COM0014 – Blog #7 – Personal Reflection

During this course, I feel like I learned a lot of different things I thought I knew already. I thought as an average social media user coming into this course, I might already understand what it meant to use social media in a meaningful and effective way. The first thing I learned with respect to that thought, is that I was entirely wrong. Just because you personally use social media it does not mean you understand how to effectively speak to your audience or how to tell the stories you want to tell effectively either. 

Being able to understand your audience is very important. Who are they, what are they looking for? How do they want to be communicated with? Knowing these things can really transform your following and your content, not to mention your knowledge of your platform’s work and how to reach your audience effectively. 

The stories you tell and how you tell them to your audience is another important thing. When creating digital content you need to understand what stories you want to tell, are they relevant to your audience, and how your audience will want to receive them. You have to strike a fine balance between what you want and what your audience wants when telling these stories. 

Going forward both knowing my audience and understanding the kind of storyteller I am/ what kind my audience wants will change my content for the better in the future. I know that once I fine-tune and continue to research both things that I will be able to transform the way I already use social media and what I use it for. 

When it comes to stories that I want to tell, I want to stick to art and culture. Telling the stories of art and the people that create it, how it comes to be, and why it does. I love to have these conversations and sharing them with others who want to have these conversations too is the best want to deliver new and informational stories.

COM0015 – Blog #4 – Unexpected Applications

Social media is one big game of “what is coming next?”. Everything is changing all the time and sometimes so fast things catch you by surprise. One of the applications for online marketing and social media that caught me by surprise was Canva.

I had used the app previous to this course but it had been quite a while. It had really changed by the time I came back to using it. They have tons of amazing features both paid and upaid.

if you have never used Canva before, it is an amazing graphic design application that can be used for many different things but most effectively and efficiently for social media graphics. They host a number of different templates for many different platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They also have tons of design templates for physical marketing materials that can be ordered directly from their site.

This is such a great application for people that do not necessarily have graphic design skills or understand how to create graphics for their social media pages and platforms. Everything is sized properly for each site and there are tons of different graphics, literally any that you can think of to suite your style and colour scheme.

Canva has a number of different options for different users as well. If you want to use the platform for free you can use the majority of the features with a few barriers, but never fear you do not need to purchase a full pro account to get features either. You can buy them piece by piece if you want. There is still the option to upgrade to a full pro account where you get full access to the site and all its features.

There are special features that can be used for things like Facebook or Instagram stories as well. Animation has become a large part on both of those platforms and now it is at the tip of creators fingers to be able to do something that before would have been out of reach altogether or much more challenging.

Canva has really stepped up its game since it began and has created a whole new world for social media marketers and creators. It is a true playground for making content you love and feel good sharing with your audience and followers. I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to step up their social media game.

Is there an app that caught you by surprise? Maybe one that helps you make your social media shine in a way you didn’t think possible?

COM0015 – Blog #3 – Professional Networking

When I think about what I should be doing in the next number of months the one real strategy I need to focus on is commitment. Both in-person and online. I love social media and I enjoy networking, but the one thing I struggle with immensely is committing the time that is needed to make both of these things work to proper advantage. 

Along with staying committed it is important that I also get organized. Coming up with a comprehensive and organized plan to stick to is something else that will be important in working towards creating a meaningful and growing social media presence. 

Really engaging and understanding my audience is another thing I am committed to in the next coming 6-12 months. The better I can understand who I want to communicate with and who wants to communicate with me, the better that I can create and deliver engaging and meaningful content. Although I like to think I have a good understanding of my current audience, there is always more to learn and understand about them. In turn, this will put me in a better position than I can work towards greater goals and objectives with the help of my audience. 

Finding people within the field that understand and interact with social media on a constant basis is important as well. Introducing myself and taking the time to ask questions and develop relationships is an important and helpful tool to ensure furthering my skills and knowledge.

Something else I am interested in to further my knowledge and commitment to a successful social media path is participating in professional development events and seminars. The more information, strategies, and knowledge I can consume the better. 

In general, the largest commitment I need to make is the one mentioned at the beginning of this post, commitment. I need to commit to all of these things to ensure that I can further my social media skills and abilities. I know that I can do and will do it but the next year regardless will take one thing more than anything else and that is commitment. 

COM0014 – Blog #6 – Do People Know Your Story?

(What new information or tips can I provide my audience? What would help them? (Think in terms of ‘how to’ information.)

If I have learned anything in the past number of weeks, it has been the fact that social media is much more of a fine science than most people realize. There are so many small and precise moves you can make to elevate what you already have going on with your social media game. 

This little blog will go a long way to help you get where you need to be. 

The best place to start is by taking a look at your current following. Who are they? What are they interested in? What about thier age, or gender? These are things that can often be pretty quickly figured out and can help you start to streamline your content to appease whatever demographic might be strongest or most appealing to you. 

Aside from knowing your audience, understanding how they want to communicate with you or each other is important. Try to keep an eye on what platforms your audience is using, how are they interacting on those platforms? Try to replicate that in your communication style, it can do wonders for helping you grow your following and better understand your audience. 

When communicating with your audience, keep it authentic too! Don’t overproduce or oversell your content. Your audience is sure to pick up on that and flag it as disingenuous. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes, if you’re creating content you yourself would not enjoy or understand maybe it isn’t the right content. Stand behind what you make and keep it true to you. 

Now, it isn’t a lot of information but it will help you change up your social media game for the better. These easy tips can help you see a difference in the way you use your social media platforms and change the way you create and share your content for the better!

COM0015 – Blog Post #2 – Strong and Weak Organizations

An organization that fits into the impressive category for social media, would be Fenty. The brand, owned by Rihanna does an amazing job of social media marketing to a very wide audience. Not only is the brand a skincare and beauty brand but a lingerie brand and a growling lifestyle brand as well. 

The brand is active on many different social media platforms, has a great website, and is constantly evolving. As both e clothing and beauty brand, they are overwhelmingly inclusive, for all genders, all sizes, and even financial status. Rihanna and the people working on her brand clearly have a crystal vision for what they want their brand to be and who they want to represent it. 

Fenty has been widely well-received by both the fashion and the beauty industry. It is constantly adding new products to both branches and the content is consistent and connectable. Rihanna is a well-revered face of the brand and is always bringing on more cultural, fashion, and beauty icons into the circle of the brand. For example, she has had musicians like Lizzo model for her and has also brought famous drag queen Naomi Smalls into model and as a brand ambassador as well. In general, the content and overall work being done by this brand is fantastic. 

An organization that could stand to benefit from a different social media strategy on the other hand would be a brand like Kraft Dinner. I looked into their social media for a course last semester and was generally unimpressed. 

For such a widely loved brand, it seemed that the brand is pretty lacking in the way that other larger food brands like Moon Pie or Snickers. The content that is being posted is not necessarily interesting or engaging, and I don’t just say this because I don’t like Kraft Dinner. 

Much of the content is posted first in English and then in an entirely separate post in French. This does not pose an issue realistically but makes thier social media pages and platforms look repetitive when it could be condensed together effectively. Many other brands have shown the ability to make this work smoothly. I would suggest that they use similar but still different images if they want to keep things separated. I think it is important to consistently promote French, or any other language to be used by a brand. 

In conclusion, these are two very different brands. Not only are they different in the sense of what they are and what they do as brands but as successful or less successful social media presences. 

COM0015 – Blog Post #1 – Tools and Sources

Of the abundance of social media trend listening and monitoring tools, I think I am most partial to an app like Brand24. I used it for another course and found it to be really helpful in a lot of different areas. 

Brand24 lets users look at things like mentions, traffic, and general activity. One of the features I like the most about it is the fact that it filters the tone of content being posted by users. 

I think it is super useful to know whether the content being posted across platforms by the user is negative, positive, or indifferent. Both from a business and a personal standpoint something like could be quite beneficial as it provides a proper scope of how users feel about a particular, brand, service, organization. 

A second tool that I feel like I do not have the best grasp on but want to work with more is RSS feeds. Although I get the point of what they are meant to do and why they are used. I would just like to get a better grip on how to organize and use them better myself. They are a great tool for centralizing a large amount of information and this can be useful in many facets. As long as it is well organized and planned there are essentially endless possibilities in the information that can be manipulated.

When it comes to sources for news and updates I love Twitter more than anything. I feel like it works like no other platform it is constantly and quickly being updated with new information. It is easy to use, easy to follow, and easy to find the information you are looking for fast. It also forces you as a user to get that information out concisely and quickly just by the nature of the platform.

Both for business and personal use Twitter is a strong platform to consistently communicate with a follower base. The platform also offers a great way to share and interact with media, both within the site and with third parties. 

I have also followed Mashable for quite a while and really enjoy the variety of content they post and how on the most. They are a great and reliable source of up-to-date information on trends and the up and coming. No matter if you are a person interested in what is going on in the world or a business or brand interested in a specific trend theme Mashable is a great source of information to keep you on or ahead of the game.

COM0014 – Blog #5 – Personal Brand

I hate to say it but right now my personal brand is one thing and, that thing is messy. I know what I want it to be what I want it to look like. I know what parts of myself and my talents I want to showcase, but have not put in the work or done the correct planning to know if it really is the right brand or the right strategy. 

I think one of the great characteristics I bring to my currently unfortunate brand is my writing voice. I feel that it is personable and sometimes, just sometimes, it can be entertaining. I think I tend to have a keen eye for design and aesthetics, considering of course my area of hobby expertise is art. I know that when I do manage to do the work to engage with my following it works well and the content that I create is well received. 

I think as someone who uses social media in this community I understand what approach needs to be taken in terms of connecting and interacting with an audience. I also present as approachable and personable. 

Although I am still learning and working on it every day, there are lots of things that continue to set me apart and keep my audience engaged and coming back, even when I spend what is certainly considered too much time away. 

We can only hope that once I get the right footing, I can really make things happen with the skills and knowledge that I do have!

What is the best branding quality you have?

COM0014 – Blog #3 – Tracking Target Audience

When doing any kind of social media work, one of the most important things is understanding your audience. We have heard it time and time again and it rings true just as often. After spending the last number of months completing the courses in this program I have been able to learn how to properly understand and approach my audience. 

In this case, the audience is that of the craft and do-it-yourself community. This is a pretty wide-spanning community so I chose to focus primarily within the textile and weaving community as a textile art is a hobby I enjoy myself. I found that the demographic of my audience was relatively young-adult women. They are also interested in a similar home and craft aesthetic. Many of them are also frequent users of similar platforms and tools.

Textile crafters are often participating over many social media platforms, the most popular is certainly Instagram. Pinterest is a close second, but there is also a large presence and community on Facebook, taking place through their groups pages.  

One effective way I could go about communicating with my audience is by asking questions. I have found that on all platforms when the audience is asked a question along with the content, there is much more chance for engagement. We can even see how effective that can be through the content produced in this course. Using effective planning and aesthetics are also great ways to properly communicate. It has been shown that communicating on a regular basis is an important tool in keeping audiences active and engaged. 

Is there a tool or plan you find most effective in getting to know your audience? 

COM0014 – Blog #4 – Glossier Has GOT it.

A great example of a Business to Consumer company is Glossier. Glossier is an American beauty and skincare brand. They have continued to gain popularity since their inception as they advertise as the “no-makeup, makeup”. Which, as someone who doesn’t love to put on make up, but loves what makeup does, is super enticing.

This brand does an amazing job on social media. Currently present on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube they have a well curated and aesthetically pleasing brand from top to bottom. You can tell on each different platform, that you are on a branded page for Glossier. There is a distinct colour palette as well as well-researched content that is relevant to the brand and emanates the type of person Glossier knows is using their brand. 

It is interesting to look at their social media because as we learn about brands looking to their audience for what they are meant to be doing, it is clear that Glossier has done it so well that they now appear to be setting the influence for their audience. With more than one hundred thousand Twitter followers and close to three million Instagram followers, they are a distinct and influential brand, that shows their audience that the brand knows what they want, and they are going to keep delivering it. 

Aside from a well-curated art style, there is also a personalized and humorous flare that is also attached to their platform pages. They speak to followers and customers like friends, they share and like memes on their page and even have a best Glossier “memes of the week” post that goes out each weak, posting things that both bring them to shame and lift them up in laughter. They have done a great job building a friendly and personable connection with thier audience. 

In all Glossier is smashing it out of the park for what could be considered a pretty middle of the road following these days. They have a great understanding of thier audience, they are cohesive across many different platforms and they have a personable and approachable air to them. Glossier has got it all.

COM0014 -Blog #2: Getting it Right When Communicating Digitally

Communicating has changed a lot over the last few thousand years, we know this. Yet, what most people do not know is that there is a specific way to communicate effectively either digitally or through social media. When communicating about anything it is most important to list what is, well, exactly that, most important, first. Keeping this information at the top of any post or article can help give readers with short attention spans the information they need right away, as well as the possibility to engage those readers further. 

Secondary to relaying the most important information, the next information that is still important but less integral is placed into posts. While working on this something to remember is that using proper grammar and spelling is something that is often overlooked. If you do not use proper caution with grammar and spelling you run the risk of losing credibility and looking a bit silly,  no one wants to do that. 

Keeping in mind that you’ll need to wrap at some point this final paragraph will contain information that acts as a kind of “bonus” so to speak. This part of a post should not have information that is needed to understand the rest of the post but information that adds to the content provided earlier. Another thing to keep in mind for this part of the post is to think about what you are asking of your audience or how you might want to have them engage once they have read your content. So, are you writing your content according to these rules? Are there any steps you take to enhance your communication that are not listed here?