Week Fifteen : Final Blog

Social Media has always been a bit daunting to me.  I didn't grow up with computers, in fact, when home computers first came out, I really didn't think it would be something that would stick around. Everyone used typewriters and home computers were really just glorified rolodexes and something to play games with.

With the introduction to the internet, all of a sudden, computers became indispensable.  I even spoke to my 80 year old mother one day and asked her what she was doing and she replied that she was looking up on Google the gestation period for a cat!

Before social media, emails seemed revolutionary.  We were able to communicate with family and friends whenever we wanted, for any length of time and it was pretty much instantaneous.  Receiving letters in the mail was a thing of the past.

I think Classmates.com was probably the first tiny glimpse into what social media was going to become.  You were able to find old classmates and then email them and catch up.

Facebook opened up a whole new world of interaction.  By the time I was able to grasp the whole Facebook concept, I was already behind.  My 14 year old niece started telling me about something called Instagram and then showing me pictures of hairstyles on Pinterest.  What were all these platforms? I also was reluctant to get a smart phone because I couldn't really see a purpose in it.  Why couldn't this information gathering wait until I was home in front of my computer?  Now I can hardly imagine not being able to check the traffic, weather, emails and send and receive text messages.

Since this class I've become an avid user of Instagram and follow interesting bloggers who post inspiring and interesting things as well as recipes and pictures of vacations.  I also follow a few friends to keep up with the new baby or the upcoming wedding.  I've started using Facebook consistently for my business, but I'm not seeing a lot of interaction with the customers.  It seems to currently be more about connecting with employees and stores that carry our product.  I hope that as time goes by more and more customers will reach out and connect.  I used Twitter a few times for the class, but don't really desire at this time to follow people "live".  I prefer to catch up on posts when I have the time to sign into Facebook or flip through Instagram, but for some reason Twitter seems like a lot of work. Pinterest is a platform that I really enjoy because of the fact that it is so visual.  I don't have a lot of time to spend getting lost in all the photos that are out there, but if I did, I know that almost anything can be found on it.

All in all, this class was extremely beneficial to me.  It changed my view on the purpose of promoting your business through social media and explained why it's important to be accessible to the public.  It also broke down for me the exact use and function of the different platforms and explained who they would benefit most.

Week Fourteen : Blog Comments

I commented on the following blogs:

Audra Najera
Don Steler
Angela Taylor
Maranda Carlton

Week Fourteen : More Social Strategies

For Tia's Bakery, any of the visual social medias seem to be the most appropriate.  I've enjoyed using Facebook the most, as well as Pinterest.  Although Twitter connects with Facebook, I find myself still just posting on Facebook, while avoiding Twitter.  Possibly it's the restriction in the number of characters.  Twitter also seems to put an extra pressure on me, making me feel like I have to do it more often or follow it more often, whereas Facebook is something that can be opened every other day or whenever you want really, and catching up is much easier.  

For daily use, Facebook also works well because of the scheduled posts that can be written ahead of time.  If I had more time to dedicate to social media, I feel Twitter would be more engaging and would allow me to touch other businesses directly.

I feel that Pinterest is an outlet that can be used much less frequently and the beauty of it, is that your pictures are there indefinitely.  You don't have to worry about people not being able to see your posts because they have to keep scrolling and scrolling.  Anyone can find you or your posts, no matter how long ago you put them, just by searching for the subject matter that you focused on. 

Going forward, I will continue with Facebook weekly posts and Pinterest weekly to monthly posts.  If I am able to get more time, I will definitely incorporate Twitter into my daily schedule.

Week Thirteen : FaceBook Analytics

FaceBook Analytics, the following were the results for the most recent week:

Page likes were up 16.7% from last week
8 new page likes up 166.7% from last week
Total Reach down 0.9% from last week
Post Reach up 41.9% from last week
People engaged 16.7% more from last week

Upon review, I've noticed that the most interaction and addition of people come from spotlighting employees.  They interact more with the post and they also bring their own followers who in turn like the page and posts.

Even with a call to action on each bakery item sold, we haven't raised any numbers in consumer followers.

Week Thirteen : Google Analytics for Business

There are a few features that Google Analytics offers that would benefit my company.  Knowing the audience and also tracing their path tracks the path that people take online to get to your website, as well as the device they use to visit the site.

