Everybody's talking about your narrative, or they will be soon!
This week, we are meeting for the last time (sad) and I will provide feedback on your narrative draft #1. You will then take that feedback (including the feedback on the PDF uploaded to Canvas when our conferences are complete) and make the appropriate changes before your post and upload your narrative on the specific page on your class Wix in order to start promoting it.
Some of you have not signed up for Conferences yet. Missing a conference means no feedback on your draft, no credit for completing your draft, and two absences. Spots are limited, so grab one now.
I am still grading Project #2, which means I am moving the REVISION MEMO deadline to FRIDAY, November 22.
On SUNDAY November 24, you will need to begin promoting your narrative. This means you will need to have your two advertisements built, your two social media accounts ready, and upload your promotional plan to your Class Wix page for feedback. As soon as you get your promotional plan feedback, you are expected to promo your narrative.
P3 Short Assignment #3 Promotional Plan is due FRIDAY (November 22) before 11:59 pm. Your promotional plan should be a minimum of 500 words and provide a detailed approach to marketing your narrative.
How do you plan to reach your intended audience?
What are the two social media accounts you plan to use?
What art will you be using on these accounts to attract your audience?
What times of the day will you post?
This assignment should be posted on your P3 page along with your P3-SA1, P3-SA2, and two advertisements. Also, on that page, provide access to the social media accounts you have started to promote your narrative.
This week's Twitter Assignment: Create a thread explaining everything you learned about writing narratives through the process of writing one of your own.
Now, time to talk about how to create an engaging advertising campaign.
You have worked hard on your narrative and have the opportunity to share the story you wrote with the world. The question becomes, how to get the attention of "the world"? Perhaps "the world" is too big. But you can focus your efforts on getting the attention of your audience. Who would want to read your narrative? Don't say no body.
You need a PROMOTION PLAN!
In order to complete this plan, you need to think about the subject of your story and the subject of your research paper and ask yourself who enjoys this topic or needs to read your take on your topic. Also, think about your sub-genre. Who likes to read your narrative sub-genre? These niche groups will be your audience.
When you get your Wix site specifically for your narrative built and your social media accounts ready, you should follow as many people in your niche audience and tell them about your website. Also, fill up your social media account with articles and tweets about your particular niche. For example, if you wrote a series of poems about women of color pursuing careers in the law profession, then also post articles about diversity in law schools and the pay gap. If your story was inspired by the detectives in Law and Order SVU or the doctors and nurses on Grey's Anatomy, seek SVU and Grey's fan sites.
Also, let's takes some lessons from our friends in the sales department.
Ever meet a person who is really good at sales? Like they have convinced you to hand them money, and you aren't sure what they did or how they did it, but you are less money and now own something you hadn't thought about buying an hour before. A good example of this would be informercials. I love watching good infomercials. Often, I find one to keep on as background noise, and the next thing I know, I am looking to throw down good money on something I had no intention of buying a half an hour before.
The best informercials on television right now are:
Flex tape, or Flex seal (basically any of the Flex products)
Window Wonderland (or what I call, nightmare fuel)
Salesmen can get a bad reputation because of their uncanny ability to separate you from your money, but don't place all the blame on them. Instead, learn their tricks and use them to convince as many people as possible to look at your genres.
Here are 11 things salespeople know that you can use for P3.
You miss all the shots you don't take. Sales people know that the process of attracting people is a numbers game. Most of the time, you will only see a return on 10% of the interactions you attempt. This means the more people you attempt the engage, the more return you will see. If you follow 100 people on social media, you might get 10 people to follow you back. So make it a game. Follow 20 people a day for the remainder of the semester and track how many people respond.
A smile goes a long way: be approachable: Notice how salespeople are always smiling. At the mall, on car lots, in your cell phone store. They are smiling because they want you to feel welcome. Make your Wix page, promotional materials and social media accounts welcome and inviting as possible. Even though you might be presenting serious topics, make the topics approachable. Creates spaces where people feel comfortable spending time.
No one has rejected you yet: the worst thing you can do is the convince yourself that no one likes your narrative. Do not let self-doubt take charge. So until you hear otherwise, tell yourself, "My narrative is amazing. Everyone loves what I created." This is your new mantra.
Not trying is more embarrassing than looking foolish. This is an extension of the "You miss all the shots you don't take" bullet point. Not trying, being embarrassed to show your friends, family, strangers what you created is not going to help you succeed in this project. Especially because you have not created anything to be embarrassed about.
Be personal: Don't be so caught up in being professional that you are afraid to be personal. In the previous two projects, you were asked to be objective. That is not the case in P3. You are allowed to connect with your audience on a personal level. Don't be afraid to be excited, invested, connected to the material in order to convince others to do the same.
Be everywhere: The Big 6 Social Media accounts are - Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram. You are required to use 2 of these for your narrative promotion. If one of these is not working and you want to add a 3rd or 5th, do so. Track why you think some accounts worked better than others and what you can do to make them more affective and include these observations in your report.
Do the work, don't rely on the narrative to do the work for you. You wrote a great narrative. Don't make it difficult for others to find it. All social media accounts work on an algorithm where people don't even see your posts unless others have already liked them. Which means posting your narrative and one tweet a day which says, "Hey go read my narrative!" is not going to work.
Make friends/not enemies: You want to cultivate an interest in your topic to strangers. You lure more people with positivity than negativity.
Take advantage of your entire network: You are members of different campus groups. Many of you live in dorms or halls with email lists and message boards. Tell people what you are doing and make it easy for them to find you. Not telling them, "Hey, I need people to like my posts for my grade. Please like." I mean, some people will respond to that. But more people respond to a person's enthusiasm for a project. Get amped and others will get amped with you.
Push. Don't shove: Encourage people to look at but don't force them. Don't beg. Don't bribe. Don't connive. Don't click bait.
Believe in your product: This is key. People can tell if your enthusiasm is fake. Your topic is one you have working on for a long time. It is part of your brand. You believe in it or else you wouldn't have pursued it for as long as you have. Celebrate your hard work by telling people what you created.
How do you get something to go VIRAL?
The term viral marketing originated back in the dawn of the Internet to describe a digital composition which is infectious and contagious. Let's begin to examine one of the first viral videos.
The Hampster Dance was a website which was only full of rows and rows of hamsters dancing to a single loop of a dance track. The rows were infinite. No matter how long you scrolled, you never reached the end of the page.
Back when offices first embraced the Internet, particularly email, employees would receive a link in the mail from a friend. They would go to the website and witness the never-ending scrolling of hamsters dancing to this one song loop. They found it annoying. But it was a particular type of annoying. It was annoying without being obnoxious. And the joy of the video was not receiving it, but sharing it with others who had not experienced it. You delighted in seeing their confused and annoyed face.
But why did something so annoying catch on so quickly? It could be its simplicity. Hamsters dancing. The color scheme is clean: white background with grays, browns and black outlines. The animation is simple. And the song is different but still familiar.
This is the original song which the creators of Hampster Dance sampled for their website. It first appeared in the 1973 version of Disney's Robin Hood. It was written and performed by country music performer Roger Miller. Miller was a very popular singer/songwriter in country music at this time, also providing the voice work for the Troubadour Rooster in the film. Office workers in 1997 would have been very familiar with the 1973 Disney's Robin Hood because they would have watched it either in theaters or in the many television airings on The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC.
Nostalgia is a powerful trigger. Just recently one of you in a Twitter poll asked which Disney show was your favorite growing up, which started a debate of Nickelodeon vs Disney Channel. Think about the popular songs or movies from when you were younger and how you cannot be convinced they are imperfect forms of art because of your memories associated with them. This is why Hampster Dance is annoying without being obnoxious. It triggers that nostalgia.
What does a successful marketing campaign need?
A messenger: don't assume it is you. You might have the message, but consider who is delivering that message for you. There is a reason celebrities are used in the ASPCA ads.
A Maven: A maven is a person who is an influencer. People look to them for guidance on what is cool, popular, important and stylish. This is not necessarily the same for every audience. While Kylie Jenner might be a maven for fashion, RuPaul would be the maven for transgender rights. If you can get a maven to represent for your genres, then more people will be attracted to it.
A Social Hub: this is the person who knows the most people. They have the most Facebook friends, they have the most followers, they have the most friends and associates. People want to know the social hub. Get a social hub sharing your genres, then you will get the most eyes on it.
Use these for promotion of your genres. You have a friend who everyone looks to, ask them to post your genres on their social media for you and report to you the response. Got a friend who has a ridiculous number of followers? Ask them to help promote your genres.
Also, make sure you have compose a genre which others feel compelled to share.
Do this by:
Delivering humor
Giving someone an ego boast
Being incredibly useful (or resourceful)
Playing on a meme
Being dramatic
Being provocative (but SFW)
Evoking a smile
Sparking emotional engagement of some sort
Remember, the best way to get people to notice your genres is to promote them, follow your audience, use hashtags, make everything easy to access (in two clicks or less) and be vigilant.
Mistakes students have made in the past on Project 3
Naming your accounts after your narrative: Stephen King does not run an account called Pet Cemetery and only posts videos of the movie, both versions and the sequels. No. His account is called Stephen King, just like Reese Witherspoon's is named after her, and Shonda Rhimes' is named after her. Exceptions exist, but your account name is part of your brand. How do you want people to know you and find you online?
Using Facebook for a social media promotional account: Facebook is the worst. That's not my opinion, its the opinion of students in the past. Facebook pages are very hard to get new followers or fans.
Forgetting to post: If you don't meet the minimums, you don't get credit for using that social media account. So don't forget this is part of the requirements.
Forgetting to document: I need to know you met the minimums. Download your stories on Snapchat or Instastories and upload them to your Wix page.
Retweeting and Reblogging: Retweets and Reblogs have a purpose. The purpose is to share something cool you found with your followers. But only retweeting or reblogging makes your account look like it's run by a robot. People want to know the human behind the social. Loading it up with gifs, memes, and links is not creating content that people want to read. Instead, it's just regurgitating the internet.
Not making a posting plan: You need to accomplish so many posts before the deadline, so how many in a day? What times will you post? Set an alarm for yourself to post in that moment. Draft posts or use scheduling apps like Hootsuite.
Using all the security settings: If you have a lock on your account, no one can see it. It doesn't matter how many people you follow, when they try to follow you back, they will not see your posts.
Not following people: Go out and make friends. Look at writers or creators in your subgenre and follow their followers.
Don't Forget:
P3SA3: Promotion Plan is due FRIDAY, November 22
We will not be doing classmate review, so you will only have two drafts of your narrative on your P3 Wix page instead of three.
