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Who am I?

Peggy Sue Wood

Editor of The Anime View

theanimeview.com

My name is Peggy Wood and I am the editor of the Anime View, a small blog which you can see at theanimeview.com.

The Anime View started as an outlet for my obsession with the anime and manga I was viewing at the time, however it has since developed from a solo blog into a small blogging team wherein we aim to create content that provides our audience of animation and comic fans with a mix of content that engages the mind to look critically at the media we love and consume.

Currently, many posts have centered on manhwa and other Korean publications, shifting away from the heavy Japanese influences of the blog’s origins. With new contributors joining the fray, we’re also looking toward games, American animated and comic media, industry knowledge, and other news to share with our growing readership.

This video is a combination of work I’ve written on Black Butler that I’ve combined into a comprehensive video as I plan to present on these topics, specifically on Aestheticism, The Gothic, and Foreshadowing found within black butler in the near future.

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Step 1: Planning A Successful (re)Launch

Background
Finding Your Target Audience
SM Platforms & Communications Strategies
Marketing Tactics & Initiatives
Information Gathering & Marketing Assessments
Mission Statements
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals & Objectives
Analytics/Matertics (ROI)
Social Media Management
Executive Summary

Today, we will be delving into the fundamentals of blogging. The goal of this presentation is to provide you with insights on how to initiate your own blog or revamp an existing one, enabling you to consistently produce content and cultivate a brand/readership.

It's important to clarify that this presentation does not promise immediate success, influencer status, or brand deals. If those are your expectations, I regret to inform you that you may need to seek out a more advanced workshop in these specific areas.

Our focus in the basics centers on branding, content focus, and development. We'll be sharing tips on starting or restarting your blog and maintaining consistency.

Throughout this presentation, I'll be using my anime blog and blogging team as a case example to illustrate the process of getting started and progressing. I'll cover various considerations, such as platforms, audience choice, media ethics, and more––offering insights into the blogger's perspective. Additionally, we'll provide advice for those new to this subject.

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Background

Mission Statement

Welcome to The Anime View! In 2013, TAV started as a lone-teen’s blog—one filled mostly with re-postings of memes and collections of anime gifs. However, since then the blog has changed into a three-person team that’s still growing. Our Goal is to grow TAV into a proper publication and resource. One where we shift away from the heavy Japanese influences of the blog’s origins to critically looking at games, animation, and comics media, promote industry knowledge, and educational insights to share with our growing readership.

Members

Peggy Wood, Editor & Publisher

Krow Smith, Writer

Kathy Cañeba, Copyeditor

C2C Business Model

• We’re consumers of entertainment and producers of content for other consumers of the same entertainment content

• We’re not currently selling products, but planning to rely on contribution or ads in the future

• We may become a B2C business model in the future by introducing a premium-content feature or merchandise to our website, but we are not there yet

Annual Revenue Goals

$0 (Starting off may be $0, but you can always work to improve this!)

Let’s me give you all a bit of background about myself.

I started The Anime View in 2013 around the end of my freshman year of college. I already had a personal blog but wanted something more focused on my anime and manga interests. With the growth of myself and the team we’ve started to expand into a more generalized look at animation and comics world-wide while still maintaining a heavy base in the media’s form that started the blog. We’re still a group blog for now, but eventually we hope to develop into a proper publication.

Members include myself,

Peggy Sue Wood. I am the Editor & Publisher

Krow Smith, Writer

& Kathy Cañeba, (Ka - neh - ba) Copyeditor

In addition, we have several contributors who prefer to remain anonymous.

In the past year, 2023, as the Editor of TAV, I have presented on various topics, including marketing discussions like "How Fan Content Creates New Fans & Other Important Information!" at Anime Impulse. This presentation delves into the application of fan-created content in the industry life cycle and the intricacies of copyright rules. I have also conducted panels on academic subjects such as "Making A Place For Yokai In The Modern World" and "Entering Anime & Manga Studies" at Anime Town Greenville. Additionally, broader industry discussions like "Manga & Comics: A Different Cultural Base" took place at Anime Expo. Some of these presentations will be shared at Kumoricon as well.

Beyond TAV blogging, my primary profession revolves around education. Currently, I serve in a writing instructor at a local college while pursuing my own studies. Prior to this, I worked as a freelance editor and writer in the publishing field for several years.

Today, my objective is to provide you with a starting point for blogging, emphasizing the need to approach it as a business. The page displays subjects we'll delve into, such as TAV's mission statement, our business model, and revenue goals. These are details you'll grasp as you continue blogging, and I'll strive to convey them to you today. While the pace might be brisk, rest assured that all the details, including visuals, will be available on our blog (theanimeview.com).

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Who Are You?

Who are you?

