Blog #4 – COM0015 – Unexpected Discoveries

Confidence in social media is something I would assume I had. Since I was in high school, I took on responsibilities involving it in many different scenario. Any kind of fundraiser, event planning, or ticket sales, I would step up and tackle the social marketing beast. It wasn’t until I started this course that I realized the various degrees a social media worker that are out there. Facebook and Twitter aren’t just the only options for social media as I learned of the importance the endless possibilities.

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In my journey through social media I suddenly found myself learning new skills that I never knew before. I learnt about the importance of blogging, RSS, and many more! When working with my current company, I saw these skills put into practice as we regular blast out our newest commercial and I was apart of the team putting together the blast. Another example of unexpectedly using my new knowledge was when interviewing my boss for my third assignment this term. He asked me questions that were actually relevant to what I had been learning. He asked what my goals for social media would be, target audiences, ways I would hope to succeed my goal. You always hope to use your skills outside of the classroom, but it was great for that to be proven true while still enrolled with Algonquin.

What I’ve learned since starting this program back in January has been immense. I found myself learning new tricks that have intrigued me into always looking for the new thing in social media marketing. I intend to take these skills and improve before my business social media and personal social media branding.

What did you learn about yourself through social media? Let me know in the comments down below.

COM0015 – Blog #3 – Networking Anxiety

Networking. The dreaded word that I fear most. After a lifetime of being anxious of meeting new people, I leave my first college degree learning that networking is the key to having a successful career. Meeting new individuals give you a chance to make those new connections that can bring you to different opportunities. As an individual hoping to work in the film industry, networking is the tool I must use to achieve any big goals.

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Luckily in my current position of an Office Coordinator a commercial production company, I get many of opportunities to meet and work with a variety of filmmakers and crew. Recently on a job, we had a production coordinator who was very impressed with how helpful I was to him. He spoke highly of me to my boss and said he would hire me in an instance if I ever wanted to follow in the path of him. These kinds of connections can help me should I want to leave my current position.

In the next 6-12 months, I have the goal of going to at least in person event for networking. I am very COVID conscience though so it would all have to depend on my comfortability being around strangers with unknown vaccine statuses. In office, I will continue to be collaborating with other filmmakers and crew as I’ve definitely made an impact with some. Each interaction, I should have the goal of really establishing myself as reliable and someone to call onto whenever needed. For online, I would like to join various social media groups to connect with other people in similar fields to make friends and future possible contacts.

As networking and my social anxiety don’t mix, I’ll continue to make connections in ways that make me feel comfortable and safe. Let me know your networking goals for 2022 down below.

COM0015 – Blog #2 – Social Media: Not Enough? Or just right?

Having strong social media is key nowadays as it is the tool to connect with your audiences. In the past, you relied on ads on billboards or TV commercial to do a bulk of the work, but now finding your customers take much more work. Such companies have taken charge with their social media seeing it as a way to bring their brand in front of the pack, while others get left behind in the dirt.

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An example of a strong social media account is Letterboxd’s Twitter. Letterboxd is a social media platform that is made for film lovers where you can rate, track, share opinions on movies. While Letterboxd is a social media site in its own right, Twitter is an impressive example of a company finding its target demo. They tweet about relevant discussions surrounding film and televisions such as trailers, references, or pop culture topics. Recently they tweeted a picture of Squid Game, a new popular series on Netflix in response to a user’s comment. Due to their successful tweets and connections to an audience, they have 171k followers including many high-profile filmmakers such as Sean Baker or production companies like NEON. 

Looking at a local commercial company in Toronto called Partners Film, you see the opportunity for success with social media. As a commercial production company, they could produce similar content to Letterboxd by sharing content from their directors and projects. However, Partners instead do the bare minimum with posting. They will typically only share the newest commercial they’ve created. They could engage and share specific images to build a humorous brand online. Utilize the tools you have in your toolbox and use them as a way to connect with people and make people look forward to your content. I’ve worked here since March, and social media has made me want to step up. I plan on revamping their social media within the next few months, as I see the potential.

Hopefully, companies can look at the nature of marketing and can see the importance of social media in our modern-day digital landscape. Social media is the tool to lasting and making an impact in the lives of your customers.

