Don't Make Me Think! (Chapters that will help our online viral marketing campaign)

Chapter Two
How we really use the Web

Our goal for a viral marketing campaign is to get people to read our page and be excessively interested in it. For that, we have to do several things, including increasing usability. If our page is dense and cluttered, no one is going to care how cool the pens are that we are talking about. We need to highlight important parts and consider the fact that when people read online pages, they only scan them. This web presence should be targeted at every person, meaning the majority of people who are rushed and click-happy when browsing the web. 

Chapter 8
"The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends"

This is one chapter that really targets what we are doing - a team project. We all are very creative people, or we would not have made it this far in the class. At some point, we are going to have very different ideas about how we want to design our site or promote our service, and we may want to punch each other in the face or at the very least not come to a conclusion many people are happy about. Hopefully, by following the advice of this chapter, we will be able to avoid the question of personal preferences and focus on what the reader needs in context with a particular page or media site. After all, our viral marketing is supposed to target the public and meet their needs, not ours. (This is not a problem right now, I just hope we don't pass through our group's honeymoon phase)

Chapter 9
Usability testing on 10 cents a day

This chapter talks about how to figure out what works. Of course, we can't have a successful viral marketing campaign without knowing what gets our audience's attention, but we don't have money to conduct large-scale research. What we will need is a larger army. So maybe we use our friends as a focus group or a live audience for our video recording, get them on board, and have other people starting to promote our videos. We will most likely need to test several versions of things to ensure our video goes viral. Though this chapter is more about usability mistakes, I can take from it tactics that help test effectiveness on an audience.

Unit 4 Web-Presence Tools: Storify

I used the web application Storify to play with ways of constructing a useful web presence for our group pen story. Storify integrates social media tools to allow the user to generate one large story to share on many sites at once. I'm not too sold on this tool, but I think it will be useful if we need to do a quick blast.

Some other sites I have used in the past may work a bit better, even though they are typically used for marketing and PR purposes. PitchEngine is the most amazing tool I have yet to find on the web. You can basically create an entire media kit using this online tool and blast it through to social media as well. I would like to try to incorporate this tool in this unit production even though it isn't listed under our class's unit production tools.

Hootsuite is another social media tool that is used to connect all your social media sites onto one central "desktop" area. You can then generate stories for all of the sites in one place. This is similar to Storify, but I'm not sure that you create a heading or add tools in the same way.

Each of these tools are useful in different ways, but I think I like PitchEngine the most when it comes to generating a professional image for Ink, Inc. We plan on fabricating elaborate stories about pens and their importance, and we need a professional website to do so. With PitchEngine, we can essentially create our entire brand and get the word out about who we are and what we stand for. We can add our "company's" boiler plate and integrate our message with all of our corresponding social media tools. This will help expand our web presence both out on the Internet and on the WVU server.

The World Wide Web of Pens

After perusing the Internet for only about 5-10 minutes, it has become apparent to me that pen theft is a very serious issue, beyond the personal damage I have suffered. These online sources provide evidence to the fact AND ways we can rally together to prevent pens from being stolen in the future.

First of all, this website clearly exemplifies the value of pens to millions of people. These people go to shows to see the best fountain pens, watch talk shows about pens and read this website's blogs about PENS! That is some significant pen information!

Look at ALL THESE PAGES (below) of people who are 1) lost and confused after having lost a pen and 2) frustrated with all of the people who just keep stealing their pens! This is just disgusting that so many have posted and ranted about this problem.

Pet Peeve #5: Stop Stealing My F'in Pen, You Bastards!

Stop Stealing My Pens

To my @$$hold Co-workers: STOP STEALING MY FREAKING PENS!

Check out #5 on this page (scroll down)

Guest Speaker: Dwight Speaks!

Stop stealing my pens. Thanks :)

How do I get people to stop stealing the pens in my office?

Please stop stealing my pens

Stop. Stealing. My. Pens. 

Fortunately, some people have thought of things that we can do about this major issue. First off, we can gain awareness through social media on the Facebook and Twitter pages. Also, you can buy cool prank items to make people want to NEVER steal your pens again!

Lastly, make sure your kids don't grow up to be pen stealers. Early Intervention!

Lost Pen
by: fanaticangel1

Unit 3 Tutorial: Narrative Tool

Here is the link to the tutorial for this unit!

Pens in the Office

Pens in the Office
by: bbloise

How to Write Dialogue that Works

The readings for this week seemed like common sense to me. If you pay attention to the way dialogue works in books and on television it's really easy to emulate the style and create good dialogue.

However, I'm kind of a special case because I have always enjoyed fiction writing and was "taught" (who knows where I learned it - either from the Young Writers Workshop at Pitt or just from loving fiction so much) from an early age. I've always wanted to create my own work of fiction, but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet.

One thing that really stood out in both of these readings was the point to pay attention to the different ways people talk. I have already been playing with my Xtranormal video and didn't really think about the type of language both of my characters were using.

This could be for two reasons: 1) I am writing the dialogue and putting my own words and inflection into their mouths, or 2) I envision personalities and the dialogue works in relation to that personality without having to specifically think about it.

I have one character who is modeled after Milton from Office Space, and the other is supposed to be Bill Lumbergh, the boss. I wanted my Bill to be calm yet somehow overbearing, only because my "Melvin" is shy and submissive. I used motions and facial expressions to convey those personalities.
Also, Melvin speaks with a stutter when being confronted by his boss. There is not much dialogue between the two of them.

When Melvin speaks to the camera, he is talking about his pen. He doesn't exactly become less mousy, but he does complete his sentences and express his emotions more openly than he was able to when he was speaking to Bill. Still, I think I followed the do's and don'ts of writing acceptably at this point in my project, anyway.

Pen Show

Just wanted to point out that there are people out there who are crazier about pens than I am.

Tilbrook Pen Show: a brief overview

Claremont the Pen

Claremont the Pen on Prezi

I gave up on the music :[

Tutorial: From Print to Presentation

This post will not be nearly as interesting as my awesome Jing video earlier in the semester, but seeing as I have no voice, am sitting at the desk at work until midnight and still can't figure out how to post sound to my Prezi, I will just have to write this out in blog form.

I thought transforming my pen PWS into a presentation would be easy! It took a lot more than just figuring out the program and posting some pictures along with the text, though.

We learned design aspects, CRAP, for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. Having narrative coherence was not enough to create an attractive presentation, but that's also important. You also have to make sure you relate what you are saying to your audience - talk in a way that will get them to believe and really get into what you're saying.

Anyway, back to design principles of CRAP. These principles help you put everything you want to get across to your audience into a professional, eye catching presentation that makes sense visually as well as textually. Here is a more detailed explanation of CRAP:

C - Use contrast to emphasize things like different colors and SIZES. 
R - Repeating phrases and like images help make your presentation consistent and memorable.
A - Choose one alignment for document/slides, and don't center align block quotes = hard to read!! 
P - Put things that go together close to each other. Likewise, things that don't go together shouldn't be near each other!

I added media, a sound file that I am still fighting with, and some cool made-up statistics on my presentation, and we have Claremont the Pen!!

Week 5 reading response

The readings for this week provide a lot of helpful information for all aspects of the presentation writing we are doing for this unit. First, the page on the back of the Unit 2 instructions talks about how to maintain smooth transitions throughout a presentation. Moving smoothly through the opening, body and closing helps to create a cohesive and comprehensive presentation. 

The reading on the basic building blocks of design will build on the principles of flow and help make each screen position as clear and organized as possible. It is in line with our instructions to use contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity to make our presentations effective. Introducing and explaining each of these principles individually helps fundamental understanding of the concepts and reasons for utilizing them. While I read through this, I made a lot of mental notes on how I need to reorganize my current presentation to make it work inside these rules better. I know that my current slides are not repetitive, making my presentation lack cohesion. I also need to work on contrast, but that is mostly a problem with getting to know the program I am using. Alignment and proximity are not such big issues, but as I redesign, I will be thinking more about how all of these elements should come together to create the best presentation. 

The chapter in the book talks about the kind of text that is unnecessary and should be avoided in presentations. Though I don’t think I will have any happy talk or instructions in mine, it will help me remember to cut out unnecessary words in my story to make it more concise. 

Overall, I love how these readings are straight forward and express things clearly by just saying things like “don’t do this because it’s just dumb.” It’s funny and it keeps your attention!

