Tagged: Creative Writing

The Would-be Success of The Company That I Work For

Mr. President of The Company I Work For, 

My name is Donna and I’ve just started working here at The Company That I Work For. I’m really enjoying the environment and the work that we do. However it has come to my attention that we do not have a presence on social media. I know we have our website but I feel like we are really missing out on a  great opportunity. Social media has many advantages that will help get our name out there.

There are 3 kinds of social media that I’d would like you to consider; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

As you must know Facebook is a very popular platform for networking. If we created a Facebook group for our company we could share it across a much bigger audience than we could by our methods now. We can gain likes and followers so that we can keep our customers updated on the latest coming out of our company’s doors. This is also a great way to receive feedback on our customers through comments so that we can continue to improve ourselves for better sales.

Next Twitter. It’s the next biggest things after Facebook, and in some ways even bigger than Facebook because of it’s microblogging format. Tweeting facts about our company or quotes from customer feedback would be a phenomenal way to get our name out there. Not only would people see our Tweets but they have the possibility of retweeting them. It’s a great tool to get our products out to those people we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach. You wouldn’t have to worry about finding people to see the Tweet initially at first either. You just have to tag a Tweet to categorize it and then people will find it based on that.

Instagram is something like Twitter except instead of 140 characters to write something you get a small square to take a picture with some kind of caption. You can utilize tagging in the same way we would on Twitter and when people find our Instagram posts they would be able to see a great visual representation of our company as opposed to words. Some people out there respond more with a visual aid and I believe it would be important to incorporate this into our company.

The benefits of these platforms are astronomical and I truly believe that should we invest in them it will do wonders for the way we market ourselves.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal. I look forward to hearing from you about it.

My best,
An Employee of The Company I Work For

proposal

Dear President of whatever company,

You may not know me yet because I just joined the company. I am a recent graduate, and I want to help expand the customer base of our company. I know that this company will succeed with flying colors if we add a little something extra.

Now, I’ve been doing some research about the company, and I noticed that we do not have a blog. After taking a multimedia class, I have learned that blogs really help increase customers and readers. Blogging will help us connect to not only our returning customers but also with new customers. With a blog, we can: introduce new products; create interesting stories relating to our products; increase customers; upload photos of our products; make customers feel like they are a part of the company; have polls for new ideas; have contests; ask customers for reviews; write news about the company and/or about our community.

You can hire a social media techie, or I can possibly help out with creating our blog. I already have a design layout that will really catch the eyes of many. I looked up keyword searches that people search for frequently. I have a few posts already in mind that include these keywords, which would really help this company grow. I already have contest ideas. All I need is approval from you to begin this journey. I’ll take pictures, upload constantly, and make sure to reach a quota and possibly surpass it. We need a blog ASAP.

From Blog to Vlog

There aren’t too many options for me for my blog to evolve off the page. Since my blog is basically off of current events, I don’t think a book would work, or a magazine, and definitely not a movie (who wants to see a movie about the New Jersey Devils, anyway?!). Since I’m not sure if I plan on keeping my blog around after this class is over, I highly doubt I would do anything anyway. But if my blog ever adapted to being off the page, I think a vlog would be the most likely because it’s an easy, seamless transition from a blog. A good deal of sports blogs I visit have vlogs (whether it’s about the specific team it covers or the league/sport in general). Even ESPN has vlogs! The downside, though, is that I don’t really know how to edit videos, I don’t really have that much time to do vlogs, and I don’t know how exciting my vlogs would actually be. Oh, well.

 

into the future

My blog is about mini college tips.

It will become a vlog with mini situations… so like a mini TV show in a Vlog form? I will ask friends to act out mini roles and create situations that a college student can relate to. I want to make it a humorous, yet sometimes a serious, vlog that engages many viewers. Some days I will incorporate photos instead of situations. I think a video log is more interesting than reading posts sometimes. When I’m tired and just want to relax, reading is great, but often, I enjoy watching vlogs more. I would rather spend 10 minutes watching a vlog than reading a blog. Maybe I’ll get enough subscribers and ‘episodes’ to turn it into a DVD set. hahaha

It will then evolve into a book deal. I think my book will be more interesting than photos and text messages. Tips are fun and short but meaningful. College students can relate and learn; high school students can learn beforehand. Graduate students may recollect and reminisce. It will connect to a wide population.

