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[shyheemprosper]

Podcast

Podcasting, truthfully speaking, I did not know of this being a thing until the pandemic hit back in 2020. It caught my attention and I can recall binge-watching a few of them such as IMPAULSIVE (Logan Paul Podcast), The Joe Rogan Podcast, and Jay Shetty Podcast just to name a few. Although I did enjoy the content on the ones mentioned, I have really enjoyed the WaveForm Podcast, created and hosted by Marques Brownlee, which I’ll get into a bit more later on. At first, I assumed that a podcast was basically just an interview panel set up just to bring on special guests, although it is, there is still a unique tone to its setting, where the conversation between the host and the guest or the host and his/her peers feel closer and personal, and the topics discussed tend to broaden, rather than straight question & answer.

Brief History

Many may not know, even me but podcasts actually go straight back to the 1980s when it was previously known as audio blogging as a way for enthusiasts to share their thoughts and experiences with other people via audio record, however, it was short-lived because there was a lack of means to distribute the recordings which stunted the growth of the medium for a number of years, up until Apple had launched their first portable music player ‘The iPod’ in October 2001. For the next few years, the platform experienced different turns on how it would appeal to a mainstream audience until 2004, when Adam Curry, former MTV video jockery, and software developer Dave Winer coded a program known as ipodder, that enabled people to download audio blogs to their iPods. It would eventually spark the interest of journalist Ben Hammersley to coin the term ‘podcasting’ by joining both iPod and broadcasting together, and by late 2004, the first podcast service provider Libsyn.com(Liberated Syndication) would emerge.

Podcast Marketing

You may be in the beginning stages of developing your very first podcast by yourself or with a group/team and may be wondering what are some ways to gather that full exposure. These are some beneficial ways to garner one's attention:

Think About Your Target Audience

Become Active on Social Media

Be Authentic and Human

Develop Call to Action (CTAs)

Experiment with the Best Time to Publish

You should have put in a bit of research to as well is what platform are you willing to publish your podcast, whether it’s fully audio for Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podbean, Audible etc to name a few and for full video YouTube is an exceptional option.

The WaveForm Podcast

As mentioned earlier, the WaveForm Podcast created and hosted by Marques Brownlee, and his co-host Andrew Manganelli, centres around the latest gadgets and tech for the delight of all tech enthusiasts. On one of their episodes, they brought on special guest Simone Giertz, who is an engineer that creates many electronics and robots, and she demonstrates her creations on the YouTube platform. The conversation between the hosts and the guest felt really organic. Starting off the podcast, Marques introduced himself and his guest, also sharing a little brief history about her as well to allow the audience to learn and familiarize themselves with her. He started off by asking the question of how Simone developed the idea behind a ceramic robotic arm she created. She had mentioned that it was actually an idea she almost threw away because the first prototype actually shattered, and didn’t want to continue creating another version of it. Afterward, they spoke about the Truckla, a custom Tesla SUV that Simone created and she highlighted that it was something that was just a test to see how it would’ve marketed and gathered onlookers' attention, however, she said that she had stopped driving the vehicle upon purchasing a much better EV(Electric Vehicle) that was more efficient and mentioned that driving a custom Tesla vehicle would’ve rubbed off the wrong way with the company, seeing that she took the vehicle and made her own alternative changes to it. Viewing the one-hour video, it felt like a natural conversation between two friends who came to speak about different topics within the world of technology. Finally to mention about the podcast is the music used throughout certain sections of the podcast was an upbeat style of techno sounds that fit the aesthetic of the podcast and short video clips are placed in-between to show what they are referencing.

Final Thoughts

I think that a podcast is a great setting for people to garner exposure if they are willing to go down the route for interviewing purposes. It is also beneficial for learning about new topics and concepts and understanding the viewing points of different guests. What I am interested in is seeing there are many/various podcasts worldwide, what does the future hold for podcasting. Would it remain the same or would there be something new that comes along the too either improve or replace what has been current at the moment? Something to think about.

Jabeer, Z. (2021, September 13). A Brief History of Podcasting. https://medium.com/paradeim/a-brief-history-of-podcasting-2e73cfbca7d0

Keeton, B.J. (2023, March 22). What is a Podcast? A Brief History, How to Listen to Them, and How to Create Them. https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/marketing/what-is-a-podcast-a-brief-history-how-to-listen-to-them-and-how-to-create-them?utm_source=Blog&utm_medium=Manual%20Divi%20Targets&utm_campaign=Google%20Search&retargeting=off&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNW53ji23MuPVkpm11DRiqQVu-gFDHRivr3huE1Kc3bswIK821EvSM3hoC5TAQAvD_BwE

[shyheemprosper]

My Experience With LinkedIn

LinkedIn, this is one that is completely new to me, honestly speaking. Yes, I have heard of the platform for a number of years now but never actually gave it a chance. So, here we are in 2023, I created my first LinkedIn account as part of my Digital Marketing course to explore and understand the importance of this particular social platform.

