Week 3 post 2

Websites I visit frequently are:

Twitter- very effective because it allows for customers to be who they are and express their interests. You can change your home page, and add any background or picture to your profile. The fact that it allows for so much freedom is what makes me come back. The design of the website actually depends on each person, but the overall accessibility of it makes it easy to navigate and get to where you need to go.

Pendletonyardsales- This is a site for military members to sell their stuff, all kinds of stuff to people on different bases. This site just recently got updated and it is much easier to look at and not so overwhelming. This website uses the color green, probably for money-which people make money on this site a lot. The site has many categories of stuff, similar to ebay or craigslist but much safer, while there are still scams that can happen. It is left up to the customer whether they want to give out certain information. I visit this site because it is fun to look through the many things people want to get rid of. Instead of putting everything on the homepage, which was done before the update, the owner decided to spread things out on various pages for the customer to look through.

Google Analytics

One of the first thing that caught my eye was the visitors overview: where you can see returning visitors and new visitors. This would give me an idea of how well I am bringing people to my site, how many new people are here and how well I am doing bringing new people in. Another tool I saw was the In Page Analysis, which shows and assesses how visitors are interacting with my page. I think this would be useful because I can tune what is on my page based on what people are visiting. One last thing on google analytics is the Visitors flow, which allows me to see the path customers take when visiting my site. Are they skipping all the marketing and going straight to recipes or are they spending the time looking at what all I have to offer? This will help me know if my marketing strategies are working or if people are merely overlooking them.

Coupons

Coupons are my favorite, I love using them and I love how they are reoccurring for a lot of businesses. I would use coupons to give product after purchasing. I like the idea of buying one plate of food and getting the other for a few dollars, or even sometimes getting the other plate for free. I could not resort to the free plate however until my business is strong enough to control the flow of people. I would like to keep coupons in circulation because when people have a coupon, for the most part, they will end up coming back and using it! The only way to get the weekly coupon is to come in and purchase items.

Week 12 Social Media Tools

I think a marketing tool that will benefit my business is Groupon. This allows for people to receive promotions for coming and bringing friends to my cafe. I would want to promote this outside of social media sites as well because word of mouth is a good way to get things across to all kinds of people. I hope that in using Groupon people will also buy more products.

Flipboard is also another site I would like to explore and use for my business. It would allow me to blog and post photos that will bring in new people and keep old customers coming back for more. I would keep this updated every week so my customers can see the new stuff I am working on and trying to perfect just for them!

Yelp is one of the most helpful tools I have personally used. It allows for people to rate and comment about their experience at your business. It also gives location, menu, phone number and so much more. This of all the social media sites previously listed will be the most helpful. I hope that it will create a good rapport about my business and will bring new people in to experience the fun that others did.

Week 11 Comments

http://socialmediamilieu.blogspot.com/

http://clcsit155.blogspot.com/

http://eduardorandom.blogspot.com/

Week 11-Online Advertising

Online Ads, while as a consumer they get annoying, but as someone who wants to start a business I am looking for the best way to reach my target market without driving them away with annoying pop ups. One thing I do not like about the internet is the ability for anybody to put Ads out there that contain useless information and sometimes even viruses.

For my company I do believe that FaceBook can help me get to my target market in a few different ways. I want to utilize FaceBook Ads as the majority of my advertising because most of my family is on FaceBook and so are my friends; when someone likes my page or views my Ad, so will all their friends (or that is what I hope will happen). As a young member of society, I want to create a fun advertisement and draw people in rather than have people scrolling down exiting out of my hard work. FaceBook does cost, and it costs a lot. I would rather start out small so I do not have to put a lot of money into it AT FIRST. I will start out small by giving myself a small budget and seeing how well FaceBook works at reaching my target market.

By starting out small, I mean starting out on a $10 a day budget in hopes that it will get me the estimated 64 likes. 64 likes a day will take this small business a far way.

I tried playing around with the words in this Ad but for some reason it kept taking me back to the page where I am forced to enter my credit card. This still gives everyone an idea of what I want to do with my company. I do not want to limit my target market to a specific group of people, because everyone loves food.

Email Marketing

I think it would be efficient for my business to send out newsletters monthly because it will leave my customers looking for more and waiting for the next best thing. In these, I would like to include coupons, simply 5-minute recipes  and much more. Each newsletter would have a theme that I will stick in hopes of keeping my customer interested in my company. For example, one month would be party appetizers and I can use specific celebratory instances (superbowl, thanksgiving... and more) to go along with. I want my newsletters to be fun! I would love to include certain food facts or inside secrets on how to pick certain fruits, vegetables, how to wash the food efficiently and more.

Categories to reach my audience

What categories would I include to reach my audience?

Since my audience is universal, because everyone likes food no matter what kind of food it is, I am hoping to include a wide variety of categories to peak the interest of each person who visits my site. I would create a category for each kind of food- such as Italian, Mexican, French, etc .. then I would also have a category for low carb foods, vegetarian, or vegan foods. In doing this, I will reach all the people that love different kind of food, and even the people who only eat a specific kind of food.

