Alphabetical Order

Posted on July 17, 2014 by brent

As per Thursday tradition on Don’t Blink it is time for the five topic scramble. But let’s bring some order to today’s edition and go in alphabetical order. Sound good?

Baltimore – I have my next (planned) trip locked up. Over the first weekend of August Sidney and I will be traveling north to Baltimore, Maryland. What will we be doing there? Baseball of course! We have purchased tickets to watch the Baltimore Orioles play a couple games. Ever since I became a baseball fan I have desperately wanted to see a game inside Camden Yards and in a couple weeks that wish will become a reality. I can’t wait to catch some action inside the ballpark that inspired the building of all the other modern day ballparks. Making the trip that much sweeter is who I get to see the Orioles play. For the first time ever I will have the opportunity to watch the Seattle Mariners in person in a ballpark other than the Kingdome or Safeco Field. Yes, I do plan on wearing Mariners gear to at least the first game.

Bowling – You know what I just realized? Since arriving in South Carolina I have not yet bowled. I guess all the miniature golfing has kind of filled the void. But really, I need to hit an alley soon and show off my famous 50 MPH straight line throw that has steadily gotten me low scores and weird looks for the past 15 years. I can put up with the embarrassment though just because I am curious to see what a Myrtle Beach bowling alley looks like. I am thinking that behind the pins there might be an ocean backdrop, the player tables might be beach chairs in real sand, and the music played is stuck on a Beach Boys loop.

CCUSA – We are now 13 states in on our CCUSA campaign where each day we feature a Coastal Carolina supporter waving a Chanticleer flag in a different state. So far so good! The photos we received have gone above and beyond. Today we featured Illinois and the rep had taken a picture with an Abraham Lincoln statue and a Stephen Douglas statue that commemorated their famous debates. A couple days ago it was Hawaii’s turn and that state’s rep took a photo with the flag UNDERWATER! Heck, my parents even got in on the act. They served as the reps for Idaho, nicely driving the half hour or so from their home in Washington state to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. To view the CCUSA website, click here.

The CCUSA campaign is off to a great start. States pictured in this montage include (clockwise) Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, and Florida.

Derek Jeter – Pretty much everyone knows that I am a New York Yankees fan. Because I am a Yanks supporter I am obviously a big proponent of Derek Jeter. With that said, the All-Star game on Wednesday went way over the top in making the game 100% about him. I know he has done a lot for the game and has earned a spot in Cooperstown but I thought this year’s Mid-Summer Classic did a disservice by doing every little possible thing to praise him. The interviews, the commercials, the ovations, the introductions, the easy pitching, the 3,587 shots of his family in the stands, etc. seemed overkill to me. But what can I say? All of the Jeter fanfare resulted in big ratings for Fox, the best for the All-Star game in years. It still rubbed me the wrong way.

Planet of the Apes – I admit it, I had my doubts about the new “Planet of the Apes” franchise. I assumed that these recent movies would have human looking apes doing geeky things in a hokey fantasy storyline that only diehard science-fiction fans and weirdos would like. Not so. After watching the first movie last Thursday night to prepare me for the sequel when I went with my co-workers on Friday evening I totally changed my tune. These movies are fabulously done with engaging storylines, top notch acting, and awesome effects. This is not your 1970’s Planet of the Apes! Give it a try and rent “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” I guarantee you will then want to hit the movie theater and watch “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”

My ticket for “Dawn of the Planet Apes” from last Friday.

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Friday is just around the corner and I am excited. No big plans for the weekend but you know how it is….I will most likely have a story or two to tell by the time Sunday night rolls around. Have a great weekend my loyal readers! Don’t Blink.

Putt Putt to Social Media to Ice Cream

Posted on June 19, 2014 by brent

By this time it is tradition. Thursday has become my multi topic, totally random post day and that won’t change this evening. So without wasting anymore of your precious time let’s get right to tonight’s five topics.

Putt Putt Odyssey Continues: This week Sidney and I have tackled a couple more putt putt courses in Myrtle Beach. On Sunday early in the evening we battled the heat and played at Captain Hook’s Adventure Golf. The two of us played a very competitive round on the Peter Pan themed course but when we concluded the 18th hole I had secured a one stroke victory.

