Wholesome dog content? Yes please!

2 good puppies from Guide Dogs of America

Raise your hand if you spend too much time on TikTok! Yup, me too! 

TikTok videos are like chips - we can never have just one. Pretty soon, we find ourselves spiraling down the different themed areas of content on the app. Through #TheatreTok, to #HarryPotterTikTok, over to #DIYTikTok, down and down the spiral we go, where we'll stop nobody knows. 

I'm not going to pretend to fully understand the algorithm on TikTok, but I vaguely get that in order to see the content you want, you'll need to interact with videos you like so TikTok sends you more. 

I like dogs. I want to see wholesome dog content when I log onto the app to make my day better. So every wholesome video that comes across my feed that has a puppy or a dog on it gets a like. Maybe that's how Guide Dogs of America's TikTok video about Juno training made its way onto my screen.

And the caption on the video?

"Follow us to learn more about Guide Dogs"

with a guide dog emoji included. Um, I didn't even know that emoji existed??? 

Honestly though, how cool is this?! A family friend of ours is blind and went through this process, so I'd heard a bit about it from her, but seeing it from the perspective of someone who goes through this training is on another level entirely.

It's also extra awesome because the organization is a nonprofit that trains and places service dogs and guide dogs with humans who need them throughout the United States and Canada for FREE.

Guide Dogs of America's mission statement on their website states: 

Our mission is to transform lives through partnerships with service dogs.

According to their website: 

At Guide Dogs of America, we transform lives through partnerships with service dogs. We breed, raise, and train guide dogs for individuals who are blind/visually impaired and service dogs for veterans and children with autism. We also place facility dogs with professionals in hospitals, schools, and courtrooms. Our highly skilled canines become trusted companions that increase people’s confidence, mobility, and independence. All programs and services, including transportation, personalized training, room/board, and postgraduate support, are provided at no cost to the recipient.

Good boys and girls being trained to improve the quality of life for people who need them? I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye. Never mind, I'm totally sobbing.

Guide Dogs of America's TikTok account addresses a niche that everyone loves: dogs! One of the reasons we love seeing puppies (and let's be real - no matter how old they are, they're all puppies) on our social media feeds is because we see our dogs as members of our families. NBC News breaks down our obsession with dogs on social media.

The genius of this TikTok account is that Guide Dogs of America create videos showing you how the puppies are raised and trained, how the humans bond with the animals, and offer lots of beautiful dog-breath cuteness. All videos are themed to be family-friendly and show what a loving environment the dogs grow up in.

Many of their videos are also set to trending music which helps the algorithm get them noticed and keeps them up to date with what people on the social network want to see. 

Check out this video for addicting puppy content set to trending music. 

Check out another one with the cutest puppy you'll see all day also set to trending music, but warning: the video will make you want to smush a puppy. Badly.

This TikTok account is an amazing example of an organization utilizing the groundswell to its advantage. It brings people together to fawn over puppies (check the comments - they're so heartwarming), and enables relationships by focusing its content on relationships between humans and our best friends. It gives us a sneak peek into something we all know about, but few of us will ever have the opportunity to interact with personally. Because the organization is a nonprofit, this account can help inspire new donors who see a cute puppy on their feed and are inspired to support the organization to continue producing cute puppy content.

What are your thoughts on Guide Dogs of America's TikTok account? Let me know in the comments below!

Relationships & the Groundswell - the Power of Human Connection

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernof

When you think about technology, who do you think determines how it runs? Do the Big 6 that make up the media oligopoly control it? Is it controlled by our government? Who is actually in charge of the whole thing? 

It turns out, according to Charlene Li and Josh Bernof, authors of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, that the "most powerful force on the Internet" is people. Regular people, just like you and me! "Self-expression used to be private...or difficult...Not anymore." Nowadays, everyone has access to the tools they need to make the impact they want. That's where the groundswell comes into play.

The authors describe the groundswell as "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations." Those who controlled the media used to have a lot of power. Not so anymore. 

"Media isn't neatly boxed into little rectangles called newspapers, magazines, and TV sets anymore." We have more diversity of connection options available to us than ever before. And customers are definitely taking advantage of it. We live in a world where rates of social connectivity are high and evolving at a rate impossible to keep up with. 

To survive, organizations need to utilize the groundswell and do it well or risk the worst-case scenario: becoming obsolete.

When looking at how to harness the power of the groundswell, one of the most difficult things to wrap our minds around is that it "weakens and undermines control." It sticks it to the man and says no thank you. Yet Li and Bernof also say that "businesses and other institutions are built on control." 

How, then, can we, those of us who work for organizations in marketing and PR positions, both have control and let it go? That's where the delicate balance of the groundswell comes into play. 

We need to understand a few things about people to understand how the groundswell functions. Li and Bernof cite a case study of Digg.com, where the "people on the Internet showed that they were in charge." It also revealed a sort of hidden secret about why we use technology: "The Internet allows people to draw strength from each other." 

The groundswell is all about relationships. 

Institute for Well-Being in Law

Human beings are social animals, even those of us who are introverted. We need human to human, person to person connection, and today that connection is mainly done via the use of social networks. 

"This movement can't be tamed. It comes from a thousand sources and washes over traditional business like a flood." So we'll have to admit that there is a decent amount of control we'll have to give up.  And therein lies our answer: we can't be traditional. That doesn't work anymore.

Our focus must be on relationships. We won't survive otherwise. We also need to understand that giving power to our customers takes some power away from us and we have to be okay with this. That doesn't mean that we need to sit passively by and let our customers erode our business tweet by tweet, though. 

