bewareoftheleopard.ca has been pretty quiet for the month of January. Not out of intentional neglect, but out of social media overload.
If you are reading this blog post, you likely found it via social media, either one of my many profiles (twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, facebook), or from someone else sharing it via their social media channels. And if you use social media, then you can likely appreciate how much time it can consume out of your day, especially if trying to leverage social media to profile your brand, whether as an individual professional or for your company/studio.
So what happens when while you are trying to keep your personal brand going, you take on responsibilities to represent other brands on various digital/social media platforms? You undertake quite the learning curve.
When I first agreed and/or initiated to support other brands through the sharing and dispersing of content and information, I thought it would be pretty easy. Most of these brands have similar values as I do, so I can cross-post, link, share, right?
What even I had failed to realize was how different each of these communities needs and interests are, because they were so subtle. Initially what I saw was “these are all relating to interactive digital media, involving me because I have an expertise in business of IDM and/or content assessments – easy peasy!” But in actuality, there are niche needs within each of these outlets. Their communities may have a crossover interest in the business of interactive digital media, but the actual content and messaging they are looking for are each a bit different.
This realization came to me as I started to plan through the actual ‘production’ process of the content – sorting out content sharing plans, content management schedules, etc. Better at this point than deep into a dark, empty cavern, but no less overwhelming to be standing at the mouth of this dark, empty cavern.
Piece by piece, I have slowly figured it out. I’d be happy to write up a case study on the experience if anyone would find it useful. Right now, I’m still working through it. But while this blog has been quiet for the month of January, there has been writing for others published:
VillageGamer.net
- Know Your Audience – Serve Their Needs Not Your Wants – GameON: Finance Day One Recap (published January 18th)
- Relationship Management – GameON: Finance Day Two Recap (published January 23rd)
Interactive Digital Media, post-graduate certificate program at Centennial College
- twitter feed – @IDMCentennial
- blog – http://idmcentennial.wordpress.com
There is a third organization I’m trying to get articles written for, and it has been suggested to me that I get a facebook page going for the Interactive Digital Media program. In addition to actually finishing the collection of half-written blog posts for me.
All while doing other work. Not that I’m complaining about the challenge – I enjoy being busy solving puzzles and designing processes.
But the moral of the story, dear reader? Do not underestimate the time and effort to plan and manage content that is relevant to each community you are speaking to.
