Writing for New Media

Hello all who may find themselves here (former students, fellow teachers, random Googlers),

The course is not currently being taught this semester (Fall 2010), but I will leave the blog up as a “completed” virtual document of the Spring 2010 version of the course including assignments, student work, notes, tutorials, etc. Please feel free to use any and all material (it is all protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License).

Future occurrences of this course will appear here.

Current (Fall 2010) courses I teach with blogs are:

• Com 125 – Media Design & Production
• Com 310 – Digital Media Convergence & Design

-Dr. Colin Helb

At first the title of this course scared me…”Writing for New Media.”  The word “writing” was this key word.  But after browsing the syllabus, I was relieved.  The class turned into more about online creativity and and design.  This ending up being something that I have a great interest in.

I have become a social media fiend over the passed two years.  From my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and foursquare accounts, I have become more connected to my iPhone.  Yes, I know people didn’t think this would be possible, but it has become more of an extension of my arm.  Analyzing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign to the creation of social media accounts are all important things to know when entering the current job market.  Since graduation is approaching fast, I feel that this class has certainly helped feed my social media bug.

It’s always interesting to receive input from other people.  With social media, it’s just that: input from human beings.  In class, it was great to see the approach each person took to his or her viral marketing plan.  Each person had different experience and was seeking different outcomes.  Personally, my viral marketing plan had a slight impact on the PA Breast Cancer Coalition, but wasn’t as successful as the outcome of the great Fimmano vs. Alleman Facebook battle.

For my personal website, I juggled with different approaches.  I started by wanting to create a blog to having an online portfolio to an online resume.  I finalized my current website to be an online resume with examples of my work.  I also have links to my social media websites to show my involvement.  In the future I plan on expanding my website to include more, but for now, it achieves my goal: assisting in the search for a full time job.

To all of the seniors, good luck on the job search!  To all of the underclassmen, good luck with the rest of your time at Etown!  And to Dr. Helb, thanks for always helping out even when it may have been a common-sense question!

My freshman year at Elizabethtown College, I never thought that I would be writing a blog post to officially close my college career, but now here I am, 4 years later.  Everyone told me when I was starting school to “Make the most of your 4 years in college, they go by so fast!”  As a freshman, I thought this statement was farfetched to say the least.  Now however, I realize just how true that statement was.  Here I sit, with the past 4 years in my rear view and graduation just a short week away…  Anyway, enough reminiscing.

This semester, I have a lot of fun in #etown315, and I’ve learned a few things too.  During the course of this semester, I have completely redesigned my website (which I am currently working on redesigning again…), launched a successful viral marketing campaign, learned a lot about using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as both fun social networking tools as well as potential ways to capture that illusive “real world” job.  I am eager to use the skills that I have learned and expanded upon in #etown315 to assist in building my portfolio and hopefully finding me a job shortly!

The major project of this class was working on creating a personal website and online portfolio.  While I did have an existing website, I was not happy with the layout or design of the site, and thought that overall it was extremely bland.  My current site is created on a Wordpress back-end, with a standard template with custom CSS edits that I performed to get it to look just the way I wanted.  As of right now (1:56am on May 14th), I am exploring the idea of changing themes to something more customizable.  In order to do that I just now switched from a site hosted by Wordpress to a Wordpress based site hosted by another provider.  This switch of hosting providers will allow me the flexibility to add custom themes and plugins for the site, in order to make it exactly what I want.  Look for the new(er) website to be complete in a few days.  For now, however, I am extremely happy with the way that the site currently looks.

My favorite assignment this semester was to create a viral marketing campaign for whatever we wanted.  I decided to use my current job at the Inc. Village of Port Jefferson as a spring board for my assignment.  By using the Village’s Facebook and Twitter pages, I encouraged people to visit Port Jefferson and snap photos of their family and friends and post the photos on our Facebook page.  Promotions for this “event” were done strictly sing Facebook and Twitter.  Overall, we received over 30 submissions.  Going into this project, I had no idea what to expect, and would have been happy with 10 responses.  Our initial post on Twitter was retweeted 12 times by both Port Jefferson residents and visitors!

So as the semester, and college as a whole, draws to an end, I am grateful for the education that I have gained from Elizabethtown College’s Department of Communications.  I was very excited to take Writing for New Media because it displays the fact that the department is moving in the direction of the future.  I hope that the department will continue in this direction in the future to serve the needs of the underclassmen and incoming first year students.

