Correct Social Media Usage

Recently at work, I had a meeting about correct language usage on social media that I found very useful and transferable to this project. I thought I'd note down some key points on my blog to refer back to.

- Overloading with hashtags can be very unprofessional. Between two and four is best.

- Use contractions always. 

- Keep it casual.

- Although there is a higher character limit on Twitter now, try to keep to 140.

- Facebook should be longer and more mature, as the general audience is older.

- The focus of an Instagram post should be the image. Keep captions fairly short.

- Don't overuse filters.

- It's okay to talk about 'irrelevant' stuff, as long as it's something your followers with understand and identify with.

- Interact with responses to your posts.

- Use language your target audience use. Slang. Abbreviations.

- Don't go for the hard sell.

- Don't make yourself seem like you're above your followers.

I went back through all of my Comic Nest posts to check that I'd been communicating sensibly and correctly for each platform. I'm really happy with my overall style of post. I feel I was very lucky to have previous experience in control of the social media for a company with a similar target audience, as this has made the social media side of this project so much easier.

Below are some examples of where I've attempted to interact with our followers in a conversational, fun tone that'll hopefully make our followers remember and return to our page...

Social Media Posts - 26/3

This week I wanted to try something really different. I realised it had been about a month since I'd really encouraged engagement from our followers, so I considered ways I could do this and came up with a giveaway. This could also potentially help me with my book. I'm not expecting a large response to this, but I'm hoping we might get a little more engagement and maybe a new follower or two.

Laser Cutting

One of the new skills our group utilised this semester was the use of laser cutter for promotional purposes. We were first of all given instruction on how to set up a document to ensure that our image (which we chose to be our Comic Nest logo) would cut out successfully and not fall apart.

We then 'printed' our design on semi-thin wood, using the large laser cutter provided by the university. We were taught which settings to use and how this varies based on the design and the material chosen.

We really love the final result and are really proud of it. I suggested that it would be really cool to do promotional photos of our books nearer the time of MCM, with the laser cut logo lit up with fairy lights in the background. 

Social Media Posts - 19/3

I'm just rounding up the research side of my project so don't have too much art to post. This is a problem I find is common with my project because of how different it is, and how the focus isn't on the art as much in my book. This week, I chose to highlight a little feature from last week's post. I felt this kept a sense of continuity to my posts and helped to - once again - keep Milton relevant.

Business Card Lesson

Today we had a lesson on the importance of business cards. Whilst I already have fairly successful business cards that I really like, Katy and I worked on a design for the group. We both brainstormed ideas and then Katy drew out the final design.

Below, you can see my current business card designs.

Social Media Posts - 12/3

Today's post was of my potential cover idea. I posted it to gauge the audience's opinion of it, which was especially important due to how unsure I was on the design. Overall, the response was very positive and people got the joke behind the cover, but it was a little less enthusiastic than I hoped so I probably won't use this design.

Panel Dominance Task

In any good comic page, the most important action is contained within the largest panel. This helps to communicate that importance to the reader. It really helps to add to the flow of the story, as well as the drama.

Below, you can see a task where I've split up pages in the best way to give the most weight to the crucial panels...

Social Media Posts - 5/3

This week I decided to give our followers a taste of what my book would consist of. I'm also working to get our followers used to seeing Milton as a character, as people are more likely to buy things they know and understand. I also used this week to promo our other social media accounts, and point followers towards our linktr.ee.

Book Binding

A lecture was given on Japenese stab binding. Unfortunately, I was too ill to attend this lecture. Although I felt that I this method was not at all appropriate for my book, I felt it was necessary to gather the resources for the future, should I need them for more suitable project. So I searched up the best tutorials to post them here so I could easily find them in the future...
http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/2012/01/project-friday-portrait-party-booklet-sewing-demonstration-japanese-stab-binding.html
http://www.designsponge.com/2013/03/bookbinding-101-japanese-four-hold-binding.html