You haven't heard the last of me....

Welcome to the last week of our social media journey, it’s been a fun, eye opening experience.  I can officially say that I have stepped out of my comfort zone and into the wide world of social media.  I enjoyed social media before, but mostly to see what everyone else was doing, now I realized I have a voice and I want to keep exploring what that voice sounds like.   We have learned how to entice people to want to read our blogs, we have learned how to explore and understand many different social media sites, and we have learned that if you don’t protect yourself correctly it can be dangerous.  

This week we are learning about:

·      Search engine marketing, how to be able to reach your buyers directly;

·      Search engine optimizing, ensuring the key words and phrases found by the search engine and that your site will be given the highest ranking;

·      Search engine advertising, when a marketer pays to have their ad appear when using certain key words/phrases (Scott, 2015).

·      Determining your ROI and Social Media Spending Based on Value of New Customers (Turner, 2013).

Have you ever wondered why when you type in certain words or phrases into your search engine, it is able to determine useful sites (most of the time).  I know I have but what I didn’t know is that there was a reason for that being SEO (search engine optimizing), when companies buy the rights to the words or key phrases so they can be on the first page of results (Scott, 2015, p. 398).  Lets be honest when searching for anything like a product, or information do you ever really go beyond the first page on Google?  I don’t, the search engine usually provides accurate results of what I’m looking for.  Most companies know that and that’s why they want to spend their money on SEO’s. 

Another important aspect of this week is being able to determine your ROI.  In Marketing and PR you want to know if your Marketing and PR is efficient and if you are being profitable.  According to a social media survey in Oracle only 10% of the businesses surveyed can actually tell if their social media campaigns had a positive ROI (Turner, 2013).   Those are not good statistics, companies put a lot of money into social media and need to be able to determine their ROI properly.

Based on the Readings this week:

1.  Using the formula from 60 second marketer ($per month x 12 months  x  3 years  =  CLV) and your favorite product based on how much you spend a month determine your ROI?
2. What are the two common mistakes done by companies according to David Meerman Scott in Chapter 23? 
3. What was the most interesting thing you can take away from this course and do you think you will still be as active with all your social media after?

 References:

Scott, David Meerman. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5TH ed.

Turner, J. (2013). An In-Depth Guide on Calculating the ROI of a Social Media Campaign. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/

If you don't know, now you know!

During college (about 10 years ago) I signed up for my first social media website, Facebook.  I didn’t know anything about it but it was a cool, fun way to interact with both college friends, home friends and family, I didn’t think about the possible dangers that could come with it. I feel like we are living in a different world of social media, there is a higher awareness of the dangers, threats and crimes.  Hiding behind your computer screen doesn’t mean we are not responsible for our actions, good or bad.  “Cowardly internet ‘trolls’ who post vile abuse on Facebook and Twitter will be identified to their victims under laws” (Slack, 2012).  

Communicating online it is still important to have etiquette or netiquette as it is so cleverly referred to now.  Three practices I find to be very important are: 

• ·      Remember the Human- No matter if you are leaving a comment, responding to a blog or writing an email, there is a person on the receiving end.  Always try and think how you would feel.
• ·      Make yourself look good online- Your written communication is still a reflection of yourself.  Make sure to proofread everything before posting, check for grammar and spelling mistakes, give credit when credit is due, and be polite.
• ·      Be forgiving of other people's mistakes- No one is perfect, even you.  We are all human and we are all going to make mistakes, say something silly, or make a grammatical error, just let it go and move on (Learning@CSU Guide).

Everyone loves to update his or her social media websites with a new post, tweet and picture but we need understand how to do this and protect ourselves at the same time.  “As the popularity of these social sites grows, so do the risks of using them. Hackers, spammers, virus writers, identity thieves, and other criminals follow the traffic” (Microsoft, paragraph 2).  Some of the ways I find it most helpful to protect you are:

• ·      Assume that everything you put on a social networking site is permanent. Even if you can delete your account, anyone on the Internet can easily print photos or text or save images and videos to a computer(Microsoft).
• ·      Type the address of your social networking site directly into your browser or use your personal bookmarks. If you click a link to your site through email or another website, you might be entering your account name and password into a fake site where your personal information could be stolen (Microsoft).
• ·      Think about the information that you post, could it provide clues to hackers regarding what your password is to all your accounts i.e., social media, bank accounts, emails and more (Microsoft).
• ·      Understand your privacy settings. Select the most secure options and check periodically for changes that can open up your profile to the public (Sicillano, 2011).
• ·      Be suspicious of anything that sounds unusual or feels odd. If one of your friends posts, “We’re stuck in Cambodia and need money,” it’s most likely a scam (Sicillano, 2011).
• ·      Think twice about applications that request permission to access your data. You would be allowing an unknown party to send you email, post to your wall, and access your information at any time, regardless of whether you’re using the application (Sicillano, 2011).   

