Part Two of Order of Operations/A Faces of Silicon Valley's Online Community Member's Guide/Manual_Miscellaneous
Hiiii Everyoneeeeeeee!!! I hope everyone had a good week! Happy Belated Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! It's really important that we show our gratitude to those who have helped us in our life. Whether that be thanking a stranger who opened the door or thanking our family-gratitude is very important. Now, I know the last time I covered this topic, I said it would be a short topic. Looking back on the blog post, I am well-aware that it was not short. Never the less, I will try to keep this blog post short and concise, but if I fail to make it short, prepare for a longggg rideee!
Again, unlike our usual blog posts, I'm not going to inform everyone on the weekly news for our website, since our blog post covers a majority of this. If you have no idea what I'm talking, about feel free to check our "Week-23" blog post where we covered part one of this series. So without further ado...............................I BEGINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This part of the blog post is assuming you've read Part One, which was our last post. If you haven't done that, I highly recommend making sure you've read those pieces! Otherwise you'll be lost, it'll be like trying to do middle school math but you haven't learned how to multiply yet. Although that was meant as a harmless joke, there are students who struggle with this. We must do our best to support them, so keep in mind if you ever see someone struggling, we have got to support them! :) Okay, now that I'm done with my mini tangent, I really do mean, let's begin! So last time, I ended with talking about our blog posts and the different editions and features found within our blog posts.
So now we're moving onto the last three pages of our website. Community Stories, Opportunities, & Contact Us! So the first paged lined up is COMMUNITY STORIES! I love this page and many of our readers love it too! Community Stories strives to embody our mission statement for Faces of Silicon Valley. In fact, Community Stories is one of the biggest ways that our website is able to connect many online. On our community stories page, I share interviews with voices around our community. I have featured talented, young musicians, athletes, debaters, and more! On this page, you are welcome to scroll down and view our past interviews. A typical community story will have pictures associated with the interviewee and their activities. So on the left, you'll see the pictures, and on the right you'll see the header and body. Allow me to break down the header and body......
Header: This is bolded and gives the basics about when the interview took place. The month and year, as our interviews/community stories are posted every month!
Body: This is my favorite part! I write a summary of an interview, showcasing the highlights of our interview and key facts about our interviewee. For most of the "bodies," when you scroll down you can access a recording of our interview. There, you can see our actual interactions and see how the interview went!
Now, I'll also use the community stories page to write about some of our interviewees after our interviews? Don't understand, let me explain! :)
For instance, our September Community Story, Mishka Chobe, asked me to create the images for her post. While creating her post, I used Kleki to create some of the features. In fact Kleki has been one of my biggest inspirations for digital art. Kleki is universally accessible through any browser (no installation needed) and allows ANYONE to explore digital art venues. Kleki is open source and community funded, as of right now, it is currently developed and maintained by programmer/artist BITBOF. By the way, for those of you who don't know "open source" is a model that develops software to allow users to access and modify the source code. It is typically free and can be used for any purpose! Additionally, any information written about Kleki was found on https://kleki.com/about/#:~:text=It%20is%20universally%20accessible%20through%20the%20browser%20without,currently%20developed%20%26%20maintained%20by%20the%20programmer%2Fartist%20bitbof.
Okay back to Mishka, so I created the picture for her, and while on Kleki I found this cool animation tool, so with the animation I screen recorded it, and created a pretty cool animation! Be sure to check it out on our community stories page! So what I'm trying to say, is that I finished Mishka's interview but still shared some other information about her, after her time with us passed! Here at Faces of Silicon Valley, we're all about community and creating ever lasting connections. This is how we do it! I reach out to people around the community and ask for their permission to donate some time to an interview. When I posted my first community story, my page views skyrocketed from 14 views a week to 56 views a day, and we've just continued growing! I am FOREVER GRATEFUL to everyone who has helped me! And let this be a reminder, that you can fill our interview form and be featured on Faces of Silicon Valley, just like Mishka and the others! Just fill out this form: https://forms.gle/CAGsioU2V2QaLeCo8 or contact us, using our Contact Us Page that I will talk about in just a bit! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NEXT PAGE = OPPORTUNITIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Opportunities!! I promise this explanation will only take a couple paragraphs...it won't be too long :)
So opportunities is originally a page I created to showcase opportunities around Silicon Valley. Mostly volunteer opportunities and ways to help out our community and those in need. Additionally, some of my interviewees are in the process of creating their own businesses. Here's a sneak peek at one of my interviews that will come in 2025! Sanvitti Shah, an up and coming crochet business entrepreneur is creating her own business! So when she's done building the foundation for that, I'll be marketing her business on my website. Which reminds me of another goal, to uplift new businesses! I know firsthand, how hard it is to build something from the ground and maintain all the time. I run Faces of Silicon Valley all by myself, I built the website, conduct interviews, and write blog posts myself. Of course, over time I'll be looking to delegate my duties and run a team, but for now it's just me. But there's no way I would've gotten any interviews or inspiration without the support of others. My interviewees support me each and every day when they agree to share their story with us. And my readers are my biggest inspirations for posting blogs. Of course that means keeping an alarm every night to write for my blog, which can be embarrassing. And I'll tell you why. I was at a school production they other day, and while they were changing sets, my alarm blared out loud, and everyone looked at me. It was a funny experience looking back on it, but just thought I'd share that. Additionally, back to the Opportunities Page, if you have a opportunity you want me to showcase on that page. Just use our Contact Us Page, and I'll be happy to connect with you on the details so we can share the opportunities you have found. COMMON MISCONCEPTION: Your opportunities don't have to be in Faces of Silicon Valley, they can be remote or anywhere. Our goal is to connect communities anywhere and everywhere! So that's my little tidbit on our Opportunities page! Told you it'd be shorter than our other pages! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE FINAL PART <3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guyssssssssss...........here it isssssssssssss:
THE INFAMOUS CONTACT US PAGE!!!
