Weel # 15 Final Blog

Blog Post: Write one final blog post to sum up your class experience for this semester.

The final week! This semester went by like a flash! I'm looking forward to having the summer off and getting myself back into shape. Sitting at this desk for 6 -10 hours a day has taken it's toll!

I feel that I have learned a tremendous amount this semester. This class in particular has opened some doors that will be extremely important for me, not only my business but with every potential business I come in contact with that will allow me to help them.

I was a little frustrated in the beginning of the class because I found it difficult to maneuver all the transitions having Mary's Facebook page under my personal account. If I had it to do over again, I would most definitely open a new email account for Mary in Gmail and run everything under her name.  

To start with, I found the book, "Get Up To Speed With On Line Marketing" to be a very easy read and enjoyable as well. I know I will refer back to it often for review on certain things I'll be needing to do with setting up my business and clients social media.

All the lectures where good, although I would say that at times it was a little difficult to understand exactly what was being asked of us in the instructions under assignments. I had to dig deep and hope for the best at times. I realize this is a new class so it will only get better in that way. : )

Doing the research that was required was good. It allowed us to see what is out there for really bad design as well as good design and I realized how big the need is for people to get up to date on what can and will help them in their businesses.

This class forced me to look much closer at social media and to understand the importance of not only learning about what is current, but also how important it is to continue investing time to investigate the latest trends and techniques. The world is going so fast these day's! I hope I can keep up!

I'm very excited about my new career as a designer/developer and I can't wait to see how it will all unfold. I still have a long way to go (2-3 years?) but at the same time I can't believe how far I've come!

I would like to see another class in addition to this one... One more time through would be very helpful. Maybe a little more time forcing us on the back end of things, Google analytics and designing events and ads. Maybe that is already in the works. Anyway, great job ladies. I feel I learned a lot. Please let us know if another class is coming up.

Week # 14

Considering the variables from recent lectures, decide which tools from the semester you would implement in your online marketing strategy.

How much time do you think your business should spend on social media marketing and why?

In your blog, please explain why you chose the tools you did, and how you might use them to use and test a strategy over the next six months.

Plot out a rough draft plan of the next month of content across the sites you’ve chosen, and how you hope they might grow or sustain your business. Be as detailed as possible, including daily or weekly time requirements to meet the goals.

Well, I have a new client that has contracted me to manage his social media monthly in addition to designing his website and logo. I suppose it's time to get serious.

I will be creating a Facebook page and connecting it to a twitter page, just like we have done in class this semester. The goal is to promote my client on Yelp as soon as we can. First, we need happy clients to approach. We also talked about posting images on Pinterest. I'm going to set him up with Google+ for blogging and quite possibly will be the one writing on the blog. It will depend I suppose, on his budget.

From what I have learned for this class I feel like the blogging is going to be important for his SEO. I will have to become familiar with writing news letters. 

The other platform I plan to set my client up with is Google Maps. When people search for businesses, Google Maps comes up on top so I think it will be important to incorporate a profile there as well.

Plot out a rough draft plan of the next month of content across the sites you’ve chosen

Ok I'm not entirely sure I understand completely so, hopefully I can do this correctly.

Facebook

30 posts planned and placed into the scheduler. I think based on the posts I created for class (7 posts took about an hour and a half to create), I'm estimating 30 posts to take about 5 hours to put together. I have to gather all the content from the client. I will search for images to coincide with the content (maybe it's time to enroll in Photo Bucket or something similar).

I hope to see 30 followers by the first week. I will search out different people and will "like" their page to get my client connected with a network right away. Having 30 followers will allow me to track what is going on though Google analyitics. I plan to be efficient with Google analyitics by the end of summer.

Check posts 9:00 am and 6:00pm 7 days a week. My client actually will need to be the one checking the posts. I plan to prompt him initially, by making sure if questions arise or comments come in, they will receive some type response. Hopefully he will be on it!
 

Twitter

30 posts on twitter to coincide with Facebook. This may have to come from the client. He should probably post on Twitter every time he goes out on a new job. And then, tweet again about how the success of the job was. Something I will have to discuss with him.

Pinterest 

Become more familiar with this platform and hopefully posts some before and after images of my clients work. I'm still a little unsure about this platform but plan to become familiar over the summer.

