FINAL BLOG

Over the course of the semester my viewpoint on social media has changed.  When I first started the class, the only experience I had with social media was posting on Facebook with my friends.  I now have a better understanding of the enormity of social media and how businesses are using it.

Before taking this class I had never visited a business Facebook page.  If I wanted information about a business, I only went to their website.  Now I understand that, while the website is a "home base", social media is where to go if I want to find up-to-date information.  For example, a month ago I built a chicken coop with my son.  We wanted to find a feed store that sold chickens to populate our coop.  I found several websites of feed stores that claimed that they sold chickens, but it wasn't until I visited the stores' Facebook pages that I found out what breeds of chickens the stores carried, and whether the chickens were in stock.

I now take Twitter more seriously.  I now know that you can search Twitter to find out what people want.  A few months ago, I searched Twitter in order to find horse riders who were looking for a certain kind of boots that I had for sale.  I found that several people had posted that they were looking for boots.  The ability to immediately find people who were looking for something so specific as a certain type of riding boot was pretty amazing!

After taking this class, I have a much better idea of how to use social media to develop a business.  First, the business should identify their target market.  After the target market is identified, the business should find out how their target market uses social media.  A good clue to knowing how the target market uses social media is to find out how your competitors are using social media.  Identifying how competitors successfully use, and more importantly finding where your competitors are NOT successfully using social media will guide your business strategy.  I found that my target market uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.  A business strategy could be to connect with the target market on these sites in order to establish communication.  Finding some way to add value such as offering information or "how to" can be a way to establish your business as an informed source.  A business blog is a great forum to provide this information.  A business can also add comments on others' blogs to establish their credibility.  If it makes sense for the business, pictures and video can be added to the blog.  At this point, the business is trying to build "likes" and "followers".

After the business has engaged the target market, the business can initiate promotion and advertising.  Facebook/Instagram or Twitter ads are a great way to reach your target market.  These platforms gather a great deal of information from users!  When I made a few ads on Facebook, I was able to target females age 16-45 who are interested in horses and, more specifically, who are interested in dressage, showjumping and eventing.  I was pretty amazed that Facebook could target so specifically. Although, over the course of the semester, I began noticing how specifically Facebook has been targeting me!  The great thing about running the ads is that you obtain analytics that can tell you how many people saw your ad, how many people clicked through to a website, how many people shared/liked etc. the post.  Another method is choosing to "Boost" a post.  This will get your post to your followers and their friends.  The Facebook business page also runs analytics, so the business can see how their followers are interacting with their posts.  This information will allow the business to better use social media to engage their customers.

Taking this class has changed the way that I interact with businesses on-line.  Now when I google a business, I will often go to their Facebook page or Instagram page after I have viewed their website if I am looking for more information.  I found the material in the class very worth while and its given me a better understanding and appreciation for social media.

WeeK 16: Post 2 Future Plans

I sell used horse tack on Ebay for myself and for friends.  I chose to market my Ebay tack sales under a business that I decided to call "The Tack Shed".  The Tack Shed promotes the tack for sale and attempts to drive buyers to my Ebay listings.  The tack I am selling already gets plenty of exposure from being listed on Ebay, which justifies paying Ebay approximately 10% commission on each item that I sell.  Any sales that are generated from social media marketing are just "icing on the cake".  In this case, the time I would spend on social media marketing would probably be minimal.

At some date in the future, I might decide to create my own on-line tack store to carry new and/or used tack.  At that point, marketing would be critical.  If I wasn't counting on Ebay to create traffic to my listings, I would probably be spending at least 75% of my time on social media marketing.  Without a physical location to draw buyers, my only sales would be those that I could generate on-line.

At the moment, I have about 20 items for sale on Ebay.  This items are individual items, I only have one of each item listed.  If I ever decided to create a true on-line tack store, I think I would need to increase my inventory and have multiple sizes/colors of the items I carry.  In the meanwhile, it would be a good idea to "start the conversation" on social media.  While I am still selling on Ebay, I can continue to create a presence on social media.  At this time, I think I should concentrate on creating some interesting and educational content in blog postings to initiate some discussion.  I could continue to post on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram business pages.  I have access to my Ebay buyers' email addresses at the time of sale, but I think it is frowned upon to use those for marketing outside of Ebay.  I should collect any email addresses outside of Ebay for a future newsletter, but I don't plan on starting a newsletter right away.

Over the next six months I think my plan should be to write at least one blog post per week.  I plan on posting on Instagram 3 times a week.  The Instagram posts will be more casual, mostly pictures around my horses.  I will attempt to get likes and comments from my followers.  I will post on Facebook twice a week, also attempting to get likes and comments.  I think I can manage this much is about 2-3 hours a week.

Week 16: Blogs I Commented On

I commented on strategies by Ashley Enders, Gina Schwendel and Hernan Hernandez.

Week 16: Planning Future Strategy

This semester has gone by so quickly!  We started by learning to create blogs.  The blogs are like a conversation that we are having with our readers.  They respond to the blog, and we respond back.  It is a way to have a dialog on-line.  After blogs, we learned how to set up a business Facebook page and Twitter account.  We researched the best social media platforms for our businesses.  We also covered newsletters.

For my business (selling used horse equipment on Ebay), I found that FB, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube would be the best platforms.  I enjoy FB and Instagram the most, so those would probably be the most effective for me.  I am not counting out eventually using Youtube.  I know I would enjoy making short videos.  A blog is another tool that would be very effective, and also a way to establish myself as a source for horse equipment and training information.  The blog entries should probably be made weekly.  The FB and Instagram accounts would probably be best if they were used every day, or at least more frequently.  A newsletter would be used (at the most) on a monthly basis.

Week 15 Facebook Analytics

Yea! The Tack Shed has more than 30 likes now on Facebook.  I was able to access the Facebook analytics in the Insights tab.  This tab allows the user to see the likes obtained, post engagement, reach and page views.  It also gives reach and engagement for each specific post.  Organic posts are compared to Paid advertising posts.  These analytics would give the user a great deal of information about how people are interacting with their posts and also which type of posts do better than others.  That way, the user could tailor future posts.  The user is also able to "Boost" posts that might create a lot of engagement.

