I was new to blogging prior to my
enrollment in my COMI610 class. I have grown to really like blogging. My blog topic (Animal Rescue)
was more of a nonprofit informative blog; I learned the value of many different
kinds of blogs regarding politics, business blogs and personal blogs. I have
also learned that the use of photos and videos as well as links really drive
people towards your blog.
My blog this week will consist of posting an outline or
draft for my digital paper done through a social network site called Storify. Storify is a tool
that students can use to tell a story using social media, or showcase their
tweets, posts, pictures, and videos all on one page. Storify is a social
networking site that lets people tell stories using social media sites like Facebook
and Instagram and using photos, videos,
tweets etc.
(Video Courtesy of YouTube)
Below I have listed my outline
and would really love for feedback on your ideas and suggestions to help me
make my final project, the digital paper on Storfiy the best that it can be!
Introduction
·
About me
·
how I decided on a blog topic
My Blog
·
What my blog topic is, how and if it helps that “field”
·
Target audience
·
Blog strategy
o
How I planned on driving traffic to my blog
·
Excerpts from my blog
Pinterest
·
What I pinned to drive traffic to my blog
Twitter
·
What I tweeted to drive traffic to my blog
Additional Social Media sites
·
Google+
o
Sharing my blog to drive traffic
o
Extending my social network
·
Facebook posts
o
What I posted to drive traffic to my blog
o
Having friends repost my link to their pages
Stats
·
Posts
o
Entry and Page views
·
Traffic sources
o
Referring URLs
o
Referring sites
·
Audience
Conclusion
·
What I have learned about blogging, why it is
used
·
Future blogging strategy
Christine, your outline looks like it covers all the bases and there are some great ideas there. As I mentioned in a comment to Nia I feel better after reading your blog since it confirms for me that I am heading in the right direction. The tutorial is a nice addition. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you George!
ReplyDeleteI spent all day yesterday and last night going through the readings and forums of each week and tried to cover everything that was posted, I’m sure I forgot a few things but I wanted to add some of my own points like the other social media sites I use and why. I am just unsure of stats is going to have its own section or should I mix the stats in somewhere else? Any thoughts on that part?
Christine,
ReplyDeleteI know there has been some confusion about what is expected for this blog post but it looks like you have created a well developed outline. To answer the question that you posed to George, if it were me I would mix them in in their respective sections. I only say this because I feel like a section just dedicated to stats might disrupt the flow of your paper. I also agree with George that including the tutorial was very useful and provided some context for us.
After a few comments that I read I think I am going to mix them in a little maybe touch base but place them in an analysis section. I will see how it looks and flows and go from there, thank you Laura!
DeleteHi Christine,
ReplyDeleteNicely done blog post once again! To add another perspective about stats, I would put them under an analysis section. You can refer to them elsewhere in the paper but its nice to also have them all in one place for the reader. That is just my opinion and how I plan to do it.
In general, do you feel that pinning and tweeting about your blog actually drove people to it? I am curious to know if you feel successful in that regard. I did create a few new connections through this activity and some read my blog, but I was hoping to see more comments from these people. On the other hand, this was an academic project and that was apparent to outside readers, so I am wondering if perhaps our blog communities felt unwelcoming? By that I mean it was fairly obvious that we all are connected as classmates, and it shows in the way we spoke to each other. An outsider might read these and get the sense that there exists an established group of people commenting, one that they are not a part of. This did cross my mind. What do you think about this?
Thank you Kristin! I was debating stats for a little bit but was unsure where to put the stats. I could touch base a bit on them in their areas like on the Twitter page and Pinterest page but an analysis section sounds good, I didn’t think about that.
DeleteI had a few people from Pinterest click on my blog but my traffic mainly came from Facebook. I had a Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest account prior to this class but I hardly used Twitter. None of my friends/family are big on Twitter either. I used social media sites for social reasons and not for business reasons so my following on all sites are friends.
I completely get where you are coming from and agree that people knew it was our class and felt like they should not comment. I have a bunch of friends who are into the whole animal rescue topic like myself. One of my friends read my blog every week but did not want to comment because it was for class and she actually called me and asked if it was ok that she shared the link and commented because she knew it was school related and did not know if it was ok to do so. That was the week I had people from outside of class comment.
