B10 - Social Media Access and Equity

 Two more weeks of school! Insane, I didn't realize it until someone told me last week. This semester has flown by. I've really enjoyed all of the classes I have taken this semester, and after switching majors, I can fully say that business marketing was not for me. I'm sad to be leaving for the summer, but only a few people I know are staying in Chico. I'm nervous and excited-ish to go back home to San Diego. But I'm very excited to come back because I think next year will be very VERY fun. Anyway, let's get into today's topic: social media access and equity. 

Social media is the talk of the town right now. Over the past few years, social media boomed, which has created so many outlets for businesses and creators to showcase their ideas and products. When we look at the fashion world, magazines are constantly posting on social media and trying to gain a bigger audience than other magazines. Social media is a popularity war, to be the most followed, the best content, most products sold are just some of the pressures that are talked about in the social media world. By the lack of access to social media, I feel like there isn't that big of a difference unless you are a business. If you're a business that doesn't have social media, then you are probably not getting a lot of attention from different people. When I deleted social media for a few months, I felt disconnected, but at the same time, I felt very free. Not having to worry about missing something, and worrying that I'm missing a trend or out of date with culture was a nice feeling. I remember I was sitting at a restaurant and everybody in the restaurant was on their phone besides me, scrolling on Instagram and whatnot. I feel as though social media is just a way to make people feel comfortable and less alone. But my question that I will leave you with is when does social media get to be toxic? 

B09 - Social Media and Education

 Hey everybody! I hope you are doing well and staying cool. This week was a hot week for Chico. This is my first year here, so I'm nervous to see how hot it gets. Anyway, today's topic is social media and education. This is a fascinating topic that I got to learn about over the past week. As a society, we are constantly on our phones, looking up ideas and questions, and trying to pass the time. In the world of social media, it is tough to make sure the content you are watching/listening/reading about is true. There are a lot of accounts that just focus on one specific niche. For example, I have plants in my apartment, and instead of grabbing a planting book or looking up questions I had on the web, I go to social media accounts like TikTok. There are over a dozen accounts that focus on plants and planting. Although I do not fact-check, I look at the comments and see if anyone is experiencing the same issues or challenges I am facing. That is where I look to see if people are having the same problem and see if they were able to save their plants. There is so much content for everybody, although I don't think it's a good place to get all your information, especially news. I think social media is a great place to find people with similar interests and people who have great ideas. So my question that I will leave you with is, Do you believe that we can learn from social media? 

B08 - Brands, Marketing, and Advertising with Social Media

 Hey Guys! I hope you are doing well! This week has been super busy for me already, and it's MONDAY! For this week,  I'm going to talk about brands and marketing on social media. Look, almost all brands have their own social media, so there is a lot of competition in marketing products nowadays. It's hard to grow an audience, especially if you are a new product on the line. One of the most beneficial ways to get your products out is to have someone with a platform on an app promote your product. This would be beneficial for any company because it puts their product on the map! Marketing and advertising is everywhere on our screens, radio, billboards, and sometimes in the sky. It's hard to build a brand when you don't have someone monitoring your posts. It's important to either have someone running your advertisement section or make sure that you can devote your time to getting your product out there. There are many strange ways companies try to get their product out. For example, Nutter Butter the cookie brand, they started posting content that didn't have to do anything with the cookie itself. Companies will find a way to get a viral moment, and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't work. If we look at the company Lemme, which is a supplement company that Kourtney Kardashian started up. Her marketing team ensures that the content they put out is relevant and shares their product well. They also have Kourtney as their face, which is a good marketing strategy because people like to watch her. Another great example of advertising is the energy drinks companies that come on campus, like Reign, Monster, and Redbull. They all come onto our campus and give out free drinks to get the students to buy them. I think this is a great strategy, especially when you are trying to showcase a new flavor or want more people to purchase their own cans. I think advertising is going to only increase, especially since technology is constantly advancing and changing. 

B07 - Business and Social Media

 Hey everybody, I hope you guys had a great week! This week was fun. Some of my friends left for NYC for Model UN, so I got to spend some time with them before they left; good luck to them this upcoming week at their conference! 

For my topic today, I wanted to talk to you about how businesses use social media. This is a topic I feel like I can speak about. I've worked at a few establishments where I was asked to handle their social media accounts. It's hard to gain an audience when you are a small business. It's important, especially at the beginning of a business's social media journey, to post every day, maybe even twice a day. You want as much engagement as you can so you can make a following quickly. When I look at social media accounts for big corporations like Coke or Tide detergent, they all have someone who is either Gen Z or someone who understands the humor of Genz, and they then gear most of their content towards us. If you look at TikTok, bigger brands often comment on people's posts to make them seem funny with time. A great example of this is Duolingo; their social media account has grown exponentially after they decided to post on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Social media is such an important tool for businesses nowadays, its a way to get their products out the quickest. I would unfortunately say that the newspapers today are social media. Within the past year, apps like TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram have all become heavy users of ads on their home pages. This has become a turn-off for me recently. Almost all of the posts I see on these apps are trying to either pitch some idea to me or try to sell their products. I believe there is a better way of promoting products rather than having them constantly on my screen because it's starting to turn me away from these apps. It's important that businesses now use social media so that they can gain a following.