Here is my Pinterest Page:

find us at:   https://www.pinterest.com/janm0112/

Module 3 Feedback: Employing Brian C. Clark's Advice

99% of students completed the assignment (shocking statistic)





The Assignment: Post an introductory blog post about you and your field of study, and what role communication play in your work. Practise what you read in Brian Clark's article, and employ some of his ideas.

Our Feedback:

Brian Clark suggests five ways to hook readers in:

1. Ask a question

1. Share an anecdote or quote

1. Invoke the mind's eye

1. Employ an analogy, simile or metaphor

1. Cite a shocking statistic

Now, many of you did just this!

Titles like: How important is communication in a work place? A school? What if it’s both…? or How Twitter Saved My Business make the reader ask for more. How important is communication really and how on earth could Twitter save a business. Both of these headlines ask us to wonder about the implications. As Clark notes, asking your readers to think is a way of promoting active engagement and engaged readers do just that, they read and follow through and sign up for newsletters and keep waiting for more from you.

Imagine now, as you keep reading the post, the ending just doesn't satisfy you. You don't learn about the outcome of those statistics on how Twitter might really work for you. What happened to that 1% that we implied in our title? Concluding your post, as you would conclude an essay for coursework, is about pulling the ideas together for the reader and letting them have key take-aways. Maybe you'll hint at what's coming next week or invite them to think about your post and share their comment or simply share your post. How might you induce reader engagement and participation; keys to successful social media use.

This example of an ending, encapsulates the post as well as invokes a shared pop culture reference (humour is almost always welcome):

"That day, should you decide to come to the 'dark side', will either be the day your alma mater will be proud of you or you really, really earn that bonus!"

Slogging through the oil and gas industry

Are you considering a client change?  Maybe you're contemplating a world of fresh perspectives and innovative technology?  70 % of your colleagues are and I say, by all means do it -  but think twice before saying yes to the seemingly lucrative field of Energy Communications.

I was once you, trying to escape the mundane, thinking outside the career box I had made for myself in the newspaper industry.  I applied, interviewed and power-lunched until I finally made my decision - I was moving to the dark side (tar sands).  Yes, that's me, the liberal arts grad going along to get along with an executive management team who believe scientific evidence of climate change is just liberal propaganda.

But onto more important things, like money.  As you may already be aware, oil and gas jobs, even in the communications department, pay more than most.  You have a base salary, generous vacation time and nice retirement packages (although, given market fluctuations, you may not be there long enough to open one).  But if you can put aside your guilt over environmental issues, the your reward will be the annual shareholders cheque.  Yes readers, I'm here to testify, all of those moments spent biting your tongue, rolling your eyes and thinking your head was going to implode due to the intellectual vacuum you slave in day-in and day-out - God love it - here comes the bonus cheque! 

At my alma mater they're quite proud of their students ability upon graduation to stand-up to authority.  I believe our commencement speaker, Brian Lamb of C-Span, beseeched us to go forth and "speak truth to power".  While I love my alma mater and the passion for which Mr. Lamb spoke, I personally wouldn't recommend it.  If you're in oil and gas, you may be looking for a new career sooner than you think.  The energy field promotes from within, generally speaking it's men who started out as boys working 'in the patch' they know hard, awful, stinky, work from the ground up.  The boys who last become the men of management; vice presidents of operations and the like.  Along the way to picking up their grandiose titles they've grown large egos accompanied by shallow mentalities and short tempers all this with nary a day of higher education (some never finished high school - which they will proudly tell you has not affected their ability to earn an income that is completely disproportionate to their education).  So imagine when you have to go into their corner office and speak your truth "well, Mr. Moneybags, I'm unable to send out this internal communication they way it is, uh - huh ...yes, we need to fix your poor sentence structure, grammar and punctuation to say nothing of your inability to frame an argument - honestly Mr. M, we need to re-write this whole thing - and what is it you're trying to say? Because frankly, I don't understand " - I dare you.

That day, should you decide to come to the 'dark side', will either be the day your alma mater will be proud of you or you really, really earn that bonus!

References:

Vivian G.  (2012, Oct. 10) 70 Percent of Your Colleagues are Looking for a New Job [Web blog post].  Retrieved from:  http://www.businessinsider.com/70-percent-of-your-colleagues-are-looking-for-a-new-job-2012-10

DiChristopher ( 2015, July 22) Oil and gas jobs' pay is still big, but not booming retrieved from:  http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/22/

Employing Brian Clark's Advice Due October 30

Practice what you read in Brian Clark's article and employ some of his ideas by posting below an introductory post about you and your field of study and, what role communication plays in your work.

