alliahj0hn's blog

Social Media & A Global Pandemic

Today I wrap up my academic blogging for COMM352! Taking Social Media Campaigns was a great choice (not like I had a choice as it required for my degree), I learned so many things and as of right now found a career I want to pursue! If you are a student reading this and have to option to I definitely recommend taking this course!

So for my final blog post I thought I would do a topic close to everyone’s hearts right now.. Social Media and the roles it plays in a global pandemic.

Overnight it seemed like Zoom popped out of the floorboards. If you had asked me what Zoom was in January I more than likely would’ve said “the sound a cat makes when it runs around the room.” Five months later it’s a household name! Face to face communication is the first role social media plays in my line up today!

It’s no secret that non-verbal communication is a major part of conversation. Ask any of my family members or close friends, I constantly think people are mad at me while texting or emailing. FaceTime, Skype, and now Zoom are helping many people, including myself, be able to communicate safely face to face.

Additional Reading, on face to face communication benefits, if you would like!

– https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2015/02/20/why-face-to-face-meetings-are-so-important/amp/

– https://www.lifesize.com/en/video-conferencing-blog/importance-face-to-face-communication

The next benefit I want to elaborate on is sense of community. Over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic I have seen numerous posts asking friends to recommend shows/movies/books to keep entertained. Many of my friends have been more active on social media, some friends I haven’t seen in years! Just by watching their Instagram or Snapchat stories I feel connected to them and am able to reminisce on the past times we shared!

Through social media I am able to stay connected to my physical community also. From the seamstresses reaching out to get more fabric to make masks for the clinic in town to getting the memo about how recycling has changed the county Facebook group has it all right at all our fingertips.

Last but not least it’s keeping everyone entertained. I wrote last week about my love (or as my mom calls it an addiction) for TicTok, but often I can be found scrolling Pinterest or watching Facebook videos as well!

(Edit : add cover image and tags – forgot first time around!)

Why do we (mostly I) love TikTok so much?

Hello! How many of you guys brushed your hair today? I sure didn’t, in fact I think my hair hasn’t been out of its quarantine bun all week!

As we spend all our time on social media and the internet in general I bet you have heard of or been active on TikTok. I write this blog post as my mom sits in the other room scrolling for her second hour (don’t be mad I exposed your love for TikTok) on the app many of us have grown to love.

As I can’t speak for anyone else on why they enjoy spending their time on TikTok, you will have to just accept my reasons.

1.) I get to learn about other cultures.

It seems everyday a new trends starts on TikTok. It could be making Dalgona Coffee popular in the Middle East and Asia, or seeing people try on their old dance outfits. It’s a window into other peoples world for a little while

2.) New Hobbies.

I see so many people creating art every time I log on. Ranging from painting the backs of calculators to painting murals in their bedroom TikTok users are for sure artsy. Crafts arent the only hobby featured on TikTok, you can find anything from carpentry to epoxy molding! There is plenty of inspiration to gain!

3.) Great waste of time.

Right now time seems to be going in slow motion, the twenty minutes it usually takes to make a pizza feels like three hours now! I use TikTok to fill that time and make it fly by. Sometimes TikTok’s time travel super powers aren’t great, like when I’m trying to go to bed and manage to stay up an extra four hours.

4.) Relatable Content.

I’m always able to find relatable videos. It’s nice to see people in the same boat as me. A lot of us are college students moved back in with our parents trying to navigate life, and people are posting about it! One of my favorite videos is about trying to go get snacks in the middle of the night and trying to be quiet while operating the microwave. (I tried to link the video, but TikTok isn’t very desktop friendly)

5.) Seeing my friends.

The last reason I think TikTok is great is because it’s not like traditional social media platforms, you spend most of the time looking at strangers. Only very rarely will you see a face you know, but seeing it is the best! The best way I can describe it is seeing cows on a road trip. You didn’t go on a road trip to see cows on the side of the road but it definitely made your trip more fun!

I think TikTok is great as you read above! I want to apologize again that wasn’t able to link in my favorite videos, it really would’ve made this post a 10/10. I guess you’ll just have to download the app and find your own favorite videos!

Social Media & Screen Time

Welcome back, it’s my fault you haven’t been reading lately. I took a blogging break and then a pandemic fell upon our world and I’m just starting to get settled into my new normal. Part of everyone’s new normal is social distancing, staying home, and snacking! Another new normal is increased screen time, both for adults and children. With school going online and many working from home increased screen time is inevitable. How much screen time is too much though?

