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people. When I wrote my blog posts, I tried to provide my audience with the necessary information so that they could start doing the same.
5. I think that I could’ve definitely been more flexible when something went awry with my plan. Towards the end of the quarter I had one of my key interviewees cancel on me at the last minute, and so I was missing an essential part of my article that was due that week. I was able to write a different article, but that took me a lot more time than I expected, meaning that the entire production schedule had to go off course. If I had prepared more for contingencies like that, then the production process would’ve gone along much more smoothly.
6. I think I said enough about this question in my answer to the first one.
7. I thought that the #MyWordsMatter social media/video campaign was the most effective. Not only were the videos popular on social media, but the campaign caused people to reach out and engage with us. Not only that, but people were contributing their own content to the campaign. I think that people are much more interested in seeing content that they had a part in creating, and so I think similar campaigns in which TMITR’s audience can have some direct input to our content would serve the campaign’s future well.
8. I think that on the blogging side of things, we definitely had to consider branding as we produced our content. We were publishing our posts directly onto the main site, which meant that we had to be sure that we used the correct fonts and styles to adhere to the site’s theme. We also had to check and see that are blog posts looked similar in the way that we formatted things like pictures. If our posts were structured differently, then it would call our cohesion as a brand into question.
As for analytics, they were very useful for telling us what types of content did and didn’t appeal to our audience. For example, analytics taught us that readers respond better to articles about issues than articles about events. Though by the time we learned about this we had already set our production schedule for the quarter, I’m hoping that the information will get passed on to next quarter’s blogging team, and they can structure their content accordingly.
9. I’m interested in using writing in my career, and so blogging for TMITR provided me with invaluable experience for that field. In particular, it helped me practice how to adjust my tone to suit certain audiences. In my blog posts, I wanted to come off as someone with enough authority over my topic that my audience could trust and value what I had to say about it, but is also friendly and approachable at the same time. I had to strike the perfect balance between peer and credible source, and I think a lot of that came through my tone. I hope to reach out to many different types of audiences with my writing, and this project has helped me recognize what aspects of my writing I need to shift depending on the audience and situation.
10. I think that doing this project made me realize how critical audience engagement and exposure are for digital media. I used to roll my eyes at people who frequently promoted their work, as I thought that it was excessive and only served to bolster their egos. However, I now realize that those types of tactics to get your content out in the world and form an audience around it. After all, you could have the greatest content in the world, but it wouldn’t matter if no one’s ever heard of it before.