Class Summary

This class has taught me a ton about social media and how important it can be for any business these days. Before I took this class I noticed that all big businesses have thriving social media accounts on all networks. This made me realize that running accounts for your company are a very big deal in today’s technology advancing world and by taking this class it made me further understand how much work and how important social media really is. So, my view has not really changed but I now have a much better understanding of social media as a whole.

By creating a hypothetical business (SK Surfboards) for the semester, I got actual practice of what controlling social media sites for a business is really like. I learned that your business can experiment with tons of different things, whether that’s running a sales promotion or just developing customer relations. It was really fun for me to research and tryout all of these different aspects of running a business. In doing this, I had to realize what was going to work for my business and close to the end I started to get the feel for how I would want to approach things. I would say that running the Facebook/Instagram accounts for my business were the most enjoyable part for me. This gave me real world experience that will benefit me in the future and the fact that I got to market surfboards made it even better. Surfing is my favorite hobby and being able to practice social media marketing with a surf company made it simply amazing. In the end, this class for sure gave me a better understanding of how to successfully develop a business and I came to realize all the hard work/little details that goes into it.

In taking this class, I learned how to create success within your social media. With experience and practice I found that the first step is knowing your target market. Things will come a lot easier once you know who specifically who you are reaching out to and without this you would just be wasting your time. Another thing you have to keep in mind is that there are numerous other businesses out there trying to market to the same people you are, so you must keep up with your competition. I realized this after modeling my account after countless other ones that are involved in the same industry.

I would say one of the most important parts I got out of this practice in this class was how you must always stay on top of things and be consistent. Whether this was just keeping up with assignments or constantly keeping an eye and posting on the social media sites. Without consistency you may start to loose people, which isn’t good if you are trying to make it in the real world.

 Over the last couple of years, I have been deciding on what I want to pursue in life and what path to take. The main reason I signed up for this class was because I was thinking about majoring in marketing or more specifically social media marketing. This class was really fun for me and it made me realize that this is something I will probably try to pursue through my college education. I learned a ton through the class and I will use the vital information for future classes or even the real world when I get that far.
Thanks to everyone for the awesome experience and class!
Cheers,
-Shawn Kaufman

Tools for Business

I think my business will require to be constantly involved in social media. So, updating it daily on networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will be necessary. Since it is a local surf shop it will be a good thing to constantly remind people of it, in order to draw them in.

I think the google drive system would be a very nice place to start organizing the future for the social media marketing of my business. I am already very comfortable with working google drive and you can easily share your thoughts/data with coworkers or anyone you want.

How I would outline google drive for the next month:
Week 1: Attention grabbing photo ideas
              Promotion dates, such as sales or special deals
Week 2: Outline more appealing photos to post, with possible team riders using the product
              Get feedback from coworkers on what special promotions to use
Week 3 and 4: Repeat process of photos being posted
                        Decide on time and day of week for promotion (with help from others)

This serves as the basis of marketing for the shop, which it's main goal is to attract customers to the shop. I would repeat this process for the time being and google drive is the best way to store all these thoughts and ideas.

Week 16B

Blogs I commented on

Micheal Fanghella

Sonya Mcarthur

Michael Phillips

Week 16A: Reviewing Class

After creating my hypothetical surf shop business for this semester I have realized that the two best social media platforms for me are Facebook and Instagram. These are the two that I put the most work into and have become the most comfortable with. In my opinion these are the two most important platforms to be involved in these days, especially Instagram since practically everyone has it.
I have definitely enjoyed using an Instagram business account and I would say this is my favorite social media network. I have had Instagram for awhile now, so I feel pretty confident in posting pictures that people will like. Overall I believe this is the most effective way to market my company to the people that I want.
Instagram can serve as the best way to post on a daily use pattern. Once you get the swing of things, coming up with ideas of what to post becomes easy. With that said, you must keep up the flow of your posts so the viewers don't forget about your business.
One social media site that I learned would benefit me is youtube. This is a platform that would be very effective, without having to use it on a daily basis. I can just post a video maybe once a week and this still works to my advantage.