COM0015 – Blog #1 – Tools and Sources

Before starting this course, I never could imagine all the available tools out there to help with monitoring social media activity. In my mind, I always believed that to monitor social media was browsing through tweets or posts and taking notes of what trends you happen to see. Cut to 2021, and I’ve started this course, I see the valuable tools and sources available to enhance my social media monitoring and ensure that any information trends I find are accurate and specific. There are so many tool options out there that it’s exciting to see the possibilities.

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My two best sources of news would be Twitter and Instagram. I find both tools work in different ways to inform the user of news around the world. For Twitter, you get a trending page and can see what people are saying about specific subjects. If it’s breaking news, you’ll find the latest on Twitter. It’s a good tool to follow news organizations to hear the latest from them. For Instagram, I find a lot of great photo/video content available. There’s a trending page with videos that are related to what Instagram believes you would be interested in. There you can find videos from content creators about specific topics of discussion that would engage with you. Other social media pages such as Facebook and Tik Tok, I find too cluttered with too much information. While they are great sources, it can be hard to find specific information.

For social media monitoring, I enjoy using Google Analytics and Brand24. For Google Analytics, I find analyzing Google searches to be quite interesting. As someone who sits in an office all day, I find myself immediately going to Google for any sort of random thought that crosses my mind. This would include newsworthy items such as recently the Federal Election or Lil Nas X’s new album. The interface is also very user-friendly to my experience and I’m always able to find what I’m looking for. For Brand24, I would say I’m a little biased. I used this program for an assignment two semesters ago and while the interface isn’t always the easiest to maneuver it gets me the information I’m looking for. I was always able to find relevant information for any subject I was searching for and get real tweets or posts highlighting the keywords. It has my brand loyalty by this point as opposed to being the best monitoring program.

Having a full tool belt when it comes to social media monitoring is key as certain subjects or ideas may benefit from different websites. In the future, I hope to continue my learning and development with new tools and sources out there. Let me know your favourite ways to monitor social media down below.

COM0014 – Blog #7 – Reflection

With endings comes time to reflect. It’s important to reflect, as it can give you insight into everything you’ve learned and how you’ve grown from it. Looking back at this course, I find myself impressed with how I’ve grown in my writing and my knowledge. I’ve learned more about how your writing and how you write are the key to connecting a person to a business through social media platforms. Without correctly writing, you’re at a chance of losing business.

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Storytelling is humanity’s greatest tool. To share messages and stories with other people is how the world communicates. When you’re cooking a meal at a restaurant, you’re tasting the chef’s journey through their food. When watching a film, you’re watching a story but also a director’s story of how this story would be told. We as humans have the drive to share and tell our truths, and this course has made me realize the importance of this.

I want to be remember by my stories. I want to create art and memories that are everlasting. I hope that my storytelling creates a legacy that inspires others to create and tell their own stories. I take this goal as the biggest takeaway from this course. Hopefully the stories that I’ve read about continue to grow inside of me and inspire me to continue writing and creating.

COM0014 – Blog #6 – Obstacles of the Mind

Looking back at my life, I see my life as pretty easy. I’ve been fortunate enough to not faces huge adversities. I come from a middle income family who supported me and what I wanted to do. While my surroundings were all seemingly easy, I still struggled with inner demons.

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I came out as queer in 2016 after coming to terms with it for years. People will not often understand that to come out a person usually has to completely change the way they see their life going. I saw myself as being “normal” with a wife and children one day. It can be mentally hard to get over for some, and it took me a while to get to that point. Due to this self-hatred growing up, I found it hard to make connections with others, always pushing them away to be independent. It’s in my adulthood that I see the value in relationships and how they can help you continually grow. I also deal with depression or anxiety-ridden thoughts. I don’t suffer as much as some people do with it, but I still find that to be a constant bad to keep fighting to not drift through life and be positive.

Any sort of obstacles I’ve come across, I believe have made me the person I am today. I can’t change the past, but I can choose how to take it in and hope for a better and happier future.

COM0014 – Blog #5 – Personal Brand

I find describing myself usually difficult. What I think of myself may differ from what others think of me. I know that I’ve described myself a certain way, just for someone to disagree and give me an opposing point. My ultimate goal in life is that my personal brand is the positive image that I aim to put out in the world.