Eleven hours is too much! This is my own personal screen time report from yesterday, I think I slept five hours and as you can see it wasnt until 4 a.m. I also want to point out that “creativity” is not a drawing app or anything educational it’s Tiktok.

If you want to check your screen time reports and have Apple products (android doesn’t have a screen time report as far as I know) follow this link and see how much time you spend on your phone.

Logging more hours on you phone or plopping your kids down in front of Peppa Pig is okay. Social media and other apps are there for our benefit. Google Classroom, D2L, and Zoom to further education and keep us learning while schools are closed. Facetime and Skype to help us connect with family members whom we can’t hug or visit. My personal favorites are the shopping apps that keep me entertained while the malls are still closed.

My advice to you all is limit your screen time as you can. If you catch yourself in the twitter vortex, drop the phone and read a book for a half hour instead. Try to avoid laying in bed watching Tiktok after Tiktok, if you catch yourself in the Tiktok trans put a movie on or listen to some music. If you’re embarassed by your screen report like I was/am there are ways to get it back down without becoming bored. PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS! See you next week, it’s a promise.

Social Media & Going Private

With social media growing every day, constantly changing and adding new features, I feel that many are forgetting about their footprint. Most social media platforms allow a private mode of some kind to give you personal protection. On Facebook, you can lock your profile, so all a nonfriend can see would be your profile picture and your name. Twitter and Instagram are the same; you can lock everything up to ensure privacy. Even Snapchat has a private story setting.

It makes sense the whole world doesn’t need to see everything. You might not want your boss to see the vacation pictures that you’re wearing your bikini in. A school teacher may not want their students to know that they bellied up to the bar until close last night. Choosing to have your account public or private is excellent either way.

Something I have noticed is teens and young adults adding a private Instagram account or Snapchat story on top of their existing public one.

They only let people “trustworthy” follow this account. Using this account to hide all the “naughty” things they do like underage drinking, speeding, hickeys, ect.. Anything they don’t want their mom or dad to find out about goes on “private.”

How private is private? I believe that they think because it’s a “private” account that it is safe, but once something is posted, there is no going back. Screenshotting posts or getting your friend to take a picture of a Snapchat on your phone to avoid getting caught are ways in which pictures and posts never die. The delete button is only on your end.

Another reason that teens or young adults make a private Instagram is for personal branding. They use a public account as a false reality and post day to day things on private. Scrolling through my feed, half the time, I see perfect skin and beautifully thought out presets, giving their page a perfect aesthetic.

In the age of sharing everything, why do we feel the need to share so much that we need to hide what we share? I think we will continue to see a rise in private accounts, both the authentic version and secretive version.

Social Media & Me.

With a week off from academic blogging I decided to formally introduce myself, and talk about our friend social media!

My name is Alliah Johnson, I am from Elbow Lake MN. I’m sure anyone reading this right now knows where that is (hi grandma), but if you don’t it is smack dab in the middle of nowhere! The closest “map town” to home, Alexandria, is commonly know as the “pit stop between Fargo and St. Cloud.” Currently I go to MSU in Moorhead MN, and I am studying communications with minor in advertising! My dream job is a social media coordinator or manager. Everyone wants to get paid to do what they love, and I’m thinking I found it! I also love cats and can’t wait until I get my own, until then I love on my cat niece Rosie.

Social media was a huge deal while I was growing up. I had classmates that lived nearly 45 minutes away! The easiest way to keep up to date with everyone was with social media.

I remember the day my mother caved and allowed me to join Facebook. I was probably 11 at the time and I didn’t have an email yet, so that was my first step, create an email. At 11 you don’t think into the future to when you will turn 16 and start applying for your first job and see that you have to write down your email. You don’t think about when your standing in line at Hollister and have to tell the cute boy that your email is “wigglesj17”.

I know I’m not alone being stuck with cringe worthy usernames or email. At the young age of 11 I was given ~mostly~ free rein into the wild world of the internet.

In eighth grade when I got my first smart phone, I don’t think I was even out of the Verizon store before I had downloaded and started a Snapchat account. Luckily by then I didn’t go by wigglesj17 anymore and I came up with a more appropriate username, and started creating a personal brand I’m not 100% ashamed of!

The next week was filled with account creation, and exchanging usernames. Social Media became real during that week for me, it wasn’t waiting to log in to Facebook once I got home from school. It was checking Facebook on the bus ride home, and looking at Instagram on the walk from the bus stop to my house. The watching YouTube makeup tutorials while eating dinner. Any type of social media platform you can think of I, more than likely, made an account during that week.

