Client Project: Print and Digital Content Writing, Production, and Strategy

Client: Wendy Ivanov of Live Loving Florida

M.A.W.R.M. Components: Rhetorical Situation and Descriptive Components

Rhetorical Situation:

Exigency

My Client Project consists of providing full support to realtor Wendy Ivanov as a media producer, writer, and copy editor with the purpose of establishing her new business, developing leads, and increasing traffic on social media platforms.

My goal was to apply the skills and knowledge I have acquired as a graduate student of Rhetorical Theory, Multimodal Composition, Digital Rhetoric, and Media Production to deliver media, print, and digital content to promote LLF’s brand and online reputation.

My client is Wendy Ivanov-Cubek, LLC, d/b/a Live Loving Florida (LLF) is a privately-owned Real Estate Business that started under the brokerage of Keller Williams Realty of Manatee County, Florida. Currently, LLF has joined the roster of realtors working under the Preferred Shore realty group. Wendy Ivanov became a licensed real estate agent in April 2019, and she agreed to be the pro-bono client in my M.A.W.R.M. graduation project.

As the owner of a new business in a very competitive real estate market, my client, Wendy Ivanov, realizes that she must establish LLF’s presence on the web and on social media platforms. Having worked for a fortune-500 company for longer than twenty years, Wendy Ivanov made the bold move into pursuing a career that allows her to help families in finding their perfect homes. Wendy Ivanov is indeed realizing a dream, and she lacks no skills as a businesswoman. However, when it comes to writing, publishing, and managing print and digital content, she recognizes that my professional support is foundational to her achieving her career goals in a timely manner.

Thus, Wendy Ivanov saw the need to work with me as her content strategist are (1) to improve content quality across LLF’s social media accounts; (2) to create a proprietary LLF website; and (3) to increase audience engagement. Furthermore, with me in charge of my client’s digital publishing daily tasks, Wendy Ivanov can focus on the specific responsibilities she has as a real estate agent such as showing homes and negotiating offers on behalf of her clients. Thus, my M.A.W.R.M. client project is exactly what Wendy Ivanov needs to establish her Live Loving Florida brand and real estate business.

Audience

LLF’s primary audience consists of anyone interested in the residential real estate market in Florida and, more specifically, in Southwest Florida, which is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the state. LLF’s secondary audience is other real estate professionals who wish to occasionally partner with Wendy Ivanov to develop leads and actuate sales and purchases of residential properties.

The following list describes a group of people who can potential become LLF’s clients and leads:

Local homeowners looking to sell.
Local homebuyers looking to move across town or move to a different type/size of home.
Out-of-town buyers.
Out-of-town realtors who are looking for referral agents.
Past clients who can refer others to LLF.
New clients who discovered LLF’s web or social media content.
People who have been tagged by your followers or have tagged you on their posts.
Local residents who are not in the market to sell or buy a house at some point in time.

LLF serves all of the communities in Southwest Florida, including: Anna Maria, Boca Grande, Bradenton, Bradenton Beach, Cape Haze, Cortez, Ellenton, Englewood, Grove City, Holmes Beach, Lakewood Ranch, Longboat Key, Myakka City, Nokomis, North Port, North Venice, Osprey, Palm Island, Palmetto, Parrish, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Rotonda, Rotonda West, Sarasota, Sarasota Area, Siesta Key, Terra Ceia, University Park, and Venice.

Constraints

Another major constraint was the lack of scheduling between my client and I to consult and collaborate on the tasks for this project. Wendy Ivanov could not predict the changes on her schedule, since realtors are constantly on call, and any changes on her plans or number of listings and events would affect my tasks at any given day. I became kind of available any time of the day and 7 days a week, as long as I was not in a class or not with a student of mine, the assumption was that I could be reached and expected to create a new post or new email message on the fly. Thus, this project became a time-consuming machine beyond any of what I had planned for and anticipated.

The demands of a social media strategy affected my time management, and the effects negatively cascaded into my ability to keep up with the other major tasks of my client project. Not only was it difficult to communicate to my client when I could be reached and jump into content producer mode but also it was difficult to figure out what to post and when to post. Indeed, having a well-timed strategy was something I only started to figure out after about 6 months on the job. With that said, it quickly became clear to me that the schedule-related constraints derived mostly from my own lack of experience in the industry.

When it came to designing and developing my client’s website, the main constraint was the challenge of self-teaching of web designing tools. I explored a couple before I decided to use WordPress as my website builder and BlueHost as the hosting app. Other constraints derived from building my client’s site resided in having to consult with my client weekly to relay my progress and receive feedback. Also, my client was transitioning from Keller Williams to Preferred Shore in the past month, so there was a certain level of uncertainty about the business becoming an independent realty, which is the reason I was building her an entirely new website.

Descriptive Components:

Design and Invention Processes

The full scope of my project goes beyond digital spaces and what is published as web and social media content. I often copyedit most of Wendy Ivanov’s content for use in print promotional materials such as postcards, flyers, and business cards. Also, I revise email copy, so she can feel confident in exchange messages with her current and prospective clients, and we collaborate in creating a monthly E-Newsletter. Not to mention that, on occasion, I have traveled to Florida to produce videos in collaboration with either my client or a third party business, and assisted Wendy Ivanov in scripting LLF’s videos.

There are 14 kinds of deliverables in my client project. I have added a Project Deliverables page to this portfolio where I display some examples of the works, provide links to each document created for my client project, and a link to my client’s website.

This list also contain links to each item:

Reflection

This project definitely represents a case of learning by doing. While my client project was an excellent opportunity for me to learn about content writing, publishing, and strategy the demanding and fast turning nature of the industry represented a strong obstacle in developing my client project.

The constant demand for content production, just so that I could keep up with feeding my client’s social media accounts, took up most of my time. The work became pretty much unmanageable as it was difficult to balance my work for my client, with my Clemson assistantship workload, and my full-time course load as a M.A.W.R.M. student. However, I did communicate this constraint to my client, Wendy Ivanov, and, in the last two months, we were able to problem solve and manage the social media demands with the work I needed to do for my portfolio and, specially, the work to build the new website for her business.

One of the solutions was to collaborate more often with my client in terms of letting her send me drafts and ideas for the content, and then, I would rewrite, revise, edit, and make changes to visuals before either one of us posted the work. My role for a while became the role of a consultant and, sometimes, my client would post content without my input due to scheduling conflicts.

Collaboration was a key solution in executing my project. For example, writing Tide Tales, LLF’s monthly e-newsletter, became a true collaborative task between my client and me. Wendy Ivanov would collect all the info she wanted to focus on for each month, and I would shape and edit the newsletter. Here and there, she also published some email newsletters without consulting with me.

Eventually, I realized that the deliverables I set out to accomplish in the fulfillment of my client project were enough to keep a whole team of content writers and strategists busy 24/7. With that said, my very gracious client also became more respectful of time off of school, and we achieved a good balance in terms of what could be expected of me as a graduate student, and not as a full-time content producer and strategist.

Demonstrated M.A.W.R.M. Competencies

The ability to apply visual communication theories to multimodal design practices
Sufficient knowledge of scholarship and research or design methods to apply them critically
The ability to apply classical and modern rhetorical theory to contemporary professional communication practices
Demonstrable technological and media production literacies
Outstanding writing and editing skills

Apps/Tools

WordPress
Elementor Pro
BlueHost
Microsoft Excel
Ripl
Canva
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Premiere
Adobe InDesign
Sprout Social Analytics
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIN
YouTube