As I started this class, I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew it would be about writing for the internet, but I had no idea what that meant. When we started talking about facebook the first day of class, I knew I would like it. Like most college students, I’ve been addicted to facebook and twitter for a while now. I got my twitter last year, and I am always updating my status. This class really made me understand the principles behind the website, and also how media is using twitter. it opened my eyes to a lot, and now I follow some really cool people!

The biggest thing that I learned from this class was how to blog. I already had a sports blog that I updated, but this class taught be how to use a blog as a resume. I was able to create my own website and it is something that I now share with everybody I know. I’m proud of what I accomplished, and it is something that I will consistently edit as I add more to my resume.

I was really hesitant to get a LinkedIn account when this class started. I didn’t understand the concept, and I still think it is a little interesting. I did “connect” with some of my former supervisors and will ask them for a recommendation, however I don’t think I’ll be using the website until I graduate and are actually looking for a job. As a student I don’t think there is much to offer.

As a whole, this class really helped me get a look at where media is going and what to expect when looking for a job. I knew social networking was a big thing right now, but this helped me see how it is affecting society. After creating a fan page for my mom’s business, Sheep’s in the Meadow, she now has more support for her business and she uses it to connect to people about upcoming events. She is so excited about the new possibilities, and it is all because I had to create a fan site for our class project. Seeing the success in her page was the turning point when I really saw how the internet has affected everyone.

After taking this class, I look forward to continuing what I learned in class and applying it to my life and my future career. I will admit, I’ll miss seeing #etown315 in my twitter feed, too.

So starting off in this class I didn’t have a clue what to expect.  Sitting there the first day I thought who is this crazy teacher and what did I get myself into (no offense Dr. Helb).  But after having gone through an entire semester of this class I have to say that it was one of the classes that I most appreciated. 

Designing a website has opened me up to a whole new world.  I had never heard of wordpress let alone even thought of desiging a web page.  After redesigning ECTV’s website, I have a new found love for wordpress.  It has inspired me to keep a blog about my summer internship and adventures in NYC.  I had changed pictures and added things and did whatever I wanted to my blog.

I knew about facebook and linkedin, but when I heard I had to get a twitter for this class, I knew that I would become instantly addicted.  My predictions came true when Dr. Helb asked how we were doing with twitter and he said it was scary how fast I picked it up.  I think that just goes to show how technologically savvy our generation is.  We grew up with this stuff and even though we have never touched a program or a website or social networking site before, we can figure it out no problem.  That brings up the question…how does our knowledge and comfortableness with technology affect the ways we interact face-to-face?  I often think about that question.

Viral marketing scares me!  Just the thought of how many people are looking at 1 thing because of 1 link or 1 person is outrageous.  It’s scary how fast people pick up on this stuff and how fast word goes around about a certain video or organization.  It’s a very scary thought to me…

Although I feel that the internet and the blogosphere and “all of this” is a wonderful idea/concept for the future because that is the direction in which our society is going, I think it is somewhat deteriorating to our bonds and personal face-to-face connections with each other.  People (including myself) are becoming obsessed with the internet world and not really taking as big a role in the actual world as they probably should…

When starting this class I had no idea what to expect, and this made me nervous. But the fact that the Communications department was finally offering a class that was made for “keeping up with the times” rather than the standard Intro to Com or Public Speaking class. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot through the broad depth and variety of all the Com classes over the past four years. But I was thrilled to see that this course was being offered, and by someone who is younger, more hip, and can relate to the students in a Facebook/ Linkedin/ Twitter kind-of-way.

Throughout the course, we’ve learned the importance of these social networking sites, as well as how to create and manage our own sites. Twitter became a must have from day one. While I wasn’t a huge proponent of this site- mostly because I didn’t know the benefits of having an account, or really what it was- I have learned a lot about it over the course of the semester. We didn’t focus much time on Facebook (as we were threatened we’d fail for the day if we spent time on Facebook and our email rather than listening to Dr. Helb!) but we did spend a good bit of time developing our Linkedin pages. I already had an account prior to this class, but I learned some more benefits to this networking site and was able to develop my page.

When first starting our websites, I was completely lost. I couldn’t even log onto Dreamweaver to open my page, and finding my material was a whole other story. While I’m not the most proficient Mac user, I have gotten a general understanding for the system over my three years in the department. But this program felt like it was in another language. After taking a few steps back and really working on it piece by piece, I became much better with the program and less frustrated. And the feeling of having a complete website is really neat. I will definitely plan to go back to the site and update it from time to time.

