Week 11: Email Marketing

Newsletters are good for businesses who want to keep their customer base well informed. For my business I would prefer a monthly newsletter and I would use the “Top 10” as the base of my new letter. I would use informative marketing with each category in the newsletter. Most of my customer base are new and small businesses, so they need a lot of help and information in starting or launching their existing business.

I would utilize the following categories below:  

• ·         Top Ten Tips for helping you Budget
• ·         Top 10 Business Apps
• ·         Top 10 Tax Tips
• ·         Top 10 Social Media Tips
• ·         Top 10 Customer Service Tips

Chapter 10. Part 2. Categories

The categories that I would use on my business blog would be:

·         Marketing

·         Business Management

·         Money Management

·         Time Management

These categories would help my business grow because my business is based off information and consulting. Having these categories would allow my target audience to select which area they need assistance in. 

I commented on the following blogs:

Koo, Bonkun

Williams, Floyd

Niepagen, Nancy

Chapter 10: Blogging for Business

Everyone loves human interest because it described personal experiences of people we may or may not know. This lets us know that they are, in fact, human. They are just like US. We live in a day in age where everything is automated and it’s nice to see fresh ideas and opinions from an actual person. The book “Likeable Social Media” was talking about Lady Gaga and how she runs her own social media and that is important because the people who are engaging with her see photos that she took and comments she is making. Due to this, she now has over 30 million followers on Instagram alone.

There are times that it would be ok for a third party to come in. If you have so many followers that you can’t respond to all their questions, it may be good to hire someone who can do so. I am bringing up a third party because these are generally time that a personal touch won’t be able to be given. A personal touch may not be necessary for a “sale post” for instance or announcing a winner of a social media contest. There are also “informational posts” that can be generalized as well and don’t necessarily need a personal touch. Personal touches aren’t needed often if you are responding to the customers that are asking generalized questions.

It’s always good to have a personal touch in my opinion but you can lace it with some generics and it wont hurt.

Post 9: Twitter - Sharing Your Thoughts in 140 Words or Less

I started to follow a company I recently collaborated with for new leads. Their name is Housecall Pro and they have a lot of followers that I can convert into clients so it was a pretty good follow for me.

I also started following Thompsonhvac. I used “heating and air conditioning in San Diego” in the search box to find them. Some of my clients are HVAC so I figured it would be good to have a few HVAC companies to follow.

I then used the word “plumbers in San Diego” and I started following @georgplumbing because they are another potential customer.

I finally started following Tony Robbins (aka, my one-day husband). I am hoping his tweets are just as good as his posts on his other social media platforms, this will allow me to have content, so I can retweet (RT) to my following.

My Lists:

Potential clients:  This will include HVAC and plumbing companies.

Clients: these are people that are my existing clients. I want to keep in contact with them so I can maintain our relationship.

Business Partners: This will include Housecall Pro and CPAs.

Most of my twitter targets (except Tony Robbins) own small businesses so their prime time would be early in the morning 5am to 8am and in the evening 7 to 10pm.  

Lists are life:

I can stay organized on Twitter by putting everyone in their own list. Having all the people that belong in the above lists will help me target one market at a time. On Mondays I can target tweets that have been done “potential clients” list and respond to their tweets and the next day respond to tweets from my “business partner” list so they know I support their business as well.

Week 8: Part 2 Let a Picture Tell a Story

1    Zirtual has 3000 to 10,000 followers on their social media platforms. They are using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Each platform that has a post also has a photo. Some of their photos are of text and it seems simple and to the point and still draws you in. This isn’t the best use I have seen of photos and platforms. They haven’t posted anything since March of this year, but prior they were posting once per week on average between all of their platforms.  Lack of posting makes me wonder if they have closed. Seeing this lack of posts make me realize how important it can be to stay active on social media. I am not seeing very many likes and zero comments.

2   Belay has 2000 followers on Instagram and Twitter and over 6000 likes on their Facebook page. They are using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Plus. Their last post was this week and they stay active on all their platforms, posting at least once per week. They also use visual photos on all their posts and on all their platforms. They even gave a customer review and quoted it on a photo of a lady sitting at a desk. I liked that they did this because it allowed them to share it on Instagram. This is defiantly a tip I am going to use!! I am not seeing very many likes and zero comments.

