Blog 4: A.R.G.s and the future of social media campaigns

The field of social media is always changing.
Both the ways we interact and the Media we use to interact are constantly evolving. We used to use just text and now we can share our thoughts and feelings through pictures, gifs, videos, stickers, and emojis.
So many ways to interact with each other. I have even watched people take turns editing the same image to play tic-tac-toe with each other.

Even companies and brands are working hard to catch and hold peoples attention online.
But what if social media campaigns could be online and offline at the same time?
Enter A.R.G.s (Alternate Reality games)

A.R.G.s are a way to create an interactive transmedia experience to tell a story. Sometimes player interactions simply reveal a set story in parts and other times players choices and actions can effect how a storyline plays out. While it may be hard to think of a way to use an A.R.G. in a social media campaign, It can be done.

Back in 2018, The online, multiplayer game called Fortnite used an A.R.G. to promote the next season of their game as well as to begin the underlining storyline of that game season.

This Game Theory video explains the actual campaign to some degree.

Epic Games A.R.G. for Fortnite is a large scale example but it created a fun and interactive way for players to get excited for the next game season while also attempting to foster and more social environment within the player base and bringing more attention to the game to raise people’s curiosity and expand the player base.
Overall, there were a lot of benefits to the use of an A.R.G. as promotional form that also added new layers to how social media can be used.

A.R.G.s by no means need to be as large and as puzzling as the Fortnite A.R.G. though. They can be adjusted to the abilities and desires of your target audience. Even just simply hiding notes with hints to a new product launch in little plastic eggs at local landmarks for people to find and share could be a fun and effective A.R.G. .

The main point to keep in mind is that the A.R.G. is interactive, easily works on multiple social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, and has an air of mystery that both confuses people enough to share it online and excited enough to work together to find all the parts of the A.R.G. that you have put out into the world.

Good times in the year for promotional A.R.G.s would be during Easter when people look forward to things like egg hunts and Halloween when people are in the mood for mysteries and Christmas and valentines when people are looking for things to do with friends and family. Timing an A.R.G. with holidays could lead to higher interaction if planned carefully and themed accordingly to take advantage of people’s festive moods.

But sadly, A.R.G.s will have to wait to be used again until have the Pandemic has ended.
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So what are your thoughts on A.R.G.s?
Have you ever heard about or participated in an A.R.G. before?
Would you consider planning our an A.R.G. promotional campaign for your business?
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Sources:
Patrick, Mathew. [Game theory]. (2018, August 28). Game Theory: The RACE to Solve Fortnite’s Season 5 Unsolved MYSTERY! (Fortnite Battle Royale) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JwxWL5aZU&ab_channel=TheGameTheorists

Kapp, K. (2012, January 18). ARG and ARG –What are they? What does it mean? Should you care?. Retrieved from https://www.td.org/insights/arg-and-arg-what-are-they-what-does-it-mean-should-you-care

Alternate reality game. (2020, December 23). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

Blog 3: Networking hurdles: starting a career in a foreign land

Some of us dream of living in a specific country or working in a specific and unique industry in a foreign land. But there are obstacles on that road that seem to high.
You’ve learned the language and bought your plane ticket and have your apartment rented, but is that enough?

Before you even think about moving, one of the best things you can do is learn about the culture and not just through romanticized T.V. shows. Knowing how the society you want to join works is one of the biggest steps you can take towards a successful networking approach. Knowing what is rude and what is polite can help you greatly in connecting with the industry professionals that you want to work with one day. Yes, there is often leeway given to foreigners but that generally won’t serve you well. Learning the pleasantries of polite society in that country will be just as useful as learning the language.

Okay, so now you know what to say and how to say it, but who do you say it to? well first step is to figure out the structure of the industry you want to join and where your position and skills fit you into it. Once you have have figured out where you’d fit and who would be responsible for your hiring, then start researching the people who would actually hold that position at companies you want to work at and even ones you don’t want to work at but are in the same field. Sometimes you may need to hold a position elsewhere to build up your portfolio before you can get your dream job.
Once you know who you need to talk to, start sending out those cold call emails and phone calls. Look for that industry’s equivalent to LinkedIn and start messaging people on there.
When the Pandemic ends, start looking for workshops and conferences you can attend related to your industry and try approaching people there as well as over professional learning events for your industry. If you are worried about your ability to communicate at an industry event, then don’t be shy to bring a friend who’s more fluent then you or use your phone to help you communicate. It may feel embarrassing but it could help show that you are trying your hardest despite the new environment and language.

