COM0014 – Blog 7 – Reflection

During the duration of this course, I have learned that effective storytelling is a crucial element of digital content. If done correctly, storytelling has the ability to create and maintain a positive relationship between businesses and their target audience. Storytelling allows for people to better understand a business’s message and fosters trust between the two parties. This is because this type of communication focuses on casual and emotional connections that encourages audiences to interact with brands.

The open form of communication allows audiences to feel as though they are having one-on-one conversations with a brand. This is really important especially since we are increasingly seeing that online audiences appreciate unique and personalized experiences. Incorporating storytelling into digital media has become a necessity as we have migrated from older marketing methods and are now focusing on personal, experience-based forms of marketing.

From all that I have learned about storytelling, I will definitely incorporate this type of communication into any of my written online content. I find that it is much easier to covey my thoughts and ideas using this method. I also think it entices people to read more online content because of how flowy and easy this form of writing is to read and relate to.

COM0014 – Blog 6: Do People Know Your Story?

The question that stood out most to me in this article was, how does my audience see themselves? In order to fully understand your audience, I think it is very important to understand how your audience views their role and influence within your business.

Over the past few years, it’s safe to say that the role of social media and our role within it, has expanded. Perhaps this expansion was a result of the pandemic or the improvement of technology. Whatever the case may be, there is no doubt that this expansion has changed the way our audience views their place in our business.

I feel as though that as a result of our audience having to rely on social media for a lot of their communication, it has changed the way they view not only the power of online communication, but also their own power online. I think that audiences are more aware of how much influence their posts and shares actually are. I think that they realize that the more open dialogues they create and maintain online, the better the chances are they see substantial changes in the world. I think they understand that they have the ability to change policies and procedures regarding their chosen industry. I think the audience also views themselves as educators, in the sense that they can offer insight and suggestions regarding products or services. They are essentially like the last line of defence when it comes to people making informed decisions.

This shift in our audience’s behaviour and how they perceive themselves means that we have to learn to market to them differently, from mass marketing to more individualized marketing, with an emphasis on personalized experience.

COM0014 – Blog 5 – Personal Brand

During my employee reviews I am always told that my initiative, creativity, and my ability to unite my fellow team members, are some of my most valuable skills.

I believe that my ability to be a proactive employee is one of my most valuable assets. I do my best to stay up to date on company news, changes, new policies, and important events. I try to go above and beyond what is expected of me, I ask for other tasks to do and even some new tasks that I am not familiar with or haven’t had the chance to learn. I am able to express my creativity through not only what I physically create, but also through my problem solving and task management. I am always in the processes of learning new valuable skills to better my craft.

My ability to collaborate and create strong bonds with all my fellow team members is very valuable. I ensure to uplift my team members, appreciate their efforts, and celebrate their accomplishments. Working with all different personality types and still finding common ground between us is very important and is something that I have become really good at.

I am also really proud of my commitment to customer service. I am able to efficiently recognize their needs and find quick solutions to any problems that may arise.

COM0014 – Blog #4: B2C Case Study

A B2C company that does an excellent job at engaging with their audience on social media is, Starbucks. They are consistently active on all of their social media accounts and actively engage with their audience in a number of ways.

Of course, they frequently promote their new additions to their drink menu in fun and creative ways, but they also recommend new drink and flavour combinations to their most popular beverages. Under these recommendations customers frequently mention their own takes on popular drinks, proving that these simple posts made by Starbucks are great invitations for interaction between Starbucks and other customers. Another simple task they do in order to encourage engagement is posting short, fun quizzes. For example, they create quizzes to find out what drink you are, which new drink you should try etc. It creates a fun experience for their customers who can share their results on their own social media accounts.

Starbucks also features impactful employee stories. These posts discuss and highlight the remarkable achievements made by their employees, which include educational, charitable and sustainability achievements. Posting these stories across all of their social media accounts creates the impression that they care about their employees and want to create a good relationship with them, which in turn, encourages their customers to have a positive view of their company. Starbucks also further engages with their audience by retweeting positive posts about their company and positive reviews about not only their drinks but also positive experiences visiting their brick and motor stores. This shows us that they are truly monitoring and listening to their customers and are looking for ways to continue to improve and cater to their customers.

Their app is also extremely customizable for every individual customer. They offer specific deals and sales depending on what a customer purchases most often. They also always email customers about general promotions. The Starbucks experience seems very personal all around.

COM0014 – Blog 3 – Target Audiences

My current place of work is an arts, crafts, and home décor store who gear their marketing efforts towards creative, ‘do it yourselfers’. Every year, the company provides all employees with online courses that we must take to better our understanding of the products we carry, the services we offer, and information regarding our target market.

These courses allowed me to understand that our target market are middle class women who are crafty, DIY enthusiasts and are looking for a variety of quality products. These individuals must also be willing to pay more for the level of quality they receive. Our customers are looking for a pleasant, welcoming, engaging, shopping experience. In order to meet their needs as much as possible we are strongly encouraged to initiate conversations with our customers, ask what projects they’re working on, or provide any project recommendations.

In order for the company to gather customer feedback, my company offers discounts to future purchases if they complete survey’s. This also provides the company with valuable information about what they are doing right and what needs to be improved on. My company maintains ongoing communications with customers every day. They send emails about current and upcoming sales, new collections and even provide online tutorials on how to use our most popular products.

In order to further connect with our customers and expand their creative skills, the company offers classes to both children and adults. These classes have alternating, weekly crafts, and tutorials.

COM0014 – Blog #2: Storytelling and Communication Styles

The module for this week shed light on crucial components of digital storytelling. In order to draw readers in, it is vital that your content has a particular writing style that your audience relates to and that your work is clear, concise, and thought provoking.

Here To Help

Maintaining a precise tone, writing style, and active voice throughout your writing can be a challenge. Normally, when I run into an issue with my writing, I would head straight to resources that endorsed or approved by educational institutions. However, just because they are associated with these well-known institutions, does not necessarily mean they are the perfect resource. This week’s module helped me to discover all of the different writing websites that help with creative writing, prompts, sentence structure, and common writing mistakes. They offer helpful advice that is not only beneficial to students, but also to working professionals. Now that I am aware of all these writing assistance blogs and websites, I will definitely be relying on them to fix and improve my writing.

Skimming, Absorbing, and Building

The most interesting concept of this week’s module was the four categories of readers: elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical readers. Understanding the characteristics of each level is incredibly important. The higher the level of reading, the more likely they are to critically analyze content, engage, and formulate their own opinion. The module highlights that it is our job to ensure that our writing pieces encourage readers to reach level four.

In order to achieve this, writers must create content that is clear, conscience, and thought provoking. It is also important to stick to one writing style that your audience can connect with. You should always keep in mind the type of experience you want them to have when they are reading your content.

Not only does your writing need to be well thought out, but the overall layout of your content should be clean and organized. Including photos and having your writing organized under various headings is a good way to encourage readers to reach level 3 and 4 reading levels.

COM0014 – Blog #1: The City That Never Sleeps

One of the most memorable and favourite vacations that my family and I went on was when we went to New York City for July 4^th, in 2017. I was lucky enough to have visited this energetic and iconic city once prior to this trip with my mom and my best friend as a high school graduation gift. However, this 2017 trip was the first time that my dad and sister had ever been to New York, so my mom and I made sure to visit as many famous monuments as possible within our short trip.

We stayed in Midtown so that we would be near a variety of restaurants, Broadway and so that we were just a short walk from Times Square, Grand Central Station, and Rockefeller Center. During our trip we opted to go for a lot of guided tours so we could all learn about the history of the city and listen to stories about certain areas of the city that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to read about or find online.

One of the guided walking tours we went on was one that took you across the Brooklyn Bridge which then took us a little throughout Dumbo, which was incredible. The view of the New York skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge are breathtaking. Our guide explained the history of the bridge and all the obstacles people and the city had to go through in order to finish this now iconic structure. It truly gave me a new appreciation for the bridge.

