jlscott4

Champaign Cinema

jlscott4 — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:02:27 +0000

Hey guys!

There’s a big event on campus that will be a ton of fun for anyone and everyone who loves movies! In the spring of 2013, the College of Media Studies is hosting a festival for students to submit their own produced videos to be premiered at Foellinger Auditorium. It would be really cool if you and your friends could produce a video and send it to champaigncinema@illinois.edu!! But even if that isn’t your style, you should stop by the event to check out the awesome videos! Come out and support your fellow classmates!

Social Media Publicity– Cinema Festival

jlscott4 — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:26:46 +0000

1. “Champaign Cinema” I think this is a good name for the festival because the festival takes place in Champaign and is composed of videos from Champaign students. I believe that having a title with both words starting with the same letter is appealing. Lastly, I used the word “cinema” because it sounds mature and classic.
2. champaigncinema@illinois.edu, because it is easy for people to remember the festival name is the same as the email address.
3. I think that MACS should use the same name for everything they produce. If they use “Champaign Cinema” for their twitter name, too, it will provide repeated exposure. The more people hear the one title, the more likely they will to attend the event when they see the event happening.
4. #Champaignlife—I would use this as a hashtag because it incorporates part of the event title, and also make the event seem like a regular life event for people in Champaign.
#directingisfun—This hashtag is great because it appeals to people who would be submitting videos. It shows that this twitter voice can be associated with students who also like to direct films.
5. All of the media pages should have the same theme and feeling. Images like film reels, movie camera, and movie clapboard should be shown on all media pages. It should also have a color scheme of Black, Gold, and Orange. I would use these colors because black and gold are typically Hollywood colors and orange is a main color of University of Illinois. Each media page should have all of these colors and images. The Facebook and Twitter pages should also both have links to the YouTube page. The media pages should have a feel of Hollywood. This will give the event a theme that will draw in video makers.
6. The voice of the media pages should portray a student in the college of media at the University of Illinois. I don’t think this voice should be connected to a name, because we don’t want the voice to be associated with a particular sex. This voice should post about cool movies coming out and give reviews on these new movies. The voice should be funny, because college students enjoy humor over serious tones.
7. The key performance indicator for the first stage should be emails received because the people who email the college about the event will most likely be those who are submitting videos. For the second stage, the college should keep track of performance by followers on the twitter page. This will show how many people are interested in the event. The third stage should be measured by a combination of number of video views and comments. While we want to attract a lot of traffic, it is important also to know that people are enjoying the videos.

Search Engine Optimization

jlscott4 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:49:00 +0000

When performing a search, you don’t always get the results you need. If you are looking for something specific, you have to know how to find it. Let’s say you are searching “Search engine optimization.” If you type the query (request for information) into Google basic search, of course the first things you will see are Ads related to search engine optimization, SEO. If you scroll down a bit, the first result you will see is a Wikipedia page. You will almost always see Wikipedia show up on your Google results, because Google finds Wikipedia easy to load.

Your results should have the words “search” and “engine” and “optimization” in it. On the other hand, if you wanted to perform a search on either “search” or “engine,” you would type into Google “Search OR engine.” And Google would know to bring up results with only one of the two words in it. The “OR” in your search is called an operator. Operators help to tell Google exactly what it is that you are looking for. There are so many different operators you can use. Google provides a helpful quick guide of operators for its users here: http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html.

Another way to help you search for exactly what you’re looking for is through Google Advanced Search, at http://www.google.com/advanced_search. Through advanced search you can specify whether you’re looking for a phrase or certain words, what you are not looking for, or even by usage rights! If I want an image on SEO to post on my blog, I can type SEO in as the query and “narrow results by usage rights” so it is free to use and share.

If you want to stay in touch with current news about search engine optimization (or a different topic) you can sign up for Google Alerts! A few days ago, I signed up for Google Alerts on “Search engine optimization.” Since then, Google has sent me three emails containing new news, blogs, and websites having to do with SEO. For example, a new article about SEO was posted, so Google sent me the link http://www.dailycamera.com/business/submit/15-sec-pitch-business/ci_21711567/15-second-pitch-boulder-seo-marketing so that I could check it out!

Lastly, Google offers a search to find scholarly articles on http://scholar.google.com. If you search for SEO on Google Scholar, you will find results that are typically HTML or PDF files. The first one that shows up is actually a book! http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EbhSiSvzQLEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA2&dq=search+engine+optimization&ots=a_OMKFPlU_&sig=rIUvvnXVru5Uy8vLIB9GRsPXO6c#v=onepage&q=search%20engine%20optimization&f=false. What a great tool Google provides!

Client vs Server-side Scripting

jlscott4 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:15:07 +0000

Client-Side and Server-side scripting can both get the job done. If you want to be hands-on with creating our webpage, you should definitely look into client-side scripting. Client side scripting is important for creating a dynamic HTML webpage. This means, if you want the content of the page to change based on the user, the geographical location of the computer, etc. In client-side scripting, it is possible to use either embedded or external scripting, depending on which you find easier to control. Embedded scripting would have the style of your page all written into the one document. If you choose external scripting, you will create the basic page in one document, and style the page in a separate document. After you create your document, the content then resides on a server and can be sent to the user’s computer to be altered. Once the user creates the document, the web browser executes the script code to show the page. It is also possible for anyone viewing the web page to view the source code.

On the other hand, server-side scripting has a few great perks. In server-side scripting, code is executed by the web server app, on the server machine. Because of this, the code is more secure and there is greater programmability. Also, if a client makes a change request for the webpage, it is taken care of by a script running server-side. Server-side scripting can be written many different ways, and is sometimes very difficult to understand. It uses embedded scripts into an HTML code instead of external scripts. On the down side, server-side scripting limits client access to the database. It also restricts clients from seeing the source code.

Creating a Webpage

jlscott4 — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:06:43 +0000

Creating a website is an important task. Having an easy to find and easy to remember website will attract customers. When exploring ways to create your own website, there is a lot to keep in mind. You have many options as to your website address, shared hosting, virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Here are the basics that you need to know:

Creating a domain name (web address)
-Your web address should be short and sweet
-It should easily show the customer whose website they are visiting
-Once you come up with a desired web address, you must purchase it from a domain name registrar. There are many ways to do this, but one of the easiest and most cost efficient ways is through DreamHost.

Hosting your webpage
-The information on your webpage must be stored somewhere. A PC will not have the power to store the amount of information that your website will hold. Because of this you must have a server to store it on.

Option 1: You can purchase a dedicated server to host your site. This can get pricy, but it may be worth it. Purchasing a dedicated server will allow your site to be protected and in your control. Choose this if you have a complex database and plan on having heavy traffic.
Option 2: You can use a Virtual Private Server which will store your information virtually, almost like the Cloud. By purchasing a VPS you will save money, but you don’t have the security of the dedicated server to back up your website 24/7. This is the option for you, if your website has heavy traffic.
Option 3: Shared hosting. If you choose shared hosting, you are choosing to have your website reside on one web server. This server is shared by all customers who use that host. This is the cheapest option, but the least controllable. It is a great option for small businesses and bloggers.

You can contact me at JS@jscottco.com to set up a consultation. At that time we can discuss, in depth, what options would be best for you.