During the class we also completed a viral marketing campaign. I worked closely with a classmate to create a Facebook fan page to raise money and awareness for a disease my partner’s father has. Facebook has been a very effective medium raising money in the past, so we decided this was the best route to travel. I believe the campaign is still in progress, as we will accept donations until the bike race held in June. Creating this campaign helped show me the importance of viral marketing. There are so many ways to reach an audience today, and the more interactive, the better. Just over the past three years so many different programs have appeared and grown in popularity. I’m very curious to see what the next few years will bring.

Overall, I took a lot away from this class. My only real complaint is with structure. If there isn’t structure in a class, my motivation level drops to an all-time low (and I swear that has nothing to do with me graduating in a week!) I’m the type of person that likes to know what the agenda is each day, and there really wasn’t much of that with this class. Besides that, I really enjoyed it. My favorite was probably learning how to create and implement a website. Seeing the final product is a great feeling of accomplishment. I also enjoyed learning about the perks and benefits of Youtube, Linkedin and Twitter. Finally, the blog we created and managed throughout the semester helped keep us on our toes. Dr. Helb was a great professor and it was nice having someone we could all relate to.

Some of the applications that we used in this class we very new to me as I was not taught how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop in any previous Communication course. This seems a little odd being a Communication major and using the MAC computers all day. However, for the entire semester I learned how to use these applications-with the help of Dr. Helb and some fellow classmates! It was so amazing to see how far I had advanced with using these tools throughout the entire semester! I enjoyed every aspect of the Communication 315 course. I feel that using these applications, updating blogs and designing my own website has helped me learn more about the social media and networking. This will help me after I graduate to stay in tune with the social media!

Speaking of social networking, I am very familiar with Twitter and had set up a Twitter account over a year ago. I am still not sure the point of updating your status every so often, however, it is the latest social media website and I need to be familiar with how to use it. I am not so much a fan of this website only because I do not like to let the world know what I am doing every second. The only entertainment I get out of this is stalking the celebrities. It is very amusing! I will continue explore Twitter more and figure out how to post comments on other peoples accounts-surprisingly I am not sure how to do this!

Oh, Facebook. For the past five years I have had my Facebook account and I am pretty experienced with using it and being able to update statuses. I think Facebook is my favorite social networking website. During this semester I used Facebook as my viral marketing tool to launch my campaign. It worked perfectly! I raised a great amount of money for the M.S. Society by using this website!

I have also had a Linkedin account for a couple years now and I was one of the few students who had already had an account prior to the class. I am not really a fan of Linkedin only because when you “friend request” people you have to say where you have met this person or how you know this person, completely different from Facebook! It is a good aspect in regards to avoiding stalkers. The only reason I have created this account was for future employees to view my resume online. It does help to have your professional experience on your own social media website!

Lastly, my website. Now it took me the longest time to figure out how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop for my website. But as I mentioned before, with the help of the professor and some friends I managed to figure it out and successfully publish my own website! I will be sure to use this website forever and update it with my most recent experiences. I chose not to put my own samples of work on the website because I feel it will look sloppy and not professional–since most of it is writing samples.

From the beginning of the semester until now, I have learned so much from this class. I feel Dr. Helb helped me out so much to work towards finishing my website! Many of the social networking websites are familiar to me from previous classes. It was amazing to launch my own campaign on Facebook and watch how many people donate money towards a cause! I will be sure to use this information throughout my experience in the real world!!!

When I started this class I was not totally sure what we were going to learn about. But I have to say I am quite impressed with all of the skills that I have learned in this class.

Twitter. Ok so it is no secret that in the beginning I totally despised Twitter. I still am a little unsure why it is necessary to share your every movement or thought on a site such as this. I must say however that for organizations or store or businesses Twitter is an excellent tool. Personally, I think I will probably cease to use Twitter now that I am out of class. I will keep it however for when I get my first reporting job because I feel that it will be more useful at that time.

Facebook. This is a website that I have always been a part of and enjoyed learning other ways of using it besides keeping up with friends and the occasional game application. Through this class, I realized that this website is really a handy tool to have. You can use it to network, promote viral campaigns and just raise the level of awareness about a group or organization. I think that this is particularly important to businesses who are trying to attract younger customers.

LinkedIn. I find this website to be very helpful. Admittedly I have not used it since I created it but I do plan on doing more work on it as I come closer to graduation in December. .