Collaborative Honeycomb

This might be of interest to you, especially if you're thinking about how important networks are (Facebook, Twitter, blogs) and how to facilitate collaboration and valuable sharing:

15 Blog Content Ideas With Examples And Tips

Looking towards Module 3 and our blogging; have a read of these great ideas from Heidi Cohen. You can read all 15 ideas on her post here.

1. Audit your existing content for ideas

Ideally, every business should regularly audit their content to ensure that it’s up-to-date and relevant. From a blogging perspective, a content audit provides many blog post opportunities. 

Actionable Blogging Tips:

• Fill holes in your content offering with new blog posts.
• Transform product manuals and other customer related information into easy-to-follow blog posts. Simplify the information and sound human to help your audience.
• Update and transform older information into blog posts. Add images and other media to make them more appealing and easy-to-consume.

Download The Ultimate Blogging Checklist

2. Create core resources

Copyblogger’s Brian Clark calls this cornerstone content since it’s fundamental to the overarching content strategy of your blog. 

Neil Patel has published a number of Advanced Guides. They’re over 40,000 words in length and provide useful information that keeps generating visits and links.

Lists are another form of core resources. While lists are high on every blogger’s post idea generation catalog because they attract attention, to remain a key resource, you must organize them by topic and continually update them. (This later point is key for any evergreen content.) 

Collaborating through Facebook for EdTech Tomorrow

My Capstone project will have something to do with education technology. In my frustration with Moodle I found myself wondering why it's not more intuitive, why it's not more social, and why it's basically traditional education applied to an online platform. The traditional way of learning prepared students for the work force in the Industrial Age. Education today should prepare students for the Internet Age. 

I've created the EdTech Tomorrow Facebook page for scholars, educators, and all those with a desire to come together to collaborate to create a better online learning environment.

About
The education system in North America is antiquated. As businesses move into the Internet Age so to should education to prepare students for working in a digital world. Current Learning Management Systems (LMS) are just migrating traditional learning methods to the internet. We need to start with a blank slate and revolutionize education as we know it. What is the best way we learn and teach online? Is it collaborative? Is it social? Is it gamified or all of the above?What do Internet Age businesses need from their workforce? Let's work together to bridge the gap.

Call-to-Action
A Twitter event has been set up to mobilize collaborators through various social media channels to get to know each other. After the initial Twitter meetup a regularly scheduled Twitter chat will take place using the hashtag #edtech2. To access the event registration site click "Sign Up" on the EdTech tomorrow Facebook page or go directly to Eventbrite to register.

Types of Posts
Articles

Articles will include quality research, news, and occasional humor for engagement.

Videos

Videos will be from a scholarly perspective. An educated dialogue will be encouraged.

Photos and Infographics

Relatable photos and infographics will be used to encourage engagement.

Getting Facebook followers to join a Twitter chat will be a challenge. The benefit is bringing small network Facebook followers to the random network environment of Twitter. Although there's a lower cluster co-efficient there isn't force or bias allowing for connections to be made which wouldn't normally (Findlay, 2010). According to Findlay, "This is why random re-wirings are so effective at reducing the ave. path length...they help connect clusters, or 'cliques' that might otherwise exist in isolation" (2010).
 
While Twitter will have a regularly scheduled chat, Facebook will have ongoing dialogue using the #EdTech2 hashtag.

Findlay, K. (2010). An introduction to network theory. Retrieved from 
http://www.slideshare.net/ervler/an-introduction-to-network-theory

Facebook Assignment: Den's Garage

Facebook Assignment: Den's Garage

 

  

My husband works at his dad's car repair shop and is now starting to take on more responsibilities in terms of managing the shop, so this assignment is a great opportunity to bring Den's Garage to the 21st century! It’s been fun (...so far) working with my husband to shape the Den's Garage Facebook page into something he wants so this assignment has a real world application. To see more of the page visit: https://www.facebook.com/densgarageottawa

The purpose of the Facebook page will be to provide content about the garage to users, such as information hours of operation, location, reminder posts for care maintenance items (e.g., tire changes), any specials etc. 

Future additions:

Eventually, I want to include pictures of the staff and write a brief intro about them to show the “human” side of the business (as mentioned by Ekaterina in Stelzner’s interview). Unfortunately, the shop has been too busy to get those pictures. I also really liked Ekaterina’s approach to engage fans and ask them what they want, so when I get a few likes, we plan to do the same so our post can be more strategic (Sorry -- I wasn't sure if we were supposed to "launch" the page, but seeing as others have I will do that now).

