Digital Artefact Case Study
Digital Artefact PDF Presentation
Please refer to the PDF as it collates the research into a presentable format.
The What?
The goal of this digital artefact is to study and develop my understanding in regards to the marketing processes when a new game/product is being released.
Ultimately looking at marketing to:
A) Secure the buyer purchase through successful marketed ‘conversions’.
What means are used to convert the consumer into a purchasing player? This could be looking at content deployed pre, during or post release.
B) Fund-raising & getting audience participation via Kickstarter for this particular case study.
Looking at what types of content companies/game developers use while campaigning their game.
Do they have social media platforms?
How do they engage with their audience via content?
For this case study I will be looking at the games ‘Exploding Kittens’ & ‘FrostHaven’.
Approach:
Looking at the pre, during & post release audience engagement will give me an idea if there is a systemic approach that companies deploy when releasing a product such as a table top game. Will they vary much from the other? We will see.
Both of these products were funded from the Kick Starter website so they are niche in the sense that they can involve participation from the audience and the audience can see their support turn into progress towards an official licensed product.
In hopes to develop my understanding I will need to:
– Understand the game. Its concepts, operations and role within the board game community.
– What type of content is used to market the game.
– When and how is this content deployed.
– Audience Reach/Participation
– Converting audience into customers
– Product campaigning
– Kickstarter attributions to success
Exploding Kittens:
Exploding Kittens is humble and innocently immature. This tabletop card game raised a staggering $8,782,571 from 219,382 people. Crazy!
From the Kickstarter: “Exploding Kittens is a highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and loses the game. The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck.The game gets more and more intense with each card you draw because fewer cards left in the deck means a greater chance of drawing the kitten and exploding in a fiery ball of feline hyperbole.”
When creating this game, Elan Lee figured to design a fun game for family & friends to play in the hopes to improve audience participation as he felt that the games we was making (EG: Halo 1 & 2) were divisive and didn’t bring people together. So he used Kickstarter.
The general concept and idea behind Kickstarter is that you pitch your product on a platform where people can assess your submission and if they like the product they will help bring it to life by pledging money towards it.
The more money you pledge, the larger the return.
They absolutely took off within the first day, beating their target quota and smashing it out of the park. The support was phenomenal on the first week. He noticed a downward trend in pledge amounts so he figured he would look at some data.
What the graph shows is the most funded game on Kickstarter during the time Exploding Kittens was released. The Data represents the money raised on each day of the 30 day campaign and the second graph shows correlating activity on the forum by the day. He simply noticed on peak days of forum activity the sales would also spike along with it.
Kickstarter works in a way where if they raise up to X amount of money they will celebrate by raising the stakes in a way, this is called a stretch goal. Some encouragement to get people to pledge and continue to gain funding and momentum for the prodcut.
Elan Lee decided to reverse engineer this ideology after noticing the correlation between community activity and how well the Kickstarter for OUYA had gone that same day. So what he did was he created goals for the pledges not based on financial stretches but participation goals. If they had 25 pics posted of ‘Beard Cat’ or 5 pics of ‘Weaponised Back Hair’ they would do things like double the cards in a deck or upgrade the deluxe box.
The ultimate goal was to not raise money but to raise a crowd.
What people did with this was they took the Exploding Cats audience participation games and started making clothes, art and even got tattoos of an unreleased game all because they wanted to be apart of the party that was happening.
Update #9 is when Elan Lee decided to roll out this plan of attack and it clearly resonated with the audience as they went on to make a total of $8,782,571 after 31 days of campaigning.
$4,931,753 more than their staggering un-predicted performance from the first 6 days of fund raising.
No massive marketing budget was required, no ground breaking technology or product needed, just an organic card game and collaboration with the audience.
They only used Facebook, Instagram & Kickstarter to communicate to their audience. Most of their significant reach were done through updates on the Kickstarter.
Frosthaven:
Raised $12,969,162
#1 Funded Board Game
Sequel to smash hit Gloomhaven.
Frosthaven is similar to Exploding Cats in the same way that it smashed previous funding records on Kickstarter. Although the playing grounds were a little different if you were to compare the two. Exploding Kittens was mostly organic growth for a new fresh game, whereas Frosthaven is the sequel to ‘Gloomhaven’ a game which held the number 1 spot on ‘Boardgamegeek’ for most of 2017, 2018 and 2019. So in short you’d really expect nothing other than an amazing product.
They had much more funding.
The player base already existed.
Backed by a bigger team all round.
Already had the recipe worked out.
Could work with the communities feedback loop.
In conclusion:
It was good to compare the two, Exploding Kittens & Frosthaven.
Both were successful beyond their original means and are enjoyed by many millions of people in the world. The content that Exploding Kittens used for their Kickstarter was very simple, graphics, some memes related to the game and the games art. Though their approach was based on building the games crowd through very simple easy to do yet challenging tasks that required resources which were free in nature so everyone could participate.
This is what allowed them to become the #1 game on Kickstarter at the time until Frosthaven beat it, building hype around community engagement.
Where as in the case of Frosthaven, the creators had the budget to splurge and create high quality content. The biggest take back from the study was that high quality/professional type content such as HD 3D renders and character art could convert someone into a player but ultimately what converts a view into a purchase is organic content.
Organic in the sense that it resonates with the brands ETHOS, its values and narrative. Content that feels right for the audience as it isn’t pushing the product itself but more the narrative and engagement that can be provided if you were to purchase.
Thanks!
BCM 300 Pitch
The tabletop game which I am recounting is Reflex! This game is physically made up from a deck of 48 cards cards, just one deck needed per game and each game can be picked up or dropped at any given time, with any set number of players as long as it’s more than one. This game is not driven by narrative or an end goal and involves the participation of all.
Reflex operates in the space of social communication, there are no rules which the players need to learn before playing, the only obligations players have are to discuss the topics which each card presents. Each time a card is drawn, a new round begins.
Reflex aims to stimulate the critical thinking of each player as the games driving mechanic is asking questions so the players can further discuss them, with themes of love, life, death, politics, religion, purpose career, morality, drugs/alcohol and more.
Such as:
“What’s one thing you did that you really wish you could go back and undo?”
“Would you rather be sober or intoxicated?”
These are some examples of the questions from the deck, they may ask us to ponder on a previous time or think critically about a hypothetical situation, sharing opinions and thoughts allows you to see what kind of values and morals other players have.
“What’s one thing you did that you really wish you could go back and undo?” Is a question which could trigger someone to share one of their regrets, or a sentimental memories from the past. Though this game has no narrative value the questions stimulate deep and meaningful conversations which add value to the game.
Difficulties could arise if players are uncomfortable sharing information in an open forum but with no obligation to an end goal it makes it perfectly fine for someone to leave the party at any given time.
I played Reflex with three friends, two who I knew very well and one I didn’t, so it was great that introspective conversations were easily accessible and it didn’t feel like we had to ‘warm up’ to reach the point of meaningful dialogue,
Reflex got us discussing the topic and each other’s opinions on said topic in depth, each card had the possibility to veer us into a conversation completely irrelevant but just as important because it usually had significant meaning for the person speaking.
The only downturn of the game is that it is limited to the questions that come printed on the deck, if played through more than once, I could see myself getting bored of partaking over and over again. I could see the possibility of Reflex becoming a subscription based game or an electronic game that is continually updated with new questions so it is not restricted by its physical make up.
I would like to see Reflex make spin offs – Reflex: Drinking Edition. Reflex: Romance. There are plenty ways I could see this game target a more niche audience.
Project Pitch:
BCM313 Presentation blog post.
This is the story of manifesting a reality through continuously pursuing your desires.
Throwing it back to April 14 2018 I was given the opportunity to play at a local club with a renowned Sydney artist, at this point I had been DJ’ing for 1 and a half years and I had a couple months of club experience. At the time I thought I had it in me to play a good set to a club standard. It’s a quite big night for myself, I finally was able to play to a good nightclub, a packed club with my friends and random people, I finally had my shot.
As I played the set, I got such great feedback from the club, everyone was enjoying the music, friends looked like they were having an all time ball as I played the closing set. After the gig, someone from a local DJ collective hit me up and said they’d love to have me play with them one time as I had great song selection, I thought that was pretty awesome to hear as I consider myself abit of a music person.
