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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Best Google Analytics Features for My Company

As I look through and comsider the variety of features and options availible through google analytics for my business I must admit I am overwhelmed. There is so many ways tht the analytics are potential brokem down for one's business use it is mind boggling. The idea of all of this analysis is so new and hypothetical to me that it is a little bit difficult to wrap my head around but even from the limited descriptions of the analytics features I was still able to get a fairly good idea of what features are potentially the most favorable for the nature and the scope of my business. I considered the Remarketing and SEO features to be the most relevent for me in the Advertising and Campaign Performance catergory since being able to keep your products and brand in a potential customers awareness is key and having an idea as to what search queries brought them to you is an essential point to having some attention on at all times. In the Analysis and Testing catergory I throught the Flow Visualization, Custom Dimensions and Traffic Sources features would be good for me since because I am a big believer in that how your website and pages are displayed is crucial especially when so much of your reputation is spurred by how and what is seen through your web presence and dashboards are the new norm for overviewing everything pertatining to an intention so what else makes sense and realtime reporting is especially useful if one is using twitter which I certainly see as valuable since it is so popular. Also flow visualization would be a great feature for insight around the path visitors take since I want to be in there shoes and customer dimensions is great simply because the more data that you can collect, the better and traffic sources is good because just knowing how well the various avenues that get the traffic to you are working will let you moderate your efforts to create more traffic. I didn't find that I had nuch interest in cross device- cross platform measurement since I could barely understand it and that means investing my attention in it is a detraction from what I need to put my attention on. A definite yes to the API feature because being able to integrate the analytics into the work flow is critical to making realtime usage of the potential of analytics. Filters is useful because the more you can break up the information to collect the info that lets you ask a specific question, the faster you can get the feedback from that query. I didn't find any of the Just for MObile Apps features pertainent since I don't intend on doing anything with mobile apps at this time because it will just complicate the scope of what I am trying to accomplish for now and divide my attention too much. As far as product integrations go I throught Adsense sounded the best because the potential to have that serve as an additional means of revenue is obviously advantagous. Sales and Site Conversion faetures did not excite me much partly because they simply sounded similar to many of the features already listed so it was hard to differentiate what they are about and seemed more analytical figuring than I want to complicate this with. The only Site and App performance feature that I was intrigued by was site speed analytics because I want to be sure that my pages are loading quickly so that I don't become known for having slow loading pages because people maybe as annoyed by that as I am and that definitely makes me want to find a different source for the kind of content that I am seeking. Many of these Google Analytics features sounded great and potentially quite helpful to one's business but also many of then sounded so similar it was hard to tell exactly what it is actually like to be using them and weather they end up being worth one's time and attention but I am interested to keep learning more based on their potential benifit.

My favorite coupon options for my business

For my personal wellness consultation business The Balance Connection, it would work well for me to provide coupons for a variety of my products and service packages. The nature of my business lends itself quite well to coupons because there are so many variables with what I offer in terms of potential service packages that I am able to custom tailor coupons to fit for all kinds of promotions. One of the best kinds of coupons for getting new customers can be through referal deals. Since I create customized programs to restore mind body functioning and a state of wellness, it's very practical for me to offer discounts to people for refering a friend when they sign on for a service contract for a specified duration. This is a very common practice at yoga studios where the person who brought the exposure of your business to a new person is given either a coupon for a free class or a discount on future classes and/or giving some kind of a coupon or discount to the new person. My most likely coupon deal would be a discount to give people a free assessment of their personal wellness profile which is a service I provide that creates a product as the outcome of the assessment that gives them an idea of what further services I provide that would help to correct the areas of imbalance that are occuring in their lives. The coupon is for the initial assessment which is good for giving them some insight into how they are doing but also tends to create the the desire to learn more about what they can do to help themselves prevent disease, a gradual decline in functioning or avoid stess related burn out. It is perhaps my most favored coupon deal since it is the gateway to learning all about what my methods intail so it is something that I always have availible for new customers. I also like to create coupons that have that buy one get one deal to them because that can also be interperated as 50% off so when I apply it to say a personalized in home yoga lesson, it can be very attractive to people to have another one coming for nothing and if I allow it to be transferable to another person in the household then that holds the potential for the person who has had one lesson with me to desire to share the benifits that they have experienced with a family member ( usually a wife now attempting to get her husband to try yoga for stress relief ) which can end up landing me 2 new customers each looking to have their personal yoga practice analyzed and crafted for them to carry out either with me or with out me (which is an additional product aswell). This can be well worth the initial investment from me being the buy one get one coupon as long as I limit it to 1 per houshold.

