Zach Likes to Yap

      As the end of the semester is only one week of final exams away, it only leaves me with a moment to reflect amidst the chaos of the culmination of the year. The classes I took this year were not very labor intensive, but gave me huge insights into my own understanding of what I want my future career to look like. The main class this year that really helped me find a sense of purpose outside of my major orientation of psychology was principles of social media. Being a producer who has been studying the landscape of producing and the entire industry as a whole on social media, taking this class has confirmed and corrected many beliefs I had about using social media for brand purposes. Learning the actual terminology and the best ways to get myself out there on the platforms best suited for my goals has been an immense help in boosting my musical recognition online.      When first starting out producing I had no idea what I was doing as it was me and a ...

     As the final week of classes at Ohio Northern University is sitting on the couch making itself at home, the dread of final exams starts to knock on the front door. This time in everyone's college career is very stressful but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Although it is dead week in the eyes of the populace, there is much work to be done that is dreaded by students and myself alike. With our principles of social media class not having a final exam amidst all others it really helps bring the level of stress down. Personally though, this semester has been one of the easiest semesters for me work-load wise as I do not have as much in depth analysis to cover for my psychology major. This is why I think this semester's final exam week is going to be the worst because of the lack of high-octane work this semester, it has turned me into a slacker in some regards.     As the saying goes, 'pressure makes diamonds'. It is the goal to shine like a diamond even whe...

     This semester at Ohio Northern University for my social media minor, I took a class titled Principles of social media where we learned the fundamentals of all the various platforms available for advertisements, promotional posts, organic posts, building a community and fostering engagement towards a specific brand. To help integrate this course material we were assigned a social media sim-ternship which is an online internship simulator that allows you to simulate what it is like to run the social media accounts for a business.     Within this simternship, I was taught many valuable insights about how to craft a post, how to orient a post to reach a specific target audience and how to choose a goal that would be the best for a business in that specific time. Along with being able to create visually appealing and relatable posts on multiple social media platforms, the tools at my disposal give me insights as to when the best times to post on a certain platfo...

     Today, December 5th, is my 21st birthday. Tons of people wait their whole lives up until this point because it carries a heavy weight of excitement and freedom in society. It is seen as a rite of passage for many that marks the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood. Ever since I was 16 and being able to drive I have been talking about reaching this milestone because of the independence I think I would gain. Now that I'm actually turning 21, I realize that there isn't a whole lot of independence gained from being 21 besides being able to purchase alcohol, enter bars and clubs.      Although this is a time for celebration and excitement, it is also a time to reflect upon my life as a whole for being alive for two entire decades. It is crazy to think I am 21, I still feel like I'm 17 in my head most days. I say this is a time for reflection because it is a perfect chance for me to reevaluate who I am as a person and how far I've come to reachi...

    As the semester comes to a close at Ohio Northern University, Thanksgiving break is right around the corner which is a much needed breath of fresh air for everyone involved on campus. The semester is always filled with hectic deadlines while juggling multiple projects, sometimes it can feel like an endless list of responsibilities. Between that, working my part-time job at Five Below and freelancing music online, it is easy to get lost within the mess of responsibility and forget to take it slow and relax some days.      This year I've come to realize how thankful I am for the moments I have in college where I get an extended break because once college is over and I've set into a career job the moments of peace and break will be far and few between. Between my usual responsibilities I sometimes forget the joy of simply being present with my family and friends. This Thanksgiving I hope to embody the true meaning of the holiday and be truthfully thankful to th...

The Social Dilemma on Netflix is a mind-opening experience that delves into the creation of social media as we know it today. The documentary stars many big names in the technology industry like Tristan Harris, the Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology, Tim Kendall, former President of Pinterest and many more talk about how the technology was created to analyze personality traits and online habits to give you the content you would most likely want to see. I'm going to give you my perspective on this eye-opening documentary as a psychology student at Ohio Northern University. The idea that depression and anxiety rates in pre-teens and teenagers nearly tripled about a decade ago makes it nearly impossible to not acknowledge the possible correlation between social media and the increase in these rates. Seeing as people, mostly preteen and teenage girls, are comparing themselves to unrealistic ideals of beauty on social media is very harmful to one's well-being. Th...

