Overview

The purpose of this assignment is to help you to think about how to craft online professional communications. It is about adapting content to meet the constraints and specifications of key social media platforms, keeping in mind typical audience expectations each social media ‘genre’, and best practices for engaging those audiences.

It is a content design challenge. You are to create a layout incorporating image(s) or video still, and text as appropriate, in the form of a pretend post called a ‘mock-up’ for each of the 5 social media platforms listed. Each graphic layout will look like a real post, but you are NOT required to actually post the message.

The task

Create platform-specific content mock-ups for five (5) popular social media sites, using current layout requirements and dimensions for each site. Those platforms are: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter.

You will need to research online to find out what the current specifications are (there are some suggestions in Module 2). Tailor the content to suit the site’s typical user demographics, your intended audience, and the site's current page layout requirements. If there is more than one kind of presentation specification for a platform, then choose one. In your introduction, state which you have chosen and why.

You may use Canva.com or other ready-made graphic design templates, or you can design your own if you are proficient with graphic design tools.

Topic and content for the posts

Choose one of your previous module discussions or exercise tasks or create a new story that you will share across multiple platforms, adapting it appropriately for each. There is no set word-count. It is up to you to decide what is suitable and the text may vary, especially where it is determined by a platform’s specifications. Support your written information with an image (infographic, photo, video still), hashtags, and/or URL links. Be sure to make use of the affordances that each platform offers in your mock-ups. Once you have created each mock-up save it as a JPG image. 

Presentation and submission

In Word insert a title page with the unit name and number, term of offer, assessment name, and your name and student number.

Provide an introduction. This can be an adaptation of your response to the assessment exercise week 1 (comparative review) as the introduction to your portfolio. Then insert the mock-up images. Number them sequentially including the name of the intended site.

Save the Word document to PDF. Upload the.pdf document to Moodle and submit.

1/ Content adapted with one example created for each of the following specific platform media requirements in a recommended format and proportional dimension (as per Module 2 lesson resource):

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Twitter

Up to 1 mark will be applied for each of the above (up to 5 marks for these criteria).

2/ Overall concept makes use of modular copy principle for multi-platform use:

• short sentences and short paragraphs
• arresting image or graphic creates interest and is easy to take in at a glance
• engages with a primary emotion
• has 'voice' appropriate for message and its target audience
• uses site-specific networking affordances (e.g. hash-tags, hyperlinks, tags, comments etc)

Up to 2 marks will be applied for each of the above (up to 10 marks for these criteria).

3/ The required introduction is an adaption for the week 1 blog post and so is marked as part of Assessment Item 2. However, if there is no introduction to this work provided as required, then 2 marks will be deducted from this assessment total. 

Up to 15 marks altogether are available for this assessment item.

Establish a professional online presence by setting up a personalised website using a free website building service.

Complete the compulsory digital communications tasks, identified as ‘Assessment exercises’ which are contained in the weekly unit modules; these are identified as ‘summative assessment components of Assessment 2 – Professional Blog Site’ (PBS). The website and its digital content will be professionally presented and submitted for assessment. The website building service you choose to deliver your assessment requirements will primarily function as a blogging platform.

The site must have the capacity to:

• post plain text, images, infographics and hyperlinks;
• share photos, external links, chat snippets etc.;
• host RSS feeds and HTML-based widgets;
• embed audio including music tracks and podcasts;
• embed videos which can be uploaded as ‘in-feed native videos’ or imported from websites such as YouTube, TedTalks or Vimeo;
• make use of its own analytics tools or have the capability of integrating another, for example Google Analytics.

Following is a list of the exercises. Refer to the weekly modules for details.

