Saturday, September 28, 2019

Week Six Post Reach and Post Engagement

                  Post reach is the amount of people who actually saw your post, but post engagement holds a heavier meaning in terms of how many people took action because of your post. There are three different kinds of reach, organic, viral and paid according to Commercial Web Services (https://www.commercialwebservices.com/blog/2017/06/20/crash-course-impressions-reach-and-engagement/). Organic reach being the number of times users saw your page without it being promoted in their news feed, viral reach is when users see your post because other users like, comment, or share that piece of content. Lastly, we have paid reach where users pay to have their page promoted and the more money you pay the more it will be seen. I feel paid reach is more common in larger companies whereas smaller businesses rely on organic and viral reach to get their pages seen. Viral reach has become the internet's word of mouth; now that people are spending more time on the internet they share the post rather than speaking to each other in person about what they saw
               
                 Post reach is only the tip of the iceberg because you can make two decisions after seeing a post, you can do nothing or engage in what you saw. Having a high reach doesn't always result in high post engagement; engaging in a post means liking a post, clicking on a link or sharing the content with others. People will look at your page but not many are willing to go any further than a glance, what you post and when can largely effect your numbers. While reading  "9 Reasons Why Your Facebook Post Engagement is Low",
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/9-reasons-why-your-facebook-post-engagement-low-anil-batra )
 timing can affect who sees your content. In the article they talk about how you can most effectively reach your target audience by timing when they are the most active.  From personal experience I noticed when I post too late at night or too early in the morning, I get the least amount of likes because most of my followers are active between 12-2pm. Posting too much or too little can also affect post engagement because if you post too little nobody will see any of your posts, posting too much will result in your followers will feel overwhelmed and simply scrolling past your posts in their feed.

                 Facebook Insights can help businesses better serve their customers by providing demographics used to find a target market. Allowing a business view the age, gender, relationships status, and lifestyle can help to narrow down who their audience is. For those who have more women followers who are between the ages of 18- 25 and who love cats can use that information to then create posts that appeal to women who fit that description. The more their post appeals to their followers, engagement is created and then the business grows through viral reach. With Facebook Insights businesses can also track when and how often their target audience log onto Facebook so they can better time their posts. Insights is a tool to better help businesses track data that will give them the opportunity to maximize their reach and engagement. Having this feature on my own social media account has opened my eyes to how my account impacts others. It creates this bit of anxiety in me because you will notice when your account has low impact on your followers; it creates a learning experience  and makes you ask yourself "how can I be better?". This is the mindset that entrepreneurs, both beginning and experienced have; the question of how you can do better, what can be better will always be asked and Facebook Insights makes that question a little easier to answer.             

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Week Five Part Two


                      The business I'd like to promote is a clothing brand called Traffic Jammer Apparel, a brand my fiance and I are working to start soon. This is a brand with our target market being anyone and everyone in the lowrider community, we live and breathe lowriding and we want to make our mark in a community that we grew up in. From children to the long time lowriders we have something for everybody and we want to deliver the best quality products at the best price..

                      My target market are usually middle class, blue collar people; our clothing brand's price ranges from $25-35 so it is something we all can afford. It doesn't mater who you are everyone loves convenience, we plan on selling our clothing at car shows and swapmeets because that's where our target market is. Car shows will be the places we must sell at because that is where we will make the most business when we start up. After starting our Instagram account and eventually a website for online shopping so getting our products will be a breeze. Our target market isn't a complicated bunch of people, we are families, we value our unity and pride in our culture and we want to represent these values with our clothing line

                       

Week Five Part One

                     After browsing the Armstrong Garden Centers and Myrtle Creek websites I found many things that I liked about both and many things they can learn off each other. I would like to start off with what I liked about the Armstrong Garden Centers is how colorful, interactive and well organized it is. I think it's perfect design to put the adds and new arrivals center stage, that way customers know whats new and what is on sale which will make customers want to buy their products. The website is bright, modern and fresh. The way they organized the lawn and garden tips, DIYs and job opportunities, with eye catching pictures and clear legible text are straightforward and engaging. At the top there are lists with their products, stores and store hours, classes, events and garden advice; overall I feel this is a well put together website with very few unmet needs.
           
                   The target market for the Armstrong Garden Centers range from men and women in their mid 20s to their late 60s. Usually targeting homeowners because gardening usually starts in the home, since they offer landscaping lay outs and advice for those looking to spruce up their homes.

                   The Myrtle Creek website is cute and rustic, it gives us that family owned, hidden in the hills kind of vibes. It is well organized and has everything you need to know right at the top; their location and store hours right at the top clear for you to see. Their website is more relaxed and isn't so in your face compared to Armstrong Gardens website, at the bottom is a great list of all their social media sites which is one thing they have that Armstrong Gardens website doesn't. While Myrtle Creeks website is well organized and is pleasant to look at there is an unmet need present in one of its categories, there is a section called Cafe Bloom and when you click on it there are few pictures of the food they serve but no further information such as operating hours or their menu.

                Their target market is families, this farm style nursery has something for everyone with family events, a cafe, and gardening tips for gardeners and garden enthusiasts.Overall Armstrong Garden Centers is geared more towards home improvement and homeowners, it is a larger company with multiple stores across the state. Myrtle Creek is geared towards families it offers more than just plants and plant products compared to Armstrong Garden Centers; it is more of a place families go to enjoy the day.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Week Four Assignment: The Impact of Design, Aesthetics, and Branding

                First of all, I love the topic of aesthetics and the psychology of consumers. I love to observe what makes customers excited about a product and I love to observe how companies make an efficient approach to attracting customers. I feel this is essential for the survival of a brand, it's what gets the customers attention and what gets customers buying. Like bees looking for the biggest, brightest flower in the field; bees are like consumers, they see the flower and it looks good to them,so they dive in.
             
                 I've mentioned this brand in previous blogs and I am going to bring this brand up again, the best example of how design and aesthetics affect who buys their product is Bella Dona LA. I don't have any intentions on promoting this brand in any of my blogs, but I do feel they are so popular because of their aesthetics. Breaking down again on what this company is, it is a clothing brand. This clothing brand focuses mainly on the lowrider culture and Chicanx (non gender conforming Mexican Americans for those who are unfamiliar with term) themed clothing. In all of their Instagram posts the aesthetic highlights everyday life in the "hood", showing pictures of brown women modeling in front of a lowrider,eating out with friends or having a day at the beach.The color schemes presented are bright and usually filled with pastel colors like baby blue or a rosy pink with dashes of gold. Often their posts tend to bring back older traditions of Chicano culture and fashion and this appeals to many who find their work familiar because this is how many of us grew up as Chicanos. From personal experience I was attracted to this brand because I noticed how my lifestyle was so similar to the lifestyle being presented. It also attracts those who are barely finding out about Chicano culture and they fall in love with it. For example this brand sells worldwide and many people from Japan buy their clothing because Chicano culture in Japan is becoming a booming trend. Aesthetics are the reason trends start up and become all the rage, people love how it looks and they want to look like that too.
              The topic of aesthetics always amazes me because I feel sometimes it can be problematic when you look deeper into it. Of course the colors and the quality of the picture or webpage can grab a persons attention, but is the product good? This is where we almost become like slaves to the machine because we are so attracted to the looks of things; we often don't take second thought to where these things come from, how they are made and who makes them. There are many great examples to this and I feel like the Supreme brand fits perfectly into this subject. Now I don't mean to bash at anyone persons' view to this brand but to me it is way too expensive for what it is. A simple white t-shirt from this brand with its logo is $75, I can get the exact same thing made at a small whole in the wall t-shirt stand for literally a third of that price. It's expensive but still people buy it, and why do we buy it? We buy it because of the aesthetics; it's simple, it's clean, it's trendy and the logo looks cool, therefore it is a successful clothing company all thanks to its aesthetics.

