In the article “How to Find Your Story” it really breaks down how simple it is to find inspiration in your ever day life. By just asking yourself a few simple questions you can figure out if what you are writing may actually mean something to someone else.
The best part of this piece is the section about your audience, and how as the writer you need to remember that the audience is part of the story too. What has happened in their life is what will help them identify with your story. If you already have a substantial audience, figuring out why they follow you may not be that hard but when you’re first growing you will want to figure out what draws your audience to you. Figuring out what your audience wants will help you add value to your posts, and this will help generate conversations (both online and in person) about your content.
Over the course of Digital Communication I have learned how to better communicate with a variety of audiences while also learning how to listen to my audience in order to get to know them better. I have learned how to become a digital storyteller, and always remember that social media is a two way conversation.
I learned that there are many factors that go into creating your own voice online, including how you decide to communicate, what tone you use, and the vocabulary you use. In order to decide these things you need to figure out who you are talking to (your target audience) which means you have to have conversations with them to figure out how their age, their interests, gender, geographic location and more. My favourite quote shared during the course was “Build a brand not around products, but around reputation” – Richard Branson. This stuck with me because I always try to inject my work with my personality, and I know that if people do not view me in good light that means any work I put out will also be viewed negatively.
I plan to use what I have learned in this course not only in my work in running other brands social media’s but also when posting and communicating using my personal social media pages. I believe how you present yourself through social media is important and your personal brand should be reflected in your corporate branding. This course supported those beliefs and taught me how to further my online presence and how to communicate better with my target audience.
I was adopted from the Yukon, and since then have been lucky enough to live from the west to the east coast of Canada. Moving from Vancouver to Ottawa followed by Ottawa to Toronto and lastly Toronto to Halifax, I have been lucky enough to see a lot of what our beautiful country has to offer.
A wonderful thing about our country is that no two cities are the same, and the people and the lifestyles change. A part of creating online content is communicating with a variety of different people, and I think I am easily able to not only communicate but also build relationships with people. Through moving around I have learnt how to be patient, inquisitive and flexible. When getting to know people, whether it be online or in real life, you not only need to tell them your story but also make sure you are asking them about their story.
A company I love to look at on social media is Duolingo. Duolingo is a free language teaching application who has a green owl mascot, who you can see in a lot of their online campaigns. I find Duolingo interesting because they have mastered TikTok with 4.9 million followers but they seem to not have the same draw on other social media platforms, specifically Instagram.
The way Duolingo uses Instagram is, to be blunt, less entertaining than the way they use TikTok. On TikTok they seem to be very active, posting everyday, and I often come across them commenting on other TikTok’s. They not only comment on other brands content, but you can also often find them commenting on the general publics videos. They are always following trends, and pushing limits on TikTok which makes them stand out from not only their competitors (babbel, Quizlet, memrise etc) but also any other brand trying to push content on TikTok.
On all other socials they seem to fall short though, not only do they post less often but they don’t interact with their followers. On TikTok they reply to most, if not all comments on their videos, but on Instagram they are never in the comments having a back and forth. They only have 673k followers on Instagram, but I think they could be using Instagram just as successfully as they use TikTok. I think they could easily up their interactions, and use the same humour and approach as they use with TikTok.
I help run the social media for a Korean skincare brand called Sharon Lees Best, and our audience is mostly comprised of middle class women aged 30-60. We are trying to also reach out and connect with more men, at the moment we are focussing on trying to reach the husbands, and male relatives of our present clients. We have found that the best way for us to reach our target audience is through Instagram and Facebook. Our audience is old enough to where they are interested in skincare, and are also still actively using social media. I have also found that our blog is quite successful, as some of the older clients enjoy reading more about the products we sell and enjoy hearing personal stories from our founder.
We are strictly a business to consumer company, meaning that growth as been slow and a lot of work has had to go into monitoring social media (all day everyday). I have found that our audience is very responsive once you have started a back and forth (in the comments, through DM’s or through email) but if you drop that conversation, even for a weekend, it is hard to get them interested again. I also have to remember that most of my audience is at least 15 years older than me, so sometimes I have to draw from my early 2000s and 90s references in order to get a positive response.
Getting to know my audience has been key in running the socials for this company, because I am not part of the demographic I am trying to connect with so It’s not as easy as following a TikTok trend or reposting the latest Riverdale meme!
What really stuck with me from this weeks lesson was the tin can metaphor. We, as the storyteller, need to remember that when we post content there is always going to be someone on the other end. As much as we need to be a good storyteller, we also need to be a good listener. Social media will always be a two way conversation, as long as people can share, comment and like your content.
I believe that in order to tell a story in a way that will truly grab the audience’s attention, you need to have discussions with them and really learn who your audience is. This way you are able to learn what interests them the most about your content, and lead your stories in a manner that will quickly get your specific audience hooked. The first step, and in my opinion one of the most important steps, is to ask your audience to interact. Whether this is asking them to share, like, or leave a comment – I feel as though getting a conversation going with your audience is the only way to get to know them!
Once you and your audience have a back and forth going, you can work on perfecting your writing style.
For me, August 19th – September 2nd were spent in the peaceful surf-side town of Kennebunkport, Maine. For 25 years my family spent the same two weeks, in a run down but comfortable house right across from the beach. When the pandemic hit, and we could no longer travel to the United States, we had to spend the first summer in 25 years away from our oasis down by the beach.
