Awards Season: The Grammy's Have Arrived

It's that time of the year again. Awards Season. There is the People's Choice, Golden Globes, SAGS, the Grammy's, and the Academy Awards. I am sure that I forgot a few but those mentioned are the ones I pay attention to. What is it about the awards season that gets social media a buzz? The starts Instagrams blow up, which is always very entertaining to see what everyone is wearing. I rarely pay attention to the actual awards, but I always make sure to watch the pre-shows. The best part is the red carpet walks. Who is attending with who and who is wearing the best dress? Oh, and of course there will be several stars who show up on the Fashion Police. I think if I were to be in their shoes, it would be difficult to not only put myself out there on the red carpet, but you are putting yourself out there on every single social platform. This has the potential to be overly praised or harshly criticized and rejected.

While watching the pre-show I saw that Huffington post is doing a live poll of the best and worst dressed for this year. This is what social media has come to. Finding multiple ways for viewers to participate from their living room couches. For certain things I think this is a great idea, but for others I think it can be a little cruel. Obviously I will joke with my roommates about how ridiculous some people are dressed, but I personally have a hard time sharing that with the rest of the world.

I think that fashion retailers can truly benefit from awards season and the use of social media. These retailers could use the awards shows to engage with their customers on what the different starts wore. If a certain style is extremely favorable, the retailers could use that to their benefit. I have already seen that with local retailers and stars everyday wear. Specifically the Red Dress Boutique has shown pictures of famous women wearing different trends and then placed those pictures next to in-store items that are identical to the stars outfits. The more that different business and brands do this they are truly connecting and engaging with their audience. Personally, I am much more likely to go buy something from a store when they show me that my favorite actress was spotted wearing it. The brands are taking content that is already out there and giving it to their audience to see and interact with.

Hopefully tonight I won't see anything to horrible that I allow myself to publicly criticize! But until next time I hope you all stay out of social media trouble.

Super Bowl Sunday: a Game for the Boys and Halftime for the Girls

Super Bowl Sunday is all the hype from January up until February when it happens. The grocery and party stores have massive sales and promos and the large national companies are preparing their commercials. Tonight I watched the Super Bowl with two of my roomates and we had a casual night in. Instead of going to a typical super bowl party, we simply picked up take-out from various restaurants and watched the game in the comfort of our own home. Since the Falcons were not in the game, none of us really cared about the game or who won. What we did care about was Beyonce's Half-Time performance and the reunion of Destiny's Child. I actually find it funny that tonight's game held one purpose for the boys and another purpose entirely for the girls. Obviously the boys cared about the game, but the girls cared about the performances and the commercials. Just take a look on twitter, facebook, and instagram and you will see the proof to my statements. All of my girl friends went twitter crazy during half-time. One of my personal favorite facebook statuses was about the reunion of Destiny's Child and how anyone under the age of 17 would have had no idea who the two girls performing with Beyonce were. I sometimes forget about the different generation gaps and how those younger than my group of friends grew up with different pop singers and boy band collections. However there are those certain artists that everyone no matter their age can relate to or enjoys listening to. One group in particular would be the Rolling Stones. The Stones have been around since my parents were young yet we are able to share the enjoyment of watching them perform live together.

Although I may be able to enjoy certain music with my parents, there are other things we do not similarly share. On nights like tonight my parents probably have no idea who many tweets or facebook statuses are updated. If they weren't watching the game, they would not find out nearly as quickly about what is occurring. The social media world allows my generation in particular and those immersed in social media to be in constant communication. Social media allows us to constantly know if something is happening even if we aren't watching it. Most of the time you can have all of the details of a particular event without even watching it because of your friends posts on twitter. This can be a good and a bad thing. At times it can be very comical but at others it can become overwhelming and annoying. On nights where I am able to enjoy the performance I think social media makes it more entertaining, but if I had to be studying tonight and wasn't able to see Beyonce, I believe that social media would have further made me feel excluded. I don't believe that it is meant to feel this way, but people are always going to feel left out when they are not able to partake in the fun. In my case, whenever I am really stressed out about school, I try to remove myself from social media entirely so that I am not distracted and so I don't lower my mood even further. Social media is capable of being extremely entertaining but it is also capable of being the biggest distractor when trying to be productive. I guess that is why I am lucky that this semester I am taking a social media class. Technically, I am doing school work if I procrastinate by playing on facebook and twitter. Now if only I could convince my parents that.

Social Media Can Wreck Your Heart

After sitting down with my laptop multiple times attempting to write my first blog entry, I was constantly unable to find the ideas or the words to write. However I was just browsing on facebook and came across a blog entry from CRU at the University of Alabama. The blog post was about how social media can wreck our hearts. The post really struck me as something that I had never contemplated before. Today in my life I can't remember how many times a day I am on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Through social media everyone's lives appear to be so perfect. The pictures and updates portray everyone happy and spending time with friends and boyfriends. It is almost as though we constantly forget  to look past the pictures. These pictures don't tell us the whole story. They solely give us a glimpse into someone's life, but this glimpse is what they portray their lives to be as. In social media we don't see people alone, depressed, and facing extreme hardships. We only see what they want us to see. Social media has further allowed people to hide themselves from reality, and it becomes much harder to help those who need it. The only way I keep in touch with some of my high school friends is through social media. I rarely talk to them, but I occasionally look at their different pages to see if they are still with their boyfriends or just to make sure they are still alive. However, until now I had never thought about the fact that the pictures I was looking at did not depict reality. For all I knew someone could have cancer or have had a friend who committed suicide, but through most social media, I would never know.

Social media marketing uses these different tools to promote their own agendas, and as consumers we must be very conscious of who we are. Social media places so much in front of us constantly. We are constantly seeing the newest fashion trends or the new fad diet, and we must be careful not to become envious of material things we don't have. It is too easy for us to lose sight of ourselves and what we do have. We become ungrateful and selfish. I am not saying that seeing the newest trends is bad, but we cannot let them take over our lives. I like being able to look up cute purses or boots, but I can't let myself become obsessed. These are simply materials that do not define who I am. Social media marketing has so much potential to reach my generation, but companies must carefully plan their strategies and tactics. The companies can put their campaigns out there, but it is up to the consumers to engage with it.