What are you making?

What makes your brand different from everything else available?

And, most importantly, who are you aiming to attract with your content?

The first step, even before creating your blog, is to think about your brand. Who are you? What content are you producing? What sets your brand apart from others, and, most importantly, who is your target audience?

This concept can evolve over time. Initially, you might focus on anime reviews, cosplay tutorials, a combination of content, or something entirely different.

In the case of TAV, it began with me re-blogging images from my favorite anime and manga on a Tumblr page. Now, it has evolved into a more academic and professionally oriented platform, featuring a mix of reviews and analysis.

Many blogs share roots in a loose structure like this, but when starting out, it's crucial to define your aim, whether it's connecting with fellow fans or expressing your thoughts.

A significant aspect of defining your blog's purpose is identifying the audience you aim to reach.

Begin with yourself. What do you want to write about? I typically recommend starting with something you are already passionate about. Are you fascinated by the One Piece universe? Start creating content about it. You can do so by sharing your insights, discoveries, or integrating things that you think connect to it from daily-life.

Having decided on a content theme, the next step is to consider your target audience.

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Target Audience

Who is our audience?

Personas
Anime/manga fans that are young (young adults/ teens/late-adolescents)
Critics looking at animation, comics, and/or games
Anime/Manga Academics
Parents/Guardians + Friends + Colleagues

A target audience refers to the specific group that a product is intended for, and in this context, the product is your blog.

To determine a target audience, most social media organizers will prompt you to create personas of your ideal readers. This involves detailing their demographics (such as age or gender), interests, and potential behaviors.

At TAV, our identified personas are:

Anime/manga fans, possibly younger (young adults/teens/late-adolescents)

Critics focusing on animation, comics, and/or games

Anime/Manga Academics

Parents/Guardians + Friends + Colleagues

Now, visualize what a member of one of these groups might look like, or even better, what an individual from this group might be like. Consider the differing interests of a teen versus the parent of that teen, or the preferences of an academic.

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Target Audience

Personas	Needs or Situational Triggers	Targeted Messaging
Anime/manga fans that are young (young adults/ teens/ late-adolescents)	Values: Entertainment Needs: Clear language, easy to access information, and trust in the information provider Situational Triggers: Opinionated Titles	Use clearly defined and opinionated titles on posts to get them engaged and then address how we came to the opinion in the post. Invite replies at the end as with critics.
Critics looking at animation, comics, and/or games	Values: interested in making similar content or seeing another perspective Needs: May need to see more than one perspective to formulate their opinion(s) Situational Triggers: Invitation share their own thoughts	Invite a response at the end of blog posts, like: “Thoughts?” or “I’m interested in hearing other perspectives—do you agree or disagree? Let me know!”
Anime/Manga Academics	Values: Knowledge Needs: Rational arguments, research, and clearly defined biases Situational Triggers: Tagging posts (so if you search, for example, for a speaker and our notes show up from a panel the speaker did, it would draw in the academics)	Use of our recommended reads and watches plus our notes to target those interested in media studies.
Parents/Guardians + Friends + Colleagues	Values: interested in understanding what their kids/friends/colleagues are into Needs: Possibly to feel assured on what their children are consuming media-wise OR needs a better understanding of what their friend/colleagues like Situational Triggers: Imagery	Use of images regularly to show what scenes we are referring to and addressing questionable material openly.

This is where you can begin breaking down what these groups/personas desire in terms of content.

In the social media industry, this is where you can create an evaluation of needs or situational triggers and targeted messaging to encourage engagement that responds to those needs.

Keep in mind that a good engagement rate is between 1% to 5%. So, out of 100 people, if we can get 1 person to engage with a like, comment, or reach the bottom of the post's page, we've done well & the more followers you have, the harder it is to achieve this goal.

For example, with the first persona we’ve picked for our blog viewership – young fans – we believe that they likely value entertainment.

To effectively engage with the information we share, they probably prefer clear language (nothing that requires a dictionary), easy-to-access information (something they can verify on Google or YouTube), and content they can legally access to read/watch, along with trust in the information provider. This what we feel we NEED to give them in order to enjoy or engage with the content through to the end.

Their situational triggers, or what will grab their attention to read a post, are likely to be opinionated titles that name the series, and/or header images featuring the series being discussed. The titles must list the series to show relevance to the reader, the opinionated aspect is to present a side and plays into the clarity of language, and the image shows the relevance.

We anticipate that, by using clearly defined and opinionated titles on posts, this audience persona type will become engaged enough to click into the post and then explore how we arrived at the opinion presented.

To further this engagement into action, we'll encourage them to reply at the end as a call to action. The hope is that this will prompt people to comment or like the post.

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Target Audience

Primary Audience	SM Platforms	Communication Strategy
Anime/manga fans that are young (young adults/ teens/late-adolescents)	Tumblr/WordPress, Instagram	Blog posts once a week + Showing personal sides of the writer inside Future: Instagram Posting Previews
Critics looking at animation, comics, and/or games	Tumblr/WordPress, Twitter	Blog posts once a week + advertising post releases/previews on Twitter
Anime/Manga Academics	Tumblr/WordPress, Twitter	Blog posts once a week + advertising post releases/previews on Twitter

Secondary Audience	SM Platforms	Communication Strategy
Parents/Guardians + Friends + Colleagues	Tumblr/WordPress, Twitter, Instagram/Facebook	Blog posts once a week + being communicative on Twitter about what is coming out Future: Facebook posts to build our ethos or make us better known for being open to contacting

Now that you’ve picked the potential audience and decided what they likely value and are going to be engaged by, consider who among them is your primary and secondary audiences from the list of personas. The primary audience consists of those actively seeking content that aligns with what you are likely to produce, while the secondary audience includes those who come across it through others or another subject.

For example, at TAV, we assume our primary audience comprises individuals who enjoy anime and manga. These fans are likely on the younger side, functioning as critics or academics in the field, in line with the content we want to and do produce.

We assume our secondary audience at least knows someone who is a fan—probably parents/guardians or friends of the readers, or colleagues of critics/academics who are linked to the information or searching it up to understand a topic.

Once you have established, effectively, who your potential audience is or will be, you can start to consider platforms & communication strategies.

Platforms should be relatively clear, encompassing WordPress, Twitter/X, Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Communication strategies refer to the ways in which you plan to share your content and the framing you should adopt for that content.

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SM Platforms

Social Media We Have:

Tumblr/WordPress: @theanimeview (theanimeview.tumblr.com & theanimeview.com)

Twitter: @TAVmedia

Instagram: @theanimeview

YouTube: @theanimeview

TikTok: @theanimeview

Facebook: @theanimeview

Active Social Media - 2023

Tumblr/WordPress: @theanimeview (theanimeview.tumblr.com & theanimeview.com)

Twitter: @TAVmedia

Activate Social Media Goal for Summer 2022

Tumblr/WordPress: @theanimeview (theanimeview.tumblr.com & theanimeview.com)

Twitter: @TAVmedia

Instagram: @theanimeview

YouTube: @theanimeview

TikTok: @theanimeview

Starting with platforms, you can assume that all potential audiences read some amount of blogs. This is a generalized assumption supported by studies and surveys. According to a 2021 article by HubSpot, at least 60% of internet users read blogs, and this number has only increased since. Therefore, it's a safe bet that our content has the potential to be read by fans of––if nothing else––blogs.

Likely platforms for success as a blog are Tumblr and WordPress, both of which we at TAV use. Other website platforms like Wix and Google Sites are also options, but WordPress is well-known for blogging platforms and is highly accessible for those starting out. Blogger is known but may be a bit challenging for those new to blogging.

Twitter, now known as X, is prominent in the academic and critic space, with Instagram or TikTok potentially serving as primary platforms for our younger audience members.

Because we at TAV all have jobs outside and our blog is more for fun than for business, we haven't invested too much in other platforms, though we have experimented with TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.

For those wondering which platforms to use, here are my recommendations:

If you enjoy micro-blogging and are comfortable with video, Instagram and TikTok are for you. You can cross-post easily, and short-form video is popular.

If you enjoy micro-blogging but are not comfortable with video, Twitter and Tumblr are suitable. Tumblr allows you to connect quickly to an audience through tagging, as does Twitter, and you do not have to write much to consistently put out content. You can also share images on these platforms easily.

Micro-blogging, by the way, is a form of blogging that involves sharing short, concise, and often informal posts. These posts are typically brief, limited to a certain number of characters or words, depending on the platform. Micro-blogging platforms are designed for quick and easy sharing of information, making them well-suited for users who want to share thoughts, updates, or content in a succinct manner. Popular examples of micro-blogging platforms include Twitter, where posts are limited to 280 characters, and TikTok and Instagram, which focus on short-form videos and images, respectively.

Now, if you enjoy blogging and writing in detail, you'll want a more traditional blogging platform like WordPress and Tumblr, which allow long-form content.

Consistency in branding is crucial, so each platform should have the same username/handle as best you can. For example, everything for TAV is @theanimeview, with the exception of Twitter, where we are @TAVmedia. ALSO, I cannot stress this enough, please do not look us up at theanimeview on Twitter because it is not ours and not our brand.

While this is the only platform where we don't use theanimeview as our primary handle, we also have @TAVmedia on Tumblr, allowing us to link it back to us on more than one platform. This is important for helping your readership find you on other platforms.

