A BUS100 paper on Mike Rowe.

Charles Boettcher

Mike Rowe

Facebook

1. Mike Rowe is a personality that has generally reached out to everyone.  His main forte  is spokesperson for the blue-collar working class.  One of his pass success was the television series Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel where he not only explained the job but would actually perform the job.  These jobs would be such as cleaning out reptiles pens, gathering owl barf, checking bovines anuses, and actually going into sewers.  His current show is Someone’s Gotta Do It.  This show showcases trades that needs to be done but doesn’t necessary need a college degree to perform them.

The Message:

1. Mr. Rowe uses various form of social media, from Facebook with Mike Rowe and Mike Rowe’s Work, Twitter, and he even has a regular web-page; Mike Rowe.com
1. He posts several times a week, usually in short essay form and on Friday his dog Freddy will also post, with Mike as a ghost writer.  His post usually generate 10s of thousands of “likes” and a myriad of comments.  
2. Personally I couldn’t see him posting more and wouldn’t want to see him post less.
3. Since his messages are generally positive essays and rarely are they based on current event I don’t see that timing is a factor.

2. Mr. Rowe uses an easy informal style of narrative that is meant to allow the reader to feel as if they are being directly spoken to.  The style is such as if he is speaking to a friend and will interject explanations in his narrative as if he has notice a perplex look on his listener face.
1. This easy spoken style is appropriate for his audience.
3. The post are usually about the people and groups that he has met in his travels.  
1. Most frequently he tells about the types of work these people do; such as when he went to Boaz Al he posted about Moog industries and that they make ball joints for automobiles.  He explained about the importance of ball joints and how the workers at Moog took great pride in their job.
2. Some of his post are personal, as with the Friday With Freddy ones and some are with his parents.

4. Mr. Rowe’s post tend to use a mixture of general musing and conversations.  One tends to get the feeling that they are having a one on one experience with him from his post.
1. His audience responds to him in a natural way and he will frequently responds to post to give a clarification.
5. The post are not intended to be controversial in nature but he has had to respond to some that have taken some of the post as being controversial, as when he had to explain why he spoke favorably about Wal-Mart because they were promoting the Made in America products and there were may that, really dislike Wal-Mart solely because Wal-Mart stores take up space on this planet.
1. Mr. Rowe stayed neutral in this election as he has in pass election.  He had appeared with Mitt Romney but Mr. Romney was quick to point out that Mr. Rowe was “non partisan, he's not here to endorse me, he's not here to add support to one campaign or another," Romney said of his guest. "He's here to talk about his ideas about how to help America create more jobs.”
6. Each post of Mr. Rowe usually has a photo or two.  Sometimes it’s of him mugging for the camera, sometimes it’s of Freddy but he is sure to get photos in of the groups he is speaking of, whether it’s of a single individual from the group to give a humanity to the group or to show the group as a whole.
1. The effect that these pictures or videos has is that they give a personal touch and allows the reader to get a clearer understanding of the people that are being spoken of.
2. To me, it would be hard for Mr. Rowe to use photos/videos “better” to communicate with his audience.
7. In my opinion I believe that Mr. Rowe has a masterful grasp of the use of social media.  The fact that he describes himself as “a cheerleader for both blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, hoping to promote individual initiative and positive thinking throughout the U.S. economy.”
1. In one area he could improve is in allowing Freddy to actually host one or two of the Somebody’s Gotta Do It episodes.  Also, he could spend more time in explaining the route that the White Collars use in their work.
2. I would like to see them do a post on Cat Juggling myself.  I believe that it would be a much needed eye opener for such a heinous act.