Week 15: Tack Shed Analytics

I only have 20 likes.  I have been trying to get friends/family to like me too, but I'm stuck at 20!

Week 15: Google Analytics

In order to better understand Google Analytics, I watched some of the videos at the "Analytics Academy".  I started with the Beginner videos.  From the videos, I learned that Google Analytics would allow a business to monitor how their customers used their website.  As of right now, my business does not have its own website.  I am selling my inventory on Ebay.  However, in the future, if I had my own website, Google analytics could be used to track how users progressed through a purchase.  It would tell me which pages of my site a user browsed.  It would tell me what kind of device the user was using (i.e. desktop, phone), which language their browser was set to, and how they got to my site (google search, ad click, email marketing campaign).  It will also track where the user is located geographically.

All of this information would be important to my business.  If I found that users were getting stuck at a certain place on my website, I could improve the site to create better flow through a transaction.  If I found that users only arrived at my site from email marketing campaigns, I could try to improve the other avenues of arrival, including using better key words.  The results from the Google Analytics would allow me to improve my online interactions with customers.

Week 14: Creating Ads on Social Media

I was surprised how easy it was to create ads on Facebook/Instagram.  I also was surprised at how specialized the demographics could become.  I was able to choose my exact target market: females age 16-45 who are interested in horses, and specifically the equestrian sports of dressage, eventing and showjumping.  I created several ads in FB, all with different objectives.

The objectives of the three ads above are to encourage people to visit my Ebay listings website.  The first ad consists of multiple images that would interest my demographic.  By saying "Check with Us before you buy new", I am informing the viewer that I am selling used tack at prices that are more reasonable than new tack.  At the bottom of the images I claim "reasonable prices" and "fast shipping".  The aim of this ad is just to inform.  The second ad shows a single image that might interest my demographic.  The third ad uses a play on words to inform the viewer that I am selling expensive items at lower prices.

Another objective for ads is to draw my demographic to a blog.  If I can establish my blog as a place to get great training information, a later call to "buy" could be more effective.

A third objective for ads would be to sell.  The following ad uses an image and tells the viewer to "buy now".

Another objective of ads is to generate "likes".  I am offering a discount for "liking" my page.

Week 13 Post 2

The business I chose for the purposes of this class is a business that promotes my horse equipment sales on Ebay.  The inventory I have consists of the items that I am currently helping a friend of mine sell.  Using social media to promote this type of inventory has its challenges.  The major challenge is that I only have "one" of everything.  For example, I am selling three of my friend's saddles.  For each saddle, I only have one model, one color and one size.  So if I was able to reach someone who happened to want that model of saddle, I do not have a selection of colors and sizes.  I only have one.  I also may or may not have the accessories that a saddle buyer would want to go with their saddle.  I guess what I am trying to say is that my inventory is basically like a garage sale (which is why it is perfect for Ebay).  So, I have the choice of advertising each listing separately for the specific item that I have or trying to drive potential buyers to browse my "garage sale" of items.

I would rather use advertisements that are seen in the news feed rather than on the right hand side.  If I chose to advertise each of my listings I would certainly use a photo ad.  I also have the option of including more than one item in the photo.  If I took an attractive photo of a group of items, I might be able to advertise more than one EBay listing per ad.  I could also try the multi-product ad, where I could include several pictures of listings in one ad.

I might be able to use a video ad if I could think of a clever or funny way to showcase my items.  Using local ads would not help me because I am selling on-line.  Event ads are not applicable to my business.

Using the "Boost Sales" option should work for me.  I know that my target market is female between the ages of 17-45.  My target market would also list horses as an explicit interest.  Also, from my target market's interests and behaviors on Facebook, I should be able to choose horses as an intrinsic interest.

I would want to post ads when I have new listings on Ebay.  I would like to keep my budget as low as possible.

Week 13 Post 1

This week I researched social advertising by companies similar to my business.  All of the advertising used visuals to draw my attention.  The use of visuals is very effective to get my interest.  Also, the continued barrage of visuals from a company eventually makes me more likely to buy something from them because they are at the front of my mind.

One company posts ads on Instagram that ask a question about a picture and promise a $10 gift certificate as a reward for being the first to answer the question correctly.  I found this type of advertising very effective because it appeals both to people that like to get a discount and to people who are very competitive.  The thought of "winning" something is very appealing.  I find myself scrolling through the feed to find this promotion.  I also pay more attention to ads coming from this company because I am anticipating the chance to win something.

I believe that social media advertising is very effective because it feels very personal.  The advertising is arriving on your computer, in your news feed.  It is found among posts from friends, so often I see ads just after I have seen pictures of my friends doing something funny.  I am feeling happy and connected to my friends and it carries over to how I feel about the advertisement in the next post.  In that way, I think that social media advertising is more effective than traditional advertising because of the personal nature of the news feed.  In contrast, I ignore ads on the right hand side of my screen!  I feel like those ads are intrusive.

Week 12 Post 2 Other Social Media Tools

I investigated Google+ in a little more depth.  I could not find any of the groups that I follow on FaceBook or Instagram, so perhaps using this platform could get me in contact with a different group of horse owners.  I found two communities that are active.  The most active is "Horses" with 44,286 followers.  This community had recent posts and each post had 30-50 comments.  This is the type of community that would probably be worth joining and becoming active.  It is not a community with a great deal of advertisements, so I would have to become involved in the discussion before I mentioned my Ebay sales.  Another community I found is "Horse and Rider" with 10,879 followers. It is a community moderated by a popular horse magazine and seems to have a fairly active discussion with recent posts.  The Equestrian Blogger's Network (1080 followers) looked interesting, but I noticed that none of the posts had more than 3 comments.  It seemed like blogging into a vacuum.  Many of the communities and people that I found in my search don't have many followers.  There was one ghost-town community I found (Horse and Hound) with 21,833 followers, but no new posts since Sept. 2015.  I'm thinking that if I become active in one or two of the communities, that might also lead me to other discussion groups.

