BACK TO SCHOOL is here again! However, the classroom setting looks quite different this year for many young scholars. Teachers and parents alike are making necessary adjustments in light of the coronavirus pandemic, while officials are making determinations on the safest educational delivery methods. For this Freelance Spotlight, I’d like to highlight my recent work with an inspiring young educator, Meleah Campbell. This indoor shoot was completed while adhering to all COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Boasting almost 30k followers on Instagram alone, the UC Davis and Loyola Marymount educated, Teach America alum uses her social media platforms to champion for literacy and the arts. Ms. Campbell does an amazing job digitally interacting with her preschoolers and I was thankful for the opportunity to work with her on capturing images for sponsored posts. Here are a few snaps I captured for her paid partnerships with Advancement Courses (a Wiley Learning company) and Lakeshore Learning.
Personally, I am no stranger to distance learning. I completed high school with an online, Middle States accredited homeschool program, then resumed physical classes for college. Despite the circumstances prompting the change, I am happy to see more minority families exploring homeschool options and finding alternate methods for educational enrichment.
I am pleased to announce I recently accepted a part-time position with Live Nation at Warner Theater, D.C. This position doesn’t involve usage of my skills in sound, lighting, shooting or editing, however, I am still ecstatic about joining this live entertainment powerhouse and soaking up knowledge.
My career background includes roles as a Brand Ambassador and Host. During college, I handled retail-setting, customer-facing promotion for brands like Nespresso, Vega and Onnit. Those positions pooled several skills including marketing, sales, hospitality, analytics and customer service – all of which proved useful in freelancing and building my client portfolio. Most importantly, those experiences provided me with an edge in helping businesses conceptualize their digital strategy and shaping their visual brand story. At this venue, I’ll assist with coordinating operations on the night of shows in collaboration with the Floor Manager, servers and security with the objective of assisting patrons secure an optimal concert experience. Wish me luck!
CONTENT IS KING! I enjoy reading titles with actionable, real-world tactics and extracting elements for creatives occupying digital space, particularly filmmakers. I’d like to share my review on the fourth edition of Lisa Buyers’ Social PR Secrets: How to Optimize, Socialize and Publicize Your Brand. I recently devoured the Kindle edition of this field guide on public relations, social media and digital marketing. I recommend checking out, it’s an easy read with strategies for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Public Relations Impact Graphic – Social Media and Digital Marketing.
Social PR Secrets packs 32 chapters, yet remains a relatively simple and quick read with short, easily-digestible chapters. Buyers personalizes each chapter and often details her experience while offering examples and leaning on associated subject matter experts. She provides historical context, the current state and best practices. She also outlines tools such as Xtensio.com and Hubspot to create free persona profiles, tools like Paper.Li and Scoop.It for content curation tailored to your audience and ScribeContent.com for content optimization, search engine visibility and social sharing.
From the standpoint of a creative filmmaker who blends art with digital media, below are several excerpts from Social PR
Secrets that are poised to assist with the development of an online strategy:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Awesome content lasts forever
Stay fresh, find inspiration
Create materials and content that addresses the needs of your audience
Think like your audience, create a persona profile for your audience
Another key takeaway that I felt was important to
point out for creatives is to “Skip self-promotion
and find your passion points.” For
instance, Red Bull rarely talks about their drink, rather, it details the passion
that connects the brand to their audience and living life to the extreme. For another example, I recall a recent ad slot
by Bumble app starring Serena Williams.
The commercial never referenced what the product is, rather, it details
an ideology – one that supports women taking the first move in work, love and
life. The message resonated with me, and
prompted me to research the company. It
is important not to get so caught up in the act of promoting your services and
accomplishments that you overshadow what the brand represents.
CONTENT CREATION
CHECKLIST
Make sure your message is
REAL and AUTHENTIC
Use VISUALS to illustrate your
message
Ensure the content has a CLEAR
VALUE PROPOSITION
Offer a clear next step or CALL
TO ACTION
TYPES OF CONTENT TO DRIVE MORE TRAFFIC (50 different types listed in Ch. 4) Video, How-To, Email Campaigns, Events, Promotions, Live Chats, Guides, Infographics, Blog Posts, Interactive Content, Interviews, Tweets, Photo Galleries
Personally, I love that Social PR Secrets offers a comprehensive list of free graphic and image sources. I also like that Buyers’ chapters are broken down by subject and platform. The book has a list of bullets in almost every chapter making the material visually scannable, which makes for great reference document. I finished reading the book, but will definitely revisit. In short, I recommend this book (especially the digital version for search-ability and hyperlinks) and encourage you to check it out.
Graphic on SEO applicability to content creators and filmmakers
As a content creator, it is imperative to have an understanding of SEO and content marketing. This will help you navigate the online space and understand what “works” for the marketplace. Most importantly, this will arm you with important tools for driving your works (and business) forward. WE ARE ALL CONTENT MARKETERS NOW. In this article, I’ll explore the intersection between content creation, search engine optimization and digital marketing. I will also delve into Hyper Local SEO and Marketing – How US Marketers Win Global By Going Local by Donald L Dunnington, extracting the major points applicable to filmmakers and content creators.
The secret to successful content marketing isn’t actually a secret. It involves the commitment to producing a continuous stream of useful and engaging content. A poignant statement from Dunnington is, “SEO is the new PR and PR is the new SEO.” While SEO media relations are focused on online media and search engine results pages (SERPS), there are comparable objectives with public relations professionals, since the emphasis for both are increasing brand awareness, relationship building and boosting placements.
The digital age takes content
production to a hyper level and there is a premium placed on consumer-friendly,
authentic content. This holds true for various platforms: websites, blogs,
YouTube channels, social media etc.
As filmmakers, we are all looking for innovative marketing strategies to
engage our expand our audience. This involves
researching your niche audience and how to reach them. I mention this to stress the importance of
SEO and relationship building. I will
write additional articles on avenues, such as posting behind-the-scenes moments,
creating graphics, strategically hashtagging and personalizing the experience
for your audience. Stay tuned, and bookmark my site.
Key Takeaways:
CONTENT IS KING.
Quality in-bound links start with producing original, quality, authentic and
compelling content for online, social and mobile platforms.
WE ARE ALL CONTENT MARKETERS NOW. This is the prime driver of sales leads for B2B and B2C
industries.
SEO is the new PR and PR is the new SEO.
Develop a
personal touch, stay in contact, maintain a two-way relationship.
Relationships
are built in relevancy, quality and the value they bring to the vertical market
they serve.
Sidebar: One lesson I learned directly from the author, Donald Dunnington, who happens to be the professor of my grad-level public relations course at Rowan University is that Google penalizes sites that contain duplicate content. This was important because I had a secondary site geared toward women in tv and film where I would republish some of my articles and blog posts first featured on this website. After this discovery, I later elected to create a category page. There are important technical considerations involved in our quest for SEO relevance. Oftentimes, creators share the same content across social media and various platforms, however, with blogs in particular, even if you are the original author, you should be mindful of mirroring duplicate content across sites because there are associated search engine penalties.
BibbyFame Digital, LLC: Photo, Film & Interactive Media 