Instagram In Our Everyday Lives

 Instagram is one of the most commonly used social media platforms in our everyday lives. Whether we realize it or not, many of us check Instagram multiple times a day. From the moment we wake up to when we are lying in bed at night, scrolling through posts, watching stories, and sending reels to friends has become part of our daily routine. Instagram allows us to stay connected with friends and family, follow celebrities and influencers, and keep up with trends happening around the world. 

Owned by Meta, Instagram has evolved over the years. Today, it includes features such as Stories, Reels, direct messaging, live videos, and shopping tools. Instagram is one of the first places I look when I want to see what is trending. Many businesses now rely on Instagram to promote their products because they know that is where people are spending their time.

In our everyday lives, Instagram influences what we buy, where we eat, what we wear, and even how we work out. For example, I have found new clothing brands and restaurants by seeing advertisements or influencer posts on my feed. The platform makes marketing feel less traditional advertising and more like a natural part of scrolling. When someone I follow posts about a product they love, it feels more personal and trustworthy. There is one reason why influencer marketing has become so effective. Instagram also plays a major role in how we present ourselves. We carefully choose photos, write captions, and decide what part of our lives to share. It has ultimately become a highlight reel. While it can be fun, it can also create pressure to compare ourselves to others. Seeing perfectly edited photos can make people feel like they are not doing enough. Because of this, it is important to remember that Instagram often shows only the best moments, not the full reality. 

Overall, Instagram has become deeply integrated into our daily routines. It connects us, entertains us, informs us, and influences our decisions. While businesses use it as a powerful marketing tool, for many of us it is simply part of everyday life. As social media continues to grow, Instagram will likely remain one of the main platforms for shaping how we communicate, shop, and share our experiences. 

Spring Break Softball Trip

As spring break is just around the corner, I am going to tell you guys what I will be doing for spring break and how I am going to prepare. As we wrap up preseason and begin games, softball has requied a significant amount of time and energy. We are constantly practicing, lifting, and trying to balance school work. It has been super stressful but ultimately a blessing. This week, we practiced two days back-to-back at 6 a.m. It was very hard getting up early and trying to go to bed on time while also doing schoolwork. I have also been super sick this week, and I think I have strep, so that doesn't help. 

For spring break, the softball team and I are going to Orlando, Florida. We are going for a week, and we have two games a day. We leave for the airport next Friday at 5 p.m. I am excited to be in warm weather. My whole family is coming aswell! They are staying in a house a few down from where the girls and I are staying. My mom, dad, aunt, brother, and sister are all going. We have ten games the whole week we are down there, and get one off day where we get to spend time with our family. My family and I either want to go to Disney or Universal that day, which I have never been to either. I am looking forward to getting to see my family and spend time with them.

 The upcoming week will be busy and somewhat stressful. I will have to stay up on my school work while having everything packed by next Tuesday. Our seniors gave us a packing list, so it shouldn't be too difficult to pack, but I always overpack. I am ready to be in the sun for a week and not have to worry about school. I believe this week with my teammates will allow us to connect with eachother and become closer before the season starts. We should have a good season this year if we all continue to work hard and have a good mindset. I am ready to see what we can accomplish this year! I look forward to sharing an update on how our trip goes and how the games went in an upcoming blog, but that is all I have for now. Whether you guys are going somewhere warm, seeing family, hanging with friends, or just going home for the week, enjoy it!!

Chapter 4: Marketing With Facebook

 In today's world, almost everyone uses social media, and when we talk about social media, Facebook is one of the first apps that comes to mind.  Facebook is still the number one used app in the world. That kind of shocked me because I think teens our age aren't really on TikTok, but the more I think about it, most likely all our parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles use Facebook in some sort of way. People use Facebook to connect with friends, watch videos, shop on Facebook Marketplace, or even just follow people and brands they enjoy. Since so many people actually use Facebook, it has become a good place for businesses to market their products. According to the book Stukent, the most active age group of Facebook users is 25-34. The text also states that Facebook has approximately 3.07 billion users, with 43.3% identifiying as females and 56.7% identifying as male. These statistics show why Facebook continues to be a powerful tool for businesses. 

Something that has personally stood out to me within this chapter is how Facebook works for business. We talked about things like creating a Facebook page for your business, understanding certain things to write on your posts, and the different types of posts. This chapter emphasizes how we can use Facebook as a tool and not just a personal social media platform. 

In Section 5, it talks about how to build an audience for your Facebook viewers. Some strategies to help grow your audience effectively would be to invite personal contacts like your family and friends,  optimize your digital presence, run promotions,  use paid advertising, and create shareable content so that your posts can be reached by anyone who wants to see them. Learning about these strategies is a nice starting point for anyone who is trying to grow an audience on Facebook.  Learning about these approaches helped me better understand how businesses can increase visibility and engagement. 

