Final Post

I came originally to this class to help better my understanding of how social media (such as Facebook / Twitter / Instagram) are able to influence (and help) the growth of a business. I do not have a business right now, but would like to in the future; the skills and experience I have acquired during my time in this course will no doubt help me with that endeavor.

My view of social media has changed as a result of this class, as well. I did know prior to this class that social media, such as Facebook could be used for business, as I had seen plenty of companies and organizations setup their own pages on FB in lieu of a web site. However, just how helpful social media could be for the growth of a business, I didn’t realize. What I found really interesting, was how Facebook and Twitter could be used to promote a business. The best part about that was how I could use the promotion features to target specific demographics that I felt would be most suitable. I could target people who would actually be interested in what I have to offer instead of mindlessly pumping out ads to people who probably don’t care about what I have to offer in the first place! It’s also a lot less expensive and gives more bang for the buck – I can set target budgets and the best part is that I only pay if someone actually visits the ad.

There were other tools that I also thought might be useful. The analytics (Google analytics / Facebook insights) were interesting tools. Not only do they let me see how well my ads have been performing, but they provide useful content, such as the demographics of my visitors as well as what they were looking at when they did visit – did they just click on my ad and walk away, or did they explore further, clicking on other links, liking, or commenting on my content. Using that information, I could then shape my content/ads further by making them more appropriate to demographics of the people visiting my page as well as removing content that is not performing, or is being detrimental.

It’s also important to try to use a variety of different social media outlets. For my (fictional) business, I chose to primarily use Facebook, and Twitter as well to some extent. I would use other forms of social media such as Instagram or Pinterest (I found this one more appropriate) to help showcase my products in particular. Given their highly visual format, I felt that these were more appropriate for showing what my business had to offer as well as giving potential customers an idea of what my company is about (and how it looks!). A minor tool that was also useful (though not a form of social media, outright) was Google maps. I had used that previously for a project prior to this class with some success – I helped setup a martial arts club for a family member, and the map tool was very useful for not only showing people where it was taking place, but what the place was like, which I felt had made them more comfortable.

So, overall I feel like I’ve learned a great deal from this class. Instead of just being able to use social media for myself personally, I can employ it to help me. It’s no longer just a tool to help me find people/businesses that I like, but a tool to actively promote my brand and seek out those who will find what I have to offer appealing to them. Thanks for a great class, and I hope everyone has a great summer!