#Kansas Day
As I sit down to write my first assignment in my Social Media Branding class, I am thinking of today, Kansas Day. On this day, 160 years ago, Kansas became the 34th state in the union of the United States of America; and it entered as a free state. I have spent the majority of my life in Kansas, although I do not currently live there.
Above is the official seal for the state of Kansas. It is normally found centered in the middle of the Kansas Flag. Our assignment is to perform social listening using a variety of platforms. This particular screenshot was pulled from a Twitter post.
The seal represents technologies of the early days when Kansas was settled. From migration via covered wagons, to housing in log cabins. Farming the land and animal management was done by hand. Buffalo is the state animal and wheat the state crop.
You also see trade being done by steamboat and what appears to be purple mountains in the distance. Although no mountains are found in Kansas, we do have the beautiful Flint Hills found in the middle eastern part of the state. Those hills are where I was raised.
Also found on the seal are 34 stars, representing the states place in the union. And a logo “Ad Astra Per Aspera”. This is a Latin reference meaning “Through hardships to the stars”, or as I was taught in elementary school “Through the stars with difficulties”.
Social listening is a way of mining social media websites for topics of interest. Once these topics are found, you can become part of the conversation and start a repour with people and businesses that have similar interests, needs, and/or values. It is increasingly becoming a very productive marketing tool.
The screenshot above was found today on Instagram. This comes off of the Mulvane Art Museums site. The Mulvane Art Museum is part of Washburn University located in Topeka, which is the capital of Kansas. Sunflowers are the state flower of Kansas and grow prolifically along the highways and byways of the state. The state bird is the Meadowlark.
The above song is the Neil Young edition of “Home On The Range”. Kansas’ state song. This was pulled off of YouTube Music.
The key is listening on social media platforms. What are people saying and posting about a given topic? How does that relate to what you are researching? If people are talking about it, it means it is relevant, TODAY, NOW.
This final screenshot came from a Facebook search of Kansas Day. This is one of my own posts as today is not only Kansas Day, it is my grandmother’s 100th birthday (she passed in 2019). She always prided herself on being a Kansas girl.
So, as a technical communicator, if I want to put together a collage on a topic, say, Kansas Day. I would ”listen” by searching all of the social media sites for their posts/blogs on Kansas Day and connect with them. I would then be able to form a “Kansas Day” network from which to draw upon for adding to the collection I was building.
Thank you for reading,
Shelly Haynes, Technical Communicator
