Week 7 Part 2 - Similar Businesses using social media

As a followup to the previous blog for week 7, we are tasked with finding other businesses that are similar to ours so we can look at how they are using social media.  I spent an hour or so looking at businesses across the country that sew custom BBQ covers, but I could only find 1 that used any social media besides Facebook. The company is BBQ Smokers and More. Their website is http://www.bbq-smokersandmore.com/Custom-covers .   They are using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus.

This company is also selling dry rubs and BBQ sauces, which is a great idea to keep people coming back to their website. Those same people would be interested in getting a cover for their grill, so it's a great fit, and something for us to think about.

They are using Twitter to basically send short little blasts reminding people to clean their grill, prepare it for winter and send out special coupons. They have about 300 people following them on Twitter.

They are using Pinterest to promote their dry rubs, BBQ Sauces and other grilling utensils that they market. Additionally they have a gallery for skewer ideas, along with the custom covers. I think they've done a great job of bringing together various items that would interest many people. They have a total of 9 boards with 59 people following.  It's not huge, but it's something.

Their Facebook and Google Plus pages are really the same. They have 1160 likes on Facebook and 27 followers on Google Plus.

Looking at this page has given me more ideas than I had before. I think in social media it's all about creativity. The more creative you are the more you can post on various media.

I still have concerns about the return on investment for a small business like ours, though. I'm not sure whether the investment in time and resources would benefit the business enough to justify the investment.

Week 7 - Using social Media for Business

This week we are looking at using various social media types to promote our business. Originally my business was New Song Online Church.  For this application I can think of a number of things we could do with Social Media because there is ALWAYS something happening at New Song. Here's some examples:

• YouTube or Vimeo
• Videos of original worship songs performed by our worship team
• Videos of service projects that are worked on by our members
• Videos of a pastor's interpretation of scripture
• ... the list goes on.
• Pinterest
• Creation of Scripture Cards
• Photos of God's creation
• Instagram
• Pictures and videos from many of the events that are held around the church
• Tumblr
• Blog posts from the pastors

Actually, our New Song website does already have links to YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram, and many of these things are already being done. 

Because of that, I've had to switch my focus to our small family business, where my husband sews custom covers for things. I can imagine a limited set of things that we could use social media for, but my concern is the effort necessary to create constant content. We could definitely add content in the form of pictures on Facebook and Instagram, but the effort to create quality videos goes beyond our expertise and ability to spend the amount of time needed to keep these up to date. We could maybe do some BBQ recipes on Pinterest, but again, I'm concerned with the amount of time required to keep these things up to date. 

Based on these observations, it seems like social media is well-suited for large, active organizations that have new things happening often. I'm wondering how effective it will be for a small home based business. 

Week 6 - Facebook Likes

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you might notice that my original business was New Song Online Church.  While my intent for the class is still to determine how we might use Social Media to promote and reach new people for New Song Online, I don't have permissions to modify or maintain the New Song social media. Because of this, I've decided to use my husband's business, Custom Covers - San Diego as the focus of the social media assignments.  This will give me practice on how to create and use the various social media pages.

The assignment this week was to like different Facebook pages as our business. The pages that I chose were:

• Installitdirect.com/outdoor-living/outdoor-kitchens-bbq-island
• BBQ grill outlet
• Point Loma BBQ cleaners
• IC Integrity Construction
• Savanah Landscape Construction & Design
• San Diego Land Care
• BBQ Depot
• BBQ Blog
• Machetengriller  BBQ Blog
• Outdoor Living Patio/Garden

The reason that I chose these Facebook pages to like is because they would all appeal to people who have or want custom BBQ Islands. Most of the business that we do is making covers for custom BBQ Islands or outdoor kitchens in the San Diego area. These pages are mostly for companies in the San Diego area that either build or clean these custom BBQs. The people who visit these Facebook pages may also need a cover for their island, so while visiting these pages, they may see the like from our company and then follow the link through to see our page. In business any kind of lead may turn into a sale, so we want to get as much exposure to people who are actually interested in the type of products we sell. 

Week 5 - Facebook engagement

For companies that use Facebook to reach new and existing customers, measuring how effective they are at actually doing this is important. The time and resources that are expended to create and maintain an effective Facebook and social media presence should have a return that is worth the investment. Facebook provides statistics that can help businesses measure their effectiveness.

Post Reach is a statistic that allows the business to know how many people have actually viewed their content. As with any type of advertising, not all people who see your ads will respond to them. You will need to have a larger audience than your actual clients to generate new business.

Post Engagement is a formula that is intended to tell you the level of interest those people you have reached have in your business.  The Post Engagement formula is Likes + Comments + Shares.  If someone Likes your page, then something you have said or some content you have provided has caught their attention. It is desirable to get comments because those can be indicators of what people actually think about your company.  These should be read and responded to, so people can see that you are engaging with them.  This makes for a more personal relationship with the person viewing.  Shares mean that the person actually thought that what you posted was worthwhile enough to share with their network and friends. Recommendations coming from personal sources will always have more weight with someone than a blind contact.

Businesses should use these statistics to evaluate how effective they are at actually using Facebook. They should evaluate their Engagement numbers. If they are low, then the business should focus on how to add content that would attract and get people involved. I think that as Engagement grows, the Reach numbers should also grow since personal referrals are happening.  If you have great Reach numbers, but low Engagement numbers, then you should evaluate how your content could capture more interest. Comments should always be read and responded to.

By effectively using Facebook and the available statistics, businesses can grow their companies and impact those companies have by leaps and bounds.

Week 4 - Target Markets

My business will be New Song Church Online. We currently live stream our 9:30 AM Sunday service. There is a chat for people to engage in and build community.

I can think of a number of different target markets.

1. Current members of New Song who can't make it to church. For this target market, we have a definite list of people. Anyone who has attended before or filled out a connection card would be part of this group. While some people know about the online services, I'm sure there are some who don't. We could also work on notifying members at our satellite campuses that we are available. For these people we could also use our current social media; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vimeo to advertise our online services.  We could also request that people attending the online service use their social media to notify their friends. 
2. Shut Ins - These would be people who don't currently attend New Song, but can't physically get out to get to a church. To reach this target market, we could use Facebook and twitter to target the older populations with key words like housebound, lonely, or who are looking for in-home care. 
3. People with spiritual interests - To target this group, we could do Facebook or Twitter searches for people looking for churches or seeking spiritual things. We could possibly create verse cards on Pinterest or videos of our worship team on Vimeo or You Tube with links to our Online Services. 

I'm sure there are more, but these would be good places to start. We can always add target groups later, but I think it's better to focus on a smaller set until we get strategies in place for these.