We of course had to stop by Central Park for an afternoon stroll, which ended up being another opportunity for us to take a bike tour through the parks most famous filming locations which was great because I don’t think that we would have been able to move through the park with such ease on our own.

The last tour we had the chance to do was a boat tour that took us along the East and Hudson rivers. On this cruise we able to learn a little about the history of the city’s most famous buildings and were able to get a really up-close look at the Statue of Liberty.

I really wanted to visit the American Museum of Natural History and I was so impressed with all the exhibits they showcased, you can honestly spend your entire day trying to explore and absorb everything the museum has to offer.

My family and I were lucky enough to experience the Macy’s July 4^th Firework Spectacular. We were able to get a really great view along the Hudson and I have never seen anything like it. It’s super chaotic to get there because of the amount of people that are also trying to watch the show, but it’s so worth it. The huge, colourful, mesmerizing display is a must see.

New York City is one of my favourite places to visit. They are so rich in culture and the energy the city has is incredible. There are endless amounts of exciting and fun activities to do, there’s something for everyone.

COM0015 Blog 4 – Out of the Box

Prior to enrolling in this program, I was very familiar with majority of the most prominent social media platforms such as, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube etc. I understood the importance for businesses to monitor and listen to their customers and I understood that these social platforms were incredibly important when it comes to monitoring what is being said about their company, engaging and building relationships with customers. I was becoming familiar with what particular analytics businesses were paying attention to because a lot of platforms started adding an analytics page that any account type could have access to, not just business accounts. These new features covered a lot of the most important analytics such as impressions, page visits, total interactions etc.

In terms of online platforms that solely deal with marketing and monitoring I was only familiar with Hootsuite and had only a vague understanding of its importance to online marketing and monitoring. Since starting this program, I have been introduced to so many monitoring platforms that I have never heard of, I had no idea just how many platforms there really were, each with their own unique features, filters, and analytics that I have never thought of. Throughout this program I have grown to really appreciate platforms like Brand24 and Talkwalker.

Image via Talkwalker

The only thing that really surprised me was how in depth these platforms went when it came to their available analytics, despite me only having access to the free versions of these programs. I also surprised how customized you can make your searches. With Talkwalker specifically, I thought it was really impressive how much you can break down your searches by particular demographic, media type, and sentiment. I also thought it was interesting that Talkwalker can show you the top influencers that mention or promote a product or an organization, as well as total reach and engagement these influencers reach. One thing I found interesting about Brand24 is that they show you top posts, regarding your specific topic, across various social platforms and they also show you sentiment for that particular post. There is no perfect program, but what one lacks, there is always another platform that makes up for it.   

Image via Brand24

This program made me very aware of how impactful these monitoring programs can be for businesses. They allow for businesses to market themselves better, monitor their engagement across all their social media platforms, and develop better relationships with their clients because of all the available feedback.

COM0015 – Blog 3 – Professional Networking

Since I have just graduated from university, I haven’t had that many networking opportunities other than networking with other students in my program. Over the past few months, I have been slowly customizing my LinkedIn page as it has been my main source of networking.

So far, my strategy for my professional presence has been solely focused on LinkedIn. When discussing personal and professional achievements, I aim to be as articulate and detailed as possible. I have also tried to make online connections with as many friends, acquaintances, and even past professors.

Image via LinkedIn

Another element of my online strategy is to engage with posts in a meaningful way. I will often like, share, and leave comments on my friends posts so that people can have a sense of my opinions and values. I follow organizations and brand pages within the industry that I want to have a potential career with. I also take short courses related to my particular industry to communicate to potential employers that I have learned valuable, practical skills that can be an asset to their team.

