Social Media Resume

I am a Communication major at St. Edward’s University. I am seeking a challenging internship that will merge my knowledge of social media as well as customer service and public relations knowledge.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Nicole Etheridge
St. Edward’s University
Communication Student
Email: netheri [at] stedwards [dot] edu
Blog: http://netheri.blogspot.com/

PROFILE:

• Long term career interest in sports marketing/public relations
• Familiar with emerging media technologies: blogs, web pages and podcasts
• Experienced in creating and adapting video, audio and text for online PR tools
• Excellent academic preparation; successfully completed coursework in Media
Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, and
Internet and Social Media in PR
• Team player with well developed leadership skills
• Computer literate: Word, Excel and PowerPoint

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Arts in Communication Expected May 2009
St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

Podcast: Discusses what a blog is and many different types and aspects of blogging.


Web Video Project: World Hunger Video

U.S. Falling Behind in Social Media Creation

I found an interesting article discussing how the U.S. is lagging in social media creations. With all of the social networking sites that we have and more and more businesses and such catching on, I thought this was intriguing. As I continued reading the article I found that Americans are more likely to watch or read the content made by others rather than make our own. The article states that Americans, “Love to watch.” Another interesting piece of information I found in the article states, “A little over 60 percent of Internet users in the U.S. said they read blogs, but just 26 percent had created one, compared to over 70 percent of Internet users who blog in South Korea and China.”

Social Media get together

I found this article announcing a social media get together in Jordan. It’s being put on to show the different aspects of social media and content sharing. Web 2.0 is soaring in the Middle East now with “more than 300 active blogs in Jordan alone and the country’s Queen Rania recently launched her own YouTube page.” The conference hopes to attract a regional audience of marketing and communications specialists, advertisers, public relations professionals and media companies.

Advertising for the people from the people

I was scanning through Citizen Marketers the other day and came across a section talking about contests. I found this interesting since we had just finished an assignment for class that involved making a web video. The book says “With the right democratic principles in place, solid execution, and a respectful awareness about the potential of social media to spread word of mouth, a contest can improve fortunes and enhance loyalty.” I agree with this statement completely. This is an easy way for a company or organization to allow the people to put forth their talents towards something they like. Although, the GM’s Chevy Tahoe disaster proves things can turn against you. This campaign collected several thousand negative ads posted by SUV critics. In the book, The New Influencer, the Chevrolet general manager was quoted, “We, on the other hand, welcome the opportunity to clarify the facts…In our opinion, this has been one of the most creative and successful promotions we have done.” Also, from the book, it discusses the “Driving Forces” of viral marketing:
Declining response rates
Technology developments
Demographic shifts
Customer preference
Low cost
Youtube has been hailed the advertising medium of the future so why not take advantage of this new way of marketing.

Social Networking is Becoming More Appealing

Last class we were scanning the ComScore website and my fellow classmate and I came across the demographic profiles for selected social networking. We found that myspace visitors are now “age 35 or older.” I found this slightly alarming at first considering I myself have a myspace and assumed the demographics would prove to be a bit younger. I can see how the age span works out this way especially now seeing the many uses myspace can bring to businesses and such. Comscore then goes on to explain that these sites are all different, aiming towards different crowds. Of course facebook’s demographics would prove to be younger because this site was created for college students. Social networking isn’t just aiming at the youngsters anymore and is proving to appeal to more people.

World Hunger

World Hunger Video

Podcasts for Everyone

While sitting around watching television tonight I started watching Joel Osteen. Osteen is is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas and was named "Most Influential Christian in America" in 2006 by The Church Report. As I was watching his sermon, at the bottom of the screen they showed a website where you can go to receive free podcasts and broadcasts of his show. It's interesting now after taking this social media class how all these different aspects of the internet are taking over. Now that I know what all these things are such as the podcast, I am better able to recognize all the different places they come up. We discuss in class how social media is starting to take over and I believe that Joel Osteen and his messages have made it to a vast population in some part due to the fact that he is keeping up with the times and the growing internet population.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I usually tend to blog more about things that are discussed in class or assigned readings but I came across a story that I thought was worth talking about. A teammate of mine introduced me to the story of Randy Pausch and his incredible story about his fight with pancreatic cancer. You might have seen the show about him on Oprah, but for those of you who haven’t here is a brief summary. Pausch is a professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and after all his therapy was given an estimated three to six months to live.
He gave what he was made known for his “Last Lecture” on September 18, 2007 which attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery.
I think the messages in his speech are ones worth hearing and will have an impact on anyone who listens.
Since then, Pausch now has a website dedicated to raising awareness about pancreatic cancer and funding. It is amazing how the internet is able to help people in this way and to allow those such as Pausch the opportunity to touch so many lives.

Old vs. New

We discussed in class the other day about the differences in the old press release and the new mainstream media (social media release). Overall, we came to the conclusion that the new social media release is definitely a more effective way of getting information to the public. There are several reasons we found for why this is so:

-The way we influence has changed
-Better coverage
-Tools surrounding it make it social
-Fosters relationships with bloggers
-Doesn’t replace the traditional press release
-Still need a good story to attract viewers

Just because there is a new way of getting news out to the public does not mean that this is the only reason that it will become more popular. You still need a good story that will attract the viewers and make them want to read about it.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

The book The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual is a book that’s mission is to promote global conversation and faster and smarter companies. The book includes 95 theses about the growing markets on the web and how this is the better and smarter way to go about a business. Some of the theses I think are interesting:

6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

Because of the internet, people are able to have faster conversations directly from one person to another without the slow responses and “inhuman” sounding feedback. These conversations were not possible before the internet and all of its connections.

21. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.
22. Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.

I liked these statements for the simple fact that it is saying companies need to be more real. The public likes to feel as though they can relate to a company and are treated as though they are of importance. With these new online markets, it creates a way for people to get in touch and stay in touch in a faster manner. It helps support a steady flow of conversation that is good both for the company but also for the community. The fact that companies are working to become more straight-forward and genuine will help them relate better and become stronger business organizations.

Video sharing gone too far

We have just recently been discussing viral videos and their effect on the internet. A viral video is defined as video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous but a recent news story discusses how an attempt at creating a popular video on YouTube turned into teens arrests.

Eight teenagers were arrested after filming the beating of another girl. One of the mothers said the girl “had provoked the other teens by threatening and insulting them on MySpace, a social networking Web site.”
This news story goes to show just how much influence these popular social internet sights have on people and how if not used properly can cause preventable situations like this one. In an earlier blog post I discussed my reaction to “Growing up Online” and talked about how the younger generations are learning to use the internet at an early age because this is what the world revolves around. The internet and social media is the new way of living but also needs to be controlled.

Teens Arrested Over Taped Beating