• Exercise Task 1.1: Preliminary reviews of the various digital tools available on specific popular social network sites: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. (>600 words)
• Exercise Task 2.1: Compare four website building products that offer a free subscription option, for example: Wordpress, Wix, Weebly, Tumblr, Blogger, Jimdo, Squarespace. Write a comparative summary. (>300 words)
• Exercise Task 2.2: Set up your professional blog web site (PBS)
• Exercise Task 3.1: Transfer your completed Assessment Exercise tasks 1.1 and 2.1 across to your PBS.
• Exercise Task 4.1: Further comparative reviews of specified social media and networking sites to be posted to your PBS. Refer to the Week 4 module. Post your comparative reviews and Illustrate your post with a Creative Commons image. The image is to be appropriately attributed according to creative commons copyright standards. (>350 words)
• Exercise Task 5.1: Share a specified infographic on your PBS. 
• Exercise Task 5.2: Generate a QR code for your PBS.
• Exercise Task 6.1: Research and list the common roles and tasks associated with position descriptions pertinent to digital communications management on your PBS.
• Exercise Task 7.1: Post to your PBS evidence of your completion of the free Google Analytics for Beginners course.
• Exercise Task 7.2: Write a two-minute podcast script on the topic of 'Social Credibility'; produce an MP3 podcast and embed it into your PBS.
• Exercise Task 8.1: Evaluate LinkedIn and post evaluation to your PBS.
• Exercise Task 8.2: Create an RSS feed and share your Exercise 7.2 podcast as a news feed.

Complete a detailed analysis of the ‘digital footprint’ of one of the entities listed below. Identify the digital communications strategy as evidenced by the entity's online presence. Evaluate the effectiveness of the digital communications strategy employed. Make commendations about the entity's successful practices and recommendations for improvement where applicable. Illustrate your observations with examples and explain your reasoning with reference to this unit's learning resources. Submit your analysis, evaluation, commendations and recommendations as a multimedia video presentation (8–10 minutes). 

1. Select an entity from the list below (or you may choose an entity, but it must be approved by the Unit Coordinator):
• Getup! https://www.getup.org.au/
• Great Barrier Reef Foundation https://www.barrierreef.org/
• Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org.au/ 
• Oxfam Australia https://www.oxfam.org.au/
• Red Cross Australia https://www.redcross.org.au/
   
2. Using online search techniques, detect the entity’s digital footprint (online presence);
   - refer to Module 6, digital communications strategies across sectors;
   - refer to Module 7, information about marketing social networks including guidance on advanced online search techniques;
   - refer to Module 7, specifically Exercise task 7.1 (online search techniques).
   
   
3. Develop a set of evaluation questions based on your understanding of what makes an effective digital communications strategy;
   - refer to Module 6, specifically Learning activity 6.1 (preliminary evaluation questions);
   - refer to Module 8, knowledge of digital communications strategies and essential content management tools for implementation of an effective digital communications strategy.
   
   
4. Identify the digital communications strategy currently being employed, listing all digital platforms, services and tools being used;
   - refer to Module 9, the importance of measuring the success of a digital communications strategy including a range of digital communications evaluation models and methodologies; Learning activity 9.0 and Assessment Exercise task 9 (developing a digital communications evaluation template and carrying out evaluation).
   
   
5. Design a simple digital communications strategy evaluation template and use the template to assess the effectiveness of the observed digital communications strategy. Evaluate the effectiveness of the digital communications strategy observed;
   - refer to Module 9, advice and guidance on how to measure the success of digital communications strategies and how to develop recommendations to improve those strategies.
   
   
6. Draft commendations about the entity's successful practices and recommendations for improvement where applicable.  Illustrate your observations with examples and explain your reasoning with reference to this unit's learning resources. Plan and script a multimedia video presentation of 8-10 minutes;
   - refer to Module 10, information and guidance on creating different styles of videos for a range of digital platforms and for a variety of purposes and audiences; also specifically Assessment Exercise task 10.2 and Learning activity 10;
   - the video presentation can be in the style of a TEDx talk, a narrated presentation in Slideshare or Powerpoint, a speak-to-camera YouTube-style presentation, or another video presentation style that provides visual and audio capabilities and can be embedded as an MP4 file.
   
   
7. Record a multimedia video presentation your findings;
   - refer to Module 10, discussion links provide advice on how to produce native videos for social networks and digital presentations for websites and blogs.
   
   
8. Embed the video into your Professional Blog Site as an ‘in-feed native video’;
   
   
9. Provide a  link (URL) to your multi-media presentation embedded in your Professional Blog Site via the DGTL12007 Moodle, Assessment 3 submission portal.
   

The assessment will be evaluated according to how successfully students have incorporated the advice from unit texts and resources in accordance with learning objectives.

The following marking rubric will be applied.