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miranema · 5 years ago

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When you are still talking about a show you are too old for..

warning: it’s loooong (TL;DR section at the bottom)

Just to be clear I have no intention to look into and review any more Winx Club related content and it’s not just because the current environment is not conducive to this kind of endeavor. After I finished paying off my debts I considered getting back to this but eventually decided against it because some of my thoughts regarding this show have changed a little and I overall no longer see the point. One of the things I wanted to accomplish when I first started was to figure out why this show never appealed to me when it first came out on the FoxBox and well, the answer was very simple if not ridiculously obvious. This show was not made for me.

I was a few months short of 13 when the show premiered in the US and had just enough experience in the genre to have expectations, and this was the problem. When western magical girl series started to show up in the early 2000s, I expected shows that improved upon the standards and cliches left by the likes of Sailor Moon and its genre contemporaries, not just in terms of visuals but writing as well. Winx Club however, seemed more in line with the type of cartoons that (since the 80s) popped up every now and then as promotional material for emerging lines of fashion dolls generally targeting younger girls, with the only difference being that it had a progressive story-line. Even if you argue that Winx Club was not so merchandise-driven in its first seasons, contemporary fashion and aesthetics had always been the selling point. By then, shows that prioritized visual appeal over writing and seemed to exists primarily as toy commercials, were starting to lose my interest. I was also getting tired of certain staples like romantic relationships being bland but senselessly overemphasized and characters (specially protagonists) being archetypes with little to no complexity.

As an adult, I since looked back at shows of similar quality/target audience and I have surprisingly been able to find joy within them leading me to another conclusion. It’s not that I am too old and weary to appreciate animated media aimed at young girls. It’s more likely that Winx Club is a sore spot for me because it is the show that made me realize (if subconsciously) that networks in charge of delivering animated media to mainstream television were no longer invested in appealing to me. As a non-white, lower-middle class girl who was never all that into relationship-melodrama I felt that most cartoons of my day didn’t really catered to my interest and I think I saw the rise of Winx Club as a bitter indication that even the animated genres that I liked or tolerated would eventually become completely inaccessible to me.

I had some trouble finding out what the target audience bracket was for the first season. From what I eventually gathered it is either 4-8 or 5-10, although apparently concept-wise the show was intended for a slightly older age group. I give more credence to the first bracket because honestly I think this show works best as baby’s first magical girl series. The less experience you have in the genre, the less fed-up with tropes and the less expectations you have going in, the better.

Lets just make a thing clear. There is no such thing as being too old to watch cartoons. An art medium is not inherently tied to an age group. Unfortunately, everything is at the mercy of capitalism, specially art produced for entertainment. There is a lot of stupidity and outdated ideas governing how mainstream shows are made and to whom they are made for. Industries don’t like to take chances and they are reluctant to change in accordance to society unless an increased in profits can be assured to some degree…

Look, look! I swear I was just going to post a simple paragraph-long note to whoever cared, stating I was not going to continue reviewing Winx Club even though I am no longer in debt. But, I made the HUGE mistake of looking at the Wikipedia page, specifically the part where they quoted show creator Iginio Straffi defending the controversial choices made for season 8, and here I am, annoyed and rambling. To paraphrase, he claims kids around 10 years and older just don’t watch cartoons as much as they used to (sure, Jan) and they just had to retooled their show for a younger demographic and that just means it cannot be as complex as it used to be. Yes, complex is a word he ascribed to the earlier Winx Club content (level of complexity to be clear). I rolled my eyes, I died a little inside and overall I also decided, among other things, to never read another Iginio Straffi interview ever again.

In an effort to wash away this BS and exorcise some demons let me throw here some of my still lingering unwarranted Winx Club thoughts in no particular sequence before this platform collapses any further:

Winx Club is one of if not the longest running western magical girl group series and its success is likely attributed to the fact that back when it premiered in the US, it was the only accessible and visually appealing series to come out of the genre since the beginning of the millennium. It practically had a monopoly of its intended audience. In my neck of the woods, it was available without the need of a cable/satellite subscription. In contrast, Dinsey-owned W.I.T.C.H. didn’t have that same accessibility and I don’t think I even need to bring up anime in general. The one other magical girl show from around the same time that I remembered coming across in syndicated broadcast was Trollz, and well you look that up and tell me how much staying power that looked like it had.

If the show has struggled in recent years is of course NOT because older kids don’t watch cartoons nowadays. Rather I think the show runners are not quite grasping how the circumstances surrounding their target audience have changed since the early 2000s. There are a lot more options out there in terms of entertainment even if you narrow things down to only western magical girl cartoons, not to mention that Winx club no longer has an edge on accessibility. I also think we consume media faster and that along with all the new options of entertainment means we have less head space to dedicate to one single show. Putting a new coat of paint to the newer seasons is simply not enough to remain relevant.

Adding to the above, It’s been well over ten years since the show first premiered. I don’t have data to prove this, but I am willing to bet that a sizable chunk of viewers were there from the beginning or joined at the start of the Nickelodeon era. It makes little sense for changes in writing to include hacking its continuity, rewriting established lore and deleting whatever meager character development they ever had. Maybe it’s not a good idea to turn your show with progressive storytelling including aging characters, into a cash cow you intend to milk for as long as you can and beyond. Maybe they should have given the early seasons a proper conclusion and laid the groundwork for new groups of characters to lead fresh series within the same universe...or you know, a full reboot.

I am not saying that the show should suddenly conform to my tastes (though that would be nice) after all it was not made for me. I just think that people that stuck with it deserve more than what they have been getting. I saw some positive feedback with regards to World of Winx but from what little I saw I don’t think it was good enough to be the series for older fans. Tone might be slightly different but writing-wise it feels more or less the same as the current series. The attempts at humor are still not landing for me at least. Also, how old does Straffi thinks the older fans are? 10? Who knows, maybe season 8 did its job in drawing-in the next gen, and maybe the planned live action series will be all that the older fans have been asking for. I do wish them the best.

Regarding things that I changed my mind about (though only a little bit)...In more than one occasion I referred to Bloom as a mary sue and this has been digging at me. Either the term has become toxic and too often unfairly assigned to any female character in a leading position, or it was always an improper way to discuss mediocre writing. There are main characters that are created in part to serve as vehicles of indulgence for its intended audience. I don’t think these these type of characters need to be complex to be successful or serviceable but I do think relatability and/or likability are indicators of whether or not a specific indulgent protagonist is effective. I didn’t find Bloom to be effective but she seems to be popular enough with the younger range of fans and that’s what matters. All I am saying is that Bloom could have easily been better and all it would have taken was for the writers to slightly lower the pedestal they put her on. Otherwise, they should have just stuck with the Magical Bloom title so no one would have delusions that the show would ever focus on anyone else.

I stand by most of my other major criticisms of the series. Though I admit that when I was looking at each episode I would spend an unreasonable amount of time on small things or personal pet peeves.I maintain however that to whom a show is intended for should not be a determinant of quality and there are things worth discussing even if one is not within the age-range of said audience. However, it’s not hard to tell what Winx Club is mostly about; it’s romance-centered. If you are not all that invested on that sort of stuff or you don’t like what the show is offering, then there is little point in sticking around because you are just going to get more and more caught-up on the flaws. The fantasy world elements while ambitious in scope are not well developed and consistency is an issue since the beginning that only gets worse as the series goes on. Unless you can subsist solely on the aesthetics and merch-friendly elements, I wouldn’t bother beyond the first movie.

If Winx Club had been the definitive blue print shaping the future of western magical girls shows, I would probably feel justified in making this much of a fuss. However, pretty much any other show I have seen after the fact has been a deviation and an improvement. I believe that’s because more content creators that grew up with the genre (and understood the many ways it could be improved) are finding opportunities to bring their appreciation for it into the mainstream. It’s pointless for me to still complain about the older stuff. Heck, I can even find good things to say about Angel’s Friends and this is definitely a cartoon that was shaped by the success of the fairy school show.

Winx Club is fine, it has as much right to exist as any other piece of mindless entertainment aimed at any demographic. And that’s that.

TL;DR

I am not reviewing Winx Club stuff anymore. I just had a lot of thoughts that were brought up by an annoying Iginio Straffi quote I saw on the Wiki page while I was working on that last post. Extended rambling is what I apparently do when I am mildly upset. I barfed all this out in the hopes that I won’t think about this show again anytime soon.

If morbid curiosity gets the better of me, I might give future Winx Club content a watch. I just won’t post about it because it seems I am incapable of finding joy in it.

