Week 15 A

Google Analytics

So my facebook page does not have enough likes to review the data.  Thats ok, its a pretend business anyway. 

Instead I'll be looking at and reviewing data from a different company.  Here are the screen shots I'm looking at:

These screenshots are of facebook analytics and the data is so clear and easy to track. Its really impressive.  You can see a clear picture of which posts have the most reach and engagement.  The photo posted on May 9th seems to have been a successful post.

 

The different demographic analytics are also very clear and easy to read.  This will help to track an audience and better allow you to fine tune your posts OR allow you to shift your focus if you aren't reaching the audience or range of audience that you want.

I think the summary is extremely helpful.  You get a good solid over view of your page performance which will allow you to keep track of what your time and money is doing for your social media marketing.  Who wants to be spending for no return?  Keeping track of your social media's performance is a must.

Week 14 A

I created ads for facebook and instagram this week. 

My facebook ads have an email sign up form because I chose lead generation as my ad type.  I think that will work best for a consultant type of business.

I'm not sure why the images uploaded sideways.  I can't seem to fix it.  I was also having trouble getting my laptop to take a screenshot so I just took a snapshot on my phone to prove that I did use the feature.

I then started the process for promoting a post on Instagram and WHOO thats easy.  I love instagram.  I think the layout is much more user friendly but definitely has less options.  The most challenging part of this is making the ad worth the money you'd invest.  You have to make the content of the post good enough to spend money on and run for a period of time.

Week 13 B

photo from: http://methodmill.com/ways-to-do-facebook-advertising-that-actually-work/

Advertising on Facebook is popular for the primary reason of being highly successful.  Many other social media sites allow you to advertise or sponsor posts on their sites.  I think that for my business specifically this would be very effective.  As a social media consultant the audience browsing social media is often interested in it and how best to use it.  Ads for my consulting services would likely catch a lot of eyes.  My ads, however, would likely have to have bold and easily understood text along with eye catching imagery since I do not have a product to sell or show off in an ad.

I think I would use the boost-post option when I have a post specifically about my services or promotions offered.  I would also use the Boost Post option if I'm speaking at or attending an event to try to get as much exposure as possible and get networking.  I think I'd also try to run ads on facebook depending on the budget I had available.  I do believe that you have to put some money in to start getting money back. 

Likely I would try to focus my efforts more closely on instagram, blog and email campaign.  I feel like, for my specific type of business, these would be platforms that I could be most successful at for the least amount of money (though possibly more time commitment).  Running ads on instagram I don't think I would spring for but the option to sponsor posts maybe.

Week 12 A

There are TONS of social media platforms out there and sometimes its best for a business to focus on one, just a few or a lot of diverse social media platforms to market and network for their business.  The trick is making the right decision for yours.

Lucky for me, my business is pretend (a fantasy, if you will *insert lolz here*) and so I have the luxury of experimenting with some different platforms without any real time-cost issues.  Whereas it might be an issue for an actual business owner to be running and managing a blog, twitter, facebook, instagram, youtube, tumblr, linkdin, and google+ account for little return, I can check all of this out without the worry of time-cost.  Wheeeeeeee.  Sail with me on the seas of social media adventure!

Don't you judge me Willy-Wonka-Meme...

So my next thought on social media platforms for my business would be that Linkd in would work well for us.  Well, me.  I like to pretend I have employees or a personal assistant or something (its my pretend business and I'll hire invisible people if I want to.).  As a consultant I think that any networking site would work well for me so Linkd in and Google+ sound like the next best option.  I would next go to something like yelp but I'd want to have a few solid clients first and while I'm doing this as a project that is not going to work.  

 

Week 11 B

I commented on:

Chad: https://chadmullenphotography.blogspot.com/
Mark: https://markbuxtonbusiness.blogspot.com/
Alexa: https://queensofthemusicscene.blogspot.com/

Week 11 A

I am, admittedly, one of those people that loathes email campaigns and newsletters.  I never open them, never read them, send them to the junk folder immediately.  I only ever sign up for them if they offer an incentive for signing up.

The longer I meditate on that thought, though, the more I wonder if that’s actually true. Every now and then an email will come through from a clothing company I’ve signed up for with a header reading “Clearance 75% off!” and I think “oooOOOoooh” and click on it.  I’ve spent money on websites solely because I’ve opened email newsletters… so maybe I’m not as immune as I thought I was.

The business I am “running” for this class provides a service rather than a product, which is a bit challenging for me.  I feel like I understand the idea of selling a product a little more clearly than I understand the idea of selling a service.  And a service like “consulting” is so invisible… Coming up with images for my visual media accounts has been challenging.  So filling out an engaging email newsletter is not something I feel like I’m doing well.  I keep thinking that I could give advice or provide links but I don’t want to offer my services for free?  So where is that line…?

I feel like keeping and maintaining a blog would be the way to go for this business. And having a weekly or bi weekly newsletter on the blog and its updates.  And possibly hosting networking events monthly.  Announcing networking events in the newsletter and possibly having speakers… Just brainstorming here.  For some reason I’ve been really challenged by the business I chose to promote in this class.

