My Client and I did a Zoom meeting where I was able to show her the PowerPoint presentation that I created for my Client Project. She was very impressed with the project and was shocked at some of the results we got within such a short time. Angela is going to set up a free Hootsuite so she can get a better feel for how it works and is hopeful that it will make things at least a little bit easier for her and save her time. She did agree that we could have spent more time growing Twitter and LinkedIn, and is planning on being diligent on keeping up with both of them moving forward. Angela was so grateful that I chose to work with her as my client and is excited about how the things she learned will be beneficial to her and her business.

Here is the Postcard I created for my client this week through Canva!

Online Personal Branding Project

During the semester, I have had the opportunity to work on developing my personal brand through social media. I have learned about many tools and strategies available to me in helping to optimize my social media accounts, therefore strengthening my personal brand. In my report, I will share with you a review and reflection of my brand as it has evolved throughout the semester.

Facebook

First, I will begin by sharing my Facebook account with you. The image below, is a screenshot of my Facebook profile page from back in February when we first began working on our personal branding. At that time, I had 336 Friends.

Facebook Changes
The changes that I made to optimize my Facebook were:

• changed profile picture to head shot of myself
• added Bio paragraph to profile
• added current job
• added pictures to media gallery
• changed some privacy settings

The image below shows my current Facebook page. As you can see, my Friends have grown to 388, which is 52 more than what I started with back in February.

https://www.facebook.com/public/Melissa-Mccloud
LinkedIn

When I first began with my personal branding, my LinkedIn account was set up, but not active. Because I was a student and not looking for employment, I didn’t see a reason to have an active account, so I never took the time to update my profile. Below, is a screenshot of where my LinkedIn page was when I began.

LinkedIn Changes
The following are a few changes I made to get my page ready to go live:

• updated pictures, wrote Bio, updated summary and organizations, and completed all sections of profile.
  • updated privacy settings
• connected with more people
• followed 5 hashtags

Making the above changes to my LinkedIn profile really helped to optimize my account. Within the last three months, my Connections have grown from 6 to 59. You can also see by my dashboard below, that I am seeing some activity. I have also had 4 professional inquires for employment within the past 2 months.

Your Dashboard

     Private to you

     All Star

28 Who viewed your profile 39 Post views 7 Search appearances

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mccloud-89b052147/

Twitter

About six years ago, I started a Twitter page so I could follow a new Christian artist, Colton Dixon. I didn’t do much with it to begin with, and after a short time, I lost interest in Twitter and stopped all activity. So when I started my personal branding, I pretty much had to start from the bottom creating my profile. At that time, I had 4 Followers and had 11 Followings (see image below).

Twitter Changes
Similar to LinkedIn, I had to completely set up my profile so that I could really begin using it. My current Followers is now at 16 and my Followings are at 101. Below, are the changes that I made, and a screenshot of my updated Twitter page:

• redid Bio and changed pictures
• added followings
• changed privacy settings
• added hashtags
• made first Tweet

https://twitter.com/melissa3dodge?lang=en

What I Learned/Challenges/Opportunities

There is so much I’ve learned about social media throughout this semester of being in this class. Probably the biggest take-away for me is that keeping up with all the demands of your social media activity can be tedious and overwhelming at times. There are a lot of great tools to help keep everything organized, but you must be willing to take the time to learn them and then stick to using them. The biggest challenge I faced while working on my personal branding, was finding the time to devote to

keeping up with it. Because I wasn’t much of a social media person before this class, it wasn’t natural for me to be active on my accounts and I would often forgot that I needed to be. I know the opportunities are endless. I just need to put my time and effort into growing my branding with my active networks. There is still so much for me to learn and explore when it comes to really optimizing my accounts, which I know will only make my personal brand that much stronger.

My Game Plan Moving Forward

Although finding the time and putting the effort into my social media networks was a challenge for me this semester, I really plan to make a conscious effort to stick with it. Some of my plans moving forward are:

• Spend at least 15 minutes a day on one of my social media sites/alternate between sites each day.
• Continue to use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Begin scheduling posts weekly.
• Once a month, choose a site to spend an hour on to reach out to new followings, friends, connections/ revamp profiles, pictures, etc.
• Take the time to get familiar with each site’s analytics/insights and do analytics checks every so often.
• Add my social media handles to my Business Cards.
• Conduct a Google Search on myself every three months to see how my personal brand is growing.

My Client Project

Doing the Client Project this semester has been really challenging for me at times. Being that I am not very active in social media for myself, I did find some of the tasks we had to do challenging. I think partly because I did’t understand a lot of the social media lingo. I am grateful that we had the readings and videos to help us along each week though; otherwise, I really would have been lost.

