Writing for New Media

I absolutely loved this class. Learning about web design and various social networking sites was very useful and I feel I will retain the information for a long time. I have always wanted to make my own website, especially since we get free space from the college. I also feel that knowing at least a little bit about web design is vital to the success of a communications student.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with my final website. I really liked the simple and clean design and layout, which I prefer over a complicated design. The only thing I would have changed was to be able to post my layout designs as a picture, instead of a PDF. Additionally, with the PDF links, I wish I could have them open up in a new browser window. I cannot wait to take 310 and learn more in depth about making a website in Dreamweaver.

As far as the social networking portion of the class, I felt it was very useful to learn about the various ways facebook and twitter can be used. I thought the viral marketing campaign was useful also. I thoroughly enjoyed my competition with Sam Alleman and thought it was a good exercise to learn about viral marketing campaigns.

As for twitter, it was good for us to learn about using the microblog because it is a trend that is growing worldwide and is changing the way people obtain their news. As a communications major, it is vital that I understand this change and how various news stations can roll with the change.

I feel that Linkedin is an important social networking site to use. It is a heck of a lot more professional than facebook and can be useful in finding a future employer. I’m glad that I finally learned the secret of getting a linkedin profile to 100% completeness.

Overall, I believe this class was very useful to my being a communications major. I will miss the ridiculous conversations that went on via twitter. And when Dr. Helb said something crazy and it was tweeted about 10 times. I will never forget this class.

For our viral marketing project, Sam Alleman and I decided to have a competition via Facebook. We created fan pages on

Fans

Wednesday, April 14, and invited all of our friends. I didn’t have a personal goal of how many fans I wanted to get, I just wanted to get more than Sam. I feel like I succeeded because as of 11:38 AM on 4/123 I have 334 fans (or I guess they’re called likes now) and Sam has 259 fans/likes.

I mainly used Facebook and Twitter to market my fan page. I linked my twitter account to my fan page, so that every time I wrote on my wall, it was tweeted to Twitter. In addition to the social media, I also used word of mouth. When I would see a friend in the cafeteria, I would mention the competition to him/her and tell him/her to invite their friends.

Although, I won the competition overall, I feel like I didn’t win. Less than a third of my friends on Facebook became a fan of my page. I was hoping for a larger percentage of that. However, I thought this viral marketing project was very fun and interesting. I was a good way to learn how viral marketing campaigns work.

SITE

I am pleased with how my website is turning out thus far. Dreamweaver frustrates me sometimes, but I think that’s because I don’t really know what I’m doing with it. However, once I learn what task I need to do, it seems pretty tedious because you do a lot of repetitive actions. I would LOVE to learn more about it, which is why I plan on taking COM 310 in the Fall. One thing I would like to learn to do is how to create my own templates.

So far, the only pages I have finished are the home page, resume page, links page and writing page. I am in the process of uploading pictures to Flickr and videos to YouTube so that I can embed them. I have yet to complete these pages. In the mean time, I will make a placeholder page so that I have no dead links.

I feel like the only thing I need to learn how to do with my site is make it go live. Nothing really confuses me at this point, but I can’t wait to learn more about web design and Dreamweaver in 310. I will hopefully buy my own webspace so that I can always have a website and not use the E-town server and have it get deleted after I graduate.

I first heard about Twitter last Spring in my Communication Law and Ethics class. Some of my classmates were talking about how Facebook’s status updates were changing to look more like Twitter. I had never heard of Twitter before and I was intrigued, so I made an account.

At first, I thought it was the dumbest website ever and that it was just another way for people to tell everyone, every single detail about their lives. Once I learned more about it, I thought it was another really cool way to interact with people. I especially liked that a lot of my favorite musicians and celebrities were “tweeting.” I especially enjoy following Kellie Pickler, Blake Shelton, and Stephen Colbert. (Someone needs to tell Garth Brooks to get a Twitter, then I’ll really be set for life!)

I also think that Twitter acts as a very effective way to obtain instant updates about news, weather and sports. One news source I follow @NBCPhiladelphia lists a bunch of headlines throughout the day with a link to the article on their website. Followers of @NBCPhiladelphia can pick and choose which news articles they want to read. If you don’t find a particular headline interesting, you don’t have to read it.

