Facebook Changes the Like Button

Back in September Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook hinted that Facebook was working on ways to expand its like button. "Facebook will be rolling out reactions, which are a set of six emojis that will sit on the left side alongside the original thumbs-up. These six emojis will be love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger."  (Lunden, 2015) These emojis will allow Facebook users to personalize how they feel about particular posts.

"This pop up feature will test in two different markets, Spain and Ireland. With this test, Facebook will decide whether they need to tweak it or how to roll it out further." (Lunden, 2015) These reactions will appear both on your desktop and on the mobile app. Facebook is adding this emoji feature to continue to improve their presence on social media and to adjust with new trends.

"These reactions all came about when users were demanding Facebook have more than just a simple like." (Lunden, 2015) With these different emojis, you will be able to see home many individuals, liked your post, loved your most and were wowed by your post.

I personally think these new reactions will be a good thing for Facebook and will potentially bring more users to this social media platform. By bringing these new reactions to Facebook it will keep users engaged and will allow them to express how they actually feel about a particular status. It will be interesting to see how the two test markets respond to these reactions and what reactions eventually become avaliable for all Facebook users.
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Lunden, I. (2015, October 8). In TechCrunch. Retrieved October 10, 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/08/with-reactions-facebook-supercharges-the-like-button-with-6-empathetic-emoji/#.ikr8sk:rWUa

Social Media Guidelines

In chapter 5 of Share This, The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals we took a look at Social
media guidelines. Social media guidelines are a must have for every business, as it's important to know what you expect from your company and employees with social media. "Social media guidelines differ from organization to organization: one size does not fit all." (Waddington, 2012)

While doing some research online, I found a website that contained 16 social media guidelines pulled from specific companies and their guidelines. One example is from Zappos and there's was quite simple, "be real and use your best judgment." (Lake, 2009) When looking at this guideline, Zappos wants their company to do what is best, but also not make a fool of themselves and promote to company in the best way possible. "Three points were pulled from the Intel social media guidelines and they were always pause and think before posting, perception is reality and it's a conversation." (Lake, 2009) When looking at each of these points individuals, I believe the most important is to always pause and think before posting because once you post something on the web you can't take it back.

When looking through the book and coming across the employee do's and don'ts part of the social media guideline, I believe it is important to have this included in the guidelines, but also discussing the do's and don'ts with the employees. A few of the key do's for employees from this chapter were think before you post, correct errors openly and quickly, be respectful and check organizational guidelines. A few of the key don'ts for employees are being fake and revealing confidential information.

When looking at what both the book said and the website with
some key guidelines pulled out from specific companies there were many similarities. One of the biggest similarities I seemed to find was the fact that you should always think before you post, whether it be a personal account or a company account. While taking a deeper look into social media guidelines, it's important for all companies to have some sort of social media guidelines in place as you never know when your company may need it. As a company it's also important to educate your employees about correct social media policies, so they represent your company in a positive light.

Lake, C. (2009, December 2). In Econsultancy. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from https://econsultancy.com/blog/5049-16-social-media-guidelines-used-by-real-companies/

ebrary, I., & Waddington, S. (2012). Share this: The social media handbook for PR professionals. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons.

Fear of Falling

This past weekend my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta had our yearly chapter retreat. This year we did something a little different and decided to go off campus. We went to Heartland Conference Retreat Center in Marengo, Ohio. Traveling to Heartland took a little less than two hours. The main reason for the day was to encourage sister bonding and get to know about not only you sisters, but also about yourself.

Once we got to the conference center we were split into two groups. One group was going to team

challenge and the other was going to zip lining. I was in the zip lining group, and was a little nervous as I have a slight fear of heights. Even though I had this fear, I was determined to climb up the telephone pole and let myself ride through part of the woods on a zip line. I was the fourth one in my group of 24 to go because I knew if I didn't go in the beginning then I may not go at all. After going through it once and being unhooked from all the gear, I actually really enjoyed it. For the next hour or so I remained by the fire and watched other sisters go. We ended up having extra time, so I decided to go a second time. The second time was much more enjoyable as you already knew what to expect. Even though the weather was cold and rainy, everyone made the most out this half of the day. Everyone in our group went at least once, and some needed much more encouragement than others to not only climb up to the platform, but also to slide off and just let yourself enjoy the ride.

Once we were done with zip lining, we then went and grabbed lunch. While eating we would compare with the other group how there event was. Once we were all done eating we then put all our layers back on and braved the cold and rain, as it was now raining harder as it had been before. Now it was time for the groups to switch, so my group was headed to team challenge. At team challenge we were split in half and separated from the other half of our group. Throughout our time at team challenge we worked on a variety of obstacles that required us to communicate with one another and trust in each other. During one of the activities, half of us needed to keep our eye closed and cross sides on this wooden platform we were one. Being one of the individuals whos eyes need to be closed, I will definitely say I put all my trust in the sisters that could see because I knew they wouldn't let me walk off the platform. By the end of team challenge we were all soaked, but we all learned so much.

We returned back to the conference center and talked about our experiences with the sisters who had been in the zip lining group. To end the day we had a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. As we were all leaving the retreat to return back to Ada, there was a lot of discussion about what we learned about sisters who were in our group and also what we learned about ourselves. I personally enjoyed the experience, even with the incorporative weather and hope we are able to do something like that next year.