Blog, Vlog, or Podcast Analysis
What are you interested in? Once you graduate, what job do you plan to find or what career goals to you have?
For this assignment, I want you to find FIVE blogs, vlogs (video blogs) or podcasts to read, watch, or listen. I recommend at least one of each to expose yourself to each genre – five total (for example: 2 blogs, 2 vlogs, 1 podcast)
BUT, these must be in the field you will work in when you graduate. For example if you are in marketing, find blogs, vlogs or podcasts created by marketers. If you are in accounting, find blogs, vlogs, or podcasts about accounting (I just Googled ACCOUNTING BLOGS and there are some great ones!).
TASK:
1. Pay attention to the content that the creators are sharing. Take notes. Find the attached worksheet below and use it to add your notes and the links to the sites.
2. Identify:
- What is their catchy title (do they have a good one?)
- What is the hook at the beginning to get you to read or listen?
- What are they sharing? How is it valuable? How have they organized their content? Are they sharing a story and if they are how did it impact you?
- What is their closing? What action have you been asked or inspired to take?
3. Sending me a memo- properly formatted – sharing your analysis the blogs, vlogs, or podcasts you visited. In the analysis you should answer the questions above and elaborate on them.
As part of the closing of your memo, tell me what you learned about the topic and about creating a blog, vlog, or podcast by visiting these content creators.
PARAMETERS:
For this assignment, the following parameters must be observed:
- Use your memo template
- Times New Roman or Arial font, size 12
- Typed and single-spaced and short paragraphs (you can use as many paragraphs as you need).
| Blog, Vlog or Podcast
Research |
|||
| Blog, Vlog or Podcast Title and link | Hook | Body: Content, Story, Purpose of the document | Closing: Action? |
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. | |||
| 5. | |||
Use this chart to collect your information and take notes. You can cut and paste things like the links. You will use this later to write your email analyzing these sites. As you type in the columns below, they will expand to fit your text.
SAMPLE
MEMO
To: Professor Monteil-Doucette
From: Student
Date: October 1, 2021
Subject: Vlog, Blog, Podcast Analysis
I am focusing on a degree in Business Administration with a concentration on marketing and social media development. The following blogs have been recommended by many in the field, and personally caught my attention:
- “The Beginner’s Guide to Online Marketing” published by QuickSprout
https://www.quicksprout.com/the-beginners-guide-to-online-marketing/
It was not only the heading that drew my attention with its simplistic and direct approach, but the body of the piece. In marketing, the one thing I have learned that is absolutely crucial is the (1) speed at which specialist are bringing on new ideas and strategies, (2) ability to not only create, but to maintain a strong foundation, and (3) ability to act independently and remain relentlessly creative. This blog covers how to combat these struggles that every marketing expert faces. The beginning or “hook” is crucial to grab readers in, and their method of emphasizing “beginner” was nothing but resourceful. They further outlined the reason (“why”) readers should read and “who” the targeted audience is, which is strategic to not waste the time of the viewers before getting too deep in the reading.
- “The State of Inbound 2016 is Here” published by HubSpot
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-inbound-2016#sm.000977cb51egoethq1l20c57jrl4d
Now, this title was not as attention grabbing, but my manager actually showed me this publisher. It was a “1 minute read”, which although is not always resourceful, is very effective in cutting to points that may get missed in longer reads. This writing thoroughly and effectively bullet-pointed key resources and “up-to-date” pages on the advancements in marketing. As I learned that creativity and relentlessness is important in this field, staying up to date on technological advancements, social media platforms, and predictions of future disruptors was what caught my eyes as the reader. As a blogger, including multiple resources and names of industry leaders is so beneficial to the reader to further delve into the topic, from other and outside views.
- “22 Brutally Honest Landing Page Critiques” published by Unbounce
https://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/22-brutally-honest-landing-page-critiques/
Not just with marketing, this blog is so fundamental with life and explains the importance of taking constructive criticism. I very much valued the “hook” on this piece with its reference of “Simon”, the renowned judge who people fear for his brunt, yet honest criticism. Those who face that fear and want to learn from the criticism have the advantage to grow more and be more successful. This blog took in 22 landing page designs and layered out the critiques for each of them. It is easy to say “what to do” on the broad scope of things, as many blogs will say the same thing, but it takes more of a direct approach when examples and visuals are given, backed with critiques on how to fix each one. What I took from this blog was that failures bring more learning and growth opportunities.
- “How to Engineer Your Brand’s Instagram Success Story” published by CMI (Context Marketing Institute)
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/11/instagram-success-story/
What is better for marketing in 2020 than on social media, specifically one of the most widely used platforms in the United States? Again, this blogger did amazing at hyperlinking key phrases and names to other key sources on how to master marketing on Instagram. Consistently, this (hyperlinking other articles) has been one of the best tactics for a successful, well-rounded blog. You do not want to be wordy in your blogs, so to compensate, you can include links to other sources for specific topics in your discussion if one seeks more details on the subject. This blog dives into the intense competition that surrounds social media, but how many people fail to use it to its fullest potential. It is not as simple as working up a “visually appealing” post, there has to be a unique spin (or spice) that adds context and uniqueness, outside of a “picture”. This all comes down to contextualization. Audiences want more than random images disconnected from your brand experience, they search for a deeper meaning and resonance. By building a theme, social media users can easily internalize and align with your brand. It further dives into the effective use of external factors. Get sponsors, and once you set foot in your community, reach out to them to further expand and sponsor your brand out and watch it reach out to other sectors of social media.
- “Did You Hear? Your Brand Needs a Voice Strategy” published by CMI (Context Marketing Institute)
You cannot say it enough in marketing, don’t just follow trendy, old patterns, such as SEO on google. This blog really does well at not just providing an example, but detailing the importance of recognizing technological advancements and how you can take advantage of them before your competitors. A “question” is always a great hook and headline to a piece as people often ask questions and wants answers. This blog goes over the growing use of “smart audio”, through means of your smart phone, Alexa, iHome, Google Home, etc. It is only a matter of time where audio recordings and words used in those recordings will show up in searches. This can be done, for starts, by creating podcasts (which are not as popular as artciles and written forms of advertising) and recording that audio on paper. Once promoted to your targeted audience through social media, it will provide multiple means for your brand/message to get across. It is predicted that audio commands and voice reactors will take a leap in the world of apple, google, and other major platforms.
I find reading blogs and listening to podcasts to often provide not just better resources than school, but often more focused searches that suit any ones needs or interests. It is an accessible tool that offers the most personal insight that is free and available to its audience. Thank you for taking your time to read my evaluations on these 5 blogsrelated to my career choice.
- 275 words per page
- 12 pt Arial/Times New Roman
- Double line spacing
- Any citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard)