My Own Segment: The Social Circle with Brent Reser

Posted on October 6, 2014 by brent

To see my segment in Coastal Now, click here and go to the 26:22 mark

Today marked an important day at the Office of University Communication at Coastal Carolina as we released our brand new show titled Coastal Now. This program was the result of countless hours of brainstorming, debating, and collaborating. Intending to appeal more to our student population, we wanted to introduce a modernized version of our former show, Coastal Today. By modifying the show’s format, introducing hipper segments, and rolling out fresh graphics, we achieved our objective.

Here is the funny part: As part of the show’s revamp and the mission to grab the attention of our digitally obsessed students, it was decided that I would receive my own segment.

I was given my own segment. Let me introduce to you the Social Circle with Brent Reser.

Say what?! Like, seriously…I was going to be trusted with developing my own social media segment?…For the University’s news program?…And then actually present it on camera? Talk about an intimidating and humbling proposition! Although a little timid to come up with a package and then nervous to tape it on set, I went ahead and accepted the opportunity because of the amazing team I have around me.

The week before filming, I sat down with Martha Hunn, our Director of News and Public Affairs. A former hot-shot news anchor in the Myrtle Beach/Conway area, I knew I was in good hands as we started to plan my segments. Using an idea-sharing approach we talked out the beginning and end of my first two show packages. After our discussion, half my script was written in Martha’s iPad. She then gave me the freedom to write the meat of my segments myself. With the great start she gave me, I filled in the middle portions and my first two scripts for Coastal Now were complete.

The next week at the studio I felt a little nervous as I waited in the greenroom area. I watched our host of Coastal Now, Robin Russell, film her pieces and interview a couple guests. It was then time for me. I walked into the filming area and stood in front of the green screen. Our media services crew cued me and I hit it. I stumbled a couple times resulting in new takes. However, the whole time throughout the shoot I had Martha and Robin rooting me on and assuring me that I was doing a decent job. To have two veterans of the news business in your corner makes things so much easier. You know what else makes things easier? A teleprompter! It was so nice to read a script with no fear of your brain turning off and your voice disappearing.

Me on set of Coastal Now.

All the times in the past when I had gotten in front of a camera I always dreaded the end product. However, after filming my first segments for Coastal Now I actually felt good about what the outcome would be. To make it even better, I had a great time during the filming. This past Friday our office had a premiere party in the studio. We sat around a TV and munched on snacks while watching the historic first show of Coastal Now. The finished product was amazing. Our media services team did such a great job shooting and piecing the show together. Segments were fresh and fun. The 30 minute show seemed to fly by. They even managed to make me look somewhat respectable. It was cool to see a group work so hard on something and have their efforts pay off.

If you care to watch me, the Social Circle with Brent Reser starts at 26:22. I want to thank Martha Hunn, Robin Russell, David Russell, Bryan Stalvey, and Josh Chesson for the help with creating/filming/producing my segment and for all the encouragement. This so far has been a great experience and I can’t wait to help out with more shows. Don’t Blink.

My Look-Alike: Russell Wilson

Posted on January 28, 2014 by brent

You don’t understand. Rarely does someone tell me that I look like a celebrity. The couple times it has happened the comparisons have been, how shall I put it, less than flattering. Howard from “The Big Bang Theory” and Dory from “Finding Nemo” are the person and fish that I supposedly look like. So, after over a quarter century of life without ever hearing someone tell me that I look like a desirable famous person that all changed on Sunday night.

I don’t like being compared to these two.

If Russell Wilson ever needs a double to walk through the streets of San Francisco for him, I am his man! Yep, you heard it right. Apparently I strike an uncanny resemblance to the NFC Champion quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. Forget that the Seahawks are my favorite professional team and that I am a huge fan of Wilson myself, I am just beyond pleased that someone would say that I look like an athletic, good looking guy.

I would like to introduce you to my double, Russell Wilson.

Let me fill you in on the backstory real fast. On Sunday night I was engaged in a Twitter conversation. One of the participants in this conversation was Mike Nugent (@MikeMNugent), a respected realtor in Missoula. While talking about Super Bowl preferences he noted my resemblance to Russell Wilson. Taken aback I asked him to confirm it and sure enough he did!

It was confirmed that I look like Russell Wilson.

This excited me a great deal! In fact, it led me to hastily put together a collage comparing myself with Wilson. I then tweeted it out asking if anyone else could verify Mike’s belief.

I sent this out to my Twitter followers.

