neonslife-blog

[neonslife-blog]

Social Media Strategy

My creative piece is an interview of a young artist named Sasha Davies who is from Winchester and who is making music. In order to publish and promote my work I plan on using two different social media platforms which would be: Facebook and Instagram.

I chose Facebook as the main publication platform because it would be easier for me to fit in the word count. I thought about using Twitter but realised it would not fit with what I intended to do although it might not reach that big of an audience it will still help me be more productive and do the task more efficiently. Therefore I am going to publish the Interview on my personal Facebook account and I will also update a French translation after the assignment gets graded as I cannot, and do not want to, include it in the word count to actually reach a greater audience to both English and French spoken people as I got a fair amount of both on my account. Also, as my personal Facebook account has its publication default on “only share this with friends” I will make this one post public so that it can be, first, graded, but also seen by everyone.

At the end of the interview post on Facebook I am then going to redirect them towards an Instagram post which will be a video of Sasha’s singing if the readership wants to discover more and finds out more about her singing. I will be using tags to be sure to reach more than just my followers and to make sure that the post goes to my targeted audience which would mostly be people interested in music, there is not a specific age range as I feel that people from all age could be interested in music and discovering new artists. However I do believe that because of the platform I am using, Instagram, my creative piece might reach a mostly Young Adult audience, at least on this one platform.

By using both Instagram and Facebook I believe I can reach two different audiences as the Instagram’s one would be younger while the Facebook’s one would be a wider audience with a mix of all ages, even if there is probably more adults and older people as most young people chose to be active in other platform such as Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter when Facebook started to attract older people as well. Even though both post might attract, at first, different kind of age range, they would have one thing in common which would be their interest in music and the artist I am interviewing, which I hope will bring both audiences to click on the links I will put on each post to redirect them towards the other platform.

[neonslife-blog]

What advantages and disadvantages does social media present to the modern writer?

In 2018, it is almost impossible to not be confronted with social media as they constitute most of our daily routine and concern, enabling us to keep contact with friends and family, sharing our experiences, or keep track of our favourite artists, celebrities or politic party activities. More and more people have at least one account on one of the most used platform, Facebook for example registered 1.49 billion people on average log onto the platform daily and are considered daily active users and five new account are created every second which makes of Facebook and its user a “promising audience for your marketing efforts.”.[1] This means that advertising your work on the internet and benefiting from a strong social media presence might be a good idea for the modern writer but we must not forget the cons of these platforms.

 It is true that we live in an era where most people share part of their lives to the world in a single effortless click. They share what they like, what they don’t, their opinions and ideas, but they also research for others’ opinions, likes and dislikes, not only that but also other people work, articles, piece of writing, art. We live in a time where you can pause a film to research the cast’s actors name on Google, look up a review before going to a restaurant, or look at quick recipes online, pause your reading to look up the historical context of a book, and if you enjoyed your experience reading it you might find yourself looking through social media platforms to see more, to learn more about the author, their work and what they are sharing with their readership. Indeed, thanks to the Internet a new communication tool was born and its users are able to “self-publish, share favorite Web sites, find facts, trade gags, and meet strangers with like affinities and hobbies.”[2] Because of that, it is important for a public personality to have a minimum amount of social media presence as most people will try to learn more about their work through this but also will be willing to share on their own profile what they thought of your work and whether they are recommending it to someone else as “mobile networks have enabled people to communicate instantaneously, but this also means that social activity is aggregated by individuals or groups connecting with each other.”[3]. Therefore, having your own profile on one of the big platforms out there might help people to tag you in pictures, link you to articles, reviews, and posts which will help to get through a bigger audience. All of this means that if an interested reader finds their way to your account they can find other information about your work, other published books, text in progress, and countdown until your next release. What is good is that you don’t have to share personal details as it is all a matter of who you are trying to reach, and your account remains a professional one.

For example J.K Rowling, famous author of the Harry Potter book series uses her Twitter account as a way to share her political view and beliefs with some interactions with her fans and news about her books and franchise, same goes for John and Hank Green both authors that have a fair amount of social media presence as they own a YouTube channel called Vlogbrothers, and each have a Twitter account (@johngreen and @hank green) where they share each other’s work and interact with their fans whereas much younger French author Nine Gorman (@NineGorman) uses her Twitter profile as a way to share info on her books and mostly to interact with her readers that reach to her through the platform, tagging her in their posts about reading her work or sharing a bit more personal things happening in her life as it is all a question of purpose and targeted audience. Rowling is a way more engaged and serious personality than Nine Gorman, a Young Adult writer is, which influence their way of using social media but still meet their goals as both of them manage to maintain a good interaction with their respective audience.

