Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The Balance Connection Marketing Strategy
For my business The Balance Connetion, the marketing strategy has been primarily centered around Craigs list. Beyond that I have gotten all of my flyer posting locations memorized. And that was what I had been working with before this class. So now the marketing strategy that encorporates the best social media for a business of this sort and scope also includes the usage of Facebook and You Tube. My goal is to have to spend no more than 15 min once a day checking the Facebook account and maybe 45 min to an hr once a week updating and working with You Tube. That may cange though as my business grows and evolves. If I end up making more and more educational videos for You Tube then I may have to spend a lot more time uploading and so on. I will develop a test strategy for these tools by creating several promotional and educational videos for my Business and uplading them into You Tube and maybe even potentially embedding them into my Facebook page. If I can reach that 30 Likes mark and get the Facebook analytics to open up for me I will be able really get a good idea of how well what kind of posts have been fairing for me and be able to track how often and how many times which of my You Tube clips have been watched. Facebook content would be plotted primarily as yoga related stuff. That usually helps to keep followers nourished with continual ideas and images of wellness and health. That is one of the main things my page does for people. It gives them a plasce to go to feel likethey've connected to something transcendent. So posts that are centered around a health tip or new wellness fad or idea are great for the type of people that follow my site. I'd probably create You Tube clips of how to properly perfom different kinds of yoga postures safely without injury. Other cliips might be about the keys to living a balanced daily routine or tips for varying one's diet with the seasons.
Monday, December 16, 2013
More Social Strategy
In response to the assignment for week 14 it has indeed been quite the education on social media. Everything that was covered during the course was essentially brand new to me. We covered so much. From using an online discussion board and setting up our own blogs to add content to to setting up Facebook business pages with a variety of other integrated social media platforms and features. Learning about the different considerations and aspects of webpage layout and design was very useful and learning about the constant contact online newsletter also seemed like a great means of business promotion. I went from never having used any social media accept for looking at a few You Tube clips to developing my ficticious business through the Facebook, Google+, Twitter, You Tube and Constant Contact platforms. For my business, I still feel that the best end up being Facebook and You Tube since they are so prevelent, easy to work with, can be integrated with one another and make executing my day to day objectives simple enough to accomplish without demanding too much time continually overseeing. I have enjoyed using Twitter the most. I am suprised to say that but it was fun and interesting to see all of the different tweets and stuff that comes through that one. Facebook the least. I wasactually very hard for me. My computer had issues with their site multiple times and in multiple ways so I end up being hard pressed to call it user friendly. In fact navigating a lot of the features and options wasn't all that easy despite the technical problems I experienced. On a day to day usage pattern I would still choose to stick with Facebook as my primary platform though and maybe keep up a blogger site too. On a less frequent basis I would be updating and managing my You Tube account.
A few Twitter subscribers that seemed right to follow for my business
After signing up and getting myself aquainted with the twitter platform ( which was quite a process, having to find and decide on at least 15 twitter subscribers to follow off of the bat), I found some good potential business leads for myself by using the advanced search feature.
first I did a search that contained the words,
"yoga, wellness, holistic"
This brought up a never ending list of twitter subscribers that fit the description. After taking a look through the different accounts that came up I felt that these were some of the most interesting one's that may help to expand and extend the reach of my business and brand.
Holistic Network@HolisticNetwork
Probably the best go to source for all things wholistic. Couldn't hurt and since I noticed that Deepak Chopra follows them that seemed like a good sign. Also kinda cool to see that Twitter tells you when you are following someone that someone else you follow also has been following
Yoga Pants Daily™@YogasAllDay
Ok at a glance this one made sense because by the name I thought, "oh what a smart marketing idea. Some organization that started an account to feature different yoga pants each day so that anyone interested will come back each day to see what kind of pants they are featuring next. Turns out it's more about showing a different girl in yoga pants each day. Not a problem, I'll still follow but maybe not the best to be seen following them since it makes my company look sleezy so I wouldn't if I was already in the practice of using a Twitter account for business.
