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.