Interconnected Interwebs

[mkates-blog]

Outlining SMART Goals: A Crucial Step For Your Project's Success

As the new semester gets underway, our class has been tasked with the challenge to think of a digital media project that we want to create and execute. This is a tough call to action. With such a wide net the possibilities are really endless. We have creative freedom, which is great. On the other hand we must think of an idea that we want to dedicate our lives to for the next 12 weeks. Without any given direction your mind continues to wander about what you want to project to achieve.

This is why SMART goals are so important.

Defined goals allow the project to be reined in and given a more clear direction. For example, a client might want his video infographic to garner a million views in a month. By going through the SMART goals process it will give him the opportunity to see if this is plausible. While the goal is specific (S) and measureable (M), and achievable (A), it does not immediately seem realistic (R). By completing do diligence the producer should look to similar videos and analyze their view count growth. Using competitive analysis the producer should realign his goals to something more realistic. We all want our videos to go viral but we cannot snap our fingers to make that happen.

When working with clients, it is important that you come to mutually agreed goals for the project. Over promising and under delivering is one of the biggest issues that a producer wants to avoid. It hurts your brand and reputation, which could make it more difficult to find additional work later on. The SMART goals process is a useful way to create realistic outcomes for the project for both the client and the producer.

[mkates-blog]

3 Things I Learned About The Real World In 2014

Writing is hard.

After four years of university, I thought I was pretty good at cranking out those 1,500 word essays in 6 hours. You know, writing? But oh man, was I wrong.

Let me preface with this. I know how difficult academic writing is. Professors, doctors, engineers and scientists have their entire careers defined by the textbooks we lug around from classroom to classroom.

So let me rephrase my first sentence. Writing like a human being is hard.

There is a special kind of difficulty in creating content that puts a genuine smile on your face when you get to the end or when you immediately copy the link to share on Facebook.

It's a challenging process. I spent half the summer learning how to do this and I'm still a rookie. But you know what? Through real world practice and constructive criticism, I got better. This skill isn't something I learned in the classroom but through creating content and playing with it, day in and day out.

2014 was a good year for me. I made some lifelong friends, started at a new school and took on new challenges (very cliché I know). I also learned some things too! Surprising right?

So I figured. What better way to start off 2015 than by sharing with my friends 3 things that the the big ol’ 2014 taught me about me.

1) Always be improving your craft

If you want to be a writer, write on a regular basis. Not once every few weeks, but 1-2 times per week. If you want to get into investing, read books and articles about what is going on in the world markets around you. If you want to DJ (no judgments) dig websites like Soundcloud and Hypetrak to find the hidden gems that you can throw into your sets.

The only way to see improvements is investing your time into the thing you love. It won’t come to you overnight.

2) Make your own opportunities

The world isn’t going to hand you anything. This may sound cynical to some but it’s 100% true. If you want that dream job be prepared to get your hands dirty. Cold call executives, engage with industry leaders on social media and take informational interviews so you can build your network.

Getting your dream job will come from whom you know, not what you know.

3) Don’t be a rubber stamper

Be passionate and have opinions on things. Always have the conversation about why this is the right direction for the project. Being able to sell a strategy to the team is just as important as selling it to the client. Going through this process will help reaffirm that this is the right strategy and also the best strategy. Rushing to complete a project just to get it done doesn’t help anyone.

Be thorough. Producing great work takes time.

Cheers to 2015! Let's make it a good one.

[mkates-blog]

Getting The Project Done, One Checkin At A Time

Well, I am happy to say that my first semester at Centennial College went pretty smoothly. Coming straight out of university I knew there was going to be an adjustment period. I was going to have a lot more classes, more class hours and I was commuting over an hour each way to and from school. As well, my classes were going to be a lot smaller with the same 11 people in all of them. This is compared to Laurier where my smallest classes were about 30 people and each class had a different group.

What this all meant was that I really had to focus on group dynamics and time management. I was also going to see the people in my group almost everyday. As well, because we were all coming from different ends of the city, we had to work efficiently when we were together so our projects could be cohesive and finished by the due date.

One of the first steps that helped our group succeed was assigning each team member a general position early in the process. This allowed us too really focus on our section of the assignment without stepping on each other’s toes. As the impromptu project manager for my group, I was often checking in with group members to see how far along they were in their current section of the assignment. While it can be difficult to take on this role, especially if you’re working with friends, it is necessary to make sure that all project components get done. If someone was falling behind on one section, due to other commitments or priorities, we were able to identity what still had to be done and reassign it if necessary.

Additionally through this role I often acted as a second eye for group members and their work. While working on individual components of a larger assignment it is very important to always double check and make sure that everyone’s work is up to the expected standard. By periodically checking in with group members, I was able to tell them that yes, this is great or no we need to go back and rethink this idea. By having a point person in this role, it prevented us from having to backtrack right at the end of the project to redo an entire section due to the miscommunication of an idea.

Finally, instant communication was very important for our group members. We were often bouncing ideas off each other and by not solely relying on email or a project management tool we were able to get instant feedback about our ideas. We did have one hiccup near the end of the assignment but overall we were able to effectively communicate using Facebook messenger. By determining our communication needs before picking a tool, we were able to effectively utilize a well-known platform that everyone was accustomed too. This meant we didn’t need to go out and learn a new tool just for the sake of using it. I learned that sometimes the most basic and everyday tool could be the necessary ingredient to the group’s success.

Overall, two of the most important concepts I learned throughout this process were feedback and personnel management. When each group member has a different set of expectations it is important to be in contact with them on a regular basis to make sure the project and their work is being produced on schedule. By acting as that check in tool for team members, it provided reassurance for our team that the project we were producing was professional, cohesive and finished on schedule.

[mkates-blog]

Instagram: A "New" Social Frontier For Toronto Life

As Toronto Life continues to transition from a print publication to a multifaceted digital news hub, they must review and update their content distribution channels. This is crucial for multiple reasons. Firstly, they must stay cognizant of their core readerships’ consumption preferences. While the publication has only produced a printed magazine previously, the emergence of digital consumption channels has eliminated a lot of desire for the physical copy. This has lead Toronto Life to produce a digital downloadable version as well. Many readers are now using their connected devices as a way to consume content. The saturation of connected devices in Canada has been growing steadily since the emergence of homegrown Blackberry (formerly RIM) in 2009. Today, over half of the country owns a smartphone with 47% of those smartphone owners owning a tablet as well. While Toronto Life must continue to produce the high quality, in depth content it is recognized for, it must also look for new ways to tap into and utilize the world of digital journalism and connected devices.

Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world. This is emphasized by the city’s slogan “Diversity Our Strength”. As the largest city in Canada, there are always internationally recognized events happening like Caribana, TIFF and the Pride Parade. These fantastic events are a perfect opportunity for Toronto Life to utilize a platform like Instagram, as a way to connect with their growing digital audience. As well, using this social sharing platform will give them an opportunity to promote their content to a younger demographic who have not grown up reading a printed magazine but instead with a smartphone in their hands.

Another positive of using Instagram is that Toronto Life already has a branded account set up with over 2800 followers. At one point the account had pictures posted but as of last week they were deleted. This can be looked at as a positive because it allows Toronto Life to recreate their personal Instagram brand and style from scratch. Already having 2800 followers is a huge help as well. This means they have over 2800 individuals who are interested in their content and haven’t gone to unfollow the account because they haven’t been active.

Instagram also utilizes the hashtagging system made famous by Twitter as a way to categorize content and see what is trending. Looking through the app, there are almost 7.5 million posts tagged with #toronto, over 115k tagged with #torontolife and over 95k tagged with #torontophoto. Having these established hashtags with huge content repositories makes it much easier for Toronto Life to start pushing their content to both their followers and users who do not follow them. These hashtags act as a free publicity mechanism for Toronto Life because people will search for a popular hashtag like #toronto to see what has been trending in the city. As well, posts can have multiple hashtags, which means they will get distributed into a variety of channels for discovery.

Moving forward, Toronto Life should make use of the Instagram platform to not only share pictures of their content and events but also of the city and its people. This will help generate good word of mouth about their content. Toronto Life should not only use their channels to sell magazine subscriptions or page views but also the fantastic culture that makes up Toronto. Creating buzz about the city will help generate more stories that Toronto Life can write on. This indirect promotion will help Toronto Life’s business in ways direct promotion can’t.

[mkates-blog]

Lean Coding: Utilizing CSS To Create A Quicker Web Product

In 2014, many consumers don’t often think of data in terms of bits and bytes but instead in megabytes, gigabytes or even terabytes. When we want to download a new app off the App Store it doesn’t seem to change our decision making process if the app is 3 or 100 megabytes (mb). It often goes something like this; find cool game, download cool game. Because of how ubiquitous smartphones and data consumption have become in our everyday lives, we don’t really care about the inner workings. Canadian consumers have come to terms with the fact that the telecommunications companies are probably ripping us off Unfortunately, there aren’t many options when you really want to stream Netflix on the commute home from school. Even worse, these same companies are now forcing customers to spend hundreds of dollars a year to get data on their devices. Bell charges a new customer $70 a month to get 300mb of data per month when they purchase an iPhone on contract. This was of course in retaliation to the CRTC ruling last year, which pretty much forced the abolishment of 3 years contracts. It seems that the telco companies lost the battle but ultimately won the war, as they still have you locked into their systems lining their pockets on a monthly basis.

Even though we think in megabytes and gigabytes, the bites and kilobytes that fly through the air when we check our Twitter feed or update our Facebook status add up and can end up consuming your data very quickly if you aren’t careful.

We also want the products we use everyday to be the fastest. Instagram became so popular because it was one of the quickest ways to snap a photo, apply a filter and post it on the Internet. Being able to retrieve information quickly can make or break a web product’s success. Poorly written code hinders the user experience.

We learned this semester about how design elements can be coded directly into the CSS of a webpage, which can significantly decrease the time it takes the page to load. When webpages have hundreds of buttons and interfaces, having to download all of them from the hosting server on every page can eat up a lot of your customer’s data and force pages to render slower. Coding these elements directly through CSS can shave unnecessary data off the webpages’ total sizes leading to a product that loads faster and ultimately a more pleasing user experience. It is important when writing code to utilize the full range of options that a language like CSS provides you. Building a lean product is beneficial in three ways. Firstly, your customer will be happy because using your site will use up less of their data. Secondly, it will render faster. Thirdly, it results in customer retention because they are happy with your product.

