Week 15

My turtle has been scavenging the bottoms of his tank to find any left over food. I mentioned in an earlier post how the water in the fish tank was turning greenish. Well, the problem continued for another few weeks, until I decided to evaluate what I might be doing wrong. After researching many fish blogs and fish tank articles, I figured I was feeding my fish too much. I cut back on the amount of food and after a few days, my tank started to clear up.

I found out my fish were pooping too much and the bacteria couldn't keep up with the waste. After limiting their food intake, they produced less waste and didn't create so much extra algae. I'm finally happy to say that the tank is clear and looks great!

Week 14 Reading

This week's reading is the final chapter in Katie Paine's "Measure What Matters". It discusses how to measure nonprofit communications efforts, specifically in higher education. It discusses how everyone involved with a collegw is considered an important audience. From locals to alumi, those who have some steak of interesnt in a school should be considered an audience.

Katie Paine gives five steps to creating better measurement:

1. Identify and prioritize your audiences
2. Define your objectives and get everyone on the same page
3. Establish a benchmark
4. Pick a measurement tool and collect data
5. Analyze the data, gain insight, make changes and measure again

Week 14 Life

My turtle has loved the frozen worms I have been giving him. At Petco I noticed a freezer with pet food in it. After asking the store clerk, they said fish and turtles love these frozen blood worms. The worms are easy to plop in the water and feed to fish. The worms don't even defrost before my fish and turtle begin feasting. The worms come in small blocks and are just enough for all of my fish and turtle to eat within two minutes. Its fun seeing how excited they get for the worms. They like their dry fish food, but definitely not as much as the worms.

If you have any fish I'd completely recommend buying some for your fish. This is a treat for them, but also a meal substitute. I like to feed them worms every other meal, so they don't get too used to eating them.

Week 14 PR

Any social media class can't ignore the social media giant, Twitter. Professionals have taken to Twitter to not just engage customers, but other professionals. It's not as segmented or private as LinkedIn connections, but there's a constant stream of data pouring in about PR. Any industry is on Twitter. Hashtags allow others to search and find feeds relevant to their interests.

Although hashtags are misused and made fun of, they are still a viable tool that allows users to connect interests. Data is more easily shared and it gives a category to what people are sharing. I think professionals using Twitter and its hashtags is a wonderful thing and I hope it doesn't go away any time soon.

Week 13 Blog

I've been writing too many meat recipes so this week I'll go somewhat veggie. When I was at Le Cordon Bleu this recipe was one of my favorites. It surprised me with its wholesome flavor and healthy ingredients. I had never heard of the dish before I tried it, which happened quite often due to my inexperience at the time. If I ever have to cook a cheap, healthy and flavorful meal I'll turn to this week's recipe. I present, White Bean Fagioli.

I recently went to Olive Garden and took advantage of their endless soup and salad deal. I was impressed that they offered fagioli as an option. I had to try it since I've only tasted my own recipe. I was disappointed with the lack of flavor and watery consistent, but hey, I wasn't surprised. It was from Olive Garden, the McDonalds of Italian Food. If you have ever tried it and felt that something was missing, I recommend you try the recipe for yourself. The fresh foods used are incomparable to McOlive Garden canned ingredients. 

I left out a few ingredients that were unneeded and mixed weirdly together. Basil and rosemary are too pundgent of flavors, especially with beans and pasta. Rosemary always reminds me of Thanksgiving, which I'm not going for here. I'm aiming for a taste that makes you feel like your enjoying a cool Fall day in the countryside of Italy.

Other than the unneeded herbs, I didn't use much of the vegetable stock. If your dish is dry then you should add the stock.  Please, don't make the mistake of adding salt and pepper to the onions. Salt from the canned beans may overwhelm the recipe. Also if parmesan is used to garnish, it will add a salty flavor to the meal. Seasoning too early could put the entire dish at risk, so I'd stick to the culinary rule of seasoning just before serving.

This is a wonderful recipe that actually calls for too much flavor. Flavor is great, but can be overwhelming when not mixed correctly. Using the adjustments I made will keep the dishes flavor balanced and whole.

Week 13 PR Life

This week I created a Twitter account under @STEIN_PR. I've been pretty successful and have been sharing PR tips and advice on my feed. One of my retweets was about the 15 best digital campaigns in 2016. I thought this would be a good share for those looking for branding or campaign ideas that could be inspired to what someone else has done. So without further ado,  present the 15 best digital campaigns in 2016!

• Taco Bell Blackout
• The Sun - "Dream Team"
• Dallas Pets Alive- "Adoptable Trends" 
• The Ice Bucket Challenge
• Google - "Androidify"
• Nike - "The Las Game"
• Nike Jordan - RE2PECT"
• Pantene - "The Pantene Praise Project"
• Comcast XFINITY- "Emily's Oz"
• Always- "#LikeAGirl"
• Union Station Kansas City- "Living History At Union Station" 
• Ikea Canada- "#SharetheBathroom"
• Axe Black- "Bring The Quiet"
• Smart USA- "Yo! Test Ride"
• Taco Bell- Mobile ordering App

Week 13 Reading

This week in Measure What Matters, we read about how bloggers can be influencers with a large following. The chapter is useful to me not that I'm doing this blog ad wondering how I can better segment my data to my readers.

The author wrote that we must search for blogs that mention you or your marketplace most frequently. In order to do this we can make a spreadsheet of relevant mentions of a company. Another way is to verify that the blogs and bloggers are important. After analyzing blog mentions, ranking should occur. It's important to know how often the influencers are quoted. Blog Grader and Twitalyzer scores are tools to help analyze and rate blogs.

The author gave relevant and helpful suggestions for blogging tool. I hope to try these both out and see how they could help me analyze my traffic data.