to give you the strength to grieve and live each day.

Thank you, Kobe Bryant. The world will never be the same. Basketball will never be the same. Mamba Forever.