[mkates-blog]

How Taco Bell Shutup On Social Media To Get People Talking

I often get asked the question, “You’re studying social media in school? That doesn’t sound like a career”. In my response, while trying to keep a positive attitude, I explain to them that there are a whole number of reasons as to why a strong social presence is becoming even more important to successful brand awareness and business growth.

Firstly, having a social media presence is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to grow your brand and reach out to your customers. The beauty of platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is that they’re free. Any business can create a profile and immediately connect with their current and potential fans for a total cost of zero dollars. This is the exact opposite of advertising in traditional media where there is a finite amount of advertising space in a magazine, newspaper or television show. This limited space creates a bidding war driving up the price to advertise.

These free profiles are a great first step for businesses to grow their online brand. But what happens when you already have an established social media presence? You have the eyes of fans who have voluntarily liked or followed you because they’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer. This relationship gives you an opportunity to tell them about your new products and promotions.

An awesome example of how to successfully leverage their business’s established social presence was executed by Taco Bell not even two weeks ago. Without a heads up to their followers, Taco Bell’s social media channels “went dark” last week to promote their new smartphone app. As you can see in the pictures below:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

all used an aligned media campaign to promote the app through the hashtag #OnlyInTheApp. It quickly became trending on Twitter and plastered on advertising and technology websites all wondering the same question, “What was so special about this app?”

This campaign was highly effective for multiple reasons. Firstly, because Taco Bell has over 10 million likes on Facebook, 1.4 million followers on Twitter and over 485k followers on Instagram, they had the attention of a lot of eyeballs. But it wasn’t like any other ad you see floating across your screen. By “blacking out” all other content on their profiles, customers were drawn to the simplicity and ambiguousness of the campaign. It drew so much attention, that people just had to download the app to find out what the buzz was all about

Once the app finally launched, it became clear what the awesome new feature was going to be. You can now order Taco Bell through your smartphone, which for some might be like opening that first gift on Christmas morning. And thanks to our friends at Adweek, we have some early numbers on just how successful their campaign was for Taco Bell. In just 24 hours after the social media blackout campaign, 75% of the chain’s American stores had received an order through the app. It also ranked #1 in the Food and Beverage section of the American iTunes app store on October 28th and sits at #6 today (November 10th 2014). I’m curious to see how much future revenue will be generated through this feature. But the ultimate reward for Taco Bell is that they can now push direct promotional content through this app to their customers. With companies sharing so much crappy digital content, it’s great to see brands stepping outside the box and finding unique ways to interact with their customers and create buzz about their brands.

[mkates-blog]

What's #Trending? How The Hashtag Is Taking Over Social Media

What’s trending? We’ll often ask this question for topics like food, music and television shows. But what about digital trends, are there tools or products that have cemented themselves in our digital lifestyles that have transcended their original platform? One example that comes to mind is the now famous selfie. We have seen entire platforms built around this new digital movement like Snapchat and Instagram. And when the word gets added to Webster’s Dictionary, I think that means you’ve made it. Additionally, mobile applications in general are becoming an ever-increasing revenue channel as smartphones sales continue to rise and become more common. The Angry Birds series has grown from a single iPhone game to one with many different versions, plush toys and a movie. It has been nothing short of a wild ride for mobile developers since Apple opened their App Store in 2008.

With this in mind, there is still one digital trend that sticks out as one of the most significant of the 21st century. It’s the hash tag (#) and has become a mainstream symbol in our world of digital media thanks to Twitter, which launched in 2006. The simplicity of the hash tag cannot be overlooked. With a single symbol we are able to build entire catalogues of information around a given topic. This has incredible power and allows us to gather timely information about a topic with a single search. With the recent shootings in Ottawa, the hashtag #ottawashootings quickly became trending on Twitter and allowed followers to stay up to date with the events. The benefit of the hashtag is that once a tweet or piece of content has been tagged, it will stay within that stream until it is deleted. This is great for reused hashtags like #TOpoli and #ONpoli, which are constantly being used to sort and identity information based on Toronto and Ontario politics. Additionally, the hashtag gives us an indication of what’s trending around the world. Hashtags can be sorted based on specific location, which gives the user the ability to see trending content at a very granular level, be it city, country or worldwide. As well, because of the hashtag, using Twitter as a search engine often provides the most up to date information about a story. It not only gives you “top” tweets and the tweets from the media professionals but also all the other tweets that use that particular hashtag, which contributes to citizen journalism. While this is an incredibly powerful tool, we have to be careful about what information we are sharing. There are prominent individuals who use the platform and hashtags to share information that can be racist, sexist and/or purely fictional. As we continue to invest our personal brand in these micro blogging platforms, we must do our due diligence to make sure that the information we are sharing is well thought out, researched and factual.

Finally, the use of the hashtag has been taken from Twitter and implemented into other major social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This in my opinion is what solidifies the hashtag in place as a technological trend. It is the easiest way to connect all corners of the globe around a single topic. Going forward I expect other social media platforms to adopt the hashtag as a way to analyze data and create content and social trends.

