COM0014 – Blog 7: Reflection of Digital Communication And Storytelling

This whole course was fun and interesting. The blogs we had to make were great and I learnt a lot about storytelling. I can’t believe that this is my last blog for this course. 

Blogs

During this course, I loved making the blogs. While they were a bit stressful, since I usually made them close to the last day, they were interesting. While I have made four other blogs for another course before, the blogs for this course were different. 

What was different was the topics that I had to write about. They made me write about things outside of my comfort zone and topics that I have no clue how I even came up with something to write about. These blogs challenged me, and I learnt a lot from just the blogs alone. 

^{Photo Taken By Pixabay Via Pexels.com.}

For the harder blogs, I just started writing something down, and before I knew it, I had a bunch of paragraphs and was past the minimum required of words. I didn’t realize how easy it was to write and come up with content for the topics as soon as I stopped thinking too much about the topic. 

After this course, I would really like to get into blogging as a hobby. I had fun, and it was great. While I might not post content where I type I lot like these blogs, I would still be as fun as this was. I was thinking about a photography blog with pictures I post. 

Storytelling

^{Photo Taken By Vlada Karpovich Via Pexels.com.}

This course taught me a lot about storytelling. While I did know that people had posted stories online before this course, I never really thought about the storytelling in the way that this course has mentioned it. It changed a bit of the way I will view online content and the content that I will post online. 

Storytelling is important to creating great digital content because storytelling helps make great digital content. You can’t have great digital content without telling the story of that content. Stories help the content become greater. It helps them express emotion and be remembered, like how the course mentioned how legends were. 

All my future content will be guided by a story. Like I mentioned before, I would like to post pictures and talk about them. Storytelling will help guide how the blog will be formatted or what would be said. 

^{Photo Taken By Pixabay Via Pexels.com.}

For myself, I don’t really have any types of stories that I want to tell. I would like to blog for fun, not to get noticed, so I wouldn’t try to make legendary stories for my future blog. Great stories of course, but it would be nice to blog as a hobby and not to get my name out there. If I ever did, I would try my best to make legendary stories. 

Conclusion

This course has helped me find a new hobby and something to look out for in online content. It was interesting how storytelling changed on the internet. I can’t wait to see how it will change in the future and how my storytelling will change. Have you ever written a story online before? What was one of your favorite stories you have heard? 

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December 27, 2023

Late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kelsey Leonhard

COM0014 –Blog post #3: 123 Petits Pas Target Audience

I am a social media manager and virtual assistant. For today’s blog on target audiences, I decided to use one of my clients, 123 Petits Pas, as the example because we have spent a lot of time fleshing out our target audience.

At 123 Petits Pas, our target audience consists of parents of children ages 0-6 years old who are interested in learning the French language together. The programming and resources are geared toward parents who have little to no French experience. The owner, Mme Amy, creates engaging, fun, and compelling content to teach French in fun and encouraging judgement free zone.

For this job, and all my other social media clients, we create an audience profile. We give them a name and write down demographic details like age and income, their struggles, frustrations, interests and opinions.

Demographic

Name: Franny Frenchie (super clever)

Gender: Female (Content was geared towards mothers although we do have some dads)

Age: Parents to children ages 0-6 years

Language: English (who want to learn French)

Income level: Low to mid-range

Location: Worldwide ( we have participants from Canada to India to Australia and in between)

Photo Cred: Creations behind the lens, 2019

Struggles

-Time Constraints: Many parents have busy schedules and struggle to find the time to devote to learning a new language with their child.

-Difficulty of the Language: French can be a challenging language to learn, and some parents may feel overwhelmed or frustrated not knowing where to start or how to keep it up.

-Keeping Children Engaged: Young children can have short attention spans, and parents may struggle to find engaging activities that keep their child interested and motivated in learning French.

-Limited Resources: Parents may struggle to find quality resources that are specifically designed for parents and children to learn French together.

Psychographic
Our parent participants have a wide range of education themselves but they value education and are thinking about future opportunities for their child(ren). These parents tend to be those who prioritize hands-on learning and like to participate and engage with their child(ren).
The 123 Petits Pas parent participant values spending quality time with their family and being open-minded, which helps in personal growth and being a positive role model to the child(ren) they are learning with.

How they like to consume info:
The parent participants are found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Facebook is popular for parents who like to connect with our content as well as connecting to other parents who share a similar goal: learning French with their child. We utilize our own branded page to post about our new programs, registrations, sales and general tips (check it out here).  We have created a few groups to connect our participants together as well as take part in other groups to connect to others.

