Saturday, September 26, 2015

ONU Homecoming

Despite being a senior at Ohio Northern University I have never participated in homecoming events here on campus until this year. This year I was in charge of organizing everything for Kappa Phi to participate in the homecoming parade as well as their alumni meet and greet table. I spent the week before homecoming creating decorations for the golf cart we would have in the homecoming parade. One of Kappa Phi's symbols is a pink rose so I found cheap vines and made roses out of plastic tablecloths and attached them to the vines. I also found a large dragon kite which we attached to the top of the golf cart. Another thing I designed and had made was a large canvas banner that could be used for homecoming as well as for other future events.

The morning of homecoming I got up early and went to where the parade was lining up and met some of the other sisters. We decorated the golf cart and divided the candy for sisters to pass out in the parade.

After making sure the golf cart was ready for the parade I made my way over to the tent set up for organizations to set up tables so they could connect with alumni that came for homecoming. We attached the banner to the table as well as set up a board containing pictures of sisters on it. There were also brochures containing information about Kappa Phi and small cards with the Kappa Phi Facebook information.

One of the tables next to us had a large banner held by a stand which kept blowing over in the wind. The solution they came up with was to use packing tape to tape the base of the stand to the grass. Surprisingly enough it actually worked.

All in all despite being stressed about having to get all the Kappa Phi stuff done my first ONU homecoming was a success. I got a lot of compliments on how the Kappa Phi decorations looked as well which was encouraging. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year as an alumni.

Here's a Storify recap of my live tweet from the day.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Blocking Social Media

Real-Time Marketing Chapter 13

Some companies and organizations block their employees from accessing social media. Some utilize the real-time aspects of social media and can't block the sites as they need them to communicate with customers. There are both pros and cons to both sides of this.

When blocking social media in the workplace you can increase productivity. Employees that may spend more time on social media when they are supposed to be working will be forced to focus on work. However, social media can be an integral part of an organization's interaction with customers. Blocking all social media prevents the company from having a real-time response to it's customer's needs.

If a company doesn't block social media access it allows employees to easily communicate with customers when a situation occurs or when a customer requests information. It also allows the company to quickly update the public on situations that may affect them. However, allowing employees to access social media may not only lead to employees being on social media when they should be working but may also cause workplace tension. If an employee posts something on social media during work hours that pertains to another employee it may be taken negatively and cause tension or hard feelings within the office.

Honestly I think the pros of using social media in the office far outweigh the cons of not using it but each company has to decide for themselves what they want to do and what is best for their company.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Marvel vs. Fox

I was reading an article the other day about how Marvel comics isn't happy about Fox having the rights to the X-men and all mutants. Fox doesn't have to consult with Marvel when making a movie and Marvel doesn't like that fact. Marvel's response? Stop making comics and products that involve X-men or mutants in general. No more new characters, no more new series. They'll continue with what they're currently working on but they're going to start killing off mutantkind. They're hoping this will cause Fox to give them back the rights.

Now, in my opinion, this is a really stupid idea. Let's think about this for a second. If a die-hard X-men fan, who loves the comic books, can no longer get X-men comics then where are they going to go? They're going to go to the one place that has X-men, Fox. So if Marvel basically starts boycotting X-men it'll actually push people towards Fox. Sure there will be the fans that are sticklers and won't watch the movies Fox makes but many will just want some kind of X-men.

Honestly I think Marvel shouldn't have given the X-men rights to Fox in the first place because they've done a fairly awful job with the movies so far. They've basically made the entire X-men movie franchise about Wolverine. Don't get me wrong, I love Wolverine, but it's the X-men franchise, not the Wolverine franchise. I'm pretty sure Fox would be able to still sell the movies if they chose a different main character. Or even, I don't know, made it about the X-men as a team rather than an individual character. There's a novel thought. Make a movie titled after a team of mutants about more than one character. Who would of thought that was a good idea? The X-men have always been successful because fans were able to relate to them. The X-men were originally created to parallel prejudice and the idea that sometimes people go through things beyond their control and they're not always liked. It showed a family who could come together to make it through any obstacle. It showed the bonds of family even when they hated each other sometimes and fought over the most insignificant things. It showed family didn't have to be blood and that is why I love the X-men.