@ Kristin - I wondered that as well. With all the pageviews I received I was questioning whether these individuals were 'put off' or as you said "unwelcome." Guess I shall see - I plan to pursue it so maybe some of those pageviews will turn into comments.
DeleteKristin & Krystal,
DeleteYou both make good points about how the academic nature of the blogs might be off-putting for outsiders. It will be interesting to see how the traffic on both of your blogs changes as you continue to blog after the class is over.
Laura, I agree. Pageviews are wonderful however when you receive 30+ a day with minimal comments you know you are losing some of your audience. We shall see what the future holds. Plus I need to incorporate SEO into my blog from here on out - that wasn't something I got into. I am eager to see if that helps.
DeleteWell you blog is excellent, I'm sure you will have nothing but success! Best of luck!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Christine,
ReplyDeleteLooks great! I've enjoyed your blog and I am sure you will put together an amazing paper. What are your thoughts on Pinterest? I struggled a bit using this site to drive traffic but I think it is because I barely had a following.
Thank you James! Well I use Pinterest often and I have a decent following on there. A following is key when posting on any social media site in my opinion. I follow many of my Facebook friends who in return follow me back. Pinterest was right behind Facebook on my stats. I also have my Pinterest and Facebook connected, I don’t know if that helped. The good thing about Pinterest, which defers from Facebook and Twitter, is that your post is on there and doesn’t get lost down the newsfeed.
DeleteMy issue I had was with Twitter. I don’t have a great following because neither I nor my friends are big Twitter people.
I hear you! I do like that Pins do not get lost, however, I still need a following for people to see those pins.
DeleteHi Christine,
ReplyDeleteI think you are off to a great start. I think one thing you may consider is focusing a bit on whether there were any trends related to your reach. With your stats it would be nice to point out whether or not when your friends shared your posts your activity increased or not.
I really like how you plan to incorporate whether it has helped the field or not. That should be interesting!
-Krystal
Yes Krystal! I made note of this. Mark recommended Tweet deck. I downloaded it and saw that someone had actually retweeted two of my blog entries. I just found out about this recently. I saw some friends repost my link to my blog on Facebook and I will check Pinterest as well to see if anyone repined. Thank you for your feedback!
DeleteGetting the word out and spreading the news is something I can do and just from classmates alone, we have some avid animal lovers, I have found that some of my blog entries had “opened” people’s eyes to what is out there in regards to animal rescue.
Tweet deck? I had not heard of it but I will be sure to investigate. I've been trying to find a way to find out about whether anyone has repinned any of my pins but I'm not having much luck. I'm probably just overlooking something easy. Ugh.
DeleteI was really intrigued by your blog because for a previous class (a few years back) the professor requested we create a blog as well - I chose animal rights. I think I called it "furry friends" or something like that. It was fun.
Tweetdeck is helpful, you have columns you can place on your screen, 4 I believe, and you can sort out what information you view, like I chose key words being “animal rescue” and I saw that one of my friends retweeted a couple of my blog posts. I would check it out.
DeleteIn Pinterest if you open the pin, I believe at the bottom left you can see it will say how many repins you have. Also I have emails sent to me when someone repins a pin of mine to their board. So say if I had book you liked and you repined it, I would get an email saying “Krystal repined your XYZ pin to her board ‘books I loved’”
Who does love animals?! I have a soft spot for these little furry friends! I wanted to pick a topic I would enjoy posting and hoped people would learn from it. I also thought it would be a good way for me to learn more on the subject and I have.
I agree Christine. With course work it isn't often we get to focus our learning on a topic we love. Blogging really allows us to do so. With that said, I enjoyed this aspect of this course. At first it was a bit overwhelming, I think blogging always is b/c it is so 'public.' Then over time it became rather 'easy' for me and my passion grew. I think you did a really great job Christine and I am sure your passion for animals will shine through your story.
ReplyDeletenice article!!!! what can you say about this? http://katziem.blogspot.com/2013/07/animals-and-social-media.html
ReplyDelete