COM0014-PMu Assignment #1-Blog #1 What I Did on My Vacation

It just so happens that my travelling European vacation started at the same time as the Digital Communication course! This meant I needed to juggle and balance reading course material, making notes, working on assignments and getting access to the Internet in Europe while being on vacation with my family and friends.

Now reading course material, making notes and working on assignments – and submitting on time (defined as studying in earlier student days) – is similar to if not the same as previous studying activities over the past 20 years. Not much change there from last century to this century.

And instead of pouring over the latest summer ‘must read’ book or topical magazines, substitute Digital Communication materials and articles. However, obtaining Internet access in order to connect with the course content and submit assignment requirements is a new 21st century experience.

And how to be able to work on the course material with family and friends while they are thumbing through their ‘must read’ material would be an interesting challenge to overcome. The best approach was to enlist the vacation entourage and engage them in the proceedings, and since engagement is a major theme of the Social Media program, this seemed an appropriate path.

So, enlisting the holiday makers to assist in locating Wi-Fi seemed an obvious winning solution. It turns out that McDonalds provide free Wi-Fi in their outlets, so this   could be a destination location for assignment deadlines. That hurdle was solved relatively quickly.

The next step was finding content to write about. A blog of interesting observations or amusing vacation moments began to form as an idea. No sooner had this idea formed when an interesting observation was encountered.

As a family party of 4 travelling by busy trains between cities we encountered 3 of our reserved seats at a table occupied by a single male traveler sitting in an aisle seat. It was obvious to the single traveler that we were together as we determined which 3 would sit together while the fourth found their seat farther away. Can you guess what happened?

Rather than offering to give up the seat to let the 4 travelers remain together, the passenger decided to remain in their seat and break up the flock for the four hour journey. Is this what you thought would happen?

Certainly not a requirement on their part, but as a single traveler many times in the past, I have relocated to let a party remain together and not ‘crash’ their gathering and dislocate their group atmosphere. I believe this action to be based on a sense of awareness of situation and accommodation, or in the case of the lone traveler, not being aware or accommodating.

If you guessed the traveler would not give up their spot, could you try to explain why to me please.

COM0014-PMu Assignment #1-Blog #2 Storytelling and Communication Styles

COM0014-Assignment #1-Blog #2 Storytelling and Communication Styles

I am learning that encouraging audience interaction has to be the most challenging aspect of social media writing. Some obvious approaches include offering incentives such as discounts, coupons or straight up cash for audience participation and has been used to great effect in print media and on the radio.

However, transferring this to social media is not so easy. Offering incentives can attract positive or negative audience interaction and equally affect the outcome for the better or worse.

Even without offering financial based incentives the outcome or effect of asking for feedback in an attempt to engage the audience can have similar consequences of either a positive or negative result.

On the positive side, audience reaction improves the story and presence of the site. On the negative side, audience response can mire the story and damage the site presence with negative sentiment.

Making a mistake between determining passive versus active voice for a story can make a good point seem lost, and getting the order of the key points mixed up can put a story at a disadvantage. Then you have to consider the level of the reader you are writing for according to Brian Clark, along with the order, style, grammar and punctuation – lots to cover in storytelling.

But the biggest lesson I have learned is how challenging it is to engage with the audience and solicit participation. I see the benefit of providing specific participation points such as a ‘Reply’ or ‘Like’ buttons. I am interested in verbatim responses (qualitative variables) and less interested in counts (quantitative attributes) – however, engaging the audience in the content to achieve verbatim input is the biggest challenge.

Are you finding it easy to engage audience participation – and how do you achieve interaction, or have you learned of other challenges?

COM0015-Pmu Assignment #1 Blog #1 Tools and Sources

Since I have worked with Talkwalker (http://www.talkwalker.com/en/social-media-intelligence/) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/) these two sites are my favorite social media trend listening and monitoring sites.

I used Google Trends as part of the Social Media course and found the experience of creating accounts to perform analysis cumbersome and convoluted, with the unknown factor of the financial account settings confusing, and I preferred the ease of set up and integrated steps provided by Talkwalker compared to Google’s complexities.

I understand the discipline of trend monitoring through listening and use of analytics is new and evolving, and that Google were an early proponent of the tools and techniques in the field, and the introduction of new entrants

I am now in the process of joining Hootsuite to perform social media trend listening and monitoring, and investigating the inter-relationship between Hootsuite and LinkedIn. However, I am paused at the step of integrating my LinkedIn account with Hootsuite until I understand the terms and conditions, and why my connections are required. This will require time to research to gain deeper insight.

This is a screen shot graphic of Talkwalker’s interface for trend analysis.

Source: Social Media Monitoring & Analytics Tools – Talkwalker http://www.talkwalker.com/en/social-media-intelligence/ 21-Sep-15 10:55 – Screen Clipping.

LinkedIn is a significant and important professional development tool site for connections where a resume is contained, along with a profile summary, list of connections and their association with you and your connections – similar to a relationship indicator.

There are links for professional associations and institutions where if you are a member, you can apply to join and after acceptance, link with other members and join discussions of topical and mutual interest, extending the social and professional networking between the scheduled meetings.

COM0015-PMu Assignment #1 Blog Comments #1

I chose to comment on the CBC Radio site where there are a number of excellent programs available that entertain, educate and provide awareness of interesting subjects and events.

One such program is Under the Influence about Marketing, a subject which has been made very popular by the highly successful TV show Mad Men.

