My Google Analytics has shown me that my audience has yet to take off and that people are more interested in my homework post than my content posts. Google Analytics has shown me that no one is interested in my lucid dream blog content and that my main traffic is from my short essay. I was pleasantly surprised that I had eight recurring visitors but my Google Analytics shows that they didn’t hang around long. According to my Google Analytics, I need to up my marketing plan to get more of an audience. The marketing plan I talked about in my last Process Post for week 9 would fix most of the problems with my audience retention and my redesign plans would also help people be less confused with my site.
After reading the required readings for this week I found a solution to many of the problems I have can be solved using SEO. In the article 15 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO the author Sam Hollingsworth, says “SEO Builds Trust & Credibility,… is the Best Way to Understand the Voice of the Consumer,… Means a Better User Experience,… [and] Local SEO Means Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions.” All of these things are the things my website needs help with. If all of this is true my updated marketing plan will include learning SEO. I will probably not update my website any time soon as I now need to learn some new software and will make a big update later. By the time I update my website, there will be no more confusion about what my website content is and the right audience will be directed to my website because of this. Look forward to the update and I’ll see you later.
I do not have a marketing plan as I only planned to do this website as a hobby and for school. The only active marketing for my website was telling my friends and family about it. I also made a logo that I thought was cute and put it on my private Instagram. As I did not plan on a lot of traffic on my website monetization did not even cross my mind. If I were to make a marketing plan I would probably post a few of my dream blog posts on Reddit and post my mini assignments on a public Instagram. I would have also made art to go with my post and post those on Instagram as well. The last thing I would have done is fixed my home page to make more sense and not be as hectic. If I had gone with this plan I would have considered monetizing my website with gaming ads and sleep products. This is all theoretical as monetizing my website seems like too much of a bother for a hobby.
In the transcript of a podcast by George Philip, Jennifer Anne Lazo, Rooham Jamali, and Rudy Al Jaroodi they talk about an experiment they ran to see how just about everything leaves a digital footprint nowadays. The narrator at one point during this podcast had stated, “The findings from our interviews made us realize that a lot of people mentioned Facebook or Google Maps as a form of Digital Trail they were creating. But most, like Amanda, were pretty unaware of the extent of their Digital Trails extending to their daily use of contactless cards and the majority of applications on their phones.” I found myself in this sentence as I also had no idea just how far my digital breadcrumbs reached. Before reading this transcript I would have said my digital footprint would just be my YouTube and school work, however, now I would say my digital footprint is all over the place. If my bus card, debit card, and two credit cards are part of my digital footprint as well as my Google Maps searches one could probably map out my entire university life. This podcast opened my eyes to how much of my life is on the internet. I would say I am a private person and have not personally put myself out on the internet so this realization really shook me, as I am really careful when it comes to my information on the internet. For example, I have yet to like or comment on any videos on YouTube because my name is connected to my YouTube and I have never posted a picture of myself on a non-private Instagram account. This podcast made me realize I shouldn’t be so scared of the internet as I aready have a large digital persona.
You have probably noticed that I like lists, as in “3 Tips to Improve Your Website” (Click here to read it!) and “3 Ways to Market Your Content”. That’s because consumers like lists too. It generates clicks and it quickly communicates to the visitor the time commitment required to read the blog post. Everyone has time for three short bullets, right? Now, if it was 23 tips, that’s another story. Most visitors would be gone and fast!
So here we go with my three tips to build a bigger audience for your website.
1. A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words
It’s a visual world. People are attracted to pictures and graphics. If you want a sticky website, where people will stay longer and engage more with your content, tell your story with words AND pictures. Originally, I designed my first few posts without any photos or art. I was concerned with copyright laws and stealing other artists’ work. I still am. But it’s hard to do a pop culture blog without using celebrity photos. I quickly realized that my site was pretty plain without any visual pieces. If you want a successful site, take your own photos or invest in a photo subscription services such as Getty Images to get high quality images. It’s worth it. Having the license to use a quality celeb photos will also enable using it to market your blog posts with a digital spend behind it. After all, people are more likely to click on a “Team Selena or Team Hailey??” post (Check out their beef by clicking here) if there’s a photo of the two women. Duh.
So, I went back and added photos to all my old content and process posts, with alt text for accessibility of course. Be sure to go back and check them out! I think it looks a much more captivating.
2. Know Your Audience
Blogging is not rocket science. But if you want people to come to your site you have to give them what they want. Gen Z loves TikTok and they love watching videos. So give it to them. I created TikTok blog entries following the trends at the time and I also used a copycat strategy when I saw videos trending. For example, I created a “Bop or Flop” video (Watch it here!), similar to what I saw was popular on TikTok. Plus, video enables me to showcase more of my personality and enables visitors to connect with me on a different level. It feels more personable, and if they like me, they are more likely to come back. So figure out who your audience is and how they consume content, then deliver it. To read more about my decision to start a Fridays with Frosty TikTok, click here.