I tagged my harshest critic, my brother, just so I get his sarcastic and mean tweets in response to my new discovery. Of course he delivered by entirely shooting down Mike’s thought and insulting me along the way. However, all of Glen’s barbs at me couldn’t match what my dad responded with when my brother asked him about the resemblance:

Classic response from my dad.

Just because my own family doesn’t buy into the Russell Wilson/Brent Reser comparison doesn’t mean it lacks validity. I have known Mike for about eight years now dating back to when we both worked for Residence Life. He has seen me in person numerous times and even though he wears glasses he is not blind. In fact the other person involved in the original Twitter conversation, Jordan Treece (@JTreece13), also agreed with the resemblance. Sounds like we are onto something here!

Jordan confirmed everything.

That night I did spend a little time in front of the mirror analyzing my physical traits. Acting impartial here, I actually saw some similarities! Our eye features are similar and our hair both turns the same type of curly when it starts to grow out. Although I am naturally not as dark as Wilson, give me an hour out in the sun during the summer and we have the same complexion. Standing at just 5’11 he is only two inches taller than me and weighs about twenty-five pounds more. I am sure we bench the same and he might run the forty just a tad faster than me.

You have to be convinced that we are pretty much twins by now, right?

No, I would not say the comparison of looks between Russell Wilson and myself is a big stretch. I appreciate that Mike identified my doppelganger for me. What do my readers say? Think I would pass the look test if I suited up in a #3 jersey on Sunday? If anyone wants to pay a modest sum to have a Russell Wilson look-alike come liven up your Super Bowl party on Sunday let me know…I am still working on the impression. Don’t Blink.

Trying Not to Settle For My Subpar Work

Posted on October 10, 2013 by brent

Tonight I got home and after I had some dinner and got caught up on the MLB playoffs I sat down to write a blog post surrounding an idea that came to me a couple days ago. I labored through the post, trying to make each sentence flow perfectly and working to make sure I crafted the passage in such a way that it would really drive my point home. I spent more than a couple periods just staring at my computer screen contemplating what words I should add next. I struggled through the whole thing. Compared to my average post, I spent much more time and wrote much more on this one. I then made a decision:

I decided not to publish it.

After taking about as much time to scrutinize and think about the post I had just written as it had taken me to draft it in the first place, I decided that I would not publish it to Don’t Blink. I came to the conclusion that it just didn’t fit my brand and that it probably wasn’t my best work. Yep, even though I did spend a lot of time on it that toil didn’t quite translate to Grade A quality.

I am glad I have come to the point where I can recognize work that is subpar and then not go with it. I definitely have not always had this discipline. I can glance through my almost 400 posts in Don’t Blink and see pieces that are garbage. Either my topic sucked, my writing lacked substance, the structure was off, my voice wasn’t coming through, or all the above. But my desire to “get something out there” that particular night led me to publish it. I have a plan in the near future to go through my blog and delete some of the dead wood that I should have never of put my name to.

I think in this day and age we as a society have this conception that we must get “stuff” out there. I am sure most of you have heard someone say or said yourself “we just need some content.” Without even thinking about quality many of us just want the mediocre feature or the lackluster post to take up space. As I just admitted with my blog, I have triumphed this thinking too many times myself. But I am trying to get better and tonight was a good step.

Just because we work on something doesn’t necessarily mean that what we created was a success. We need to be honest with ourselves and honest with who we are. If we create something that doesn’t sound like us or that doesn’t reflect who we are and we go through and make it live we are deeply damaging our personal brand. No amount of time spent on a project that doesn’t meet standards could ever justify posting it at the expense of the reputation that we have worked so hard to build. Don’t Blink.

The Analytics Part of Don’t Blink

Posted on September 6, 2013 by brent

Quite often people will start talking to me about my blog and ask if I have any idea about the analytics that my site garners. The answer is yes. Thanks to my friend Chris Lynn who installed it within the backend of Don’t Blink, I have a program called Jetpack that gives me a day by day account of the number of browsers that access my site. This information is invaluable to me as I like to have a good idea of how many people visit my blog and what topics the majority of my readers prefer over others.

Besides the volume of traffic statistics that I receive, I also get other really interesting pieces of information delivered to me regarding my blog. I am told what key words people type in to search engines to find Don’t Blink, what outside sites are referring people to my blog, what links people are clicking on once they are reading my posts, and a breakdown of what individual posts are getting accessed. I assess this information about two to three times every week to have a better understanding of my readers.

