Week 13

It's a week until Visions! Wow time flies and it's only getting faster as we approach our event date. Recently, I have been working hard to keep our social media platforms live as we expect much more traffic at this time. Facebook has been getting its usual post everyday and additional posts going into the Event Page I have created. The Event Page currently has close to 100 people who have confirmed they're going, and still around 50 who are interested. I have also been maximizing on out Instagram audience with consistent and fun postings. Last week I started the "10 Day Countdown" where I basically post the countdown I'm out Instagram each day until the event, and I promote aspects of the event or give sneak peeks of what's in store. This gives it an even balance of promotional and personality posts. I have been having fun with snapchat too. Since I am planning to live snapchat most of our April 15th event, I wanted to go ahead and begin more consistency with the platform. Over the past week or two, I have been posting on there much more. I have been using this to show off our posters around campus, swag bag materials, shirts, video race prop box, etc. It allows the audience to see the behind the scene aspects in a way, which could be fun at the event. 

Other than non-stop postings on social media, I am also preparing for social media will be running the event. I will have volunteers assisting me throughout the day and so I am in the works of creating the social media shotlist. Basically this will make their jobs much easier as they will know exactly what I want. I am also prepping our Eventstag which will be showing the Instagram pictures on the projector for everyone to see. Well that's my weekly update, next time you hear from me it will be post-Visions6...

Week 11

Ok so we have finally gotten into the fun/crazy parts of Visions! Everyone in the class seems to be busy with the workload so it's not just me (thank you) but on the social media front, we are consistently putting out content and promotions to not get the word, but instead keep the word out and about. It is becoming more easier to understand the insights on Facebook now that we are reaching more, gaining page likes, and also recieving more engagement from the people. I believe our Facebook is doing really good now, posting everyday now and all posts seem to be doing good reach wise and interaction wise! Being able to see your progress and growth like this makes for an easier job lol. But this is also the busiest time of the year, so as much as I'd like to reflect, that will just have to wait. 

Recently, I announced the filmmakers and scholar showcases and leading more traffic to our website, along with last week's announcement for the keynote speaker. This week we are following all this up with the Facebook event page, video race registration opening, and also showing the film lineup trailer! Lots of fun posts to be made and I am sure these specific posts will only widen our audience and get more engagement on the platform. Next week, we have the big visionary panel announcement, which I will be posting on Monday. I will he creating a graphic for this post, which will basically include a collage of the 8 panelists and give it som space flare! I will not have to worry about announcing for volunteers next week as I think we already will have enough, so maybe I'll through in another class bumper animation then. 

My workload for this next week consists of making that graphic, preparing the rest of the posts to be made, finalize the social media shot list, and prepare Eventstag for the event. I will also begin hyping up the Instagram and snapchat more! I am going to implement a countdown on Instagram 10 days before the event, and use this to announce news and behind the scenes aspects of Visions! Snapchat is also key as I will be giving sneak peaks of Visions6 on there and show what we were working on. I know out snapchat has the smallest audience, as this is its first year, but by Visions8 or so it will be much bigger I know it! I'm glad we have been able to implement this platform and prepare for the future of Visions. Well that's enough for this week... Back to the lab!

Spring Week 10

Over the past week, I have mostly been working towards preparation for social media on the day of the event and promotion building up to it. After we had a pushback from registration issues, a few of our other promotions have been put on hold or moved around on the calendar. Zoe and I have been working to keep the calendar up to date and maintaining the effectiveness of the timing. So last week I put together two posts for badge registration and today (monday) I posted another one with an animation to hopefully reach even more people. Along with that, I have begun putting together the Facebook Event Page for the festival. This week I will present it to the class for them to read over and edit it, then I will post at the beginning of next week. Now that badge registration issues have been fixed, the next couple weeks should come along smoothly for social media, as we now will be announcing films, scholars, keynote, video race, and volunteer openings. Lately, I've been putting together these posts to schedule them on Facebook so I can put more time into creating a shot list for the day of the event. This will make it easy for the volunteers to follow and will allow for us to be prepared. This I have scheduled to go ahead and figure everything out with EventsTag so we can live stream the Social media at the event. I will continue these efforts throughout this week and through Easter break so I can be ahead of schedule as we get closer to April 15th. I also have responsibilities in other marketing aspects. I believe we are going to spray paint a rock at school and get the event date on hawkenews. So this is what I'll be up to for this week!