Yelp
Ask each new customer for a good testimonial. I will suggest that my client offer an incentive. He installs water heaters so I'm not sure what it would be. (Planning for 10 new reviews for the first month)

Google+

2 news letters over 30 days. The client should write this, but if he chooses to pay me to write it, he will need to give me the topic and any pertinent information and then I will research it, write it, and have him approve what I have written before I post it. Thankfully, my husband is a fantastic editor. I wouldn't feel comfortable without his assistance in checking my work! I probably should have had him check my school blogs! Na, that would have been like cheating I think.

Merchant Claim

Claim all the merchant verifications in the organic listings for my new client. When I did this for my day spa, my url came to the top of all the organic listings within 30 days! It was awesome! I added photos and content to some of them, and updated as often as I could. I found that it really help with SEO.

Constant Contact 
I plan to have my client sign up for this program in order to stay in touch with his clients. He can send birthday and holiday emails. The emails in between would be referral incentives. I believe this is an inexpensive way to stay in touch. Some of these emails can be structured around Facebook or twitter posts.

Non Profit
My client and I have discussed setting him up with a non-profit charity to be involved in. He is greatly interested in the "Foster Care System" as am I. Possibly the Polanski Center. Having this outreach will not only benefit the children but will allow us to have more to talk about on social media and Constant Contact sending out invitations for events.

Six Month Plan 
1. Over six months I would continue the same strategy. If my client becomes increasingly busy, he will need to hire someone within his company structure that knows his business, in order to manage all the posts coming in. We discussed that issue and he is in agreement to that strategy. At that point he can either have that person take over the posting or continue to pay me to do it ( I may be over it by then! We'll see. Not sure this is where I want my business to go but thought the extra income right now couldn't hurt!)

2. If the client is in agreement I would like to implement some paid strategies through Facebook. The amount of ad hits would depend on the clients monthly budget of course.  

3. I would like to see 25, 5 star reviews on Yelp by the end of our first 6 months. 

4. By the end of 6 months, I would hope to have built the email base to at least 250 clients and have less than 10 opt outs. It seems reasonable because I managed to do that with my day spa without Facebook and Twitter. It did take a little longer (24 months or so) but again we didn't have social media. I had to do it through trade shows ($1800 a pop) and street fairs ($350 a pop). 

I am so thankful to have had this course. The money I am going to save by using social media is in the 10's of 1000's of dollars! Over a 7 year period in my prior business I spent well over $30,000 on ways to reach people. Wow! I'm excited to see how this all unfolds!

Week # 14

I posted comments to the following classmates:

Pat Tirona - Solana Beach Library

Tiffany Edwards - Coastal Dreams

Taylor Tirona - Counseling Center

Marilyn King - Tia's Bakery

Week # 14

Blog Post: After reading the text book assignment, write a blog post in response to this assignment:  

Review what you have covered in class this semester and the work you have done using the various social media platforms.

- Which ones integrate best with the type of business you have created?

- Which have you enjoyed using the most? The enthusiasm or lack there of for a type of media is often shared along with the posts we write. This class gave you an opportunity to experiment with a variety of them. Now you can focus in on what seems the most effective ones to use. 

- Which work best on a daily use pattern?

- Which can you still use effectively on a much less frequent time schedule?

The material we have covered in class has been quite extensive for Social Media. I feel like I've learned quite a bit. I hope to use this new information to create accounts for clients needing a manager for their online presence.

We learned how to set up a blog template and discussed the best ways of communicating with a business. I don't see how a business can survive without at least a Facebook page. Blogging has been the biggest part of this class. I have to admit, I hated it at first because I'm simply not used to writing on line for in depth discussion. I knew I needed this however because I will have to do this in the near future. It's getting a little easier. In time I'm sure it will be a piece of cake.

Commenting on our classmates blogs was also a little challenging mainly because of time in the school schedule. I realized this semester that you can meet your deadlines when you know each day when they are. If you don't check your schedule, your going to miss something... That will be huge when trying to balance several accounts.

We learned how to define our target market by looking at other peoples websites and we observed the differences between the sites that were provided to us.

We learned about using creating a Facebook page for a business. In doing this again I would do it a little differently. I opened my new business page under my personal email address. In the future I will create an email account (probably gmail) specifically for social media. 

For facebook we learned that it is important to go out and find businesses that would benefit from our business and to "like" those pages. I found that to be interesting. So many businesses are not on social media yet. Hmm potential clients? Possibly. We learned how to put a professional post together and to schedule several future posts. This will be valuable for managing client accounts. 

We learned about Twitter and built a landing for that account that matched our Facebook page. I finally learned how to "tweet". I also learned why a hashtag is used. It appears to "tag" other accounts using the same phrase. By adding the hashtag to your content, you are saying “Hey, I want to chime in on this discussion.” Others interested in that topic will see your content.

