Week #5- Introduction to Social Media Marketing- Ch. 4

This week I also read Introduction to Social Media Marketing, chapter 4. This chapter was all about Facebook ads. Facebook ads are so important to businesses of all sizes. Big or small, you can have a Facebook ad. I believe Facebook ads are the most important type of ad, because they are seen by so many people, even if they don't think so. People watch videos all the time on Facebook, and usually within the first 30-45 seconds they play an ad in the middle of the video. Even if you don't have anything that you're selling, you can still make a Facebook ad. In this chapter Kelsey writes about how he wasn't selling anything, but he still made an ad to try and get people to read a story he wrote. The great thing about Facebook ads is that, you can see so much different information about the ad and how many people it reached and things like that. You can also target ads on Facebook to certain audiences.

This picture is a picture of what I would see scrolling through Facebook. This is one of the ads I would most likely click on because it talks about millennials, and I am a millennial. Also on the right side of the picture there are two other ads. One has pretty jewelry (I like pretty jewelry) and the second one is wiper blades (I'm not going to look at that one). I think Facebook ads are great. The amount of times I'm scrolling through Facebook and stumble upon an ad and actually click on it, is a lot. I'm usually the type of person who hates ads, but when I see cute clothes being promoted on Facebook, I can't help myself not to click on it. I love shopping, so Facebook ads can be dangerous for me, because I'm one of those people who will not only click on it, but I will usually end up buying something on the website it takes me to. And that's exactly what these marketers for these companies, are trying to do. They want the best picture on the ad so that it draws in the buyers, and I think that is awesome because I see it really working in my own life.

Week #5: What Color is Your Parachute- Ch. 3

This week I read chapter 3 of What Color is Your Parachute. Every week I believe that he is so powerful when he writes and he is super positive about everything. In this chapter he discusses how job interviews are like dating. Both parties are kind of like "do you like me?", "is this going to work out", "do you want to go steady?" But when you think about that, that's how it works. You go into the interview process wondering if the employer will like you and if you will like them. Then at the end, they may ask you if you would like a job there, just like you would ask someone to date you. 

He also talks about how you are not as powerless as you think. No matter what situation you are in, there is always part of it that you can control. This women he talked to had MS and she was saying how she wasn't in control of any of it, but he said yes you are there are some things you can control. Within the next few weeks she was free of all symptoms. 

He goes on to talk about how you are not powerless in your job hunt as well. If you really want to get a job and really need to get a job, you will. He talks about how there millions of jobs that are unfilled each month across the U.S., and even when they are millions of jobs filled that month, at the end of the month there are still millions of open jobs on the market. He says if there is that many job openings every month than why don't we always have a job? And that's what the rest of the book is going to discuss.

At the end of the chapter he pretty much sums up job hunting. He says it is an art, not a science. Some people are really good at it and some people are just not good at it at all, but luckily there are a bunch of online classes and tools to help us look for jobs. He also says there is not an "always right" way to job hunt or change careers, and there is not an "always wrong" way to job hunt or change careers. Job hunting is mysterious and you don't know how things happen or when things happen. Also if you want a job that bad, it should be like a full-time job. I had a part-time job that I loved, but I wanted to get out of it because I just wasn't making enough money, so when I was searching for a new job in a new field, I was really working at it for a while and went on multiple interviews because it was in a field I have never been in before, and it turns out my hard work has paid off, because now I have a better job in the new field.    

Week #4- Introduction to Social Media Marketing- Ch. 3

This week I read chapter 3 of Introduction to Social Media Marketing, and the main area of discussion for this chapter was Facebook. Facebook is a huge place to market different things, such as yourself or other products. Todd gives you ways to create a page on Facebook that can really help you get noticed by different kinds of people.

In Social Media Marketing class last week, we had to make our own Facebook pages. We all made a digital marketing page and we had to post our blogs to it. I would definitely recommend making a Facebook page for your blog or just anything you want to get more attention with. Before I posted it on my page and my own personal Facebook page I had maybe 4 views on my blog, (they were all probably just me), and once I posted it to the page I had 200 views on my blog. Every blog since is getting more and more views too.

I think Facebook is a fantastic way to get people to see things and help people to learn about whatever the page is about. Facebook is also really good about telling you how many people have seen your page and how many likes you have and a lot of the details someone who is managing a page would want to know. Facebook obviously also has its ways of making money for themselves, so if you actually want to pay Facebook, they will promote your page even more. There are a lot of things online that will help you to promote your items, Facebook is pretty cool!

Week #4- What Color is Your Parachute Ch. 2

This week I read chapter 2 of What Color is Your Parachute, and it was actually very interesting. The main thing that was discussed in this chapter was how to build your resume. He gives really good tips on what to put on your social media profiles as well. Social media is super important when job hunting because an employer can type your name in on Google, and your Facebook page, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube page and everything. It's nice and it could also be very hurtful to some potential job seekers. Since they can see everything you post you should be careful about what you post or at least make those pages private, so not every single person can see what you post.

He discusses a lot about keeping pages such as Twitter and LinkedIn up to date. This is important because employers are looking for people who are qualified to do jobs and if their profiles are still from when they worked as a line cook at McDonald's during high school, no employer is necessarily going to want to hire that person. He gives good insight on what to actually put in your profile. Some things such as Responsibilities at a certain job that you previously had. This was interesting to me because I used to be a manager at a shoe store and I had many big responsibilities that I would never even think to have included in my LinkedIn profile. This book has definitely given me a lot of helpful tips and tricks on how I should be job hunting now.

Week #3- Introduction to Social Media Marketing Ch. 2

This week I read Chapter 2 of "Introduction to Social Media Marketing" by Todd Kelsey. In this chapter he discuses blogs and then says how to edit videos on YouTube. People upload videos to YouTube constantly. I've uploaded a video before, and I'm not tech savy at all. Many people do this because they have vlogs. A vlog is a blog in video form. So instead of reading everything I'm writing here, you would just listen to it instead and see me in the video. There are a lot of vloggers out there on YouTube, some just do funny videos, some do makeup tutorials, and some do exercise tutorials. There are a lot of different things you can do as a vlogger.

This is one of the vloggers that I follow on YouTube. His name is Joe Santagato. He just creates funny videos and he is just a funny guy, and he gets paid to do this. Companies can sponsor your videos and that's how people can make a living from YouTube. It would be awesome to have a vlog someday, I just don't think I have the time to keep up with filming and editing. YouTube is very helpful in terms of learning how to edit your videos. This book also goes into a great detail on how to sign up for YouTube and how to just start a simple blog and how to add screenshots to your blog. All of these tips are very helpful to new bloggers like me. 

Week #3- What Color is Your Parachute Ch. 1

In the book, "What Color is your Parachute?" by Richard N. Bolles, he discuses 7 ways the job market has changed since 2008. He gives really good tips and tricks on how to get ahead in the job searching field. He pretty much says that it was a lot easier to get a job before 2008, and now its harder and a lot people are spending a lot more time searching for jobs than before. People coming straight out of college, before 2008, had an easier time getting jobs right away then people my age. There weren't as many advanced degrees like there are now. We didn't have to go to school for 8 consecutive years to get a decent job. With my degree I can't do anything with a Bachelor's degree. I automatically have to go on to a Master's program. There are certain fields that are like that, and that's why Bolles says that it takes so much time to search for jobs now.

The amount of skills a good candidate needs for a job now is astounding. Full time jobs are becoming less and less. More and more people are searching for part-time jobs. The amount of jobs are dropping simply because of artificial intelligence or robots that are doing jobs that humans used to do. He also says that job hunting is becoming more of an online thing now, which most things are. So instead of flipping through a paper you should go online and look for jobs.

Week #2- Artifical Intelligence

I've recently read an article called, Don't Delay, No One Can Say (How Soon AI Will Take Jobs Away), this article is about Artificial Intelligence or AI. What it basically means is that robots and computers are going to take most of our jobs one day. This could be a little alarming for people who are in certain fields that can be replaced by computers, which right now, is me.

As a student in college I have a part time job as a bank teller at a bank. At the bank, they have not upgraded their systems in a very long time, everything is very outdated. I have a couple other friends that work for different banks than I do and they keep telling me that they are getting rid of their tellers and everyone is becoming a universal banker. A universal banker is pretty much a personal banker and a teller all in one. Another reason this is nerve wracking for me is because banks are integrating a system that pretty much gets rid of deposit slips and withdrawal slips it just does everything for you. There are no more drawers that you put your money in, just big ol' machines that do everything for you. ATM's are getting pretty sophisticated now too, you can pretty much do everything at an ATM.

There are pros and cons to having robots and computers that do everything for you, and there are pros and cons to humans that do certain jobs. As a bank teller, human error plays a big role in why they are getting rid of the tellers. Being a teller is a huge responsibility, but on the other hand computers can make mistakes. Technology fails at some points.

The field I want to go into is Clinical Social Work, so I am really not too worried about AI taking over that field. There is no way that AI can be an effective way to do therapy, especially with mental health. Human to human contact is crucial to the helping profession. So I'm not necessarily nervous about not having a career in a few years. If I had chosen to stay in banking, I would be a little bit more nervous about it.