#Freberg16

Wow! January really feels like yesterday. We have been in the #Freberg16 class for almost the whole semester now and I got to say it might be my favorite class of my college career. Between free food and coffee jokes the atmosphere was always light enough that I felt welcome, and the class was always driven enough to feel engaged. Three parts of this class really changed my experiences. The blogging really opened up a future for me, the guest speakers gave me insights, and the class project gave me real world experience.

Blogging

I’ve had classes where we’ve blogged before, we all have, but this was different. Showing us how to get our post read was something that inspired me. Halfway through the semester after we had developed some blog writing skill I decided to create a blog that I plan to continue into the future. Video games are centered in a field I am passionate about and one that is engaged with blogging. Using this knowledge I am cultivating I can show my work as a portfolio to apply for companies in this field. With constant writing and up to date news I have learned how to showcase my knowledge that will give potential employers an eye into my abilities.

Guest Speakers

Man if we had 3 or 4 speakers this semester I would have been blown away. But, like everything Dr. Freberg does that wouldn’t be enough. Closer to 10 speakers from Team USA, Foodies, GM, and more the connections I have made here are staggering. Whether in person, and with treats, or on Skype it felt like each week a new professional was telling us their story and impressing us. The tips and tricks learned from them are invaluable. I am really interested to see where these new connections and information leads me.

The Class Project

Often I joke around with my friends that this is really a capstone class in disguise. You get the opportunity to work with real world clients and compete against another team to present a social media campaign. Read over that sentence again and tell me that’s not impressive. Working with my team has been a delight, as each member seems as engaged to social media as I am. The ability to bounce of fun ideas between teammates has opened a ton of creative and productive ideas. Culminating in a major [presentation this gives us experience in a real world setting that is hard to find otherwise. The best part? We get to use that presentation in our portfolios for job interviews.

In conclusion I plan on recommending this class to all my friends. I have gained knowledge and skills that I didn’t even think were skills. Connections have been made and teamwork accomplished.

A Crisis is Coming, be Prepared

A crisis can come to any company in any region or market in the world. When one hits your company you better be prepared for it. Preparedness for an unseen event is the key to whether or not an incident hurts, or cripples your company.

Notice the Problems

Congratulations, you’ve already taken the first step. Looking ahead and finding solutions for problems that might happen is the point.  Your first course of action when beginning a crisis plan for your team is to sit down and brainstorm all the things that could go wrong. Anything and everything should be put on the table that might harm your brand. Two immediate benefits are found: Most situations are preventable by some foresight and action, and you begin to envision the best and worst case scenarios to your problems.

Super Team Assemble!

After thinking over potential problems enough you start to realize some recurring characters. These people tend to be your C-suit execs and other high level employees. They should also include your PR team; now if your PR team doesn’t have sufficient experience with crisis management it might be smarter to outsource. Yes this can get expensive but it is better than losing your loyal fan base over a miss tweet. Gather these employees and make them a part of your team. You will need a face of the company for all outgoing messages during this level of crisis, an internal voice leader to educate your employees, response writers, and more if your company is large enough.

Fix Problems and Prepare

Now that you have your team in place for when problems arise now you need to start work on the problems you already know about. Educate your employees on what is and what is not appropriate to communicate about your company. Tell them who to look to for information as they are ultimately each a face of the company. This includes preparing readymade items for crisis. Things such as training a spokespersons, establishing monitoring systems, and developing holding statements are all ultimately helpful for the future.

Post Crisis Points

After you fix and prepare problems don’t forget to look back and see what has worked for you. Starting off with a template is great, but it is important to model your crisis plan after the success you see in your own company. This will lead to more specific forms of crisis management and a better knowledge of what to expect.

5 Top networking Tips

It’s not the grades you make, but the hands you shake. An ever ageing sentence, but absolutely true. Often times the hardest skill to learn (mostly because it is never implicitly taught) and according to Business Insider, Psychology today, and many other high profile business associations. Professionals tend to surround themselves with a circle of those they trust to accomplish things, and introducing yourself is just the first step.

