Saturday 30 November 2013

Social Media - Vine





Vine is a mobile app owned by Twitter released January 24, 2013
-       It enables its users to create and post short video clips. The maximum clip length is six seconds and can be shared or embedded on social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook.
-       Vine was initially only available only for iOS devices; it has now been introduced on Android and Windows Phone.
-       Founded by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll in June 2012. Twitter acquired it October 2012.
-       Vine became the most used video-sharing application on the market.


I first downloaded Vine in March 2013. I found the videos posted by others to be funny and I mainly used the app as a source of entertainment. My younger brother introduced me to it as he was already a Vine expert, and was 17 at the time. For everyone in high school Vine was old news. After I realized I was the star of most of my brothers most popular Vines (not with my consent). I decided I would get revenge and make my own Vines. 


Brothers Second Vine:https://vine.co/v/hqEApQVbnq3 


Mine never were as popular as his, but he did have about every high school student in Brantford following him where I have a solid 20 followers on Vine.  

It wasn't until I was assigned a social media project where we randomly selected Vine as our application that I realized how useful Vine is for businesses. 


·      Vine is a fun way to engage a younger audience.
·      Vine users find it mesmerizing.
·      Products can be strategically placed in the video.
·      Companies can hold best vine video contests that feature their products.

Such as this Starbucks Contest: https://vine.co/v/hg2D3Y1Fqjh 


·      Vine can be linked to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and a growing list of social media to extend your brand’s reach
·      Vine started in January of 2013 and already has over 40 million users
·      So far, 48 different Vine users have over 1 million followers each
·      The opportunity to extend your brand’s reach is limitless on Vine.
·      5 tweets per second contain a Vine link and a branded Vine is 4 times more likely to be seen than a branded video.

 




Thursday 21 November 2013

#BeAHero

For my Organizational Application course in Public Relations at Mohawk College, we took on a fundraising project. I was placed into a team of six people and we chose to work with the United Way of Burlington and Greater Hamilton. For more information on the United way, watch this video;



With a budget of $10 our goal was to raise $300. Our plan was to hold a prize raffle in the C Wing of Mohawk College Wednesday November 13th from 11am to 1 pm (during common hour). This is the time of the week where the most students are on campus at once. Using donated prizes including a pair of luxury suite Raptors tickets we planned to charge participants $2 a ticket, three for $5 or 20 for $20. 


The Communication Tactics we used included:

-       Developing flyers and posters to advertise the raffle and distributing and posting them around campus a week prior to the event.

-       Creating a Facebook page for the event and inviting people through the use of social media. Also posted the event on the Mohawk College Facebook page.

-       Using #beahero and encouraging participants to use it in order to spread the word through social media outlets such as instagram, twitter and Facebook. 

-       Using banners and posters at the event lent to us from the United Way

-       Radio announcement on ‘Indi’ promoting the event

-       Teammates dressed up as heroes during the event, to draw attention and promote our message Be A Hero. 




Our Key Message: Be A Hero.


 Below is the Timeline and the budget we followed to complete the fundraiser.





Our Fundraiser was a success, we raised $551.30.

Thursday 7 November 2013

My first official venture into PR


About a month ago I offered my newly developed PR skills to a start up association in the city of Brantford. The Brant Ave Business Community Association was established by Tabitha Matheson, owner of Picture Perfect Window Coverings (located on Brant Avenue in Brantford, Ontario). The goal of the association was to unite the businesses on Brant Ave. to promote the street as a unique and distinct destination separate from the Brantford downtown. By pulling together they plan on sharing in advertising costs and the benefit of increased consumer traffic to the neighbourhood. Matheson wanted to get attention from the media, but was unsure of how to go about it. When I volunteered to help her achieve this she was enthusiastic and grateful.

The first step was to visit the businesses on Brant Ave. to ask questions, listen, and take notes on their thoughts about the development of The Brant Ave Business Community Association. The response from partnering businesses on Brant Ave. was fantastic; many said it was about time such an association was formed. As of now, 30 Brant Avenue businesses have joined. Next I planned of writing and releasing a media release, to announce the creation of the association. Since I started the Public Relations program at Mohawk I had already written two media releases and knew what was required of me. I developed a release and sent it out to the Brantford Expositor, The Brant News, CKPC (jewel) radio station and local Rogers Television on October 29th 2013. I contacted Matheson to let her know where the release was sent and informed her that she should be available and prepared if someone were to contact her or interview her further.

 
Then things got exciting, the next day while I was on the Mohawk Public Relations field trip to Toronto, waiting to be apart of the audience of George Stroumboulopoulos, Matheson texted me saying that the Brantford Expositor had just called and interviewed her. 

This was great news; The Expositor had received my media release and wanted to investigate the story further. That evening the article was posted on brantfordexpositor.ca. I was pleased to see that it was positive and very similar to the release I had written. The next day the same article was published in the paper on page A3!

Click this link to view the article:


 

I would have been happy to have just received attention from The Expositor, however on October 31st The Brant News also contacted Matheson requesting to do an interview and photo shoot the next day. During the interview Matheson asked the journalists how they heard about the association, they replied that they had received a media release that was forwarded to them by two editors and they stated that the release was very professionally done. This was very exciting for me as my first attempt at distributing media releases was successful. This story was published in The Brant News November 7th.

Click this link to view the Brant News article:
http://www.brantnews.com/news-story/4192518-highlighting-brant-avenue-s-charm/

 


  The Brant Ave Business Community Association has plans to host seasonal events with participating businesses to draw visitors from surrounding areas to the street. A seasonal theme of decorations and lights is in the works for Christmas time. I hope to do more volunteer work for the association throughout the year announcing such events. 

 

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Welcome to my Blog

I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted the focus of my blog to be as there are many different aspects of my life. Sometimes I may want to write about things related to school, public relations, volunteer work, synchronized skating, fashion, politics, family, etc. Therefore, my blog will include whatever I feel like writing about and how it relates to me and my life.


Self Portrait (Drawn by my cousin Samuel O'Donoghue)

So here is a little information about me;

I am a Ryerson University graduate with a degree in Politics and Governance pursuing further education in public relations at Mohawk College.



This is my graduation day at Ryerson (me with my parents).

 I currently am a member of the Brant Crystal Formations synchronized skating team and have been figure skating since I was three.


This is my team.

I love spending time with my friends and family.

 
This is a photo of my family (My parents, me, my sister, my brother).


My dad and I have the same birthday (This year we did Edgewalk together).


My extended family is HUGE! Here is a photo of a small portion of us.


Here is my dog Murphy.


I spend most of the summers at my cottage in French River, Ontario. It is my favourite place to be.



While studying at Ryerson University, I lived in the city for four years. I love Toronto and cannot wait to live there again.


This past summer I participated in Row for Heart, here is a photo of my all female rowing team.



Last winter I traveled to Washington, DC with my sister, here are some photos above. The Lincoln Monument and The Library of Congress. 

Hope you enjoyed this small sneak peak into my life, future blog posts may include discussion on current events, fashion through instagram, my social media obsession and iphone app recommendations.

Thanks!
Tess