Using Transmedia to Pay For College - Post 3

My transmedia creation would consist of a fund for my student debt. I would first use blog sites and even YouTube to describe who I am, what I have achieved, and what I expect to achieve in my future. Then, through sites such as Tumblr and Blogspot I’d gravitate towards promoting my donations website on my Facebook and Instagram sites.

Now a day, a lot of students are turning towards the web to get donations for the future endeavors. With organizations and charities being constantly donated to through the Internet, why not have a personal blog or website that a student can use for their own funding?

The first thing I’d do is establish a website of my own. I’d include information about myself, what my goals are career wise, and what I have already accomplished. I’d post some of the video segments I have produced already as well as recommendations from my employers.

With my own website established, I’d begin to promote. I’d link my website to Facebook, share my videos to YouTube, hash tag anything remotely related to my website on Twitter, link my website to Tumblr and other blog sites. I would even post it on school related forums and Linkedin. My website would become into a campaign, going across multiple platforms and reaching many people.

Through Facebook I would be able to get a more intimate group of viewers to respond to my website. With over 600 friends, the buzz of my website on Facebook would begin to spread to an audience who would be more likely to donate without having to research much about me. On Twitter, I’d promote my website to an unknown audience. I have over 1,500 followers on Twitter, much of whom I do not know – at all! I’d hash tag words related to my website or words that are popular for that day. Complete strangers would begin to become aware of my “campaign” for donations.

Blog sites would be the places where I’d really have the chance to get creative. I could design posts that could be shared with catchy slogans that would appeal to a group of people who are in a situation much like mine. While donations wouldn’t possibly be few from other similar bloggers, the buzz I’d get from the websites would generate more publicity.

It would be sites such as LinkedIn where I’d get a key audience of professionals who would potentially be interested in my story. Now a day, businesses are willing to donate to charities or other foundations for the good publicity that they themselves receive. Cases of complete altruism are rare.

If popular enough, I could buil mobile apps where I offer people a service such as games or other similar services in exchange for money. Books could even be written on the struggle of a the current day college student, it could become an inspirational book.

And if my website were to get enough publicity, I could do a documentary which could be endorsed by Lionsgate or Paramount pictures. In a world of transmedia ANYTHING is possible. Nothing can turn into something, and something big at that. I look at the case of Joshua Johnson.

Johnson was a student with a lot of school debt on his hands. Living in New York City, Johnson decided that to make enough funds to pay for his college expenses he would do the one thing he knew how to do well: tap dance. He tap-danced on subways carts for hours during the weekend, making roughly $300 to $400 a week. Now not only does Johnson have enough money for school, he also started an initiative that reached multiple platforms.

From Facebook friends to blogs to YouTube, Johnson and his mission became viral. NYTimes wrote an article about him that was posted online and just last week Johnson appeared on Katie Couric’s daytime show and also Dancing With The Stars. Not only has he reached network television and newspapers but now he is even working on a movie about New York City street performers and there own initiatives.

My story would be much like Johnson’s – without the tap dancing.

Here is the NYTimes article about Joshua Johnson