 

Animated Anime Watching?

If my blog were to come off of the page and become something else it would be…

  • A list of rated anime maybe presented in vlog format.
  • A series of videos with my acting out the animes within a few minutes. (one per video)
  • A vlog of my hilarious facial expressions while watching anime. (live vlogging?)
  • A book with brief descriptions of anime.

I can’t really think of anything else that it could become. Being that it is a very specific blog I can’t really have it be that flexible. These ideas in themselves are also ideas that I would never actually go through with. I’m not really a vlog kind of person.

 

 

 

Avoiding the Blogging Burnout

I actually think that people who are beginner bloggers and people who have been blogging for a while would have slightly different reasons to stop blogging. For novices, I think that some sort of disinterest would be the primary reason. Since these people have never blogged before, the schedule may be a little demanding to start out, having to keep up with all the posts per week and all. Also, the blogger may realize that he or she is not as interested in the topic as once thought, or there just is not as much to write about as previously thought. For experienced bloggers, though, I don’t think that he or she would stop blogging and abandon the blog immediately; instead, I think that it would die out over time. If he or she enjoys blogging a great deal, then there will always be some time here and there to update the blog. After a while though, the blogger would probably feel some sort of “burnout” and not want to update the blog anymore, thereby making the blog dead.

If I were to ever have “blogger burnout” I would probably just back away for a while and not post on my blog. If I had a friend who had a great blog, but hasn’t updated in a while, I would offer words of encouragement to him or her and question as to why they are suddenly disinterested in keeping up with the blog. I would tell my friend that they have a terrific following and many people enjoy reading your blog and tell him or her that, if they really need to, take a few days or a week off and come back later when you feel more up to posting.

Don’t stop bloggin!

It’s all about commitment and self-motivation. After reading and learning about all the reasons and ways to avoid abandonment of blogs, I feel like it all depends on the blogger. If a blogger does not enjoy their topic anymore, they may forget about it, or take a really long time to update and write a post. The blogger can also just lose interest. If the blogger doesn’t feel committed or happy with their blogs, readers probably would feel just the same. The blogger needs to have fun and be committed. Bloggers might also set the bar too high when first starting their blogs. They might think that their blog will get a million followers in a few days, or they might believe that a lot of people will repost, comment, and talk about all their posts. Others might want monetary feedback. It takes a few weeks to a few months, maybe years, to build of readerships and followers. By setting the expectations too high and then not achieving it quickly, the blogger might lose complete interest.

Bloggers can set little goals that seem more realistic and approachable. With followers, maybe they can say 10 followers in two weeks and slowly grow it from there. They can create posting schedules and calendars to make sure they strictly follow a pattern, so that it will integrate normally into their lives if they want to blog for a long period. They should allow friends and family to provide feedback and comments; it’s always good to hear a little bit of criticism. It’s better to hear positive feedback that can motivate a blogger to keep on blogging.

I need to schedule my posts accordingly. I never know what certain days will bring. With a schedule, I’d be much more committed. I need to set a tiny goal every few weeks to keep going. I also should jot down more notes about ideas because I get great ones but forget all the time. One thing other bloggers (and I?) can do is follow blogs and forums that have similar topics. That way, there would be more motivation. I think more ideas can stem from others’ stories, and there will be more responses and opinions elicited- every reader loves drama and responses!!

I would definitely tell my friend to start posting again. I would even offer to give her ideas! I might help her edit, too. If her blog posts were that awesome, I would definitely bribe her with cookies or something amazing to keep her going strong. I would make her feel guilty about her readers crying that they haven’t read her posts in a while. I’d show her the lists that we read and try persuading her in any way possible!!

Keep Blogging!

 

The main reason that a blogger would abandon their blog is that life simply just gets in the way. I know this from my own blog. I work, take 19 credits here at Rutgers, am in the marching band, and hold a position within my Fraternity. I barely have time for anything. And if for some chance I do have time I’m either too tired to function or I desperately need to just relax. It’s difficult because normally  I wouldn’t blog if I didn’t have a good amount of time to commit myself to the blog.