3    Intelligent Office uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. They are using video and pictures in all their postings. None of their visual content was impressive but I did apricate their quality videos on YouTube. They have 3000 followers on LinkedIn. Their Facebook isn’t linked to their page, and they have 5 videos on YouTube from over 3 years ago. Their last post on Twitter was in March. They are not active on social media even though they have had the money to invest in high quality videos. They, like all these other companies I am reviewing for this assignment, are getting 3 likes on average. It’s interesting to see the numbers so low. Again, this is another example that I need to keep in mind, so I can make sure I am posting on a regular basis and I am engaging my viewers by asking questions and getting them to think.

4    Uassist.me uses Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn only. They have 49 followers on Instagram, 890 followers on Twitter and 7000 likes on Facebook. They haven’t posted since 2017 and their followers don’t comment, and their likes are averaged about 3 likes per post. They use visuals on all their platforms but no video content, only photos. I learned that it is important to post content that can get your customers engaged, maybe asking them questions to get them to comment. This social media wasn’t very well managed.

5    Timeect uses Twitter and LinkedIn. They have 2300 followers and their last post on Twitter was May 17^th and on LinkedIn it was last year. They are using photos as their primary visual and the photos aren’t high quality. They have very few likes and again are averaging 3 likes and zero comments. I am learning what I have from viewing the other companies; to keep up to date with my customers and to make sure I have good visual and written content.

Week 8: Get Visual - Let a Picture Tell a Story

The most widely used social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn.

My first preference for business platforms is LinkedIn. I like LinkedIn because when I am at Networking event I can locate them if we don’t have business cards and we can connect right away. There is a feature in LinkedIn where you can turn on your location (within the app) and the person who does it as well will pop up in your likedIn and it will ask you if you want to connect with them. This is a Networking party trick and everyone loves it! I created a LinkedIn for this assignment but I couldn't figure out how to link it to my facebook page so I also created an Instagram account. 

My second preference is YouTube. It would’ve been my first choice, but I am not ready to make videos yet. YouTube will be a necessary tool in my business since the world is shifting towards video content. Attention spans are getting shorter and people are more visual than ever.  I can make helpful learning tutorials that help my clients gain knowledge and become success themselves, all while bringing in new clients from my helpful resources. 

Instagram is my third choice. Instagram is for sharing photos and very different than Facebook articles and posts. The hashtags helo me to connect with similar business and people who may need my service. Instagram will be helpful for my business for search engine purposes and since Instagram is has 1 billion users I really can’t say no.

Facebook is my fourth preference. Facebook is used for sharing articles, posts and photos. I believe that Facebook will be a helpful business tool with my business because I will be able to join groups and network with people who can give me referrals. I can also post helpful business tips that my niche should know.

Twitter is my fifth preference. I haven’t dived into it much but the hashtags can help me when I am looking for people within my groups and business niche.

I don’t think I would benefit as much from doing SnapChat. I don’t have enough video content to share currently or business photos. However, I have noticed that a lot of people use it for personal more than business, but social media is social media, and it’s all relative and important.

I am not a big fan of Pinterest in personal or business but again, the future is video and photos and Pinterest has the visual aspect of where the future is headed.  

Week 7: Part 2 Engaging Your Customers - FaceBook Strategy

Here is the activity for the last 3 posts:

Week 7: Engaging Your Customers - FaceBook Strategy

Below are the 7 business I “liked” and the reasons I chose them and how it can help me with my business:

•             Legal Zoom - I chose Legal Zoom so I can capture their following. A lot of my clientele are new business owners and they would also like if I shared some of the information that Legal Zoom had to offer.

•             ADP - I chose ADP because they are one of my business partners and I would like to share their posts because I assume they will have good tips and tricks that I can share with my clients via social media. Information marketing is what I prefer to use.  

•             Social Media Marketing World - I chose this page for their tips and tricks and content share.

•             Tony Robbins – I love Tony Robbins and his business advice. This page would be good for content sharing with my followers and for learning.

•             Construction Business Owner - I chose this page to like because they are my target clientele and would like to engage with their following.

•             Housecall Pro - I close this because Housecall Pro is a software I use to help my clients get organized and it can help them manage their business. I figure by following them I would be kept up to date on what they are doing so I can pass along the knowledge to my clients.

•             Entrepreneur – I chose this page, so I can capture their following and for content share as well.

Over all, each of these business pages would enable me to share their content and pass along the wisdom to my following. As I mentioned before, information marketing is a good tool to use when posting to social media and each of these pages are a wealth of information.