CSIT 155 Week 15: Wrapping Things Up and Looking Ahead

I've learned that using social media as a marketing tool is essential to build good relationships with current customers and future customers. If you own a business or are a marketing person it is important to get to know as much as you can about the social media platforms most commonly used. It is also important to use more than the top three platforms. It is important to pay attention to less known or emerging social media platforms. If I actually owned a business I would probably use the top ten platforms.

I've also learned that if you complain about a product or service from a certain company on social media you will get the attention of that company. It's important as a business owner or marketing person to acknowledge their complaints, find a solution to the problem, and build a good relationship with your customers.

My overall experience in this class was very positive.



Brian

CSIT 155 Week 14: Online Social Strategy

     As a small local business owner I would use FaceBook, Twitter, Google AdWords and FaceBook Ads. I would spend about six hours a month creating a plan for the month like the month of June using Google Calendar. I would plan out the month with what and when to post on FaceBook and Twitter. I would also incorporate holidays and sporting events. Like Flag Day, Father's Day, NBA finals and UFC 161. I would control the access to the calendar and the social media websites. All my employees would have a print out of the calendar and read only access to the calendar. This would ensure that all my employees know about upcoming events and specials.
     I would use this to write all my FaceBook posts for the month. My FaceBook posts would appear the evenings during the week like Friday afternoon 4:30 PM and at noon during the weekends.  I would send out a Tweet with a special discount to my Twitter followers once a week.I would send out the Tweets on Fridays at noon and 5PM.  Depending on the growth of my company I would probably hire a part time social media intern to run my social media marketing then hire a full time social media marketing person.
     I would spend about $100 a month once a month on FaceBook Ads and tailor my Ads according my "insights" data page. I would also spend about $10 a day on Google AdWords using "Pizza Oceanside", "Pizza Camp Pendleton" and " Pizza Party". I would spend $10 on each AdWord phrase for the month of June. I will adjust my AdWord spending after reviewing the Google Analytics data. If "Pizza Oceanside" or "Pizza Camp Pendleton" search phrases get consistent hits I will remove "Pizza Party" and put the money toward the more popular search phrases.

This is a screenshot of my Google Calendar .

CSIT 155 Week 14 : Online Strategy Part 2

I commented on the following:

CharlieCSIT155

Melissa's Blog

Melanie's Social Media Journey

CSIT 155 2501 Xuemei Zhang

CSIT 155 Week 14 : Online Social Strategy

I learned how to set up a blog, which is relatively easy after you use it a few times. Using social media to communicate with a business as a customer may be a better way to solve a problem. Business build relationships with customers by interacting through social media. The aesthetics, design, and branding of a business' website should adhere to a standard format which is easy to use and visually appealing.

I learned a business FaceBook page and integrate it with the business Twitter account and applications like Pinterest. I defined my target market and tailored my page to the interests of my target market. I learned about the analytic tool "insights" built into FaceBook. I learned how to schedule future posts to advertise my business.

Using visually appealing social media applications like Instagram,Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube  offer a platform to feature pictures and video of your products and services.

l learned that my Twitter page for my business can be integrated with my FaceBook page. If I post on my FaceBook page it will appear on my Twitter feed. Very useful provided you have the followers. It is a good way to distribute coupons and specials to loyal customers who follow.

I learned about web services like Constant Contact to create and distribute a newsletter for customers. I think this service would be more useful for medium to large companies.

I learned how to create advertisements both free and pay on FaceBook. An example of the Ad features I created a mini survey and shared a funny video of another company's YouTube video on my business page.

I learned more about other social media tools like Google+, Google Maps, Yelp, and Groupon. Using these service along with FaceBook help my customers find my business, read reviews and find discounts.

I learned about all the features Google Analytics offers and how a business owner can tailor their advertising and marketing to reach more customers.

FaceBook insights are useful provided your page has at least 30 "likes." Helps business owner find their true demographic and focus on that group.

I think FaceBook and Twitter integrate the best. I think FaceBook, Google Maps, and Twitter are best suited for my business.

I have enjoyed using FaceBook the most.