    TikTok is one of the most influential social media apps to date as it has inspired over 1.56 billion people to join and create their own content. One thing TikTok has done for small content creators and influencers alike is the innovative advertising and promoting of posts. Within TikTok there are three different ways that someone can promote a post by paying money to push a piece of content into the algorithm. These three tools are denoted as goals in the promote assistant dashboard that enable you to boost an account, get sales and get lead generation. Within these tools there are many choices of engagement a content creator can use to get the results that they are looking for. As a small content creator in the form of a music producer, I personally use the boost account goal when promoting my content.    Boosting an account is by far the most popular choice among small content creators as it allows users to generate more video views, gain more followers or gai...

         Chromakopia is the eighth installment in Tyler, The Creator's sparkling discography. This album is a musical journey that reveals the full extent of Tyler, The Creator’s artistic vision. Following the release of his critically acclaimed albums  Flower Boy and IGOR , Tyler delivers a masterpiece that is as  experimental as it is emotional. This album merges many diverse genres, vivid storytelling and complex transitions that create an immersive experience that pushes the boundaries of modern music. If Chromakopia is a painting, it serves as a start reminder to take your mask off and be true to yourself. 1. "St. Chroma" – A Powerful Opening     The album opens with St. Chroma , a track that introduces listeners to the high-energy and uplifting vibe of the album. The marching band-inspired drums immediately evoke nostalgia for those who were part of the marching band transitioning into a beautiful build-up that explodes into beat dro...

As the semester inches closer to its end, the pressure to perform well on final exams begins to build. The initial excitement of starting the semester has faded and has been replaced by a mixture of stress and anticipation for Christmas break. Along with the stress of finals and other assignments, the weather is going to start getting colder and the days will get shorter which may make someone feel more tired during the day and feel as if they do not have enough time to complete all their tasks. It is important to stay focused and get through the last month of classes to enjoy the month break with no stress.     As the final exams approach, time management becomes an even more essential skill. The end of the semester brings a slew of assignments, projects, and studying for final exams. Balancing these responsibilities while also trying to stay healthy and maintain a social life can quickly become overwhelming. Recognizing that focusing on schoolwork may mean putt...

     YouTube is one of, if not the most popular social media platforms for over a decade. Most people will not see YouTube as a social media though because the content is much longer form than any other platform available. Youtube is still one of the most profitable social media platforms to upload content to and advertise brands within that content. With YouTube being synonymous with television in the social media industry it allows for advertisements to be used in a commercial way just as they have been on television programs. There are many different ways to optimize your YouTube videos to allow for the maximum engagement and possible conversion rate if a YouTuber is sponsored by a brand.     There are many terms that are needed to understand how the layout of YouTube picks videos up. Keywords are always important when it comes to labeling your YouTube video which allows the video to be picked up in the search engines and recommended tab. These keywords shoul...

     With the introduction of the newest addition to the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, Call of Duty: Black Ops Six (or BO6 for short) a lot of my free-time is spent grinding the various challenges within the game's many modes to choose. This Call of Duty compared to other titles in the series has had longer development than those previous. BO6 had 4 years of development, working off of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed Treyarch to focus their efforts on creating the Call of Duty to save the franchise due to sales diminishing further and further with the previous titles in the series. Personally, the Black Ops games have been my favorite since I was a kid. I started playing Black Ops One with my dad which eventually cascaded into it being my favorite game of all time. Particularly within the game's many modes, zombies has got to be my favorite. While mowing down endless hordes of flesh-eating mongrels it is impossible to not feel at peace for me. This will be my informal rev...

    While completing the Pinterest assignment in the Principles of Social Media class I chose a few pins to help better my understanding of social media concepts. In one of the articles connected to a pin,  7 Steps to Mastering Social Media Management , the article gives valuable insights that align with the Stukent textbook for this class. The article associated with the pin outlines the steps for effectively anf efficiently managing a social media brand. These 7 steps are as follows:     (7 Steps to Mastering Social Media Management)          - Identifying ideal customer persona          - Choosing the right platforms for your content          - Creating a content calendar to manage your posts           - Leverage content creation tools using AI          - Scheduling Posts          - Respond to comments and ...

    Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to post with Pins that individuals can find common interest within and share their ideas and creativity. The basis of consumers for Pinterest is slightly different than other platforms with the majority of users being female (%67) and the most common age range being 25-34. Brands can capitalize on Pinterest by using posts varying from aesthetic design to recipe inspiration. Pinterest operates using a home feed that shows the Pins that have been saved by users and which topics and boards they follow to help connect individuals with like-minded people.           Within Pinterest there are three types of Pins that can be utilized to a user or brands advantage. The three types are as follows: Image Pins, Video Pins, and Rich Pins. I will focus on Rich Pins as it is most relevant for a brand's awareness. Rich Pins have allowed information to automatically sync from the parent website of an arti...

    As the calendar year reaches the middle of October, most individuals at Ohio Northern University are in their advising appointments or are waiting for their scheduling date. This part of the year always seems the most relieving to me as meeting with an advisor is considered the midpoint of my semester. This relieves a lot of stress the school year brings as it is only a few months left of classes until Christmas break. This year around I felt more prepared to tackle my future than ever after my advising appointment. My advisor, Dr. Payment, commented on how I was one of her only advisees to be excited when coming to her appointment which gave me confidence in the decisions I was making for the future of my career.      As a Junior I am fairly close to graduating, needing only 25 or so credits after my last semester as a Junior relieves a fair amount of the stress regarding if I will get my degree on time. This also gives me confidence knowing that my time ma...

     Snapchat is one of the most popular social media apps that allows people to connect in many innovative ways. With the innovation of having a camera within the main page of the app it allows people to be more readily available to document their life through photos and videos, especially since there is a tool to add text to the photos and videos. Along with the added functionality of chats that you can send those photos and videos that are deleted unless saved has streamlined modern communication online. Not to mention the addition of the story which allows people to post their photos and videos and have them stay up for only 24 hours. This innovation leads people to be more connected in a far easier and quicker way than any other social media platform.     Along with the many innovations, Snapchat is a great app to advertise and promote your brand or business. Being able to connect with fans and post personal and behind the scenes footage of whatever the bra...

     One of the main reasons for taking this class and soon applying for the social media minor at Ohio Northern University is to be able to understand how to best format my posts to gain traction in my music career. One of my main goals since learning how to produce is to be able to market the skills I have within music production to earn a profit freelancing for various artists. A lot of music production influencers find it hard to be consistent at posting which makes it hard for someone to gain followers and have active engagement from their community. I'm going to detail my story of learning the landscape of social media and finding my place in it as a producer.      About two years ago I started producing music because my dad got me Fruity Loops Studio which is a digital audio work-station because I had a passion for music since a young age being in band. With this I quickly began fiddling with the various tools at my disposal with some help from one o...

    X, formerly known as Twitter, is known for being fast-paced and a live-discussion platform for businesses and casual users alike. After Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion the landscape has been drastically changed to help businesses advertise their services more readily and efficiently. With the nature within the media of X being in real-time it serves as a tool to engage with customers live. Another benefit of this is knowing which tags and forms of media are gaining the most traction at the moment. This can drastically help businesses become more visible when advertising their brand on X.        X is one of the cheapest platforms to promote your business through advertising as it has a built in feature to verify an account to push content into the algorithm more effectively. This built-in subscription has two tiers which have different price points. The first and most commonly purchased verification is the $11 a month Premium verification whi...

    At about halfway through each semester it comes to a time where midterm exams are at the front of everyone's to-do list. This can be a major stress inducer for many especially given that exams are not only in one class but every class. There are many different techniques to utilize to help you be more prepared for the exams ahead.          When preparing for exams I often find myself being anxious and stressed during these periods that stem from me being afraid of not getting a good grade on the exam. While attempting to juggle multiple hobbies and my personal life outside of schooling, it leaves little time in my schedule for studying that adds more stress and anxiety. Developing a strategy to manage your time while studying is one of the most important things to do especially in a college setting. One major thing that I had to accept is the idea of putting off my hobbies and focusing on my schoolwork which goes into how well disciplined I am. ...

