COM0014- Blog Post 7: Personal Reflection

Do you often feel that you have no control over your life? Do you sometimes feel that people do not care about you and do not respect you? Do you feel that you are just drifting day after day, without any goal and direction?

Most of us feel that way, at one time or another. Life often places us in situations that we do not like, limit our freedom, and make us feel trapped. We might work a job we do not like. We might not have enough money, or we might have many responsibilities that limit our freedom. A person living in dire circumstances might have no charge of his or her life. A person living a comfortable life might also lack control of life. Even a rich person, who has a lot of money, might sometimes find yourself in situations that he or she cannot control. The truth is that we can learn to change this situation and start taking charge of our life. We can have more control over our life. You can begin taking charge of your life and making positive changes. This will bring joy, happiness and power into your life.

December 5th 2020, is the day I decided to retake charge of my life. I was done feeling lost, unhappy, tried and even a failure. I wanted to become the person that six year old me thought I was gone be at 22. At first, it was nerve-racking I didn’t even have a plan or knew what I truly wanted to do with my life. All I knew was that I was unhappy with myself and lost when it came to life. So I decide I needed to first work on myself, then the rest will follow. I began with going on a no-carb and no sugar diet, at first it was hard, but then it became the new norm. After three weeks, I started to feel happier with myself and even with life. That when I knew its time for step 2, I started looking up programs and came across the social media course. Now its March 5th, I’m down 35lbs, I’m loving this course so far, and I’m very excited about what the future holds for me. 

If you want to start taking charge in your life, here are eight tips that really helped me become the person I am today. 

1. Develop your inner strength.
2. Improve your concentration skills.
3. Stop taking things personally.
4. Get rid of your negative thoughts.
5. Repeat affirmations to boost your inner strength.
6. Use the power of visualization 
7. A peaceful mind is most useful 
8. Believe in yourself, and become more assertive.

Xoxo Bella

COM0014- Blog Post 6- What about your childhood shaped you for this moment?

When I look towards my past, I see so many different things that shaped me into the person I am at this very moment. Three main things that shaped me would be Family, Friends and Love ones who have past. 

As a super family-oriented person, I can say that family is a big part of my life. As we grow up, we tend to start distancing ourselves from our family, but at the same time, we hold them close to our hearts. We distance ourselves to grow and become independent, but we know that we are here at the end of the day because of them. We are grateful to them for bringing us into this world and walking with us every step of the way, even when it is hard too. At the end of the day, I am the person I am because they are my role models, and I look up to them.

When it comes to friends, we’ve all heard of the line, “Friends come and go.” If that’s not true, I don’t know what is. We all loss friends, and that that’s okay. Sometimes, you become close, and sometimes you fall apart. It is something you cannot control, especially if you’ve done everything to keep the friendship. Be grateful that you had this friendship. Whether they are different or similar to you, every person who walks into your life shows you a different perspective of life. If they stay in your life, they were meant to be in it, but if they don’t, they were there to teach you something. 

Life is an amazing thing, so when we lose someone or see deaths happen around us, it shakes us up. It’sIt’s crazy how long and short life can be simultaneous. Life is spontaneous, and that that’s the scary part. Who knows what can happen today? Deaths are constant reminders that nothing is forever, but you can make up for that by how you use your days. When I lost a love one, it pushed me and motivated me to fight harder for what I want because life is too short, and I want to make them proud.

In life, you realize there is a role for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you, some will love you, and some will teach you. But the ones who are truly important are the ones that bring out the best in you. They are the rare amazing people who remind you why it’s worth it. These are the people who shaped me.

Xoxo Bella

COM0014: Blog 5- Personal Brand

Building a personal brand isn’t easy. Success comes from intensive, hard work and a great deal of learning. Any entrepreneur will tell you that it’s important to love what you do, leverage your passion, work hard and most importantly never stop building your brand. When I look towards my future with social media I can picture myself doing one of these two things, becoming an influencer or becoming a social media director. It’s scary promoting yourself on social media in general, so imagine making a career out of it.