Constant contact was the email marketing company we used to learn about. I was already familiar with this company from my previous business. I like this company. I will use them again.

That  social media platforms that I will use after taking this class will consist of Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Constant Contact Google Maps and Instagram or Pintrest. I think that tying these platforms all together will cover a full gamut of social media. I'm a little unsure about Instagram and Pintrest but a lot of people seem to post images so I imagine it keeps you in the loop. Oh yeah an occasional You Tube video may come into play as well. Video testimonials might be a good idea.

Daily use would definitely be Facebook and Twitter. I will probably schedule posts for at least two weeks in advance. And have my clients check the account twice daily to make sure they don't miss any questions or important comments. The blogging will probably be done 1-2 times a month, depending on the content found or provided and the events surrounding the blog. 

Week # 13

Review the FaceBook analytics on the top of your business page in the Admin Panel.  Click on Insights to find more information. Review all the content and write a blog about what has changed this week in your FaceBook analytics.

I had some pretty good changes this week mostly in part because I was under the 30 likes and sent out a message to family and friends to like my page to get me to 30. I actually was able to get to 41 and I think more are still coming in.

I haven't really had to many changes because I haven't promoted any true activity with the page. My client is not quite fully in business yet so it's a little hard to post without her involvement. 

I've blogged a little about what I learned in going through Facebook analytics.

Facebook provides a tour to help with the explanation of how to work analytics. You can watch a video or scroll through the tour on page at a time.


Analytics shows you how many new likes you had in the week and whether or not they are organic (friends, family etc) or if they are from paid advertising. It also shows the number is unlikes and what you actually net.

When you drag and pull on the graph it shows the entire graph in a different way to be able to view the percentage in a bar graph. This graphs shows uncategorized mobile likes which is showing 50%, personal page likes showing 25% and search likes also at 25%.

I like the that you can tab through analytics (likes, reach, visits, posts and people) to check and see what is going on. I particularly like the Posts tab. It brings up all the posts coming through the site with the amount of views and responses. I think this is a good way to understand what is working and what isn't. It's important to know when changes are necessary. I'll be more interested in this platform when I truly have the time to promote the page. It seems to have a lot to offer to help gauge success or failure with your page.

Notifications allows you to see information that has come in and who is sending it. It breaks it down by the date and shows you the time it came in. 

You can look at all your scheduled posts, published posts and drafts. This makes it much easier to look for older posts or messages coming in from certain posts.

I will most certainly be using this because I actually just landed my first paying gig to build, manage and monitor someone's Facebook page! I'm a little nervous about it but I always like to jump and get my feet wet as soon as possible so...her I go! Both feet!

Week # 13

After reading the lecture and text book assignment, visit the Google analytics for business page and pick out which features you think would be the most beneficial to your business to check regularly and why, then write a blog post with this information. 

Immediately I was confused when I went onto Google analytics. It takes a little time to figure out exactly what's going on. In reviewing the sections I first was drawn to Overview. It shows referrals, social traffic and active pages. In addition it times the views as they come in. You know how many you're getting in what time by minutes and seconds. I like that. It also shows the locations. 

The demographics page is important so that you can understand more about who your users are. This could really help with your marketing campaign.

I also like the benchmarking section. It show the percentages of the channels for reaching your site such as an organic search paid search or social media. This can certainly let you know what area is working better for you.  

There is so much involved in reviewing this site. I see there is a page for goal setting and email scheduling as well as alerts. It's a little overwhelming. I'll have to take the time when school is out and really search through to see what everything means.

I'm definitely going to need to know this if I plan to set up clients with a great marketing plan to be able to track for them.  Once I have Mary's site built I can start putting this information to work for her. It's not really feasible with only having social media set up.
 

Week #12

If you are interested in a coupon network, think about a coupon deal you could develop. What product or service do you think would be one that would increase traffic to your business? What are the benefits? What are the downfalls of coupon network use?

I'm very familiar with 3 coupon companies. Living Social, Amazon Local and Groupon. I personally think they are a disgrace. I seriously feel that they have been taking advantage of business people from the onset. I used them when I re-opened my business San Marcos  in May of 2012 (had it in Carlsbad for 6 years). The reason I used them was because the options for marketing had changed so drastically that I felt stuck. Radio was to expensive, yellow pages didn't work anymore, mailers were expensive and never really worked well (people just toss out the mailers with the rest of the junk mail).