             Overall, painting a pretty picture for people can cause us to feel a wide spectrum of emotions. People often don't think about the origins or the quality of a product,but they'll buy it because it came in a pretty package. It causes us to impulse buy, follow the trends, and it has the power to categorize people, or send out a message to certain audiences. It is in our nature to want pretty things;when picking fruit we always choose the one that may be the biggest, the brightest or the best looking because we believe it'll be the tastiest. Utilizing the power of aesthetics and proper branding can bring a business great success if used wisely.

         
           


                 
                         

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Week Three Part Two

              The first business I choose to write about is Suavecito Pomade (https://www.suavecito.com)
 https://www.facebook.com/SuavecitoPomade latest post on September 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/suavecitopomade latest post on September 3, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/suavecitopomade/ latest post on September 5, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/user/suavecitopomade latest post on September 5, 2019
         
           I feel this company uses their social medias fairly well, they utilize each platform as a way to effectively advertise their products. Suavecito pomade also promotes events they will be attending and selling their products as well as reposts of other people using their product. Its the most rounded usage or each platform in terms of aesthetics, promotion, and customer engagement.

             Another company I find using their social media as a way to get their brand out is BellaDonaLa ( https://bella-dona.com/ )
https://twitter.com/belladonala latest post published April 27,2018
https://www.facebook.com/Bella-Do%C3%B1a-949503555078321/ latest post published December 10, 2018
https://www.instagram.com/belladonala/ latest post published September 5, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUGiuaOr37H-14XbIilyEtQ latest post published March 14, 2019
               Bella Dona LA is an apparel company that mainly gets its customers from Instagram, they rely mostly on the aesthetics of a post and that I believe is what attracts people. Each and every one of their posts are filled with complimenting or monochromatic color schemes with hints of gold that are easy on the eyes. Many catch phrases and slogans are also used in many solid pastel color posts and apparel from rhinestone tube tops to airbrushed t shirts.

                Glitter Heels  (https://glitterheels.com/) is also another choice of mine because I feel their posts are a great example of keeping posts straight to the point of things
https://www.facebook.com/glitterheels latest post published January 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/glitterheels1 latest post published May 31, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/tiffanysglitterheels/ latest post published September 4, 2019
             
               Glitter Heels is a self explanatory name with a single target market, pole dancers and pole dance enthusiasts. Each post keeps it straight and to the point, two feet modeling a pair of their latest style of glitter heels with a solid color backgrounds in order to keep the the heels the focal point of their posts. It's easy, It's simple and it gets its point across quite nicely. With thousands of likes and hundreds of comments this heel company's tactics have proved effective attracting customers with simple posts.

               A local business I'd like to shed some light on is Northern Pine Brewing  (  https://northernpinebrewing.com )
https://www.facebook.com/npbrewing/ latest post published May 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/pinebeers latest post published  August 25, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/northernpinebrewing/ latest post published September 5, 2019
         
           This Oceanside based brewery is a husband and wife owned business that is also most active on Instagram. Their content consists of earth tones and pictures of the owners in the brewery having a good time doing what they love. This brings a homey and inviting feel that reels customers in because of their laid back atmosphere.

           The fifth business I'd like to share is Agave Girl Boutique (https://agavegirlboutique.com/)
https://www.facebook.com/AgaveGirlBoutique/ latest post published August 15, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/agave_girl_boutique/ latest post published September 5, 2019

            Agave Girl Boutique is an apparel company that imports goods from Mexico, their main sources of goods come from Jalisco, Oaxaca, the Yucatan, and Chiapas. They're mostly active on Instagram and promote their brand on a daily basis. This brand uses social media to showcase their merchandise, as well as events they will be selling their products.