A week passes and I meet up with my friend who works at that particular club (My class mate Lilli), she says she had so much fun working while I was playing but the booking agent was told that I wasn’t able to mix songs seamlessly (It was obvious that I was going from one song to the next). I thought that it was strange and I felt like I kinda missed my shot, if the agent is told that it wasn’t up to the standard how could I get another gig.
Months went on and I watched my friends get spots playing there, friends new to the craft and friends old, I was taking whatever was coming my way but unfortunately it was nil. Being happy for my friends but also trying not to be jealous was quite hard, this went on for a year and as I departed for an exchange trip overseas in January 2019 I hoped it would be a time where I could refresh and reestablish myself as a DJ.
Six months pass and I come back home to Aus, here I have a refreshed perspective on brands and I start to turn the operations of my brand (GAK) up a little bit. Sales go up as I try to create more content for the brand.. a new club has opened up and its a lot nicer than the others. It fits more people, cleaner, better music, bigger artist.. you name it, It was quite popular and unfortunately it was still ran by the same booking agent.
I saw this person out quite often and every time I’d sum up the courage to ask if I was able to play sometime soon and I got back a few “Yeah mans” but I knew this person was saving face. Months pass and I end up having the idea of throwing a photography exhibition with a friend at a local BYO space. To cut a long story short Dazeuplate (my photography brand), collaborates with my friends (Sunday With Sally) for ‘Sunday Up Late’ a place where people can meet up, check the photography of 5 locals and watch me and my friends spin some records. The event was a huge success gaining over 340 interested patrons on the facebook event and 140~ coming through on the night. Gaining this crazy amount of interest over facebook I proposed the idea of an afterparty to the booking agent of the club, an opportunity to potentially bring over 100 people to the local club which is down the road from Sundays Up Late.
It’s an opportunity that can’t be passed up from both parties so we agree that the Sundays Up Late afterparty will occur that night… what comes with the afterparty is the opportunity for me to play another closing set at this club.
It felt so good, knowing that I had another shot at my dreams, I had manifested the opportunity myself through loving my crafts and staying true to it. It taught me such a huge lesson in life that whatever you like out there in life is yours for the taking, it might be be a direct pursuit there but success is a rollercoaster, just take the ride and stay true to yourself… you’ll get there eventually.
Things have taken off – BCM302 Contextual Essay
At the beginning of the semester I was ambitious to develop myself into a competent content creator, I have dreams to freelance and turn my hobbies into a career, because if you ‘do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life’. To set the frame I came back from a student exchange trip overseas, there I set goals to develop myself as a novice Vlogger, in order to further develop my skill set as a media and communications student. I had all the content in-front of me, the only thing that was limiting myself was my skillset and abilities to piece together the content.
(Video stating down my goals with the channel)
Skills I wanted to develop were:
- Confidence in-front of the camera (talking coherently and consistently)
- Ability to create aesthetic shots
- Video editing
- Develop skills and ideations at content creation.
Content creation easily ties together with my creative endeavours and career ambitions as my creative outlets:
- Dazeuplate (Photography based Instagram)
- Grown Ass Kid (Streetwear Brand)
If I can efficiently create content for these brands I will be one step ahead in successfully becoming an independent entrepreneur.
So, I thought to myself, the Digital Artefact is an assessment task where I can utilise the utility of the project in order to make myself a more skilled creative. I set my project goal as Youtube Search engine optimisation aka ‘Youtube SEO’. With this artefact in mind I could create a broad range of videos, not subject to a single theme and utilise strategies which would allow the videos I post to gain more viewership on YouTube, videos would display higher in searches which intern leads to more views and engagement.
To summarise, what would Youtube SEO is:
- Detailed video tags
- Titles – Including the year or some other description in brackets afterwards.
- Thumbnail – Stand out, not typical to Youtube Colours (Red, White, Black)
- Detailed video description
I wanted to utilise my knowledge in photography to create content in that space, so I looked to You-tubers like William Verbeek for inspiration on how he created his videos. So I created a photography themed video.
This video was shared at least 7-8 times by my friends on facebook, including myself, I even posted it on ‘Dazeuplate’ using the IG TV feature. It gained over 100 views during the first couple of days but then slowed down, sticking to 133 at this point in time, while on IGTV it got 300. I pitched the project to the class and retold stories of success with a previous BCM112 video Tokyo Japan – Harajuku Fashion Scene/Streetwear’, gaining 3k views overnight and it being the most interacted video I have posted. I was told to try and hit the same demographic in order see if I could generate the same success, then came the “$165 HANDMADE HAT (JAPANESE STREETWEAR)” video. This is a very specific kind of video so it wouldn’t sit amongst a handful of similar videos, it was niche and related to Japanese streetwear. I employed SEO strategies and it ranked high for what I described the video as, unfortunately the traction this video gained was not too outstanding (24 views as of October 31). I wasn’t necessarily confused but I was a little stuck at finding a formula of success.
Using Chrome extension “Vid IQ” I can see what my video would rank if those tags have been searched – I ranked high for these tags but they were too niche in my opinion.
I then showed my beta to the class and explained my personal frame, my interests, my goals and we discussed at how I could create content which propels me into gaining engagement on my videos. I showed both the instagrams of Dazeuplate and Grown Ass Kid and explained my ambitions.
- “There’s no consistency”
- “What you are trying to be is unclear” – Said my peers
It was at this point where my DA took a little bit of a turn, the truth was presented to me.
I had all of these different social brands that had plenty of posts but the framework in which they operated was not completely clear, was I vlogger from the US documenting my stay? Was I aspiring to be a photography based content producer? Or was I a streetwear Youtuber?
I realised that it’s highly likely people won’t subscribe to me because they don’t know what they will receive in return. I had to create consistency with my channel aesthetics and the video’s themselves, thumbnail included.
The same went for my instagram accounts, I was aspiring to run a streetwear brand but I didn’t have any external sites where my audience could go and get an idea if the brand was authentic or not. So I changed my DA direction into creating a frame that my audience could use to distinctly identify what the brands stood for. That’s what I felt was truly important and relevant to my goal of becoming an independent entrepreneur.
It was at this time when I wanted to develop Grown Ass Kid into more than just a streetwear line, I wanted to create a DJ collective to help tell the G.A.K story and utilise the already existing platform, it was a great way to connect my two interests of DJ’ing and the streetwear line.
The platform which typically gain the most traction, is Instagram. I can show content to my already existing subscribed audience and people can share it on their own profile. I created the “Grown Ass Kid DJ’s” with 3 of my friends which led me directing a video and introducing us to the world in this manner. The results were phenomenal, reaching almost 900 people, 300 profile visits, over 140 likes and gaining over 50 followers.
Grown Ass Kid DJ’s truly made their mark on the world, GAK stood for something a little more than it did before. I went on to curate my own photography exhibition with a friend ‘Sunday’s Up Late’, showing some photos from my recent trip to America and utilised the opportunity to have the GAK DJ’s make their first public appearance to make it more real as people could put a date to the crew. I was asked to play the afterparty at my local club ‘TUSK’ on that night, I was stoked to say the least as It was a big opportunity to make my mark on the club scene, the event was a success and a great opportunity to capture some content to use.
I created a video from the afterparty which had a great viewing, my DA focus had shifted tremendously as a result of the feedback loop, I gave examples of the brand I look at for inspiration and they all had one thing in common, continuity in their posts (aesthetic and underlying message). I needed to stand for something so I started to tell a different type of story and develop the brand in this sense.
Reflection: I could have continued to keep on creating videos for Youtube but I feel as if my attentions were best focused on getting the fundamentals right first as I could tie it all together if I stood for something. The Youtube SEO video’s were not gaining an audience and my message was very skewed, I had more success on Instagram, although I do have to say that I could have tried to continue to hit the same demographic at least once or twice more on youtube but personally I felt that I had experimented with it enough, including my previous upload history.
Creating an even stronger frame to work within I created a website using Shopify so people could be directed to somewhere which wasn’t a social platform, the webshop for GAK is intended to open with products in November. Reaching out to the same club I had played at beforehand I tested to see if there was any opportunity if having the G.A.K DJ’s to be the host of a club night, a week later I got called in for a meeting and there was an opportunity for a gig with the suggestion of a working relationship moving forward.
Note: This club gains prominent international headliners in the House and Techno scene so I was stoked to say the least. I read a quote that “Recognising your desires as fulfilled is a form of wealth” to which I wholeheartedly believe that because of the feedback I was given on my DA that it resulted in this.
So on November 15th the Grown Ass Kid DJ’s are hosting a club night and were given the opportunity to play the club from 9pm – 3am, real success was found. Needless the say the framework has not been completely created, and further work is to be done. I found the value in creating coherent posts which have the same underlying aesthetic and how they are displayed on the grid is a big factor in this. Personally I am just waiting for new products to be created (work in progress).
Closing out my contextual essay, Its hugely important that I explain how the feedback loop from my peers influenced my thought process and decision making while I undertook BCM302 this semester. Relating it back to my initial goal of becoming a better content producer I used content as a means to communicate my intended message and my reality has been affected in return, as I venture into the last semester of my degree I feel as if this DA has open my eyes and I learnt:
- Proper branding aesthetics
- How to communicate a brand message
- How a brand should operate on social platforms
- Importance on communicating a consistent message
- How to capture an audience’s attention
- Developed my skills as a content creator.
Going forward there is still work to be done but the fundamentals have been made clear, I will continue to create Youtube videos when I can make content I know my audience will resonate with, more work will be put into Grown Ass Kid as I finish the semester and head into summer, I consider my DA a success despite Youtube SEO not necessarily working out.
Thank you for reading.
Sources:
YouTube SEO: 9 Actionable Tips for Ranking Videos (2019)
SEO Checklist 2019 — How to Get More Organic Traffic (Fast!)
How to Promote Your YouTube Channel – 5 Free Ways
How To Write A Video Script For YouTube
HOW TO VLOG LIKE CASEY NEISTAT by CASEY NEISTAT
This 10 Easy Steps Will Make Your Video More CINEMATIC
How to Start Your Streetwear Brand Pt 1 • Brand Philosophy
How to Build Your Brand, Think Bigger and Develop Self Awareness — Gary Vaynerchuk Interview
Creative Ways to Build a Brand – Gary Vaynerchuk Client Consultation
BCM302 – Digital Artefact Beta feedback.
Hey Holly, focusing on post analytics will tell you more about your audience so you can then dictate your posts in whatever seems to be trending for yourself. But, the most important message I believe you are bringing with your DA is your personal journey and how you can display balance in your life with foods and the gym.
I suggested that you do list some information with in regards to how you maintain and you replied that you’re not an expert on doing so. Educating your audience with reposts from professionals is great but I think by not telling your side of the story you are missing an opportunity because people can’t usually relate to informative reposts as good as they can to stories.
A way I suggest you being able to highlight your way journey is to utilise a fitbit like device which can track calories burnt throughout a workout. For example with my Apple Watch I can actively see just how many calories Ive burnt being active during a workout and the calories burnt during the total time.
E.G A serving of a Big Mac is 563 calories, large fries up to 500 and say you get Coke Zero for the drink. Eat 1063 calories in the meal.
Utilising the calorie tracker in my apple watch, if I usually work out for an hour and 20 minutes i’ll tend to burn 800~ total calories.
So you can go and have your meal and then over the next day or two show and give evidence of you working out and burning the extra calories you had in the cheat. Make it about you!
Jasmyn! Far out, what a DA. You’ve certainly educated me on how I can carry myself and my brands on a social platform, the amount of work you’ve put into Jaslifitngfit is outstanding and I think it allows you to show off you creative endeavours much more than your previously pitched #Wollongongstrong.
Clear explanations of your ideologies with an engaging Instagram vid make for a very tight knit social profile, It’s hard for me to give you feedback as I think you’ve gone far and above in all concepts and procedures. Each post is informative and you detail your own perspective before you’ve hit a workout. You’ve written that you’ve had a few drinks on the weekend on your recent ‘Shoulder Work’ post, which is encouraging for myself to get my a** into the gym on a day if I didn’t particularly feel like it.
All in all, great work, I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Digital Artefact Prototype – BCM302
My Digital artefact prototype displays some evidence of working towards developing an audience via specific content creation around a particular demographic (being the ‘streetwear’ community and photographers). I have so far posted two videos employing youtube SEO tactics and strategies, although I personally feel like there is more work to be done to successful create a DA which shows these strategies.
Looking at you tuber Brian Dean for help at optimising my videos. Brian Dean has 5/6 top youtube results when you search ‘Youtube SEO’ on the site so he is putting the work in and getting the results.
I will be taking upon Ted’s advice from my previous project pitch and try to hit the same demographic a few times.
Male fashion trends Spring/autumn 2019
Shooting 35mm film at night
Hosting a photography exhibition
Incorporating DJ’ing some how
Sandos Pizzeria (Pizza making video)
I bought a $165 dollar hand made hat (Japanese Streetwear)
Whats in my bag
Simply edit photos iPhone
An Introduction to 35mm Film
Blue = Photography related
Red = Streetwear Related
These are some video idea’s I have come up with and here you can see what repeated demographics Ill be trying to hit while also branching out to a few different genres. I give myself the goal of 5 more videos minimum before I submit my final artefact but Its a task trying to make content which is niche and hasn’t been done before. Though if I keep at it, even making similar content I know I can curate an audience who will keep watching my videos.
Listen with your eyes.
When you’re arguing with someone, whether you’re arguing over who gets the last slice of pizza vs arguing with someone because you don’t think that they’re performing their specific task to a competent level its goes without saying that of utmost importance everyone realises that its not a ‘me vs you’ type of verbal battle, it’s ‘us vs the problem’.
Parties are arguing with each other because they feel strongly that their version of what is right is superior to the opposition, tempers rise and so do voices, we argue, get frustrated and while we hurl insults we realise that in the end nothing got sorted. Instead you are able to employ conversation strategies to make sure that the other person is understood and you’re able to sympathises with them a little more in order to avoid directionless arguing.
Myself personally I am employed by Telstra, Australia’s premiere telecommunications brand and it is my duty to get on the floor and sell their products, 9am – 5:30pm all day. I am required to sit with the customers that come into the store and consult with them, find out their needs and hear out their wants.
To break it down I:
- Greet them.
- Ask them what they’re in for
- Record the information
- I ask them questions around F.O.R.M (Family, Orientation, Recreation and Motivations)
- Collectively take all of this information and create a tailored monthly bill with services, that I believe would suit that customer based off the information provided.
Consulting with a customer about their needs involves skills, you need to practice attentive listening so that you can take note of keywords which could branch you into another conversation ultimately leading to discussing a potential product we sell.
“Oh I’ve 2 Toddlers” the customer says
Me: “Really? I guess they’d love to play on your phone at times”
Customer: “Oh yeah they love going on it”
Me: “Have you thought about getting insurance for your phone, If they were to break it you can claim another for $190”
Customer: “Yes please I would love that”
You go through the whole day shifting through various conversations with different people, learning about them, asking them questions and elaborating on their answers, after going through that process you present them with services they may or may not have necessarily come in for. They may say yes to some things or say no to others, but if you’re doing your job correctly you should have tailored a service to a need they have and they should trust you on this.
The unspoken rule influencing whether you’re successful or not is a sensation called ‘rapport’. Rapport is a good sense of understanding and trust, in the instance of being a sales consultant at Telstra if I have successfully developed rapport with the customer they don’t think that Im just trying to sling them some products for a good sale and a hefty commission . They trust that I do care for their needs and have their interests at heart, I understand where they’re coming from and Im not just a regular sales rep in a retail store. They won’t be turned off when my potential monthly bill for them is $50 out of there said budget because we are able to communicate with a level of trust which indicates sympathy and understanding.
Although as I’ve placed heavy emphasis on the way I can control dialogue what tends to be the most powerful assistant to the consultation is the ability to listen. Listening so it’s prevalent that their needs are communicated and understood.
The average person speaks between 135 and 160 words per minute, but the average person’s brain works between 400 and 600 words per minute. It’s not particularly hard for you to wonder off in conversation while X customer talks about their NBN troubles that you have heard 100 times over, especially when you’re doing this for over 8 hours of the day but deep listening is a practice that sometimes speaks more volume than the words them-self.
Eye contact, nonverbal feedback, presence and connection are principles that deep listening is based off, a communication strategy which can transform a very casual conversation into a much deeper one, even if you don’t know the person. The goal is to make them feel as you are truly engaged in what they have to say, through this you can encourage the speaker to speak more openly and honest as you are allowing yourself to absorb what your communication partner is saying on a more wholesome, fundamental level.
