Wrapping it up

This journey thru social media has been an enlightening experience.   It has definitely changed how I look at and use all the wide open options available.

For the business that I am helping market and bring into the social media age, this class has helped me explore new platforms.   At this point in time, the business has not grown but that’s ok. It has started getting a following both of customers who have already used the services or potential future customers.

I definitely have a better understanding for the options of social media and that it more than just sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Being able to see both the personal and the business side of the analytics has shown to me that businesses do use and look at the data to create new ads or marketing promotions.   That a business does not have to hire an expensive advertising firm or spends lots of money to get their name out there.   Social media now can personalize and more directly market to the customers a business wants to attract.

There are so many options out there and so many countless way to use them for both personal and business.  It has changed how I view it and how I will use it.

Taking a journey isn’t always about the travel – it also includes the learning and discovery of new things that change your life.

Future in social media

           This semester I discovered that social media isn’t just for posting pictures of your cat, your food or other random pictures.  For my own personal use – I have “checked-in” someplace, “liked” companies on FaceBook, and looked at Yelp reviews and more.  Now I have learned how a business can use that same information to market the customer.  Tea Around the World is in its own little unique niche.   Yes – we would like the company to grow although that can be a little hard since in is almost completely a one-woman operation.  The business side comes from catering tea events for the customer.   Although the planning part is easy – the prep (creating the menu and creating all the delicious treats & desserts) can take up to a week.

         For this business, we have decided to spend one day a week updating and adding to all the social media options.   Spending lots of money for advertising isn’t an option at the moment – but some of the $5-10 Facebook ads will be re-evaluated again to give it a try.   This may not sound like it’s a lot or that we are interacting with the customers and followers enough.    The plan is once a week on Facebook, to pre-schedule posts that are going out at least every other day.   If there is an event we have catered or another afternoon tea location that has been reviewed – then that will give us even more content to post.

         FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and Instagram will still continue to be the major sources for social media outlets.  They all seem to partner well with the type of business this is.   Using the FaceBook and Google analytics will definitely be used to show not only where people are clicking and linking from but what the demographics we are reaching.

      Looking at the analytics has also helped us start thinking of the future and how to advertise.   Instead of just thinking about today and the immediate events that are planned or locations being reviewed.

      Some of the longer term plans we are putting in place (for blasting on all social media) is holiday specials and discounts.  For February – we are going to try to target a more male audience with discounts and reminders about ordering sweet & sinful desserts for their sweethearts.  And for March/April – advertising for Easter treats and baskets.   Also adding to list for advertising and using social media to make our presence known is to use newsletters once a month and link it to the website and Facebook.   A new goal is to find and partner with as many local afternoon tea locations to be featured in our newsletter and a new blog on the website.   We are already being featured in a local hotel to host an afternoon tea over the holidays which will get our name out there.   We are also in the process of re-doing the website, brochures and business cards to include all the logos where we can be found on social media.

    It may be a little slower to grow and create a larger presence on the majors forms of social media – but we are excited to keep trying and discovering new ways to get our name out there and advertising the business (sometimes at little to no cost).

We are excited about continuing down these new paths to help the business thru the adventure and journey called social media.

 

Blogs I have commented on

Blogs I have commented on:

http://cindyworldtraveler.blogspot.com/2013/12/week-12-blog-2-coupon-deal.html#gpluscomments

 

http://6seconds6.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-to-use-social-media-marketing.html#comment-form

http://socialmediashorts.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-grandma-calls-it-tweeter-how-to-find.html#gpluscomments

http://onlinecynthia.blogspot.com/2013/10/liking-fb-pages.html#comment-form

 

** and have"liked" all the students facebook pages

Continuing use of Social Media

Trying and learning about these new social media platforms has been a fascinating discovery.  

 I now look at things different in regards to marketing, advertising and the various social media options.  Since I have been able to apply what we are learning for a friend’s business – I have not only had to take into consideration the type of person she is and how she runs the business, I also had to learn how to encourage her and break out of her own shell & reservations about social media.  

 For the business – FaceBook has definitely been the best and the easiest to get involved in.   Facebook along with Pinterest and Facebook analytics will definitely be used on a daily and regular basis.   Using options like being able to check-in at a location (like having afternoon tea) will be another feature from Facebook that will be used a lot.  Although we both like Twitter – neither of us see how that can be kept up like it should be.  Instead we are replacing it with Instagram since we are always taking pictures of the events and delicious desserts. 

Now the process begins to re-vamp the company website to have the link for the various social media options and make it more user friendly.  Also by doing that- we can utilize the Google analytics more and get additional feedback. A monthly newsletter is in the works, along with seasonal specials and promotions.   Posting questions to our followers has also been something that we will continue to do.  It creates conversations and we can see where we need to improve.  

FaceBook analytics - a helpful tool

      There have definitely been some up and downs and it was interesting to see the changes. Just in the last week – the jumps in page like and totals reaches has more than doubled.   To be able to see if anyone has shared the page or how many new likes each week.  It also showed that the page had one unlike.   It gave me a chance to change the date ranges around to see when I had more traffic to the site and how many days were there was nothing.  It doesn’t mean that no one was looking or reading it – it just listed that no one liked it.  I had heard the term “net likes” but this explained it and showed it.  Since none of the likes on the page are paid or from ads – it made it easy to decipher.   One of the biggest pieces of that I discovered was where the external referrals were from. Almost none were from Yahoo or Google.  All the referrers were related to the class or were from blackboard.  

       Most of the major spikes in changes and growth – happened when I posted questions to respond to or in this last week when I posted a place to have holiday teas.    Of course there was also a bigger spike from the other students liking the page.   Being able to see the difference is a nice tool.

        I can see how this would be a useful tool to check on a weekly or monthly basis.  I could see changes both positive and negative.  It can help show when a new post generates traffic or creates comments and likes.   Of all the tools - this one was the easiest to use and understand.    This will definitely be a tool that I will be using over and over to help keep interest in the site and lead to more business.

 

Is there a Handbook for Dummies - Google Analytics? I need it

      Just when I think I understand all this social media and how it relates to business and marketing – I learn there are more options.   Back in the “good ole’ days” – advertising consisted of an ad or two in a local magazine or newspaper, maybe a few radio commercials and an ad in the yellow pages phone book (that’s a paper copy of YP.com or Google for all you young whippersnappers).   Now I feel I need a playbook or a book for dummies to decipher some of the new on-line marketing tools.    I finally figured out how to understand some of the tools Facebook uses to provide information to businesses.   
    And then there is Google analytics.  How to understand what a tiny business like this one can use or needs to help grow was hard.   Some of the features that I plan on studying more and adding to are content experiments (that will help me test new ideas for my webpage & make it better); Search Engine Optimization (need to know how potential customers found their way to me); real-time reporting (find out immediately which parts of site customers are looking and how many are on my page); Flow visualization ( where they came from and how they click around my website); and campaign measurement ( are new promotions & specials working).  There are other features that aren’t applicable to the business (like mobile apps/ advertising reports) just quite yet.   
         One of the things that I learned from the book was “site:mybusiness.com” (ok… it took me a bit to figure out I actually had to replace “mybusiness” with ‘teaaroundtheworld”.)   This popped up via Google all the different links/ articles on the website.    
        There are so many amazing, useful and overwhelming options to promote a business digitally and through social media.     

 

Following the path to grow the business in this new journey.