I barely hung on for a close victory over Sidney at the Captain Hook course.

On Tuesday night we played under the lights at Shipwreck Adventure Golf. This was by far the toughest miniature golf course I had ever played on. Making the difficulty level seem a little harder was that play was backed up and it seemed like we had a crowd watching us each time we played our hole. However, I performed just a little bit better under the pressure and really infuriated Sid by defeating her for the third straight time on our putt putt tour.

Playing putt putt under the lights is a cool experience. Shipwreck is a tough course!

#CCUSocialMedia T-Shirts: Last Thursday I picked up our brand new social media t-shirts. When I actually opened the boxes on Friday morning I took a look at the teal shirts with white print and was instantly pleased. Turns out the rest of Teal Nation felt the same way. I got Chauncey to model the shirt for us and when I posted the photos on our social media outlets our audience expressed their instant love for them. On the front the shirt has a three dimensional hashtag with “CCU” right in the middle of it and the words “Social Media” underneath. On the back it has our handle (@CCUChanticleers) up top and our classic athenaeum logo underneath. This week I have given the shirts away to people who participate in our social media contests and I have watched our engagement soar. Don’t you wish you had one?

Chauncey helps me out and models the t-shirts last Friday (left)……..I add a classy twist to the t-shirt as I passed out chap stick/pens to incoming freshmen today.

1,200+ Comments Later: Speaking of social media, yesterday I introduced a fun little promotion on our Facebook page that took off rather quickly. At 2:30 p.m. I took a photo of a stack of stickers on my desk. I then posted it on our CCU Facebook page and asked our audience to guess how many made up the stack. Immediately after posting it I went off to a meeting. When I returned about 45 minutes later I checked the page and saw that we had 537 responses! As I had set the end of the contest for 5 p.m. I had no idea how many responses we would receive in the next hour and forty-five minutes. When the deadline rolled around we had 1,262 guesses. Out of that large amount six people correctly guessed the number of stickers…210! All six were sent #CCUSocialMedia t-shirts this morning.

This post generated over 1,200 responses.

Premium Ice Cream for Cheap: I tweeted about this earlier during the week but I have a new favorite brand of ice cream that isn’t Ben & Jerry’s but just as good and super cheap! If you have never tried Breyer’s before you don’t know what you are missing. The ice cream itself tastes great and it is loaded with whatever it says on the carton (i.e. brownies, strawberries, Oreos, etc). Right now I have two flavors in my freezer, cookie dough and strawberry cheesecake. Both taste heavenly and do wonders to combat the southern heat. But the kicker is the price. You can purchase a carton at Wal-Mart for under $3! Most places you can’t even get a generic tub of vanilla for that amount. A pint of Ben and Jerry’s will run you over $5 at most places and of course it has half the amount of product that the Breyer’s carton has. I encourage you to try it!

Currently I have cartons of both Strawberry Cheesecake and Mrs. Fields Cookie Dough Breyers ice cream in my refrigerator.

Not Very Good Ice Cream for An Arm and a Leg: One year ago I wrote about my fascination with the ice cream man. Although the products offered and the prices demanded are ridiculous I was obsessed with the ice cream truck when I was growing up. Although to a much lesser degree these days, I still have a special place in my heart for a vehicle that plays music and sells popsicles. So it might come as little surprise that I have taken quick notice of the ice cream man around Myrtle Beach. Let’s just say things are a bit different down here than where I am from. The ice cream men in these parts ride motorized bikes with trailer freezers attached. For someone who has never seen it done quite that way before I definitely got a laugh out of it. Although my ice cream man purchasing days ended about 15 years ago I might need to flag down one of these dudes on a bike and pay the exorbitant price for a fudgesicle…it will just make me feel that much more intertwined with the southern culture.

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Summer officially begins this weekend with Saturday marking the longest day of the year. Sidney and I have a little getaway planned to mark the changing of the seasons so if I don’t write tomorrow or Saturday you can expect to hear the details of where we went on Sunday night. As always, thank you for your readership. Don’t Blink.