The best platforms for daily use are FaceBook and Twitter.

I would use Pinterest and Instagram less frequently.

CSIT 155 Week 13: SEO and Social Media Part 2

FaceBook analytics for my Brian's Villa Capri Pizza page. Looking at the overview of the insight page, I have 40 "likes" , 11,162 "friends of fans", 34 "people talking about this" and 436 "weekly total reach."

Here is the breakdown of "likes" data. The majority of my "likes" are male 35-44.

Here is the breakdown of my "reach" data. Showing the majority of the "reach" was organic.

Here is the breakdown of "talking about this" data. Showing slightly more females than males talking about my posts.

CSIT 155 Week 13 SEO and Social Media

The Google Analytics features I would use for my business to check regularly and why are:

Mobile Analytics : I would use this feature to target new customers through mobile devices. I can target app traffic of new potential customers. I tailor what apps to advertise on or develop an app that the target audience would use.

Advertising Analytics : This feature uses SEM (search engine marketing) and Adwords to drive customers locally to my business. Like for example searching "pizza Oceanside" on a mobile device or desktop.

Social Analytics: I would use the Social Plugins to build a community and increase interest in sharing information about my business. Like building a customer base through "word of mouth."

CSIT 155 Wk 12 Pt 1 - Using Other Social Media Tools

The four additional online marketing tools I believe could be important to the growth of my business would be Google+, Google Maps, Yelp, and Groupon.

I could integrate them into my current strategy by helping new customers find my business, read reviews and find deals for those new customers.

CSIT 155 Week 11 Part 3 - Online Advertising

I created five Facebook posts scheduled over four days. I did this to gain more likes on my business Facebook page.

The first post I used the Questions option which I used for a survey question.

The second post I shared a funny video advertisement from a company called Dollar Shave Club.

The third post I invited likers to check out the pizza making process on pinterest.

The fourth post I ask likers to follow me on Twitter.

The last post I ask likers to checkout my blog.

CSIT 155 Week 11 Part 2 - Online Advertising

I commented on the following blogs:

http://csit155learningmore.blogspot.com/

http://myrtlecreeknursery.blogspot.com/

http://eduardorandom.blogspot.com/?view=classic

http://clcsit155.blogspot.com/

CSIT 155 Week 11 Part 1 - Online Advertising

 I used the "Friends of Connections" Ad. Sponsored stories. I narrow the audience by age, location, and interests. I was able to narrow down to 200 people and run Ad for two months continuously for a limited budget. I chose a location people who live within 25 miles of Oceanside, CA. Age group 18 and up. I chose broad categories of movies and sports. I also chose people who are not connected already connected and friend's who are already connected. The different type of Ads allows you to target: birthdays, reminders of cool events, promotions, and just to say thank, target employee, introduce new company, target significant other, build potential relationships with key partners, target linear media and sponsored stories.

I like the sponsored stories under "Friends of Connections" with a more broad demographic using the category food or dining, event planning and cooking. Location within 25 miles of Oceanside, CA. Targeting people who are not already connected. This set up broaden the audience to 80,000 people.

CSIT 155 Week 10 Part 2

Here are the blogs I commented on:

http://myrtlecreeknursery.blogspot.com/

http://pekingman1.blogspot.com/

http://anne-ec-dotes.blogspot.com/

CSIT 155 Week 10 Part 1

I think sending out a monthly newsletter would be enough with an option to subscribe. The content ideas that my customers may enjoy are:

1. Free pizza on Veteran's Day. The reasoning is active duty military love to get free stuff with no strings attached. Once the email gets to one senior enlisted or officer on base the word gets spread like wild fire. Not everyone goes to get free stuff but its nice to know its out there.

2. Open during federal holidays and extended weekend hours. The reason is there is always someone on base working during the holiday and weekends. Another reason is to have a place to hang out or sober up before heading back on base.

3. Free Turkey dinner on Thanksgiving and a place to hangout. Not everyone who lives in the barracks goes to the mess hall or someone's house for Thanksgiving. This is another option for them to consider when away from home.

4. Mention a significant event in military history during that month like for example 23 February 1945 the U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima on Mount Suribachi. Make trivia questions and games related to Marine Corps history. The reasoning is to remind young military members of our past and what they do is part of our military history.

5. I would also use cartoons like from Sempertoons which are funny because they have a little truth to them. Active duty military members like satirical things about their way of life.  It's one of those things that gets forwarded in an email or printed out.

CSIT 155 Week 9 Part 2

The categories I would use to help grow my business are weekly specials, monthly catering specials, monthly event calendar and customer reviews.

Weekly Specials : Show a picture and talk about the specialty pizza deals for the week.

Monthly Catering Specials: Talk about deals on catering for customers on base and the Oceanside area. I would include pictures of previous catering jobs.

Monthly Event Calendar: Post a printable calendar with NBA, MLB, NFL, NCAA, Pay Per View events like UFC and boxing. I would have food specials along with TVs to watch the events at the restaurant.

Customer Reviews: I would post satisfied customer reviews and testimonials. I would also allow customer comments on my blog.


Classmate blogs I commented on:

CharlieCSIT155

anne-ec-dotes

Getting Intimate: How Social Media Is Deepening Consumer Engagement

WOW!

CSIT155 Week 9

I have no problem using personal experiences and thoughts on my blog. I think I could share some personal experiences from my time spent in the Marine Corps. I could also offer some thoughts and feelings about going to college twenty plus years out of high school. I could also elaborate on why I would start a business that focuses on serving active duty military. It makes sense to get personal and show your personality on a blog post about a company you own. It helps your company stand out from large chain businesses. Large companies would have a harder time getting personal on a blog, the person doing the blogging would have to follow guidelines and "mission statements" set up by that large company. The large company would hire a marketing representative to blog about the companies product or service.

CSIT155 Week 8 Twitter

I find using Twitter's advanced search is no match for Google.com but I was able to find similar businesses and other businesses to cross promote. The key words I used were "pizza blogger, pizza, and pizza with hash tag Oceanside." After sorting through many twitter accounts I found @Slice , @NakedPizzaSD, @NakedPizza, @paradisapizzaca, @PizzaPortBeer, @SanDiegoQuality, @SantinosPizza, and @RoundTablePizza.

CSIT155 Get Visual Part 2

The three businesses similar to my business are Round Table Pizza: https://www.facebook.com/RoundTablePizza

Brooklyn Boyz Pizza: http://www.facebook.com/pages/brooklyn-boyz-pizza/100110216697712

That Pizza Place: https://www.facebook.com/ThatPizzaPlace

All three only use Facebook for visual media. Round Table Pizza was the best looking pictures of their product. Brooklyn Boyz Pizza has good pictures but the also have a video link produced by Gateway San Diego. The video shows a variety of their products and a tour of their restaurant. Brooklyn Boyz Pizza is the most effective of the three using pictures and video on their Facebook page.

CSIT155 Week 7 Get Visual

Darwin Australia 2005

Visual networks are right for a featuring products especially the food industry. Visually appealing pictures of your product gets people interested in your product which sparks conversations about your product.

YouTube is good for short videos, that anyone can do, to get the word out about your company and product. If your YouTube video becomes popular or goes "viral" depending on the amount of views moves you website up towards the top of the search engine list.

Instagram is good for professional looking pictures of places, events, food, art, and social statements. It has a built in photo shop for you pictures but it's gear toward taking pictures from you phone or other mobile devices.

Tumblr is a Web 2.0 site like Facebook but for large businesses without the option to respond to individual updates.

Pinterest has a combination of photo shop type applications, graphic applications, video posting options, blogging, and the ability to protect your content. Ideal for a start up company because of the one stop for all the tools you need to market your business.

Pinterest would probably work the best for my start up business.