I gave the coupon companies the benefit of the doubt. I tried them all and they did not work for me. My independent contractors (massage therapists and esthetician's) refused to take any of the clients because the pay when so little. I personally had the responsibility for all the consumers that came from the coupons. I ended up working 4 times harder for several months trying to fulfill the appointments that were scheduled (12 hour days) and I made less than a quarter of what my normal price was.

The first round Living social took $8000.00, gave me $4000.00 and it took me 4 months to fulfill the orders! I was supposed to re-book those clients but the problem was, they wanted the same pricing as Living Social gave them. I couldn't pay the over head from the loss income due to my "new pricing".

After 2 rounds (6 months) of running coupons they caused my business to fall into a financial whole that I couldn't climb out of and because of that, I closed my business 14 months after I re-opened it.

I knew of a few businesses that used these companies that felt the payoff was good for them. They were able to "up sell" other things once the consumer came to their place of business. My business was mainly made of of services. Very little inventory. The few that I spoke with said they only used the coupon companies for one to two rounds though because of the loss you incur and work that is involved in servicing the client.

Looking back, I should have signed up with Yelp immediately. I was fearful of Yelp and waited about 10 months before I signed up and started having my clients write reviews for me. When Yelped began to work for me it was too late, I was already to far behind. I closed in July of 2013 and my phone rang for appointments from Yelp for several months after closing the doors. And, instead of paying literally 10's of 1000's to the "coupon vulture" companies, I should have hired a Social Media Manager to get the word out for me. I just didn't know at the time what to do.

I know I've talked about this story in past blogs but I think it's important for people to understand the right way to market their business. Social Media is the way that it is done these days and anyone not promoting their business with these means are missing some important steps.

Constant Contact was a good inexpensive way to email my client list and now that they have expanded to do more for businesses I will definitely use them again once I have gone back into business as a designer. I will also set up Mary up with this company in addition to Google+ for blogging and connecting with new potential clients.

Week # 12

What four additional online marketing tools do you believe could be important to the growth of your business? 

How could you integrate them into your current strategy?

If you choose to create a new account in GooglePlus, or create a location on a Google map, post the information on the Discussion Board.

1. If I were to add four additional tools of marketing, the first on my list would be Yelp. As I described in one of my first blogs in this class, Yelp was one of the biggest assets for my business. It seems that most people these days use Yelp to determine where they are going to shop or hire someone to do job for them. I even use Yelp to choose my physicians. The key is to always respond to the post whether it is a good one or a "not so good" review. A bad one can be turned around with the right response.

2. Google plus seems like a great way to get to know different groups of people by creating different circles. The more people you network with, the better chance you have of increasing your bottom line. To be able to join groups of people that have common business interests could lead to some promising interactions. Using the skype would build trust as well. Anytime you can be face to face with people you have a better chance of developing relationships. I found in my business the more I developed relationships with my clients, the more business they wanted to do with me.

3. Google Maps is the third one I would use. Many of my clients found me there. When you claim your business on Google Maps, you tend to climb higher on the search engine. At least that was what I experienced.

4. Linked in would be my fourth choice. It's a great way to reach the masses. They seem to circulate other members through for everyone to see that has some sort of connection. I  never really put it to work in my business the way I should have but wasn't sure what to do with it. This time around and for Mary's marketing Linked in with certainly be in the list.

To integrate them into the current strategy could work with the exception of yelp. You need to have clients before you can use this platform. Link in would work for Mary so she could start getting an idea of who is in her area that are also promoting themselves. Other business people certainly need bookkeepers. This could be a good arena for her. Google maps may be a little difficult since she currently works from home. Google plus seems to be a must so that she can get to know all the available circles of people that could benefit her.

Week # 11

I commented on 4 blogs this week.

Pat
Danielle
Marilyn
Tiffany

Week # 11

Ads on Facebook are designed through the admin panel. Through this panel you select the ads manager button, set your budget, and then you can create your ad. The ad only allows 25 characters for the headline and 90 characters for the text and one photo. The way you pay is to set a budget. You can set a lifetime budget or pay per day. When your budget is finished you ad stops.

Twitter's settings are located under the setting drop down menu in the top right hand corner. They ask a series of question's to get your ad set up. Twitter is set up to have you "pay per click". It's based a bidding on the amount for your "pay per click". The more you bid, the more your ad runs.

With that in mind, what sort of advertising could your business use, and how often should you use ads? 

Explain the different kinds of FaceBook advertising is available and which ones you might try for your business. Be sure to include your reasoning behind your choice, timing and budget you feel would have the most impact and generate the best results.