Feel the Teal: Serving Others

Posted on June 16, 2014 by brent

Since arriving at Coastal Carolina University I have had the opportunity to go through training unlike anything else I have ever gone through with any other employer. What type of training you might ask? I am talking hard core customer service/employee betterment boot camp type training.

Well boot camp is definitely too strong of a word. The trainings aren’t that intense and our instructor isn’t anything like a crazy drill sergeant. I guess a better way to describe the program offered at Coastal Carolina to get employees at the top of their games might be outstanding service awareness. Or I can just call it what they call it here at CCU, Feel the Teal.

Coastal Carolina University has designed a program called Feel the Teal that teaches employees how to be as effective as possible in all aspects of interactions with others on campus. The program emphasizes showing the utmost respect for all groups whether it be students, parents, co-workers, etc. Made up of eight separate modules, you dive into a lot of issues while learning how you can approach certain situations better.

As of last Friday I have now completed the first three modules titled Service Basics, Attitude of Service, and Civility on Campus. All two hour sessions taught by Director of Service Excellence Eileen Soisson, I have felt like I have learned a lot. In no particular order, topics discussed over my total of six hours in training include how to point, whether it is ever okay to e-mail during a meeting, the distance that it becomes necessary to acknowledge someone, the true definition of civility, sneaky ways of being uncivil in the workplace, ways that detract from work productivity, acceptable time to respond to phone calls/e-mails, proper components to have in an e-mail signature, appropriate ways of addressing others, the power of a good attitude, the importance of going above and beyond, and so much more.

Some of these things you might say are common sense but you really learn a lot more in Feel the Teal because you get to workshop with other Coastal employees and Eileen does a fantastic job of leading the discussion. The points brought up tend to stay with you. The fact that a workplace is devoting so much energy, time, and money to an initiative such as Feel the Teal tells me that I am employed by a pretty special university. Coastal Carolina wants all employees to be outstanding ambassadors for the university and how can you blame them? Well you can’t, cause I think every university probably wants that out of the people they hire. But what separates CCU is that it goes miles and miles beyond what other institutions are doing to make a campus where everyone puts others before themselves.

I never had any idea that programs resembling Feel the Teal existed until I arrived here in South Carolina. I think it is a more than worthy initiative that helps everyone associated with this campus. I invite any of my friends back west to come visit me in Myrtle Beach and we will head over to CCU and you will see the difference. It is pretty cool. Don’t Blink.

Chap Stick. Shattered Light. CCUSA. Sunglasses. Demi Lovato

Posted on June 12, 2014 by brent

For the third straight Thursday I wish to ramble on about five totally different topics. So sit back and let me quickly take you through the five things on my mind this evening.

Chap Stick and Pens: It is freshmen orientation season here at Coastal Carolina as the first two of nine total orientations took place this week. In order to advance our #CCU Social Media program I hand out a card I had made listing our social outlets to our incoming freshmen. To make the card a little more attractive I tape either a CCU tube of chap stick or a CCU ballpoint pen to it. Standing outside of the main dining hall during their lunch hour I await for the students to walk out as they march to their next session. Both days I did this it was as if I was giving away cards of gold instead of cards of paper with a writing utensil attached to it. I got swarmed and had to put forth an amazing effort in the hot South Carolina sun to keep up with seemingly a thousand hands in my bubble waiting for a card. I never felt so popular in my life.

A look at the card complete with the chap stick that is making me very popular with freshmen college students.

Shattered Light: Last Thursday night a violent storm passed through Myrtle Beach. Angry thunder and constant lightning accompanied a downpour of rain. It was pretty ugly. Trying to stay out of it all I hung out in my apartment while, you guessed it, blogging. All of a sudden another round of ear-jolting thunder rattled the area and I let out a gasp as the light fixture right outside of my bedroom and laundry room completely shattered, producing a savage noise. Now I don’t know if the shattering was caused by the sound of the thunder, the shaking it produced, or a bolt of lightning but it could be 100% attributed to the storm. Although I didn’t get too angry with the glass breaking itself I might have uttered a faint curse word when I cut my finger cleaning it up.

