Graduation

      With this being my last post for this class I felt it was fitting to talk about graduation. This post marks one of my very last school assignments EVER. Which is pretty crazy when you think about it. I remember Pre-K, 6th Grade, 9th Grade, High school graduation, and moving into Creswell like it was just yesterday. Yet now, with the blink of an eye it is all gone. With graduation, comes graduation photos and social media posts, as with any major moment in one's life, and as with all of the other moments we get to experience together through social media, I cannot wait to share these moments with all of my closest friends. These 4 years in Athens have been the best years of my life hands down, Ive grown as a human, as a student, a potential employee, and most importantly as a man. I have learned what it takes to walk alongside the most diverse group of people, how to stay up all night and still make it to class the next day (or at least sometimes), how to give my everything to the Dawgs on Saturday, and more than anything how to love the greatest place on Earth in The University of Georgia. As we venture out into new areas of life, new experiences, let us not forget of the place that made us who we are today. I look forward to sharing the moments of graduation with each and everyone through social media, and through personal experiences alike. Good luck, God Bless, and Go Dawgs.

Chasing 73

     The big question in sports right now, will the Warriors break the '95-'96 Bulls record of 72 wins. It comes down to a matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that they barely beat less than a week ago. After a huge win in San Antonio (their 1st win there in 33 tries), it seems that the record is there for the taking. They have a home game, where they have been nearly flawless over the past few seasons. Check out the game tomorrow night on ESPN at 10:30. It will be Historic, win, lose, or draw. Check it out and let me know whether or not you think they will win.

March Madness 2.0

As discussed in my last Blog it is March, with March comes pollen, warmer weather, and college basketball. The time for March Madness has come and is now in full force. As we continue to push through the muck of a crazy tournament, we can begin to see the social media implications of such a large sporting event such as March Madness.

For those of you who did not read last week's blog, I spoke about the chances of there being upsets in this year's tournament and the social media implications that go along with those upsets. We looked at statistics from the 2013, a season with highly noted upsets, and how twitter was effected. Today, we will look at the social implications of this years upsets. A year that had as big, if not bigger, more suprising upsets than even the 2013 season.

Lets begin by looking at the matchup between Middle Tennessee State (15 Seed) and  Michigan State (2 Seed). This outlook should be prefaced by saying that Michigan State was one of the best teams in the country all year, with one of the best players in the country in Denzel Valentine. They had been considered by most to have been snubbed out of a one seed, and were actually picked to win the championship by 22.1% of brackets. So to say this was a Titanic of an upset is an understatement. This was one of the largest upsets of all time! But it wasn't the only upset of the weekend, 12 teams with a lower seeding beat their opponent just in the round of 32. With Baylor (5), West Virginia (3), Purdue (5), California (4), and Michigan State (2) all losing to teams that in theory had no chance of beating them. But that is what makes this time of year so fun, not knowing when and how someone will win or lose.

Though the stats are not yet out on the twitter buzz of all of the upsets this year, one can look at simple twitter reactions, and conclude that the numbers should be huge. The "crying Jordan" face covered Twitter after Michigan State's epic upset. Celebrities, basketball stars, and the Average Joe all took to twitter to share their thoughts on the game, much of which were in complete dismay.

This years tournament has been as crazy as ever, and its not close to over. Full of last second wins, epic meltdowns, and crazy upsets. This tournament has been one that will not easily be forgotten, and I'm sure that when the statistics come out that it will have huge social media implications. For know we must speculate, but with growing buzz around the tournament, and as big of upsets as ever, this years Twitter reaction numbers will be huge.

March Madness

The sports world has become a world of what ifs, assumptions, and picking winners here and there. With sports news streaming 24/7 there is never an end to the constant questions.

With that, it's that time of year again. The time where legacies are made, dreams are fulfilled, and most importantly hearts are broken. The biggest question looming is who will it be this year?Which team will be upset by a mid major school, from a mid major conference? Recent history proves that it is inevitable that at some point within the first few rounds someone will shock the world. Someone will, even if just for one day, forever etch their name in the history books.

