Hootsuite

In my last three Social Media Marketing blogs, I talked about three different social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In this blog post I am going to move on from social media sites and talk about Hootsuite. Some of you may not be aware of what Hootsuite is and how it can help you. So in this blog post I am going to describe what Hootsuite is, and tell you how you can use it to help you manage social media sites.

Hootsuite is a social media management site that was created in 2008 by Ryan Holmes. It was created to be a system that would provide assistance with brand management by allowing someone to to develop and post content to multiple social networks. I would suggest creating at least two or three social media accounts to post to. Once you create them, I would suggest connecting them to Hootsuite. Connecting the social media sites to Hootsuite will make it easy for you to post content on multiple networks. It will save you the time and hassle of having to post the same exact content separately on each social media site. Anything that makes it easier and/or less hassle, to develop and post content it is a good thing.

Understanding Hootsuite
To fully understand the kind of things you will be able to do in Hootsuite, I suggest taking a look at www.hootsuite.com. The menus at the the top of the Hootsuite homepage are: Products, Solutions, Plans, Services, Resources, and About Us. I would first suggest looking at the "About Us" page to get familiar with the site and understand how everything works on it. Once you gain a brief understanding of it, I would then suggest taking a look at "Plans", and "Pricing". It will show you the plans they have and how much they cost. These pages will also show that there is a free version, and there is "social listening", which will help you get a sense of what people are saying about you on any of your social media sites. In my next Social Media Marketing blog post, I will further talk about the benefits of Hootsuite, and I will also tell you how you can create and configure your own Hootsuite account.

CTA's and Landing Pages

 

CTA's


In this blog post, I am going to first talk about the importance of CTA's. If you are unaware, CTA stands for "call to action" which is a link that is added to a page to encourage some type of action such as link to sign up for a store's e-mail list that sends special offers and coupons. CTA's are often found on websites, emails and blogs, however the call to action button should be placed at different spots. If you are adding a call to action button on a website or e-mail, it can be placed anywhere where it is not distracting to the user on the website or e-mail, but can still catch their attention. If you are adding a call to action onto a blog, it should be placed at the end of the blog post, or on the side bar. You can measure a call to action button by looking at the click rate. A good click through rate goal to aim for a CTA would be be 1-2%, and a good click-to-submission goal to aim for would be about 10%. Whether you are getting good or bad results, it is still important to make some type of change and analyze the results. You will want to know what is working and what is not. The next step in the conversion process is the landing page!


Landing Page

Creating CTA's that are attractive is important, but in order to successfully generate leads it is also just as important to create an attractive landing page. A landing page is the page that you will reach if you click on a call to action link or button. It is the first thing that someone will see once they click the link. There are two types of landing pages: click through landing pages, and lead generation landing pages. Click through landing pages are focused on persuading the customer to click through to another page. An example of this type of landing page would be a product description. The main goal of click through landing pages is to push a visitor closer to a purchase decision. A lead generation landing page is used to gain user data such as a name or an e-mail address. The main goal of a lead generation landing page is to collect one's information so that it can be used for the company to market to the person at another time. An example of this would be an e-mail list. Once you have created an attractive landing page, the last step is a simple thank you page. The conversion process will now be complete as follows: call to action, landing page, and thank you page.

LinkedIn

In my prior two blog posts, I talked about Facebook and Twitter, and discussed how they can help a business advertise and market to possible customers. In this blog I am going to talk about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is another social media site but it is much different compared to Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is a site that college students and professionals use to connect with each other. Facebook and Twitter are different because they are more for sharing pictures or posts with friends. LinkedIn is used to build one's brand image to impress possible job recruiters. It is even described by some to be the new resume. If you get involved  and establish a presence on LinkedIn it can help your career and/or organization.

Understanding LinkedIn

Like Facebook and Twitter, the best way to fully understand LinkedIn is to get on it and use it regularly. If you currently do not have a LinkedIn account, I would definitely suggest creating one. LinkedIn will allow you to connect to people that can help you with a project, job, etc. Your goal on LinkedIn should be to connect to as many people possible so that you can grow your network. It will  much more powerful than Facebook or Twitter will be. My suggestion is to get on LinkedIn, and spend time on it each day so you can start building your network!

Creating a LinkedIn Page is different than creating a website, a Facebook, or Twitter. If it is a personal or corporate account it is important that you make it official. So, to get started with making a LinkedIn page, go to www.linkedin.com. If will require you to add your personal information, password, and e-mail address. After you have added all of your information, it will require you to go to your e-mail and confirm your account. Once you click confirm, you account will be ready to go! You will be able to make posts, add information about yourself or company, and of course, connect with other people. If it is a company that your are making one for, you may also want to consider making ads. LinkedIn has a few different options that will allow your company to target customer your ideal customers.


