Final Blog Post

     This class has immensely opened up my perspective on social media. Before this class-or when we were typing our first weekly assigned blog post- I had only the knowledge of Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.  After this class I have realized the importance of a more vast area of helpful platforms. I am truly amazed by what LinkedIn does for a business community. This site has to be the most helpful tool I have learned. Also I was totally oblivious to the importance of Facebook to growing social media. This class completely helped me navigate how to use Facebook to my advantage. I never even knew how to control the Admin Panel, or truly what to even post. Now my Facebook is popping over with colorful Images and Blog Links. The couponing sites like Living Social was a new and exciting twist that had never been brought to my businesses attention.
    I can try to keep up with these social media changes by viewing what similar businesses as mine are choosing to utilize. The only way to beat the game is to stay ahead- and yes in my opinion that means slight business stalking. The growth of my business social media is extremely heightened. We just did our first Contest on Instagram. Whomever posted our advertising photo, and followed us on Instagram with a shout out got a free piece of jewelry. We were crazily surprised at what our Call to Action IG post did for our company. We are hoping more of these low key advertising stunts will help build our SEO. Furthermore I want to personally thank both of you Professors for the information you gave (and also related link articles) for building the search optimizations engine rank. That knowledge is of utmost importance in the small business world. My view point on social media has changed 360. Before I was a pop culture snob only caring about Instagram. Now I have a much more optimistic perspective for what all Social Media Platforms have to offer- especially since truly what the pop culture is caring about is what's new and undiscovered yet.

Social Media Strategy Week 14

     To start off with my social media marketing strategy, I shall mention that my business partner and I are the only ones who will be under control of preforming these duties. Because of this, we may not be able to update as many platforms as we'd like too on a weekly basis, but we indefinitely are going to work our hardest at reaching our reasonable media goals. Luckily, My partner is a very artistic, eloquent writer. I am the total visual element, so together we balance well. We have close to no funds towards our marketing at the moment, so for right now everything we post will be free of charge. :) My coworkers Idea was to actually create an entirely separate email account to register all of our social media platforms with, so we are pretty organized in that area. Which also makes it incredibly easier to receive quick notifications via email. We also use our google calender with this email, although at the moment we aren't very busy or blacked out of any days considering we are so freshly new. Our main objective is to attack the social media standpoint as intensely as possible to gain traffic to our site.

   So, on to the actual planning of our future posts ahead. We agreed we would send out a newsletter twice a month- so every two weeks. We are gaining new shipment around once a month, as long as having a photo shoot for a look book once a month, So therefore the first week we will post our new product photos. The second newsletter will consist of the new product look book to feature the visual and inspirational aspect of how our jewelry pieces came to be. Of course included in this will be little articles like- healing stone of the month, new scientific discovery (in the spiritual news), healthy living tips, etc.

   I think we are planning on having three to four scheduled posts a week. That way we can truly revise and have well thought out, meaningful posts that we feel one hundred percent comfortable sharing. My company will have one or two spur of the moment posts, that will be derived directly from some sort of spiritual epiphany or moment of utter inspiration. Blog posts are going to be weekly to biweekly, and of course will be linked to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Pinterest will be utilized as frequently as Facebook. This is easily done considering posting and commenting on other Pinterest posts helps gain visibilty to our profile as well. Instagram will be used daily. Twitter will be used Once or Twice a day-separate of links connected to other social media platforms. Those will be  quotes from historical spirtual leaders, or answering questions from our audience. We really want to use Twitter to really communicate with customers to see what they're doing, and what they want. LinkedIn is something new to us completely, so we will be dedicating a full day to testing out its many uses.

Week 14 Class list

I responded to the Week 14 Assignment (PT 1) on these classmates blogs:

Craig Stevens
Stephen Wilson
Andrew Beltran
Matthew Bergemann

Week 14

      The social media platforms I would integrate daily would be Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Instagram is the a very popular and frequently visited site. In my age group the average person is on it at least 2 hours a day. I could literally post 3-5 pictures a day for my business. Considering my business directly involves imagery and style, a photography platform would benefit gaining customers/followers the most. Customers want to be able to see and visualize what a piece is going to portray on their body. LinkedIn I would use daily, to comment on others posts or ask questions. Marketing is everything, so communicating with feature leads and business partners is something that should be daily. I would try to update my content daily, but that may be something that would fall into being done once or twice a week. Facebook is something that  also falls into the daily category. As read in earlier lectures, a post a day attached with visible content is what works the most in reaching out to friends and followers. Twitter is linked to both my Instagram and Facebook so posting on there is a no brainer as to how it came into this category. Although I am opinionated about the concept of the importance creating original twitter posts are to business marketing. No customer OR business owner enjoys reading a twitter post of half cut off sentences followed by a link. Pinterest will be used daily, I will be definitely be pinning similar businesses frequently through the day to say the least. I would consider posting new products and photography pics a few times during the week as well. I will be utilizing Google Analytics very often, just probably not on a day to day basis.

