9T8 Dance
9T8 Dance is a dance team made up of a diverse group of friends expressing their passion for dance. The group has been invited by City of Sunnyvale's Event Coordinators to perform at events like the Hands on the Arts festival. 9T8 has also performed at the festivals and fundraisers.
Our team’s goal is to share the joy of dance with those in our community. My personal goal when working on the 9T8 project is to practice and implement my marketing and design skills while learning some film and management skills.
The list below shows the different topics I have worked on for this project. You can stay up to date on 9T8 content by following us:
Social Media Marketing
Currently, 9T8 has two social media platforms: Instagram and Facebook. We are mainly active on Instagram, which was founded back in 2018. Our Youtube channel’s analytics show that our audience tends to viewers that fall into 40 to 60 age range. Since Facebook tends to be a platform that is highly active with folks in the age range, I decided to create a Facebook page to engage more with people in the largest audience group.
My goal while using social media is to spread our brand awareness and expand our audience range. The 9T8 logo, color scheme, and typography are essential for marketing on Instagram because it tends to be a platform focussed on aesthetics. I update the Instagram bio regularly regarding newly released videos and also make sure to include our group’s members, colors, fandom name, and link to our Youtube Channel.
Each post includes hashtags to join the community of people viewing or searching for that content. For example, when 9T8 performed to Un Poco Loco from the 2017 movie Coco, I made sure to use hashtags such as #unpocoloco #folklorico so that people searching for the song or genre of dance could find our video. Hashtags such as #9t8dance and #9t8love are two unique ones I claimed for our group, meaning anyone looking for us can click that hashtag to find us and all our other posts. The photos and videos posted always have a description of what dance we are doing and where to find more information.
Once we begin actively using the Facebook page, I would like to post event information for all our upcoming LIVE performances. We’ll be able to invite people easily and share it on our personal accounts. Doing so will drive up attendance and awareness of our group as well as raise more money for the organizations & festivals we perform at.
Graphic Design
I've tried various design concepts and styles to bring uniqueness to our page and increase out viewership and following, thus spreading awareness for our brand.
This is done through the consistent use of the brand colors green (#0D6501 & #149902) and white (#FFFFFF). I make sure to keep the typography similar to that of our logos and Youtube Channel, which is Advent Pro in medium. This way all the content being posted looks uniform, thus creating a strong brand association.
When designing a new concept for each dance cover, I research design elements used by the artist in an album or music video. When 9T8 performed to AOA (Ace Of Angels) songs, I tried to design a look that gave off a heavenly or angelic mood.
I did this by photoshopping angel wings and rainbow overlays on each of the dancers’ images. To tie all the photos together I also created a silver border around each of the images in order to establish a color scheme and to set the tone.
Images edited using the PicsArt App
Another way I experimented with typography by changing the layout, alignment, leading, and kerning. For Ella’s Stay Tonight video, I moved the ‘Stay Tonight’ text on the photo to various positions as a result have a different yet similar design.
Images edited using the PicsArt App
Youtube Management
Although 9T8 was founded in 2017, the 9T8 channel wasn’t created until November of 2018.
When managing the channel, I make sure you visualize how many videos will come from each dance cover. For example, with every dance cover, I also make a Behind the Scenes video and Alternate Version video. Once I figure out how many videos will be made, I plan out when to post them. I noticed that our videos tend to get more views when videos are posted a week apart from one another.
When posting videos, I make sure to post’s title has the same format as the other videos. Usually, each video title will have the 9T8 dancer’s name, the song being performed along with the artist name and the series name, if there is one.
For example, we recently started a series called the Solo Series, where each 9T8 dancer gets to perform by themselves. When posting videos I format the title as “Solo Series | Artist Name by 9T8 Member Name”. The format helps our audience understand what they are clicking on and helps me organize the content and manage the channel better.
Tags have also been very helpful in driving viewers to our platform. When posting a video on Youtube, tags help get the right audience to your content by using keywords that will be searched on Youtube to find our content. Common tags I use include 9T8 dance, 9T8 kpop, dance cover, and kpop in public and the artist or group members’ names.
Lastly, I add End Cards the make it easier for viewers to watch more of our content by recommending which videos to watch next after the video ends.
Some other parts I focus on are the description, where I remind viewers to follow our social media platforms, and list information about the artists, dancers, and where to find more information. One thing I recently found helpful was the Youtube’s Premiere feature that reminds subscribers that a video is about to be posted soon. Besides that, the Schedule feature is also helpful in prescheduling videos to go up automatically as shown below.
We may not have the highest views or large number of subscribers that other channels have, but I’m proud of everything we have accomplished so far. Our platform is slowly growing every month as more content is posted and I am developing so many analytic skills.