Week 15: Google Analysis

After searching through Google analytics, I found that it has many benefits and can help your business understand what they are doing right or wrong.
The fist one that I thought would benefit my business is simply the total page views. This would give me an idea of how many people are looking at my page and to see how many of those people actually go on to buy something. With this information I could experiment a little bit, in order to realize what needs to be done to draw in viewers.
Another part of the Google analytics that I would use for my company would be frequency of visits. This allows you to see how many sessions were generated for a certain percentage of your audience. With this tool you will be able to tell if you are getting people to come back and with my local business it would be important for people to visit more than just once.
The last aspect of Google analytics that I really liked is time spent on site, which would tell me how long these people are really staying on the website. This is important because I could think I'm doing well with views but not realize that people are only staying for a short period of time. In the end, if people are not fully engaging in my website then I won't be able to sell them on my product.

Week 14: Advertisements

Here are the three ads I created:

All of these ads serve a purpose in reaching my target market. First off, I tried to include images of my own that would catch peoples eyes, mainly people who enjoy to surf. 

The first ad basically describes what my business is with a cool picture, basically to inform anyone who isn't familiar with it already. The second post is a call to action by trying to urge the viewer by providing a 20% off coupon. The last post is another picture I found very cool that would be catchy to ones eye. This post also includes a link to my website, so once the picture draws them in then they will go to the site and hopefully make some purchases. 

All of these made the most sense for my hypothetical business in todays world. 

Week 13B

In todays busy society filled with advertising, I believe that incorporating an appealing design is key to getting people to even notice. Personally, I don't really even notice an ad anymore unless they include some really cool photo or have something that jumps out at me.

For my business I would include a lot of catchy surfing images that contain a lot of color, in order to get people to even look at the ad. I would start with a banner ad that has a really nice shot of a wave, simply to get the viewers to click on that. I would prefer to get my ad on surfline.com, because this is a website that my target market is constantly using. Also I think it would be a good idea to try and get a lot of my ads out there so that people will be persuaded to go to the in store location.

The two main tactics I would incorporate into my Facebook ads include call to action and visuals. By having a visual out there the viewer is way more likely to stop and look at it, as opposed to an ad with a bunch of words. With that said, the image must be very appealing, otherwise its no better than a list of words. The other tactic I find valuable is call to action. This strategy adds a strong sense of urgency to who ever is looking at the post. This way I can say things such as: "Buy now and get 50% off your next purchase", which can be a very successful way to gain your target market.

Week 13A: Similar Businesses

The five businesses I choose to follow that are similar to mine are: Hansen Surfboards, Billabong,  Surfer, Stab Magazine, and Hurley. Theses are all companies involved in the surf industry, which is important for me to see how these businesses use  their social media.

To me all of these companies do a great job on their social sites, but thats mainly because I love the information they constantly post and I enjoy hearing the news that each of  them share daily.

Billabong and Hurley are two huge companies in the surf industry today and are very successful. In my opinion, part of that success comes from the constant aesthetically pleasing photos/videos that are posted. They both provide many photos of team riders that countless people admire, including myself. In doing this they also post shots of the product and people wearing the product that draw the viewer in.

Hansen Surfboards is defiantly the most similar business to my hypothetical one, since its also a local Encinitas surf shop. They gain all the local followers by posting constant topics about the community or people that they sponsor in the community. While they mainly market to local people of Encinitas, they also gain tons of crowds in the summer and they provide a ton of insights to what the shop is like through their social media.

Stab Magazine and Surfer are both pretty similar and can be put in the same category as mine. They are more about posting news of the surf world and mainly about the various professional surfers that are out their. They draw consumers in by sharing the newest and best surfing photos/Videos that everyone wants to see.

In todays technological world I most certainly think that social media advertising has kind of taken over traditional ways. I think social media marketing is way more impactful and useful today. Personally, I don't really pay much attention to any billboards or anything anymore and I'm drawn to my phone much more often.

Week 12B

1. Coupon Networks

I think the way I would incorporate a coupon into my business would be through my newsletter system. By doing this I will get people to come to the shop and to also open more of my emails that get sent out. I would start off by creating a basic 15% off any purchase (In store only). This would hopefully encourage people to use the coupon and make their way to the shop. Personally when I see any kind of coupon it gives me the extra push I need to make a purchase. The only downfall I could see it possibly losing a little bit of money at first, but the way I see it is that people will then purchase more items just because they got their 15% off.

