Bertha's CSIT 155 - Fall 2020 Class Blog

This week in my Social Media for Business class we are going back to marketing fundamentals and discussing the value of using newsletters to advertise a brand. An email newsletter has three big motivations (among others). It covers the communication gap for those who do not regularly follow social media (or those who are not following Rad Math Tutoring...yet). A second motivation is that a newsletter is shown to drive up traffic and sales. The third big piece is that a newsletter helps build a relationship with a brand. Much of social media can be very short--snappy, quick comments on Twitter, for example. This is an opportunity to dive in a little deeper. I think of a newsletter as a summary of "this is what's been going on with our business." How soon is too soon? Based on my viewpoint on newsletters pretty fixed, I think monthly distributions would work well for Rad Math Tutoring. There has to be enough time that passes so that there's new information to report on....

 For a Rad Math Tutoring blog, I was thinking I could break content down into 4 categories: educational math content, entertainment (funny or positive) math content, puzzles, events. The educational math content could include my take on a very specific math topic (usually focused is better), a comparison of different ways to approach the same problem, or even worked out solution to a problem that a follower submits. Having followers submit questions could be a good way to keep viewers engaged and active. When people follow an educational site, they probably want to see some applications of the knowledge or a few "how to" posts. However, I would not want the blog to turn into Chegg or some other website where students are just looking for answers to their homework.  The entertainment content would include STEM jokes, memes, and riddles. It would also include motivational quotes and stories. These may seem like two different categories, but both the funny posts and motivational...

 I think that a human touch is something that could make Rad Math more accessible, and possibly more popular in the long term. One of the Instagram sites that I visited was The Math Guru. I started following Vanessa the Math Guru after only a few minutes of exploring the site because I saw a video of her explaining what her mission was. Her mission was to break down math stereotypes, but I could hear and see why it was so important to her. She had a casual way of speaking, instead of a stuffy-ness that we might expect from a mathematician. Vanessa looked like a rocker, and was part of a band. She was an anti-stereotype herself, and was trying to create a diverse space in mathematics for others liker her...or not like her. Creating the human connection takes something abstract and cold (like the way mathematics is perceived), and it gives someone the opportunity to explore it and think of it differently.  Since we are talking about educational sites, it would be strange to inse...

The assignment this week was to post three or more times, use hashtags, and gather some IG experience. I used some of the hashtags from observing other math-related sites and what they post. I also would type in a related topic to my image and choose the hashtag that had some of the most posts with it. Higher posts means that it is a more sought out and frequented topic, at least to me. Most of the hashtags I used still had math in the topic. It is a bit challenging for me to break away from that mindset and expand. I'm worried about misbranding myself and Rad Math as something unrelated.  The three posts this week were as follows: Sunday afternoon : My friend and I in math-themed Covid-19 masks. #math #mathmak #mathjokes #mask 2 likes, 12 reached Monday evening : A math study tip about learning from reviewing past assignments  #mathtips #math #mathtutoring #mathresources 1 like, 5 reached Tuesday morning : A math story (maybe a joke) about parallel lines  #math #maths #m...

Let me begin by saying that I am not trolling Instagram looking for hot people with smoky filters and thousands of followers. I'm looking for examples of people or businesses who navigate Instagram successfully. I'm looking for accounts that are posting about mathematics and education, that have a decent number of followers, and that know how to use "#" and "@" to their advantage.  @mashupmath Mashup Math is an account that focuses mainly on three areas: math puzzles for kids, funny memes, and comments about education and teaching. They built a following of 18,900 people. Their last post was in November 2019, so it's been almost a year since the last post. However, I can definitely understand the Mashup Math style from past posts and still get inspiration. I noticed that some of the ads for math videos has hundreds of views, but there was more engagement when there was a meme or a math puzzle. Users would post their answers or tag a friend to try to find...

 I truly appreciate the visual nature of Instagram. In my personal time, I prefer this social media platform most. I use it to keep up regularly with family and friends, and get a true idea for their interests based on their posts. I can tell who is obsessed with their pets. I can tell who is super trendy. I can tell who is more political. In my daily life, it's is easy and usually pretty convenient to snap some photos of my observations. The photos can be striking or they can be simple, but either way, they tell a story. I can tell a story without saying much. The things that I love about Instagram for me make me cringe when I try to create posts for Rad Math Tutoring. It's challenging to capture an entire mathematical topic with one to a handful of images. Facebook and Twitter allow you to share links on posts and possibly documents, too. Documentation is huge in the academic world. You have to prove and justify what you are trying to explain, or people may not believe you. C...

There's a scheduling feature on Facebook? I have learned so much in this social media class. Much of what I have learned has been conceptual, but there are also technical pieces I am learning that make the work easier. You can plan your posts on Facebook in advance or delay their posting date, using the Schedule tool. I planned three posts for the upcoming week (below). To understand the purpose of the posts, it helps understand where Rad Math Tutoring is going...  When I created my Rad Math Tutor ing Facebook page, I included very serious tones so that it would come across as a legitimate educational site. Over the past week, I have refined the page as the vision becomes more clear. I took down the background with the George Washington Carver quote in a dark gold that read, " Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom. " It's a beautiful quote, and it represents what I value in education. However, that might have been a little heavy for the middle sc...

For this week's assignment, we are trying to attract and engage Facebook users by using our individual business pages to "like" higher profile pages. The seven business I "liked" on Facebook can be split into three general categories.  Similar audience to the Rad Math Tutoring audience: Khan Academy Professor Leonard An attempt to understand college students and attract them to get math tutoring : American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges San Diego State University For the love of math and to monitor what kind of math posts viewers enjoy: American Mathematical Society Art of Mathematics Math is Awesome