I'm a little unsure about ad placement but it seems that if the campaigns that are sent out are hitting the right market, it would probably be a good idea to set a budget, at the very least, to allow people to get familiar with your name so when the time comes (like in Mary's case, tax season) potential clients will refer back to your ads and maybe a higher budget could be implemented in those times.

I would probably set my budget low each month from May until January and then run a more aggressive campaign February through April 15th.

Facebook has a few options for placing ads. You can promote your Facebook page or website. You can use images or video. You can create an event or offer an app. Just to name a few ways.

I believe Mary would do well in creating an event. Something to get potential clients involved in. Also promoting conversations to get directly involved with people would help her as well. Since she isn't selling a product, she needs to be creative in getting to know people that potentially could use her service. I believe different forms of networking (through twitter?) would increase her chances of increasing awareness.

One thing I know from experience from my day spa is that you have to expect to lose money for about 60-90 days. It takes that long for people to start taking action. I think that is where a lot of businesses fail. They don't realize how long it takes to see the ROI.

The ads I created below would be ads to familiarize potential clients with who I am.

Week # 10

Blog Post: After reading the lecture and text book assignment, write a blog post in response to this assignment:  Newsletters can be sent weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even twice a year for certain businesses. With that in mind, what information could your business use for a newsletter, and how often would you send one? Write a list of content ideas you think your customers would enjoy seeing and why. 

I've used Constant Contact in the past for a business I owned for 7 years. It was a great company to work with and the emails were very easy and fun to create. It was only $35.00 a month and I could send out close to 2000 emails. Following the Analytics was easy as well.

My clients always seemed to enjoy my emails and it was a great way to stay in touch and, to let them know what my special deals were. I even used the email to run a campaign to raise money for a new machine for the spa. I had a great response (gave away a killer deal to those that participated) and had my new machine with a couple of weeks.


A news letter for Mary's business would be set up as an informational for clients. As a bookkeeper she isn't really selling anything except her services so she would need to keep clients interested by providing helpful information on things like how to stay organized or dealing with the IRS.

I would imagine that she would send a news letter once a month and possibly more when tax season comes closer. To encourage clients to stay organized to make it easier to do their taxes, she could have a pod cast every couple of months with tips and ideas.

A list of content could include some of the following:

1.Ways to cut bookkeeping costs
This is obvious as to way someone would want to read it. We all want to save money. Especially when it comes to spending money on items that are a necessity instead of a luxury. I hated paying for this service when I had my business, but it had to be done.

2.How to keep the IRS off your back
I know that in the small business I had it seemed the IRS was always present in my life. It would have been nice to get free advice from someone I trusted on how to improve my records to prevent certain things from occurring that were out of my control after the fact.


3.Free resources to help you get organized
Using resources for making your life easier is always great thing to have. This is especially nice if you or a new business owner for the first time.

1.What you need to know about financial statements
This is a great topic for investors. Knowing how to work with numbers in a company's financial statements is an essential skill for stock investors. The meaningful interpretation and analysis of balance sheet's, income for cash flow statements to discern a company's investment qualities is the basis for smart investment choices.

Comments made to:

Miranda Carlton 
Donald Steier
Alberto Sandoval 
Patrica Tirona
Marilyn King

 

Week # 9 Blogging Categories

The categories I would use on my blog would be as follows:

Getting Organized
Forms
Keeping Informed
Government Links

All of these categories are beneficial to the client for helping take the stress out of running the office or getting prepared for tax season. Offering a forms page would create a need for people to come back to the blog. Any time you educate a client you gain their trust so having a page to keep them informed on choices they can make administratively is a great way to have clients stay loyal and send referrals. Government links is also very convenient.

Week # 9

Blog Post: After reading the lecture and text book assignment, write a blog post explaining how personal you think you can be on your blog. When does it make sense to add personality to a post, and when does it not?


Getting personal on your blog really depends on your type of business. If you run a business for self improvement, you may want to share some personal stories about your life to gain the trust of your client, letting them know your experience. If you own a day spa or are an attorney, keeping your personal business to yourself is most likely to your benefit. Most people don't want to hear about your "stuff". Rather they want to have a positive experience and just know that you are indeed a professional. It can become less professional when personal is added.


Letting people know a little more about your personality can b a good thing to allow clients to feel more comfortable with you being human but I think there is a fine line. I wouldn't expose trouble in my family or certain things of my past but I would talk about things I like to do or subjects I'm passionate about.

I added the widget for Google analytics .

Week # 8

-Which search words you used to find your connections? Did you have to play around with more than one key term to start seeing the right results? Who did you end up finding?