Due to its immediacy and mobility, I believe Twitter is becoming more than just a fad. I have since changed my opinion completely about the social networking site due to these two aspects. I use it numerous times a day and am addicted to reading other people’s tweets. I can’t wait to get a real mobile phone (not one that is missing several buttons and needs to wear a bandaid at all times) so that I can get Twitter on it and not use it through text.

I love twitter! Follow me!

Jennifer Fimmano is a junior communications major at Elizabethtown College. She will be graduating in May of 2011 with a concentration in mass communications. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in either broadcast or graphic design.

Jennifer is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Conestogan Yearbook at Elizabethtown College. She has been the graphics director for ECTV-40 since Spring 2008 and a Student Lab Assistant for the Department of Communications. In the summer of 2008 she was a promotions intern for 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia.

Jennifer was born in Boynton Beach, FL, in 1989, and her family moved to the Philadelphia area just before her second birthday. She currently lives in Bensalem, PA, with her mother and two cats. She has a sister, who recently moved to Cape Coral, FL, and a brother who lives a few streets away in Bensalem. Some of her hobbies include playing with her cats, shopping, taking pictures, hanging out with friends, and spending time with her boyfriend.

Chloe Chase

I have called Bensalem, Pennsylvania, my hometown for the past 10 years. I live with my mother, Linda, who I consider one of my best friends and also my role model, and my two cats, Murphy and Chloe, whom I adore. We live in an apartment that is above a house; essentially, we live in the second floor of the house. It’s really small, but it’s perfect for just my mom, my cats, and I.

I went to Bensalem High School, which fell toward the bottom of the Suburban One League in sports, usually right above our rival, Truman. Bensalem sports were never successful. My senior year, the football team won only two games. It is because of this that there wasn’t any real sense of pride at my high school, which I hated.

While I was in school, I absolutely hated it, but looking back on the times I had, I guess it wasn’t all that bad. I hated it because of some of the idiots that went there. My sophomore year, two freshmen decided it would be “fun” to bring some gasoline to school in a water bottle and light a stairwell on fire. Not only is starting fires a moronic thing to do in the first place, but it was a cement stairwell, therefore the flames extingushed themselves rather quickly. Regardless, the entire school was rushed out of the building where we stayed for probably an hour. We then spent the rest of the day on lockdown. That was probably the moment I started hating my high school.

Murphy Leeroy

There wasn’t really that much to do on the weekends in Bensalem. I spent the majority of my time hanging out with my friend Aldona, in Levittown, since we didn’t get to see each other every day at school. We normally hung out at her house or went out to eat. When I did hang out in Bensalem, I normally went bowling with friends or hung out at the Pub (aka the Great American Diner and Pub). The Pub is probably one of the biggest hangouts in Bensalem, along with The Clubhouse and Nifty Fifty’s. Nifty Fifty’s has the best milkshakes you will ever taste. I reccomend the Almond Joy or Mint Oreo Milkshakes. We also hung out at the malls, A LOT. I would usually go to either Neshaminy Mall or Oxford Valley. Normally my friends and I would just window shop, or look at cute boys.

Probably the biggest attraction in Bensalem is Philadelphia Park.. err… now it’s called Parx (which I think is the stupidest name ever). Philadelphia Park used to only be a racetrack and horse stable. It’s where Smarty Jones made his racing debut before he went on to win the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Now, Parx is a racetrack and casino that attracts travelers from all over the Delaware Valley. If you ever visit Bensalem, I would suggest not driving on Street Road around 8 pm or else you’ll get stuck in Parx traffic.

Probably one of the aspects to Bensalem that I like the most is its diversity. Bensalem is diverse because because we have so many different cultures being represented. I used to make fun and call my high school the United Nations because there were so

Ben Franklin

many different ethnicities, but looking back on it now, I miss it. Everywhere you go, you’ll always see somebody different, and hear different languages.

And to make my hometown sound just a little bit more interesting, there’s a rumor that Ben Franklin flew his kite in a field in Bensalem. Apparently that’s where he discovered electricty. Ben and his kite are pictured on all of the “Welcome to Bensalem” signs that border Bensalem.

Most of the time I make fun of my hometown, but I really do love it. There are many different restaurants to eat at, several malls in the surrounding areas and of course now the casino. And if you can’t find something to do in Bensalem, you can always hop on I-95 S and drive 15 minutes to Center City Philadelphia.