   The websites that can be used through a less frequent time period are the coupon sites like Groupon and Living Social. In the start of spreading my business name across the country and hopefully worldwide; these sites will be used every couple of weeks. In the future I envision the business utilizing these sites once or twice a month. The other sites /i would use less frequently are Tumblr, Pulse, Flipboard, Youtube, and Yelp. \Due to obvious reasoning, Pulse and Flipboard are sorta one time things. The best way to benefit these sites would be to enhance followers and traffic to your actual business URL. Tumblr will be used as often as our company blog posts are up. We have few workers to help write posts at the moment along with other duties that need to be fulfilled therefore Tumblr is temporarily on the back burner.Youtube is along with being on board of the lower ranking on our priorities list because of lack of resources as well. It is planned to video behind the scenes of our lookbooks and product photoshoots; so when these occur they will be uploaded to Youtube. Yelp will not be used until we have a physical location or store open up.

Facebook Insights

     Sadly to say, in my Admin Panel under the table," Insights" it states I need to gain 6 more likes until I have allowed access to view activity. Meaning that my facebook is at a standing whole 24 likes. Some may view this as silly, however I am proud of this business and for paying for close to zero advertisements, 24 likes is a pretty good start. Not to mention that I opened my notifications to one message from a vendor similar to this business, as well as a few comments from a complete stranger. Both of these notifications started out with a positive vibe, commenting on how uniquely beautiful the pieces are. One specific man even praised the photography and background choices of our business page. These messages alone were "insights" enough for myself, and considering the circumstances of this business being officially launched (and brand new); I take these kind strangers opinion and put them in regards to what content viewers are feeding off of. Afterall, staying true to your business and content is all that a person needs to raise SEO, and I ncouldn't be happier considering the ideas I hold are unique and similar.

Week 13

       After visiting the Google Analytics page, I have decided that some websites I definitely would want to track, would be influential to my genre of  business and morals. As read on the "Introduction to Google Analytics" article I stumbled upon, when trying to gain a better grasp of what this exactly is, the article stated this tracker helps turn users into customers. In the textbook it also states that knowing a customers path of entrance/dismissal and location helps build a strong visual demographic of what future customers are. Those who use "keywords" and start conversations, is essential to every business owner. Business is based off of pleasing your customers. Knowing what they're into and what is circulating between them only helps you create a more fitting supply and thus makes your consumers hungry for more. Not to mention keeping the same theme/genre in your content is what matters when it comes to SEO, so knowing what all the consumers are talking about helps the business owner follow that same path, bringing the optimization level higher.
    One of the first sites I will definitely utilize with Google Analytics is "Light News" (www.lightnews.org).
This is an incredibly high trafficked site where users from all around the world visit for intriguing unique posts that apply to their beliefs. The articles can sometimes be wide ranging in topic, but like the textbook states: they all stick to the same core. I know understand how SEO works when it comes to constantly updating original posts that stick to your niche. This is the epitome of a website that follows those guidelines and I must say it's working wonders for them business wise and Google wise. When just searching the word "chakra" this is one of the first websites that pop up. I basically already track the users of this site and whats trending daily so Google Analytics could possibly be the best technique for my business stalking ways.

Week 12 Coupon Deals

        Before I would consider to create my coupon for my business, I would first make a pleasant visit to groupon and living social. Considering that these are the renown sites to search for as a consumer for a great deal, it is what I would utilize in order to gain popularity and traffic to my site. I'm hoping that when
customers see a new name they've never heard before on these sites, that maybe it will lead an intriguing effect where they are interested in what this site has to offer. Whether they are turned on or tunred off after visiting the site, all that truly matters is that they are clicking the page and viewing it. The more minds that are aware of this brand, the more it will branch out like a disease. The only problem I see myself facing through these two sites however, are the fact there is no tangible store for a customer to visit. The first coupon I would create would be to promote the rings that we own that are already at a pretty low price. Rings like labrodite and amethyst. I would say 30 percent off to whoever likes us on facebook. Plus the rings are what we get most feedback on because of their very individual designs. Next I would make a coupon for buy 4 get 1 free off of our $3.00 sage bundles. This covers a vast area of what the store has to offer, and also low key helps promote traffic to my facebook.