People who's blog I commented on:

http://socialmediamilieu.blogspot.com/

http://melaniessocialmediajourney.blogspot.com/

http://robanic.blogspot.com/

Twitter- week 8

After I made my twitter account for Mama Brown's Kitchen, I needed some followers that would find interest in my food and what I have to say. In order to do so, I went to the search bar and at first I typed in 'food', with this up popped Food Network-exactly what I was looking for! Food Network is a show I watch all the time, and it is connected with many chefs and people who love cooking or simply love food. Next, I tried typing in the term 'kitchen' and once again I came up with a plethora of people to follow who enjoy being in the kitchen. The terms I used worked right off the bat because they were very specific, and I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Target Market

For Mama Brown's Kitchen, I see my target market being people who have any sort of interest in food...or even people who love to eat! I want to have a variety of people visiting my sites so I would include in my menu a variety of things to cook. For example, meals that only take 30 minutes to cook, meals with minimal ingredients to cut down the price of day-to-day meals, low fat meals, low carb meals, vegetarian meals, and many more. Food is universal, no matter what part of the country you are in or even what kind of food you like there is always something there to interest you. I hope to bring this same sort of idea to Mama Brown's Kitchen.

Week 5 Facebook Components

Facebook Insights are metrics that allow you to determine how popular your page is among demographics.

Reach is the total number of people who have seen your page in the first 28 days-this is counted when a post is made and shown in the news feed.

Engaged Users are the number of people who have interacted to some extent with the page. Data shows action within a 28 day period.

Talk about this shows up on your Facebook page and keeps track of how many people are talking about your page-this includes likes, shares, and comments.

Virality is the number of people who are sharing your page with all their friends-people who have created a post about your page.

Facebook insights are important because they provide a specific idea of how well your business is doing consumer wise. It shows how many people are interacting and how many people are liking what you have to say. In looking at the Reach numbers, a business can see if they are engaging enough users and if the users are remaining loyal to interaction. Facebook helps businesses gauge the amount of success they are having with their page and in turn can help them make corrections or keep up the work they are putting into their social media site.

Blogging for business

When blogging for Mama Brown's Kitchen, I think personality will make the reader want to come back for more. While I want my blogs to be informative and engaging, I also want my readers to have fun reading them. Writing about specific recipes and secrets that my mom has shared with me is something that I think would involve some personality. However, when I make posts discussing consumer feedback or responding to people who have tried making the recipes I want it to be strictly business-like.

When I am reading other peoples' blogs, I am looking for something that tells me who they are. I am sure I am not the only one who does this either; so in considering this I believe most of my posts will involve my personality. When I post recipes I will try to refrain from adding in the extra mile.

Week Seven

I found two businesses on Facebook that I thought were similar to mine- Kitchen Cuisine and Goody's Kitchen. On Kitchen Cuisine's Facebook page, they have an interesting cover photo, but I have a hard time figuring out what exactly it is. Whereas Goody's has a yummy looking cover photo that is very inviting and makes me wonder what kinds of food they make. Goody's has spent a lot of time advancing the look on their Facebook page; they have menus, photos of customers enjoying their meals, they have liked over 1,000 pages on Facebook-showing that they are engaging with customers and other businesses in order to get their name out there. One thing I do like about Kitchen Cuisine is their links to other sites, they have their Instagram hastag up there and their tumblr name, encouraging others to engage in those sites as well. I think for these two businesses Facebook is the site they utilize the most- they have not spent much time with the other visual sites even though those are the sites that are going to help them the most.

Get Visual

The site I think will best help promote Mama Brown's Kitchen is Youtube- an international site that is easy and cheap to use! Youtube is beneficial because word of mouth and simple buttons can have businesses grow insanely fast. This interests me the most because I can make videos similar to the ones that are on the food channel (one of my favorite things to watch on TV). There is no going wrong with videos; they are easy to make and can attract a variety of people by simply knowing what target groups you are going for.
Tumblr and Instagram are visual sites that are also easy to use, and are engaging in the same kind of way videos are with a tad less details. As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words"- the right picture there is. This is when quality and detail comes in, a lot of people have good cameras on their phone but the question is do they know how to use them well enough to enhance the look of the food. The food in magazines look amazing! That is the kind of pictures people want to see of food, something that makes them salivate. I think these two sites are easy to use and will help with the promotion of Mama Brown's Kitchen because it can help bring in customers and make them want to come and try the delicious-looking food they see through their phones.
Pinterest, while it is a good site to use for most businesses, I do not think it will be the best of all of these for my site. The food categories in Pinterest include recipes, secrets I do not want to reveal! It wouldnt be Mama Brown's Kitchen if you could make the special sauces at home!

week 5

1. gforceracecars.com

• Negatives- The page seems very full and it is hard to filter out what is important enough to be on the front page. It is super busy and has lots of words just on the very first page.
• The moving text is a bit too much to handle with the "busyness" of the home page.
• A lot of information in one area, there are a lot of photos and videos that distract from the reason viewers visit.
• Positives- The color scheme really suits the purpose of the website, red and black with checkers makes me think of cars...for some odd reason. 
• Lots and lots of info.
• Suggestions- Create sub-links other than the ones in the margin that lead to other places so the viewer can choose what exactly they want information on. It would allow us to have more control over how much we are viewing at one time.
• While photos are good to have, too many can become overwhelming. Maybe cut down on the amount of them used.

