My Semester with Aggie

As a person born right in the awkward period of time directly after the millennials, but old enough to remember a time when technology didn’t dominate life, I figured I was relatively well versed when it came to social media. I had lived to see the glory days of things such as chatrooms, Skype, Instant Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, MySpace, Snapchat and even Pinterest. I grew up for most of my early life in a technological lull. Technology was mainly used in the business and government fields, and hadn’t yet latched onto the general public. Being and individual who grew up with these social media platforms being initially released, I figured I was practically an expert. This misconception was what lead me (as well as the need for a general education filler) to enroll in the course “Principles of Social Media” at Ohio Northern University. It was in this class that I would come to know Aggie.

The first impression that I had of Dr. Aggie was “Wow this is different than an engineering faculty member!”. She was very personable and welcoming to us new students who had picked her class thinking that it would be an easy A, or for actual credit towards a PR degree. Aggie started class by stating that there was a pretty good chance that half of the class would be gone before the withdraw date set by the university. In the most bubbly and polite way possible, she told us unsuspecting students that we were going to have to work for that “A” we all wanted. The brunt of the work for this class are the blog posts that are required to be done. Every week students were to write three blogs in AP format following that guideline that one of them pertained to Public Relations or Social Media, one pertained to whatever reading assignment was given at the time of the blogs and one blog pertaining to any subject we wished to put out onto the internet. As a student sitting in class on the first day of the semester, I hadn’t even read a blog let alone written one, had never written in AP format my entire life and thought I was going to be one of the students that would be gone within the month. However, the blogs were not as horrid as I thought they were going to be. The format they were in was strange to me, but I adapted and overcame the oddity of being a presence on the internet for a grade. The end of the semester became difficult to find topics to discuss for the required 500 word minimum, which, lead to some nights of banging my head off the table trying to think of how to stretch a rant about my capstone project into 500 words. Nevertheless, I prevailed. Aggie’s blogs did not defeat me as I had predicted in the beginnings of the semester.

There were other assignments associated with the class throughout the semester. The main recurring assignment was the AP quizzes that were given once a week to ensure that we were learning at least something about the format we were trying to write in. They were kept on a level playing field though, with the quizzes always being with open access to the web for looking up the questions on the fly. If you knew how to google, or used the recommended AP Style-book website, then the quizzes were really no sweat. There were also several assignments given throughout the class that pertained to the different social media methods we were discussing in class. My personal favorite of these assignments was the Podcast assignment in which my roommate and I were tasked with leading a discussion about current or relevant events. Leading a discussion in front of a recorder is more difficult than it looks, but the experience was all together a unique one that allowed me to learn more about the topic used for the talk. The projects seem like a pain, but they are also grade savers if you aren’t doing too hot on your blogs. All together I believe Aggie built the course to help you succeed as long as you were willing to put the work in. There weren’t a lot of traditional quizzes (two based on readings and in-class discussion) and the work that you actually had to do was actually not too bad if you are good at budgeting your time and don’t procrastinate like I often did. I would also say that the class was a rewarding experience for me as a student in the engineering college. It really made me get out of my comfort zone and forced me to communicate with people who weren’t in my classes or even a similar major. It broadened my ability to establish communication with people of many different backgrounds in order to engage in meaningful conversation. That is not something that really gets focused on in the engineering curriculum, and is something that companies are really looking for currently. I will make sure that the college of engineering most definitely advocates that more students go over to the Freed Center to spend a semester with Aggie like I did. If anything it will be for their own benefit.

Sweet Charity at Ohio Northern

The logo used for ONU's production of
Sweet Charity.

The musical theater department at Ohio Northern University is well known for its Broadway style performances in the area surrounding Ada. The Freed Center for the Performing arts hosts two shows per academic semester. One performance takes place in the Stambaugh Studio Theater, and is usually a smaller production or play. Later on in the semester, the students take to the main stage in the Biggs Theater to put on a larger and much more elaborate production. These shows can range from the obscure such as Lysistrata, or the Broadway classics such as Anything Goes or Chicago. This years ambitious production was a run of the 1960’s musical Sweet Charity. The show centers on the story of a young girl struggling to live in New York City. She is down on her luck as the story begins, being robbed of all of her savings from working as a “Dance Hall Hostess” to a man with whom she was having an affair. The line of the story introduces us to Charity’s colorful coworkers, a film star who takes charity into a nightclub to make his lover jealous and most importantly we meet Oscar. Oscar is a painfully shy and awkward man who Charity meets at the YMCA. The two really hit it off when they are trapped in the elevator of the YMCA and begin dating. The story twists and turns throughout, and ultimately comes to the point where Oscar proposes to Charity. On the eve of their wedding day, Charity says her goodbyes to her “little gang” at the Fandango Ballroom and leaves with her fiancée. After an argument that ends their engagement, Oscar accidently pushes Charity into the Central Park Lake, and runs off. Charity then hauls herself out of the lake, and proclaims that maybe her life is turning around because she at least still had her money this time.

The Freed Center for the Performing Arts at
Ohio Northern University

Ohio Northern’s production of Sweet Charity upheld to the original script of the show under the direction of the theater arts department’s own Courtney Kattengell. With music done under the watch of the Freed Center’s own Michael Jordan, lighting done by Kathleen DeVault, costume design and management done by Ameera Ansari and the production’s elaborate set constructed under the supervision of Brian Phillips by the Freed Center Stage Shop. The casting and rehearsal process for the show began early in this semester, and concluded on the opening night of the show on Thursday April 19^th. The show ran for a total of five performance on main stage in the Freed Center. The show in my opinion was run very well. The parts that personally impressed me the most was the band and also the complex transitions of the scenery carried out by the cast. The platforms used in every scene were incredibly large, and required to be moved and rotated for every scene change of the show. The musical accompaniment to the singing and dancing of the actors was also very well done. The actors performed the show spectacularly from the complex and risqué dance numbers to the several characters that were played by each of the cast. Walking in to the show, I was not sure that I would like the show based on the limited knowledge I had of the plot. However, the cast at Ohio Northern University put on a performance that kept me interested through the entire performance and made me a fan of Sweet Charity.

Reinventing a Reputation: Buick’s New Look

The 1970 Buick Skylark (above) in
comparison to the 1970 Chevy Chevelle
(below).

When you here the brand name Buick, the first thing that comes to mind is most likely the image of an elderly person driving a car 25 feet long in the slow lane. For years, Buick has suffered the stigma that their cars are built to cater mostly to a more “mature” crowd. However, this was not always the case. Up until about the 1980’s, Buick was considered a high performance car company competing with the likes of the Chevrolet Chevelle, Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger. They even were part of the original muscle car movement on the 1950’s. Buick released cars such as the Roadmaster and Riviera with the General Motors big block V8 engine. Their cars competed with cars such as the legendary Oldsmobile 88 and the Ford Fairlane. The Buick brand was such a powerhouse at the time that their cars were even featured in the first Nascar races.  The Buick muscle car line was marketed as the “gentleman’s muscle car” and sold in vast quantities due to their superior quality to Chevrolet, and affordability in comparison to Lincoln and Cadillac. With this superior reputation it begs the question “What the hell happened to Buick?!”. Well to be frank, the 1980’s was the nail in the coffin of the muscle car era with increased prices on gas as well as increased regulations from the government due to environmental concerns. By no means am I saying that the environmental regulations established by the government are bad, but they made the cars of the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s ugly, slow and overall unsatisfying to drive. That is where the stigma of the “old person” Buick originated. Now that we are in the second decade of the 21

The Buick Lesabre from the "Old Person" Buick era.

The new 2018 Buick luxury lineup.

Around 2010, the Buick motor company began to slowly revamp its product line towards a more sporty and sleek crowd. Their cars began to boast new features such as Bluetooth connectivity, adaptive cruise control, heads up display and all of the other cutting edge technology that is offered by General Motors. Their cars have also begun to cater more toward a younger crowd that wants all of the goodies of a luxury car with the performance of a sports car. Their flagship sedan the Lacrosse boasts the high output v6 engine that is put in the base model Camaro to output over 300 horsepower, and propel the two ton sedan from zero to sixty miles an hour in under seven seconds. However, their sportiest additions to their lineup include the reintroduction of the Regal GS as well as a small sports convertible called the Cascada. All of their vehicles now boast a sculpted and leather trimmed interior that was once only seen in high end cars such as BMW and Mercedes. LED accents, heated and ventilated seats, panoramic sunroofs, and tons of chrome accents are also standard on all Buick cars. With this new hard-hitting lineup, the company needed an equally compelling advertising campaign to get the public’s attention. The company decided the best way was embracing the joke that had been made at their expense for decades. They took the “Buicks are for old people” ball and ran with it! Releasing a line of commercials featuring young actors driving the bright new product line, and interacting with senior citizens who exclaimed “THAT’S NOT A BUICK!” as they were ushered towards the vehicles. The ad may have seemed silly at the time, but it worked in terms of getting Buick’s new look into the heads of the public. As a Buick driver, I can personally attest that even after four years that people still come up to my car and exclaim “THAT’S NOT A BUICK!”. It was a silly ad, but it did its job. Buick has since climbed to become a popular brand amongst young consumers, selling in higher numbers than they have in years. With Buick’s increased sales, they have also been tweaking and redesigning their vehicles more often to make them more sleek and appealing to upcoming generations. It will be interesting to see how long this comeback lasts for the company, as well as what they will do with their regained popularity.

What do People Think of You, and how do you Measure it?

An important aspect of running a successful advertising campaign is to first test the waters as to what you should be putting out about yourself. You don’t want to run a campaign meant to call people to action about an issue that your company itself is trying to run damage control on. It would be like BP releasing an ad about their safety track record right in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Tailoring your ads based on public opinion is essentially square one of any successful ad campaign because then you can compensate for any negative media presence. Katie Paine covers two very important aspects that any company trying to run a campaign should take into consideration. That being that a company trying to get their name out there should start with their reputation with the opinions of their community as well as their employees.

The first aspect that Paine outlines is the analysis of the community that surrounds your company. Home is where the heart is, and if the people in your hometown hate you then it will be harder and harder for you to build a positive image for yourself. Several of the steps associated with evaluating this particular metric are incredibly similar to the other “seven step” programs that she drafted for other measurement outreaches. However, one step that stands out because it is specifically tailored for this metric. Paine states that an important aspect of determining public opinion is to determining “Who or What Are Your Benchmarks?”. The main point that Paine emphasizes is that measurement is a “comparison tool”. The best way to tell how well you’re doing is to compare your data with a different set. Paine recommends that you use the data from another town in which your company is present, or “compare yourself to peer organizations of similar size and reputation within the same community”. This sounds like a good method in theory, but I personally find it hard to believe that a competitor is going to provide their sampling data for comparison with another company. And even if they do provide the data, who is to say that they haven’t skewed it before it was sent? In my opinion it sounds like you are putting a lot of trust in a competitor assuming that you are even capable of finding one that is in the same town as you. It would be more trustworthy and easy to use data from your own company at another branch. Comparing town to town could serve as a way to monitor and test different techniques of interacting with the community. This way you serve as your own benchmark, and none of your information is being spread around to the competition. If you are capable of monitoring your community presence in this way, I think it would be the smartest move from a business standpoint. If you’re reverse engineering other business’ profiles for your own benefit, who’s to say that your competition isn’t doing the same thing with your profiles and techniques. I would narrow down Paine’s advice to keeping things as in house as possible to avoid your marketing secrets from getting out.

The Transition from Student Housing to Rental Property or Home Owning

Dorm Room at
Ohio Northern University.

As my senior year in college draws to an end, it is time to start taking steps out into the real world. For four years I have been living in student housing on campus at Ohio Northern University. This exposed me to several styles of living. The traditional dorm style with a prison cell sized room, bunk beds and communal showers was my first experience living away from home. While it was great at the time, and allowed me to make many lasting friendships, I knew from the get go that this was not the way that I wanted to live past freshman year. The next step in my progression here at Ohio Northern was life in a suite. The suites here at Ohio Northern are essentially two dorm rooms that were combined into one living space. This was the first time I had my own bedroom on campus, and also an attached private bathroom. Space for my roommate and myself was still tight, but the fact that we had our own rooms as well as a common room made the living situation much more relaxed. Finally, my junior year I made it to the top of the food chain here at Northern. I was living in an

apartment!

Available apartment layouts at Ohio Northern.

The apartments on campus are nothing overly spectacular. They consist of a living room that sits right off of a galley style kitchen, two bathrooms (for a four bedroom apartment) on either side of the kitchen and four bedrooms about the size of the dorms we once lived in freshman year. The university also provides all of the standard furniture such as a couch, arm chair, dresser, desk and bed frame for the students living in the apartments to use. It wasn’t the Hilton by any means, but it is the closest that I have come to adult living. Living in an apartment setting teaches you a lot about living on your own. For example, you have a kitchen in your living space now. While being able to cook your own meals (or learn to cook for yourself) is great, it also means that you must learn to clean and maintain a kitchen. There will be a lot of hard learned lessons such as when is too long to not take out the trash, dirty dishes accumulate fast and if you don’t clean your oven it will probably be setting off your smoke detectors. The learning curve doesn’t just stop there. Living in a campus apartment also teaches you the scale of upkeep associated with living in a space with three other people. Rooms will get dirty as your schedules get hectic, but all in all it is a rewarding experience if you get to do it with the right people. Plus, living in an apartment is a good stepping stone towards living in your own place. Learning to cook, clean, organize, decorate and sometimes sleep in the same place is pretty much a run at the basics of adult living. You may not be paying taxes, mowing the lawn, fixing leaking pipes or hanging up Christmas lights outside but you still have an entire space to keep up and customize to your own (and your roommates’) liking. It’s most of the responsibility of living in the real world, just without having to pay for your utilities. I would strongly recommend apartment living for any college student before they graduate. That way it’s a little less of a shock when you start moving into your first post-graduation home.