Tip #1 be you

Nothing is worse than meeting someone for the first time and telling that they are bland and sound like they’re reading off a script. What’s worse is if you come off as a sales person just looking for what benefits you. If you are working in your field and truly attempting to do good work it will show by just being you. Not only that but trying to be someone who you’re not will simply stress you out and continue to bring down the conversation.

Tip #2 Find those around you who excel at Networking

These people are what TheWeek calls “Superconnectors”. These are your friends and family that naturally seem to be friends with everyone and always says “I got a guy for that”. People like these gain enjoyment from knowing and being around others. Spending time with them will lead you to meeting others and once you get that ball rolling it gets much easier.

Tip #3 Be a part of, not the whole, conversation

After you’ve introduced yourself you now have to get into that conversation. Many professionals recommend using questions that show your value. Saying “How can I help you” immediately places that you have value and can help whoever you’re talking to. On the other hand you don’t want to over dominate the conversation. If you’re the only one getting a word in edgewise that can be equally as detrimental as saying nothing. These small additions to create a balance are important because often the first impression can be your only one.

Tip #4 Find where everyone is

 

Networking being an ever rising skill, masses of people are meeting and gathering. Look around your sector for industry conventions. If you were looking for the newest best product where would that be located? Often times there you will find the professionals and names you want to cozy up to. Whether it be a trade show, or your local career fair, find where everyone is and why they’re excited to be there.

Tip #5 Don’t let up!

This is my favorite tip to give out because I often find myself yelling at my colleges for not doing this. Once you’ve met someone it is your job to follow up. The person looking to hire you is looking for someone who WANTS this opportunity. Even if you’re not looking for  a job think of the gratification you would feel when after meeting someone for the first time hearing from them again saying how much they enjoyed talking to you. Networking is dating professionals, but without the silly 3 day rule.

Minecraft Update Stuns in Unexpected Way.

Hours before writing this week’s blog I decided we needed to change the subject. Don’t worry, I’ll save it for another time. The reason for the hastily switch came in the form of a text from my friend Eric, reading simply

“Minecraft serve back up, in preparation for Minecraft 1.9”

Immediately I started day dreaming about the lands of Minecraft and possibilities for this new update, which would introduce some amazing new features. Skelton horses, new combat, and many new features to explore. In the next few minutes I, of course, quickly logged back on but what I saw stopped me from actually building anything new.

First thing I saw was my house, and my small kingdom. These were what I expected, and I saw a bit of land I could use to create whatever I wanted. I forgot however about the other 8 friends I played with and their amazing creations. Each place telling a different story of when we complete our own little excursions. Seeing their old homes, ripe with memories I couldn’t help but simply explore the land we had built. Luckily there were train stations we had previously built to get around; I would use it to see all the wonders. With 3 mighty kingdoms and many distant lands I lost myself in our world of creation. This, right here is the reason Minecraft is more than just a game.

It had been almost a year since I last loaded up Mojang’s creation. Let me tell you, it is absolutely crazy what you forget as time goes on. But in Minecraft these memories are stored forever in the landscapes you have created. They don’t go away, only altered as new adventures are had.

Minecraft is the ultimate memory machine and I sincerely cannot wait for the next time, months from now, when I get to relive this trip down memory lane. Only this time with more to see.

Why Your Mascot is Your Rock Star as a Sports Team.

When you are managing a sports team, it is a tossup for what your mascot will be like. You could have something fierce like the Toronto Raptors, or you could have something cuddly like Buddy the Bat. Strong, colorful, smart, dumb, it doesn’t matter what your mascot is so long as it does one thing: Entertains.

For many fans your mascot will be the first thing they think of when they hear your name. Sure, people can tell you that Kobe Bryant is great at basketball, and Tony Romo can throw a football (ok, maybe not the best example). But a smaller number of people can tell you the full roster, or name more than a handful of players on a team. But I bet they can tell you at the least, what the mascot looks like.

You need this mascot, being the face of your team needs to entice and capitalize on your audience. Being the character at a sporting event requires an energetic person and a team to help them, but today were going to talk about how the mascot should be used in your social media to enhance the atmosphere and drive up numbers. This mascot should be the face online as much as they are in person. When interacting with fans they should be the interaction.

