Pooja Patel

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The Big Day - The Day I graduated!

Week 10 - The final week! The whole week before the presentation was a blur of work, learning to code and making my final presentation. One of most important thing I learnt this week was to balance my responsibilities at work. Up until now I was more focused on design and could balance my work easily, but now that I have started to code - it is very difficult. You go into a certain mind frame when you start to code and do not like constant interruptions. But as Sleep Diary was in developing stage, there were some design needs that I had to oversee and the dev team would constantly need my  approval on certain changes and need assets. The balancing my mind between design and code was not easy but a great experience. 

The day of the presentation was approaching fast. I would read my script at least twice daily and still would not be sure if I can give a nice presentation. I got permission to do a voice over. During this time my office staff, especially my supervisor was very supportive. He let me work half a day on my presentation and gave feedback on it once I was done. I was excited to meet all my classmates again and for the last time relive what it was like to go to school and show off your work. The day of the presentation came and I went to school after work. I was happy to see my instructors and classmates. There were also some prospective students who had come to see our presentations. My presentation went well and I could not believe that I was now a graduate! It was a surreal feeling. I wished all my classmates luck for their future accomplishments. It was a great experience of being a student at Centennial College - Story Arts Center and being a graduate of Interactive Media Management.       

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The Most Essential Part - Content

The ninth week of my internship was very plain and was spent finishing up the projects and making the final presentation video. I was also busy learning some front end coding and development for my next project where I will be coding a small game.  One thing that I have started to realize is that having a good relationship with the dev team helps a lot as a designer as they usually have very useful input on accessibility and colors and secondly, learning how to code not only helped me appreciate what the dev team does but also gave an insight into how to design. 

I will be talking a little about what we discussed this week in our weekly team meeting i.e. Content first approach in Design and Development. We discussed that the primary job of a website is to deliver good content and the design should be done based around it. As content development takes some time, we discussed on how we can have a proto-content that can be used to design as early as possible. This approach not only gives a start to the design team but also helps the content team to see where they have to change the content and/or make new content. There is no issue with using lorem ipsum; it is just that one can never gauge the text size or how the content will affect the design by it. In short, we do not need perfect content in our imperfect prototype, just something that resembles the real thing and not some gibberish that then will affect the whole design and flow. Not only the design gets affected but the dev team also has to change the whole structure of the code because of the new design changes. We discussed how I had made proto-content for a project called Sleep Diary so that I can start designing it as the content team could not start working on it immediately. The recommendations I made then helped the content team to narrow down the scope and come up with the content very fast. The content change did not affect my design or the dev team’s work. 

  Thus we concluded that Content is indeed an essential part of any project.

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Versatility is Strength

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You have to break it in order to make it!

The sixth week of my internship was very busy. There were meetings scheduled that needed my presence and there were work and deadlines that were to be met. It was a week that flew by surprisingly fast. Overall I had a lot of meetings to go to and designs that needed approvals and revisions. The meetings that are the highlights are the high-level team meeting where the website's personas were discussed and finalized. Our digital tools team had each prepared three personas and we went through each and every persona. We wrote down the key points, needs, personalities and barriers for each of the personas and then narrowed it down to 3 ideal personas for the new website. The exercise was fun and very interesting. The vice president liked one my personas and it felt good to know that I was thinking in sync with the company's requirements and goals.

User Journey Map - created for an interactive

Another meeting that was very (knowledgeable) was our weekly interactive tools team meeting. We discuss a design/dev trend every week ad it was my turn this week. We updated each other on what we achieved, what changes are to be made and what are the next week's goals. I talked about failure mapping in that meeting. Failure mapping is like making user journeys, the only difference being that instead of going in the direction to building an experience; we break the user experience apart in order to find flaws and bugs that we won't normally see in user journeys or experience maps. As it was a week where we were developing personas, the development intern raised a question that what about the users that are not visualized or dismissed while developing the ideal persona for a project. The question was interesting and failure mapping is an answer to it. We consider the options that are discarded as well as the ideal option in order to make a discuss that is as user-friendly as it can get. I'm finding these weekly discussions helpful as not only it helps me stay updated I can understand a topic from a developer's or a project manager's perspective. Lastly, we had a meeting with the content team i.e. Megan and her supervisor to touch base on the content making and strategy of an interactive I designed and got approval last week. I walked them through the prototype and explained how my design will work and what the content has to achieve in order for my design to work and convey proper message. Deadlines were set and my design was praised by the content manager. All in all, my week was both fruitful as well as busy. Even though I did not realise where the week went, it left me with a satisfied feeling of having worked to the best of my abilities.