This was of course then followed by a second summer where we were unable to go down to the beach. This made this year very special, and we had to make sure we hit all of our favourite places. My first stop had to be Bennetts Sandwich Shop, located just a quick bike ride up the hill from our house, this was always my favourite spot to grab lunch. The subs are huge, so you always know you’ll have something to eat once you get back from an afternoon beach session. I always go for the chicken salad, it is hands down the best chicken salad sandwich I have ever had.
Every year we also make sure to head into Boston, which is a hour and a bit drive from the house. We make sure to spend the day exploring the city, and then take in an evening game at Fenway. Every year we try to get tickets to see the Blue Jays play but we always luck out – either the tickets are sold out or they aren’t playing in Boston while we are in town. This year our luck changed, and we got to watch the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox! It felt like it was meant to be, and it was a super fun night.
Lastly, hands down my favourite thing to do is walk into the port which is full of good restaurants and fun local shops. You can grab a lobster roll and the famous Clam Shack, and buy seashell necklaces and any number of boutiques located in the three block radius that is the port. I love walking in for lunch, and then being able to walk home as the sun is setting. It makes you feel like you are walking into cotton candy.
Kennebunkport is special in so many ways, but I never truly appreciated how lucky I am to have been able to spend summer after summer there. Not being able to go to my favourite place on Earth was exceptionally hard, and I plan on never taking advantage of it ever again!
By now we have probably all seen or used virtual reality (VR) in video games, but did you know that there are also VR options for social media? There are three websites I will focus on that have grown in popularity significantly over the last two years due to the pandemic and people wanting to physically distance themselves from each other.
Founded in 2013, Altspace was launched in order to make it easier for brands, businesses and creators to create and host virtual reality events. Once you get started on Altspace you can attend or create your own events, find friends, share photos and explore creators’ own customized worlds. When Burning Man hosted virtual events back in 2020, Altspace hosted one of their virtual worlds.
Described on their website as “the best place to build and play games together”, Rec Room is an app that you can use on VR headsets, on your phone or computer! Users on both systems can play together, and the platform is free to download. They have lots of games to play, but in my opinion the coolest feature is “the Maker Pen” which is a tool that people can use to build items in the game.
VR Chat is available on a variety of hosts like Steam, Rift and Quest. You do not require a VR headset to play this game. Users can create a customer avatar, create their own worlds, make new friends and join communities based on interests. They mention on their website that some users have said the platform has even helped them with social anxiety.
I have yet to explore a VR social media platform myself, but after doing some research it may be something I look more into! What do you guys think of VR and would you join a VR social media platform?
Instagram offers a ton of cool, free features and here are three that you may not have known about!
Reorder Filters
If you’ve ever posted something to Instagram then you know they offer a variety of free filters to give your photo a bit of an upgrade. If you use Instagram on the regular, you may have picked a favourite but it can be annoying to have to scroll through every filter every single time you post. Did you know you can just reorder the filters, and put your favourites first so you never have to search through them again? Well, you can. Next time you go to post, press and hold the filter you want to move and there you go – you can now easily apply your favourite filter!
Back in 2016 Instagram decided to get rid of their chronological feed, meaning that instead of seeing posts in order you now saw them based off the accounts that got the most interaction. This meant that small brands, and friends and family got bumped down the feed and large brands and influencers were able to take over. Instagram has now brought back the chronological feed, but you must choose to view your feed that way as it is not automatic. In order to get the chronological feed you must go to your main feed, press the “Instagram” in the left corner and it will drop down to reveal two options; “following” and “favourites”. If you press “following” it will bring you to a chronological feed- but it will not change your regular feed!
Instagram allows businesses to create “shoppable” posts, making it easier for consumers to buy their product. Instagram allows the company to create a products page (like an online store) and then link those products through their posts. The customer now just has to click on the little tag icon on the picture, and they will be brought to the exact product on a page where they can purchase it. This allows users to do everything from Instagram.
They go to the Oscars, The MET, they ride around in limos and make millions of dollars but are influencers considered celebrities? Back in the early 2000s, before Instragram and vlogging blew up celebrities were the only influencers. From magazine ads to commercials, celebrities would endorse brands for huge pay checks. With the rise of Instagram and the Kardashians came a new kind of marketing for brands, one that included using beautiful (but none the less, “every day”) people to post about their products.
Becoming popular with Youtubers, companies would send out gifts to people (usually with a certain follower count) to review, use and of course show off to their followers. Brands found that they were getting huge amounts of publicity, and reaching markets they may not have been reaching when using celebrities. Influencers are more relatable to the average, every day person meaning their opinions can be more significant than a celebrities who we know is just in it for the paycheque. Brands used this to their advantage, to reach niche markets they were not able to reach with large high value advertisements in magazines and on television. Influencing has now become a career opportunity, leading to some people gaining millions of followers just through posting on social media. In my opinion a celebrity is someone who has made a career on television, in movies or in the music industry. An influencer is someone who has gained a follower solely based on their personal values and the lifestyle they live. I believe an influencer can become a celebrity, but I do not believe the titles come hand in hand. An example of an influencer turned celebrity would be Charlie D’Amelio who went from doing dances on TikTok, popular with kids and young adults to having her own television show which made her household name. I also think it can go the other way around, and celebrities can become influencers. There are a few celebrities, who over the years have stopped working in movie and television to become online influencers. An example of this would be Shay Mitchell who gained her fame from starring on Pretty Little Liars and who know uses her following on Instagram to promote companies that align with her personal values. Do you guys consider influencers to be celebrities, why?
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 