 Til next time

Spring Week 8 & 9

I decided to combine these two weeks together for this blog because of our spring break. Over these past two weeks, we have been preparing for the registration date. This is obviously an important date for Visions6 and social media needs to be promoting this! I have been preparing posts for this to go on Facebook and Instagram on March 14th. Along with this, I have also been scheduling out the rest of the month and into April. I am still working with tentative dates and do not have many confirmations on when I can post certain material, so for this next week the main focus is registration and volunteer registration. These will be prominent postings over the next couple weeks, along with video race and the keynote announcement. I am eager to get closer to the day of the event where social media will be live almost non stop, for now though I am still relying on others to get me confirmations.

In other aspects of Visions6, the focus is still on registration really. We are also awaiting our budgets so Zoe can begin squiring advertisements. I am excited to see our ads in the public and hopefully they reach the right crowds. But we also need to begin preparing our on-campus ads. This coming weeks marketing meeting, I will discuss with Zoe about ads in Hawk Enews, bathroom calendars, and other forms we can use. I feel like we could always grow our student audience at the event, and these are ways to reach them. Overall, we are moving into important and fast-paced periods for Visions6 where we all have to be on our toes and ready to work!

Spring Week 7

So this past week I have been finalizing my social media update presentation for Week 8. In this presentation, I will discuss the action plan for March & April which are very busy months. Making the calendar for these months, I did not have trouble coming up with enough posts each week but instead have at least one post 6 days of the week, sometimes multiple posts a day. We really want to get word out about the event and we have many ways of promoting it through social media. Over the next month and half, we will be announcing our keynote panel speakers, films and filmmakers, along with the scholars. Along with all these promotions, we also have to make announcements for Registration, Video Race Registration, & Volunteers. We need to push these to get people signing up, getting badges/tickets, and visiting our newly, re-vamped website. And if this isn't enough posts, we will be adding in animation/bumpers, weekly #FilmFridays & #SponsorSundays, and other fun posts for our core audience to keep them informed and entertained. All I need to finalize the action plan, is definitive dates which we are waiting on from Registration and Programming. After we get back from spring break, we will have a lot of news to let out to the public so we must make sure we choose the right times to promote.
Zoe, Anthony & I will be meeting on Wednesday to talk about our schedules and workload over spring break so none of us fall behind. Social media has been most of my workload this past week, but I also had the chance to have my career consultation with Beth which was very helpful and now I have been readjusting my resume based on what we discussed. The consultation was helpful and exciting as she helps you with confidence and insights from her experience. Beth has also been very beneficial for me and Zoe when meeting with her. She really helped us develop a brand voice for V6 that can benefit not only marketing but all departments, and we hope to leave this behind for future Visions.
Now we are in March... only a month and a half from our event!

Spring Week 6

The closer we get to the event day, the more social media output we have. This past week I have been creating the social media action plan and calendar for the month of March. Lots of promotions coming next month. Majority of our posts in March will consist of promoting the event with showcases for scholars and filmmakers, along with announcing our keynote panel speakers. We are wrapping up in programming and keynote decisions, so once the info is finalized, we will have definitive dates for posts. We will also be announcing open registrations for the video race and badges/tickets on sale. Along with all these promotions and announcements, we will also keep the personality with animations and consistent fun, quirky posts. I will be presenting this March Plan to the class next week, March 1. Zoe and I will have the chance to meet with Beth again, and her help is always beneficial. This plan and calendar has been most of my focus this past week, along with postings for the GMU trip. I have also begun preparing for the individual resume session with Beth later this week. I know that will be a great help for me as I will have plenty and ask and hope to learn so much more as I prepare for graduation.

