Week 2A

When I think about social media in general the very first site that comes to mind is, of course, Facebook.  Its like the hub of all of my personal social media activity.  Almost all of my friends and family are connected to my personal Facebook account and my friends primarily communicate through Facebook messenger rather than text.  Its easier to manage a group chat in messenger than group text with multiple phone types.  I do not often, however, find myself connecting to businesses on Facebook.  I primarily use Facebook for social groups and activities.  Very very rarely so I find or follow a business through Facebook.  On occasion, however, I will see that my friends have liked a business and I will go to their website.  I do not often visit their Facebook page.

When thinking about social media for business I generally think about social media sites that are highly visual.  Sites such as Instagram and Pinterest usually come to mind for me first.  I have found several blogs and businesses through Pinterest (lots of Etsy shops).  I've found even more businesses, companies and artists through Instagram.  Instagram is so highly visual it catches and keeps my attention for long periods of time.  I've found new makeup brands, tattoo artists, clothing brands, Etsy shops, designers, etc all through connections or simply browsing Instagram.

I think most of social media works well for personal use.  The only site that I've wondered about is Facebook.  I am not sure how successful it is currently for business.  I have used Facebook's "pages" option and run a couple of pages and it was difficult to build followers.  Much more difficult than it was on Instagram. 

Week 1B

Blogs I commented on:

https://zenofmen.blogspot.com/
https://csit155s18hogenmillerc.blogspot.com/
https://maximkcaradonna.blogspot.com/

Fantastic start to the class!  It looks as though my group number has changed so these blogs will no longer be the blogs that are in my group.  I'm now in group 2...

Week 1A: My Template

I chose this template primarily for the personality.  I tend to think of blogs as journals or more personal versions of magazines and so having a layout and design that matches the personality of the author seems important to me.  That, of course, is my personal take on the matter. 

In addition to the vibrant colors and spunk of this layout I also thought it appeared clean and easy to navigate.  When looking for something a bit crazy and bold the contrast of something clean and organized can be hard to find in pre-designed layouts because some of them just look a bit messy.  I was happy to find this one.  When full screen the side menu is clear and the posts fit in the middle of the page.  Still the background is wild.  Its funky.  I dig it.