TEAM 5, WEEK 7 STORIFY SUMMARY

Week 7 has come and gone.  As we venture forth into our final week of class, I would like to say to TEAM 5, it has been both an honor and a privilege to have been your discussion leader for this week.  Looking back, it seems we have all come such a long way in a short amount of time in relation to our social media skills and ability's.  When this course first started, there was so much information to take in, it seemed pretty  OVERWHELMING!  But here we are staring our final week of class in the face;  much more confident than we were in week one, of our social media skills and prowess.  It is evident that such a learning growth took place in all of us, based on our week 7 Storify assignment.  You all did a bang up job, and made my week as discussion leader, fun, and informative.  Here is a recap of some of my take away's from each of your Storify submissions.

Damaris did a great job on her Storify this week.  One thing Damaris pointed out, which we can all use as a take away, is that she discovered that her websites have seen the most traffic when the content on her blog and micro-blogs (especially Instagram) have a daily does of fresh content being produced.  By keeping things fresh, especially conducting weekly updates and submissions to your blogs, people will want to keep coming back to see all the new things you've posted.  If you lack in your updates, people will get bored of you, and move on.  Nice work Damaris!

Ian did a super job on his Storify this week, and also came up with some helpful ways on how to keep your followers intrigued by posting teasers on your micro-blogs, in order to get them to come to your blog to discover the full story.  Here is an example of one of Ian's tweets from week 4:  "Learn how #bigdata contributes to #analytics & join the conversation at ianlarson5.blogspot.com #Marist610"  By incorporating hashtags into his message, Ian was able to raise the potential of his tweet being seen by both his followers and potential followers.  Nice work Ian!


Lindsey brought her "A" game AGAIN for this week's blog entry.  Lindsey's Storify contained a good balance of text and images.  One thing about her blog that stood out for me, is that she helped break up some areas of her Storify that could have seemed a bit wordy, by inserting hyperlinks that readers can click on, which would bring them to additional information they could view that relates to Lindsey's topic for that week in some way.  By adding hyperlinks and other forms of media to your Storify, you help bring the story to life through more than just words.  Here is a nice little tie in to that from something I experienced this week.  In his lecture about IMC, Dr. Don Schultz, "The Father of IMC" stated that moving forward, in regard to communication, less emphasis will be given to words, and more emphasis will be put on pictures and sounds.  Something to think about...Nice work Lindsey!

One thing that stood out for me about Pat's Storify paper is that it moved quickly.  Pat used bullets to make a list of his goals and objectives.  I think this was a good use of writing technique, that helped to avoid wordy or blocky text.  Coupled with the use of images and media, Pat successfully delivered!  One thing I found very interesting, is that one of Pat's tweets on building a Marketing and PR plan was FAVORITED by @socially, this is a twitter account with more than 10,000 followers.  Talk about a way to gain maximum exposure, Nice job Pat!

Bobbie Sue did an awesome job on her Storify this week.  Bobbie Sue is no stranger to the use of social media.  She states in her paper that she manages six personal social media accounts, and contributes to ten social media accounts for work.  That is a lot of social media!  One thing that stood out for me in relation to Bobbie Sue's social media usage, is that even with all her past history of interacting with social media, she was still able to listen to the advice of the instructor and classmates and learn something new.  As she states in her paper, this occurred during week 4 when she added search words and a link to her blog through her micro-blogs.  As a result she garnered 118 page view on her blog, which was the most she has had to date.  Great going Bobbie Sue, keep up the good work!

Again, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to be TEAM 5's discussion leader for this week.  You guys did an awesome job, and I learned a lot from each of you as a result of being the discussion leader, and having to slave through all of your paper's (Just Kidding).  I found them all to be very interesting, and all perhaps a reflection of who each of you are as individuals.  You all successfully brought something different to the table, and as a result, I think we are all better IMC students, and individuals, having had the opportunity to learn from each other.  Thank you again, and good luck to all of us as we move forward in our professional careers. 

-  Dan