Blogger: This
semester we first learned about blogger. I had heard of blogging before but
didn’t understand till now how much it could impact a business. We used our
blog to post about important steps our up and coming business was doing. Our first couple of blogs was about joining
Facebook and twitter. I found that in the beginning picking out our own blog
topics was difficult but as we progressed it became easier to post what people
would read about and get information about my business to the community.
Twitter: Before
my social media class I had never used twitter. I learned that this up and
coming social media site is a great way to get your business out to people. As
well as other company’s like your own. As you gain followers more people see
what you tweet and can re-tweet your posts. I believe that every business needs
a social media department because most people now days are online. I believe
that I would use this in my business because it is one of the best ways to get
out to the community and other businesses.
Facebook: In the
business aspect this was my first time creating a business Facebook page. As
you create a business page you can invite friends on your friends list to like
your page. As they like your page it shows on their timeline which then all of
their friends can visit your page and so on and so forth. My experience with
this was very entertaining the only this was that it can become very hard to
post a different status 3-5 times a week
and not have it be on the same item or think of what promotions that you want
to have that week. At some point you run out of items in your store to talk
about. I know that I would use Facebook for my business because just like
twitter almost everyone have a Facebook and more and more things are being done
online and when people are online they tend to surf the web.
Hoot Suite: I had
never heard of Hoot Suite before taking social media. I had no idea that this
site would allow you to post on each of your social media web sites as well as
schedule what posts you wanted to post at a specific time. This is very good
for new businesses for the fact that they can schedule what events they were
having so then they don’t have to worry about their social media pages but they
will focus on what needs to get done. This social media website I also believe
I would use in my business. For the fact that it allows more time on more
important things and posts can be scheduled on down time for a week up to a
year in advance if needed.
Pinterest: I had
heard of Pinterest before but didn’t really know what it was used for. After
using this site I don’t know if I would use this site for my business or not.
It’s a good way to get your logo/name out to more people, but unless people
know about or who you are there not going to be searching for your business. My
experience with this site went alright for the most part but I found it hard to
find certain pictures that I wanted to pin on my walls. These types of sites
are getting overwhelmed with people that don’t really care what happens to the
site they just find it funny to post whatever pictures they want in any
category. It may be a good site for certain company’s but I don’t believe that
I would use this one.
Niche Sites: I
knew about Niche sites but I don’t know how helpful or useful they would be to
a business. I know that people like to be on niche sites and all that and
certain company’s find them useful but I personally don’t this these types of
sites are useful but just waste time. Most of the niche sites that we learned
about in Social Media I had never heard of along with the companies that were
using them. With my business I believe that I would not use niche sites the
only reason why I would possibly use them is if it was created by my company
that way the company could run it to be successful.
Podcasts: Before
social media I had heard of podcasts but had only used it one other time. I
found audacity to be very helpful while creating my podcast. Although the only
difficult part was the exporting of the file to post it on a blog, Facebook, or
twitter. After searching for a site we came up with sound cloud that let you
export a file easily and upload it right into a blog with a link to the site
which had the audio recording. My experience with Podcasts has been very
insightful and I believe that I would use podcasts in my business because to me
it’s just like creating a commercial or radio advertisement. People like to
listen to what you have to say.
Vines and Videos: I
had watched Vine videos on my Facebook before I had taken social media but I had
never knew how to record them or post them. The way Vine was use was we took
three videos, the first was introducing a contest to win something. The second
video was to remind the customers about the contest and how much longer it was
going on for. The last video was announcing a winner to the contest. Vine is a
great way to get your business out and getting people to follow what’s going on.
In certain situations I believe that I would use vine in my business in the
same way we used it for our businesses in class.
Ratings and Review
Sites: Before I took social media I only had seen certain ratings and
reviews on Facebook and other social media sites but I wasn’t asking a bunch of
questions. All they wanted to know was how many stars you would rate certain
things. In my business I would probably use this to get a better understanding
on what people liked about my business and didn’t like. More like a survey not
just what stars would be given.
Virtual Worlds: I
had not used Virtual world sites before social media before. The way that we
used virtual worlds was at the beginning of the semester was we created an
avatar and introduced ourselves. A couple of weeks ago we used virtual worlds
again by using weather simulations to see how many people we could save in the certain
situations. I think it would be a good was to offer a business in virtual world
to get your business game into the virtual community.
