MY STORY:

• Instagram taking the advertising world by storm

MY BLOG:

I developed my enterprise story idea through my target audience, being university students. Social media is targeted toward university-aged students, and educating them and creating awareness on how businesses use social media to advertise would be interesting.

I located my first business source, Beauty Industry, through a friend. However, I had never met Paige Johnson, the woman I interviewed. My second and third source, The Hut Group and STEM, I found through googling startup companies in Salt Lake. These companies were one of the few I heard back from after emailing businesses with a wide social media platform, therefore being suitable for my topic.

The three sources I selected for my topic were the best choices because they all use social media, specifically Instagram to advertise their products. The three individuals I interviewed had positions dealing with social media, and gave me feedback I felt was important for my audience to know.

An obstacle I came by was with my third interview with STEM. While I managed to gather enough information, it was a difficult interview. It really forced me to use all the techniques we’ve read in class to push my interviewee to give me critical information that would benefit my story. In the end, she was able to help a lot and I am confident with her as my third source.

Luckily with the questions I prepared all of the information I gathered would have fit into my topic. The issue was deciding which was the most influential, and I chose the aspects I did out of what I thought were most crucial to know to my target audience.

I separated my writing process into the three interviews I did, choosing a space in my story for each of the interviews and forming the story around their responses. After the interviews, the writing came easy because I based the opening and closing off of what I received from them. I realized then just how important the interviews are in creating a good story, to a great story!

I have a few quotes I didn’t add into my story directly from my sources I feel could be interesting to add into my blog. However, they aren’t the best ones; those were in my story. Below, I’ve included something interesting I gathered from Jasmine Reynolds with The Hut Group:

“Instagram marketing is used in an assortment of aspects, whether it is to bring awareness of a cause or to advertise and sell products. It has drastically changed the game from billboards, and TV commercials to a free platform being used by billions.”

An aspect through this whole process of creating my story was how once I became comfortable with the people I interviewed, how much they wanted to engage. At first I felt as if I was an annoying student who had begged for an interview. However, two of my sources were more than happy — excited even — to give me the information I needed to create my piece.

ABOUT ME:

Riley Spear grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, until moving away to attend the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, after she graduated high school. She is currently taking classes to fulfill her degree in journalism, and will graduate in the spring.

In her free time, she is involved in Make-A-Wish philanthropy through her Chi Omega sorority. Through her sorority’s involvement and fundraising, members have been able to grant several wishes to children who suffer from cancer. It has been a rewarding experience to her, and she has made friends for life through it.

At her time at the university thus far Riley has completed a study abroad program in London, England, and performed an internship in Melbourne, Australia, through the Hinckley Institute of Politics. She has been able to fulfill her passion of traveling through both of these experiences.

In London, Riley studied digital multimedia, and through her internship in Australia she managed all social media accounts for her company and wrote blogs. This is one of the reasons she chose to focus on social media advertising, specifically Instagram, for her enterprise story.

The company she interned for revolved around global technology energy. Through her interviews she was offered new, and different viewpoints from beauty and health companies.

After graduation Riley plans to travel and see as much of the world as she can. Afterward, she plans to find a career in journalism, creative writing, or in public relations.