-What lists did you create and why? How does creating a list on Twitter help you stay organized or reach a goal?

- What time would more customers see your tweets. When are they most effective?

The search words I started with was realtor and chamber of commerce. I actually went to a chamber directory to start with. I did that because I was drawing a blank on what to search. Once I found a couple of businesses that has twitter and do business in the high desert I was able to find more from the pages I checked as following. I used the actual names of the realtors to bring up their twitter pages. I ended up following about 15 businesses total.  I tried searching bookkeepers to see if other people other than bookkeepers were following that category but I came up empty.

These are the results of my search for my connections as well as my lists:

(Realtor List)

Desiree Burgnon

Derek De Ville 

Dennis Shaw

Shear Realty

CBC High Desert

(Chamber List)

Adelanto

Apple Valley

Hesperia

Hispanic Chamber

I chose Realtors and Chambers because figured there might be a better chance of finding clients through them. They both interact with a large amount of different types of people daily and would make great connections for Mary to attend networking groups, and open houses.

It would seem that having lists would help you market categories instead of randomly going through each one. If you are trying to market a particular group, it would be easier to reach them all with one idea. 

As far as what time customers would see my tweets, I'm not really sure. I suppose morning and afternoon because if they are busy through the day they most likely would stop a couple times to check while taking a break and may not bother with it after work. Again, I'm not really sure.

Week # 7

In searching for businesses similar to Mary's bookkeeping, I have found that the majority of this type of business does not use social media. I looked at 25 + bookkeeping services and I stopped looking as soon as I found 3 that had any type of social media. I had to resort to New York City to find some users.

I couldn't find one with  Pinterest. The 3 below all have Facebook and Marks Book Keeping has Google+. His link to Google+ is really pretty good. He has used it well with great images and numerous postings. I could definitely see doing the same thing for Mary. I am so surprised at the small amount of social media in this industry. I wonder if that means I have a great opportunity to market these people or, it just hasn't paid off for anybody.

I believe Mary's business will do well with Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn and Yelp. I'm not sure what else would be important for her.

The YouTube link didn't work. I went to the site to try and figure out how to put Mary on there. I failed to figure it out. Most of what I was trying to do for Mary wouldn't work because to defaulted to my personal Facebook page.


http://www.ht2cpa.com/
http://www.marksbookkeeping.com/
http://hy-cpa.com/

Week # 7

I can see where all the network platforms are really important to business, however, I'm not sure all of them are that important for an bookkeeper. Guess I'll find out as we get further into this. I've struggled a bit with assignment because I'm not sure Mary's page requires all the resources.

Mary should definitely be on Linked In and probably Google+ but I'm not sure yet about Instagram or Tumblr. As a bookkeeper I suppose a Youtube video would work for capturing an audience. We will need to look into creating one (or more) that would benefit her.

The 4 most widely used platforms according to the number are Facebook at 1.39 billion users
YouTube at 5.4 million users, Google+ at 5.4 million users and Instagram coming in at 300 million users.

Facebook is miles ahead of everyone and for good reason. It's a great way to see what you need to quickly with little effort.

YouTube is of course very effective because it is so much easier to watch a video of something verses reading a PDF. You have to be willing to have your 5 minutes of fame or find someone willing to take on that role. I suppose it may be difficult to make a good video interesting enough to get folks to want to watch as well.

Google+ seems like it has a few things to offer similar to Facebook but the images can be quite a bit larger. It doesn't appear to have a timeline. I'm still trying to figure it out. It will be good for my own business when I get it up and running to hang images that will be in need of exposure for (graphic design).

Instagram is all about the pictures of course. It allows you to place images randomly for a "behind the scenes" effect. Not sure this will work for Mary but, I could be wrong. Maybe posting pictures of events that she could have (open houses for example) may show people her sense of community...

Week # 6 Continued

I created 7 posts, 5 with images. I geared all of it towards gaining new business, the majority aimed at tax season. I believe it should trigger a need in some people. This is such a crucial time for so many and coming from experience I realize that it's hard to find a good preparer. I struggled with that in my own business. Some if the images I created in Photoshop, some from morguefile.com and one from the internet and I made sure to give credit to the page I found it on, Huffington Post. In the future I would like to start creating my own shots. 

Week # 6

The businesses I chose for Mary's page were all local businesses in her area. Because Mary is a tax preparer and bookkeeper I thought the target market for her initially would be local business people. I can see how engaging with the conversations on these sites would enable Mary to be seen and she could possibly get to know some of the owners or who ever is managing the page. Also if something is mentioned about someone needing her service, she could jump in on the conversation.