When I decide what I truly want to do in social media, I believe these three qualities will help me with my future. The first quality is that I’m driven, I have the determination to work harder than most and make sure things get done. The second quality is that I’m self-reliant, I can shoulder responsibilities and be accountable but also make hard decisions and stand by them. Lastly my third quality is that I’m patient, I’m willing to understand that in everything, there are failures and frustrations. And to take them personally would be a detriment.

When I asked my family and friends “what makes me stand out more the rest?” They said “Bella you’re very confident, you’re the only person I know who wears velvet tracksuits and hoop earrings and could careless on what people think about it”.  Honestly I wouldn’t say I’m confident in all areas but personality-wise I’m up there. I am who I am and I don’t care what people think about me because I’m trying to live my best life. I believe there is a lot of people out there who can relate to me.

Thinking of Pursuing a Career?

https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/10-jobs-that-pay-you-to-be-on-social-media-0117

Have you ever thought about pursuing a career in social media? Do you love social media and want to figure out how to get paid to do it? Well, if that’s so, here are some tips for strengthening your social media profile. 

If you want to be an expert in social media, it’s a good idea to zone in on one platform you’re interested in and are motivated to get further training. Love photography? Go with Instagram. When you’re deciding which platform to use, don’t just make a random decision, do some research! As you research, you can find out which social media platforms are the most popular and performing. You can also gather the data you find and discuss it so that you can build authority and show off that knowledge to clients or employers.

It’s also a good idea to develop a personal brand. This is an important thing to start with if you are just starting out. So, where do you start? Think about what types of things you like to blog about, the impressions that your photos offer to the world, even think about your favourite designs. Choose something about yourself personally and professionally that stands out. Something that you feel great about and represents you. Finding a personal brand is about sharing your own story, so have fun with it and remember that it will likely be a bit of a journey, so you don’t have to decide on everything at once.

A big thing to remember is not to overdo it. Don’t wear yourself thin trying to maintain ten various platforms and keep them consistent. It’s much better to have just one or two unique profiles and keeping them up-to-date and on-brand than to spend all your time scheduling out a million posts.

If you want to have a career in social media, you’ll need to learn the ins and outs of social media marketing. There are so many social media jobs out there and with a little grit and creativity, finding one is probably not as complicated as you think. The more fun and creative you are while still staying professional will make it something you love doing and not just a job.

Facebook- https://career-in-media

Twitter – https://career-in-media

How To Strengthen Your Social Media Strategy

Social media is an effective tool when choosing a strategy to help you with your networking. These three characteristics listed below can help you achieve succesful brand marketing.

Layout your Goals and Objectives 

In order to be effective having a plan with objectives, and goals are imperative if you want to jumpstart your social media strategy. If you do not know what your goals are how are you supposed to achieve it? Your social media goals should align with your overall marketing efforts and brand. Writing down your goals is paramount if you want to reach them. When you set your goals you should make them attainable and break them down into smaller action steps. For example, set a goal to reach 5000 instagram followers by a deadline. This numeric goal is specific and time sensitive which are two key components when creating an effective marketing strategy.

Research and learn about your audience.

Connecting and engaging with your audience is crucial in today’s marketing if you want to turn a profit. But to achieve that you need to understand your audience. You should be able to pinpoint their needs, wants, and desires if you hope to create a successful social media strategy. Ask yourself how can you better understand your audience? There are six fundamental strategies which include, surveying your audience to grasp their needs better, look carefully at their demographics, take part in conversations on forums filled by your target audience, respond and interact with comments on your blog, and engage with other blogs with the same target audience, reply to all comments or questions on your social media channels and collect feedback (using one of the many user feedback tools available). Once you grasp a better understanding of who your target audience is you are better equipped to help them. Consumers want to deal with businesses who care and listen which makes this a vital step in creating any social media strategy.

Run Contests to Amp your Social Media  

Crafting a successful social media contest is one of the most alluring tactics you can implement into your marketing strategy. It will increase your online visibility, your followers, and your engagement levels. There are several social content tools you can use to create an outstanding giveaway or sweepstakes. The key to executing a successful contest is offering something your target audience likes. How do you run a contest on social media? First decide which social media channel will be more beneficial, then decide the objective of the contest and promote it. Giving your target audience the option to get extra entries for sharing the contest or completing similar tasks will increase your reach. It is a genius marketing hack that will increase your consumer base and your contest will run itself!

