How to be a storyteller and grab more audience

I have always longed to know how bloggers and reporters can keep their audience glued to their posting. When I read lesson 2 “Becoming a Digital Storytelling” I was intrigued with the information that provided answers to this question.

Inverted Triangle:

IMAGE: Improve Your Website with this Do-It-Yourself Website Audit Checklist, The daily Egg, retrieved by February 28, 2018, from https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/website-audit-checklist/

Inverted triangle approach is the most important piece of information that caught my attention. What it convey is that the most important information need to be mentioned at first, then less important to follow. This is what reporters do in not “Burying the Lead” by putting the most important information in the article at the top, and gradually inserting less important information.

Please view this video tutorial that explains the inverted Pyramid ( Mark Sampson, 2014)

Levels of Reading

The points that Brian Clark mentioned in his article on Copyblogger in regards to various levels of readers starts with Elementary where you gain your basic reading skills through school and college. The second level Inspectional is when you skim through the post for instance and you have the ability to select the most important information that capture your attention.  Analytical reading level is when you start analyzing the material you have read with depth after you have absorbed the material, and you start engaging through commenting on the post for instance. The final level is Syntopical where new ideas are created or inspired by this original reading you have created. Understanding these four levels of reading, one will have a clear idea to which level he/she wants their reader to reach. Reaching syntopical level of reading is an ultimatum. Reflecting on my personal experience through Toastmasters speeches I have prepared, I need to really understand the material I am delivering or I cannot get the audience engagement. I recall once, I had to deliver a speech based on a book that has complicated information, and I failed to deliver because I could not understand the material at hand, and I was asked to repeat the speech. If you cannot understand the material you are reading, you cannot be inspired or get people inspired. (Brian Clark, 2008)

How to capture your audience?

There are several ways that you can utilize to capture you audience. The most important point is you need to consider the wants and the needs of your audience. What do you want your audience to learn or get inspired in order to take action. How to trigger your audience to respond is to ask a question that triggers engagement such as asking the audience to share their story, and that’s what famous bloggers do to initiate engagement( Algonquin College, Digital Communication, Lesson 2). This is what I have learned from the introductory course of Social Media is that you need to end your blog with a question in order to encourage the audience engagement.

Technicalities

There are other technical issues that was highlighted in the lesson as such having a beginning, middle and the end, which I have learned through Toastmasters when I was preparing for my Competent Communicator Manual Speeches.(Algonquin College). You need also to watch for your grammar structure and misspelling. Now there are applications and aids material that can assist, so there is no excuse not to tackle this issue. There is also the layout putting headings that can grab the attention of the reader while skimming.

Now…How can I implement the information that I have just learned? I cannot deny that Toastmaster has assisted me to have all the basic technical issues, in writing and delivering a speech including a technique on how to inspire your audience. I cannot deny the fact that the introductory course that I have taken in social media, has provided the basics on finding my voice through blogging. I was inspired by two things from this lesson is the inverted pyramid, and the levels of reading which made me think on how to be creative in implementing those in my blogs.

What have you done to encourage your audience engagement? Is there any tips that is missing, and they have worked for you? Love to hear your story.

References:

Inverted Pyramid Tutorial, Mark Sampson, retrieved by September 9, 2014 , from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZvgbUoDkYU

How to Read, Brian Clark, retrieved by August 27, 2008 , from https://www.copyblogger.com/how-to-read/

LESSON 2: Becoming a Digital Storyteller, Algonquin College, Digital Communication, from https://ccol.algonquincollege.com/com0014/lesson-2/lesson-content/

COM0014 – Blog 1:What is a Quality Trip for Me?

I have traveled around the world for business and pleasure whether to Far East like Thailand and Malaysia, New Zealand in the Pacific, or to European countries such as United Kingdom, France, and Spain. I can speak for hours about these destinations and things to experience. But my latest vacation was completely different. I call it a quality time vacation. I had a week of overtime hours where I have decided to pack my bags and travel to visit my parents. It is a great time to escape the daily hustles and leave everything behind. I needed such a trip desperately to recharge.

The Timing was excellent because it was off season, and the airfare ticket was relatively low, and there is no need for accommodation because I will be staying with my parents, and we are going to have home cooked meals most of the time. A perfect budgeted trip!

It was the quality trip that I was longing for catching up with family and friends. I had a chance to go to a couple of restaurant, and I did not do any sight-seeing because I am a constant visitors to this destination, and the restaurants are relatively cheap.