Viral Marketing. This assignment proved to me the power of Facebook and Twitter. I really was surprised by how quickly my Facebook group grew. I am happy to report that the US Coast Guard Aux. now has two additional members just because of my group.

Website. I decided that I was going to build my website through webs.com. I really wanted my website to look as professional as possible. I am very happy with the results of my website and actually received several internship opportunities through the site. I am going to continue to make this site better as I add more and more things. By the end of the summer I hope to add an amazing resume tape that I am currently working on.

In the end I found this class to be very helpful. I look forward to converging media next semester!

For your viewing enjoyment:

School\’s Out For Summer!

I had an interesting time in this class. When it started, I wasn’t too sure about it. I wasn’t a huge Twitter fan, and I didn’t really know too much other than the usual Facebook social networking sites.

I then grew to really really enjoy Twitter. I learned that not only could I be a creep and know what people are doing. (Yes, I know, sounds like a stalker, but who doesn’t go on Facebook and stalk people), I also am able to keep up with my favorite sports teams, get news updates from the New York Times, and just get to see what all of my favorite celebrities are doing. While my roommate does make fun of me for being an addict, I have gotten her to consider making one, because it is quite fun to have.

When it came to Facebook,  the only thing that changed was learning how I could use it to my advantage. When we started doing our viral marketing campaign, I was at a loss of what to do, until my roommate came to me with her situation, then I knew that Facebook would be the perfect tool to use.

I never knew what Linkedin was until we learned about it in class. I have found this to be very useful, and I also didn’t know how many people used it, or knew what it was until I created one. It is kind of like Twitter, either you know about it and use it, or you don’t. Linkedin has be helpful in making connections with people and getting myself out there.

Making my own website/online portfolio was a challenge for me. While I did run into some challenges while making the actual website (I am still working out the kinks), I think the biggest challenge for me was and still is working on my resume. I enjoyed being able to create a website and put it out there for everybody to see, but I still have to work on my resume and cut it down and fix it, as well as working on my portfolio.

Overall, I enjoyed this class, and I did learn a lot in it. I learned about how the internet has really changed how we get our information, as well as put ourselves out there. I also learned ways to use the internet to our advantage in getting ourselves in the market, and how to “keep up” with it.  I enjoyed everything that I learned in this class, and I had a great time.

For the most part, I had some prior knowledge of each of the subject areas we discussed in class.  Through the class I have expanded that knowledge:

On Twitter: I learned that it can be used to catch up on the news, find out events that are happening right now, and to follow celebrities.  I received a direct message from someone who is somewhat of a “YouTube celebrity” which makes me sound like a geek, but I was excited to hear from them. 

Also, I really enjoyed learning about the basics behind the creation of Twitter and learning that it was just a small team that was responsible for the site and they are highly accessible.  We talked about skyping them, but never got around to it.

On Facebook: I didn’t expand too much on Facebook, but I did end up creating a fan page for my viral marketing campaign and explored how to use that to its fullest extent (more on this later). 

On LinkedIn: I realized how much Linkedin can do for me in the business world.  I never knew all the aspects of the site which I would not have explored if we had not had to expand our profile past a certain percentage. 

And added accounts on Tumblr and Bebo which I found through the class but they were not part of the class.  There were other areas that I expanded my knowledge in:

In viral marketing:  With our viral marketing campaign I got a great response from family and friends and ‘friends of friends’.  I created a Facebook group called “Your Creative Spark” which gave a creative outlet for people to use on an everyday basis

In social networking: I knew before the class that social networking is important.  It is even more so now that I am graduating.  I want a way to stay in touch and also a way to get my ideas and plans set in motion.  Social networking is an outlet for me to stay in touch and bounce ideas off of everyone I know and then some.

In the creation of a personal website/online portfolio:  My personal website was the biggest challenge for me.  I had one class early in college where we worked on a website, but it was very basic and it was a completely different program.  In Com 315 I feel that I have expanded my knowledge of how the website process works.  For my second attempt ever at creating my own personal website, I think it is pretty nice.  A little rough around the edges, but it works.

I learned so much in this class and really enjoyed it.  It was a whole different field of study for me and I only wish I would have taken it sooner in my college career so that I could have taken more communications classes.  I really appreciated the one on one support and the help I received from my classmates as well even though I am not a communications major.  This was a great class to go out of college on and I feel as though I am a bit closer to being ready for the real world.