4 additional tools for marketing

In considering the nature of my business the strategic usage of some of the other online marketing tools that can help my business must be given a great deal of consideration before deciding on their implementation. Let me explain what I mean. The essence of my business mostly relates to selling packages of my services in various formats all of which are intended to give some sort of a corrective measure to ones lifestyle to bring greater balance to their life situation. I can accomplish much of my business just through setting up personalized programs over email but the majority of my business manifests as going to meet with clients personally to help fascilitate the corrective lifestyle measures personally like a personal trainer or an interior decorator. So as a personal wellness consultant I must really take great care to protect the integrity of my reputation since I am the single individual behind the business responsible for everything. It is inherently a delicate situation to offer a service that aims to intervene with the state of people's habbits and patterns in an attempt to offer them a more promising experience of personal fulfillment and I can only do so much to guide them into making personal changes for themselves. So when I market my services I really consider how my image is being expressed to the public and what claims and benifits I advertise through my service. As far as online tools to help market myself go, I think that Google+ is a phenominal tool that helps with the size, style and sort of business I have created the scope of my services to take advantage of. The idea of added search engine optimization benifits makes it too potentially promising not to plan on implementing. Where as say Yelp is not high on my list of priorities because it is very easy for people to not follow my program find that they did not experience the results I intended to outline a path to and then find blame in my service so it is easy to have to combat customer dissatisfaction when people wanting help and greater happiness have not found you to give them that and I do not have time to speak to combating negative critisism all day where implementing a strategy for marketing so the prospect of having to deffend myself from choosing to implement Yelp seems too high. However I absolutely favor Linked In. That is absolutely perfect for the nature of my business. It is much like going to a networking meeting where everyone gets to know each other and refers each other and pools the collective knowledge of the colleagues of their industry. This is a great way to create more business prospects for my business. Also Groupon is great for what I do since I create service packages. So there is so many ways to create promotions for different combinations of services that raising awareness of my business through Groupon would stand to be more than worth it. An all inclusive reader like feedly would be a wise tool for me to since I can scope everything that pertains to my industry from a single front and watch developments in my field and what my competition is doing anf creating as well as keeping taps on all of my blogs, You Tube videos and that sort of thing. This is a great compliment to my other primary social media fronts. The tools to compliment social media are ever changing and expanding in capacity so I am always looking to see what new ways creativity is being harnessed but at the moment these 4 tools are perhaps the best ways for me to capitalize on my marketing efforts.

Blogs I posted comments on

The blogs I posted comments for the newsletter entry were: http://parydise.blogspot.com/ http://jeliwilson.blogspot.com/ http://mindblogglingblog.blogspot.com/ http://www.beckybeamer-csit155.blogspot.com/

