I chose a video on social media planning to watch and reflect on. I chose this particular video because I believe that in order to implement a successful social media strategy, you must plan ahead.

My takeaways from this video:

Understand your organization – This is crucial because you want to be informed about what is going on within the organization, and what goals the other departments are trying to meet. This enables you to share relevant news, upcoming events, and help your organization to reach its goals.

Understand the current trends – It’s important to understand what is trending so that you can be seen as a leader in the social media world. You do not want to come across as someone who is out-of-touch with the rest of the world.

Be willing to change – It’s important to constantly re-evaluate what is working for you and identify what isn’t working in order to be successful. View the analytics for each page and determine what needs to change in order to meet your goals.

Another semester-long project I worked on. This project focused on developing a personal brand online and provided me with several valuable lessons.

Katie Hough – Personal Branding Project-28tsqtc

 

Overall, I found this most of the lessons covered in this course to be interesting and something I can use moving forward. There are a couple that stood out from the rest, however.

Content Marketing:

Content marketing is fascinating because it focuses on more than just advertising for the business, it focuses on building loyalty with the audience. It’s important to build and maintain a loyal following on the various social media platforms. The best way to do that is to maintain interest and encourage engagement.

Personal Branding:

The lesson covered on personal branding prompted me to seriously consider how I want to be perceived by others, both personally and professionally. The lesson helped me to realize how important it is to begin preparing for the career I want now instead of waiting until I am almost finished with my degree.

Hootsuite Platform Certification:

One of the goals I set out to achieve this semester was to earn certification through Hootsuite’s social media platform manager. Becoming knowledgeable of how to navigate and effectively use this social media platform manager will enable me to efficiently compose and publish posts for multiple social media accounts at the same time all in one place.

I will happy to announce that I have obtained the Hootsuite Platform Certification

Using Hootsuite:

Moving forward, I can see myself using Hootsuite as a time-saving business tool when posting for businesses that I work for. Not only is it a great tool for composing and publishing posts to multiple social media profiles, but it also allows me to create reports for tracking insights on the posts that I make. Seeing which posts receive positive responses from my audience will help me to develop effective social media marketing strategies in the future.

My client project has come to a close. I have created a presentation about my learning experience.

MKT 146 – Client Project-1bi8dk5

Reflection: One thing I learned while working on this project is that it is important to post consistent content across all social media platforms so that your message is clear.

Another important lesson I learned is that planning ahead is a big part of implementing a successful social media strategy.

This campaign included photos of an outdoor lighting installation project that had been completed by my client, Amazing Lawn and Landscape, with a different caption for each social media platform.

Facebook:

 

Twitter:

 

LinkedIn: 

The objective of this campaign was to promote awareness of one of the many services that the business can provide, which is outdoor lighting installation.

The target audience consisted of homeowners living in the Kansas City, Missouri area, particularly the Brookside, Plaza, and Waldo neighborhoods. The ads targeted people with an annual household income of $100,000 – $250,000+, ages 30-65+, college graduate or higher. These demographics represent the average customer for the business: somebody who earns enough money to afford to hire somebody who can make their outdoor area look attractive.

Starting estimated budget is $5 per day on Facebook, $100 per day on Twitter, and $20 per day on LinkedIn. After launching the campaign and viewing the results, the budget for each platform could be adjusted accordingly based on which platform performs better.

• What type of social advertisements are targeted at you?

  The ads currently targeted at me on social media include clothing, home improvement/DIY, wedding planning, cats, healthy living, and beauty products.

• What makes these ads effective / not effective?

  What makes these ads effective is that they tend to cater to my own personal styles, preferences, and interests based on pages I follow, links I click on, articles I have read, and items I have browsed or purchased. If the ads display something I am interested in, I am much more likely to engage with the brand and click on the ad to look at whichever products, services, article, etc. that grabbed my attention.

• How can companies track the success of their social ads?

  A company can track the success of their ads by looking at their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). This can be tracked by looking at direct revenue, which are the profits earned that can be attributed to an ad campaign, and captured leads, which looks at how many generated leads convert into customers.

Verticutting is a lawn care technique that involves cutting into and removing thatch – a layer of dead grass and roots that develops between the grass and the soil.

Why is thatch bad for your lawn?

Some thatch is necessary as it can help reduce the risk of the grass becoming compacted in high-traffic areas. However, when the thatch becomes too thick, it can start to absorb the air, nutrients, and moisture that your lawn needs to be healthy. It also inhibits the roots from  expanding deep into the soil and establishing a solid foundation. 

What’s worse is that thatch can become the home of various insects and disease, which is not something you want yourself or your family exposed to.

Why is verticutting such an important part of your lawn care routine?

Including verticutting in your lawn maintenance will help by cutting into thatch and bringing it to the surface to be removed from your lawn. The best time to verticut is just before the growing season – in the late winter or early spring – and followed by distribution of new grass seed.

The result is healthy grass with a strong root system to protect against drought, insects, and many other harmful factors.

Status updates for the various social media platforms:

Facebook: “Why is verticutting such an important part of your lawn care routine?”