It was interesting to see just how many businesses in high desert don't have FB pages. The restaurants especially. I looked at at least 5 websites for food and only one (that wasn't a national brand) had FB . They've always been a little behind in technology. Although, as always the realtors are on it! They wouldn't make it if they weren't....

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
Farmers Insurance
Top Notch Networking, LLC
FindLaw For Consumers
Shank & Associates
Reservation Counter
Weichert Realtors
Shear Realty
Envision Photography

Week # 5 Facebook/Reach and Post Engagement

I did an internet search for the meaning of both terms and a site called pagemodo.com came up. The first definition of "post reach" is when users scrolling through posts, organically or viral post (shared posts) and hitting like. "Post engagement" is when someone actually interacts with you on your post or shares your post on their page.

It's important to understand each meaning because while it's nice for the acknowledgement of the likes, it's more important to receive feedback on your post to know how people feel about what you're doing. That way you can either keep doing what your doing or make necessary adjustments to receive the feed back you're looking for.

I looked at Facebook insights from my old page of Chrysalis Spa (closed in 2013) and reviewed the data that was listed. It shows how many likes you have received and the % that came in for the last week. It also shows the post reach and engagement in terms of % from the last week. It lists the comments and the number of shares as well.

You can go through the post comments review what clients are talking about. This will enable you to make the necessary adjustments to what you're doing with the page to ensure a positive result. It also gives you the ability to purchase advertising if desired. Pay per click is what is offered.

Week # 4 - Defining a Target Market

I'm choosing to represent my dear friend Mary Bentley to create her social media. She has over 25 years experience as a tax preparer and bookkeeper.  She has yet to market herself for her business. She has no website or social media platforms. She is ready to go to the next level to become self employed in her field.

I will be Mary's webmaster (first I have to build her site!) as well as attending to her social media promotions for the duration of class as well as after I complete the course. I'm anxious to see if I can make this happen for her. I would like to master my abilities in social media so that I can start my own side business attending to the social media of a few businesses.  I think this will be a good start for my portfolio if I can succeed in growing Mary's client base.

Mary Bentley and Associates

Target Market:  Individuals, New Businesses, Corporations, Partnerships and Sole proprietors
Age Range: 30-65
Income Range: $45,000.00 +
Gender: Non-specific
Geographic Area: High Desert Community, Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley, Adelanto, Phelan and Lucerne Valley.
Specialties: Quick Books, payroll, professional audits, and the setting up of books.
Location: In office or mobile.

Mary's business is broken down by the time of year.

Individuals: January - April 15th
Businesses: January - December

Week #3 Sunday

Two websites I frequently use are Yahoo.com and Facebook.com

I'm sure that will be the majority of everyone in class. The two activities mostly used for me on the internet are my email and checking in on my village!

Ok. Almost missed this on Blackboard. Glad I doubled checked to make sure I did all that was required!

1. Why are they effective? Yahoo is effective in that it is structured well for emails but in addition I like that I can catch up on news, weather and movies just to mention a few.  Facebook is effective in that it allows me to stay in touch with family friends and some business affiliates but it also has been great for finding people that I may never have seen again in my lifetime. I finding friends that I haven't seen in over 30 years! I love that! 
2. What specific principles of good design do they include and why? Yahoo's overall structure is set up to be user friendly and easy on the eyes. The architecture is precise and flows down the page making it easy to see what is laid out. You can scan the whole page in a matter of seconds and not feel like you have missed anything. The nav bar is stationary and at the very top of the page for easy access. The home button is located to the upper left and you know that it's actually the home button. The other nice thing is that you can change some of the visual setting to your own preference. Facebook is easy scrolling and the links are set up for easy access. The search bar is fantastic and really simple to use. The site is sectioned off so that you can organize photos and information easily  .
3. What makes you come back again? Well, the obvious for both. I have integrated both site into my life so that I make them a part of what I need to do everyday to succeed at communication. Both are as important as my phone.
4. What could be improved? With Yahoo, I would like the issue of spam to be improved on. And, with Facebook I'm not crazy about how they try and suck you into the games..not interested.

Week # 3 Website Critiques

Bad Website #1 http://tectorch.com. 

Wow, this website needs a major overhaul! Where do I begin?

The first thing I would say is "Less is More!" There is so much information it's overwhelming to look at the page.

The entire layout of the site is bad. There is no styling on the page. Everything is centered and yet it isn't ever centered well.  The color palette is bad and I don't see a call to action.

When you click on the links the "Home" button is at the bottom of the page and not very obvious. 

There is no way of ordering online yet the phone number for calling in an order is really small and at he very bottom of the page. 

Bad Website #2 http://www.headhunterhairstyling.com/

This one is also very poorly designed. They didn't use a cover on the background so it's repeating all over the place. 

The nav bar has no styling, the fonts are horrible and really small. There are spacing issues and everything is in the middle of the page, yet, off centered. The grammar is bad.

 They have a strange little flashing bar that repeats down the page

The images are not placed well and some you can't tell what they are because they're too small. They also load incredibly slow.

The google map takes up an entire page!

They have a "download page" with a bunch of funky intertwined photos that are really large and they don't really make since. 

They also have a page completely unrelated to what they do and it is very poorly laid out as well. the images are horrible.

Good Website #1 apple.com

Well, this is Apple, of course it's going to be good. First of all it's easy on the eyes. The layout is interesting and well organized. It loads quickly and all the main links are very accessible and understandable. 

Each page loads instantly and has great esthetics. All parts of each page draws you in to want to see more, creating a curiosity to move through more the next page. There is always something new going on in the website. The look is clean and the art used is fresh. 

The Apple icon at the top left of the page brings you back home easily .

Apple has a shopping cart for online purchases and each product is displayed well and all the information you need is right there with the image. 

They have a blog page for community use as well as support. 

This has always been one of my favorite sites to visit. I'm never bored.

Good Website #2 Toyota.com

Toyota really hit nail on the head with this website. It is very user friendly. Maneuvering through this website is fun and very easy to use. Everything you want to know about any Toyota on the market is on this site. You can build your own model which is fun an enticing.

They have links to help you find the nearest location and links for keeping notes that you can come back to later.

The website has a search bar for finding things on the site and, if you speak Spanish, there is a link for that as well.

The style is clean and well organized and the images of the cars are fantastic! The layout is extensive yet simple a designed in a way that you don't realize just how much information is given. 

I love this site! Makes me want to buy a new car!

Week #2 Communication: List of Five Business Websites

Here is my list of 5 business and the social media they are using.

1. Mister A's Restaurant - Fine dining establishment located in downtown San Diego
    Website:  http://www.bertrandatmisteras.com/
    Social Media:  Facebook: 2/11/2015     4110 Likes
                             Twitter: 2/14/2015     2312 Followers
                             Linkedin: Nice informative page
 This restaurant has a beautiful website and is using social media well to their advantage.  They have done a spectacular job at keeping up to date with technology. The restaurant    has been around for since 1965. It's considered the nicest restaurant in San Diego.


2. Jadyen Presliegh, The Salon & Spa - Locate in the Village of Carlsbad on State Street
    Website:  http://http://jaydenpresleigh.com//
    Social Media:  Facebook / 2/14/2015    940 Likes
                             Twitter : They have the link on their website but it doesn't go anywhere.
                             Pintrest: 62 Pins and 128 followers
 While they do need to work on their website a little, the layout is really nice and they get the  idea about social media and are using it fairly well, with the exception of the link to Twitter.  Maybe it an issue of time management.

3. Century21- Residential Real Estate office with numerous locations nation wide.

    Website:  http://www.century21.com/

    Social Media:  Facebook: 2/15/2015     314,122 Likes

                             Twitter: 2/15/2015       83,000 Followers

                             Google+: 98,511  Followers

                             Flickr: 22,281 photos

                             YouTube: 3856 Followers

 This company has been around for awhile and is very successful with their  marketing and seem to be ahead of the game with social media.

4. The Joint - Chiropractic membership located in Oceanside.

    Website:  http://chiropractoroceanside-thejoint.com/

    Social Media:  Facebook: 2/12/2015     32 Likes

                             Twitter: 2/15/2015     30 Followers  

                            Google+: 2 Followers One bad review

                             Yelp: 21 reviews 6 really bad, 1, 4 star and 14, 5 star reviews
 The reviews are mixed for sure. Really shows the importance of making sure your  business is running correctly. Social media can really hurt you if your making  mistakes!

5. Thompon Heating and Air Conditioning - San Diego County/ Riverside County.    

    Website:  http://www.thacc.net

    Social Media:  Facebook: 1/6/2015     129Likes

                           Google+: 44 Followers 23,847 views 22 reviews 4.9 stars

                            Yelp: 48 reviews, all 5 stars

                            BBB: 0 complaints
 Very functional website. this company seems to understand the importance of great  service.