Something I discovered while working on this project throughout the semester is that there are some really great tools out there to assist with building your social media and for managing it all. Without these tools, it would be a very time consuming task to keep up with. I also learned how relevant social media really is in the business world today. A new business could really struggle today if they didn’t want to be bothered with social media in aiding them with finding new customers and engaging with them.

I have learned so much in this class that I otherwise would have never known about. I would have to say that the I have been most drawn to the interactive assignments that we’ve been able to do throughout the semester. e.g., Content Calendar and the Campaigns and Ads. I’ve also enjoyed being a part of the discussion boards with my classmates each week and see how each of them are learning as well.

I think I’d have to say that the most valuable module for me was about how to optimize my (and my clients) social networks. I really don’t mess with social media much, so to see all the tools that are out there to make it most beneficial to me was really interesting. Even more so though, the tools that are out there for my client and other business professionals that look to social media to grow their business.

Although I have learned so much about the benifits of  using the Hootsuite Dashboard, I will probably not continue to use it after this class, mainly because I don’t do enough with social media to warrant spending money every month to keep track of it. However, I would highly recommend it to my client, Angela, because I know it would be a great tool in helping her keep her social media networks organized and in one location and would save her so much time daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

Hootsuite Dashboard-1kd2pc9

Hootsuite Certificate-2mzvdkg

The ads that are targeting me most on my social media (mainly facebook) are usually from clothes companies like Wish, Dress Lilly, Groupon, etc. I also get quite a bit from Michael Kors and Coach, Wayfair, and beauty products (mainly nail stuff and hair tools).

These ads can be effective because I believe they are generated by purchases that I have made through my FaceBook page. They know what I like, so they inundate my newsfeed with ads, trying to entice me. I believe that the beauty products ads are because I worked in the beauty industry for so many years so they assume I’m into the newest trends in hair and nails. These types of ads often pull me in  because they are advdertising sales and limited time offers.

Companies can track the success of their ads by looking at their click through rate and then their ROI.

MOCKUP ADS

Faceboook: This campaign is inviting people to come to
Fit Camp. Angela conducts a fitness class three times a week and pulls in her Herbalife products throughout the workout. The objective is to entice people (especially woman) to come join them for Fit Camp, so they too can look and feel better about themselves.

My budget would be $100.

LinkedIn: I did this campaign for LinkedIn a little differently in hopes to make it look a bit more professional, or business like. The objective would be to get peopole thinking about their health and fitness and maybe even a new or additional career choice for them. This ad could target man and woman of every age that is looking to make a change in themselves physically or financially.

My budget would be $50.

Twitter: This ad that I would post on Twitter is for Beach Camp. A fun and effective way for people to get some exercise while enjoying the beach. I would say that this ad would be targeted to both man and woman in the young adult age group.

My budget would be $100.

Herbalife has been on the market for many years and is one of the strongest products out there for weight loss, overall health, and wellness. Herbalife Formula 1 meal replacement and supplement shakes have one of the best reputations in the market. Ask anyone who takes the supplement and get their feedback. Herbalife Formula 1 is used by people who want to manage their weight, satisfy their hunger, include all the essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals into their diet, burn fat, and look and feel good. Herbalife Formula 1 protein shake is easy to make, quick and easy to drink, and tastes good. The Herbalife Formula 1 shake works as a meal replacement and the ingredients either suppress the appetite and/or build muscle. The following ingredients are used:

• Soy Protein Isolate            
• Soy Lecithin
• Hydrogenated Oils
• Casein
• Biotin

Besides the Formula 1, there are other Herbalife Shakes on the market.

• Herbalife Protein Drink Mix contains 110 calories, 5 grams carbohydrate, 15 grams protein, 3 grams of fat, and one gram of sugar.
• Herbalife Personalized Protein Powder contains 20 calories, 0 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams protein, 0 grams of fat, and 0 grams of sugar in each serving (without milk)
• Herbalife H³0 Fitness Drink contains 60 calories, 14 grams carbohydrate, 0 grams protein, 0 grams of fat, and 12 grams of sugar. This beverage mix is designed for after-work-out consumption and provides 100 milligrams of sodium and 100 milligrams of potassium.

https://bit.ly/2FRQgTB

STATUS UPDATES

Facebook: Are you interested in a weight loss shake that’s been proven to do what it says it will? For more information, follow the link below. https://bit.ly/2FRQgTB

Twitter: A diet shake that actually tastes good, unheard of right. Well believe it!! #herbalife #formula1shake

LinkedIn: Herbalife began almost 40 years ago and has remained one of the most successful weight loss companies worldwide. Although they offer many nutrition products, they are most known for the Formula 1 Protein Shake. To learn more, follow the link below. https://bit.ly/2FRQgTB

Instagram:

This picture is just one of many success stories with Herbalife. Some determination, drive, and Formula 1 is all you need to start on your way to a healthy new you! https://bit.ly/2FRQgTB #herbalife #formula1shake #angelanicole24fit

Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of online materials that can be of interest to others. These materials include videos, blogs, and social media posts.

