Marketing on a Budget

     Considering the current budget my company is in after purchasing actual product, we have close to none money to afford on advertising right now. Which thus leads us to enrolling in this class to find out how REALLY to work the social marketing world to our favor through essentially advertising for free: by simply owning some type of profile somewhere. In my opinion, businesses who DON'T use paid advertising have a better chance of gaining direct action calls through word of mouth, because every like and share is genuinely coming from a fan. Or customer. Right now the pop culture loves everything and anything UNDERGROUND, because of paid advertising which provides too much commonality for teens and young adults across the state. Why shop at Forever 21 and risk the possibility of wearing the same shirt as someone else, when you can just google shops that are similar and find a much less known  brand carrying similar styles for just as cheap? Today information is at our fingertips thanks to technology, which only makes the culture thrive more to be different. Therefore I will have all my posts be call to action enduring those who share my companies moral compass to shop and join the Subcosmic Community.

Comments List

For week 11 I responded to Hannah Jeon, John Gillies, and Mac Hillienbrand.

Week 11

     After reading the textbook assignment and viewing the lecture, I don't think any business owner can deny that Facebook is the major and necessary advertising platform out of the options. Facebook varies in what type of audience a business owner chooses to aim for. The different categories for whom one wants to target varies in groups. By choosing one of the categories I will explain below,  the "friends of connections" whom fall under the similar characteristics bring the business a greater chance of having genuine fans and followers. The list of AD options include by location, demographics (age and gender), likes, interests (music, religion, etc), birthdays, relationship status, language, education, and work. Considering the target audience for Subcosmic the route I would take would be likes and interests. Some of the moral concepts that this business follows directly creates a sense of controversy depending on the specific religion and interests of a customer. If they are not somewhat involved in auras, crystals, and the chakras then they would view my ad pointless, regardless of the age or demographics. Twitter ADs would of course be useful and in that sense I would purchase the keywords Crystals, Chakras, Spirituality, and Universal Awareness. I like the concept that the textbook provided about marketing via LinkedIN, which stated that having a face to the owner or CEO of a corporation invites customers to humanize with a company better. Feeling like a customer can tangibly relate to a company definitely increases the possibility of a sale, and I view this in my own opinion when I'm shopping as well. Going back into detail about Facebook ADS, I would definitely choose the Pay per Click option. It would be virtually pointless to pay for anything but direct results and traffic to ones site.

LIST

I commented on:

Devon Pinto
Brittany Martin
Hannah Jeon

Newsletter

     Newsletters can be a typically touchy subject for audiences and businesses. In my opinion no business should be sending out any type of notification to customers emails. For the customer it leads to boredom and routine and will end up just getting straight up ignored. I want my personal business newsletter to be sent monthly, so that my customers actually look forward to reading it with their cup of coffee. My newsletter will cover recent product changes, updates, deals, and sales. Next it will show the new photo lookbook and recent photo shoots. It will include the monthly calender of events and places the business will be attending. Then it will have links to the updated blog posts. My letter will as well cover new discoveries in science, worldwide news, and crystal gemstone updates. It will be most informative and almost like a wide ranging newspaper for the month. There will always be a link at the end that will send the customer to a business review and feedback so the company can hear what their audience finds useful and what parts are absolute trash.

Categories

On Subcosmic's business blog, the categories that would be present would all be directly  related to the products sold online and the general business morals. There would be a category for smudging, incense, and natural oils. This list would be all informational filled with Tips and Personal experiences that relate. At the end of each paragraph would have a link to buy these items.Next there would be a category for a crystal dictionary that defined the natural abilities that the stones, which also are a product of the business, holds to human capabilities. Also there would be an art category that helps keep our target audience up to date on new age pop culture. As well as a category dedicated to the input, questions, and comments that come from whomever visits the site and feels has something to contribute to the high power. By condensing together pop culture, information, tips, and interpersonal communication, the business will reach our target audience from every direction possible.

How Personal

     In regards to blogging for business, the level of personal presence in posts truly depends on the circumstances of said business. As discussed in the lecture and related chapter, an owner must make the decision of what personality the business will be associated under. Always consider what morals and controversial standpoints a business holds when going into social media. Should any seriously business corporations be posting about the parties the CEO goes too over the weekend? Probably not... However if the CEO is Sophia Moruso from the commonly known business Nasty Gal then yes; she should be sharing her personal photos from the fashion shows she attends over the week. For example, Chic-fil-a is a fastfood restaurant chain that holds by their spiritual faith Christianity and refuses to be open on Sundays. Knowing worldwide that this corporation is Christian, would it be too personal for the business to share biblical references, church photos, or religious experiences on their social platflorms? Absolutely not BECAUSE it is known and stands by promoting their Christian background. Would it be controversial if the brand Vans Shoes did actions similar to promoting a specific religion? Very possibly because they hold a neutral platform so sharing a personal view of one employee would start a sticky downfall.

Analyzing social media

Crystal Fantasy's is a new age private business located in Palm Springs. Their products are similar to what SubCosmic offers on our online website. Crystal Fantasy's website hosts five different links to their social media, These app icons are presented in the right top corner directly above the title of the homepage. These include Facebook, Myspace, twitter, Stumbleupon, and Delicious. When one clicks the fFcebook tab, it immediately opens to "share crystal fantasy on your timeline," with their named tagged. The same goes for every other site, which I viewed very intelligent and an easy way for a fan to help gain traffic. The only issue I saw in this plan was there is no share page on Myspace, and actually no Crystal Fantasy page is made at all. That can be viewed as poor marketing to someone who is viewing the links provided. Also their twitter page was dull, and completely full of links to it's Instagram and Facebook. (yawn) Their Facebook is full of inspirational memes as well as new product shipment, calenders, etc. Their Instagram consists of pictures from their new shipment of product; very well played in my opinion. Delicious I never heard of, and therefore googled the name to conclude it is an organizational link profile that saves selected links. This organizational site is perfect for people to remember and go BACK to ones business site.

The next site I analyzed was gemsandu.com which is an online genuine gemstone shop based in India. This site only contains two links at the bottom of the page, which I viewed terrible placement. These include Twitter and Facebook. Now this may not be many, but at least they are the business essentials. Their Twitter icon links the viewer to their direct homepage. Unlike Crystal Fantasy's this business posts original twitter news, with each tweet ending in a link to their site. Other info posted on this feed are links which bring the audience to  Customer Questions, Contact info, as well as their facebook page. I view their Twitter as well ran and interesting to the customer. As well as giving the customer new material to look forward to, instead of just advertisements. Their Facebook feed unfortunately is not as energetic due to the their timeline being filled with the same three advertisements repeatedly. This store could definitely use a major social media makeover.