As we continue to learn about different Marketing strageties across social media platforms, I am excited to gain a deeper understanding of how each social media page works better and how to use them effectively in my future career. 

Adjusting After Break: Finding Balance in a New Semester

As we all may know, going to a school far away from home or in an environment you are not used to can be difficult. My first semester at Ohio Northern was awesome. I got to experience fun things and meet new people. Then Christmas break hit, and I spent a whole month at home. Being home for that long after not being home for basically four months had made it very hard to come back. My roommate left because she wasn't playing softball anymore, and we were going to hit season hard right when we got back. I am also someone who loves the warm weather and summer, so I am definitely a victim of getting sad during the cold, snowy days. 

Ever since coming back from Christmas break, it has been harder for me to adjust to a schedule. When we came back, like I said, we really hit softball hard and have been ever since. I love being busy and being on a schedule, but for some reason, this semester has been harder for me than last. With that being said, I was able to see my family on Saturday, and it was much needed! We have been super busy with softball since we are now in season, but we had an off day because it was Valentine's Day, and I was able to go out to lunch with my family. It felt so nice to be able to catch up with them and forget about everything else that is going on. 

I live almost three hours away, so we met up at a Mexican restaurant a little over halfway on Saturday. I was able to see my mom, dad, brother, and my brother's girlfriend. After we all ate, we went shopping for a little bit and ended up getting Starbucks. I got back home later on Saturday and went to bed early because we had to be up early for our scrimmage against Defiance! I am super glad I got spend time with my family. I think that was exactly what I needed. 

I am glad that the weather is starting to warm up this week, even though I am sure it will be freezing again in a few days! I bet some of you can relate to being happier when it's sunny and hot outside! If anyone knows how I feel and needs advice, the one thing I would say is to live in the moment. I tend to get so worked up about the future and what it holds instead of living in the present and enjoying the little things!! The simplest things, like going to spend even a few hours with your family, can make you realize how loved and cared for you truly are. 

Social Media Strategies

 In today's blog, I will be talking about what I found interesting in Chapter 3. Something we talked about and did an activity in class on was making an Audit. I never knew what an Audit was before talking about it in class. To compose an Audit, there are a lot of different steps. Stukent states that "Social media listening is the process of monitoring the internet to determine what is said about a particular brand, topic, or industry." After Paige and I looked up Starbucks and their views, likes, followers, and comments, it gave me a different perspective on looking at social media posts. 

Most of us just "doomscroll" on social media without looking at the key details of a post. Personally, I have never spent time looking at a certain way someone makes a caption, or how frequently they post. After looking up Starbucks, there were a lot of repeated patterns across all of their social media pages. Something that really stood out to me was how companies have a strategic plan for their posting days. On Instagram, Starbucks posts at least once a day and sometimes multiple times a day. On TikTok and X, there were posts being made every few days that were not as consistent, and on Facebook, Starbucks was posting every day. This was interesting to me because I have never looked at the frequency of posts from certain companies. 

Another way to conduct an Audit is to use the SWOT method. This consists of the certain brands' Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. When we looked at Starbucks, some strengths were that there is a strong brand recognition, and they are loyal to their customers. Some weaknesses were the high price points and cultural differences in global markets, some opportunities were more products, and lastly, threats were prices and certain health concerns with products at Starbucks. I enjoyed looking at each of these details on Starbucks social media pages to find out specific information about the brand itself. Looking more into having certain social media strategies and the way they are advertised is something I will start paying more attention to, rather than just scrolling past a post. 

As we continue to read about social media strategies and next week's chapter that talks about certain platforms and the way they use the market, I am excited to learn more about the way these different media websites have strategies for their own business and how I can use this information in my future. 

The Reality of Sports

 Hey guys! In last week's blog, I mentioned how packed this upcoming weekend would be for the softball team. Today, I will be talking about how the weekend went and our experience. We first started off on Friday evening, practicing from 5:30 to 7:30. After practice, we met our recruits and all went to WOW to eat. It was a great way to meet everyone and get to know each other. The recruits were from Hawaii and California, so it was nice to ask questions about their everyday lifestyle. After we ate dinner, we showered, and all the freshmen played Uno with the recruits. We were able to connect with the recruits and make them feel welcomed. Most of the girls were exhausted from their travel day here, so we went to bed at a decent time. 