A look at my shattered light fixture. It was not pretty.

Update on CCUSA: Last night I wrote about our CCUSA: Fifty States, Fifty Flags social media campaign. I explained the initiative and talked about the crazy response we received. At posting time last night 34 states were represented. As I type this right now we have 45 states represented! Missing are Hawaii, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. By tomorrow I think we will have the whole map covered. In between my regular work load today I managed to ship off 25 flags complete with a letter and a couple promo items. By quitting time Friday I hope to have the remaining flags on their way to various destinations across this country.

I spent a lot of time stuffing these tubes with flags today.

$10 Sunglasses Work Just Fine: Apparently I am very, very out of touch with the sunglasses market. I expressed to Sidney that I wanted a pair. While in Charleston we went inside a Sunglasses Hut to look around. I looked at a pair and glanced at the price…$340!! I went to the other side of the store where Sidney was and she looked at a pair and mentioned it was over $400. Excuse me?!? Why would anyone want to shell out that kind of money for SUNGLASSES? I remember back in the day when it seemed outrageous that a pair of Oakleys ran for $120. To spend triple digits on sunglasses in my opinion is asinine. I know I am tacky and not very hip but I think a $10 pair of sunglasses at Wal-Mart look and work just as well as a $400 pair at some fancy sunglasses shop.

Demi Lovato’s New Song: I admit that I have a low key crush on Demi Lovato. I think she has a great voice and I really like her latest song called “Really Don’t Care.” It is pretty catchy and if you like Cher Lloyd she has a small part in it too. If you care to, listen to it here.

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Everyone in the office seems to have mentioned that this week has seemed really long. I think I have to agree with them. I am excited for the weekend and as is the norm for me in Myrtle Beach I know adventures await. Please remember all the dads this Sunday and you all keep safe! Thanks again for your tremendous support of this blog. Don’t Blink.

#CCUSA: An Explosion of E-Mails

Posted on June 11, 2014 by brent

When I worked at the University of Montana I ran a promotion on Facebook where I asked our fans to guess a number that one of our student-athletes secretly chose between 1 and 10,000. They had two hours to respond and there was an incentive for guessing the correct number. In theory the idea seemed like a great way to generate engagement but when I saw that we had 100+ responses within five minutes I wondered if maybe I bit off a little more than I could chew, especially with a page boasting well over 100,000 likes. When the deadline passed and we had roughly 1,000 guesses I felt a little overwhelmed. Going through and checking so many responses over Facebook is neither fun nor easy.

I can say that experience was really the only time I have felt overwhelmed with social media. Even when I was running twenty different accounts with numerous things to post on each one I never felt like I couldn’t keep up. Well today I got a faint reminder of what I felt that day I ran the student-athlete number guessing promotion.

Chanticleer Athletics and University Communication got together at Coastal Carolina University to design a sweet social media promotion. To put faces to it all you had Marketing Director Kevin Olivett and his assistant John Fernandez from athletics and from University Communication you had yours truly. The three of us met and came up with the “CCUSA: Fifty States, Fifty Flags” (think CCU + USA) campaign. We would send a CCU flag to one person in each state. He/she would then have to take a photo with that flag in a place that showcased his/her state. The photos would then be sent back to us for our use on social media. We ran with it. Kevin and John provided all the physical materials for the campaign (poster tubes and flags) while I designed the website, coordinated the design of other creative materials, and launched the campaign. It was also agreed that I would facilitate the campaign by serving as the point person for folks interested in participating.

I give to you the CCUSA: 50 States, 50 Flags campaign (awesome graphic done by Regis Minerd).

At 1:30 p.m. today I sent out the first posts announcing the CCUSA campaign on Facebook and Twitter. A student worker and I then went to quickly cover a Cold Water Challenge attempt. The water dumping took ten minutes tops and as we made our way back to the office I looked at my phone and saw that I had 17 new e-mails. When I said I was facilitating the campaign I meant to explain that our audience would be e-mailing me to say they wanted to participate in CCUSA. I ferociously started to respond to all e-mails. However, it seemed as if for every one I responded to I got two or three more. Fifty minutes into the campaign and I had already received 63 e-mails. When an hour and a half had passed I reached the triple digit mark.