2. Yelp 

By searching through some other surf shop yelp reviews and other local businesses around here, I found that a lot of people do have nice things to say but more often than not people are complaining. While people may give you a 4/5 or a 5/5 they still might rant about something that they didn't enjoy. This could help your company improve but also it could hold other people back just by reading a couple bad reviews. Overall this is a good way for the customers to locate the shop and to learn a little bit about what it's like. 

Week 12A

I believe the four online marketing tools that could benefit my business as of right now would be Yelp, Groupon, living social and Google Maps.

Yelp
This is always a good way to get feedback from the community on what you are doing good or what you can improve on. It will allow me to see how the way I am running my company is perceived by others and that way it will be easy to change the things that are going wrong. And by owning a local business this will definitely be something useful in the long run. In the end the only negative part about yelp is that most people only leave a review on there if they have something bad to say about your business, so this can make you look worse than you actually are.

Groupon and Living Social
These two marketing tools could serve as a great way for me to promote special deals or coupons that are available. Living Social is basically all about exposing the consumers to new deals everyday. This would be a nice way to get people into my shop and they are more likely to make other purchases, since they are already there.

Google Maps
This is obviously very important because it tells the consumers where the business is located. Since my business is a Surf Shop, the physical location is very important for people to know. All people would need to do is search my company name and then from there they would get the location, website and any other key information needed.  

Week 11B

Posts I commented on:
Patrick Conahan
Zameer Karim
Brent Reyes

Here is a screenshot of my newsletter:

Week 11A: Email Marketing

Creating a newsletter is for sure an easy marketing tool that will mot take too much effort. They could help educate my target market on what the business is all about and get those thoughts into their heads. In these I could also inform anyone of special offers, sales, or basically any promotion that well benefit the customer. These emails would include where to find any of the product and how to buy it.
 One big part of the email is it allows for you to share all of the online aspects that you business may contain, whether that the website for online shopping or simply any social media site that you have. Its also important that these emails being sent out aren't too boring, it would be necessary for me to include a cool font and some nice looking images with the email being sent out. I would do this in order to catch the eye of anyone who is on the email list.

Week 10B: Categories for my Business

If I were to setup categories to keep my business organized I would have a news section and a product section. In the first part I would include any special news that has a correlation to my business and basically any information that the target market wants to see or hear about. This way people can experience what is going in the industry that my business belongs to. In the product category I would show all of the different product being used, worn or even modeled. Here people can get a better idea of what the company has to offer and see if they are interested.

Being this specific would keep me organized and allow the viewer to find everything with ease.




Blogs I commented on: Michael Fanghella, Sonya Mcarthur, Andrew Sterk

Week 10A: Human Interest

Creating human interest in a business can be very important. Many people can connect to something a lot better if they have a personal experience with the subject and overall it makes a great marketing tool. In order to connect to the viewers on a intimate level you will have to make sure you are using a personalized tone that makes that person feel good. For the business I am using this semester, creating human interests is most certainly something that is beneficial to a company like that. Since the market is somewhat small, having a good vibe and using personal tones towards that amount of people is very important. Appealing to ones emotions can be one of the easiest ways to draw someone into what you are trying to get across. So, when you are advertising your business or product and you get to someones emotions it is very likely they will think about what you are selling more. For most cases using a personal touch is effective but it can sometimes be seen as unprofessional and may not fit every business strategy.

Week 9: Twitter

To find connections throughout Twitter I used various words, trying to relate them to my business as much as possible. I searched words such as surf, surfing, surf shop, and Encinitas. These searches led me to countless pages that are connected to surfing in some way, which is what my business is all about.
I followed different successful companies that are involved in the surfing industry in order to see how they are using their social media.
The first list I created is called "Surf Companies". This list is for any major surfing company out there, in order to model my marketing such as they do. My other list is designed for other surf shops or basically any local business here in Encinitas. This way I can have a good idea of what a business is like here and how to be successful.
The time most customers would see my tweets would be most likely be any time in the afternoon or late afternoon.

Week 8B: Get Visual

I believe visuals are most certainly a very important part of most businesses these days, especially with social media growing rapidly. Visuals are for sure a big part of my business and having cool images would help out the marketing a lot. If  I upload pictures of surfing that draw people in, that will only help the growth of the company.
Here are some businesses somewhat similar to mine:
1. Billabong, Last Post-March 27th
Visuals of their product seem to work very well on their Instagram. They have 1.3M followers and usually get about 15,000-25,000 likes on a photo. This ratio is not that good overall but they still do a good job with providing cool visuals of the product. Billabong also receives a fair amount of comments on their photos but it is not anywhere near their amount of followers.