 However, as much as social media can be helpful for an author to put their work out there and acquire new reader it comes with some disadvantages which you have to consider before deciding to involve yourself in this wide Internet world. Indeed, the easy aspect of leaving comments and sharing your thoughts whenever you feel like it can bring a lot of pressure on a writer as not everyone will be gentle or well intentioned. In fact, a lot of people suffer from cyber-bullying as it is an easy way to mess with someone’s mind behind an anonymous screen. You have to be ready to receive both good and bad comments which will not always be constructive or helpful. We all agree that feedback, whether it would be positive or negative, is helpful to improve your writing and the way you see your own work however sometimes people will not even bother to post more than one or two inappropriate words to describe the work you are so proud of under the post where you were happily announcing a signing event or anything related to your work. Also, this effortless way to access such a huge range of content makes people a bit bolder than they would usually be and you can see numerous case of plagiarism so you might want to make sure that you are fully protected against your work being stolen before posting anything.

 On top of that, people are really quick to make assumptions and love to create polemic about almost anything, therefore you have to be careful with what you post on social media as it may be tempting to say everything that goes through your head, and maybe your opinions sounds revolutionary to you the moment you are sharing it but ten minutes later when your words are being twisted and other Internet users start to trend it you might regret it and wish it never happened. This is why it is important to know what you are going to do with your social media presence before starting anything as you have to get ready for anything that could happen, which is not always going to be good things.

 Also, with all these comments flowing everywhere around you, it is easy to lose yourself, the purpose of your writing as well as the love you have for your job as you might want to try to please everyone, including everyone suggestions to your story and you will slowly begin to not recognise your work anymore. It is important to be in a good mind-set and not let things like this get to you because these are the major disadvantages of putting yourself on social media but you can do your best to prevent it from happening and have a good time sharing part of yourselves on those platforms.

 To conclude, social media can be a great way for writers to promote themselves and keep interacting with their readership which may help to get more readers, more support and more visibility. It might also help with sharing more personal views on important matters therefore making them more relatable and have more of a friendly relationship with their readers. But as everything it as to be regulated and thought thoroughly before putting anything in action as in this context it has to stay a promoting tool that as for purpose to create a good relationship between the readers and the authors but also to get more visibility from media, and sharing. Therefore you have to be careful of your way to use this tool, which you need to learn how to use just like for every other existing tool.  

  REFERENCING

WEBSITES

·       https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ (consulted on November 14th 2018)

 BOOKS

·       Dewdney, Andrew and Ride, Peter. The Digital Media Handbook 2nd ed. Routledge, 2014.

·       Leiss, William; Kline, Stephen; Jhally, Sut; Botterill, Jacqueline. Social communication in advertising: consumption in the mediated marketplace 3rd ed. Routledge, 2005

[1] https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ (consulted on November 14th 2018)

[2] W. Leiss, S. Kline, S. Jhally, J. Botterill. Social communication in advertising: consumption in the mediated marketplace 3rd ed. (Routledge, 2005), 342

[3] A. Dewdney and P. Ride, The Digital Media Handbook 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2014), 61

[neonslife-blog]

Hello everyone ! 

As you might already know I’m going to publish a new series of books each based on one of my four main characters, click on this link to tell me which one you are expecting the most from or tell me in the comments! 

[neonslife-blog]

Hi everyone you might want to check my new Instagram post! 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp7YykVAmI-/

[neonslife-blog]

280 characters story (actually 278)

I’ve been given a picture to write a story about in no more than 280 characters, which basically means in a tweet. Here is the link in case you guys might want to check it out :

https://twitter.com/kimbrleyrchd/status/1055495134618492929

here’s the picture I had to write about (from @ / BTS_twt on Twitter)

[neonslife-blog]

broken porcelain doll

Nothing could have prepared her dad for what was happening, nothing could have made it easier. Standing in the doorway of his daughter’s room, she was unaware of his presence but he was painfully aware of hers.

 She was curled up on her bed, her hair covering most of her figure as she tried to muffle her sounds. She was crying, a lot, until her eyes were burning red, until her throat aches, until the knot in her chest stopped growing, until the streams of water were visibly going down her face like cracks forming on her pale skin.

 Her dad stood here, powerless and lost in his daughter’s pain, as he was watching his little girl turning into a broken porcelain doll, one of those she never wanted to play with.

 He didn’t know why, she never told him anything.

 She never showed any negative emotion, always smiling, like a pretty doll.

 He should have known, really, that no teenager in this world could smile every single day, at all time, and truly mean it. Maybe he hoped his girl could.

 He remembers how cute her toothless smile was when she was born, he remembers holding her small frame in his arms and putting her in her bed when she fell asleep in front of the TV.

 He remembers telling her that he would never hate her mummy, even if they weren’t together anymore and that they would always be a family. She had smiled that day, she didn’t cry, she never cried in front of him, not since she was eight.