You see, on something like this you must respond immediately both to make sure the promotion stays organized and to show your audience excellent customer service. I zoomed through the e-mails as quickly as possible, either letting the person know that I would be sending them a flag by the end of the week or that their state already had a representative. Duplicates from states such as South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania came in like crazy. But also inquiries from far off states such as Nevada, New Mexico, California, and my home state of Washington came in as well making my task a lot of fun. While responding to all this correspondence I was also simultaneously updating our CCUSA webpage, making sure that a state was marked off when claimed.

While the volume of e-mails did go down just a tad it has been a steady stream since. Throughout the last couple hours of the day I went back and forth between video editing, social media directory building, and responding to CCUSA inquiries. When I left work I made sure every single e-mail was responded to. When I arrived home after my commute I had ten new e-mails related to CCUSA. As I sit here right now I am responding to flag requests every couple minutes. It seems as if they won’t stop.

Although eventually they will. I might have felt a little overwhelmed at times today but pretty soon the onslaught of e-mails will die down. In just less than seven hours we have 34 states plus the District of Columbia claimed. When the remaining 16 states find a representative I will make it very clear to our audience that the campaign is completely full. As of right now I have received by my best count 200 e-mails. I have responded to each one. I estimate that I will receive 100 more before we have the whole map completely closed up.

Shipping each one of these flags out will be a long process. I am a one man show so getting the tubes stuffed with a flag, a letter detailing the instructions, and a couple goodies will drain some of my time. But who cares? This campaign is going to yield some of the best user generated content ever. In an unrelated closing note, one of the 16 states still up for grabs is Montana. To all my devoted readers in my former state…who wants a Chanticleer flag?! Hurry up and text me already! Don’t Blink.

Participating in the #CCU Cold Water Challenge

Posted on June 10, 2014 by brent

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF ME PARTICIPATING IN THE #CCU COLD WATER CHALLENGE

For the past four days a great deal of my work has centered around filming and editing videos for the #CCU Cold Water Challenge. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Diane Fabiano, a staff member at Coastal Carolina started off the whole campus initiative by performing the challenge on our bridge that crosses over Wall Pond. She called out five fellow staff members. The next day I filmed those five people and strung it into a video. Yesterday I did the same along with today.

However, one wrinkle did present itself this afternoon from the routine filming I had become accustomed to. I got to participate! Yep, right after our public safety officers all performed the challenge I bravely responded to my fellow University Communication staff member, Mona Prufer, who called me out yesterday seconds before she got water dumped on her. With my boss filming me and an employee from the finance department ready to douse me with a bucket of water I gave my talk.

This was me participating in the #CCU Cold Water Challenge today.

Of course I added my own personal touch to it, how could I resist? A couple things you should know: I really didn’t get hit with freezing cold water. Because public safety brought more people over than arranged one of their guys got the icy cold bucket reserved for me. So the water you see me get hit with is actually from the fountain behind me. I still smell like chlorine four hours later. I am also not exaggerating about the heat in the video, well maybe I am by a few degrees, but it was mid-90’s today. Finally, I admit that I got it pretty easy with the water. Most of it landed below my neck and I was spared the freezing jolt that 95% of the people who take the challenge receive.

After the filming of my Cold Water Challenge I went into the office and edited the clips from that day’s participants to make the latest video. I then had a little fun and made my own personal video. To the people I called out you have twenty-four hours to complete the challenge. I am holding Kevin, John, and Seth to it. I am giving a pardon to Wally the Pond Turtle since he is a fictional character and I am also excusing Panther Kitty because he no longer lives on campus…and most likely is no longer even living on this earth (story for another blog post). So let’s get those buckets dumping again and if you are a reader in the Myrtle Beach area please let me know if you would like to participate in the #CCU Cold Water Challenge and I can get you set up. Don’t Blink.

Thursday Night Top Five

Posted on May 29, 2014 by brent

With the weekend almost here I don’t think there is a better way to celebrate than to write another rapid topic, random blog post. Sound good? Okay! Here are five things you probably don’t care anything about.

