Last post for social media class..

Don't worry.. I will still continue to blog when things come up related to the world of PR and Mass Communication. Just wanted to write a quick post to tell you about my journey these last couple of months. First of all, I have to say that I have learned a lot in this process. I took the social media mini-session the second week of January and we were assigned to create and maintain a blog until now. We could also choose three more social media platforms to maintain over these past couple of months. I chose Twitter, Pinterest and Linked In. It has been fun to learn how to maintain these social media sites and to get social media savvy. I have thoroughly enjoyed this process and I plan to take a small break the next couple of weeks as school is becoming pretty hectic. I am really enjoying my classes this semester and I will be graduating in December! Hooray! Thank you so much for following along with my blog and I hope you will continue to do so.

Talk to you soon!

Clemmie

How non-profits relied on social media in 2012

In December Mashable published this blog post. I am currently working on a campaign plan for the Historic Hattiesburg Downtown Association and just finished a social media plan for it. I was looking at sources that discussed social media in regards to non-profits and came across this post. 

I was amazed at the statistics on this graph. Friends are more likely to donate or find out about an organization if one of their friends shared a post about that organization. Donations were the highest they have ever been last year in regards to fundraising using social media. Do any of these statistics surprise you? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Tornado Tragedy strikes USM, and what the university did right.

Yesterday, around 5:45 pm an EF-4 tornado with winds peaking at 170 mph struck Hattiesburg and the University of Southern Mississippi. It left 82 people injured but amazingly there are no reported deaths at this time.
Some photos:

Here is a video of the tornado crossing Hardy Street striking the campus from Storm Spotter John Sibley:

Now, I have to brag on the university for a moment. They handled this situation in the best way possible. They were consistent in keeping the students, faculty, staff and parents informed. They sent out text messages and phone calls regarding the multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings in a timely manner all afternoon and night and continued to keep us all informed even throughout today. I think their action preparedness plan paid off and I am so glad they know exactly what to do when and if a tragedy should strike. I think it saved a lot of lives on campus. The City of Hattiesburg was also very prepared. They put their plan into action and were on the scene as soon as the tornado passed through. Residents heeded the warnings and the loss of human life was none. Please keep Hattiesburg, USM and the surrounding areas in your thoughts and prayers. I know we will need it in the coming days as the recovery process is happening.