Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Social Media Project Roundup, Fall 2013: Part 1

Every semester, my Digital Advertising students work very hard on a massive project: To develop a professional brand using social media. 

 I just finished looking through all of the projects and wanted to take a moment to praise their work and note a few special honors.

The Big Picture

From August 30 - November 15, 2013, my 42 #unidigadv students accomplished the following:
  • Posted a total of 13,184 tweets on Twitter
  • Gained a total of 3,382 followers on Twitter
  • Earned an average score of 45 on Klout
  • Added 3,023 connections on LinkedIn
  • Published 383 blog posts on Blogger
  • Earned 28,625 pageviews from visitors to their blogs
Impressive numbers.  Tweet volume topped my Spring classes by nearly 60% and blog pageviews were up over 20%.  This is a class that has something to say - and has successfully connected with an audience.
 

TWITTER

Top 5 Most Voracious Tweeters
Tweeting is one of those things that seems very easy at first glance - until you do it every day in support of a professional brand.  That's hard work!  Here are the top five #unidigadv Tweeps by Tweet volume:
  1. @flynn_becca - 2,580 Tweets
  2. @kwolthoff - 1,792 Tweets
  3. @ZachHanood - 1,173 Tweets
  4. @Indi_indie_art - 1,018 Tweets
  5. @allyswinton - 794 Tweets
     
Top 5 Most Added Followers
If you want to wield influence on Twitter, you need followers.  Here are the students who added the most followers during the semester.
  1. @Indi_indie_art - added 303 followers
  2. @NFLFantasyHub - added 253 followers
  3. @flynn_becca - added 236 followers
  4. @SchoolComes2nd - added 218 followers
  5. @FroYoAndCardio - added 184 followers
     

KLOUT

Who has the most Klout?
Klout is not a perfect measure of social media influence (sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own), but for what it's worth, here are our five most influential class members according to Klout:  

 (Note: Current scores are shown, but students are ranked in the order of their scores as of Nov 15, 2013)
 





LINKEDIN

Most Connected on LinkedIn
When job hunting, who you know is often as important as who you are.  Here are the top five most connected class members on LinkedIn:
  1. Mandy Vrieze - 309 Connections
  2. Adam VanDooren - 276 Connections
  3. Shauna Happel - 219 Connections
  4. Bailey Anderson - 211 Connections
  5. Sarah Ormsby - 202 Connections
Most Skilled
Anyone can SAY that they are skilled in "Social Media Marketing", but an endorsed skill on LInkedIn means that another professional has vouched for you to confirm that you know your stuff. These four had the most number of skills that gained endorsements:
Most Recommended
These three had the greatest number of recommendations by others on LinkedIn:
Did you have any favorite Tweeps or Linkedin connections that deserve special mention?  Tell me about why they're awesome in the comments!

 Up next: A post on the best student blogs of Fall semester, 2013.  Stay tuned.

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Photoshop (PSD) Templates for iPhone and Android Mobile App Previsualization

Before you start working in Photoshop, save yourself time and effort by finalizing your wireframes.  It's a lot easier to quickly change your hand-drawn wireframe sketches than modify a Photoshop file!

Once you have your wireframes where you want them, here are links to some design templates for Adobe Photoshop to help you create the pre-visualizations:

 Teehan + Lax iPhone 6 Template
Updated Photoshop template for iOS 8 and iPhone 6 from Digital Experience agency Teehan + Lax.

 Teehan + Lax Android Template
Photoshop template for Android devices (also from Teehan + Lax).  This one is a little outdated, but still useful.

If you like these templates, give a shout out to @teehanlax on Twitter.  They'll appreciate it.

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 If these templates don't work for you (or if you are averse to sweater vests), here are a few other sources to try:

 9 Highly Recommended Free Android UI Kit PSDs
Choose one that works for you.  From TwelveSkip, the blog of Web designer Pauline Cabrera.

Smashing Magazine iPhone PSD Vector Kit
Photoshop template with many of the iPhone 4 UI graphics. This is a little out of date.  From the awesome web publication Smashing Magazine.

If none of these work for you, try searching Google for "iPhone PSD template" or "Android PSD template".

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Cool Mobile Marketing Campaigns

Mini Getaway Stockholm
A promotion for the launch of the Mini Countryman in Stockholm, Sweden in 2010.  Over 11,000 Swedes downloaded the app and participated in a massive multiplayer augmented reality game that involved "catching" a virtual Mini only visible through the app.  Created by creative agency Jung von Matt in Sweden.


Chok! Chok! Chok!
A fantastic campaign developed by McCann Hong Kong for Coca-Cola.


Mobile Medic App - Australian Defense Force
A recruitment campaign for the Australian Defense Force involving an augmented reality-driven medical diagnosis app.  Prospective recruits use the app to try and "diagnose" a patient's billboard.  The ad functions as a kind of entrance exam.  This campaign won several Cannes Lion awards in 2012 for GPY&R and VML.

Heineken Star Player
An engaging iPhone app for interacting and competing with UEFA Champion League football fans during games.  More info on game and results here.  Created by AKQA.

Band Aid Magic Vision
Award-winning augmented reality application produced by LA digital agency 9K9 and global agency JWT.


Diesel Jeans
QR Codes combined with Facebook integration make it easy for shoppers to "like" Diesel Jeans.
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Wireframing Your Mobile App

Once you have an idea of what type of mobile app your group will be designing and what some of the features will be, the next step will be to start sketching out exactly how this app will work. This is done with a technique called wireframing - a rough approximation of what will appear on each screen of your app and how users will interact with it.
Photo by Flickr user Baldiri

Wireframes can be done in many different ways using many different tools - from simple hand drawn sketches to detailed annotated illustrations using robust software tools. For this project you will not need anything more complex than some simple hand-drawn sketches.
Photo by Flickr user Fernando Guillen
The goal of a wireframe is to quickly communicate how the app will look and how it will function for a user.  Wireframing involves multiple screens/pages that connect to one another through buttons or other interface elements.

 Here is one helpful tool that you can print out multiple copies of for quick sketching that still has a "clean" look: a set of printable iPhone 4 wireframe templates:


UPDATE: Here is a set of printable iPhone 6 wireframe templates.



 If you do a little Googling, there are tons of wireframing tools, templates, and toolkits available out there (including this gorgeous toolkit for Adobe Illustrator).  Most are overkill for this project.  My advice is to stick with sketches and stay focused on the concise communication of your app's layout and functionality.
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Friday, November 15, 2013

A Cavalcade of Tweets

Some great action on the #unidigadv hashtag this week! My students have been working really hard to complete an epic three month long project using social media to build a personal brand. Their final deliverable was a 20-30 slide presentation documenting their project, the quantitative metrics they collected along the way, and their assessment of their success. Many students started panicking on Wednesday as they realized how much work their final presentation would entail. Doug Drees and Therese Kuster from Targetclick were listening in and gave my students an open invitation to contact Targetclick for internships. Nice to see some local industry professionals who know where to look for talent! As the project deadline loomed, students began to see the light at the end of the tunnel as they wrapped up their projects. There was a mixture of exhilaration, sadness, and accomplishment. Yes - you can get a round of applause - you ALL can.


Nice work. Have a great weekend.
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