[mkates-blog]

Why Using Social Media Is So Key For Brand Awareness (Hint: Pictures Help)

Instagram

Create a theme for your content and be consistent. (Hootsuite)

Tell and interesting brand story through your images and captions. (Hootsuite)

Post consistently and spread your posts out throughout the day/week (Instagram)

Engage with your community – Create call to actions, like photos and leave comments on your followers’ pictures (Instagram)

These “best business practices” outlined by Hootsuite and Instagram platform. We have spoken about how establishing a clear tone and voice leads to brand consistency. This is extremely important for creating an understanding of what you and your brand stand for. Establishing consistency throughout your profile not only underlines your understanding of how to create brand on Instagram but will helps shape employers’ or customers’ opinions about the quality of your other work as well. Additionally, they talk about posting interesting content that highlights your brand. It’s important to post a variety of content that focuses on a theme instead of the same thing over and over again. I often post about Toronto, friends and food. My posts create engaging content for my viewers and help underline what my interests are. We can see a great example of brand consistency in the example below

This is a screen cap from Target's Instagram account. While each of these pictures focuses on a different product they underline brand consistency by utilizing the same key elements. The picture focuses on one main product, that product is centred in the image, it has bright contrasting colours and there is no Target branding whatsoever.

Reddit

Funny content is king (Prestige Marketing)

Redditors are at the forefront of internet content (Prestige Marketing)

Join the right communities (Socialdraft)

Use effective titles (Socialdraft)

Reddit is often an underutilized platform for digital advertising. As someone who wants to get into this subsector, it is crucial to understand its intricacies in order to effectively use it to disseminate content. Because we are bombarded by thousands of advertisements everyday, agencies are trying harder and harder to create ads that strike a chord with the viewers in a unique and memorable way. Many of them rely on humour to deliver their content and this is where Reddit as a social sharing platform can pay huge dividends for myself as a content producer. As Prestige Marketing outlines in their infographic, Redditors are often the first ones to break stories or spread content virally on the Internet. Additionally, top subreddits like videos, pics and funny are perfect channels for advertisers to share their content for FREE. But we must keep in mind that Redditors are very particular about the nuances of the platform. Socialdraft explains that joining the right communities and using effective titles can make or break the virality of your content. Creating original content that is accepted and shared by Redditors has incredible benefits that can push your brand to the next level. I plan on using this platform to our share my group’s viral video. By creating a video that fits in with the successful paradigms of the platform, it has a greater chance of being shared on other high traffic websites like Upworthy, Buzzfeed and Gizmodo.

Pinterest

Create images that Pinterest users naturally notice (Hubspot)

Create a board that your Pinterest audience can – and will want to discover (Hubspot)

Tell your company’s story (Pinterest)

Pin regularly (Pinterest)

Pinterest is an awesome platform for sharing visual content. Because it focuses on the image, it is a perfect platform for advertisers to share their products. Unlike Instagram that doesn’t focus on the desktop experience at all, Pinterest takes advantage of the bigger screen real estate, which allows more content to be pushed to the customer at one time. While, being able to push more content is a positive, it is equally important for your content to stand out so customers will notice it and repin it to their boards. Hubspot talks about how specific attributes of the content will help your content get noticed. For example, content with warmer colours will be repined 2x more than content with darker colours and tall images get repined more often. By keeping this information in mind for my own profile, I can create high quality boards that people will want to follow. As well, it can help potential employers understand my other interests besides advertising like clothing, tech and food. Pinterest has also created their own set of best business practices to help companies generate traffic through their platform. By pinning your company’s products, you can establish brand awareness and your company’s voice. As well by posting visual stories about your brand, customers get to learn about others just like them who have had a great experience using your product. By sharing images of your existing customer base and their positive experiences, new customers can reaffirm that this is the product for them.

[mkates-blog]

Sharing Is Caring: The Fluffy Sentence With Real World Applications

We are taught from a young age that good teamwork will lead to future successes. I remember being in the classroom with my teachers reminding my friends and I that if we shared the toy a) we wouldn’t fight with each other and b) she wouldn’t have to take it away from us. When I was seven, this seemed like a pretty good deal and even 15 years later in the workforce, this kind of cooperation can lead to a mutually greater success for everyone involved.

At the beginning of the semester we were put into working groups with two other strangers. This is always tough, as you have no idea what kind of experience they have or what kind of teamwork style they prefer. This is why we decided that for our first few meetings we would meet in person in order to get to know each other’s work preferences a little bit better. This is an extremely important step because if you dive right into work mode, it can lead to communication barriers and frustrations later on. It also gave us a chance to learn a little more about each other’s personal lives. This was crucial when one of my teammates informed us that she didn’t always have Internet access. She could access it through her phone’s cellular connection but not through her computer’s WIFI. With this in mind, we chose to use Facebook as our collaboration platform. While other groups used tools like Basecamp we chose not to go in this direction. One reason was that she could easily access Facebook from her mobile phone. Secondly, only one of us had used a collaboration tool like Basecamp in the past so learning a whole new system for a few shared files seemed like overkill (at this point in the term). Finally, it was much easier to message each other and drop files back and worth on Facebook instead of using multiple platforms.

