Writing Your Article from Mind Map to Rough Draft

     The four steps in writing your article—or almost anything else—are these:
1.) Plan your article and gather information, 
2.) Write your rough draft, 
3.) Revise your article, and 
4.) Polish your article. 
     Notice that the first step has two items. You don’t do all your planning before you gather information for it. You do both your planning and your gathering at more or less the same time.

     It’s important that you keep your thoughts organized. Unless you have a system for organizing your material even as you gather it, you will find yourself trying to sort through a mountain of seemingly unrelated information. Perhaps the most effective way of taking notes and organizing your thoughts at the same time is by using a mind map. By using a mind map, you are gathering, sorting, and making sense of information by the same process your brain uses when it gathers, sorts, and makes sense of information; that is, when the brain is learning.

     The first step in planning and gathering for your article is deciding the subject of your article. Choose a topic that interests you, and which you think will interest others. Let’s say you want to write about Charleston, South Carolina. Those three words—Charleston, South Carolina—will be the first thing you write in your mind map. Write it in a rectangle as you see in the illustration below.

Here’s the second step in the process:

Now we’re getting somewhere. Here’s what we do next:

Now let’s go into a little more detail.

     Is that all you want to mention in your article? Well, that’s 22 things you want to say, including the title. The title, in sentence form, will become the topic sentence of the first paragraph of your article. That should be enough for now. You may later want to add more.

     The next thing you do is turn your mind map into a topic outline. Just as the mind map is patterned after the way your brain works when it’s learning things, the outline will form the pattern for your article. You studied outline form last semester, so outlining your article shouldn’t be too difficult. Just don’t forget to use proper outline form as you see below.

"Charleston, South Carolina: a Living Time Capsule"

I. Introduction

II. The Holy City

III. America’s Largest Historical District

     A. Broad and Meeting Streets

     B. Old Slave Market

     C. Rainbow Row

     D. The Battery

IV. Charleston Area Historical Sites

     A. Fort Sumter

     B. Sullivan’s Island

          1. Site of Revolutionary War’s First Major Battle

          2. Setting for Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug”

V. Folk Culture

     A. The Gullah People

          1. Origin

          2. Dialect

          3. Basket Weaving

     B. Charleston Ghosts

VI. Famous Gardens and Plantations

     A. Middleton Place

     B. Drayton Hall

     C. Magnolia Gardens and Plantation

VII. Conclusion

     The next step in writing your article is turning your topic outline into a sentence outline. Just ask yourself, “What do I want to say about each of the things I mentioned in the outline?” At this point in your writing, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or even whether you remember what a particular place is called. After all, you’re writing just to get your ideas on paper; that’s why it’s called a rough draft. The revising and polishing come later. (To tell you the truth, the first time I wrote the sentence outline you see on the following page, it contained some mistakes. I corrected them before I handed out this lesson to students. Since no one but you—and perhaps your teacher—has to see your sentence outline, don’t worry about polishing it just yet.)

Charleston, South Carolina, is a living time capsule.

I. In many respects areas in and around Charleston, South Carolina, are a

     living time capsule.

II. Charleston is sometimes called “the Holy City” because it’s the
     birthplace of three religious denominations: Southern Baptism, Reform
     Judaism, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the
     first Catholic church in America.

III. Every one of the 700 buildings south of Broad Street in Charleston was
     built before 1850, making this area America’s largest historical district.

     A. The most photographed intersection in the Charleston historical 

          district is the “Four Corners  of Law,” where Broad and Meeting
          Streets cross one another.

     B. The Old Slave Market, where rural slaves brought their produce for
          sale in the city, has become Charleston’s most popular venue for
          purchasing souvenirs.

     C. From Charleston Harbor, one can see Rainbow Row—so called 

          because the houses on this street facing the harbor display every
          color of the rainbow.

     D. It was from the Charleston Battery that cadets from the Citadel
          fired the first shot of the War Between the States.

IV. Away from Charleston’s famed historical district, visitors can
     experience living history in other spots.

     A. Several times a day, a ferry takes history buffs and casual
          tourists to historic Fort Sumter, the site of the first battle of the
         War Between the States.

     B. Sullivan’s Island, a deceptively sleepy island getaway, has its

          own stories to tell.

          1. At Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island, you can see where 

              American patriots fought the first major battle of America’s
              War for Independence.