2. Hansens Surfboards, Last Post- March 27th
This is a very similar business to mine, by being a local small business of Encinitas. On their Instagram they have 14K followers and get about 200-500 likes on a average photo. This also isn't the best ratio, but this is the same for every Instagram account out there. With that said, they also do a good job of providing visuals that people like to see.

Most business social media accounts these days have a bad follower to likes ratio, but it is something every company deals with. Now, just because they didn't receive a ton of likes it doesn't mean that they didn't receive a ton of views. A lot of people today follow big companies and don't end up liking their posts because they may feel that the business gets enough likes as it is. When these businesses upload aesthetically pleasing photos then they will get more likes and attention. That is why having good visuals is a major part of social media marketing today.

Week 8A: Get Visual

I would most certainly say that visuals would be a huge part of my business. Visuals are the most effective and powerful way to draw in the consumers to your product. By having a very cool looking image this makes it more likely for the viewer to stop scrolling and actually read what it's about.

With that said, this is the order I rank the 8 platforms for my Surfboard company:
1. Instagram
2. Youtube
3. Facebook
4. Snapchat
5. Twitter
6. Tumblr
7. Pinterst
8. Google+

From what I have experienced recently, Instagram is probably the most popular social media network that everyone has. I think this would be the most effective way to market because it allows me share exclusive photos or videos with the viewers. Like I said earlier, people are drawn to visuals and Instagram is for sure one of the best places demonstrate those images. I would say Facebook (my #3 choice) shares similar qualities with Instagram, by being able to upload any photo or video that you'd like.

I chose Youtube for my second choice mainly because of the type of business that I am running. There are many different types, models and shapes of surfboards, so Youtube would allow me to show these various boards in action and give the viewer a good idea of what its like. My 4th overall choice, which is Snapchat, is a little different than most of these other sites but I think it is very important. I have had a Snapchat for a pretty long time now and  I would say this is the number two most used social media site for most people. Over the years I have seen different companies make their way into using this network as a great marketing tool. Snapchat would allow me to kind of give a "behind the scenes" look at whats going on with the company and I could also simply upload photos/videos of the product to here.

The three that I think are the least important for my business would be Tumblr, Pinterest and Google+. These are the three I am least familiar with and I would say more people use Instagram or Facebook over these. Despite this, I would still try to use these networks because the more platforms you are involved in, the more people you will draw in.

Here is the link to the Instagram I just created: https://www.instagram.com/sksurfboards/

Week 7B: Scheduled Posts

I believe these posts are a good way to kick off my Facebook marketing. The first post shows an example of some of the product and it is encouraging people of all skills to come by and grab a new board for the spring.
The second post is trying to grab peoples attention by saying that the shop will be having a sale. Discounted product always encourages customers to actually come in to see what kind of deal they can get. Just by drawing people in with a sale can lead to them buying other products available, benefiting the store.
The third post is simply to give an example of the product by showing a video of it in action. This allows people to see what the boards are capable of and might cause them to come purchase one. I also used my self as a "team rider" just to give an example of how sponsoring people to use your product can help.

Week 7A: Facebook Page Likes

These are all of the pages I liked as my account (Sk Surfboards):
Nixon
Hurley
Billabong
Surfrider Foundation
Surfer
Stab Magazine
Hansen Surfboards

All of the pages that I chose to like are involved in the surf industry in some way, so since my business is in this market it is good to check out similar companies in the field. Some of these pages are clothing/surf gear companies while some are magazines that upload all the latest surf news on to their social media sites. With that said, I think its important to follow all of these successful businesses in order to model mine after theirs.  Since my initial target market is basically anyone who surfs it is a good idea to like these pages because they all contain the same followers.

By liking theses businesses on my page I will be able to see how they are successfully using social media. I will also be able to get a really good idea of the people I will be trying to market to and how to get it done correctly.

