The End, or Just the Beginning

I am in no way a gamer, but when a game takes over the world it is hard to miss. My first interactions with the game Fortnite was actually on a football recruiting visit to John Carroll University (who coincidentally we play this weekend). Fortnite took the world by storm no that is not a typo I do not mean the gaming world. I can safely say this because of one thing. My parents knew about it! In recent news around the game of Fortnite it blew up. Unannounced and unexpected keeping with what has made the game so popular, being different.

Fortnite is free. In the world today anything being free is unheard of. That is how the game got its initial take off. Free grabs attention! When a game you can play with all of your friends is free it speaks for itself. Currently around 250 million people play Fortnite. At a single time over 10 million people have played at once. In its most popular month Fortnite had over 80 million active players.

Epic Games the creator of Fortnite sensed a drop in popularity for its once star game. Their fears were confirmed as reports came in showing for the first time since the games creation decrease in popularity in the month of August. How do you respond? You blow up the game of course. 5.5 million people watched as the Fortnite shut down. For two whole days the game wasn't available.

Fortnite had the attention of the world again. Trending on twitter and even becoming the talk of my dinner table this fall break. Perhaps that is the genius behind it all doing things that have never been done before. Creating talk and marketing they don't even have to advertise. So far the perfectly executed end and then beginning has done just what Fortnite needed reawakening the gamers who had let the game slip their mind.

The end, became the new beginning.

New York Times Article

The Most Watched Event This Year

CNN Article

Social Media Strategy

As the semester continues we have transitioned to a new book. Social Media for Strategic Communication written by Karen Freberg. Published in this year Freberg expands on the development of social media and how it can be used for communication and marketing throughout the business and personal world.

Throughout the early stages of her book she tries to impress upon her readers that the balance can be struck to make social media a valuable asset. Social media she explains is an extension of your community. The ability to balance the need to create new entertaining and informative content while also being personal enough to feel a connection. Freberg stresses that every user is different. With different motivations and uses for social media. The key however is still to find the balance between those motivations and uses along with personal connection. 

Her first major tip is that social media is keen on first impressions. Whether it's through profile pictures or bios there is a need to stand out and be remembered. 

Tip two you don't have to be on every form of social media. Users need to realize the audiences they hope to reach and work to narrow down which platform gives them the most effective reach. Identify the relationships you have already created and the goals of moving forward with those. 

Tip three create content that works towards the goals you have set forward. Innovation is a key for creating traffic to pages. Finding ways to be new and creative in what profiles consist of helps with standing out and being remembered.

Social medias balance has become a new tool in business that organizations are working to perfect. The ability to connect while also getting important messages across when optimized correctly can help bring major benefits to a company. Expanding the reach of the company along with touching new members of the audience.

Social Media and Politics

Politics have always been a complicated field. Watching as I grew up I remember how as election season came along everyone would make the same old comment as ads came on "oh it's election season again." Now politics, and the political season has taken a complete shift as politicians have access to a year round billboard.

No matter what platform you look at every form of social media has become part of the political battle ground. From releasing ads to every day tweets on popular issues and topics politicians are working to use social media as a year-round broadcast of their political message.

President Donald Trump has 58.1 million followers on Twitter and over 40 thousand as a total number of tweets. He used Twitter to rally his fan base and has used his 280 characters to share his opinions and policies throughout his presidency.

In just the past few weeks headlines have been made over social media. As both Senator Cory Booker out of New Jersey and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts used twitter to announce their intentions to run for President in 2020.

As the new age of politics continues to grow certain political figures are seeing their number of followers rise at astronomical rates. At the forefront of this is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez she has seen her following number rise upwards of 300 thousand in the past two weeks as she has gone viral twice since taking office.

Worldwide Politicians/World Leaders with the Largest Social Media Following:

1. Barack Obama

2. Donald J. Trump

3. Narenda Modi (Prime Minister of India)

4. Hillary Clinton

5. Dalai Lama

6. Pope Francis

The landscape of politics will continue to change. Politicians will continue to look for new ways to use this tool to spread their message. This new form of advertisement continues it will be up to the followers they gain to the knowledge they need to be able to support the politicians they view as the best for this country and the world.