CSIT155_S18:DustinM

My brand, IMDUSTINTHEWIND, thrives on the use of videos and photos.   Since m y brand focuses on traveling and adventure through the lens of a gay person, I am tasked with presenting my travels and my life, visually.    Via the use of various “visual” social media pages, I have learned first-hand how much greater a response a visual post receives versus a simple text post.   Instagram   www.instagram.com/imdustinthewind Followers: 1227 Instagram is highly addictive due to the rapid-fire, highly visual nature of the content.   I receive the majority of my likes and views via Instagram, so I make sure to post a teaser video on instagram for any full-length video I am uploading to YouTube.   One of the easiest and most-widely viewed features on Instagram is the “story” section.   I am an almost daily user of the story; approximately 10-20% of my followers view my story on a daily basis, and a great deal of advertising occurs b...

This week I scheduled three posts, two reposts, and one photo. 1.) Steven Hawking. My first post regards the passing of Steven Hawking.  As a truly brilliant and inspirational man, his words always find a place in our cultural dialogue, however, due to his passing, I feel that this share has even more value. 2.) Couchsurfing.  Since my page speaks heavily to travel, I figured I would share a piece that shows how traveling truly can be accessible.  The "5 Things" nature of the post is proven to engage people who want a concise, easy-to-read post. 3.) Snow.  Due to the late winter that southern California is experiencing, I figured an inspirational photo of my friends and I atop a snow-laden mountain would show people to take advantage of the cooler and more precipitous weather.  

This week I liked 7 facebook pages that create content related to travel, adventure, or that are simply creative and innovative in introducing new ideas 1.) NAS Daily.  I liked NAS Daily because I'm impressed with the consistency that Nas, the pages creator, has in creating a daily 1 minute video.  Nas started his page while traveling, but now creates contents that cover a range of topics.  I hope to recruit from the same demographic of interested viewers.  I can learn from this page, and hopefully, create content that the page admins find interesting, such that I may one day be featured here too. 2.) Wandering Earl.  This is a page I found via a google search of popular travel pages.  Earl's posting schedule is probably a bit more realistic for me, and it'd be nice to create content that he finds interesting and might reference on his page. 3.) Donde la Vida Me Lleva is a page founded by a friend I met traveling a few years ago.  This was one of...

A facebook post may have high reach, but low engagement, or vice versa.  The difference between the two is this: say you post a video to a facebook page.  The video's reach, simply put, is how many people who saw the video.   This differs from engagement, in that to qualify for engagement, a viewer must like, share, comment, or click on the video.  In order to effectively use facebook, or any online medium, it's important to know the difference.  Just seeing something doesn't mean a potential customer or viewer is going to remember or relate the product, service or content with his friends.  Having a growing reach is a good thing, but I think that truly effective content will have an effective, corresponding relationship with engagement.  Ideally, we want people to see our content and then to engage with it, to serve as an evangelist or sorts, and to help spread our ideas and products.   In a perfect world, any posted content woul...

I am starting a production or content-creation company that will create graphics, video, and print regarding travel, outdoor living, or what many people refer to as "lifestyle."  I have no illusions that I am up against a mass of competitive content, however, I also know that no success comes without trying.  My target market will be teenagers to seniors, anybody who is interested in travel adventures or the outdoor lifestyle.  I believe that each social media medium engages a certain demographic; facebook, for example, is generally an older demographic, whereas instagram and snapchat are younger mediums.  I look foward to using analytics to discover more about what type of people I'm reaching, and thus, refining my approach to cater to my audience.  

This week's blog post reviews the websites of two casual dining spots: Teri Cafe ( tericafe.com ) and Chilis ( www.chilis.com ). Teri Cafe is a locally owned noodle restaurant.  The website is well-done and interestingly, it focuses on the people aspect of the business.   The site's landing page presents a time-lapse video of the restaurant during a busy dining period.  The site continues to describe the story behind the restaurant, mentioning how it has been family owned and operated for over 30 years.   In turning our attention to the Chili's site, the most striking difference is the content: Chili's immediately inundates the visitor with high-quality images of mouth watering foods.  Teri Cafe does a great job at humanizing it's enterprise, but Chili's directly plays to the audience's instinct of hunger.   Teri Cafe and Chilis both cater to customers looking for a restaurant, however, the two eateries are operating on different scales...