Working Toward a Better ONU

When it comes to running a successful college campus, it is necessary to keep up with the times. A college campus needs to consistently update itself in order to attract perspective students. The updating of college campus facilities and landscaping is key to making sure that students visiting actually want to live on the campus. The academic reputation of a college may be what gets students to the campus, but more often than not the campus environment is the deciding factor for many making their choice of school. For me personally, the campus environment here at Ohio Northern was one of the factors that most attracted me to this place. The university strategically has most of their visits in the late spring and summer time. This is the time of year when campus looks its best and most lively. The fact that Ohio Northern has such an open and airy feeling to it, it makes the university feel like a park than a college campus. Although Northern does have a very attractive campus, there are always things that can be done to make a campus better. Many of these changes are being done for the fall semester of 2018.

McIntosh Dining Hall before renovation.

McIntosh Dining Hall after renovation. 

Ohio Northern has been leading a relatively aggressive campaign to update its campus for future perspective student recruitment. The campaign has mainly been focused on the updating of the existing structures on campus. The first major update to the campus was the renovation of the McIntosh Student Center in the center of campus. The updates started mainly on the student lounges and dining facilities in the building. The old bowling alley that had been abandoned for years was turned into a student recreation and meeting center, and the dining facilities were updated to be cleaner and more modern. The next major improvement to better student life on campus was the creation of a cooperative learning environment on the first floor of the library. The floor was refurbished to include several spaces where groups could meet to study and work collaboratively on projects and assignments. The space was modeled after several other learning environments that were created to better the experience of students on campus. This renovation included the construction of cubicles with large writing surfaces and conference tables for group work, independent areas with expo writing surfaces for individual studying, a large open seating area and a new cafe

 that has alternating hours with a similar one in McIntosh for late night coffee runs. All of these updates were the beginning phases for a face-lift on the ONU campus.

New Engineering Building facade. 

The next stage in the update campaign for the Ohio Northern is a slightly more aggressive and substantial one. The main focus of this stage of the campaign is the construction of the new engineering building on campus. As of April 27^th, the site of the new building will officially become an active work zone. The underground piping for water, power and sewage had been laid the previous year at approximately the same time of year. The next phase is the construction of the building, as the university’s theoretical deadline of the fall of 2019 draws closer and closer. There is also a great deal of other work that coincides with the new building. One is the demolition of the Clark building that stands close to the new engineering facility site. The building will be demolished to make room for a new IT facility for the university. The current Biggs Engineering building will also be undergoing renovation as it the colleges shift to their new buildings. The current engineering building will be given as space to the manufacturing department as well as the psychology department for classroom and laboratory space in order to get them out of their current spaces. This is an especially big advancement for the psychology department due to the fact that they are currently housed in the basement of the Hill building. Their current space is prone to floods in the wet seasons, and several other issues have created a sense of urgency to get the department a new space.  This may mark the beginning for a whole new look for Ohio Northern’s Campus, but only time will tell just how much will change on this small campus.

Measuring what Matters: How to Track your Events and Determine your ROI

One of the most important tasks in PR and marketing is the coordination of events for promotion and the spreading of your company’s reputation. These events can range from anything to large and extravagant galas and presentations to a simple booth at a career or job fair. The important thing about hosting an event to market yourself or your company is to know what you’re going to get in exchange for all of your hard work. This is known as your return on interest or ROI. The best way to determine your ROI is by tracking the event that you either coordinate or participate in.

There are several different ways to determine how effective an event is at getting people talking about you or your company. In her book “Measure what Matters”, Katie Paine provides one of her classic seven step lists that outline her perspective on how to successfully oversee the effectiveness of your presence at an event. The list consists of several obvious steps such as “Define your Objectives” or “Select a Measuring Tool”, but also incorporates one step which I think is very crucial to carrying out a successful analysis of an event. This step being the “Determine You Measurable Criteria for Success” step of the process. This process involves the determining of the stats and metrics that you want your measurement campaign to focus on. Paine provides several examples of metrics and other measurements that can be used in a campaign to determine the effectiveness of an event. These range from “Percent of attendees more likely to purchase”, “Number of qualified sales leads generated “or “Total exposure of key messages in the resulting press”.  The metric that I feel would be most important to monitor would be the presence of your message or slogan in the resulting press releases from an event. Getting yourself into the event newsletter or an article in a newspaper writing about the event spreads your message to even more people than originally anticipated for the event. This spreading of your information can boost the worthiness of an event, and ultimately lead to a rise in sales or referrals. A good example of this would be a catering service for an event having their information shared either in a thank you section of the program for the event, or being mentioned in an article written about the event. A good way for the catering company to measure the business it drums up from the event is to create some sort of promotion associated with it. This way they can track the number of people that are actually doing business with them because of their presence at the event through the code that you have created as it is used. Tracking your sales as well as your media presence due to attending an event are good ways of determining your ROI for attending. The ROI may determine if you decide to again attend this event in the future, or use the resources for other ventures in hopes of reaping more of the benefit.