Week 6 Part 2

I think these posts will get their attention with appetizing pictures of pizza. I thought this would maybe get customers to think about what they want to eat for lunch or dinner. I scheduled three posts throughout the week. One on Tuesday at 9:00 A.M., the second at 11:30 A.M. on Thursday, and the third at 6 P.M. on Friday.Sporting events like basketball this time of year usually are broadcasts throughout the weekend. So, it seemed fitting to get people to think about ordering food instead of cooking. I also  thought the last one for the week would post at 4 P.M. on Saturday before the UFC MMA fight pay-per-view starts at 7 P.M.

Week 6 CSIT 155

I want my target market to come from Camp Pendleton. The websites I chose to "like" were Marine Corps Community Service Camp Pendleton http://www.mccscp.com/ , UFC http://www.ufc.com/ , Strikeforce http://www.strikeforce.com/ , NBA http://www.nba.com/, X Games http://xgames.espn.go.com/ , Xbox live http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live , Game Stop http://www.gamestop.com/ , and EA (Electronic Arts) http://www.ea.com/. Young Marines both single and married are interested in mixed martial arts, most majors sports, extreme sports, video games, and playing video games online.

WK 5: Facebook Page Components

Page Post Insight Terms:

Reach:  the number of people who have seen your post. Figures are for the first 28 days after a post's publication and include people viewing your post on both desktop and mobile. Your post counts as having reached someone when it is loaded and shown in News Feed.

Engaged Users: the number of people who have clicked anywhere on your post.

Talking About This:

• Gender and Age: The percentage of people who talked about your Page for each age and gender bracket, as of the last day of your selected date range. This is based on the data people enter in their profile.
• Countries: The number of people who talked about your Page, as of the last day of your selected date range, broken down by country. This is based on the user's IP address.
• Cities: The number of people who talked about your Page, as of the last day of your selected date range, broken down by city. This is based on the user's IP address.
• Language: The number of people who talked about your Page, as of the last day of your selected date range, broken down by language. This is based on the user's default language setting.

Virality: The number of people who have created a story from your post as a percentage of the number of people who have seen it.

How can a business use Facebook Insights to better serve their customers?

Businesses use the “Reach” data to narrow their target market and tailor their marketing toward that specific demographic.

CSIT 155 Week 4 - Target Market

I choose to "start" my own business. I will call it Brian's Villa Capri Pizza in Oceanside near Camp Pendleton.

1.  Target Market - the company will focus on active duty military and their families stationed on Camp Pendleton. 

• Families living in Oceanside.
• Neighboring elementary schools for a lunch.
• Catering on base and local businesses in Oceanside.

     2. Target Market Demographic 

• Age - 18 to 40 (roughly 40,000 active duty members working daily on base) 
• Gender - male and female
• Marital status - married and single
• Family size - four 
• Income - low to middle 
• Education level - high school, some college
• Occupation - active duty military, many occupations
• Race - all races, cross section of the United States
• Religion - all religions

     3. Target Market Psycho-graphically

• Value - military discounts, military friendly environment, they want to feel welcomed.
• Hobbies/interests - like NFL, UFC/MMA, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, X-games (skateboarding, snowboarding, motocross, supercross), paintball, surfing, shooting sports, and bowling.

     4. Target Market behavioristically

• Likely to spend money on pizza on military paydays on the 1st & 15th of each month.
• Like convenience and price of big chain pizza restaurant delivery option.
• Likely to buy pizza Thursday - Sunday.

 

CSIT 155 WK.3 Aesthetics, Design & Branding Pt.2

 Roush Performance Parts: http://www.roushperformance.com/

1. Why are they effective?

• The logo is in the upper left corner and is also the "Home" button. The page is about three scroll length with good color contrasting and spacing.

     2.  What specific principles of good design do they include and why?

• The site is easy to navigate information architecture to the right of the company logo or pictures of popular parts you can view all with a horizontal slider button.
• They do this to get people to buy their products.
• They show their best selling products and profession pictures of their vehicles.
• Pictures are visually pleasing.
• The bottom right of the page has link buttons to their Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, and FeedBurner link to their blog.
• The use multiple was to get their brand out and want customer feedback on their products.