As new platforms came out I hoped on the bandwagon and made accounts for those as well. To this day, six years after my major social media boom, I still am finding new social media platforms to join!

What is social media? A quick google search of “social media platforms” and some thought about what each does changed my outlook of what social media is.

In my social media campaigns class we came up with this definition for social media : An umbrella term for defining various different online activities and platforms that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and imagery. This information-rich environment is used to network, customize, connect, and create a personal or professional brand.

If Whatsapp and Messenger are considered social media, should we also consider just basic texting a form of social media? Is Animal Crossing or Minecraft played online with friends social media?

Everyone uses some form of social media everyday. Personally I start and end my day checking my socials. My cell phone alone logs around 4 hours a day of usage and I still use my laptop and occasionally a tablet on top of that. It’s undeniable that social media is everywhere and changing constantly. So, to leave you off tonight I have a question for you; what do you consider a social media?

Social Media & Trendjacking

This past Sunday was a big day for America. It was 02/02/2020 an occurrence that only happens once every 900 years! Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil I am so thankful you didn’t see your shadow. You alone made me the happiest girl alive. But the biggest of all was The Superbowl. While I slaved away “cooking” my new favorite buffalo dip, I mentally prepared myself for the biggest advertising event of the year, Super Bowl commercials.

Heading into the day I had one commercial I was specifically waiting for, the Planters peanuts commercial. “Why that commercial?” you may ask, I will tell you. A few weeks ago I was scrolling through Twitter and I kept seeing the hashtag #RIPMrPeanut. Curious for I think obvious reasons I investigated. Mr. Peanut died January 22 in an automobile wreck. His famous last moments were recorded, you can view them here. The funeral was publicly streamed 02/02/2020 during the Super Bowl.

Que me screaming at everyone to shut up and please pay some respect to Mr. Peanut as the commercial starts. I was very impressed to say the least, a tear may have been shed along side of the Kool-aid Man. Which brings me to my point, TRENDJACKING!

Trendjacking is defined as the act of capitalizing on an existing trend in order to bolster one’s brand in the marketplace, according to Tweakyourbiz.com. I’m sure you can think of another cute baby that recently was delivered to our TV screens thanks to Disney+. That’s right, Baby Yoda(or if we want to be technical The Child).

Trendjacking is nothing new in football advertising, other examples are Oreo’s tweet when the lights when out during the Super Bowl of 2013 or Krispy Kreme’s tweet about the deflated football during the Patriots game versus the Colts in 2014.

Everyday we see trendjacking, start looking and I know you’ll see it to!

Social Media & Your Brand

What do you think of when you hear the word brand? Do you think of Great Value or maybe Covergirl? Until recently those were the things that went through my mind, but now when I hear brand I think of myself. My personal brand is constantly on my mind and what I can do to improve it.

Your personal brand is defined as “The unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see you. It is the telling of your story, and how it reflects your conduct, behavior, spoken and unspoken words, and attitudes” according to Influencer Marketing Hub. One of the Easiest ways to get your personal brand recognized is through your social media account.

I like to think of social media as a first impression. For example when I meet a new someone new the first thing I do after getting home is go to Instagram and other social media outlets. Employers do the same thing. According to Business News Daily, “70 percent of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process.” This is why your personal brand is so important.

“Be genuine, Tell a story, Be consistent, and Create a positive impact,” four of my favorite Golden Rules of Personal Branding written by Forbes that I personally wish to constantly use while I build my personal brand.

I encourage you to open your social media account and ask yourself these questions I found on The Market Scope. Are the answers you got ones that make you proud, would they make your employer or future employer proud?

What Value Do You Bring To Others On Social That Is Special?
- What do you bring to the table? Why are you someone to make a connection with? How do you shine light on someone by being a presence on social media?
What Is The End Result You Are Trying To Achieve With Your Personal Brand?
- Are you trying to be more hireable? Do you want to bring more clients to your company? Do you just want to make someone smile by posting funny pictures?
What is Your Motive With Your Personal Brand?
- This question is very similar to the last. Why do you post what you do?
What Do People Say About Your Personal Brand To Others?

If your answers aren’t what you wanted it’s not the end of the world, you can fix it! Following the steps found on Forbes you can rebrand yourself in no time. The first step is to be honest. We’re all humans, mistakes happen and you can get past it. You will have a hard time getting it cleared up if you don’t own up to a mistake. The second step is to get moving. The problem won’t go away on its own, you have to put in the time to rebrand yourself. Move on is the last step, you will get to the place you want your personal brand at. Don’t give up hope.