Danielle's Blog

Today, March 31, is my youngest sister, Cadence's sixth birthday. First thing this morning she ran into my room and just sat beside me in my bed waiting for me to tell her happy birthday. When I finally woke up enough to realize what was going on, I told her happy birthday and gave her a hug. That's when she looked at me and said, "Well, I'm kinda sad because I don't even look like a six-year-old, I still just look five," and then she rolled her eyes and walked out of my room. She had asked my family the day before if we would decorate the house for her birthday for her after she went to bed so that she would wake up and it be like a birthday wonderland. This is something I started doing for my siblings a few years ago because I thought it made the day that much more special. There were streamers everywhere, lining her door, the stairs, there were signs that said "Happy Birthday Cadence" everywhere, happy birthday banners, balloons, the table was d...

I personally love makeup, the artistry of it, and just how much fun it can be. Whenever I am stressed or bored I will just do a makeup look for fun, and sometimes they turn out so well. Makeup for me is super relaxing, and I absolutely love doing it, but it can be expensive.  I learned how to do makeup from practice and of course from the beauty gurus on YouTube. Although YouTube can be a great place to learn techniques and get great new ideas, the products used are often extremely expensive and are not practical for the everyday college student to get. I am going to list some great, widely used drugstore makeup products below that may help you out if you are also interested in makeup but have no idea what to get and can not afford the high-end brands. The first product that I currently swear by is the Maybelline Superstay foundation. I have relatively dry skin, so it is hard for me to find a good foundation that doesn't make my face look or feel super cakey. I don't ...

This last Friday, March 22, I had the pleasure of attending the social media workshop at Ohio Northern. There were many great speakers and opportunities to learn a lot of new strategies for building your company's social media brand. I had the chance to hear from a few really great speakers but I am going to focus on Mary Jo DiSalvo and Sara O'Malley's presentation. O'Malley and DiSalvo work for the Dublin Irish Festival that takes place every year in Dublin, Ohio. The premise of their presentation was how they were able to grow their festival from the location the size of a tennis court to a nearly 40-acre venue. They explained their use of connections and promoting other companies. They were able to show how much drive and success you can get just by promoting along with other events and people. For example, they often partner with the Blue Jackets and other local places year around to gain attention to their festival. They also stressed the importance of making...

In chapter seven of Social Media for Strategic Communication , it talks about the best practices for social media writing and tools you can use to improve your writing. Spelling and grammar are both extremely important when it comes to social media. If you have too many spelling mistakes or grammar errors it will make you seem less credible, and your reader is less likely to finish reading your post if there are a lot of mistakes. One way to make your writing better is to use tools that are provided for you online. Here is a list the book gave: Grammarly Hemingway App Slick Write Trello Hashtagify.me Ulysses Wordy When I saw this list, I was surprised at how many options there are for bettering your writing. I personally love Grammarly. I have been using Grammarly since I was a freshman in high school when I was introduced to it by my humanities teacher. Every paper I write I put through this service. It helps to catch simple grammar errors, spelling mistakes, plagiar...

This week I did a social listening assignment where I looked followed Tarte Cosmetics for six days. Tarte Cosmetics was found in 2000. Unfortunately, I am not apart of this brand so I could not look at the direct stats of the company, but if I had the opportunity, I would have used Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social listening tool that lets you connect over 35 different social media platforms to schedule posts, curate content, look at detailed analytics, monitor your accounts, allow for team management, increase the security of your accounts, and includes many different inside apps and integrations. I analyzed Tarte Cosmetic's Twitter and Instagram accounts, as that’s where they are most active, and their main source of communication and advertising. Tarte is very interactive and sets out to relate to their followers, make sure they are up to date on new products, and promotes current products. They do giveaways, respond to customers, and make sure any issues are taken care of. I ...