With this in mind, let's move on to communication strategies.

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Communication Strategies

Content Strategies by Platform - Active Social Media

Tumblr/WordPress: @theanimeview (theanimeview.tumblr.com & theanimeview.com) (cross posting)

• Content with depth (story/art/character analysis or reviews)

• Add calls to action (ex. share your thoughts…) at the end of posts

• Notes (industry knowledge)

• Add calls to action (ex. something we missed? let us know!) at the end of posts

• “Chatting” Content (community building/engagement)

• No calls to action - purpose is to show who we, as creators, are to our audience

• Engage with our audience via comments

X We are not the news

Twitter: @TAVmedia

• Retweet news on big things happening in the anime community & fandom (we don’t write it)

• Share latest posts

X Engage with our audience

Communication strategies outline your social media tactics to achieve specific goals with or for your audience and establish the metrics you will track to measure your progress toward those goals.

At TAV, we aim for at least one post per week as our key content goal, emphasizing a consistent tone and focus to connect with our audience.

Considering our personas, particularly the younger audience who values entertainment, truthfulness, and information accessibility, our content is tailored to align with these preferences. This includes showcasing the personal side of the writer, admitting mistakes, discussing preferred series with transparency about biases, and more.

On our blog platforms, we have implemented targeted messaging, incorporating clearer, opinionated titles, marketing images as headers, and calls to action at the end of each post. This strategy has resulted in good engagement, with some followers consistently liking and commenting on our posts.

In setting up this goal, we decide on our focus, cross-posting on platforms like Tumblr and WordPress and using clear categorization for easier navigation on our blog. Additionally, we share more news-related content on Twitter, such as advertising panels at events.

For newcomers to blogging, a solid starting point is to determine what can be realistically achieved each week without causing burnout. If, for instance, you can commit to a tweet per week, start there. If you can only manage one blog post a month, establish a consistent schedule (e.g., every four weeks).

It's important to note that starting with weekly posting isn't mandatory; most people don't. Build up to it at a pace that suits you. Once you've decided on your content production consistency, outline your strategy accordingly.

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Communication Strategies

Title

Content of Post

Messaging

Call to Action

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Marketing Tactics & Initiatives

Campaigns

• #LocalAnime

• Our first official campaign - Summer 2022 project meant to highlight the mainstream growth of anime and how people can find the hot spots (at least 1 post dedicated to this # every other week)

Messaging

• Anime/manga is mainstream now

• We found “location” - here’s how & here’s a review of “location”

• Exploration of culture/fandom

• Participating in your local community - in-person & online

How?

Thursday: • Finding a location > picture taking > geotagging (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok/Youtube)

Friday: • Exploration of culture/fandom (Tumblr/WordPress Post > Post Preview is shared on Twitter)

Saturday: • Here’s how we found it & here’s a review of “location” (Tumblr/WordPress Post & TikTok/Youtube Post) & • Participating in your local community - in-person & online (All platforms)

Once you have these elements, you can develop more specific campaigns through Marketing Tactics & Initiatives.

For instance, let's consider a campaign for local anime on our platforms.

The messaging would likely revolve around the idea that anime/manga is mainstream now. We'd begin by providing clarity about what that means to us—showcasing anime at McDonald's, in thrift stores, etc.

Our content outline might include:

Sharing our discovery of a specific "location" and providing a review

Exploration of the culture/fandom related to that location

The takeaway from this campaign would likely be participating in your local community both in-person and online.

Outside of this campaign, we plan to maintain our regular in-depth content weekly or, at least, bi-weekly. Simultaneously, we'll make posts tied to this campaign every other week on our blog.

That's a campaign.

However, before launching campaigns, we still need to define our niches. We already have our audience goals, but the question is: how do we draw them in, and how do we distinguish ourselves from others?

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Information Gathering & Market Assessment

Social Media & Critical Analysis of Anime

• Used actively by producers and fandom

• Most often used for advertisement of new releases & community building by producers

• Fandom uses social media in much the same way

(Examples from Instagram - Right: @Crunchyroll | Left: @animeunderground_)

Crunchyroll using “Yuta appreciation post ✨ (via JUJUTSU KAISEN 0)” post for community building/engagement also serves the purpose of showing owned rights to publish/produce this content in the US. Ties in with the JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 movie. 20 May 2022 screenshot/pubdate.

@animeunderground_ on instagram - their

This is where we delve into marketing research, or more specifically, Information Gathering & Market Assessment.

For information gathering, at TAV, we started our research by exploring websites with content similar to our own.

What we discovered was that the most significant blogs originated from distributors and publishers of anime and manga, rather than from other fans or from magazines. In terms of publications, the majority of information we had started looking at covered by content farms like Vanet Inc.’s CBR.com and Screenrant.