Week 6B: Facebook Insights

 What is the difference between post reach and post engagement? 
Post reach is the measure of how many people have actually seen your post. This can be an important aspect for a business to see how they are doing and can help them improve their business overall. Post engagement is kind of similar but it is different in a couple ways. This shows how many actual views, clicks, comments or shares that your post contains. This can also be an important way to benefit your business and maybe realize what needs to be changed.

I think this difference can be seen as important because if you have a high reach this does not necessarily mean that you are getting to your initial target market. You may have random people seeing your page and not doing anything about it. I believe reach and engagement work together and it is important to have high levels of both. In order to become successful the business needs to know what ways their marketing is affective and what ways they need to improve.

How can a business use Facebook insights to better serve their customers?
Facebook insights provide a lot of certain tools to help out the business, whether its amount of views, gender of the viewers or what time people are viewing it can all be valuable information to that business. With all this data they can see the overall growth of the company and learn ways to improve. By being able to see what posts gained the most likes, comments and views the business can  model future posts to be like the successful ones in the past. To conclude, using insights only benefits a business by basically being able to see what is working and what is not.

Facebook Page

Here is the link to my hypothetical local business, SK Surfboards!
https://www.facebook.com/SK-Surfboards-1206721486110242/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Week 5B: My Business

The business I will be talking about for the remainder of the semester is SK Surfboards. This is a local Encinitas surf shop that sells surfboards, surf apparel, and clothing.

Since I am only 18 I do not own my own business yet. This is just something that I made up because I would love to be involved in the local surf culture by owning a surf shop. I feel you could connect with the people who live here and also I would enjoy helping people who want to learn to surf figure out what to purchase.

I would want to be on all of the major social media sites of todays world. This would most likely include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube  and possibly snapchat. This would be the best way to market the product of the shop.

My target market would include basically any male or female who lives near here that surfs sometimes or on a regular basis. This would be the main market during winter and once summer kicks in the market expands to a bigger crowd. In the summer Encinitas is filled with people from different areas that are looking for a place to rent surfboards, wetsuits, or any other surf apparel. This shop would be a place where beginners or experienced surfers could find something they want or need. This could include a surfboard, a pair of board shorts, or simply a cool T-Shirt.

Week 5A: Target Markets

The set of websites I looked at were Chili's and Teri Cafe. While these two places share some of the same foods, they seem to be marketing to different groups of people.


One of the biggest differences that I noticed right away was that these websites both have a very different tone/vibe to them. Chilis has huge letters that read "Smokehouse Combos" right in the middle of the page right when you open it. This is what your attention is drawn to immediately and they do that on purpose. Overall Chili's has a much more aesthetically appealing layout to the site, including cool looking fonts, colors and design. The Teri Cafe site gives off a different vibe and seems to be a lot more simple. Since they are a small business they are probably not putting as much effort into the website and are more relying on people just coming into the restaurant. Another big difference is that Chilis is a chain restaurant with different locations across the world, while Teri Cafe is a local restaurant with only about two locations. Chilis website is a lot larger in comparison to the small Teri Cafe one. On Chili's, they have much more to say, while Teri Cafe is simply promoting the food and the daily specials.

The markets for these two places are most certainly different. Teri Cafe is more of a local target market, so basically anyone who lives in San diego or any tourists visiting. Chili's is marketing to a much bigger crowd, since they have their restaurant practically everywhere. Despite this, there still may be some crossover to the markets. They do have some similar foods and are both located in San Diego, so they could potentially be targeting some of the same people. Also the pricing on their food is about the same for the most part, so people who want quality food for a reasonable price may go to either of the restaurants.

To conclude, these two restaurants have many differences, as I pointed out above, but they also share the part of quality food for a good price. They may draw similar crowds at times, even though they have significantly different online websites and contain different overall vibes.

Week 4B: Websites I visit

1.http://www.surfline.com/home/index.cfm

One website I frequently visit is surfline.com. This site is basically the easiest way to check the surf or the surf forecast. The site contains cameras for almost every surf spot and it allows you to look how the waves are without leaving the house. I also visit the in order to watch surf videos or to hear about the latest news in the surfing industry.

I believe this website is very effective and it is perfect for anyone who enjoys surfing videos or just wants to check how the waves look. The website is very easy to follow by having about 8 main tabs at the top. These tabs include all of the main components of the site and are clearly labeled. I would say that the main reason people go on surfline.com is to either check the waves or to look at the forecast for the next week or so. They make it very easy to do this by having a tab that pulls down menu where you can select different regions around the world and then you can go from there. 