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The Design Quest

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Making a Difference

Knowing that my designs may help kids and teens overcome their problems and fears is an overpowering thought. Continuing on my journey as a design intern at Kids Help Phone, I developed wireframes for an interactive I was working on last week. To make things interesting and to know how much my thinking is successful, I scheduled a user testing session of the wire frames in the office. This exercise not only helped me know my co-workers better but also helped me gain valuable user feedback which in turn helped me make a better interactive. Everyone was both critical and encouraging. I got suggestions that I might not have thought about myself, which is the beauty of user testing. I found out that content holds a very important role in any interactive. I learnt first hand what thinking 'for the user' is all about. I learnt that even though I have the training there is always something that I don't know and there will always be something that I will want to learn.

Evolving as a better professional is one of my goals now. After the user testing, my designs got approved for further development. This was the time, my other colleague and intern came to work us. She is a developer and is going to help me develop the interactives I have envisioned into something that we can actually put on our website. The change was abrupt but welcomed. We quickly bonded and made up a strategy of working together. I think learning to work with a new colleague is enlightening. I have always worked with my friends at school and it was a challenge to learn the thinking process and the pace of someone new. We worked up a schedule for deadlines and decided which days we wanted to launch the interactives and went over all the planning and documentation again. I'm now working on the assets and UX of one of the interactives while my colleague finishes developing the mock-ups I created the two weeks she was not there. We have established a balance of work so that everyone has something to work on.

Some sketches form my asset creation phase

Last Friday, we had a listening session of some of the phone calls we get at Kids Help Phone. Due to security reasons, I won’t be able to disclose what they were and discuss them. But, they were intense and made me realize that even my small contribution is helping someone in some way or the other.

All in all, the knowledge that I'm helping the users and the experiences I'm gaining as an individual working in a professional environment is helping me shape into a better person as well as a UX designer.

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Acknowledging Myself as Someone Important

It was the first day of my first ever internship where I would be working professionally. I was very nervous that day. From what clothes should I wear to how will my fellow colleagues be, I thought about each and every scenario and freaked out. I reached my office before time and was very surprised to see that people there were already expecting me. They gave me very warm welcome. The smiles on my design teams faces were the ice breaker for all my nerves. Not only people from my department but people from other departments came and welcomed me. I was given a work plan and was set up within the Intranet of the company. My supervisor came and talked me through the way things work in the office. We had a team meeting where they discussed the ongoing projects and us – the interns, introduced ourselves. The first day all I did was research and audit the work that has already been done.

I set myself up with weekly goals and worked my way through it. I started with a project brief. I was asked to make a project brief template for future use. The new thing I learned from making a project brief is that there are so many aspects that are predetermined before even starting a project. I learned how to define Design and Technical requirements for a specific project. I learned that only defining the KPI’s don’t work that I had to specify in detail what each KPI entailed. The project I’m working on had 2 different deliverables options. My supervisor listened carefully what I had to say and made me include both the deliverables in the project brief which made me feel that my opinion really matters, which only motivated me to do a better job. After my project brief got approved, I started working on Personas for the project. As the project deals with people having some kind of mental issues, there was a lot of research that needed to be done in order to create a persona. In school, we were taught to think of the users first and that is what I learnt firsthand while making my personas. I now understand why my instructors told us to be open to suggestions and not get married to the personas or any work we do.

All in all, I understood that I will be doing what I learnt at school but have to mould myself according to the company’s values and work and understand that even if I just make a small project brief template, I’m contributing to something that will be helping people. This learning made me feel as important as the company’s CEO.

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Stepping into the Real World!

Learning in a classroom and the experience you get from learning in the real scenario is different yet very familiar. You apply the training you got in school at work. The only difference is that there is a constant requirement of improvising what was taught in school. I started working as an intern at Loopy Logic Inc. a few weeks back. Games can help shape an individual into a more productive member of the society. The task me and my fellow interns were assigned was to improvise a set of kids games, make it a prototype for user testing and develop a promotional website for the games.