No, I don’t take criticisms of the bad spelling/grammar of my ramblings. Let this mess be. This is also not a place for debate, the only discourse I welcome here is whether or not relatability is a word. Online dictionaries say it’s fine but my word processor says it is not a thing. Discuss! (JK)

Stay safe,

#winx club #ramblings #winx club review #cartoons #i am too old #winx #anyone ever heard of Angel's Friends?#I am either watching that next or Lady LovelyLocks #por que no los dos

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theowritercal · 5 years ago

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Okay, so I wanna observe the idea of a default. Looking around, you might wonder why there are a lack of female/queer/disabled/non-white/(etc.) characters in media, or at least media that doesn’t explicitly focus on topics that those characters would face in real life. Even in media created by the same people who are negatively affected by this lack of diversity, you might see things in their work that don’t really add up. For example, why is/was there ever a trend of female protagonists in novels needing a boy’s presence to change their lives for the better, when a lot of these authors are women themselves? That’s a sexist idea! Wouldn’t that hurt them?

In Western media, the “default” character is a white, cis, straight, (some other specific things, but you get the point) man. This isn’t the cause of the problem; the cause of the problem is centuries of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and a lot of other things that would take me all day to list. What I just listed are forms of othering. Othering creates the illusion of there being a ‘normal’ person. If you don’t face any negative consequences for being something you can’t change, you are ‘normal.’ You get to live a normal life, with all of your needs met, and free of discrimination.

People know themselves best; each person is their own “default.” Even if they don’t match the traits that make up the Western Default Character, they may have the same feelings, desires, and be able to relate to these characters regardless. It takes a lot of characters to establish a default to begin with, so there are many characters that share the same physical/social traits that have different personalities, giving audiences many characters to see parts of themselves in, even if other parts are largely ignored. Default characters don’t have to face the things that make life unfair for The Other, which makes them perfect to use as a form of escapism. And if you can’t fully relate with any of the Default characters in Western media, you have two choices: either latch on to ones you vaguely relate to, or write your own media with the knowledge that the same traits that make you The Other in the eyes of Western society will make it much harder for your work to receive recognition and reach other people. You might even get harassed for it when it does!

But not every character in Western media is a Default Man! There are female characters, black characters, gay characters, etc. What of those? You see, these characters are not Default, they are The Other. They will not be treated as normal. They won’t get as much screen time or character development as their Default peers. They are there to assure you that the writers don’t have biases, but these biases affect the number and types of Othered characters we see. Among Othered characters, you may noticed that characters of certain groups are only allowed to have a limited spectrum of personalities, careers, or paths in life compared to their Default counterparts. If you haven’t noticed, many others have. This creates an obstacle. These biases don’t start or stop with the writers; they’re simply a product of Western society. We have them too.

If you’re interested in writing media, you have a choice. You can continue the trend of writing characters that feed into the idea that there are Default humans, indirectly contributing to the harm that those considered The Other face, or write characters who would normally be Othered. If you face these issues yourself, or care about people who do, the answer seems obvious. All it takes is writing an Othered character the same way you would write a Default one, right? In theory, this may be true, but biases exist and we have them. Even if we think you’re writing an Othered character without bias, we may be subconsciously contributing to the same stereotypes that Western media and society would give to them. Even if not, there’s always a chance that we’re contributing to a stereotype about The Other we didn’t even know existed. Even if we’re in the same group of Othered! Bias and bigotry change with time; what isn’t a stereotype now may’ve been one in the past, and to make things more confusing, many of these stereotypes conflict, so avoiding one won’t ensure that we’re not falling into another. Our best intentions can still harm these groups in real life.

This is especially true if we only have one character to represent an Othered group. This is what is called a Token. Token characters are the sole characters representing their Othered group in a piece of media. Tokens can create bias, since by nature, there aren’t enough of them in the work of media to prove that the writers (us) don’t think all people from their group are like them. These aren’t concerns when writing a Default character. We can write a Default character with any personality or circumstances we want without the worry of negatively impacting real life groups considered to be the Default. Is it really so simple, writing an Othered character?

If you grew up in Western society, some of these stereotypes and biases might even seem true. This could be because your knowledge of certain Othered groups are limited to media, complex histories affecting how those groups are able to express themselves that most people wouldn’t be aware of if you’re not part of them or completely up-to-date on your group’s history, or a combination of both. The point is, growing up in a Western society can make it hard to imagine certain dynamics being different.

That brings me back to my question. Why do Othered writers sometimes write characters and stories that could harm their own group? They might be doing the best they can. From the society they lived in and the stories they consumed, they might not be able to imagine much different. Maybe they are trying to make a difference, but the difference is something most people won’t notice or appreciate.

