What I’ve Learned Thus Far: Presenting To Our Client

Last week, our team had one of the moments that we have been working towards for months – we presented our research, work and recommendations to our client! After much stress and self-doubt, it was so exciting for us to have the affirmation from our client that all our hard work was actually in the right direction. As much as we believe in our objectives for and efforts with ArtyApt, we would have been so disappointed if they hadn’t been well recieved. We were so happy to hear that our client wants to implement many of our ideas!

So what have I learned from this? Don’t doubt your ideas. Our team really went out on a limb with some of our ideas. Although we were confident they were the best plans for our campaign, they weren’t exactly aligned with the goals originally set forth for us. However, it paid off big time. Don’t play it safe! We let our particular strengths and innovative ideas shine instead, and I’m so glad we did.

My next post will be recapping what I learned from presenting our project t o our faculty members! Even though there are only a few days left before my college career ends, there is still plenty to learn!

What I’ve Learned Thus Far

Well, I started off with high expectations for this blog, and those seem to have dissolved into thin air! I’ve been learning a lot this semester but not telling you about it, so my apologies. I definitely have plenty to tell, though. It’s hard for me to even narrow down what has been the most enlightening, so I am going to do a “Top 5″. Fittingly, that’s one thing I’ve learned for every week that’s passed since I last blogged. (Jeez, I suck!)

1. Don’t rush research. Our group created two surveys using Survey Monkey to conduct our primary research. We discussed what information was important to glean from potential website visitors as well as contributing artists, and I spent a lot of time building the two different surveys. After I’d completed them, I honestly felt great about both of them and so we put them up on the web, promoting them on Facebook and Twitter as well as ArtyApt’s blog. However, just the next week, we discussed research via surveys in class and learned that we may have been a little premature in putting our survey up. Next time, I would definitely test run the survey with a few friends and a faculty member or advisor before sending it out to the masses.

2. Don’t rush in general. The competitive nature of our project has sometimes made us feel like we need to beat the other teams to something, but its really important to fine comb our choices before we go full speed ahead. With every choice we are making, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves: How does this fit into the big picture of making ArtyApt all it can be and managing the brand? How is this using our talents and skills?

3. When competition gets heated, remember the big picture. There has been a little bit of communication with the other two teams working with ArtyApt as of late. For those who are unfamiliar, there are three separate teams working on ArtyApt as their capstone projects. Our team is from the convergence sequence but the other two are strategic communication, so our goals and perspectives differ. If I were running this show, I would have divided up the responsibilities among the groups according to their strengths, but I’m not, so. It’s been interesting, to say the least, working on the same project with two other groups. Sometimes it can get competitive, but our purpose is not to compete with each other to be the best. “The best” for advertising students is probably different than it is for us, multimedia storytellers with distinctive and diverse skills. We have to focus on using our talents to do OUR best.

4. Still, competition can push you to be better and work more efficiently. There’s no denying that a competitive atmosphere can drive you to work harder. It reminds me of working out with a friend – when there’s someone there working alongside you, you don’t want to be the one to lag behind! While the multi-team dynamic has been challenging, its definitely been positive in some ways.

5. There’s nothing like results. Our next step is to recruit artists to contribute their art to ArtyApt. We plan to promote the artists with multimedia profiles and prominent links to their personal websites. I am also working in online marketing at Newsy.com and have really enjoyed getting results with my blogger outreach. I’m hoping to use the same strategies that I use in my email pitches to bloggers to get artists excited about what we’re doing at ArtyApt!

I promise I won’t let so much time pass before the next update – promise!

What I’ve Learned Thus Far

As much as I love to write, I have had a serious case of writer’s block lately. I’ve wanted to type so many things into this space about the past three weeks of my last semester at Mizzou, which has already been a whirlwind. Yet I don’t know how to put into words my feelings about the tasks that lie before me. I don’t want to misrepresent the exciting opportunities I have been given by imposing my own stress and self-doubt upon them. I certainly didn’t want this to end up being a therapy session, where I work out all my conflicted thoughts about the future, but clearly I’ve already failed in that respect!

So. I decided I’m not going to blog this semester about my shortcomings, my stresses, my concerns. I’m going to blog what I LEARN. I am so very privileged to go to such an esteemed university, to study alongside such talented folks, to gain valuable skills and knowledge each day. I hope for my blog to be a record of everything this fabulous place teaches me during my very last semester here.

Without further ado, what I’ve learned thus far:

1. Strategic campaigns are SO different than reporting, because your client, not your audience, comes first. The major difference between my capstone project this semester and everything else I’ve done at the university is who I am aiming to please. I am currently working to grow the website ArtyApt.com through social media and new media tools and techniques. I am so excited to work on this campaign because more and more, I see myself working in this capacity, rather than as a reporter.

Still, I have had to adjust my perspective quickly. I am used to working for the public. Sure, my editors have a lot of say, but in the end I can defend my work to them and to myself by saying, “Hey, this is an important story to tell, and there are people who need and want to hear it.” With ArtyApt, the audience is crucial. The entire point of our project is to increase and engage the audience, to create a community around ArtyApt so the business is sustainable. Yet there is a much greater focus than ever before on giving the client what they desire, even if you as the communicator have other ideas on what’s best. It’s not as much about the people who want and need to hear what your organization has to say. It’s about what your organization wants and needs them to hear. It’s a really interesting difference that I’m glad I’ve gotten the chance to navigate this before I enter the work force. If I do end up working in strategic communication, I will have a really good understanding of how it all works. Before this semester, I didn’t really grasp the dynamics.

I can’t wait until next week to see what I learn next, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Week Seven of The Most

It’s hard to believe my time at KOMU is over! It was so great working with Courtney and Jen on The Most. This project has been, by far, my favorite as a convergence major. I learned so many skills that will serve me as I look for jobs after graduation. I learned the newsroom’s content management system and exercised my script writing and audio editing skills. I have added Google Analytics to my list of tech-y programs I’m proficient in. Most importantly, I discovered that the marriage of creating journalistic content and interacting through social media is really rewarding. I hope to keep doing fun and innovative work like The Most in my future endeavors. 

As I said in my previous post, I think Courtney and I (and Allison before us) really brought something to KOMU with The Most. I think over the past seven weeks, we established ourselves as an approachable and reliable source for news and information on Facebook. Many times, we had viewers ask us questions and it was really rewarding to be able to answer them and strengthen that relationship between KOMU and its audience. It’s such an exciting time in journalism, with so many ways to communicate with viewers/listeners/readers, and I am grateful for this opportunity to try my hand at it!

Courtney and I built upon a help file Allison started, with step-by-step instructions for The Most in its current incarnation, as well as some general advice. Hopefully, this guide will be a good foundation for the next “Most-ers” so it can continue to get better and better!

Week Six of The Most

This was another quick day at KOMU. Courtney and I are able to really work together, which has made the process of creating “The Most” go quickly. Every time I go to KOMU, I am excited to get to work. I think one of my favorite things about working at KOMU this semester was the ability to track our success. Seeing our Facebook Fan Page really light up with interaction shows us that we have been moving in the right direction. I’m always really excited to write our script because what has been “The Most” viewed is often directly connected to our social media efforts on Facebook.

Week Five at The Most

Courtney wasn’t able to come to KOMU this day because of a family emergency. She offered to do what she could from afar, but I figured she needed the time off, and she has certainly picked up my slack other times!

Although I certainly missed Courtney, since we work together really well, this day was my favorite thus far because I learned so much! Doing the entire process of researching, writing, voicing, editing, and producing The Most start to finish was so rewarding. The toughest part was voicing because I really don’t feel like that is my strong suit, but like I told Jen, the great thing about convergence is that you learn it all!

We ended up with a great podcast once again. I really will miss creating it after the semester is over, and have definitely learned something that I enjoy and would love to do in another capacity in the future.

Week Four at The Most

I have to be honest that The Most almost feels too easy. Each week it keeps getting smoother and smoother for Courtney and I to put together! Still, I am wanting to get my hands on the editing side of things, but we end up having Courtney do it because she is quicker. I think if The Most was a one-person job, that person would get more hands-on experience.

I really enjoy working at KOMU, too. Being at the dot-com desk is really different than when I was working with reporters in 4804. Everyone works together and there is a really convivial feeling that I appreciate in a work environment. My time at Newsy and KOMU has been really rewarding this semester, and I’ve built some awesome relationships.

Week Three of The Most

This week I was pretty psyched to learn that my post on KOMU’s Facebook fan page about yoga got our viewers commenting and even arguing with each other! Courtney and I have really wanted to work on viewer interaction on Facebook, as its really dwindled in the past few months. We’ve been learning that the best stories to post on Facebook are not necessarily the most newsy, but the ones that people will have opinions on.

We have gotten our podcast script written, voiced, edited and posted in record time! If anything, I feel like The Most is a little too easy for two people. Sometimes I feel like I don’t have enough to do! We will definitely be brainstorming ways to make The Most bigger and better, because I want to challenge myself. Next week, I want to take the wheel a bit more with some of the technical stuff and Avid editing, which Courtney has headed up. I think that will be a good learning experience!

Week Two with The Most

I was sick this week so I wasn’t able to go in to KOMU until about noon. I really wanted to drag myself out of bed and go, though, because I knew this was a crucial week to learn.

Courtney and I decided that The Most should be a purely audio podcast rather than the partially video format that Allison was doing originally. We both felt strongly that we should commit fully one way or the other – video or audio – and that for our purposes, audio would better serve KOMU’s viewers. I felt really good about this decision and I feel like it focused The Most more.

So we’ve produced our first The Most podcast! I am really confident that The Most will gain visibility and become a staple of KOMU’s website. I think we’ve made some great improvements already, for example posting The Most in multiple categories on the website so it is more easily found, and really amping up Facebook efforts so Facebook can serve as another “home” for The Most.

“The Most”

My first day at KOMU last week was great! I really like Jen Reeves and I had a great time just getting to know KOMU better. We talked a lot about how we are going to increase social media outreach. Courtney and I took on amping up the KOMU-TV Facebook page and so far, its been going really well! We haven’t gotten far on actually producing The Most, but we have lots of great ideas and I can’t wait to take it to the next level.