I would say that the ads that pull up on Facebook could be considered successful ‘content marketing’. They are periodically placed throughout your newsfeed and they are usually relevant to products you’ve looked at or purchased like itmes too in the past. These are successful because we tend to be impulsive and the distributors of these ads know that. The ads are usually offering a discount too, if you order within a certain amount of time.

Another good example of effective comtent marketing that’s out there is on Google. Whenever I am searching anything, there are constant ads, video links, hashtags, etc., encouraging you to follow this link to this one, and it never ends.

Client Content Calendar-1adv6wk

FACEBOOK: Grow followers to 250

• add weekly videos of meal prepping, making shakes, and/or easy and effective exercise steps
• stay connected to followers daily by liking/sharing their posts
• tag local businesses and events/hashtags/photos
• at least once a week, ask your followers what they want to see and add it in the folowing week.

INSTAGRAM: Grow followers to 1ooo

• use at least 3 new hashtags in your posts weekly
• post during target time of 12-1 pm at least 2 to 3 days M-F
• tag at least 5 users a week that are relevant to Health/Fitness

TWITTER: Grow followers to 100

• engage with your audience! Log into your Twitter account at least 3 times a week
• add at least 5 new followings a week
• use Twitter Analytics weekly to see the who, when, why, and what of your audience.

OVERALL STRATEGIES:

• Angela and I will be looking to link her pages together to best optimize her media presents.
• We have also discussed having business cards made for her. This will allow her the ability to get her name and business out, as well as her social media handles.
• We will also be continuing to check out what the competitors in the Health & Fitness community are doing and what’s working for them.

After spending some time looking through my clients social media channels, the strategies I’ve listed above are ones that seem to be prevelant across many other’s media sites, inluding, but not limited to, Health & Fitness. Because of this, I believe this is a good place to start and we can see if it brings Angela success with growing her following. If not, then we will be prepared to look at other options as we move forward.

The industry I choice to look at for this weeks assignment is It Works. I feel like it most compares to my client’s industry of Herbalife because they are both more about nutritional supplements then actual meals, and distributors for both companies are responsible for the sale and success of the business.

Herbalife‘s social community is very large across the social media networks, but it has also been around 15 years longer than It Works. When I was researching different companies within the industry, I noticed that It Works and Herbalife were the only two company’s that were involved in all the major social media sites. eg, Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Pinterest, and YouTube. It Works is one of the fastest growing nutrition companies to date and continuing to grow more and more everyday as their products are being proven to work.

What I see when I look at It Works social media pages is a lot of color, which is very eye catching and appealing to me. I also like that as you look through the posts/tweets/videos, you are seeing information and pictures about the many different products they offer. This can captivate a much larger audience since potential clients have different needs when it comes to their nutrition.

Something that i would have liked to see more of was clients sharing more weight loss success stories, and having distributors share more about their personal achievements with their business and the benefits of choicing to work for It Works. I would think that this would be a great way to sell their product to more people and also to grow their business with more distributors that believe in the brand.

I have shared with my client that maybe she could try adding success videos to her media pages in helping to build her social following. People want to feel confident in trying something new and to believe that it can work for them. By sharing with others about their success with using the products, they can  help to encourage potential new clients that they could also get positive results.

1.)

My Personal Branding Statement

Leveraging my heart and soul, I deliver the best me to others!

2.)

My Social Media Strategy

• I would like to see an increase of at least 2-3 new followers/friends on each of my social media profiles each week.
• I want to grow my followings as well, so I’m looking to add 5 to 10 new contacts/businesses to my Twitter and LinkedIn pages weekly.
• I will add 2-3 new hashtags to my Twitter weekly.
• I will work towards creating lists on my Twitter to help attract more followers and to keep my page more organized.
• I will Tweet or share a post on LinkedIn at least once or twice per week.

3.) The changes I made on my personal branding sites were as follows:

FACEBOOK

• changed profile picture to head shot of myself
• added Bio paragraph to profile
• added current job
• added pictures to media gallery
• changed some privacy settings

Facebook before

Facebook after

      TWITTER

• updated everything on my profile since the account was set up over 5 years ago and I haven’t used it since.
• added followings
• changed privacy settings   

Twitter before

Twitter after

     LINKEDIN

• also haven’t used since I set it up a few years ago, so I updated the pictures, wrote Bio, updated summary and organizations, and completed all sections of profile.
• updated privacy settings
• connected with more people
• followed 5 hashtags

LinkedIn before

LinkedIn after