Now what do I mean by this? Basically, every event or promotion you should ask yourself “Would this be right to use without mascot?” If you have a theme night, the first thing you should say is “______ the ______ is inviting you out to….” When commenting to people on social media it should be done with the emotions of the mascot. The fact that the face of the team is directly interacting with fans will both get them excited to be a part of the conversation and make this a memory that they can share with others.

In short: Make sure your mascot entertains, Use them!

Games That Left Us Speechless

It’s over, the credits roll, and all you can do is stare at the screen. I am talking of that magical moment in a video game where the narrative, landscape, or even the main theme stops us in our tracks. Today I plan to highlight three of these games and explain why you should be frothing at the mouth to play them. Spoiler free of course.

Dark Souls 1

Never in my life has a game made me question my place in the world more than Dark Souls. This game combines elements of RPG and an atmospheric story telling that just leaves you wondering. With a beautifully fully connected world this game will make you smash your controller over and over while thinking “Maybe if I tried it this way one more time”. Set in Lorderon this game tells you two objectives. There are two bells, one up, one down. Go ring them. That’s it. From there you will be fighting giant hydra, killing Capra demons, and choosing the fate of the world around you. This is a must for any fan looking to sink 50+ hours into.

The Stanley Parable

“To say anything about this game would ruin it”. This is the phrase that often accompanies this originally half-life-2 mod, made into indie game. So if that’s how you want to believe stop here, go buy this game, I promise you it’s worth it. Now that those people have gone I will inform the rest of you. This is a modern criticism of first person games. You play a character named Stanley, and you realize one day that there is no one left in your office. The thick alluring voice of the Narrator peaks in and gives you some light direction. Then you get to the first room, the place you realize this might just be more than a game. You approach two doors, and the Narrator informs you “Stanley walked through the left door”. Simple right? But what happens when you defy the games orders? This game will challenge your conception of art in a video game and leave you wondering if we really have free will at all.

Spec Ops: The Line

War has never seemed so heavy. Taking place in a world where Dubai was lost in a sandstorm your team must enter and locate the last know contact left in the city. Now this game, made in 2012 is a very normal shooter. There is nothing exceptional or special about how it plays in that aspect and may at times seem generic. It’s not bad gameplay but it’s not great. All of that aside where this game really shines is its choice system. Giving your character options to save an operative or save civilians might seem like an easy decision. But your choices may come back to haunt you. This game is very graphic and not for the faint of heart, as this is the closest thing I can compare to PTSD. I truly don’t want to spoil the ending, but know that there are choices that should be made, and choices that get made.

Streaming and Editing

Let’s take a moment to talk about what device you should use to record you gaming footage. When starting here there are two questions you might want to ask yourself. Firstly are you planning on streaming this footage live, or saving it for later. With the rise of streaming tools this has become a larger and larger market for gamers. Then you want to look at what kind of computer are you trying to record on? Until Google one day takes us all over, Mac and Windows are going to be competing with different specs and programs, so it is important to know the main contenders on each.

Let’s look at streaming first. For today’s audience there are so many different ways to find recorded media. Alternatively gaming has centered around two main mediums, Twitch and YouTube. More known for its current service YouTube has tried to get a piece of the pie when it comes to streaming as of late. This includes their recent (August 2015) YouTube Gaming platform. Here you can stream quality videos and follow different games/gamers. It has the added bonus of also having YouTube gaming related videos strewn through. This could be advantageous to the YouTuber who focuses on pre-created content but still maintains a following on his live-streams. It also allows the viewer to stop immediately from streaming to check out their other related content.

However the real powerhouse when it comes to streaming is Twitch TV. A subsidiary of Amazon, Twitch boast the strongest following on the internet when it comes to video game related streams. This is where you will find professional Hearthstone/WOW/Call of Duty/ and every other game players constantly generating content. This site has grown fame over and over again breaking records. This is the site I easily recommend to anyone thinking of getting into online streaming. They offer chat bots to help moderate you’re following and they’re very helpful in advertising. If you want to stream with the best of the best this is where you go.