I worry this sounds like whining about how “writing diversity is haaaaaaard” and “people won’t appreciate it so why bother??” I only intended to explain why marginalized people might shy away from writing about characters like them, why they fall into the same pitfalls while writing these characters as non-marginalized writers, and why writing a marginalized character is not always as easy as changing a pre-existing non-marginalized character to be marginalized. A lot of work and care has to be put into these things, and it may not always come out as perfect, but I feel that putting forth our best efforts to create more marginalized characters is the way to break the cycle of Defaults.

#writing #media #media analysis #diversity #my post

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humanpursuits · 4 years ago

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Slide Away: Examining the Art of the Instagram Photo-Dump

VANCOUVER, B.C. – You might call it a soft cultural reset.

12 weeks ago, plain black squares started popping up on Instagram.

The moment, originally deemed #TheShowMustBePaused, but eventually known as #BlackOutTuesday, started as a day of action for the music industry, organized by two black women – Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang.

Spoiler: it didn't end that way.

Thomas and Agyemang's mission to "hold the [music] industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the effort, struggles and successes of Black people accountable," was quickly forgotten. Instead, well-meaning celebrities and civilians co-opted their idea, and ran it into the ground, pivoting from #TheShowMustBePaused to #BlackOutTuesday, a broader, but still well-intentioned protest intended to amplify the work and voice of the black community. It was alright idea in theory, but in practice #BlackOutTuesday accomplished little, with most users posting a black square on their Instagram feed before logging off. Mission accomplished.

While nobody ever said it had to make total sense, #BlackOutTuesday quickly became a case study in the pitfalls of online activism, as people smarter than Drake, Kylie Jenner and Rhianna (but not smarter than Lil Nas X) pointed out that the squares weren't really all that helpful, and in some cases actually hindered people's ability to find black resources, as misguided users paired their posts with the #blacklivesmatter hashtag.

Their ability to do the bare minimum and still feel good about it compromised, many users started deleting their squares. Overnight, thousands of posts amplifying #BlackOutTuesday quietly disappeared without a word. A quick scan of Instagram shows roughly 22.6M posts still carry the #BlackOutTuesday hashtag, but many aren’t what you’d expect, with wannabe influencers coopting the hashtag for content that has little to do with the black experience.

So it seemed, the world moved on.

But while #BlackOutTuesday feels like a footnote in a year marked by violence, disease and protest, it appears to have influenced several new trends on Instagram. Following the incident, there first appeared to be a decrease of in-feed content from self-identifying allies. From June to about mid-July Instagram stories, rather than in-feed posts, became the primary means of sharing escapist quarantine activities. Baking bread or social distanced nature walks, previously considered prime content, were effectively relegated to the sidelines, allowing more serious topics to achieve the sort of permanence only found in-feed. A cynic might call this performative, sure, but the relative silence made space for new voices; in particular, social justice slideshows, which started popping up in late May, but truly proliferated in the weeks following #BlackOutTuesday, as BLM and other racial equality protests spread at home and abroad.

While none of these changes aligned with the original goals of #TheShowMustBePaused, it seemed the #BlackOutTuesday backlash had an unintended effect: Instagram suddenly felt useful. Instead of dealing solely with photos and captions, the app was a hotbed of information and dialogue, suggesting Instagram was a platform that could impact social change. The only question was, would it last?

The answer, it would seem, is “probably not”. While social justice still lives on, particularly in stories (depending on your feed), the self-awareness that inspired mass-sharing of social justice content appears to transformed into a new, and more complicated fad: the photo-dump.

For the uninitiated, a photo-dump involves diving into your photo album and sharing a series of images in an Instagram slideshow. The trend watchers at Elite Daily describe the method as a "roundup" of (3 – 10) photos shared during, or immediately after an event, with minimal editing. Like the social justice slideshows that predated them, photo-dumps aim for high impact with minimal footprint, squeezing several shots into one post, rather than clogging the feed (which, at present, still feels like a cardinal sin).

While they don’t go so far to define what an ‘event’ is, my extremely expert social media analysis indicates the term could apply to practically anything. Saw your friends for some socially distanced hangs? Dump it. Hiked 3 mountains with your friends and saw a cute marmot? Dump it. Cat drinking out of a mug? You know what to do.