Side of the Road BBQ: This past weekend I fulfilled my dream to eat at a hole-in-the-wall, sketchy southern BBQ joint. For the past couple weeks I have noticed a small shack-like structure on the side of the road during my commute to work. I knew I wanted to hit it up sooner than later. This past Saturday night I pulled up to True BBQ and parked in a diagonal lot several feet away. I then went up to the hut, looked at the paper menu taped onto a window, and told the girl inside what I wanted. About ten minutes later she presented me with a heavy Styrofoam container of BBQ. I came home and pigged out. I got the pulled pork plate and for my sides I chose baked beans and a dish I had never tried before called rice and hash. It was delicious! If there weren’t so many other restaurants around here that I need to also try I would say I would be back real soon.

This place was good. The sign is on the left and my delicious dinner is on the right.

Great Time to Start at Coastal: I joke that I carefully selected my start date at Coastal Carolina University. To start it all off my first day was on a Thursday, making it a very short work week. I came right at one of the most exciting times on campus, graduation. Then just a week after I arrived summer hours took effect at CCU, a glorious thing where we get off at 1 p.m. on Fridays. To top it off, this past Monday we celebrated Employee Appreciation Day. After a ceremony in Blanton Park (beautiful green area on campus) we were treated to a delicious lunch of hamburgers/hot dogs, chili, cole slaw, baked beans, chips, and desserts. What a great first month at CCU!

“Million Dollar Arm”: Recently I saw my first movie at the theaters in Myrtle Beach. My friend Sidney and I went to the Grand 14 Cinema in Market Common. We watched “Million Dollar Arm” and I must say I really enjoyed it. Typical Disney inspirational sports movie but the whole plot is very interesting and a couple of intriguing acting roles helped to make the movie a winner. You will laugh, cry, and root for the characters involved. A movie is always a little bit better when it is based on a true story, and “Million Dollar Arm” is.

Proof that I actually went and saw the movie.

Extreme Weather: You can’t beat the weather in Myrtle Beach. Sun, sun, and more sun….except for brief instances. Last Friday the sky opened up and we received golf ball-sized hail. In my lifetime I have heard the term “golf ball-sized hail” but never experienced it nor seen it. Although not all the chunks were that large as you can tell from the picture below some of them were. Amazing that my car didn’t get dominated. As I sit here right now the National Weather Service is warning about a powerful thunderstorm that is about to come through. Looks like a night indoors for me!

I had never seen hail this big before.

NBA Playoffs: I want to see a Pacers-Thunder Finals but most likely I will get the exact opposite. Although it was a little gratifying to see Indianapolis defeat Miami last night it is unlikely that the Pacers will win two more to win the series 4-3. I am just so sick of Lebron James. The Erik Spoelstra interviews get old too. And I won’t cheer for any team that has Birdman on it. In the west I am pulling for Kevin Durant’s team and I am looking forward to Game 5 tonight (series is knotted at 2-2) but I just have a feeling that the experience and poise of the Spurs will eventually win out. If someone made a deal with me and said they would guarantee that one of my teams would make the Finals I would definitely choose the Pacers. I would much rather see the Spurs representing the Western Conference than seeing the man behind “The Decision” and his team rep the east.

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Besides the terrible writing that post wasn’t too bad, was it? Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks again for your support of this blog and please know I am always open to suggestions and criticism. Don’t Blink.

It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s a QUADCOPTER!!

Posted on May 28, 2014 by brent

One of my last nights spent out west found me in the driveway of my parents’ house in Spokane. It was the early evening of Easter Sunday as my dad, brother, and I watched my sister’s husband play with his new toys. Puffing on cigars we watched Jay use his thumbs to manage the remote control he held in both hands. We all got a pretty good kick watching the device that he was controlling.

It was a relaxing Easter evening.

