Week 11- Hootsuite Learning

As I discussed before, Hootsuite is a very good tool to use for social media marketing.  It makes posting to multiple platforms and reviewing the analytics.

Currently, I am working on getting my Hootsuite Platform Certification.  This is a challenging process because of the test needed to take in order to be certified.

Thankfully, Hootsuite makes it easy to access the website and learn how to use it.

I will be taking the test soon and receiving my certification.  If you have an interest in growing your social media marketing, I suggest you look into Hootsuite and work to get the certification as well!

Week 10- Campaigning MKTG 347

I am working on creating a Facebook ad campaign in order to market my freelance digital marketing page.  This is something that you can do with any Facebook page that you have that you are looking to advertise for.

To begin, head over to the business page of Facebook(facebook.com/business).  From this page you will be able to see lots of business opportunities that Facebook offers, but for now we will click on  the create ad button.

This will take you to the beginning of you ad campaign.  Begin by selecting your marketing objective as shown below.

After making the campaign, we start to create the plan of our ads.  This is with making an ad set. Facebook makes it easy to navigate through the page in order for you to get the most from the ads. The ad set goes into detail on your audience you want to reach, your budget, and much more.

Once you have your ad plan all ready, we move to making an actual ad.  Facebook allows you to edit the ad, format it the way you like, and connect links to your page.  

Creating advertisement for your page may seem like a hassle, but using Facebook is helpful.  The page walks you through step by step, making your ad problem into a successful outcome.

Week 10- Self-Inventory WCIYP MKTG 347

Today, I began to read about self inventory and how it can be a helpful method in order to find a job.  The personal inventory helps one understand who they really are, but how can this help them with finding a career?

First, knowing who you really are will help you find a career, not just a job.  The self inventory method will lead you to know more of the market you want to get in to.  This is not only because that is what you have skills for, but it is what you are truly interested in.  Many people that are currently employed do not like their jobs.  An article from The Washington Post, says that only 13% of people actually like to go to work.  This is something we have to do for the rest of our life, so lets chose something we are going to enjoy.

Not only will the self inventory help you find where to work, but it can also help in the interview process for that job.  You will be able to describe exactly who you are and what you bring to the table in the interview.  This allows the one interviewing you to realize that this is actually what you want.

Finding a job can be difficult, but finding a personally enjoyed career is much harder.  If you are currently searching for the job you want, first find out who you really are.  By using the self inventory method, you may find the right occupation for you.  Find your happiness through yourself.

Week 9- Creating Ads pt.1 MKTG 347

Every time I watch a youtube video, I have to waste at least 5 seconds to watch an advertisement that I am never going to click on.  Why would people use their time and money to create these ads, nobody clicks on them anyways.

This was the way I felt about social media marketing ads before I really dug into what these ad's can actually do.  Switching my views from the consumer to the producer, it is a sure choice that SMM is a necessity for success for business exposure.  

Currently,  I am putting my focus in learning how to create Facebook ad's and how to read all of the information that is provided from data.  This data, as I personally know, can be very important.  My example is when I use my personal social media.  As I said before, I used to hate these ad's.  Now, these ad's actually relate to me and sometimes are things that interest me.  I realized that the more I used social media, the more they knew about me.  

Now I know that I can use this advertisement in order to spread awareness and reach potential customers from my laptop.  This not only makes my life easier, it also gives me a great chance for success.  I know that when I open up my own business that social media will be the best way to advertise.  

Week 9- Using Hootsuite

Last week I talked about how Hoot-suite is a social media management platform that I was beginning to work with.  Today I will be going step by step in how I set up my account, added my networks, and then post it to all of my social media accounts using the platform.

First, I started with making the account.  The website has many different plans for exactly what you are looking for.  Currently, all I need is the free account for my own social networking.  Just by seeing the other plans, I can see how important social marketing can be.


After getting my account logged in and verified, I added my top three social networks.  This was made very easy by Hoot-suite because there connection links took you right to a log in page of the account.



With the changing of a few forgotten passwords, all of my social networks were linked to one page. 




Now, I am going to post this blog to all of my social media platforms so that you can do the same.

Using Hoot-suite to control your social media platforms takes away unwanted technology stress.  This tool changes the game of digital marketing.

Week 8- Entrepreneurship

I am currently enrolled in the course Entrepreneurship 301 at Benedictine University with Professor Jodi Houlihan (LinkedIn below).  In the class, we were changed from students in a group to entrepreneurs creating a business.  My team and I have created the company A-1, and together we came up with an idea that will solve the germ infested technology problem that is growing faster then technology itself.

Our company started with an idea of a self cleaning handrail machine that would occasionally clean public handrails in order to keep them clean.  We quickly found out that creating a solution before finding out if there is an actual problem is not a good business model.  Research became A-1's top priority.  We started by learning more about germs.  We conducted interviews with many people including multiple Benedictine Microbiologists and an employee from P&G.  All of the research conducted lead our company to the next business decision.  We changed out focus and strated seeing the problem that we needed to solve.

We moved our focus from handrails to touch screens for many reasons, including; softer surfaces are more common for germs, some of the most harmful germs are found in grocery stores from uncooked meats, and the volume of human contact is much higher on touch screens with the new technology wave.

So, our company developed a new process to consistently protect touch screen users from the fecal infested technology. Yes, over 50% of self-check out screens actually have fecal bacteria on them. And this is not all, there are millions of germs on these screens that can be harmful to the user.

We have created our first prototype. In this process, we struggled with getting the idea into a physical product. One of the hardships we went through was explaining what supplies we needed for the prototype because we didn't have anything to show them visually. We learned that any prototype is better then nothing because it gives others a visual to what the product is. Finally being able to put something together was a huge step for us. Currently, we are in the process of receiving constructive criticism on our prototype in order to further our idea into a working product.

So far, this class has shown me some of the struggles that entrepreneurs go through to get a company started. As I have said before, becoming an entrepreneur and starting my own company is my dream. Now that I have personally gone through some of these business experiences, I can say I feel more confident in being able to make my dream a reality.

http://www.ben.edu/
http://www.ben.edu/facilities-management-planning/planning-construction/daniel-l-goodwin-hall-of-business.cfm
http://www.ben.edu/college-of-business/undergraduate/entrepreneurship.cfm

Professor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodihoulihan/

Team:
Yaju Mahida- https://www.linkedin.com/in/yajuvendra-mahida/
Frank Greco- https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankgreco24/
Ken West-

Week 8- Hootsuite

Social media can become overwhelming with all of the different platforms, especially when you are trying to increase your viewers with multiple posts.  Keeping track of all of the platforms and creating individual posts for each is not very time oriented. 

Time management is always a big factor in success.  With the help of Hootsuite; posting, viewing, and interacting with social media can be done with one general platform. 

When I first heard about this, I was pretty excited.  For me, I know that social media is very important for small businesses.  If I use Hootsuite for my business's social media marketing, I will have a lot more time for other aspects of the business.  Finding time shortcuts is a great way to improve efficiency and effectiveness.