Fan-created content, similar to our own, generally fell under news-oriented items such as release dates or publisher updates, readily available on the main distributor and publisher pages. It also aligned with content creation, typically featuring fan art, exemplified by the image on the left, or anime-related memes and appreciation posts.

Publishers like Crunchyroll also appeared to leverage memes and appreciation content, as evident in the example on the right.

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Information Gathering & Market Assessment

Competing Websites

• Comicsverse (www.comicsverse.com)

• Anime Feminist (www.animefeminist.com)

Key Hashtags?

• Only on the posts themselves

• #featured #titles #themes/topics #anime/manga/comic/etc.(genre form)

further research, we identified that our most relevant comparisons in terms of content were likely to be Comicsverse, which predominantly focuses on American Comics with critical analysis and in-depth discussions of story, character development, and more, and Anime Feminist, which follows a similar approach but specifically examines Japanese anime and manga through a critical, feminist lens. Although many ani-tubers shared similarities in content, we excluded them from our comparisons since we haven't ventured into video content actively.

Both of these platforms, when active, primarily concentrate on producing and sharing their latest posts via Twitter and on their websites. Notably, Comicsverse is no longer publishing. We've observed that websites generating long-form, in-depth content, especially with a professional or academic lens, tend not to sustain themselves in this medium for extended periods.

Content farms like Valnet Inc., which publish more short-form and less in-depth writing, appear to be dominating this particular niche thus far.

Understanding this landscape, we can now establish goals for our content, defining how we might distinguish ourselves from other blogs through our mission statement.

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Mission Statement Development

Why does your blog exist?

Background or Inspiration

What makes your blog different?

Your content

TAV: Our Goal is to grow TAV into a proper publication and resource. One where we shift away from the heavy Japanese influences of the blog’s origins to critically looking at games, animation, and comics media, promote industry knowledge, and educational insights to share with our growing readership.

Actionable Social Media Plan

Audience & Content Focus ->

Platform Choice ->

Strategies ->

Marketing Assessment ->

Goals ->

Measured/Evaluated Outcomes ->

Informed Revision of Action & Repeat !

The mission statement serves as a guide to explain why the blog exists and what sets it apart. It also shapes the direction of your content.

As mentioned many slides ago, I shared our mission statement. Initially, we started because a teen anime fan, wanting to share thoughts and pictures about anime, created a Tumblr. Since then, our mission and goals have evolved.

Our niche, what makes us different, is defined by who we are targeting and why. In this case, "our goal is to grow TAV into a proper publication and resource. One where we shift away from the heavy Japanese influences of the blog’s origins to critically looking at games, animation, and comics media, promote industry knowledge, and provide educational insights to share with our growing readership."

Displayed on the screen below, I've listed an Actionable Social Media Plan, outlining the steps we've already taken. We've defined our Audience and Content Focus, selected Platforms, discussed Strategies for our content, and examined the markets.

Now, we can begin setting specific goals, measuring our outcomes, and making decisions for improvement.

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S.M.A.R.T. Goals & Objectives

Specific Goals (We Want To Get Traction)

? Double our subscriber count from 400 to 800

✔ Keep posting at least once a week + 1 Twitter

✔ Get our website linked to Google AdSense

✔ Get our website on a WordPress platform

Measurable

✔ Subscriber count can reach 800

✔ Content published weekly

✔ Website linked to Google AdSense

✔ Website is on WordPress

Achievable

✔ All three of the goals are achievable

Realistic/Time-Bound

✔ Goals are realistic with a realistic deadline

SMART is an acronym representing the type of goal setting recommended in a social media plan. It stands for Specific Goals, Measurable outcomes, Achievable and Realistic goals within a Time-Bound setting.

For instance, at TAV, we aimed to increase our subscriber count from 400 to 800 within three months back in early 2022. Let's analyze whether this is a SMART goal:

Specific: Yes, it clearly targets increasing the subscriber count.

Measurable: Yes, as we can track the subscriber count.

Achievable: Yes, as others have reached 800 or more subscribers.

Realistic: Yes, given our starting point of 400 subscribers.

Time-Bound: Yes, with a set timeframe of three months.

We had additional goals, such as maintaining our posting schedule of at least once a week plus once on Twitter post, getting our website linked to Google AdSense, and migrating our website to a WordPress platform.

After three months, we assessed the results. We achieved three of the four goals relatively quickly: maintaining our posting schedule, getting added to Google AdSense, and transitioning to a WordPress platform. Although we later disconnected from Google AdSense due to platform issues, this success happened swiftly and was exciting.