I personally aim to join the south Korean entertainment Industry as a social media manager.
I am currently using several language learning kits to begin learning the language and have taken advantage of platforms like Twitter to help me befriend people from South Korea to help me practice the language and learn and familiarize myself with South Korean social customs and nuances first hand. I repay these new online friends by helping them with English and Canadian social customs.
I have Identified several small entertainment agencies that value self start-ups and are in need of social media managers as well as a few firms that specialize in providing social media management and marketing services to other companies in South Korea. I plan to start sending cold call emails to them in about 1-2 months time so that I can hopefully serve my college co-op term with one of the companies as a way for them to test out my abilities and fit with their company.
The Idea being that If the co-op term goes well, then the company may sponsor me to come to South Korea to work full time and help me acquire a valid work visa and find an apartment.
I can still make it there even if I am not sponsored but I can save a lot of hassle If a go for the long haul plan.
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So, are you someone who wants to work in a different country?
If so, what country and Industry are you looking at?
Has this post helped inspire you in anyway on how to approach making your dream a reality?

Blog 2: Marketing on the web: Avoiding social fiascoes and going for gold

We all know that the internet can be a harsh and unforgiving landscape. Making yourself is one thing, but doing in a good way is another entirely.
There are ways so many ways to make yourself stand out and about half of them can back fire and get you #cancelled. However, there is no worse way to promote a product then no promotion at all.

A K-pop group called GOT7 recently made a comeback and the only promotion done by their company (JYP Entertainment) before the release was a single post on their social media accounts of an image with the title of the title song and that was it. Nothing else. The day after the group showed up on music shows to perform and promote the song but nothing else on the official GOT7 social media accounts about the comeback.

The lack of official social media promotion resulted in even GOT7’s own fanbase only realising that there was a comeback when it was almost over. The lack of promotion has resulted in in a big backlash from fans mad at JYP for barely promoting GOT7 at all while constantly promoting other, newer, less active groups under the label. this has also been one of GOT7’s lease profitable comebacks.
While JYP has been continuously lacking on promoting GOT7’s comebacks, this has been the worst one yet.

JYP runs excellent social media promotions for other groups under their label such as TWICE (one of the biggest girl groups in 2020), ITZY (the biggest debut group in 2020), and Stray Kids (one of the biggest rookie groups in 2020). All of these groups have excellent social media presences and promotional periods. Yet GOT7 gets next to nothing. It makes one wonder why exactly GOT7 does not receive the same level of support with their social media presence.

However, there are definitely ways to get attention that is in your favour.
Solo artist and CEO of KOZ Entertainment has decided to tap into social media trends to promote his own songs as well as those of the artists signed under his label. He took advantage of the dance challenge craze on TikTok to promote the songs ‘Any song’ and ‘Summer hate’. He even recruited other Idols to participate in these dance challenges to help promote the new songs from this year (2020).

Zico found a way to not only advertise the songs in a new way but also in a way that suited his industry. K-pop, while being a music industry, also has a heavy emphasis on dancing as well. He found a current and popular trend that also suited his product and took full advantage. However, the fact that the songs were very good and the dances were simple and beginner friendly but also fun greatly helped.

The secret to the success of his promotional campaigns was finding something that suited his product and not trying too hard, making it all seem and feel organic to the consumers.

Images for header acquired from:

JYP Entertainment. (2020, November 30). GOT7 Last Piece promotional image [digital photagraph]. Allkpop. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2020/11/got7-reveals-comeback-looks-in-1st-group-teaser-photo-for-breath-of-love-last-piece

unknown. (unknown). Woo Ji Ho protrait[Digital photograph]. Rakten Viki. https://www.viki.com/celebrities/23127pr-zico

Blog 1: Listening to k-pop (fans)

K-pop fans quite obviously love to listen to k-pop. But they also love to talk about k-pop. They have a lot to say about songs, comeback concepts, Idols, Entertainment companies, concerts, and even other fans.
All of this “talking” they do online holds a lot of information that can help companies and idols improve. But how to get all the information? Where is it all hiding? what is the most efficient way to get it?

The answer is social media listening tools. But which ones? It’ll depend on which social media platforms hold the highest mentions of the Idol or group in question. If you aren’t sure ones those are, then you can use sites like Brand24 to get an idea of how of the level of traffic related to your subject on a variety of platforms. Or you can control which platforms the fans use by setting up verified accounts.

Sites like SocialBlade can help you track the growth and activity of your official accounts. While it won’t give you as much detail as the built as the proprietary analytics tools that most social media platforms have, Social blade does allow you to see basic information for multiple platforms in one site.

But say you want details. You want to see the nitty gritty without spending hours searching for it. You can use the proprietary and built in analytics tools like YouTube analytics and twitter’s Hootsuite. These can allow you to see a lot more information about your target demographics, You could see countries of origin, genders, age ranges, and more which can all help you to better understand their views and preferences. Plus some of these tools can even help filter other’s comments so you can quickly read through what fans have to say without having to read through repetitive messages.
It’s nice to hear how much you’re loved but sometimes you don’t want to scroll through a hundred different tweets proclaiming their love for you just to see the 3 tweets with questions or constructive criticism.

No matter what approach you use, there are tools for it.
Personally I would use Hootsuite and SocialBlade to monitor and schedule 2 manual checks a day for recent posts and mentions on any platform that the group/idol has official profiles on. Twitter seems to be the main hub for most K-pop fans just after Fancafe (there are currently no tools that monitor fancafe from what I can find) and general details are what’s most useful for other platforms.
Given that most groups and Idols have accounts on 5-6 platforms on average and many have even more then that, I think it would be hard to find any one tool that would be able to monitor all of them properly.
And while it can be difficult to manage and stay on top of that many social media platforms, it would be overwhelming and too time consuming to have a monitoring tool for each platform. In some ways it is easier to have just a few tools to help and use them in combination with manual checks.

Sometimes, you’ll have no choice but to manually some social media platforms because they just can’t be monitored by external tools such as VLive and Fancafe and the Amino app. And should an entertainment company decide to make a unique social app for the fans of an idol/group to use such as BTS’s WeVerse app or VAV’s self titled app, then I strongly recommend making sure the app is built with an analytics tool of it’s own. You’ll be grateful to have it in the long term.

Good luck with your monitoring and I hope the fans can inspire you like you inspire them everyday.

COM0014 Blog #6 – Kai and K-pop

Pictures with the members of VAV during the Toronto 2020 concert of the grand america tour.

Hello. My name is Kai. It’s nice to meet you.

I love the K-pop music industry and am working hard to one day work in it as a social media manager.

However, you may be wondering: Why K-pop? What’s so good about it and why a social media manager instead of an idol?

Well, I’ll be happy to tell you why.

I have been a big fan of various K-pop groups and the genre as a whole since 2006. It’s been my favourite genre all these years. I love the music. I love the creativity of the videos. I love the outfits and makeup and hair.
But most importantly, I love the sense of community. The way that this small foreign genre has brought people from around the world together.

K-pop has brought friends and couples together and inspired people to better themselves through learning new languages or joining a gym or dance studio. K-pop fans are constantly being inspired to create art and encourage each other.
And this all comes from the love that fans share for the same Idol/group.

Even I have made some deep and meaningful friendships with people from various countries.

And while Idols are the main focus and the face of K-pop, I have no desire to be one. But I do want to be a part of the support staff that help these talented men and women create the friendly and welcoming communities known as fandoms.
I don’t like being the center of attention but I want to be a part of the team that supports the Idols that bring happiness to so many people around the world.

Is there a career path that inspires you or makes you want to be a part of it?

Do you have a hobby that helped you find a wonderful and inviting community to be a part of?

What’s your favourite genre of music and why?

COM0014 Blog #5 – The Brand of Kai.

The Kai experience.

So what Exactly is a a personal brand? In simplest terms, it is how you market yourself. The version of you that you want people to see. Your signature. The flavour of YOU.

However, This blog isn’t about your personal brand. It’s about mine!
The brand of Kai~

What is Kai? Kai is creative, fun, youthful, adventurous, funny, and friendly.
Sometimes also known as ScuttleBunbun.

See exhibit A:

Tweets by BunbunScuttle

And exhibit B:

https://www.instagram.com/scuttlebunbun

No matter what social media feed of the fantastic Kai that you follow, you’ll always find something interesting.

My latest endeavours include Exploring the world of Asian cooking and experimenting with photography.
Plus you can look forward to adventures in jewelry making and painting soon.

Ah~ A wonderful time of creation. I am a god of arts and crafts, beloved by most of my creations.

My various medium of not to your taste? That’s okay. I am an avid Connoisseur of music AND video games. Wow! What a combo!
I am a well rounded Kai, to be sure.

So all aboard the Kai train for a fun time and random thoughts.

I may not always know what I’m doing, but I always have a fun time doing it.

What do you think? Does the great Kai sound like fun?

A you tempted to see more of me of your social feeds?

Do you have any questions for the Wonderful Kai?

Sources:
ME! (Kai) – ScuttleBunbun

COM0014 Blog #4 – B2C with Wendy’s.

Wendy’s logo from Wikipedia

So let’s do a mini case study on Wendy’s social media approach. Specifically their infamous Twitter account.

