My name is Cailey Young, and I am a senior at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. This is my first blog for my Social Media & Society class. Our goal is not to write a diary or make you, the reader, feel like you have a sneak peak into my life but rather to use this platform as a way to grow as a blogger and social media analyst.
So why the random image of a cool rock? Thanks for asking. This is actually an amazing picture of The Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland taken by Kyle Pasalskyj. Part of our intro for this class was to read a multitude of blogs recommended to us by our professor, Dr. Vrooman, one of which was written by him.
The particular blog I reference is called THE MOREBRAINZ BLOG: GOOD, FREE, SOURCES FOR PHOTOS THAT YOU CAN REUSE, PART 1: FIND PHOTOGRAPHERS
Dr. Vrooman gives his readers a plethora of different sites you can brows to find the perfect image for your presentation, blog, book etc. FOR FREE!!! The lesson I took away from his article was quit swiping images of of google that everyone else uses and find a "free for commercial use" image from any number of the sites he presented!
Another blog I enjoyed was Michelle M. Johnson's blog Train Your Brain (Moving Through Perfectionism to Create) Episode I: Reject Perfection. The picture above is how I relate to their article. I have played volleyball since I was 6, and now I am about to compete competitively for the last time this year, and there is nothing better than feeling like you just ran the perfect play to win a game. Just like Johnson, "Our goal was perfection, always perfection." But my take away from this blog is that with this class, our assignment isn't to be perfect, but to have an experience where we strive for "perfection" but we are challenged and struggle through the process of creation.
Aside from analyzing personal blogs, we also took a look at some journalism/research blogs and corporate content/PR blogs. One I enjoyed was Shaun Andrews's blog How To Up Your Game With CenturyLink’s Dynamic Connections. I learned that giving an analogy for your enterprise's services in a brief manner can be the most effective and efficient way to communicate with your audience.
In the blog WHAT STAR WARS CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT TALENT MANAGEMENT, yet another analogy is made for how you personally will progress in a work environment, but as told through the Star Wars Universe. for someone who isn't familiar with how to go from being an intern to being a VP or President of a company, this blog simply says to look at how Luke turned into Obi-Wan, and then eventually becoming Yoda. Again, pop culture is giving people the references that they'll understand. Meeting your audience half way through entertainment bridges the gap between them questioning whether or not to actually absorb the deeper meaning of your blog.
So, why am I writing this? Why did I read these blogs? Not just because I had to, but because to get better at this whole blogging thing it helps to draw from others work, and it helps to make it fun for yourself, because then you, the reader, is hopefully going to having fun too and maybe learn something, just like me! We all start off as young Padawans, but maybe one day we can be the next Jedi.
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