          2. While Edgar Allan Poe was a soldier stationed at Fort Moultrie,

              he fell in love with the island and later made it the setting for his 

              immortal tale “The Gold Bug.”

V. Interwoven with the aristocracy and history of Charleston are the 

     contrasting images of folk culture.

     A. From the coastal island of the South Carolina Lowcountry a
          people called Gullahs come to lilve, work, and hawk their
          traditional handcrafts.

          1. The Gullahs are descended from slaves brought from West
              Africa.

          2. Their distinctive dialect is heard almost as often as the
              Geechie  accent more commonly called the Charleston
              brougue.

          3. Their most popular handcraft is the unique Gullah baskets 

              made from pine straw, sweetgrass, and palm leaves.

VI. The Charleston area’s famous gardens originally were designed

     for the enjoyment of plantation owners.

     A. Middleton Place, founded in 1741 and opened to the public in 

         1872, is America’s oldest public garden.

     B. Framed by a giant Spanish moss-draped oak, Drayton Hall is 

         often mistaken for Tara, the antebellum mansion featured in

         the movie Gone With the Wind.

     C. Magnolia Gardens, founded in 1676, is acclaimed as the 

          oldest and most beautiful garden in America.

VII. Unless you are fortunate enough to spend the night in one of 

      Historic Charleston’s bed-and-breakfast mansions, your time
      travel into an era of elegance and grace too soon comes to
      a close.

     Now what? When you began mind mapping your article, you may have doubted that you would be able to write it. Now you have written 23 sentences. Each sentence will be the topic sentence of a paragraph.

     All you have to do now is look at each sentence and give more details about the topic of that sentence. You may have noticed that some of the sentences in the sentence outline are too long. You may break the overly long sentences into two or more sentences.

     With only a little effort with each topic sentence, you will have written 23 paragraphs. Remember, this is only a rough draft. Write from the heart. Revising will come later.

Congratulations! You have written the first draft of your article.

(Mind maps used in this lesson were emended from mind maps generated via Mind Manager©, a copyrighted computer program.)

How to Use Quotation Marks and Italics

     Names of certain things, such as books, articles, movies, airplanes, and ships, must be placed either in quotation marks or italics. How do you know which to use? All items that require one or the other may be divided into four groups: 
1.) intellectual property that may be copied, 
2.) means of transport, and works of art that are one of a kind, 
3.) nicknames for machines.
4.) words are numbers

     Intellectual property is any printed matter or recording, such as books, movies, and poems. Works of art that are one of a kind include paintings and sculptures.

Intellectual Property

     If it’s “big,” you put the name in italics; if it’s “small,” you put the name in quotation marks. Here are some examples:

Big 

The Swiss Family Robinson (book) 

Small

“Return to the Wreck” (chapter)

Big

Selected Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan :Poe (book) 

Small

“The Gold Bug” (short story)

Big

The Odyssey (epic poem) 

Small

“If” (poem)

Big

Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits (record album) 

Small

“Only the Lonely” (song)

Big

Three’s Company (television series) 

Small

“Jack’s Bistro” (episode from the TV series)

Big

Taipei Times (newspaper)

 Small

“Photographer freed” (newspaper article)

     (Note: Movies that are part of a series of movies (for example, Star Wars II: The Empire Strikes Back), and short films, such as It’s Grits, must be in italics. Segments from a television miniseries—that is, a made-for-television movie that is shown in two or more parts—must be placed in quotation marks. The name of the television miniseries itself, however, must be italicized.)

Transport and Works of Art

     Regarding one-of-a-kind works of art and means of transport, it doesn’t matter whether it is big or small. It’s always italicized. Here are a few examples:

Spruce Goose ( huge airplane) Gossamer II (small plane)

Titanic (ship) Minnow (boat)

David (statue) Wolf Running (figurine, or statuette)

Last Supper (mural, or large painting) Golden Retriever (miniature painting)

Other Items or Objects

     Brand names, such as Ford or BMW are not italicized or placed in quotation marks. Personal names for things that are not ordinarily named require neither quotation marks nor italics. Some examples are personally-owned guns, such as Davy Crockett’s famous rifle Old Betsy. Common nicknames for mass produced items such as Henry Ford’s Model T Ford (called the “Tin Lizzie”) require quotation marks.

