Week 16 - Final Post

Final Blog

With the ever changing or rather evolving world of social media and communication I have come to learn that with all the mainstream platforms available I can maximize my business exposure with something as simple as a photo and a short post or blog. The skills and tools that I have obtained through the class and semester work have been priceless information that I can now use in my everyday life. Looking at the obvious patterns of the recent social norm of high internet use, we can easily agree that the use of social media to maximize your business has become a business 101. As a small business owner it is important to keep up with these new trends.

              It has been a challenge to pick up on some of the new trends that I did not have as a social norm growing up or even learning about as an adult. Having an iPhone for 5+ years doesn’t mean you are using the device to its full potential. At the beginning of the class I did not know what a blog was or even that Facebook had so many tools and options to help a user run a business. Having a Facebook for more then 4+ years has been very minimal and not as elaborate as some of the posts or pages that I have seen through friends and family. Whether its posting something personal or sharing a post I have seen myself using more of the tools available to do so. Once Upon a Treasure Box is the name of my business page through Facebook, I have been learning to tinker with the tools to advertise my product and services. Learning to reach out to friends, family, customers; and the masses through Facebook and other social media platforms has greatly changed through the course of the semester. I have found that using a short descriptive followed by an image of the product has worked out for me as opposed to the post after post of my product that just clutters my page. Also reaching out to customers is very efficient using the mainstreaming platforms, it is close as you can get to replying in realtime to address any questions or concerns.

              Since I have started using Facebook to advertise my business, Once Upon a Treasure Box, I have seen many changes in my business and the way that I look at social media. Learning about blogs has helped me in being descriptive and articulating my product and services in a written format to share on my page. I do this as well with my personal posts on my personal page, short descriptive post followed by an image, has generated more likes on my posts then before. Also, friends and family have come to show me that the networking and sharing is very important which is now something that I am working to utilize for my business page. I am know interested in researching how to maximize the sharing of my posts and ways to network with others to do so. These skills and tools that I am learning to makes me feels confident that the future in advertisement is in the mainstream social media platforms. You can become famous a simple short video on youtube or your business could become a hype that can generate insane amounts of money in a short time.

              Through the course work of this class I have become more comfortable in researching how to use social media platforms to maximize my business. Deciding on what platforms to use is a big part on how much time you will have to invest to keep everything up to date. I personally like to use Facebook which I use the most, Instagram, and twitter. I am still learning how to use Instagram and twitter for my business. I find it a lot more efficient to concentrate on Facebook since I get more replies and messages about my product through Facebook.

              Browsing and looking through other Facebook pages and also helped in researching pages that I enjoy, whether it be their layout and how they advertise. I get a lot of my ideas and inspiration while browsing through different pages. I have also found product and services that I wouldn’t have found at the store down the street. A lot of the ingredients that I find to make my homemade beauty products were found and sourced out through networking and following links to other pages. This has opened my eyes and that social media is very important for my business now and for future endeavors.  

Week 15

Week 14

FaceBook ads.

Week 13A and 13B

·     Week 13A

  www.facebook.com/LCLHB/

This company main products are hair bows and her advertising focus on Amazon Prime, also they offer free items. I do believe Amazon requires to have a website to qualify to sell here. I think is the main reason this page looks very simple but cute. One thing I noticed is that they suppose to target woman but it seems targeting little girls.

·       www.facebook.com/search/str/hair+clips/keywords_search

This company call of action “Who Runs the World -Girls” it seems they are empowering girls to buy their product to run the world.

·       www.facebook.com/search/str/hair+clips/keywords_search

This page offers 10 buck hair clips, I notice they offer embroiled rhinestone products like mine. I don’t see ads, it may still be under construction.

It was a little difficult to find smalls business who sell hair pins on FaceBook. I just find few but their products are not quite close look or quality as the ones I offer.  This research give the feeling that my business may have a good chances to grow since there are not too many on Facebook.

Week 13B

Face have good options to do advertising. The one I think it was a good option, is the one that cost 1 dollar a day. This one also gives the change to edit pic and message every time you are posting your ad. Since I'm just starting I'm not planning on expending too much on ads but this option. seems do-able. 

Week 12B

I did a research on Grupon; it seems a good option to promote my product, but I couldn’t find how much it cost to use this online marketing tool. Anyways, one of the reasons I think Grupon is a good option; is because they just have few hairpins, the variety is too limited. In my inventory I have variety of hairpins. I also notice that most of the products/services offer here their original prices are way over to high so giving 70% off will most likely leave the price that is should it be sell. If I decide to use Grupon in order to offer copuons I will have to raise the price by 50% more, which I don’t feel comfortable doing it. My findings after the research is that I don’t think I will use Grupon.

I do like Yelp better than Grupon because this marketing tool is more about advertising a business also gives the opportunity to customers to check the reviews before deciding to where to go. Yelp also let customers to write reviews about their experiences. Since my business is relatively small I will recommend my current customers to write good reviews of my products.

Week 12A

Google Maps, Coupons, Google +, and Yelp seems to be great tools to promote businesses. I’m not sure if all of them will work with my business, as now my business is very small, Currently I’m selling to friends, co-workers, and friends of my family. But I think Groupon is a great marketing tool to reach more customers who want to save money. Google maps make it easy to find businesses, with this tool customers can see where the business is located and is easy to find the direction to the address. Google plus help to get connect and communicate with an specific circle. Google+ users can post different info to each group. Yelp can be used to get feedback from customers, this help to know how customers see the business. I do think that it can be backfire because customers can post bad reviews.

If I decide to use them I will add the link to my website and to my social platforms.

Week 11

A newsletter for my business will be great. I would like to do maybe a monthly newsletter, I think it can be annoying for some people to receive daily newsletter. Maybe if I don’t send it very often my customers will fell more compel to see it. Well, at least for my kind of business. I will use it to promote my products on holidays, b-days, graduations, etc. by sending discounts or offering deals such as free shipping for example. My newsletter it will be to target more sales and to engage my costumers with my products. I also think it will fun creating newsletters.

Week 10

Adding human interest to a post is highly effective because readers from different social media platforms can identify to the product or services a business is offering. Writing about a personal experience with the product itself can help readers to feel connected and close the deal with a sale with the writer because is something real. For example, if I write about how beautiful my niece’s hair up-do looks at her kinder garden graduation with one of the tiaras I sell it would be easy to sell to a mother. Or if I blog about how my product will make someone feel good about themselves. Also, if my customers add comments about their good experiences with my products can help boost my sales.

It will make sense add personal touch because my products are related to personal appearance and adding personal touch can help customers to feel confident about how the product will look. I think everything needs to have personal touch because nowadays people feel more compel to buy when they feel related to the product/services offer by a business (psychographics).

Week 7

Week 7

Pages I Thumb-up:

Lipsense with Hilary

Marissa Battle

Secreto Salon

Quinceanera Mall

Martha Flores Makeup

TechPrep

Enaturemexico

These are few pages my friends follow; I think sharing something that clients like, makes them feel more compel to follow my page because we have something in common to like. This will help to have more engagement with my page.

Week 6

      Difference between post reach and post engagement.

I never heard about post engagement or post reach before this assignment so I need it to do some research and I can tell you that it is very interesting to learn about it. 

Post engagement had to do with viewers commenting, sharing, and liking one’s post. Is like having followers who know and like the product already. Post reach is about just visiting the post, it shows how many people visit or reached the page. I understood correctly reach is like when putting the product out to let customers know about but there is not engage. The two metrics can assist to know how the product is doing in social media.

The two of them are important for every business because one is promoting the product and the other one is building a relationship with customers. Also, it can assist to know how well the product is being sell because the goal is make profits.

A business can use Facebook insights to better serve their customers by interacting with customers to create loyalty. Also, they can be used to know customer’s preferences by collecting data. 

Week 5 Post 1

I choose the first set and if I’m not mistaken they have the 

same target market. The difference I found is that Econobum 

Cloth Diapers used demographic and psychographics. It’s 

like “Code Green” on diapers, they are appealing to 

customers who cares of nature. This website does not have 

Call to Action words. Just cheap Diapers was more about 

demographics. They are more about customers income. 

Their website has Call to Action Words “Click here for 

monthly special offer”. I don’t think there is a crossover 

between the two types of customers. These two websites 

are simple and easy to navigate

Week 4 Part 2

www.amazon.com

Everyone knows Amazon! I think this website is amazing because most products can be found here. Their website home page is fill with items and services offer on the site. Aesthetics, design, and branding can be appreciated on the site. the navigation and search is easy to use. I do like this website because most products can be found here, also Amazon has a good return policy. The description of products is well written. I do come back here because the big selection of products. For example, I make my own body butter, face lotion, and hair treatments. The ingredients I need such as Kokum butter, Mango butter, Shea butter, etc. are sell there. 

www.whitehouseblackmarket.com/store/

I do like this store and I use their website to buy their cloths. The home page is simple and easy to navigate. Aesthetics, design, and branding were use adequately if one like clothing. I keep coming back to this website because is easy to buy their items, they have good sales and promotions, and their warranty is far. I haven’t had any problems with this site since I started using over 4 years ago.

I reply to Terrell, Marie, and Savannah.