This coming week, I will be finishing up my action plan and schedules for social media so I can present them to the class. Also, I will be revisiting the films as we go into the final phases of programming in deciding the final films to showcase. This next weeks class should be fun and interesting. And long probably

Spring Week 5

This past week was successful one, not just for me but for all of Visions6. First off, our bake sale and party both excelled in raising money for us! Although the bake sale was a cold one, it was enjoyable and the party was once again another fun time. For me, I had the great chance to sit down with Beth and Zoe where we talked about marketing and social media. She gave us great advice and insights on these aspects from her experience in the work field. She has obviously a great amount of experience and was helpful to me in the early development of next months social media plan and calendars. Ways to make our posts more marketable with specific goals in mind, ways to put this info in presentations, and also how analytics can be used the best way were all things we touched on. I am now putting together our action plan for social media in March. I am still hearing back from directors on logistics and certain promotions that need to be made. So far it looks like March promotions will include: volunteer/badges registration, video race registration, keynote announcements, and the filmmaker & scholar showcases. So there will already be a lot of info coming from our pages, now I will take what i learned from Beth to develop interesting posts that fit the Visions6 personality. With each action plan I develop, I feel I keep improving as I learn more with each process.

In other marketing news, Zoe and I will be sitting down for a meeting before she leaves for GMU this week, where we will discuss our brand voice which will help me with social media. Having a consistent voice is always important to out department, and this will help give it structure and on paper to look back to. Other than that, I have been contacting local radio stations in search of "cheap" ads that Zoe can possibly work with. Once Zoe presents her budget, we will have to quickly begin getting the ads that we want as the event date is exactly two months away now!

S.M.A.R.T. Goal:
By February 23rd, create the "March" Social Media Action Plan along with calendars, schedules, and draft posts to the class, to allow for other departments to become aware of the monthly agenda and to plan accordingly with it.

Spring Week 4

Anoher week... And more visions. Recently I have been preparing the social media posts for this week to support the bake sale and party. We want maximum awareness for these events to get the info to the masses and hopefully these will be as successful as the last party and Bakesale. I am personally looking forward to these events as they are always a fun time with the V6 team. In other news, I have also begun contacting other directors on needs they will need at end of month and into March. I want to go ahead and construct the March social media calendar to stay ahead. I am meeting with Beth later this week on Friday to pick her brain about social media, as she has knowledge and experience in the field. I hope to learn from her find ways to improve our platforms. I am becoming more comfortable with the tone I am using in Instagram and it seems to be doing really well. I also want to get to the edit lab soon so I can start working on more Facebook graphics. I really enjoyed making the first graphic with Michelle and I know she will give me great feedback in the future. Overall I am looking forward to this weeks events and ways we can make them the best!

This weeks research has been mostly on "boosts" for Facebook ads. Zoe mentioned to me about making a budget presentation on this next week so I have been looking into this. I have no previous knowledge of this, but have been learning and also plan to ask the employees at Working Films (internship) how they use it for their Facebook. I have found out there is a difference between boosts and ads so this will be interesting. Our Facebook page has been getting notifications about boosting our posts so I am interested to learn how to do this. This is also a small budget as it doesn't take much for the boosts.
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-boost-posts-promoted-posts/
- https://www.facebook.com/business/a/boost-a-post
- https://www.postplanner.com/use-boosted-posts-on-facebook-to-generate-sales/

Spring Week 3

This week has been a good one, social media is on track and the schedules are up! Now that it is February, I will soon begin constructing the action plan and schedule for March. As I receive requests from the other departments of what they will need, the schedule will come along nicely. For this past week, I have continued up-keep for the social media to keep it live and prepare for the valentines events and all the posts that come with them. The request form seems to be working good, as several members of class have submitted their "needs." The spring students seem to be on top of it, several have messaged me pertaining to the class interaction schedule and some have already sent in requests. One problem is now I may have to include times for the class interaction, I will have to try and research a good way of doing so. We will see how that goes, I have not found many sources regarding a interaction schedule and nothing from last years manual so I'll work it out. Besides from social media, I have also gathered information for local radio stations. I have begun a spreadsheet with all the info and who to contact. I will begin calling/messaging these stations about potential advertising for our event. Although it seems that this age is not involved with radio as much as before, it will be good practice for me and I would love to get involved with radio anyways. I also think this can help reach a larger audience and those who not normally hear about our event. Hopefully they can help us with advertising!

