MKTG 347 Facebook Campaign

I created a ad campaign for my page on Facebook. I set it for a broad audience and to go from Nov 18 - Nov 22. You can also set a specific time to start and end on each day. The lifetime budget for this campaign was $30. They show you the potential reach and estimated daily reach which for the time frame was estimated to be 550- 1,500 people on Facebook. The ad displayed looked like the picture below.

The results from the ad campaign: was 19 page likes and reached 333 people.

This Facebook ad campaign showed me that even with a small budget you can get people to notice your product. Once one person likes your page than it keeps spreading and gets more people interested in it.

MKTG 347 YouTube Analytics

Many people know that YouTube analytics exist but don't look at them in detail. In this YouTube analytics guide, it is explained how you can look deep into our stats to create better videos in the future. It also helps you to know how to grow your YouTube channel. 

Building a YouTube channel requires you to understand who your audience is and how they're engaging with your videos. Luckily, YouTube analytics can tell you a lot about who your audience is, what they like, and what kind of content you should be creating to be successful. Hope this video helps you navigate around YouTube analytics and can help you understand how to use it. 

Week 10- MKTG 347 Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a tool that helps juggle multiple social media platforms. The main feature is creating a post that can be posted on all the social media that you want. You can also schedule the day and time that you want the post to be published.

At the top of the page, you can create a new post to send to any one, two or all of your accounts. Here is my example that is posting to three of my accounts Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

 Scheduling allows you to plan ahead and keep your account active with just one click. I scheduled to post on November 7 at 2:00 PM.

Hootsuite is a great easy way to post on multiple social media accounts. 

MKTG 347 LinkedIn

LinkedIn can give you great exposure and access to important people, keep you updated and spark interest into your brand. There are certain ways to make your LinkedIn profile more appealing to prospective and current people.

Create a personal headline that gets peoples attention. It is a short statement that is an overview of who you are. An example of what it should look like is below, highlighted in blue.

Other sections that you can add on LinkedIn to boost your own image is your skills & endorsement. In this section members can endorse other members for skills that you want to showcase. Your skills should reflect the topics and expertise that potential clients are looking for. This section can also reaffirm what is talked about in the previous sections. 

Examples of skills

LinkedIn is extremely important to keep updated because 85% of recruiters go to LinkedIn before looking at any other recruitment tools. LinkedIn will not only connect you with employers, but also with peer groups and academics. LinkedIn is a key networking tool for professionals in virtually any field so ahead and create or update your LinkedIn profile! 

MKTG 347 2 Tips to help with social media

Social media is a good outlet to get people's attention and create new customers. Here are some tactics that are useful to generate leads on social media.

1. Make your landing pages social. A conventional landing page provides a focused experience which guides people towards conversion goal. If people like your landing page, they will then tell others about it. There are ways to make it more convenient for customers to tell other people by either adding an option to share the page or allow visitors to leave a comment to increase social proof. A social campaign works to increase exposure to customers and have a built in sharing techniques.

2. Send social media users to your blogs. Social media can be used to promote targeted blog posts. How the structure of your posts and how shareworthy it is will determine how much traffic and engagement you drive to your blog. Use visual content to attract attention! Visual content draws far more attention than text-only updates by fifty-three percent more likes on Facebook and 35 percent increase in retweets on Twitter.

MKTG 347 4 Myths about social media

Social media marketing has become popular quickly over the past years, but people have been getting the wrong idea and thinking that it is just some magic solution to instantly get followers. The truth is, social media requires a lot of research and hard work, like any other marketing strategy.

Here are a 4 misconceptions about social media marketing that are just plain wrong.

1. Social media is free. Really social media is never truly free. Brands that are doing good on social media are investing lots of manpower and time into their programs to create awesome content. That comes at a price.

2. Likes and followers are what truly matter. It is natural to try and justify everything with numbers but social media's value is somewhat abstract. Not everyone who  "likes" your brand actually likes your brand, and a follower may not end up reading anything you publish. Seek engagement metrics!

3. Social media is an independent strategy. It actually depends on a number of other digital marketing strategies to be successful. You need a strong brand, content and website to help your strategy out. Social media is only one part of the equation.

4. You have to be everywhere. You only need to be where where your consumers are and where it makes sense for your brand to be. Your content will be better because you are focusing on only one outlet.

MKTG 347 Snapchat News!

There are some new updates that Snapchat is adding to the company. The first big news is that they are going to change their name! They are getting rid of chat and just being named Snap Inc., reported by the Wall Street Journal late Friday night.

That's not all: The company will also release video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles this fall. They contain an 115-degree- angle lens that will allow the wearer to record up to 30 seconds of video and will cost $129.99. You will be able to post your videos directly to the Snapchat app.

Rather than closing people  off from the real world, Spectacles are designed to help them participate in it. Recording video or taking a regular picture with a phone puts a wall in front of your face. Spectacles will allow wearers to record without holding anything, so they can really show off what they are taking a picture of.

MKTG 347 Website Advantages

In this modern era, people and companies are on the internet for information. People visit websites to gain more information. You need to have a website for your customers. It needs to contain information about what you can do for them. There are many advantages to creating a website for your business. Below are a few examples:

• Get more business! Use your website to attract more people and it is online 24/7
• Improves your credibility
• Use your website to tell people who you are, and what you do
• Having an attractive website helps to convey to customers that you are a professional business
• Less expensive!
• Increase sales by having more visitors see your business
• Environmentally friendly way to advertise
• Can build a better relationship with your customers

Now go ahead and create a free website on Google! It is a good tool to starting a simple website. TIP: create your own website name. It comes across slightly more professional

MKTG 347- 3 Tips for Aspiring Social Media Marketers

Social media marketing is a very important platform that helps engage consumers and inform them of the latest company news and products. The goal is to let consumers take the reigns in guiding a brand's social presence. There are no strict rules for becoming successful but here are 3 tips for landing a job in social media marketing.

1. Join Social Media Meetups and Networks
    Step away from computers and meet with professionals in the field you want to work with. Also join groups of others interested in social media and technology to help build your network. Most careers depend a lot on networks, but the beauty of social media is that you can meet most of the people you need to know online.

2. Stay Informed of Trends, Tools and News
  The landscape of social media changes so quickly, it is therefore very important that you are constantly learning. Keep yourself updated on the latest technologies to improve your knowledge and stand out!

3. Make your Resume Stand Out
  Your resume is the first thing that a potential employee sees from you. They can either like or dislike you automatically from just looking at your resume. Make sure there are no errors on it and find a way to make it unique.

MKTG 347- New update on Facebook!

Facebook is changing its way it displays Trending Topics. It is removing the story descriptions for Trending Topics & replacing it with number of mentions and a simplified topic. Here is an example of the difference in looks:

Trending Topics continue to be based on a user's activity- page likes, location and the previous trending topics the user interacted with, along with whatever is trending overall. The Trending Topics product does indeed still include a human element where people make sure the topic is high quality. 

Facebook was accused of manipulating Trending Topics to be politically biased, which Facebook says is false. While Facebook says it wasn't manipulated the Trending Topics, they decided to make changes to its Trending Topics product earlier than planned based on feedback from previous comments of the Trending Topics. 

MKTG 347 Top 5 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

1. Increase Brand Recognition. Social Media networks are new channels for your brand's voice to be heard. This makes it easier for customers to get content about you, and makes you more recognizable.

2. Improved brand loyalty. Brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. Customers see content more frequently from you and can view reviews.

3. Higher conversion rates. Social media is a place where brands can act like people do, and this is extremely important because people like personal interactions; not with companies.

4. Decreased Hours spent. If you can take just one hour a day to developing your content and strategy, you could start seeing the results of your efforts.

5. Increased Inbound Traffic. Social media can get a wide range of traffic from areas you wouldn't think of focusing on. Every social media you add is another link to your brand that can connect a customer.

For more information look at: Top Benefits of Social Media

MKTG 347- Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media platforms. The platforms allow interaction with one another and build relationships and communities online. These sites act as word of mouth.

Some popular platforms within social media marketing are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Social media can also help build links and discover new customers that are interested in your company. It is an additional form of marketing that can help a company but doesn't replace traditional marketing ways.

MKTG 349- Call extensions

Call extensions are under the tab Ad extensions. They are a form of sitelinks extension used to grab the customers attention. Call extensions generally get the customers focus more than other sitelinks because it is bigger text. This also allows you to add phone numbers to encourage calls to your business with a displayable clickable call button with the ad. This allows customers the ease and can monitor the amount of traffic it brings in. The rules that apply to text ads generally apply to call extensions. To ensure your extensions are accurate and appropriate, phone numbers must meet specific requirements and be verified by Google.
 


Adding phone numbers can encourage calls to your business by showing your phone number on your ad and display a clickable call button with your ad. It makes it easy for people to call you on the go and can share these numbers across ads within an ad group or entire campaign. You can also count calls as conversions.


https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453991?hl=en

MKTG 349- Types of campaigns

There are different types of campaign types to pick from when starting a AdWords campaign. The campaign type determines things like where your ads can show to customers on Google's advertising networks, and what format they can be in, like text or video. With the different options, can tailor the campaign to match business goals and focus on the features relevant to your company.

Types of campaigns:

• Search Network Only- can appear throughout sites on the Google Search Network. This campaign type is useful for advertisers who want to connect with customers right when they're searching their products or services. 
• Display Network Only-can show throughout the Google Display Network. This campaign type works by matching your ads to websites and other placements.
• Search Network with Display Select- allows you t show your ads with search results on the Google Search Network and relevant placements within the Display Network.

MKTG 349- AdWords certification

The Google AdWords certification is a professional recognition that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of AdWords. The certificate allows individuals to demonstrate that Google recognizes them as an online advertising professional. The certification demonstrates and shows future employees my expertise in online advertising with a personalized certificate that can be printed as well as a Google Partners public profile page listing my certifications.

The first step to getting certified is to sign up for Partners, where related study guide will be provided. The requirements are that you need to pass two of the AdWords certification exams to become an AdWords certified professional. The available AdWords certifications exams are AdWords Fundementals, Search Advertising, Display Advertising, Mobile Advertising, Video Advertising, and Shopping Advertising. The AdWords Fundamentals exam covers basic and intermediate concepts, including the benefits of online advertising and AdWords, and best practices for managing and optimizing Adwords campaign. This is the exam that I am currently working on to pass there is 100 questions and 120 minutes limit. In order to pass the exam must get at least a 80% score on the exam.

MKTG 349- LinkedIn

LinkedIn has 277 million members, there's no denying the expand of network. In fact, professionals are signing up to join at a rate of more than two new members per second. LinkedIn is all about establishing connections and accelerate your career.

Tips to gain more connections on LinkedIn:

• Have a profile image
• Complete your profile
• Add connections
• Get recommendations and endorsements
•  Share relevant content on a regular basis 
• Participate with groups

All of these tips can help you gain more interest into your profile which in return will help further your job possibilities. Can use these connections to find a job or get your profile in front of the right audience.

http://socialmarketingwriting.com/7-ways-to-get-more-linkedin-connections/

MKTG 349- Target Audience

When starting a new business one of the first parts of the planning process should involve deciding who will be on the receiving end of your marketing efforts. By defining a target audience you can choose where to spend time and money at. This will help save you resources and will allow to communicate and engage in a specific segment deeper. The way to get started is to consult your business plan, begin researching, develop a customer profile, find out where your audience is, and lastly monitor and evolve. Once your target audience is developed the last step is to have high ranking search engine results.

There are two things that can help your ranking on the search engine results:

1. Figuring out what your attended audience wants, and then
2. Creating the most helpful, amazing stuff that you can for that audience.

You need to think about what your audience is looking for and what do they need to learn more about? The only way to achieve this goal is to experiment, this may be with ads or with certain keywords. You can also experiment with the budget and see what works best for the purpose at hand. Looking at competitors website or page is a great way to see what aspects of your own needs to be improved. Google tries to reward people who have websites people love. Google looks at all the different parts that make your website useful they look at if they stay on your pages, if people are talking about your site and if your website answers the questions that the audience is searching for.


 For more information visit http://technori.com/2013/02/3122-5-critical-tips-for-identifying-your-target-audience/

MKTG 349- Searching for keyword ideas

Keyword Planner is a free AdWords tool for new or experienced advertisers. It is like a workshop for building a new Search Network campaign or expanding existing ones. You can search for keyword and ad group ideas, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together.

You can use Keyword Planner to accomplish the following tasks:

• Research keywords. This can help you find new keywords to add to your campaign. You can do this by searching words that are relevant to your business.
• Get historical statistics and traffic forecasts. Use the statistics to help decided which keywords are working. Get forecasts, like predicted clicks and estimated conversions, to get an idea of how a specific amount of keywords will perform with the budget at hand.

Using the Keyword Planner in the Tools section of Google Adwords I added keywords that are relevant to my ad. The Keyword Planner calculated the average number of searches for these exact keywords based on the data, range, location, and Search Network targeting setting. This gave me a ideas if adding the keyword to my campaign will help me reach the advertising goals.

With this data above I will be adding all of these as my keyword and compare what the Keyword Planner tool has told me to my results in my actual campaign. This will allow me to observe if the data collected by the Keyword Planner tool portrays accurately in my campaign.

Keyword Planner can be used to find new keywords by using a phrase, website or category. I used Exotic Animals as the phrase and www.nationaltigersanctuary.org as the landing page. The following results came up and a few will be picked to put in my campaign.

MKTG 349- Google AdWords Budget

Playing around with Google AdWords has taught me that the budget is an important part for each campaign that you want to make. AdWords lets you set up daily budgets for your campaigns, with the flexibility to change them at any time. With AdWords, you can pick a daily budget for each campaign based on your advertising goals and the general amount you're comfortable spending each day. Your daily budget applies to a single campaign, not all campaigns in your account.

When you're first starting out, you want to have a lower budget because you don't know what is going to work best for the campaign. This is going to be the testing mode and investment in the marketing research. You will lastly gain insights into what ad messages are responding to your target market and learn what keywords are working. Once your campaign is profitable or the way you want the next step is to up your budget.
           
Some tips recommended by Google AdWords site is as follows:

• Get a recommendation. Adwords shows recommended budgets for campaigns that repeatedly meet their daily budget but have the potential to earn more clicks and impressions.
• Don't set and forget. Check your account regularly to look for campaigns that are limited by budget or have leftover dollars.

If you have any other questions about your budget here is the link that has more information https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375420

MKTG 349-Keywords

Keywords connect a searcher's search terms to relevant ads created in AdWords. This will help make ads relevant to the searcher as possible, so this involves understanding not only the keyword itself, but also the intention behind the keyword.

This is examples of keywords used on my own campaign

There are two different ways to picking keywords. The first is choosing keywords or phrases that are highly specific and relevant to the business this will target specific customers. Select more specific keywords if you want to target customers who may be interested in a particular product. Single keywords are often too generic whereas two or three-word phrases are usually more targeted.  Using more specific keywords would mean that your ad appears for terms that apply to your business. You need to keep in mind that the keywords are not too specific, which might not be able to reach as many people as you'd like.

The next way is selecting general keywords to reach more people. Select more general keywords if you'd prefer to reach as many people as possible. This means that your ad can appear for searches that aren't always related to your business and might be more competitive for these general words. This may require a higher bid amount.

The way to figure out if keywords are working is to test them and see which ones give you better results. Also, to get ideas for keywords and expand your list. The number of clicks shows how many people clicked on your ad using the keyword. This can help you determine how the keyword is doing and let you know which ones need to be tweaked.



MKTG 349- Benefits of Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a PPC advertising or pay per click advertising that was created by Google in early 2000. Since then, thousands of people and businesses have created highly effective advertising campaigns allowing them to generate revenue, and sell a number of products and services through the web and search engines. It provides a variety of benefits to advertisers and is a essential digital marketing technique that companies can use to maintain a competitive edge. A few of the benefits of Google AdWords include:

• Immediate exposure- Your ad can show in the top 5 results on a Google search results page
• Reach- Can create targeted ads in a timely manner 
• Geo targeting- Ensure you are targeting your ads to the right geographic locations
• Reporting- You only have to pay when someone clicks on your Ad
• Budgeting- You can measure and know exactly when you are generating your investment and ROI 

                       

To find out more information about the benefits of Google AdWords visit http://www.marketingquery.com/benefits-of-google-adwords/ 

Week 1- MKTG 349- Google Ad Grants

The Google Ad Grants Program gives nonprofits the chance to advertise on Google AdWords at no cost to the nonprofit. It helps organizations reach thousands of supporters around the country, helping them effect change through awareness. Google Ad Grants shows search ads to people who are searching Google for nonprofits, and helps reach people who were previously unaware of the cause.


                                            

To be eligible for Google Grants, your organization must:

• Begin by applying to Google for Nonprofits
• Hold valid charity status.
• Acknowledge and agree to Google's required certifications regarding nondiscrimination and donation receipt and use.
• Have a live website with substantial content.

The following organizations are not eligible for Google Grants:

• Governmental entities and organizations
• Hospitals and medical groups
•  Schools, childcare centers, academic institutions and universities

With Google Ad Grants nonprofit organizations can share the message across the globe or a focused area. Here is the link to gain more information about Google Ad Grants: https://www.google.com/grants/benefits/index.html