When it comes to my daily volume of readers there are a couple trends. I usually always get a large audience on Sunday nights, especially if I post something (which I always try to do). Also, the more consecutive days I post, the more traffic I will get on the latter days in that string. For example, if I published a new blog post Monday through Thursday my web traffic would increase each day, with an exceptionally high impression number on Thursday night. Readers reward you for consistency. However, there are random days when my traffic will shoot right through the roof even though I had not posted anything in a couple days. For example, last week when I was too busy with work to even think about writing a sentence for Don’t Blink I checked my analytics and saw that 900 people (browsers) had visited my site on Wednesday. After looking at the full report I saw that roughly 700 of those hits came by referral of a Japanese website. I had written a blog post 10 months back about Barry Anderson, the mascot of the Chicago Bulls. For whatever reason, Japan LOVES mascots. Barry visited Japan a couple years back and to this day he still has rock star status in the country. On this site there was some thread about Barry and someone found my blog post link and shared it on there. The floodgates opened.

I love looking at the key words people use to find Don’t Blink. Of course I get lots of searches dealing with “Brent Reser,” “Brent Reser Don’t Blink,” “Brent Reser Bio,” and “Don’t Blink Blog,” but many of the other searches are much more random. Just for today, here are some of the key words people typed in to find my site: “random ugly guy,” “Rascal Flatts time on stage,” “double pan fried noodles at PF Changs,” “cheer camp arrival,” “red robin mascot head, ”Boston Bruins stadium,” “iron horse queso recipe,” “embarrassing loss for Loyola football program,” and “don’t waste money on autographs.” Yep, I am proud to say that I have covered such a myriad of topics while authoring this blog that internet users from all over can type in seemingly random phrases and be directed to my little space on the web. Definitely a little creepy too.

I enjoy seeing which blog posts are performing well. As I mentioned in my 2 year anniversary blog post, my passage titled “Instagram Spam” is my all-time most read post. Even right now it is still the most read post pretty much each day. My newer posts are usually always right underneath “Instagram Spam” and then it is whatever post got shared on some random website rounding out the top five most read posts for that particular day.

Speaking of random websites, I pay close attention to which sites are contributing to my site’s traffic. Of course Google, Facebook, and Twitter are my big top three referrers but I am more interested in the websites that will pop up for a couple days and give me rushes of traffic. Because I wrote a couple posts related to Montana Athletics this week, I have had a lot of people from the popular blogging site eGriz take a gander at what I got going. Many times when I review a restaurant or a product the company will get wind of it and share it from their website or social media sites, thus sending people to Don’t Blink. Sometimes, just like with the Japanese website example, a link to my site will get shared on a random platform and I hit viewership gold.

Part of the fun of authoring a blog for me is definitely scrutinizing these statistics and identifying trends. It is cool to see that my writing has an impact on many people from all over the world. Seeing this evidence on a daily basis motivates me to continue to write and to do my best to put out quality work. Don’t Blink.

Using Vine to Diversify Your Social Media Content

Posted on June 19, 2013 by brent

It used to be bad enough when people would link their Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts together and send the exact same content simultaneously to both services. I cringed seeing a 50 word post that originated on Facebook get cut off halfway on Twitter. Or maybe even worse, I got turned off right away when I saw a tweet show up on my Facebook newsfeed with five different hash tags and a big Hootsuite or Tweetdeck logo accompanying it. Forget the fact that Facebook now has clickable hash tags, back then it just showed laziness and lack of understanding by the user over two different social media outlets.

Of course, over time this issue of duplicating content over different social media outlets has gotten worse. As new platforms have come in and gained popularity, people can now easily share the same content over three or four social networks at once. A year ago the annoyance I saw too many people do was take a picture on Instagram and send it out to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. Besides the formatting nightmare that this reflected on the social sites other than Instagram, it just became tiresome to follow a certain person through various networks and know that you were always going to see everything they posted 3X.

Before I get to the main point/solution of this post let me say this: Sometimes we take awesome pictures that do need to be shared across all of our social networks. I get that. It happens with me sometimes and it also happens through the accounts I run at Grizzly Athletics. However, when this is the case post the picture separately on each respective account just so you can format it correctly. Not only will it make you look not so lazy but it will also make your posts look much cleaner and you will gain many more impressions, “likes’, retweets, etc.

When we do something worthy (or even unworthy) that warrants posting to all of our social media accounts, I firmly believe we need to document it in a unique way on each of our social platforms. So yes, preferably, when you go to Buffalo Wild Wings you need to cover it in a way that your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts all show something original from each other. A few months ago this principle that I am preaching would take quite a bit of work and require a lot of different shots with your iPhone camera. However, since then, a service has come along that has made this process easier.