However, despite implementing planned strategies like adding calls to action and creating a summer campaign, we fell short of reaching the 800 subscriber count goal. Our subscriber count only increased by about a hundred or so.

To understand why this is the case, let's consider the factors look at the analytics.

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ANALYTICS/METRICS (ROI)

The Plan (S.M.A.R.T. Goals)

Analytics - Tumblr/WordPress & Twitter

? Double our subscriber count from 400 to 800 through our blogging platforms

(Tumblr/WordPress specific)

400 followers went up to roughly 550

✔ Keep posting at least once a week + 1 Twitter or 1 Instagram post

> Achieved

✔ Get our website linked to Google AdSense

> Achieved (Implementing in June 2022)

✔ Get our website on a WordPress platform

> Achieved

? Increase Brand Awareness, Specifically Among The Anime Fan Community

> Unsure

✔ Increase Visitor Traffic On Blog Pages From Current Fans and Newcomers

> Achieved: Noted that replying to comments helped boost engagement in our analytics

The data analytics tools we used at the time and now are embedded into our publishing platform. Since we have not yet embarked on any large-scale marketing initiatives and are not extensively using various platforms, this kind of low-level analytical analysis suffices for our current needs.

On Tumblr (depicted in blue), spikes occurred in likes and re-blogged content almost immediately. Unlike Wordpress, we cannot measure views for the platform. More notable spikes are observed with the release of, for example, a new series on Netflix (once a month) and during the summer when we made a Free Comic Book Day post with links to where you could get a free comic in your area.

On WordPress, the spikes resemble a wave on Wednesdays and Saturdays (our primary posting days with Wednesday being a preview of the Saturday post). Unlike Tumblr, WordPress provides information on views in a day, encompassing not just likes or reblogs.

Although we didn't reach the goal of gaining 400 more subscribers, our count did increase to around 550 with the two platforms. More significantly, we observed a substantial rise in views. Analytics indicated an initial count of over a hundred views per day at the beginning, which doubled to a little over 200 views per day by the end of the three-month period.

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TYPES OF CONTENT

The Plan (S.M.A.R.T. Goals)

Analytics - Tumblr/WordPress & Twitter

? Double our subscriber count from 400 to 800 through our blogging platforms

(Tumblr/WordPress specific)

> SO FAR: Roughly 400 followers is up to roughly 550

✔ Keep posting at least once a week + 1 Twitter or 1 Instagram post

> Achieved

✔ Get our website linked to Google AdSense

> Achieved (Implementing in June 2022)

✔ Get our website on a WordPress platform

> Achieved

? Increase Brand Awareness, Specifically Among The Anime Fan Community

> Unsure

✔ Increase Visitor Traffic On Blog Pages From Current Fans and Newcomers

> Achieved: Noted that replying to comments helped boost engagement in our analytics

Our long-form content garnered the most views, surpassing short-form items like notes or chatting posts. This insight gives us confidence that our audience is particularly interested in our long-form work despite some spikes seen on posts with notices for local events (like the free comic book day).

Subsequently, we experimented with cross-posting and platform expansion. Each time we actively engaged on multiple platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, now X), our subscriber count and readership increased, but our count would leveling off when we focused solely on our main platforms—WordPress and Tumblr.

Armed with this new information, it was time to make decisions. While our subscriber count exhibited slow but consistent growth when cross-posting to multiple platforms, considering that no one on the team works TAV full time and the necessity to streamline our platform focuses, we opted to maintain consistency on Tumblr and WordPress, with plans for future platform expansion a few years down the line.

As such, we’ve accepted that our subscriber count may not grow quickly.

Simultaneously, we reaffirmed our commitment to long-form content as our primary focus for content creation and took a closer look at the numbers in 2023.

For instance, our post on Demon King Iruma-kun, which initially had about 200 views at the end of its first year, has now accumulated over 4,000 views in 2023 alone. All our long-form posts consistently reach over 1,000 views, indicating that we are moving in the right direction.

And, according to analytics. we’re maintaining a solid and consistent growth in overall readership, despite our subscriber count only growing slightly (even now).

For us, this is great because even though we have a low subscriber count, our overall readership and follow through in reading a post has grown (and, remember, 1-5% engagement is great).

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ANALYTICS/METRICS (ROI)

It is best to take a standard approach of listening, interacting, engaging, collaborating, and adding to the social web through your content publication. To do this, you make SMART goals and continue to track, measure, and evaluate how your content is perceived by readers in order to generate and inform subsequent action items on our platforms moving forward.

Actionable Social Media Plan

Audience & Content Focus ->

Platform Choice ->

Strategies ->

Marketing Assessment ->

Goals ->

Measured/Evaluated Outcomes ->

Informed Revision of Action & Repeat !

