Blog Best Practices

Are you ready for some football? That just happens to be my favorite sport to watch. I don' care if it is college or professional. I love football. That's not to say that I don't enjoy other sports, because I do. I also enjoy basketball and baseball. Football just happens to be my favorite. I would like to think that I have a vast knowledge of the history of football, as well as the rules and regulations. It's funny because when I talk about sports with guys, I tend to knock their socks off. Most guys are very impressed with my knowledge of football or sports in general. I find it funny. If you are passionate about a subject, why shouldn't you learn as much as you can. I love football enough to go out and buy books about the sport. I watch every Saturday and Sunday,  I play Madden and I also play Fantasy Football. For me, it is absolutely important that I stay up to date with the latest information about teams that I follow and the sport itself. I usually rely on news from my local paper or television station. Oddly enough, I find out about other sports related news trending on Facebook.

Recently, I was introduced to the art of blogging. I had considered starting my own blog page to talk about football, but didn't know how. I also didn't feel comfortable talking about football, fearing negative backlash, especially being that it is a male dominated sport. Plus, I really never visited blogs until recently. I never really understood the function of a blog but had always been encouraged to create and write one.

What I have learned is that as a blogger, in order to keep followers, you must be accurate. For me, I don't think that it really matters what kind of blog you have. Whether you are writing about raising kids or writing movie reviews, you owe to your followers to be accurate as well as responsible.

The blog that I chose to talk about is from the ESPN website. This blog covers all sports ranging from football to hockey. If you are a football fan like I am, the blog is broken down from different college conferences to  the different NFL divisions. I can go in and click on the blog that I am interested in.  I really like what I have seen so far with this blog. ESPN doesn't disappoint. I find that their blog writers are very knowledgeable and they are accurate in their reporting.  The great thing about ESPN is that it offers selection.  You can choose from any sport and read a blog about that sport or a particular player. I find that this blog has something for everyone. If you are a sports fan, then this is the blog site for you. Lastly, because the blog site is maintained by ESPN, I wouldn't expect anything less. ESPN has been delivering sports news for over 30 years through various outlets and I find them to very reputable. For me, its a no brainer that ESPN would have such a well written blog and that the information would be accurate and insightful.  I would recommend this blog to any sports fan. To check the EPSN blog out, visit  http://espn.go.com/espn/blogs.

Joe Paterno Press Release

                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                               


For Immediate Release


                         
                               Iconic  Penn State Joe Paterno Dead at 85

(State College, PA)  Very few coaches have made a name for themselves in the world of college football; Joe Paterno is one them. Having coached at Penn State University for over 60 years, Paterno will forever be synonymous with the university and college football.

On January 22, Joe Paterno passed away at the age of 85 from complications of lung cancer. Paterno's coaching legacy includes 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins, as well as 5 undefeated teams. In May 2006, Paterno was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and later inducted in December 2007.
The 2009 season was Paterno's 44th as head coach  of the Nittany Lions, passing Amos Alonzo Stagg for the for the most years as head coach at a single institution in Division I. In that same year, he was named to Sporting News' list of the 50 greatest coaches of all time (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball, and college football). He is listed in position 13. 

Paterno is survived by his wife, Suzanne Pohland and his 5 children: Diana, Joseph Jr "Jay", Mary Kay, David, and Scott, all of whom graduated from Penn State.



^{FACEBOOK POST: Joe Pateno, former Head Coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions has passed away at age 85 after a long battle with lung cancer.  His coaching spanned over 60 years with Penn State. The later part of his career was tarnished with allegations of sexual abuse.}

Social Media Tools

Growing up, I remember watching The Jetsons thinking that that would be how the future would look. Who knew that some of the things that you saw on a cartoon would actually be used in modern day society.  For example, The Jetsons use of the video phone can be compared to what we know today as Skype. For years, society has found many different ways for a message to reach its audience.

I remember the first type of phone that I used, which was a rotary phone. You could not go anywhere with that phone unless you had a very long phone cord. It took forever to make a phone call because you had to wait for the rotary to complete its spin. Good thing there were only seven number to dial back then. After the rotary, came the cordless which I thought was the greatest thing ever. No longer would you have to lug that big rotary phone around. With the cordless, all you had to carry was the receiver. You could go anywhere in the house and outside as long as you stayed in range of the base.
Around the time that the cordless phone came out, we were also introduced to the car phone and pager. Society became more mobile. If you wanted to reach a person that was not at home, you could hit them on the hip (page them). In turn, the person would go to a phone and call you back.

Fast forward to 2014 and it seems like everyone has a cell phone. Even young children have cell phones. According to the website aids.gov, 45% of all adults in the U.S. own a smartphone. 80% of cell phone users send or receive text messages, 55% of cell phone owners use the internet on their phones and 50% of cell phone users send or receive email on their phones (aids.gov, 2013). Mobile users are able to send and receive messages through multiple outlets on their mobile device. Mobile users can also sign up for message alerts from different sources of interest. I receive text messages from my dentist to let me know that I have an upcoming appointment. I also get messages from my credit card company, and I get weather and Amber alerts. A message has huge reach on a mobile device because of the ability to text, access the internet and read an email.

Another way to get a message out is through blogging. A blog is a website with which allows a user to speak openly and candidly about any subject the blogger desires. A blog is usually very informal, however that depends on the blogger. There are many websites that offer blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr.  By the end of 2011, there were an estimated 181 million blogs worldwide. 71% of all bloggers say they blog to speak their minds and share their expertise (aids.gov, 2013). Blogging is very interactive. It allows for followers to leave comments to the blogger and the blogger can respond back. You can also direct people to follow your page. The more popular the page, the more likely it is that your message will be seen. Right now, my blog is only seen by about 25 people and because of the students in my class.  If I were to start my own personal blog about something that I really like football, I could ask all of my sports friends to check me out. I could share the link on other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

What is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to share information and connect with people and organizations that share the same interests.  According to aids.gov, 8% of U.S. Internet users use Twitter on a typical day, 20.6 million U.S. adults access Twitter at least once a month and there are over 177 million tweets sent every day. You can access Twitter via a mobile device, tablet or computer.  Because of the easy access that Twitter allows, a message(Tweet) will likely be seen instantly. Mobile devices allow for users to get notified when a tweet is posted or shared. The more followers a user has, the better the chance their message will be seen and shared. If you have a million follower, more that likely a good majority will see that messages. Things can get sticky with Twitter because there can be good and bad tweets. If an athlete throws a tantrum on Twitter about a bad call, teammates or coaching, that messaged can be retweeted by a follower causing more and more people to see that message. In other words, you have to be very careful and very responsible on Twitter.  There are good and bad messages that can reach an audience, so be mindful of what you post.

Please check out the links below:

www.blogger.com to go to Blogger.

www.twitter.com to go to Twitter.

                                                                      

Blogs. (2013). Aids.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/blogs/

Mobile. (2013). Aids.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/mobile/

Social Network Sites. (2013). Aids.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/social-network-sites/