Photo: Anthony Quintano / NBC News

Sarah Coffey is the Social Media Assistant at NBC News. The native of Naperville, Illinois graduated from Drake University in May of 2012. She has extensive experience with social media, publication design and web design. A detailed resume with downloadable copies can be viewed on the resume page. For samples of her design, social media, public relations and photography work, please browse this website. Additional work materials are available upon request.

To contact Sarah, please email sarahmcoffey@gmail.com or use the form below.

Subject: Joplin, Missouri Tornado Damage
Date Taken: October 30, 2011
Client: Urban Plains Magazine

See them published below and at UrbanPlainsMag.com.

]]> http://sarahcoffey.com/shout-outs/feed/ 0 http://sarahcoffey.com/wonderstruck-cakes/ http://sarahcoffey.com/wonderstruck-cakes/#comments Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:56:22 +0000 Sarah Coffey http://sarahcoffey.com/?p=69

Course: Graphic Design II
Designed: May 2011
Assignment: Imagine a food-related business, create their brand and design their packaging needs.

Tool: Timely by Demandforce
Website: timely.is
Reviewer: Sarah Coffey

What it does: Timely figures out the best time for your account to tweet through an analysis of your last 199 tweets. Users can load a number of tweets into a queue and Timely will automatically send them all out without the user having to stress about doing it themselves.

My take: Timely is one of the simplest Twitter tools I’ve used in a while. I found this to be a refreshing change of pace. Far too often, I find myself being overwhelmed by complex tools with a surplus of analytics. I tried using Timely for my personal account but found that it took away from the fun living in the moment conversational aspect of Twitter. However, I saw brands having grate success with Timely. I tried out this tool for @DrakeStuSenate, Drake University Student Senate’s account that I manage, to send promotional messages and updates out. Each week, the Times-Delphic runs an article recapping Senate meetings and I tweet a link to it. Thanks to bit.ly‘s analytics, I found that the links scheduled with Timely received an extra 3 clicks when compared to last week’s unscheduled tweet. While I did not see drastic difference, the scheduled aspect of it was a bit of a relief for myself. The small change in link hits made me question how Timely found the “best time to tweet.” I searched extensively on their site and found no explanation. I will probably keep testing Timely a few more times before tossing it aside in hopes that makes a bigger difference because I really love the idea behind it. I’m not sure it’s the best tool for the job because I didn’t see results myself, but I could see it having success for brands with a lot of content to distribute.

The above is a blog post for Social Media Strategies, a course I am taking at Drake University. To learn more about the class, visit our class website or follow along with our Tweets with the hashtag #DrakeSocial.

Last week, #DrakeSocial started on its mission to get Des Moines its own FourSquare badge. FourSquare is rewarding a badge to the city whose list of local hotspots garners the highest number of followers. The idea is inspired by the White House’s #VisitUS initiative.

Obama just announced new initiatives to boost US tourism. Why is your town a great place to visit? Share pics & tell us w/ #visitUS

— The White House (@whitehouse) January 19, 2012

Why should Des Moines be considered one of the places tourists should visit? When people think of Des Moines, a short list of things come to mind: the Iowa Caucuses, corn, butter cows, corn and more corn.. I will admit that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Iowa, but I would also be the first to attest that there is much more to Des Moines than this generalization. Des Moines has developed a restaurant scene that’s been nationally recognized by big names including Travel Channel’s Man v. Food, Food Network Magazine and Good Morning America.

Graphic by Kerri Sorrell (@icanhaskerri)

To win the FourSquare badge, our list must have the highest number of followers. We are currently in second place behind Baltimore. Beating this city that’s over 15 times our size will require a lot of promotion. I’ve been tweeting local businesses featured in our list about the initiative and have been retweeted a few times. It’s a fair trade: we’re promoting their business, they’re promoting our list by retweeting to their larger fanbase. While this has had some success so far, we will need to think more out of the box to beat bigger cities. Hanging posters, creating videos and calling or sending out press releases to local media may be our next step.

I could rave about being a foodie in Des Moines and the great music scene all day long, but the real reason I am excited about this project is that it will shed a light on our social media presence. I don’t even realize how strong and well versed we are in social media until I go back home to the Chicago suburbs where my friends say, “Wait…you actually use Twitter? Why? I mean I have one, but I just use it to stalk the Kardashians.” They humor me and think I’m a bit strange, but in Des Moines you’d be hard pressed to find a young adult who isn’t on Twitter, FourSquare or Instagram.

Drake University is particularly savvy in the world of social media. They’re active on virtually all platforms and heavily engage with current students, prospective students and alumni. Their Pinterest boards have even been recognized by Mashable, the biggest name in social media news. I want Des Moines to win this badge not only because I believe it’s a great city with a bright future, but because I want to prove to the world that we’re a social media force to be reckoned with.

So, won’t you please follow our FourSquare list to give Des Moines its own badge?

The above is a blog post for Social Media Strategies, a course I am taking at Drake University. To learn more about the class, visit our class website or follow along with our Tweets with the hashtag #DrakeSocial.

Last week, it was impossible to log onto any social network without reading about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). SOPA is a bill that was introduced to the United States House of Representatives last Thursday. In the interest of keeping this post concise and on topic, I’m not going to go into depth with the fine print of SOPA but rather reflect on the impact social media had on the bill.

Last Wednesday, Reddit, a social network with 21.5 million monthly visitors, was one of several websites that initiated a blackout by shutting down their website in protest of the bill. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, the world’s largest social network, took to his Facebook profile to share his stance on the bill. This status update garnered more than half a million “likes” and close to 100,000 shares. Reddit’s temporary blackout page linked to a petition visitors could sign along with representatives’ phone numbers to encourage an active protest. Wikipedia‘s blackout page listed the Twitter handles of the visitor’s local representatives. This is a far cry from the the traditional snail-mail letter sent to officials we’ve known for centuries. This only further emphasizes the role of social media in today’s society.

While it is unclear how many people contacted their local representatives, we do know that social media certainly got people talking about the bill. The number of Tweets related to SOPA on Twitter alone was simply astounding.

Quick update on yesterday’s @twitter numbers: Looking at the entire day on Jan 18, 2012, there were about 3.9 million SOPA-related Tweets.

— Twitter Comms (@twittercomms) January 19, 2012

The public outcry on social media was without a doubt heard by representatives because they day of the blackouts, two Cosponsors withdrew support from the bill. By Friday, Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA announced he was pulling the bill. Regardless of one’s stance on SOPA, it is impossible to deny that social media played a huge role in its ruling. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon made this clear when he took to social networks to express his gratitude for all the social posts about the bill.

For all those who might have thought that their voice didn’t count in their government, I hope you now know it does.

— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 20, 2012

When people question the significance of social media, I look to instances like this. It has been a source of breaking news, raising awareness to support causes, and has now played a major part in a protest. Despite being a relatively new outlet, I’m amazed at what has been accomplished on social media in recent years. I am truly excited to see how they will progress in the future and am eager to learn as much as I can about social media with #DrakeSocial this semester.

The above is a blog post for Social Media Strategies, a course I am taking at Drake University. To learn more about the class, visit our class website or follow along with our Tweets with the hashtag #DrakeSocial.

Miscellaneous photography taken between now and 2008

Course: Mobile App Design & Development at Drake University
Teammates: Joe Stych and Nate Adamson
App Concept: MyStory is the most interactive storybook app for the iPad. Stories are customized with user photos to put yourself in the story. Then, choose from several options on each page to decide where the story will go next.
Designed: December 2011