123 Petits Pas Facebook Groups list: Click here 

<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://<a href="https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/facebook&quot; title="facebook icons">Facebook icons created by Pixel perfect – FlaticonPhoto Credit: Flaticon.com

Instagram is popular among our participants as a platform for participants to share their own experiences with 123 Petits Pas with reviews, stories while in class and posts with their children using French outside of the program.
We get the most engagement within this platform and spend our largest effort here.

Here are some examples of posts we’ve done:
123 Petits Pas Feed – click here
Promoting our new Parent Support Course- click here
Winter virtual programs options – click here 
Seasonal activities and French vocabulary – click here

<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://<a href="https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/instagram&quot; title="instagram icons">Instagram icons created by Pixel perfect – FlaticonPhoto Credit: Flaticon.com

YouTube is popular for parents to use with their kids. We have sample songs, classes, stories and more. We use YouTube as a tool and send people when they are wanting to see free examples of our paid content before committing.

YouTube channel and welcome video – click here
French colours lesson for preschoolers – click here 
French vowels song with freebie in the caption – click here 
Learn French with food! – click here 

<a href="http://<a href="https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/youtube&quot; title="youtube icons">Youtube icons created by Rakib Hassan Rahim – FlaticonPhoto Credit: Flaticon.com

Knowing our target audience and their unique characteristics are key to reaching our own goals. We are able to communicate with them in such a way that they will stop to listen, especially in today’s fast-paced world. We are able to know their goals, learn about their struggles and barriers in achieving those goals and provide solutions so they feel confident and build trust in us.

Can you share an example of a social media post that really resonated with you and made you feel like the message was specifically tailored to your interests and needs?

COM0014 – Blog #1:Storytelling – From drawings on the wall to social media

As our attention spans get shorter, the need to write concisely, in a well-packaged article is so important.  Using the strategies I learned in this module I will share strategies to help you write a better blog.

The inverted triangle method
As described in the course, This method involves breaking up your ideas into three sections:

Top- the most important information

Middle- the extra details that won’t be missed if skipped

Bottom- general information, the least important and for those who are really interested in the post or article.

Photo Cred: Wikipedia, 2022 ‘Inverted pyramid (journalism)”

This method is often used in news writing where the most important information is presented in the headline and first few sentences and then followed by supporting details and background information. This way, readers can quickly get a sense of the story and decide if they want to read on for more information.
This method works well for social media content and blogs because the important information is at the beginning so people who like to skim or who are short on time. It also provides more details deeper into the story so the reader can decide whether the title is attention-grabbing enough to want to read more.

Breaking it up
Organizing your content is important for readers so they can digest it easily. Guiding them through a beginning, middle and end will help them understand the information you are presenting or be able to follow along to your story easier. Having paragraph titles make it easier for readers to skim the content and to find the information they want to learn more about.

In this blog post, you’ll notice that my intro tells you what the rest of the blog will be about. I like describing a pain point, and telling the reader how to fix it. The body of this post goes deeper into each solution I mentioned. I use a headline in bold for each one so the reader can decide if they want to learn more about the inverted triangle method or how to “break it up” for example.
Even without reading these paragraphs and only reading the titles, the reader can still get the basic points of this post because there was the beginning (pain point and solutions, Middle (details) and soon you will see the conclusion.  

Using an active voice
As I was reading module two I came across this tip and I can honestly say I have never thought about this in writing before. I’m not the best at writing and have no formal training so learning more about techniques to strengthen my writing is so useful.

Active voice: Subject > Verb > Object
I’m writing this blog

Passive voice: Object > Verb > Subject
This blog is written by me

Photo Cred: Creazilla, ‘Yelling Clipart” Royalty Free

Using an active voice makes your writing clear and concise. It can help to build a sense of authority and credibility, making the reader more likely to trust and believe the information being presented.  I am eager to implement this into future blogs and see how it improves my writing. 

In conclusion, storytelling has evolved from cave drawings and elaborate long tales to social media and 5-second videos.
To effectively communicate with our audience, we need to adapt our methods to fit the fast-paced world we live in. One way to do this is by using the inverted triangle method which presents the most important information first, followed by supporting details, and background information.
Another way is by breaking up the content into a clear beginning, middle, and end, and using headlines and paragraphs to make it easy to skim and understand.
Lastly, using an active writing voice can also help to make the writing clear, direct, and more engaging for the reader.
By using some of these techniques we learned in module two, we can make our storytelling more impactful and useful in today’s fast-paced world.

What storytelling technique do you find the most useful?

COM0014 – Blog #1: The Ultimate Family Adventure

Are you ready for the ultimate family adventure? Join me as I take you down memory lane and relive our unforgettable journey to visit family in BC with a 10-month-old and 3-year-old. Will it be a trip to remember or a complete disaster? 

