Here is my final reflection on lessons learned and why take MKT 146

FINAL BRANDING REVIEW-AMY BLUME

Attached is my final branding review, I enjoyed this class very much but really had a hard time gaining followers and making my business take off due to my own time constraints of my ever so busy life.  I have learned that I absolutely love creating things, and while I will never make it a full time business I may decide to spend a little more time on it as an outlet/hobby for myself.  If I could go back and tell myself something at the start of this class it would be just that.  I think that I would feel a little happier having even more followers than obtained had I cut out some time to make items and putting them on social media.

CLIENT PROJECT

Attached is my client project.

One reflection that I had during this semester is that social media advertising isn’t just about posting things, but being strategic in those posts.  Learning times, posts, additional platforms, who your target audience is and how to reach them, etc.

I think that this tool is very beneficial, while I haven’t given it all the attention that it deserves I really feel that I will use it and as I understand it more and more, I am hoping to utilize it to it’s full potential.  I think that it would be great to do everything from one location and that it would definitely save time.

HOOTSUITE PLATFORM CERTIFICATION

I really enjoyed this entire class.  I feel that I learned a lot throughout, I really liked learning about the different social media platforms which were things that I hadn’t used in the past.  I enjoyed learning additional things about Facebook and how to increase my sales through proper marketing.

• Social Media Marketing Certification

The ads that target me the most on my social media are honestly shopping ads and book ads, I normally get the ones that if you click them they take me directly to their Facebook site.  The ads are effective because I start looking at them and want more information about an item on the ad and it automatically takes me to the site instead of just giving me the information for that one item.  Companies track success by the number of times those links are clicked.

Part 2: The campaign objective for this campaign is to receive more sales, we are working on getting attention and traffic to the social media accounts.  We are targeting anyone that is looking for something different when it comes to gift giving.  For a budget on this we are expecting to spend $100 at first through Facebook and receive a reach of almost 10,000 people with 20 people clicking on the business page link.

Today we are discussing the differences in crafting vinyl’s.  Did you know that there are multiple vinyl’s, not just brands but also vinyl type.  Today I am going to talk about the top 3 vinyl types, which are the ones that are asked about the most on the craft groups I am in.

Vinyl #1–Permanent vinyl–you use this on crafts where you don’t want to remove the vinyl.  There are various types of permanent, but this is for something that you want the vinyl to actually stay on for a long time.  Sometimes you would still need to put a clear coat over the vinyl especially if you are leaving this item outside.

Vinyl#2–Removable Vinyl—I don’t actually use removable vinyl very often however you could use it for indoor projects and as a stencil.  I love doing stenciled welcome mats and this is good for that, however to save money lots of people use press and seal for their stencils.

Vinyl #3–HTV–This is heat transfer vinyl also called iron on.  Now with this vinyl you normally have to mirror your creation so that when you iron it on it’s correct on your shirt/item.  The really cool thing about iron on vinyl is that you can actually iron it on wood, glass and other non-clothing items.  This is probably my favorite vinyl type since it is versatile.

Keep in mind that vinyl is not cheap and the more types that you have the more you have to keep straight and organized.  The rolls of vinyl at most craft stores can range $15 and up a roll, and the rolls are not very long at all, so finding vinyl that you would like to use on multiple projects is a good idea.

Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content Calendar

Attached is my content calendar, I actually did mine by week instead of day because for my client that works better, it is very difficult for a boutique personalized items company to post new things daily.  My suggestion to my client is that they schedule the posts twice a week, based on the theme of that week and possibly on the Launch item.  I also think some quick fun videos with music of making the items, but not a tutorial where someone could make the items themselves, would be a fun interaction.  If there is something else created that week that doesn’t fit that theme they are more than welcome to post about it or leave it for the week of miscellaneous items.  During the holidays most of the time they will be premiering and talking about or having videos of Christmas items since that is normally a large personalized item sales time. During the holidays  give little hints of the clients favorite Christmas movie and ask people to guess, winner would get prize.

During the Facebook Share drive, ask followers to Share your links, and for every time they share a link, they would receive their name in a drawing for a free item of their choice, up to a certain value.

At no point does my client put the amount an item costs on social media, this is due in part because since things are personalized everything is a different price based on supplies used, and this also makes the possible customer have to reach out to get pricing and start a conversation with my client.  While the ultimate result is to sell items at no time on social media does my client push sales, they will push deadlines for items/holidays and certain specials but it won’t be where “I just need one more sale to finish my month strong,” type of content.

So this week we are discussing strategies for our businesses, and one thing that I thought about that I missed was actually posting on all of my social media platforms.  I made a new item this week, became all excited about it and only posted it on Facebook because that is all I had in the past.  Then I get on to do this assignment and realize that I didn’t post on Instagram or Twitter!!

So part of my social media strategy would be to make sure that you are posting across all media.  My second strategy that I got from one of the articles is use hashtags, the article said 9 hashtags get the most engagement (that’s a lot of hashtags!), another thing that the article said was make your pictures interesting.  My daughter tells me this all of the time when I post something that I have created because I just post it and don’t think about the picture and what I want it to look like, this week when I posted the new item she actually told me to use a specific background and if I wasn’t comfortable with taking the picture, she would take it for me LOL.  I would also need to remember to come up with catchy phrases or interesting tag lines to get peoples attention.  The other thing would be post when people are looking through social media, mid day during the work week probably won’t get my posts seen.

As for analytics  I think that followers is the easiest way to gauge if your brand is growing.  With Facebook I tend to look more at engagement rather than followers, however I am up to 105 followers which is awesome. Twitter and Instagram I think that I would look more at followers, knowing that I started these from scratch for this class I can’t expect the followers to be as large however I do have 5 followers on Instagram and 2 on Twitter.  I think that one way maybe to get more followers across the other platforms would be to post on Facebook that I have the other social media accounts, letting people know where they can go to follow me.

I think that these tracking goals and this strategy would honestly work for any demographic that someone is working with, it is just putting it into effect and staying on top of it.

The social community I chose to profile is Pink Charming Boutique–https://www.facebook.com/groups/pinkcharmingVIP/

She has two in person stores and over 3K members on her Facebook page, she keeps her Facebook audience engaged and yesterday even played “Deal or No Deal” on her page for items that she had very few of left.  She said the normal retail price and if you liked it and wanted it you counter offered.  It was actually a very inventive way to get rid of that excess merchandise without having to take up valuable store space with a clearance rack.  I think that the biggest thing she does within the social community is post multiple times per day, I think that between this and word of mouth from friends, family and customers she has gained  a truly great following, I don’t know what I would do if my business ever got to 3K members.  As for tactics maybe making herself available on additional social media outlets.

I would apply this awareness to my client strategy by suggesting that they post more, which is the thing that I have struggled with the most, because when it comes to posts I have to have new items to post and I don’t make new items daily.  I honestly need to figure out how to get more people excited about the brand without having to make new items continuously that may or may not be liked/bought.