Wrap Up

We did covered a lot of things in this class, from brainstorming, pivoting,ploting a business model canvas, delivering elevator pitches, presenting  business plans, too crowdfunding. There was many different aspects to this class, one of my favorites was the elevator pitches that we learned about and had to eventually conduct. This was a favortie of mine becuase of the simulation that we learned about as to how these type of situations happen all the time in our lives. If these type of situations do arrive at some point you need to be ready to sell what ever it is you are trying to, in a short amount of time, or grab your potential customers attention in that time.

Another aspect of the class I enjoyed was being able to simulate creating my own app and going out and finding out how to identify and eventually come in contact the resources we would need to develop an app. My idea that I came up with for my app development was a sports app that connected youth, highschool and professional athletes through a media platform on smartphones. This app could be avaible shortly, stay tuned!

Elevator Pitch Reflection

Going about trying to think of ways to come up with a perfect sales pitch to give to a team of judges like the show we watched in class, it was sort of tough. You didn’t want to try to construct the whole speech but you also didn’t want to just go completely freestyle. I ultimately just went through a whole speech that I had put together and took the main points that I talked about and just made sure to touch on those through out a more natural, on the spot speech, because it was really an elevator speech so it was really limited time to talk. When looking for articles and tips to help me with my elevator speech, I was surprised to find that it was more common than I thought. I even found a article discussing them on Forbes.com

When giving the speech I feel like I did alright, one of my strong points was making eye contact with those in the crowd while talking. When talking about my main points of the app that we were developing, I was sure to mention that the goal of the business was to create a more cohesive sports community between the youth, high school, and collegiate  athletes, to pro athletes. One point that I got from one of the judges was to make sure to include more facts and quick facts into the speech. Facts in my speech would be specific audiences that we are trying to reach, how much our start up plan will cost us and other things like that. All in all, I feel as though the process was successful going through and trying to put together a speech in 80 seconds that could set you up for the next 20 years!

Business Insider Idea Reviews

Now in the entrepreneurial business more than ever, there is a need to create and come up with new ideas that could potentially be a break that could put their product over the top. Today I am going to be looking at two products that other college students have been coming up with that I feel are going to be successful as well as a product that I do not think will do as well. When trying to figure out if a product is going to be successful there are a few things to take into account, such as value proposition, the type of market that the product is in, and how original and creative is the development.

The first start up that I think will be successful is Todd Medema is making it easier to buy a car without having to visit the lot. Medema was a student at Carnegie University where he graduated in 2014. The company that Medema is part of is a business that is aimed at making it easy for people to go and look at buying a car without going to a car dealership and having to deal with car salesmen among other things when trying to find the right car for you. I think this is going to be a success because now more than ever people are starting to rely on apps to give them information about certain things they are looking for and what may be available, without having to go all the way to the place and ask the people themselves. It would also work better than calling the company and inquiring because it being on a an app gives it a visual appeal as well. 

The second start up that I think is going to be successful is Eric Muli turning college kids into brand ambassadors with free merchandise. Muli’s company has a goal of giving people a voice to promote their own brands without having to rely on advertisement companies and other people to promote their brand. In doing this Muli is giving free merchandise to the customers so they can wear the shirts and such and promote the company in that way. I feel this would be a success because it allows the brand to travel anywhere in the world at that point via the people wearing the clothes and traveling with them. 

One product that I did not think was going to be as successful is Daniel Mishin founding a chain of hostels in Russia that look like college dorms. My reason for thinking that this start up is going to fail is because of concept of rooms being like college dorms. When people are traveling and looking for hotels to stay in they are looking for something relaxing and luxury. I think this is where the competing market would come into play because most other hotels are trying to cater to that need. I feel like Mishin could take this same concept and flip it to something really unique though. 

 

Waterfall vs. Agile start up reviews

 

It seems as though there is a new way to develop a idea emerging. Most people know of the waterfall method of developing an idea as the traditional method. The waterfall method is called the traditional method because of how it is designed, you simply put your main idea up top, and then other ideas and way to make these things happen simply trickle down after that. Wiki further describes the waterfall method. “The waterfall model is a sequential (non-iterative) design process, used in software development processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, production/implementation and maintenance.” So from what we can get from these explanations is that the waterfall method is mostly a linear process that many people that have been in the development industry are familiar with. 