In Under the Influence program Selling Yourself: The Art of Personal Branding at www.CBC.ca/rss/blogother (and selecting the program title) I found a lot to agree with based on what I have learned from taking the Algonquin college Social Media course.

For example, the steps involved in creating your personal brand, maintaining your brand integrity and projecting your brand appropriately are part of the college course content.

The details of reaching out and  contacting and connecting with your target audience such as planning and conducting research to understand your target audience, and identifying your USP or Unique Selling Point, and what connection vibe do you want to generate from your brand, and then there is the call to action or engagement… How do you motivate your audience to participate and interact with you and your brand? All of these areas are covered in the social media course program… Almost straight from the materials!

This is a great piece to learn much about Social Media and marketing and personal branding, and I would provide my comments and give this a Like on their Facebook!

COM0014-PMu Assignment #1 Blog #4 B2C Case Study

I had thought to focus on Amazon as the B2C business engaging with its customers but my research turned up a surprise for me-LinkedIn. I had thought of LinkedIn as a B2B company as it gained revenues from companies for locating resources and not customers for loading their resumes.

But it turns out that LinkedIn is a combination B2C and B2B hybrid – and is using social media to successfully do so.

The bonus is that Amazon itself is using LinkedIn as part of their marketing strategy so my B2C choice is doubly addressed.

The social media and marketing details are described here http://marketing.linkedin.com/blog/5-b2c-companies-killing-it-with-content-on-linkedin/

1.How B2C company uses Social Media

Amazon are described in the article as a B2C company who is using social media and “killing it with content”.  The Amazon approach is to go beyond their initial book retail offerings to other products and now services such as local food delivery introduced in Amazon’s LinkedIn account using its “…LinkedIn company page to raise awareness of new promotions, services, and regional offerings…” (cited in the above link).

2.Analysis of Quality of interaction

The quality of the interaction is seen in the metrics and measurements around increased awareness during a campaign, and as the opening sentence of the article states reach and engagement are boosted, which are metrics that can be measured.

According to LinkedIn market research conducted, customers on their site are twice as likely to trust their content over Facebook and have twice the buying power of Facebook users – I would consider these as good quality interactions.

3.Thoughts on how approach is working

I think the approach of a B2C like Amazon utilizing the social media capabilities of a B2B-B2C such as LinkedIn with a B2C demographic segment already defined in terms of buying power (higher disposable income), education and a psychographic of willingness to try new trends and ideas is a good idea.

Amazon are focused on promoting their new offerings and are leveraging the demographic and psychographic market segments offered by LinkedIn to aim their focus on the right customer base to buy their products and services.

COM0014 – PMu Assignment #1 Blog #3 Target Audiences

After researching the BCS https://www.bcs.org/ and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Computer_Societ and Algonquin College

http://www.algonquincollege.com/ and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_College I would describe the target audiences as follows.

BCS is internationally dispersed with a core location in the UK, predominately English speaking, educated at graduate level as a minimum and pursuing higher levels of recognition through professional membership and certification. Certification is achieved through a combination of education and work experience and job role.

In addition to membership and certification, BCS members give back to their profession through volunteer activities at local section and corporate levels. Section level involves attending meetings to holding elected office such as Programs and Treasurer where additional skills can be acquired outside of the original job role. Corporate level involves reviewing applicants for membership or certification approval.

BCS members can be segmented into the following demographic and psychographic groups for finer analysis and detailed targeted communications.

New Graduates segment – starting out in their career path. Focus communications messaging on the value and benefits of membership and the steps to attain professional certification and peer recognition.

Professionally Certified segment – progressing through their career and looking to obtain further recognition. Focus communications messaging on continuing education, especially the courses and programs offered and recognized by BCS, and encourage volunteering at local section and corporate levels.

Retired Members segment – at the completion of their career and looking to demonstrate their standing and achievements. Focus communications messaging on attaining Fellow status to recognize lifetime achievement and commitment to the profession, and encourage mentoring to graduate and certified groups to maintain active involvement with the profession.

By contrast, Algonquin College is based in the local community attracting students from within the community such as high school graduates, graduates from other educational institutions, and migrants with varying qualifications seeking Canadian credentials to improve their career prospects and pursue hobbies and topics of interest at an institute of higher education.

Algonquin offers a wide range of technical, business and community related courses and programs with certificate and diploma qualifications to meet the needs of this audience base, which can be segmented into the following demographic and psychographic groups for finer analysis and detailed targeted communications as follows.

High school graduates segment – at the beginning of their further educating path and pursuing career options. Focus communications messaging on the value and benefits of higher education, and the college’s approach to integrating course knowledge with work assignments and practical experience to prepare for the work force.

Local graduate segment – having attained a level of higher education and career-based work experience now looking to further their career – or even a career change – with new course and program qualifications to either augment or add new education capabilities. Focus communications messaging on the college recognized courses and programs and how they provide the next level of knowledge to expand your career, and provide the foundation and stepping stone to a career change by adding new qualifications to existing ones.

Migrant graduate and non-graduate segment – entering the Province of Ontario from another Province or even a foreign country eager to have a Canadian-based higher-level education experience and obtain a Canadian recognized qualification to establish their career. Focus communications messaging on the integrating effects and benefits of adding a Canadian college certificate or diploma to either existing qualifications, or to establish Canadian recognized qualifications.

It is interesting to note that these communication styles and focus can be applied to any professional institution or higher education body, not just BCS and Algonquin College, which highlights the adaptability of digital communications in social media. Do you agree with this view, or have an alternative opinion? Why not share your thoughts in a response.