#communciations

My name is Gianni. I am currently completing my final semester of my Master of Communications and working part time in the Customer Experience Center (CXC) at Carlton and United Breweries (CUB). I returned to university to complete my masters last year after a two year gap from completing my Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne.

During the break, I worked for a year and a half as a freelance social media and digital marketing manager in the Melbourne hospitality industry while also discovering my passion for the beer industry working part time at Dan Murphy’s.

During my time in social media I had the opportunity to work for businesses with large and small customer markets, honing my skills and getting a feel for the industry.

My decision to return to study and complete my masters was motivated by a desire to learn more about the communications field and veer away from social media, with a passionate focus towards the areas of marketing and brand management.

Despite this, I still maintain a vested interest in social media and its platforms and am always keen to build on my repertoire within what is an incredibly fast moving industry.

I would love to continue my career trajectory following my graduation in anything regarding beer. My goal is to explore opportunities in marketing or branding within CUB or explore another opportunity in Melbourne’s thriving craft scene.

Emoji spell for case one communications kin to get memories of their canon!

http://www.sendwordnow.com/Company/BlogPost/Seven-Reasons-Why-Employees-Ignore-Your-Emergency-Notifications-and-How-to-Get-Them-to-Pay-Attention

"Fail and fail fast."

At least that's what so many entrepreneurs preach and teach.

Keeping this in mind it has been a huge few weeks- possibly months by the time I post this reflection- of attempting to immerse myself in all things communications innovations. In particular the start up culture both in Australia and New York to get a better idea of the way in which these organisations think. 

I've read about brand publishing, digital media platforms, digital media metrics, personalisation of content, consumer behaviours and consumption habits, and the increasing amounts of start ups focussing on helping brands advertise better- creating solutions to allow advertisers to more effectively reach their audiences.

This made me question a few things- humanstic branding is in the works here, but there's something new that has just arrived at the party: agility.

I'm finding Start Ups due to their agile nature are incredibly forward thinking, a characteristic that comes naturally to them but something that requires a huge amount of effort from more "old school" corporations. By "old school" I'm referring to the traditional brick and mortar organisations or companies who develop products in house and plan their brand communications with little community engagement. 

While I began this journey with a topic aiming to develop an understanding of humanistic branding and how brands need to navigate a much more fragmented consumer-centric media environment

I'm actually becoming more and more interested in how the start up lean model can be introduced into the traditional organisation environment.

The consumer-centric communications landscape is still incredibly important as it sets the scene for what is taking place- however my focus has certainly shifted. 

Deciding to pivot:

Have brands realised that they need to be more responsive, more agile, more lean, in order to capture their audience?

Todd Kirrane: As the editor of American Dancer Magazine you have a solid understanding of the current communication capabilities of the National organization. What do you see are ways to expand use of new technologies to improve communication between nationals and individual members on both the DanceSport & Social sides?

Great question Todd – this is an important topic. The world of communication is changing. As I mentioned in my statement, I am very interested in involving more people on a national level. One way of doing that is through technology. Please find below some suggestions.

Facebook: As you already know, USA Dance currently has multiple accounts on Facebook. I think the election process being conducted on FB will help to publicize these areas and get the members more accustomed to using this technology.

Email blasts: USA Dance already uses Constant Contact extensively to communicate with leadership and DanceSport athletes. Not only can USA Dance reach thousands of people through this facility, it collects useful information about how engaged the readers are with these emails by tracking open rates and click rates. This helps us measure the reach and effectiveness of our email communications.

Websites/Blogs: USA Dance already has a website that is full of information. However, its ability to interact with members and the public through the website is limited. If a blog feature could be added to the website or set up separately, readers can comment and interact more easily with USA Dance. This may be a good way to extend or supplement the interactivity that is available on Facebook.

Online Survey Systems: Survey systems such as Survey Monkey can and should be used to allow the membership to offer advice and give feedback concerning policies and procedures. I currently participate in a National Geographic group that covers topics ranging from ‘what would you like to see in the magazine’ to ‘how did you [like] the cover’. I feel this could be a useful tool within USA Dance.

Twitter: Twitter can also be a powerful communication tool. In short bursts of text, it can update all those who follow USA Dance on Twitter. It can be a useful way to drive traffic to the website, Facebook pages and blog (if USA Dance had one). Replying to tweets and sending direct messages is easy on Twitter. Followers of USA Dance can re-tweet our tweets to further spread a message across the country, even across the globe.

All that said, USA Dance still includes many members who do not avail themselves of currently available technology, and we still need to have an open means of communication with this group through the American Dancer, direct mail and possibly phone software.