Author Archives: Andrew Colton

Writing is a Muscle

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Writing is a muscle so FLEX IT. As I write one of my final pieces of writing for school I reflect on my first pieces of writing for school and why it is so important.

In the first grade in Ms. Robinson’s class we traced cursive letters and words in our books everyday. That is wear I literally learned to write. The action itself was the difficult part I wasn’t coming up with my own content yet. Second grade I wrote and illustrated a book describing my Christmas vacation, and after that writing was something we did everyday in school.

Now I am a senior in college with less than three weeks left till graduation and I write with ease. After seventeen years of education I am pretty happy with my writing abilities, but writing is a muscle. I have friends majoring in finance who have not used that muscle in a long time and it has become weak. The act of writing takes only a little bit of time to return to you, but remembering how to build sentences, paragraphs, and arguments is difficult.

Blogging is an excellent way to work the writing muscle. Creating content is challenging, but being a great communicator is rewarding and empowering. Blogging can help flex that writing muscle and prevent it from getting weak. Life is about communication, and if you can communicate well then you should be good at life!

 

Writing is a muscle. Flex it.

We are Big Brother

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How did it come to this? We are Big Brother.

boston bomber

Everyone has the ability to take a picture or video at the press of a button, and when anything even remotely exciting happens around someone that is exactly what they do.

Walking around in a public place you will notice how at least 50% of the people you see are on their phones. People are constantly, texting, calling, searching, and tweeting, but the moment someone nearby starts to get in an argument or do anything attention worthy peoples fingers are on the camera button.

I don’t like this. I feel like I am constantly under surveillance by the people around me. Big Brother. People used to worry about the government listening in and watching everyone secretly, but it’s the random citizens around you that will take a picture of you at an in opportune time and put it on the Internet.  The surveillance though is not all bad.

The Boston bombers were caught walking around on fuzzy street cameras, but the pictures taken on peoples smart phones before and right after the bombs went off is what incriminated them. The videos have them as suspects, but the phone pictures have them caught red handed. Without peoples smart phone pictures the FBI would not have been able to get a good identifiable photo out to the press.

Camera phones make the world a safer place, but make no mistake. The government isn’t big brother. We are.

Political Social Media’s More Noble Role

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Political social media did not exist a decade ago. Now tens of millions of dollars are spent every election on social media campaigns. Initially politicians only believed social media would be used as an effective campaigning tool.  It is clear now though that political discussions on social media outlets can be the origins of larger mainstream ideas. This is political social media’s more noble role. Continue reading →

The Master’s social media

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Going to The Masters is an incredible experience that you will share with friends for years to come, too bad you won’t be sharing in real time. Social Media is one thing that major golf tournaments aren’t up to par on.

When you go to a major golf tournament they take your phones, cameras, Ipads, and anything else you might be tempted to take a picture with away from you. How much free media buzz are these tournaments like The Master’s missing out on? There are some positives and negatives to this element of The Masters.

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Commercial Attention Span

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Attention please! Anytime a face pops up in a commercial and starts talking people below the age of 20 tune out because they assume it’s about insurance, financial advisors, or some other “adult” thing. Young people’s commercial attention span is nil.

Now companies have adapted their advertisements to attract the coveted youth consumer market. Most commercials aimed at younger generations consist of twenty different two-second clips of attractive people having a great time in a scenic place using whatever product is being sold.

I remember when Levi Strauss first started using this style of commercial in their Levi’s Go Forth campaign several years ago. People initially had no idea what was going on in those commercials. The commercials felt jumbled and frantic compared to the monotonous commercials that surrounded it. Now every commercial I see for smart phones, fast food, cars, cameras, or clothes reminds me of that “Go Forth” style.  Short clips to keep the viewers attention. It works.

Where did this style come from? Why is everyone using it? I think advertisers have gotten smart. They recognize now that young generations aren’t going to buy something just cause they saw a commercial for it. However, younger generations will definitely look something up online that they see in a commercial if it gets their attention and interest.

Commercials now aren’t giving people a lot of information about the product that they are advertising. Young generations don’t want to hear all the info and specs of a gadget during its commercial because they can go online to see that themselves.  The youth of America also want verification from online consumer reviews before they decide to buy a product. Commercials are becoming strictly attention-getters. They get people online so that the consumer can analyze and decide if the product is worth buying.

Traveling Somewhere?

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Gone are the days when people would book vacations after looking at a pamphlet they received in the mail. Everyone wants to know and see as much about a place before they arrive there. I can totally understand that though.

 

Honestly, I find planning vacations almost as much fun as being on the vacation. You can take time out your day to mentally be on your vacation already. Looking at pictures and videos of your vacation destination is always great because you can actually visualize it. I also love to read consumer reviews. Listening to peoples personal experiences helps readers get a better feel for how the guests actually experience the destination. Social media is a place where pictures, videos, and consumer reviews collide and it is the next big play ground for travel communication.

A study was published by the International Journal for Tourism Management titled The Role of Social Media in Online Travel Information search. The authors, Xiang and Gretzel, found that the sites with the strongest SEO were the ones using in many forms of social media. With several different social media platforms you can utilize collaborative tagging which increases your search engine optimization and increase the likelihood that people doing travel research find your information.

As more social media platforms emerge the opportunities for online travel marketing will continue to change and expand. I’m going to go take a mental vacation somewhere. I advise you do the same.

Titans Online

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Well, looks like we had another disappointing season for the Tennessee Titans. Any hope of a playoff bid was crushed with a final record of 6-10. Sorry fans, no attempt at the Super Bowl this year. While the 37 year old, Matt Hasselback, continued aging on the bench, Jake Locker threw 10 TD’s and led the team through its –– anything but impressive — season. Titans’ fans miss the days when Chris Johnson ran for over 2,000 yards a season and would break away for 80 yard touchdown runs.

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