     Landmarks, even if they are considered works of art, are neither italicized nor placed in quotation marks. Three examples are the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colossus of Rhodes.

Words, Letters, and Numbers
     When you use a word, a letter, or a number, not for its meaning or value, but simply as a word, letter, or number, you italicize it.  Here are some examples:
     "When you write  the letter z, try not to make it look like a 2."  (The speaker is talking about the letter z and the number 2.  He's not referring to z as having a meaning or 2 as having a value, as in "two oranges.")
     "People sometimes misspell the word misspell."  (The first time the word is used, the speaker is talking about misspelling something.  The second time it's used, the speaker is talking about the word itself.)
     You also italicize foreign words and phrases.  Here are some examples:
     "Audrey Hepburn had a certain je ne sais quoi." 
     "My favorite Chinese dish is tsongtze."

How to Use Prepositions

Location

At, by, in, on, near, past, up with, below, above, among, beneath across, around, beside, inside, before, between, against, beyond, behind, over under, with, without, within, in front of, along.

Direction

By, to, from, down, off, through, up, out, past, about, along, after, between, against, behind, over, under, into, upon, throughout, out of, by way of.

Relationship

In, from, of, with, for, about, above, beneath, against, before, over, under

Process

By, on, to, from, through, along, throughout, by means of, by way of

Example

For, like, as

Condition

But, but for, under, through, throughout, with, without, upon, on, from, because of, as to, beyond, over and above, according to, on account of, aside from

Relative to Time

At, by, in, on, almost, though, throughout, of, about, after, beyond, over, under, upon, over, within, in, subsequent to, prior to.

Sample phrases

Location

At the well. near the house. He lives past the traffic light. It is located along the coast. Place it in the box [see Direction].

Direction

He passed by the market. He is coming from Canada [See Relationship]. Put it into the box [See Location] He was walking about the park.

Relationship

He is from Canada [See Direction]. Without friends

Process

By way of analogy, along those lines, from what you say

Example

For example, love is like a rose.

Condition

He rose above his humble beginnings. Within this context, He thought about her.

Relative to Time

Within two weeks, beyond the year 2010, prior to 1968, about three o’clock

Allegories, Fables, and Other Types of Tales

Allegory: (n) a story that uses figurative language to comment on a political, religious, social, or other matters. Many of the elements in an allegory represent lessons to be learned.

Fable: (n) a story that gives human characteristics to non-human characters and teaches a moral lesson.

Fairy tale: (n) a story of adventures in which fantastic forces and beings (such as wizards, goblins, elves, etc.)

Quest story: (n) a story in which the main characters must make a journey in order to achieve an important goal.

Episodic: (adj) made up of a number of individual stories that don’t have to be told in the same order that you find them in the book.

Figure 1.

Parallels in Five Fantasy Stories

Figure 2.

Parallels in Five Novels involving Quartets of Main Characters

*Structurally, the main protagonist of Journey to the West was Tang San-jiang; but, from a literary perspective, the main protagonist was Sun Wu Kong.

Gerunds and Infinitives

Verbals

A verbal is a word that looks like a verb, but it’s used as something other than a verb. There are three kinds of verbals:

1. Gerunds

2. Infinitives

3. Participles

A gerund is a verbal that ends with ing or ed and is used as a noun. A gerund is always an activity of some kind. Here are two examples:

1. Fishing is a popular pastime.

2. He likes fishing.

“He is fishing.” (This is a verb—not a verbal. If it’s a verb, it always has a helping verb before it.)

     An infinitive is a verbal that begins with the word to.  It may be used as a noun or as an adverb. Here are two examples: “To know him is to love him.”

“He took a bath to smell better.” (“To smell better tells why he took a bath. It's an adverb.)

Infinitive phrases: A phrase is a group of words that does not have both a subject and verb, and it doesn’t express a complete thought. An infinitive phrase is a phrase that is used as an infinitive.

Example:

“He uses Photoshop to make pictures of his friends look funny.”

“To swim in this pond is against the law.”

When you try to make sense of a sentence, look for the verb. Then answer the question, “Who or what?”That will tell you what the noun is.  Then you can more easily identify the other parts of speech in the sentence.

From Mind Map to Topic Sentences

Each of these topic sentences originally appeared as points of interest in a mind map.  Here, I've turned each point into a topic sentence for a paragraph.  Later, I'll show how each sentence can be used as the topic sentence for a whole paragraph.