In order to truly appreciate just what March Madness is lets take a trip down memory lane.
We will go back to 2013, where 15 seeded Florida Gulf Coast (Also a participant this year) took down the mighty Hoyas of Georgetown (2 Seed). Or 2014 where Mercer (14) shocked the world defeating Duke(3). As recent as last year (2015), 14 seeds Georgia State and UAB, both won over three seeds in Baylor and Iowa State. The list goes on, and as long as there has been a tournament, which was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, there have always been upsets.

The question is how do you predict it? This year the predictions are out, with the Duke Blue Devils taking a lot of heat in their matchup against UNC-Wilmington. Baylor and Iowa State have also been listed as potential "Bracket Busters" in this years tourney. However, are these simple picks based on upsets these teams have felt the past few years? Or is this a fair assessment based on the two teams that are going to face one another in the coming days? If one thing is for sure, talent, prestige, and history do not mean anything to the gods of March Madness. Where any and every team is susceptible to an early scare or a heartbreaking loss.

Another big question that always looms when March Madness comes around, is when will a 16 seed take down a number one seed? Up until this point one seeds are 124-0 against 16 seeds, but with the madness that takes place in the tournament it is a matter of time before a 1 seed falls. This could be the year, as no team has emerged as a clear cut favorite, or even a top tier one seed as in years past. The field is more even than ever, and its time to check out the madness.

What does March Madness mean for social media? Well here are a few stats from 2013, the year where, as discussed before, Florida Gulf Coast upset Georgetown and surged to the Sweet 16, as well as La Salle's team taking their 13 seed, and a "play-in- game" and riding the momentum to the Sweet 16. When Florida Gulf Coast sealed their bid to the Sweet 16, they blew up on Twitter with 206,000 mentions, as well as 268,651 after their win over Georgetown. They even became known as #DunkCity to many on multiple social media platforms, as well as being the most googled phrase the next day. La Salle also exploded on Twitter with their upset tournament run, grabbing over 30,000 mentions in nearly no time after a win clinching a berth in the Sweet 16. As a whole, Twitter exploded in March of 2013, with 19,677,291+ mentions of 'March Madness', with 1.3 billion impressions, and their hashtag #MarchMadness added 1,257,441+ mentions and led to an impressive 2.5 impressions. Along with mentions and hashtags, the official @MarchMadness account gained 64,176 followers on March 1, 2013 and grew to 113,586 by mid-month, a 76.99% increase. Today it has over 450K followers, so imagine the footprint it will leave this year, as Social Media takes a stronger hold within the sports world.

With Social Media growing, and the March Madness season as popular as ever, this year is sure to impress. It will be gut wrenching for die hard fans, and amusing for hated rivals. Twitter will explode on a daily basis, and the more upsets that there are the more it will take off. Everyone loves a cinderella, and this year has the make up to produce one. Who will be this years Butler? Florida Gulf Coast? That is what makes this time of year so much fun: the mystery, passion, and last second games. It's checking Twitter continuously to make sure that your pick is still up on their competition, and the thought of you potentially winning your office bracket.

March Madness: is about the chance that your team will get to be apart of "The One Shining Moment."

Leo, The Oscar, and Social Media

As many of you know Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar Sunday night at the Academy Awards. In his sixth nomination Leo finally pulled it off with his performance in The Revenant, where he played a man determined to seek revenge on his betraying partner. Its been long discussed the fact that Leo should have won an Oscar by now, after all he has been apart of some of the greatest movies of his generation. He just couldn't get past that one movie every year that blew people away, and appealed more to the critics, rather than the movie goers.

With the Oscar win comes the acceptance speech, usually rushed, Leo was allowed to deliver exactly what he wanted because after all it was the moment we had all been waiting for, and Leo delivered a great speech, and even took the time to compare The Revenant to global warming. Whether or not one believes in global warming, they cannot deny that DiCaprio was flawless, absolutely classy, which he has shown in years where he didn't win as well. With a speech as fitting for the moment as his, it blew up the social media world and it wasn't long before it broke records of its own.