Twitter: “Verticutting can protect your lawn from drought, insects, and disease.”

LinkedIn: “Verticutting is an important step to take to ensure a healthy lawn.”

 

 

Content marketing involves creating content that not only promotes your brand, but also focuses on creating content that attracts and maintains a dedicated audience. Content marketing relies on creating and posting content that is educational, insightful, entertaining, and overall valuable to a brand’s audience. The ultimate goal of content marketing to is develop a loyal following of customers who will make purchases, resulting in an increase in brand revenue.

One example of successful content marketing is Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos on Youtube. Blendtec’s founder, Tom Dickson, wanted to demonstrate the incredible blending ability of his product, so he started recording videos of himself sporting safety gear and tossing various items into the Blendtec blender. Notable blended items include iPhones, glow sticks, Justin Bieber (or his merchandise, anyway), and the supposedly indestructible Nokia 3310 cellphone.

The success of this content marketing may be attributed to the fact that it incorporates humor and leaves viewers in shock and amazement that a simple kitchen blender can destroy so many different items. To date, Blendtec’s Will It Blend channel has accumulated over 800,000 subscribers and has received over 286,000,000 views. On top of that, their sales reportedly increased by 700% between 2006, when the Blendtec started uploading the videos, and 2009.

Another good example of content marketing is Whole Foods Markets’ Whole Story blog. 

With more and more people trying to be more health conscious, Whole Foods saw an opportunity to help its audience live healthier lifestyles while promoting their brand and products. Not only does the blog cater to its audience by providing healthy recipes and nutritional facts on various foods for a healthy body, but it also provides sustainable solutions for a healthy planet. The success of this content marketing is due to the growing desire for humans who want to take care of themselves, their families, and the environment they live in.

With all of the information I have learned about content marketing, I was able to construct a content marketing calendar for my client, Amazing Lawn and Landscape. Content Calendar-2762a1u

 

Developing this calendar prompted me to consider what exactly I want to post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for November, December, and January. I enjoyed researching various social media marketing ideas to try. I look forward to seeing how much of an impact this calendar will have on my client’s success.

Managing social media pages for a lawn care and landscaping company has proven to be a little more challenging than I anticipated. I was struggling to find relevant and interesting content to post and attracting followers who actually want to follow a page dedicated to a local lawn care and landscaping company. I was beginning to wonder if I would come anywhere close to achieving the number of followers I set goals to reach by the end of the semester.

Facebook: reach 50 likes by the end of the project

 

Twitter: reach 15 followers by end of project

 

Instagram: reach 24 followers by end of project

Watching the videos and reading the various articles on how to build community did give me some ideas on what strategies I can implement to reach my goals. I now feel more confident in my

My general strategy will cover each of these three social media platforms. My course of action to reach my followers goal includes:

• Following other local business to increase awareness
• Using local and relevant hashtags on posts
• Making at least two posts per week to maintain interest
• Retweeting local businesses and local public figures on Twitter
• Using local keywords

 

I am excited to see how effective this strategy truly is, and look forward to building a strong online community.

Personal Branding Statement: “I use strategy and creativity to produce work that stands out.”

My personal social media strategy:

• Make more connections with individuals in my career field.
• Make more posts that are relevant to my career field and my passions.
• Make it easier for hiring managers to find me when doing a web search to learn more about me.

Additions and changes for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter:

LinkedIn: I had already put a lot of time and effort into making my LinkedIn profile look professional. The only thing I was missing was my summary. So, I included a short summary, and achieved “All Star” status.

Facebook: I never bothered adding my place of employment, job title, or education to my profile. Even though I have several different social media accounts, I have always been fairly conservative about posting personal details, because I had always thought that the less information I display, especially publicly, the better. 

Taking this class has certainly changed my mind about this because I want to give myself the best chance possible at being hired for any jobs I may apply for. I now realize that it is a good idea to give potential employers the opportunity to get to know a little bit about me so that they can hopefully determine that I am a good fit for them.  So, I finally added my education and employment information.

I have also started making some of my posts public. I don’t post very often, and almost never publicly, but my goal is to post content that relate to my passions, values, and career field more frequently and make some of it more available for public viewing.  

As you can see, I am pretty passionate about cats.

Twitter: Before this project, I did not even have a Twitter account. I deleted my account years ago because I felt that Twitter was outdated and unnecessary. Having created a new account and explored the community, I discovered that Twitter is actually a useful platform for many business professionals, not just celebrities, corporations, and public figures. I found a few marketers and businesses that I would have never found out about if it weren’t for Twitter.  Going back to creating a Twitter account in the first place, I added a profile picture, cover photo, my location, and a short bio for all to see when they visit my profile. I also Retweeted a few posts that I felt were relevant to marketing and my interests.

Overall, I felt that this was a particularly challenging project for me, because I have never been one to expose so much of myself to everyone who uses the internet. Additionally, I had never really taken the time to think about what it is that I stand for and how I want to be perceived by others. My goal has been to just get through school, get a degree, get a job, and then figure myself out. I realize now that this approach would not have been beneficial for me in the long run. I am glad that I have been given the opportunity to reevaluate my goals and ambitions.