In relation to my business Simply Fruit Rice Puddings and my next business venture that will be an online store & blog, I have been using the Google Family of products including Trends, Alerts, Insights and Analytics for a number of months now and learning the Google Search Console as well. I plan to continue this area of study by working towards getting a Google Ads Accreditation once this program is completed.
As I didn’t have any previous experience with the Pinterest platform, I recently set up an account and have found that their Analytics tool is very helpful in identifying the Audience that is engaged with my free online recipe offerings. They do the demographic and psychographic analysis for you, while defining the actual percentage of the current audience linked to their various interests and then broken down into more specific categories. It is very detailed and takes a lot of the guessing and/or trial and error out of the equation. They also have a Trends feature. Of particular interest to me, is the subset of Trending Food & Drinks. I can see daily what flavor or product that people are searching for. It allows me to choose to post specific recipes that contain those ingredients.
The Google Trends & Alerts have not been driving much traffic to my website in comparison to the Audience engagement on Pinterest. I have started using the Pinterest Audience insights to experiment with my Google keyword searches and blog post SEO.
I have also had the opportunity to use the RSS Inoreader software. I enjoyed how I can access the latest updates and posts from competitors and industry leaders without having to go looking for them individually. I also liked Mention.com for its Top Influencers feature. It helps identify a brand’s top influencers.
I am not really a tech or gadget kind of person. My interest in Social Media is purely in relation to how it can assist in Communication, Marketing or Sales for a business or organization. I don’t really use it in a personal capacity. So my two best sources for news and updates are in relation to business news & trends, politics and science. For these updates and developments my GoTo would be the CBC.ca website and the TVO.org website and specifically ‘TheAgenda’ program with Steve Paikin.
Local & World Politics as well as Global Business are interesting to me as they directly relate to world Economics. Social Media and Tech Giants are often discussed under these 2 umbrellas especially since they drive all communications, across all industries. Domestic & Foreign Governments are often being hacked or are butting heads with the Tech Giants in some capacity as each side tries to set down some ground rules for co-existence and an equitable playing field for both camps.
I find the CBC and the TVO reporting to be of a higher standard and less biased in comparison to other news outlets. They are also active and engaged on their social channels. TVO does a lot of interviews with thought leaders and well respected international reporters and keeps things timely and relevant.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 