End of the Semester

Wow, the end of the semester is just around the corner. The semester has been crazy and gone by fast. It had its ups and downs, but I have survived. I only have to take two finals and turn in final projects to complete this semester. Next semester will be nice because I am taking fewer credit hours which is much needed. Since beginning college, I have taken 17 to 18 credit hour, next semester I am taking 15. I am so excited for that!

Even though the semester is dying down, I have been crazy with finishing up final projects. My friends and boyfriend have been helping me stay calm and to still have fun. We have gone shooting a few times, seen movies and even went and saw drive through Christmas lights.

One thing that was really exciting was my sorority had their Big and Little ceremony. I got to welcome a G-Little to the family. If you are wondering what a G-Little is, it is a grand-little. My little received a little. She is a perfect fit for our family and we were both excited to welcome her in!

It goes me, my g-little, my little
(from left to right)

My sorority also had a 24-hour fundraiser for a little girl that lives in town who has cancer. During the 24-hour fundraiser I decided to craft an orniament for my grandma. I used a  burnt out light build to make. Now I did not come up with this idea by myself, Pinterest helped a little. I think my grandma will really like it. 

Well, finals week is finally her. I only have to go in for two finals but they are at the end of the week. At least I have a few days to study for them or maybe I will just sleep. 

To cheer anyone up during this finals week, her are some interesting M&M's from a drive throught Christmas light display:

Also for those who find things getting destroyed relaxing, her is a slow motion video I took of my boyfriend shooting some bottles with a shotgun.:

Have a great rest of the semester everyone! 

Class Readings

I have read three different books for one of my classes. They all dealt with social media in different depths. Real-Time Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, Share This, and Measure What Matters by Katie Delahaye Paine are the three books that were read for the class. All the books were insightful and gave different perspectives for how companies look at social media and use it.

I would say, though, the one that I learned the most from was probably Share This. All the chapters were written by different experts in different areas of social media and public relations fields. It gave me insight that I probably would not have learned till entering the workforce. I know I will keep this book for life and will refer back to it when I need a reminder or some more insight. Social media is always changing, but sometimes it is good to go back to the basics. Real-Time Marketing & PR is similar to the same reasons. The only difference was that all the chapters were written by the same person. The book also had some entertaining examples that kept my attention.

The one book that I did not care for so much but was still good was Measure What Matters. I felt after reading the first chapter, I felt like the rest of the book repeated itself. They mention the same seven steps in every chapter just for different companies. It was nice to know how different companies would use the seven steps, but at the same time, it got tedious to keep reading it over and over again.

All the books were good reads. I recommend them to anyone who wants to learn more about public relations and social media.

Trending on YouTube

A quick little article was written about the new trending tab on YouTube. The tab is for videos based off of their algorithm that will go viral. The list is updated regularly and everything is considered on why those videos will become viral. 

Now I think this is interesting. This is making me wonder if it will get the right videos that will go viral. Everyone has different taste so not all the videos in the trending tab will actually go viral. Also, I wonder how many people will actually enjoy using the trending tab. People like to think they started a viral video because they found it and showed it to their friends. In turn, the friends show it to other people and it slowly becomes viral. 

I do believe this is a good idea and will become popular, but at the same time, it just shows how much more we are becoming dependent on social media and technology. The question is, do we really need a trending tab on YouTube to show us the videos that will become viral or can we not just decide for ourselves.