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.