The next morning, we had to get up for a tournament that we hosted. The tournament was played by 16u girls. It was from 9am to 7pm, and we all had time slots for when we had to work. I worked from 2pm to 7pm. I worked the t-shirt stand and ended up umpiring one of the games! After the tournament was played, we all spent time talking together and eating dinner. The recruits got to take photos in uniforms and were able to eat with us, and three of them committed! After the long night, I ended up going back to my room and getting ready for bed. I studied a little for my bio exam and tried to go to sleep as early as possible. On Sunday, we had to get up at 6am. We held a camp for high schoolers interested in playing here at Ohio Northern! It was exciting. There were around 70 girls, and the camp lasted from 9am to 2pm. The pitchers arrived first and were able to get some reps in. Then, everyone else showed up. We split into groups, and so did the players. They showed off their offensive and defensive skills, plus at the end, they scrimmaged.

After the long day, I came back to my dorm and took a nap. When I woke up, I continued to work on homework. This semester is going to be busy for me, so I need to be able to find time to balance my school work and softball. I had fun spending time with my teammates, meeting the recruits, and talking to new people at our camp. Although our weekend might have been busy, I was able to meet new people and make memories that I'll never forget. 

Trying New Things

 Hey guys, welcome back to my blog!! For this week, we had to make a podcast with someone who is in the social media field. When we first got this assignment, I wasn't sure if I knew anyone who worked in social media. As I talked to my parents about this, they contacted me with Nicole. Nicole runs the social media page for a company my dad works for, Beaty Construction. This company is exactly what it sounds like: a construction company. Now,  you guys might think, why is there a social media page for a construction site? After talking to Nicole, I found out a lot about different ways to use social media. Nicole told me that LinkedIn is a huge social media platform that they use to give updates on certain job sites and to post their newest accomplishments. For this week's blog, I am going to touch on some key points Nicole told me about wanting to start a social media page and different tips and tricks you can use to accomplish that!

One of the questions I asked Nicole was "What advice would you give students, or people who are starting small businesses, about using social media effectively and responsibly?" Nicole told me not to overthink it. Pick the platforms that make the most sense, try out all the platforms and see which ones perform better, and find out what stories you want to tell for your brand. She said to be authentic to your brand and put out stuff your brand needs to get the right viewers. She also said to stay professional and to be true to yourself, and that you don't have to fit in with all the social media trends. I think this is great advice for anyone who wants to do social media. Because of today's society and the way people portray themselves on social media, it could be intimidating to start a page or even work for a company. 

After talking to Nicole, I have realized you can do a lot of different things with social media. I am a communications major, and the social media aspect of the degree I am in is something I am very interested in. Nicole has opened my eyes to many opportunities and ways you can go beyond a certain degree. I am glad I got to try out podcasting for the first time and to be able to connect with someone that I didn't know before. Fun fact, I have always wanted to be a YouTuber, so being able to even talk to someone else in a podcast form was very interesting to me. Nicole stresses to ultimately be yourself when trying to start a social media account or when helping a company out. Many people can evolve and grow when not just trying to follow society's social norms. I hope you guys enjoyed some advice from Nicole, and I hope to implement this in the future!

Link for Podcast https://kjannings.podbean.com/e/social-media-from-a-construction-view/

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

 Hey guys! This week starts my first week of in-season practice for softball. I am super excited to get back into the swing of things and to get on a schedule. Yesterday, we had our first practice from 10:30 to 1:30. It was nice to practice with my teammates and start the month off strong. 

During practice, our main struggle was having focus and communicating with one another. Last week we had a mental workshop that focused on the mental side of sports rather than just the physical. If you play a sport, you understand the long seasons, hard practices, and the pressure you put on yourself. This workshop allowed us to understand on a deeper level the true meaning of getting to play a sport at a collegiate level. All sports, but especially softball is a mental sport. You fail more than you succeed, but being able to get back up and have confidence that your team and teammates will have your back is what truly matters.  

The workshop gave me a different point of view on how to deal with the mental side of not just softball, but life. It reminded me that it is okay to fail. The past few days I have told myself that I get to have this experience and to be grateful for it all. Being able to practice all together again was a great feeling.  At practice we mainly worked on bunt coverage and situational plays. We also scrimmaged for a few innings. After practice we talked about what we could work on for upcoming practices and what we need to focus on for the rest of pre-season. We came to the conclusion that we need to have more focus and communication. Having focus during practices and games allows our team to be able to execute when we need to.  I am excited to get a routine and start the season. This weekend we are hosting recruits from California and Hawaii. We also have a tournament being played here on Saturday and a camp we have to run on Sunday. I know we will be busy, but I am excited to see our recruits and introduce them to what Ohio Northern has to offer. This week we are practicing on Wednesday and Friday, but next week we start every day. As school and softball are going to get busy, I am going to keep reminding myself to have fun and enjoy my college experience! 

 Overall, I think that if we go into practice every day with a good mindset, we will have a great season. If we practice being focused and communicating, we should be able to accomplish everything we want to, while still having fun and enjoying the little things.