Online Presence 2: Prototype

What happened that was interesting?

The development of the digital artefact Devouring Wollongong has come a long way since the ideating process with many alterations made.

The initial concept of Devouring Wollongong was finding the best places to eat in the area. We operated a prototype of this idea in our first video; Eat Street Markets. After the completion of this video, we decided as a group that some alterations were in order and this was reinforced through feedback from our tutors and friends. These changes were needed for two main reasons:

1. Creating weekly videos together was overly complicated to produce and the projects were becoming too large for the response we were receiving . Our artefact did not aline with the FIST structure.
2. We were spreading the content over a multitude of media platforms that weren’t effective.

Our Eat Street video was quality content, but it was also a fail when comparing it to the rest of our operational prototype since implementing our changes. Failure means a learning experience. We now give ourselves the flexibility to post other formats of content that range from photos, posts and video. This change encourages consistency and enhances audience engagment. We can get content out faster and dividing it up simplifies the creation and export process in-between occasional larger videos.

We also expanded from documenting only food in Wollongong as it was expensive. Devouring Wollongong is able to keep the same name as we still look at the best food to consume, however, we also look at consuming other things Wollongong has to offer, like experiences, hikes and attractions.

Another large change was the cull of our Instagram and Twitter. We now all co manage the Facebook page devouring Wollongong and focus mainly in that space. I noticed that the University of Wollongong also concentrates their marketing heavily on Facebook. The majority of Devouring Wollongong’s audience are uni students (see below) that consume our content and the analytics back up the hypothesis that the university students congregate and engage best on Facebook. 

Who’s your audience? 

The audience for Devouring Wollongong is 18- 24-year-olds from Australia which is both our intended audience and our analysed audience. We have successfully targeted university students in the area. Our tutor gave feedback on the limitations of a digital artefact that targets an audience on campus for the educational content that we are creating and that it would only be useful in March for first years. This is reflected by the stunt in growth experienced after our initial creation of the Facebook page. 

Inspiration?

Our decision to really focus in on our Facebook account stemmed initially from research into UOW Admirers, a Facebook page that is successful in engaging with an audience similar to our own. Although we do not have the same kind of content, the interpersonal interaction was something we were trying to achieve.

What readings were most helpful?

One of the most helpful readings from moodle was Todd Clarks ‘Complete Guide to Content Curation’ “to learn what’s working, what’s not and to change” listening socially was an important element that I personally ignored in the very beginning of my digital artefact. Once I discovered that the content that was easier to produce was in higher demand, I understood lengthy youtube videos weren’t working. The blog post really broke down different options and avenues to focus on when beginning including to ‘mix it up’ and ‘schedule it.’

References

Todd Clarke, Content Curation: A Beginner’s Guide To Curating Content, Hootsuite Social Media Management, 4 October 2018 < https://blog.hootsuite.com/beginners-guide-to-co >