It was fun to see what the students wrote about for this week.  This week, I asked the students to write about transmedia storytelling, which we covered in class the previous week. This appears to be a very big topic we are seeing being discussed along with visual storytelling in social media, so this was one of the reasons why I wanted to make sure to discuss this in my social media class.

One thing I wanted the students to do in preparation for this class is to read Henry Jenkins’ post discussing what is transmedia storytelling in preparation for the class lecture. Jenkins has been considered to be one of the primary experts in this area and here is a great post on how he visualizes transmedia storytelling to audience engagement.

Overall, the students in my social media class wrote some great posts related to transmedia storytelling.  Kara provided a concise and nice overview of what transmedia storytelling is and what it isn’t.  Caitlin focused her transmedia storytelling post on Disney – which definitely was fun to read.  Natasacha also mentioned how Disney has incorporated these principles into their brand and telling their story in multiple mediums effectively in her blog as well. Heather expanded these principles as well along with adding in examples from Harry Potter and Legos after the Red Bull Space Jump in October. Jessica incorporated transmedia storytelling and TV into her post for this week by highlighting the popular TV show Dexter and how this show has incorporated these principles to engage their audiences through different channels.

One of the other things we did in class this week was meet the clients for our group project.  The final project for my social media class at the University of Louisville is a social media campaign proposal where students work in groups to create a strategic, innovative, and creative campaign for a real client.  We are very fortunate to have some great clients this semester – each group has a different UofL client to work with this semester.

Each department has specific needs and expectations when it comes to social media – some are just starting out while others have a national reputation.  Jessica wrote about her thoughts regarding the client meeting this past week and her client while Lizelle tied in the implications of transmedia storytelling and how it can be integrated into her group project for a UofL client (athletics).

Sheryl Connelly of Marketing Media Management speaking to UofL Social Media Class.

Besides meeting with our clients for my social media class, we also had our first guest speaker come to class and talk about social media strategy. Lizelle wrote a great summary of the wonderful presentation Sheryl Connelly of Marketing Media Management in Louisville. Sheryl discussed in class the various steps that need to be taken in order to be effective with your social media strategy, which was a perfect topic for the class to hear and ask questions, especially related to their client project this semester. Thank you Sheryl for taking the time to share your expertise and knowledge with my class this semester! 🙂

Overall, I have been very pleased with my students and their blogging so far this semester.  Each student is writing not only about content related to social media, but they also have the freedom to write a post each week on what interests them personally.  It’s been fun to read these posts and see each student creating their online voice. If you are interested in following these great students and their blogs, make sure to follow the hashtag #Freberg13 on Twitter.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen