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/