By also showing what these people do when they get to your site, you get insight into what people are interested in and you can now tailor your site to reflect these preferences.  If you have a blog, you can also focus on these things, because it's what is showing as most interesting for the consumer at this moment.

Any of the ads that would reach your target audience would also benefit and drive customers to your site.  If Tia's Bakery ever decided to start selling baked goods online, all of these tools would really benefit the company in drawing in actual buyers.

Yelp & Google Plus Groups

Yelp

Tia's Bakery does have a Yelp review page, which is unusual in that most companies that sell exclusively through retail do not.  When Tia's Bakery first started in 2009, we did custom cake orders in addition to retail in addition to catering quite a few events.  Since we've moved exclusively to retail and also moved to Oceanside we haven't had any new reviews.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tias-bakery-marina-del-rey    (old site)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tias-bakery-oceanside   (new site)

I believe Yelp does have an impact for those that have store fronts.  I use it myself frequently to view what the majority of people think about a restaurant or bakery.  I don't think for my particular business it helps or hinders it, but it's just another place where I'm visible on the internet.

Google+ Groups

I researched "gluten" on Google+ Groups and found quite a few that would help get the word out about my business.  More than drive sales though, I think the purpose of being active on these groups would be to establish myself as an expert in the field.

Interacting, answering and asking questions and even starting a new group would be a good idea for me to do.

Week Twelve - Online Marketing Tools

For Tia's Bakery, four additional online marketing tools that might be beneficial would be:

Google +
Yelp
Linked In
Groupon

For my current marketing strategy, I think the one that would benefit most would be Linked In.  I could start a personal profile along with a business profile and begin to market myself as a gluten free dessert creator expert.  I could start groups, engage others in discussions and create a network of other specialty food creators.

I won't be creating a Google + account or Google Map location for my business since it has not store front.  I'm not sure how I was able to create a Yelp page, even though I had no store front at the time, but have always been available exclusively in retail locations.

Week Eleven - Free Online Advertising

There are a number of options for free online marketing.  By asking your current followers to recommend your site, you can increase the number of people you interact with.  By also offering demonstrations in either YouTube or little short videos in Instagram would allow me to show a particular skill in gluten free baking, or making a recipe.

Anything that would interest the consumer to "tune in", whether it be an interview with a popular person or getting someone important to recommend you as the go to person for gluten free recipes or even teaming up with another person who has a lot of followers in a complementary field would open you up to many more followers.

Week Eleven - Ad Feedback

Responded to the following blogs:
1.  Freshii
2.  Word Association
3.  Dani Pop

Week Eleven - Online Advertising

My business could use the advertising options in Facebook that boost posts so that more people would see the posts or we could also promote our website to point more customers to our website once we have online purchasing available.

I think it would benefit Tia's Bakery to boost the posts.  Budget would be about $5/day for a few months to see if there is more interaction with the consumers.

Also, if we sent people to our website once we have online shopping available, then we could see a direct result of our dollars spent by the number of sales that we have filled.

Any of the following ads would be effective because they are eye catching - who doesn't love chocolate?

Week Ten - Newsletters

For my business, recipes would be a good subject matter to use.  They could be holiday or season specific to inspire people to try something new.  For example, pumpkin in the fall, berries in the summer, etc.

Newsletters would be sent 4-5 times per year so as to not overwhelm the customer, but still keep us relevant.

Content Ideas:
Celiac Awareness Month
Winter Holiday Desserts
Summer Desserts
Valentine's Day Chocolate
Spring Desserts

These topics would be of interest to my customers because they're based on desserts and gluten free, both of which my customers want.

Week Nine: Blog Categories

In order to stay organized and to reach my target audience, I would create the following categories:

Recipes
Health
About

These categories would help my company to grow by showing me to be a leading authority in the gluten free field, in both recipe creation and also health references.  The About category would help the reader to feel more familiar with the company and also more engaged.  We would have a face behind the name.

I commented on the following blogs:

1. Soyology Candles
2.  Freshii
3.  Word Association

Week Nine: Letting Personality Show Through on Posts

For almost all blogs, writing must be interesting and engaging.  If the reader is bored, they will just click to move to a new website.  Unless your subject matter is very serious, dealing with abuse for instance, lightening up the posts with humor and personality is a good thing.

When you have a unique voice, people will notice the authenticity of that voice and you will get followers.  I have a few people that I follow on Instagram, not necessarily for the subject matter that's revealed, but more for the entertainment of the actual reading of the post.