Hands down, Vine is the coolest and fastest growing social media service available right now. About a month ago I gave a glowing review of the service so if you need a refresher on the details of Vine, check out that particular blog post. Anyway, not only is Vine a tremendous app by itself, but the content you record off of Vine can dramatically bolster your other social media outlets.

Make sure to follow me on Vine (@BrentReser)

Just like everything else, please refrain from posting every single Vine you record directly to Facebook and Twitter. I would advise to never post a Vine on Facebook. It looks awful on the timeline, a lot of people on Facebook don’t get it, and most Vine videos rarely receive any “likes”. If you make a really cool Vine and your caption for it translates to Tweet-speak go ahead and post it to Twitter but make a general rule to only do this for 15%-20% of your Vines.

Okay, enough of all of my disclaimers! From time to time it takes me a while to get to the point. Anyway, with Vine you have a six second video of some story, event, or situation. Within those six seconds of video, you have hundreds (maybe even thousands) of images at your disposal. Remember back when you were a kid and it was so much fun to pause a video you were watching and capture still images?! Well you can do that with Vine only this time around the picture is clearer and with one simple move you can save it forever.

This move is simple. When the Vine video is playing, simply tap the screen to pause it. It will take some playing around but once you pause the video at the exact time that you want, activate the screen capture command on your iPhone. Now go to your camera roll, pull up the picture, and crop out the Vine interface surrounding the image. Save your work and you now have a perfect image that you were crafty enough to capture off of video. Cool, huh?

I caught this cool image by using a Vine video that my girlfriend took. Would never have been able to capture this with an iPhone.

Use images captured from Vine videos to supply unique content to each of your social media outlets. Let’s go back to the Buffalo Wild Wings example. Let’s say you take a Vine that includes you entering the restaurant, sitting at the table with your friends, ordering from the waitress, scanning the numerous televisions, scoping out everyone’s orders, and finally smiling with a big plate of wings in front of you. Okay, you got the cool Vine video taken care of with you at BDubbs but now you got to document the experience on your other social networks too. Working directly from your Vine video, let’s get to work.

Let’s first start with Twitter. A perfect tweet for this occasion would be something like this: @BrentReser Watching the NBA Finals at BWW with @ImaginaryFriend , @FriendWhoDoesntExist , @WishIHadFriends #winning . Okay, now you use the Vine footage you took of your table to produce the picture that will go with this Tweet. Just pause the video right when it gets to the shot of your friends and go through the process I outlined. Attach that picture to your tweet and send away!

Time to move onto Instagram. Vine is PERFECT for making collages and this is what we are going to do for our Instagram image. For the make believe Vine video to Buffalo Wild Wings I mentioned six different scenes. Simply capture a photo from four of those scenes to make a cool collage (I am leaving out the two scenes that we are using for the other social platforms). You will have a nice montage of the actual restaurant, the waitress taking your order, the cool TV set up, and then the table full of everyone’s delicious wings. Give the collage a simple title such as A night out at Buffalo Wild Wings #BWW #Winning .

Now time to finish with the king of the social networks, Facebook. This one is all about you. Simply take the ending scene of the Vine video of you with a mile wide grin and a big plate of wings and capture it. Now post it to your timeline with a caption such as Great night at Buffalo Wild Wings. Time to devour these wings. Watch as this single original picture you put up garners numerous likes and comments.

It is important to form a consistent brand of yourself throughout all of your social media networks but it is equally important to establish it in a unique and fitting way through each individual service. Vine has made it easier to accomplish this goal. Be creative and give your followers something different through each one of your social platforms. Don’t Blink.

Don’t Blink’s Second Year Anniversary

Posted on May 14, 2013 by brent

Two years ago today I sat down and wrote my first ever entry for Don’t Blink. As I look back on that initial entry I shake my head at my stupidity for titling it the way I did. I am sure many people looked at it and thought I was writing about something other than just the introductory post to my new blog. Well, you live and you learn.

Over the past two years I have definitely lived and learned quite a bit, both through authoring a blog and through life in general. The best part is that this two year period is all documented through more posts in my blog than I ever thought I would compose. If you took the time to read my initial awkwardly written post, you will see that all along this was my number one goal. I started a blog because I wanted an electronic record that chronicled my life’s adventures as well as my thoughts and opinions. Mission accomplished (thus far). After 24 months, I think of myself as a pretty dedicated blogger.

Thanks to all for supporting my blog over the past two years.

Today’s entry marks my 313th post for Don’t Blink. When I started this project back in May of 2011 I didn’t know if I even had 50 things to write about let alone over 300. But as I started to get in a groove, ideas just kept coming and new experiences continued to find me. Throw in all the trips I went on, new restaurants I tried, unique social media mediums I played with, inspiring people I came across, random situations I got myself into, and social norms that I felt compelled to comment on and you can definitely see that I have been very blessed with plenty of blogging content.