The goal of measuring is to help you make informed decisions for your blog, not just a means of accumulating points in a social media popularity contest.

In essence, this process mirrors the rinse-and-repeat cycle of the actionable social media plan. I advise you all to conduct a review about once a year, reflecting on your blog's current state, its evolution over the past year, and your goals for its future.

Revisiting and reassess your:

Audience & Content Focus

Platform Choice

Strategies

Marketing Assessment

Goals

Measured/Evaluated Outcomes

Informed Revision of Action

This approach ensures ongoing refinement and adaptation for the upcoming year.

Now, with the time remaining, let's get into two crucial considerations for both your content and you as a content creator.

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Background / Media Ethics

Who We Are

✔ Friends

✔ Fans

✔ Focused

What We Do

✔ Critical Analysis of Animation, Games, & Comics (Mostly from Japan)

✔ Share Industry Knowledge for Fans

✔ Review Content

X Cosplay Coverage

X Timely or Frequent Releases/News

Our Values

✔ Honesty

✔ Quality

✔ Story

✔ Bravery

The first consideration is Media Ethics, a factor tied to both your identity and your chosen blogging platform.

At TAV, we have a clear understanding of our identity as a team and a publication. We view ourselves and our community as friends, fans, and focused individuals. TAV's unique offering lies not in news updates on anime/manga releases or changes but in critical examinations of the media we consume and the surrounding fandom culture. Identifying our content and audience is a crucial initial step in establishing your own blog, as previously mentioned.

Beyond focusing on readership and content themes, we have established specific guidelines to maintain consistency and uphold our values as netizens. Our values include honesty in expressing opinions, a commitment to the quality of what we consume and publish, prioritizing story over art style or individual characters, and advocating for the freedom of any fandom member to express their likes and dislikes, regardless of potential backlash or commentary. These principles align with our overarching ideas of media ethics tailored to our blog.

It's essential to recognize that blogs serve as somewhat news-like sources, and as media producers, you must define and understand your stance on media ethics.

While you may not necessarily need to post detailed discussions on each of these aspects (though we have done so under our editorial guidelines), having a rough understanding for yourself is crucial when starting, aiding in maintaining consistency in content and responses.

It's worth noting that your media guidelines may evolve over time, much like your mission statement. Ours has undergone multiple revisions since transitioning from my solo blog to a group effort. However, these guidelines have proven invaluable in deciding what to publish, rejecting inappropriate content, and upholding consistency in content focus over time.

Consider, for example, your stance on AI-generated content. At TAV, we appreciate AI as an editing tool but refrain from fully AI-generated work. However, others run art blogs entirely composed of AI-generated content. Defining your do's and don'ts is essential, as it not only aids in maintaining consistency in the type of content you share but also serves as a foundation for responding to future changes, including addressing negative comments or inquiries about plagiarism.

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Social Media Management

Our Policy / Editorial Guidelines (https://theanimeview.com/2022/01/01/editorial-guideline/)

• Media Ethics

• Accuracy / Avoiding Distorations & Bad Information

• Treatment of Sources

• Bias

• Minimizing Harm (Disclaimers)

• How We Decide If Content Is “Newsworthy” (Mostly AP standards)

• Relevance / Timeliness

• Predictability / Simplification / Novelty

• Prominence / X Negativity / Proximity (Campaign #LocalAnime) / Importance / Interest

• Continuity / Composition

• Formatting / Citations / Branding / Content Themes

• Genre Definitions

Media ethics pertains to a part of your social media management.

Many of our policies are a variation and extension of the standard Associated Press guidelines that serve as a foundation for magazines and other publications—an approach I would recommend for most blogs.

In essence, this suggests that your blog should:

Prioritize Accuracy and Avoid Distortions & Bad Information

Treat Sources fairly, acknowledging their humanity even in disagreement or dislike

Clearly express biases when present and strive to minimize Harm, such as including disclaimers for potentially unsuitable content.

This already goes a long way for starting to define guidelines, but these do not encompass responses to hate or content ideas.

Decisions in these areas are left to your discretion. In our case, most of my team opts not to read or respond to comments. Personally, I engage with comments, but I also have a friend double-check my responses when I am responding to negative comments.

Should someone cross certain boundaries, well—block buttons exist for a reason. Establishing your own boundaries and limits is crucial in this regard.

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Social Media Management

Current Tools

• Trello (Member “Pages” >

Calendar >

Projects >

Resources >

Archived

Roles & Responsibilities

Peggy Wood, Editor & Publisher

Casea Smith, Writer

Kathy Cañeba, Copyeditor

The other aspect to contemplate for your content is the tools you use to manage your blog.

Naturally, there are built-in tools such as formatting options, scheduling buttons, etc. If you run a group blog, you might want to consider the level of access you grant to each member.

