CSIT 155: Week8B - Twitter

Hello again friends and fellow bloggers,

A quick reminder of my STUFF:

www.sharonscozypets.com

www.facebook.com/sharonscozypets

https://twitter.com/SharonsCozyPets
 

I have found an enormous variety of Twitter users that’s could benefit from my business, and I theirs. I found some potential customer leads, as discovering pet-lovers anywhere is not terribly difficult to do, as well as finding help in places like Google AdWords, Bogging, Online Marketing and so on, from people who are considered experts. Despite being new to this particular social media platform, I have managed to increase my follow numbers pretty steadily, and do my best to get recognized through the most common hashtags of the moment. Only time and dedication will tell where this is going and regardless of how the baby-steps are, learning about what works best is most important.

I have sent multiple tweets, and as I read in “The Tao of Twitter” the number 3 is generally the magic number, however, it should be three a DAY, rather than per week. If you really want to get noticed, there are also “general unspoken rules” about what type of content to tweet, and when.

 When I performed my search, I simply put “pet” which found me a quarter of my follow contacts, and then I put “animal” which found me another quarter. I then subsequently used the follows these contacts had to complete my current list of follows. I’ll likely keep performing this action as long as Twitter will allow me – and once established, will likely drop all the things I have no relationship to.

I have created four lists, and started organizing my follows accordingly, although I’m sure there are plenty of other forms of organization I can do with these individuals/businesses, I made a general collection for a few genres – I can always go back later and get more detailed with it.

The lists I created were: 

Business Contacts & Tools
Rescue Shelters
Pet Supplies & Products
Fellow Animal Lovers

I decided on these four general collections (although I could have made a fifth of some sort of motley crew randomicity, for follows I have reciprocated) because it was the best way to categorize the types of people in my twitter life. It makes this easier because I can now visit the list I have organized and get only the topics I am looking for. Great concept.  

Although I am not sure what time potential customers see my tweets, as there seems to be an even flow of tweets throughout the day, I think the most popular hours in general are “business hours” like 8-6, but Eastern Time.  As I am not completely sure of this, I will utilize some recommended tools, such as Hootsuite, and others to monitor the analytics of my twitter audiences to effectively adjust and respond to them.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

Cheers!

JennL.

CSIT 155: Week8A - Twitter

Hello again friends and fellow Bloggers,

This week was an eye-opener for me, absolutely. I had a personal twitter account and a business twitter account, for many years, yet I never truly used either. I’ve learned there are two kinds of people in the world – people who use twitter, and people that get left out. Due to this portion of the course, I wanted to learn as much as I could about twitter, and purchased “The Tao of Twitter” by Mark W. Schaefer, and was enthralled from page one. A simple read, but literally the basis of how this crazy collection of 140 characters functions. I have learned a lot, more than I ever thought without just “diving in”, and know I will continue to learn as I get more familiar with this service I’ve subscribed to for years.

My business account is:

www.twitter.com/SharonsCozyPets

And although it may have a birthday of 2010, it is being born as we speak, and I’ve put a ton of work into in the last few days. After consolidating my scattered business contacts, I have developed a method of reaching all of my social media places of interest with much less effort than before, and I understand, with practice, it will get easier.

The profile picture on my account is that of the original marketing collection, and although my facebook profile changes frequently (we rotate out pet models with the pet warmer), I’m sure people who are familiar with us will recognize the product.  

Almost immediately upon exploring twitter I managed to get myself banned, as this account has been nearly 100% idle in the last 6 years and then suddenly SUPER active. I could verify a few bits of information to unblock my account and continue. Of course, the following day I was banned again for a different reason: following too many friends in a single day – which I thought was impossible. To attempt to get the analytics functioning I need about 200 followers, and right now I’m at about 170, which is fine, but still doesn’t beat the 800 I am following.  I completely understand these numbers will be grossly disproportionate at first, and I can choose to adjust later if I receive more followers organically, through my entertaining content, or paid advertising, if necessary.  What I did read, however, is the follows on twitter are generally reciprocated, therefore all the follows I have organically received, I have also returned. 

Otherwise, I have added tweets, contributed to Hashtag Roundups and games, and “loved” many items in my field of interest – animals. So far, it seems to be going fine. I’ll let you know as things progress, but I haven’t burned down any bridges yet; don't worry, though, there's still time. 

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Cheers!

JennL.

CSIT 155: Week7C - Get Visual

Hello again friends and fellow Bloggers,

A quick reminder of my STUFF:

www.sharonscozypets.com

www.facebook.com/sharonscozypets

https://twitter.com/SharonsCozyPets

It certainly has been a long and strange journey. I initially joined this course with the idea in mind that I know a bit about social media, and social media marketing, so therefore what I learn in this class would be fun and a lovely addition to my file-cabinets of knowledge regarding the subject. Geez, was I ever mistaken. This course is so incredible I have already developed an entire new toolbox of tricks and tips, and the collection keeps getting bigger. It’s far more complex than I could have ever imagined, and because of this new understanding of the digital world, I have been immersed in adjusting my many corners of the internet, for nearly four straight days. I can’t believe how overwhelming this has become, and to think I once believed it would be easy!

So, as we have determined, visual support is often key to getting and keeping audiences, ultimately leading to the sales of our products and services, or, in some cases, a viral interest from the public for our entertaining content. I’m still learning about the trends that are entertaining, and what is popular to all generations online, but this process is something that will never end – we just get better at addressing it with practice. Visual media was something minimally used in my family business, simply because it is very time consuming and I was unable to manage the time to spend with it. I used programs like Animoto, that came with attractive templates, and uploaded that information to youtube, where I would then share it freely. I have learned (with both this course and another I am taking) it is better to develop original content, regardless of time, to get a better response from audiences. It also avoids the chance of copyright infringement, with use of images or audio content that may be under someone else’s ownership. I have purchased Wondershare Filmora, and produced (part of) a cute video while processing how to use all the functions to their fullest potential. It goes without saying a program is only as helpful as the user’s knowledge of it – similar to computers. I plan to learn all I can to master this program, then perhaps graduate to something more complex in the future. 

I’m currently flirting with the idea of developing an animated show, like Simon’s Cat, but I have to start with baby-steps before I am capable of tackling such an enormous feat.  Baby steps.

There are many businesses online “similar” to mine, in the essence they produce a great deal of entertaining material which is pet related, but to be honest, I rarely see anyone that has the same type of material. Very few people carry the product my family business makes (pet warmers for outdoor animals), and those folks, although easy to find throughout social media, don’t contribute much to the field of entertainment. They focus their content straight to the product, and as I can see how that works, I want my audiences to know I am a real person and this is a real family-owned business – not just a factory in the city somewhere.  Therefore, I’m trying so hard to make connections and allow my personality and my father’s endless humor to shine through. Sometimes, I don’t know how these businesses manage all this activity. Whew.

The proportion of followers to businesses like mine are desperately different, and although I am still learning about how to achieve that, I’m starting to see the light. I notice, the more popular a product, brand or service becomes, the less they must “one-for-one trade” likes or follows. I’m currently at a 1/6 ratio, as far as I can tell. I wish the numbers were better than that, but I’m not giving up yet – all good things come to those who wait, and a digital media explosion certainly doesn’t happen overnight. 

Otherwise, I don’t really have anything to list, per se, as I mentioned earlier there are businesses that post similar content to me, but not the same, and the facebook accounts I addressed in one of my previous blog posts contained all the information I could ever say about them. 

Thank you for taking the time to read, and following me on this journey.

Cheers!

JennL.