But a good blog doesn’t just depend on good content. The quality of writing and the presentation of the site are two crucial factors that will determine whether readers will give your blog the time of day. I try to improve my writing each night I compose a new draft. I am definitely not the best writer (what do you think I am, an English major?) and I like to think I am not the worst either (I have seen some scary things before). I consider myself an average writer with some skills but with a lot to improve on. My pledge to my readers is to get better over the next two years. A year ago I switched from an elementary looking blogger page to my current www.brentreser.com website. Over the past two years, this change has no question been the most important development in my blogging career. The credibility, readers, statistical tools, and search engine optimization that I have gained from this move will always have me wondering why I didn’t do it from day one.

Enough though about my reflections on the boring things regarding Don’t Blink over the past two years. How about I sum up the last two years using a couple of lists? Everyone loves lists! I first will present my top five most viewed posts over the past two years. I will then provide my top five favorite posts that I have written the past two years. Here we go!

TOP FIVE MOST VIEWED POSTS

1. Instagram Spam (April 9, 2013): Even though I just wrote this a little over a month ago, I still get at least 70-80 views on it a day. It just goes to show the obsession that people have with social media along with the negative role that spam plays in it.

2. The Feud: Colin Cowherd vs. Dan Patrick (May 8, 2012): Until “Instagram Spam” overtook it, this was by far my most popular post. The sports talk radio industry has a very large and loyal fan base, and many of these people are tied to the internet and blogs. I get comments sent to me from radio junkies referencing this post all the time.

3. Thanks, Jim (April 4, 2012): A few days after our athletic director Jim O’Day was let go I wrote down my thoughts about what he did during his time at Grizzly Athletics. The first full day the post was up it received over 1,500 views. It garnered around the same amount of views the next day as well. Even though the post was entirely for Jim, it picked me up numerous readers who still view my stuff today.

4. #HashTags (February 16, 2012): I wrote this as a tutorial to everyone who felt confused about hash tags and I couldn’t be more pleased that the internet community continues to read it every single day. I did my best to explain hash tags during a time when people did not have the grasp that they have on them now.

5. Serving the Youth (October 29, 2012): One October night, Christie and myself turned the championship game of a youth football league into a Grizzly Game Day production. I wrote about the experience and parents of the kids shared my post like wild fire, resulting in the fifth most viewed post of all-time for Don’t Blink.

MY PERSONAL TOP FIVE

1. The $25,000 Man (October 19, 2011): Undoubtedly my all-time favorite post, I got such a kick out of telling the story about the time my brother hit it big and the shenanigans that followed.

2. Naturally Dark (September 3, 2011): I think this might be one of my favorite posts just because of the absurdity that made me write this in the first place. I have a few very outspoken people who challenge me on why I turn so dark during the summer so I felt that I had to write it all down for them.

3. Posting Food Pictures on Social Media (June 11, 2012): What a hot topic this is! I love debating with people when it is okay to post food pictures and when it is not and that conversation grew even more after I wrote this. I literally laughed out loud while composing this one.

4. Treat Your Waiter Right (June 5, 2012): Man, I was on during June of 2012!! I honestly judge people by the way they treat their restaurant server. I have a great respect for the people who wait on us and serve us our food so I tried to defend them as much as possible in this particular post. I think it is in my top five just because I believe in what I say so much.

5. An Amazing Day in Grizzly Athletics (March 19, 2013): On March 16, 2013, Grizzly Athletics experienced a day for the ages and I was right in the middle of it. In this post I talked about what it was like to work a day in which we sent both our women’s and men’s basketball teams to the NCAA Tournament on our home court. It will forever be one of my favorite memories and only natural that it is one of my favorite posts as well.

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THANK YOU TO ALL MY READERS! It has been a great two years and I can’t thank you enough for all the support you have given me regarding this blog. I look forward to continuing to take you inside my head on all subjects and experiences. You are the best. Don’t Blink.

Do Your Research

Posted on April 7, 2013 by brent

These days I really don’t think there is an excuse to check into a hotel, go out to eat at a restaurant, or have a drink at a bar without having a general idea on what you are getting yourself in to. With the proliferation of the internet, blogging, and social media, you can now get a comprehensive review on any place before you invest in it. In my opinion, this is a great thing.