Wendy’s is known to have a quick wit and strong sense of humour on their Social media platforms. Their sassy approach and constant use of trends helps them maintain popularity with both millennials and Gen Z.
The endless antics on Wendy’s Twitter accounts even include making fun of other fast food brands. They can even be a bit flirtatious at times.

Wendy’s Twitter personality is strong, distinct, youthful, and fun. It draws in attention.

Their Twitter has also proven to be very quick at responding to customers with complaints as well as encouraging user interaction by promising to donate to charity if a specific tweet gets a specific amount of retweets. And that tactic of asking for retweets with a promise of an indirect award has worked for them.

Wendy’s has the same personality and presence on other platforms such Facebook and Instagram. While those accounts do well, their unique sassy personality seems to shine most and serve them best on Twitter.

All in all, I would say that Wendy’s has a fairly good and very effective social media approach. After all, most people know about their witty remarks on Twitter.

What do you think of Wendy’s approach to social media?

Would you want more companies taking on distinct personalities like Wendy’s has?

As a consumer, do you like their approach or do you prefer the more emotionally sterile and detached approach of other companies?


Sources:
Bikker, Y. (2019, October 30). A Tribute to Wendy’s Awesome Social Media Strategy. Retrieved from https://medium.com/swlh/a-tribute-to-wendys-awesome-social-media-strategy-7f55a66bcf94

Ravi, K. (2018, May 31). 6 Ways You Can Make Your Social Media More Like Wendy’s. Retrieved from https://blog.unmetric.com/wendys-social-media

Unknown Author. (2020, July 20). Wendy’s. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy%27s

Wendy’s. (2009, July). Wendy’s Twitter page. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Wendys?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

COM0014 Blog #3 – Targeting K-pop

2019 K-Pop Global Map” generated by Blip, a foundation that has analyzed data about K-pop fandoms. Greater the size of the circle, more popular K-pop is within the area

K-pop is a big market, and it’s growth isn’t really showing any signs of slowing down.
It’s trendy, it’s hip, it’s youthful and fun. K-pop is leading trends in music as well as fashion. It is undeniably a powerhouse industry.

But how to tap into that? The answer is the fans and their strong desire to emulate their Idols from fashion to diet to exercise and performance skills.
On average, the demographic breakdown is 75% female to 25% male and the majority being 30% in the 10-19 and 30% in 20-29 age ranges, with a measly 5% in the 50+ age range.

The level of disposable income increases with age but the percentage of K-pop fans decreases.
Though there is a slightly upward trend in older K-pop fans.
Both national and international popularity of K-pop began in the late 90s and early 2000’s. The first generation of fans is aging and many are keeping up their love of the genre.

Though, due to the youthful nature of k-pop, there aren’t many relevant products or services available for older fans. There could be a good market for middle aged k-pop fans in a few years for savvy business men with a keen eye and a love of the genre.

The other bigger market for k-pop fans is the 20-29 age range.
Young adults with a strong sense of social and political responsibility, liberal mindsets, and a generational addiction to trend setting and following.

While merchandise focused around their favourite artists is a good. They also like to see social campaigns championed by the voices of their artists.
And though this younger age range has less expendable income available to them, they are also less frugal with their money If they believe that they are supporting the Idols they adore.

Which do you think K-pop fan demographic with the most consumer potential?

Would you try entering the K-pop market? If so, what product or service would you try to provide?

Sources:
– HappyShinki. (2016, September 1). Korea’s concerts goers age and sex demographics. Retrieved from https://onehallyu.com/topic/388653-koreas-concerts-goers-age-and-sex-demographics-tvxq2pmshineesj-boy-groups-with-most-fanboys/
– Andrea. (2019, December 8). Age and Gender Demographics for 8 Groups. Retrieved from https://kpopsource.com/threads/age-and-gender-demographics-for-8-groups.22163/

COM0014 Blog #2 – The Storytelling Den.

Adventure begins by estellium on DeviantArt

Oh! Why hello there, my lovely~

You took me by surprise but I guess you’re wondering why you are here. To be honest, I don’t really know. But why don’t you pull up a cozy little chair and we can have a nice chat about storytelling.
Ooooo~

Specifically the elements of good storytelling. Now I could drone on and on about the history of it. It’s various forms and uses. But that’s boring. You don’t want that. You’ll just fall asleep.

What you want is the juicy bits that will help you improve your own storytelling, riiiiiiight?
Of course you do.

Hands down, the most important thing is capturing someone’s attention. The second is keeping it.
The tone you set, fun, mysterious, playful, sultry, tense… Whatever tone you go with needs to be STRONG! It should put your reader in the right mood to keep listening (or reading). It should be something that drives them crazy to know more. To send your readers with a thirst for more.