     3. What makes you come back again?

• Their popular parts have a hyper link to a separate page with a full description, pictures, instructions for do it yourself installation, and an add to cart button with price.
• I own a 2008 Mustang with the 427R kit which was install by Roush and was covered under the Ford warranty. I have also purchased and installed new products which were a perfect fit and easy to install. They also have a very good customer service department for questions about products before buying.

     4. What could be improved?

• I would make the ribbon of buttons across the top have a drop down menu.
• I would add more how to type videos in their video section.

SiriusXM satellite radio: http://www.siriusxm.com/

      1. Why are they effective?

• Clear labeling, easy to read font and the logo is in top left of website.

      2. What specific principles of good design do they include and why?

• Good color contrast, three columns, and easy to read font. Good use of proximity.
• They're trying to get people to explore their content. 
• Tell people about their product.

      3. What makes you come back again? 

• Easy to find program schedule, commercial free music, smart phone application, and idea for long road trips.

     4. What could be improved?

• I wouldn't change the website.

CSIT 155 WK.3 Aesthetics, Design & Branding

The two websites I see as potential problems for visitors are http://tectorch.com/ and http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp .

Tec Welding Products, Inc. website does not menu that follows the information architecture (IA) format that common with most websites. The site is not visually pleasing it looks busy for example the company history is right at the top and it looks misaligned. The address for the company is a post office box, no physical address in San Marcos or a google map pin with location.

Permaculture Articles looks unprofessional and confusing. I'm not sure if this site is strictly for information like  a blog or are they selling me something. I don't know if this is the home page or not. Information architecture to the left is confusing like an inside joke for a close net group I'm not aware of. Website name doesn't match name of actual site.

Tec Welding Products, Inc. I would change the first to an e-commerce style instead of brochure style. I would used IA format in the Online Marketing, page 33, figure 3.1 and also add a shopping cart button with PayPal. If you click on products you get a description without the option to buy, I not sure how to purchase their products. Add buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at the bottom of page like Ford and Toyota.

They have clear pictures and clear descriptions of their products.

The design of the site is generic and  the company logo TEC should stand out with bright colors. The company's brand in not memorable.

Permaculture Articles. I would organized the page with different categories maybe use a drop down menu, make it a brochure style site, and use IA format.

The author has a link to his pod casts.

The design is plain, disorganized and I don't know if this site has a brand.

CSIT155 WK2: Communication between Business & Consumer

About three years ago I bought a SiriusXM satellite radio for my new car. Once installed and ready to go you have to call to activate your subscription. The automated system this company used to activate the radio was virtually useless. This system would make you think Siri on the iPhone a mind reader. You couldn't just type in the identification information from you radio into your phone. The system has you say the numbers and letters. The thing is I don't have an accent or a speech impediment, so the system should work correctly. After about six attempts I decided to navigate my way back to the main menu and wait on hold to talk to a live person. After about a thirty minute wait on hold a customer service person answer and inform me that the phone call may be recorded. I first complain to the customer service person by saying "the automated system is useless" and "why do they have it if it doesn't work?" He apologized and helped me activate my satellite radio.

I've never used social media to communicate a problem with a company. I like to contact a company directly if possible. I've noticed that liking companies on Facebook leads to mini advertisements similar to my likes.

I do believe that social media has a significant impact on keeping customers happy and gaining new customers through "word of mouth" via social media. I have an indifferent experience because I have not complained or praised a company through social media. Should I communicate future grievances through social media to let all my friends or acquaintances know how I feel about my experience with a certain company? Or is it better to complain directly to the company and on social media? I think now it may be better to complain directly and through social media with whether or not the company satisfied my problem. If I complained on a social media site about my experience with SiriusXM would it have fix my problem any faster? Probably not, but I'm sure they would have sent me a survey through e-mail or an automated survey by phone. The company periodically sends out surveys through e-mail.

CSIT155 week one

I chose the dynamic template for this blog. The way to choose a template for this site wasn't user friendly. It wouldn't let me open the templates to get a larger more detailed view. The ability to easily change the template doesn't seem to exist. The reason why I chose this template was it seemed to be a good clean background for reading a blog. There wasn't very much thought in choosing this template since the ability to preview before choosing is very limited.