When planning a trip, I feel you are a fool if you don’t thoroughly research all your options before booking. While ten years ago you would have to rely on travel books and word of mouth, in today’s modern age you have access to thousands of reviews on single places right at your fingertips. Making matters even better, most of the reviews are written not by the snobby professional reviewer who probably has standards that differ dramatically from yours but rather from someone who you can relate to much better…the average traveler/diner like yourself.

On the internet you can find numerous review sites that cover every hotel, restaurant, bar, venue, resort, ice cream shop, theme park, transportation system, bowling alley, miniature golf course, etc. For me, I find these reviews very useful. When I do travel out of town, I like to have a somewhat decent idea of where to go and what to do. Although I admit that sometimes I like to walk totally blind into a place with no preconceived notions, most of the time I like to know what I can expect. As I said, the internet is filled to the brim with reviewing sites and blogs dedicated to informing people on the finer points of every business out there so it is kind of easy to get overwhelmed. Because of this, I typically narrow my research to a couple of sites.

I rely on TripAdvisor and Yelp to give me a good idea on what places to go to and what places to avoid. Both sites are well-known and very well-funded and have millions of users. I utilize TripAdvisor mainly for hotel reviews while I use Yelp for all dining and entertainment options.

These sites are so great because of the honest reviews and the specific detail that is available. I can type in the name of a hotel in to TripAdvisor and instantly I will have 10,934 reviews discussing the place. After reading about ten of them, I have a comprehensive summary on the hotel. I immediately know everything about the front desk service, the location, the restaurant/lounge, the pool, the elevators, the rooms, the bathrooms, the noise level, the parking, the lobby environment, the amenities, and so much more. Additionally, you also get access to tons of pictures taken by the people writing the reviews. This goes a long way for me. I will take a quick iPhone snap shot of someone’s dirty room over a professional, hotel choreographed photograph any day to get an idea of what a place is really like.

Yelp is very similar in the format/wealth of information available as TripAdvisor but it just covers a wider area. I use Yelp especially for restaurants and anything that I may be visiting or using while traveling. Just as with TripAdvisor, the quantity of reviews is significant and very detailed.

A positive about TripAdvisor and Yelp is that both sites are extremely accepted amongst travelers. Not only do customers/clients of hotels and restaurants use these sites before deciding where to spend their money, but the hotels and restaurants use them themselves to see what people are saying about their businesses AND to respond to the reviews. Many businesses watch these sites like hawks and make sure to provide instant response the second a review pops up. If the review is good, the business will thank the person for writing. If the review is bad, the business will respond with an apology and then an explanation for the negative experience or a promise to get the problem fixed. This is another measuring tool I use when making my travel decisions. If I look up a hotel on TripAdvisor and I see that the management is responding and interacting with past customers, I am more likely to stay at their hotel because I know they care about the people who are staying with them and also care about what is said about them.

As with any website, there are a couple drawbacks to these review-centered forums. Yes, some reviews are completely fabricated and not written by an actual customer. It is well documented that some businesses have employees write sparkling reviews for their own properties while also having them write scathing, ugly reviews for competitors. Sadly, some businesses also bribe actual guests to write favorable reviews in exchange for discounts/goods/comps. Also, as is typical on the internet, there are just a lot of dumb people in general who “contribute” to the discussion. These dumb people include those who can’t spell past a third grade level, those who can’t express criticism in a half way professional manner, those who can’t articulate thoughts in a logical flow, and those who you can tell complain about every single detail regardless of it is warranted or not.

But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. For the most part, the sketchy reviews are vastly outnumbered by the honest, thoughtful reviews. Confession time for me: I used to write reviews for TripAdvisor. However, after I started my own blog I decided to devote all of my writing and reviews to Don’t Blink. With that said though, I can attest to the valuable tool that TripAdvisor is and I can vouch for the fact that there are lots of decent, helpful people who contribute to TA and the other review sites.

We live in the information age and it applies to all aspects of life, including lodging, dining, and entertainment. Most of us work hard for our money and there is no reason why we shouldn’t spend it in a way that will return to us the best experience possible. Review focused sites enable us to do just that. Make sure to do your research! Don’t Blink.

Glad for 2012, Optimistic for 2013

Posted on January 1, 2013 by brent

At midnight we ushered in 2013 and now we have 365 fresh days to make our mark on this year. Last night I had a great time celebrating the arrival of the New Year with Paige and another couple. After a fabulous dinner at the Depot, we joined hundreds of other Missoulians in downtown to welcome yet another resetting of the calendar. For a variety of reasons I have a great feeling about what this year will bring. I have had this feeling since Christmas ended and it was just reinforced this morning at mass as I just had positive and calming vibes running through my veins. I am excited for 2013!

