#dmc303

In order to optimize the tools that social media sites have given us, it’s important to master the very basics. Tagging relevant people and using relevant hashtags will bring more traction to your story or your tweet. Beyond that, social media should be used effectively. This means coming up with links and sites that are mobile friendly. It’s so important that Google will now knock your site down on its pages of search results if your web page is not mobile friendly. Using short and shareable headlines, shorter stories with the most critical info posted first and additional info being posted later on in short bursts are good places to start in order to be conscious of users who access stories on their phones as many people do these days.

Following the beat of film, I saw this story pop up on my Twitter feed. I’m currently in he midst of binging MTV’s Catfish so I was quick to click on this link despite the fact that I have yet to see the movie. The article touches on the high points of the movie, such as equity, but there were low points as well: romanticizing the act of cat-fishing: luring (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.

The positives of having one social media account split between your personal life and professional life is that it gives you a chance to interact with your audience in a different way than you’d interact with your friends. In doing so, you effectively create a sense of friendliness that readers look for. Throughout the book Mobile and Social Media Journalism, Anthony Adornato puts forth a friendly persona that makes it easier to reach out to him like he suggests in the first chapter’s checklist. It’s also much simpler to take care of one account as opposed to managing two. However, having two pages allows you to study the analytics of your professional profile without personal statistics getting in the way. These days, so many websites and apps allow you to make any account a business account, thus unlocking access to an in-depth analysis of your posts and how any people they’re reaching, how they’re reaching them, etc. When you merge your personal account with your professional account, the statistics become a little muddy since they’re not purely professional posts.

When you’re writing a story, structure can oftentimes be the hardest part. I know that personally, that’s what I struggle with. Finding the focus of what I want to talk about is oftentimes difficult for me, but chapter 1 of Aim for the Heart creates a checklist for readers to keep in mind when they’re approaching a story. What’s surprising about the story? This should be your lead. What should viewers remember from the story? This should be a soundbite. And what comes next? This should be the takeaway that leads you to the story’s end. From there, the author makes a point of showing readers what to do rather than just telling them. Throughout the whole chapter, he discusses making people feel things by finding a common human experience and I was surprised to see that his example did just that. As somebody who’s from a military family, I can absolutely relate to the art of waiting. His brief descriptions of the scene including Marla and her family awaiting the return of Charles was so familiar to me and took me right to that place in my life again, proving the author’s point about the benefits of writing with a central theme that everyone can relate to rather than focusing on a different way to approach the story that might not be as universal. Finally, he discusses tips and tricks when it comes to picking out a soundbite and for me, that’s often troubling as well. I feel as though I try to look for one when it’s better to let one find you. However, in this chapter, he mentions listening for an opinion, a feeling, or an emotion and letting viewers and listeners ruminate on that during the audio.

P.S. My sign in the picture says “Harry, if looks could kale, you’d be a felon!” because I love a pun and Harry Styles. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!