brainfogwixq - Tumblr blog

[brainfogwixq]

This sounds like a great strategy! Especially since the HTWG is informational FIRST, I agree with the importance of keeping it visually direct. I've also been using Canva for the project and its great for adding extra design details that Word and other document processors cannot.

Original Content Writing #1

How are you rethinking style to design your How to Write Guide for a content creator audience?

I think there is definitely beauty in simplicity so I think I would like to go more towards that route. I will be using Canva so a lot of the templates should provide some good inspiration but I will mainly stick to a color theme with just text on each page. People are bombarded with so much flashy content daily so I think something a little more simple will be relaxing on the eyes and easier to retain.

@npfannen

[brainfogwixq]

This is a really interesting tip for creators, given the knowledge that 'genuine connection' in online spaces can often become somewhat parasocial! It makes sense that audiences would seek to follow a creator that feels open, honest, and relatable to them individually. I would love to see how you explained this piece of the HTWG in context for your content creators.

A consideration and/or potential devils advocate comment to highlight my personal stance on being a 'internet micro celebrity' - how genuine can a creator be while speaking with an audience of complete strangers? Is it possible for creators to learn/know/understand their audience members to the same degree that their audiences know them?

Original #3

what did you learn about content strategy that you want to highlight in your How to Write Guide.

This is probably different for everyone but I felt the biggest take away for me personally, is the connection to the audience. I know you cannot actually strategize connection. It has to be genuine. I just feel that the reason most of the audience is following is specifically for that content creator and who they are, how they talk, the way they smile or dress or laugh. So I highlighted a bit on genuine connection in my HTWG.

[brainfogwixq]

what did you learn about content strategy that you want to highlight in your How to Write Guide?

I focused my research on Instagram creators because the app/website has been in my life for many years. I've watched the content evolve along with the app's new features and through the work in this assignment, it's become obvious that short-form videos have overtaken our online world. I dare to blame this shift on Tiktok, as every other social media app created a video format to match their set up and the content has taken off. For my three creators, there has been a drastic difference in post performance between those who make fully photo-based content and those who make a blend of photos and videos. In the context of crochet pattern promos and releases, the most consistent engagement came from a blend of photo & video content. Even if all the important information is confined to the caption, having a cutesy little video and trending song draws folks attention faster than a traditional multi-photo set.

[brainfogwixq]

what does your final revision process look like?

For general, online school assignments, I insert a series of highlighted ******* in places that need revision and/or fact-checking during a final review. They are usually put in when I get tired of working on a section of the material. Up until the final review, I title the document with a 'DRAFT" tag to indicate the need for revision and to separate the various saved versions of an assignment.

During final revisions, I start with the obvious ******* and fill in needed information, then proofread the document with reference to the grading rubric to ensure that all the necessary points are hit. After these content revisions are complete, I often highlight all the work and edit stylistic aspects like font selection/font size/bolding/etc. My last step before submission is to rename the file with something like "FINAL DRAFT' or 'TO BE SUBMIT' to make the D2L uploading process easier.

[brainfogwixq]

how are you rethinking style to design your How to Write Guide for a content creator audience?

All three of my chosen creators for the data analysis project had very similar aesthetics - a type of 'natural-fiber yarn, nature-y, coquette' vibe. I would like my HTWG to appeal directly to this 'genre' of creators. Although the tips apply to all crochet Instagrammers, I want to target this specific genre of crafters with both the crochet designs I use in videos and the overall visual appeal of the guide. It seems reasonable to assume that creators would seek help from something that directly aligns with their aesthetics. Currently, I am planning to design a long PDF for the HTWG that uses the same stickers and color scheme as my data analysis presentation. The HTWG document should flow smoothly from one tip to another and draw the eye downwards through the information.