The Shih-lin Night Market is one of the most popular night spots in Taipei City.
Many Taiwanese and foreigners enjoy the hustle and bustle and the crowds.
It’s a great shopping area, both for bargains and for the latest styles.
Along its main passageways and alleyways, a wide variety of local foods and drinks may be found.
Video games and games of personal skill draw many teenagers to the night market’s arcade area.
One can easily see why the Shih-lin Night Market is a popular venue.

How Paragraphs are Developed

Types of paragraphs:

By examples:
“The desert is home to many kinds of animals. (Name a few.) (Give summarizing sentence.) Far from being deserted, the desert is teeming with life.”


By size:
(Large to small):
Beneath the vast, blue sky lies a shimmering lake. On the lake, in a boat, sits a fisherman. The fisherman puts the point of his hook into a cricket he’s using for bait.

X
Chiasm:
Beneath the vast, blue sky lies a shimmering lake. On the lake, in a boat, sits a fisherman. The fisherman puts the point of his hook into a cricket he’s using for bait. He looks out across the lake and sees a reflection. It’s the reflection of the vast, blue sky.

Near to far or far to near:
The entrance to the gate is small and covered with flowers. It leads to a winding path with flowers on each side. Beyond it is a beautiful cottage.


By time:
The man looked at his watch and grew impatient. He looked down the street. Finally, the bus was arriving.

By reasons:
I believe that someone hired him to shoot the candidate. He had very little money, but he was using an expensive gun. He could not have bought the gun with so little money; therefore, someone else must have bought the gun for him.

By importance:
I love my friends. I love my family.  I love my country.  I love God.


Homework: Create a mind map for the article you plan to write for the mid-term exam project.

News English Students and Investigative Reporting

     The 2010-2011 News English students are getting into investigative reporting during this second semester.  Here is a listing of areas they'll be investigating and which students will investigate each area:

Does the U.S. government have a secret UFO project?

Hunter Lee 951507004

Eric Chan 951507902

Leo Huang 951507025

Samansa Chen 951507009

Dianne Huang 951507030

What is the truth behind the chemtrails controversy?

Jennifer Cheng 951513032

Ruby Huang 951507028

Sharon Lin 951513038

Vivian Chang 951507023

What is the truth behind the Sean Lien shooting?

Lily Chen 951507010

Anita Chen 951505040

Amy Chen 951507903

Susan Liao 951513040

Alice Tai 951507033

What is the truth behind the Chen/Lu shooting?

Albert Peng 951501022

Columbus Chen 951507906

Mika Qiu 951507034

Is HAARP changing the weather?

Kristen Tseng 951513051

Rita Lu 951507014

Caresse Chen 951513037

Leslie Peng 951507015

What is the truth behind the events of September 11, 2001?

Jane Huang 951507017

Dick Chen 951507012

Rebecca Dunn 941507056

Sophia Lin 951507022

Nicole Lee 951507005

Does Bigfoot exist?

Joseph Lin 951507027

Neal Liao 951507011

Sunny Yu 951507029

Ivy Lin 951507003

Krista Cheng 941507015

Has the cure for cancer been found but hidden from the public?

Isis Huang 951507901

Eileen Wang 951507018

Andrea Tseng 951513042

Joyce Liao 951513046

What is the real purpose of the FEMA camps?

Lillian Huang 951513041

Peggy Wu 951513048

Jill Chang 951513049
Amber Chien 951507002

Who is responsible for polluting the rainforest in Ecuador? Chevron or the Ecuadorian government?

Eunice Wu 951513045

Joanna Lee 951507007

Miki Ji 951513047

Sandy Peng 951507024
Jill Cheng 951507016

What are the sources of weapons used by Mexican drug lords?

Tina Lai 951507020

Katherine Liao 951513050

Locate some missing children

Kiki Liu 951507905

25. Writing a News Release

Using News Releases to Get Free Publicity

     News reporters can’t know everything. In fact, they can’t know anything newsworthy unless someone tells them.

     They have many sources for news. To name a few, there are news services in other countries, government agencies, civic groups, and—yes, businesses that have recently come up with a new product and want people to know about it.