This past weeks marketing department met a couple times, first time to catch up and second time was with art department. At this second meeting, Zoe talked with me about me being the one to do the Facebook graphics rather than someone else. At first I was unsure how this would go, due to my lack of experience but Michelle has helped me out a lot. Michelle and I went to the edit lab after the meeting so she could show me PhotoShop and Illustrator. She then watched over me and assisted me in creating the recent graphic for #SponsorSunday. We were both happy with how it came out and I look forward to progressing with this new task. I have always been drawn towards art so this was fun to learn and will stregthen my work as a social media coordinator. Next week at our meeting, Michelle and I will pick up on our work for the event program. I will be content writing which I have begun to start and outline, but also offered to help with the graphics and layout when needed.

As for this weeks research, there has been quite a bit. For starters, I have been watching youtube tutorials for illustrator and photoshop, to learn all the small details and become more familiar with the programs. I have also been looking over past programs from Visions 1,2,4, and 5 while also looking at other festival programs online. Obviously our program will not be as big as Sundance or even Cucalorus, but it was fun to see how others are structured and formatted. Lastly, I have been doing consistent research for our social media. I have been looking at verbiage and particular words that are "marketing strong." These links below have all been helpful and learning to focus and be consistent to make strong posts with expected engagement. I will also be looking into StumbleUpon for ideas regarding social media.
- http://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/the-30-magic-marketing-words/
- https://www.postplanner.com/marketing-strategy-examples-for-facebook/
- http://www.lift-off-festival.com/using-social-media-to-promote-your-film/

Spring Week 2

This was an eventful week. Cinemixer 2016 was a success, we had a large crowd attend to support all the event sponsors. We also began watching the films for programming and grading those. I was impressed with the quality of these films, although some were lackluster, there were plenty that really sparked my interest. The experimentals and animations both had great quality, which came as a surprise to me, and the narratives and documentarys were new and fresh. Already looking forward to the next batch!
I met with Zoe and Anthony twice this past week, to go over all marketing strategies and plans. We met Monday with art department, which is always helpful as our departments work so closely together. I was able to discuss with Michelle, the Facebook posters and banners, while also begin brainstorming for the Event Prorgan we will be working on together. We already got a few ideas down and figuring out the direction we want to take it. In the meetings with marketing, I went over my social media plans with Zoe and Anthony for their support. I have been updating the calendar as more things come in from other departments. I also created the class interaction schedule for the other members of visions6 to share, comment, and like on posts. This will increase interaction and engagement on our platforms and become more attractive. I currently have it finished through mid-February and will be updating it along the way.
This week, I have been researching tools and techniques for Facebook to be able to reach different audiences and specifically, different generations. It has been discussed in class that we should market towards "baby-boomers," so I have been researching ways to make posts and also specific words they relate to and grab their attention. I have found that they are very similar to our generation in receiving news, only they do go about it at a slower pace and also most don't interact heavy on social media. I believe in this generation works well with email and messaging, but lack in overall interaction on social media platforms. They use social media in its simplest form, so must be aware of how they use it when making posts.
- http://www.cio.com/article/2684305/online-marketing/9-digital-marketing-strategies-to-woo-baby-boomers.html
- http://www.mayecreate.com/2015/07/generational-marketing-tips-for-reaching-baby-boomers/
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/06/05/7-reasons-why-marketing-to-baby-boomers-is-unique/#7389f2f473de

Dirty Dozen: Social Media

1.What is the project supposed to achieve?
 - Through social media, we can gain much marketing success. We are able to grow awareness for our brand as Visions FF&C to continue its tradition. We also promote our event and all smaller events throughout the semester, able to reach a much larger audience than most other marketing tools. These platforms will also give us the chance to expand our audience as a whole, and broaden our fan base.