Presentation Tools

For my PWS multimedia presentation, I think I will just use Prezi. I want to be able to pan and zoom, so I might end up making a presentation with pictures I take that tell a story. I was thinking I wanted to make a full-fledged video, but I think that is our next unit assignment with the narration tools. I really like that Prezi has the ability to add a storyline, so I can make my slides flow and transition to present my PWS.

However, I see now that Prezi can also upload videos. Since we haven't talked about our next few assignments in terms of what exactly we will be doing with our PWS, I'm not sure if now is the right time to incorporate moving video or not. I hope to be able to play with that tool and potentially use it, or put it off for the next unit. Either way, I think that Prezi has plenty of tools and resources that I can use to effectively communicate my PWS.

When I registered with Prezi, I noticed a few of my friends who work in the professional world that use this application connected with Facebook. I worked with some of them this summer and trust that they would not be using it if it were not incredibly useful.

The only thing I don't really like about this presentation tool is that it moves slide-by-slide, and I would like something to run straight through. Also, I didn't like that it wants me to choose a template because I would like to make up my own presentation, which I figured out I could do anyway. I think this will be a fun learning experience. Even if I don't like this particular tool for my present purpose, it should prove useful in the future.

Unit 1 Tutorial

  WATCH THIS to find out how I put this professional writing story together!

PENS! Final PWS

You know that feeling when you return from a weekend career fair and you get to empty your bag of free stuff onto your bed? You sort papers, pamphlets, business cards and key rings into piles until all that is left in the middle are your pens.

SO MANY PENS!!
 interestingmarketingtidbits.com

At the career fair, you scavenged through every table for pens of every color, shape and style, collecting dozens of them! We all know fun pens are the real reason we go to career fairs. 

Now, for the best part – you get to test each pen to find the ultimate pen, one that writes smoother, glides more gracefully and feels most natural in your grip than any other pen. It’s a bonus if the pen is especially sleek and professional or if it has a unique feature, like having a pullout scroll, or being in the shape of an animal. 

You can’t wait to bring your plethora of pens to class the next day and show off your proud collection.  

Do you know that feeling?

You know that feeling when all you want to hear from anyone in your first class of the day is, “Wow, Bethany, how did you get so many pens!” or to hear them whisper to the person beside them, “I wish I had as many pens as Bethany!”?

                   What about the feeling you get when instead, the first thing out of your classmate’s mouth is,
“Do you have an extra pen I can borrow?”

Yes, you do. But the trust that would allow you to hand over one of your precious pens is just not built between the two of you yet. You aren’t sure they can comprehend the magnitude of your generosity.

            Do they understand how deep of a loss it would be for you if they chose to keep instead of return that single pen? Do they intend to borrow it only for this class period?

Do they know that feeling?

No one wants to be in that position. If you have experienced the loss of a pen, you know how difficult it has become to part from your writing utensils.

There are many career fairs, conferences and conventions in this world. Find your pen. Go ahead, and build your collection. But even if you don’t choose to own your own pens, always return a borrowed pen.

Stop stealing pens from those that value them.

Multimedia PWS

The readings from this week will help me to rewrite my professional writing story for multimedia purposes. The handout combined with the chapter in our book will allow me to design my story to be straight-forward and to the point. The handout talks about the kinds of stories that a storyteller should focus on and the details surrounding the telling of that story that a writer should pay attention to.

Chapter three in our book details billboard design and how to capture the attention of an audience through how you present a story. I can combine the lessons from both readings, the visual and the organizational qualities, to create a well-developed multimedia story.

Because I can't expect to be able to convince every single person of the message I am getting across, I will have to choose a specific audience and then model every aspect of my story for the purpose of getting their attention. This is true both in writing and if I make my story into a graphic design. The visual hierarchy and grouping used in billboard design is the same idea as the hierarchy and flow of events in story organization.

The handout makes the point that we are all already story tellers, and in class we have already written our stories. Now we have to apply what we learn about what makes a good story, what aspects such as values, vision, lessons and other approaches, to include, and transform our stories into different media.

The handout also talks about how most people don't notice you unless you are asking them for something, which comes across negatively. As a result, people don't primarily know you by your better side. In response to that commentary, my job is to present my story in a way that gets people's attention and insists that they look at the "better side" of my story.