     That’s where you come in. Before you call the local newspaper or television station and tell them, “I have news for you. Will you please come and report it?” you have to understand two things:

1. What is news?

2. How can you make it convenient for the news media to report your news item?

Step One: What is news?

All news has three things in common:

1. It’s current (That is, it’s new information and it relates to the readers’ or viewers’ lives today.) It’s even better for it to be immediate (That is, breaking news), but new products don’t usually have immediacy.

2. It’s local (That is, the people who read that particular newspaper or watch that particular news program will think that it relates to them.)

3. It’s visually striking (That is, you’re showing the reader or viewer something that’s interesting to see.)

Step Two: Getting the news media to cover your story.

     Okay, you’ve found the right angle; your publicity item is local and current; and you’ve figured out a way to really catch people’s eye (visually striking.)

In most cases, editors and news stations still won’t send a reporter to cover your story. Why not?

     You may have heard of the New York Times’s slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print.” Actually, that’s not true.

     In fact, the amount of news going on in the world each day is far more than any newspaper can cover. Locally, there aren’t enough reporters to cover more than a small fraction of all news items on any given day. Editors have to decide which ones are the most important, based on three things:

1. The kind of information that the editor thinks is important,

2. How much space the editor has in his newspaper (or how much time he has on his news program), and

3. Whether the newspaper (or news station) has the manpower (reporters, copy editors, etc.) to cover the story.

     Let’s say, you know that you have something the editor will want to use. Then what? There are three ways to go about getting publicity:

1. Have someone excitedly call the television station or newspaper and say something like, “Hey! What’s going on at such-and-such a place?” Give just enough detail to indicate that people are all excited over it, and add, “Since you work for the newspaper, I thought you’d know.” Of course, pretend that you’re just a person who’s curious about it and that don’t really know what’s going on. This works only when you have something that’s visually exciting and different.

2. Write a news release and send it to all of the local news media. Don’t leave out any of the news media; if you do, they’ll resent you for it.

3. Present your information at some event that the news media already will cover, such as a trade show or an electronics exhibition. Of course, you still should be prepared with a news release. Don’t expect a reporter to go to the trouble of writing a news story based on a brochure you’ve given him. He’s too busy to go to the trouble of doing that.

From the author’s personal experience:

     Many years ago, I read a piece of advice that was given to a diplomat: “If you attend an international event, sit next to someone who is wearing a turban.” Since photographers want their pictures to be interesting, they’re more likely to include something like that in their photographs.

     After I learned of this, I attended a week-long event that would be nationally televised. I knew that no one would be wearing a turban, but I got an idea: At events of that nature, television cameramen often wanted to show the reactions of the crowd. How could I make sure that the cameramen would want to show my part of the crowd? On the day that the most people would be watching the event on television, I wore a very, very bright green shirt. One of my father’s friends who had watched the event on television said that the television camera kept turning to focus on my part of the crowd. Since I was in the center of the television screen, I knew that my idea had worked.

Getting noticed at trade shows

     With all those displays, how are you going to get the attention of the news media and your target consumers?

Question: Which of the exhibits you see below is more likely to get you the publicity that you can turn into sales?

     You don’t want to do what others have done so many times that it’s no longer new. Which exhibits most catch your interest? Chances are, you were more drawn to the photo on the right because the person in the photo is showing interest in the product. An attractive, scantily clad young woman is no longer new. Do you see what we mean?

     Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have an attractive young woman manning your exhibit at a trade show, but you need more than that because many others are doing the same thing. Think about these or some other combinations:

1. A friendly, attractive woman at an interactive display

2. A fun interactive display

3. A friendly, attractive woman wearing an interesting costume, such as an Indian sari.

How to write a news release

At the top of the news release, you give certain information about the release itself:

1. The words, “News Release”

2. Name and telephone number of the contact person. If they want further information, they’ll want to know whom to call.

3. The name and contact information for your company

4. When you would like the story published or broadcast (To give two examples, “For release on or about March 23, 2010,” or “For immediate release.”

5. Suggested headline for the news release.

     Find out which editor is responsible for editing stories like yours. Send it to that editor, by name, and write a cover letter.

     Do not call it a press release. Since the word press applies only to print media, this may offend members of the broadcast media. Call it a news release.

     How long should your news release be? One page (typed, double spaced) or a page and a half should be enough. If, however, the editor has room for only a half a page, he’ll cut from the latter half of the news release. If he needs only a quarter of a page, he’ll cut off the latter three quarters of the news release.

