IF YOU HAVE a worthwhile message, you need develop a rigorous process for sharing your messages across different social networks. We bring this principle into sharp focus as part of the rigor of media writing with my college students. I have an example from yesterday that shows how written ideas can percolate across several social networks. I believe the process, workflow, and transmedia elements of this concept are essential elements of digital literacy. I also believe students need to see or hear important takeaways related to their academic coursework on social networks where that they occasionally visit.
Words Count.
I share more by text than through images, video, or audio. That's because I start the process of sharing with words I tap on my mobile phone. When I blog those words, I can see the number of people who read them. I also share teasers of that written information on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Statcounter and Google Analytics show me the number of people who read my teasers and then follow up by tapping onto a hyperlink for the full content.
Students need written text to anchor their work. A straightforward brief helps prevent mission creep. Good briefs (no longer than two pages) keep everyone on target. Sometimes I publish parts of creative briefs as blog posts. In all cases, I send the briefs to my Kindle Paperwhite as Word Documents where I can highlight parts of them for review with Readwise.
The Statcounter screenshot (above) shows that I get more referrers from Twitter than any other social network. I believe that's because my blogging platform tweets whenever I publish on Typepad.
Twitter Drives Traffic
My webstats show the strength of Twitter, serving both my teaser content and as a referrer. When I see my posts appear as tweets, I resolve to create more compelling titles.
I rarely get more than a four per cent engagement from anything I blog. The Instapaper post gained me 3% engagement 24 hours after the tweet appeared on my timeline.
I could pay to promote my blog posts and would do that only after adding a video clip to the tweet. I've reached hundreds more people when adding video clips to my tweets. On one occasion, I've been offered five dollars for every tweet I've published.
Muted Reach with Facebook Pages.
I attract fewer people to my blog when I cross-publish onto my Facebook Page. I know that's because I haven't promoted my Facebook presence. I need to get at least 100 likes of FB.com/makingcreatingsharing before it makes any impact.
When I add my blog content to a Facebook Group, I can double the referrer traffic when compared to my Facebook Page.
There is a vibrant LinkedIn Audience.
During the COVID-19 period, I've noticed a significant rise in the number of people using their Android LinkedIn app to read content I post on LinkedIn. But no more than two per cent of my LinkedIn readers actually click into my website.
People will listen to your audio Message.
I believe my most loyal readers are also listeners. My use of web analytics documents I have no more than 15 regular readers of content I blog. I get double that amount of listeners as podcast subscribers and as listeners on Spotify.
I hope that audio content I create can improve the collaboration we have on our campus. For example, I think we could learn more by collaborating with shared notes and that's one of the topics I've written and spoken about using Spreaker Studio on my mobile phone.
Imagery is Important
I started this blog post with a sketch that Rachel Dunleavy made as cover art for a Media Writing Journal in 2017. I encourage students to use Sketchnoting for modules I teach because I believe sketching and note-taking invokes a strong kinesthetic learning response. I can see people clicking into Flickr photos that complement my writing after I link those images to my blog posts and academic material. I believe I can enhance the rigor of learning by adding hyperlinked images to my course material and by asking students to apply some design thinking to the notes they take.
My Flickr stats (above) from the day I posted about Instapaper helping me read deeper shows people who landed on Flickr images that complemented the blog post.
I have to add Instagram to the rigor of getting seen because that is the visual social network of choice for my current students.
I started this blog post after reading a thread by Dr Heather Miceli about "rigor" and then let Readwise.io archive her thoughts in a permanent archive.
I plan to embrace the rigor of reading, illustrating, and speaking about creative media content in my remaining four years of teaching third level students in Ireland.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus of the Limerick Institute of Technology. Bernie started this blog post after seeing a tweet about rigor from Dr. Heather Miceli in Readwise Favorites.]
