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.