David C on Newsletters for Business

The potential to stay in your customers awareness for a long time after there initial interaction or transaction with you is greatly increased by creating a newsletter that can be subscribed to. And when people have that free subsciption you have their attention perpetually as they come to consider and perhaps even rely on your information as their preferred source so making a newsletter that is likeable and marketable is key to winning an active subscriber that actually seeks to stay in the know of your information. Of course not every business inherently lends itself to being well suited for a newsletter. If your industry is not making much news then a newsless newsletter would be basically pathetic. For myself the idea of having a newsletter for my business sounds fun but at the same time an added stressor that may not be worth the headache. I can invision having times where I am rich with content and can easily find more than eough to address in the sections of my newsletter. Snd then I'm sure that there would be times where I'd be seaching just to find something to fill it in with and end up struggling to get it out on time. If I were to include a newsletter as part of my email marketing plan I'd release a newsletter either every 2 onths or perhaps even once a season. The less the better in my opinion because I want to make sure that each time I put someting out the quality is genuine and meaningful so it is a joy to create and the content was gradually gathered not forced. If I do create a newsletter for ny business I think there would be a lot of great stuff I could put into it. I'd definitely have a lot of different articles. Being that I am about holistic wellness there is all kinds of catergories I could create content for. There could be an ask the experts column, articles on industry innovations, yoga poses for different treatment purposes, guest writers, health trend or hox exposees etc. I could also feature lifestyle tips columns as well as product reviews and recipes. If my newsletter only came out once per season that is convinient also because the advice for how best to stay healthy varies with the seasons from a holistic health perspective so that makes it pedrfect for always having a column about how to address staying healthy and balanced with the seasonal changes taking place. If I take a look around at other businesses offering similar news letters then I could see just what kind of content I'm looking to match or mimic in some ways.

Post Reach VS Post Engagement & Facebook Insights

So let's talk a little bit about the concepts of post reach as apposed to post engagement. Through Facebook we can come to assess both. Post reach is a one sided communication where as post engagement is open communication from both sides. Here is how it works. Post reach is established by numerically calculating the number of views of your post that have occured from either a computer or mobile device within the first 28 days of publishing. Post engagement on the other hand is more involved than just a resulting number. Post engagement tracks the lines of communication that occur from actions like captioning a photo, filling in the blank statement or asking a question. Therefore it is important to know and understand how to harness the power of both through setting yourself up to reap the benifit of the feedback they generate. Post reach is great to give us insight on just how many people are aware of the content of a post and gives us a sense of what kind of content tends to be seen the most so that we can monitor and plan strategic posts that will attract the interest of the greatest number of people in our targeted demographic. Through post engagement we can follow just what methods of engagement tend to be utilized the most and can plan to attract further engagement as we use Facebook Insights to assess our ongoing attempts at refining our posting strategy.

A business is able to use Facebook Insights as a valuable tool to help them get an increasingly good idea of who they are reaching and who is interacting with them. Since you are able to monitor the activity around every post, you can then formulate your Facebook marketing plan by that feedback. This helps you to better serve their needs since you can become aware of what they have liked or not and what their opinions have been. Over time relying on Facebook Insights may become the greatest ally in spreading your business through the Facebook platform.

New URL created for my Facebook business page. Like it if you like it : )

Hey there gang. I'm proud to announce that I have put the finishing touches on my Facebook business page, "The Balance Connection". Your one stop shop for all things personal wellness. please check it out at https://www.facebook.com/thebalanceconnection. And if you like it, like it! Also I will be catching up on a few posting subjects I've been meaning to address for a while so if some of my upcoming posts seem to be less than current I assure you they are as fresh as the mind that is generating them.

Blog Catergories to Use when Bogging for Business.