     For that reason, when you write your news release, use inverted pyramid style. That means that, in your news release, you should write the information in order of importance. Put the most important information in the first paragraph. Put the next most important information in the second paragraph, and so on. The least important information goes in the last paragraph.

     That way, even if the editor uses only one paragraph of your news release, he’ll still have a story that makes sense to the reader.

The first paragraph should tell the readers WHO is doing WHAT, WHEN, and Where. You may also include the information HOW and WHY.

Question: Someone from the Mamahuhu Hotel chain probably wrote the article, but Judy Chen took credit for writing it. Is that fair to your company?

Answer: Of course, it is! If the Mamahuhu Hotel took credit for writing it, readers would think of it as just another advertisement. Then they’d be less likely to read it. Since it’s presented as a news story, they’re more likely to read it and accept it as fact.

Question: The news release says that the new hotels will be built in China. Why would the Mamahuhu Hotel want this information published in a Taiwanese newspaper?

Answer: Locals residents don’t stay in hotels; tourists stay in hotels. The target readers of the news release are rich Taiwanese who are likely to visit one of those eight cities in China. It’s a hidden advertisement for the Mamahuhu Hotel. They probably sent similar news releases to Japanese and Korean newspapers, as well as Chinese language newspapers in Taiwan.

Now it’s your turn!

Get together with your team and write a news release promoting your product or service.

24. Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet

          We’ve already discussed building your business web site. Every team did a credible job of it, and some teams did an excellent job.

There are at least two other ways to “advertise” your product or service on the Internet:

1. Pay-per-click advertising arrangements with search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and AltaVista.

2. Product placement “ads” on popular web sites such as Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube.

Pay-per-click Ads

     When you make an arrangement of this sort with a search engine, they place your advertisement where they think it will most help your business. For example, advertisements for cosmetics may be placed on a blog or web site that appeals to women. Advertisements for Taiwan organically grown tea may be placed on a blog or web site belonging to a Taiwanese—especially if the site is devoted to health or environmental issues.

Try this:

     Go to your favorite Internet search engine and key in some words for a search. For example, you may key in “furniture.” Once you’ve hit the “Search” button and you see the page that comes up, you’ll see the words “Sponsored Links,” at the top and along the side of the page. Those are the pay-per-click ads.

     Something like 20% of the Internet clicks are for sites located at the top or side of the first page.

     With pay-per-click ads, your business doesn’t pay for the advertisement unless someone clicks onto the advertisement. When he does that, four things happen:

1. The visitor learns more about your product or service.

2. Your business pays a set amount for each person who clicks onto your ad.

3. The search engine receives some of the money you paid for the advertisement.

4. The owner of the site or blog gets some of the money you paid for the advertisement.

     Remember that, in a pay-per-click ad, you can’t give the target consumer enough information for you to make a sale. Use the nudging technique to direct the visitor to your business web site. That’s where you’ll make the sale.

What is Guerrilla Marketing?

     Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional; potentially interactive; and consumers are targeted in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging, and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral.

     Guerrilla marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaways of products, PR stunts, any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. More innovative approaches to guerrilla marketing now use cutting edge mobile digital technologies to really engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience.

YouTube

     If your television commercial is entertaining enough to “go viral,” then do it. The only way to make sure that someone will put it on YouTube is to do it yourself.

Of course, when you put it on YouTube, you’ll have to sign up for a YouTube account. Play it smart; sign up in the name of an individual—not the name of your business.

Photo Sharing Sites

     Flickr is one example of a photo-sharing site, and it doesn’t cost you anything to use it. Photo-sharing sites are supposed to be used only by individuals—not businesses—but you can get around this restriction.

Here’s how:

1. Have someone in your business open a personal account with Flickr or some other photo-sharing site.

2. Upload a lot of pictures that would interest your target consumer. Include some pictures of an ordinary person using your product, and show that he/she is happy with it.

     Suppose you were marketing a fashionable style of clothing. You might insert a picture of someone wearing your brand on this page. Since you also see this person in other photos, this doesn’t look like an advertisement.

     When the viewer clicks on the thumbnail photo to view the full-sized photo, he’ll also see whatever comments the photo sharer has to make. That’s your opportunity to mention the name of the brand. If you say any more than that, it will look like an advertisement.

