Week Five - Post Reach and Engagement

Introduction

Oh the pains and possibilities of Facebook. The company has made a lot of changes to the business features of company pages over the last year. When I started Social Publishing House, it was much easier to engage people and get likes. However the insights were not as good for tracking. Now, things have changed to where insights are excellent, but getting likes and engagement are harder than ever. So, here is the simple difference between reach and engagement. 

Post Reach

Post reach is connected to those who actually saw what you posted. Do not confuse this for people who actually read what you wrote or updated. Post reach simply means that those who follow your page ended up seeing your post in their news feed at some point. Most of the time, people scroll through their news feed like a kid running through the candy isle; they just don't ponder long until they see something more shinny and appealing. 

Normally, your reach will be much higher than those who actually engaged you. So don't get excited when your reach is 1000 people, but only 1 person engaged

So whats the difference between reach and engagement? 

Engagement

What really matters it the engagement. That means they saw what you posted and decided to click on it and interact with it. Be that a like, a share, or that they clicked on the link and took the time to read something you wrote. This would be the equivalent to that small kid in the candy isle picking up that giant 2000 calorie candy bar, ripping off the wrapper and chowing down. 

Now be that as it may, getting people to engage is very difficult. But, with the insights from FaceBook, you can see what works and what does not. 

Insights 

The best way to learn how to engage people is to look at the insights. These insights let you know how many people you reached, and out of those reached how many engaged by either liking the post or clicking on it. 

Flashy and to the point

What I've learned in my time running this page is that people want things that are easy to read, flashy, and are interesting in the sense that they have nothing to do with your business. Most people interact with pictures (the fewer words the better), they don't click on articles unless it has a title that is more shocking, such as "Brook Burk reads her ebook topless on the beach," rather than, "Bowker Research finds kids under 30 read more ebooks." (Yes I know, harsh, but thats what people would rather click on and read)

So when you post things, post lost of pictures and articles that are at least 'somewhat' related to your business. That will give you the most reach and will gain you the most likes. Once you have enough likes, you can start posting things that are relevant to your company and you will start to have some engagement to your actual business. 

The rest will freeload on your posts just looking for more articles about Brook Burk. 

Choose your time wisely 

You will also notice that engagement for your target audience is going to be different depending on the time of the week and when you post. People are more likely to engage on monday mornings and friday mornings (at least for my business). So this is something you need to look at before you plan your posts so you can get the most engagement. 

I use a program called Hoot Suite that lets me auto schedule my posts and time them out. It saves me a lot of time and allows me to keep my page active without constantly having to nurse it like that wining little kid in the candy isle. 

It will take a while to discover this pattern, but watch it closely and start to make adjustments. Experiment and see when things get read the most. 

Don't Spam 

There is nothing I hate more than getting spam email. I do everything I can to unsubscribe from those when I get them. The same goes for Facebook. If you like a company, all of a sudden you start to see your news feed crowded with offers and promotions from a company trying to take your much earned candy money. 

Don't be that business. 

Instead, thing of what your target market wants to see and stick to one very important rule: the 9 to 1. Post 9 things that are interesting for other people and add to their lives. Then, for every 9 posts for others, you can post one for yourself. This way, you won't seem spammy and you won't get unlikes. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, you are going to get frustrated with all those little candy starved kids running around the isle not picking your product. Just remember: more calories, more color, and a bigger bar is the only way to get their attention and get them crying to their moms to buy it for them. Just make sure to write down how many temper tantrums you get per day and take note when they walk in the door. 

Target Market for Project

Using My Own Business

I will be using my own business for the project for the class. My company is Social Publishing House, an ebook publishing that uses the group collaborative approach to creating novels that benefits the author and the team producing it. The company is entering is second year and I am working very hard on establishing my first few authors.

Target Market

I have a very specific target market for what a book buyer is. In terms of writers, this demographic is very hard to pin down. But, it is assumed that those who read often are more likely to be writers (good writers that is). Thus, I have priced together some information from various consumer reports and articles from reputable sources. This is what I found: 

-          Gender: Female

-        Age: Between 36 and 45 (average age 42)

-        Income: $50,000/ year

-        Ethnicity: White/Caucasian

-        Location: North eastern United States or areas with inclement weather

-        Family: Married with two to three kids. Recent empty nester or kids of high school age.

-        Interests: Romance, Memoirs, children’s books

-        Writes: Romance and memoir books.

-        Occupation: Homemaker/Teacher

-        Education: College Degree

         Additional Information: 

Republican/Conservative

Wants to be the next E.L. James

Most likely to self-publish

Most likely started writing seriously within the last two years

Reads 10 to 20 books a year

 Probably overweight/non athletic

Week 3 - Website I Use Frequently

Common Use Websites

As many of you, I am addicted to the internet. But its not by choice. Everything I do for work, school, and relaxation is now based on the internet. There are several website that I use on a daily basis that I could go into. Many of those are well known websites, but I am going to use two that I read daily for research purposes to keep pace with the book industry. No smock needed for this one, these website are alright. 

Digital Book World 

Effectiveness

DBW is a site that focuses on the change of ebooks and electronic publishing and monitors different high level trends in the industry. This site is affective due to its professional outlay and consistency across all of its posts. Although its a little cluttered with text, there is a proper balance of photos and links that capture the eye and encourage the reader to explore. 

Specifics of Design and Principle

The page is set to allow the visitor to browse easily and find what they are interested in. The page is also set to highlight features and posts they want you to focus on. Additionally, they have professional bloggers that feature articles and opinions, and they do well to feature pictures of the authors to make it personal and identifiable. Lastly, their menu options and selection for browsing are intuitive for the user. 

Coming Back Again

I come back to this website because they constantly post new information and keep their page fresh. They also keep the synopsis of each story short and to the punch to make it easier for readers to find an article they are interested in. Basically, I can go to their website and quickly get up to speed in the industry without wasting anytime trying to navigate. 

What Could Be Improved

Although this is basically a newspaper online, they could do a little better job with laying out where their articles are and reducing the amount of text. They have a Book wire feed on the right that pops up with every page and I don't think its very useful. And they do keep things consistent across every page, but I think they need to differentiate their pages slightly to know that you are looking at a Podcast page vs. their regular news articles. 

The Passive Voice

Effectiveness

This is a blog that functions mostly as a launch pad to other articles and blogs that are relevant to the publishing industry. They do not create any original content, but they do an excellent job with summarizing articles and providing links to them so I can get information at a glance in a very quick way. Their content updates constantly and is a great reflection of what is going on in the industry at that very moment. 

Principles of Design

The page has a great overall theme with a simple feed. Its straight forward and easy to browse. Its not too cluttered with advertisements and they keep their navigation bar fairly simple. This is an extremely clean and simple website that serves a single purpose and doesn't try to do more. Although they could do a little more if they wanted (specifically making their own original content), but they choose not to. 

Coming Back Again

I return to this site for the same reason that I return to DBW in that their content is fresh and its easy to navigate. This site does better than DBW in navigation and simplicity of information. They also keep things updated with new information constantly and create the right kind of balance by offering around 5 to 6 new articles each day. 

What Could Be Improved

When you click on a link, it takes you to a separate page that displays more or less the same information. Its mostly to see the comments that are placed on the page from others. I think this is their way to keep traffic on their site, however I think that they could eliminate this page and simply encourage people to leave comments on the actual blog instead of their own. 

Week Three Aesthetics, Design & Branding - Part 2

Introduction

On to the slaying of the second website for this assignment, Rich Soil. ensure your smocks are covering the majority of your clothes, its going to get messy with this one really fast. Please ensure to wipe the blood off your shoes before you exit the theater.

Whats Wrong

Problem 1 - Not Consistent

When going to the link provided to us on the Blackboard website, I was appalled at the set up of the page. After clicking around to different links, I found the real home page for which this website is designated for. The home page is very well set up and appeasing to the eye. Someone took time to create a home page that appealed to readers and random visitors. However, after going through the forums, blogs, and other tabs available, they are simply links to different website that were weaved together by the user. 

My suggestion would be to make all the other links consistent with the design of the home page. It will also keep traffic all on one website and increase the amount of hits that the owner of the site would get.