Like anything else the catergories to organize by depend on the intention. So when considering just what catergories one would want to create to serves as the designations for organizing their blog content one must think about the intended nature of the blog and this is especially important when the blog is to be used for the purpose of administering an aspects of one's business. Since a blog created for business potentially has a very real consequence for how functional it is (mainly how much business it leads to the generation of and the monetary outcome that results)we will want to plan and setup the catergories for our anticipated blog content with great consideration. Pretty much any business is going to want to make a list of the keywords pertainant to the business's industry and the functions that the blog is there to administer. When I consider using a blog for my business. The primary question is what content will I need to be funneling in order to keep it all accessible and orderly so that it is streamlined for the people that will be more pleased to return and follow a blogger that gets them what they want. Because that is what I want to be known for so that I become the go to source for my area of content. That is the goal. To be "their guy for that". And my "that" is personal wellness. Which is inherently such a broad catergory in and of itself that it gives me all kinds of room to articulate the areas of consideration that personal wellness manifests as so all of those subdivisions that I mean to speak to will become the initial catergories. So I intend to speak to the areas of; alternative medicine and healing, new age thought, technological innovations for lifestyle, personalized wellness (as the means to perpetually promote my personal wellness consultation procress and service), basics of yoga, mediation and balanced living. These are the areas I mean to speak to and can then watch what catergory of content gets the greatest response. Which may lead to refining the catergories as well as which one's I support with the most posts etc. Other catergories to support the primary functioning of these content catergories might become admin related themes like: Suggestion Box, Guest Bloggers, Best of Twitter Stream, Testimonials, FAQs, Links we Like, Fiends and Followers Feedback etc. If you take some time to think about how all ofthe content of your blog is going to need to flow then you have set yourself up to maintain your sanity and feed an effortless increase in blog following since getting information from you as a source is convinient and effective. Cheers, David C : ) Also Its worth mentioning that I commented on some of the bogs of my fellow CSIT155 bloggers where I felt prompted to speak to their "How Personal to get when Bogging" entries. The blogs that I felt compelled to leave comments for where, http://cindyworldtraveler.blogspot.com/, http://jeliwilson.blogspot.com/ http://deesocialmediajourney.blogspot.com/

How Personal To Be When Bogging

The idea of just how personal one should get when writing on their blog is of coarse of central importance and certainly there as an underlying consideration for anyone who is using a blog but perhaps not consciously enough. If we can outline some of the considerations and determining factors that help us to assess the boundaries around how personal to become and for what types of situations and blogs then we can surely do ourselves quite a service in the long run of helping and preparing for avoiding all kinds of potential problems. So the key consideration is really having an idea of just what you want the scope of your blog to be used for. For my self, my blog is to serve as a supplement to the type of business that I do. It helps me to have an outlet to stay in the conversation and mode of mental consideration of everything that is informationally relevent to my craft. So I have reasons to be personal as well as stay very impersonal. For the most part I see the essence of what I am in support of through my business to be impersonal even though the intention is to develop a reputation of repore and trust with individuals. This is because I don't intend to try to create a sense of "weight" in my opinion through personal expertise but rather rely on my intention to selflessly be a wholehearted reporter of the science that my personal wellness consultation service means to be able to facilitate. In this way it is my hope that I am percieved as free of ego and far more motivated by sincerity to be able to share what is scientifically valid. In this way I can gain more trust and be seen as a reliable source for valuable information that does not come from a huge agenda. However it is also necessary to carry a tone of caring and relating personally through addressing customer problems and questions. I must have a reputation of accountability so that I am regarded as the face of a service that keeps brand loyalty so it is key to be very human as well. I run my business alone so I am not forced to adhere to any corporate ideals or policies when commenting or responding to inquiries but it still makes great sense to be sparing as to how much and just to what depth you become personal through the blog. One would not mean to accidently give out all kinds of key details of there personal life choices and schedule if it can create an avenue for stalking or identity theft for example. But I need to be know as the one behind the brand and also hosting my blog as a means of providing others in my industry the space for guest blog spots which helps with brand loyalty. So there is no hard or fast rules to the boundaries but for my specific usage and business it is required that I find a tasteful balance that conveys to anyone just what it is or would be to be in my shoes trying to do this. So I want to give my customers and followers the best of my wholehearted personality while still keeping their respect for my wisdom regarding self protection where inherently reasonable.