The Counter part to the Waterfall method is the Agile start up method. Many people have said that the new method is a revolution to the start up business. Steve Blank from the Harvard Business review wrote a article on how the Lean start up method changes everything. First we need to understand what the Agile/Lean start up method is. One thing that resonated with me when reading the article about the method is the differences that the Agile method has to its counter part. the Top 3 differences in the two were listed as,

1. The high cost of getting the first customer and the even higher cost of getting the product wrong.

2. Long technology development cycles.

3. The limited number of people with an appetite for the risks inherent in founding or working at a start-up.

4. The structure of the venture capital industry, in which a small number of firms each needed to invest big sums in a handful of start-ups to have a chance at significant returns.

male student hand with a black pen writing on a white notebook

When looking at these two methods I did not notice these differences between the two so seeing Blank point them out when explaining the Agile method helped out a lot.

All in all I feel as though understanding both methods would be of great benefit as both have positives that could help in any idea start up. Knowledge of both would be able to help because one could decide which method they think would work best for their personal start up weather it be the more traditional way or the new Agile method.

 

Journalism Entrepreneurship Reflection

When Thinking about Journalism Entrepreneurship and how the trends of how modern day media and information consumption are changing, it seems like now would be a good time to take part. When reading Carlos De Marchis’ advertising piece he made it clear that the ways people are consuming their information these days are more versatile than ever. In one part of his piece advertising writes, “In few years we have gone from a TV centric landscape to a multi-dimensional, multi-platform, multi-channel and much more fragmented scenario in which users  have an incredible array of possibilities to discover and consume content.

The main driver has been the advent of mobile devices in the form of smartphones, tablets, phablets, wearables etc… as well as the fragmentation of media outlets, more than the standard broadcasters and news properties we were used to.” It was at this point in reading his piece that it was clear to me just how many opportunities to produce something and there be countless ways to opportunities it via media and mobile devices, I feel as though this would be something that could change the game. Later on in his piece, opportunities gives a vivid digraph showing how the emergence of many new platforms is creating avenues for many companies to reach larger audiences through their media use. In another post I read about how companies were correctly using social media correctly and one thing that all of the companies using the social media had in common was the fact that their content was multi-viewable, on many companies devices.

 

Aside from the media aspect of things, companies now have large platforms other than media to convey messages and reach audiences. One part that companies talked about was how many companies are starting to companies sports teams and sports target to advertise their product and reach their audience. I think this is a good advertising technique because it allows companies to put their name right in front of the people they know are going to be watching, A) what ever team it is and B) what ever sport it is plays a part in choosing which organizations to approach as well.

Wrap up

Wrapping up this class and I can say that I have learned a lot about social media and the ins and outs of how they work and how networking is not as complicated as one might think. We talked about Twitter, Instagram, LinkdIn, Facebook and the how to use them to your advantage when trying to improve something as well as improving your personal brand.

One of my favorite activities we did was helping the good people over at the Creighton recent alumni association and trying to use our new learned skills to help them and give them ideas on how they can improve their campaign using these social media platforms to their advantage and reaching out and networking with the recent alumni of Creighton. We talked to them about all of the various platforms that can be used to help their organization but one that I think was interesting to touch on was their Instagram page and give them our opinion on how they can improve that being that they had not posted a picture on there in quite some time. They may not have been aware of these things but thanks to us and our professor that taught us these various skills, we could help them out.

This was a fun semester in this class and I feel as though I am leaving with more knowledge that I initially came into class with. Fittingly, we ended our class with a special pie day, which was also awesome in its own.

Can’t we all just get along?

When reading about and taking a look at social media today and how we use it to keep up to date with our friends and communicate with each other it seems like one of the best things out there. Of course, as with anything I think there are downfalls to the social media world as well. One thing that I have noticed is how there are many people out there on the social media world that are negative people and hurtful people. It almost seems as though the more negative and hurtful you are the more popular you are to the people who see the actions. I do not believe it is right, I feel as though it should be changes and I think it will change but for it to happen I think we all have to make that conscious effort to stay positive and uplifting in our interactions.

I’m reading the story on how one tweet blew up Justine Sacco’s life. Being a long time twitter user I understand how this all happened. Sacco most likely sent the tweet kidding around looking for laughs and not expecting anyone to see it. When she was on her flight someone probably retweeted it, then another retweet, then another retweet. Then boom, it viral  while Sacco still would’ve had the chance to save face by deleting it if she was not in flight. But she didn’t and the tweet got out and got everywhere. Saccos actions were negative and was only met with negativity once it got out there and this where I believe we can make a change. Instead if people snapping back at here and throwing more negativity I feel like we could be more positivity about the situation instead   I don’t understand why being negative to someone negative is seemingly the way to go on social media.