Also, if you are consistent in your approach and your voice, repeat readers will look for that consistency.  It's just the same as when you are attracted to someone in person, if their personality kept changing all the time, you wouldn't know where they stand and which is the "real" person.  It also applies to online personas.  If you have way too much variety in your format, super serious one day, light hearted and joking the next, then ultra zen, the reader isn't sure where you stand and won't want to follow you.

Whether or not you impart a lot of personality in your posts, you should make the writing interesting and easy to follow.  Break up the paragraphs, use light background with dark letters and utilize interesting graphics.

Week Eight - Twitter Lists

To search for potential users on Twitter I first used the words gluten free.  It didn't turn up the exact type of users that I wanted, so I added Los Angeles to the list.  This brought up a couple of Celiac Groups in the Los Angeles area as well as some people who found gluten free restaurants in Los Angeles.

I created two lists: Peer Companies and Celiac Groups.  The Peer Companies list I created so that if I need to reach out to other food companies for advise or support, it would be easy to find just them.  The Celiac Groups would be perfect to spread the word of any upcoming events or demos, as they have quite a few followers that have our exact customer profile.  Creating lists in Twitter help you to stay organized when you start having quite a few people who you are following.  You may want to pinpoint who is going to get your tweet, as opposed to sending out a blanket tweet that will reach everyone that is following you.

I would think that most people would see my tweets in the evening or weekends, when they have more free time to play around on social media platforms.

Week Seven: Competitor's Visual Platforms

Two competitor's that have similar products are listed below.

EarthCafe  https://earthcafetogo.com/
Two visual social media platforms that this company utilizes are YouTube and Pinterest.  I don't think it was very effective for them, because they have very limited videos, all of which are over 2 years old and in Pinterest, even though they have 10 different files, none of them are very well populated and they only have 44 followers. Although they do have 12,000+ followers on Facebook, there is limited interaction with the customers, which leads me to think these aren't real people.  I think that the YouTube channel could have worked for this company if they posted videos creating recipes.  It wouldn't have to be of their actual product, it could have been for similar food items; raw power balls, bars, etc.

Pamela's Products   http://www.pamelasproducts.com/
Pamela's utilizes Instagram and Pinterest.  They have quite a few followers on Pinterest and they've also included videos, which I didn't know that you could do.  They are very active on this site and I think they are very successful in their reach.  They also have quite a few followers on Instagram, their posts are up to date, very engaging and visual.  I feel they are very successful in both of their visual outreaches. It doesn't feel like marketing, more of an interaction.

Visual social media definitely works for my type of business.  Food is a very visual medium and it's a way to connect with people.  Who doesn't like to talk about brownies? I've gotten quite a few ideas from Pamela's Products and will be looking to their different platforms for help in the direction to go that is successful and is working.

Week 7 - Visual Networking

Until I started this class, I didn't feel that social media was relevant to my business, and definitely not visual social media.  I have since completely changed my mind on this.  As I see the purpose of these very different platforms, set them up and begin interacting with people, so many ideas keep arising on how I can make each of these platforms work for my business.

Being a bakery lends itself to almost every social media platform out there.  When dealing with food, pictures are what drive people to purchase or desire these treats.

I think the four most widely used visual platforms are:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Blogs

YouTube is something that my family constantly uses, whether searching for window cleaning tips to how to change a tire.  These videos can be as long as you would like and you can imbed them in your website.  So many people prefer to click on a video than to read an article.

Instagram is similar to Facebook in that you are posting to your followers, however, it's more of an "in the moment" type of posting.  You can upload take a photo or a short 14 second video and put it out there.  

Pinterest is a visual platform that relies upon photographs to grab the attention of the public.  The more attractive and interesting your photo, the more chance you have of someone "pinning" it and sharing with others, who may in turn pin and share.  It's similar to Facebook's sharing, but on a much larger scale.  What is great about this platform is that your pins can have a life way past the time that you post them.  Someone may come across your picture of the best brownie on earth years from now, and repin it, as opposed to a post that you have on Facebook that has long since become inaccessible.

Blogging is another visual networking platform that relies upon photos and videos to hold the interest of the reader.  The more attractive the post, the more chance you have of retaining the reader to finish the entire article and possible sign up for notifications of future posts.

For my bakery, I feel that Pinterest would be the most beneficial for us to use.  We can post our own recipes, repost other's recipes and also have other boards that we think our followers would be interested in.  Based on our target market that was identified in the 2nd week of class, I would think that our customers would be interested in anything to do with Southern California, gluten free foods, health, allergies and possibly DIY beauty products.  I'm also thinking of making a YouTube video that plays at double the normal speed, showing production of a cake, from mixing the ingredients, to frosting, packaging, delivering and then actually purchasing.  

Week Six - Future Posts

The photo above shows the (3) posts that I have scheduled to be released on Friday.  I highlighted a store that carries our product on one post.  On the second post I listed a funny video about that store that I found on YouTube and on the third video I featured an original recipe from our company for people to try out over the weekend.  I think these posts will engage my audience because the store being featured is a familiar and iconic store.  The recipe has a visual that will catch the eye and the short list of ingredients will encourage people to give the recipe a try.

Week Six : Strategic Connections

The following is a list of (7) strategic connections that I made for my Facebook Page - Tia's Bakery.  Since we sell gluten free desserts, I thought it would be best to Like pages of bloggers who post about gluten free desserts and have a lot of followers and also to follow the stores that carry our products.  I've made it a goal to find many more pages that fall under these criteria, sticking to the ones that have a high number of followers.

1.  Elana's Pantry (blogger)
2.  Spunky Coconut (blogger)
3.  Civilized Caveman (blogger)
4.  Celiac.com (organization)
5.  Whole Foods Venice (retail location)
6.  Celiac Disease Foundation (organization)
7.  Gluten Free Mama (blogger)

Week Five: Facebook's Post Reach vs. Post Engagement

In regards to Facebook Insights, Post Reach measures the number of people your post reached.

Post Engagement refers to how much activity resulted because of your posts with regards to views, clicks, comments, likes and shares.

Both of these insights are important to a business.  While you are trying to grow your follower base, the reach amount is important to track how many people your posts are touching.  For engagement, building relationships with your followers increases their loyalty and makes them feel as though they have a personal stake in the growth of your company.

Businesses can use both of these insights to get information on not only how many people are being made aware of your company, but also how engaging your posts are and how much they encourage people to interact with you.  Depending on the stage of growth that your company is in currently will dictate which of these insights will weigh more heavily in your social media campaign.

Week Four - Target Market

Tia's Bakery creates individually sized, gluten free cakes.  Some of the characteristics of our customers are:

• High income level
• Live or work near a Whole Foods
• Have health concerns
• Health conscious
• Have a specialty diet
• Like desserts
• Attracted to portion control sizes

I believe our target market are mid to upper income, Southern California based, suburban, young adults with specialty diet concerns, or moms with a child who has these diet concerns.

Week Three - Commonly Frequented Websites

Two sites that I frequent often are:

Kayak.com
This is an effective and easily used website for all forms of travel.  Each page is self explanatory and you don't have to hunt for the different things that you are searching for.  The principles of good design that they use are tidiness and organization of all the information.  Even though there is a massive amount of information contained within this site, it in no way looks cluttered or unprofessional.  What makes me come back to this site over and over again is that I never have any difficulty navigating through the site.  Even when they make updates, it's still obvious what to do to get your prices.  I don't know if there is anything that I would recommend for improvement, other than the fact that I don't enjoy having multiple pages being opened up on my computer as a price comparison.  I've never seen any of these "comparisons" being anything but more than what Kayak is charging.

Ebay.com
Ebay is a very effective tool for finding obscure and unusual things, usually at a substantial discount that you would find it for elsewhere.  It can also be just a form of online shopping, similar to a mall with a wide variety of items for sale.  This is another site that uses organization as a principle of good design.  Everything is very thought out in each category of the navigation bar, with extra information optional when you choose a new page.  They help you find what you are looking for and even are helpful finding things you weren't looking for!  The only recommendation that I would make for a change would be to remove the advertising bars that are on the site.  I find them distracting and when you accidentally move your mouse, another website pops up.

Week Three - Two Websites with Good Points, Two Websites with Bad Points

Sites with potential problems:

http://tectorch.com
This website's homepage is very cluttered.  It's difficult to read since the font is small and once you click on one of the links, there is no way to get back easily to the homepage without using the back arrow.  This site could be improved by making the homepage  have more of a focus on the warehouse.  Instead of an exterior view of the building, have a photo centered on the home page of an interior view of the items in stock.  For the navigation buttons, they should have a contact page and then the brand names as the main buttons.  Drop down buttons could be the individual types of torches under their respective brand.  The home page could take the place of an About Us page and give you all the information about how long they've been in business, who their customers are and where they ship.  If Made in the USA is something that they want to emphasize on the site, it can be incorporated more creatively on the homepage, possibly a watermark or a background photo to the text.

http://www.exmouth-view.co.uk
This website has a very homemade look to it.  From the moving graphics, to the bouncing words, it's very distracting to try and focus on the content.  Also, scrolling so long on the home page makes it difficult to find the information you want with so much offered in one chunk.  This website should have the home page trimmed down to just be one great graphic of the hotel, along with content describing who they are and what they offer.  All photos should be replaced with higher quality, professional photographs.  A navigation bar with buttons such as About Us, Contact Us, Rates, Media would make it easier for getting through the site.  Also, all the recommended links can be listed on another page, possibly at the bottom of About Us, but cut them down and put in folders to organize; parks, gardens, entertainment, weather, shopping, etc.

Sites with good design:

http://apple.com
Apple's site is very easy to navigate.  It has a simplistic look to it, but it's not bare.  The navigation bar is easily found at the top, so that you can go to the section of the site that you are looking for, or you can look at the graphics on the home page to get more information on a variety of products. Purchasing is very easy, as is getting support for your individual product. Their branding is very familiar and I feel comfortable on the website.  It does make me want to purchase their items because they are explained really well, the photos are exceptional and the description and examples of what can be done with each product.

http://www.toyota.com
Toyota's website has a great graphic on the first page to draw you in.  It looks 3-D, and flips to show the different vehicles in their line.  Because of the different, vivid landscapes behind each vehicle, you get the feeling that if you purchase one of these new cars, you'll get to experience new locations and be very fashionable and comfortable. The navigation bar is very easy to navigate through and the Build and Price button is not only fun, but makes you feel in control of your finances by choosing to include or exclude options.  You trust the brand because all of the pricing is very upfront, you don't have to search around for it.

Week Two - 5 Businesses

1. ART OF GIVING BACK
• ArtofGivingBack.org
• Facebook
• February 13, 2015
2. EARTH CAFE
• earthcafetogo.com
• Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube
• February 14, 2015
3. MIRACOSTA COLLEGE
• miracosta.edu
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube
• February 15, 2015
4. SEPHORA
• sephora.com
• Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Wanelo
• February 14, 2015
5. JAYBIRD QUILTS
• jaybirdquilts.com
• Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Feedburner, Youtube
• February 15, 2015

Week Two - Business Communications

I have had limited experience in communicating with businesses via Social Media, but I have attempted to do so a few times.

One instance in particular, I chose to follow a business whose product I enjoyed.  They had quite a few followers and were active in their postings and the postings were interesting to read.  After some time though, I reached out to the company with a problem that I was having and they didn't respond to the post.

I continued to follow the company for a period of time, but I noticed that although the postings were interesting, there was very little, if any, interaction between the company and the customers.  Also, I really think that the followers were purchased and not actual customers.  This made me look at a few other companies that I was following and I noticed that they too had very high number of followers who looked questionable.

Although I still feel that companies can really benefit from Social Media, I think that like many other forms of communication, some have taken it to a level that makes it not efficient any longer.  Almost like the person who has 10,000 friends on Facebook, but never interacts with you personally, some companies are all about having a large number of followers but never actually connect with the customer.

Week One - Personal vs. Business

Almost all forms of social media can be used for both personal and business uses, although some lend themselves to more interaction for businesses.

Since we are a very visual world, Pinterest works well if your business has anything that can catch the eye of your client; food, art, photography, etc.  Facebook also works well for businesses in that you can broadcast events, which is also the case with Twitter.

For personal use, Instagram seems to be the new favorite, as you can snap a quick shot and upload with ease.  I don't think this is really geared towards business use.  I know quite a few people use Twitter, however, I find it very time consuming and I'm not sure if this will continue to be used quite as much for personal use.  Snapchat is an app that my kids and their friends use constantly.  I'm not sure if you would consider that social media, as the photos do not linger.

Week One

I chose the Watermark template because I liked the color palette.  It took a minute to figure out exactly how to begin posting to this new blog.

I'm looking forward to the Social Media class as it's not something that I grew up with and it's not very familiar to me to interact with people totally online.  It does suit my personality though, as I prefer to work from home than in an office setting.  I concentrate much better and I'm able to think more creatively without distractions.