In all instances, the key to a good photo-dump appears to be what I call careless curation. Cute loosies are combined with interesting scenics and meticulously framed thot pics, giving viewers an opaque sense of intimacy, and the overall vibe of the event.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trend has caught steam with several celebrities, who are utilizing the format to project authenticity while also maintaining an aura of the aspirational. Like most users, celebs appear to reserve their photo-dumps for trips or other key life events. Drake stares reflectively at the blue waters surrounding his boat (seemingly alone). Kim Kardashian West takes her family stand up paddle boarding, while wearing her husband’s extremely expensive foam clog. Halsey treks around the continental United States, as COVID cases continue to climb in several communities.

None, however, hold a candle to Dua Lipa, who, amidst album promotion and the sincere amplification of several legitimate causes, has posted no less than 10 photo-dumps to her feed since June 2. The themes range from extravagant to economical: one set shows her romantic mid-quarantine escape to St. Lucia, another captures a large backyard birthday party with friends. In a dump shared in the middle of writing this article (!!!), Lipa turns the camera on her friends and partner, model Anwar Hadid. The photos, possibly snapped while shooting the video for her next single, serve the same function as “behind-the-scenes” features of decades past. That is, using outtakes or failed attempts as a means of authenticity – suggesting viewers are getting the full picture, albeit one captured and approved by the star. By swinging between the two extremes, Dua Lipa's feed strikes social media’s version of ‘balance’, walking the fine line between aspirational and authentic.

Or rather, the appearance of the authentic.

In 1967′s Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord argued humans have had their authentic selves stripped away by the capitalist economy. In Debord’s view, we are no longer beings, defined by actions, skills or behaviours. Instead, he says, social life has shifted, first to having and then appearing; where once you might have used raw materials to craft a ring, consumer capitalism evolved to the point where you can now buy, or even rent, a ring – with no understanding of the labour that went into it. Key in all this, Debord argues, are images, which have become society’s primary way means of relating to each other.

This ability to project a version of yourself is, of course, baked into social media. But it finds new life in the photo-dump. A 10 photo slideshow of Dua Lipa and Anwar Hadid in St. Lucia may give you a sense of what it’s like to visit the Caribbean: to sit under a palm cabana, or feel the summery rain drip off your bucket hat – but it isn’t the full picture. It doesn’t provide an authentic experience, other than that of looking at some carelessly curated images.

Debord would likely say the photo-dump is just the latest illusion designed to distract us from the pitfalls of capitalism. And maybe he’s right. As I sit here, scrolling through Lipa’s photos, it occurs to me that Instagram was at its most useful when life was on hold. The wheels of capitalist production never fully stopped, but they were forced to momentarily slow-down as society grappled with a (hopefully) once in a lifetime situation. #BlackOutTuesday felt like a step in the wrong direction, but the ensuing weeks proved that social media, like any other tool, is really only as useful as the human’s operating it. When we care about society, Instagram cares about society. By echoing the self-awareness embedded in social justice slide shows, photo-dumps feel like a bridge between narcissism and selflessness. Whether we make it to the other side, remains to be seen.

Stream Dua Lipa’s new album, Future Nostalgia.

Follow me on Twitter.

#dua lipa #collage #instagram #social media #guy debord #society of the spectacle #human pursuits

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bluemoostudios-blog · 6 years ago

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Apologies for hijacking Kasper’s meet the dev’s schedule for a second week but I have quite a lot that I want to discuss and my mountain of failed drafts have delayed this post. Unfortunately, it’s all a bit bleak and there isn't that much that I can do to put a positive spin on things. So if you aren’t interested in the state of social media then turn away now, I'll leave you with the very best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year from all at Bluemoo.

Still with me, thank you, I’m grateful that you are willing to consider what I have to say because the future of social media faces a very real threat. This is going to be a long read so just for giggles I’ll try to make things more entertaining by seeing just how many of the unspoken rules of social media that I can break in a single post. I’ve broken one already, never start with an apology, can you spot the rest? For sure it’s a flippant attitude in which to address a serious issue but when the world stops making sense it’s probably best to take a step back and have a good ol’ laugh.

The fact is; the European Parliament has voted in favour of articles 11 and 13; a farcical knee-jerk reaction to so many issues that require far greater consideration, debate and perhaps punitive measures. If you aren’t familiar with the EU’s copyright plan then I’m sorry. I’ll return it, if you like, but only when it doesn’t evoke visions of hot baths and razor blades. In the meantime, I hope that you take the time to look at the proposals and if enough people disagree with them then maybe we can stop it coming to pass. I have a feeling that common sense will prevail, partly because I maintain a belief in our collective intelligence but mainly because the alternative may well signify the death of Headshed.pro.