Never since that Easter had I seen a quadcopter before. That night I saw two as Jay brought both of his treasured gadgets over to the Reser residence for some flying time. For those who don’t know, quadcopters are drones. They are tiny machines that fly high in the air, manipulated by a person with a remote control on the ground. My dad, Glen, and I watched as Jay put on an exhibition of sorts. He shot it way up into the sky at fast speeds. He sent it across the street to the playground at the park where kids stopped playing to look up. He entertained the people out for a Sunday stroll who stopped at the edge of our driveway to marvel at the small aircraft and ask questions. He made the neighbor dog go absolutely nuts by hovering the craft over his head, just slightly beyond his out of control leaps.

The dog, named Kokanee, went ape over the quadcopter.

I enjoyed the show and thought the things were pretty cool. However as I moved across the country the quadcopter display became a long lost memory…until recently. Last week as I walked across campus I passed our video team having a great time flying around their own quadcopter. Although they all had smiles on their faces they weren’t merely taking the drone for a joy ride. This model came equipped with a camera and they were using it to make a sweet aerial video showcasing the Coastal Carolina campus. When I saw the finished product this week I was amazed at the quality, beauty, and height of the footage. Say goodbye to the necessity of rounding up a helicopter and crew to go airborne, things are now much easier.

A look at our beautiful campus here at Coastal Carolina University from a quadcopter.

Coincidently this Sunday I became exposed to yet another use of drones. In an “Outside the Lines” report I learned that many football teams at the college and high school level are now using the machines to take practice video. It goes without saying that evaluating formations and player performance from up above is advantageous. With the recent easy availability of quadcopters combined with the flawless images recorded by them why wouldn’t you use the technology? Well because there are legal ramifications. But that is not for this blog post. It is worth noting though that this potential stumbling block has also made sporting teams think twice about using them as part of the gameday experience.

Crazy to think that normal civilians used to not have access to drones. The military enjoyed exclusivity with the technology but no more. The masses now have their hands on them and it is improving both how we have fun and how we shoot video. Talk about a win-win. Don’t Blink.

#CCU Social Media Adds Snapchat

Posted on May 15, 2014 by brent

As I am sure many of you are sick of hearing, I thoroughly enjoy my new job. Having the opportunity to develop a social media program at a different university from where I was previously has reignited my love even more for all things social. While I have implemented some of the strategies I used at Montana here at Coastal Carolina I have also had the chance to try some new things.

This week we introduced our #CCU Snapchat channel. Because of my workload and our audience, I never started one at UM. However, at Coastal Carolina University it just made perfect sense. With the mass amount of people using the service, an age demographic that aligns with exactly who we are trying to reach, and many mechanisms to creatively send out information it made perfect sense to utilize Snapchat.

Oh, one additional reason why it appealed to me? Not many colleges are on it. I don’t know if maybe they don’t understand it or if they don’t think they can communicate effectively with it but you don’t see many university Snapchat accounts. To get ahead of other institutions and reach out to the younger generation in the way they are communicating the most these days it was necessary for Coastal Carolina Social Media to establish a Snapchat presence. Thankfully our Vice President for Communication and my boss, Bill Plate, was well ahead of the game and reserved our social media handle (CCUChanticleers) on Snapchat long ago. With that piece already completed I launched our account simply by creating a graphic, doing some quick marketing on our social media channels, and then adding the users that instantaneously flooded our account.

#CCU Social Media opened up its Snapchat account for business!

I have participated personally in the Snapchat game for a long time now so I am pretty well versed in it but I was surprised by a few things while interacting with our audience. First off, they are YOUNG. Besides the college students that jumped on board with us there is an outrageous amount of kids that look nine years old who are on the service. Secondly, these young adults/kids are creative! I was laughing at and admiring many of the snaps that kept coming into our inbox. Besides the art that many of them can create on their snaps they are also witty and resourceful. Thirdly, they all have great appreciation for Coastal Carolina. I received a fair share of “Go Chant” snaps but I also received snaps from students stating that they can’t wait to get back to campus or that they are counting down the days until they get here for the first time. It was cool to see that pride over a social media outlet where I had never seen it before.