Leo's acceptance speech began to rack up the twitter traffic immediately. It wasn't long before everyone was talking about it on all platforms, but especially on Twitter and Facebook. The speech was so heavily discussed that it actually broke the record for most tweets per minute for an Oscar related moment. With a whopping 440,000 tweets per minute, breaking the record of the Star studded Ellen selfie from 2014 (255,000 per min.)

With that being said, I lift a huge congrats to one of my favorite actors, and to his moment to shine with the biggest award his industry has to offer. Take a look below at his speech from Sunday night.

Recruiting in Social Media

In todays social media world, nearly everyone uses some sort of social media. From youngsters, teens, adults, and even grandparents. Social media has bridges the gap of generations allowing information to be shared easily, and for communication to be done in a much easier fashion. With these times comes the game of football, where college football teams are on the hunt for the top high school talent, but also kids who can contribute to their respective university. This is where social media comes into play. Especially twitter.

Coaches have realized that every kid regularly checks their social media platforms. Its a given that it has taken over mail as a faster and easier form of communication. So as the times have changed so have the coaches. Most every big time Div. 1 coach has a twitter account, where they reach out to top targets, engage the fans, and also regulate the activity of the players that they are recruiting.

High school kids are bound to do something stupid, and most times coaches aren't going to pull a scholarship for making a mistake or two, but when they see a systematic problem in a kid, it is hard for them to take a chance on offering them a scholarship worth a ton of money. Players with pictures of underage drinking, weapons, or drug paraphernalia are likely to be under heavy scrutiny or even potentially have their offer pulled. 

Another aspect of recruiting on social media, is the presence of recruiting analyst. Or team pages where commitments are discussed and analyzed by the followers that they have. This allows fans to be involved in the recruiting process, keeping up to date with current an potential commits. With this comes the opportunity for added hype, or criticism of a recruit. Example: Jacob Eason, who has become a God to Georgia fans, after videos of his high school games surfaced on social media. Played can either be harmed or helped by the hype surrounding social media, and hopefully in the case of Eason, the fans assessment of Eason is accurate (if not an undervaluation).

With todays social media movement, it is easier for players to get noticed by college coaches, easier for them to interact with these coaches, but they can also come under heavier scrutiny and surveillance at the same time. After assessing the pros and cons of the social media among potential college recruits I believe that they would be better off keeping the majority of their affairs to themselves. Allowing them to live lives separate from their countless followers, so that the pressure does not become too much, and so that they are able to live (somewhat) as normal college aged kids.

Dude Perfect: The Perfect Job

The 1st time I saw a Dude Perfect video I thought it was really cool, guys doing trick shots with a basketball and a home camera. Then the next time I saw a video, wow, had they made strides. Not only with the tricks that they did but with the videography, followers, they had become a big deal. If there is an example of a social media success, you would be hard pressed to find one more successful than Dude perfect.

Beginning in 2008, they posted a video of basketball trick shots and within a week they had 100,000 views on youtube. Today they have over 8.5 million followers on YouTube. Nearly 16.5 million of their app games have been downloaded, as well as nearly 16.5 Facebook followers. With Instagrams popularity growing their 2.2 million is surely to grow as well. Also Cory Cotton one of the founders has written a book, Go Big, which speaks on some of the things that they have learned building a business in an age driven by social media.

Today they have grown so big that they actually are in the business of consulting and helping different companies, and even celebrities, endorse their companies and image. An example of this is, Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings player who they helped to endorse his Rookie of the Year bid, through shooting a video with him. The names are endless from athletes to musicians, or using a new product a company has released. Here are some of the companies that they work with to promote their business and products.

To say they have used social media to their advantage would be an understatement. They have built their business completely through Social Media. This is the perfect job for many guys like me, and these guys did it with a little athletic ability, a camera, and social media platforms.

Enjoy a video or two here:

http://dudeperfect.com/videos/