3. Click Me, Click Me, Click Me
Short, snappy words and headlines draw people in. Content is entertainment. You have to catch people’s eye and then keep it interesting and you only have a few seconds. So, I deliberately tried to write snappier headlines and posts in a more conversational style. Originally, my content buckets in the left-hand menu were plain and BORING. I had headers labelled “My Blog”, “Video Entries” and “Recent Posts”. I realized that I needed my content to feel gossipier. I re-wrote the headers to create “Hot Takes”, “Most Popular” and I created a category for videos. Gen Z loves their videos. I wanted to get all my TikTok’s displayed in one place so it was easier for visitors to find and access, without having to scroll and search through the site. The message here is to write for your audience. If you do not know your audience throw some search terms into Chat GPT and figure it out. Try out ChatGPT here!
I also re-jigged the layout of my posts. My written content is now displayed as a photo, followed by the headline, which works to draw people in. Seeing a picture of Prince Harry looking upset or Taylor Swift performing works as “clickbait” and piques my audience’s interest. They’ll want the know the story. I also edited my old process posts so that the assignment number was a sub-heading and the snappier lines such as “Planting my Digital Garden” (Click here to read) and “Taking the “Mis” Out of Misinformation” (Click here to read) were the displayed titles instead. These work better to catch my audience’s attention, and keep them on my site longer.
Breadcrumbs Suck, Ask Hansel + Gretel
Yoast
Our readings this week focused on digital “breadcrumbs” that we leave behind through the use of certain technology, often without our knowledge. “We are constantly monitored on CCTV and everything we research online is data being collected or stored.” (Philip, 2016). This is an unsettling idea, as your data could be stored anywhere in the world. You have no idea what information they have, who has access to it, and for what purpose.
Since technology has become a centre point in our society, our attention has become a new source of capital. Advertising companies have had to adapt. Some companies collect an sell our data for profits. But, our readings note that “It is often controversial for a site to make money off of affiliate ads without notifying users in any terms of use” (Bleymaier, 2013). As in, what kinds of data they collect through the site.
This got me thinking about how I would handle this in the event that my blog was big enough to be monetized. I wouldn’t want others to have access to my personal data. I am picky about who I let follow my Instagram, there’s no way I would want my data given to large corporations. I respects others right to privacy. I wouldn’t allow advertisers on my site to collect user data, or at the very least I would be up front about it. I hope I wouldn’t let myself get corrupted by money. I pride myself on this blog representing my genuine self, and I would want to stick to those morals in the event that my site blew up.
But, it’s a good thing my website is just for fun! In the meantime, I need to check my phone settings and see what apps have access to my data… and turn my location off.
Works Cited
Bleymaier, T. (2013). On advertising. Tumblr. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://on-advertising.tumblr.com/
Philip, G., Lazo, J. A., Jamali, R., & Jaroodi, R. A. (2016, May 3). Digital Breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. Pod Academy. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
This week we had Darren and Sarah from Capulet Communications to share about affordable marketing in a multi-channel universe with us in class.
I worked in a PR agency as an intern for five months last summer. I mainly had to do clippings for our clients, mainly luxury hotels and resorts. I scan newspapers, magazines and screenshot online articles, social media posts when they got coverages. I realise that almost all our clients have several social media platforms to publicise themselves, mostly Instagram and WeChat (for the Chinese market). Part of my job includes helping the clients to look for influencers that match their brand images, and I realise that most of them are active on multiple social media platforms to develop their online self. Most influencers are active on Instagram as a platform to interact with their fans and audiences, while they use websites or YouTube channels as a relatively passive platform to allow audiences to know more about their work and private life. This is indeed a great way to increase its traffic.
There are a growing number of brands who rely on social media to expand their influences and reach a greater variety of audiences, even for reputable hotels who have a long history of development. They use attractive images, usually instagrammable spots in the hotels, and uses short captions to attract people’s attention. People now prefer bite-sized information rather than wordy passages, it is challenging for the PR to bring out the distinctive features and hotels’ selling points by just a few sentences when drafting for captions. There is so much information online and everyone can place ads, thanks to Google and Facebook. PR must, therefore, develop a gimmick or something authentic that creates discussion in our society.
If marketers and PR only stick with safe options, they would always be mediocre. Darren shared a quote today in class – “Risky is safe, safe is risky.” This not only applies to marketing, but also to our lives. We should take a step forward to leave our comfort zones, make bold moves and risky decisions to stand out from the crowd.