We're both looking forward to your thoughts :)

Explore Asia

I created a Facebook page for a potential travel agency company, Explore Asia.com

I have spent a good portion of my adult life abroad in Asia and am interested in helping others have real travel experiences abroad. With this company, I hope to arrange customized tours to meet individual needs. You cannot see the about section but my short and long descriptions read...

Short:  Travelling with Explore Asia will allow you to discover real people, real culture and have an incredible real life experience along the way.

Long: Explore Asia delivers authentic travel experiences to top destinations within Asia. It can be difficult to pick the right tour package with so many options out there. That is why our passionate and dedicated Travel Consultants have volunteered and worked in Asia; trying out all the activities and sites we recommend. We are here to customize your itinerary and give you the trip of a life time. We offer a wide range of tour packages, including: express, adventure, leisure, luxury, and family friendly.

I focused on the use of visuals to capture the viewers curiosity. The logo is simply a map of the continent in which we offer tours. I choose a cover photo that has elements of nice weather, relaxation and culture. I created a photo album that consists of the top sites that must be seen in each country. I utilized a time-lapse video of images from South East Asia to promote an upcoming event, Travel Talk. The timeline can be used for customers to post images from their trips.

Rachelle

I created a Facebook page for my future business, sharikubinec.ca. 

The target client for this business is female entrepreneurs. I offer workshops, online courses, and consulting services. As well, I do speaking engagements on topics surrounding digital marketing and women in business. 

You will notice that my page has an inspirational "feel" to it since that is attractive to my ideal client. Many women struggle to balance family responsibilities with their business and career goals, and those are the women I am targeting. As Chin and Lu (2015) mention, "reader's attitudes and intention towards clicking the like button, and their actual behaviour, can be influenced by whether or not they share the Facebook poster's opinion" (p.589). In other words, Facebook shareability can increase if you effectively target your ideal client and post things that speak to their current value system, struggles, etc. As a business person, I can take advantage of the "conformity motivation" that Chin and Lu outline, by posting articles, memes, etc. that my ideal client will share and therefore attract more of my ideal clients to follow my page. In this sense, my Facebook page is a tool to increase awareness of my business and drive potential clients to my website, where they can subscribe to an enewsletter and sign up for online courses or workshops. 

Throughout the feed, I post a variety of topics. Some are very specific to the services I provide such as the one of me standing and presenting at a workshop. The post adds a bit of value to the follower since they can clearly see the screen showing the "x" and "i" words I mention in the post. This will cause some users to stop and read the screen and potentially become interested in the topic. In this particular post, I added a question as a way to gain some engagement from the followers. "The higher the engagement with you, the more likely it is that your page will be picked up by the Facebook algorithm and make it into the news feed" (Walter, in an interview with Stelzer, 2010).

I've also posted a video to my timeline, and would do that regularly. This is a powerful video that asks the question, "what would you do if money didn't matter?" The video is by Allan Watts. It is a wildly popular video, so it is something that is likely to elicit likes and shares.  As well, it is has a motivating factor for entrepreneurs who need to recommit regularly to their business goals. 

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks!

Van der Stoel Pollinating Ltd. Facebook Page

Hello all,

I’ve created a business Facebook page for the company I work for, Van der Stoel Pollinating Ltd. Often times, these types of technology are not embraced in the agriculture industry, but two years ago Van der Stoel Pollinating launched a website which has been successful in generating leads for pollinating inquiries and seed sales.  It has been at the back of my mind to create a Facebook page to hopefully accomplish the same goals for quite some time now.  As this is a draft, and the content will need to be approved by my supervisor, at the moment I have not published the page, so hopefully you can glean enough information from these screen shots!

The "about" section is not visible, but the short description is: 

Based out of Southern Alberta, Van der Stoel Pollinating provides custom leaf cutter bee pollination services to hybrid canola, alfalfa seed, and milk vetch growers throughout Canada. 

Many people are familiar with honey bee pollination, but leaf cutters are also used to pollinate alfalfa seed and hybrid canola seed throughout Southern Alberta.  Because this is a relatively uncommon service to offer, the challenge I had when creating this page was finding relative materials (videos, postings, etc) to share.  It is difficult to simply Google “leaf cutter bee pollination” and find relevant information.