YogaTrail@YogaTrail
This one seemed really smart for me to follow since they are all about creating a resource network of different yoga teachers so that no matter where you are, you can find a yoga teacher near you. Perfect for me and my business!
Holistic Well Guide@HolisticWell
This one is somewhat similar to the last one only that it is a Holistic wellness source for linking all kinds of holistic health practitioners. Definitely for me.
After that I tried changing my search term so that I could find some other areas of tweeting that could be related to the healing modalities that I use so next I did a search for,
"Ayurveda"
That also produced a ton of results but the one that quickly stood out as a good candidate to follow for potential future business leads was
Ayurveda Awareness@AyurvedaPerth
Their page seemed to ring with a charm that was like what I emphasize so maybe they create a probable business link for me where some of the others seemed less likely to serve my purposes.
first I did a search that contained the words,
"yoga, wellness, holistic"
This brought up a never ending list of twitter subscribers that fit the description. After taking a look through the different accounts that came up I felt that these were some of the most interesting one's that may help to expand and extend the reach of my business and brand.
Holistic Network@HolisticNetwork
Probably the best go to source for all things wholistic. Couldn't hurt and since I noticed that Deepak Chopra follows them that seemed like a good sign. Also kinda cool to see that Twitter tells you when you are following someone that someone else you follow also has been following
Yoga Pants Daily™@YogasAllDay
Ok at a glance this one made sense because by the name I thought, "oh what a smart marketing idea. Some organization that started an account to feature different yoga pants each day so that anyone interested will come back each day to see what kind of pants they are featuring next. Turns out it's more about showing a different girl in yoga pants each day. Not a problem, I'll still follow but maybe not the best to be seen following them since it makes my company look sleezy so I wouldn't if I was already in the practice of using a Twitter account for business.
YogaTrail@YogaTrail
This one seemed really smart for me to follow since they are all about creating a resource network of different yoga teachers so that no matter where you are, you can find a yoga teacher near you. Perfect for me and my business!
Holistic Well Guide@HolisticWell
This one is somewhat similar to the last one only that it is a Holistic wellness source for linking all kinds of holistic health practitioners. Definitely for me.
After that I tried changing my search term so that I could find some other areas of tweeting that could be related to the healing modalities that I use so next I did a search for,
"Ayurveda"
That also produced a ton of results but the one that quickly stood out as a good candidate to follow for potential future business leads was
Ayurveda Awareness
Their page seemed to ring with a charm that was like what I emphasize so maybe they create a probable business link for me where some of the others seemed less likely to serve my purposes.
Is You Tube integrated with Facebook Now?
ok so I went through all of the steps that it said to take in the video for linking your You Tube channel to your facebook account but still do not notice any difference to either the You Tube cannel page or to my acebook page. So if anyone understands this better then me I'd sure appreciate hearing what I should do or come to expect or how to fully make usage of them being linked. I'm a little confused as to what the advantage is. I noticed that when I filled in the email and password to create the link it said that my Facebook user info would be transfered to my You Tube page but I'm not sure how much that is mattering but maybe it all becomes a lot more obvious once I start posting some videos on You Tube.
Businesses like mine and the Social Media platforms they use
A couple of businesses that are as close to what I am doing as I could find are,
healingthesource.com and chopra.com. I had looked at healingthesource.com one time before and had not noticed that they had been using any social media. But now they are taking advantage of the benifits of Facebook. When I took a look at their Facebook page it says that have been using Facebook for their business since 2012. I did not see that their page is overly elaborate in any way. Infact they only have 29 likes so they are right on the verge of being able to use the Facebook analytics tools. There Facebook business page is about as active and cluttered as mine which is comforting. There is no sign of any You Tube videos or any other social media being imbeded or linked to their Facebook page. They are perhaps the most similar to my business so it is reassuring that they are not taking a similar service to mine so far that I feel that the competition is overwhelming me. Then I checked out chopra.com. They are a bit similar to me since they also offer education and information that leads to corrective lifestyle measures by implementing the tools and knowledge of yoga and other healing tradditions but I am more about helping to create a lifestyle routine specifically for an individual through personal 1 on 1 meetups for training and educational sessions although I do also do some programs for larger groups from time to time. The Chopra center has a well developed social media campaign. They have social media links to Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Pintrest. I looked at their Facebook site first. They have 99,146 likes and it is quite apparent that their page is being updated with new posts continuously. Their twitter page is really active as well. With 1,960 tweets, 4,796 following and 11,210 followers they are well established as a Twitter page and there is new tweets showing for atleast twice a day. Their You Tube page is full of videos featuring a variety of speakers on a variety of topics so it is clear that they have all kinds of content to feature on this site so it is clear they are making good use of the social media platform You Tube can be. Then I checked out their Pintrest page. Not surprisingly there is all kinds of posts. They have 21 different boards, 520 pins 30 likes, 1,810 followers and 977 following. Not too bad. So I think it is interesting to see what is going on in the area of health and wellness and modern wholistic medicine. I am interested to see that while one site that helps to solve and prevent lifestyle issues and promote a state of wellbeing only uses Facebook another far better known source for similar healing wisdom is really making use of the various social media platforms to further it's cause. It certainly seems to be effective in creating a following and aiding in brand awareness for the Chopra center but that is not as clearly the case for Healing the Source.
healingthesource.com and chopra.com. I had looked at healingthesource.com one time before and had not noticed that they had been using any social media. But now they are taking advantage of the benifits of Facebook. When I took a look at their Facebook page it says that have been using Facebook for their business since 2012. I did not see that their page is overly elaborate in any way. Infact they only have 29 likes so they are right on the verge of being able to use the Facebook analytics tools. There Facebook business page is about as active and cluttered as mine which is comforting. There is no sign of any You Tube videos or any other social media being imbeded or linked to their Facebook page. They are perhaps the most similar to my business so it is reassuring that they are not taking a similar service to mine so far that I feel that the competition is overwhelming me. Then I checked out chopra.com. They are a bit similar to me since they also offer education and information that leads to corrective lifestyle measures by implementing the tools and knowledge of yoga and other healing tradditions but I am more about helping to create a lifestyle routine specifically for an individual through personal 1 on 1 meetups for training and educational sessions although I do also do some programs for larger groups from time to time. The Chopra center has a well developed social media campaign. They have social media links to Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Pintrest. I looked at their Facebook site first. They have 99,146 likes and it is quite apparent that their page is being updated with new posts continuously. Their twitter page is really active as well. With 1,960 tweets, 4,796 following and 11,210 followers they are well established as a Twitter page and there is new tweets showing for atleast twice a day. Their You Tube page is full of videos featuring a variety of speakers on a variety of topics so it is clear that they have all kinds of content to feature on this site so it is clear they are making good use of the social media platform You Tube can be. Then I checked out their Pintrest page. Not surprisingly there is all kinds of posts. They have 21 different boards, 520 pins 30 likes, 1,810 followers and 977 following. Not too bad. So I think it is interesting to see what is going on in the area of health and wellness and modern wholistic medicine. I am interested to see that while one site that helps to solve and prevent lifestyle issues and promote a state of wellbeing only uses Facebook another far better known source for similar healing wisdom is really making use of the various social media platforms to further it's cause. It certainly seems to be effective in creating a following and aiding in brand awareness for the Chopra center but that is not as clearly the case for Healing the Source.
A Blast from the Past, Getting Visual (week 7)
In consideration of the availible platforms of social media that create a visual avenue to promote my business by there are several that maybe advantagous for me to consider implementing for my business as well as a few that don't make as much sense given the nature and the scope of my business. After comparing the top 4 visual platforms it seems to me that 2 are immediately appropriate and 2 are a little less helpful at least at this time. At the moment I favor integrating Pintrest and You Tube. The reason to use Pintrest is largely to support the promotion of my blog. It is very helpful to harness the power of pintrest because the need to spend a lot of time with Pintrest in terms of generating content is minimal and the potential to pin helpful visuals that appeal to your target audience is worth that time investment. I can easily create a strategy to Pin visuals that speak a 1,000 words about the lifestyle behind my company's brand which acts to create trust and report with my customers and potential customers when they can detect that my values are the same as they aspire to be fulfillked by. And seeing images that a customer finds nourishing will cause them to be more interested in subscribing to my blog posts. So I can see a lot of value in harnessing Pintrest. Also You Tube is extremely valuable. Because the nature of my business has so much to do with the education around a personal wellness based lifestyle, it is very useful to create several short informational videos that I can upload to You Tube that will illustrate the points and correct practices that have to do with fascilitating the techin of what my services provide. Also embeding You Tube clips into my Facebook business page and website are an excellent way of using You Tube to the fullest for my business needs. At this time I am much less attracted to the prospect of using Tumbler and Instagram. Since tumbler is essentially a micro blogging platform and may tend to work better for fashion, large websites and publishing or broadcast media its probably not gonna be quite right for how I want to put out a blog. Since how I have my business scoped to operate doesn't really have me releasing new content on a timely release schedule with new releases to promote exactly (like new clothing lines or book releases) I am not gonna count on having followers of a microblog expect tat kind of product promotional release currency strategy. I think it is not for me. And while Instagram may offer some possible clever promotional campaigns for me, it seems like the work and upkeep of managing such a campaign not only holds little interest to me, it would be a weight compared to the prospect of brand recognition and exposure being increased. For my purposes You Tube and Pintrest are likely the 2 best visual social media platforms to implement.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Upcoming posts for Facebook
Got a pretty sweet post today for you here at the David C blog. You might recdognize it as an oldy but goody from week 6, as the "By Sunday" portion. However the specific content meade mention of through the blog is relevent since it makes mention of upcoming events.
Hmm, that's weird. I can't seem to make the picture I uploaded show up on the post no matter what I do. Ok well I'll just have to hand cut & paste all of the text from the Facebook activity log page. I'll paste each upcoming Facebook post sequntially and a brief explanation of why I think it will help yo bring customers to my business after each post.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Let's go for a hike to find Mnt. Carlsbad! We will be meeting up at the entrance of Lake Calaverace tommorrow at noon. Hope to see you there! (No cost, free Yoga on the top of the mountain) Thursday, December 5, 2013 at 8:00am PST
The idea here is to begin publicizing outdoor group gatherings availible to the public. One such gathering would be a recuring meetup for a hike and perhaps typically on the premise of searching for Mnt. Carlsbad which as far as I know is not real but makes for a fun excuse to be out for a hike. : )
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Where do you you want this week's yoga lesson? At home, the beach, the park? Choose your setting. A few appointment times just opened up between now and Sunday so if you've been waiting for the chance to come experience The Balance Connection, sieze the moment.
Friday, December 6, 2013 at 9:30am PST
This one is pretty much just a straight advertising announcement that would be a good idea whenever people might end up cancelling and leaving you with last minute wholes of availibility in the schedule to fill. A good way to get the message when there just hasn't been appointments scheduled and you still forsee upcoming wholes too.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Got any cool pictures of yourself doing crazy yoga stuff? Cool poses in unusual locations? Post 'em. The one that gets the most likes gets a free personal yoga program by the end of next week!
Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 3:00pm PST
I figure an occasonal give away for something would be a good way to keep people posting interesting stuff and create a potential reward for doing it too.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
We are gonna be holding a free introduction to meditation at The Yoga Barn in New Carlsbad later this eternity. Stay tuned in to find out just when. (no, it's this coming Thursday at 5pm) : )
Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 7:00am PST
I'm just kinda kiddig with this as far as the time thing but having intro to meditation talks in the area would be fun and a great way to make connections with local venues and spread the word about your business.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Whats the best all around yoa pose and why? Your polled answers trending now.
Monday, December 9, 2013 at 11:00pm PST
I like to figure out things of interest to keep polling so we can reflect an answer as potentially meaningful and useful fun feedback for us all to learn from. I think that helps to keep things fun and interesting.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
We're still lookin for some grade A, first class likes over here at The Balance Connection. Feel free to like away on all of our sweet content.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 11:00pm PST
I'm totally just kidding around with this one so hopefully it comes off that way. I don't really think it is advantagous for business reasons but hey you never know, that kinda humorous frank honesty may get people to find something likable in that and be compelled to like some of my content. Your thoughts and opinions welcome on the idea. So there you have it. Stay tuned for these and other great exciting new posts on the Balance Connection Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thebalanceconnection
Hmm, that's weird. I can't seem to make the picture I uploaded show up on the post no matter what I do. Ok well I'll just have to hand cut & paste all of the text from the Facebook activity log page. I'll paste each upcoming Facebook post sequntially and a brief explanation of why I think it will help yo bring customers to my business after each post.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Let's go for a hike to find Mnt. Carlsbad! We will be meeting up at the entrance of Lake Calaverace tommorrow at noon. Hope to see you there! (No cost, free Yoga on the top of the mountain) Thursday, December 5, 2013 at 8:00am PST
The idea here is to begin publicizing outdoor group gatherings availible to the public. One such gathering would be a recuring meetup for a hike and perhaps typically on the premise of searching for Mnt. Carlsbad which as far as I know is not real but makes for a fun excuse to be out for a hike. : )
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Where do you you want this week's yoga lesson? At home, the beach, the park? Choose your setting. A few appointment times just opened up between now and Sunday so if you've been waiting for the chance to come experience The Balance Connection, sieze the moment.
Friday, December 6, 2013 at 9:30am PST
This one is pretty much just a straight advertising announcement that would be a good idea whenever people might end up cancelling and leaving you with last minute wholes of availibility in the schedule to fill. A good way to get the message when there just hasn't been appointments scheduled and you still forsee upcoming wholes too.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Got any cool pictures of yourself doing crazy yoga stuff? Cool poses in unusual locations? Post 'em. The one that gets the most likes gets a free personal yoga program by the end of next week!
Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 3:00pm PST
I figure an occasonal give away for something would be a good way to keep people posting interesting stuff and create a potential reward for doing it too.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
We are gonna be holding a free introduction to meditation at The Yoga Barn in New Carlsbad later this eternity. Stay tuned in to find out just when. (no, it's this coming Thursday at 5pm) : )
Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 7:00am PST
I'm just kinda kiddig with this as far as the time thing but having intro to meditation talks in the area would be fun and a great way to make connections with local venues and spread the word about your business.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
Whats the best all around yoa pose and why? Your polled answers trending now.
Monday, December 9, 2013 at 11:00pm PST
I like to figure out things of interest to keep polling so we can reflect an answer as potentially meaningful and useful fun feedback for us all to learn from. I think that helps to keep things fun and interesting.
The Balance Connection, live your highest balance
We're still lookin for some grade A, first class likes over here at The Balance Connection. Feel free to like away on all of our sweet content.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 11:00pm PST
I'm totally just kidding around with this one so hopefully it comes off that way. I don't really think it is advantagous for business reasons but hey you never know, that kinda humorous frank honesty may get people to find something likable in that and be compelled to like some of my content. Your thoughts and opinions welcome on the idea. So there you have it. Stay tuned for these and other great exciting new posts on the Balance Connection Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thebalanceconnection
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