Week #15 Wrapping Things Up

I can’t begin to tell you how much this class has meant to me.  I took this class because I had started my own business out of necessity, and needed to find new ways to market myself without spending any money.  Even though I have been in the computer business for over 30 years, I had always shunned Social Media.  I was afraid of it!  Mainly from a security point, but also because I felt that I didn't have much to say that anyone was willing to listen to.  I was wrong!  This class has opened up a whole new world to me.  Social media is the leveling tool between small and large business.  Now a small business can look and feel just as professional as a large business.  If done right, can even compete with big business.  It’s awesome!  I just want to be the best that I can be, and social media gives you the tools. 

I would never have tried some of these networks if I hadn't taken this class.  Granted, I’m no expert and I think it takes a lot to become an expert on social media, but at least I've started.  That’s the leverage this class has given me, a start, a push.  At this point it hasn't had an impact on my business yet, but I expect that to change.  By tying these links to my website I expect to see my visibility grow.  The key here is to stay with a consistent message with engaging content and stay actively involved.  Thanks for all of your help and presenting a fun and engaging class.!

Week #14 Planning Next Month’s Social Media Strategy

Social media can be very time consuming and I think that as a business owner you have to find a balance for what works for you.  Initially I've set aside 11-15 hours a week for social media.  I will adjust these numbers as I need to.  I think that’s it’s important to have a consistent message and to stay involved.  I would start by scheduling a weeks’ worth of posts for Facebook on Sunday night. Hopefully that would only take 1-2 hours.  I would then reserve 1 hour a day to return comments on posts that I received.  Since I don’t have a good feel for Twitter yet, I would probably spend about 1 hour 2-3 times a week on Twitter.  I want to get more involved in LinkedIn, so I plan on spending 2-3 hours a week working with LinkedIn as well.

These are the three social media networks that I plan on using the most for now.  I will be linking them to my webpage as well.  I feel that I need to stay focused on the networks that have the largest following and that my clients use as well.  I may find over time that some are more productive than others.  I’m also planning on joining several local business groups so I can have that face to face interaction.  I can use them to help build my email list and create addition business relationships.  That’s where I’m at for now.

Week#14 Class Comments

Http://commonsenseflooring.blogspot.com
Http://marleemarlee.blogspot.com
Http://michellereneemusings.blogspot.com
Http://jvspurzem.blogspot.com

Week #14 Planning Future Strategy

The reason I took this class was because I was starting my own business out of necessity.  In June, after working for my former company for 15 years, I was asked to take an early retirement.  I wasn’t ready to retire, but I didn't have a choice in the matter.  I still have 10 years of work in me at the very least, thus, the reinvention of myself as a business owner doing what I have been doing for the past 33 years, I.T. work.  So, I had a dilemma, I needed to market myself and with little funds to do it.  I needed to learn social marketing skills, something that I had shunned in the past.  Yes, I had a Facebook page, but I was more of a lurker than a poster.  I didn't feel I had anything of value to add to the party, so I didn't.  This class has taught me that I have a lot to add to the party, and maybe somebody will listen and get something useful from what I have to say.

So now I have a Facebook Business Page to promote me and my business.  I've also joined Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and I’m rebuilding my website which will incorporate links to all of these.  I’m slowing overcoming my fear of posting, and I've started a blog.  I’m certainly not where I want to be yet, but I think I at least know the direction I’m heading.  I owe a lot of that to this class, it’s forced me to actually do it rather than just talk about doing it.

My Facebook business page is really the starting point and the most daily used.  I haven’t really got the hang of twitter yet, but I will be experimenting with it in the future.  I’m still in the process of working with LinkedIn, and I feel that this is also an ongoing project to be tweaked on a weekly basis.  I’m enjoying using all of these networks, but I still feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing yet.  I think it’s just a matter of doing it on a consistent basis and I will become more comfortable with all of them.  I will be devoting at least an hour a day to social networking, and maybe more in the future as needed.  I still feel that uneasiness that I should be out doing something, rather than just playing on the computer.  However, I do know that if you don’t put any work into social media networking, you’re not going to get anything out of it.

So, in conclusion, I will be tweaking my website weekly, and writing a weekly blog.  Working on Facebook daily, and LinkedIn and Twitter weekly.  That’s about all I can handle at this point.

Week# 13 Facebook Analytics

There isn't a lot to report on regarding my Facebook analytics.  I did receive 6 new likes last week.  My Post Reach is 100% for last week and my Total Reach is 150%.  2 people engaged which was also 100% from the previous week.  At least now I know where to go on Facebook to look at my weekly analytics.  Since I don’t have a ton of likes yet, The analytics probably aren't real helpful.  However, I can see that when your page gets popular and you have a lot of fans, the analytics can tell you if your content is hitting the mark.  But you do need to stay on top of it and post a lot to get feedback from your followers.

Week #13 Optimizing Yourself and Your Company

There are four Google analytic's reports that I would setup.  Anymore and I think it would be overwhelming and too time consuming.  Fortunately, they can be setup as weekly automated reports.  You can set this up to send you an email for each report every week to keep track of how your campaign is going.  Set it up for a month, 6 months, or a year, to get an accurate look.

I would first setup an acquisition report to find out where my traffic is coming from, be it organic, social, direct, or referral.  You’ll get a great pie chart that will segment all 4 of these patterns and you will be able to see which areas are growing the fastest and which are lagging behind.  You can use these numbers to access which channels are your strongest and which need work.

Secondly, I would setup an acquisition channels report.  This is a more detailed report than the acquisition report.  The channels report will give you more detailed information on each user.  Here you can see about the types of users that you are getting and if there are any demographic flaws in your targeting.  For example, if you notice that your social traffic channel tends to generate a much higher bounce rate than the others, you can take a look at the types of links you post and consider whether it has an effect on the person’s interest once he/she arrives at his/her intended destination.

Thirdly, I would setup a report on Behavior-all pages.  This report is useful for measuring the relative worth of each of your pages.  For each page, you’ll be able to view the number of total page views, the unique page views, the length of time a user spends on each page, the number of domain entrances, and the percentage of people who exited the site after viewing the page.  For example, if your blog is ranking low in terms of page views, you may want to make some changes to make it a more prominent feature of your site.

Lastly, a goals overview report.  However, before you can take advantage of this report, you will need to setup some goals.  You can setup goal’s for almost any conversion action on your site; whether it’s for making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a “contact us” form.  Once you've setup all of your goals, you can use this report to get a snapshot of how well each is performing.  If you assign a dollar amount to each of your theoretical conversion of your goal sets, you can even get a hypothetical estimate of how much revenue your campaign is generating, allowing you to estimate your ROI.

Week# 12 Coupon Deal

Since I don’t sell any products, I feel I could offer a discounted coupon deal.  Something like 20% off your first hour of service, or 20% off your first computer maintenance service.  Make it an introductory offer so they don’t think that they will always get their service discounted on anything that you do.  It’s a way for a new client to try your services and see if they like you.  It’s a onetime only offer.  That isn't to say that you couldn't give an existing client a special offer for referring a new client to you.  Sort of a referral fee.  Everyone like coupons, I think they are good if used judiciously.