My chosen Business, The Balance Connection

I am choosing to focus on a business that I would like to start. I would like to call it "The Balance Connection" since my service is connect people with the tools to provide themselves personal balance. Personal Wellness & balance (for your life circumstance) through custom crafter yoga, mediation and diet lifestyle routine outlines is how I intend to do it. Looking at the demographics it looks like my costumers would likely be, ● Age 18-65 primarily proffessionals ages 22-50 ● Education college degree ● Ethnicity all ethnicities potentially but primarily cocassion ● Gender men and women - primarily women ● Income 22-100+k per year And as for the pyschographics, What hey do in their spare time: yoga/exercise, volunteer/ community outreach, self improvement what their interests are: wellness, self improvement, fitness, wholistic living, spirituality Who heir friends are: successful people with upbeat progressive attitudes, saavy about living their potential Where hey hang out (both online and offline): OFFLINE: yoga studios, coffeeshops, bookstores and parks ONLINE: fitness and wellness websites, spiritual websites and forums and blogs. Social media with other networks of likeminded friends (Facebook especially and also You Tube for self education) What heir beliefs are: yoga philosophy/oneness, freedom of choice and thought, living an inspired existance income level: 22-100+k per year

Asthetics and design of websites I use a lot

(OOPS! Just realized I did not add the actual urls of the sites I am talking about on this entry. So here is the update. They are, ebay.com and miracosta.edu.) Oddly enough when I thought about the sites I use frequently to assess their usage of web design and branding principles the first one that came to mind is you tube and the first thing I thought is well they're messing up I don't see a single social media badge on their page. Ha ha ha, well duh ofcoarse not. I like to go to ebay to shop around so lets look at them. Overall I must say I can't see a lot of room for improvement with them. They have made their site properly. Their logo appears on every page, the navigation is consistent making it easy to find your bearings even when sifting through all kinds of auctions, excellent alignment. I thought that their proximity was good on everything too especially for their being so much user uploaded content which just shows how well they planned for all of the usrsupplied variable that would be generated by their site. Their hierarchy is well thought out and helps one to stay oriented and focused on their pursuit. Ease of use? I can't see it gettin much easier. The only thing they might add is a style guide similar to the one from this weeks lectures for people intending to auction off items so that they can make the most use of the design potential of their auction page. Overall, a great site by a company that has been at it for a long time. Next lets look at Mira Cost Colleges website. Honestly if I am going to reference websites I actually use typically these are about it. So at first glance the website seems appealing. This is because they have taken great care to desin it with a color scheme that pops. The no smoking symbol being displayed so prominently right on the front page is a bit of a turn off though. not really what I want to be captivated by. But that image oscillates to other images most of which are much more fun and feature people activley engaged in fun things or pictures of the collage which is an excellent way to bring a sense of connection between the asthetic and the target audience that they intend to appeal to. Again logo on every page, navigation consistent and predictable and the alignment of everything makes it clear that they are a proffession quality website. The hierarchy makes everything apparent and that is crucial for feeeling tht you can quickly assess the content on every page. The amount of content featured on every page is consistently well done, not too much, not so little that they are missing depth in encapsulating the info they mean to cover. The only room for improvement that I can see is that their contact info is not displayed prominantly enough and any time I've gone their to find a specific link to the path that will ultimately result in me getting a certain phone number for a specific department I wish to reach, I am certainly looking for far to long before I can figure out where to go for that. So overall I feel that their website like ebay's, is an example of very well done web design work that has resulted in very good ease of use and that certainly keeps me using them regularly.