           Overall, each of these five businesses make use of Instagram the most; four out of five use only Instagram even though they have other social media accounts. Suavecito Pomade is the company that makes the most use of each social media platform by staying active on each listed. Their content being well rounded as far as product reviews, demonstrations, videos, remaining active in events, and advertising their product. Instagram has been again proven the winner for the best social media to use for business. Each company makes use of aesthetics to reel customers in by keeping color palettes and visuals fun and stimulating.


Week Three Part One: Communications Between Businesses and Consumers





                     Personally, I haven't had much experience with trying to communicate with a business through social media. Although I have had an experience where I did order something online and I had to email the company due to an error. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Suavecito Pomade, years ago I wanted to buy some of its product from their website and after weeks of waiting I never received my order in the mail. I had to do something about it, so instead of waiting longer I emailed the company and they emailed me back right away apologizing for the error. A couple of days later I received my package with a few extra goodies and a card that apologized again for the inconvenience and that they hope I enjoy the free extra products they sent me. Overall, this was a great experience when it came to customer service but emails are more direct and somewhat easier to sort; social media on the other hand, varies when responding to customers.
             
                 When having a business account on social media platforms, receiving customer feedback is a lot easier than it was before social media. Looking in the comments of your latest post can lead you to tons of feedback from customers whether it's good or bad; although it is easier to get feedback on social media it can become harder to respond to it all. Depending on how big your business is, you could have more than 1,000 followers and answering every single one of them can be difficult. A way that could help with responding to millions of customers on social media can be a simple post that responds to the questions most asked, it isn't very personal but it gets the job done.

                  If it was my own business with both negative and positive comments I'd respond in several different ways. To all the simply positive comments, I would either write a "thank you for your support" to each comment if there wasn't that many. If it was in large quantities of comments I'd use the appreciation post method for all my followers to see. Now when it comes to negative comments, I really don't have a certain way that I would respond. Handling negative comments constructively can improve your business; they could bring out the flaws that need fixing or they can help you find a way to make your product or service better. Other than that, negative comments would really just be tossed to the side there's no time to dwell on negative comments when running a business.
             

Monday, September 2, 2019

Week 1 Part 2 overview of social media


                        While reading chapter two of Dave Kerpen's book Likeable Social Media, I came to the conclusion that Facebook and Twitter are geared towards personal use. It is obvious that these social media powerhouses intend their users to post personal content due to the information it asks for. Facebook wants to know where you work, who your friends are, where you live, how old you are and your interests; this information we have provided helps Facebook partake in what is described in the book as hypertargeting. Twitter, being a conversation platform can be described as for more personal. People every day tweet about whatever is on their mind and may seem unconventional for businesses because its focus is on words rather than pictures.
 
                         I would like to throw in some thoughts about Instagram due to it being created by Facebook; I believe Instagram is best suited for business, however if anyone is aware of its algorithm that limits the amount of content from small business accounts that gets seen by their followers. I found this interesting because it is a tactic used by the company to promote personal, rather than business related usage thus making it harder for small businesses to gain followers or target an audience. I believe Instagram is best suited for business usage because Instagram due to its growing popularity, it relies totally on pictures, so more people are attracted to the aesthetics of the post which gains more followers and lastly it is easier to use.

                        With Facebook being the most used social media platform in the world it is made to work for both business and social purposes. Next comes Instagram, used for both business and social purposes and is exceptional at operating on both sides of the spectrum of home and business. Linkedin is used mainly for business purposes because it is a resume site, and businesses use it to find new employees to add on their team as well put their thoughts about their industry. Other social media accounts that are big on usage but more suited for personal use are Snapchat and Twitter. Twitter, during the last four years has been a hub for political conversation and has been a primary source for us to get the latest news on Donald Trump's latest blunder. Lastly we have Snapchat, this social media app takes us to a more personal level of communication. We can add people we know and send pictures to them and only them, as well as posting a public story for all our friends to see.