We had weekly team meetings were we listed all the work that was to be done, divided the work among ourselves and discussed the changes and improvements that needed to be made in the games. Alejandro sketched out the graphics for the various card games and we transformed them into digital illustrations. We worked on making the rough prototype ready for an initial user testing with a group of teachers. We aimed the user testing for the teacher’s first so as to gather valuable reviews and feedback and then make more changes to the games before doing a user testing with kids. The user testing was a very long session but was very successful. We recorded many useful feedbacks and plan on integrating them in the games to make it more appealing to the kids.

A sample of illustrations that we did for the kids card games. 

The feeling of having a part in a project was satisfying and made me feel proud. The games will help kids develop there cognitive awareness, patience, strategic thinking; thus giving them mental and creative prowess. More importantly, the practical work that we did was a great way of gaining experience and also getting myself familiar with the processes involved kids game development and design.    

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Corporate Accounting: Knowing how the deductions on earnings work

We as employees generally do not pay attention to our pay stub. We are not aware or don’t make an effort to know what are the deductions being made on our own salary by the employer.  It was a startling realisation for me when I was told in my entrepreneurship class that there are at least two to three types of deduction made on the salary before it reaches our hands. I’m going to talk about what these deductions are and how we can calculate our salary and check if what we are being paid is the right amount.

The CRA – Canada Revenue Agency offers an online calculator for any one who wants to calculate his/her salary deductions and also to see how mush the company is paying for there employment. It was an interesting thing to know that these calculations were based on the provinces in Canada and the pay period frequency.

The three step calculation method lets the user input the gross salary, vacation pay, bonuses and gives a list of benefits to choose. Then the calculator makes sure the CPP (Canada pension plan) and the EI rates are as per the contract of the user’s salary and gives a detailed report of salary deduction along with Net amount and an Employer Remittance Summary, which shows how much an employer is contributing to the salary deductions.

It is empowering to know how your salary is calculated and knowing the rates for CPP and EI helps when there is a need. I calculated the payroll cycle for five different individuals and it was an educated experience to calculate the salaries using the online calculator on CRA’s website. I calculated the income tax the individual has to pay, the CPP and EI, their net salaries and the CPP and EI of the employer. The interesting thing I learnt was that the employer also pays CPP and EI for the employee and in a way are spending capital to hire work force. It made sense that why companies look for individuals with multiple talents and all the inner workings of cash flow in a company, big or small.

References

Payroll Deduction Online Calculator, CRA. Retrieved from http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/bsnss/pdoc-eng.html

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The Dilemma of Invoicing

I love working on different digital media projects especially, Graphic Design. I landed a freelance project recently and was very happy about it, until I realised I had to send my client an Invoice for my services. Being new to the city and the country, I did not know any rules or a way to send an Invoice. The confusion and dilemma of wanting to work but not wanting to let your client know that you are still new to the market and do not know a proper way to send out Invoices was stressful. But, I got lucky as that was the time when I started having Entrepreneurship classes in my program. My professor introduced me to Wave Accounting. I’m not going to say it changed my life and I can’t live without it now, but being a design student, I never even knew this kind of services were available for all kinds of businesses. So here is what I have learnt so far:

Wave accounting is free accounting software for small businesses, especially good for freelancers or in a more formal way of saying – the sole proprietors or consultants.  When my professor gave us a lesson on it, I was surprised to find that it is a Canadian company and that it was just a few blocks away from my school. This information made me more intrigued to see the software. The signing up process is easy and fast. The best thing? It lets me customize and add my company name, address, logo and even lets me choose an Invoice layout. The company information automatically appears in all the Invoices, Bills and Reports. The interface of this software is very easy to use. There is a dashboard where we can see a condensed version of our finances and other accounting tasks. It was so easy to make an Invoice.

I got to choose the layout and customize my invoice, which other softwares do not offer.     

The next step is add the details like customer name and address, date and the services you are charging along with the amount. It is very essential to add address of the client, the proper date of the invoice along with the payment due date and a short description of what the service was; this helps maintain the records in a much cleaner way and helps you sort out the tax filing mush faster.  

Then you send the invoice or we can even download and send manually. We can even link our bank account and give an option to pay by credit card to the client, which saves a lot of time for both the service provider and the client.

The best thing about wave is that I can keep track of my income and expenses. We can also add income tax and keep track of it as well. I can know how much money is payable to me in the coming months and also to keep track of the bills due.