I do want to touch on 2012 just a bit though. I will count this past year as a success mainly because I ended the year better than where I started it. At the onset of 2012 I had just wrecked my car and was feeling pretty low. However, as the first few weeks passed I started to regain a little bit of my swagger and my personal outlook of myself slowly started to improve. By the end of the month I had purchased a new car and I had pretty much moved on. From there, 2012 was not that bad at all.

Highlights from 2012 include attending the NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque with the Griz, developing this blog to its current state, watching www.gogriz.com grow substantially, guiding the Griz social media program to the top spot among all other schools in the FCS, seeing some amazing concerts including the American Country Awards, traveling to various different places across the country, and meeting my wonderful girlfriend.

In the broader picture, 2012 was circled for me simply because it was the year of the Summer Olympics and of the Presidential Election. Both of these events provided me with great entertainment and a heavy sense of patriotism. Unfortunately, 2012 will always be tarnished because of the sickening tragedy in Connecticut. No matter all the positivity and prowess our country exhibited from winning the most medals at the highest valued world athletic competition on the planet or from pulling off another flawless example of democracy, we were faced with the cruel reality that we still have much to work on.

In talking about New Year’s resolutions today, my priest reminded us all to take each day one at a time. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself and look days, weeks, and months down the line. We need to focus our attention on 24 hour intervals. It is easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged when we see that we have a long road in front of us but if we chop that road up into little blocks, it makes things much more manageable. I do have my resolutions ready to go and I might (not 100% sure) share those with you guys tomorrow.

Let me give a BIG THANK YOU to all of my supporters who took time to read this blog in 2012. This past year was a big one for Don’t Blink. I quadrupled my average reading audience per post and underwent a major site makeover. You guys are a big part of my motivation and I will continue to try to get better and provide more interesting content in 2013. Happy New Year! Don’t Blink.

Bob Costas

Posted on December 3, 2012 by brent

We live in a society where it is extremely easy to be critical of people who make a living on television, especially the media. Many times we minimize the precision, preparation, and stress that it takes to go in front of a small screen audience. As I have said several times, I enjoy following members of the media and watching their careers develop, and yes, I am critical of many of them myself.

Although I enjoy following all media, I am a sports guy so naturally I have even a sharper eye on the men and women who have the opportunity to cover athletics. I have the people I enjoy and I also have the people I despise. One of these days I plan to write a post detailing my 3 most loved ESPN personalities along with my 3 most hated ESPN personalities. It should be quite a rather fun one that should garner some conversation from all of you.

But tonight’s post is about just one member of the sports media and this person doesn’t even work for ESPN. Rather, this person has served as the face for NBC Sports for many years and has too many Emmy Awards to count. He covers all major sporting events from the Olympics to Sunday Night Football and is widely respected among his peers and his viewing audience. His voice is distinctive, his face is unmistakable, and his credibility is unblemished. I am talking about Bob Costas.

I first became familiar with Bob Costas during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta where I watched NBC’s coverage of the games as an awe-struck boy from the opening ceremonies all the way through to the closing ceremonies. To say the least, I got exposed to Bob a lot over those two and a half weeks as he covered all the primetime coverage (the 1996 games also introduced me to Greg Gumbel who was working for NBC at the time and anchored the daytime coverage). The way that Costas covered the games with the utmost clarity and respect was so evident that even a ten year old boy like myself could clearly see it.

Fast forward sixteen years later to the present time and Bob Costas is still doing incredible work. Still at NBC, still doing the marquee events, and still looking the exact same as he did back then, he is the best in the business. I think he stands out so much because of his professionalism. He covers everything with complete sincerity and reverence, he doesn’t mess up his lines and he is never caught off guard. He also can cover any event with complete impartiality. So many studio hosts and play by play announcers fail to do this as flawlessly as Bob does. He sets the stage perfectly for the audience to decide which way they will lean when it comes to a certain game or story. He delivers sports in the exact same way as I felt Tom Brokaw delivered the news. Costas never shows ego while on the air, he simply does his job and tells the story and then tosses it over to us to decide.

It is because of this impartiality and “goody-two-shoes” type personality of Bob Costas that I have become very fond of his commentary spots he is now given at halftime during the Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Although I love him for his unbiased and non-preaching ways, I equally enjoy his well-crafted weekly bites of wisdom that NBC gives him the chance to do. Last night he took a big shot at gun rights the day after the tragedy in Kansas City. Because I am friends with and follow a large amount of people from Montana (where gun rights are supported), my Twitter feed blew up with anger over his opinion. In fact, his little halftime sermon actually picked up quite a bit of national attention and criticism as well. Right or wrong, I just kind of admire the fact that Costas can be renowned for his superior straight arrow type broadcasting but every once in a while he can speak his mind and ruffle some feathers.