History

LinkedIn was founded by venture capitalist Reid Hoffman in 2002. You wouldn’t believe it but he actually created it in his living room. Other important people who also contributed to the creation are product designer Allen Blue, marketing professional Konstantin Guericke, engineer Eric Ly, and engineer Jean-Luc Vaillant. The website officially launched in 2003. As years went by more people became engaged with the website, comparing 2007 where the website had over 15 million active users to 2016 over 500 million active users in about 200 countries. Another important moment to note is due to its huge profit gain that earned over $353 million dollars, Microsoft stepped within the same year of 2016 and acquired it for $26 billion dollars.

The Homepage

When I first saw the homepage as shown above, it reminded me of Facebook for some reason. It seemed like another interactive social platform from its visual appeal, however, diving into it, it’s different and unique in its own way. At the centre you will see the home feed. This is where you will see multiple posts made by LinkedIn, people you follow and hashtags that you follow as well appear in the centre column. To the top you will see the navigation bar, also known as quick links that consists of:

Home: If you are on any of the other tabs and want to get back to your homepage, you can click Home and it will redirect you right back to your homepage.

My Network: Here it allows you to see the who you have connections with from contacts, people you follow, groups, events, various pages, etc.

Jobs: Here you can post jobs and find jobs as well. (You can also filter the jobs that you do or do not want to see as well).

Messages: People who you have made contact with will appear here.

Notification: Any form of interaction a person makes with your profile will send a notification here for you to view, also LinkedIn will send news files to you that keeps you updated on anything news worthy.

There are also 3 quick links to the lefthand side, where you see:

Groups: This is to allow you to discover various communities and industries that you like.

Events: You would see any events that are happening, whether you are attending an event or creating one.

Followed Hashtags: As mentioned previously, any hashtag that you follow would appear onto your home feed.

Your Profile

Now, here is where it gets interesting. On many social platforms, your profile would be used to share any sort of personal experience you had like attending an event, posting some forms of entertainment and socializing with peers but with LinkedIn, that’s not really the case. Your profile feels more like a personal resume that you are putting on display, better way to put it, advertising and branding yourself for future clients or employers. Just to share something a bit personal, at first I will say that I was a bit hesitant to upload my personal academic and work experiences because I felt as though my portfolio isn’t strong enough to be displayed, compared to some of the others that I have viewed, however, this is the start for me and my journey throughout may lead me to a life changing opportunity that I wouldn’t believe could happen.

The Business Side of LinkedIn

As previously mentioned, this platform is strictly related for persons who are seeking to find employment, if there are any jobs you would like to advertise and for businesses to widen their audience to experience a level of growth. One business/brand that has shown to have grown since joining the platform is Coca-Cola. With over 7 million followers, they tend to showcase a lot of advertisements on their homepage and many partnerships that the company has made, with addition to events held at many locations. As Co-Managing Editor Jay Moye states, “LinkedIn is a huge traffic driver for us.” “It’s a professional audience. It’s professional social network versus more of a social network. We see great clickthrough rates on story links that we publish on LinkedIn. The percentage of clickthrough is markedly higher than it is on Facebook, and to a degree, Twitter.” Mr. Jay Moye also emphasized that, ”you’ll see more consumer-focused content go up on our Facebook page, whereas you’ll see more business innovation, jobs, workplace stuff go up on LinkedIn.”

Final Thoughts

So, in my first hands-on experience with LinkedIn, I must say that the platform is truly important if you want to see yourself grow within the workforce. There are still a few things I need to expand my knowledge on but for the most part, I can see myself becoming more indulgent with the platform to grow my network within my field of Graphic Designing.

Gregersen, E. (2023, March 27). LinkedIn. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/LinkedIn

Lazauskas, J. (2020, January 08). 12 Businesses With Fantastic LinkedIn Company Pages. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/companies-rocking-linkedin-company-pages

[shyheemprosper]

TWITTER

TWITTER

Twitter, one of the few mega giant apps I considered in the whole social media platform spectrum, due to its popularity and longevity. It was founded by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass in 2004. At the time, they didn’t really have a clear direction as to how they wanted the platform to be, up until engineer Jack Dorsey proposed a short message service (SMS) where one could share and send bloglike updates with friends. Dorsey would send his first post on March 2006, and followed up on July 2006 with a completed version of the platform. Glass proposed the name Twttr, due to being inspired from the name Flickr, however, six months after the launch, the name was eventually changed to Twitter.