.

Social Networking Sites

     Facebook is one of many social networking sites. I mention Facebook only because you’ve all heard of it. I also mention Facebook because it’s a fantastic tool for guerrilla marketers. If you play it right, Facebook can be the most effective use of your online advertising campaign.

     Start a fan site for some aspect of your product. Fan clubs for various products are nothing new. For many years, there have been clubs devoted to cars such as Volkswagens, Barracudas, and 1957 Chevrolets. There have been fan clubs and other named clubs devoted to organic foods, certain clothing styles, and even certain computers (such as Apple Macintosh) and computer software products (such as Photoshop.) There are even clubs devoted to homemade, pin-hole cameras! I’ll be you’ve never heard of pin-hole cameras.

     If people can get excited about it, a fan club can be built around it.

Some Internet sites even give advice on how to use Facebook to advertise your product or service. According to one such site, here are a few avenues for guerrilla marketing on Facebook:

I. Tools for Guerrilla Marketers

1. Profile Page

2. Groups

3. Pages

4. Events

5. Notes and Photos

6. Messages

7. Marketplace

8. Share / Posted Items

9. Networks

10. Mini Feed and News Feed

III. Tools for Application Developers

11. Profile Box

12. Mini Feed

13. News Feed

14. Invitations

15. Facebook Notifications

16. Email Notifications

17. Application Directory

     That’s quite a few, isn’t it? For more information, you can go to the following web site: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/12/09/inside-facebook-marketing-bible-24-ways-to-market-your-brand-company-product-or-service-in-facebook/

Now it’s your turn!

In your advertising campaign, include pay-for-click ads and guerrilla marketing. Show how you will design this campaign. The more realistic you can make it, the better you will learn—and, the higher your grade will be.

Remember, if your guerrilla marketing campaign looks “too much” like an advertising campaign, sites such as Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube may close your account. Try to disguise your ad campaign as “just another person who is doing social networking and file sharing.”

23. Designing TV and Video Advertisements

     Years ago, products were often advertised simply by having someone stand in front of a camera and talking about the product. In those days, watching an advertisement was like listening to a salesman.

     The spokesman would introduce himself. Then he would talk about the product. Sometimes he would demonstrate the product for television viewers.

     As television advertising developed, advertisers would develop little skits to promote their products. Many advertisers continued to do well by having celebrity spokesmen talk directly into the camera.

     Nowadays, fewer advertisements rely on having famous people talk like salesmen. The most effective advertising strategy these days is psychology and entertainment. If an advertisement seems more like entertainment, people will pay more attention to it.

 Affective Filter

     Affective filter is a psychological term. It’s kind of like a guard standing at the gateway to your mind, and it decides what information is going to pass into your brain.

     When you are aware that someone is trying to convince you of something, you’re more “on your guard.” Your unconscious mind decides whether the message is true. If it says, “No,” or, “I doubt it,” the message is not allowed into your brain, except as “someone else’s opinion.”

     But, what if the “guard at the gate” is told that it’s not really a message; that it’s just entertainment? Then the “guard at the gate” lets the message through without questioning it, and it goes straight to your brain. Then you’re more likely to accept it as your own opinion.

     That’s one of the reasons that the most effective advertisements don’t look like advertisements; they look like entertainment. These advertisements are scripted and blocked in the same manner as movies, stage plays, and television programs.

     (When a movie director blocks a scene, this means that he has already decided where everyone and everything in the scene is supposed to be. Whether someone stands in one place or moves is decided by the director. Everything about how the scene is supposed to look is blocked by the director even before it is filmed. We’ll tell you more about blocking later.)

     As for celebrity spokesmen, they can hardly be called “spokesmen” anymore, because they usually don’t speak. Advertisers still use the technique of transference, but without making the advertisement look as much like an advertisement. Instead, the celebrity “spokesman” is seen using the product. Since that doesn’t look as much like a message, the “guard at the gate” is more likely to let the message go straight through to the brain.

     Transference is the subtle art of taking the viewer’s feelings about one thing and transferring it to something else. Take, for example, a typical political advertisement in Taiwan. When an unknown person is running for public office (we’ll call him Ou-yang), you often see pictures of him standing next to a popular politician (we’ll call him Su). They hope that your good feelings about Su will be transferred to Ou-yang and that you’ll vote for Ou-yang as a result.

