Social Media Project Roundup, Fall 2013: Part 2

In my last post, I gave you a roundup of the collective social media stats of my Fall 2013 #unidigadv classes and highlighted some of their standout achievements on Twitter, Klout, and LinkedIn.  Now I'm going to showcase the blogs that were created as part of these projects.

Most Visited Blogs

Blogs are not a "build it and they will come" kind of deal.  It is very difficult and time consuming to attract traffic willing to read about what you have to say (and come back again for more).  Creating great content is only the first step - promoting the content so that it is seen is the really tough part.  

We had NINE students who earned over 1,000 pageviews to their blog during the course of the semester - they did a fantastic job attracting and engaging their visitors.  Browse through their blogs and see what they came up with:

1. Adonica Hennessy - Indi Indie Art - 1,627 pageviews
2. Bailey Anderson - Travel MerIT - 1,620 pageviews
3. Maria Mickelson - Spotlight On.. - 1,362 pageviews
4. Courtney Nagle - High-End Fashion in the World of Social Media - 1,341 pageviews
5. Janey Meyer - Fashion Flashback - 1,322 pageviews
6. Shauna Happel - Sports Psychology of Athletic Injuries - 1,275 pageviews
7. Amanda Vrieze - MarketSolarNRG - 1,223 pageviews
8. Grace Kammeyer - GracieKEvents - 1,187 pageviews
9. Kayla Wolthoff - Social Indulgence - 1,089 pageviews

Selected Student Blogs

I really enjoyed reading all of your blogs and presentations. Here are a few that I thought were strong:

Adonica Hennessy - Indi Indie Art
Adonica did a fantastic job finding independent indigenous artists from all around the world to write about.  She personally interviewed a wide range of "Indi Indie artists" such as musician Storm Seymour, beadwork artist Melissa Buffalo, and artist Edwin Conway.

Becca Flynn - A Touchdown on Digital Sports Advertising
Sports marketing is a topic that a lot of students are interested in - but few get beyond writing about favorite teams or players.  Becca did a great job looking at sports from the perspective of a marketer.  She focused on key corporate sponsors such as Gatorade and Under Armour and examined how they are utilizing social media and advertising.

Lindsay Hotze - Pinch Marketing
It's easy to get attention if you have a $100 million dollar budget - but what if you're a small business with a very limited marketing budget?  That's what Lindsay calls "Pinch Marketing" - and she blogs about the ways in which small businesses can take advantage of cost effective marketing techniques to stretch their budget.

Shane Rumpza - A Look at the World of Brand Characters and Ad Stories
Shane is a creative writer who looks at how ad agencies have created brand mascots with elaborate back stories as a way to foster engagement with the brand.  If characters like Mayhem (from Allstate Insurance) and Lucky the Leprechaun interest you - you'll love this blog!

Grace Kammeyer - Gracie K Events
Event planning and flowers with a good dose of Instagram and Pinterest integration.  Grace even created her own infographic!

Maria Mickelson - Spotlight On..
A fun introduction to the Christian music industry, complete with playlists, videos, and concert reviews (including this Switchfoot concert in Des Moines where Maria got to meet the band backstage).

Courtney Nagle - High-End Fashion in the World of Social Media
Courtney did a great job finding influential fashion bloggers, trending colors, and fashionable scarves. 

Clay Swanson - Major Trendage
Gets my vote for best blog name.  A blog about what's hot in the entertainment world - including a fun post on Bitstrips and one of the most honest excuses for not blogging I've read (that also made for great reading): a review of Grand Theft Auto V.

Taylor Henrichs - 1,000 Reasons Why the Minnesota Twins Suck will be Great Again
Taylor created a blog title that was both provocative and optimistic that resonated with Twins fans. It cut through the clutter and seemed to get attention very quickly. He also had some good engagement through his blog posts with fans on other forums.

Melissa Fager - Online Marketing - A Focus on the Midwest Travel Industry
Informative posts on digital marketing in the travel industry, 

Bailey Anderson - Travel MerIT
Travel and technology go together very well - think of all the ways mobile apps can enhance a visit to a new place. This blog also has the alltime #unidigadv record for MOST COMMENTS in a single project.  There were 52 comments on Bailey's blog - I definitely think she's onto something here!

Megan Buman - Marketing Socially Responsible Organizations
If your organization or business is interested in social responsibility and sustainability in your marketing - this is a great blog to take a look at!

There were many more I enjoyed as well - but I'm running out of time and space here! 

Thanks again for a great semester - if you get nostalgic you can always tune into #unidigadv on Twitter and help the newbies out!

Did you have a favorite blog this semester that I didn't mention?  Tell me about it in the comments!