The information has recently surfaced that Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, paid around $500,000 to the University of Southern California so that their daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose could attend. Since this information was released, Loughlin, Giannulli, and around 50 others have been charged and arrested. Loughlin and Giannulli were released at bonds set at $1 million each. Their daughters have both since dropped out of USC, but were not federally charged. Loughlin has been fired from her Hallmark show, “When the Heart Calls” and Netflix original “Fuller House.” Olivia Jade, who is a YouTube personality, has lost her sponsorships and brand deals from Sephora, Lulus, Amazon, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Smashbox Beauty Cosmetics, Smile Direct Club, Too Faced Cosmetics, Boohoo, and Unilever’s TRESemmé. Many videos from Olivia’s channel that were previously posted have not helped the situation at hand. Olivia has made statements in the pa...

In chapter six of Social Media for Strategic Communication, it talks about brand voice. Brand voice is the overall tone, personality, and entity that you want to present online, is probably one of the most important elements to consider when looking at either establishing a brand from scratch or enhancing an established brand on social media. The book says that interns and professionals need to get into the strategic mindset of communicating in the brand voice rather than their own personal voice. You see this often on different company or brand's social media pages. One example of this is Wendy's. Wendy's  uses humor to seem relatable and comedic to the teen demographic. Wendy’s will often diss other fast food places and even diss random people who may be talking bad about Wendy’s. They fire back with witty and funny comments. Wendy's also created a diss track and posted it on Spotify as well. It has five songs and is comedy based. You can listen now on Spotify! ...

This last week was spring break for me and the other ONU students. Although I didn't travel for my spring break, or did anything crazy and wild, my week was still packed. Here is what I did over break! On the Friday we went home,  I spent the night at my friend Betsy's house with our other friends Erin and Emma, which was super fun because I hadn't seen them in a while. Saturday evening I went with my little sister to go dress shopping because she had a school dance the following Tuesday. She picked out a cute maroon dress from Dillard's. Sunday was just a chill day with my family and we got to spend some time together and played Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch. Monday, I had a dentist appointment, super exciting I know, but then later that day I went to the mall with my friend Erin, then we got dinner and went to IKEA. I was living through her as she was buying a whole new bedroom set and wardrobe I was so jealous it is all so pretty! Tuesday was a really fu...

In chapter four of Social Media for Strategic Communication , it talks about creating a content calendar and the benefits of it. A content calendar  outlines what content is going out at what time is crucial for the coordinator to create, maintain, and share with the rest of the team.  The social media coordinator handles this job for an organization or company. This is someone who  focuses on strategic planning/execution. Coordinators are responsible for making posts live on a schedule across various social media platforms. This is important because figuring out what times post go up and how they are constructed is very important in reaching the attention or your intended audience. A content calendar is to help the social media coordinator stay organized and be able to visually see what is coming up and what information still needs to be planned. It also helps to make sure your branding is on track and that you are sticking to what your company is wanting to stand...

I was watching YouTube last night doing my nightly rounds of going through my subscription box when I saw a video that intrigued me. It was a commentary/reaction video by Ryan Trahan that talked about a Dr. Phil episode that aired in mid-February. The episode featured a teen girl, Ava Loise, who was nominated by her friends to be on the show. Ava just graduated high school, and her only goal is to become Instagram famous. At the start of the show she had 40k followers and she's now up to almost 80k. Ava has lost the majority of her friends for this mindset she has taken on. It's almost unbelievable the way she acts and talks to others in the way that it seems like a character, but many people have interviewed and talked with her and it just seems that her personality is just as it seems. Ava claimed she spends $20,000 monthly on her appearance including hair, makeup, accessories, clothes, etc. Ava told Dr. Phil, "I'm funny, I'm hot and I have money." She ...

One of my favorite activities to do is go to concerts. I have been to over 30 in my life so far, and it will be up to 40+ by the end of this year. I enjoy going to concerts because I have loved music and everything it has had to offer ever since I can remember. Being able to see, connect, and sometimes meet your favorite artist is such a great feeling. Going to shows I have also made a lot of friends, who I may not have met otherwise. These people have basically become my family. I have never met anyone like them that share my love of music and the process behind promoting and the making of music as well. No matter what genre of music you like, there is at least one concert every summer that someone can find to go to. In the midwest it can be easier and more popular to go to more shows because there are a lot of cities in different states that artists go to, so even if they don’t come to your state you can find another city close by to travel to. I love going to concerts because a...