Social media marketing requires hardworking but the benefits are worth it. If you don’t take it seriously, you’ll undoubtedly miss out on leads, customers, online visibility, and sales. These social media marketing tips will create a winning marketing strategy. Just remember, social networks are made for conversing with others. If you don’t make your audience a top priority – you won’t see results.

Xoxo Bella 

Supporting Articles :

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/4-steps-for-creating-a-solid-social-media-strategy-infographic/558752/

https://en.rockcontent.com/blog/social-media-strategy/

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COM0014: Blog 4 Amazon ( B2C Case Study)

The B2C business method refers to selling products and services directly between a business and its consumers who are the end-users of its products or services. Businesses today are following this method of transaction and a main example of this is Amazon. Amazon is an online e-commerce marketplace for merchants to sell products. 

The companies B2C structure is highly effective because of their top rated customer service. It is rooted in the company’s vision/mission statement which states “to be earth’s most customer-centric company.” Amazon’s founder and CEO Bezo, has owed his success to his focus on the customer experience and service which has guided his leadership decisions. The companies corporate culture is built on driving employee performance to continuously provide remarkable customer service. 

Amazon ensures employees within the company internalize this mission whether they are an entry-level or executive employee. Amazon employees are given constant opportunities to grow and learn for example, Amazon offers call centre training for its employees. The goal is to teach the employees to listen to customers effectively. Listening leads to understanding and through understanding you are able to take the appropriate steps to meet the needs of your customers. Amazon has also been applauded for advocating for the consumer when there is a problem with a vendor’s product or delivery process. In addition to this, the company builds relationships between its shoppers and hosted brands. Last year the company launched Amazon Exclusives, an initiative for entrepreneurs who want to promote their brand. In the spirit of a crowdfunding website, the videos help shoppers feel more personally connected to the company and its products.

It’s important to remember that in 1994 when Amazon first started, the idea of purchasing “the information superhighway” was still new. Customers had to learn to trust purchasing products online. Which has been a challenge for most online companies but Bezos strong emphasis on customer service has allowed him to capitalize the online market. Amazon is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its customers and its ability to adapt to meet the growing demands of its consumer base will aid in its success.

Xoxo Bella

Supporting Articles

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amazoncom

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4#jeff-bezos-expected-employees-to-work-60-hour-weeks-at-least-the-idea-of-work-life-balance-didnt-exist-5

COM0011- Blog 2: Four Main Categories of Social Media.

Social media is a wide range of different platforms and each one serves its own purpose. Ideally, all major platforms can be put into one of these four categories,

Core Social Media Platforms.

If you are the type of person who would like to utilize the power of networking and get in touch with more like-minded people. If this is the case I would suggest you use a more established platform such as Facebook, Youtube or LinkedIn. Even though these platforms exhibit their content differently they are bilateral and a mutual connection which will serve the needs of people who fit this description. 

Social Apps. 

These apps are gradually taking over as the leading social media platforms. Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok have large user bases. These platforms allow users to emphasize photos and videos sharing via mobile app. You can take, edit and publish visual content for your followers, advertise and sell a product, service or idea. 

Social Bookmarking. 

If you ever stumble upon Pinterest, Digg and Delicious these are some of the significant examples of bookmarking platforms that can be used to increase your content’s reach to external websites. 

Social Blogging Tools.

Blogging platforms are becoming more and more popular such as Tumblr and WordPress. Twitter can also be put into this category because it also uses an ideal micro-blogging platform. There are also plenty of social news and community websites that can be categorized under social blogging tools.  

These four categories help select the best platforms to use in order to attract and build the appropriate audience for you content. 

So which category would you choose?

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COM0014-Blog 3: Hustle for what you want!

I find everyone has something that they enjoy doing when they need an escape from the world. This is usually something you excel at and or are passionate about. Mine is drawing. I love grabbing my sketchbook and releasing all my feelings onto the page. My style emerges from the pop art movement. I draw my inspiration from famous culture icons and interpret it through black and white portraits drawn with a twist. I have recently decided to start selling my drawing and share my art with the world, and I have researched vital elements to aid in my success.