Some may say that it’s similar to Facebook in terms of being able to share posts, socialize and have the opportunity to promote your business/brand. However, Twitter is slightly different due to having its own unique features and structure.

The image above shows the Home page and gives you the point of view if you’re using the platform on a desktop. At first glance, it may seem slightly busy, upon seeing many clickable links to go to, however, don’t be afraid, it’s easy to navigate through. I’ll give you a quick tutorial/run through of the various functions to better understand the app:

Home: As shown in the image above, this is where you will see all of the tweets that are both shared by you and the people you follow.

Explore: Here, a search bar provided for you to search for anyone by their twitter handles, also, there are many trending topics to discover.

Notifications: Here it shows if someone likes your tweet, notifies of people following you, mentions someone tagging you to a post,/comment, notifications from twitter relating to your profile etc.

Messages: Here is where messages are stored between you and others.

Twitter Blue: This allows you to become a blue subscriber, where you can create longer tweets up to 10,000 characters. (Disclaimer it will cost you $84.00 for a yearly subscription).

Profile: This is where you can see everything on your feed that you have liked, retweeted and make edits to your profile.

THE BUSINESS SIDE OF TWITTER

One thing I have noticed from using twitter is businesses/brands have huge followings to their profiles, and this is caused by the engagement with the audience/customers. Let’s look at Starbucks as an example. Starbucks as we know is one of the biggest coffee franchises in the world and they provide excellent customer service. Their Twitter page tends to highlight:

Charities that they are apart of such as ACRSNEWS nonprofit organization and the Born This Way Foundation, just to name a few.

They retweet posts from users who share their experience with the brand.

They stay with the trending scene by creating tweets relevant to their old and new menu selection.

Pictures, videos and GIFs of various beverages, delicious treats or even customers enjoying their meals are shared  on their home page.

Holiday specials are advertised like their Christmas #RedCupDay, which is a limited edition reusable red cup with the purchase of any holiday handcrafted beverage.

So, Twitter plays a great role on allowing businesses/brands to engage with their target audience and even gravitate new audiences to them. I, however, am curious to know what is the future outcome of Twitter, seeing that Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO and left the company back in May 2022, and now Mr. Elon Musk had purchased the company. Changes had already been made regarding the subscription that I mentioned earlier about Twitter Blue and he has indicated of implementing future changes. Only left to be seen.

[shyheemprosper]

My Experience With TikTok

Hello everyone, the social media platform that I want to share my experience with you is TikTok. Now, I had created an account at the beginning of Covid, however, I never really used the app that much at all and ventured deeply into it up until now. From the beginning of January 2023 to May 2023, I must say that I have slightly fallen victim to the addiction of the app.

Just to give you a small brief history, TikTok was formally known as Musical.ly, an app that allowed users to post 1 minute videos where they lip-synced and danced to their favourite songs.

The main founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, created the parent company ByteDance that purchased Musical.ly on November 10th, 2017 and merged it into TikTok. November 2021, Zhang Yiming stepped down as the CEO of the company, due to experiencing pressure from the Chinese government due to allegations of security breaches.

Now that the introduction has been said, we can discuss the fascination of the social media platform TikTok.

(Via BellaPoarch TikTok)

Looking at the Gif above, we will see user Bella Poarch, a simple regular girl at the time who had created her account in January 2020, posting fun musical clips, however, this is where her life would change drastically. Her quirky and open personality garnered her over 93 million followers. Yes, you read that correctly. You may ask, how does this work? Well, similar to Instagram algorithm, TikTok algorithm bases recommendations on user’s interactions with content on the app. These interactions would provide hints to what kind of content the user likes or doesn’t like. In the discover/search section it gives user the following:

Dance challenges

Music videos

Social activism

Trendy topics

Tutorials

Now looking into the business side of TikTok. Popular brands and self-entrepreneurs(small business owners) have benefitted from posts created on the platform. They have noticed that a lot of the younger generation between the ages of 18-30 years has gravitated towards their content and shown more interest in what brands have to offer. Some benefits for using TikTok are as followed:

Running of various ads

Collaboration with influencers

Increase brand awareness

Creative features to showcase products

Enlarging your audience

Enhance brand identity

Take advantage of user-generated content

Reach your target market faster

The music business has also seen huge growth within the past 3 years of using TikTok. Regarding to streaming platforms, according to an article from the Los Angeles Times, more than 414.4 million people were subscribed to a music streaming service in 2020, growing to 523.9 million in 2021, and 616.2 million in 2022. This has helped artists to receive a lot more streams that they can benefit from.

Personally speaking, aside from the important security matters the company is currently facing, I see TikTok as a way for brands to represent themselves in a way that is different from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I mean, Instagram has even copied its video feature and called it ‘Instagram Reels’. That in itself should tell you how the video platform is so impactful.