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Others have described me as having a willingness to learn and grow. In an evaluation recently, I was told that I’m a hard worker and always trying to make things work even when I have obstacles ahead of me. I would self describe myself as a klutz with a silly sense of humour. I’ve been described as the “least threatening person ever” ergo I’m approachable and trustworthy. I respect people and their opinions and I want to hear why I’m wrong in a rational discussion-based setting. In high school, I was voted by my peers as “Best School Spirit”, a category I never expected to win. I would take this as usually I have positive energy and I’m game for anything.

Interest-wise, I’m very knowledgeable about films and will often be looked to for opinions on movies and what is worth someone’s time. Usually, if I know the person, I can tell if a certain movie will do well with them. I enjoy marketing and social media and I was known in high school to be talented in these fields. I would run our school drama department’s social media campaigns and won an award for it in 2013.

I believe these skills put me ahead of the competition and hopefully make others want to work for me. Branding myself means that I want to continue to grow and become better.

COM0014 – Blog #4 – Being Social with Letterboxd

Social media is an essential tool for companies trying to connect with their customers. Having a strong presence and engagement is important to seem reliable and current. Businesses that choose to not have a social media footprint will often confuse customers just trying to find information. If a customer is looking for answers, they want to tweet or message a company to get a response. If a business relies on email or just phone calls, that’s a potential to lose a sale.

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My favourite website is called Letterboxd, which is a social media site dedicated to film lovers. They have yearly memberships and are always trying to convince people to join their site. Their social media game is quite strong as they take an active role in their subscribers’ lives.

A recent example is when a user tweeted @letterboxd complaining that they used fleets so much. You can see the interaction above in which they only brought positivity and humour. To top it off, they used a gif for Big Hero 6 to tie in their movie branding. If you look across their Twitter, they are always having great interactions with their consumers and followers. I consider their social media to be a model of what every business should be.

What are some businesses that have ideal models of a strong social media platform? Let me know in the comments down below.

COM0014 – Blog #3 – Appealing to Film Fans

The dreaded question, what are some of your interests? For me, this question is often a tricky one. The answer to it is simple: I love movies. Watching movies, discussing movies, watching videos about other people discussing movies. It’s by far my favourite interest, despite people not understanding the community around it. For cinephiles, movies are a topic that can be discussed and analyzed for hours.

Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash

It’s hard to describe film lovers since every one of them is so different. They can like a variety of specific genres and styles. For example, try to describe a music fan, where there are hundreds of kinds of music out there. An effective way to engage with a cinephile is to ask them about their favourite films, directors, etc. For example, I was making small talk with a friend of a friend, and we were out of things to talk about. Movies came up into the conversation, and we began to talk for 30 mins straight about it.

Cinephiles like behind-the-scenes information, small details that make a film or how it was made unique. They also enjoy talking about casting news, upcoming films, or awards surrounding the movie. If you’re a company trying to appeal to these audiences, try connecting your content to film-related things. Perhaps your tweet references an iconic film, or your commercial is a particular genre to excited specific groups

There are many ways to connect with people. Discovering a common interest amongst groups, while difficult, can be extremely rewarding to your company to make connections.

COM0014 – Blog #2 – Storytelling in the Modern Age

Storytelling is one of the most universal languages in the world. Every culture or people has a story to share. To view social media as modern-day storytelling is a different approach that I never considered before. In social media, you send a message to your audience just like a story. You make them feel something for what you’re telling. It was interesting for me to reflect on this concept, and now one could consider your social media pages the storybooks of your life. I could flip through the pages and see the kind of person I was at 14 or perhaps what I was feeling on my birthday back in 2015.

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When reflecting on my writing style, I surprised myself to learn that I tend to write very passively. I never seem to be living in the moment with my writing, despite wanting to come off as engaging. Using an active voice in writing gets your reader interested and wanting to learn more. Over the years, my spelling and grammar have become tighter, but keeping an eye on your actual style is something I need to work on. With style, you create a signature voice that is specific to you.

How do you think we can reflect on our writing styles over the years? Do you think they can show growth and expansion of knowledge? What are some storytelling moments that you wish you could change on your social media pages? Let me know in the comments below.