Week 10 B

Keeping a blog organized into categories can be helpful for both the author and the audience.  Especially if the blog isn't focused on one particular subject.  OR if the blog updates quite often it can be helpful to organize the blog into months so that readers can look back at posts from certain months or seasons.

My blog is completely unorganized right now.  Maybe that is because its unfocused?  Its for assignments only but if it were for my business I think I'd break it down into categories like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Other stuff like that.  Topics having to do with specific social media sites.  Or maybe I'd break it down into Content Creation, Videos, etc.  I'm not totally sure. 

Week 10A

Getting a bit personal here...

But honestly how cute is that photo?  That is a photo of myself and my daughter trying in matching dresses because that is outrageously cute.  Agreed?  Agreed.  This blog post is about getting personal in a blog post (how meta is that?) so I figured I'd start off by getting a little personal myself.  But when is it appropriate to get personal in a blog post and when is it not?  What topics, products and audiences lend themselves to a more personal tone or approach?  I'm no expert, but I am a student so I can make some observations as I learn. 

When the topic is something of a personal nature to the author I believe writing in a more personal way connects the audience better.  So if the author is writing about a product for, say, infant care, the author is likely a parent the readers are likely parents or parents-to-be.  This audience likely responds best to personal experience.  If the author is writing about makeup there isn't a ton of need to get deep down and intimate with your personal life. 

I think that a blog should also maintain a style.  If the blog is often writing in a certain voice it should maintain that voice throughout.  Some authors just tend to write the way that they speak therefore giving their blog a more personal feel regardless of the information given. 

That's my take!

Week 8A

Today as I checked my personal Instagram I thought: "How would I use this for my pretend-business?"  I chose to create a pretend social media consulting business for my project in this class but that doesn't seem to provide me with a lot of engaging visual content... How, though, am I to be successful on social media without visual elements?  As someone now running a social media consulting business page this is obviously concerning.  I better figure it out quick.

After reading the articles provided and comparing the top 8 visual networks I came to a decision on an instagram.  But here is my breakdown:

Snapchat: After the last update roll-out snap chat is basically dead.  So I didn't really both researching it much.  Snapchat has been dying a slow painful death over all (stocks though.  yiiiikes... and then the kylie jenner thing...read more about that here) so as far as a business owner starting a new visual content marketing network I think no Snapchat for me. 

Pinterest:  The link provided to the article on "why you should use pinterest" didn't seem to work.  But I'd pretty much already decided that I wouldn't be using pinterest... this is mostly due to the fact that I know Instagram really well and had decided to use instagram (I may start an pinterest to give it a shot).  I'll need to do more research on pinterest.

Youtube: I do NOT have the time or know-how to provide consistent content for a youtube channel right now.

Twitter:  Twitter was the only other network that I was really considering besides Instagram.  Its got a lot of users, it allows for short, to the point posts and photos, etc. 

Tumblr:  I don't think the audience on Tumblr is right.  Just from my personal experience.

SO this winner here, obviously, is Instagram.

Instagram is easy and user friendly.  I used to describe it like flipping through a magazine except you've created the content yourself by choosing who you follow and what companies you follow.  Therefore the ads (for the most part) are all tailored to your likes.  I feel like I "get" instagram.  To a degree anyway.  Though I've never used it for a business.  I'm excited to give it a go!

And here she is.  My shiny new instagram business page:

https://www.instagram.com/linkup_consulting/

Week 7B

CONTENT!  Scheduled content that is.

So, these posts have already been posted to my page by this point but they were extremely easy to create and then just let be!  What a great tool!  I could have created as many as I wanted and just scheduled them out as I wished.  That is so convenient and a really great way to keep content consistently on your page.  As a business owner life can get busy.  So have a day dedicated to creating and scheduling content seems smart to me and facebook makes it fairly easy to do.

I chose to post a couple of articles relating to marketing yourself on social media.  One of the articles I posted was about Youtube marketing and I chose that article because of a post I had made earlier in the week that said that videos are a highly successful marketing tool.  I included a funny meme to catch viewer attention.  The next post I posted was about creating content.  I think my viewers will respond well to these posts because they relate directly to why someone would be following my page in the first place.  They are looking for ways to boost their business online and on social media so these little tips and tricks should be interesting to them, but they aren't enough to completely eliminate the need for my services.

Week 7A

This week I liked some buisnesses with my new fancy shmancy facebook business page to follow some pages that I think would have useful content that I can not only share with my followers but also learn from.  As someone who wants to go into PR, Social media and event planning I decided to stick to liking pages that focus on those aspects of marketing.  These are the pages I liked:

https://www.facebook.com/marismith/
https://www.facebook.com/JPublicRelations/
https://www.facebook.com/RubensteinPublicRelations/
https://www.facebook.com/BoltPR/
https://www.facebook.com/PRSANational/
https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaConsult/
https://www.facebook.com/charityfashionshowsd/

I tried to choose pages that were posting current content and posting frequently.  I also tried to choose pages that were relevant to what I'm trying to do with my career so that I can learn from the way the pages are being utilized.  I'm also hoping to be able to share some content from the pages I follow.