With the middle of the semester coming around at ONU there comes a time in everyone's schedule that they must arrange an appointment with their advisor to schedule classes for the upcoming semester. With that being said, my appointment will be withi n the next two weeks and there are a few tips and tricks I have learned that may be beneficial if you are struggling to find the right classes that fit your career goals. Personally I am a Psychology major with plans to take on the Social Media minor to help build my resume for Human Resources.       Throughout my 5 semesters here at ONU so far, I have learned that formatting a schedule for the entirety of your college career is a very useful tool to help you understand the direction your career is going. Along with choosing the main classes you need for your major it is important to have back-up classes as ONU is a private university and seats fill up rather quickly if you are not an upperclassman. Being a ...

    Over the weekend it was homecoming at Ohio Northern University. I was tasked with going to one of the various homecoming events for an assignment in principles of social media that had me live tweet one of those events. During this live tweet session I chose to attend the ONU Homecoming Parade and document the various occurrences at the event.     The parade began at 10:30 a.m. so I left for campus with my girlfriend at around 9:30 a.m. because we live in Elida, Ohio about 45 minutes away from Ada. Once I arrived at campus I sent out a tweet 15 minutes before the parade to let my followers know that I was about to begin live tweeting the event. It took the parade about 20 extra minutes to begin most likely due to people blocking the streets. Once the parade began the sheriffs of Ada along with the Public Safety of ONU lead the way. After the escort, there was the ONU Marching Band which reminded me of my days in the Elida High School Marching Band. A little after...

     As a commuter in my junior year at Ohio Northern university, I am not on campus as much as the average student. This leads to a lot of extra pressure for me, not due to the commute but due to my responsibilities outside of building my career. I live in Elida about 40 minutes away from campus and I work at Five Below part-time while being a freelance music producer. For my college career, I have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m., to 3 p.m, with an hour break at 1 p.m., which I like to call the 'odd days'. For my Tuesdays and Thursdays, the only class I have is from 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., which I like to call the 'even days'.      On both my even and odd days, I wake up around 7 a.m. and get myself together to tackle the day. Most days I have to work an hour after class so I don't have much time in the evening to hang out with my girlfriend or play video-games with my friends. On my days in the morning, I get all assignme...

    Juggling multiple social media accounts for one business is a laborious and tedious task. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), TikTok and Pinterest are the most commonly used sites for uploading content to attract awareness to their business. Many of these platforms have their own tools to be able to schedule a time for a post and monitor the engagement rates of the posts without having to manually tally up the necessary data. To say the least, this process has been streamlined by the use of third party websites like Meta Business Suite, Hootsuite, SocialBee and many others that allow you to manage all the content for all of your social media sites.     Meta Business Suite in specific is built within Facebook and allows you to schedule posts for all Meta owned social media pages, those being Instagram, Facebook and Meta. Also within this program you are able to use the inbox of all of these previously mentioned platforms for easily managing your requests, complaints...

Over the course of the last three years I have been absolutely enthralled by music production. It all started when I expanded my music taste from the classic tunes from my childhood like those from Metallica and Eminem, to a whole range of genres and artists that all use different ways of producing to get their message across. I first began writing lyrics for some goofy-rap songs that me and my friends made just for laughs, and it eventually turned into me dedicating hours of my free-time almost every day to learn how to be a music producer from scratch.  My journey through producing has not been the best, as not having a mentor or solid support system to help guide me through the new terminology and tools at my disposal was very daunting at first. One of my friends, Cameron, was using FL Studio, one of the most popular digital audio workstations, or DAWs, to make beats. He recommended to me that I download the trial version after one of our recording sessions to see if I would enj...

