It’s the Final Countdown!

This the final week for lessons being devoted to production.  You must therefore make every effort to complete and update your blog with all the relevant products and research and planning tasks.

We will be using the last two weeks of term to focus on the Critical Reflection essay which is an important submission.  If there are still tweaks to the products then you can carry on using frees, lunchtimes and after school to improve them.

ABSOLUTE PRODUCT DEADLINE

By the last day of term – your final products must be on your home page under Component 3 The Brief. Done and dusted.

  • 1 X Music Video 
  • 4 x panes (with spines) JPEGS with PDFs attached of the DP
  • 1 x Social Media Page – screen shot of home page hyperlinked to the actual site
  • + 1 slideshare with screen shots of the SMP in case the site is removed (you should be collating these as you go, just in case and it has happened a couple of times)
  • Plus your Critical Reflection Essay in the category – formatted and proofed.

 

If you feel that there are tweaks you want to do to the blog over Xmas then feel free – HOWEVER, in our experience, if you leave it until then – it just won’t happen. You deserve a break but this will mean for several of you, you must put some extra time and effort in between now the the last day of term to ensure it is all completed and you are happy with it.

Next term we move on to the exams and this will be a whole new way of tackling your course – make the most of this 25% of your overall marks and do your

VERY BEST TO MAKE IT COUNT. 

Good luck.

Mr G and Mrs C

Draft 1 and Draft 2 SMP – Assessment – Check List for your Social Media Page

You will only have to respond to one series of feedback, from your teacher only.

However we thought it would be helpful to itemise what elements of the social media page will be considered as part of the assessment criteria:

Below is a list of features, some of which we would expect to see on your social media page. You don’t need every single one of the list below. However, the first is essential and  including some of the others would show an understanding of how social media can be used to drive engagement, promote your star image, their paid for media and build a fan base.

SELF ASSESSMENT SHEET – TAKE A COPY

Draft 1:  Self assess in relation to the following criteria. Once you have half a dozen posts: USE THIS SHEET - MAKE A COPY AND THEN EMBED WITH THE RESPONSES.

Draft 2: @ 40 posts: including stories/reels/gifs etc:  Teacher will do a screen castify in relation to the following criteria.

Design coherence (Essential):

Does your social media page include the same (generic)  images, colour scheme, fonts, graphics that appeared in your digipak design and to a lesser extent your music video.


Content:

Is there additional (teaser) content such as gifs, images, audio…

Synergy:

Have you created links with other brands or products that would appeal to your audience

Timeline:

Is there a sense of building excitement leading towards the release date of your album

Cross Media Convergence:

Is there a sense that your star is creating converged links with other media or stars (Radio / TV interviews, computer game / film soundtracks, adverts, collaboration  with other musicians…)

Promotion of live events:

An album release would almost certainly combine with a tour or series of streamed (paid for) gigs / shows. Remember this is where many artists make most of their revenue.

A Call to Action:

There should be a clear link to point of sale (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, You Tube…) for the music as well as link for audience to buy merchandise or concert tickets.

Ordinary / Extraordinary:

Is there an insight into the ‘real’ life of the star an opportunity to see them as an authentic person.

Interaction / Engagement:

The audience are looking for interaction with the star: Live chats, invitations to comment / engage.

Sell Physical copies:

The artist makes very little money from streamed listens. They would prefer you bought the album or vinyl. Are there promotions of physical versions of the music.

Issues & Charities:

Links to current political issues or charities close to the star’s heart is a useful way of developing a compassionate and engaged star image

This list is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be a check list of essential items. However it’s a guide to the thinking and some of the expectations your teachers would have when marking this final piece of your cross media promotional package.

Design suggestions for your Social Media Page

Now that you know what will go into your Social Media Page you need to start designing and populating it.

Use Canva to design the banner and other images.

You should use images / elements from your digipack to maintain a consistency of brand design.

CHECK LIST

  • About
  • Bio
  • Banner – Use Canva
  • Teasers
  • Gifs
  • Appearances
  • Photos – behind the scenes, contact sheets, own collection?
  • Merchandise – Create synergies between your star image and other brands
  • Tour details and link to a ticket site.
  • Interactive content.
  • Link to actual artists’ actual other sites?
  • Links to charities that show the social side of your artist

Assess these against the following criteria.  We need to do this, as we don’t have the examples yet. So shall we just set them some questions to self assess it?

Social Media Page – Marketing timeline

KEY TERMS: Viral, guerilla, promotions, AIDA (attractive/attention, interest, desire and call to Action), marketing campaign, timeline, entertainment, information, social interaction, personal identity, teasers.


Timing is an essential skill in building a marketing campaign.

A good marketing campaign starts with teasers, publishes launch dates, offers sneak peeks, offers interactive experiences, builds the excitement through a series of events, building to a climax which is…the album launch.

You should consider this within your group, and with reference to professional examples.

When and what you are going to post to build your campaign to a fever pitch of fan excitement?

TASK 1: Marketing Research

This is a golden opportunity to remind yourself about the professional marketing campaigns which, led to the release of an album that we explored when we studied the music industry.
This acts as revision for your mock exam in February.

Remember SANDBOX:

Using the Sandbox Case Studies from the music industry, you must find approximately 3 exciting marketing ideas that you can ‘borrow’ for your own campaign.

Remember you want your content to go viral, you might even want some guerrilla marketing stunts in there and some teasers too! The sky’s the limit!

TASK 2: Timeline for the Marketing campaign – PLAN IT WELL AND IT WILL HAPPEN REALLY EASILY

Create a chronological timeline of what you will post and when. You can use an app or simply use post it notes with the specific:

Posts, video, gifs, memes, live-chats, promotions, interviews, teasers, merchandise, tickets, endorsements, events…etc

A minimum of 10 exciting, purposeful posts.

Take a photo and then you can start populating, designing, crafting your page for Draft 1.

This is a link to some excellent exemplars.

Social Media Page – conventions analysis

KEY TERMS

AIDA (attention, interest, desire and call to Action), entertainment, information, personal identity, social interaction, uses and gratification, integrated advertising, promotion, viral/guerilla marketing, technical conventions, USP = ALL THE KEY TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS TERMS YOU CAN INCLUDE.

Research Task – Group task

  • As a group, choose a Facebook/Instagram page for an artist, similar to yours or your can choose your own artist in real life.
  • Using all the terms you now know, script and record a Screencastify of your star.

Answer these questions during the Screencastify:

  1. What is conventional about the page in terms of technical conventions (use terms).
  2. How does the SMP page encourage AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) through its design and content?
  3. How does the SMP page enable the audience’s Uses and Gratifications.
    • …or how does provide its users with opportunities for Entertainment, Information, Personal Identity and Social Interaction – B + K
  4. How far is the SMP page a good example of integrated advertising and how far does it encourage it to go ‘viral’ and use ‘guerrilla’ marketing to help promote its star?
  5. How is the star represented – ordinary, extraordinary, present and absent – Dyer?

Use key terms related to star image i.e. extraordinary, ordinary, paradox of the star and also key terms related to audience i.e. encode, decode, preferred reading etc.

Social Media Page – Key Terminology

KEY TERMS

Technical conventions, social media platform, marketing campaign, promotion, awareness, target audience.

Let’s remind ourselves of the Brief.

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music video (major task), together with a social media page for the band and a digipak for the album’s release (minor tasks).

So now it’s a chance to PROMOTE the release of the album and the music video through designing and populating a Social Media Page.

Platform

We are going to use PAGES in FACEBOOK  or an INSTAGRAM PAGE…you choose.

Here are some excellent previous submissions.

  • www.blogs.grammar.sch.gg/chloeferbrache – instagram
  • www.blogs.grammar.sch.gg/anyabougourd – instagram
  • https://www.facebook.com/4stridm4y – facebook
  • https://twitter.com/briefdivideuk – twitter

 

You will need to create individual pages from your accounts and then you can populate the feeds with the same content that you work on together.  You can create a group Instagram page with no problem but if you want to do Facebook, then create your own page on your own login.

Due to possible privacy issues – YOU MUST TAKE REGULAR SCREEN SHOTS OF YOUR WORK.  You will also need these to do a screencastify on so save them carefully and label them well. Do we really need to do this – we didn’t have any issues last year!

This is what a presentation will look like:

  • www.blogs.grammar.sch.gg/aimeeregnard

 

THIS WILL ALSO MITIGATE THE POSSIBILITY that the examiner may not be able to view the page or THAT IT IS TAKEN DOWN.


Terminology to Describe Social Media

The terminology, the technical conventions of a social media page on Facebook are important to understand, apply and use in your work.

How many of these key social media terms do you recognise and can work out what they refer to?

Task 1 – individual task

  1. Take screen shots of a Facebook/Instagram page from an artist, similar to your own.
  2. Annotate the screen shots with the key terms that you now know are important when talking about, designing and using a Facebook/Instagram page for promotion.
    • Many of the terms are relevant for all social media platforms.

Find at least 10 of the terms.

Do very brief explanations of the terminology and these technical conventions.

An example – Work in Progress

Embed into the post and do an introduction with the key terms above and reflection.

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