Still, something has to change; something has to be done, doesn’t it? We can’t be happy when algorithms bombard a woman which has lost her unborn child with adverts for baby related products. It’s just not an acceptable way for humans to communicate with each other, is it? Maybe you can write it off as an unfortunate bi-product of a world that demotes people to mere consumers. But we all know that that is just the tip of the data mining iceberg. “Hang on!” I hear you say “That has nothing to do with the copyright plan” Well I for one disagree. The powers that be, the ones that we voted for, appear intent on clipping the wings of the behemoths of social media and I have a feeling that a large part of the intent behind articles 11 and 13 is retrospective punishment for past misdemeanours. Paint me cynical if you like, most people do.

I still maintain an admiration for Mark Zuckerberg’s endeavours, he took an idea that was basically 'Friends Reunited' and sold it to a quarter of the world’s population. Genius.

In developing our business plan for Headshed.pro we have spent an astronomical amount of time looking at the ground breaking work of those that went before us. Recently, I find myself drawing a parallel with Zuckerberg and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Harry Kane. Admittedly, I’m a proud supporter of Arsenal Football Club and yet, I’ll happily acknowledge Mr Kane’s undeniable world class talent. That’s why it saddens me that on the day that his achievements for Spurs and England were recognised with an MBE, he decided that it would be a good idea to try to deceive the referee by diving in the box. What a wanker. And yet, in the same game, Harry went on to score one of the most subliminally beautiful goals that I have ever witnessed. For all of the Kanes and Zuckerbergs out there, please take note, the world is watching your next move… you represent the best of what we have and as such you have a responsibility to do the right thing.

Whilst we at Bluemoo are forced to deal with the hangover of more than a decade of unregulated piss taking from the established giants of social media, I’ll personally promise you that we have just one goal. Headshed is quite simply a forum for gamers that are seeking the tools that will make the process of developing game winning strategies that much easier. We won’t sell your data, we have no interest in your buying habits and we won’t collate and/or sell any of part you that defines you as target for third party marketing. We don’t need to engage with anything more than your desire to be a better player of team based video games. It’s a wanker free business plan, we promise you that.

Sadly, our promises are probably not enough to secure the success of Headshed. It’s not enough for us to say that we will be different; we will have to live with the world’s reasonable distrust of those that have gone before us. Those intrepid pathfinders. That’s fair enough. We aren’t complaining, it is what it is. The fact is; there is a financially viable social media platform that serves its patrons without exploiting them, we have the spreadsheets that prove it. The problem that we have right now is timing. I don’t think that I could imagine a worse time in which to attract investors. For us at Bluemoo, I envisage a time that is best described as “wait and see."

It’s simply not always possible to have a viable contingency and stupidity is surely the hardest thing to plan for. Rest assured we have tried; Connor has already considered a workaround, actually it’s so much more than that. We couldn’t wish for a better CTO/strategist/entrepreneur however, his thoughts are, in my mind, very much a plan B as I stubbornly cling to my faith in humanities’ collective intelligence and our ability to do the right thing. And in the same token I refuse to be deterred from our plan A and hey, it’s just Europe right? The rest of the world is still a pretty decent marketplace.

What gets me is the feeling of one step forwards and two steps back. 2018 was such a definitive year for Bluemoo. We started the year with the primary focus on developing the first of many amazing environments that deliver Headshed’s strategic video game planning tools and ended the year with Headshed.pro as the sole short to medium term objective. Strangely enough, I mustered very little resistance to this sea-change. Smart move and I’ll stand by that. The ingenuity that I have witnessed over the last year has been breath-taking. I’ll admit that I sometimes limit my understanding to just knowing how it works and not what makes it work but I often have seen real beauty in the structure and programming. I’m not about to write off this amazing effort as a waste, due to bad timing, but I’m struggling to justify further effort until I can be sure that the powers that be, the ones that we voted for, get their shit together and take the time to develop a better understanding of the social media sector.