     Starting out social media for a business can be very daunting as there are so many facets that need constant attention. It can seem especially daunting with the added pressure of gaining a following while juggling all these factors. To make it less of a hassle, organization is a very important skill to have when it comes to developing a marketing strategy. Along with organization, developing a schedule that will allow you to monitor how often you post and how much time you allot to a certain post, will drastically help the amount of time spent overall on developing social media content, versus actually marketing the content.     The text affirms that organizing the platforms you use within a spreadsheet of some kind, that takes note of many factors going into social media like: types of content, follower count, engagement rate, what content works and what doesn't, and much more. This will help decrease the pressure immensely as you will have a bet...

Hey all! As the first two weeks of classes come to an end the workload as many can tell is getting larger, which means more time must be spent maintaining responsibilities. As we enter the bulk of classes it is important to stay up to date with your assignments and look ahead to what may be coming to not fall behind this early on. When it comes to college work, time management is one of the most important skills to develop that will make your life far easier than it may come across at the start.  Managing your time may seem like a daunting task, especially coming from the summer, many do not have as many responsibilities as they do when classes are in session. I have learned a few ways to help alleviate some stress with managing responsibilities and time. One way that has helped me immensely, is to read up on what the assignment may entail a few days before doing it and knowing the due dates of those assignments. This can help you to rationalize which assignment you should do first...

Have you ever wondered what it's like as a small-business owner to use social media platforms for promotions, advertisements and connecting with the community? Over the weekend, I had the great opportunity to interview a small-business owner from Lima, OH, who uses social media to help drive foot traffic into his store.  Mike Kaye is the owner of R&K shoes, after the creation of the business by his father in 1983. Their main mission as a shoe store is to give people the best possible shoe based on what types of activity a specific person does in their day-to-day life. Mike values connecting with members of the community, and giving people the best experience when deciding what shoes would be a perfect fit for the customer's wants and needs.  Here is a full list of the questioned I had prepared to ask Mike during the interview about how he uses social media, and how it has effected his business over the years. (Bear in mind not all questions were used due to time constraint...

Over the weekend I took a trip with my girlfriend's family to Northern Michigan for a relaxing weekend away from the noise. At the Crystal Mountain Resort, we rented out a gorgeous Airbnb that was right next to the mountain and took in the beautiful scenery. On the first day, we didn't do much because we were so tired from the drive up that we all just wanted to pass out. The next day after waking up well-rested we went out to Crystal River and rented some kayaks. As we journeyed down the river we quickly realized why it was named the Crystal River. It was because the water was crystal clear and you could see absolutely everything under the water. About two hours down the river we had a mishap and my girlfriend's little brother flipped his kayak which caused us to pile up in a muddy spot and get stuck. After we finished kayaking, we went back to the Airbnb and got out of our wet clothes and decided on a place to eat for dinner. We found a bar and grill right off the side of...

When trying to start a new brand on social media, it often falls short due to one fatal error, which is not being consistent with content generation or having enough content that can be searched. In the reading it was stated that on average, companies that publish 11+ blogs a month receive 3x more web traffic and 97% more links to their webpage. It is clear that one of the key factors in marketing a brand is having a blog and posting to it consistently to more effectively convert people to your brand. Blogging requires individuals or brands to commit a significant amount of time writing out new and creative blog posts weekly. This workload may seem daunting on top of all of the other social media sites they may be posting for, especially since there is no instant payback for blogging. One way to ease the burden is to use the blog as a diary, as it originally was intended for this purpose. This can help you to organize your brand as a whole and have a sort of base of operations for what...

Social media has blown up over the last decade and there seems to be no end in sight to how large a scale social media may be. With over 68% of the world's population owning a phone, it's almost impossible to go about your day-to-day life without being influenced by some form of social media. In 2015, the time spent on mobile devices was higher than the time spent watching cable television and has only climbed higher since. This prompted a change in how marketers advertise their goods and services, which led to a massive shift in society as a whole.   The swift change from commercial advertisements to mobile advertisements has both positive and negative effects on society. Along with allowing for a much larger reach in audience, social media advertisements lead to a greater sense of brand loyalty and bring forth higher conversion rates compared to commercial advertisements. On one hand the larger audience may seem like a blessing, but in reality, the number of people engaging a...