FYI: How to Preserve a Puzzle

The best part about a puzzle is finishing it! I am usually not a puzzle person, but I like to do my puzzle and see it complete. Seeing your pieces all matched up and complete is so rewarding. You can preserve your puzzle and never have to do it again!

Here are the materials you will need:

• A puzzle
• Poster frame
• Puzzle glue 
• Poster board or cardboard
• Command Strips

First off, get your materials! Pick a puzzle that you enjoy looking at or wouldn't mind hanging on your wall. I got a cool Broadway Show Bill puzzle for my birthday!  

I suggest you first lay down a poster board or a piece of cardboard to do your puzzle on. This makes it all flat and even and provides something cheap for glue to stick onto. You don't want glue on your dining room table.

Next, complete your puzzle. Good luck and be patient. 

Take your puzzle glue whether that be Modge Podge or Elmer's and evenly apply one to two coats on your puzzle. Make sure you apply generously and smooth out the layers getting the glue in between each piece. Let it dry completely. Below are two types of puzzle glue that I think work well. 

After your puzzle is completely dry slide the back of the poster underneath the puzzle. An extra set of hands to help with this step makes it easier. Put the back of the poster on and flip the frame over. Use your command strips to hang it on the wall! 

You will never have to do that puzzle again, preserving it forever in a frame. I hung mine in my apartment. In my future space, my puzzle will probably live in a game room.  

Good luck framing and preserving your puzzle! Grab some friends and give it a go! 

Yolocaust

In social media the goal is to get more followers and to be recognized. Lately, a huge way to do this on platforms like Instagram and Twitter is to post travel selfies. For example, Royal Caribbean is offering an internship for an individual to go on their cruises and take Instagram travel photography to post on their behalf. Who wouldn't love to travel on a cruise and take photos?


Taking photos when you travel is just what happens. It's the best way to document your trip and share with others what you did and where you went. This past week a Jewish satirist, Shahak Shapira noticed that a lot of people were taking selfies at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The Holocaust Memorial is there to remember and pay tribute to the millions of people that were murdered during the Holocaust. People that post artsy travel photos in a place that deserves the upmost respect brings up the point to think about where and why you are posting something.

Shapira created a project called the Yolocaust, where he took individuals selfies at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and photoshopped them with images from the Holocaust. Based on the individual's caption for their selfie, Shapira would pick an image to best represent that.  He then posted these new photos on his website that since has been taken down. The project was so controversial and shared that the twelve individuals that were photoshopped all saw the project.

To get their images taken down, they had to write an email to undouche.me@yolocaust.de. Most of the individuals came to the realization of how their images and captions can impact so many people in a way they did not intend.  They also realized that showing respect at a place like a memorial is not a place to take artsy, travel photos. Pay the respect to the people of the memorial and think before you post. Below are some of the reactions and responses to the Yolocaust project.

A project like this is really intriguing to me, because it shows how quickly a post can go viral on social media. Stories like these prove that messages regardless of their medium have a sincere impact on the way they are shared, perceived and intended.

Reading Reflection: Art of Social Media Ch. 4-6

This day in age people have a response for anything and everything.  In the Art of Social Media, chapter four through six focus on responses to comments and ways to get people to respond to messages in different mediums.

Commenting on responses are great, because you get immediate feedback on the message that you are sharing. The feedback is instant, but can be positive or negative. Knowing how to go about responding to comments is important. It's easy to comment on the words of affirmation with a simple "thank you" but negative ones are a little more tricky. Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick have some excellent advice.  

When responding to a negative comment, go three rounds. 

1. Commenter comments
2. You Respond
3. Commenter Responds

THE END.  If there is a bigger problem you can always block, ignore, or delete the comment. 

Chapter five discusses and adds to topics discussed in the previous chapters on how to integrate social media into blogging. The themes from the chapter include being visual, use tools to your advantage and pass the reshare test! Joining networks and sharing your blog link through social media is a way for more people to read what you have to say. 

Kawasaki comments that if you "Peg" your post, you will master the way of integrating blogging and social media. 

Peg's way of sharing a post is a formula of creating interesting titles, creating different image sizes and sharing these titles and images on different platforms of media. By scheduling her posts on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIN, and Facebook she is distributing her content and implementing the channels of publics she already has through her social media accounts. Genius. 

Being relevant, consistent, and personable will go a long way. The quote on the right displays accountable social media posts and expectations when blogging or putting yourself out there. 

Bottomline, be visual and resourceful in responding to comments, integrating social media on your blog and sharing content. Share the good stuff and you be smart in how you respond! 

FYI: Sigma Alpha Iota: The Beginnings

I would have never imagined myself wanting to be in a group of only girls, but my membership in Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI) definitely has changed my mind.

Sigma Alpha Iota is a professional fraternity for women in music. They strive to promote music for all, so they are open to majors and non-major college women.  Promoting music for all and American composers and writers is important to them. They are similar to their sister fraternity Phi Mu Alpha-Sinfonia (PMA) for men.

On campus, PMA exists as an official chapter with lots of members. SAI has been in the beginning stages of formation now for three years. You have to first be an interest group, then form a colony that has strict regulations and rules, and then apply to become a chapter. For three years a handful of girls have been trying to get Sigma Alpha Iota on it's feet and running here at ONU and this Saturday we will have the first official chapter and class initiated!