In the agriculture industry, the idea of creating a “network”, is very relevant, but mainly takes place offline. Much of our company’s business comes from contracts with major seed companies, and word-of-mouth referrals.  The Findlay (2010) reading describes that in a network “components are not acting independently – they are affected by the components around them” – and components are both physical and conceptual (Slide 5). In our business strategy, these conceptual and physical components are key. Several components work together to successful generate business. The “call to action” on the Van der Stoel Pollinating Facebook page is simply to “contact us” – as the first step in gaining a buyer of custom pollination would be to discuss options, which are varying depending on crop acres, variety, etc. The service offered is customizable to the user, that the idea of listing prices online is largely out of the question.  However, the goal of a Facebook page, in this case, is not simply to gain customers – but also to build an awareness around the importance and effectiveness of the leaf cutter bee.  The question then becomes, how do we conceptualise “experience” if education and awareness is the goal (Smith, 2013, p. 259)? Further, Smith describes, “People who report having positive experiences with a brand’s content on Facebook have a greater likelihood of claiming to be more likely to do a purchase funnel action” (p. 371).  In order to see people through the sales funnel, what types of engagement should be used? My initial thoughts are that in the agriculture industry, appearing professional and approachable is key. The use of images and informational videos, etc. would likely have an impact on a user who might have little knowledge of the service offered, and hopefully encourage the user to then link to our website.  A relationship of trust needs to be fostered in order for a consumer to engage in such a service. Any suggestions in achieving this are welcomed!

Kathlyn

References:

Findlay, K. (2010). An introduction to network theory. 

Smith, S. (2013, April 05). Conceptualising and evaluating experiences with brands on Facebook. International Journal of Market Research, 55(3), 357–374.

Hi Everyone

Creating my facebook entertainment page I have researched what similar pages are posting and what tools they utilize to increase viewership.  As network theory posits, the more 'Likes' your page receives the more connections it is creating, growing logarithmically as the power function suggests. 

As an entertainment site, my goal is to create a node and as likes increase and the network continues to grow I'm confident it will eventually grow into a hub where like minded people will post and like creating clusters of links producing more networks.

As a fun interactive page, Catastrophe, will not be buying likes as suggested in How to Buy Friends and Influence People.  That said, I can see why big business who have large budgets would find it attractive and comparatively affordable when you consider the exponential influence a 'Like' can bring.

One of the strategy's I'm employing for Catastrophe will be to employ the research into way to increase the number of likes with out having to purchase them. The journal article Antecedents of social presence and gratification of social connection need in Social Network Sites provides terrific insight into social network user motivation.  Han, Min and Lee found that gratification of social connections needs plays an important role in sustained use and this presence in enforced by immediacy and intimacy related aspects of the communication.  Therefore producing images and content that will re-enforce engender intimacy through laughter and immediacy of response to new posts will help build the number of 'Likes'. 

If you want your site to be rewarded with a 'Like' you have to have insight into your viewer's motivation.  According to researchers Chin and Lu, their study found " that if, concerning content posted on Facebook, the identity of the posters and the number of “Likes” triggered hedonic, utilitarian, compliance, conformity, and affiliation motivations in the users, there is a chance that motivation can be used to influence users’ attitudes in favour of clicking the “Like” button".  The question will be if Facebook were to employ a 'dislike' button how would that alter those positive interactions.  Would it become a repository for negative interactions and how will that effect your network?

References:

CHIH-YU, C., HSI-PENG, L., & CHAO-MING, W. (2015). FACEBOOK USERS' MOTIVATION FOR CLICKING THE "LIKE" BUTTON. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 43(4), 579-592. doi:10.2224/sbp.2015.43.4.579

Network Theory retrieved from:  http://www.slideshare.net/ervler/an-introduction-to-network-theory

Han, S., Min, J., & Lee, H. (2015). Antecedents of social presence and gratification of social connection needs in SNS: A study of Twitter users and their mobile and non-mobile usage. International Journal Of Information Management, 35(4), 459-471. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.004

Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2013/04/buy-friends-on-facebook/ 

Women in Technology and Trades at NAIT (WITT)

Hi Everyone!

I have been working at NAIT for some time now, in several capacities. Recently, I have begun covering for a colleague in the Women in Technology and Trades program (WITT). I would love to tell you more about it, but hope our Facebook page will do that for us!

I have only recently begun implementing a social media strategy for our department, and the WITT program's existing, however rogue, social media has proven to be a great starting point!

I look forward to your wonderful comments and suggestions, and seeing your pages as well.

As a side note, I will be away this weekend for a wedding and am not sure of my internet access. I apologize that I can not comment on anyone else's blog posts as no one else has posted yet! I will try to access the blog on Saturday (even though that means I will be late), but we will be driving and sleeping today after work until tomorrow evening. If I don't get the chance to post while I am away, I will be sure to comment when I return on Tuesday! Thank you all for being so understanding! Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers!
Kaylee

How to Create a Facebook Page

This little video may come in handy when you embark upon your own Facebook Page creation: