Perry Liu is the Lecture Recording Intern in IS. He scours Media Hopper Create for the best videos, and works on communication channels such as Twitter. He occasionally does some actual work too.
If you’ve watched any film trailers in the past few years,
you might have seen a three-second teaser at the beginning of the actual trailer itself, as the media producers and social media gurus try to hook you in. As I’ve been working with communications and social media too, here is a teaser for the very blog you’re reading right now.
People Make the Place
People make the place; and from welcoming managers to hyperactive interns, people have definitely been the highlight of the internship.
It has been an absolutely amazing experience meeting a new group of people, hearing their fascinating stories, and creating new ones together. To celebrate that fact, I’ve outsourced my blog enlisted the help of all the interns here at ISG to help make this blog post happen. So without further ado, let’s begin!
Social Media Platforms
When managing external communications, you have to be at the forefront of technology. What’s the big new gimmick after 360 photos and autoplay videos? What are the hot new social media platforms? The other interns helpfully answered that second part.
From websites that allow you to share your life with close friends to anonymous online forums that feature some of the best and worst the internet has to offer, the interns here at ISG all adopt a wide variety of platforms and services. So if you want to see what’s popular before the new school leavers completely reshape the social media landscape, now’s the time to say goodbye to your Geocities page and move on to fresher pastures.
For the person using MySpace and Google+, I have one question: Who hurt you?
Understanding your Audience
If you want to manage social media accounts, you first have to understand your target audience. For instance, the North-South Divide can provide very insightful data about the different demographics around the world, from differing GDP per capita to life expectancy. Several questions can also be raised with the UK North-South Divide:
Is the Midlands north or south of the divide, or is it merely a figment of our imaginations?
Is Scotland part of the north, or is it Scotland? Is the Greggs North-South Divide a legitimate area of research?
After several intense minutes of analysing data provided by the other interns, I present to you the answer to one of the most important questions of our lives, according to the interns.
From this insightful data above, you can then gauge the audience’s other interests. For instance, the non-pineapple pizza people are probably normal members of society who enjoy your typical consumer goods, while those who do enjoy pineapple on pizza are probably monsters who eat babies. So if you’re a bio weaponry manufacturer or slave trader looking for a new audience to offload your Agent Orange or child slaves on to, then you’re in luck.
Attracting your Audience
Now that you understand your audience, you have to find ways of attracting them. For Dictionary.com, that can come in the form of comedic political responses.
Denial: An assertion that something said, believed, alleged, etc., is false.
Also denial: Disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.https://t.co/1r4oDV7GZi https://t.co/7BFR3ZFdZe
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) July 17, 2018
For Wendy’s, that can come in the form of Twitter rivalries.
.@McDonalds So you’ll still use frozen beef in MOST of your burgers in ALL of your restaurants? Asking for a friend.
— Wendy's (@Wendys) March 30, 2017
You can still have fun if you’re running one of the last Blockbusters in a dying industry.
Shoutout to Patty Bofeste-Jones for returning our last copy of The English Patient in such pristine condition. You're the best! pic.twitter.com/Q41cI8BDe4
— The Last Blockbuster (@loneblockbuster) December 19, 2016
In other words, allowing a human element to shine through your social media accounts can be a great way to cultivate an audience. With that in mind, let us have a look at some of the best jokes that the interns can come up with.
Break Times
With hard work comes a well-earned rest. From Twitter analytics I’m currently working on, we can estimate the typical break times of staff members around the university. As you can see, everyone enjoys a nice tea break….or two.
Now let’s see what we interns enjoy.
Only one lunch break and no coffee breaks whatsoever? A likely story…
Other Data
Lots of other data from the intern survey did not make the cut, but here are some of them. Click on the last image to link to the rest of them.
Fin
All good things must come to an end, and so too must this blog. Some like to end on a high note, and perhaps with some sort of story to take home. What is a lasting memory of the internship? Will these friendships last? What is the meaning of life? Me? This is how the blog ends. Not with a bang, but with a