Ok Kasper, I hear you, I’ve been waffling on for far too long already and I haven’t even touched on the subject of Brexit! I will just say that it wasn’t just racists that voted to leave, morons did as well. I also imagine the voices of our legal advisors that would wish this post ends right here, right now. So I’ll hand back this forum schedule to those that are less likely cause litigation and wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year from all at Bluemoo. PS. How many unspoken rules of social media did I manage to shit on in this single post? If you counted more than ten, well done maybe you should consider a role in European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

Keith Anderson, MD

#developers log #developers update #bluemoo studios #Bluemoo #headshed

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riichardwilson · 5 years ago

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4 elements every content medium needs to have

Have you ever started to write a new social media post, record a YouTube video or some other piece of content and sat at your desk waiting for inspiration to strike?

Starting a new piece of content can be a challenge, even when you know what you want to say. You have a general concept of the message you want to deliver, but not the faintest idea of how you’re going to share it all in a single blog post, video or social media caption.

Formulating what you want to communicate while ensuring you produce something of quality is a challenge that many face when it comes to content marketing agency.

There are many elements that go into a great piece of content. So much, that it’s pretty simple to overlook the key pieces that every piece of content, regardless of medium, needs to have.

The four elements below make up those key pieces and will help your content go far, maybe even hit that virality you’ve been hoping for. When it’s time for you to create a new piece of content, make sure to define each of the following.

1. A topic that addresses consumer pain points

Whether it’s an ironic tweet or a blog post addressing recent issues, the topic can make or break your content piece. If you don’t connect with your audience from the topic, even the most entertaining content won’t generate results other than a like or perhaps a share. Content topics need to address consumer pain points and provide solutions for its audience.

Wynn does a great job of providing solutions and entertaining their audience with their email newsletter content during COVID-19 times. Their newsletter offers customers a way to still have an experience with Wynn without stepping foot in their hotel chain.

Each section of the newsletter features a different topic about connection and addresses their customers pain points as they navigate this pandemic.

Wynn understands what their customers’ pain points are and how to provide solutions, without opening their physical doors. You need to define these paint points for your own audience by answering the following:

What issues does your demographic currently face?

What kind of information are they searching for?

What questions are they asking on social media versus search engines?

Are they looking to be entertained, informed, or both?

What do you want them to do with your content?

Think of this step as your topic KPIs of content creation. If after creating the content a brand new user can easily explain what the content is about and what they are expected to do, then you’ve accomplished addressing a topic that matches what your users are looking for.

You can measure this a step further by analyzing time on page vs bounce rate metrics for content published on a website.

Low Bounce Rate + High Time on Page

This is the magic combination that you want to aim for. When you have a low percentage of people bouncing away from the content and a high amount of time spent on the page (the visitor engaging with the content) then you’ve created a topic that the visitor was able to connect with.

High Bounce Rate + Low Time on Page

This is the worst combination and generally means that a visitor is bouncing right off of the page, not digesting the content, and is usually due to not meeting topic expectations. This happens a lot with clickbait style topics – those types of articles or social media posts that don’t deliver past the headline. When you receive results like this it’s best to re-evaluate the content topic and medium choice.

2. Discovery keywords to help your content be found

Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day, supporting the argument that every piece of content must have some form of keyword optimization in order to accommodate searches and be found.

Think about your own search habits. When you look for anything specific on a search engine, a video streaming platform, or one of the many social media platforms, how do you find it?

Generally, it’s by typing a keyword related to your inquiry in the search box.

Facebook has the option to search using names, locations, and terms. Instagram allows you to search by username, locations, and hashtags. Pinterest allows you to search by term or topic.

Google, Yahoo!, and Bing can produce results for just about any bit of information you could possibly enter. YouTube allows you to search by video channel and search term. The list goes on and on, and results are generated based on relevance and popularity.

This is why choosing discovery keywords, keywords with the sole intent of being used to help a piece of content be discovered, is included on this content template. If you want your target audience to find your new content it must be properly optimized by the platform and utilize discovery keywords.

How else will anyone naturally find it?

However, as you have probably gathered, choosing discovery keywords doesn’t always look the same. For example, for social content, this means hashtags sprinkled within the text accompanying any photos or videos that you are sharing. For website content, this means inserting short- or long-tail keywords within your web copy, titles, blog posts, articles, etc. aka good old fashioned keyword optimization.

Of course, you have to avoid overstuffing. On social media overstuffing can look like going over 30 hashtags on Instagram or tweeting just a bunch of hashtags. You want your keywords to serve the purpose of optimizing your content to be found, and only that.

To find keywords on social media, type in a topic in the search bar and see which hashtags populate. Hashtags with posts or reach under 500,000 are usually competitive, but reachable. Hashtags with a million+ are generally too competitive and can be compared to the top 3 results on Page One, which sometimes only the big players accomplish.

Keywords for your video and website content can be found using a variety of keyword tools. I like to take it a step further and research what questions people are asking about specific topics. Doing so not only generates new topic ideas, but also generates long-tail keyword options.

3. A clear call to action and defined user intent

No matter what type of business you are operating, the goal is for your consumers to do something as a result of your content.

Think about what that “conversion” means to you. What action would a consumer have to make as a result of your content for you to consider your content efforts a success?

This could mean signing up for your email list, liking a post, purchasing a product, opting into a subscription, attending a webinar, downloading a freebie, or… anything, so long as it reaps positive results for your business and sales cycle.

When content is well-donned with a call to action, it leaves little question as to the intention of the message and what your audience should do next. It essentially handholds them toward your end goal, making their journey simple and obvious.

For example, website content can (and should!) have an “above-the-fold” call to action that visitors can see as soon as they land on the site, as well as reminders throughout. This is often in the form of a newsletter opt-in button that is pasted halfway through a blog post, a #linkinbio hashtag on an Instagram post, or a bulleted list at the top of an infographic page.

Facebook content creators and advertisers have the option to add a button telling readers to “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” “Book Now,” etc. YouTubers can add linkable graphic overlays directing viewers to products, social media pages, business websites, and more.

It’s essential that every piece of content you create include a clear call to action, so your connection with your consumer isn’t short-lived. If you’re not sure if the call to action is clear, send the content to a family member and see what action they take. If they missed the point entirely, evaluate the following:

Your Positioning: What you are asking a visitor to do and if it’s something they can easily do from their device (mobile vs desktop)

Your Topic: Did the content topic align with what you expect the visitor to do? Is it a clear pathway from the social media copy to the landing page?

Your Content Medium: Is the medium you chose the best funnel to guide a visitor to take the action? Asking someone to make a purchase through a LinkedIn post isn’t as effective as in a Facebook Ad.

4. A message that can be shared across multiple mediums

The content your business creates should communicate how and why your brand’s perspectives, values, products, and services stand apart from the rest. Concurrently, it should be relatable and tailored to whichever platform you are creating for and the users you want to see the content.

Content creation is a healthy combination of story-telling and convincing, which requires highly valuable and authoritative writing and creativity – necessary, if you are going to get your consumers to act on that carefully crafted call to action we talked about.

However, these stories shouldn’t be thrown together willy-nilly; they should be born from the aforementioned keyword research and a strategic topic ideation process.

Once you have identified worthwhile topics, ensure that you are able to create multi-purpose content out of it. Let’s face it, the content creation process isn’t quick or easy, so it makes sense to publish all your hard work and research across multiple platforms and content mediums.

Leverage this time and effort by creating content that can be formed into a blog post, infographic, social media post, and video – multiple mediums using the same topic. Your messaging will be the same, but each medium is used to help guide a visitor through a different stage of the sales cycle.

For example, a piece of content about iron skillets can be featured in the following ways:

A YouTube video demonstrating five quick, hands-on tips for cleaning your cast iron skillet

An infographic illustrating the benefits of cleaning this skillet a certain way, linking to the video demonstration

The demonstration may then direct viewers to a blog post reviewing the company’s favorite cast iron skillet recipes, as well as an e-commerce store where consumers can purchase one.

Each one of these mediums helps to educate a visitor and carry them through the sales cycle as they gather more information and become more comfortable making a purchase decision.

Having flexible content topics that your demographic wants to learn from or be entertained by will allow you to create this kind of content on multiple mediums. This also sets you up for being able to reuse successful content topics in the future and update some of those lesser-performing content pieces.

Content creation is no simple process for any medium, so don’t forget to include these four elements with every new piece of content.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Ashley is an international speaker and VP of Operations at TopHatRank, a search and social agency based in Los Angeles. She has worked extensively both in-house and with multiple agencies helping brands grow their businesses online. Speaking both internationally and throughout the US, Ashley regularly teaches digital marketing agency workshops and speaks at industry conferences like Content marketing agency World, Pubcon, BrightonSEO Company, SearchLove, Digital Summit, Retail Global, and the prestigious SMS Sydney. Ashley has also co-authored the best-selling book “The Better Business Book V.2” and is a contributing writer to industry blogs. With over 8 years of experience in the digital marketing agency industry and a journalism/PR background, Ashley provides tons of first-hand experience and case studies.

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douglassmiith · 5 years ago