For the past year, I took over the original president's position and have done all the communication and planning with the National Executive Board to make the reality of becoming a chapter.  Of course I have had the help of 18 wonderful women to help get things rolling, but the organization and management of this new group of excited women has taught me so much!

Being one of the only people that is not a music major made me make a lot of new friends and really get to know different people in other organizations as well. The organization community at Ohio Northern is so supportive and wonderful, especially to a blossoming new group! It has put some of my communications skills into practice and developed my resume professionally by interacting with so many people.

I am so excited that all the hard work is going to be paid off next weekend. For years to come this organization will be able to provide a place like home to other students like me. We all will have lots of learning to do as we grow, but SAI taking its roots at ONU is exciting for people who love music and what it provides to communities.

We always say support and encourage and that is just what we will do this week and the weeks to come.  If you are interested in listening to our most recent musicale performance, click here. 

Much love and roses from your almost sisters of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Reading Reflection: Art of Social Media 1-3

The reading for this week from The Art of Social Media was easy to follow and had some great points.  When I first started reading and realized that the authors were a part of Canva, I was ecstatic! I love to use Canva and am intrigued to hear more from the authors. The chapters this week were all about profiles, content, and posts. The overall theme was to stay consistent, stay interesting, and tell your story. The authors make a point even in their book to be concise and to the point.

In chapter one, the whole point is to optimize your profile. The authors advise to pick a neutral screen name, an avatar, a mantra and make it consistent.

• Profile Name: helen.heinig or helen_heinig
• Being that my name is kind of unique, my screen name on my social media is really easy: helen.heinig or helen_heinig, etc. It's supposed to be easy to identify the individual and be professional as your name stays with you.

• My avatar across platforms is consistent for the most part, but features me. I did not think that being consistent  would be so important before, but being consistent does verify my credibility and identity online. I need to take a look at the rest of my social media to see if my images and information is consistent. 

• Another thing from this chapter that I would like to improve on is my mantra. I don't really have a mantra for myself and as someone going into a career soon I need to have one. 

Here is a look at my profiles across different media platforms.

Chapter two was all about content development and topics that I did not know a lot about. Content can either be created or curated. Most content is curated because of the time it takes to make content for an individual. Lots of tools are available to use, but from this chapter the key to having a successful social media is to plan your content and update frequently. Keeping people interested in your story will keep your audience engaged and growing. 

Chapter three was all about perfecting posts. There is a different style and flair that goes with a site or media page, but perfecting posts is all about keeping the audience engaged, telling your story, and being active! Being organized and using tools that were talked about in chapter two aren't cheating! Use your resources to keep yourself organized and get value to your posts.  The best advice from this chapter was to post on the hour.  Everyone checks there phones on the hour or a little after because they are going to class or are in between meetings. You will be seen on the hour! 

This reading this week really made me think about what my mantra is and evaluate what things I want to change on my social media to best engage with the people I follow or follow me.  In the coming weeks I will definitely be updating some of my social media platforms for a better presence online! 

Adopting a Dog: PR & Social Media Make a Difference

Adopting a dog is a big decision for a family of six! Of course you could go to the pound or buy from a breeder, but my family loves to go with rescues. Guardian Angel Basset Rescue (GABR) has been our rescue of choice in the past, but due to their recent postings in dogs we have had to look other places. Previously having two dogs from GABR, we were looking for someplace similar or really just a basset in need. You can see our two previous pups below.

Cleo, our first dog from GABR.

Julia, our second dog from GABR.

This prompted us to go visit the pound in our county.  We visited and were greeted by a group of unwelcoming people who hustled us in and out without information regarding the dogs we were looking to adopt. We have a good relationship with the board president of the county animal shelter,so we called her up and voiced our concerns. She then apologized on behalf of the animal shelter and disciplined the people who made a mistake. Her actions hopefully influenced the organization in a positive way to make our family want to go back to the shelter, rather than feel unwelcome.

While public relations should not only be know to spin a situation to make the organization look good, public relations is good for organizations to quickly resolve mistakes and improve from them. The board president acted quickly to resolve the issue and explained to the employee why it is so important to be welcoming and cheerful to families walking through the door. The shelter's hours make it hard for families to adopt pets because they are only open until 4:30 p.m. Any family that comes in, even at 4:15 p.m. should feel welcome and eager to adopt a pet. To follow up the shelter also called my parents to let them know that the issue was resolved and the rescue coming to get those dogs was going to contact us that day.

This is where the social media aspect comes into play. Hearing about the rescue taking in these dogs, my family did our research. The rescue was kind of obscure, but I can say that my family did a lot of digging on social media to find out whether or not their ideals and mission matched GABR's mission. The Sunrise Center uses Facebook to help find foster homes for dogs as well as adoption.  Without their social media explanation about their mission and evidence of them supporting their mission, their credibility would have been weakened, making it hard for us to make a decision.

The use of public relations to promote an organization's image is very important.  It is what makes that organization's target audience be sustainable or grow. Poor image and ineffective public relations may make the organization's target audience lessen, which in turn lessens their donors, profit, or support. Social media is a viable option to help organize an image and make an organization credible for what they are working toward.

We ultimately have not got the dogs yet, but we are going through the process. Hopefully the dogs go to a happy home,but there is no reason why that happy home can not be in my home!