So lets talk a bit about web presence. I have been looking at the web design and branding strategies used by various agencies and there is a lot of specific techniques that make all of the difference when intending to build a superior brand. First I'd like to bring some attention to some companies that I thought could use a little work on their strategy. I took a look at http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp and found a few things that are not helping their efforts. Fist of all their is a google add at the top that is confusing to have to establish is NOT an offiliated part of their site since it is so well woven into the color scheme used on the side menu (not a good display of concept and contrast or alignment). Also it is not visually stimulating since there is no moving graphics which these days can send a sense of low budget as a silent message before you have even realized it. Also the main font used in the body of the main page text I found to be a bit more difficult to dicipher than most pages, it was like too much of the characters were too bold and made it hard to make them out next to each other. And finally their main page is just too darn long. I can't stand going to sites where I am scrolling down for days only to find the side menu is a pilgramage back up to the top. They would be well served to use a different main text font, make a better logo, loose the google add mixed in to the top and break up their main page aswell as add a site map. Next I went to http://www.swagelok.com/. They appeared to be a more proffesionally created web presence but I still found plenty of room for improvement. First of all their logo was nothing substantual. Basically just a slightly catchy font of the company name. Also it is not really made immediately apparent just what the company does. Only if you hover over the website name in the browser tab does it reveal a dialogue box that follows with a little description behind the name that gives some idea of who they are. The concept and contrast was not well defined until you really begin an in depth study which made me feel that the ease of use of their site could be worked on. Another example of this is seen in the sideways text on the oscillating menu graphics at the top. I can't think of a more confusing way to create a menu to display a representation of options. They could remedy these issues by considering making a more recognizable catchy logo that features a graphic that sums up what they are all about for ease of association. Loose the sideways text and redue that attempt at a menu to become something obvious. And how about an obvious slogan right at the top to right away give an impression of what the brand is all about? Ok lets talk about whose doing it right. Apple.com. No big surprise here. If you had as much money and resources as they do to be continually planning and employing the most up to the minute marketing and advertising techniques you'd have no excuse for anything less than high calliber first rate brand delivery either. First of all right away they make it catchy with oscillating high quality images of their latest products and news. Which speaks to a sense of importance. Excellent concept and contrast through out the entire site. The depth of content is well configured to continually wet one's appetite and curriousity to learn more at every click. Also a they feature a site map to help with over all navigation incase you're looking for one. Great Higherarechy, the important content stands out. Top to bottom first rate content delivery done in a very streamline appealing manner. Next I went to http://www.gforceracecars.com/. While not as high end and fancy as the apple.com site I still liked the layout of this website for what it is geared to do for their consumers so I think it is a good example of a site done right. First of all the Alignment is great. Logo up to right away with immediate contact info right under the name which indicates by nature of there services that a large volume of their potential customers are calling with specific questions regarding applications of specific products and services they offer since it is to a great extent a company dealing with customized circumstances. So good job on ease of use.Their menus are straight forward and easy to navigate. Easy to discern what is important here and the color schemes featured look sharp and streamline which gives a sense of appropriate for the nature of their business and is a good mix of catchy but not too busy or confusing. A little bit of animation always adds a sense of modern up to the minute strategy even if it is nothing significant and they have just that where it keeps spellin gout the words "featured product". Also it is nic that they have a little blurb right up top that says what they are all about in a few sentences. I wish this was the way everyone did it. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the length of that opening page. I still think it is best to move a lot of content to a different page when it begins to make the home page too long but theirs is right on the edge of acceptability in my eyes. Overall a well done site asthetically pleasing and appropriate for the type of business and customers they mean to attract.

Some agencies I like that are doing social media right

Here are a few agencies that I am in support of that have made wise usage of the social media tool in there business. (my favorite camping and outdoor recreation store) REI: Facebook, Twiiter, You Tube & Flickr (one of my favorite clothing manufacturers) Carhartt: Facebook, You Tube, Twitter & Pintrest (a government agency that I DO believe in) USDA.gov: Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, blogs.usda.gov, Flickr & RSS feeds (my favorite guitars) Fender (guitars): Facebook, Twitter, Google +, You Tube, Instagram, Pintrest (the best place for health and spiritual information) The Choopra Center: Facebook, Twitter, You Tube Pintrest Not suprising, Facebook and Twitter seem to be the most popular followed by You Tube

