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.