This page has been mentioned countless times in the manual, but other than that we don't really mention it. But it's something that people should try to highlight more often because the Contact Us Page is kind of like the unsung hero of our website. It's how a lot of my viewers feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. So as we all know the goal of Faces of Silicon Valley is to connect others through an online community. So I'm able to connect with others whether they share their writing or thoughts to me, it's such a heartwarming experience to talk to others and hear what they have to say! :)
With that said, the Contact Us Page isn't the only way to form an online community and talk to others including myself! The comment space at the bottom of every blog post is the best way to connect! Please remember to respond to comment prompts! But if you don't feel comfortable with that, you have two options...
A) Leave an APPRORIATE comment under an anonymous username
B) Contact me privately with your thoughts on our Contact Us Page! You will be given a form where you leave your email and thoughts, and that will be sent directly to me! There I can privately respond to you and communicate with you! :)
So I hope to see more comments and thoughts, whether that be privately or publicly! :)
Now onto, the last part of this website page and this blog post...loll :)
What's on the Contact Us page?
On the Contact Us Page, there is the Contact Us Page, there is the Contact Form. This is a form you can fill out to privately share your comments and thoughts with me! It won't be revealed to anyone except me unless you give your consent/permission. All you have to do is write your name/username, but we highly encourage your name. This allows for us to communicate more effectively with all of you! Next you need to provide your email address so I can email you back and talk to you. If you don't do this, there is absolutely no way your message will send or I will be able to see your message and reply. Last part of the form is the message itself, this is for comments. You can respond to a blog post privately, share some thoughts about the website, or share just about anything APPRORIATE. I'll try my best to get back to you in a timely manner! I try my best to respond to all my viewers personally and in time, because you all mean a lot to me! Next is the Share Your Story with Us Today! Section and that will give you the link to fill out an interview form. That way we can interview you and feature you on our Community Stories Page! Once you click the link: https://forms.gle/CAGsioU2V2QaLeCo8 which I have just provided for you, you can fill out the form and get prepared for your interview. I will usually send you a formal email with details about the interview, your request, and anything else. If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ANDDDDD OMG THAT'S A WRAPPPPPPP + CLOSING THOUGHTS OF MINE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I'm so proud of myself and all of you! It was hard writing a manual, I had to spend two weeks! But this was good! After writing the manual, I realized I need to make some more changes to my website, but don't worry all the changes are listed in the manual. I can't wait to get back to writing my other blog posts, those are more fun loll! And I'm proud of all of you for making it this far! If this was hard to write, it must've been hard to read. So thank you for sticking through the end and reading this manual. It will be really helpful for navigating this website, trust me! It's honestly a simple website to navigate, but there's a lot of interior editions and features, that I feel a lot of readers are confused about. So hopefully this will serve as a navigating handbook of some sort! :)
Comment Prompt:
1) I'd like to pin the two blog posts that have the manual of Faces of Silicon Valley, similar to how one can pin messages in WhatsApp. Any ideas on how to do that? Possibly to pin it to the homepage :)
2) What were your thoughts? How can this manual be improved?
3) How can Faces of Silicon Valley be improved?
4) Any blog posts you'd like to see?
Remember, you don't need to respond to all comment prompts, but it is very much recommended! I do recommend that you mention which blog posts and which prompt you're replying to! It helps me write more satisfactory responses! :)
Thanks Again! And see all you lovely peeps next week! :)
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