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Week 17: Final Post

Over the semester my understanding and use of social media has changed drastically.  I was somewhat familiar with Facebook and its capabilities, however only on a personal account level.  After getting into the business side, I was pleasantly surprised and excited to learn about the business capabilities, through the business page and the advertising opportunities.  In addition to Facebook, I learned about the other social media tools that will enhance my products and social media presence through the visual platforms.  Instagram and Pinterest I see as the best options for the visual platforms, but still see Facebook as the main hub. My viewpoint of social media has changed, and now realize that using it for personal use is one thing, but the opportunities for business are almost unlimited.  I thought that business use was a bit over the top and intrusive into the personal conversations on social media.  However, I have learned that most people are welcoming to the business involveme

Week 16: Future Strategy

Going back to the beginning of the year, I have tried out and experimented with and learned about various social media tools. I also learned about the importance and difference between bad and good design, researching competitors and defining target markets.  Beyond just adding posts and updates to social media and blogs and having an email campaign, I also was able to experiment and learn about purchased ads as well as boosting posts on Facebook.  I was able to set up Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogger and LinkedIn accounts to experiment and get familiar with each tool as well as learn the names of other useful social media channels. The best social media platforms that will integrate best into my type of business are the visual platforms.  Instagram, Pinterest and of course Facebook, but also because I am business to business, LinkedIn will also be useful.  I also plan on having a blog as well as an email campaign all integrated with my website.  Some of my competitors are also

Week 15B: Analyzing Facebook Data

After looking at my Facebook page Insights Data, I have to get familiar with the terminology and the significance of each activity name.  After some time I assume my familiarity will grow and the usefulness of each.  Looking through just the last week I can see some activity with a few page views, a reach of 5 and 35 post engagements which has gone down 85% since the following week.  This engagement looks like it went down because I did not have any posts this week.  I have 1 more page follower which is up 100%. Looking over the last 28 days looking back on all the data, it is obvious that when posts are made, that's when the engagement spikes up.  The biggest spike was on May 7th with my last post of 15% off of any custom logo sign.  It seems that this creates more interaction, although the reach is lower, the engagement and post clicks can be higher.  One post had high reach, but no clicks or reactions, and the lowest reach for the 15% off had higher engagements.   Another fe

Week 15: Google Analytics

After viewing the Google Analytics page, I get overwhelmed with the technical information on all the features of the service.  I am not sure of what things I will need or not need until I start to use the features.  Going through them all, the data collection and management allows information about my data to be analyzed in a comprehensive view of customers and be customized to my needs.  The Data analysis and visualization can help me understand the reports and tools to see and understand customers from acquisition to purchase. The data activation section makes sense in that I have the ability to see demographic and interest data.  I can create audience lists based on information of age, gender and interests etc.  Also the Multi-Touch attribution that provides functionality to analyze the path to conversion across marketing touch points.  Also Predictive Analytics with smart lists and smart goals can tell me which users are most valuable to re-engage and who are high quality engagem

Week 14: Online Advertising

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An objective is something you want to attain, like a goal or target that you want to happen.  Some of the ads below will satisfy some of the objectives I have for my business.  Through my advertising, I want to regularly remind and create brand awareness, just letting business owners know that I make precision custom crafted business signs, using nice woods and other materials, and that the ordering process is one click away.  I will use photo imagery to lure the eyes in.  I also want people to view multiple products and show that there are different types of signs, and show those off visually using the carousel ad option on Facebook.  Through this I want to create traffic to the website so that people can view more of the product line.  On the website, they can get a quote or sign up for some offer by giving up their email. The next objective is to get some sort of engagement by offering a discount and having someone claim the discount by visiting the website and taking action wit

Week 13B: Facebook Ads

Before making ads for Facebook and other social media, implementing good design, branding and aesthetics is necessary when developing all the parts of my brand visual components.  This all hinges on who my target audience is and how I will connect all my marketing tools, including, blog posts, tweets, website, posts and ads and how they will all work together.  Since I have several target markets for different products, each will have a tailored message and look for each outlet in my marketing mix.  With that in mind, I have researched some ads that I think will work well for my business. I really like the idea of Facebook ads and also very interested in LinkedIn for potential ads as well since my target market likely will be there.  Since Facebook is so familiar to me and so many billions of others, it will be my main interest.  Since they are also connected to Instagram, and ad purchases can also target Instagram I find this to me one of the best ad options.  Looking at Facebooks

Week 13A: Online Advertising

Trying find similar businesses advertising was difficult to find.  I do remember the Office Sign Company was for a short while showing up on my feed on Facebook with ads for specific signs they made.  Another company that I cannot recall the name would show You Tube commercials almost every time I wanted to watch something.  They offered advice on how to mount a sign so that it can be moved if the business moved instead of sticking it to the wall.  I thought the advice may be handy for some business.  The video and narrator was a bit amateur which can be less effective.  Other than that I have not come across any competitor ads even while trying to look for them.  I found it to be difficult to find ads and advertising they use.  I will have to come back and add to this post if I come across more information on advertising. After reviewing ads from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram most or all of the ads had some sort of call to action.  Some tabs call to actions included: get 20% off,