I looked into the Groupon website because I have not used them before.  In the horse-industry, I found Groupons for riding lessons, reduced price tickets to the Del Mar National Horseshow and horse riding/wine tours.  I do not think this would be an effective place to advertise coupons for my Ebay sales.  The items that I am selling are too specialized for this kind of promotion.  I also went to the Living Social website and I do not think it would work for my business.

I also looked on Yelp under horses.  I found reviews for riding instructors and horse boarding facilities.  I do not think it is applicable to my business.

Week 12: Other Social Media Tools

For the purposes of this class, I am marketing my horse equipment (tack) listings on Ebay.  From my research into marketing in the horse industry in general, it appears that the major social media that others are using are blogs, newsletters (including newsletters sent through Ebay), Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest (rarely) and Youtube.  I have researched tack sellers that sell in a physical store, online through their websites and those that sell on Ebay.  I have also researched related industries such as national horse show organizations, magazines, horse trainers and horse sellers.  Google+ and LinkedIn do not seem to be used much by this group.  I will be doing further research on these for the Monday assignment.

So far, my social media strategy for the class has included Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a newsletter.  To expand my business, I could use add Youtube and Pinterest to my social media strategy.  Youtube specifically is used frequently by my target market.  My target market uses Youtube to view horses for sale and to share competition and training videos.  Several other tack sellers (mostly those with physical stores) have used Youtube to explain the features of products or to promote events occurring in their stores.

Monitoring changes in social media use by my target market will be an important factor in connecting with them.  Following my competitors and associated businesses and organizations will alert me to changes in social media use.

Screen Shot of Newsletter

Week 11 Comments

I commented on the following blogs: Ashley Enders, Hernan Hernandez, Laura McIntire

Week 11 Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are another method to connect with the customer on-line.  For my business of selling horse equipment on Ebay, a newsletter would be a great way to alert my customers that I have new equipment listings on Ebay.  In fact, Ebay already has this functionality.  

When a user sets up a "store" on Ebay, that user gets a button that allows the "visitors" to the store to subscribe to a newsletter.  I don't know whether the user gets to see their followers' email addresses, I'm guessing Ebay keeps control of those, but it allows the user to send newsletters.  I visited a tack store on Ebay and subscribed to her newsletter.  She sends out her letter about once a month and describes any new listings she has, or any price reductions.  I like her emails.  They are short and easy to glance through.  I think keepings emails short and to the point is best because people receive many emails throughout the day, its not like social media where the user is there to "hang out".  For example, when I am going through my emails, I make a very quick decision whether to delete or read it.  A message has to be pretty short and quick for me to spend the time reading it.

Week 10, Post 2: Categories in a Business Blog

Creating categories for a business blog will help to keep it organized.  The categories would also help direct the user to the blog topic that they are interested in.  In my horse equipment sales, I could have a "help" category that explains how the equipment I'm selling could be used.  I could have guest blogs from local horse trainers.  I could also pose a rhetorical training question, and try to stimulate discussion on the topic.  Another category could be topics related to horse health and horse care.  This topic is always of concern to horse owners.  If the content was interesting enough, I could get a discussion going amongst the users.  One thing is for sure, horse owners do like to give their opinions!  Starting a conversation, or becoming a place for discussion would help to establish my brand as trustworthy, which would be a great way to help a business to grow.

Blogs I commented on: Gina Schwendel, Davina Croft, and Brent Reyes.

Blogging for Business: Week 10 Post 1

Adding human interest to a business blog can be a great idea depending on the type of business involved and the type of personal touch the business uses.  A great example of this that I recently found was from one of the horseback riders that I am following on social media, who of course is also a potential customer of my horse equipment Ebay sales business (the business that I am promoting for this class).  This woman runs a horse training business (she trains both horses and riders) and is also an active horse show competitor.  In her blog, she gives the details of her competition campaign.  She describes the ups/downs/blood/sweat/tears of traveling with horses, caring for horses and competing at competitions all over the U.S. and also in Europe.  She injects quite a bit of humor into her posts as well.  She also briefly touches on the emotions involved and challenges she faces of maintaining her family life with her husband and teenage son in the midst of work and travel.  The blogs are very "real", uplifting and enjoyable to read, and give potential customers a great feel for the amazing person that she is.  This blog was the perfect case in point for adding a personal touch to blogs.

I think personal touches in blogs are appropriate as long as the amount of personal information does not become un-professional, excessive or negative.  The type of business that is being promoted and the image of the business also makes a difference.  

Week 9 Post: Twitter

I finally am getting caught up.  I set up my Twitter account for The Tack Shed, my handle is: @The_TackShed.  I added the same photos as on my FB page to keep the look consistent.

To find people to follow, I started by entering in "Galway Downs" which is a horse show venue in Temecula.  I chose to "follow" Galway.  From there, I found many competitors who had tagged Galway, and I chose to follow some of them.  There were also national organizations mentioned on the Galway feed, and I chose to follow those.  I did not end up trying to search blindly for people to follow.  I just went to the Galway website, and that "introduced" me to many people to follow.  All the competitors are my potential customers because they all need equipment.

I created two lists on my account.  The first list is for horse show competitors that I am following.  The second list is for horse show venues and national showing organization.

I think I could send out tweets at pretty much any time.  It seems as if the horse world never sleeps.

Week 8, Post 2 Visual Social Media

The business that I am promoting for the purposes of this class is an on-line horse equipment ("tack") sales business (its actually a link to my Ebay sales listings) called "The Tack Shed".  I have decided to see how my competitors are participating on other social media sites besides Facebook.  I searched for websites that just sell used tack, but I couldn't find any.  Any website that did sell used was a listing service like Ebay, but smaller.  I decided to research tack stores that sell new.

The first competitor I chose to follow is a local tack store, Mary's Tack and Feed, that has several physical locations.  They also sell tack on-line on their own website AND they sell tack on Ebay.
On Facebook they have 12,906 followers. They post several times a day.  Each post gets between 0-100 likes, and comments are in the single digits.  On Instagram they have 2,375 followers    They post nearly every day, getting almost 100 likes per post.  Very rarely do they get comments
On Youtube they have 68 subscribers. They post every few weeks.

The second competitor I'm following is Dressage Extensions.  They have a physical store in Moorpark, CA, but have been more of a catalog (and now on-line) sales outfit.  I haven't noticed them selling on Ebay, but they do sell from their website.  Their Facebook page has 12,081 followers. They post every few day and each post gets between 0-30 likes and between 1-4 comments.  On Instagram they have 395 Followers and 66 posts.  They get likes in the low 30's per post.  On Pinterest they have 895 Followers. They have 10 boards and 68 pins

The third competitor is Bit of Britain.  They have traditionally been a catalog sales (now on-line) outfit, although I see they have a physical store now in Pennsylvania.  Their Facebook page has 9,800 followers. They post nearly every day.  Each post gets between 0-20 likes.  Not many posts get comments.  On Instagram they have 1113 followers, 131 posts and each gets up to 100 likes.

The fourth competitor is Dover Saddlery.  They have physical stores, but for years they were very strong in catalog sales.  Now, of course, they are on-line.  On Facebook they have 146,400 followers.  They post nearly every day.  Some posts get up to 500 likes, but only a handful of comments on any one post.  On Instagram they have 18,000 followers and 211 posts.  They get between 1000-3000 likes per post.  Each post gets 1-5 comments.

Each of these stores have a decent number of followers, proportional to the size of their business.  Not surprisingly, Dover has the largest number because they are the oldest and most well-known store in the industry.  There is not as much interaction on the posts as I expected.

Week 8, Post 1: Visual Media

The business that I am promoting for purposes of this class is called "The Tack Shed".  I am helping a friend sell her used horse training equipment (also called "tack") on Ebay, so I decided that my FB business page would promote my Ebay listings.  My FB page links to my Ebay item list.  Selling on Ebay is a very visual.  All items are listed for sale with multiple photos, and buyers examine the photos to compare products.  Therefore, social media platforms that allow me to include visuals will be great for promoting my business.

The next question is, which sites appeal to my target market?  My target market is women age 15-45 who ride horses in the sports of eventing, dressage or jumpers.  From what I have observed through my personal FB friends who fall into my target market, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the best social media sites.  On Youtube, my target market shares competition and training videos.  It would be possible to make videos of the tack that I am selling and also discuss how it can be used.  The YouTube videos could then be shared on my business page as well.

Instagram would be a great site to share pictures of new tack listings on Ebay.  I plan to start a business Instagram account for this assignment.

Week 7, Post 2: Scheduling Posts

I scheduled several posts for my FB page.  Most of these posts share a picture of horse equipment (called "tack") and pose a question to my followers asking them their opinion or about their experience.  Alternatively, I have posted pictures of my horse (something all horse owners love to do) and posed a question about my followers' horses.  Finally, I have scheduled two Youtube videos of well-known professional riders for my followers to enjoy and hopefully to comment on.

My scheduled FB posts 

Week 7 Post One: Pages that my Business Likes

I decided to go in a different direction with my Facebook business.  I changed my business name to The Tack Shed.  This FB page promotes my Ebay selling page where I am selling items of horse equipment.

My target market will be horse owners who ride English and most likely participate in the sports of dressage, hunters, jumpers or eventing.  My target market is mostly women age 15-45 who are looking to save some money in a very expensive sport/hobby.  Since my customers are buying on Ebay, they can live anywhere in the U.S.   I do not ship international.

I chose 7 organization/business pages to like as my page.  All of these businesses and organizations are important to my target market.  I started with a several local (Californian) sites.  Liking these pages as my business will leverage exposure to my business.  I can comment as my business on appropriate posts from these pages.  My comments will show up as being made by my business.

Galway Downs:  This is a local (Temecula) horse show venue that hosts many horse shows throughout the year.  In addition, horses are boarded at the venue for training.  All of the people who attend the shows and board their horses at Galway are my potential customers.

Copper Meadows: This is another local (Ramona) horse show venue that hosts horse shows throughout the year and boards my potential customers' horses.

CDS-Juniors:  This page is for California's junior riders in the discipline of dressage.  These riders might be looking to buy used tack to save money.

Riding Magazine:  This is a magazine published in California.  It is very popular and contains local advertisements and news about the local show scene in addition to general articles about horse care.

United States Pony Club:  A nationwide club for children/teens who ride horses.  Pony clubbers often buy used equipment because their parents want to save money.

USEA (United States Eventing Association): National association for the equestrian sport of eventing.

USDF (United States Dressage Federation): National association for the equestrian sport of dressage.

Week 6 Post 1 Reach vs. Engagement

After consulting Facebook and several blogs, I think I have a basic understanding of reach and engagement.  In the simplest terms, reach is the number of people who receive a post in their newsfeed.  If they receive the same post multiple times (for example when someone comments on the post and it shows up in the news feed a second time) it still counts as one reach.  Engagement is the number of times people have taken an action with a post.  The action can be clicks, comments, likes, shares etc.

Knowing the difference is important because just because a post has reached a large number of people, it doesn't mean that a "conversation" has started.  People get a lot of material in their newsfeed, if they don't engage with a post, it might mean they are tuning it out.  Looking at the number of engagements is important because it gives you an idea of how people are interacting with the material you send out.

In Facebook Insights, a variety of results can occur.  For example, it is important to understand that a post can have a low reach, but a high engagement.  This means that not many people received a particular post, but the people that did receive it engaged with it.  That might tell a company that a certain type of post stimulates people to action.  If a post has high reach, but low engagement, that might tell a company that their post was in many people's news feeds, but not many people liked, shared or commented on the post.  By studying which posts generate engagement, a company can get an idea of what content gets their potential customers to respond.  The company can use that information to craft new posts.

Week 5 Blog Post 2: Target Market

After changing my mind several times about the type of business I wanted to choose, and a lot of false starts, here it goes:

I have decided to use this assignment to market a non-existent real estate company.  This will be an extension of work that I did last fall in BUS132 (Marketing) at MiraCosta.  This plan markets my services as a real estate listing agent.  The target market is very narrowly defined as:

  Homeowners over the age of 55 living in Rancho Santa Fe

[Note:  In this case, I am marketing my services to potential homeowner-sellers.   To this end, my goal is to obtain a client who will contract with me to list their house for sale.  This is the first step.  Once I have obtained the listing, now I need to market the home to potential home-buyers!  These are two different target markets!  For the purposes of this project, I am going to focus on marketing my services to potential home sellers.]


To this very specific target market mentioned above, I am selling my services as a "downsizing expert".  The reason I chose this target market is because it is an age demographic that I respect and enjoy being around.

The industry and demand trends for this market are as follows:
As of July 2015, 27.6% of the U.S. population is over age 55(1).  A large percentage of this population are homeowners.  Of those age 65 and above, 77.9% own their own homes, of people age 55-64, 74.7% own their own homes (2,3).  Many of these people are maintaining the larger home that this demographic has tended to prefer.  They have not yet downsized from the homes they bought when raising their families (4).  In California, more than 70% of people over the age of 55 have been in the same home since 2000, and over 50% of the people in that age group have not moved in 25 years (5).  As these homeowners retire, many will begin to notice that a large portion of their income is being used to maintain a large home, most of which they are no longer using.  Paying the water bills, heating/cooling bills, and managing pool maintenance, yard maintenance and house cleaning might become overwhelming.  They may become more interested in travel or in living closer to their grandchildren.  They also might be facing health problems and needing more assistance in daily life.  Oftentimes homeowners in this demographic have lost a spouse, and are attempting to manage their large property on their own. This is the point at which they will look to downsize (6).  According to SANDAG, in the Rancho Santa Fe zip codes, 38% of the residents (4,355 people) are currently age 55+ (7).   In addition, 86% of the housing in 92067 and 92091 are detached, single family homes.  With a median sales price of 2.22 Million year-to-date in 2016, most of these homes are large and built on lots over 2 acres in size (8).  These older homeowners, living on large, high maintenance properties are prime candidates for downsizing.  My service will assist the homeowner in making this life change.

Social media is NOT the best or only media to use for this target market. This age demographic tends to respond to more traditional advertising methods (newspaper, direct mail, in-person selling etc.). However, to develop a comprehensive marketing plan, I feel that including social media is critical. I have chosen Facebook as the most important social media channel that I will use because it is the primary social media site frequented by my target demographic (9).  

   (1)       “So How Many Millennials are there in the U.S. Anyway?” Marketingcharts. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept., 2016.   
   (2)       “Boomers Retire, and California Trembles” First Tuesday Journal, 26 July 2016. Web.  28 Sept., 2016.                     
   (3)       “Field Guide to Working with Baby Boomers” Realtor. Realtor. Aug. 2015. Web. Aug. 2015, 25 Sept. 2016.
(4) “Analyzing Trends: How Investors Will Profit from Millenials & Baby-Boomers” Real Wealth Network. Real Wealth Network. n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(5) Huang, Josie. “Baby Boomers Behind Housing Logjam.” SCPR.org. Southern California Public Radio. 28 April 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(6) IBID. First Tuesday Journal.
(7) “Demographics and Socio Economic Estimates U.S. Postal ZIP Code 92067 and 92091” SANDAG. SANDAG, Current Estimates. 24 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(8) “August Statistics Detached Homes” The San Diego Realtor. The San Diego Realtor. Sept. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(9) Olenski, Steve “7 Reasons Why Marketing to Baby Boomers is Unique”, Forbes, 5 June 2015, Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Week 5 Post 1

Set 2:  The Websites of Chili's and Teri Cafe:  A Target Market Comparison

Both of these websites advertise restaurants.  The obvious difference that stands out right away is that Chili's is a large chain restaurant with locations all over the U.S. (and world) and Teri Cafe is a local San Diego restaurant with 2 locations.  The Chili's website is much larger than Teri Cafe's website.  In addition to promoting its food, Chili's is also promoting itself as a great place to work.  You can buy gift cards on Chili's website and you can order your food for pick up from Chili's website.  Teri Cafe has a much smaller website that gives the menus, specials and noodle information.

The most obvious difference in the target markets of these two restaurants is that Teri Cafe's target market live (or are visiting) the San Diego area.  Chili's target market is much larger since there is a Chili's in nearly every larger metropolitan area.  Both restaurants target customers who will be looking to spend up to $20 for an entree, however, both restaurants have entrees in the $7.50-$15.00 range.

The Chili's target market like large restaurants with a wide variety of menu options.  Their target market will also be looking to have alcohol available.  In the Our Story tab, Chili's explains that they want to be the place where you could hang out with friends and have burgers and a beer.  However, this is the only reference to alcohol on their website, so I don't think they are looking to be known as a place to drink.  From the Teri Cafe website, I infer that the target market will be looking for a smaller, more intimate restaurant.  The Teri Cafe target market will be interested in Japanese style food, be it noodle dishes, noodle soup, sushi rolls or rice.  Both restaurants seem to be targeting to families, but Teri Cafe does not offer the traditional American kid foods of chicken tenders, pizza, mac n'cheese, quesadilla etc.

From the overall looks and tones of the websites, Chili's looks like a much busier and noisy restaurant.  The Teri Cafe's website is so dark and subdued that it seems to imply that the restaurant is dark, quiet and more intimate.

I believe there could be a cross-over in the two types of customers.  For example, I would be interested in going to either of these restaurants.  It would just depend on what I was looking to eat that day, what type of atmosphere I wanted, and who was going with me.  If I was going to dinner with my family and we wanted to have a nice enjoyable time together, we would probably choose Teri Cafe.  In this instance, we would be looking to have some noodles or sushi rolls.  These are both foods that we find comforting.  On the other hand, if my son's soccer team was looking to go to dinner after the tournament game, we would choose Chili's.  Chili's can seat large groups and the variety of the menu would serve the large group.

