For the last week of practicum, my assignment was to come up with a new concept for a weekly Instagram Story post.

I think the concept I had has potential! It might need a bit of refining, but it has the spirit.

In other news, the finals week TikToks that I was in (and one I directed), were posted!

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8aKgq25/

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8aKCWFm/

They turned out great!! I hope that they end up getting more engagement.

As for what happened on our weekly Wednesday session, we attended a conference at the university featuring speakers from all over Pittsburgh talking about the trends and how to capture audiences for Higher Education social media posts.

It was really interesting, and I got to network a bit! People were impressed that I have business cards, which made me feel like I have a little bit of a step ahead on my future.

Overall, this practicum experience has been wonderful for me! I got a good look into what it’s like to be a social media manager. It’s not just creating posts, it’s planning them out too. It’s learning about what works and what doesn’t and how to change that for your audience. It’s storytelling.

This week, we started with filming the Finals week TikTok that I had come up with- and it was pretty quickly finished.

Then, we had to go back and film more footage for the other TikTok, since one of the main struggles I had while recording the voice over was that I couldn’t cut it shorter.

After this, we watched a seminar about future trends in higher education’s social pages- basically, the speakers outlined what to watch out for, what people are wanting to see, stuff like that. Mainly, the focus was on AI and how that’s potentially going to impact social media manager’s jobs. Though, the main problem with AI is that there’s no human touch, and that’s what people want.

This week was definitely one of my favorites, although the work seemed minimal, I learned a lot! It was awesome to be able to sit in on the seminar.

This week was Fall Break, so we didn’t meet. However, my project before Kelly and I meet for next week was to record the voice over for one of the TikToks we filmed– the one about self-care tips for finals.

So, this week was easy: record the audio and catch up on any projects that I hadn’t “turned in” (which, by that, I mean wrote down in a document and sent over to Kelly.)

The biggest struggle I had was figuring out how exactly to have the VO sound the way I want and also fit the video constraint. Content making and editing is an art. Over the course of this, I’ve gained a new appreciation for those who do social media.

This week was very productive!!

Before Wednesday, I had to come up with ideas for three general TikToks, and I came up with a few topical ones.

On Wednesday, we filmed a couple TikToks. The first one was one of the “Finals Week” TikToks we planned last week. My project for break is to film the voice over.

We also filmed a trend TikTok that was something I pitched- based on the “Ceiling” trend!

Outside of this, I had to write copy to garner engagement from prospective students (on Instagram) and alumni (on Facebook).

I think that I’m definitely getting better at writing for different audiences. I’m still learning the voice of the university, however, I think it’s coming!

On to next week!

This week was more chill. There wasn’t much going on, more or less pitching content for TikTok to go out for Finals week, (which is coming up quickly…)

Kelly and I came up with two concepts, which we’re going to film on Wednesday.

Other than that, I worked on the next week’s projects and then finished up some other work I had laying around.

This week, I was able to partner up with my Event Planning course and promote on the Point Park TikTok page!

@pointparku

The Community Engagement Office is holding Friends Fest… A Game Night that Gives. Gives what? Let the students organizing the event tell you! 👏 #PointParkU #PointParkUniversity

♬ original sound – Point Park Univ.

With this, I shot and filmed, figured out how the timeline would look, wrote the caption copy, and edited it!

Outside of this, I worked on the “Neighbor of the Week” project- where Point Park highlights a business that has ties to the university, whether it’s hiring for careers or spots that students like to hang out. I also worked on copy for Open House posts, I worked on pitches for Instagram content for the Holidays, a whole bunch of stuff! It was a busy week.

I think that my skills are improving- especially in the field of writing copy for all of the different socials. Each one has a different audience, so they need a different voice. Plus the university’s voice and posts have to be polished.

I also got to watch more of how Sprout Social works- the analytics, how Kelly writes her monthly reports, and stuff like that. It’s really interesting to see how all the gears turn to make the machine run!

On to the next week!

@pointparku

We asked, you answered! What’s your favorite Halloween candy? 🍫 #PointParkU #PointParkUniversity #Halloween #HalloweenCandy

♬ original sound – Point Park Univ.

This week was full of finishing up last week’s projects, starting on new ones, and making a TikTok for Halloween. We did another Tiny Mic, since those are easy and popular. We went around and asked people’s favorite Halloween candy.

There’s a lot that goes into planning social media, from writing the copy of posts, to actually capturing the content. It takes a clear mind and skills, which Kelly definitely has. This week was fun! Still, pacing myself and tackling everything in chunks has proven to be the best strategy.

This week was more intense than the past!

On Wednesday, we finished the TikTok we started last week– Asking the Point Park community to shout out their high schools.

@pointparku

Our Pioneers gave shoutouts to their high schools! Take a look at where they went! 👏🎓 #PointParkU #PointParkUniversity #CareerReady #HighSchoolShoutout #HighSchoolShoutouts

♬ original sound – Point Park Univ.

I definitely loved how this turned out!! It was cool to join on this Tiny Mic Adventure.

Last week, I was tasked to come up with some concepts for a few more TikToks- a general one and one for Halloween. I’m a fan of the Tiny Mic series, so I thought what better way to get some content than go around and ask what people’s favorite candy is. We haven’t started filming nor has anything come of it, however the idea is out there.

I was assigned a few more projects this week, which are “due” on Wednesdays. I did some work on a few, which has turned out to be quite a task, however it’s fun. The first is writing some copy for Open House posts, then researching for a “Neighbor of the Week” and then doing some planning for an idea about getting engaged with student organizations.

All of these are going well, but a lot to tackle at once, so I’ve been pacing myself on all of them and tackling chunks at a time.

Until next week!

This week in Practicum…

It started out with me, making a video to teach myself CapCut. Which I think is pretty good- very beginner, but still decent enough quality.

For our Wednesday shadowing, we went around filming for a TikTok Kelly had planned! No spoilers, but, we went around campus and talked to students. I think the responses we got were good and the video will turn out great.

Then, after that, I had a meeting with everyone in the Marketing department. I think that went pretty well. I was nervous but it mostly was a “getting to know you” meeting.

For next week, I have to come up with a few concepts for TikToks and content for Halloween. Which, should be pretty straight forward!

Onto the next week!

This week I watched a real-time “oh, what if we don’t have the content we need by the date?”

It was interesting to see how something like that is problem solving and a mix of creativity- More or less editing future posts and moving around schedules.

Sprout Social is a really neat tool and looks fun to play with. Especially the stats and seeing how well posts are performing.

My task this week was to come up with a SWOT analysis. We went over it together and a good number of my feedback was written down to be passed along.

Either way, this week in Practicum was beneficial. I feel like the shadowing is going to be something I look forward to each week.