In Jacob Morgan’s Forbes article titled The 12 Habits of Highly Collaborative Organizations he speaks about outlining a strategy before a technology . In our scenario, because we met in person first and learned about each others’ needs, we knew that Facebook was going to be the most useful collaboration tool. We figured out “why” we should be using Facebook instead of “how” to use Basecamp. Additionally he outlines that promoting a supportive environment is crucial for the both employee and organizational success. Throughout the semester so far, there have been multiple instances where team members couldn’t make it to a meeting or presentation. In each of these scenarios, the individual who was absent gave the rest of the teammates ample notice so no one was ever taken by surprise. We never got angry at each other because someone couldn’t show up. If we did get angry it would most likely lead to a strained team dynamic for the rest of the semester. There are always going to be scenarios out of our individual control and we have to roll with the punches. If one of us was sick or had a personal matter to attend to, then the others would communicate that we could be used as a resource if necessary. Just like when I was in elementary school, communicating with each other and working out the problems ahead of time, allow us all to benefit and still execute the task at hand.

[mkates-blog]

Floats: The Magical Declaration That Gives Webpages Their Familiar Shape

When looking at websites today, we often don’t acknowledge that many of the stylistic elements implemented in digital layout were lifted from the print industry. Elements like headers, captions and pictures were utilized in the print industry to make the material more engaging and useful for the customer. Media companies who soon realized the massive potential that was the Internet, started to move their publications online. With the ability to connect customers to their content instantly, it provided these companies with a new avenue to deliver their product. But the industry didn’t want to abandon its design elements that they had spent decades making mainstream. That's why today, many of these elements have been implemented into their digital content. It made it easier for the media companies to transition customers over to this new experience because in a lot of ways it was exactly the same.

Page structure is one of the most obvious design elements that was transplanted from print media and utilized on the web. Text and pictures that align neatly into columns allow the customer to read the articles without any confusion. When the printing press was first invented this was achieved through the alignment of equally sized block letters across a metal slab that was pressed against parchment. This process pretty much stayed unchanged until the invention of the personal computer. This new technology allowed us to digitally arrange the text and pictures however we pleased. It was much more efficient as well. On a word processor this feature is called text or picture alignment. In the world of the Internet this tool is a CSS declaration called float.

Just like with alignment, the float declaration allows us to position elements of our html wherever we want on a webpage. It gives developers the ability to build a page that actually resembles something that you might find in a magazine with paragraphs of text wrapped around images. The website css-tricks.com provides a good example of this relationship between print and web which is outlined in the image below.

We recently had an assignment where we had to merge a special animated navigation menu into a previous project. On my first try I got really close. Everything was aligned properly but for some reason my column on the left was not positioning itself at the top of the webpage but under this mysteries box. This is outlined in the picture below. I had my column1 (pink overlay) floated to the left and my navigation menu (green overlay) floated to the right of the container. I changed the width of my container, changed specific sizes of borders and margins and fiddled with different CSS declarations for over an hour with no luck. I then decided to inspect the elements of the webpage to see if it would give me any clues as to why the column wasn’t floating to the top of the webpage (I didn’t have a top margin on it either). I noticed that the element div.group, which contained the navigation menu, took up a space of 960px X 230px. Looking at it closer I noticed that this was the exact height pushing down my column. Heading back over to my CSS I realized that I had not given that div class any specific properties. This is why it took up the entire width of the container. Once I gave it a specific width of 260px (the width of the navigation menu), the column finally took its proper position at the top of the webpage. The picture below outlines this.

As you can see below, because I declared column1 to float:left and div.group to float:right within the container, they were able to position themselves next to each other and not on top of one another. If I remove the float declaration from both elements then the menu ends up on top of the column, pushing it down because the div.group is higher within the container id hierarchy.

Additionally, we have a common CSS property associated with the float declaration called clear. A common example that is seen in both print and online media is having a footer section at the bottom of the page. The footer is where you can find information like contact information, legal information, location etc. If you do not clear the float on the footer element it would actually line up under the navigation menu on the right side as seen in the picture below. But by adding the clear:both declaration to the footer element it will not allow any floated elements beside it pushing it below both the column and the navigation menu. This is important for proper page layout because even if one of your columns doesn’t take up the entire length of the container you don’t want it to be filled in with text that is supposed to stay at the bottom.

CSS no clear declared + resulting layout

CSS clear declared + resulting layout

[mkates-blog]

It's Time For Google To Hire News Designers

Hey Google,

It's 2014. I think your customers have come to expect logical design execution from a company of your size. If you ask me, it's pretty sad that I still have to guess what certain button's functions are in Gmail. It would be nice if you did some research before implementing your design choices.

Sincerely,

A confused customer

[mkates-blog]

It’s Time To Shake Up The Tech Industry

In class last week, one of our discussion topics was gender inequality in the workplace. I’m not referring to harassment or activity of that nature but more specifically the salary disparity and the actual ratio of males to females working in the interactive media industry.