Billboard design helps with such content organization, making you think about what to design as the primary attention-getter and centering all other details around that in a way that makes sense to a viewer. Billboard design, though slightly more simple than written storytelling, forces you to encompass all of the important aspects of a story into the design.

PENS

You know that feeling when you return from a weekend career fair and you get to empty your bag of free stuff onto your bed? You sort papers, pamphlets, business cards and key rings into piles until all that is left in the middle are your pens. At the career fair, you scavenged through every table for pens of every color, shape and style, collecting dozens of them! We all know fun pens are the real reason we go to career fairs. Now, for the best part – you get to test each pen to find the ultimate pen, one that writes smoother, glides more gracefully and feels most natural in your grip than any other pen. It’s a bonus if the pen is especially sleek and professional or if it has a unique feature, like having a pullout scroll, or being in the shape of an animal. You can’t wait to bring your plethora of pens to class the next day and show off your proud collection. Do you know that feeling?

You know that feeling when all you want to hear from anyone in your first class of the day is, “Wow, Bethany, how did you get so many pens!” or to hear them whisper to the person beside them, “I wish I had as many pens as Bethany!”? What about the feeling you get when instead, the first thing out of your classmate’s mouth is, “Do you have an extra pen I can borrow?” Yes, you do. But the trust that would allow you to hand over one of your precious pens is just not built between the two of you yet. You aren’t sure they would understand the magnitude of your generosity. Do they understand how deep of a loss it would be for you if they chose to keep instead of return that single pen? Do they intend to borrow it only for this class period? Do they know that feeling?

No one wants to be in that position. If you have experienced the loss of a pen, you know how difficult it has become to part from your writing utensils. There are many career fairs, conferences and conventions in this world. Find your pen. Go ahead and build your collection. But even if you don’t choose to own your own pens, always return a borrowed pen. Stop stealing pens from those that value them.

Reading Response

This week’s readings gave me a lot of insight into what a professional writing story will actually entail. The first article about corporate, NGO and non-profit storytelling explains the purpose of telling a story to create media opportunities. Every piece of writing is a “story,” and the ability of the writer to capture the audience’s attention will determine the success of the piece, whether it is professional writing or fictional literature.

The most important qualities of good writing, as highlighted in the reading, include adherence to a theme, use of metaphors, description and movement. A successful writer is able to use dynamic and descriptive language to keep their audience captivated and to propel them through to the end of the story. They do this by creating images that awaken the imagination and making the details in the story come alive. The reading also talks about the particular sounds and words that an author should include in their storytelling. A lullaby maintains the same phonetic patterns, using soft sounds to “lull” a person to sleep. The repetition of those sounds upholds the quote, “make sure your story not only says what you mean but ‘sounds’ what you mean.” Like a lullaby, a story should adhere to a theme through every word and sentence phrasing the author uses.

The tips in the reading will challenge my creativity and help me to form an effective professional writing story. I already feel inspired by the description of the magic of metaphors and the power of images created through language. Reading through these pages made me realize some of the flaws in my own writing. I think that I tend to be static and to “maroon my story-boat.” When drafting my professional writing story, I think I will have to pay close attention to the movement and description that I add to the story so that my boat can stay out in the water. This reading will help me to recognize shortcomings in the language I use in my writing and to revise some of the wording to make it not only say what I mean, but sound and feel like my overall theme as well.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Bethany. Some people call me Beth, but I honestly do not have a preference.

I am a senior public relations major from Monroeville, Pennsylvania. I'm a Resident Assistant at Arnold Hall, the community service dorm on campus. Most of my coworkers probably wouldn't want to publicize that about themselves, but I am proud of my position. I love my job, and not because I get to write people up. I love to do my best to help my residents with everything they need, to the point of almost being detrimental to my own education. I also love event planning, so programming for my RA job is another joy of mine.

After undergrad, I plan to pursue a career in community development and/or nonprofit PR. But, even more than that, I want a family. I think it is important to do something I am passionate about even if my sole aim is to help provide for my family.

In my free time I like to do art, other creative things, play harmless pranks and look up new cheesy jokes to add to my arsenal. I love being the random one in a crowd because it amuses me that when so many other people are around, no one notices (or acknowledges) the odd one out.