Wave accounting is the ultimate accounting software for small companies or individuals who don’t like their numbers. It makes it easy to manage and understand accounts. I’m really grateful we have the resources and technology to make such kind of softwares possible.

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THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX!

The common notion when we first read the phrase “thinking outside the box” is that the person is going to talk about either some creative or educational perspective. But, this blog will be direct its discussion to a different scope of careers and my expectations from my field placements. Interactive media has different ways of looking at it. What I see it is a form of digital storytelling where a person can think ‘outside the box’ and create something that is equally informational as it is magical. This aspect of interactive media is what charms and inspires me the most everyday.  

I currently am enrolled in a wonderful program for Interactive Media and this program has taught me a wide variety of things from recognizing the value of content, learning how design, media and strategy combine to form a digital project, the importance of developmental tools, languages and analytics to become well versed in the formula that the user’s come first and to have an empathic view when being a interactive media professional. The program helped me develop the skills ‘to think outside the box’, understand the intricacies of story telling while understanding the principles of UX design and project management to research, plan and execute a digital project. These are some of the skills that will help me achieve wonderfully in my short term goal of working in this industry as a UX designer. Furthermore, any knowledge learned is never wasted and the learning’s that I will experience from working in such a fast paced yet enjoyable industry of design, will help me become a better professor of design some day.

So, let’s talk about the field placement expectations I have for myself and from the place I will be working. The first and foremost, any place I work has to give me challenges, hurdles where I have to learn stuff and figure out things in order to make projects successful and embolden my resolve to always ‘think outside the box’ when it comes to working. As for the organization and the area of interest; I have always wanted to do something different in primary education system of my country and thus always wanted to have a chance to work in kids media to understand the workings of this area of industry better. The skills I can offer to my field placement are – of course – the ability to ‘think outside the box’, the wide variety of skill set ranging from design, management to technical understanding and the resolution to give the best I could to any project I work on. The challenges that I will have to rise up from though is my penchant for details; though a useful trait it sometimes does not let me go forward with my work and I will be doing a job for any number of hours just to get it right. But, as Howard G. Hendricks has said, “Your strengths develop your confidence; your weaknesses develop your faith.”; I can always build upon my weakness and improve.     

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Website in 20 minutes!

Today, I made a website in 20 minutes. The most interesting thing about it was that I actually understood the whole concept AND the code. Being a computer applications bachelor, I started out the tutorial which said “Make a Website”; that it would be the usual YouTube tutorial where they do stuff on the computer screen and you basically just sit and see and try to understand what is happening. Surprisingly, Codeacadmey.com, broke the tedium by actually making the user code and figure things out for himself/herself.

Learning something new in code can be at many times can be boring and uninspired. But, my experience of learning to make a website was fun, interactive and refreshing at the same time it was clear on the concepts and knowledge. The tasks were divided into small sections so as not to overwhelm the user and the content was written precise and clear. A subtle sign saying ‘Hint’ was also made available in case the code got too confusing. The small examples along with the theory slides made it very easy to understand and apply the concept later when coding. The tutorial has the badges and achievement points that would come up when the user would finish a certain amount of tasks or finished a chapter.  It also gave the option to personalize the code after the course was finished.

I enjoyed my tutorial of “Make a website” on Codecademy.com and would love to continue learning new languages and other tutorials in a similar way. It was fun and at the same time I learnt a very easy way to code my way to a brand new website.

https://www.codecademy.com/

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Piece rate vs. Part time employment

You are looking at career options. You have a good eye for form and space, maybe you are good at colours and typography and something led you to consider design as your background. This is what happened to me when I was deciding a field to do my Master’s from. Perhaps I was not sure whether I should plunge in it or if it was a good future employment decision. Many designers start early, they either get a small project to work on, may or may not get paid and start building their portfolios. That is basically what a piece rate employment is, while many will find a part time constant job, prefer to get a small yet steady incentive or salary and work for a company giving up the rights to their work.

The form of employment one chooses is their own choice. There are four classifications:

·         Independent contractors

·         On call workers

·         Workers provided by contract firms

·         Temporary help agency workers

With my experience in both the piece rate and part time employment, let’s compare and point out the contrast between them.

