Let Me Show You

  I feel like the six C’s of effective writing for social media listed in Karen Freberg’s “Social Media for Strategic Communication” are extraordinarily obvious. That is, if you know anything or have read anything about social media. Maybe if this was the first information on social media for someone with no experience using any platform who suddenly wants to gain a following. The six C’s are content, community, culture, conversation, creativity and connection. Content is about making sure what you are sharing is relevant and that people will care about the information you're sharing. But it is also about the writing.  Community is developed when people share common interests with the content you are creating. Which can create loyalty to you and maintain your image.  Culture is created by this community to develop standards of how people behave. This often leads to your community defending you from non-community member hate.  Conversation is ensuring that you aren’t ...

Society is all about trends and fitting in. Remember when suddenly every kid in the United States had to have silly bandz? Or when Claire’s came out with the roll on lip gloss? Did you get some too or did you feel left out? The truth is, we’ve all got a very serious case of what’s referred to as “fear of missing out” or FOMO. Even the term FOMO was once upon a time a trend that news anchors reported on and laughed at!  The term trending is used in reference to social media reports on a platform's most discussed topics connected by hashtags that are updated in real time. Now, the social media experts will tell you to use trending topics to gain followers or simply help get your name out there, but why else is it important?  Trends when properly investigated can keep you from looking clueless because, in a way, what’s trending is the latest news. Granted it may not be what happened on the corner of Douglas and Eighth street, but it is the news of the internet which is a world of...

Last week’s Principles of What I’m Reading blog touched on the Top 15 Social Media Tips from Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of Social Media” . This week is a different path as the new reading is “Social Media for Strategic Communication” by Karen Freberg- meaning this is the strategy and brand development aspect of social media. So let’s call social media a game of chess- funny because the front cover depicts the social media logos as chess pieces. It is, in fact, a competition all about strategy. A competition between users to gain the most followers and likes, and a competition between platforms for who can gain the most users and daily interaction. Everyone wants to be seen and more importantly- liked. Fortunately for you as a user trying to gain a following, each social media platform has a slightly different demographic, meaning you can find your truest audience and you may dominate on one platform, but not quite as much on another. This is good, it builds loyalty to you across all platf...

As the editor for the ONU Film Club, it is my responsibility to upload our content to YouTube with all necessary aspects added for exposure and search engine optimization. This includes editing the video, writing the description, adding tags, changing any settings and my personal favorite- creating the thumbnail.  If you think of YouTube as a video library, the thumbnail is the equivalent to a book cover. This means that no matter how frequently you hear the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” judging the thumbnail is exactly what you will do. It profoundly influences the decision on whether you watch or don’t watch a video. With a year of experience now under my belt, and many tips and tricks thrown at me, here are five tips to optimize your YouTube thumbnails. Take Advantage of Your Resources There are so many different ways to create a YouTube thumbnail, but there are some sites that make it easier, Canva.com is one of these resources. It even includes the right dimension...