My Experience Communicating With an Internet Business

I have had one experience with an internet business that clearly stands out in my mind aside from all others. About three years ago I was shopping around online to buy a "folding bike". These are the types of bikes if you've seen them that usually have a hinge in the middle of the frame that allows the bike to be folded in half basically for a lot more convient storage in cars, boats, airplanes etc. When I finally found one I thought was the best I could get for the money I could spend I purchased it and had it shipped to my house. WHen it arrived I had to do some minor assembly and adjustments and it should have been good to go. Only problem was there was a rubber gasket beneath the handlebars that had come torn and so I needed to have a new one sent to me some how. When I contacted the maufacturer be phone he said it sounded very strange that that part would fail and at the same time said he wasn't sure what part that was and I would have to take the bike apart to get out the broken peice and mail it back to him before he could send me out a new one. I refused because I didn't want to have to buy tools to take it a part and pay to ship it back when I knew he could easily figure the rubber part I needed by the description. A few heated phone calls and the wrong part getting sent out multiple times made it such a headache I wished there had been a place to leave some feedback about my experience that would have definitely helped me to feel better from the experience and perhaps curtailed the attitude of a business that felt no obligation to help make anything right with its customer. I won't say the name of the company to be polite but I will mention that I just checked out there website before writing this and they still do not feature any links to any form of social media to connect you to their brand or products. Not suprising, perhaps the less potential to leave customer feedback about them the better it works for them. I think that social media helps to stimulate and direct the flow of honest fair and predictable commerce.

Social Media Options for Business VS Personal Use

So I'd like to talk a little bit about which options of social media seem to be best suited for personal VS business use today on the David C blog. Perhaps the best all around option for business is twitter but that's jsut my opinion. I think being about to leave brief tweets provides a convinient avenue to stay plugged in to continuously updating what is relevent to your business. I also think that Linked In and Facebook are great for business. But in my opinion, facebook is rather well suited for day to day personal connection needs too. This is partly because it is already the most popular option out there and so many people are connected but that makes it a great option for business too since increasing one's social capital is more probable with the potential inherent in such a popular platform. The best social media options for personal use I think are well, ofcoarse Facebook (duh) and You Tube. They have been the popular go to options for promoting yourself for a while for all kinds of reasons and with so many people scanning them both for recreational purposes they already have an entertainment oriented reputation. Instagram is great also as is Flickr (if sharing pics is your thing) and I don't know if anyone remembers a website called myspace but once apon a time it started this whole social media thing off to what it has becomd now so it is worth mentioning though I don't believe it still has many new subscribers compared to say Facebook but it is very much appropriate for personal use.

A little bit about why I have chosen the template for my blog that I have.
I found it hard to decide on a template theme that would serve me well in the long run. I wanted it to be something simple, interesting and gripping to look at and not irritating after a while. After looking through the options and trying out several themes I eventually came back to settle on the one that you see here. I liked it because it features nature. So even though I maybe indoors looking at a computer and so are you, we can still enjoy a taste of nature's awesome scenery in our awareness. I like the soothing colors and the sense of spacious distance it promotes through the scenery. I feel that this gives a sense of seeing things from a higher level and that may be subliminally intended since I like to consider ideas and subject matter impersonally and from a great contemplative height. I wanted font colors and styles to be fun and artistic so I went with these. I would love any comments, suggestions or feedback on my selections you may have. I may change things around a bit in the future but for now this is the setting for The David C Blog.

Welcome to the David C Blog!

             Welcome to my blog. This is my very 1st post on my very 1st blog! I hope your are as exited as I am ( if not that's understandable). I am not entirely sure how to encapsulate the intention of this blog in a way that will give you a well rounded explanation of what you can expect to find here. I can say however that this blog is to serve as your super source for all things David C. : ) I suppose that means that I will be featuring content related to my pesonal interests and ideas, issues and notions that inspire me and compell me to think and act to serve me in promoting a more fulfilling life. I hope you find the content featured through this blog nourishing and rewarding. It is my intention to serve in promoting happiness for everyone so I am exited to have created a blog as an avenue to help me in that intention.

            My current interests are mostly around music (as I am a lover of musical expression and a part time guitar teacher), graphic arts, entreprenuership, spirituality and wholistic healing modalities (such as Ayurveda, yoga and oriental medicine). The joy of art and good living are what I am all about so if I had to find one central theme for the David C blog I mean to coin the term "lifestyle science" since I have an avid interest in helping people fully express the joy of living a deeply fulfilling life and continually look at all of the ways and manner of things people tend to study and partake in to help them experience that.

So there you have it. The David C Blog, the "lifestyle science" super source.

Namaste  : )