The dictionary definition of piece rate employment is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed regardless of time. The piece of rate employment has its roots from the guild system. When paying the workers, companies choose the method which suits the company rules best. Some of the prevalent methods are: paid by hour, paid a monthly/annual salary, paid by piece or paid in other ways. Normally the workers are paid a fair rate, which is the minimum wage per hour. This employment falls under the independent contactors classification.

The dictionary definition of part time employment is that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. They work in shifts but remain on call while off duty and during annual leave. They normally work a few hours less than 30 to 35. This sector is the second largest group of workers employed in alternative employment arrangements. In many organizations they are offered some benefits and compensations along with their salaries. They can be paid either weekly or monthly depending on the contract.

We can compile a pros and cons chart from the basis of the above discussion as:

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_work

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/piece-rate-pay-advantage-disadvantages-11737.html

http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/piece-rate-pay-advantage-disadvantages-20854.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part-time_contract

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-parttime-employees-21870.html

http://www.morebusiness.com/hire-part-time

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.toc.htm

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm

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7 best business practices for Instagram

Sometimes pictures make for a better way to communicate than large social platforms. It makes people think and get them to anticipate. They do not try to be everywhere in every form of media.  Instagram is one of such social media platforms. It has millions of users, thus becoming the perfect platform and an opportunity for brands to get quick messages and photos to their target audience. In a very short period Instagram has shown that it is an effective platform for marketeers to reach new audience in a way that the audience itself wants to be marketed to i.e. with visuals and short messages. It is proven a very valuable tool for B2B companies as well. Users seek personal experience, a sense of closeness with the brand and real time engaging that is easy and accessible, all of which Instagram successfully achieves. It allows uploading pictures to other social media platforms as well which allows greater reach and exposure. For successful social media coverage, social media platforms follow a set business practices or implement new business practices to further the profits and reach for the said organization or individual that is being branded online.

CAMH is one such organization. It has its own set of social media platforms. Due to inconsistent posting and lack of engagement, CAMH has not reached out to many people on Instagram. This blog will be more focused on which business practices CAMH can use to further their reach on Instagram.

Current statistics:

142 followers

Strengths

Nice pictures

Showcase events

More personable, human side to CAMH

Weaknesses

Not following best business practices

Inconsistent posting

According to a blog on hootsuite, understanding your brand’s audience and creating a consistent theme can give your followers a reason to follow you. Consistent posting is also advised as well as user engagement. Forbes and Mashable insists on researching the best hash tags for your brand as they make your brand searchable and easy to organize and keep track of discussions. The social media examiner, an online social media magazine, insists on networking on Instagram as well. Engaging and following other organizations with similar brand goals can help increase follower ratio greatly.    

Best practices suggested:

•  To increase followers and engagement, CAMH can strategically like similar posts with similar hash tags or themes. If you like an individual’s picture, they are more apt to check out your profile. This increases the chance of gaining more followers

•  Partner with other non-profit groups – CAMH can reach out to other organizations and develop relationships where they agree to Regram, like or share each other’s content. Will expose CAMH to more followers

•  Contact Canadian celebrities and ask them if they would be willing to make a post about CAMH

•  Ask questions in the description of the picture to promote follower engagement

•  Encourage use of CAMH hash tags

•  Post consistently, at least once a day

•  Develop and use relevant hash tags to help people find CAMH content who don’t know about the organization, such as #mentalhealth

 References:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram-for-business-tips/

http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/what-is-hashtag/#CpxrV7F0euqW

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/07/09/100-ways-to-maximize-roi-on-your-social-media-campaign/

http://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-best-practices-brands/

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MAN TERRORIZES SCHOOL!! You would NOT believe what happened next!!!!

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Targeting the Diverse Audience

Making a product or interactive media for a diverse audience is a job which seems easy but in fact requires a lot of research and thought. The whole purpose SHOULD NOT be seasonal, short-term or once-a-year project. It means building support, based on shared interests, so that the audience enjoys productions that reflect their culture and are secure enough to explore others. Below is the process which I think can help make a production or interactive media more engaging and connecting to diverse audience in one shot. I call them the cultural connectors: • Research: Research the various cultures that are targeted. Find points that make people of a particular culture connect. Try to find some common points from the individual analysis. • Reach out in various networks: Different cultures have different modes to stay in touch and connect. Analyze the patterns and target the platforms with the most diverse users. • Language: When one finds their own native language in a production or brand on a national or international level, they feel special and proud. Language can bring cultures close and integrating many languages will also make people aware of other communities and cultures. • Implement: The correct implementation of the information gathered and efforts of many different people from different cultures can make the product or the interactive media worth connecting and remembering. This is one step where you should not slack and should pay attention to meticulously put together everything. • Review: Once the product or the interactive media is released, it is of utmost importance to follow up and note down the reviews. It is the reviews of the users and viewers which are going to make the next project more successful.