Photos by: Sarah Douglas, 2022

As any parent knows, travelling with children is hard and travelling with kids under 5 is even harder. After 2 years of the pandemic and not seeing our families we were determined to bite the bullet and bring both kids to BC for two weeks of fun; we just had to get past the dreaded airplane ride. This trip would be about 5 hours each way with a connection in Vancouver to get to  Kamloops. Naively, we thought a red-eye flight would be best because the kids could sleep. Oh boy, were we wrong! Our 10-month-old, Ella, screamed the entire flight. The passenger in front of us said “it was the worst flight he’s ever experienced”. Ella wanted to walk, crawl and climb on and under everything, she did not take no for an answer and let everyone on board know it. Finally, as we exited the plane all sweaty and bruised (physically and emotionally) I told my husband “Can we skip our next flight I never want to get on another plane with Ella again!”

Little did I know, those were fighting words to the universe. Our connecting flight was CANCELED! The forest fires were too smokey in Kamloops and all planes were grounded. We frantically tried to find a hotel, all booked. We tried to find a car to get further into the city or to the interior, but all were booked. Skytrain is impossible with all the luggage and kids in tow. Buses, booked.  Everyone was in the same boat and we were stranded with no way to get to Kamloops which was a 5-hour drive away or 1-hour plane ride and nowhere to stay. The kids didn’t sleep and by this point, we were all up 19 hours.

Just as we were accepting our fate that we would have to live at the airport for a few days and feeling defeated our dearest diaper wearing Ella had the largest bowl movement of her life. With our luck, it exploded out of her diaper and all over her shirt, pants and me. I called in an SOS to everyone we knew and finally got into a hotel. Some strings were pulled and we managed to get the surgeon’s suite at the airport hotel. This suite was saved for doctors they have to fly in last minute for life-saving surgeries. One shred of luck, My bestie is a doctor and scored this RARE gem. I couldn’t be more relieved.

On the way to the room, I was on the phone ugly crying to my sister-in-law; where we were supposed to be staying. She decided it was best to drive the 5 hours to get us and drive 5 hours back to her place the next morning.
It all seemed to be looking up. I felt instant relief the following day getting into her van as we headed off to our destination. 

Photos by: Sarah Douglas, 2021

If any of you have spent any time in BC’s major cities you know that the forest fires are there but they never come too close to town. We all felt confident that we would be fine. The views were hazy and the air smelt of a wooden sauna. The first two days of our week in Kamloops were fun. Playing on the mountain and spending time with family was wonderful.
We thought our luck had changed but mother nature had other plans. We started watching the news as the winds changed direction which was blowing the forest fires our way. Every hour or two the fire map got closer and closer to where we were. As the day grew so did our panic. The alerts went from the suggestion of evacuation to you must evacuate immediately. Firefighters were starting to knock on residents’ doors to make sure they were being evacuated. Once we got word this was happening from family members close by at the farm, we realized we needed to hustle and hustle fast.

Screenshots taken by Sarah Douglas from The BC Government Wildfire Dashboard. Photo taken by: Jacqueline Walker, 2021

My sister-in-law has 4 kids and a dog. Her husband was at the farm being told to evacuate by the firefighters and trying to get home so we were one less adult. They needed to get their life in suitcases and bring all of their important belongings and we four had to pack all of our luggage onto the van and car. So 3 adults and 6 kids who were all under 10 years old drove down the mountain and into town to try to find a hotel. All of the hotels were booked. We decided to take the kids to a park to blow off some steam. Downtown Kamloops is surrounded by water so although ash was literally raining on us, we knew it was safe…for now.
We finally got in touch with a hotel that had two rooms for us but only for that one single night and nothing more. We immediately went to check in and decided on a plan.
We were in the same position as before and felt stranded again. With no cars and no hotels, our sister-in-law decided to drive us 5 hours to Vancouver to drive herself the 5 hours back home. Her family would find refuge elsewhere with her husband, thankfully. 

The drive back to Vancouver from Kamloops along the Coquihalla was one I will never forget. We were driving through the active fires, and helicopters with water bags were above our heads putting fires out on either side of the highway. The rolling black smoke engulfed the view on either side of us. The sky was even red at times. It was intense.

Photo and video footage by: Sarah Douglas 2021

Once we arrived in Vancouver, the rest of our trip was much calmer. We were able to explore the city, play at the beautiful parks, lounge on the beach and ate all the delicious food.

Although our trip was filled with adventure and unexpected twists and turns, we did decide to test our fate again and so glad we did. Kamloops/Vancouver summer 2022 was less dramatic but a nice (calm) vacation.

Have you ever been this close to forest fires?
I’d love to hear your story!