Artifact Analysis

Reaching out to my interviewee was interesting for me because it was someone I know really well. This made constructing an email somewhat difficult because I did not want to sound too professional, but also wanted to get my point across. I chose to interview one of my coworkers who has an awesome health and wellness program, which I have been interested in since I met her. Her response to my email was quick, and to the point. This was great since I would rather discuss details and collect artifacts in person. After she gave me the “okay”, I took a thorough look at her website for more information. This gave me insight as to how she goes about appealing to her audience and the message she is trying to convey via social media and the web.

It was not difficult to get ahold of Lauren (my interviewee), as I see her at work and am in contact with her often. Our emails were very short, and just enough to get the job done and confirm that she would be willing to help me. The rest of our configurations of when and where to meet happened when I saw her in person. With this being said, our emails do not hold much information on the program itself, they are simply just there to signify that I am interested in learning more about what she does and why. I feel that this helped me discover the context of how the interview and future discussions would be. I had a feeling she would be easy to reach out to, but her quick and positive reply made me feel much more comfortable with continuing this assignment.

On the front page of Lauren’s website, is a clear one sentence blurb about her program. It reads, “a transformative 12 week program to unleash your inner VIXEN”. I feel this is direct, yet also leaves the viewer wanting to read more about why they should be interested in this program, over others. She then goes into detail about what being a “VIXEN” stands for. Each letter signifies an area within the program, and these areas are described in a couple quick sentences. Her bullet points are direct, and clear, causing the reader to have enough information, but not be overwhelmed with too much text in their face. On the bottom of the information page is an area to sign up for the program. The layouts of her pages are appealing to the eye and easy to understand which I believe to be the selling point to those who are interested. Personally, I would not want to spend hours trying to configure a webpage just to find out what it is about and I feel Lauren does a good job of making this easily accessible and smooth.

Through more research not only on Lauren's website, but also her Facebook page, I found various links to meal planning, mental health awareness, how to balance stress and every day life, and much more. The Facebook page appeared to be incredibly helpful, as Lauren posts to it much more often. It was also where I could find feedback from other people as to how they felt the program changed their lives. Feedback from others is very important when gaining knowledge on the program. Positive (and negative) feedback is one of the best ways to hear raw and untouched information about how something works. Lauren's page is popular, bright and full of videos, links, and pictures that show what her program is about. They also show that she is updating and posting often which is a good indicator that she is working hard and cares about what she is doing. I think reaching out on Facebook was a great decision for her as it is a quick way to gain the attention of many people at once. Social media is huge when promoting businesses and she definitely uses it to her advantage.

I am excited to meet with Lauren in person and see what more information I can gain about her program. Her use of the web and social media is huge in promoting what she loves and getting her message across. It was cool to see social media used in such a positive way, as recently I feel I have seen a lot of negativity stemming from it. Lauren knows her audience well and how to appeal to the context of the viewers that show their interest.