Earlier this week I had the chance to meet up with the owner of the media accounts I have been running throughout the course of this semester. I was able to present my client project, as well as discuss the growth and changes that took place due to the new systems I implemented. We then went over what she liked, what she didn’t like, and what we were hoping to use in the future. My client really liked the content calendar I had created. She explained that it was an easy way for her to see the activity that would be happening on her accounts in an easy way. We both agreed that we had hoped to see a more interactive community in the comments, and that will be our main goal moving forward. She told me that she liked the images I had produced for her accounts, and hoped I would continue to help her out in the future. I learned that it is really important to communicate with the client, as well as explain in full detail what will be posted on their accounts and how it will help their brand. I think if I were to have done something different, it would have been to set up a weekly phone, or in person meeting with my client. Most of our conversations took place over text, and often times important information was misunderstood. One of the things we agreed worked best were the flyers/adds that were made to promote her account. I was able to make another mockup add that I have included below. This add shows her profile names on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in a simplified way. It also has an image of one of her models which shows off the work she has done in the past and includes her booking number.
During this past semester, I have had the opportunity to develop my personal brand and online presence. Social Media is an easy way for future employers, or customers to view the people they are interacting with. Because of this, having a professional and interesting media presence is very important. Establishing my brand throughout this course was often difficult, but very rewarding in the process. I was able to learn the importance of an easy to find brand name, as well as using social media to connect with people all over. I learned about a social media outlet useful for job searches, LinkedIn and was able to curate the accounts on other platforms that I currently had.
The first task I dove into was making sure my Instagram profile looked professional, as well as demonstrate my talents in marketing for companies. To do this I changed up my bio to how where I was located and included the link to the profiles of the business account I am currently managing. I then also changed my profile image to a more recent photo. I discovered the importance of having consistent hashtags created specifically for your brand and related to the post. This helps new people discover your profile, and with the Instagram algorithm, I noticed the hashtagged photos received more actions than those without. For example, I used the trending hashtag “Thanksgiving” and “Black Friday” on a photo and it received more likes and comments than the one I posted without. During one of the Hootsuite lessons, they briefly talked about the benefits of setting up an Instagram profile as a business account. I did this and discovered easy ways to curate my feed. The setting revealed that I have more actions on my posts if they are presented on Mondays and Saturdays, between 9-11pm. Another demographic it gave was the age bracket my account attracts. By learning this I was able to curate feed that targets that age best. My following grew from 545 to 700. I am really happy about the profession I was able to make. My strategy for the future is to receive more conversations on my feed. I would like to be talking more to my followers as well as hear from them. To do this, I plan on using the Instagram story aspect to create polls and questionnaires. I noticed that when I did this in the past I got a lot of informative responses based on what my followers enjoyed.
Twitter is a very popular media outlet. It is an easy way to get and receive tons of information, as well as connect with businesses and future employers that have similar interests. I have avoided Twitter in the past because I haven’t had a large interest in it. However, for this class, I set up an account, and have been amazed at the information I was able to learn. One thing I discovered was twitter is an easy and effective way to quickly give out information. I have found that Twitter is an easy way to reach out and connect with creators. Because I started fresh, at the beginning of this semester I had zero twitter followers, now I have 25. I know that’s not a large number but to me it’s a good start. As I go forward I am going to continue to follow accounts related to my industry, as well as tweet out information with topic related hashtags in order to reach that demographic.
Above are the before and after images of my account. There is a username change and that if because I wanted my username to match the one I had on Instagram, and because of a hack, I had to recreate my account.
Personally, I found Facebook one of the more difficult accounts to grow. During this process, my following only grew from 270 to 280, which isn’t much. After looking through my analytics, I discovered most of my following was older than the age group I had on my other accounts. Because of this, the posts on my Facebook performed less. So to change this I discovered the type of content that interested my following most by looking at the demographics on Facebook. I discovered my following prefers to see images related to my work. So with that information most of my future posts were related to the photography I do on the side. I noticed with this activity I received a larger reaction count plus more followers. This has been a great way to get my photography name out and I have received several paid shoots because of this.
(above is the before and after.) As I continue with Facebook, my plans are to stick with posting my work, post more frequently, and to engage more with my Facebook friends in the comments.
At the beginning of the semester, we did an assignment where we Googled our name to see what information was out about us online. When I originally searched my name the only thing that would show up as images of other people, and an article of a prison record for someone else that had my exact name. This time around, the first thing that pops up is my Instagram and Pinterest account link, and several photos of me.
Overall, during the course of this semester, I have been able to apply tactics like creating a content calendar, or posting schedule to grow my brand on multiple platforms. One of the most useful things I have learned was that using an app or website like Hootsuite, will really help in keeping multiple accounts organized, focused, and easier to manage. My plans moving forward are to continue creating my brand and establish an online presence that attracts a community of people that have a passion for creating.
During this past semester, I have had the opportunity to discover the many aspects of social media marketing. Though I have had some experience in this field, I have been able to deepen my knowledge in the details needed to run a successful media account. An important topic this course has taught me was the value of a content calendar. Being a procrastinator, planning ahead is not my favorite, but when it comes to media activity, it is very important. Throughout this course, I learned easy and effective ways to set up a detailed calendar that lays out the media plan for the month/months. Similar to that, I also learned the use of creating a strategy for my media accounts. This is an easy way to view things like posting goals, vision, audience, and understanding the strengths of your client’s media pages. One of the most important things about this industry was how detailed everything needs to be. Things like budgets, statistics, follower growth, etc. are important details that are required to understand in social media marketing. One thing I would like to improve on would be following my content calendar, and focusing more on what the followers react most to. To me, the most useful module was the last two because it went into depth on the In’s and outs of using Hootsuite. This is a really useful way to successfully moderate business accounts, but it is fairly complicated. I would thoroughly love to continue using the free version. However, I would rather not personally pay for it, but maybe in the future a company I work for will. For now, I will use it with my (now two) clients accounts as it is an easy way to prevent mixing up accounts. For the future, I would like to use the tactics and methods I have acquired through this past semester. I think I am more drawn to campaign designing and Instagram moderating. This course has been such a blessing in showing me the useful methods important to successful social media marketing.
Below is my set up on my Hootsuite Dashboard. I am still working on it, trying to find what set up works best for me.
And here is my Certificate!
Addison Horsley
Marketing 146
Professor Splide
November 18, 2018
Client Project
During the corse of this semester I have had the exciting privilege to work on the media accounts for a company while I was learning the different aspects to social media marketing. My client is a hair and makeup stylists located in the Kansas City area. and consists of doing the basic hair cuts, as well as makeup and styled hair looks for photoshoots and weddings.Though she does work at a salon, the clients she has and what she makes is entirely based off of the clientele she attracts, making the media posts and frequency crucial to getting her name out onto social media platforms. When I started managing her accounts, the average post amount was one post a month, receiving 12 to 18 likes, and occasionally a few comments. She had 98, and was following 122 different accounts, mainly other hairstylists in the area. The only platform my client was on, was Instagram. My original strategy was to create an active account on LinkedIn, where my client would be able to connect with other stylists in the area, as well as promote her business and establish her brand. The other idea I had I had hoped to use was to create a Twitter account where she could connect with current clients, as well as future consumers and establish a format where they could learn more about her brand. However, the client I was working with later voiced that she would rather only be active on Instagram, and occasionally Facebook. So my new strategy became to grow her brand name on Instagram by posting more frequently, growing the number of followers, and creating curated content related to her work. To do achieve this, I made several changes as well as added some new aspects to the media style she currently had. I sat with my client and discussed the ideas to make sure she was comfortable with these plans before I moved forward. The first change I made was her logo. I was hoping to create a minimalistic look and something that was easily definable. The first look we came up with the idea to have the “A” be a slanted line, making her name distinct. Below is the logo we created and used as her profile Image.
A few weeks ago I found a similar account that had a logo very similar to my clients. This led to the decision to change up the look a bit to keep originality. Below is the new image I was able to craft.
Another strategy I implemented for her Instagram was to change it to a business account. This helped me view the insight on the activity the account was receiving. Using these analytics I was able to view the average age and gender of her main audience, as well as when her followers were most active. After monitoring the activity, I noticed the traffic on the feed would grow when I would use Instagram’s Story feature to promote a new post. This led to me opening a Highlight reel where people could view the new posts that were mentioned in her Story’s. This grew the traffic to her actual page and led to a higher average in likes.
This was the most recent post when I took over, It has eleven likes.
This was one of the posts after I had made some media changes on her account. It has forty-two likes.
Because her original following was low, I used some basic tactics to inform people about her business account. The first thing was to have her post about her new business account onto her private Instagram page.
These were a couple of the posts I had her use. Another way I tried to grow her following was by following friends and family members that followed her personal pages. Both of these methods helped people recognize her account.
What I found very challenging thought this process was convincing my client of the benefits of having an active media profile. Because she wasn’t comfortable with most media outlets, the only one I had easy access to was Instagram. I would highly recommend leveraging the other popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for my client. I think those sites are very useful when starting a business. I also think that an easy way to continue growing her clientele would be to open and use a youtube channel. Youtube would be a fun and easy way to post tutorials and different hair and makeup look so people can see the amazing work she does.
I have learned so much throughout this entire semester about marketing and communicating. Though there were several challenges, I really enjoyed applying different methods I was taught throughout this course on my client’s account. I really hope to continue working with her and progressing her brand name.
I follow many small and large business accounts on my social media platforms. I have noticed after digging deeper in the logistics of advertisements, that I have noticed different types hoping up on my feeds. A clothing store I follow called “Madewell” has recently created an ad about the different types of denim jeans they sell and the deals they offer when you turn in your old jeans. I think the ad was very beneficial for this company by portraying what it offers, as well as boosting its credibility by recycling used denim. Another example of targeted advertising on my personal account was from vista print. The ad ran on Facebook, and had the “sponsored” tag under the accounts name. The ad listed its price for personalized business cards along with a discount promo code that was given after the user clicks on their link. Vista print used several creative photos giving examples of what the business cards could look like, making the ad interesting to view. I really felt like this type of advertising was useful in catching the eye of a viewer, and giving incentive to click on the link they had provided. Along with companies using their business accounts to promote ads on social media, I also see many Influencers I follow creating sponsored ads in unique ways that it’s almost not noticeable. They do this by taking a picture or video of the product/company that matches their current media theme, then explain how they use the product or why they love it. They also typically give a promo code for their followers to use to get a discount. This method targets a majority of the younger generation because most influencers are on Youtube or Instagram. And I believe the promo code helps the company figure out where their customers are coming from. From what I have learned this week, companies can track their ads by Facebook and Twitter business account metrics that track the ads, and show who it has targeted.
For my client, I created two mock advertisements based off of the clientele she is targeting. 
This ad is promoting the sale my client’s salon is having and shows an example of her work. This ad is targeting women and has a smaller budget of $50. This ad would be used on LInkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This ad was made specifically for Instagram, where you can post multiple photos at once creating a “swipe” option. The targeted audience is current clients, as well as future clientele. the ad explains the services the salon provides, their prices, and the hours they are available. Even though the ad was made for Instagram, I feel like it could still grab eyes on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Have you ever wanted longer lashes? Do you spend too much time shaping your eyebrows? We’ll you are in luck! As of this week, my salon has added several new services to our list! We are now providing semi-permanent eyelash extensions, as well as tinting. This service creates lushes lashes that highlight your beautiful eyes, as well saves money on mascara. The process takes about one hour and uses eye-safe adhesive glue, that will hold your new lash look for over two months. Along with the extensions, we also proved eyelash tinting. This process darkens your current lashes making them more noticeable. The tinting method lasts just as long as the extensions but does not add any length to your lashes. The other service we will be providing is eyebrow microblading. Eyebrows are often ignored, but they are one of the most important aspects of the face! That is why we have added this service to our salon. This method is often confused with eyebrow tattoo, but I am here to reassure that they are far from the same! Microblading is a safer way to define your brows, giving them a natural, modern look. Eyebrows are often ignored, but they are one of the most important aspects of the face! Similar to the lash extensions, micro-blading will last for two to three months. This method also costs less than tattooing and is a safer, less painful route. I am so excited about the new services and I. hope you are too! Our stylists are prepped and well trained to provide exactly what you want, and hope to see you soon!
Along with our new services, we also provide men’s cuts, women’s cuts, partial and full dye, full set, special occasion style, and full makeup look.
Facebook promotion:
Hey friends! I am so excited to finally launch our eyebrow and lashes services! Our stylists have been in full swing setting up our salon for this launch, and would love to have you! Click on the link below to find out more information on microblading and lash extensions!
Instagram promotion:
I know you have all been asking… and I’m here to Finally announce we will be providing eyelash extensions And eyebrow microblading to our service list!! YAY! We hope to see you at the salon this weekend to try out the methods! To learn more information, check out the link in my bio!
Twitter promotion:
The salon is adding mircoblading And eyelash extensions to the service list! If you want more information+booking options, check out the link in the bio!!
#hairbycher #newservicealert #linkinthebio #eyelash #eyebrow #newlook
This week was I was able to deeply study content marketing. I was able to find the value of this method, and how it can be beneficial for companies. Content marketing is using media content that represents important information and stays up to date with popular trends. This technique helps companies reach out to their current audience, as well as grow their community. Content marketing can be a range of videos, pictures, or even graphics that incorporates information about the company. It can also give an impactful impression on the audience, making it memorable. This past week I have seen several companies use content marketing to promote their new clothing line. The company is a boutique that often comes out with new releases throughout the week, instead of doing the usual Instagram story displaying the new line, they paired the clothing items with different Halloween accessories to promote their clothes, as well as give fun costume ideas. The brand designed fun content and even added a giveaway using several of the costumes. I also noticed a health food company using content marketing by providing information on their sites about the benefits of their products. They were able to give useful information, as well as make a good connection with their community. This method seemed to be successful because I was noticing a growth in their media following, as well as multiple retweets, which helped the store’s name get out even more. It also really helps to plant out the content marketing information, instead of doing media posts last minute. hairbychercalender -1p1vxd3
Above I have added the link to the content calendar I have made for my client.
After reading several articles on the topic of reaching and engaging a community online, I was able to formulate a strategy that I hope will help grow my clients current following. Currently, her most successful profile page is on Instagram. The page currently has 141 followers and gets about one to two comments per post. My goal for this account is to have about 300 following and more activity in the comment section. One of my strategies to accomplish this is to establish an “easy to stick to theme” My client and I have been testing out different colors and editing techniques for her posts, and I am hoping to figure out this week which one will work the best for the content we are creating. Another method I would like to implement for all of my client’s media accounts is to make a posting schedule based on when her followers are most active and then, of course, sticking to it. Doing this will get her name out more, as well as getting people used to when they can expect a post from her. A strategy that will work best for Instagram and Facebook is to post fun stories about her favorite products, as well as hair or makeup styles she is working on. I have noticed that I have posted stuff like this in the past people have commented how much they enjoyed it. Since Twitter isn’t her most visited page, I would like to change that. First I am hoping to get her new account out by promoting it on her business accounts on Facebook and Instagram, to let her current following know she is active on Twitter. Then, we plan on posting updates, availability, and photos on this page. To establish an engaging community I plan on retweeting posts from accounts similar to hers. These are several of my ideas that I am currently working on, and I can’t wait to see how they will help my clients brand name grow.
For this week’s blog, I searched a popular account similar to that of my clients. Here is what I observed about its community! The account I chose to profile was a new hairstylist account that has had very successful growth. After analyzing the account, I think the strong community this brand has, is from the genuine personality the owner has given out. The posts made are not all focused just on hair or makeup, it also has styling ideas, and even encouraging pictures that promote positivity. The posts are frequent, and up to date with what she is doing inside her brand. I noticed that there are a lot of interactive posts that involve the community to comment, repost, or promote, which has helped grow the community and keep the current community interested. I think that although her community is strong, I do find some things she should work on. The first would be to respond to the comments that are left on her posts. I noticed there were people asking questions and it comes off that the account owner was ignoring them. Another method that could help grow the community would be to do more styling tutorials. A lot of her current following were asking for “how to” videos, and I was only able to find one that the owner had made. This account is very similar to my clients, and I am excited to use some of the tactics I have found towards growing my client’s community. I think adding more than just hair post on my client’s media would be a useful method for encouraging the community, and promoting good vibes. I also think people enjoy following accounts that have a happy feel to it. Another growing tactic I hope to use is interactive media posts. Things like giveaways, contests, and pictures that can be reposted are a fun way to not only grow a social media community but also keep the current following active.
I desire to create inspiring content that anyone can enjoy
My social media strategy for LinkedIn would be to put out professional information that is updated frequently. I have not had an account on the website before, so I do not have a before image, but what I have on it now is the basic information about my job and a fairly new profile image. I have heard many different reviews about LinkedIn, so I am a little hesitant to put o
ut a large amount of information on it. Below is the current status on my LinkedIn account.
As for Facebook, my account has already been set to a business profile and is connected to the other accounts I am currently running. After running the Social Grader, I didn’t find anything I needed to change. Above I have the image of my Facebook.
After reading several different articles I have found that having an active twitter account is very important with growing a personal brand. I have had several twitter accounts but have never really used any of them. Because of this, I was unable to remember any of my log in information, I ended up creating a new account altogether to start fresh.
I am hoping to leverage this account as a fun easy way to connect with people, and see what they are interested in and create content based off of that.
