Baz Barzani started off slow in my social media class last spring. While he had a great concept and good idea of what he wanted to be, Baz was a little timid in pushing his brand. As I tell so many students, the key word in Social Media is “SOCIAL!” You have to be social and outgoing to be successful in this medium. You definitely have to find your inner-extrovert. Baz realized that he had to overcome a bit of fear and really push into the space. About half way through the course, he really started to excel. You can read his testimonial about the class here. Below is information from Baz’s Final Report that outlines his reflection on his class takeaways.
“I first heard about this class last semester. I was told it was a class in which I’d be running my own website. The thought of running my own website was really interesting and it was always in my mind of possibly registering for it. Once I did, I came into the class expecting to learn about creating a website, of course, but also learning how to market ourselves through social media. Once we started, I immediately set some hopeful goals I would reach by the time the campaign was over. I wanted to be able to reach over 1,000 pageviews with my blogs overall. In the end, I reached this goal by writing good content. It was my writing that got complements, but also drew curiosity out of many of my friends and family along with general hip-hop fans. Also, I wanted to get a reaction through social media by a hip-hop artist with a big following, but this never occurred. I think none of my social media posts got enough attention to reach a big artist.
During the campaign, I realized how time consuming it is to brand something. Branding is not easy and it definitely requires a lot of hard work and time. However, it was fun to write and interact with my audience. Honestly, that’s when I realized how much fun this would be as a job. I also learned that taking advice from others and getting opinions is very important. Whether it was my professor, my group, or just a friend who has creative experience, I realized that getting as much advice as possible will generate great ideas.
Next, I learned that being shy in promoting your work and trying to make connections won’t work well if you want to brand successfully. Unfortunately, I was a bit hesitant in reaching out to the people I profiled and interviewed, but I’m glad I did it. Lastly, while keeping up with a good blog takes time if you have want it to reach its potential, it is rewarding experience and gives you great creative confidence that drives you to write more and more. Ultimately, I enjoyed this class, and I hope to get better at it in the near future. This class definitely taught me different skills that I hope to use in my future career.”
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