Now if you’re going to pre-record a video related to gaming you will be very reliant on the hardware you use. The two big players here Adobe Premier Pro and Finalcut Pro have both taken strong stands in the market. Both offer up industry leading editing features and tools. With helpful and intuitive guides online it is easy to achieve a working knowledge with both of these programs. However the draw back here is that both of these tools are slightly expensive and only work on the opposite platforms. So if you’re on mac you won’t be seeing Adobe Premier Pro any time soon. And if you’re strapped for cash you may want to find the cheaper less powerful alternatives.

So now you know more about streaming platforms and which video editing software’s to use if you’re looking at showcasing your games. I know I for one can’t wait to play around with these features some more.

Early Access Games that Finished

Hello there everyone! And welcome to my first blog post regarding video games. The plan is to start here to flesh out some ideas for a future YouTube channel. It’s going to be a ton of fun for all of us, and comments and suggestions will always be welcome. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

For the past few years a growing trend has arisen in gaming. In games, and especially on PC, we have seen the rise of early access games. Early access games are, basically what they sound like. You can purchase the game in an earlier incomplete form, normally for a cheaper price than the final product. In doing so you are supporting the development team with much needed cash to finish their product and you can do (normally) at least the basics of the game. The problem comes when you purchase these games there is no guarantee that they will ever finish creation and could very well go under as a company. So today I am bringing you my 3 top early access games that did in fact release!

Kerbal Space Program

This game is the ultimate space sandbox. Fully releasing in April 27^th 2015 KSP has grown a very strong community of modders and space explorers. In KSP you are mission control for the race of Kerbals (who operate as green versions of the minions from despicable me). These funny little creatures are happy to be shot up again and again (assuming they don’t explode) in rockets and planes that you create from hundreds of parts. With both a career mode and a sandbox mode you can choose whether collecting science and controlling your cash flow or simply getting to the next planet as your objective. With hundreds of worlds to see your first true mission is to get out of the atmospheres, and I won’t be the first one to tell you that is an accomplishment in itself. So if you’re looking for the next game to accidentally take hours of your time away to leave you with stunning visuals and a new found sense of exploration, look no further.

Don’t Starve

Even after hours of playing this game I find myself thinking “holy crap I forgot to eat”. This survival game puts you in the shoes of Wilson, a seemingly average boy who wakes up in the middle of nowhere. You meet a tall skinny man who tells you it’s getting late and too simply, don’t starve. This game is fantastic for its difficulty, artwork, and its ability to tell story through the atmosphere. Your goal in this game is to simply survive. You need to control for your food, health, temperature, and of course sanity. Sanity is a fun mechanic in this game that works near how you would feel if you were alone trying to survive. You slowly lose it as time goes on and the less sane you are the more dark creatures might get you. While there are a couple ways to stay sane, you know you’re best bet is to just pick some flowers. With a rewarding crafting tree you slowly build yourself up to having a home. You might feel safe for a day or two, you collected enough food and now you have a spear for those pesky dogs. Then BAM! You realize you forgot to get fire and now the darkness is driving you mad. If you’re looking for a perma-death survival game that might truly drive you mad, Don’t Starve is where you’ll find it.

Darkest Dungeon

If the idea of keeping one person sane was too much for you, you might have a difficult time in Darkest Dungeon. In a turn-based RPG darkest dungeon explores the other half of your heroic party’s trials in combat. While fighting your way through multiple random generated dungeons you will have to manage each of your 4 party member’s sanity. Slowly as you delve deeper you will see the horrors of this nightmarish landscape set in. Your cleric reads a passage in a book and becomes a kleptomaniac, stealing necessary party resources. Your hound master opens a chest driving him insane and now he yells at your party, driving them all deeper into madness. This is just the tip of the iceberg for what this game has to offer. Atmospheric storytelling, and great RPG elements thrown throughout, this game has been one of my favorite early access titles so far. Fully releasing less than a month ago, Jan 19, 2016, Darkest dungeon is without a doubt a hit to be remembered.