There are two issues that constantly bother me during traveling: Traveling light and sticking to a budget. Why I cannot travel with 3 pair of shoes instead of 10, and why I end up spending more even though I have planned my budget. I have given up on myself with this latter matter 🙂

When I was coming back to the country I am currently residing. I had two overweight bags and the airport counter requested me to pay extra weight. Luckily, I have found close friends and they took some weights off as they are traveling back empty handed. I really thanked my luck star.

I decided when I return back home, I need to look into these matters seriously, and learn on how to pack light for short and long trips, and I found these videos appealing:

Kara Sanchez provides an interesting way on how to pack for 10 days in a carry on with three pairs of shoes

Stephanie offers tips on how to pack in a backpack from a “LONG” trip. Again with three pairs of shoes.

Even though that this trip was off season, used my travel miles, accommodation was provided, no visa required, home food, and used the country’s SIM card, I still cannot manage my budget well. There is always something that comes up unexpectedly “SHOPPING”. But I found in this article from HostelWorld some tips that are feasible and worth exploring such as ISIC ( International Student Identity Card where it is Valid in 133 countries and you can get 10,000 discounts, and eating out in more expensive restaurants during lunch time and not dinner, and travelling on Tuesday because it is “cheapest priced day at the week to travel.”(HostelWorld)

Watch Sorelle Amore tips on how to travel cheap

Having these quality trips are quiet important for me to recharge and check on the loved ones. Sometimes when you travel to exotic and adventurous destinations you come back exhausted, and I spend a week trying to find my time zone due to jet lag… and I complain that I need a vacation after this vacation.

How about you? what is your quality trip? and how do you manage budget? Love to hear from you !

References:

How to: Pack 10 Days in A Carry-on, Kata Sanchez, Retrieved by February 21, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vc29W4MYg

Stephanie, Bring me, Stephanie, Retrieved from September 15, 2018, from How To Pack Light For A Long Trip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqc4A3J5rWg

45 Genius travel Hacks for When you’re Broke AF, HostelWorld, Retrieved by August 29, 2018, from https://www.hostelworld.com/blog/travel-on-a-budget/

How to Travel Cheap: 21 Tips for Traveling the World on a Budget. Sorelle Amore, Retrieved from April 16, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxroOyuiyoU

 

NZ: Home Away from Home

Tēnā Koutou, Tēnā Koutou,  Tēnā Koutou….

Means Hello in Maori language

I never thought that one day I will be traveling to New Zealand. It took me about 24 hours of travel time to reach the country. What really caught my attention when I landed in Wellington is the striking resemblance of nature to Canada. It reminded me very much of Ottawa in spite of jet lag. NZ is home away from home.

New Zealand is located in the Pacific Ocean 2000 km east of Australia across the Tasman sea.The Capital City is Wellington, and the most populous city is Auckland. The country is compromised of two islands: the North island and the south island. The official languages are English and Maori.

New Zealand shares the same Canadian values in regards to diversity and inclusion, human rights, and it is considered the least corrupt nation in the world according to the Corruption Perception Index.

The Kiwis (New Zealanders) are very respectful, peaceful, friendly, casual, and polite people based on personal encounter and business dealings.

Upon arrival, we have been received by a special Maori welcome ritual ceremony of encounter called Powhiri, followed by a song called Waiata – Tutira Mai, and then we did the hongi (nose touch). This is Ed Sheeran Powhiri ceremony.

There is another traditional performance called the Haka which became internally renowned with New Zealand Rugby team All Blacks. View this amazing performance.

Beside the Moari Culture and sight seeing, there is an important aspect of New Zealand movie industry. I had a chance to visit the Weta Cave close to wellington. These are studios that made the Lord of the Rings trilogy which were all produced in New Zealand. I has a tour of Weta Workshop which highlighted the movies that were produced, and how props, weapons, customer, amours, robotics are manufactured. Weta means a large brown wingless insect related to the grasshoppers, with long spiny legs and wood-boring larvae, found only in New Zealand. These studios is partially owned by Peter Jackson the director of the Lord of the Rings

Did you Know:

32,000 Prosthetic Hobbit feet made for the Hobbit (Weta Newsletter)

48,000 items made for the Lord of the Rings (Weta Newsletter)

Not to forget the amazing production of miniatures

When you are coming to business, it is nice to capture a glimpse of New Zealand spirit for the few hours you can spare during the day.

Would you now consider New Zealand on you bucket list?

Kia ora! Best Wishes

Tweeter:

Have you ever thought of New Zealand #visit_nz. It is home away from Home#NZMustDo

FaceBook:

Why you should consider New Zealand on your bucket list?
https://bit.ly/2IzVGqT

Social Media Distractions: Behind the Scene

There is decline of attention among adults, and we are in a state called “continuous partial attention” (Goleman, 2013, P. 8). We are bombarded with information overload, and we are developing habits of attention that makes us less effective due to the amount of messages we are receiving daily that “gives us too little time to reflect on what they really mean” (Goleman, 2013, P.9 ).

One study shows that it takes an average of 25 minutes to get refocused for every single time you get distracted. Every single day, distractions eats up 2.5 hours of work productivity which comes to 17.5 hours a week, and 70 hours a months.”(Salcido, 2017). Imagine how much you can do with this 70 hours per month.

How our brains work is that the more it is engaged in special activity, the more it wires up to engrain this process by making it easier each time we perform that particular task. What we are not aware of is that when we use social media, we are wiring our brains for distraction because of the habits when using digital gadgets swamped with notifications and messages .

I was surprised when Dr Carl Newport mentioned that major social media companies hire attention engineers whose business is to make these products as addictive as gambling in Las Vegas. The difference is that social media is accessible anytime and anywhere , and there is no age limit. View Dr Carl Newport Tedx Tysons talk about social media, and life without social media

Social Media is designed to be addictive trying to steal you attention as much as possible during your waking hours. This state of “fragmented attention reduce our capability to concentrate.” ( Newport, 2016)

The social media companies creates tactics which its function is to hold our attention, and this is done through the menus they create. Every morning, you see list of notification that you have missed yesterday. When you receive an invitation through Facebook, you can not access it directly, but you need to go through the news feed. The few minutes scrolling into the new feed becomes an hour, then hours. You are at this moment eliminating the reason to reconsider to leave. Moreover, when you receive an invitation to add a contact, “you are unconsciously responded to the suggested list from LinkedIn or Facebook.” You feel socially obliged to respond back. Even when social media companies provide you with the options in their menus, all these option serve the same purpose, and it is stealing away your attention and it takes you to “intentionally placed distraction” ( Trsitan, 2016)

The social media corporations like grocery stores they place milk and pharmacy together at the back of the store to maximize the customer purchases on the way of grabbing the milk. Facebook for instance automatically tells the sender when you saw their message, and you are placed in a reciprocal situation that oblige you to respond. (Tristan, 2016)

How do you combat social media distraction is you need to detox your system. Don’t make it the third person when you are going out on a date. Turn off all notification that pops up in the screen, and limit usage time. Watch the following video where it capture the essence of social media behind the scene.

View how Amber Quinney in this TEDX Talks about her experience in fasting from Social Media

Personally, I am not social media addict because I knew about its consequences since I started using it. I always flip my phone upside down during my working hours, as I can not stand the distraction it creates from the blinking notifications I receive. I always warn my family and friends not to get offended if I did not response. How about you? Do you feel the same, or you have other thoughts on this? Waiting to hear from you!

FACEBOOK: Social Media Distractions: What’s behind the scene. View Dr Carl Newport revelation of social media https://bit.ly/2cUhEmq

Tweet: What’s behind the scene of social media distractions? Find out on how social media corporation do to steal our attention @DanielGolemanEl

References :

Goleman, D. (2013). Focus: The Hidden Driver Behind Excellence , Published by Harper

Salciso, D. (2017, Dec 26). Social media distraction is costing you nearly 50 hours/ months, Retrieved from https://blog.usejournal.com/how-unhacking-your-tech-can-improve-your-productivity-a513a8d966ab

Newport, C. ( 2016, Sept 16). Quit Social Media, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E7hkPZ-HTk

Harris, T.. (2016, May 18). How Technology is Hijacking Your mind – from a Magician and Google design Ethicist, Retrieved from https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3

Quinney, A.( 2018, May 7). What I learned from social media fast, Retreived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM3KIvZO5oU

How YouTube Makes Money from Ads? Per CLICK or VIEWS?

I am always keen to know how YouTube makes money from advertisement. The only fact I know that if you skip the ad posted at the beginning of the video, the advertiser will not be charged. This is true, but there is a twist.

Before indulging in my quest, it is good to know a bit of YouTube background.

YouTube started as a dating website by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in February 2005 a Pay Pal employees. It is considered now the world’s largest video sharing website, and the second search engine in the Wide World Web.  This platform is available in 76 language, and it is Google owned website since 2006.

YouTube is considered a social media platform because it allows audience engagement. The user has the ability to subscribe to the channel of his/ her preference in order to receive more of this particular content. Moreover, The user can interact to the video by putting thumb up or down, and even placing comments. Even if you have 10K thumbs down, it can boost your channel because there is 10K engagement.

When you view the video, ads pops up all over the screen. Here is a glimpse on three types of advertisement

Pre-Rolls:  These advertisements are those ones that act as preview before any video where the viewer has the ability to skip after 5 seconds or view the whole ad.