Different cultures have a variance in the approach that acknowledges the interactive media. From what I have read, researched and experienced; The African-American community responds most effectively to radio as a form of advertising. The Latino community, specifically Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Brazilians, it is important to have a known spokesperson, either from broadcast media or the entertainment community who can provide a context and endorsement. The Asian-American community are responding in increasing numbers to theater, music and spoken-word events. Thus, public in general is the key to any successful interactive campaign.

Sources: An Introduction to Engaging Diverse Audiences, Regional Arts & Culture Council http://racc.org/sites/default/files/buildingblocks/RACC%20Intro%20to%20Engaging%20Diverse%20Audiences.pdf

Attracting Diverse Audience, National Arts Making Project http://artsmarketing.org/sites/default/files/documents/practical-lessons/lesson_6.pdf

Reaching Diverse Audiences, Dionardo Pizaña http://extensiondeicop.blogspot.ca/2012/09/reaching-diverse-audiences.html

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Best Social Media Practices

Four social media platforms chosen: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat

1.) Facebook

• It lets people express. With the advent of technology and busy schedules, people depend on the social media apps to connect with people and they know how they are feeling and what they are doing in life. Its is risked based.

• It uses data from the user and turns them into something special. Facebook uses data from the user. Birthdays, pictures and gives them small gifts in the form of special memories, throwbacks and small videos appreciating them just so that they feel special and valued.

• It has many games the users can play. Games and quizzes are the best ways to attract the younger users to facebook. They offer in game chats which the users love using in comparison to the personal chats.

• It lets people personalize the page to some extent. It lets the people personalise the user’s wall with a cover picture. It lets the user choose what information they want to display yo the public and what not to display.    

2.) Google+ • Easily customizable It gives more freedom to choose your groups and what to share, offers greater level of flexibility and user control and privacy controls.

• Lets you add posts. It lets is add posts to your pages and others and is a great tactic to use from a conversation and engagement perspective.

• Lets you use the application both online and offline. A user can set a task, send out a RSVP or can make a list of groceries and can choose weather they want to share the information online or keep it personal on their phones or PCs.

• It lets you filter your social circles. Sometimes people do not want a certain set of people to know what has been happening in their lives and this feature lets the users filter the social circles to a great extent. 3.) Instagram

• It forces to communicate via images and video. Sometimes pictures make for a better way to communicate than large social platforms. It makes people think and get them to anticipate. They do not try to be everywhere in every form of media.

• Engages its followers. It lets the users follow each other and other brands. It lets them comment and like. Recent updates lets the user to communicate personally and send the pictures in a direct message.

• It is an a great eCommerce platform with only pictures. Users can buy and sell things on Instagram and only reply on pictures and description unlike most eCommerce websites with high level features. It is still a success.

• It gives privacy control. It gives user the full control on who they let to see their page as sometimes pictures can be misused.

4.) Snapchat • It gives a limited time period and only form of images and videos to chat. It gives the users a challenge to chat in the form of images and videos. With the decreasing attention spans, this application urges the users to pay attention.

• Allows users to make stories of their own. Snapchat stories are a great way to tell a story to an audience with a limited time span. They can be viewed multiple times but disappear after 24 hours.  

• It lets the user know the number of views his/her story has received. Users like to know who has seen their work or how many times their story has been viewed. The need for attention makes the user love this feature.

• Stories from around the world. Snapchat has common snapchat stories that people from around the world can add a snap to. This features makes the user connected with people all around the world and not just his/her own region.

References:

http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/social-media-best-practices-for-brand-engagement/ https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media/facebook https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media/google-plus http://blog.sumall.com/journal/the-social-media-best-practices-handbook-13-experts-give-their-perspective-on-the-industry.html http://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-best-practices-brands/ http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-measurement/best-practices-measuring-snapchat-story-performance/ https://econsultancy.com/blog/66015-eight-brands-experimenting-with-snapchat-for-social-marketing/