Data & Analytics
Once a video has been posted, I make sure to look over the analytics 24 hours after the post, and then again a week later, and then 1 month later, and then I compare it to other videos on our channel. When looking at the analytics I find it more helpful to look over how many new subscribers we have gained after each post and how many unique viewers we had for that post. The reason behind this being that our goal is to share the joy of dancing with more people, so seeing new people subscribing and new viewers watching helps us achieve that goal.
Our channel has grown significantly this past year, as shown in the table above. Our impressions have gone up an estimated 12.2K in the past year. This means that our video's thumbnail has come across 12,200 Youtube viewers. Of that 12.2K only 4.1% actually click on the video, which I'm definitely working on improving. Since this past year, we have had about 971 viewers watch our videos in total. Our channel's growth can mainly be seen occurring since January. What makes this year different than our past years has been the consistent posting of videos. This year we have release new content every month.
The tables above show that most of our viewers are directed to our views by being subscribers of our Youtube Channel. The second-highest comes from people searching on Youtube's platform. Other includes links being shared and people clicking on links on our website and Instagram, which is something I am working on improving.
Youtube's data tells us that all our content is watched by women, I don't entirely believe this to be true but it helps in letting us know what kind of content to produce. Another noteworthy piece of information is that our content is mainly viewed by people in the 40s & 50s. Lastly, our content is viewed mainly in the US.
This data comes from our Instagram Channel. I use this information to see which posts do better than others and because Instagram is focused on aesthetics, seeing which posts engage well with viewers helps me design more appealing photos. The data also helps show me which songs people prefer us to do. When posting stories, as shown here in the middle. it is very helpful to see how text layout, hashtags, music, and dancers influence how long someone with continue watching for.
Activity gives an insight into what days our post do well. For example, Sundays and Monday tend to be the day when traffic to our profile is the highest, those days are when I tend to post videos on Youtube, so it is nice to see there is a correlation. More people are starting to visit our Instagram bio to find full links to performance on our Youtube channel as shown by Website Clicks. Lastly, It is helpful to see that our impressions have also gone up, meaning more folks have come across our content.
Film & Production Management
In terms of filming, editing, and producing I try to be as cost-effective as possible. I used a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to film, and a subscription of Filmora9 to edit the videos. I used to use Adobe Premiere to edit videos; however, it was very expensive, a bit complex to use, and took longer to edit videos. I then switched to iMovie, which had easier to use but lacked in giving the user creative control. Filmora was the perfect match and allowed me to express the creatively though a simplistic way. By this, I mean I have more control and access to the elements that make the video more engaging such as transitions, motion effects, filters, text layout, and audio enhancement. Because the software is easy to use, I am able to edit and produce content at a faster rate.
When editing music, I use Adobe Audition or Audacity. I tend to mix songs so that they flow into each other, starting with a softer song and ending with an intense one. I also keep in mind the tempo and beats to make sure the songs blend together smoothly.
When editing the footage, I try to use consistent fonts and layouts in all the videos. I start by introducing the dancers and the song or artist. At the end of the video, I have the text laid out to remind viewers to subscribe and like the video. Depending on what we are trying to achieve with the video, I may add special effects. For example, during Bloom’s Pscho performance I digitally added background dancers by overlaying footage and merging clips together. During Pippin’s performance of Ateez, I decided to express the coldness and intensity of the song by a blue-tinted filter over the footage.
Filmora9 software being used to create an illusion of background dancers
Original footage of Pippin's Ateez Performance
Cool Blue Filter Version of Pippin's Ateez Performance
When filming, I always film the performance once from a front angle using a tripod. Then I film a motion version where I balance the tripod on my shoulder and I follow the dancers around during the performance, getting closer shots and different angles of the dance. When it comes time to edit the footage, I can switch between the close-up footage and the front standstill footage making the video more appealing and engaging.
First video published in 2017
Most recently published video in 2020
Overall, I’m self-learning the basics and essentials of videography. I’ve definitely improved the quality of the video as can be seen from the first one I made titled 9T8|Debut (ft. BlackPink) to the most recent one I made Solo Series | ATEEZ by Pippin ft. Merry.
Leadership & Organization
I make sure deadlines, dates, and all information regarding 9T8 is up to date on all our platforms and is communicated with all the dancers. To make sure information is clearly communicated with full transparency, I’ve created a group chat amongst the dancers to coordinate film days and to plan out dance performances.
Here I have an example of a calendar graphic I made informing the dancers of what each month will focus around. Whenever we have a group performance, I create a more in-depth calendar as shown here for a dance we are preparing for Halloween. The calenders help keep everyone up to date and remind dancers about deadlines for performances they are involved in.
As the group’s leader, I communicate with external parties for all booking information and performance needs. I also make sure to keep morale up and motivate the dancers, especially during COVID-19, it has become harder to dance together and stay active. One solution I came up with was to have each of the dancers film on their own locations and send me their footage for editing. I make sure to also check-in with each of the dancers to see how they are doing and if they need any support from me or have feedback on how to improve our content or team.
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