Reframing is a technique for identifying better problems for you to solve as opposed to just addressing existing ones. When you consider reframing anything, you might look at it through a different lens and approach the problem from different angles.
In the following blog post, I’ll examine the progress of Maddy and Jacob’s Digital Artefacts since my last peer review, as well as assess whether reframing these projects could improve them.
Maddy Hawkins – Socially Maddy
Maddy’s Digital Artefact ‘Socially.Maddy’ has been developing nicely over the past few weeks and I can see she’s stuck with her concept as she’s slowly been building up her content—primarily on Instagram—of tips and tricks for her audience.
In my previous review of her project, I recommended that alongside seeking out clients, Maddy should experiment with creating resources and social media templates that others could use, which would benefit her portfolio even if she wasn’t able to attract clients.
Despite tweeting out she was considering this, I haven’t seen any visual evidence of this or other resources she has mentioned in tweets. I believe that providing videos or pictures of the projects and elements she’s working on in her project promotion tweets would assist Maddy to attract clients on Twitter.
It can be noted that Maddy also hasn’t posted on her ‘Socially.Maddy’ TikTok account since before my last peer review. This may be a time availability issue, but I recommend Maddy continue with this methodology, innovate and find a better way to post on both platforms. This way, her digital artefact can become more anti-fragile instead of being constrained by a specific platform. Maddy has generated both TikToks and Reels, therefore the quickest and easiest way to accomplish this would be to produce content that can be shared on both platforms to more rapidly iterate in her project, something she has not yet done.
Due to Maddy’s lack of client work and collaboration with others for her project, I believe she should consider reframing her work to focus on providing advice to other social media managers (SMMs) like _hellomedia on Instagram or thesocialmedia.ceo on TikTok do. Most students undertaking Digital Artefacts want to run their own social media profiles and aren’t looking for much outside help. Instead of aiming to help their specific project needs, Maddy could pivot her work to focus on tips and her share experience as a possibly more experienced third-year SMM.
This reframing would reposition Maddy’s work into the ‘social media management’ content genre, as she shares her specific skills “developing, publishing and analysing information posted on social media platforms” and her experience as a social media manager.
The next phase for Maddy’s digital artefact will be concentrate on promoting her services across platforms to gain clients, and/or reframing her project to provide SMM guidance to other SMMs.
Jacob Suter – Beyond Empathy
Jacob’s project has gotten off to a delayed start due to the requirements Beyond Empathy has set in place, including police and children’s checks. However, he should be commended for his patience and problem-solving skills to figure out what he could produce behind the scenes before being given the official go-ahead to start the project.
In the last three weeks, Jacob’s moved from defining and ideating to prototyping in the design thinking process. This is evident from Jacob’s recent tweets, illustrating some of the work he has been doing which aligns with his pitched concept and methodology for the project.
I would have liked to see some behind-the-scenes or more explicit evidence of collaboration in Jacobs’s regular tweets about the project, although I understand it has been challenging starting the project so late.
I also think it would be useful for Jacob to utilise his Twitter to promote the social media and podcast links of the GRIT project, because if someone wants to view the project or his marketing work they’ll have to actively go and find it themselves (many social media scrollers won’t make the effort).
Although Beyond Empathy’s GRIT project could appear to fall into the podcast genre because the podcast is the project’s primary output, I believe it, along with Jacob’s marketing and social media work, would all still be considered in the “non-for-profit” genre. This is because the GRIT project including marketing collateral is promoting a public cause and has social benefit, “to assure the voices of the Shoalhaven people are heard…” despite recent bushfires.
I wouldn’t recommend Jacob spend time considering reframing the project yet since he has technically only spent two weeks creating content for Beyond Empathy. There may be an opportunity to reframe their utility in the future, though this is unlikely since the project is run by Beyond Empathy and not Jacob himself.
Jacob has set up a mood board, grid matrix, and branding guidelines for this project. Now, the most important thing that Jacob and the other students working for Beyond Empathy he is collaborating with can do the next few weeks is content creation, iteration, and developing a feedback loop with their audience.
Final Thoughts…
Gaining or providing ngoing feedback can provide insight into what works well and should continue to be iterated, address problems that arise, and provide specific areas for improvement.
As always, I’ve continued to develop my peer-reviewing skills through this process, and I hope my reflections and suggestion benefit Jacob and Maddy as they continue their projects.
Header Image
Bonnie Stonestreet 