 But he did cry in front of her, when his dad passed away, when her mum left him, when he thought she wasn’t there to witness it.

 And now, he was the one watching it and he didn’t know what do to other than sit next to her, passing a gentle hand through her hair telling her everything would be okay, until eventually, his broken porcelain doll fell asleep.

[neonslife-blog]

I like the feeling that comes from this post! I love how you describe all these aspect of a rainy day giving us, or at least me, a feeling of comfort like I really was at home with rain pouring outside (and I’m reading this while the sun is warming up my back so that’s impressive tbh)

The Rainy Day

Sometimes, you just need a rainy day. It’s a time of rebirth, when the plant life can get a needed refill. It’s a time of beauty, be it through the flash and crash of a thunderstorm or the glowing of a rainbow or even just the putter patter of droplets on glass. It’s a time of relaxation, an occasion where you can say ‘no, I think I’ll just stay in today’. Maybe watch a movie or read a book or just gaze outside. And, finally, it reminds us just how great it is when the sun comes out and shines.

[neonslife-blog]

First of all, I love this band! Now about the actual post, I like the picture of you and your best friend and I liked hearing about your concert experience, I’m really curious about who is the next one! I like the style of this post, like a review but also journal entry kind of, I enjoyed reading it!

All Time Low Concert!

My best friend (on the left) Maddox, aka Maddie, and I went to see All Time Low last night. It was great! I caught one of the guitar picks thrown into the audience by Alex, the lead singer. Maddie and I also got to meet one of the opening acts while we waited for her boyfriend to pick us up. They were definitely my favourite out of the two opening acts. Out of all the songs, “Satelite” was my favourite one performed. Once I too was wishing on a star, wishing for the life I live today. The lesson to be learned is: Don’t give up. Strive to achieve, and achieve you will.

If you haven’t heard of All Time Low before, be sure to check out their newest album Last Young Renegade. Also, let me know if you’ve been to any concerts lately, and if so who did you go to see! I love to hear about your stories. I have a ticket for another concert soon (it’s a surprise who!) but make sure to follow me to stay tuned. I released a concert vlog on my YouTube Channel, so be sure to check that out too! It’s Life With Anna, and I post every time something exciting like this concert happens! Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.

Love you all, my pink pugs!

Until next time,

♡ Anastasia ♡

[neonslife-blog]

Your description is so rich of content and imagery it’s beautiful. It’s so overwhelming I could feel and see it all around me. I really love everything about this I’m looking forward to reading more!

𝒜𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁 𝒜𝓌𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 👼🏼☾♡

𝒮𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓅𝒾𝓉𝓎

Honeyed sunshine beams ebbed blindingly from the shadowy jewelled milky way. An amber glow radiated from the otherworldly being like an aurous mist, defining each and every contour and curve of the dainty doll silhouette. The stark spotlight engulfed this boy, igniting the passion of performance within, and transferring the emotions flowing as roaring rivers through his veins via the language of dance. He was no longer a flicker of candlelight flame, but a rich, dazzling beacon. A ball of stardust, a shooting star soaring, gliding gracefully on the blank canvas which was lucky to be marked up and stroked with each precise step and chassé. His feet dotted the floor with a contrast of airy and sharp staccato. The stage was his canvas, an experienced painter controlling every brush-stroke he made with a raw intensity and passion. The canvas savouring every marking made by the artist, lapping up the elegant delicacy. Fluidity and flexibility poured in ripples and waves, building up to a crescendo. Crystals clung in scattered clumps, dusting the broad chest planes, tiny cascading teardrops that glimmered obnoxiously under the sparkling limelight. Chocolate-rich saccharine vocals smothered and caressed, enveloping your eardrums in a soft feathery embrace. Top notes emulating the tranquility and peace of a gentle lullaby, the steady melody a coy tinkling of a cherub’s harp. As the brightest diamond of the night sky began to fade, it was already over. The silky song subsided, and the firecrackers of thousands of exploding meteors shrilly shrieked. It ended as quickly as the euphoria felt during your first kiss. Celestial was everything he was, is and always will be.

[neonslife-blog]

[x][x][x]

It’s dark and silent. The stars are hiding tonight and the only light I can see in the sky is red and comes from some house in the neighbourhood. I’ve seen better nights, as I have seen a lot of them. 

I’m used to feeling like I’m the only one awake in the world, as if it’s mine, like a kingdom. When the sun is lighting the other side of the Earth, when the people in the house are fast asleep. 

This is when I feel the best, when I can see the sky getting darker, until it reaches its peak and then admiring the sun coming back, again, as an old friend. Sometimes I ask myself, what if he doesn’t ? What if he leaves and we’re left in the darkness ? It wouldn’t be as magical anymore.