Welcome to the blog!

     Welcome to my blog for CSIT 155 during spring 2021!  My name is Ryan West and I chose this layout because of the simplicity and calmness of it.  Growing up I have always liked things that were simpler and less complicated, so seeing this layout seemed like the proper way to go. 

    I decided to tinker around with the background of the layout first because the default seemed a little too minimalistic.  So I chose some mountains as a nice background, living in California where snow and rain are virtually nonexistent unless you live in the mountains I have always loved them.  Once I graduate I plan on moving to northern California or Oregon because that weather has always suited me better. 

    I also chose the overall theme due to the ease of access.  All the posts will be easily viewed from one page and I can set the most recent one at the top as well as pin it as a featured post.  The layout also is easily set up to add pictures, videos, or any other media seamlessly within the post.  This accessibility will be beneficial to both me and the readers as the posts go live. 

    Social media is important for both personal and business as it not only acts as a social networking tool but can be used as a simple distraction from the efforts of life sometimes.  The social media presence of a business should promote what that business does for people and the community.  This differs from the social media presence of a person as that is typically only going to be about them and what they experience in life. Different social medias have their different uses and due to this it is always best to use more than one regardless of the purpose.  

    For my personal use of social media I tend to use a little bit of everything, however, I have begun to use certain ones less and less such as Facebook and Instagram.  I use Twitter, Tik Tok and Snapchat regularly while ones like Facebook and Instagram go unopened on my phone for months at a time.  Personally I believe that Facebook in particular is slowly being phased out of the younger generations everyday use,  I started using it almost when it first launched and never became attached to it.  The bad press surrounding Facebook all the  time does not do it any favors either.  More and more young people are using all the other social medias and not Facebook which in turn does not create new users from people inviting friends.

    Business social media is different in many ways but depending on the target audience of the business different social medias would be more effective.  If it is a general product that everyone would use I believe that having an account on every social media promoting your product would be good.  Then looking at which groups are consuming your product you can focus on the social media that group uses most, so if young people are your largest demographic promoting on Facebook will not increase consumption.  Instead focusing on a site like Tik Tok and Instagram would be more beneficial while still doing minimal marketing on the other sites.  Keeping business interactions up on the less marketed sites would be just as important though as they are still consumers no matter how small the demographic.