Overall this website has a good modern look to it and contains many images to make it look nice. The fonts and colors are not too overwhelming, making it a cool site visit and search through. These are some of the reasons I come back to the site, but in the end the main reason I go back is to check the surf, look at the forecast and just to watch some surf videos. 

The only part I might want to change about surfline is to limit the amount of advertisements that pop up. Now I know this might not be possible, but it would be nice to not have so many ads jumping out at you when you are scrolling around. 

2. https://www.amazon.com/ref=nav_logo

Another website that I use often is Amazon. I commonly go on here to shop for items at a good price and for fast shipping. Online shopping is big now a day and I believe amazon is the best website to buy certain things from, simplifying your shopping needs. 

Amazon has defiantly put together a nice website and they have most certainly made buying specific objects a lot easier. Having the big search bar right in the upper middle section of the website has made it very effective and easy-going. Once you end up searching something it is easy to see what they have on offer and the price is shown right away in semi big blue lettering. 

I enjoy how easy it is to find what you are looking for and to order those things. They also keep a nice list of all the items you ordered in the past and how much you paid for them. All the little things they do to make shopping easier is the main reason I find amazon so effective and user friendly. The website contains a nice simple look and is in no way overwhelming in my opinion. 

One thing amazon could improve on the website is to possibly develop the recommended items part. They usually just put the exact items you ordered in the past since they are sometimes different sellers with the same product. I would like to see some similar items to what I have bought in the past, so that way I may be interested in buying it.

Here are the blogs I commented on for Week 4A
Patrick Conahan
Hernan Hernandez
Andrew Sterk 

  

Week 4A: Website Pro/Cons

The first website I visited was Penny Juice (http://www.pennyjuice.com). This site is very plain and pretty unclear on what it's even about. There are no tabs to click on and everything is in one spot, making it look a little bland and defiantly hard to navigate for the viewers. Another site I found full of problems was the Spot Metering one (http://spotmetering.com). This site is also kind of confusing and there is kind of a lot jumping out at you. The page is not very aesthetically desirable, with it's odd  font, font colors, photos and background. The whole page just seems very out of date and hard to search through.

These websites could both try to upgrade to a more modern look by changing fonts, photos, colors, etc. The Penny Juice one for sure needs to be more clear and include labeled tabs to navigate the site. These sites need to improve these things in order to have a more austhetically pleasing site and draw in more viewers. If they do change theses things I believe it would help people understand what they are showing/selling,  which would only help.

One website that does everything correctly is Apples site (http://www.apple.com). They keep it very up to date, include many good looking photos and it is very easy to find your way around the site. All the tabs at the top are clearly labeled and it makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. Another strong website is Toyota's (http://www.toyota.com). They have avery modern style and everything is all up to date. They make it easy to find the car your looking for by having the "select vehicle" tab and it's a breeze to find whatever you may need.

I would say design and aesthetics are two of the most important parts of having a website. When the site looks good it will draw you in more, causing you to search around. Making your branding look satisfying is also very important and personally it impacts me the most when it looks superb and easy to follow.

Week 3B: Business Websites/Social Media

1. Billabong
- http://www.billabong.com
-Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo
-All seem to be very well used, except for vimeo hasn't been posted on for 5 months
-Facebook (February 9th), Instagram (Feb13th), Twitter (Feb 7th), Youtube (Feb 13th), Vimeo (September)
Billabong uses their social media very well and the most popular one is Instagram which they post the most on because of all the followers.

2. Burton Snowboards
-https://www.burton.com
-Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest
-All well used
-Facebook (Feb 13th), Twitter (Feb 13th), Youtube (Feb 8th), Instagram (Feb 13th), Pinterest (Unknown)
Burton keeps all their pages up to date and does a good job of displaying their product through cool photos.

3. Channel Islands Surfboards
-http://www.cisurfboards.com
-Youtube, Instagram, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter
-All pages are used
-Youtube (Feb 5th), Instagram (Feb 13th), Vimeo (Jan 29th), Facebook (Feb 13th), Twitter (Feb 13th)
Channel Islands uses them all very equally except they space out their uploads on Youtube and Vimeo a little more than maybe Instagram, which is normal for these companies

4. Surer Magazine
-http://www.surfer.com
-Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest
-All pages are used
-Instagram (feb 13th), Facebook (Feb 13th), Twitter (Feb 13th), Youtube (Feb 8th), Pinterest (Unknown)
Surfer Magazine posts an all accounts daily and does a good job at providing what people want to see  in surfing

5. GoPro
-https://gopro.com
-Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
-All pages used
-Facebook (Feb 13th), Youtube (Feb 13th), Twitter (Feb 13th), Instagram (Feb 13th), Pinterest (Unknown)
GoPro has a very unique marketing tactic since their product is a camera. In doing this they provide very cool photos and videos everyday of their cameras and what they can do

After searching through all these different companies I discovered a few things throughout. One was that everyone of the companies I chose is most active and popular on Instagram They all contain their most amount of followers on there and it seems to be the most popular social media site in todays world. With that said, all of these businesses use all of the networks and different people use other ones more often than others. All of these brands use cool photos to market their product which I find very effective.

While these businesses are all on Youtube or Vimeo this seems to be the least active place. Now, thats not a bad thing though. We don't necessarily need a new video every single day but it's nice how they all upload videos at least weekly. This gives the consumer a good way to check out the product and the athletes that are associated with it.

All of the companies I chose are involved in Surfing and/or snowboarding in some way. This is because I love these things and it is a market I might want to pursue if possible. I think it's important to love what you do so if I could work doing the things I love it would be a lot better for me!

Posts I commented on:
Michael Fanghella
Alexis Holley
Brent Reyes

Week 3A: Social Media Communication

These days it seems relatively easy to me to get in touch with a business, since there are many different ways to contact them. There is always a phone number, an email and many social media sites to try and contact them through. The only time communicating with a business has been hard for me is when I get put on hold for a long period of time or don't get a response to an email that I sent to the business. This doesn't happen every time though, the majority of the time help is easy to find. 

I do believe that social media has made it easier for businesses to solve problems that customers have. With the growing world of social media and technology companies are more intact with providing help, especially over the phone, email or whatever it may be.

With everyone being a part of social media businesses can use this to their advantage to help the company. Social media marketing by businesses has positively affected me simply by making me aware of the new product they offer or by informing me of an exclusive offer I could obtain. For example, if a surf company I like puts out an ad for a new wetsuit they have, chances are that I will only see it if its on social media. So by putting it on these networks it only has positive outcomes. 

Providing businesses with positive and negative comments can always help. If it was my company I would build off the positive comments and learn how to be better from the negative ones. 

Week 2B: Blog Comments

Madison  Burns

Irene Vasquez

Patrick Conahan

Week 2A: Overview of Social Media Use

I would say almost all the social media platforms now a day are used for personal use. Personally I use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Youtube all for my personal use with no business involved. And many friends or people I know could say the same I'm sure. I would say that Snapchat is the one platform geared mostly towards personal use, but people are realizing this and are starting to market even through this.

Now, this doesn't mean these aren't used for business also. All of the social media platforms I listed above are involved in business in various ways. Almost every modern company/business has an Instagram, Facebook, twitter, etc. that they use to promote whatever it is they have to promote. With that said, social media is a very important aspect to marketing these days and everyone tries to use it to their advantage. Almost all these sites also have advertisements all over the place, whether its just a pop up or something on the side, they will have them regardless. We may not think much of those ads that pop up but they at least get us thinking about what is being presented.

Week 1B: Blog Comments

Looking through all of the blogs was a cool way of seeing a little bit of peoples personalities and interests. Also it was interesting to see how everyone chose to lay their blog out.
Here are the blogs I commented on: Jordan Getz, Chuck Coogan, Zameer Karim, and Laura McIntire

Week 1A: Blog Template

Hello Everyone,
I am new to blogging so I am still trying to get the hang of things. Finding the right blog template was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. Despite this I did find one that I feel fits me and that I enjoy looking at. I chose the travel template because it looked nice and I liked the transparent background it had.
Then I figured I would find a new background image that fits me a little more. I found a cool image of a wave and thought it looked nice with my layout. Also if I decide I want to change the image I can very easily do that. I tried to match the colors to the background Image and find a nice font that goes with it all. I hope to start getting the hang of everything on here and start adding to the blog!