In –Search Ads: These types of ads show up during search results, and they are identified by a yellow box

In-Display: These ads show up on the right side of You Tube in the video area.

Now, comes the question on what basis do advertisers pay for their ads. To make it simple, here are two models:

Cost Per Click (CPC) model:

The advertisers for this model pay based on the number of clicks, and these ads can be seen popping up in the lower part of the screen during the video, or seen posted as a square banner on the right side of the channel. If a certain keyword has a CPC of $3, it will charge the advertiser $3 whenever a click is made.

Cost Per View (CPV) model:

The advertisers pay money based on the number of views. What it means is that the advertisers get charged when the viewer watches the ad for at least 30 seconds or watches half of the ad whatever comes first. Even if the viewer clicks 50 times, the advertisers will only get charged per view and not per click.

What’s Google share in this?

Google takes home 45% off the advertiser’s share.  You can only make money on what advertisers pay for, and not on how many viewers you have.  To start generating money, you need 400 hours of watch time within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscriber. Now you understand why vbloggers say hit the subscribe button below!

How about the influencers? How much they charge? The influencers of 7 million subscribers base can charge $300,000 for a video partnership with specific retail brand for instance. Listen to Think Media strategies on earning $1000 on YouTube.

Does You Tube have algorithm like Facebook?  There is a claim that there is no algorithm like Facebook. What really make it more competitive is the number of people creating content on this platform.

How about the video content? Does it count? If the video has valuable content about finance for instance, the advertiser within this portfolio description will place ads there to reach out to this particular niche group that are attracted to such content.

Now I know how money is made in You Tube. I cannot get over the thought whenever I watch a YouTube video. It is indeed challenging out there and it is becoming harder to compete and attract viewers. Now what is your perspective after viewing these facts ?

Facebook: How YouTube makes money from Ads? Per click or Views? Find out. https://verticalsight.com/how-many-views-do-you-need-to-make-money-on-youtube/

Twitter: Have you wondered how #YouTube makes money out of their ads? Don’t miss the opportunity to find out? Per Click or View? #YTAdvertisers

WhatsApp? What’s all that About

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc on Pexels.com

It is interesting to see how social messaging is surpassing social media usage according to Business Insider. What is meant by social messaging is an application or a platform that allow messages voice or video such as Messenger, Viber, imo, and Line. WhatsApp is considered the world leader in social messaging application utilized in 180 counties with 1.5 billion user according to Business of Apps.

WhatsApp Revenue and Usage Statistics (2019)

The Start…. WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum. After realizing the potential of iPhone apps industry, they started developing the application along with the app developer Igor Solomennikov,  and voila…Facebook acquired the company in 2014 for USD 19.3 billion.

What’s so special about WhatsApp is that it is user friendly and accessible to people who are not technology oriented, and fits all ages no matter what is their educational background.  With WhatsApp, you can send text messages, voice message, images, documents, videos, create broadcast list, and you can also have video calls by only providing a regular mobile number. There is no complications and algorithm to suggest names that you wish to add. In two steps you can create a group whether they are family members, co-workers, kids play dates, groups of same interest, and even send invitations. There is a new feature called group calling where you can use voice and video which allows you to talk with up to three people at the same time.

Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels.com

There are other interesting features such as share location, and share live location which makes it even more intriguing. It is a tracking system where you can share real – time location which I use frequently when riding in a taxi, so my husband can trace the route.

Interesting enough, WhatsApp is being used as a medium to send official invitations along with e-mails. It is considered one of the most secured channels due to its end-to-end encryption where only the person you’re communicating with can read or listen to the message.  But this
encryption is vulnerable, reported The Guardian, claiming that each user has a public security key which can be changed upon application re-installation or moving to a new phone.

THE GUARDIAN: WhatsApp design feature means some encrypted messages could be read by third party

How About Business? Well, there is now WhatsApp for business Application where you can create a company profile, automated responses, organize your contacts, and provide messaging statistics on how many messages were sent, delivered and read.

How to Use WhatsApp for Small Business by Money Mike, Published on Jul 10, 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ5n2x_IlDE) provide explanation on how business can benefit from WhatsApp.

To conclude from Business Insider

“WhatsApp is the most popular chat app in more than half the world”

We can’t deny the fact that WhatsApp, or any other social media platform, has negative effects on health such as sleep deprivation, text-neck syndrome, and addiction. At the same time, we can not deny the fact that WhatsApp can be considered a platform for learning which can be acquired through joining groups of special interest such as Toastmasters, or being part of a group gathered for specific learning outcome like group projects. Indeed, it is our responsibility to be part of the evolution that technology is offering, but it is also our responsibility to chose the pathway for where it leads us.