But how do you set the tone? How do you take the reins and control the pace?
You could talk in third person, or first. You can play around with the language. There are set grammar rules, but when has playing by the rules ever been fun? Break ‘em! Put your own flavour in the text.
Play around with the words on the page and give them colour. Give them pizzazz~
Mould the words like clay, until the only way to read them is the way you intended.
draaaaaaaaw words out or cut them short-

Ultimately, the content of your story can be anything. But the only way to give your story the attention it deserves is to become the god that breathes life into it and then send it out into the world like a charismatic, golden child.

We are all taught how to write a story with a beginning, middle, and end. But no one ever teaches the Importance of giving story a personality of it’s own.
So, what personality will your next story have?

Citations:
estellium. (May 2016). Adventure begins [online, digital image]. DeviantArt. https://www.deviantart.com/estellium/art/Adventure-begins-610582007

COM0014 – Blog #1: A high school trip to Europe.

Back in 2014, I had a chance in high school to go on a special class trip to Europe. Specifically to 5 days in England and 5 days in France.

First, we had to get to Europe which ment a very, very long plane ride. A plane ride I spent with a crying baby in front of me and a crying baby behind me. It was an over night flight and I did not get any sleep.
It was morning

The Palace of Versailles from the gardens.

Our first stop (after the hotel) was the Palace of Versailles. It was beautiful and impressive with so much art to see. I, however was completely distracted by the pigeons. The little brown and white one was my favourite. I gave him extra bread.

I did get a lot of photos of the interior and exterior of the Palace and gardens of Versailles. However my photography skills from that time sucked and our trusty friend, the Internet, exists.

Speaking of friends, at some point I thought the hedges outside looked like comfy seats. I was wrong. One friend proceeded to take pictures as another attempted to free me from my prison of shrubbery. Luckily, no one noticed and we didn’t get into trouble.

A wild Kai stuck in a french hedge.

We had many other stops in France after Versailles.

But we went to Paris. Went up the Eiffel tower, it had an elevator. Went up the Arc de Triomphe, did NOT have an elevator. We did a day trip out to Arras, made a bunch of butt jokes and accidentally went into a bar selling “adult magazines”. Fro some reason all the clothing stores in Arras had Yoda masks in the windows??? Tried to see Vimy ridge, got lost in the fog, found wash rooms, lost the bus, found Vimy Ridge, and then the morning fog cleared up. Turned out that our bus was parked ten feet from the monument and we wasted an hour wandering in fog. Explored the trenches at Vimy ridge. Went back to Paris. Had only an hour in the Louvre. Was underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa (It’s actually pretty mediocre). Explored the Notre Dame Cathedral.

We also had a decent amount of free time for our own exploring in areas that the majority agreed on. At some point my teachers on the trip said we had the choice to see and explore the catacombs of Paris (super cool and exciting) or go shopping in a popular shopping district (boring, can do the same in Canada). Only one of my friends and I voted for catacombs. we lost the voted and I was very disappointed in everyone else on the trip.
We also ate on a boat and a third of my class got sick with minor food poisoning. I was not one of them.

Speaking of food…

There was a TON of good food… in England. For some reason, Stereotypes failed on this trip. all the food we ate in France was dry, flavourless chicken and equally disappointing veggies. Our only respite from bad food in France was buying from street vendors and shops during our free time.
However, in England we got amazing food (pictures above). It was wonderful. Every time I ordered Ice Tea with dinner, It would be a freshly brewed tea with Ice cubes, not Canned brand name Ice tea.

It’s tea, not beer! I swear.

On the first night in England, I was the only one of my class mates who didn’t order a pop with dinner. I ordered Ice tea. It came in a glass. It was a little frothy on top and one of my teachers thought it was beer for a moment. She even came over and smelled my glass to make sure it wasn’t beer. 5 minutes before that she told me not to expect fresh made Ice tea. Boy was she surprised.

In England, we never really left London.
We went and saw Piccadilly Circus, The tower of London, Their Parliament, The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Harrods Department store, Wicked the Musical (The Theater Royal Haymarket), and several other places.

Out of all those stops, the Tower was definitely my favourite.
A cool medieval castle. A raven that loves to steal shiny things from visitors.

Derpy statues. Suits of Armor. Beefeaters. Fun spinny chairs.
Definitely the best part of the England half of the trip.
Although, the late night Jack the Ripper tour we went on is a really close second.

So dear reader… Have you ever gone on an International trip?
What was the most Exciting School trip you have ever been on?

What was the lesson I learnt in the gardens of Versailles?


-K. R.