Thinking about all the negative possibilities of the internet/social media could scare anyone from not wanting to sign up but when used correctly it is an amazing way to connect yourself, brand and company to an endless amount of possibilities.

References:

Colorado State University. (2016). Core Rules of Netiquette.  Retrieved from, http://learning.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=4

Microsoft. (nd). Social and security center. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/online-privacy/social-networking.aspx

Sicilliano, Robert. (2011, July 13). 15 Social Media Security Tips.  Retreived from, https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/15-social-media-security-tips/

Slack, James. (2012, June 11) The unmasking of internet trolls: New laws will make websites responsible for vile messages unless they reveal identities of bullies.  Retrieved from, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157937/New-laws-make-Facebook-Twitter-responsible-internet-trolls-unless-them.html#ixzz419J0FAdz

Baking it to the top!

Growing up in the world of Social Media, I didn’t use it much.  I just liked to be on Facebook, see all the happenings with my friends and keep to myself.  I have accounts on other sites because that’s what people my age are supposed to do, right?  I was never active like most of my friends, I believed it was silly and just seemed to be waste of my time.  I now know that’s not right and when its used correctly it comes with so many benefits.  Social media allows you to connect with people you would not normally do so in everyday life, it bring together people with the same interest or connects you with people who can teach you.  I have begun to realize there is so much more than I ever allowed myself to understand.

When beginning my journey into the wide world of blogging, I admit I was intimated.  Now that I am here I began to explore all different blogs and see what people had to say about their passions. I did find my blog haven in thevanillabeanblog.com.  I love baking and like to believe I have some talent with photography, she mixes the best of both my worlds; she is would I want to be when I grow up.  Her blog is captures attention and you can tell when reading that she is talented in both baking and photography.  She makes you feel and see her passion, that’s what has kept me coming back.  I also feel that I can relate to her being a mom and pursuing my dreams too.

Thevanillabeanblog knows how to reach her target audience and understanding them, and is able to communicate with them through her recipes and photos.  She posts the most amazing recipes but spends the time to walk you through as if you were standing in the kitchen with her, she diaries it with photos too.  Through her passion she has created her brand (Scott, 2015, p. 36).  It is as important to understand your audience as to reach them.  We are a consumer centric society, and consumers want to feel like your message is about them and no just trying to get your brand out there (Kerpen, 2105, p. 47). 

Engaging your audience is important.  People on your blogs want to feel like they are being head and that you are listening.  If consumers, follower, and friends decide to leave a comment or ask a question its important to be open to the two-way communication.   She also allows herself to engage with her audience on other sites, she is on Pintrest, Twitter and Facebook, it was smart not to limit to one medium.   Seeing the same thing on all mediums can get boring, but Vanilla Bean Blog doesn’t do that. 

To stay relevant it’s important to be genuine and passionate but know your audience and how to engage with them.  Social media is important to the success of any business, brand and organization because it’s a new way of communication.

References:

Kerpen, D. K. (2015). likable social media, second edition; McGraw-Hill Education.

Scott, David Meerman. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5^TH ed.

http://thevanillabeanblog.com

How to find my niche....

David Meerman Scott stated there is “ a new blog created every second of every day.” (2015, p. 297) this is extremely intimidating.  It makes me wonder why would people care to hear what I have to say and what do I really have to offer that is not already out there.  I am not a blogger (yet), I prefer to just read to see what others have to say.

It is important as a blogger to make your self largely accessible to the public.  The blogs that I have read were when someone else has liked it on Facebook or they have shared an excerpt in a post to intrigue me.  Setting up links through all your other social mediums would help start to build your audience, eventually people will see it, follow it and begin to recommend it (Scott, 2015, p. 303).

With so many bloggers out there, you need to do something to make yourself stand out.  It’s important to find your niche, specifically something that you are passionate or knowledgeable about (Scott, 2015, p. 297).  That would narrow down your competition and it would allow for followers to find you.  Having knowledge and passion about the subject of your blog would help attract followers.  Once you figure out what you should blog about it will bring about your target audience or followers.  Personally I really like cooking, baking and crafting, I now will search for a couple blogs to follow and maybe get some ideas for the future.

When creating a blog you are “owning your own real estate” on the Internet (Scott, 2015, p.295).  When you own something it fees like you can do whatever you want because it’s yours, this is true.  When you are blogging I believe it’s important to remember there is an ethical code and it should be followed.  Blogs can have a large following, they can influential but when they are not honest or don’t give credit where credit is due can cause harm to themselves or any organization they are associated with (Scott, 2015, p. 298).  Personally I rather read something honest than something fake that was written just to obtain a larger following. 

I hope to be able to find my voice as a blogger and break out of my social media shell, I just need to put myself out there and find my niche.

Reference

Scott, David Meerman. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5^TH ed.