2. Who is the customer?
- Basically, our audience which consists of our followers on our social media platforms. We market out to our followers and friends, while also promoting our sponsors and thanking them. We have different audiences that reach out to in society, but they ALL become OUR audience when they follow our platforms.

3. What are the deliverables of the project?
- Our postings across our social media platforms are our deliverables, and include promotions, reminders, interesting readings, and appreciation. With a variety of sponsors, we can reach broade audiences.

4. What is the budget?
- One positive about social media.... No Budget! Only time.

5. How long will it take?
- Our social media campaign will last through the event and until the end of the semester. We will be greatly promoting the day of the event up until the end of it, and then giving our platforms a closing of sorts with recaps, thanks, etc. There will not be many times of slowing down until our semester is over and we have closed the Visions6 campaign.

6. What specific skills are needed?
- Scheduling & organizational skills, punctuality, and consistent effort is needed to have strong continuity with the platforms. Writing and editing skills with creativity, create strong marketing efforts within the postings. Staying consistent with timing and providing powerful posts are the keys.

7. What special resources are needed?
- I will be constantly in contact with the other departments to market their "needs." For sponsorship and donor appreciation, I will be in touch with development. For the promotion of the films and papers, and keynote announcement, I will contacting programming. I am always with art department as I too need from them. I also receive details from hospitality for the day of the event. Staying in contact with all departments is vital to a successful social media account.

8.Who is working on the project? What is each person's job?
- I coordinate all social media platforms and am responsible for the execution for the postings, events, expansion. I create the action plans, schedules, calendars, and draft the posts. Zoe and Anthony both will be assisting me, for times when I am unable to make postings, they will be scheduled to execute them. I will also use their talents and insights to help draft the posts before hand.

9. What is the schedule?
- Our social media platforms are constant. So we are posting at least every other day. I create schedules for each month with all the content. I don't believe it is necessary to post the whole thing on here, but can be found in the drive under "V6 Social Media Calendar"

10. What are the risks?
- Large impact, likely: a post is missed and not executed.
- Large impact, unlikely: we lose all info on all platforms... very doubtful.
- Small impact, likely: postings will change on short notice.
- Small impact, unlikely: I post the wrong picture accident, and then fix it.


11. How will you communicate with your team?
- Our marketing team communicates through Facebook or call/text. Contacting Zoe and anthony is no problem. I reach most of the other departments through Facebook (staff postings and messages).

12. How will you determine if your project is successful?
- We have goals of how many followers we want to reach on each platform, so we can tell if our campaign was successful in gaining new followers. Statitistcs and insights can be used to determine if we're reaching a lot of people.

Spring Week 1

Well the semester is back upon us now and going back into full swing. This first week I have been trying to balance adjusting to my new classes and schedule and keep updated with Visions. Galaxy Quest is underway, despite the ugly weather, so we are keeping the progress live through Facebook. I am also personally constructing the social media action plan and calendar for the rest of January and February. We have several upcoming events and announcements in this time span that we have to be prepared for.  So far the action plan is completed along with January's calendar, now I am finishing up February's calendar while also making drafts for all the future social media posts. Zoe and I plan to go over these drafts weekly and before posting to continue our consistent tone. Doing so will also make it easier to infuse Anthony into the system so if he is needed to assist in making a post, he can easily find it and copy and paste it.  The Marketing department will be meeting tomorrow to go over all our tasks and this weeks goals. Zoe and I will begin contacting local businesses about getting ads for the day of the event. This semester has had a solid start and meeting all the new team members has been great and it seems we have a strong team for this semester for the day of the event.  For this next week, I am adding 5 things to my To Do List:
1. Finish social media February calendar
2. Finish drafting January's posts and start on February's posts.
3. Make presentation for social media action plan.
4. Contact local radio stations.
5. Meet with Michelle about continent writing for the event program.