Creating a presentation over small businesses using social media as a sales platform opened my eyes to small businesses as well as gave me the opportunity to reflect on my presenting skills. My heart goes out to small business and I love to see them succeed. I believe that social media and Facebook specifically can help them to structure and promote their business to the fullest. This is what I tried to focus on during my presentation. 

In my presentation project I believe the screenshots I was able to present were very helpful as a visual aid. They allowed me to showcase a couple businesses and talk on the different aspect of their pages that were helping to promote their business. This also allowed me the chance to talk on my presentation with the temptation to read the presentation verbatim.

In my presentation there were some flaws. I did read verbatim off of a few of my lengthier slides.  On those slides I should have instead provided only the key notes of what I wanted to talk on and  put the rest on my presentation notes and key points to talk about while on that slide. My outline was also a little too structured. This allowed me to rush through my presentation and not leave the proper amount of spacing and pauses for thinking or really much of anything.

When looking at presentations of my peers over the same subject I noticed the dispersal of information which I like as well as the announcing of title pages and their ability to talk as though they were the teacher of a class full of their friends. Some of my peers presentations also allowed me to see the good in my own presentation as I refrained from long awkward pauses, used an outline, and refrained from using the word “umm” to fill spaces. 

If I had the chance to redo this presentation I would make my informative slides longer, give each of my examples their own page and gather more statistics to support my claims. I believe doing this would really help to get my point across to small businesses that don’t already use social media to promote their products or services. 

There are a few things that I learned from this project that I can I apply to my professional career. I gained confidence in creating a presentation. I have a hard time speaking in front of any people including my peers so the voice over idea that we took advantage of during this project may become very useful to me later on in life. I was also able to identify my pull to read slides verbatim and realize that it is not benefiting anyone to do so. In future presentation I will be more aware of this. Overall I really enjoyed the project and the subject matter and am able to reflect on a lot of the positives and negatives and build on them. 

The Longest Running Parade West of the Mississippi

On July 4, 2019 we will be having a Simmons Bank float in Marshfield’s 140th Independence Parade. Each member of our Marshfield Branch will be present to pass out popsickles and candy to our customers and potential customers attending the parade.

Arrival Time and Meeting Place

We will be meeting at 9:00 at Hubble Elementary School (where the parade will start) in the parking lot nearest to the football fields

Attire

Each member of our team should be dress in their red Simmons shirt, denim shorts or jeans, and a comfortable shoe as we will be walking a ways.

Attitude

It is an honor to be apart of such a community function as the 140th Independence Day parade in Marshfield,Missouri and we should treat it as such. During this parade we are the face of Simmons Bank so put your best face on.

We are so excited to have this opportunity to serve this community and enjoy such a spectacular event. Can’t wait to see you all there! If you have any questions feel free to email me for more information.

To write an effective email you must make sure that email is used for the right purpose. You must be sure that the literature in the email can be read without being heard. This is important because verbal cues associated with face to face communication can not be interpreted through email. It is not appropriate for sensitive, emotionally rich conversation, it is composed of gathered thoughts. It is also less efficient than verbal communication. An example of an effective email used for the correct context is writing to inform an clothing company that your items were incorrect and requesting a full return or compensation. In that email there is no feelings, or reason for face to face or verbal contact as it can be describe in it entirety in words.

To write and effective email you must ensure the ease of reading the email. Its much like a chapter book, if the book is easy to read, than it will be read in its entirety but if it is difficult to read than the reader may discard it after a few pages. You want your readers to read you message from start to finish and so you must include: a pleasant opening, references and details, proper spacing, a pleasant closing and a professional closing. These key details will allow your email to be easily read. An example of an effective email with ease of being read is a email you receive from your professor. It is properly space, it includes a heading and closing, and is straight and to the point on material.

To write an effective email you need to show respect for others time. You can achieve this by selecting message recipients carefully, provide timelines and options, be careful using the priority flag, and let others know when you will be longer than expected. These measures if taken will keep the reader and writer at ease throughout the discussion. An example of writing and effective email showing respect to others time would be such as my Realtor writing me a timeline of due dates for paperwork, closing information and dates, and a specified response time . She is allowing me time to work on accomplishing the goals within a time frame, there is no priority flag, and she is only writing to myself as it concerns no one else.

Writing ineffective emails is easy to do as we all get caught up in the virtual world. I have observed people writing emails out of format and without the proper contact information to continue communication with. This makes the ease of reading incredibly hard. Without including a proper signature the reader my have to do some digging if they need to contact you further. I have seen this first hand in the world of banking. If a teller makes a mistake and writes in an email to contact you regarding there mistake it is hard to contact them by phone if their signature does not include their direct line.

Writing ineffective emails is easy to do as we all get caught up in the virtual world. I have observed people writing emails full of anger and rage. Just because you don’t want to say it face to face doesn’t mean it should be typed out. Once you hit send you can not get your word back or attempt to act like you never meant harm by sending the email because their is proof. I am guilty of doing this myself and will serve as the example. It is always better to keep emotions undocumented.

Writing ineffective emails is easy to do as we all get caught up in the virtual world. I have observed people writing emails to groups of people to whom it did not concern. No one like to be apart of a chain unless its necessary. As an example in banking we would receive incentives and if you hit your mark you were on a list and they sent that list to everyone. The lending part of banking could care less. If it doesn’t pertain to a specific person take them out of the equation.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.