With the increase in social media over the last half-decade or so, it has become much easier to disseminate a story across multiple channels. Through channels like Twitter, I often see stories and retweeted posts about policies or movements that companies have undertaken to try and balance the playing field. For example, for the first time this past June Facebook, and a slew of other companies released their diversity reports. These reports outlined the variety of ethnicities and genders that make up their workforce. Looking at Facebook specifically these numbers were astonishing but not that surprising. Over 69% of all Facebook employees were male. A ridiculous 85% of the company’s employees in tech roles were male and 77% of senior level executives were male. All these numbers point to the fact that there are clear social and demographic barriers for women who want to enter this industry. The one small highlight of this report comes from the non-tech roles bar graph indicating that the numbers were less lopsided with 53% of the jobs belonging to males and 47% to females. Looking at other companies in this industry, it is surprising to see how similar the numbers are. Google, an older company than Facebook, doesn’t fair any< a href=http://www.google.ca/diversity/at-google.html#tab=overall> better. Overall, 70% of Google’s employee’s are male. The tech roles again being dominated by men with 83% globally and almost males service almost 80% of the company’s leadership roles. Clearly these trends are disheartening but we can see how they are taking steps to diversify their workplace. Firstly, I think an understated step in this process is actually releasing this report to the public. We often hear that the hardest part of any recovery process is admitting you have a problem. These companies have taken that first step and are on their way to recovery. In their diversity report, Facebook has outlined some of the specific ways that they are going to try and shake up the stranglehold that Caucasian men have on the tech industry. For example:

Partnering with the National Center for Women to support the careers of technical women

Expanding their Facebook University program which provides opportunities for underrepresented groups who are interested in the STEM/Computer Science industries

providing unconscious bias training for employees

These are just a few ways that the company is addressing the issues but they can do more. My opinion is that these companies aren’t looking at the right demographic when trying to find solutions to this issue. By late high school or even university, many students have already decided if this kind of industry is right for them. Because of the demanding educational requirements for an engineering degree it doesn’t become a viable option for individuals who may be looking to switch during university or when starting a second career. If Facebook really wants to make an impact on these industry trends then they need to create programs and opportunities for when a child is still relatively young, like elementary school. Having a female employee pair up with a young female student would be a good way to put her into a mindset that “yes, I can achieve in this industry”. Having role models is so influential. A lot of young men want to be the next Zuckerberg. Unfortunately, a female will have to look deeper for that same kind of industry role model. These companies need to work with educational systems to change the stigmas that are currently in place. Get females from the industry to speak at schools or create workshops that are meant for young females to learn about the awesome potential that they have in the interactive media industry. It’s definitely not going to be perfect or change over night but at least it’s a start.

[mkates-blog]

Interactive Industry Insights: Things You Don't Learn Through Job Training

As someone who decided to return to school directly after graduating from University, I have not had the chance to freelance or own my own business. With this in mind it was great to hear from my peers about their previous work experiences.

Firstly, it was interesting to learn about what it takes to be a small business owner in the interactive media industry. From individuals who I’ve spoken to outside the program, they’ve always underlined the importance of building connections and developing relationships with other industry stakeholders. This is one area I want to learn about more and improve upon during my time at Centennial. While I am personable, learning that we should try to incorporate sales tactics into friendly conversations was incredibly useful. I didn’t really know that you should be using these skills as a key way to drive sales and your businesses’ success. It was a great piece of insight that I will incorporate into future meetings. As well, it was great to hear the pros and cons about being a small business owner in this industry. While the idea of having additional flexibility is probably one of the main reasons that people choose to go in the freelancer direction, there are going to be trade offs like wage stability.

Additionally, learning about contracts and the variances of employment status was really eye opening. Some of my jobs in the past have required me to sign contracts (1 including an N.D.A) and some have not. I never really considered the ramifications of not signing a contract. Most of them were small, quick jobs that usually had specific timelines and outputs. The discussion of workplace safety or compensation avoidance never really came up, as the work was mostly for friends or acquaintances. A tip like putting some sort of general work or contract information into an email is key. This gives you basic evidence in case your employer tries to screw you over. It’s ideas like this that can really save me a lot of energy in the long run.

Another key concept that we spoke about is appropriate dress code. As I mentioned in class, my most recent employer was for the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union. In this job we had to dress in a way that was professional enough to meet with university administration but also casual enough for students to find us approachable. Finding the right balance between acceptable and unacceptable clothing attire can be tough especially if you haven’t worked in that industry before. Going to networking events and scoping out the attire there is a great way to learn about the specific sub sector dress code, as it can vary widely even within the interactive media industry.

Going over topics like clothing attire and employment status is crucial to help get my foot in the door of this industry. These are things that no one is going to teach you through formal job training, so it’s great to get a head start on the competition.

[mkates-blog]

Why Don’t Higher Education Institutions Realize Their Websites Are Important?

When browsing the Internet we are usually tasked with a specific purpose. Maybe we want to buy a book, look up a recipe or watch a T.V show online. A well curated website can make or break a sale for the end user. From UX layout to content material, it is important that companies are constantly staying in touch with their customers to make sure they are able to access the information they need so they can conduct their business.

The government and employees across Canada continue to underline the social and economic impact of higher education. Unfortunately, the websites used by many institutions continue to be poorly designed, clunky and overly wordy, which leads to a poor customer experience. While there are more than enough poor examples, some schools have taken the leading steps into creating beautiful and easy to manage websites that significantly improves the user experience.

