1. Courtney D. Wright
An organized and dependable worker.
An ideal candidate for positions requiring a creative driven personality.
2. 2
Work Samples
The Reconnect
Project Overview..............................................................3
Sample Contribution......................................................5
Without Paper
Blog Overview and Writing Sample..................... ....6
Twitter Participation
@CourtDortWright.........................................................7
Digital Interactive Plan
Paul-Ish Project................................................................8
Appendices
Unofficial Transcript.......................................................12
Letter of Recommendation.........................................13
about.me/courtneydwright
3. 3
The Reconnect
“Disconnect 2 Reconnect”
The Reconnect is a collaborative project which aims to challenge
and question an individual’s media consumption habits, with
particular attention to Social Media and emerging technology
trends.
Through a series of challenges The Reconnect team and I dare
followers to disconnect from popular forms of Social
Media and technology such as Facebook, and reconnect
through forgotten formats like letter writing. As our Mission
Statement says “We want to initiate a conversation about the
lifestyles we lead online and help people tailor their own.”
This mission has allowed our team and followers to openly
explore the implications of various Social Media forms and
technologies in our lives. The first challenge The Reconnect
proposed was “Face Value” which asked readers to deactivate
their Facebook for a week. The challenge received a lot of
backlash, but also acquired the project enthusiastic participants.
The Reconnect team alongside our participants had begun
documenting our experiences through a series of blogs, vlogs,
videos and tweets. Before long we had acquired over a 100
followers willing to read our reflections, and participate
themselves. We also gained attention from our schools
newspaper the Radix, radio stations such as Radio Laurier, and
esteemed members of the blogging community.
about.me/courtneydwright
4. 4
My participation in The Reconnect allows me to not only explore my personal relationship with Social
Media, but connect with a variety of members in the Social Media community. This has contributed to my
knowledge and passion for using tools such as Twitter to connect to a wide array of unique individuals.
Through this project I was also able to define what it was to be a member of Generation Y. This
understanding allows me to efficiently communicate in a variety of web environments to a desired
audience.
Throughout the project I employed web tools to complete tasks, such as collaborate efficiently through
wiki-spaces. I have since learned how to quickly adapt to using a wide assortment of web based tools and
technologies.
While The Reconnect has temporarily halted publication, I intend to re-initiate in Summer 2011.
For a list of some of my contributions to The Reconnect please click here.
@The Reconnect
For more please visit: disconnect2reconnect.tumblr.com/archive
about.me/courtneydwright
5. 5
Sample Contribution:
One of my favourite stories since I was a child was Alice in
Wonderland. This is a common fact about me, and it is not
unknown for me to receive an Alice in Wonderland themed gift
from friends and family.
One of the greatest lessons I learnt from the story was the need
for self exploration, and as my favourite passage describes it is
a constant journey. It reads; “I wonder if I’ve been changed in
the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember
feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s
the great puzzle!” Recently I have begun to associate this concept of self exploration to The Reconnect ,
recognizing that we constantly have to examine our personal media consumption habits.
Ever since we’ve begun learning about “media” we have been told what our relationship to it has been,
is, and should be. Video games for example make us lazy, violent, and if we play them we are trying to
escape our own reality. If we are on Facebook for example we are careless about our privacy, socially
inept, and probably horribly narcissistic. These two examples describe some of the stereotypes that
have been placed on our generation’s media consumption habits. However the only way to accurately
define our habits and consumption is to examine them ourselves.
No other generation has experienced these “things” the way we have, so how could they possible
understand what it is like. The outsider’s perspective has never been an accurate or insightful one, and
as in Alice in Wonderland, we cannot have others define our world, because no one sees what we do.
As we continue this week, and move into tomorrow’s challenge, we hope you consider the self reflexive
component of this project.
Continue to e-mail us your comments and thoughts at disconnect2reconnect@gmail.com
Posted by: Courtney D. Wright
For more please visit: courtneydwright.wordpress.com/ the-reconnect/
about.me/courtneydwright
6. 6
Without Paper is a personal blog which I began in
A Mess of Ideas
October of 2008 on blogger under the name Mixed
Signals. When I first began blogging I was extremely I write this blog to collect
my ideas, my interests,
hesitant to enter a world with which I was so unfamiliar.
and the things I find along
My first post captured not only this hesitation, but the the way.
beginning of my understanding of the blogosphere.
There’s A First for Everything Right?
