Week 14 - More Social Strategy

- Which work best on a daily use pattern?

Simply posting on FB was the easiest and most effective.  Daily or mostly daily activity would bring people back.  However, I have been forgetting to place my calls to action in my posts.  I don’t want to do every post, but I would like say once or twice a week to place a ‘if you like what you see, like me’…   or something equally corny but effective. 

- Which can you still use effectively on a much less frequent time schedule?

It is not only time, but money, which, would work out as time if you look at it right.  That would be paid advertising.  When I place an ad on FB I was pleasantly surprised about the response, the reach!  It was fun! Otherwise, it is just being there and being engaged with my audience…

Week 14 Visitations: 5/1
Kodimer, Sonja BLOG FACEBOOK Martin, Brittany BLOG FACEBOOK   
Musick, Daniel BLOG FACEBOOK 
Will get more when there are more Week 14 posts
5/2 Update, Daniel is the only one I see with a week 14 post... so i'll check back periodically... 
5/10 Update:
Monahan, Laurie BLOG FACEBOOK  
Pinto, Devon BLOG FACEBOOK  

Week 13 Optimization

I have had Google analytics on my blog page for a while now.  I would say what interests me the most is where they are coming from, social or referred?  Next would be and most important, is what are they looking at and how long are they staying.  This will tell me what I need to put more of and what not to. 

I know this is for Google, but I find the analytics for my FB page more interesting as I get more traffic there.  I have found that links to videos are very popular.  I have over a hundred photos of my builds and they do not get much attention, but when I take and post only three or four photos, that get more attention too. 

I think I mentioned that I took out a paid ad on FB.  My total was something like $9.45 but it got me hundreds of looks and a total of 11 new likes and several engagements, like I said, to video’s and limited photo posts…  Have to say, knowing this information is extremely valuable.

Week 12 - More Tools

Okay, I know I want to start a blog about creating Papercraft.  The thought I have here is, I know a forum, zealot.com, where they already have massive attendance and you can post your pictures, builds there.  This is where I posted in the past.  I don’t know that I want or could draw as many people to a blog of my own.  That forum then could be my blog?  I am not sure that would be better or worse, but I know I would get a lot of exposure to my builds there.

An option would be to post there with links to my blog. 

Problem one right now is that I am not currently building.  All my things are in storage.  It takes a bit of room to do a build.  By the way, have you been to my FB page?  Seen the video of a PC convention?  Check it out… or:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjuU7TclP6I

Oh, yeah, I have the video set to post tomorrow on FB…  so you get a first look…  

It is incredible…   

Anyway…

I could see Google plus being an option, but I am not sure how I would use it yet.  Linkedin…  I am on there but my profile is for looking for work.  I have perused that site and I don’t think I am going to find PC on there, but I will look

. 

As for the other tools…  Oh, Yelp.  Yes, we covered that in the customer service class last semester.  As of last semester, you still could pay off the company to burry bad reviews…  I have posted there for other companies that are shady, but then again, post to a shady company doesn’t really work.  I have not looked but maybe they have improved.  But, as of this moment I don’t trust them.  Can you have your business removed from there site?  I would think under the free internet rules, you couldn’t…  So you would have to go defend yourself…  What a scam! 

Groupon, pulse, flipboard…  I don’t see a use for this particular venture.  Instagram is worth my re-investment.  I have opened an account there but not used it yet.  

I have had to start looking for work before I finished classes so my time is very very limited.

Week 11 Part 2 - Marketing on a budget

Well,

"Advertising" on FB can be free, but it is not advertising, as is stated in the assignment, it is marketing, but again, it is marketing of the self...  Then, eventually, the product.  The paid way was briefly touched upon in my last post.  The free way is to, well, post.  Becoming a person involved with the idea you are trying to sell is the way...  I am trying to build a following that enjoys my craft.  And even if I don't sell models, I would like to  maybe sell modeling supplies...  But mainly, I just want to connect with others who love it!

This is what I have been attempting from the start, albeit not as feverishly as I had intended...  Nonetheless, there is interest as was demonstrated by the ad...  This is good...

Call to action...  Well, I just did a post that thanked people that liked my page... 

I am weary to give away a build, but I think I will do an easier one...  I have not posted it yet as I have to decide what, but I will give away a model at certain milestones, like 50 likes and 100 likes... 

But maybe I will just start with that statement in my first paragraph here...  Just say, I want to connect with others so please pass the link onto anyone that enjoys modeling...  :)

Week 11 - Online Advertising

Okay!!!

I am so excited!  I read a lot of the information on FB and just for fun, threw up an ad.  Funny thing, I didn't write it...  I was experimenting and just, clicked it.  I got to say how much I wanted to spend and how long to run the ad...  I figured I could spend a few dollars to see what happens...  Hey, maybe I would reach 30 and could play with the analytics???

WELL>>>

Okay, within minutes, I think 15 or so...  I had 6 more likes and 160 reaches...

 I took caps of some of the other pages I could access...  As, I had now reached 30 likes... 

 I was going to stop it, as I had only spent $2.45 and achieved my goal...

To the left you can see ad links, through which you can create an ad with your own verbage...

But, I decided to let it run... Who knows???

Okay, some of what I learned...  This type of ad is only to raise 'likes'.  It is not editable...  I took this cap to show you what the ad looked like, but it was all generated by their system... 

I did get to pick the tags I wanted go to, the sex and age group...  but there were not a lot of tags for papercraft, but I found 4 and went with it.




More ads with a call to action?  I am not sure what I would say?  Or call to action them on...  I could offer a free model I guess, but I am not ready to do that.  I am not really sure where this is going yet, but after today I can say WHOO HOO!!!


Here are my colleques blogs I visited this week:

Jeon, Hyo Yoo BLOG
Beltran, Andrew BLOG
Gillies, John BLOG

Week 10 - Newsletters

What information could your business use for a newsletter, and how often would you send one? Write a list of content ideas you think your customers would enjoy seeing and why.

Well, as I have mentioned, this particular adventure lends itself easily to visual and written advertisement.  For a newsletter, crafts are ideally suited.  A newsletter could contain ads for tools, locations for new schematics, ideas for ways to create various parts of a model, glues and glue techniques, paper and paper uses, types and thicknesses…  This is just the beginning… 

When I first started out the craft, I searched endlessly for clamps, knives, paper types, paints, glues as mentioned…  To publish a newsletter with information leading to places to find the products and information would have been a great help to me!  Thus, providing this to others will help them and me in return…

I would think I could do this once a month… But I am not sure having never done something like this before.  I KNOW I could publish others works, there models, and links to cool models, but I am not sure how often I could find a new source for tools or materials once the readily available ones have been covered…  I will have to find out!

Collegues Blogs Reviewed: 4/11/14 1:52PM

Del Maestro, Shanti BLOG 
Rojas, Cindy BLOG
 Monahan, Laurie BLOG