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Audience

The target audience for my drawings would be males and females with disposable income. The age group I would try and aim for is twenty to forty-year-olds. The customer that my art will attract would be a variety of different people. This is because of the many artwork styles I create, which attract a wide range of various interests.

Marketing

I would start by creating an e-commerce website to sell my artwork. I will advertise my website through various social media outlets. I would then verify my business profile on google to claim ownership of the listing, which will optimize my listings to show up higher in the search results generating more business. I would also focus on advertising through social media by creating an Instagram, Facebook and TikTok account. I believe these three platforms are ideal for promoting a small business because of the vast number of people who use. These accounts will showcase my art and grab the users attention and direct them to purchase my work. In addition, I will invest in ad campaigns to run on Google, Facebook and Instagram to help me reach a more extensive range of people.

It’s important to note that you may not achieve great success when starting a business at the start. But if it is something you believe in don’t give up, generate new ideas and invest more energy and time in yourself and your passion. I am confident that if you follow your heart, the rest will follow.

Goodluck,

Xoxo Bella.

COM0014 – Blog 2: How Social Media Influence’s Body Image

Body image at one point promoted one look and one size only. Social media has promoted the negative aspects of body image but has recently switched gears and promoted a more inclusive and positive outlook. Everyone wanted to be a size zero, and it was in your face twenty-four-seven from the models on magazines to the girls in music videos. Growing up if you did not look like them, you were not considered beautiful. However, because of how social medias strong influence people are more accepting of those who don’t fit the “one-size fits all” mentality. That’s because of those few people who put themselves out there on social media and said “yes I’m plus size, but I’m beautiful in the body I was given not matter my size”. Social media is now more inclusive because of its users resetting beauty standards and promoting all body types as beautiful. Social media has given people the confidence to feel beautiful in their skin and show off their imperfections. For example, the campaign done by the company Aerie eliminates filters and showcases beautiful models of difference sizes and their imperfections like stretch marks. 

Standards Then.

Social media has given plus sized influencers a platform to showcase themselves and the beauty of being different. Before social media plus size models were criticized and excluded because of their size. Through social media they were able to break down the unrealistic beauty standards and create inclusive and realistic ones. They have reinvented the meaning of plus size. The term plus size had negative connotations associated with it which painted plus size women as unhealthy and unattractive. This has been proven untrue all body types are unique and beautiful no matter the size. The new age of social media has redefined plus size as women who are beautifully curvaceous. 

Standards Now.

Social media has influenced brands to accept and promote plus sized women. In the past two years, many brands released plus-size lines including; Adidas, American Eagle, Levi’s, and as well as many others. They have realized that beauty is not about how you look or how much you weigh it’s about celebrating the beauty in what makes us different. 

There is still a disconnect with higher-end brands who still promote that in order to be beautiful you have to fit into a certain size range (0-8 US). With the rise of social media and its influence brands like Victoria Secret have been forced to keep up with the times and include plus sizes. I believe social media has the power to continue changing the view on body imagine for one that includes and accepts everyone no matter your size.

Xoxo Bella  

COM0011- Blog 1: Who are you on Social Media?

While using various social media outlets, I have noticed that particular social media habits reflect people’s personality traits. Depending on how you answer the following questions, you can discover whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. 

Who are you friends with? 

Introverts tend to have a lower follower or friend count compared to other people. Their friend list usually only consists of close friends and family. Extroverts, however, are friends with everyone and use social media to network and meet new people. 

Private or open? 

Introverts tend to keep their social media private, allowing them more control and a sense of security while using social media. On the other hand, extroverts are an open book and keep their profiles available to the public. 

Are you posting on the regular and counting the likes? 

Extroverts will tend to post on social media daily and wait for peak usage times to post. They also post popular content that will give them more likes and followers, and they may even delete a post if not enough people liked it. Introverts post infrequently, and when they share something, they do not focus on the likes or comments because they post for themselves, not their followers. 

These small telltales reflect the common personality traits associated with an extrovert and or introvert. Introverts tend to be private and reserved individuals who keep to themselves. Extroverts are assertive risk-takers who are sociable individuals. Social media gives people the ability to present themselves as someone else or someone we wish to be. However, I find our personality tendencies still show themselves no matter how many filters and editing tools we use. 

Isabella

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