However, it's essential to think about how you handle the organization and management of the backend as well.

For our social media management, I use Trello. It includes member cards, a calendar featuring important dates and events, resources, and other self-explanatory elements.

With the exception of post writing—where each member contributes—I handle all other aspects of social media management. Consequently, the Trello is shared with only one other person (specifically as a precaution in case of lockout).

This organizational setup aids me in managing dates, times, projects, goals, etc. It's accessible on my phone, allowing for quick note-taking, and it has an autosave feature.

However, some people prefer tools like Notion, a physical notebook, the calendar app on their phone, etc.

Regardless of the tool you choose, maintaining a record and organized system is crucial to ensuring consistent content output.

Having a system can prevent burnout by providing a clear visual representation of the time allocated for a project and the efforts invested.

Burnout is a significant concern in many industries, so keep this in mind.

When starting out, find what works for you now. Set SMART goals for the future.

For instance, don't commit to posting three 1000+ word articles three times a week if, after a month, you realize you're exhausted. It might be more sustainable to aim for one post a week or even once a month and build up to that goal.

While content is king, consistency is the goal, and realistically, the slow and steady path is more likely to lead to long-term success.

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Background / Media Ethics

FIND WHAT INSPIRES YOU :-D

Reviews and Analysis

✔ In-depth reviews of new and popular anime/manga series.

✔ Episode-by-episode breakdowns and analysis.

✔ Comparative reviews of anime adaptations versus their manga source material.

Top Lists and Rankings:

✔ Top 10 best anime/manga of the season/year.

✔ Ranking favorite characters, episodes, or arcs.

✔ Lists of must-watch series for different genres (e.g., shounen, shojo, isekai).

Reviews of anime/manga-related merchandise.

✔ Guides on where to find rare and valuable collectibles.

✔ Showcases of personal collections and storage/display tips.

✔ Fandom and Community:

Reviews and Analysis:

In-depth reviews of new and popular anime/manga series.

Episode-by-episode breakdowns and analysis.

Comparative reviews of anime adaptations versus their manga source material.

Top Lists and Rankings:

Top 10 best anime/manga of the season/year.

Ranking favorite characters, episodes, or arcs.

Lists of must-watch series for different genres (e.g., shounen, shojo, isekai).

Character Spotlights:

Detailed profiles and backstories of popular characters.

Character development analysis over a series.

Comparative analysis of characters from different series with similar traits.

Thematic Discussions:

Exploring recurring themes and motifs in anime/manga.

Deep dives into cultural references and their significance in series.

Analysis of specific genres and their evolution over time.

Industry News and Updates:

Coverage of major announcements from anime conventions.

Updates on upcoming releases and anticipated series.

Interviews with creators, voice actors, and industry professionals.

Fan Theories and Speculations:

Sharing and dissecting popular fan theories.

Speculating on future plot developments.

Encouraging community submissions of theories and ideas.

Behind-the-Scenes Insights:

Profiles of famous studios and their production processes.

Analysis of animation techniques and art styles.

Interviews or features on manga artists and their creative journeys.

Merchandise and Collectibles:

Reviews of anime/manga-related merchandise.

Guides on where to find rare and valuable collectibles.

Showcases of personal collections and storage/display tips.

Fandom and Community:

Highlighting fan art, fan fiction, and cosplay.

Coverage of fan events and conventions.

Interviews with notable figures in the anime/manga fandom.

Educational Content:

Explaining the basics of anime/manga for newcomers.

Guides on how to start your own manga collection.

Tutorials on creating your own manga or anime-inspired art.

Opinion Pieces:

Personal essays on favorite series or characters.

Discussions on controversial topics within the anime/manga community.

Reflections on the impact of anime/manga on personal life and culture.

Collaborations and Guest Posts:

Joint reviews or discussions with other bloggers or YouTubers.

Guest posts from other fans or experts in the community.

Hosting Q&A sessions with fans or industry professionals.

Keep the joy – if you treat it like a job and not like a passion it can create that burnout. Write down your notes in the way you would write them out yourself. Puzzle piece it out

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The General Idea

Market Segment (Your Niche): Fans who are looking for more than entertainment--they're looking at the medium of anime/manga/etc. for critical analysis, academic purpose, and industry knowledge both for personal and career interests

The Focus

A current goal of developing a larger readership and a future goal to convert readers into patrons using long-form content.

Platforms

• Tumblr/WordPress (cross posting)

• Twitter

Actionable Social Media Plan

Audience & Content Focus ->

Platform Choice ->

Strategies ->

Marketing Assessment ->

Goals ->

Measured/Evaluated Outcomes ->

Informed Revision of Action & Repeat !

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