     Sometimes, in your college life, you’ll see a person with low self esteem associating with a popular person in hopes that some of that popularity will “rub off” on the insecure person.

     Let us give you an example of the use of a storyboard to block a scene. In the scene below, the Little Mermaid is talking with the sea hag. The director has decided that the scene would open with the two of them in the same frame. Then the camera cuts to show only the mermaid, then the sea hag, and so on. The scene ends with the mermaid and the sea hag in the same frame.

     If you were filming live actors, that would be a great deal of trouble. Each time you changed the scene, you’d have to move the camera, the lights, the actors, and everything else. It’s much more convenient to film it the way you see it below.

     Both scenes with the mermaid and the sea hag in the same frame are filmed. Then all the scenes with just the sea hag are filmed. Then all the scenes with just the mermaid are filmed. Later, the film editor cuts and splices the film to produce a scene in the order that the audience will see (as above.)

Now it’s your turn!

     You and your team, now design a television or video advertisement for your product or service.

22. Blocking Your Advertising Images

What exactly is blocking?

     In advertising, blocking is the arrangement of words and images in print or television advertising. In television advertising, it also refers to deciding the direction in which a person or animal will move.

     For example, if you see someone sitting still in the middle of the screen, someone has decided that he should sit in that place in that manner. If he rises from his seat and walks to a certain spot, stops, and turns to look at the camera, every movement he has made is because someone has decided the moves he will make.

     You want to arrange the words and images so that they’ll be most appealing to the reader or viewer.

     Mentally divide the image into six parts, like the image below:

     The image you see here is poorly blocked. As you can see, it’s perfectly balanced, and the viewer can tell that the photographer mentally balanced it as he took the picture. The land runs precisely along the center of the picture. The two skyscrapers are almost equal distances from the center of the photograph.

     Your picture should look balanced, but it should appear naturally balanced. Your photograph shouldn’t draw attention to anything the photographer did.

The Six Elements of Art

     Professional ad men don’t just “eyeball” a picture to decide whether it looks good. They also have certain standards for deciding whether it’s good and how good it is. Their standards include the same standards used by art critics:

1. Color: What colors and color combinations “say” what you want to say about your product?

2. Light: Shades of light and shadow help to set the mood.

3. Form: Do you want your images to look 3-D, like solid images, or should they appear more like line drawings?

4. Perspective: Do you want to create a feeling of distance or depth, or does flatness strike the proper mood?

5. Proportion: The way the size of some things relate to the size of other things in the picture.

6. Motion: Rapid movement creates excitement. No movement can indicate rest.

Color:

     What colors and color combinations “say” what you want to say about your product? The use of green in this image fits the image of a “natural” product. You can see the word natural on the product label. If you could see the above photo in color, you would see that the blue of the water matches the green in the background. It also provides a space for the advertising copy.

Light:

     Shades of light and shadow help to set the mood. In black and white, what mood does this image strike?

Form:

     Do you want your images to look 3-D, like solid images, or should they appear more like line drawings? Notice that the top of the bottle in the picture hides part of the shoreline. The unconscious mind wants to think of the shoreline as one continuous line; but the image of the product breaking up the shoreline suggests that the bottle is a solid object.

     By contrast, take a look at the image below. The form may fit some products, but certainly not a health-food product.

Perspective:

     Do you want to create a feeling of distance or depth, or does flatness strike the proper mood? In most of the advertising images in this lesson, distance and depth are used because they fit the image of health better than a flat line drawing would.

Proportion:

     The way the size of some things relate to the size of other things in the picture. We recall seeing a billboard advertising an insurance company. The billboard covered most of a multi-story building. The building in the picture appeared to be normal sized, but the gorilla in the picture was gigantic. A casual viewer would think that it looked as though the King Kong-sized gorilla were tearing down the multi-story building. This image was intended to suggest the emotional effect of problems that are too much for us to handle. The insurance company is suggesting that they are able to handle it for us. By this means, they are offering us a feeling of security.

Motion:

Rapid movement creates excitement. Lack of movement can indicate rest. In this advertisement, a more peaceful mood is required. Only the gentle movement of the water is seen.

Now it’s your turn!

Decide what kind of images best fit your product. Work on images for your advertising.