If you are interested in building your own LinkedIn presence, please consider visiting the following sites.
jobsearch.about.com/od/linkedin

www.powerformula.net/free-resources-for-learning-linkedin/

Buyer Personas of an Example Sporting Goods Company

In my last SEO blog post, I talked about what a buyer persona is, and talked about the three stages a buyer may go through. The three stages were: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. In this blog, I am going to talk about the article that I wrote about for the website of the product I created last semester for a Promotional Strategy class.

The product that I created was a pair of heat activated wide receiver football gloves. The website that I created for the product can be accessed in the following link: http://erubel.wix.com/scorchers. The three personas that I decided to target based on a Hubspot example worksheet, were demographic information, what a day in the life of a person in the selected target market looks like, and where these people go for information. Some of the demographics of the target market that were important were age, gender, and geographic location. An average weekday in the lives of teenage boys who play football would be going to school, practice, and then going home and doing homework, possibly having some time to relax, and then going to bed. These boys are from the younger generation so they are most likely tech savvy. With that being said, these boys most likely use their phones often and search for information on their phones, laptops, or tablets.

Below is an example of what someone may be searching for in each stage, and how Scorchers(brand name I created) would create information that would be attractive to them.

Awareness Stage

The persona is high school football players who buy football wide receiver gloves.  This person is expressing how they need help catching the football and are unsure what can help.  The audience skill level is intermediate with the keyword being catching but football gloves most likely will be mentioned.  The buyer’s journey stage is at the awareness stage.  I would choose to post, and the format would be a video with a how-to content structure.  The video would contain the brand logo and demonstrate that Scorchers can be a solution to a player who may be having trouble catching the football.  The grip on the gloves is sticky and will make it much easier to catch the ball.  The unique feature of the heat being activated when it gets cold outside will also still be mentioned because it’s what makes the product different.  The title of this would be “Need gloves that can help you perform and keep warm? Scorchers’ has you covered!” 

Consideration Stage

The persona in this stage could be that the person knows that he wants football gloves to help him catch the football on the field, but he does not know which brands are the best.  The audience skill level is advanced and they are in the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey stage.  The topic/keyword is football glove brands that are the best for catching.  This person is most concerned about the performance of the football gloves.  This will be a blog post, and the format will be a demo video of Scorcher’s athlete endorsement Antonio Brown.  Teenage kids most often look up to athletes and like to wear gear that they are wearing.  The goal of the video will be to show Antonio Brown catching the ball and the voice in the video will be emphasizing the comfort and grip of the gloves and emphasize how much the gloves can increase the viewer’s performance.  The content structure as mentioned above is the best of Scorchers.  The content title will be: “Antonio Brown shows how Scorchers’ football receiver gloves can improve your receiver catching skills.”

Decision Stage

The persona in this stage will be that the buyer knows a select number of brands of gloves he wants, but is hoping that one of them is offering a special deal or has a coupon.  The audience skill level is advanced and the buyer’s journey stage is the decision stage.  The topic/keyword that this person will type in is football glove coupons or football glove special deals.  This will be an offer instead of a blog post and the format of it will be a purchasing guide and the content structure is product focused.  The buyer knows what product he wants so this offer will be attached to the product image itself.  The content title will be “Scorchers’ 10% first pair of football receiver gloves.

Twitter

In this blog, I am going to be talking about Twitter. Twitter is a social media site that is similar to Facebook, but also very different. I will discussing the steps to make a Twitter account, and what it offers that could be valuable to a business or an organization. There is no right or wrong about using Twitter, but the most important question for a business should be: What audience do I want to address, and is this audience on Twitter?

Overview of Twitter
If you are are unaware of what Twitter is, or how it works, I would suggest talking a look at the following link: www.twitter.com/reuters. It is an example of a common use of Twitter. To give you some more information about Twitter, I will state some facts about it and how it works in a bullet point format.

• Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters-this means that the post is a very concise comment, possibly with a link or a picture attached.
• If you want to mention an account in a tweet you must use the @ symbol and then scan twitter for whatever account it is that you want to tweet at. The @ symbol is the way of letting someone know about something.
• Something very common on twitter that you may have heard before is a hashtag. A # is another "tag" you would use, if your post is involving someone or something. An example would be be if you were talking about a play that happened in the Super Bowl, you would follow the comment with a #SuperBowl.
• There are many companies and brands that have an active Twitter page to tweet information, or advertise to their target market. There are also many celebrities who have a Twitter account.
• If you need more help or are still confused about how Twitter works, visit https://support.twitter.com/categories/281 .

How to Create a Twitter Account
Now that I have went over the basics of Twitter, it is time to get ready to create a Twitter Account! First, go to Twitter, and start entering your name, your email, and a password. It will then direct you to a screen where you can choose a username, which can be whatever you would like. Once you have picked the username, click create my account. It will then send you to a page that shows you how things work. If you want to learn more about Twitter go ahead and read each page, otherwise you may keep clicking the "next" button until it suggests people to "follow". If you see people or brands that you want to follow, click follow and you will see all of the tweets they make. Lastly, go to your e-mail and once you confirm your e-mail address and your account. Congratulations you have created your own Twitter page!


ROI and Strategy
Just like Facebook, Twitter offers advertising. You can also include promotions, coupons, and special offers in a tweet. But again, the most important part of advertising or promoting on Twitter is including a link that will allow you to see how many people came to the company website from Twitter, and how many people purchased something. A large amount of people spend time on Twitter, and the majority of these people are of a younger demographic, and are tech savvy. They likely have the Twitter app on their cell phone and are most likely checking their Twitter feed a few times per day. So although advertising on Twitter may sound like a great idea, it is important to make sure that a large portion of the target market uses Twitter.   If you need more help with advertising on Twitter, I suggest clicking on the following link: https://business.twitter.com/marketing-twitter

Buyer Personas

A buyer persona is described to be is a "semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers". On Hubspot, there is a worksheet that can help someone develop buyer personas. Hubsport describes buyer personas to be a crucial component of successful inbound marketing. The marketing team needs to know who the target market is and the selling team also needs to know it is to be successful. Some examples on the worksheet on Hubspot are: "what is their demographic information?", "where do they go for information?", and "what does a day in their life look like?". When thinking about your buyer personas, it is important to remember that there are three different buyer's journey stages. The three stages are awareness, consideration, and decision. Below, I will go into detail about what happens at each stage.

Awareness Stage: In the awareness stage, buyers are unaware of their problems or solutions. They are looking for information that will give them insight on finding a solution to their problem. The types of content that are often made to attract to people in this stage are research reports, eBooks, editorial content, expert content, and educational content. An example of an undefined problem in this stage is shown in the picture below.

Consideration Stage: In the consideration stage, buyers have defined what the problem actually is. In this stage, they will be researching approaches or methods that will possibly solve this problem. The types of content that are often made to attract people in this stage are expert guides, live interactions, webcasts, podcasts, and videos. An example of someone with a defined problem who is interested in finding options that will help solve their problem is shown in the picture below.

Decision Stage: In the decision stage, buyers have now decided on their solution method or strategy. They also most likely have a list of brands or products that will solve their problem for them. The types of content that are often made to attract people in this stage are vendor comparisons, product comparisons, trial downloads, and live demos. An example of a person going through their options to solve their problem is shown in the picture below.

I will attach the buyer persona developing worksheet, and content concepting worksheet that are on hubspot.net


http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/137828/file-17623295-pdf/product%20classes/buyer%20personas/developing-personas.pdf?t=1455127601637

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/137828/file-799282870-pdf/HubSpot_Concepting_worksheet_editable.pdf?t=1455127601637

Facebook Pages

The main focus of this chapter is to introduce the concept of Facebook, and walking through the steps of creating one. In this blog, I will talk about what a Facebook is, the pros and cons of using it, and how to create one. If you are in the marketing side of a business and your company is interested in developing a presence on social media, Facebook could be a good place to start. Facebook will be the first of many social media platforms mentioned in my Social Media Marketing blogs.

What is a Facebook Page?
A Facebook page is a great way to establish a social media presence for your business. It is like creating a company website but within the Facebook format. On Facebook, you can post text, pictures, videos, etc., to communicate whatever it is you want to your potential customers. Customers will be able to see all of your posts if they click the like page button for your company's page. If they like your page they will also be able to interact with you by commenting on posts. Facebook pages also include web addresses which you can take advantage of to promote or advertise. An example of this is Matrix's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheMatrixMovie. Lastly, when you access a Facebook page, you will see a profile photo and a cover photo. You should add a picture of a company logo or a picture of a product that the company sells so customers can easily identify that it is your company.

Creating a Facebook Page
Creating a Facebook page can be fairly easy. Go to www.facebook.com/pages/create. There are a variety of page types that they offer for you to create, for example, click on company type, and then choose a category. After you have a chosen a category, it will give you an option to type in the name for the business and then you will click get started. Next, you will be led through a series of screens where you will be able to enter some basic information for your business. The titles of the four screens are About, Profile Picture, Add to Favorites, and Reach More People. The Reach More People screen will be important because it will allow you to promote your page with an ad to get more people to like it. Once you have gone through all these screens, you have officially made a Facebook page!

If you need more help in creating a Facebook page for your business, visit Facebook.com, or you can read the rest of chapter 3 of CASA Marketing: Intro to Social Media Marketing.

Skillbox-Content

In this blog, I am going to be talking about content related to social media and tools you can use to do it yourself. I'll briefly summarize what you'll want to try when working with social media. The overall goal of the chapter is to introduce concepts and tools that are worth trying so that you can have some material to work with when looking at social media channels later in the chapter.

Curation vs. Creation vs. Collaboration 

The general approach recommended by the author with content is to think about these three areas.

1. Curation- When you curate content, you are finding it, sharing it, reviewing it, and commenting on it. Even if you are not creative, you can still go out and find content that is interest or relevant for a company you are working for. This would be a good way to get started. An example of this would be to find a YouTube video that relate to a particular topic and then link it or embed it to your blog post. Then, I would suggest posting your blog on social media to try to generate some traffic and awareness.
2. Creation- In the book, this is what is said to be the most fun. It will take time, but it will alos most likely result in the highest quality. Writing a blog post or posting a video on social media can be the best kind of content to share on social media because it is more unique. The kind of content you create is going to depend on the company, but you should also ask yourself who the audience is and figure out what they would most likely be interested in. Even though you are not a social media expert, it can be helpful to try to develop some basic content. You should also ask others to review your writing and videos. Overall, you should focus on what you do best.
3. Collaboration- This one is described to be the most helpful for independent business owners, and students. It can help you possibly save money, and find people you can work with. An example given is the book is that you can find someone who is a writer, offer to co-write content or do some research, so you can still get the benefit of writing skills, or their reputation. So, if you aren't confident in some of your abilities, or can't afford to hire anyone, you should be able to find people who are looking to collaborate, even if it's only a learning experience.

Starting a Blog

There are plenty of platforms available for blogging, but I would suggest blogger.com because it is the easiest to use. If you are really interested in developing social media marketing as a skill, it would be smart to create a blog and set a goal of posting on it at least once a month. All you need to do is choose a topic or tool that you are learning about, or interested in learning about, do some research, and get in a habit of developing ongoing posts. Even if you already have a blog, it would still be smart to create one in blogger because it will allow you to learn some new tools. It can also help you help a client create a blog and get them familiar with the different tools that offered on blogger.com. You can get started by visiting blogger.com and signing in with your Google Account, or you can click the "create an account" link at the bottom.

If you are interested on learning more from this chapter, you can purchase this book on Amazon. (link below)

http://www.amazon.com/CASA-Marketing-Intro-Social-Media-ebook/dp/B0103LB4HS

Reflection on Sports Fundriaising

In this post, I am going to talk an article that I recently wrote. The article I wrote was about sports fundraising. The website mentioned why people need to do fundraising for sports and what type of products are attractive to people for fundraising. Some of the products they mentioned were chocolate bars, lollipops, cookie dough, and pizza. All are great ideas that people would be willing to buy to help a kid with a fundraiser. In the article, I also talked about my experience in sports fundraising and I mentioned how I sold candy bars when I played park district baseball. I felt that giving a personal experience would better attract the attention of the readers and help support sports fundraising because of the great experience I had with it. Another idea I mentioned that would help generate money for a sports team was a fundraising event such as a golf outing. Below, I have attached a link to my article if you are interested.








http://www.rgbexchange.org/nonprofits/fundraising/fundraising-sports






Although sports fundraising is cool to learn about, the purpose of writing the article was to post it on rgbexchange.org to improve it's search rank. The website is for "non-profit organizations to leverage market dynamics and help people channel resources to where they are most effectively used". As a class, we are using this website to help understand SEO. Below, I have attached two pictures.  The first one is a picture of my posting of my article on my LinkedIn account. I posted the article on LinkedIn to allow other people to see the article and visit the website. The bottom picture is a screenshot of the SEO rank checker. The screenshot shows the rgbexchance.org search rank results. The website has not ranked any higher than it did when I last posted a screenshot of the rank checker. However, the hope is to get the website towards the top of search results whenever people type in the word fundraising. We hope to do this by writing articles related to fundraising that people may be interested.