Pinning Your Interests

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. All these social media platforms have something in common: they are well known and majorly used. Some platforms, however, aren’t as nearly as popular or receive the same attention as our “every day” applications do. A prime example is Pinterest. Although Pinterest has about 175 million monthly active users, most those users are females. In addition, Pinterest isn’t seen as a go to marketing resource for business with its seemingly limited demographic. However, Pinterest has a lot to offer and I’m a big fan of the platform personally.

Pinterest is incredibly strong with online shopping and extremely relevant for visual social bookmarking. It’s marketing strengths focus on three segments: consumer retail, do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and women. Breaking those segments down, consumers “pin” items they might potentially buy to their “boards,” while those who browse Pinterest for DIY projects often share ideas and women are a heavy demographic. Pinterest can be considered one of the best networks for consumer retail, especially for women.

Let’s take a step back and start with the basics. Setting up a Pinterest account is simple and much like setting up any social media account. You have a username, search options, a newsfeed and can follow people and let people follow you. The part that makes Pinterest unique is the “boards” and “pins” features. A board is a collection of items from the interest that are bundled together. You can name boards to match the theme of whatever you are adding to the collection; for example, “dream closet” or birthday ideas.” You can even add collaborators to boards. This means that you can invite others to pin to your board as well as comment. Collaborative boards allow you to share your ideas with others as a team. Pins are the individual posts that get placed in a board. Pins can blog posts, videos, images and products to purchase. Pins can be searched or uploaded directly. Your newsfeed on Pinterest will consist primarily of posted pins from those you follow and suggestions based on your interests. Your interests are revealed by what you search and pin to your boards. Followers can like, comment, share items that you have pinned.

Pins are often, but not always, attached to links that allow you to easily buy items you are interested in. There is also a feature that allows you to see who has tried pins that relate to tattoos, recipes, DIY projects, etc. This feature is important because people often trust the opinions of their peers over company advertisements. Pinterest is a great marketing tool because of the different features it offers. If you see a pair of jeans you like in a pin, you will likely be given a link to where those jeans came from and able to buy them. You are also able to see who else may have bought those jeans and what they thought of them. Although Pinterest is mainly female populated, the number of male users has continued to increase and is becoming an everyday favorite application used by many types of demographics.

Quotes I Live By

I want to take the time to write about something I think is very important: quotes. Quotes are HUGE because they are everywhere. Everyone has a favorite quote or at least quotes that they like whether they’re from a movie, song, book, etc. I think the quotes we like can say a lot about who we are and typically they correlate with what we believe. So, as you’ve probably guess by now, I will be sharing some of my favorite quotes and why I like them.

The first quote is obvious because it’s right at the top of my blog profile; you scroll past it every time you read my blogs. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” A quote by Dr. Seuss that makes me very nostalgic every time I read it. I think we all can agree it’s sad when a good time ends. I’m not talking about a “lit Saturday night” where you got drunk with a bunch of people in someone’s basement. I’m talking about when you go on vacation and are so relaxed you ever want to leave or those summer nights you spend with your old high school friends before you have to leave for college again in a couple of months. For example, I remember bawling at my last cheerleading competition in high school. I was extremely sad that my high school cheerleading career was over because I had put so much time and effort into the sport and I got to be around some of my best friends every day. I was crying because it was all over and I didn’t know what I was going to do. When I think back to that time now, I can’t help but laugh at myself for thinking I would never cheer again; here I am as a second-year collegiate cheerleader living my best life. High school cheerleading was such a good time in my life and although I was sad for it to be over, I smile because it happened. I think this quote is a good motto to go through life and I strive to live that way the best I can.

The next quote I really like is by the one and only Winnie-the-Pooh: “how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” This quote is typically credited to A.A Milne rather than Winnie-the-Pooh because he is the author of the books. Graduating high school, leaving my family to come to college, leaving college to go home for the summer…these are all times where this quote has been relevant in my life. We often take the people we love for granted without really meaning too and when you leave those people, things are really put into perspective. I spend a lot of my time at college missing my friends and family at home and I spend a lot of my time at home missing my friends at college. This summer I will be living a constant two hours from someone that I get to spend every day with and that is something I am not looking forward to. Although, I find myself lucky that I have friends, family and a boyfriend in my life that mean so much to me and make saying goodbye as hard as it is. I like this quote because I can relate to it, as I’m many people can.

The last quote I want to share, but certainly not the last one I love reads, “imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” This quote by Marilyn Monroe is only one of many that I admire from her. This quote is empowering and encouraging because it makes me feel good about being me. My boyfriend loves to tell me how weird I am and how it’s so much better than being normal. I think that’s the point Marilyn Monroe is trying to make. No one is perfect and this quote proves that it’s okay to not be perfect. I think if we didn’t have imperfections, we wouldn’t truly be humans.

Things to do in Ada, Ohio

I was given an interesting assignment in my social media class recently: make a video of what there is to do in Ada, Ohio. You see, the options are very endless in Ada because it’s a very small town. I’m not sure if it even passes for a town or if it’s only a village. My class was given this assignment with very little instruction. You could do voice overs, but you don’t have to; you could use a song, but you don’t have to; you could do it as an interview, but you don’t have to. Sometimes it can be frustrating to not have a set-in stone assignment on strictly what to do, but this time I didn’t mind.

The direction I chose to go with my video was more of a collage feel. I walked around Ada one day and I took videos of all the major things I’ve found exciting and made into something that will make me nostalgic someday. I started off by introducing myself and giving credit to my best friend and boyfriend whom helped me record my video. The first point I made about Ada was that it was fun to walk around. When the weather is nice, going on a walk down main street to go get food or ice cream is one of the most relaxing things.

I then moved on to talk about how feeding the fish can be fun, but it will inevitably turn in to feeding the ducks. When my boyfriend, Aaron, and I were recording this video, all we had were tortillas to feed the ducks. Once we ran out, a man came up to us and gave us a pack of hamburger buns for the ducks. He explained that he didn’t have time to stay and feed them, but that he was hoping we would do it for him. We gladly said yes and spent more time with the ducks than originally intended.

The next part of the video moves into going to the Ada theater and getting food. My best friend, Sam, helped me with these sections of the video along with the walk around Ada I mentioned before. I have been to the Ada theater only one time since I’ve been living in Ada. I can’t remember what movie I saw, but I went with some friends and sat in the very back. It’s a small, one room theater with limited show times, but there’s a good chance you’ll always see someone you know there. That is also the case when you’re visiting the few restaurant optiong in Ada. I think it’s fortunate to have a good Italian and Mexican restaurant in the small town and it’s also nice to have familiar places like Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Subway. I can’t lie though, going back home to Columbus and eating my mom’s cooking is the best feeling EVER.

The next part of my video goes into all the things to do at the community park: swinging, going down the slides and climbing a rock wall. I feel like a child again when I go to the park, which is why I like to go. It’s refreshing to play for a little bit, especially when I’m drowning in school work. Right after the park adventures, I make a point to explore. Ada might be small, but there is always somewhere to explore in any place and I want to encourage people to go beyond what they see and explore the world around them. Aaron helped me film those parts of the videos, as well as the very end when there’s nothing left to do but nap.

If you’re a student at Ohio Northern University, you most likely make your fun in this small town. I’ve attached the final video, as well as posted about it on my Twitter and Facebook. I’m very proud of this small project I put together and although it might not be anywhere close to star quality, I think it turned out great for my social media class.