Thank you Nespresso!

I just reviewed their website in Blog post 4, and I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but I received two sleeves of coffee pods in a personalized  box yesterday...

Thank you Nespresso!

Week 4 Post 2: Websites I Frequent

It's such a beautiful day today!!  We are starting to dry off after the storms this weekend.  So happy to be back on the trails...

The view walking the neighborhood trails

The first website I have been using very frequently lately is:

www.ebay.com

I have been helping a friend sell her horse training equipment so I have been visiting the site daily.

1.  They are effective because their site is so easy to navigate and also because they have created a culture of fair dealing.  By implementing a review system in which both the buyer and the seller get to "rate" each other, they have fostered a place where it is safe to buy and sell almost anything.

2.  Their website is designed to be easy to use.  There is a great deal of information on the site, but it is well-organized, and somehow manages to avoid looking too busy.  They have navigation menus at the top of the screen.  When you are shopping for items, there are tabs on the left side of the screen to help you narrow down your search.

3.  What makes me come back is that it is very easy to go through the sales process, and just as easy on the buying side.  Their "help and contact" link works really well.  I have used this link several times.  What I like best is that if their pre-printed language doesn't help, I can get help from the Ebay community.  I can also click on a link to have one of their customer service agents call me.  I have used this service 3 times.  Each time, the agent called me within 2 minutes!  They were able to help me to my satisfaction each time.

4.  I'm not sure what I would like them to improve.  The great thing about EBay is that they are constantly changing and improving their service!  I have been using it since about 2009, and a great deal has changed.  I do not see any social media widgets on the site.  I had to google to find Ebay's facebook page.  The page has over 9 M likes.  The posts are frequent and most posts have likes and replies.


The next website I use frequently is:

www.nespresso.com

I use this website to order coffee for our Nespresso machine.  

1.  The site is effective because it clearly establishes Nespresso's brand.  From the look of their site, I infer that Nespresso's products are very high quality and the coffee will bring more "luxury" to my life.  I compared the site to Miele's site and Keurig's site (two other espresso makers).  Neither of those brands conveyed as much "luxury" on their websites.  In fact, Miele, which sells very high end espresso makers, has a site that looks very similar to Home Depot's site (functional certainly, but not necessarily super high end).

2.  This website is designed much like the Apple website.  Like Apple, the background and text colors are black and white.  This color scheme makes their products look so beautiful.  The coffee is sold in jewel-tone pods and they look amazing against the background.  The website conveys a feeling of luxury.  The site is really busy, yet it manages to look very clean.

3.  What keeps me coming back is that I love their coffee.  I also like visiting their website.  The ordering process is very simple, and I like to click on the different color coffee pods.

4.  Nespresso includes their social media widgets on the website.  They placed them at the bottom of the home page.  I have noticed that many websites do this, and I'm not sure why.  It seems to me that they should be at the top of the page.

I commented on the following blogs: Gina Schwendel, Priscila Jourdan, Jordyn Getz and Charles Coogan.

Week 4, Post One

My blog post is later than I would have liked.  My son is on vacation from school this week, and we have been working on a building project...

Nick the Builder

So here goes the assignment:

1+2. Choose 2 websites and identify at least three potential problems for visitors. What could be improved and how would it help?

The first website I chose was the Stone Brewing website.  When I landed on the homepage, I was overwhelmed.  There were too many busy images for me to process.  I didn't find the navigation tools I was looking for such as:  Home, About Us, Contact, Visit Us, Shop etc.   The social media links were not on the landing page.

Since I am not familiar with this brewing company, I was expecting some kind of short introduction on the landing page.  I would have liked to see a few sentences saying who they are what kind of beer they brew.  Perhaps if the Logo was slightly smaller they could have included this information under it.  Alternatively, they could make the logo smaller and put it in the upper left hand corner.  This move would give them more room for a short introduction.  The landing page would look much cleaner if there were not images under the text tabs on the right hand margin!  The background image underneath the logo sets a GREAT atmosphere, why not just have textual tabs on the right margin.  Save the images for later pages.  The white text looks great on the background image, keep it simple.

When I clicked on the top right hand tab, I was taken to an image of the Escondido location.  On this page I found some familiar navigation tabs in the upper right hand corner.  Clicking on any of these tabs released a barrage of information, again, too much for me to process!  The Escondido page also had a down arrow tab, which again led me to too much information (three pages of it).  I had a hard time finding a "home" tab when I wanted it.

For me, this site was hard to navigate, and I felt like it was lacking an introduction.  The information was too jumbled.  They need better organization and decreased complexity.

The next website I chose was Headhunter Hairstyling.  When I landed on the homepage, I found it easy to navigate.  The tabs such as Home, About Us, Services, etc. were right there for me to find.  They probably should have put the social media links at the top of the page, rather than making me scroll down to find them.  I also would have like to know their city and state location right away on the landing page.

I didn't like the flashing pictures on the landing page.  Maybe they should save some of the images for other pages or for their FB page.  Maybe the problem is the timing.  I think they flashed through the pictures too quickly.  I liked the images themselves.  They conveyed luxury and pampering, perfect for a salon.

When I clicked between the Home, About Us, Services etc., I noticed that the pages were not consistent.  What I mean is, there was not a unified design theme that tied the pages together.  It looks like they used the same sans-serif font, but that was about all that was similar on the pages.  The colors weren't similar.  The page layouts were different.  I think this detracted from the "look" of the website.  I do not a clear sense of their brand.

3.  Choose 2 websites and identify what they have done right.

First, I chose the Apple website.  The color scheme of the landing page is black and white.  This color scheme really complements their products, and gives the page a very clean look.  This site uses scrolling pictures on the landing page, but for some reason, they aren't as distracting as the scrolling pictures on the Headhunter site.  I think it's the timing and the similarity of the pictures.

The landing page clearly establishes their brand.  This branding is consistent through all the pages.

The navigation tabs are along the top of the screen are very simple.  When I clicked on any of the tabs, I got just a little bit of information.  This sent me clicking for more information, instead of being overwhelmed with too much information.

Does Apple use social media?!  I couldn't find the links.

Next, I looked at the Toyota website.  The predominant color scheme is black, white and red.  It looks very simple and clean.   The site gives a clear product branding.  This website has a LOT of information, but it is well-organized.  Like the Apple website, there are navigation choices at the bottom of the pages as well as the top.  I can find what I need quickly and easily.


4.  How does design, aesthetics and branding impact your reaction to the websites?

Websites are a visual media.  When information is presented in a way that our eyes and brain can make sense of it we feel comfortable and we will spend longer looking at it.  The Apple and Toyota websites are both well-designed, as one would expect of these large, successful companies.  The images convey their brand and stimulate the consumer to want to purchase their products.

When a website design is not well-designed, it turns the consumer off.  The consumer feels confused and unless they are very motivated to stay on the page, they will click away.

Week 3 Second Post: Social Media In San Diego North County Real Estate

I chose to research real estate agents in North County San Diego.

1.  The Lawhead Team:  A husband and wife sales team

2. www.marilynlawhead.com

3. The website has links to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Linkedin.  They also have a blog on their website.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5. Blog: same actual posts as FB and Twitter, last post Feb.11
        Facebook: 300 followers.  The last post was Feb. 11, 2017.  They post frequently with personal    pictures, information about football, real estate articles.
        Twitter: they have 214 followers.  The posts are identical to the Facebook posts.  They post every few days.
        Linkedin: 500 connections.
        Youtube: they have a handful of videos.  Some are more personal such as fishing in Mexico, a sunset from vacation in Mexico.  Then there are a few videos of their home listings.

6. This team is on several social media sites, but the posts are the same.  I'm not sure why they don't do more videos of their home listings.  It might be because they sell so quickly!   Their Zillow profile has reviews.


1.  Laura Barry Luxury Estates

2. www.laurabarryluxuryestates.com

3. The website has a blog link, but no links to social media.  However, I found her on Facebook (300 followers), Youtube, Linkedin and Instagram, and Pinterest.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: last post was in May 2016.
         Facebook: last post was Sept. 2016.  She used to post her open house announcements, listings and awards received.
        Youtube: she posts videos of her listings through a channel called "California Rich", but does not have her own channel.
       Instagram: 280 followers, she posts pictures of her listings.
      Pinterest: she posts pictures of her listings, and pictures of beautiful interiors and properties
She appears to have been much more active on social media in the 2013-2015 timeframe.

6.  She seems most active on Youtube, her current listings all have videos.  It is strange that one has to go searching for her social media posts.  They are not linked to her web page.

1. Team Manion (Heather and Holly Manion)

2. www.teammanion.com

3.The website has a blog link.  The website also has links to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and Google+.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: last post was in January of 2016.
     Facebook:  The latest post was Feb. 11, and they appear to post every few days.
     Youtube:  They only have one video on their link, and it is from 2014.  They post their videos on Vimeo, but do not link them to their website.
    Twitter: Last post was in July 2016 and they have 696 followers.
    Google+: they had several posts from 2012-2016, but they haven't posted in about 8 months.

6. They seem to be the most active on Facebook.  They post their listings and open house announcements.  They also post about the real estate market in general and home tips.  Videos of their listings are on Vimeo, but there is no link from their website.

1. Janet Lawless Christ

2. www.ranchosantafe92067.com

3. The website has a blog link and links to Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Linkedin, and Google+.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: latest post Feb. 11, 2017.  Posts are about the local art scene, golf, local restaurants and some political posts.
         Facebook: last post Feb. 11, 2017.  600+ followers.  Posts about local real estate trends, open houses, restaurants, golf events, local businesses.
         Youtube: She posts videos of her listings, local news, local events
         Instagram: 4 followers, posts the same pictures as on her FB page and blog
         Linkedin: has a profile
         Google+: hasn't posted for 6 months, local interest topics

6.  She seems to be most active on Facebook and her blog.  She has videos of her listings posted on Vimeo, but there is no link from her website.

1. The Harwood Group

2. www.theharwoodgrp.com

3. The website has links to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter

4+5. There is no blog.
        Facebook:  They have 139 followers, the last post was in March 2016.  They posted their listings and open houses.
        Youtube: They post their listings
        Twitter: They have 283 followers, the last tweet was in March of 2016.
        Vimeo:  they post their listing videos on Vimeo, but there is no link from their website.

6.  This group has minimal social media presence.  The posts they do are strictly business related pictures and videos of their listings.

The real estate groups that I researched are all large, established real estate sales groups who have been doing business for 20+ years.  On my own, as a comparison, I should look at the social media usage of newer groups.  I was not that impressed with any of the groups social media presence.  When I thought about it though, a house is something that you do not buy that often.  You might be very interested in the housing market when you are looking for a house, but when the purchase is over, you settle back into daily life.  Real estate is not like buying clothing or even art.  Real estate is usually a large purchase made, at the most, every few years.   Maybe real estate doesn't lend itself well to social media.  Perhaps for real estate, the most effective use of social media has not been discovered yet.

In these five businesses, it appears that Facebook is the predominant social media site, although two of the businesses have not posted in 6 months or so.  The businesses had between 100-600 followers.  On any given post, it was very rare to see a comment.  The "likes" on any given post were 5 or less.  The posts that obtained likes and comments were those posts that were more personal in nature.  There must be some way to get followers more involved!  Even the Lawhead group who was disciplined about posting information relevant to home owners such as home maintenance, tax information and market information did not get comments or likes on these posts.

Youtube and Vimeo were popular sites for these real estate groups.  The content was typically a video of the home for sale, although some of the videos were more personal in nature.  The views on the videos ranged from single digits to over 1000 views for certain properties.  Logically, the more affordable properties had more views than the larger, multi-million dollar properties.  Short videos are a great way to advertise real estate.

Although not necessarily considered social media, the real estate websites such as Zillow.com, Realtor.com and Trulia.com had profiles and client reviews of each of the real estate agents in the above groups.  The profiles on these real estate websites have address, phone number, website link and social media links for the agents.  The agent's current listings were also listed on these sites.  These sites come up immediately when a property address is googled.  They have very high SEO.

