The challenges of viddy and vine apps

It’s pretty much impossible to get through a degree of Public Relations in todays society without hearing about the importance of understanding social media. For me, during my studies I learnt that social media was so important, especially for non-for-profit organisations. I have learnt through my internship that this is definitely the case and should be utilised by organisations.

 
At my internship I have been asked to develop a social media plan based around World Meningitis Day. As I am doing my internship at a non-for-profit I am learning that social media is valued as it is free and effective in reaching its target audience. As a part of my social media plan I was asked to look into Vine App. Through my research I found that Vine App is an application that makes six second videos that loop and can be linked to Facebook and Twitter. I was very excited to learn about this, however I was surprised to learn that this app was only available for the IPhone and the phone we would be using is not an Iphone, its an android. Therefore I was faced with the challenge of figuring out what else we could use that’s free and easy and does a similar function. That’s when I discovered Viddy. Viddy is an application that makes fifteen second videos. The ideas of these short videos is that they are fast and punchy and challenge businesses to promote certain products or events in a short time and in a creative way. So I did some further research and I found this app was going to be great as it was downloadable on the android phone.
 

All was going well, I had implemented Viddy videos into the social media plan and thought I knew how to work the app. However, when the time came to make and upload the video I was faced with many issues. I could not seem to upload the Viddy to Facebook or Twitter. The challenge I faced was that the business page is not like a personal page. You don’t log into it and therefore you cannot link the Viddy to that page it would have to go to your personal page. Another issue was that the app simply did not work. For some reason the app would not upload to Facebook or Twitter, it simply was not connecting to these sites. After some time of trying I eventually figured out I could upload to YouTube from my phones version of the video not the Viddy apps version of the video. I have now uploaded a Viddy video successfully and am happy to say I look forward to the next one next week which will be made for World Meningitis Day.

Although in my degree I learnt the importance of social media, and I agree it is so important, I never realised that there were apps involved and there would likely be challenges involved.
 
If I have one recommendation it’s that you should learn how to use an app before suggesting that your workplace use it. I am learning so much about applications and social media and it’s a great learning curve.

Check out the first viddy if you have a moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1to12Ka--2w


-Alyce

 

A Bene Placito

Something I've yet to touch on in my blog posts is social media, and given this is my final instalment, now seems as good a time as any. 

Part of my role in our office is to manage our social media and online presence. This encompasses Facebook, Wikipedia, and to a lesser extent YouTube. Throughout my degree, social media planning has, in general terms, consisted of, at the most, a page or two in the context of larger public relations plans. In reality, a social media plan can in and of itself, be almost as long as an entire public relations plan and, believe me, planning is important.

When I first started in my role we had very little social media or online presence, and almost no monitoring abilities. My first role was to rectify this by developing a social media plan, planning and drafting content, going through approvals, implement the plan, and then assess and adjust as required.

This, I believe, more than any other time, is where I have relied heavily on the skills I learned during my degree.The constant repetition in each unit of producing public relations plans has given me a good skill that can be slightly modified for different circumstances. So... thanks to Curtin for that, 

Now...

Watch This

'A Bene Placito' translated from Latin means 'At One's Pleasure', and despite my extreme cynicism about the value of having to share my experience through this blog, I wanted to finish my final instalment with some good old fashion youthful lofty idealism.

By now you should have clicked on the link and watched the video that says 'Watch This First'... kinda logical. If not, go do that now!

So... it's dramatic I know, but in all honesty there are two important aspects to that video which I want to touch on. First, 'Let Bartlett be Bartlett': In Public Relations there is a tendency to see everything from an angle: Who are the stake holders, what does the research say, what will be the push back be, what's a good compromise? Sometimes,  you need to step back from the bullshit and you just need to do what is right, not what is right now. You might lose a few battles, but you can at least say you did what was right and you did your best doing what was right.

A Bene Placito: I am fortunate enough to serve at the pleasure of one of the most morally sound, ethically uncompromising, and tireless politicians in Australia, a fact for which I am proud. If I can say one thing from my degree it is this: Do what you're proud of, don't compromise, don't spend too much time in the grey areas, you'll get lost, and above all, don't let the bastards grind you down.

Signing off for the last time and bidding you all adieu - Ron.