So what is this magical world they call blogging? I have always imagined it as world filled with
clever quips and more opinionated writers than one reader could possibly handle. Now here I am
immersed in this world that I know so little about. I admit have only read one blog in my entire
life, and now I am expected to write one of my own. Not only must I now be witty with my
writing, but I also have to think of something intelligent to say. The pressure is big!
It took me a long while before actually setting up my blog (as some may notice), but not
because I had nothing to say. I have always had something to say whether intelligent or not. My
hesitation came from this high anxiety I had over naming my blog. The name after all is one of
the most important parts. It is a newcomer to your blog’s first impression. It is their first
impression of what you will write about and who you will be as a blogger. A name must be all
encompassing, and I doubt I will ever come up with a name that is worthy enough for a blog.
However I needed to put a blog together though so I settled on the name Mixed Signals. I know
not very creative, or clever. It is not really what I would consider all encompassing either.
The name just kind of came to me one night as I laid awake thinking of all the homework I had
to complete. I began to think about Mass Communications class, and thought about the media
often sending out mixed signals to the masses. Since my blog is essentially a self reflective
analysis of the world of communication I found it to be an appropriate name. I suppose in a way
I myself interpret the signals the media is sending me, and I am ultimately analyzing my place in
the world of mass communications as well.
Even with a name now in mind I am still nervous about creating a blog. It is extremely nerve
racking to put your opinion out there for not only your peers to scrutinize but the entire world as
well. What if I do not use the right words in my sentences? What if my grammar is poor? Or
even worse what if my writing is just terrible and boring? When I went off to university this year
creating a blog was the last thing I expected to have to do; now here I am on blogger, and now
an academic blogger, or so I think.
In the three years since my introduction to blogger I have learnt to enter unfamiliar territories, particular
those of Social Media, with a sense of curiosity oppose to hesitation. I recognize the value of employing
Social Media tools as a way of advancing my learning in various fields of interest. I continue to blog and
on February of this year I moved my blog over to WordPress.
about.me/courtneydwright
7. 7
Like any Social Media fanatic I have a Twitter account,
dedicated to spreading information to my followers
concerning topics like Social Media, Marketing, Public
Relations and other content that I find of interest.
I have also used Twitter to broadcast and promote various
events in which I partook such as Hello. UGH and the
Power of Movement.
I currently hold a Klout score of 42 and have managed to
reach a total score of 50. An active member of Twitter as
of this September I have managed to become an
influencer of 245 individuals according to Klout, and a
dubbed “Explorer” engaging in the social web.
I have become familiar with a variety of programs such as
Hootsuite, TweetDeck and paper.li to advance the success
of my account. One of my recent achievements on Twitter
was becoming one of #u30pro’s (a chat stream dedicated
to discussing the careers of professionals under 30 years
of age) “Featured Participants”.
about.me/courtneydwright
8. 8
While I have not had privilege of
employing Social Media as a
content marketing tool
professionally, I have been able to
practice my skills in school projects.
I recently designed a Digital
Interactive Plan as a component of
an Integrated Marketing
Communication Plan for a new line
of fictional nail lacquers from O.P.I.
This Digital Interactive Plan focused
on representing the new collection
online, and providing the brand’s
consumers with engaging and
entertaining information. The
sample content created to enact the
plan demonstrates my ability to
target audiences’ pre-existing
interests and incorporate them into
a brand’s image.
A strategy focused on engaging
audiences in conversations, rather
than a direct sales approach fosters
a trusting relationship between the
consumer and the brand. This is
essential to generate brand loyalty,
an increasingly difficult
achievement in today’s markets.
Catering to the unique motivations
of the readership on each Social
Media channel employed allows the
brand to enter these realms with a
sense of authenticity. Instead of
disseminating the same messages
throughout each network the
channels used were unified through
a unique tone specific to this line of
lacquers.
about.me/courtneydwright
9. 9
Each account was run under the
persona Paul-Ish, and written
from the perspective of an
unidentified male character.
Writing through the perspective
of a company can be one
dimensional, in contrast a
characterized approach allows
readers to develop a personal
connect with the brand. For
example I created a Facebook
profile instead of a fan page. This
allowed the O.P.I customers to
become friends and not followers
of the brand. The tumblr account
was also created under the tone
of an everyday user, not a
company, creating a sense of
familiarity amongst users of the
micro blogging site.
Created content
samples:
A focus on integrating a company
Tumblr into the Social Media sphere,
Twitter rather than integrating Social
Facebook Media into a company can prove
to be more successful approach
to content marketing, and is one I
tried to enforce in this plan.
about.me/courtneydwright