2. Apple.com

• Positives- Apple has a website that is really viewer friendly. There is no searching for information, everything is easily attainable and I never have any problems. 
• Not many websites can pull of a white color scheme, but Apple does it. It is really sophisticated and inviting!
• The brand and logo are wide spread, everyone knows an Apple product when they see one.

-I do not really have much negative to say about the Apple website. It is easy to navigate and fun to be on reading new information about products.

week 3

businesses & their social media

1. GreenPeople-http://www.facebook.com/GreenPeopleDirectory (Facebook)
2.KSON Radio-http://www.facebook.com/kson973?fref=ts (Facebook)
3.Tilly's- http://www.facebook.com/Tillys?fref=ts (Facebook)
4.BestBuy- Twitter Account @bestbuy
5.McDonalds- Twitter Account @Mcdonalds

week 3

Surveys, Surveys, Surveys...

Okay, so I know we have all gone to a restaurant and had a rude hostess or had hair in our food...something that makes us not want to pay for what we are eating. Unfortunately, I have had this experience one too many times! My most recent instance would be eating at Panda Express, where I asked the servers for fresh chow mein (they always leave it sitting out forever and it makes me want to barf). Do not get me wrong, I love Panda's chow mein...when its FRESH. Simple request, I am a paying customer I deserve the best for my money. Well, the manager on duty thought otherwise. She did not see a problem with the old chow mein, but then again she wasn't paying 8 bucks for a plate! Makes me wonder, do they actually ever taste their food??? Anyways, I ended up waiting 20 minutes to get fresh chow mein, after arguing with the manager! She was so rude to me it made me just want to leave, but I knew I could get something better out of it. Working in retail, I have learned that the customer is always right and surveys are like gold to a store. Bad survey scores are the worst, especially if names are mentioned in them. I sat down and did not realize the chow mein was ready, the manager kept serving it to more and more people that came after I did. When I came up, as you can imagine I was livid. I paid for my food, asked for her name, and left.

I went home and went on their website to fill out a survey. Corporate needed to know about the bad service and old food I was being served. While I did let the manager know I was not satisfied with the service or the food, I know surveys are a better way of going about such a problem. Nevertheless, I got 15 coupons for free entres!!!! It did not necessarily solve the food problem or get the manager fired (I did mention her name and I know she got chewed out for it). In this instance, social media really helped me communicate with the company about the problems that are going on in their store. It was easier than confronting the rude manager and I got what I wanted in the end :) POWWW..

Week 2

Business? or Personal?

Facebook. One of the most notorious social media sites out right now. People use Facebook for a variety of reasons: to rant about their day, post videos, talk to friends, have relationships with people they do not know, promote a website or mixtape, and there are many more ways people utilize this site. However, the question still remains in my mind as to what Facebook is really about. What did Zuckerberg intend for people use it for? The closest I have come to answering that question, is people use it to stay in the loop on things that are going on in the world, society, and with other peoples' lives. So in addressing the question at hand, Facebook is geared towards personal use. Although, many companies do use it promote.

Twitter...Oh twitter. All I can really say about twitter, from personal experience is it produces too much drama. Lets just say there is a lot of #subtweeting going on in this site, my twitter users know exactly what I mean. Oh and do not even dare retweet something that was intended to talk about anyone else on your timeline, you will be dragged into a never ending hole of drama! Twitter is ultimately used for personal matters.

Now for my favorite of all social media sites: Instagram! This I believe is the best and most effective way of promoting a business. There are so many people on instagram and all it takes is a few photos and lots of followers and you have people behind you liking all your pictures. In a way, this site is used for business promotion. I have seen a few people posting merchandise on there and getting a lot of replies for people wanting to buy. However, it is also used for personal use. The most drama-free site I have come in contact with thus far.
..follow me- @taelebeauty

Wordpress, the site for bloggers galore. This site is a bit different then the others in that you are not necessarily in full contact with the people you follow. They do not pop up on a timeline or a newsfeed, you have to take the time and browse. I believe this site can go both ways, just like Instagram in that it can be used by businesses and also by people like me who just love to write.

Messed this thing up :/

Soooo, I realized why no one was commenting on my weekly posts. I've been creating a new blog each time! how smart of me....
Well, here is the posts I've made:

http://socialmediacsit155.blogspot.com/

http://5businesses.blogspot.com/

http://shawntaebrowncsit155week3.blogspot.com/

Greetings classmates and welcome to my new blog. Corny much?? I haven't been blogging long, but I am hoping that some day I can really get my thoughts and views on things out there for millions to see. Yea I know, seems like every person's dreams out there right? Well, blogging is my first step to becoming a successful writer. I like getting feed back from people who take the time to read, it only strengthens my writing abilities.

I decided to chose the blog template that best reflects my personality, and my favorite color. The template is busy and fun, just like me. It grabs your attention and creates an exciting reading environment.

Enjoy,
ShawntaeB.