While I really loved my undergraduate experience at Wilfrid Laurier University, their website (www.wlu.ca) simply sucks. It’s poorly laid out and focuses on certain aspects of information that don’t help their desired customer but instead helps faculty and administration who are most likely already working at Laurier. One of the main goals of a university is to persuade students to attend their institution. For a future student landing on this website, you are greeted with a whole slew of information but the tab for “future students” is jammed into the top left corner with a very small text size. It gives off the impression that there are more important customers than you, even though you keep the university afloat. As well, while news headlines about the university are important, taking up almost half the landing page is simply overkill. They also make use of a “Laurier” tab in the header bar, which is a really vague contextually and it is used to house random information they couldn’t fit into one of the other 9 tabs. Regardless of if you’re a prospective student, current student, alumni, faculty or staff, you want a website that is clean and eye-catching. Having to go digging through 9 header tabs with titles like “resources” can make the whole process difficult and cumbersome.

While I try to avoid Laurier’s website at all costs, the website for Western University (www.uwo.ca) is great. One of the most noticeable feature on the website are the header tabs. Unlike Laurier’s tabs, which look more like buttons, Western’s I find are marked more clearly as drop down menus because of the little arrow beside each title. The buttons also draw the viewers to look there with their eye catching purple colour and clear bright text. They contrasts nicely with the off white background. This also speaks to the overall colour scheme of the website, while Laurier’s page uses a multitude of colours that don’t line up with the university’s colour scheme, Western stayed true to the purple and white combination. It gives off the impression that this website was made by Western and not for Western by a random 3rd party company.

As well, unlike Laurier’s page there is a dedicated admissions button and menu. This is crucial to their process of acquiring new students. In the admissions menu, one can easily locate information regarding the necessary application process and programs offered for both undergraduate and graduate studies. This menu is located at eye level in the almost the dead center of the page. Also, if the viewer happens to see the “future students” tab at the top of the webpage, it leads them to a page with the same layout and information offered under the admissions tab. The information consistency allows users to come back to the page and not have to go digging through menus just to find the information they saw before. It’s the things, like colour scheme, information layout and informative content that add to Western’s customer centric experience.

[mkates-blog]

Newsflash: Not Everyone Wants To Work For A Fortune 500

In week 1 we spoke about organizational structure and how it often affects your specific job outputs. In big firms with a very linear organization structure, you’re often hired to do one specific job with little room for lateral movement. With smaller organizations, employees could have the opportunity to expand their skills within a specific department or even be used in other departments as an additional resource.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to work as a marketing communications assistant at the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union. In this role I was responsible for handling social media and content creation across a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. While I had some background in this field prior to this role, it gave me a much better understanding of the content trends and nuances that are evident across each one of these platforms. This organization has about 50 employees with only 4 working in the marketing department. While each employee in the department has a specific role description, they often collaborated with each other in order to get feedback about their work so they could deliver the best content. While I was mainly accountable for the content and social media aspects of the organization, I was able to move laterally across the department as well. I assisted with project management, sponsorship collaboration and design projects assigned to me through the organization’s other departments.

I really enjoyed this role for a few reasons. Firstly, I was passionate about the organization’s mission, which propelled me to work diligently and take on extra responsibilities where I could. Secondly, because of the department’s size, I become close with the people I worked with. They were very helpful in transitioning me into the role and being a resource if I had any questions or concerns. Thirdly, as mentioned above, I was able to learn variety of transferable skills and gain useful experience that will be crucial for securing a job in the interactive media industry.

As a norm with not-for-profit organizations, salaries are kept relatively low when compared to similar positions in for-profit corporations. Speaking to the other employees, they gave me their insights into why have stuck around instead of looking for a job with better. One of the reasons was the company culture not just within the marketing department but also across the organization as a whole. They also mentioned scheduling flexibility. If they had an appointment or a non work related commitment during the regular 9-5 work day, it was usually never a problem if they left for a few hours and came back. Additionally, if they did not have any on campus meetings and wanted to work remotely, this again was rarely ever an issue. Working in a small tightknit organization like this can give the employees additional benefits that more than make up for the reduced pay. When looking for an internship, I will definitely take organizational size into account. Having spoken to friends in other organizations, they often tout the benefits of a smaller company.

[mkates-blog]

TTC Provides A Smooth Delivery Of Streetcar Information

TTC was busy last month finally cutting the ribbon on its brand new fleet of streetcars. This was great news for the city as the current ones were old, small and inaccessible which doesn’t fit with the organizational direction of the company. With this in mind, we were asked to look at the content usability of the new TTC streetcar page, to see if they did a good job at delivering content about the new vehicles to their customers.