Maintaining eye contact shows that you are fully engaged and interested in what your conversation details. With good amounts of eye contact your presence is felt, it prevents your mind from wandering and you are truly present to the conversation so you have the chance the absorb more dialogue and nonverbal actions. Do they keep pausing, sighing or are they irritated? A sense of being in the moment will allow you to pick up on those nonverbal ques and inform your next course of action. Your presence can be established by physically showing that you’re interested, lean in, pull your shoulders back and nod and smiles as they talk.
Deep listening consists of tools which you can use so that person feels welcome and heard, therefore you are more susceptible to understanding them and them building rapport with your sales practice.
Going into a retail store and feeling understood is something that is going happen less and less, as e-commerce continues to soar the retail experience becomes fewer in number and more forgettable. That’s why as I personally represent Telstra I have a certain standard to uphold, Telstra’s services are considered number 1 in Aus and my ability to perform a consultation should adhere to that standard. I look to employ deep listening as a tool so next time the customer thinks about altering their services online they opt to come into a store instead, because the last time they did it, it felt good.
References:
Courtney Ackerman, 2017, 19 Narrative Therapy Techniques, Interventions + Worksheets, Positive Psychology https://positivepsychology.com/narrative-therapy/
Team Tony, The Power of Deep Listening, The Tony Robbins Blog
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/the-power-of-deep-listening/
Thilde Westmark, Lasse Offenburg and Dorte Nissen, 2011, The complexity of listening – listening for complexity: Narrative consultancy work in organisations, Explorations: AN E-Journal of Narrative Practice. Issue 1, 21 – 35. https://dulwichcentre.com.au/explorations-2011-1-westmark-offenberg-nissen.pdf
https://dulwichcentre.com.au/explorations-2011-1-westmark-offenberg-nissen.pdf
BCM302 Pitch
For my DA I will be creating YouTube content and marketing to a specific demographic with the goal of making niche content which I know will be searched for. The content will be specific in nature and thought out before being created. I will be using a google chrome extension VID IQ to see how my video’s and its tags rank for searches. I have already started my DA and plan to create 5-6 more videos throughout the semester all for different fields. This was inspired by my first DA in BCM112 where I created a video for Japanese Street fashion and over night It hit the top page of a reddit and got 3k views. I will simply be trying to re-do this over and over again with professional level content. I will be showcasing my findings through a blog post.
These will all be posted to my youtube:
Thank you!
9am – 5pm Regime
One thing that particularly interests me is the shift away from the typical 9 – 5 working regime. As someone who has participated and is currently working in the time constraints of this regime. I have first hand experience of how detrimental this can be to your productivity for the day in the hours outside. For example I start my day at 7am, I get ready and by 8:30 I am at work about to begin investing 9 hours of my day, into the the pursuit of earning an income and making my local Telstra store successful.
Throughout the day I feel the stress of hitting my individual targeted goals, dealing with customers and their objectives, all while participating in work place culture. Needless to say it can be a long 9 hours. Upon returning home I have roughly a 4 and a half hour window to be physically active, do my nightly tasks and whatever else I feel I need to pursue in my feel time. Myself personally, I am heavily invested into my hobbies, trying to manifest them into a possible career path. I create and sell clothes under a brand I made myself, I like to shoot photography which needs to be promoted on social media and try to also DJ at a professional level.
Working these days and trying to pursue most of my hobbies will always leave me short of time for something else I am trying to manifest. Never do I have enough time for all interests on a working day.
But it is through my hobbies which I can foresee a future where I am able to gain income through freelance work and create a schedule around my own needs, moving away from the requirements of my role at a retail store.
As the present carries on I am seeing and hearing about the future of work, that employees are either looking to do their work remotely or do their work hours based on the requirements of their current tasks. Both indicating that as humans we are looking to perform the requirements of our role in the work place up to the same standard, just in a different time frame and setting. With an increase of US freelancers finding up to 22% more online projects work in 4 years (2014-2018) going from 44% to 66%, the idea that people can work around their requirements is more widespread and the momentum shifts into the ideals of professionals who work for companies and corporations around the world.
I believe that as times get tougher we all have time come together and do what’s best for each individual involved all while reaching to attain the same goal. Will companies adapt? Or will we see a shift as professionals look to pursue even more work where their needs are met.
Grown Ass Kid 