Problem 2 - No Introduction

I am still not sure what the hell this website is about. Although I am impressed at the kind of traffic the forums get, as well as the amount of content that is published on this website a day, it does not say clearly as to what the intent of this site is. Most sites have an introduction or short blurb explaining the purpose of the website, but this one makes no such mention. I had to dig through to find this information, which as a visitor I shouldn't have to. 

My suggestion would be to create an introduction blurb and clean up the "about" section. This tab moves away form the home page and goes to another 1990's looking page with just a bunch of text randomly typed on it. The owner needs to redo this tab and include a lot of the information up front for people to get a frame of reference for what the site is about. 

(PS, $500 an hour for a consult? There are some patent attorneys who don't charge that much.)

Problem 3 - Forums Underutilized

I'm shocked to see how much activity the forum for his website gets. There is a section on plans that has over 16,000 responses. For the amount of traffic that he has, he is missing a lot of opportunities for both business and visibility on the web. 

What he needs to do is fully integrate the forums into his website. Currently, the forums are held on 'premies.com' and not on his site 'rich soil.com'. I am not sure if he owns both of these, but if he were to integrate the blog, forums, and every other tab he has, the amount of traffic to his website could generate hundreds of dollars a month in advertising alone. 

Whats Right

Number 1 - Content

The man provides a ton of fresh content daily. There is a sign up tab for a news letter that appears right away that people can sign up for. This is one of the only things I think he is doing well.

Number 2 - Semi Professional on the homepage

Although the links dive off into sites and links that look like my grandfathers garage, the information on the home page looks professional and well put together. And beyond just the design and presentation, there is a lot of content that people can find useful. Additionally, his tone and humor that is put throughout the website gives him a unique flavor that people somehow enjoy chewing on. 

Design

As mentioned throughout this article, the design is inconstant and overall horrendous past the home page. It was weaved together from a lot of work that was done over the years. This website has been around for a very long time, much longer than others. Most of the other pages are very old and get a lot of the same visitors. However, no effort has been made to circle all of these up together and make them all look the same. A serious amount of updating in design is needed.

Aesthetics

Nothing about this site is appealing to the eye beyond the homepage. It makes me want to barf my coffee up when I go to his 'about' page and see the brown and tan outlay splattered about. However, his home page is set with the color tone and theme that is constant with "soil". I would say that it works, but it just needs to look consistent. Other than that, the make up of the website does encourage me to look around and click on links to learn more. Its just horrifying going to those new pages and seeing the thrown together formats and presentations.

Branding

The man does have a brand at least. The Rich Soil concept has potential and is semi translated into the home page. Although slightly tacky, it does match his personality which comes out through the page. If only he made is more consistent. 

Conclusion

I know I gave this website a lot of crap, but overall its better than the first site I viewed, be it scattered and disorganized. This site has incredible potential for being great and really capturing a lot of people. 

Week Three: Aesthetics, Design & Branding - Part 1

Introduction

I chose to evaluate Swagelok and http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp. I feel that website like Apple and Ford have enough traffic to their site and resources to know what works and what does not for their website. Plus, smaller website with smaller budgets are easier to pick apart like these two. I will start with the first company website, Swagelok. 

Whats Wrong

From an aesthetic point of view, the page looks very bland and straight forward. The bold blue colors give the website a 1990's feel to it and does not really have that modern look that most website have today. Bold colors that do not match or compliment each other scream 'tacky' and make the visitor uninterested and holds their attention a little less. 

What they could do to improve this is to stick with a more appeasing color scheme that compliments their logo better. Additionally, they need to do research on what colors are going to keep the readers attention a little more and allow them to dwell on the page for longer. 

All of the sub tabs and selections for this website look exactly the same and does not allow the customer to differentiate between the pages. I understand that this company probably took the more practical and simple approach to presenting information to readers, however it does not grab me or force me to look or understand their company. Additionally, there are too many sub tabs that a customer has to click through to get more information. 

My suggestion would be to make each page look unique and to present as much information (in condensed and simple form) as possible. Also, they could make the website a little more interactive when people select things to read. 

Lastly, their brand is just plain boring. I do not know what the brand means or how it equates to fuel and conductor parts. Perhaps I am just not interested in this type of company or industry, but they offer a lot of very complicated and interesting parts that they could improve their presentation on. 

My suggestion would be to come up with a logo that is something more than just the name "swagelok" and to give the website a little more of a theme. 

Whats Right

Baring the tackiness of the website, their information is very straight forward. Good websites can inform the visitor of what they do in a concise format. They've done this very well and I think that a customer who is interested in this type of vendor can get all the information they need very quickly. If it wasn't presented in such a bland format, it would actually be worth looking at and learning about. 

Another thing they do right is present options for the browser easily to find. The sub tabs and options are very apparent and help guide the customer to exactly what they want to know. Its minimalistic, which is a trend among several website lately, and it appeals to people who want to find exactly what they want and move on. 

Design - It simple, but it sucks

Like I mentioned in my comments before, the website design is straight forward and simple, but feels very tacky and has a AOL feeling about it that makes me not want to read anything on the site. They obviously went after the basics and made sure the website works well and presents information correctly, it just doesn't encourage someone to look around or appeals to the eye at all. 

Aesthetics - No effort in this area whatsoever

This company is not concerned about their online presence or appealing to those customers through a website. It has the basics, says the basics, and thats it. My guess is that this is an older company that already has a clientele base set up and receives recommendations for business through personal contact. This is more or less a flyer that people can go to if they want a little extra information. So, no effort was put into the aesthetics of the site at all because they do not deem it as important for their business. 

Logo - Again, no effort

The logo is simply their name in a different font. The logo name does not also really equate to what the products or industry is either. Essentially, not a lot of thought or effort was put into design or presentation of their company. 

In Conclusion

My overall view of this website is that is it not put together to appeal to a large audience. This website would appeal to someone older or in more of a different mind frame than me. They just present the information as blandly as possible, almost making a simple website just because they had to, but put no more effort into it other than updating the blog on a semi consistent basis. Its boring and doesn't make me even want to look at it. 

5 Companies and their Social Media

This assignment requires us to show five companies and their active social media accounts. Being that my interest is in the book publishing industry, I would like to focus on several companies that are in my industry. 

Simon and Schuster - Book Publishing Company that is part of the "Big Six" publishing companies of the world. They currently have a Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram,Pinterest account linked from their company page. 

Amazon is one of the largest distributors of books and ebooks in the world. For as large as they are, their home page does not display their social media presence as easy to find. With a little digging, I was able to find their Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest (which is a rather weak platform compared to their other social media platforms)  LinkedIn, a fairly moderate Tumblr, and of course, YouTube.

Hachette Book Group is another of the Big Six publishing companies, and also happens to be in negotiations with Amazon over the price of their eBooks sold on Amazon. For such a global company, they only feature links to their Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Interestingly enough, these social media links go to pages on their website that have plug ins for the social media platforms. This is smart because it keeps traffic on their website.

Barnes and Nobel is also in the fray with Amazon and Hachette, trying to keep pace with their nook and book stores. They keep a very limited social media platform that can be accessed through their website for both Facebook and Twitter. The nook also has its own Facebook and Twitter as well. Both platforms look to be very well synced.

The last and most interesting competitor among the book industry is a new kid on the block called Oyster, an eBook distribution company that functions similar to Nextflix in terms of monthly subscriptions for unlimited books. They keep a modest social media presence on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Week Two Communications: Business & Consumer

I've had several difficulties communicating with businesses, particularly internet service providers or online merchants who deal with processing credit cards. 

Most of these have to do with personal accounts and information that are not as easily discussed over social media. So in these cases, I have not used social media to contact them. I deal with an automated computer system for about 20 minutes each time before I speak to a representative. 

As I am not product centric, I do not interact with companies about products on a regular basis. However, I have seen many examples of people using twitter to speak to an airline about their experiences. Some of those companies deal very well with customers through there, others have still yet to master such an experience. 

Most of the companies that I have attempted to contact through social media are usually inundated with messages from large amount of people. Therefore, I have never received a response back from the majority of these companies when I send them feedback about a product, either negative or positive. Therefore, my overall experience with companies through social media is negative based on lack of response.