One aspect of usability is engagement. Are the viewers enticed to read the content? In terms of engagement, the TTC did a good job. Firstly, when you land on the page one of the first things you see is the word comfortable. While this may imply that the older vehicles were uncomfortable, it also gives the viewer a sense of curiosity. I was interested in learning about the upgrades these new vehicles have that make them more comfortable. The information provided by the TTC gives an overview of the major upgrades that the customer will notice when using the new vehicles. An interesting note is that they specifically mention the exact number of riders a new car can hold compared to the older models. It helps underline their emphasis on comfort. While they did highlight most of the major upgrades in the first section, they did provide a lot of niche content that would be important to some riders. This includes information on the new payment system, accessibility services and bicycle storage. Rating - 8.5/10

Another key aspect of usability is the visual appeal of the content. The TTC website as a whole leaves something to be desired and it doesn’t really get any better on the streetcar page. One element I really do like is their use of juxtaposition between the black and white photographs of the older streetcars with the coloured pictures of the new streetcars. The images of the new vehicles also highlight some of the main upgrades like the new large windows, accessibility ramp and payment machines. But you can also tell that they really didn’t spend a whole lot of energy making it visually appealing as the majority of information is just provided in a textual list format. Rating - 6.5/10

Finally, there is the clarity of the content. I think the TTC did make the content clear and easy to understand. By not using huge paragraphs but sticking to bullet points or really short paragraphs, they were able to drill down ideas into very manageable bite size pieces of information. As well, if they weren’t satisfied with 1 bullet point on a particular feature, they used multiple to make sure they provided all the necessary information like with the accessibility ramp. Rating - 8/10

Overall, the TTC delivered content that was able to inform the viewer about the new streetcars. While their visual presentation could be improved considerably, the written content is able to highlight the vehicles improvements as well as explain the new payment systems that the TTC is implementing for the cars.

[mkates-blog]

A Digital Baby Just Hanging On For The Ride

In the winter of 2009, I began looking at what I wanted to study after high school. I had a lot of different options from going to College and picking up a trade or attending University for a business or arts program. For a 17 year old, this is a pretty tough decision! During high school, I had become really interested in the communications technology arena. I began to love Apple and during this time they released two products that really shaped this industry, the iPhone and iPad. It was incredible walking into the Apple Store and seeing how these products were changing people’s lives. Being able to take high quality photos, access the Internet and listen to your favourite music all from the same device really pushed the boundaries for how we learn and communicate. Because of these interests, I decided to attend Wilfrid Laurier University and study Communications. The program allowed me to dive deep into the relationships that humans have with communication media and how these relationships have shaped the world around us. It was a great four years but the program left something to be desired. With the program’s sole output being the theoretical understanding of communications, I still had to learn the hands on skills necessary to be successful in this kind of industry.

During my schooling I chose to take on various extracurricular activities that advanced my technical skills. Firstly, I became engulfed in the world of social media. While its mainstream infancy began while I was in high school, platforms like Facebook and Twitter really came into their own during the last 5 years or so. People began to study the impacts and importance of these platforms and how they’re changing and manipulating our understanding of the world. Taking advantage of different opportunities over the past few years, I’ve been able to work in a variety of community management roles. Through these roles I have learned about content trends and how to create engaging material. Secondly, along with written media, another crucial aspect of the interactive media industry is the visual content. With my love for Apple, and their one-of-a kind products, I became more interested in design language and it’s importance in selling a product. One thing I’ve learned is that people are drawn to visuals and clean design. With this in mind, I began to dabble in graphic design and video production to gain a better understanding of these subsectors. With my theoretical background in communication studies, my fondness of social media, and my love of visual design and expression, I felt that pursuing a career in the interactive media industry would be a career path that I would enjoy.

I love this industry because for the most part it’s still in its infancy. For better or for worse, my generation is the digital baby generation. We grew up in front of the television and computer screen. We have the dial up Internet sound engrained in our heads forever only to be washed out by the music in our iTunes library. We saw the rise and fall of digital empires like Limewire, MySpace and MSN. With the digital revolution beginning to roll out, companies used us as a stepping-stone to gauge the success of their digital products. Do these kids get it? Do they think it’s cool? This was a huge deal and many companies still look at this demographic today as one of their key test markets. Because we were so engrained in the digital world from such a young age, it played a big part in how we learned and communicated with each other and it still does. We know that digital companies are constantly going under and it is extremely difficult for a product to break through the glass ceiling of simply being a trend. People say it’s impossible to build another Facebook but you just need the drive to do so. While there is some indication of what will make a product successful, professionals still really have no clue. Products like Snapchat and Instagram, are niche enough for people to laugh them off but look at how successful they've become today. It is apparent that the steps to success have been tossed out the window and that’s the way it should be. Disruption is key because it drives competition and progression. This industry is never standing still or staying with the status quo.

It’s crazy to think that Facebook has already been around for a decade. But on the flipside it’s crazy to think of a world without the ability to post photo albums, create events and message friends all from the same webpage. In a decade we have seen the company that started in a dorm room at university, expand to a global empire with 1.3 billion monthly active users. And this is just the beginning. We are still only on the cusp of what we can create through technology like the Internet. With its global reach and malleability, its potential is limitless. We are only beginning to study the impact that these connected technologies have made on our world thus far. While it may be scary for some, the upside is immeasurable. It’s an amazing time to be in this industry because we have only begun to scratch the surface in terms of innovation and product evolution. Through breakthroughs in subsectors like smart automation, virtual reality, digital publications and wearable technology, the interactive industry is about to grow to new heights and I want to hang on for the ride.