I think in the coming months I could potentially start a professional Instagram account in which I would highlight and share some samples of designs and written work that I have accumulated, so that potential employers can have a sense of my professional skills. Similarly with my LinkedIn, I can share my thoughts relating to industry trends, news, and experiences to further allow employers to have a sense of my personality and work ethic. In the next few months, I will also reach out to some of my friends who are already working in my desired industry. They will have valuable tips and experiences to share with me before I start my career and may even keep my name in mind when there are job opportunities within the industry.

COM0015 – Blog 2 – Strong and Weak Organizations

In this day in age, it is vital that an organization understands the significance of social media. Used properly, social media is a tool that businesses can use to their advantage to further their influence.

Organizations that I feel do a good job at utilizing social media to further their influence are, Dove and Nike.

Dove

Dove is a personal care company that specializes in skin and hair care products. Through the use of many successful marketing and social media strategies, customers understand that when they buy from Dove, they are getting rich, nourishing, hydrating products. Customers also understand that when they are purchasing from Dove, they are supporting an organization that is socially conscious.

Image via Dove

This brand was able to achieve a mostly positive reputation through various social media efforts. For starters, Dove has launched numerous campaigns revolving issues that are important to their target market. They consistently attempt to amplify female voices, self-acceptance, dismantle negative beauty stereotypes and standards. Dove has launched numerous viral campaigns on multiple social media platforms including Twitter and YouTube that have managed to remain relevant. By publicly supporting issues that reflect their customers feel strongly about, they have built a strong relationship with their customers and in turn, accumulated a loyal following. Another successful element of their social media strategy is their consistent use of personal hashtags, each campaign they introduce includes new hashtags. Not only do these hashtags allow for people to easily search for posts related to each campaign, but they also promote brand awareness and engagement.

Nike

Nike is an internationally recognizable organization that specializes in athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories. For decades, Nike has managed to maintain their influence within their industry as a result of their numerous celebrity partnerships. Nike understands how powerful these partnerships and endorsements can be. They have managed to capitalize on people’s emotional connections to these celebrities and influencers. Customers are more inclined to purchase from an organization when they see their favourite celebrity wearing that same brand or if they have an exclusive collection with a certain brand.

Image via Nike

Nike’s media posts are not overly complicated or very frequent, but I think this is something their audience appreciates. They have so much hype surrounding their brand that all they have to do is share a simple post or story and it will without a doubt create a buzz. Similar to Dove, aside from their iconic #JustDoIt slogan, they frequently create custom hashtags for their various product launches. Aside from their many collaborations with public figures, they also ensure that they include everyday athletes within their media campaigns. They encourage everyone to share their athletic journey’s online with their various campaign hashtags, thus creating a strong, positive online community.

L’Occitane

An organization that would benefit from implementing a social media strategy would be L’Occitane. They specialize in natural skincare products, L’Occitane takes pride in their product innovation and using sustainable ingredients in all of their products. I think the excellent values and goals that L’Occitane has committed to, are not being properly communicated through their social media platforms. For starters, I think that some of their content on their YouTube and their Facebook is not particularly relevant at times and I think they post just for the sake of posting. For example, they often post about the same product over the period of a few days but there is not a new element or new promotion for these products, they just consistently create posts about the same 3 products.

Image via L’Occitane

Another element of their social media presence that I think needs to be adjusted is how they engage with their customers. They appear to favour their Facebook page as they usually post once per day. Despite their page having 6 million followers they average about 20 likes and a couple of comments on each post. Part of this engagement problem is that they don’t respond to comments or questions they get on their posts very often. I think that if they created an open dialogue between themselves and their customers, they’ll be able to generate a sense of community.

Another problem that may be a detriment to their organization is their lack of collaboration with other brands or influencers. Perhaps partnering with charities or brands that have similar values surrounding sustainability can create more engagement to their social media platforms and people may get a better understanding of who they are. Even having an influencer post a review about their products or have them featured in a tutorial on their pages would bring some more engagement.

Lastly, I think it would be beneficial for L’Occitane to create signature hashtag or use any hashtags at all throughout their social media posts. I think one or two relevant ones could help their brand awareness and engagement.