To prevent blogging burn out I think I would simply post less frequently. My blog being an anime blog I could first watch an entire anime series and then write about it as opposed to writing about anime I’ve already watch and simply remember. It would be more productive that way I think. I’ll be very interested in the anime and at the end of it I’m sure I would want to share how awesome it was. I wouldn’t feel the obligation to do so, I would just want to do it.

If my friend has a great blog and hasn’t updated it in a while I think I would nonchalantly comment about their blog every once in a while so as to send something sort of like a subliminal message. Because maybe after hearing about their blog so much they might be interested in going back to it. If that doesn’t work I think I would just be very direct and ask them about it. Ask why they stopped or how they are feeling about continuing blogging so that maybe I can help in someway to get their motivation back. I would not push the limit though.

Internet Impressions: take control of yours.

“all citizens, no matter how obscure, will have to adjust their behavior to the possibility that someone may be writing about them”
Jeffrey Rosen

To an extent I believe that this ideology should be followed. However this is something that has always been in play. You should adjust your behavior to the possibility of anything. It’s all about the impression you leave on someone. You do it all the time; You’re on your best behavior when you meet her parents or put on a face (not neccesarily a farce) when you go to be interviewed. The fact is you are always being judged and someone will inevitably gossip about you and your behaviors. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on a blog or written in a journal. You should always want to present yourself to be a certain way in public. Why should that change at all with the addition of blogs? Sure it’s a different medium that more people have access to however if you follow this ideology you won’t have to worry about anything.

So yes you should adjust your behavior for how you want to be perceived but considering the work wide web, I feel that your identity should be kept private if you want it to be. You should have total and complete control over your identity on the internet and if someone else puts out any sort of personal information out there, you should have the right to make them take it down or at least simply take your identity away from whatever they wrote.

watch out, you might end up in someone’s blog!

It’s sad to see how such a great thing as blogging has emerged and everyone interprets it in different ways. Bloggers discuss a wide range of topics such as: recipes, DIYs, reviews, criticisms, vents- internet diaries, etc. It’s sad that this question even popped up! What’s more sad is that people can’t confront the actual person and  have to vent and write horrible things on their blogs.

I personally disagree with this statement. Why? Because everyone is different, and everyone is free to act as they please- as long as it’s not offensive or cruel. If someone has an awkward presence and dress in Christmas Sweaters all the time, it is not a reason to blog nasty things about them. Some people are rude, I agree, because they state all their opinions without any boundaries. But those people are themselves, and they probably should expect that someone will say something about them. We can’t all be on our toes all the time, scared that someone will blog mean things about them.

I believe in the Golden rule: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” People should be nice if they want others to be nice to them. People should act accordingly and like sincere citizens if they want others to treat them with respect and kindness. So many people utilize their blogs as diaries…. they sometimes don’t even look for followers. I personally thing they should write in a physical diary with an actual pen, but everyone is different. Some like using computers more than getting hand cramps furiously writing. I rather furiously write and underline instead of breaking my keyboard. People are able to write about anything they want online, but they should try playing nice. If I end up in someone’s blog in a negative way, I’d say, “Great. That’s one thing I can change about myself!” Of course, after cursing them off, and then realizing that I’m special to be featured in someone’s blog. They took time out of their lives to dedicate a post to me. How. Sweet. But chances are I probably won’t know if an individual blogged about me. Most bloggers change the names when blogging about others. If they are blatant and open, I probably will not mind. My friends and family know how I act on a normal basis and would understand.

People tweet or update Facebook statuses about others and their good/bad experiences. It’s a normal thing. People have been updating their diaries with good/bad things. Crushes. Rude people. Santa Claus. Forever we have been writing about people ‘secretly’. No one should have to worry about whether someone will write about them or not. Bloggers should be able to, however, be more respectful to privacy. They shouldn’t upload pictures or videos or whatever about a person without their permission… At least keep the post on the DL, change up names, or keep it as a private post!