With my business I used the blogging website Eblogger. I used
this platform to inform my customers about promotions that I had going on in my
business Direct Hit. The experience wasn’t bad at all. The site was very easy
to use and I loved how the site kept track of my page views and posts for me. The
hard part I found with having a blog was my consistency. I found it very hard
to get my blog post done on Wednesday nights to stay consistent. It was partially
due to my procrastination but it was also due to the fact that I don’t have a
set work schedule. My work hours change weekly and I don’t always know when I will
be working from one week to the next and I feel that as a business owner of a
small business I would run into the same problems. Even though consistency is a
big part of having a blog I still feel that I would use this at certain parts
of the year and instead of using my blog to promote my other social media
marketing tools I would do the opposite and use my other social medias to
promote my blog.
Twitter was a very difficult social media site for me to
use. It wasn’t that the site was hard to navigate or post too but having to
come up with 3-5 posts per day was not working for me. I found with this site I
could entertain and educate my customers but I found it very hard interact with
them. I like seeing their feedback and not just knowing they liked something
because they retweeted it. I liked being able to use it to get a link or a
quick message out but in real life I wouldn’t use this with my small business
because I feel with the small amount of tweets I would make I could actually
handle it with Facebook.
Facebook was a very natural site for me to use but I feel
that it was because I was familiar with this social media tool because it was
the only one that I have ever used. My problem with Facebook is that I have a
very hard time changing it up. Everything that I posted was about the same. I need
to get more variety in my Facebook statuses. I had mainly statuses that just
contained info about things going on or info about things that came in on our
truck. Looking at other businesses Facebook statuses, they had almost three
times the response to their posts when they posted a picture with their post to
get their point across and with my Facebook page that is where I lacked. In a
real life scenario I would use this social media site because I feel it is one
that is easy to manage and I don’t have to stay consistent like I do with a
blog or twitter. Although with being in retail I do want to try and keep my
posts right around the middle of the week to get the best responses.
Hootsuite made my life ten times easier with having to do my
twitter and Facebook posts. I could make out a little week plan in my notebook
and have my posts done for the week in right around ten minutes. The down side
to it was the fact that with my business I couldn’t entertain my customers as
well with my posts and I feel that with retail you aren’t able to plan out your
entire week that easy that the posts I would have to make would be more “in the
moment” than anything else. With running a retail store I don’t feel that I would
not use this resource because my posts will be very spread out and more on how
the day of business is going which is impossible to be able to predict a week
in advance.
Pinterest was one of the most useless sights that we used in
this class for my business. All that I was
able to do was just pin pictures and with doing that it would link me to
another site. At the end of the day I felt
that I was doing more promoting and advertising for everyone else and was doing
my business little to no good. I would not use this site in a real life
scenario because even though the site is free it would just be a waste of my
time.
A niche site that would be effective for my business would
be any sort of outdoor niche site. I would want to be on these sites when the
time of the season is right. I would
want to be on a duck hunting niche site when it is duck season. I would waste
my time and money if I was on a duck site during the spring when the serious
sportsman is thinking turkeys. I would post on these sites as more of a sponsor
and just to let the public know that when they need something that I got them
covered. With these sights being worldwide I feel that I would not do well with
being a small family company and not having multiple stores nationwide The problem
other with this is the fact that I feel that this will be expensive to
advertise on and with being just a small family run business I won’t have that
sort have that kind of money to lay down on that. Big companies need to get in
on these sites but small shops like mine would not do so well on these sights.
I did not do a podcast. From the exercise we did in class
with having to go out on a site and listening to one, I don’t feel that I would
use this tool. I don’t feel that I would get the return out of it that would be
worth the time and effort into it but then it also comes down to the consistency
again. This needs to be done a tight schedule and with running a retail
business I don’t have the time or the resources to accomplish this effectively and
get my money and time worth out of it.
The vines and videos were actually fun to do. The part I liked about it most though was that
I could give my customer a name and a face with my business. In a way they were
able to get to know my business but also me as a person. I got to show off my successes
to my customers to show that I do know what I am talking about but also was
hopeful that it would get them excited for their next adventure. Even though
this was fun I don’t feel that I would use vine or youtube in my business. Local
commercials I feel would be crucial for my business and a good way to put a
face with the business like I said before.
Social media marketing is definitely a growing
part of marketing. This is a big thing that big companies need to be in. it is
an amazing way to engage, interact and educate your clientele. But with the
posts you put out there your are getting some great feedback from your customer
base but also you can use sites that pull together all of your followers
quantitative and qualitative data for you that can be used for better penetration
into you customer base. You can also use
these sites to follow trends and to make sure that what you have to offer is
still something that a large part of your client base wants. Facebook has started to show what is trending
and hot on your news feed. Just scrolling through can show you what is up to
date and what is a big flop. With some of the social media that we used I feel
that I would be reaching out to a way larger client base than I need for my
store. The sites like Facebook where I can control things a little easier, I feel
I will have a much better turn out. At first I hated the idea of this class but
now I am glad I attended and tried. The things I learned will bring me a lot
further with what I want to do and now I realize just how big this social media
is becoming.