Carolina Weren’t the Only Panthers in Super Bowl 50

Let’s talk today about Super Bowl 50. No not the Broncos vs. Panthers epic clash, Peyton Manning winning his second super bowl ring, or even the funny Super Bowl commercials of pug-monkey-baby. What really dominated the sphere of social media was Beyoncé and her part in the halftime show with her newly dropped single Formation. Tweets saying she “Cuz nothing brings us all together than angry @beyonce shaking her ass@ shouting ‘Negro’ repeatedly” – @michillemalkin and “That’s me standing in #formation the NYC courthouse. I was 16b years old.” -@nilerodgers( One of the founders of the black panther movement).

Releasing the day prior to the show, Formation is Beyoncé’s new single that radiates empowerment. Calling all her “ladies” into formation to become strong independent people. “I dream it, I work hard, I grind till I own it” is easily seen as the main theme of this single. Celebrating her Black American heritage and strengthening the bonds between women, her music video is set in the impoverished areas of New Orleans. Beyoncé can be seen sinking on her car while a young child dances in front of riot police.  The music video was only the tip of the future political iceberg.

The moment you saw Beyoncé begin her part you knew we were in for something good. Wearing a throwback outfit, much akin to Michael Jacksons own 1993 performance, she began her song surrounded by a troupe of female backup dancers all in black. While some were looking at her stunning dance moves, others had their eye on what her and her backup dancers had on their heads. With cut short curly hair all backup dancers had on a black beret. The berets reminded many of the Black Panthers, and the with her to formation, it seemed to be less associated with the empowerment of women than the empowerment of the black Americans.

The Black Panthers movement. For some this group reflects a time when the world wasn’t so fair and young men and women took a stand for what they believed in. For other they see a militant group that hurt their cause as much as it helped. No matter where you fall it is impossible not to associate them with a dark time in our nation’s history. A political party that ended in 1982, it is notably known for being called “The greatest threat to the internal security of the country” by the director of the FBI and setting up Free Breakfast for Children programs across the country.

To me, bringing this controversy into the spotlight is just what Beyoncé wanted to do. Dropping a new song the day before her performance, dressing herself in memory of the king of pop, and having backup dancers look like black panther members are all too big of a PR move to be a coincidence. This is how marketing should be done. She promoted herself, her new formation tour, and brought an importance piece of history to the forefront of our minds. But at worst, at least she wasn’t Cold Play.

In the end I think it is right to quote Formation: “You know you the bitch, when you cause all this conversation.”

Better Your Online Management with Hootsuite

As a company how much time do you think you spend on social media per day? With Facebook, snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Yik Yak, Yeti; the list goes on and on for different sites and apps. As a company it gets tough to manage all these different forms of media. Between going to each site, and coordinating the content/posts it can become a real time drainer or worse effect the quality of what you’re putting out there. Thankfully there are programs out there like Hootsuite.

Hootsuite is a company that since 2008 has been working hard to take away the stress of having as many social apps as your company wants. Appearing as a Dashboard, Hootsuite allows you to create “Streams” of all of your social media pages. It also allows you to post into these different applications from a single source as well. It will even shrink your URL links when you post to clean it up some more. There are currently two different versions: Pro (~1-500 employees) and Enterprise: (500+). With companies such as HBO, The GAP, and the Obama Administration it would be valuable for any future employee to have a background managing with a tool such as this.

Where can one get training in this tool you might wonder, as you may not have yet worked with a company that uses a consolidation program such as Hootsuite. Luckily Hootsuite developed the Hootsuite University for just that reason. For $21 a month you can gain access to training modules that will give you a step by step instruction to the program. Once completing the course you will also have this certification for life. Able to use on resumes and show off to potential clients. In a job market where everyone is constantly trying to get ahead it is very important to pick up niche skills and programs that his service can provide.

To conclude if you are a business looking for the next step in your company or an individual with too little time on your hands you might want to check out Hootsuite. And if you’re even more interested in become the Social Media Guru of the office join the Hootsuite University Program