EOC Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Being an avid Facebook user, I'd like to say I know the in's and outs of the site. But also seeings how much of my family are avid users as well, I keep some of my thoughts strictly for Twitter, and even more personal one's for Tumblr. Obviously, I've had my run at the social media circuit. However, I have to admit that I am, to an extent, glad for the censorship on Facebook as awhile ago, I heard about potential employers searching it in the employment process. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, "Matt Mund, Monster.com's vice president of product management, acknowledged that Facebook as a recruiting platform is growing rapidly." The article continues on about apps being made through and about facebook as a recruiting mechanism. In another article from our textbook, it talks about finding brand ambassadors. "Marketers select their brand ambassadors very carefully, based on customers’ devotion to a brand and the size of their social circles. They sometimes search blogs and online social networks to identify individuals who are already functioning as brand advocates." And thinking about it, this makes perfect sense. You want to find someone who already likes the company and product you are making, so when the latest and greatest is being released, the "test subjects" for the product should be be people who both enjoy and understand what they are dealing with. It just goes to show how much of a fundamental attribute social mediums have become to our society. The importance of them in our day to day lives, and now, even our careers.

EOC Week 2: Boston Consulting Group-Video Game Market

When it comes to video game systems, I tend to get a little nostalgic. I grew up with Nintendo and Sony. My life revolved around names such as Zelda, Mario and Final Fantasy. So when it comes to their markets, I would always like to see them flourish. I mean, who doesn't? But in the marketing world, there's the star, the question mark, the dog and the cash cow, and as much as I want them to be Stars, this tends to not be the case.

EOC Week 1: Customer Service

Everybody has had a bad experience at a restaurant. Snobby waiters, cold food, long waits, it all happens! But it’s even worse when you have this horrendous experience, and no type of condolence for it. I mean, you at least expect dessert or something, right? Those rare occasions always make you leave with an angry glare and a bad taste in your mouth (probably due to the undercooked chicken). This has happened to me on many occasions. One in particular though sticks out in my mind, not because of the bad service, but what they did to make it better. How bad customer service turned into good customer service and I left happy and wanting to come back for more!

            Some friends and I went to Red Robin after class one day. It had been a rough week, so a treat sounded nice. Having just gotten paid two days before, of course, I was naturally almost out of money. But what a good way to spend my last bit of money then endless steak fries and an award winning burger, wouldn’t you agree? We get to the restaurant and it was obviously dinner time. They weren’t crazy busy, and there were definitely enough servers to go around, but there was a nice chunk of people there itching for their onion rings. We get to our table, give the waitress our drink order and talk to kill some time. Three people around us showed up shortly after we did, one had our waitress and the other two, someone else. After about 20 minutes, we finally saw our waitress again. She had brought two of our drinks, leaving the rest of us parched and hungry. We requested some steak fries, sauce, and gave her our order with the hopes that we'd be satisfied shortly. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The two people with the other waitress, but this point, had gotten their drinks, orders and appetizers. Starting to get irritated, we again, talked, waited 10 minutes, and like magic! Our other drinks arrived. Alone, however, and not accompanied by any kind of food, sauce, or steak fries. After another long while (we timed it... 16 minutes), our food showed up. At the same time, the two tables with the other waitress was halfway through their meal. We take a bite and all of us our disgusted at our food. It was cold. Not "the chef didn't cook it properly" cold, but "the waitress was too busy talking to her friend at the drink station and left our food to sit" cold. We were not pleased. We choke down what we can, but at this point, we were all very upset. My friend finally gets up to get the manager. He comes over, we explain our poor service and he apologizes profusely. To make up for the horrible service, not only is our meal free, but he gives us a gift card for the amount we would have paid so we could come back again and have a decent meal. So basically, two meals for the price of none!

We left the restaurant happy and reflecting badly not on the restaurant, but the one waitress who offered crummy service. I feel like good customer service isn't keeping customers happy all the time, but also being able to make up for their adversity when it arises. :)

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

Sound moves me. I live for it. I live to be stimulated by a noise everyone hears, but few really listen to. Nothing quite gets me excited like mixing a few simple sounds to make something completely different, but yet thoroughly perfect for the situation. Sight and sound go hand and hand, though few understand how this partnership truly works. As a professional in the sound field, I understand and embrace this. I listen to the world around me and use this to help people understand that with every movement, a sound is involved. Sound itself is a phenomenon few try to understand, let alone master, but this became my calling a long time ago. It works in mysterious ways, ways of which I want to work hard at understanding. To work with sound requires an ability to understand it and how it functions, an area which I have taking a liking towards. My dream is not to be a rich and powerful record label owner. My dream is to be someone who wakes up every morning wanting to take on the day, to go to bed every night satisfied with a job well done and a day’s worth of experience to help me as professional and a person. I'm a student for life, always learning, always moving forward.