Bob Costas is a journalist in every sense of the word. Anyone who has any idea about sports knows that if he is covering an event, it is a big deal and that they are going to get a first class production. I think NBC has the perfect plan on utilizing Bob….have him cover sports in his impeccable impartial way 90% of the time and then let him loose for his commentary the other 10% of the time. Costas stands atop the mountain of sports journalism and I will forever watch him. Don’t Blink.

15,000/1,500 Club

Posted on November 29, 2012 by brent

This morning I hit a huge milestone for myself when I simultaneously sent out my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram picture.

This morning I pulled off my biggest social media milestone to date as I managed to hit the 15,000 Tweet mark and the 1,500 Instagram mark at the exact same time. It was truly a day of celebration for me as I managed to coincide these two accomplishments with one tap of the “share” button on my phone, putting a successful end to a personal campaign that I started to eye last week.

At around this time one week ago, I became aware that I was approaching my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram. Upon this realization I immediately thought it would be pretty cool to hit both of these marks at the same time. However, a week ago I was at around 14,800 tweets and 1,425 Instagram pictures, thus I was 200 and 75 posts away respectively from the big milestones. It was at this point where I decided that I would just continue to post as usual to both Twitter and Instagram, knowing that by going at my regular pace I would naturally come upon both marks at around the same time.

My strategy roughly worked. On Monday of this week, I found myself about 20 Tweets out from 15,000 and 25 Instagram pictures out from 1,500. Well, if you know me, even though I Instagram like it is going out of style, I am more known for my prolific Tweeting. Also, Tweeting in general is just something that is much easier to do than posting pictures to Instagram. For most people who utilize both social media services, one Instagram picture is equivalent to about four Tweets. For me, the ratio is a little lower, probably one Instagram picture to every three Tweets. Even at that ratio, I knew I needed to slam on the brakes when it came to Tweeting and amp up my Instagramming if I was going to hit both milestones at the same time.

Yesterday came and I found myself 10 tweets away from 15,000 and 19 Instagram pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time where I really needed to buckle down and force myself to tilt the scale towards Instagramming more. But I couldn’t control myself…I tweeted a few times when I didn’t really need to and then mindlessly replied to my followers via twitter as well. When I got to my 11 a.m. meeting I realized I was three tweets from 15,000 but 15 pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time more than ever to get serious.

I put myself on a “Tweeting Freeze.” I mapped it out and made a plan. I told myself that I would only tweet once that night to promote my blog post, once the next morning (today) to send out my daily “Life’s Little Instruction,” and then finally of course my dual Twitter/Instagram post that would commemorate the benchmarks. So obviously I had the Twitter half of my plan but what about the Instagram half? Well, that part was very simple…post like crazy!

I get annoyed when people Instagram continuously in a short amount of time, filling up the feed with several of their own pictures in a row. However, when it came to Tuesday and today, I became a hypocrite. I started posting the most insignificant content possible. Oh, is that a milk truck? Let’s Instagram it! Should I take a second picture of our office’s blown up dinosaurs? Definitely. Go take a picture of my boss’ mini Christmas tree? You bet! How about snapping a picture of my key chain? Trashy, but I better do it anyway! It went on and on like this until at about 10 a.m. this morning I had caught up and was finally ready to send out my ground breaking post. I was at 14,999 Tweets and 1,499 Instagrams.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do to commemorate the milestone visual wise. I have always laughed at the Wilt Chamberlin photo of him marking his 100 point game by simply holding up a piece of paper with a hand written “100” sloppily depicted on it. Although extremely tacky for such an amazing feat, the picture has lived on in history. In a tribute to Will, I wanted to go for the same thing. On a piece of printing paper I jotted down “15,000 TWEETS” and “1,500 INSTAGRAMS”. Off to the side in small letters I wrote “Don’t Blink”. My co-worker Jerek snapped the picture for me and then I drafted the text to go with it: Thank you for your support! This is my 15,000th Tweet and 1,500th Instagram. Don’t Blink. I then sent it out to the world via my two favorite social media outlets, successfully completing my 15,000/1,500 campaign.

I apologize to everyone who follows me on Instagram. I cluttered up your feed simply for the pursuit of my own personal milestone. Rest assured that I will go back to posting at a more normal rate. As I said in my post this morning, thank you all so much for following me through social media. It has and will continue to be a fun ride. Don’t Blink.

Don't Blink

By Brent Reser

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