Most of the real estate groups had Linkedin profiles which establishes the "business" aspect of the position.  A few groups had links to Instagram and Pinterest.  These sites were used to share pictures of the listings and did not seem to be very well-followed.  Some groups had a Twitter account.  Oftentimes, the same posts on FB were also placed on Twitter.

I am interested to read how the other businesses (researched by my classmates) are using social media.  The social media outlets for these high producing real estate groups seemed pretty quiet.  The agents might be putting out content, but the communication seems to be largely one-way.  From the dates of the posts, it looks like the real estate groups tried social media for a few years (2013-2016), but have now given up.  As I reflect on this, maybe I can think of a more creative way to engage the customer.

This week I commented on the following blogs:  Gina Schwendel, Priscila Jourdan and Nicole Blea.

Week 3 Part One: Just stop talking SiriusXM

I've been putting off writing this blog post because I couldn't remember a recent time that I had difficulty communicating with a business.  I had no idea what I was going to write about, but luckily for me, this situation just fell into my lap today.

In December, my husband and I bought a new car.  It came with a free trial of SiriusXM radio.  If you aren't familiar with this service, it is a monthly subscription service that provides many music channels with very specific playlists.  To name a very few examples, they have a station that just plays '70's disco music, one that plays just Elvis' music or one that plays just classical.  They have a station for just about every musical whim, plus they have many "talk radio" stations.  The best part is that there are no commercial interruptions.  The company's goal is that after the free trial, the customer will purchase the monthly subscription.  There is no question that is a great product.

My issue is that the trial is almost over and I have been receiving calls from SiriusXM.  The caller says hello, and then rapidly launches into reading a script.  It is a long script with no pauses for my feedback or questions that I might have.  The first two times they called, I tried to be polite.  I listened.  The script went on and on.  The more they talked, the more I thought that I did not want to have anything to do with this company.   Finally, I just had to say "I'm not interested, thank you".  This morning when they called, I just hung up immediately.

I do not like hanging up on someone, and it got me thinking about how the caller could be more effective. I think if they just called and tried to actually have a genuine conversation with the client they might get more conversions.  Asking the client which station they liked the best, and listening to the client might be more effective than the script.  The reading assignment this week talked about the importance of listening to customers.  I think the marketing department at SiriusXM could benefit from reading that chapter.

I posted on Facebook about the ineffectiveness of these scripted calls.  If anything comes of it, I will add it to my blog.

So far I have commented on the blogs of Michael Phillips, Davina Croft and Terence Williams.  I really enjoyed learning their perspectives on personal vs. business social media.  Its great to hear that some are already using social media to promote business.  I'm looking forward to learning more from the others in my group.

Week 2, Post 1: Overview of Social Media

The evolution (or revolution) of social media seems to be blurring the line between business and personal communications.   The use of social media sites is constantly changing as people find creative methods to get their message to other social media users.  Certain sites may have initially been used for personal communications, but over time have changed to accommodate business uses as well.

Certain social media platforms seem to be more geared toward personal use.  I perceive that social media sites such as Snapchat and Instagram are more personal in nature.  I do not have much experience with these sites, but from what I understand they are used primarily for personal communication.  My teenage son uses these sites with his friends.

Facebook and Youtube certainly began as personal use sites, but over the years have become very important for business as well.  On Youtube, specific personal sites have become businesses themselves gaining many followers and advertising dollars.  Many retailers use Youtube as a way to provide the consumer with product demonstrations.  They also pay non-company youtube users to make short recordings about their products.  In my field, I know that real estate agents advertise videos of their listings on Youtube.    Facebook began as a personal site, but now most every business has a Facebook page.  Twitter is another site that blurs the line between business and personal use.  I  initially heard of Twitter being used for celebrities to communicate to their fans.  It was referred to in joking way that posting on Twitter was called "Tweeting".  This joking implied that the site wasn't to be taken seriously.  Nowadays, it is somewhat more of a serious, business-like site as evidenced by the fact that both the current and the former Presidents of the United States have used it to communicate with the people.

LinkenIn seems to be a social media site that remains almost exclusively business oriented.  I have an account, but I have never used it.  I believe it is exclusively for business contacts.  Google+ might also be more business oriented.  I have an account on the site because I was invited by a real estate agent, but I haven't used the site.

Blog Comment List

I commented on these blogs:

Nicole Blea
Marcela Valdez
Michael Phillips
Terrell Jones
Katie Cavenee
Davina Croft
Jordyn Getz
Priscila Jourdan
Sonya McArthur

All the blogs are so unique, I really enjoyed them!

Week 1A: Template

This is my very first blog post EVER, so here it goes!

After browsing through the available blog templates, I decided to completely customize my blog.  I take a lot of pictures, and so I decided to use one of them as my background.  This is a picture I took while hiking the trails near my house.  I intend to work as a real estate agent at some point, so I thought my future blog template should have some association with the area that I will work in.  I think this picture expresses the natural beauty of the area.  I especially like the look of the purple flowers scattered on the street.  You might need to scroll down to see those.

The font I chose for the blog is called Nobile.  I chose it because I thought that it was the most readable font to use for screen reading.  It is a sans serif font that looks very clean.  I chose Philosopher for my title font.  The title is so large there is no question about readability, so I could use a serif font to contrast with the Nobile.  I chose a very large font size for the blog text, again, for readability.  For the blog text font color, I chose a very dark red.  It looked better than using true black.

For the background color behind the text, I used violet to coordinate with the purple flowers.  While I was developing my template, I tried several different background colors.  I could not find one that I liked as well as the violet.  However, I'm not sure the violet looks professional enough.  I'm open to suggestions on background color if anyone would like to comment.

Overall, I like the way the blog looks on the computer screen.  I don't think the mobile version is as good.  I attempted to improve it without much success.  I'm hoping that as we all discuss the templates, I will find a way to improve the mobile version.

I'll close for now...