Yes social media is not real life and all but it can easily translate to real life and hurt people’s real life feelings. A good example for this would be the Monica Lowensky case where what happen to her went viral and as she said “she was known as that girl.”  This is a classic example of social media effecting real life. Another example would be the referee, John Higgins having to meet with police about the threats he was receiving through Facebook. This affects  everything he does because he has to look over his shoulder every time he leaves the house. All of this is because the negativity that can seem fun at the moment because of the attention but is something nobody should have to go through.

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Nebraska Humane Society Research Reflection

Even though was not able to attend the trip to the Nebraska Humane Society, I heard many great things and even did a little research myself. The class went to the Humane Society with the intentions of discussing social media analytic . Upon arriving, the class was to meet with social media explorer, Elizabeth Hilpipre. Elizabeth developed a social media campaign, in her campaign she used the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for the campaign for the Humane Society.

Being that I could not be there I looked up a lot of information about Elizabeth Hilpipre and her work. One thing that stood out to me when doing research was how active she is with the Nebraska Humane Society in a multitude of ways. Hilpipre has worked and been a part of many many projects with the humane society and not just on social media so it is nice to she has experience in a couple different fields. For example, she also volunteers within the volunteer programs that the humane society provides.

Along with all of the work that Elizabeth has done with the Humane Society and how much she volunteers her time, she has done some good work herself. This makes me think of a concept that I can pair with Elizabeth regarding social media. To me it seems as though most of the people that are “good” at social media and are able to attract a wider audience, seems to be programs and people that are actually about their work and not just trying to portray such on social media. Along with this, like Elizabeth, these are people that are out in the world active and actively trying to create better opportunities for not only themselves, but others as well.

The Gram

Instagram is a very popular and fast growing app that is in use around the world. Like many other apps, instagram lets you keep in touch with your friends and up to date with what the are up to in their lives, but with instagram it is in a different kind of way. Instagram is mainly a picture based communication platform. Of course there are captions and comments and direct messaging also included in the app, but the main focus is to show people what you’re thinking, doing, watching, etc. This to me is what distinguishes instagram from a lot of other apps, instagram has more of a physical feel. 

What’s my sentence?

After watching the video I was intrigued to ask myself some of the questions that had come up in the video and that came up on the worksheet. It almost seems as though people should be asking themselves these types of questions all of the time. Not because of the video but because of what I feel as though should be fundamental questions that people ask themselves everyday, these types of questions would only be beneficial in learning about and improving ones self.

When asking myself these questions from the worksheet, some of them made me sit and think of answers. The first question on the worksheet was what do I feel my top three personal strengths are. After thinking about it for a second I came up with answers, my first strength that I have going for myself is my intentions are pure and always mean well. I feel this would be a strength for me because no matter what task I am doing, I am doing it for the right reasons while also keeping others in mind. Another strength that I feel I have is the ability to think in different ways and see things from many different perspectives while also having my own views and perspective. I think this would be beneficial in many ways as this enables me to connect with many different audiences. A third strength that I think I have is the ability to adapt to different situations. I feel as though this goes well with being able to see things from different perspectives because many people as we know are often times stuck in their own ways. So being able to adapt to my surroundings and being able to see things from different perspectives leaves many opportunities to meet and work with a multitude of people without the setting having to be perfect.

My top three talents I would say is being creative; I love creating this or coming up with new ideas and getting feedback from people and even hearing other people’s ideas and being able to give them my creative feedback. Another talent that I think I have is being able to take leadership when working with others. Playing basketball in college it taught me a lot about working with other people and taking leadership of the group when need be. My third talent I would say is being able to get other people to think in different ways about not only the things going on around them but challenge themselves and their own self beliefs.  My core area of expertise would be working with other people since I do not yet have any experience in the working world yet but one thing I do know is that you have to work with others and how effectively you can do so will tell a lot about the success you are or are not going to have when venturing out.

So ultimately when asked the question, “what would be your sentence?” I would say it would read something as follows, “Ronnie was a really cool guy who just knew how to work with the people around him, it could be 30 people or just two, either way Ronnie could connect with them on a deeper level.” As of right now I am still figuring my life out and figuring out things about myself so I am sure that this sentence will probably be different in the near future but one thing I am sure of so far in my young life is the fact that people are important and not just people but the connections you build with those people matter. The strengths of ones relationships could be a reason why someone could be hired by a company that is willing to invest in them. So with this being said I feel as though being a good person, all around and not just to people you view as being important, is critical in going through life and growing up. With all of the new things that we are discovering everyday in social media and technology trends are going to come and go as well as many of other things, but something that has been here since the start and will be here long after I am gone is humanity, I think everybody could benefit from acknowledging that and doing their part everyday to become a little bit better of a person.