[brainfogwixq]

Likes are the easiest form of interaction on many social sites! I originally wanted to look through comments for qualitative data as well, but it ended up being more work than it'd be worth. I like your personal reflection on commenting - if there's no strong connection between the audience and the creator, many folks are not inclined to comment at all. It's fun to read, but what to say?

Content #1

What elements of data matter in your space? Why?

For TikTok, the elements of data that make the most compelling argument for my research question are likes. I originally thought about including comments, but I found when reflecting on my own TikTok usage that I very rarely comment on posts, even when I enjoy them, when I do not know the person in real life. Because of this, the amount of likes a post receives adds context to its performance in regards to audience engagement. Liking a post is as easy as a simple double-tap if you enjoy a video you just watched, but it is just as easy to continue scrolling and ignore the video if you did not enjoy it. For this reason, this data is the most accurate for gauging viewer enjoyment and matters the most for finding an answer to my research question.

[brainfogwixq]

You've made a great point! Audience members are always in flux and with good content strategy, always growing! If creators can anticipate and cater to the audiences' interests, there's a better chance of connection.

How to Write Guide: what matters about your audience?

I think what matters most about your audience isn't necessarily who your audience is but how well you know and understand your audience. If you don't understand your audience you are going to miss out on a major element of content strategy because you will lack reasoning for why you're posting.

[brainfogwixq]

I've noticed a similar trend for my content creators. When focusing on three crochet Instagrammers, there's a lot of technical, hobby-based vocabulary involved. If my HTWG does not include this (or use it correctly), it would potentially harm my credibility as a guideline-creator.

Original #1

How to Write Guide: how will your audience (content creators) influence the design of your HTWG?

The biggest influence I think is language. What language is being used that draws in the audience. What patterns in the language am I seeing?

[brainfogwixq]

How do these data elements answer your research question?

After reading through the community posts about how to graph meaningful data, I have decided on a loose strategy for how to organize my analysis. My research question is focused on the difference in engagement between photo posts and video posts (reels) for crochet pattern releases by small/independent creators. It seems as though a ratio of #likes/#followers will be universally useful for my chosen creators/their content. This will show the general ability of posts to reach the creator's full audiences and beyond. One of the creators (beauuumeadow) only posts photo content, so I am using their account data like a 'control trial', stimulating the old ways of Instagram posting, before the introduction of Reels. The other two (stitched.by.emma & aurien.crochet) post a blend of photos and reels about the same patterns/garments. I have only chosen one pattern release per creator, so for these two accounts it seems useful to create bar graphs of the # of comments for photos vs Reels - in hopes of gauging audience interaction between the two modes of posting.

[brainfogwixq]

HTWG: What matters about your audience?

My audience is a mix of crochet enjoyers and intermediate to advanced-level crochet creators. Drawing a definite line between the two has been very difficult because depending on what time/place they view content about a crochet pattern, the same folks may fit into either category. If browsing Instagram during the morning commute, audience members cannot directly interact with crochet pattern releases. They would likely prefer to watch a 'how its made' or 'how to style' guide and save the information away for later when they have downtime to consider creating the garment for themselves. Due to this variability, I believe it's important to create HTWG content that has multiple aspects of styling, tutorial material, and accessibility to the pattern. For Reels, the music should be trendy, the outfit simple and repeatable, and the pattern details linked at the end. For photo posts, a round-up of pattern-tester designs with multiple styles and the pattern access linked in the caption seems to have good success.

[brainfogwixq]

What elements of data matter in your space?

Instagram uses the number of Likes, Comments, and Shares to publically measure engagement statistics, per post. In some cases, creators turn off public access to the # of likes, but none of the accounts I followed for this assignment do, thankfully. I chose one crochet pattern released by each creator and analyzed these statistics for each post regarding the patterns. My research question focuses on the difference in engagement between photo posts and video posts (Reels on Instagram) so I have started comparing the level of engagement for each based on the creator's follower count.

[brainfogwixq]

What subheadings will you use that help design this information architecture most efficiently & why?

I would like to organize my analysis presentation in line with the 'rehtorical writing situation' and address all aspects - context of the space (Instagram) - culture of the online crochet community - purpose from content creators - etc

The analysis will be separated by content creators - though I'm not sure yet if i want to present all relevant data grouped by creator or introduce them and the present data all at once/together with subsubheadings

[brainfogwixq]

What conclusions do you think you can draw about content strategy? how does the data you're collecting connect to those conclusions?

I think a 'multi-modal' content strategy will be most successful for maintaining high engagement from audiences, compared to the traditional 'photo set w caption' style. Using only video content may also harm overall engagement since its not as useful for active audiences. Photo sets and short video content reach audience members at different times in their lives - actively crafting vs passively scrolling. By offering content that is digestible at multiple times, creators can keep their patterns at the front of folks' minds.

So far from data collection, it's looking like my conclusion was correct! The creator who posts frequent reels to support photosets has gained more consistent engagement from their audience, compared to the account with minimal video content and the one with none at all.

[brainfogwixq]

What data graphs do you think will help you SHOW your content strategy conclusions?

So far, I'm considering line graphs of the # of Likes on posts over time. For each of my 3 creators, I would like to compare the audience engagement for pattern-related photos vs reels. One of my creators frequently posts both for each pattern, and the other two creators posts either photos OR reels for their patterns.

i am including analysis for pattern release/announcement posts, pattern tester appreciation posts, and pattern promotion posts. Not all of my creators make all of these, and to 'answer' my research question, I am looking find whether or not a blend of content 'types' (photo vs reel) increases overall engagement for an account.

Perhaps adding pie graphs of # likes vs total # of followers would be helpful to show ratios per account, since they vary in overall audience size. For some reason, I'm having trouble creating the graphs using excel. Probably a user error since I'm not used to such qualitative data.

[brainfogwixq]

yesterday i went to a party and i kissed this girl and she kept trying to give me her linkedin and i was like ...LINKEDIN? and she said yes linkedin. so i said i dont use linkedin. do you have instagram though. and she was like yes i do have instagram. you should add me on linkedin. and i said i dont use linkedin. and she said i will add you on linkedin. and i said girl give me your instagram you are NOT flirting with me through linkedin. and she was like. ok. fine. here's my instagram then. and gave me her instagram, which she clearly uses a lot, so it wasnt even that she only uses linkedin but rather that she just wanted to talk to me through linkedin specifically. fascinating woman if i wasnt already attracted to her her unwavering loyalty to linkedin wouldve drawn me in for sure

[brainfogwixq]

I'm very interested to see how your graphable data turns out and what comparisons you can make with it! My project also centers around the Instagram platform and in a way, it feels like the public data is limiting! Not sure yet how I will process the data from posts, as the scientific processes I have learned throughout college don't feel fully applicable in the web writing context.

Meaningful Data for This Project

My project has to do with three separate Instagram accounts. Since there are only a few metrics available to viewers, any data I can scrounge is important to me. Likes, comments, and dates are all valuable information to me since these are graphable, quantitative metrics. Other data includes cultural and design aspects, as well as metatextual information such as audience, purpose, and possible hidden meaning. I've already gathered as much of the quantitative data as I can, so I will be moving on to more abstract conclusions next.

[brainfogwixq]

Thursday check-in

WEEK 7 !!!!! WEEK 7 ??????? This semester is going by at what feels like a million miles per hour. Using the cat meme as a daily affirmation during these last days before break.

What questions do you have about data-driven web writing that you would like me to answer?

How can I process raw data (#likes, comments, followers) in a useful way for analysis? For the last assignment, I tried to cite specific posts when discussing data trends I found, but that strategy missed the mark. Should/could I use scientific comparison tests like the Student's t-test to determine significant differences between post engagement? Would creating a 'reaction guage' for comment content be useful to compare qualitative data?

@npfannen