The challenge for us when it comes to the groundswell is whether or not we are "accomplishing a useful business goal and, on top of that, how" we will then "measure that success" so we can prove that our "groundswell effort was worth it." 

Any type of groundswell campaign planning should start first and foremost with thinking about the human connection. What impact are we trying to make? What do we want our customers to take away from this? How will we ensure this is something our customers actually want?

Renowned speaker Simon Sinek has a very well-known Ted Talk Start with why - how great leaders inspire action. 

This video is a prime example of how organizations should be thinking. We always need to be answering the question of why - why should customers use this? Why are customers going to choose us over a competitor? Why are we doing this for them? When our answers center people and relationships first, then we will be able to successfully launch a groundswell campaign.

I know it may seem like a lot of work, and it definitely is. But with today's social climate, organizations cannot afford to do nothing. We must utilize the groundswell efficiently if we want to remain relevant. 

What are your thoughts about the groundswell? How can this be put into action? What should we as marketing and PR professionals be doing in our roles to advocate for and implement effective groundswell strategies? 

My Cousin Found Love on Facebook - and She's Not the Only One

Grace Yagel

Over the summer, I was lucky enough to see my cousin (finally, according to our grandmother) getting married! We'd been told everything we needed to know about the groom: tall, handsome, good job, great family. Most importantly, they were happy! 

We heard they had met through their job, so imagine our surprise when my cousin's future mother-in-law let it slip that the two had met on Facebook! I don't know why this hit me so hard. Maybe I never expected my cousin to be that person. But people getting hitched after meeting online is nothing new.

I remember growing up seeing commercials for sites like EHarmony and Match.com that alleged that they would find you the perfect spouse. In fact, 52% of adults who have never been married have used an online dating service, according to a 2019 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. It's especially prominent in millenials, as 48% of 18-29 year olds have used a dating site or app and 21% of them found love online.

The very makeup of social media is meant to connect us - likes, comments, shares, hashtags - everything works to brings us together. We all have those friends we met on social media that we've never met in real life but that we couldn't imagine our lives without. Some of us are just brought together more than others. Wedding site The Knot even has a whole post about couples who married after meeting on social media. There's also an added layer of our hesitancy as a culture to speak to strangers for those of us who grew up in a "stranger danger" environment that leads us to flock to social media as an added layer of protection.

Despite our concerns over that rando on the street over there, as a society, we heavily rely on person to person connection. The COVID-19 pandemic brought that to a halt and had us all running and screaming at full speed, opening our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat apps as fast as we could. That's where MeetJew and CoronaCrush came in.

Moment Mag

There has always been a custom in the Jewish world to talk about marriage and impart the importance of marrying Jewish and having Jewish babies, especially as a minority in the United States and the world. The Orthodox community have long used matchmakers to find love, but to a more secular ear, the idea at first sounded ridiculous. Yet MeetJew and CoronaCrush both did something amazing - they played matchmaker by letting people feel like they are their own matchmakers.

Both MeetJew and CoronaCrush started via Facebook groups that now have several thousand members in each. They both expanded to create surveys with multiple questions surrounding age, gender, values, location preferences, and more that match you with matches based on an algorithm. MeetJew sends weekly emails to participants with matches, while CoronaCrush goes for the more traditional speed dating option; virtual speed dating events are held every few weeks. Both organizations still have their Facebook groups active, with new members joining and posting introductory posts every day.

CoronaCrush is so popular that Chabad Lubavitch, a prominent Jewish organization known for their dedicated outreach to Jewish communities around the world, partnered up with CoronaCrush to launch Met@Chabad, developed in partnership with Chabad on Campus. The team up features an even more intense survey than CoronaCrush's original survey that highlights the importance Chabad places on properly matching couples according to values and education for participants about the importance of marriage and healthy relationships. A May 2021 event found 58% of participants matching, meaning both them and one of their dates said they wanted to get to know each other further.

Some of the couples who married after
meeting on CoronaCrush
Jewish Insider

Both CoronaCrush and MeetJew have been successful in creating marriages. There was even a New York Times article written about a couple who got married after meeting via CoronaCrush! And look at all these other happy couples who also married after meeting through CoronaCrush. That's how you know you made it, am I right?

So while we're still not sure who slid into who's DMs first, one thing is for sure: my cousin is married after finding love online. And she's definitely not the only one.

How's it going? I'm Karen!

 Hey there! How's it going? I'm Karen!

I know, that was a heavy use of exclamation marks. But it's great to meet you! 

I am a senior at Worcester State University double majoring in Communication & Visual and Performing Arts. Yes, it's a lot but I couldn't pick just one so I had to do both. I'm taking this course because thanks to a new joint articulation program between Worcester State University and Clark University, I get to start my MSC in my senior year. Social media is incredibly relevant nowadays and will be an important part of my future career - plus there's always more to learn!

On top of studying, I am very involved in extracurricular activities at Worcester State University. I am SGA President, a Presidential Student Ambassador, co-founder and President of Chabad on Campus (our only Jewish organization), President of the Gamma Chi chapter of Delta Alpha Pi, and a member of the Class of 2022 Committee.

I recently started my dream job working for a nonprofit where I am currently working part time then will transition to full time upon graduation. I volunteer at a local rest home with patients with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia and teach at my Chabad's Hebrew school.

Super busy, right? Luckily time management is one of my strongest skills. Saying no? I'm working on it (tips are appreciated - let me know what works for you in the comments below).

Luckily I have the cutest forever puppy named Violet to take on walks during breaks. Dogs are just the best. Cats are great, too, if you like a more independent pet. We love them no matter what.

That's a bit about me! I would love to get to know you as well! What's your name, what do you do, and may I see pictures of your pets?