Blog Entry #3: Exploring Hashtags Part 2

The primary hashtag I explored in this activity was #PSL. The content in the tag is mostly pictures of Starbucks customers with their pumpkin spice lattes or customers tweeting about wanting/buying a pumpkin spice latte. The attitudes presented in #PSL are mostly positive, with customers talking about enjoying or anxiously waiting to get the latte. Since fall just began, a lot of the opinions in the tag mention the relief that the pumpkin spice latte is back. I believe that the content in #PSL is very helpful to the chain due to its overwhelmingly positive nature, which reflects well on the business and could lead to more purchases in the future.

The Starbucks company Twitter also uses #PSL when they are replying to customer’s questions about the drink. I think this would also be helpful to Starbucks because it not only increases the popularity of the tag, but could lead to people following the link the #PSL and seeing the overwhelmingly positive content, which would have the great effects I listed earlier.

There are a couple flaws I see in the tag. The first is that some people seem to use it in reference to the premiere sports league in addition to the pumpkin spice latte. This could make someone who explores the tag for the first time confused or disinterested in future engagement with it. Additionally, I don’t know how helpful the tag actually is for the Starbucks brand. I mentioned earlier that someone exploring the tag would be enticed by its positive portrait of the brand, but I doubt many people actually explore the tag. It seems more like people just use it to talk about their own experiences with the drink. So while it could be helpful in theory, I am not sure if it actually is.

My suggestions to Starbucks after exploring # PSL would be to continue utilizing the hashtag and to address the problems I have mentioned in order to increase effective engagement with the tag and, hopefully, business. I do not see myself exploring or using the tag in the future, but it was interesting to see how others did.

The Neofuturists: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Chicago is a performing arts hub home to internationally renowned acts. While any good-old-fashioned tour will instruct you to hit Broadway and Second City, I encourage you to take your theatrical experience one step further (not to diss those places-they're great too!).

Chicago's Neofuturists are a widely talented group of producers, writers, and performers who create some of the most innovate, surreal theater I've ever had to pleasure of viewing. The show that I saw, "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" is an extremely impressive display of their acting, writing, and improvisational chops. The performers have 30 minutes to perform 30 pre-written skits, ranging in length from 5 seconds to multiple minutes. The order they perform these skits in is decided as the audience screams out the number they want performed based on the titles, which they are given beforehand. And if this novelty isn't enough for you, the skits are absolutely amazing, making you laugh, become somber, or some strange combination of both. The essential aspect that makes this show so special, however, is the energy that the Neofuturist team brings and continues to bring throughout the entire set. Even as a physically stagnant audience member, you feel alive and active as you're watching them set up the stage 30 times over, barely missing a beat or taking a second to breathe. It's an unparalleled characteristic I can't say my friends and I have seen anywhere else (check out our smiling faces at the show below!).

In short, if you're looking for a theatrical experience that will keep you on your toes, this is the production for you. For more information on the Neofuturists, please visit http://neofuturists.org/

Blog Entry #1: Exploring Twitter Hashtags

This week's activity was very insightful to me. Although I am an experienced Twitter user, I usually use the platform for personal interactions: tweeting about my day, seeing what my friends are up to, etc. I rarely explore hashtags, especially ones involving business matters such as these. So one of the first lessons I took from this activity was that, although I have been on Twitter for a long time, I am not as experienced a user as I thought!

I looked at most of the hashtags briefly, but spent the most time in #hootchat. There is a lot of insight to be gained in the topic of social media relations from this hashtag. Not only are social media professionals sharing advice with one another, but they are posting relevant articles that would help anyone building a social media platform. One of the coolest things I noticed is the use of the term "influencer" which I hadn't heard before. I think this tag would be excellent to explore as I begin to use social media professionally. Most of the people in this tag are professionals working for large companies who seem very willing to answer questions and share their experience. I could reach out to them through this tag and receive invaluable advice.

My only concerns about Twitter involve the clutter/spam related to large tags such as #hootchat. Just scrolling through the tag can be very overwhelming, as people are sharing articles and replying to one another so frequently. Also, there appear to be some spam bots. After tweeting using #hootchat, I was added to multiple, seemingly random lists of people. This is a little annoying, but not totally detrimental. It would not discourage me from using the platform in the future. Overall, I am excited to explore Twitter hashtags like this further and see what I can learn from them.