I really enjoy some of the creativity I have seen sent to our Snapchat channel (thanks to Admissions)

Over the first few days of utilizing the #CCU Snapchat account I have just had fun with it. I like to send our “friends” (as they are called on Snapchat) generic snaps wishing them good morning or updating them on the weather on campus. I have also sent useful messages notifying them about the posting of grades or how to access our other social media accounts. Last night I ran a little promotion where I asked our friends to snap a photo of any Coastal Carolina logo. The first person who did so would win a prize. We received around 30 responses. Even about two hours after that snap went out our account was still receiving logo photos.

Just a few of the great snaps we got when we asked our friends to send us a CCU logo.

I encourage you to see how Coastal Carolina Social Media is utilizing Snapchat by friending us by searching “CCUChanticleers”. There are lots of possibilities for higher education institutions to creatively connect with their student audience through Snapchat and I am glad that #CCU is on it sooner than later. Don’t Blink.

Still Connected to Interollegiate Athletics

Posted on May 13, 2014 by brent

When people in Missoula found out that I accepted a position at Coastal Carolina they reacted in a few different ways. Some saw it as a total out of the blue move. Some wanted to know if it had anything to do with the Montana vs. Coastal Carolina football game in December. Some questioned me on whether I could handle a job outside athletics.

Let me briefly answer the first two thoughts. If it seemed like it came out of the blue then that is no coincidence. Why someone would want to let anyone else besides your current employer know about possible job prospects is beyond me. The “making moves” or “big interview tomorrow” statuses on social media disrespect both your current and potential employers and I think it jinxes your aspirations. And no, me taking the position at Coastal Carolina had 0% to do with the football game in December.

Now to the question that I felt carried the most weight: Could I fully embrace a job not directly affiliated with athletics? While I feel like the question was the most legitimate out of the three for others to ask it never really made me think twice. I love sports with all my heart but I wasn’t opposed to a change. After four and a half years of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. days, non-existent weekends, and a laundry list of responsibilities it started to wear on me a bit. Add that to the amazing opportunity presented to me by Coastal Carolina and I knew my next career move was set.

But you see, I have the best of both worlds. While I am no longer toiling working inside an athletic department I still get the opportunity to experience intercollegiate athletics. In my job now I cover all happenings and events on campus so I get to take the time and share the good news of Chanticleer Athletics. Luckily for me this part of the new gig is fun and easy because the CCU athletics department has welcomed me with open arms.

Chauncey welcomed me with open arms too.

It is kind of interesting because even before I moved to Myrtle Beach I already kind of had my foot in the door with the athletics staff. When I went to the CCU campus in March for my in-person interview Matt Hogue, the Associate Vice President of Marketing/Licensing, was on the hiring committee. About a week after my interview he was named the interim Athletic Director. Also during my in-person interview I had a session where I interviewed with three people who play big roles in the CCU social media landscape around campus. One of those people happened to be Kevin Olivett, the marketing director for Chanticleer Athletics. Even though he was in the middle of running two conference basketball tournaments at the time he still managed to sit in for my interview.

Fast forward to the end of April and Kevin kept in touch with me. He followed my journey across the country and wasted no time reaching out to me and setting up a lunch date. Just my fourth day on the job he took me to downtown Conway where we ate at a place called the Crafty Rooster. Joining us was a play-by-play announcer for the department and a Myrtle Beach sports talk radio host, Aaron Marks. Later that day I sat in a meeting with Kevin, his assistant, and the department’s ticket guy to brainstorm social media ideas. How cool and nice of them to involve me in their social media efforts and value my opinion!

The hospitality didn’t stop there though. I received an all-access pass for the Big South Conference softball tournament. I had a nice time covering and watching the tourney from the brand new softball facility on campus. As the Chants made it to the championship game I got to meet more athletics staff including the videographers and the sponsorship director. All were so gracious and welcoming. It was refreshing to see how another athletic department goes about business and I came out of the weekend just that much more pumped to be a Chanticleer.

I had a great time attending the softball tournament and seeing how another athletic department does things.

So please don’t worry about me if you think I am not getting my athletics fix in. I definitely am! Things are just much more balanced now. I am seeing a much wider perspective of university life while still getting to focus a little bit in the area where I got my start in. Don’t Blink.

Don't Blink

By Brent Reser

Tag Archives: Coastal Carolina University